Iconic European Desserts from Linzer Torte to Honey Cake
This book can’t fail! Baking at the 20th Century Café: Iconic European Desserts from Linzer Torte to Honey Cake is the book for which many of us have been waiting.
If food lovers have visited either Vienna, Budapest or Prague they would have had not only restaurants but cafés on their list of must-visits. Yes, there will be coffee but also cakes, tortes and other baked goods, and they are classics of the historic Austro-Hungarian Empire and beyond.
These classy establishments were much beloved of the well-heeled as well as writers and intellectuals. These were, and still very often are, wood-panelled and populated with smart waiters in black waistcoats and white aprons almost sweeping the floor. But the visitor might not notice, as their gaze will be riveted upon stands displaying tempting and extravagant sweets and beautiful savouries.
Michelle Polzine is considered to be one of San Francisco’s best pastry chefs. She Is evidently a lady of great personal style and would not have been out of place decorating the cover of a 1950s home and gardens magazine. But Michelle is such a confident chef that she can encourage we less flamboyant readers to achieve wonders with our own 21st century ovens.
Michelle is engaging
This weighty tome offers more than 300 pages of recipes along with colour pictures. The advice is detailed, and Michelle is engaging. The novice home cook could start with a simple coconut rice pudding and practise and hone their skills to advance to baking the lavish Honey Cake for which this lady is celebrated. Gosh, won’t that impress the in-laws!
But there are other Café delights here that any keen cook will want to make. Linzer Torte is perfect with a cup of tea. Dobos Torta is beloved by every Hungarian and is topped with its unique caramel fan. Esterhazy Schnitten is perhaps my favourite cake here. It’s a nineteenth century confection of hazelnut wafers and well worth making. The perfect dinner party finale, served with coffee.
Baking at the 20th Century Café: Iconic European Desserts from Linzer Torte to Honey Cake is my Baking Book of 2020. It gives the enthusiastic cook support to successfully achieve classic European Café fare from savoury tarts to simple desserts and ice creams to the more famous gateaux for which these culinary temples were so famed.
Baking at the 20th Century Café: Iconic European Desserts from Linzer Torte to Honey Cake
Author: Michelle Polzine
Published by : Artisan
Price: £27.99
ISBN-13 : 978-1579658984