Can’t resist sweets? Then you’re in for a treat. Because Europe boasts a huge variety of specialty pastries.
Today, we’re serving you five irresistible creations you won’t want to pass up on. We’re starting out with Portugal’s sweetest piece of cultural heritage: Pastéis de Belém. The pastry shop of the same name in Lisbon has been baking the little tarts since 1837.
Pastry chef Miguel Clarinha knows the secret recipe. The pastry shop now makes about 20,000 of the flaky delicacies a day. The cream filling needs to be poured quickly into the pastry.
Then the pastéis are off to the oven for 20 minutes. Traditionally while they’re still warm: cinnamon and powdered sugar are added. The recipe was originally created in the nearby Hieronymus monastery – now a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site.
Today, what was once a treat made by monks is now perhaps Portugal’s most famous pastry – and has become popular even outside the country. Next, our journey takes us to East Germany: Here, one typical specialty is created in front of an open flame: Baumkuchen – a very specific kind of spit cake. The little town of Salzwedel is considered its home.
The Erste Salzwedeler Baumkuchenfabrik still prepares it, following the traditional recipe from 200 years ago. The dough is made from butter and egg yolk. The egg whites are separated.
Here, they go through some one thousand eggs a day. Wheat flour and a secret spice mix are added. And at the end, beaten egg whites and sugar.
Then the dough is poured onto a rotating wooden spit in layers and baked in front of an open flame. As soon as the Baumkuchen has cooled down, the finishing touch is a chocolate or sugar glaze. Fun fact: Baumkucken – or tree cake – owes its name to its visible layers, which look like the rings of a tree.
Now we’re off to the city of Lille, in northern France. Meringue, chocolate, and a lot of cream: That’s what goes into a merveilleux – which translates to wonderful. The cake is traditionally prepared with butter cream.
But its reinterpretation by French pastry chef Frédérique Vaucamp is especially popular. First, egg whites and sugar are whipped into meringue. That’s baked in the oven for about an hour at 100 degrees Celsius.
In the meantime, the cream is beaten until it thickens and mixed with cocoa. The baked meringue is coated with the cream and covered with another dollop of meringue. It all gets topped off with an outer cream coat and then is rolled in bits of chocolate or nuts.
Whether the classic version with dark chocolate or garnished with a cherry, pistachios, or nuts: there’s a merveilleux for anyone’s taste. Next stop: Spain. They’re best enjoyed dunked in liquid hot chocolate: churros, the champions of Spanish street foods.
Lines regularly form in front of the churrerías, like this one in Madrid. Churros are made of just three ingredients: wheat flour, salt, and hot water. But they’re hard work to make: The finished dough is pressed into a mold and then fried in hot oil – making the churros nice and crunchy.
That’s how countless churro wheels are created here every day. Cut up into smaller pieces, they’re usually served with thick, dark, hot chocolate, and they’re a real hit at any time of the day. It’s important to note: You eat churros warm – and casually with your fingers.
That way, they taste extra authentic. Now we’re reaching the end of the journey – and we’re having a cream tea in Britain. The British specialty includes clotted cream, strawberry jam and a freshly baked scone.
The ingredients for scones is very basic. Flour and salt into the bowl with baking powder. Together with cold butter, it all turns into a crumbly dough.
Add the sugar. Give that a mix. A squeeze of lemon juice, and then you would add one teaspoon of vanilla extract.
And then you start to add your milk. It’s important for the dough not to turn to liquid. A little mold is used to portion the individual scones before they go into the oven for 10 minutes.
They’re traditionally served with thick clotted cream and jam. What you put on a scone first is a subject of debate. Cream first, definitely.
I put the jam first. Cream first and then the jam. What do you think?
And what sweet specialty is your home country famous for?
