Today on bad idea theater

[feuervogel]

I was eating a caramel apple cake? cobbler? of some sort at Cup A Joe (Hsbo) this morning and drinking a decaf cassia mocha, when I thought, "Hey, if I had any sort of business skills and wanted to deal with the visas and paperwork and shit, I could open an American bakery in Berlin. I'd sell authentic American baked goods, like chocolate chip cookies and crumbles, crisps, brown bettys, and cobblers, as opposed to bizarre* German interpretations of such. But damn that'd be a lot of work. And who knows if it would even be successful! Germans tend to find American baked goods too sweet."

But I have a ton of great recipes for things like that. Also, it's fall, so I'm all BAKED APPLES AND CINNAMON AND BAKED PEARS AND CARAMEL AND YUM, and there's nothing nicer than a hot apple crisp with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it. (Except maybe hot spiced apple cider.)

Though some of the baked fruit desserts remind me of German desserts like apple cake or plum cake.

Ooh, and around Thanksgiving, there would be pumpkin pie & pecan pie & chocolate pecan pie.

Clearly, what I need is a German friend with a) money and b) restaurant-running skills so I can be the ideas & recipes person.

*When I was in Marburg in college, I walked past a bakery on my way somewhere else, and they had this display of ... muffins? with little American flag toothpicks sticking out of them. I was curious, so I bought one. It was a white not-quite-cake, not-quite-muffin with a big glob of chocolate pudding inside. I can't say I've ever had that sort of thing here.

Though that wasn't as horribly disappointing as the "hush puppies" they served in the hospital cafeteria in Oregon during my residency. Oh god those were disgusting. Dry and flavorless and yuck. If you want southern food, you need to run it by a southerner.

Comments

[acari]

Because you're mentioning pumpkin pie. I always wondered what that tastes like. Is it sweet or more like a savory quiche thing? My father can't stop growing pumpkins in the garden but he has to give them all away in the end because my mum and I are both thanks but no thanks. I just cannot imagine the taste of pumpkin pie.

[feuervogel]

Pumpkin pie is definitely sweet. Not hypersweet, but there's sugar in the pumpkin filling mixture. There's also pumpkin pie spice, which you can buy commercially as a blend or make yourself from cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice or mace. Some people also use ginger. Pie pumpkins are a little different than regular pumpkins: they're smaller, have more flesh, and are sweeter.

I'm trying to think if there's anything similar in German food, but I'm not coming up with anything. It's similar to a sweet potato pie, which you probably don't make over there, either. (Some sweet potato pies can be overly sweet and really gross. I've made this one the last two Thanksgivings to much praise. Even my anti-sweet-potato mom liked it.)

Other things I like doing with winter squashes: savory casseroles, pasta sauce, stuffing them with raisins & nuts & rice and baking them, roasting the seeds with garlic and salt.

[a-nightengale.livejournal.com]

If you want southern food, you need to run it by a southerner.

Yes. That's exactly why, when I saw grits on the buffet at a hotel in Minneapolis, I steered clear of 'em. I'm sure the polite Midwesterners meant well, but no. Just no.

[feuervogel]

Bless their hearts...