T is for Temptation

 

A German bakery is probably one of the most tempting places on earth. It seems there is a bakery on every other corner and they not only sell all kinds of breads and rolls but also delicious pastry and cakes. Some of them are sit-down cafés where you can have coffee and cake, and many also serve breakfast.

Rischart is a bakery and café in Munich with 17 stores all over the city. The first bakery was opened in 1883 and since then, five generations of Rischarts have made this bakery one of the most popular in Germany. Its main café is at Marienplatz and that's where we decided to have breakfast one morning.

Of course the location is superb. We could do a lot of people watching while we were waiting for our food and also observe what was going on at Neues Rathaus. At the full hour we heard the bells ringing of the churches in the vicinity. The weather was wonderful and we had the most attentive waiter you could wish for.

We got orange juice and coffee served in their very own designed Rischart mugs. Every year a new mug is designed with images of Oktoberfest. Rischart has its own "sugar castle" at Oktoberfest, called Café Kaiserschmarrn.

Kaiserschmarrn is what the Geek had for breakfast whereas Kaefer opted for the vegan breakfast and I chose the "Klassiker".

Can you see all the bread and rolls that Rischart is selling at its bakery? I always miss the variety of our healthy German bread.

And here's some of their sweet stuff - those of you who have a sweet tooth, are you tempted?

I also bought a Rischart mug - I couldn't resist their cute designs. This one is from 2015. The word "Wiesn" on top refers to Oktoberfest that takes place on the Wiesn.

You probably guessed it - since there are a couple drinks in this post I am linking to Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T Tuesday.

Sunday Gratitude

Today, our spring break comes to an end. It's back to school and work tomorrow.

It's been a beautiful week and there is a lot to be grateful for.

We all slept in, almost every day. I usually get up at 5:45 during the week, 7:30 on weekends. However, this week, with just a very few exceptions, I slept later than 8:00. This just shows me how much we all needed some rest and really good sleep. Today I feel so much more rested than a week ago.

I enjoyed going to the Swedish bakery in our neighborhood in the morning with the Geek. It was lovely when we met friends there and walked back together, stopping at their garden, chatting and talking about the new gardening season. They had loads of oranges and gave us a few from which we made fresh squeezed juice we had for breakfast. What a treat!

I did a lot of gardening, planting some more peonies and clematis. My French lilac is already blooming and I enjoy its beautiful fragrance. My freesias got knocked down during a brief rain, so I cut them and brought them inside where they filled the house with their lovely scent. They still do, and I enjoy it. The first poppies have opened their beautiful blooms, however, the deer had their share as well. Happy deer...

The Geek built a clothesline for me - out of redwood again, our favorite wood. He added a huge planting box and a trellis on one side and there will be a little "seat" on the other side where I can put the laundry basket while hanging the clothes on the line to dry. I am so happy. Pictures will follow when it will be complete.

It was wonderful just to spend time with my family. Having time to talk during dinner, watching movies afterwards. My daughter loves the British series "Mr Selfridge" and we watched the two seasons together before the third season starts tonight. At the beginning I wasn't too enthusiastic, but then the characters grew on me and I quite like the series now. It is not as good as "Downton Abbey" though.

On Friday we went to the South Bay to go to the German bakery in Los Altos. We had German pretzels, raspberry cheesecake and great coffee. Across from the bakery is a German grocery store and we just loved it - it's wonderful when you find food that you're missing. We also went to IKEA which I always find inspirational, and returned home via Highway 1 up the coast which was lovely and so much more beautiful than boring and crowded 101.

Yesterday Kaefer and I went prom dress shopping. She had some ideas about her prom dress and honestly, they were all a bit on the expensive side. Both my husband and I are very conservative when it comes to spending money, so I offered Kaefer to go with her and see whether we can find something in our stores here instead of doing our shopping online. Guess what? We found quite a lot of affordable AND beautiful dresses and she finally decided to buy a stunning red dress that suits her so well. I'm very proud of her that she didn't mope but went with our suggestions and was a very reasonable girl.

And now it's your turn - what are you grateful for on this Sunday?

Baking a Traditional German Apple Streusel

It was the Geek's birthday at the beginning of the month. When I asked him what kind of cake he wants he said "a real German Apfelstreuselkuchen" (apple crumble pie). So I baked one for him.

When I posted the top picture on my Facebook page I received quite some requests for the recipe. Since I thought that some of you might like to try it as well, I translated it - however, it is still in metric.

What you'll need:

for the dough:

250 g flour

1 tbsp baking powder

100 g sugar

1 package vanilla sugar (you can find Dr. Oetker brand in Cost Plus)

1 egg

1 egg yolk

100 g butter

bread crumbs

for the filling:

5 big apples (I used Honeycrisp and just took as many as I needed to cover the dough)

juice of half a lemon

2 tbsp brown raw sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

for the streusel/crumbs:

120 g butter, melted

150 g flour

130 g sugar

3 pinches cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a springform and sprinkle with bread crumbs. Knead a dough using the first seven ingredients. Spread it in the springform, leaving a small edge at the sides.

Peel the apples, remove core and cut in slices. Mix with lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon.

Spread the apple slices narrowly on top of the dough (sorry, I forgot to take a picture of this)

Knead the streusel/crumbs using the melted, cooled down butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon, and spread them on top of the apples.

Bake at 400°F for about 1 hour.

And then - enjoy it! Either warm with vanilla ice cream or - as we did - cool with real whipping cream (not the stuff out of the spray bottle).