There are few Viennese who pass a day without a little Schlagobers they seem to need it as a Frenchman needs wine. Hopeless Schlagobers addicts pile more whipped cream even on top of their whipped cream. In Vienna, whipped cream is not only used in countless pastries and on top of many Torten (flat, round cakes), but sugared whipped cream is served as a dish by itself. Three hundred years ago, an anonymous Viennese cook scooped the cream of the milk and carefully whipped it into Schlagobers – whipped cream. In 1762, Mozart’s father, a skeptical man, wrote, “Are all people who come to Vienna bewitched so they stay here? It rather looks like it.” And this question most certainly still apt. In any case, Vienna’s pastries are a synthesis of these foreign influences, as is almost everything else in this city where so many nationalities have passed through or settled. Actually, the first sugar bakers had previously appeared in 1514 at the court of Emperor Maximilian I. His cortège consisted of Spanish and Burgundian noblemen who had in their entourage some Burgundian pastry makers. No one can be sure whether Vienna’s addiction to sweets stems from the marriage of some Byzantine princess into the Babenberg family or dates from the time of the Archduke Ferdinand of Habsburg, grand son of King Ferdinand of Aargon, who came to Vienna in 1526 from Spain. Vienna’s pastry lore is as rich as the city’s musical tradition, for local pastry lovers have perpetuated all kinds of legends. Bakers call themselves makers of Weiss und Schwarzgebäck, meaning that they bake both white rolls and dark breads. As for producers of bread they were divided into ordinary breadmakers, Semmel roll bakers and luxury bakers. There were also sugar bakers, restricted to the use of “burned sugar, burned almonds, biscuits and zwieback” and chocolate makers, marzipan makers, cake bakers and candy makers. Vienna’s Lebzelter (gingerbread maker), for instance, had their own guild in 1661. Given this glorious and persistent tradition, it is no small thing to be a baker in Vienna. Handmade rolls that are round with the top crust divided into four sections are still called Kaisersemmel in Vienna though they no longer bear the Emperor’s picture. Emperor Frederick V had ordered a batch of rolls to be distributed among children, with the Emperor’s likeness stamped on each roll, and the famous Kaisersemmel was the result. Five years before Columbus discovered America, an anonymous Viennese baker invented the Kaisersemmel (the Emperor’s roll), known in less civilized places as the “Vienna roll”. Vienna has been endowed with its love of bread and pastries for over 500 years. The genius of the Restaurant de la Pyramyde in Vienne, a city south of Lyon, did not mean his own Vienne but the Austrian Vienne – the City of Vienna. Opened by Helmut and Karin Gragger in 1997 at an old mill in Ansfelden near Linz the story of Gragger & Cie is one of rethinking modern practices, Helmut having given up a job in commercial baking to pursue a more natural course focused on organic raw materials mixed by hand and cooked in a wood-burning oven.Įventually relocated to Vienna, Helmut’s hand-built oven transported to Spiegelgasse 23 where it still burns daily, entering Gragger & Cie rouses memories of days past with loaves lining racks and several Pastries filling the cases up front.Īlso championing socially disadvantaged persons with training across four storefronts, the service amongst Vienna’s most friendly, a tasting of Gragger’s goods began with a Cheese-filled Viennoiserie featuring light sweetness before moving on to crispy Zauner Klipferl with Almonds and Breadcrumbs.Īlso featuring Almonds in a toothsome Cake, lightly sweetened and perfect with Coffee, Gragger & Cie’s Poppyseed Semolina Cake comes individually portioned and profoundly nuanced while the Nussbeugerl resembles Hungarian Kifles from the Butter-enriched Dough to the ground Walnut filling.The world’s finest pâtisserie comes from Vienne”, as France’s great chef, the late Fernand Point, once said.
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