Gastroanthropology

Flammkuchen and Handbrot - German Christmas Market, Part 2

Of all the food offerings at the Berlin Christmas Markets our favorite was the Flammkuchen and Handbrot. First, the Handbrot...a whole wheat bread with a gooey cheese and bacon inside baked in a wood-fired oven and then slathered with creme fraiche and sprinkled with chives.

The bread dough is rolled flat and the piped with a thick Mornay sauce and then rolled and pinched shut. Mornay is a Bechamel sauce (one of the traditional mother sauces made of milk and thickened with cooked flour and butter, or roux) that has cheese, usually Gruyere, added to it.

No reason for fancy ovens - a wood fired oven and a spray bottle of water create the perfect heat + steam combination for this oven handbrot.

It was served to us hot from the oven with cool creme fraiche and chives. Need I say more?

Well, yes. The handbrot was trumped by the flammkuchen. It's better known as the Tarte Flambe in France and Flammekueche in Alsace. It has a similar history to the petit four - a little something to test the heat of the oven before oven thermometers existed. The flammkuchen is a yeasted dough rolled thin, a bit of fromage blanc or creme fraiche is spread over and topped with thick-cut smoked bacon bits. When it comes out of the oven, green onion is sprinkled on top. So simple, yet so delicious.

I first experienced this wonderful creation in Paris at Flam's..

The version above was a bit dressed up with more cheese and the addition of mushrooms, but I must say I do prefer the one below - the wonderfully simple Flammkuchen I had at the German Christmas Market.

This would be really easy to make at home...I'm now on the search for the perfect yeasted whole wheat dough to recreate my own flammkuchen at home.

Weihnachtmarkte - German Christmas Market, Part 1

For the second Sunday of Advent we went to the home of the world famous Christmas Markets - Germany! As we toured Berlin we stumbled upon market after market, but the absolute best were at Gendarmenmarkt and Alexanderplatz. The Christmas Markets are spilling with handmade wooden and glass ornaments, but the real highlight, of course, is the food!

It's never too early for a bratwurst and that's what we started with for breakfast.

Along with potato pancakes and apfelmus (apple sauce).

We were on foot most of the day so we had to stop at yet another market for an afternoon snack of roasted chestnuts and honig brat mandeln (honey roasted almonds).

 

No rain or snow on our weekend excursion, but very chilly in Berlin with freezing temperatures so we warmed up with Gluhwein.

Gluhwein is red wine heated with a bit of sugar and spiced with cinnamon sticks, cloves, citrus peel and vanilla pods. You also get to drink it out of a special mug designed for the particular market you are enjoying your Gluhwein at.

We sampled a bit of stollen - a not too sweet cake-bread with bits of candied citrus, raisins, cardamom, vanilla, and rum - and bought a hunk off a much larger piece, though it wasn't as enormous as the 3.3 ton Dresden Stollen which took over 80 bakers and pastry chefs and 60 ovens to bake!

More on the delicious savory brots (breads) of the Christmas Markets in a few days...