Wedding Week - Part 4

After a fun week of visiting friends, luncheons and rehearsal dinners, and the wedding ceremony itself, we could take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy the festivities. 

When we first talked about the wedding, we both immediately thought "wouldn't it be fun if we could bring Oktoberfest to Charleston?"  Well, we couldn't do quite that, but we did bring some Bavaria to the festivities. 

We held the reception back in Charleston, at the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon. Not only is a beautiful and historic venue, but we also thought it would be pretty cool to offer a dungeon tour at our wedding reception!  So, during the cocktail our, the guests had a tour of the dungeon, where pirates and confiscated British tea were held and also where you can see the only remaining parts of Charleston's old city walls. I had no idea Charleston was a walled city, or that the water used to come up to the building. 

One of our hopes was to figure out how to get hops and good German beer. Luckily our wonderful florist and caterer were able to come through for us!  We decided to offer a selection of Munich beers - a Weihenstephaner helles, a Paulaner Weissbier, and a Franziskaner Dunkelweissbier. 

And of course some mini pretzels to snack on before the reception began. 

While our guests enjoyed beer and pretzels and a tour of the museum, Herr J and I stopped at our hotel to change into our Bavarian party clothes. 


Our bartender gets into the spirit, thanks to some dirndl and lederhosen aprons Herr J found online. 

However, my favorite party favor he found online was the Maβ coozy, lederhosen style.  (Luckily he saved one for me, and it took a trip to Oktoberfest this year)



Again, Sara, our awesome florist somehow divined from my explanations and random Pinterest ideas exactly what I envisioned for simple centerpieces... of course in Maβ glasses. 

Luckily the lebkuchenherzen we had shipped over arrived at the last minute and we were able to put them out on the table as decorations and more fun Bavarian things to take home. 


The father of the bride and ushers. 



Two of my favorite things about the room were the two fireplaces on each end, and the gorgeous caribbean blue ceiling that you can see in the mirror. 


And one of the moment's we'd been eagerly awaiting....the cake. Again, another example of a wonderful vendor who was able to create exactly what we wanted from what I'm sure was a very poor description.  If anyone in the Charleston area needs a cake (birthday, wedding, otherwise), I highly recommend our baker Tammy at Cakes by Kasarda... especially the "moist chocolate" flavor.  If you're getting married in the area, it's worth a visit to sample her cakes. We were blown away by the taste and by the presentation.  This was my first cake tasting ever, though Herr J had been with friends and to the wedding expo with his brother. So, when she brought out little slices of several types of cake, and then a plate of scoops of several frostings, and yet another plate of several fillings....well, I thought that was the normal way cake tasting went and was pretty excited for the next one. Though I did think it would be hard to top her cake - at least 3 flavors were the best example of that flavor cake I've ever tasted. 

Herr J tried to warn me that we should probably just cancel the other appointment and book Tammy, but I thought cake tasting was fun. As usual, he was right. The next place just brought out different samples of pre-frosted and assembled cakes. And they all had pretty much the same frosting and taste and I was wishing we'd skipped it.  

I will say that choosing the cake was really difficult, but we got exactly what we wanted thanks to Tammy's tasting where we could mix and match. And when I was having trouble deciding between the American buttercream that was just too sweet and the Swiss buttercream that could be a tiny bit sweeter, she suggested that she often just blends the two. So, we created a cake with perfect frosting and were able to alternate layers of cake - alternating vanilla and almond on the bottom tier, alternating vanilla and strawberry (and she blends fresh strawberries into the batter), and chocolate on top. I don't remember if the chocolate is mixed with vanilla or not....we'll see when we next visit my parents and take it out of the freezer! 





A toast by the best man...

... and the maid of honor.  We realized with a laugh when they signed the marriage book as witnesses for us that we chose well...between the two of them, we have attorneys licensed to practice in at least 3 states. 

And then it was time for the dances. First, father and daughter.
 

 And then our first dance together.

And then, time to eat!  When we started this process, I was a little worried we wouldn't find German food. I'd found what looked like a good German restaurant in town, but it had closed. And caterers mostly focused on Asian, Mexican, or Southern food.  Had we gotten married 3 hours west in Spartanburg (home of the BMW plant), I think we would have had a plethora of options for Bavarian food. But, luckily my father found a local caterer who said "you want to do Oktoberfest for your reception? We've never done German before, but that sounds fun!" And when she came back with a proposed menu based on internet research, she said that the one dish that kept popping up as classic German food was this thing call currywurst.  

In the end, we went with our favorite German dish (actually Schwabisch, not Bavarian), zwiebelrostbraten and käsespätzle. For those who haven't had the pleasure, it's basically steak with fried onions on top. It's often served with a beer sauce and with käsespätzle, which I like to call German artisanal mac and cheese. Yum!  

 

And we did have a sausage and sauerkraut bar. They found some great bratwurst and served it on a bun with mustard or as currywurst. And did a realy good job with the sauerkraut. We also had some green asparagus, rice pilaf, and baked apples.  We weren't sure how it would work, but Cru Catering did a fantastic job. They also managed to serve incredibly tender steak, which is always a big risk to cook for such a large party. 

 
I think we should have practiced cutting the cake - I had no idea it would be so difficult to get the slice out of there! 

 

One thing that was difficult to find in Germany for an American wedding was a cake cutter. I'm not well versed enough in German weddings to know if a ceremonial cake cutter isn't normally used, or if the cutting of the cake just isn't a big thing (or the cake itself).  In any event, when we described to a sales lady at a big kitchen store what we were looking for, she said they didn't carry anything like that, but they did have a ceremonial knife for cutting stollen. Dresdner stollen, to be precise. We figured it was pretty cool and sword-looking and we could combine another German state into the mix, so why not?

Apparently this is a replica of the Giant Dresden Stollen Knife, which was 1.6 meters long.  Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was said to love holding festivals. In 1730, he held a magnificent baroque festival for which he commissioned an 1.8 ton (18 yards long by 8 yards wide) stollen (traditional Christmas cake).  It took 8 horses to bring the stollen to the table and in order to cut such a cake, he had a 12 kg silver knife forged. 

After going into the Saxon treasury and surviving the November Revolution, it was lost after being hidden away from the advancing Red Army at the end of World War II. 

After much research, a replica was created and they market more manageable sized versions.  Next Christmas, we'll be cutting our stollen in style and remembering our wedding day. 
 

We had the chance to catch up with family and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen in too long.  And to learn something new about some....for example that our cousins knew every song and every dance....we were impressed!

 

A little more dancing before the night ended. 

And the last minute gummis we'd ordered to replace the favor bags that hadn't arrived.... 

....but luckily arrived the morning of the wedding!

 
After the reception ended, we went up to the rooftop of the Vendue Inn for a drink with friends.  

We then returned to the hotel, just to add a little more laughter to the week.  After we'd finally cleared off everything we'd left on the bed in our haste to get ready, we finally went to bed. I thought it was strange the duvet was wet, but it seemed to just be water, and it wouldn't surprise me if I left a wet towel or spilled water on it or something like that. Not 5 minutes later I jump up as something wet starts coming out of the ceiling. The mystery of the wet duvet is solved by the water leaking out of the vent in the ceiling. Luckily they had a vacant room across the hall and we just slept there - in a nice clean and uncluttered room. 

The next morning we hurried to pack everything up and met some Dallas friends at High Cotton for breakfast before we all headed out of town. 

I can't say enough about the food in the area. There are so many great restaurants around, and not only in downtown Charleston. Here's a sampling of the wonderful breakfast. 

Johnny Cakes
 Biscuits and Cornbread (with sweet butter)

Chicken and Waffles

Corned beef and hash

 

shrimp and grits

And one of the most thoughtful (and tasty) gifts we've ever seen.  My oldest friend (we go back to 3rd grade) came to the wedding. She's a pretty excellent baker and cookie decorator and she left a box of homemade love heart cookies for us at the hotel.  And she took the time to look up a bunch of different love sayings in German to write on the hearts. So cute! And they were really tasty, melt in your mouth shortbread kind of cookies. 

 

 

With full bellies and a few hours before I had to fly out for business meetings (sad to leave my new hubby, but he was flying home the next day), we decided to go back to Frankie's Fun Park for some mini-golf. We didn't have time for golf the day we drove the go-karts.  

This time, with wedding rings!

I've always been pretty terrible at air hockey, but I think getting married changed that. Best air hockey performance of my life!

 

We finished up the day with this crazy Speed of Light game they have. We took a video of some other people playing it. You compete against each other and earn points for hitting the lighted buttons. I think you get more points depending on how quickly you hit them in a row and may lose points for mistakes. And then there's a bonus round to hit as many as you can in a short time. It's out of control and addictive and fun. 

And then Herr J dropped me at the airport and I spent the week in New York.  We had a friend getting married the following weekend in another part of Germany, so I flew into Frankfurt. Coincidentally another friend from London was attending the wedding and flying in from New York, so Herr J picked us up in Frankfurt and we all went to the wedding. 

And when we finally returned to Munich that Sunday, we dropped off the rental car and had our first meal in Munich as husband and wife and had our first Oktoberfest beer of the season. A lovely evening at Augustiner am Dom

dining on our favorite zwiebelrostbraten!

A huge thanks to all of our family and friends who travelled to celebrate with us, and to all of our amazing vendors who made this work for two crazy people trying to arrange a wedding by phone and internet. And to our wonderful pastor who was willing to work outside the box and did many of our pre-wedding counseling sessions by Skype.  With everyone's help, we had our dream wedding!

All photos of reception by Marni Rothschild.

The U.S. can't make real German food

Frau A and I are getting married soon. (!)  For the wedding reception, we wanted to bring a sense of Bavaria back home to the U.S..  It would be fun, interesting, and something (hopefully) unique for our family and friends.

The first step was speaking with the caterers about food.  They had never done käsespätzle and other dishes before, but seemed pretty professional and took the time to research recipes, etc.  We'll see how their food turns out...

But that triggered some memories and thoughts about how the fast/convenience culture of the U.S. simply does not "allow" some true German foods to be made (correctly) and served in America.  We could, but we don't.

The main reason?  Patience.  Or, lack thereof.  Here are some examples:

1)  The whole, rotisserie-roasted chickens over here (the most popular food at Oktoberfest, by the way) always seem to be jucier and taste better.

I asked a store that sells them daily, and the department head said that they brine the chickens for at least a day before roasting them.

Jamie Oliver says to do this too, but I think typically Americans just rub some spices on the outside and get cooking (or stores skip brining to cut costs).

2)  Similarly, I noticed that I actually *like* the sauerkraut here.  Growing up, I always hated sauerkraut at picnics, etc..  So I asked a traditional restaurant (Augustiner) that serves the good stuff about the general approach.

They said the cabbage should be cured in salt at least 3 days to ferment enough.  (This web page and this page say 2-4 weeks.)  This is what generates the right texture & flavor.  Most U.S. sauerkraut is just cooked cabbage.

Now I'm NOT saying that traditional German food is "better".  (A lot is drowned in sauce or generally not to my taste.)  The point is that by shortcutting some original techniques, you don't get the real, tasty version.

Another place we noticed where the lack of patience (or refusal to put in extra time and cost) prevents us from finding (and then liking) authentic German foods?  Desserts.  An underrated part of German cuisine.

3)  Frau A and I needed to select a wedding cake, of course.  One of the treats we love here is Prinzregententorte.  Highly recommended.

The thing about this dessert is that it has "at least" (from Wikipedia) six thin layers of cake, each one separated by a thin layer of chocolate/hazelnut buttercream.  I counted at various bakeries here, and usually see seven layers.  That's a LOT of work to assemble!

My colleague's grandma used to make this, and it took her half the day. 

I did a Google search for German bakeries in Charleston, SC. The first thing that popped up was Rococo German Bakery.  My first reaction was to be surprised at the name (Rococo is obviously not German) but what the heck.  They did not have Prinzregententorte on their website, so I called and asked if the can make it.  The response?

"We don't know what that is."  Major fail.  Then I checked their website further...

- Only 1 of the 19 items shown in "Cakes and Pies" is even remotely German (Black Forest Cake... but it looks like it is made with American super-sweet buttercream frosting rather than whipped cream).  They do list a 'German Chocolate Cake', but this is not German!  (It's American, actually.  Dallas, Texas!  See the link to Wikipedia.)

- Only 1 of their 7 items in "Cookies" is consistently found here -- the black & white frosted sugar cookie -- but it's not truly German.  (Chocolate chip and macaroons are available here and there... the chocolate chip never very good.)  At Rococo, no Christmas classics -- which are good all year -- like vanillakipferl, zimtsterne, or even lebkuchen are available.  Maybe in December?

- Of the 15 items in "Pastry", they do offer apfelstudel (technically Austrian, but good enough).
And one positive surprise:  bienenstich (bee sting)!  I rarely see this in the U.S., but it's a great coffee-time indulgence.  Crumb cakes are popular here, but with more fruit than crumb (vs. the Rococo photo).  Fruit roulade and lemon bars are available here, but are French and American repsectively.  Overall, here's where they come the closest to a "German" bakery (breads not included).

I don't mean to pick on Rococo, just wanted to show an example of the gap.

One last point -- the other thing that creates this divide is the use preservatives (whether its desserts, bratwurst, or bread).  There's a reason that Germans shop for bread at least every other day (often daily).
There are no preservatives, so it doesn't last.  But that's the way it goes here... and it tastes pretty good.

Aspirational Ice Cream

German marketing traditionally has focused on quality differentiation and quantifiable data -  BMW's engine is x-times more efficient, Siemens' washing machine uses x% less water, Daimler's BLUETEC diesel has x% lower emissions, Porsche's sedan can accelerate from 0 to 60 in x seconds, etc...  

US product marketing generally employs a very wide arsenal of tactics, but still often relies on selling the consumer a dream. If I drink this beer, the women will want me....If I carry this phone, I'm ahead of the curve....If I buy x, I'm environmentally conscious but not wasteful with my money....

In Germany, we're starting to see the emotional and aspirational marketing creeping into the product selection. In the ice cream selection, they've gone far to the extreme. Langnese (the German brand for Unilever's ice cream - Walls in the UK and Asia, Good Humor in the US) currently is promoting two ice cream flavors where you can buy romance.  Like fire and ice, you can choose the "Eiskalt" romance of Dr. Zhivago or the fiery passion of Gone with the Wind.  

The Doctor Zhivago flavor is described as an "ice-cold" film romance of snow-white ice cream with marscapone, lemon ice cream, fine vodka-lemon sauce and tiny chocolate snowflakes.

Gone with the Wind, on the other hand, is a fruity raspberry and dark chocolate ice creams with fire-red raspberry sauce. (it also appears to have dark chocolate sprinkles on top)

While these are a special promotion, many of their other ice creams sell a similar dream - usually a dream of exotic and magical destinations. And, given the German love of travel, it seems like a pretty good aspiration to sell.

We haven't tried them yet, though they seem to be just a bit too much to me. Perhaps the cherry and chocolate one would be good, but the others have so many different flavors in there!

What are the flavors?

Kirschzauber: Cherry Magic: A magical combination of sour cherry and vanilla-poppyseed ice cream with sour cherry sauce and tiny chocolate flowers. (note: the "poppyseed" is a bit hard to describe. In Germany, it's "mohn," a common filling for pastries and cakes. While it is poppyseed, it's not crunchy like the ones commonly sprinkled on rolls)

Safari Afrika: Creamy chocolate ice cream, swirled with delicious vanilla ice cream, intense chocolate sauce, and tiny chocolate paws.

Andalusische Träume: Andalusian Dreams: Vanilla-orange ice cream, swirled with cherry-sherry saue with tiny chocolate hearts.

Dschungelzauber: Jungle Magic: Creamy pistachio ice cream swirled with delicious vanilla ice cream with chocolate-coconut sauce and tiny chocolate apes.

What do you think? Do you buy the ice cream dream, or just go for a good flavor? For me, Langnese also makes the delightful Magnum bars (thank you Thailand for teaching me about Magnums!!) with their rich chocolate and so creamy ice cream. The new Ghana Cocoa bar (milk chocolate shell with hazelnut ice cream and fudge swirls) is my second favorite ice cream bar ever. Doesn't quite beat the Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cookie Dough bar, but I'm willing to test out all the competition! 

The Good Side of German Customer Service

As previously mentioned, customer service in Germany sometimes can surprise you...on the postive side, a service person's incredible knowledge in his or her area of expertise is shocking. And you will often come across people in stores who take great pride in their department.

Herr J's neighborhood grocery store is a great example of this. The man who runs the wine section spent 7 years in New Zealand, and therefore is always on the lookout for good NZ wines to include in the store's selection. The wine section of the store is "his" section, and he takes great pride in it. He holds wine tastings in the store every few months and likes to interact with customers to find out what they enjoy and how he can improve the selection.

One of the butchers there has a similar approach. In addition to the normal meat selection, they offer a variety of pre-marinated or pre-assembled meat dishes (think kebabs, roulade, etc.). We've found the marinades to be exceptionally good, and he explained to Herr J that he enjoys experimenting and making new creations to sell to customers.

His thinly sliced bacon-wrapped pork spirals on a stick were pretty amazing, so when we saw this unusual looking thing in the meat counter, we had to try it:

It looked like raw hamburger braided with strips of puff pastry, so I expected it would taste similar to the beer and beef pies I usually have on hand in the fridge...just in a different shape.

We still don't know what these are called, but we're going to experiment with making them. The taste was wonderful - the ground beef (a very lean beef, as is typical here) was mixed with onion, garlic, and spices, sandwiched between strips of puff pastry, then braided. You cook around 150°C for 15-25 minutes, and then we turned it up a little at the end.

The results were so great! We're looking forward to seeing what else the butcher creates.  

Raclette - Cheesy Swiss Goodness

Herr J has been finding all kinds of goodies on Amazon.de lately, including some great surprises for me.

So I was very excited to open a box and find a two-person raclette grill.

Raclette probably originated in Switzerland, but is very popular in France and Southern Germany as well. The methods and ingredients vary, but it basically is melted cheese served with meat and/or vegetables. A little like cheese fondue, but instead of dipping things in cheese, you are covering them in cheese.

In Germany, many families traditionally eat raclette on Christmas Eve, though you'll find it eaten throughout the winter, and as part of the après ski in Switzerland.  It's an easy meal, but it brings everyone together around the table. Raclette typically is a long-meal, during which friends and family eat slowly, drink white wine, and talk for hours.

The main two methods are a Raclette Oven or a Raclette Grill:
The Raclette Oven consists of a stand to hold a half wheel of cheese under a heating element (the top bar). The heat melts the top layer of the cheese and guests scrape the melted cheese onto their plates.

These are pretty cool looking, but the disadvantages are that:
- they're pricey (usually starting at over €200) 
- you need to use half wheels of cheese, so it's best for larger groups
- no grill or griddle for grilling the meats or veggies

However, they make a very impressive presentation and perfectly melted cheese. 

The Raclette Grill comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes (and price ranges). The basic form consists of a two level appliance, with the heating element sitting under the grill/griddle and above the individual trays.

The one shown has both a stone and a grill, on which the meats are cooked. Each guest has a tray into which he or she puts a slice of cheese for melting. This makes wonderful bubbly cheese, but you have to be careful not to burn it, since the slices are thinner than the wheel. There's some debate about the correct way to make your raclette - some believe that only the cheese should be melted in the tray and then used to top the meat and veggies; others prefer to add vegetables into the cheese while it's melting (as shown here).

Cheese:
Cheese is the main ingredient in raclette, and you'll want to use one that melts evenly and smoothly. The raclette cheese from Wallis area (Valais canton) in Switzerland is the original raclette cheese, but there are a wide variety of Swiss, French, German, and Dutch raclette cheeses available - even some pepper flavored, smoked, or other varieties. The French cheese that the cheese lady recommended was excellent - in Europe you can usually just ask for a raclette cheese and they'll recommend one based on preference, and even slice it into perfect raclette slices!  Though you could use a good melting cheese such as Gouda, Emmental, Tilsit, Edam, or even Camembert if you live somewhere that raclette cheese isn't available, but it really is best to get raclette cheese. A good rule of thumb is to have 200-300g cheese per person, and it should be cut into half centimeter thick slices. Leave the rind on - it softens up and provides nice texture.

Potatoes:
After the cheese come the veggies and meat. Originally, the meal consisted of cheese, potatoes, and pickles. Today, tradition has expanded to include other items, especially meat.  In Switzerland, they often serve jacket potatoes, and in Germany sliced boiled potatoes. Obviously they need to be cooked beforehand, but you could also brown them up on the grill to get a little more texture.

Meat and Veggies:
Now that we have the cheese and potatoes comes the fun part. You can put anything on the grill - common ingredients are chicken, pork, kebabs, shrimp, sausages, steak, dried meats, peppers, onions, and so on.

Condiments:
Usually there are paprika and fresh ground pepper on the table for seasoning, as well as small or sliced pickles.

Our Raclette Dinner:
The one Herr J got me is a really good Swiss brand, with trays for 2 people. I don't actually have a formal dining table, so it's great to have a small one.

Here's our setup - cheese, shrimp, tomatoes, onions, and small pieces of marinated filet (we skipped the potatoes):
  

Here you'll see the cheese melting below and the shrimp grilling on top.

The process is simple...grill your meats and veggies and put them (or potatoes) on your plate. Then remove the cheese tray from the heat. Using your raclette spatula (plastic or wooden angled scrapers, as in the photo above), slide the molten cheese atop your meat and veggies. You'll end up with a tasty, gooey treat like this:    

In addition to the shrimp, we grilled onions and steak. As much as I'd love to post a picture of the finished product, it was just too delicious - we were too lost in eating it to stop and take a photo!

I'm really not sure why raclette isn't popular in the US.  With the potatoes, it's a lot like European cheese fries or potato skins! What's not to love?

We'll be experimenting in the future with ideas for modern raclette - onions, steak, and bell peppers would make a great cheesesteak; with some spicier peppers we could go the Mexican route; and with some meatballs, we could have Italian raclette. Though cheese is not normally part of Asian cuisines, my favorite Yakitori restaurant (Nanbantei in Far East Plaza in Singapore) has an out-of-this-world beef wrapped cheese skewer. Perhaps we can make some Yakitori-inspired dished with the beef, prosciutto-wrapped baby asparagus, and others. Yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about Nanbantei!

Even More Krapfen

For a couple weeks, we'd seen the tasty and unique krapfen in the window of the Woerner's on Marienplatz. Woerner's is one of my favorite places in Munich for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, though I usually go to the smaller one by Sendlinger Tor.

The Bailey's Krapfen in particular called to us...  

 

Bailey's KrapfenI picked up a Bailey's and a couple of the donut hole looking ones to take to dinner at Herr J's. Strangely, we both had the same thought that day and he had gotten one of each! We had a great little krapfen tasting

The Bailey's, as expected, were amazing! And instead of powdered sugar or glaze, they had chocolate flakes topping the krapfen.

Overally, Woerner's has the best krapfen - their dough is perfectly airy and not greasy, and the fillings unusually good.  All of theirs are whole krapfen, filled with some filling. The Rischart were unique in that they were sliced in half with the filling sandwiched in between the layers.

Both the Bailey's and the Eierlikör ("egg liquor") had tasty liquid fillings. The Prosecco krapfen had a small but strongly flavored core that was like the center of a champagne truffle. Excellent, and just the right amount. The Kirchwasser (a cherry schnaps drink) Krapfen was filled with a sweet and dense filling, somewhere between a custard and a truffle filling. Good, but not as perfect as the Bailey's.

Nutella-filled WörniesBut the huge surprise of the night were the Wörnies, the little round things in the left of the top photo that appear as donut holes dipped in chocolate. Oh, they were soooooo much better. These are a unique creation of Woerner's. Basically they are like a little circle of (probably fried) cake, filled with Nutella. The Nutella seeps into the little caverns inside the dough. They really don't need to be dipped in chocolate, but otherwise they are little mini bites of heaven.

More Krapfen

With 3 more weeks until Fasching (Germany's version of Carnival or Mardi Gras), Krapfen Season is still in full swing.

Krapfen are more than just jelly donuts. Most are not fried and greasy - instead they are soft fluffy pillows of lightly sweetened dough, with subtly flavored fillings.  Usually the custard filled ones are filled with a custard that is more of a super light mousse. Those filled with something stronger (jam, chocolate, nutella, etc) have a small amount of filling. Just the perfect amount to give you the taste but not overpower the delicacy of the dough. A good krapfen is really special!

We were lucky to find a krapfen version of Herr J's favorite German dessert, bienenstich, at a Rischart bakery! It's their new flavor for 2011 and we wholeheartedly approve!

So tasty...a creamy light custard in the middle, topped with a light glaze and toasted almond slivers...

This

quickly became this!

Herr J also brought home some more festive krapfen from San Francisco Coffee Company (seriously, these little guys are everywhere from New Years to Lent!).  Really great dough part, with a small bit of nougat inside. Gorgeous and tasty, but really sweet...these would be best to share.