Learn about German pastries
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| Hello, and welcome to the Culture File: Germany series at GermanPod101.com. In this series, we’re exploring essential information about Germany, German culture and German people. I’m Eric, and you're listening to Season 1, Lesson 10 - German Pastries. |
| Germany is well known for its numerous types of bread. Tarts and cakes like Black Forest cherry-cake or Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, or the Frankfurter Crown Cake, or Frankfurter Kranz are quite famous, even outside Germany's borders. In truth, however, the stars of German bakeries are neither bread nor cakes, but smaller pastries, or in German, Gebäck. When a friend invites you over for coffee, it's not often you bring an entire cake from the bakery, and bread isn't really suitable as a gift. Pastries, or Gebäck, are exactly what's needed in such a situation. With a good mix of types, there's something to satisfy everyone at the coffee table. |
| But what are pastries exactly? Pastries are those tasty baked goods made of fluffy dough, most of which are decorated with icing, or Zuckerguss. They're available in a wide variety with such diverse ingredients that you could eat a pastry every day for weeks without repeating flavors! |
| Many Germans like danishes, or Teilchen. They are yeast-risen pastries that are filled with sweet cream, custard, or fruit. Also quite popular are cherry-pockets and apple-pockets. These are pastry pockets filled with either cherry or apple compote. Listeners, if you haven’t tasted one before, I recommend you try it! |
| And of course we can't forget snails or Schnecken! Don't worry, by snail I don’t mean the animal. This sort of pastry is called a snail because the dough is curled around in a way that represents the shape of a snail shell. There are cinnamon-snails, raisin-snails, nut-snails, poppy-snails, marzipan-snails, and many more! And of course the streusel-snail with icing is important to mention. Although they don't have the typical snail shape, they still taste very good. |
| So listeners, how did you like this lesson? Did you learn anything interesting? |
| Which of the German pastries introduced in this lesson do you think you’ll like most? |
| Leave a comment telling us at GermanPod101.com, and we’ll see you in the next lesson! |
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