Welcome to Sugar Week
The time we've all been waiting for with bated breath (and poised forks) has come. Welcome to Sugar Week, a celebration of all things, well, sugary.
I thought I would open Sugar Week by introducing myself -- insofar as sugar is concerned.
Luckily my mom liked to bake, tossing off as an after-school snack not Rice Krispie treats but large cream puffs filled with custard and iced with chocolate. (Wasn't it nice when mothers didn't have to work?)
As an adult, my craving for sweets has lessened, but not my appreciation. I have a fondness for French pastry and fine chocolate, but I also have lowbrow sweets I can't resist. My guilty pleasures are usually sugary treats I loved as a child and never quite grew out of.
Here's a quick rundown:
*Sugar High: When Bonjour, the French bakery, opened in Mount Washington and sometimes had mille-feuilles for sale, made with puff pastry, custard cream, white fondant icing and a chocolate combed glaze. (Unfortunately the last time I went in I was told they are now only special order.)
*Sugar Low: When A. Kirchmayr, the Swiss chocolatier, left the city, moving from N. Charles Street to Timonium.
*Guiltiest Pleasure: Bakery birthday cake made with yellow cake and white icing with colored roses. (It can't come from a supermarket, however.)
*My birthday cake choice now: A cake from Patisserie Poupon -- anything with lemon or strawberries.
*Best proof that there's no such thing as a too sweet dessert: baklava (I spent a year in Greece as a kid, so I have a particular fondness for a good baklava). The best baklava I've had recently was at Micho's in Reisterstown.
*Favorite restaurant dessert: A chocolate souffle that you have to order in advance, and it comes out all puffy and hot from the oven with softly whipped cream.
*Best restaurant dessert I've had so far this year: The tarte tatin from Brasserie Tatin, with exquisite pastry, warm caramelized apples, caramel sauce, creme fraiche and a tart apple sorbet.
*Favorite supermarket dessert: The key lime pie from Whole Foods.
*Most-missed treat from my childhood: A chocolate mint chip ice cream cone from Howard Johnson's, the ones where the scoop was cone-shaped so it had a nice symmetry. Plus the ice cream was good.
*Treat I'm most glad they got rid of from my childhood: Candy cigarettes. I wonder how many people started smoking because they were so much fun.
Feel free to post your nominations in any of these categories below.
(Kim Hairston/Sun Photographer)
Comments
I grew up in Essex County, NJ and there was a small family chain of ice cream shops called Gruning's. Every year at this time they made peach ice cream. It was the essence of cream, peaches and sugar. I knew as a little kid that it didn't get any better than that. Sadly, I was right and Gruning's is no longer.
Best sugar fix in Baltimore: Berger cookies. Hands down winner.
Posted by: mdlrvrmuncher | August 19, 2007 6:59 PM
Speaking of peach ice cream - my grandmother had peach, apple, and sour cherry trees. When the peaches came in, she made the most amazing peach ice cream. She made the mixture and we all fought over cranking the ice cream maker. Grandpa would finish it when the handle was too hard for us to turn. We never found a recipe for this ice cream in my grandmother’s peach ice cream among her books and recipe cards and notes.
I have tried but have never been able to duplicate that ice cream.
Posted by: Janet | August 20, 2007 7:37 AM
Janet, my mother-in-law's peach ice cream is made of peaches, sugar, eggs, milk and cream. It's rich as sin, and might be just what you're looking for. I'm willing to share the recipe.
Posted by: Anonymous | August 20, 2007 3:44 PM
I would love to have your mother-in-law's recipe. Thanks!!
I don't know if Elizabeth wants recipes posted here. My email address is harbingerdc@earthlink.net.
Posting recipes is fine -- but only if they're wonderful :-)
Posted by: Janet | August 21, 2007 7:06 AM
Another of my most missed treat from childhood is a real snowball. The lady a few blocks down sold them from her basement. You went in the basement door and she would shave the ice to order. No machines, just a big block of ice and an ice shaver.
Snowballs made using ice machines just are not the same. Oh, and my favorite flavor was egg custard.
Posted by: Janet | August 21, 2007 7:09 AM
Alas, my favorite Baltimore summer treat is no more. Does anyone else remember the dry-ice bowls piled with individual bite-sized fruit-shaped and fruit-flavored ice cream from Hendler's? We used to order them for summer parties and picked them up at the Reed's Drugstore in Reisterstown. Strawberry ice cream in the shape of a strawberry, black walnut in the shape of a walnut, peachy peaches, etc. Some even had little plastic "stem" picks on top. Nice icy crunch as you bit into it on a hot July night. Hendler's is long gone now, but how I'd love to find small molds to make my own with!!
Posted by: mward | August 21, 2007 6:46 PM
Ice cream treats from Fiske's with a ceramic prize in the center. And Ortmuller's candies from Lexington Market.
More pedestrian memories were Hendler's and Delvale ice cream. They, too, were locally made.
Posted by: David | August 23, 2007 4:41 PM
I'm a little late "replying," but I was just talking about those individual bite-sized fruit-shaped and fruit-flavored ice creams. I couldn't remember if they were from Hendler's or Fiske's, so I Googled it and there you were. I wish someone would bring them back.
Posted by: ellendavis | September 28, 2007 3:34 PM