Little Pipe

This is the English translation of the name of my favorite baker. He has several outlets in town and a stand at the Munster Market.

This bread is generally known as Wurzelbrot (root bread) - due to its outer appearance, i.e., contorted by the baker's hand like a root of a tree - that Pfeifle branded Freiburger Bengele (a rascal from Fribourg, Switzerland). Indeed, you buy the most original Wurzelbrot in Switzerland, although not only in Fribourg but also in Basel.

Pfeifle writes about the Wurzelbrot: "Our wheat bar bread with barley malt. Made according to a secret recipe with 'poolish' (soft wheat pre-dough) and 'Levain Naturel' (natural wheat sourdough). We spend plenty of time on the dough for full flavor and high digestibility. Formed by the baker's hand. Baked in a stone oven. Extra crispy on the outside. Silky soft inside. Unmistakable: the rustic taste. Simply to fall in love with," which I did.

The Oberlindenhörnle is a house specialty, with people coming from far buying them by the dozens to fill their freezers. The pastry is not formed like a "croissant" but is shaped individually. It is named after the Upper Linden Quarter, situated at the Schwabentor (Swabian Gate), where Pfeifle's original bakery is located.

Oberlinden is famous with my friends from Madison since Professor James Steakley shot the ultimate photo of the linden tree decorated for Christmas in 2010.

Here is a recent and sad Corona photo of the site.

Pfeifle describes the Oberlindenhörnle as follows: "A successful liaison of short pastry and puff pastry with fine marzipan. Baked with brand butter. Finished with delicate coconut flakes. Particularly finely chopped due to the elaborate touring of the dough-butter layers."

A Quarkballen is a Berliner (doughnut) made from yeast dough, adding white cheese and cinnamon, a pastry instead prepared during the Carnival season. The quark makes this fritter fluffier than the original Berliner.

You all know President Kennedy's struggle with the meaning of the word "Berliner." The people from Berlin call the spherical fritter made from yeast-dough Pfannkuchen, so pancake is the wrong translation. In Northern and Western Germany, the pastry is called Berliner Ballen or simply Berliner.

What do the Berliners call their pancakes? They call them Eierkuchen, translating to egg cakes.

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