Stay tuned as we post selections from Ari’s list in the coming weeks!

Krémes

I don’t know that I can effectively convey the passion that Hungarians seem to have for Krémes (pronounced “Kre- mesh”). If I just tell you the ingredients it may sound good but it’ll probably not compel you to gather up your family and go to the bakery to buy some. And yet, that’s what Hungarians seem to do with amazing regularity!

So what is it already? Krémes is fantastic vanilla cream custard, set between three layers of flaky pastry dusted with powdered sugar. When you eat it, the custard kind of oozes out between the pastry layers. Here’s what Hungarian food writer András Szántó said about it in the Wall Street Journal: “To know a Hungarian is to know someone who takes dessert very seriously. . . Nothing embodies this more fully than the krémes: a quivering quadrangle of vanilla crème, sandwiched between layers of crisp mille-feuille and finished with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar. . . The krémes is dessert stripped to the essentials. It’s usually consumed on its own, not after a meal. Best to order before noon, when cream and crust are both fresh, their contrasting textures clearly discernible.”

To get the full Krémes experience you’ll either have to go to Budapest or come to the Bakehouse. We’re making it every day now. Most days it sells out pretty fast so get here early!

Kifli

If you, like me, have a high affection for Mexican wedding cookies or any other powdered-sugar-coated, kind of crumbly butter cookie, I’m totally confident that you’re gonna love these  Hungarian almond kifli from the Bakehouse. A good number of people who work here have told me that they can’t stop eating them. And if you figure that they could pretty much have their pick of all the amazing things that bakers at the Bakehouse bring out of the ovens every day, that’s really saying something. A couple of these tasty little crescent-shaped cookies are an ideal accompaniment to coffee or tea. To take things up a notch as well, we’re packing them into pretty beautiful gift boxes as well—bring one to any holiday event, give it as a gift to lovers of great cookies and use ‘em to win the hearts and minds of pretty much anyone you know with Hungarian roots.