Ah, ice cream. Generally, I'm not a huge ice cream person. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's just not my first dessert of choice at home. In Germany, it is. The ice cream there is so smooth and creamy. As an added plus, it comes in a number of exotic fruit flavors, and is piled temptingly high so that you can see it from the street as you pass by.
My initial love was the banana ice cream. I seem to have become a banana lover as of late, and thus, I was eager to try it.
I ate my fair share of banana ice cream in Germany. (Please note that I did have mango in that second picture.) It would make a fabulous banana milk shake and was so good that sometimes I made a meal off of it.
After a while, I noticed how monotonous my choices had become, so I made a pact with myself to try new ice cream flavors.
Enter, strawberry. The color is a little bit off because of the lighting in the shop, but it was very pink and scrumptious. It was also a nice change from my usual banana.
In Munich, I continued to experiment with new tastes. This time I gave "Melon" a try.
Don't ask me what kind of melon it was. All I know is that it was orangey and very sweet. Maybe cantaloupe? Regardless, it was delicious, and also possibly the first time I've ever had an ice cream cone. For most of my life, I have held the belief that I should stay away from ice cream cones because they will melt or fall to the ground after only a few licks. Strange, I know. But I think I've finally begun to come around to the idea of using ice cream cones. Plus, they seem to give you more ice cream when you have a cone. Just sayin'...
On the last day of the trip, we were in Heidelberg, enjoying the historic castle and beautiful views. It seemed too early for lunch, but an ice cream was sure to hit the spot.
Although the cookie one wasn't my usual flavor, it may have been my favorite. There is something about Nutella that gets me every time!
Although the German ice cream was amazing, I did dabble in other desserts. This leads us to the second category: baked goods.
I had originally gone to Germany, intent upon tasting the most delicious apple strudel in the world. So when we visited Hamelin (a tiny town dedicated to the Pied Piper), I decided I'd try a real German apple strudel.
It was very pretty. Almost too pretty to eat, right? But I gave in and took a bite. Let's just say that one bite was all I really needed to be disappointed. Despite its beautiful exterior, there was almost no sweetness in the cakey dessert at all. And that was when I learned that sweet in Germany probably doesn't mean sweet for me. So I left Hamelin, disappointed in both the strudel and the Pied Piper play saw there.
But, never fear! On that same day, we arrived in Hamburg and ate at the Spanish and Portuguese restaurant I mentioned in my last post. For dessert, I ordered the item that appeared to be most similar to a creme brûlée.
This was quite good. The sugar on top was not so burnt that it left a bitter taste in your mouth, and the custard was smooth and creamy. Although I think it would have been better if the sugar had been hot on top, I was pleased and had no problem finishing this on my own.
While in Berlin, we stopped at a bakery to drool over all of the pretty desserts behind the glass case. Inevitably, we broke down and had to buy one...or two to try later.
Unfortunately, we ran into the same problem with these. They were absolutely beautiful, but had almost no sweetness! What is it with German baked goods?!? I was disappointed yet again, but we'd already had ice cream earlier in the day, so I didn't feel too jipped.
While in Dresden, our local guide told us all about this cake we had to try. It was called Eierschecke. (I think it roughly translates to egg shingles or something....) Anyway, we hunted it down.
It looks lovely, right? The cake was very light and almost spongey on top. Then there was that layer of hard-ish custard beneath the sponge, and then there was the crust. This was probably one of the more delicate desserts I tasted. But still, no sweetness. In this case, however, I was glad to have tried it because it was a local specialty. And I couldn't possibly have missed a local cake! The search for a sweet dessert went on.
Nuremberg offered some relief from the monotony of sugar-less desserts. After arriving in the city, Miki led us to a highly recommended gingerbread or, Lebkuchen, stand. I gladly bought a piece to try because if gingerbread isn't good in Germany, then where is it good?
This was delicious! It was very spicy and warm (but not in a temperature way...in a mouth heat way, if that makes sense.) The little Nuremberg coat of arms tasted like almond, which was a nice touch. (I'm always a fan of almond.) This was so good that I went back and bought more to take home. There was no way I was leaving the country without it!
The next day, we were in Rothenburg. And what do you do in Rothenburg? Eat snowballs, of course!! Schneeballen, as they're called, are apparently a local tradition stretching back for centuries. When you walk into the shop and see all of the snowballs piled up and smell the sweet scent of frying dough, there is no way you can walk out of there empty handed.
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| This is only a quarter of the display... |
Being the occasionally indecisive person that I can be, I chose two snowballs so that I could try them both! Hey, if you're only going to eat a snowball once, might as well try as many as possible. The two I chose were nougat (apparently the most popular) and cinnamon-sugar (the one that I thought looked best).
Miki had warned us that they were very sweet, so I was prepared for a moderate amount of sweetness. (I had decided there must be a sweetness conversion.) And I was pleasantly surprised! They were actually a decent sweetness, and they were tasty. The nougat one was filled with...nougat, I suppose. It was kind of a soft chocolate filling, and was very good. The cinnamon sugar one was also yummy, although the sugar sprayed everywhere as I tried to eat it. Overall, it was a very successful dessert!
And of course, I couldn't leave Germany without trying a German Chocolate Cake. We had the opportunity to try this German delicacy while visiting the Neuschwanstein castle.
When it arrived, I have to say I was a little surprised at the sparsity of cake. All of the German Chocolate Cakes I've ever had have been largely chocolate cake. This was not. But after I had a taste, the amount of cake didn't really matter.
This was the lightest, fluffiest, and creamiest cake I'd ever had. I realize that those three adjectives may not necessarily go together, but it's the only way I can describe it. I didn't even notice a lack of sweetness as I ate this cake. It was good. And now it's gotten me interested in making a copy-cat cake at home.
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