KaffeeHaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague by Rick Rodgers, Kelly Bugden (Photographer)

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Picture yourself in an old-fashioned Austro-Hungarian café, perhaps the famous Café Dommayer in Vienna or the Café Slavia in Prague. The waiter offers you a menu of extravagant, elaborate desserts -- Sachertorte, Linzertorte, a choice of strudels, or sweet dumplings -- to linger over while you are sipping strong coffee topped with a spoonful of whipped cream. It's hard to decide.

If the Viennese had a food pyramid, desserts would be the main food group and their distribution system would be the traditional kaffeehaus. Rick Rodgers, a well-known cooking teacher and writer, has done a great service to the armchair traveler and the adventurous baker alike with this charming tour of the great desserts and cafés in Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Inspired by the debates of his childhood among his great-aunts over who was the best Viennese-style baker, Rodgers has thoroughly researched the modern cafés and the traditional recipes that go back 300 years. He has come up with more than 150 recipes, from the Dobos -- Torte and Sachertorte -- to Gundel-style crepes and Thumbprint Cookies, plus the basic batters, doughs, and icings that are their foundation. A glossary of basic ingredients and techniques, plus a personal guide to the coffeehouses of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague round out the book.

Kaffeehaus, which received glowing advance comments from such "bakerati" as Dorie Greenspan, Nick Malgieri, Alice Medrich, Gale Grand, Flo Braker, and Carole Walter, is beautifully designed, with full-color photos showcasing the glories of these old-world pastries and their native habitat. (Ginger Curwen)

From the Publisher

Transporting readers to three of the most romantic cities in the world, this beautiful book brings to life their old-world charms and architectural gems, and presents 150 impeccable recipes for recreating their legendary cakes and pastries in the home kitchen.

Vienna, Budapest, and Prague have a special hold on our imaginations, conjuring up a sense of timeless elegance, of historical and cultural riches–and of tables laden with the most extraordinary desserts imaginable. Rick Rodgers explores all these treasures in Kaffeehaus, a cook’s tour enhanced with stunning full-color photographs.

Rodgers visits such culinary landmarks as Café Slavia in Prague and Café Sperl in Vienna, sampling apple strudel, the Emperor’s pancakes, hot chocolate, and other classics and gathering the recipes (and secrets) of master bakers. With an attention to detail developed through years of teaching, he explains how to make the perfect accompaniments to a cup of coffee, as well as spectacular endings to elegant meals.

Filled with food facts and lore (from when coffee first came to Vienna to the great Sachertorte controversy), Kaffeehaus is a treat for armchair travelers and cooks alike.

Publishers Weekly

Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague by Rick Rodgers (Barbecues 101, etc.) celebrates the sweet excesses of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's fascination with elegance, music and romance. Rodgers explores the lore of these legendary establishments, traces the creation of their extraordinary desserts loved throughout the world and provides detailed instructions for their re-creation at home for the enjoyment of new generations. Kelly Bugden's full-color photographs of the sumptuous confections, as well as the coffeehouses themselves, pay homage to an earlier more gracious era. Sachertorte, Apfelstrudel and Croissants are among the creations Rodgers demystifies. ( Feb.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Rodgers is a food writer and prolific author with more than a dozen other cookbooks to his credit. His latest is clearly a labor of love: "Austro-Hungarian desserts are part of my heritage," he writes, and the idea for the book began with recipes from his great-aunts and other bakers in the family. Because the featured desserts (e.g., Apfelstrudel and Sachertorte) are steeped in tradition, this is as much a fascinating culinary history as it is a recipe collection. The recipes for simple and fancy cakes, sweet yeast breads, "slices" and other individual desserts, crepes, and more are for the treats that appear on the menu of any traditional coffee house. Some come from the cafes, while others are derived from the cooking schools, pastry chefs, and home cooks whom Rodgers encountered on his travels. The recipes are clearly written and accessible even to novice bakers, but professionals will also learn from the book. Thoroughly researched histories of both individual desserts and various aspects of the coffee house tradition appear throughout, and there is a useful culinary glossary as well as a personal guide to favorite cafes. Highly recommended for all baking collections. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Product Details

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Hungary's national chocolate dessert, Rigó Jancsi consists of squares of cocoa mousse sandwiched between chocolate cake and covered with a shiny chocolate glaze.

CAKE
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
FILLING
2 tablespoons golden rum or water
1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 cups heavy cream

GLAZE
1/4 cup hot water
3 ounces high-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. To make the cake: Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350°F. Lightly butter a 15 x 11-inch jelly roll pan, and line the bottom and sides with parchment or wax paper. (Cut slashes in the corners of the paper to help them fold neatly.) Lightly butter the paper.

2. Sift the flour, cocoa, and salt together into a bowl. Mix the milk, oil, and vanilla in a measuring cup.

3. Crack the eggs into a medium bowl and add the sugar. Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat until very light in color and texture, about 2 minutes. Sift half of the flour mixture over the eggs and fold in. Fold in half of the milk mixture. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk mixtures. Spread evenly in the pan, being sure the batter fills the corners.

4. Bake until the cake springs back when pressed in the center, about 15 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on a large wire rack. Invert onto the rack and peel off the paper. Cool completely.

5. To make the filling: Pour the rum into a small bowl and sprinkle with the gelatin. Set aside for 5 minutes. Place the bowl in a skillet of gently simmering water. Using a small rubber spatula, stir constantly until the gelatin is completely dissolved, being sure to wipe down any undissolved gelatin on the sides of the bowl. Remove the bowl from the water, stir in the vanilla, and set aside to cool slightly.

6. In a bowl, combine the confectioner's sugar and cocoa. In a chilled medium bowl, beat the cream until it just begins to thicken. Sift the cocoa mixture into the cream and beat until barely stiff. Stir about one third of the whipped cream into the gelatin mixture, then beat back into the cream, beating until the filling is very stiff. (But do not overbeat, or it will separate.)

7. Cut the cake into two 7 1/2-inch-wide pieces. Place one cake on a baking sheet. Spread all of the filling on the cake in a thick layer, smoothing the sides. Refrigerate while making the glaze.

8. To make the glaze: Combine the water and chocolate in a small saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until the chocolate is almost melted. Remove from the heat and let stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is completely melted. Add the butter and stir until melted and combined. Set aside to thicken and cool slightly.

9. Place the remaining cake layer, smooth side up, on a wire rack set over a jelly roll pan. Pour all of the glaze on top of the cake. Using a metal spatula, smooth and coax the glaze over the sides of the cake. Refrigerate until the glaze is set, about 15 minutes.

10. Using a thin sharp knife rinsed under hot water between cuts, cut the glazed cake into 9 rectangles. Following their original positions, arrange the rectangles on top of the filling. Refrigerate until the filling is set, about 1 hour. Cut between the rectangles to make individual servings. Serve chilled.

MAKE AHEAD

The mousse squares can be prepared up to 2 days ahead and stored under a cake dome in the refrigerator.

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Excerpted from Kaffeehaus by Rick Rodgers Photographs by Kelly Bugden Copyright 2002 by Rick Rodgers Photographs by Kelly Bugden. Excerpted by permission of Clarkson Potter, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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