ISSUE 64, CREAMS, Part 1: Bavarian
Bavarian Cream
This classic European confection became a fixture in the repertoire of German and French pastry chefs in the early 19th century. It came to the United States in 1850, appearing in the offerings of the famous Broadway confectionery, Moffatt’s, across from Niblo’s Garden in Manhattan. The store was staffed entirely by “French and German artists.” One can’t say whether this first version of Bavarian Cream in the United States incorporated eggs in its body, or was eggless, like some versions of the 1830s and ‘40. Indeed, the earliest published newspaper recipe (from 1856) lacks eggs and gelatin. It is a sugared whipped cream:
Recipe for Bavarian Cream
Mix one pint of thick cream with the juice of a large lemon and a glass of white wine; put the peel of the lemon in whole, with a suffiicent quantity of loaf sugar to make it sweet; beat them well together with a whisk; put a piece of clean muslin over the mould, and pour the cream in; let it drain to the following day, when turn it out carefully. There a earthenware moulds on purpose, with small holes to let out the whey. Plaquemine Southern Sentinel (July 19, 1856), 2.
The silky firm while mound of Bavarian Cream became one of the ideal mid-day dishes that town ladies preferred for lunch. The other place where it enjoyed welcome was on the side table of cold dishes served as refreshment at Society Balls. Certain cities embraced it during the the antebellum period: Cleveland, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, Providence, and Boston. Midwestern recipes for Bavarian Cream tended to leave out the eggs. Here is a classic formulation printed in the September 25, 1917 issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:
In the 19th century there was a decided preference for the pure, clean flavor of dairy and sugar in simple moulded creams. As the final sentence of the above recipe suggests, the 20th century marked a change. Single flavorings: coffee, raspberry, orange, or vanilla were added to the basic formula. There were attendant alterations in the coloration of the creams, so that confectioner’s shops often displayed a range of pastel shades of Bavarian Cream.