What do you do on a Sunday afternoon?
Or an idea about things in intense moderation and with certain timing.
When exactly are we supposed to be eating these things in your books?
I mean I get it during the holiday season, that makes sense, there are so many things to eat for a whole two or more weeks dedicated to stuffing our faces but the rest of the year…, I couldn’t possibly…
I wanted to touch on something people have said before when I talk about my book somewhere. It’s often something along the lines of ‘oh, if I made all the things in your book, I would…’ .
Which is fair but it also irks me a bit because these foods in my books are meant to be savoured and enjoyed. It’s also basically never people originally from Belgium who tell me that because they know all about this already.
I usual tell those people what I wrote below.
It’s all about joy and taking pleasure in what you’re eating.
There’s something about being able to eat something rich and heavy that’s also fulfilling and satisfying.
It goes beyond just eating a huge slice of massive nothingness that may not be it. Is wanted to eat something really that bad?1 Should we shame and silence cravings? Or should we have a small amount of what we’re looking for?
The things in my book are rich and filling but they’re not about just eating baked goods whenever.
So when and how?
If you’re Belgian, Sunday afternoons are the moment for eating baked goods.
You get together with family or friends and whoever stops by your house2 is usually the one who passed by the bakery that Sunday morning and picked up a treat. Unless you’re actively organizing this get-together, then you’re expected to be the one providing the cake.
There will be coffee and if you happen to have any older relatives visiting there will be comments that yours is just simply too strong.
The enjoyment of the conversation over that cup of coffee of course depends on the company but is equally important as the actual cake eating of it all.
It’s all about intense enjoyment of the baked good with its intense flavours but in a fairly small amount while having a conversation.
Whatever treat you got from the bakery is put on the table, cut in slices equal to the amount of people there and handed out to everyone on a dessert plate with a little fork.
If you’re one of the children at the table and the amount of people doesn’t quite match up with the amount of slices, you might just be lucky and get a second one!
What exactly should we be getting at the bakery?
There are a lot of acceptable tarts for a Sunday afternoon get-together, most commonly ones with a short and crunchy base filled with crème pâtissière and topped with fresh seasonal fruit finished with an apricot glaze, depending on the season that could also be fresh strawberries, raspberries or banana slices.
If it’s a mixed fruit tart you will probably have a brief discussion about who getting which slice and if everyone is getting a piece with their favourite fruit on it, or at least avoids the one they definitely don’t want on their particular slice.
Rice pies are acceptable as well but will probably reveal a late-Sunday-morning shopper.
If you’re less familiar with someone, a pear frangipane or apple tart are good options too.
Or you get a few individual or 2-person tarts, here eclairs and similar are acceptable too. In the area around Antwerp a tart like these is often also called a ‘pateeke’.
Anything with a sponge base is a birthday treat, not a Sunday one, although you’d often buy a cake for a Birthday on the Sunday closest to a Birthday to have with family. Anything with a bavarois filling or chocolate is a special treat for sure, more commonly reserved for the holiday season.
In the Summer vanilla ice cream is a great alternative with fresh fruit and whipped cream.
A vlaai is a popular choice too but mostly for larger gatherings because these are big and people will usually want to have a slice or two of each flavour, it’s a bigger gathering so, hey, they ‘one slice per person’ rule doesn’t really apply on a day like that after all, so you need quite a few people to finish off all the slices.
All these rules go out the window when choosing an individual tart at a tea-room, then anything goes.
Usually enjoyed by older ladies being joined by a friend or relatives on a day out in the city with a good cup of coffee.
You can get an individually sized version of pretty much every single larger tart you’d get at a bakery so pick your favourite!
Wednesday afternoons
Okay, so it’s not just Sunday afternoons. Any particularly gloomy Wednesday afternoon is quite suitable too. Not for treats from the bakery but for waffles, cake or pancakes. Children and teens have Wednesday afternoon off from school so an excellent day for some home baking!
Oh and you’re also supposed to bring a treat to work if it’s your Birthday!
If you’d like to read the article about the vlaai mentioned in this article or read a bit more about Belgian baking, you can do so here👇
Some things you could learn how to bake.
After yesterday’s post, I figured I should probably give you some examples of the things we could be making.
If you’re still looking for a last-minute gift, do consider my book ‘The Festive Belgian Bakery - Holiday Edition’ for anyone who wants to try some new baking projects, including yourself!
You can find it on amazon and if you’re in the US through Barnes and Noble online as well. Bookshop.org has the book too but just the Dutch version.
If you’re not in the US or the UK, you can also find the book on your local amazon shop, look around for the best price as they vary from country to country.
All these websites also sell the Dutch version of the book. Clicking on my name on any of these websites should take you to my ‘author page’ where you can see both version listed.
Lastly, for those of you who might have missed it, I’m experimenting with how I send these newsletters since around %35 of you weren’t getting any emails at all.
Hopefully I have refined the set up enough so that most people will get the email now, yay, and those of you who opt to just get the app notifications will just get those rather than an email too.
Next time, hopefully a little excerpt from the book all about Christmas and the final interview I did about The Festive Belgian Bakery - Holiday Edition. This one was all about the whole Belgian holiday season from early December up to February, working with chocolate and publishing a book.
Please of course take into account dietary needs and/or restrictions and/or allergies etc. I’m not your, or anyone’s, dietitian or other medical professional, I’m just chatting about a tradition.
Unannounced and somehow it always worked out with the other person being at home.
You could easily call this article 'The Art of Savoring Delicacies:-)
We don’t have school on Wednesday here in France either! I should bake more!