Desserts im Fokus: Pastry Chef Niky and the Magnolia Square Market Bakery
Updated: Jul 26, 2019
Little-gnome fact: the diet of your average Garden Gnome centers almost entirely around the Five Essential Gartenzwerg Food Groups: cakes, cookies, pies, pastries, and Schnapps. So, since we Gnomes are always obsessing about dessert, I was thinking this would be a sweet time...nyuk-nyuk... to tell you a little about my favorite subject, something Hollerbach's is well-known for and very proud of: our delicious, addicting, fresh Haus-made desserts! Mann, mir läuft schon das Wasser im Mund zusammen...
Located in our Magnolia Square Market German deli, Hollerbach's bakery prepares desserts for both the market and Willow Tree German restaurant. Our bakery team stays very beschäftigt making the nine homemade desserts on the restaurant menu and 20-25 regular and rotating items for our deli - including gluten-free items and even a brand new vegan cake (pictured) - as well as over 100 loaves per week of our Haus Bauernbrot, a hearty rye/wheat farmer's bread, spinach quiche for the restaurant, special orders and catering. I'm erschöpft just thinking about it...
The bakery Mannschaft is led by Pastry Chef Niky, who has been with us for a total of 14 years. In fact, Hollerbach's is where she learned the baking arts, working under Linda Hollerbach and gaining knowledge and inspiration from Linda's passion for baking. "We had maybe five desserts in the Willow Tree back in the day, before we opened Magnolia Square Market. Now we're doing well over 20 different things on a regular basis - cakes, pies, muffins, tarts, bread, cake balls, cookies, etc - and I must say it's pretty impressive how much this team can do, given the small space we have to work with in the deli prep kitchen."
The rest of the Hollerbach bakery team: Nick, Juan and Melissa
So what distinguishes Hollerbach's as a local bakery?
"A number of factors, not least of which - and this is what I'm most proud of - is our commitment to freshness and quality ingredients, some of which are even imported from Germany. Some of the bread and pastry items are purchased, but the majority of what we put out is made here from scratch. Of course we throw in a healthy portion of German tradition - Apfelstrudel, Black Forest Cake, Bienenstich, among others. - but I'm not confined to that by any means. We've branched out quite a bit for example in the area of gluten-free baking - bread, chocolate peanut butter cookies, buttermilk chocolate cake squares, banana bread, Apfelkuchen muffin, and seasonal items like raspberry lemon muffins. We've also just recently added our first Vegan-friendly dessert, my lemon coconut poundcake, which will be featured during our Vegan Night event. And then there's fruit tarts, cake balls - SUPER popular, especially the German Chocolate one - bread pudding, creme puffs, Rum Nut Cake, and seasonal offerings like our Rumpkin Pumpkin cheesecake."
Any desserts that are unique to Hollerbach's? Which ones are the most popular?
"My Bierkuchen (beer cake), which was just recently added to the restaurant menu, is among the items you won't find anywhere else: white cake, chocolate cake, a chocolate mousse made with Köstritzer Thuringian black lager, whipped cream, and truffles rolled in chocolate on top. The most popular items at the market definitely include the Bee Sting croissant, the cake balls, and the gluten-free items."
So what's next at Hollerbachs Bäckerei? Inquiring Gnomes want to know...
"We're always coming up with new recipes for the restaurant and deli, some of them seasonal, some end up being permanent additions...as far as the near future goes, you'll see some new cookies and Danishes soon, but the real exciting news is that for the first time we'll be offering bagels at the deli! I've been working on a plain bagel and an "Everything" bagel, and Chef Pat is creating some toppings, including a spread similar to Lox, except made with trout instead of salmon. We never sit still!"
And now meine Damen und Herren...The Gallery of Deliciousness