Paul’s longtime favorite baked good!
As the autumn leaves start to turn, it seems a good time to honor this wonderful member of what we could call the Bakehouse’s “Community of Coffee Cakes.”
Earlier this week, my friend Seth Godin, the marketing maven and strategy setter, wrote,
Organizations invest to create an audience that sticks with them, either because they have no choice or because of an emotional connection.
When this occurs, most then take profits. They decrease service, increase pricing, and generally seek payback for the work they did to get to this position.
But there’s another path.
Every change creates tension. … What if you use that tension to persistently and markedly improve the experience? Not to make it more convenient, but to make it worth the effort to learn to do better?
That last paragraph is a perfect way to describe the story of this magical coffee cake.
I can’t remember when we first started making it, but it’s likely about 35 years ago now. I do, though, recall that my business partner Paul was a big fan right off the bat. He loves poppyseeds—poppyseed hamantaschen for Purim are another of his longtime top picks! Made with lots of butter and the lovely lemon oil we get from the Boyajian family in Boston, the Lemon Poppyseed Coffee Cake really is something special. The aroma is amazing; the finish, long and lovely.
To Seth Godin’s well-taken point, here in the ZCoB, we’re always imagining ways to make what we bake, cook, and sell better still. Fifteen years or so ago, when then Co-Managing Partners Frank Carollo and Amy Emberling began traveling to Hungary to study the country’s baking traditions, they learned a terrific—and tasty—little trick from local pastry makers: grind a good portion of your poppy seeds, and then mix them into the batter before you bake. It really did have a big impact—you can’t see the difference, but you can taste it!
A year or so ago, we took another step forward on the quality front. We’d been talking about upgrading the already very good butter we were using in the cake. It seemed like a good idea, and the thought itself was energizing and intriguing. I was hopeful—but, of course, the evidence is not in the idea, but in the eating. Avant-garde composer John Cage once shared, “Ideas are one thing, and what happens is another. For me, the surprise of what happens is the real joy.” And that’s exactly what has happened for me with this coffee cake: the move to upgrade ingredients has been even more impactful than I’d imagined. As Seth Godin says, we like to “persistently improve” here, and the even better flavor of this wonderful baked good is evidence thereof.
Indeed, the addition of Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter, as I’ve been noting regularly over the past few years, is significantly improving three dozen or so ZCoB staples that were already beloved big sellers to begin with. If you’re not aware, cultured butter is produced the way great butter would have been made back in the 1830s, when the house and barn at Cornman Farms were being built. Up to the end of the 19th century, the cream from fresh milk would have been allowed to slowly rise to the top, and then it would be skimmed and saved for at least a couple of days, until the farm family had enough of it to make butter with. In the process, the natural bacterial cultures in the cream would ripen, enhancing its flavor. The process is similar to how cheese and yogurt develop, and the results are truly exceptional.
Pretty much everyone who tastes the Vermont Creamery butter loves it. At the Roadhouse, people adore it alongside the bread service and in the Buttermilk Biscuits, Butterscotch Pudding, grits, mashed potatoes, and more. And since the Bakehouse incorporated it a year ago next month, the butter is now deliciously ensconced in our scones, croissants, Sour Cream Coffee Cake, Raspberry Patti Pockets, and pie crusts. You really can taste the difference.
The crew at Mail Order have long been stalwart fans of the Lemon Poppyseed. They call it “our most underrated baked good,” writing,
This is the secret sunrise snack of Zingerman’s regulars who happily bypass bagels and muffins for a slice. It’s made with real lemon oil, organic flour, loads of Vermont Creamery Cultured Butter, real vanilla, and a veritable passel of Dutch poppyseeds. With none of the artificial aftertaste that most lemon-flavored pastries have, it tastes like biting into a perfect morning: sunny, rich, delicious.
P.S. Want to learn how to make this great coffee cake at home? The recipe is in the book Zingerman’s Bakehouse. And maybe even better still, we teach Coffee Cake Craft at BAKE!—here’s the link if you’d like to come and learn!