Those there baguettes are moving like wildfire, and we’re just thrilled about it. We’re stepping up production (er…right after we replace the current mixer, that broke down this morning, with a bigger one, this morning - baguettes are a little late today!) and bringing in more new products like:

• a greater variety of hard rolls
• scones (today we’ve got walnut)
• individual cheesecakes and pumpkin pies;, plus
• the French macroons with white chocolate butter-cream filling.

There’s also, of course, croissants (plain, chocolate and almonds) and the mousse cakes.

Holiday special orders start at $32 for cake that serves eight (for example lemon or passionfruit or strawberry or chocolate or coffee of vanilla mousse).

We’ll be selling coffee too - though we’re not in the coffee business, and we won’t be selling Strongtree. Now, our coffee is good, but if you’re looking for the finest cup of coffee in town it’s down there at Strongtree, 60 South Front Street, opposite the Hudson Train Station.

Thanks so much to those of you who came by yesterday, and especially for the support we’ve received from the Hudson community!

Yesterday was  a great day of getting to know the space, figuring out where the cash register is and where the spoons are kept.

Today we have a range of offerings similar to yesterday’s, and we’re also going to be serving Strongtree Coffee. The ever-friendly Sebastian will be on hand today as the guy-behind-the-counter, and Nick and I will probably stop in during the day to check things out. We hope we see you there, even if it’s just to take a quick look around.

Corinna's 'Bernie's Rye'

Back in 2004, when the Selby family moved back from Europe to the US, one of the first things we  realized was that there was a dearth of good bread and croissants. As we say in our Fine Pastry and Croissant page, the bread part was easier than the croissants, but still it’s tough. We’ve had several requests like this one:

“…German breads and pastries are almost non-existent. If you provide real Laugenbrezeln or Laugenweck, you will instantly have at least one family of die-hard enthusiasts.”

Well, yeah, but there is a boatload of good bread here in the German-influenced Hudson Valley region. Our Daily Bread, Hawthorne Valley Farm and others make some pretty good stuff.

Of course, we don’t think it’s as good as Bernie’s Rye, a heavy, German-inspired crusty loaf of truly substantial bread. The trick for the crust - thick but not a jawbreaker with a substantial crunch - is the high baking temperature (500°F), barley malt and apple cider, which makes the crust caramelize while it’s baking without making it sweet. The crumb (baker-snob jargon for, ‘the inside’) is dense and moist - but it’s not wet like most ryes in America. This is what Corinna considers ein echtes deutsches Bauernbrot - a real German farmer’s bread.

From a German, that’s high praise. We’re eating this bread at home now, and Corinna’s experimenting with commercial production. Thanks for asking about the bread, and we’ll be starting to offer it at farmers’ markets and coops in the next little bit.