Improve your winter menu with these 4 European Christmas treats
As winter arrives, Europe’s bakeries and cafés embrace festive traditions, offering seasonal treats tied to Christmas and New Year. Discover four beloved holiday specialties and the professional equipment needed to craft them.
Across Europe, many countries have their traditional dishes that are prepared during Christmas time. In this blog post, we’ll be exploring four of Europe’s most popular festive treats and the professional equipment bakeries need to make them.
The Netherlands: Oliebollen
Oliebollen is a traditional Dutch treat, often consumed during the winter holidays, particularly around New Year's Eve. These are deep-fried dough balls made from a simple batter that sometimes contains raisins or currants. After being fried until golden brown, they are normally dusted with powdered sugar. The outside of an oliebol is crispy and golden brown, while the inside is soft and fluffy.
Equipment needed to make oliebollen
Oliebollen are generally easy to make and prepare but still require specific appliances to ensure high-quality products.
Oliebollen are made from a basic batter that is formed into small balls and then deep fried. Professional kitchens can make the batter for oliebollen using a commercial planetary mixer. A planetary mixer’s power motor, variable speed settings and attachments make it ideal for mixing and combining various batters. They ensure that all the ingredients are perfectly combined and provide consistent results when preparing food. Planetary mixers often have large-capacity mixing bowls, which are ideal for kitchens that produce a high volume of these Christmas and New Year’s Eve snacks.
Oliebollen often contain various toppings and fillings such as custard, whipped cream and chocolate. For this, chefs can use commercial stand mixers to efficiently whip and mix ingredients like eggs and cream. The stainless steel whisk attachment helps aerate cream-based fillings and ensures a light and smooth texture.
Alternatively, establishments serving oliebollen can use a whipped cream machine for easy, ready-to-use whipped cream.
The most important piece of equipment needed to make these Dutch treats is a high-quality deep fryer. A reliable fryer will allow kitchens to easily control the temperature and cooking time, resulting in perfectly crispy oliebollen.
For food trucks and mobile catering services that offer oliebollen at events like Christmas markets, it’s beneficial to have a fryer with a large enough capacity to serve many customers at a time.
Italy: Panettone
Panettone is an Italian sweet and buttery cake that is typically decorated with candied orange peel and raisins. The cake is baked in a cylindrical shape and has a soft and fluffy texture with a golden crust. In Italy, panettone is traditionally eaten on Christmas day for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.
Equipment needed to make Panettone
Cake shops, bakeries and cafés that offer panettone require a few essential pieces of equipment to ensure the best results.
Commercial kitchens that specialise in dough-based products like panettone often need a high-quality dough mixer. This is because ingredients used in dough can be challenging to mix. They require specific techniques to achieve the desired consistency and texture.
Using a dough mixer with a hook attachment is crucial for creating the light and airy texture of traditional panettone. They also prevent the dough from being overworked by keeping it at the correct kneading speed. This allows bakeries to produce high-quality and consistent loaves of panettone.
Bakery ovens enable professional kitchens to produce baked goods at a very high standard and work best in bakeries and cake shops. This makes them a crucial piece of equipment when it comes to making panettone.
This type of oven is designed specifically for baking bread and other baked treats, providing consistent and even heat distribution. A bakery oven typically has multiple shelves or racks, allowing bakeries to bake multiple loaves of panettone cake at once.
A prep table is where the dough for the panettone bread is shaped and decorated with dried fruit. The dough for the panettone needs to be folded and shaped in a specific way to ensure it rises and bakes properly. Having a quality prep table makes this process quicker and easier. Prep tables are also typically made from stainless steel, making them easy to clean and sanitise.
Germany: Stollen
Stollen is a traditional German Christmas yeast bread. It is baked with dried fruits, candied citrus peel, nuts and spices and contains a thick roll of marzipan or almond paste through the middle. After baking, it’s rolled in melted butter. Once set, it’s dusted with a thick layer of powdered sugar, resembling the snowy German landscape.
Equipment needed to make Stollen cake
Bakeries and businesses that prepare and sell Stollen often have the following professional kitchen equipment:
When kneading the dough for stollen, it’s crucial to develop the gluten to ensure it rises properly. For this, professional kitchens need a dough mixer with a dough hook attachment. This powerful tool ensures that the ingredients are thoroughly mixed and the dough is properly kneaded, resulting in a soft and pliable texture.
Stollen is traditionally served with a roll of marzipan in the middle. To make marzipan, almonds are ground with sugar until they form a paste. To make this process easier, a high-quality food processor is needed. A food processor is the best tool for grinding almonds into a fine powder and combining it with other ingredients to create a smooth and spreadable filling.
The ideal type of oven to bake Christmas stollen is a bakery oven. These ovens are designed specifically for baking bread and pastries, allowing for even and consistent heat distribution. This will guarantee that the stollen bakes evenly, resulting in a perfectly golden crust and moist interior.
Equipment needed to make a bûche de Noël
Here are the essential tools bakeries and cafes need for making a bûche de Noël.
A stand mixer makes the process of mixing and kneading dough and batters much easier and more efficient. When making a bûche de Noël, chefs need to whip the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy. This step is crucial in creating the light and airy texture that makes this cake so delicious. Using a stand mixer will save kitchens time and effort, making the process of creating a bûche de Noël much more efficient.
A bakery oven is essential for creating professional-quality desserts. These ovens usually have advanced features like steam injection and precise temperature control. This ensures that the outside of baked products is crispy while the inside remains tender and moist. Using this type of oven to make a bûche de Noël will result in a more evenly baked and risen cake.
The best way to melt chocolate is by using a bain marie, which allows for temperature control and even heating. This ensures that the chocolate is melted to the ideal consistency and won't burn or seize. A bain marie also makes it easier to keep the chocolate warm while chefs prepare other components of the cake.
No matter what type of bakery, café or patisserie you run, any business can benefit from keeping up with seasonal trends and expanding their menu.
All over Europe, bakeries and shops benefit from selling their traditional products as customers are inclined to purchase certain items during the festive season.
For businesses that want to keep up with the high demand for specialty treats, it’s important that they have the right commercial kitchen equipment.
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