Local bakeries sell international flavors
Goods with Scandinavian, Asian influences take root
Just when you finally learned to pronounce pasticciotto and sfogliatelle, it is time to embrace manteconcha and kransekake.
Learning the proper pronunciation for these treats is a sign of respect from those who enjoy them, to show that the culture is acknowledged and appreciated. For those doing the baking, the treats produced are as much a symbol of respect for their personal heritage, using traditional methods to create a flavor of home and history. For area bakers in the Capital Region, the pandemic halted travel and visits to faraway families. Baking was a way to self-soothe and keep memories of home alive.
Kelly Briceno, a Westchester native with Mexican and Colombian heritage, used baking to relax from her job in IT. Briceno came to the Capital Region to attend the University at Albany and the pandemic pushed her to make the sweet breads, called pan dulces, from the bakeries she grew up visiting during every California trip to see her grandmother. She started making conchas — large round pan dulces — in April and started taking orders in September from her home-based business, Panaderia Albany. ("Panaderia" is the Spanish term for "bakery.")
A concha, Spanish for "seashell," gets its name from the shell design carved into the bread. Briceno makes hers starting with an enriched dough of flour, eggs, sugar and yeast and then covers them with a paste of sugar, vegetable shortening, cornstarch and food coloring. When the conchas bake, this paste separates where it is cut to reveal the patterns — made with molds and stamps — and expose the bread underneath. The dough is not typically flavored in traditional panaderias, but Briceno has experimented with adding cinnamon.
Conchas are usually eaten for breakfast or dessert, and Briceno remembers dipping hers into hot chocolate while her grandmother did the same in coffee. Briceno would travel to California as a child to visit her grandmother, but the pandemic halted that. “It is a nostalgic pastime for me, especially because I don’t have any family up here and haven’t seen them in a very long time.” She recalled the intense, sweet smell that would waft over her as she opened the door to the panaderia near her grandmother’s home, and since conchas were difficult to find locally, she was pushed to make them herself. Now, that smell fills her Albany home each week as she works to fill weekend orders for local customers, most ordering traditional conchas but also placing orders for manteconchas (a smaller version of a conchas), bolilos (savory sandwich rolls), el payaso (another version of pan dulce) and chocolate, caramel or lechera sweet dips to accompany the conchas.
“I know a lot of people want to get our culture out there. But in Albany there are mostly Italian bakeries and if you want something to remind you of home, you have to make it yourself. There are people here from California and Arizona, and they know what a panaderia is. They are very nice people and always ask what I’m making,” Briceno said.
Across the river, in Troy, Isabel Burlingham is reaching deep to feel her Scandinavian roots by way of baking. Burlingham said her ancestry is scattered across Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, but most of her baking is influenced by the Swedish and Norweigan practices of her grandmother (or “Mormor,” as Burlingham called her), who moved to America from Europe as a young woman. “She fostered for me a love of small bites,” Burlingham said, noting that the Swedish desserts she makes, usually flavored with cardamom and almond, are dainty, petite and less sweet than American desserts. She moved to Troy in 2015 for her job as a chemist after living in Princeton, N.J., and Portland, Maine. “I was struggling to find where I belonged,” she said, but it turned out that where she was most comfortable was in the kitchen, making the desserts of her childhood. She started selling at Troy Waterfront Farmers Market just before the pandemic and has since left her chemist job and operates Parchment Baking Company full-time.
When she first started Parchment, Burlingham connected with the Hartcluett Museum in Troy to research Scandinavian heritage in the Capital Region, finding at one time there was a large Danish population in in Rensselaer County with many descendants participating in a cultural group called the Scandinavian Forum. For these people, Burlingham's creations are familiar, but for others the treats are a completely new experience, from the pronunciation of the names to the flavor profiles. She makes kardemummabullar, which is akin to a cinnamon roll that uses cardamom in place of cinnamon, and pearl sugar instead of icing. Kramsekaker is a large meringue-baked cookie tower that uses ground almonds, but Parchment makes a smaller “croquette”sized kramsekaker for better-portioned snacking.
“People enjoy the novelty of Scandinavian pastry,” Burlingham said, even though she finds most customers have a hard time enunciating the various diphthongs prevalent in Scandinavian language. “I think the trend in (regional) bakeries comes from people tapping into their heritage. They are trying to reproduce and preserve the food they learned how to cook with their mothers and grandmothers,” she said. The cardamom and almond used in the pastries have the legend of being brought to Scandinavia by the Vikings, though Burlingham said there is no proof of that. Instead, because cardamom pods and whole almonds had long shelf lives and traveled well they were able to withstand the long passage to northern Europe without becoming rancid. Sugar first came to Sweden (and the rest of the region) in 1324, 300 years after first appearing in England, and a sugar tax that still exists in the country is the reason behind the scant usage in baking today.
Instagram has become the platform of choice for these bakers, finding it easier to connect with customers and people with similar heritages through highly targeted hashtags. While Parchment Baking Company has transitioned to farmers markets and local co-ops to sell its products and Panaderia Albany has a website for ordering, other bakeries, like Ppang Bakery, promote and sell exclusively on Instagram for local pick-up.
Ppang is the Korean term for bread, and founder Sookyung Lee, a first generation Korean American who now lives in Niskayuna and is a graduate of Schenectady County Community College’s culinary arts program, said that launching on Instagram gave her a quick way to find an audience. She started an Instagram page earlier this year, posting photos of Korean and Asian baked goods and pastries she specializes in, and quickly gained a following. “It showed there are people who are interested in this,” she said, and it helped her launch Ppang in March.
Her business Instagram account posts infographics to explain the origins and process of its products to educate customers, especially famed Japanese milk bread, which has gained a cult following for its creamy, tender flavors and texture. “There is a lot of work that goes into making milk bread. I want people to really appreciate it,” Lee said. Occasionally, she was able to purchase milk bread from Forts Ferry Farm, in Latham, and there was an Asian bakery in the region 15 years ago that quickly folded, Lee said, but now seemed like the right time to reintroduce Asian baked goods to this market.
“There is an increase in Asian population and an increased interest in Asian pastry,” Lee said, which helped bring customers to her business. She has witnessed restaurants of all specialties embracing Asian flavors, especially Korean, as well, from Korean chicken wings during the Superbowl to Korean barbecue flavors on regular menus. “There is a growing appreciation for those flavors,” Lee said, and it led to her customer based being a good mix of Asian immigrants, people with familiarity with Asian culture or people just interested in exploring new flavors.
The classic Italian pastry shops that dot every corner of the Capital Region are far more prevalent than other regionally focused bakeries, like Hong Kong Bakery and Bistro on Wolf Road in Albany or Rosito’s Bakery, focused on Puerto Rican products, on James Street in Amsterdam. But at some point, Italian cookies and sweets were unique and foreign to those already in the Capital Region. Over generations they were embraced by people of all cultures, filling our Christmas cookie tins and offering sweet reward after weekend errands. There is no reason the same couldn’t happen for this emerging crop of Scandinavian, Mexican or Korean baked goods, if only we allow ourselves the chance to try them.