Trips to Clasen’s European Bakery by Ruth Paget After breakfast on Saturday mornings in DeForest (Wisconsin), I would take my family on a field trip to the other side of town to Middleton where Clasen’s European Bakery is located.
Middleton is where my mom grew up. I thought it was most civilized for having an artisanal bakery like the ones we went to when we lived in Paris, France.
Clasen’s is a family bakery that was set up 50 years ago according to its website by Ralph and Ernst Clasen. Ralph’s daughter Michelle studied pastry in Germany and now keeps the family business going at Clasen’s.
Wisconsin is home to German jause, light meals or strong coffee with pastries. On Sundays, we ate breakfast and did a jause mid-morning with strong Lavazza espresso made with our stainless steel espresso maker with a milk frother. (The milk frother broke from overuse.) Our Eurocrat jause standard pastry was Clasen’s pecan-cinnamon rolls.
Other items I would buy as a Sunday dessert included slices of cherry cream cheese coffee cake, Black Forest torte, and German chocolate cake. The vanilla cakes were divine, too.
Clasen’s did some custom baking for me at Easter when I would order a chocolate lamb cake with white buttercream frosting.
Laurent would wander and choose different kinds of rolls to try. The French have a cheese for every day of the year, and the Germans have a bread for every day of the year. So, Laurent was in a bread candy store. He loved going to Clasen’s
What is really great about Clasen’s now is that you can order and pay online and get delivery within the continental U.S.
I have to admit that when I was going to Clasen’s all those many years ago that I had no idea I would live in Germany one day. Supporting Clasen’s European Bakery certainly helped me adjust to life in Germany, because the bread and pastries were the same.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
