On Wednesday, January 21st, I did something a little bit different – I gave a presentation at the Taft Museum about one of my previous books, Virginia Bakery Remembered. There is a connection: As mentioned in Lost Tea Rooms of Downtown Cincinnati, the McAlpin’s Tea Room in the 1990s served bran muffins that were made at Virginia Bakery with some of their luncheon salads! I didn’t know that when I wrote the bakery book; a previous manager told me that while I was doing research and gathering stories for the tearoom book.
Fifty people gathered for a Lunch & Learn program that covered some history about Virgina Bakery and the Thie family who owned it, the steps that were involved with producing and publishing the book, and stories accompanied by mouth-watering photographs about the many baked goods and their recipes. Tom Thie, the last baker in the family to run the store, generously provided seventy-four recipes of their most popular items – and they are recalibrated for home kitchen use. If you like to bake, you’ll find some wonderful items in the book: coffee cakes and rolls, cookies, doughnuts, breads, pies, dessert cakes, éclairs, and even their famous schnecken!
Chef Luke also was kind enough to make some bran muffins for all of the attendees. Insider baking tips if you buy the book and try the recipe:
- If you want your muffins to have a richer, deeper color, use dark brown sugar in the schenken goo topping.
- If you like a slightly coarser texture, use wheat bran flakes.
Ann Baker, a Taft member, was among the full house audience.
