Bread in Tubingen

[Catherine Iino]

I will be in Tubingen, Germany, for a couple of days. Does anyone know of a good traditional bread bakery there?

[legourmet]

I will be in Tubingen, Germany, for a couple of days. Does anyone know of a good traditional bread bakery there?

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I know just one bakery in Tübingen

"GEHR" Tübingen, Sindelfingerstraße 4.

Sorry no telephone number

[vigna]

When I lived in Tübingen, there was a good bakery on the ground floor of the shopping center at the Parkhaus at Am Lustnauer Tor. I think this was Bäckerei Schmid. Great Laugenbrötchen and Bretzeln, etc.

[glauer]

I have left Tuebingen quite a while ago so I am not fully informed myself.

The problem is the same as everywhere: Most bakeries these days are chains, and many of the smaller ones are too lazy (or not confident enough) so they feel they have to offer a huge variety and as a consequence rely mostly on premixes.

What I hear is that Walker still has the best Brezeln. I live on those alone.

Herrenberger Str. 65

72070 Tübingen

Tel: (07071) 416 25

When it comes to bread I find it rather difficult these days to get a really excellent old style bread out of the wood burning oven. Hard to believe, but I get better bread currently here in Cambridge, MA (though we are talking about just one bakery really). It is hit or miss, but the best might be just to walk through the city and to have a look inside. When you see ten kinds of "health", "multi-grain" etc breads with professional labels on them, or if all the pastries and small baked goods look pale and underbaked....then run.

Often (though by no means always) the organic bakeries try a bit harder than others. But obviously it is very diifferent bread. I used to like Naturgabe http://www.naturgabe.de/einkauf.htm , they have one store in town.

Enjoy Tue!

[Catherine Iino]

Thank you all for your replies (my "email notification" function doesn't always work, so I'm just getting them now. I will hunt down all these places right away and report back. I did go to Naturgabe today--they now have two places in town, by the way. They seem to be concentrating on spelt breads; what I sampled was okay but not earth-shattering.

Beautiful town, Tubingen.

[glauer]

good luck with your search!

And please let us know if you find something really exciting.

I also remember the cakes and Torten at Cafe Lieb fondly. They are in the Karlstrasse if you walk towards the train station.

Other places in Tuebingen I enjoy (and have been to recently) are the Hanseatica in Hafengasse 2, where they make excellent coffee and espresso and also sell very good beans.

Closeby is a wine store, Vinum, Lange Gasse 6. They have some of the up and coming wuerttemberg red wines, especially the "Junges Schwaben" labels from Zipf and others are surprising. Very different from the almost rose like reds sold in the area a few years ago. They also sell excellent olive oli (the tuscan one is the finest and fruitiest).

[Behemoth]

Are there any Hofpfisterei in Tuebingen? It's a Munich chain with some branches elsewhere in the region, but good. Organic and all that.

[Catherine Iino]

Hi, all. I'm back in the USA from Tubingen, having been there for the first snow of the season. That put a little crimp in my wanderings around town--the steep streets were incredibly slippery.

I did try schnecken from Backerei Schmid and an interesting pastry I'd never seen before from, I believe, one of the Lieb bakeries (there seem to be at least four branches now). I think the pastry, as sort of roll, was called a Munchner. It had eight squarish rays and a cube in the middle, surrounded by a twisted double strand of dough. The dough was savory and had a bit of cheese in it. I'd love to know how those are formed.

The best bread by far was a half a large bauernbrot I bought from one of the vendors in the market early Wednesday morning. Very nice flavor and crust.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

[Catherine Iino]

Behemoth--

I think the bread I bought at the market may actually have been from Hofpfisterei; I don't have the bag or the bread anymore. Very tasty.

[glauer]

I think the pastry you are talking about is not a Munchner, but a Mutschel.

see here: http://www.wernerfrueh.de/mutscheltag.htm

It is a local specialty, mostly from Reutlingen (a city about 15km from Tuebingen) and surrounding villages.

It is mainly produced in January with the peak being Thursday after epiphany, which is the "Mutscheltag", a local holiday on which locals meet and roll the dice with the winner getting a Mutschel. They come in all sizes, and there is also a sweet version with raisins.

I grew up in the area, though not in a town where this is a tradition, but they definitely taste delicious.