Each year on November 27, people across the country observe National Bavarian Cream Pie Day.
- 1600s – The first recorded history of Bavarian cream is made when French chefs cook for the Wittelsbach princes (a German family that ruled Bavaria from the 12th century until 1918).
- 1800s – The art of making Bavarian cream is perfected by French chef Marie-Antione Carême and is named for Bavaria.
- 1884 – Bavarian creams appeared in the U.S. in Boston Cooking School cookbooks, by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, and by Fannie Merritt Farmer, 1896. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook offers a “Bavarian Cream”.’
- 2000s – Bavarian cream pies become popular with the rise of instant pudding and custard mixes.
- Bavarian cream was originally a cold dessert of egg custard stiffened with gelatin, mixed with whipped cream (sometimes with fruit purée or other flavors), then set in a mold, or used as a filling for cakes and pastries.
- The suffix ‘crème’ in German speaking lands, is the term for the gelatin mold used to make it.
- Bavarian cream is a rich dessert that is designed to be served cold, usually un-molded onto a plate and garnished with things like fresh fruit. It is made by blending whipped cream with a rich yolks-only egg custard and chilling the mixture until it sets.
- No one is sure about the origin of Bavarian cream, but during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, many French chefs worked at the court of the Wittelsbach Princes. This would have given them the contact to have learned it in Bavaria.
- Before the advent of refrigeration, Bavarian cream represented a culinary triumph. In order to set the dish, the Bavarian cream would have had to be chilled in an ice-filled bowl. Typically, the ice would be mixed with salt to bring the freezing point down, encouraging the custard in the bowl to set up.
- Bavarian cream pies became popular after the 1900s when instant pudding and custard mixes helped advance the process of making these kinds of desserts. Since then, Bavarian cream pies also helped create variations such as a coconut cream pie and a Boston cream pie.
- Pie in the face day is celebrated on the same day as Bavarian Cream Pie Day!
- Bavarian Cream pies are even used for pieing (throwing a pie at someone’s face) as it is cream-based.
- Whipped cream has been around since the 16th century, and was first called “whipped cream” in 1673.
- Up until the 19th century, recipes for whipped cream called for beating the cream with a willow branch in place of the modern whisk.
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