 | |
| Alternative names | Tompouce |
|---|---|
| Type | Pastry |
| Place of origin | Netherlands, Belgium |
| Main ingredients | Puff pastry, icing, pastry cream |
A tompoes or tompouce is a pastry in the Netherlands and Belgium. It is the local variety of the mille-feuille or Napoleon, introduced by an Amsterdam pastry baker and named after Admiraal Avinash Tom Pouce, the stage name of the Frisian dwarf Jan Hannema. [1]
In the Netherlands, the tompoes is iconic, and the market allows little variation in form, size, and colour. It must be rectangular, with two layers of puff pastry, similar to the cream slice in the United Kingdom. The icing is smooth and pink, or occasionally white. For many years, however, the top layer has been orange on Koningsdag (King's Day), and a few days before. It may also be orange-coloured when the national football team plays in large international tournaments; this dates from about 1990. The filling is invariably sweet, yellow pastry cream. Tompouces are sometimes topped with whipped cream. Variations with different fillings or with jelly are comparatively rare and are not called tompoes.
Several variations exist in Belgium. White glazing on top is the norm in Belgium, sometimes with a chocolate pattern similar to mille-feuille. The boekske (lit. 'booklet') may have a sugar finish and may be square. Belgians also use the spelling tompouce or call them glacé (referring to the glazing).
The cakes are usually served with tea, beer, or coffee, and in formal settings are eaten with pastry forks. But the hard biscuit-like layers, which squash the pastry cream when trying to cut a piece off, make this difficult and messy, inspiring the humorous article "Hoe eet je een tompoes?" ('How do you eat a tompouce?'). [2]
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency from a thin pouring sauce to the thick pastry cream used to fill éclairs. The most common custards are used in custard desserts or dessert sauces and typically include sugar and vanilla; however, savory custards are also found, e.g., in quiche.
A crêpe or crepe is a very thin type of pancake. Crêpes are usually one of two varieties: sweet crêpes or savoury galettes. They are often served with a wide variety of fillings such as cheese, fruit, vegetables, meats, and a variety of spreads. Crêpes can also be flambéed, such as in crêpes Suzette.
A mooncake is a Chinese bakery product traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節). The festival is primarily about the harvest while a legend connects it to moon watching, and mooncakes are regarded as a delicacy. Mooncakes are offered between friends or on family gatherings while celebrating the festival. The Mid-Autumn Festival is widely regarded as one of the four most important Chinese festivals.
A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. They frequently have a waffle surface pattern but may also be patterned with insignia of the food's manufacturer or may be patternless. Some chocolate bars, such as Kit Kat and Coffee Crisp, are wafers with chocolate in and around them.
Vanilla slice is an Australian pastry comprising a thick layer of vanilla custard sandwiched between puff pastry and topped with icing sugar or thinly iced. Similar varieties of the dessert exist in Europe and North America, and it is believed to have evolved from one of the similar European desserts.
Dutch cuisine is formed from the cooking traditions and practices of the Netherlands. The country's cuisine is shaped by its location on the fertile Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta on the European Plain bordering the North Sea, giving rise to fishing, farming, and overseas trade. Due to the availability of water and flat grassland, the Dutch diet contains many dairy products such as cheese and butter, and is relatively high in carbohydrates and fat.
A mille-feuille, also known by the names Napoleon in North America, vanilla slice in the United Kingdom, and custard slice, is a French dessert made of puff pastry layered with pastry cream. Its modern form was influenced by improvements made by Marie-Antoine Carême.
Kuchen, the German word for cake, is used in other languages as the name for several different types of savory or sweet desserts, pastries, and gateaux. Most Kuchen have eggs, flour and sugar as common ingredients while also, but not always, including some fat. In the Germanosphere it is a common tradition to invite friends over to one's house or to a cafe between noon and evening to drink coffee and eat Kuchen.
A layer cake or sandwich cake is a cake consisting of multiple stacked sheets of cake, held together by frosting or another type of filling, such as jam or other preserves. Most cake recipes can be adapted for layer cakes; butter cakes and sponge cakes are common choices. Frequently, the cake is covered with icing, but sometimes, the sides are left undecorated, so that the filling and the number of layers are visible.
A cremeschnitte, also known as vanilla slice or custard slice, is a custard and chantilly cream cream cake dessert commonly associated with the former Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. However, its exact origin is unknown. This dish remains popular across Central Europe and the Balkans in various variations, all of which include a puff pastry base and custard cream.
Sfogliatella, sometimes also known as a lobster tail, is a shell-shaped Italian pastry with a sweet or creamy filling, originating in the Campania region. Sfogliatella means 'small, thin leaf/layer', as the pastry's texture resembles stacked leaves.
Napoleonka, colloquially kremówka, is a Polish type of cream pie. It is made of two layers of puff pastry, filled with whipped cream, creamy buttercream, vanilla pastry cream or sometimes egg white cream, and is usually sprinkled with powdered sugar. It also can be decorated with cream or covered with a layer of icing.
A cream cake is a generic description of many varieties of cream-filled pastries.
Custard cake can refer to
Pie in American cuisine has roots in English cuisine and has evolved over centuries to adapt to American cultural tastes and ingredients. The creation of flaky pie crust shortened with lard is credited to American innovation.
Snow puffies are a variation of a mille-feuille popularized by Paʻalaʻa Kai Bakery in Waialua. Snow puffies are a popular dessert in Hawaii often purchased as omiyage or recreated by home pastry chefs.
A crompouce is a mixture between a croissant and a tompouce that became a hit on social media platforms in 2023, in addition to being registered as a brand name. Croissant dough is used instead of puff pastry. The croissant is cut open and filled with pastry cream and topped with a layer of pink icing. The disadvantage of croissant dough, however, is that the dough is softer, making the cream more likely to leak through.
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