Walking
through Amsterdam, my friend Olivia and I passed a bustling café. A woman on my
right sat eating some kind of pastry topped with a huge glob of whipped cream.
As a huge pastry-person, I thought it looked like the ideal breakfast. Soon
enough I realized the woman was sitting next to a man eating the same thing. As
I looked around I realized everyone at this café sat eating this same dessert-like
breakfast. Olivia and I hadn’t yet eaten so we decided to stop in and try what
everyone else was having: apple pie with whipped cream. My grandmother makes my
favorite apple pie by far – so I had my reservations. Other apple pies were
usually a disappointment in comparison.
Situated
in a calm residential area, café Winkle had plenty of outdoor seating, but you’d
be hard pressed to find a seat. The many customers enjoying their pie sat at
beachy-wood and metal benches tables with matching chairs, all under the cover
of a green and white striped awning. The interior continued the simple wooden
décor with exposed wooden beams and white walls and ceilings. Corrine Bailey
Rae crooned on the speakers and completed the very relaxing vibe of the café.
Though crowded, the café felt calm, unpretentious and unassuming. A single file
line almost led out the door, but the wait staff moved quickly to get customers
their pie. Some waited for tea or coffee but everyone got a slice.
Before
I knew it, it was my turn to pay for my own piece of the pie. The slice had the proportions of a
cake; it was as tall as it was long, and looked delicious. A beautiful golden
brown crust surrounded baked apple slices dotted with cinnamon. The crust broke
gently over the filling and the first bite was still warm from the oven. Only
one forkful in, I already knew this was some of the best pie I had ever eaten.
. The crust on the top of the pie was beautifully crispy and flakey. The crust
on the edge and bottom of the pie was crumbly and tasted like a less dense
version of Scottish shortbread. While toasty on the outside, the sweet crust
was soft but not soggy on the inside.
The
filling let the apples do most of the work. Unlike most terrible store-bought
apple pies that have lots of cinnamon apple-flavored gel between scarce pieces
of mushy apple, this pie’s filling was mostly cooked and flavored apples. The
apples were fresh and thoroughly cooked but not overly mushy. They retained
their shape as apple slices but split easily with a fork. The filling tasted
naturally sweet but not overwhelmingly so. Cinnamon, or possibly nutmeg, subtly
spiced the apples and made the filling more complex than just well cooked ripe
apples. The filling also had the very occasional raisin. I normally don’t like
raisins in my sweets, but the scarce raisins in the pie were cooked with the
rest of the apples and cinnamon juices- instead of being hard and chewy the
raisins were soft and juicy. The texture of the raisins matched the texture of
the apple slices; the raisins didn’t feel out of place. The filling also retained
natural fruity tartness that complimented the sweetness of the cookie-like
crust.
On
top of all this wonderful pie sat a gorgeous glob of whipped cream. Like the
rest of the pie, the whipped cream tasted unbelievably fresh. The whipped cream
felt cool to the tongue, but not refrigerated. The waitress explained that the
whipped cream is homemade onsite at the cafe. The whipped cream was more creamy
than puffy, and wasn’t super-sweet. A great contrast to the toasty, crispy
crust, the cream varied up the texture and settled nicely into the crumbly bits
of the crust. The decision to include whipped cream but not ice cream also
improved the experience. Ice cream would have distracted from the pie itself
while the whipped cream complimented the pie without overwhelming or
overshadowing it.
I
ended up returning to Winkel two more times bringing more friends with each
visit. I needed more research for my review, and, to be honest, I wanted more
of my new favorite apple pie. Don’t tell my grandma.
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