By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – So many newcomers to Clarksville – including those who have spent time in Germany – find that German-born Silke Tyler makes the best pastries and cookies her homeland has to offer. But then at Christmas, the baking gets heightened to a level that would inspire angels to sing, as it includes every decadent holiday treat the Germans have to offer.
Stollen is one of the most traditional of the treats found at Silke’s Old World Breads Bakery and Café at 1213 College Street. Like the stollen sold in Tyler’s hometown near Nuremberg during Christmas, her butter rum stollen is baked with a time-honored list of ingredients. This sweet, Christmas bread is first concocted using rum-soaked raisins, almonds, candied fruit and butter. Then it is dusted with powdered sugar.
Silke’s butter rum stollen is a sweet bread that includes rum-soaked raisins, almonds, candied fruit and butter. /Photo by Silke Tyler
“Our café is like a Christmas Wonderland this time of year with all our goodies we offer,” says Tyler.
In addition to the butter rum stollen, the bakery offers German Christmas cookies, gift-wrapped cookie tins, truffle boxes, gift baskets and more. Among the many Christmas confections are Linzer cookies, gingerbread people, coconut macaroons, lebkuchen and hazelnut stars.
There is also a new art exhibit hanging on the walls. Entitled “Small Packages,” the show is an annual tradition by which local artists create smaller-scaled works that are priced for gift giving.
Tyler’s Christmas bonanza is inspired by her grandmother, who baked tins of treats during the holidays.
“My Christmas memories center around my grandma’s cookies,” she says. “She would bake tins and tins of different varieties of Christmas cookies for our whole family. And my grandpa would help her with cutting and rolling and glazing and sprinkling.”
When Tyler moved to the U.S. in 1991, her grandparents wrote down all the recipes for her. Some of those recipes are now used for the cookies sold at the bakery.
Tyler says: “For me it is really an honor to continue her tradition and bring back memories for our German customers or the customers who have been to Germany. Also, we are creating new memories for our visitors with the experience of a Christmas Wonderland at our café and deli.”
Those interested in holiday shopping at Silke’s can visit the bakery, order specialty breads online at www.silkesoldworldbreads.com or call 931-552-4422 with questions.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.