Up until the 1960s, most villages around here had a Backhaus, a communal bakery that was fired up weekly and where you took the loaves that you’d prepared at home to be baked for a small fee.
Good excuse for a chinwag, of course, and a great idea from a fire prevention perpective – instead of having EVERYONE stoking up a fire in a dodgy oven at home, you’d have someone who actually knew what he (as in “male”) doing.
So you’ll still find a Backhausstrasse in virtually every village.
Of course, most villages had their own baker, making 7 different types of rolls, 5 different types of bread and more cakes and pastries than you could shake a stick at.
A big treat for someone growing up in a monoculture of white bread: Sydney Flat was the loaf of choice in New Zealand in the 1960s – an oblong block of nothingness enclosed in a beige crust.
These days, village bakeries are going the way of the Backhaus (not to mention the dodo) being rapidly replaced by these things in discount supermarkets.
Press a button and a compressor directs a blast of hot air at a piece of frozen dough that’s been spat out of a machine in Poland weeks ago, turning into something that visually resembles (and smells like) a loaf of bread.
Better than a Sydney Flat, mind you…
See what’s cooking…er… baking elsewhere.
Ms Mura’s exhortations to publish something edible are to be obeyed.
Shops and bakeries closed today – May Day, public holiday – so here’s Ms jb’s rhubarb cheesecake.
Mainz Daily Photo 
Oh dear – I’d missed out on the Mainz DP revival!
A home baked rhubarb cheesecake. You’re a lucky man jb.
I want the recipe also!!
You had a good start avoiding the obvious, jb. But then, you got sweet-talked. But who could resist such a beauty of a cheese cake!
Do we get the recipe?
Now go find a decent bakery and show us some delectables in them. Right now I’m preparing to leave the house to treat myself to something wonderful to eat from a local bakery…all those theme photos have made me very hungry for some sweets. Don’t know the name of the city, but after WW11, soldier-brother-in-law found a bakery with their family name, Neher. Would love to know if there are more relatives in Germany (they’ve made contact with a few, and Jim and I have met some distant cousins on one of our trips). How I do go on!!!! But, find some delicacies for us; your food photos are always so good so start snapping! (How I do go on!!!)