Why is a Belgian Bun?

[Alain Maréchal]

No, not an "I say I say" joke, but a serious question. (Not serious enough, I admit).

I am currently in Sussex, and have once again found myself offered a Belgian Bun. It looks like a dense Pain au Raisins, and usually has white icing with a cherry in the middle. Sometimes (today, in fact) the icing is yellow. Why is this called a Belgian Bun? I have thought about the possible reasons and likenesses to Belgian patisserie, and the nearest I got was the white and red being a trbute to the flag of Brabant. But that isn't good enough, it must have something to do with the actual delicacy (actually, its not very delicate, it weighs heavily on the stomach, as do the calories on the conscience).

Somebody must know.

[vinteuil]

... the Belgians call them 'couques suisses'. But then 'wienerbrød' is what the Danes call our 'Danish pastries'....

[Pabmusic]

I think there has often been a tendency to glamourise a new food by giving it an 'exotic' place name (Belgian? Well it may be stretching the point, but not to breaking point). Just look at an example such as turkey (from North America). It was a marketing ploy, really.

[Alain Maréchal]

I can assure you my grandmother's couques suisses were nothing like - much softer, a different shape, and no red cherry, but I can see a connection.
Viennoiseries, anyone?
I wonder why nobody likes to claim pastries as their own - its the obverse of Malady of France, capotes angaises or french letters.

Update: prompted by Vinteuil's post I did some research, and I have found a variation of a brioche escargot which has icing on - so perhaps that is what is intended.

[salymap]

I'm fairly sure the good people of Belgium don't eat them, from staying with my old friends there.

They are more likely to eat French pastries or creamy delights from nearer home

[jean]

The good people of Lancashre are proud of Eccles cakes.

And the good people of Yorkshire of Yorkshire curd tartm

Bath buns and Chelsea buns must have been truly local once.

[salymap]

And our local organic butcher sells Bexley Honey at £4.50 a pound jar. I've been told it's no better or worse than most thick honey but oddly [to me] it sells well.

It's actually from a farm and beehives in Sidcup, too near the M25 for me.

[Nick Armstrong]

No, not an "I say I say" joke, but a serious question. (Not serious enough, I admit).

Aucune idée but congratulations in any event on tempting vindepays out of his various summer fastnesses with your treats.

I have never knowingly eaten a Belgian Bun, and I didn't know that's what those things I've always avoided were called.

They serve them in Greggs* I see http://www.greggs.co.uk/menu/sweet/c...s/belgian-bun/









*Home of the "sausage and bean melt".... http://www.greggs.co.uk/menu/savoury...nd-bean-melt-/

[Serial_Apologist]

A currant affair?

[salymap]

Perhaps Belgian Buns were eaten by Flemish Giants

The ones I've had have been stodgy and heavy.

Well,Mahlerei would understand

[Nick Armstrong]

A currant affair?

You're skating on (not) very thin icing

[french frank]

Interesting 'history' of the term Danish pastry which did apparently originate in Denmark regardless of what they call it now.

Now, there was once a strike of Belgian bakers so English bakers ...

[Zucchini]

I believe they were used by the Hun as mortar shells in a number of WW1 battles in Flanders and were greatly feared

[Alain Maréchal]

Fresh information from an expert (my sister, still living in Heusy - if you call that living). The food the English call Belgian Bun looks like a regional variety of couques suisses but are dense and heavy - like the English. Also she wouldn't trust unseen any patisserie sold in Bruxelles, and she wouldn't eat any patisserie made outside Wallonia, unless it was French, and even then not if made by a Picard. Got that?

The one I consumed this morning was offered in that centre of gastronomy Horsham, which at 0815 had one coffee shop open (well two, but the coffee machine in the other was being cleaned). I must see if I can work an insult about Horsham into the thread about the Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra and its audience hinterland.

[french frank]

I believe they were used by the Hun as mortar shells in a number of WW1 battles in Flanders and were greatly feared

Trench mortars, perchance, Zucchers?