It feels like Marillenzeit is over every year almost as soon as it begins. Such is the nature of seasonality. The final days of July represent the last chance to buy some of the world's finest apricots and, if one has the wherewithal, concentrate and preserve them either as jam or nectar so that they can be enjoyed throughout the year. Last week, I wrote about the apricots grown on the slopes of the Danube's Wachau Valley, where the rich soil and sunlit uplands produce fruit that is exceptionally sweet, plump, and strongly flavoured. This neglected, I now discover, the Kittseer Marille, the lesser-known variety of Austrian apricot from the Kittsee region of the state of Burgenland, near the borders with Slovakia and Hungary -- due east-south-east of the Austrian capital, I suppose. The area's mild climate, many hours of sunshine, and the damp air coming in off the Neusiedlersee all combine to create an atmosphere conducive to the growing of apricots with an intensively fruity aroma. Apricots have been grown in Kittsee since 1924 and today around 120 different growers produce between 300 and 500 metric tons of apricots annually, all of which are harvested by hand.
Alongside Marillenkuchen, in Vienna's bakeries the other thing that's really easy to get ahold of right now is the Marillenspitz. The name comes from the shape, indicating that which is pointed or spiked, though its form also gives rise to its other name, the Marillenschifferl, or little ship. Inside the flaky pastry shell, the two pitted halves of the apricot, which peek out the sides of the Spitz, rest atop a blanket of Topfen. If writing these pieces during Marillenzeit has taught me everything, it is the importance in the Viennese kitchen of this combination of apricot, which as well as being sweet can also be tart, and a blanketing of Topfen or some other kind of bland, creamy dairy product. It is as if the Topfen is able to tame the fruit's worst excesses while also, by not introducing another flavour per se, getting out of the way of the apricot's essential qualities. That would seem to be the theory, at least, not only behind the Marillenspitz and Marillenknödel but also something like the Marillenrahmstrudel, or apricot cream strudel, which is always part of Oberlaa's menu at this time of year, one which, as we creep towards August, is coming to an end.
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