Festive Food Fair: Grittibänz
The festive season approaches. Anna from Morsels & Musings invites us to blog about any festive or “special occasion food”.
December 6 means one thing for "naughty" kids across Switzerland: a day of reckoning. On this day Samichlaus (St. Nikolaus) is coming in town. (Samichlaus is an ordinary man in red robes with a fake beard, similar to Santa Claus in US.)
Children tremble to hear Samichlaus's heavy knock on the door and stand wide-eyed as he recounts the worst of their capers for the year. Unbeknownst to the youngsters, the parents hand the Samichlaus a list of their little ones' transgressions for the year when they usher him into the house. Kids recite poems that they have learned, in return Samichlaus hand over a bag filled with a Grittibänz (man-shaped bread), oranges, mandarins, walnuts, peanuts (with the shells), Lebkuchen, chocolates...
Last year I baked a Samichlaus and an angel for the culinary advent calendar (this year we will have such a calendar as well, it starts on December 1).
For this event I baked a more or less traditional shaped Grittibänz. The dough is the same and similar to the one I use for Zopf.
Grittibänz
makes 2 or 4 smaller ones
500 g flour
1 1/2 ts salt
3 tb sugar
15 g fresh yeast
60 g soft butter
2,5 dl lukewarm milk
1 egg
for decoration
raisins, almonds or whatever you want
Dissolve the yeast with a little sugar and milk in a cup. Place the flour in a bowl and mix it with salt, sugar, butter, lukewarm milk, half of egg and the yeast to a dough. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Cover and leave to rise to twice the amount in a warm place (about 2 hours).
Knead the dough again, use a knife to cut off pieces of dough in the desired size and roll out to an oval shape. Shape the Grittibänz.
It's fun to bake Grittibänz with kids.
Technorati tag: festive food fair
More recipes and entries in English.
December 6 means one thing for "naughty" kids across Switzerland: a day of reckoning. On this day Samichlaus (St. Nikolaus) is coming in town. (Samichlaus is an ordinary man in red robes with a fake beard, similar to Santa Claus in US.)
Children tremble to hear Samichlaus's heavy knock on the door and stand wide-eyed as he recounts the worst of their capers for the year. Unbeknownst to the youngsters, the parents hand the Samichlaus a list of their little ones' transgressions for the year when they usher him into the house. Kids recite poems that they have learned, in return Samichlaus hand over a bag filled with a Grittibänz (man-shaped bread), oranges, mandarins, walnuts, peanuts (with the shells), Lebkuchen, chocolates...
Last year I baked a Samichlaus and an angel for the culinary advent calendar (this year we will have such a calendar as well, it starts on December 1).
For this event I baked a more or less traditional shaped Grittibänz. The dough is the same and similar to the one I use for Zopf.
Grittibänz
makes 2 or 4 smaller ones
500 g flour
1 1/2 ts salt
3 tb sugar
15 g fresh yeast
60 g soft butter
2,5 dl lukewarm milk
1 egg
for decoration
raisins, almonds or whatever you want
Dissolve the yeast with a little sugar and milk in a cup. Place the flour in a bowl and mix it with salt, sugar, butter, lukewarm milk, half of egg and the yeast to a dough. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. Cover and leave to rise to twice the amount in a warm place (about 2 hours).
Knead the dough again, use a knife to cut off pieces of dough in the desired size and roll out to an oval shape. Shape the Grittibänz.
It's fun to bake Grittibänz with kids.
Technorati tag: festive food fair
More recipes and entries in English.
