Saturday, December 6, 2008

Christmas Advent Day 6: Grittibänze

Did St. Nikolaus visit you last night? Did he put nuts and clementines in your shoes or leave you some Grittibänze because you had been good this year?... Oh.. No...?! Funny that... me neither. ;)

Well here is a gift for all of you then:

Swiss Christmas Advent Day 6: A basket full of Grittibänze!

Early in December, the Swiss bake "little men", called Grittibänze', out of rich white bread dough, using raisins for eyes and hazelnuts for buttons. The little men usually live only for one day though, as their lives are usually abruptly ended by delighted children that tear greedily at their sweet, doughy limbs, eating them from bottom to top... that is if the little devils don't tear out and consume the little men's eyes first.

Wait a minute... is this Christmas or Halloween? Hmm. The history of these little men is still 'in the dark' (again... Halloween? nah...) but one thing is for sure - hundreds upon thousands of these babies are going to be consumed today, marking the arrival of St. Nikolaus. Enjoy!

Grittibänze details translated from this site. Here is also a recipe - in German.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That must be good, toasted with a bit of salty butter.... yummy!

Anonymous said...

I am looking for a swiss recipe for little sponge buns, filled in the middle with creme patisserie and covered with chocolate icing. They look a little like round chocolate covered doughnuts.
I had them in Chateau'doex many years ago and my grandmother learned to make them in Switzerland.Any information please.Thanks.

 

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