Grittibänz & St. Nicholas Day

On December 6th, the Swiss celebrate the visit of St. Nicholas and his helper "Schmutzli" (Dirty). They travel with their donkey rather than reindeer. If a child hasn't been good, Santa orders Schmutzli to whip the child with a branch (so be good, kids!). Sometimes St. Nicholas doesn't have time to visit and talk personally with every child, so children are encouraged to leave their shoes out the night before and St. Nicholas will fill them with candy, mandarins, and nuts, which the children will find on the morning of the 6th.

Another tradition on December 6th is baking of Grittibänz, a sweet bread baked in the form of a man. We made some for the first time today.

First, we made the dough (see recipe below)

Then we shaped our little men.

Ready for baking (the yellow is brushed on egg yolk to create a nice brown crust)

Watching "the guys" bake. Silas said, "I can't wait to see if my guy will jump up like the gingerbread man and run out of the oven!"
The finished product. Yum.

Time to eat!
Delicious! Mystery Man said, "The kitched smells just like I remember them smelling." Our resident Swissie.

Grittibänz Recipe

(use a kitchen scale to measure dry ingredients)

500 g flour

1 tablespoon salt

70 g sugar

70 g butter

2 dl (decileters) milk

1 egg

25 g yeast

1 egg for coating

For the decoration: raisins, shelled almonds, candied fruit, possibly coarse granulated sugar.
Cream the yeast with a little sugar in a cup. Place the flour in a bowl and mix it with salt, sugar, slightly warmed butter, lukewarm milk, the 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. Knead the dough again, use a knife to cut off pieces of dough in the desired size and roll out to an oval shape. Mark the head by pressing the dough together slightly and turn the head to the back to make the neck. Cut out the arms and legs with scissors and place them in the required position. Decorate the figures with raisins, shelled almonds and candied fruit and trim the hat with remnants of dough. Leave to rise and put in a cold place for 20 to 30 minutes. Before baking, brush with egg and possibly sprinkle with coarse granulated sugar. In an oven preheated to 375, bake for 15-20 minutes.