Berner Haselnusslebkuchen are ''

Lebkuchen (), or , are a honey-sweetened German cake molded cookie or bar cookie that has become part of Germany's Christmas traditions. It is similar to gingerbread. Etymology The etymology of ''Leb-'' in the term ''Lebkuchen'' is uncertain. Prop ...

'' – traditional

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

cakes Cake is a flour confection made from flour, sugar, and other ingredients, and is usually baked. In their oldest forms, cakes were modifications of bread, but cakes now cover a wide range of preparations that can be simple or elaborate ...

– from

Berne Bern () or Berne; in other Swiss languages, gsw, Bärn ; frp, Bèrna ; it, Berna ; rm, Berna is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city" (in german: Bundesstadt, link=no, french: ville fédérale ...

, Switzerland. Made from ground hazelnuts, they are not to be confused with the '' Berner Honiglebkuchen'', another Bernese specialty.

Composition and production

The ''Berner Haselnusslebkuchen'' are made of a marzipan-like mass of roasted and ground hazelnuts and about one eighth ground almonds, as well as a little sugar,

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

, cinnamon, candied lemon and orange peel, held together by egg white. The addition of water or flour is not necessary, as the oil in the hazelnuts helps the mass stick together. The grinding of the hazelnuts requires extensive experience: if ground too hard, the hazelnut oils will liquefy and evaporate during baking, making the ''Lebkuchen'' hard like a ''

zwieback Zwieback is a form of rusk eaten in Germany, Poland, Scandinavia, Austria, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey. It is a type of crisp, ...

''. The hazelnut mass is rolled out into a spread of dough thick. The baker may then cut out

DIN A5 ISO 216 is an international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available paper siz ...

-sized rectangular pieces and press them into a form traditionally depicting a bear, Berne's heraldic animal (''pictured above''). She may also use

cookie cutter A cookie cutter in North American English, also known as a biscuit cutter outside North America, is a tool to cut out cookie/biscuit dough in a particular shape. They are often used for seasonal occasions when well-known decorative shapes are ...

s in the shape of a bear or Santa Claus, or she may cut the dough into small rectangular pieces called '' Leckerli''. The ''Lebkuchen'' are then allowed to dry for a few hours, during which the crystallizing sugar forms a faint crust on the dough's surface. Afterwards, they are baked at for 10 to 15 minutes. A well-made ''Haselnusslebkuchen'' should be crunchy on the outside, but remain soft and moist within. The ''Lebkuchen'' may then be decorated further with icing, hazelnuts or almonds.

History and usage

A sweet similar to the ''Haselnusslebkuchen'', although still containing some flour, is first described in the 1835 ''Neues Berner Kochbuch'', a cookbook by Lina Rytz. During the 19th and early 20th century, Bernese cookbooks record numerous recipes for ''Haselnussleckerli'' or ''Bernerläckerli'', indicating that the sweet was initially only produced in the small ''Leckerli'' form, with the larger rectangular forms coming into use only in the second half of the 20th century. The now-common name of ''Haselnusslebkuchen'' is first used in a 1946 baker's manual. The ''Lebkuchens expensive ingredients such as hazelnuts and sugar indicate that it was always a gift article and a holiday sweet; up until the later 19th century, sugar was largely unaffordable for the Bernese working class. ''Haselnusslebkuchen'' continue to be made by bakers in the entire

canton of Berne The canton of Bern or Berne (german: Kanton Bern; rm, Chantun Berna; french: canton de Berne; it, Canton Berna) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. Its capital city, Bern, is also the ''de facto'' capital of Switzerland. ...

during December. In the city of

, where tourists provide for a steady demand, they can be bought all year round.

References

Bibliography

* Guggenbühl, Helen, Schweizer Küchenspezialitäten. Ausgewählte Rezepte aus allen Kantonen, Schweizer-Spiegel-Verlag, Zürich, 1929. * Hansen, Hans Jürgen, Kunstgeschichte des Backwerks, Gerhard Stalling Verlag, Oldenburg, 1968. * Krauss, Irene, Chronik bildschöner Backwerke, Hugo Matthaes Druckerei und Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart, 1999. * Währen, Max, Hans Luginbühl, Bruno Heilinger et al., Lebkuchen einst und jetzt, Luzern, 1964.

Composition and production

History and usage

References

Bibliography

See also