This Cardamom Babka Wreath is a stunning centrepiece for Christmas brunch, or any time of the year! Recipe with step-by-step photos.
If you’re looking for the perfect centrepiece for Christmas brunch, may I suggest this Cardamom Babka Wreath? This beautifully-braided bread, heady with freshly-ground cardamom, will fill your home with the most wonderful scent as it bakes, perfect for getting everyone into the mood for a day filled with festive fun.
Celebrate the Epiphany with a Dreikönigskuchen or Swiss Three Kings Cake. This brioche-like cake is perfect for sharing, and whoever finds the hidden fève is crowned king for the day! Follow my Dreikönigskuchen recipe with step-by-step photos.
If there is one thing that can chase the post-Christmas blues away, it is the knowledge that the Epiphany is just around the corner. Once all of the Gingerbread Men, Panettone and Fruit Mince Pies have been devoured in the lead-up to Christmas, one can then look forward to the joys of the Dreikönigskuchen to celebrate the Epiphany on 6 January.
Fun and delicious Grittibänz, traditional sweet buns which are eaten at Christmas in Switzerland. A great recipe to make with the kids. Follow my delicious Grittibänz recipe with step-by-step photos.
As soon as the Grittibänz start appearing in the bakeries and supermarkets here in Zurich, my children get very excited because, for them, it is a sign that Christmas is around the corner.
Gingerbread Men are not exactly common here in Switzerland, but these Grittibänz have the same effect on children – they are cute to look at and fun to eat!
Irresistible Swedish Chocolate Cookies (Chokladsnittar) decorated with pearl sugar, perfect for Fika. Recipe with step-by-step photos.
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have noticed that we were recently in Stockholm. It’s a city which I always enjoy visiting for both the local food scene, as well as to indulge in Scandinavian-designed home decor and kitchenware.
You can read my comprehensive guide on where to eat and shop in Stockholm on this blog.
Recipe with step-by-step photos for Chouquettes, which are French cream puffs (or pastry puffs) sprinkled with pearl sugar or chocolate chips. They are a delicious bite-sized snack made from choux pastry.
Something which I love to bake throughout the year are these little French cream puffs called chouquettes.
A delicious recipe for Chocolate Chip Chouquettes, adapted from David Lebovitz.
While working in the outer suburbs of Chicago in the last few years, I often found myself at a Barnes & Noble or Borders bookstore during lunch, not only because I have a fondness for bookshops but mostly because I discovered that living and working in Switzerland had had a big influence on my lunch-time eating habits.
Unlike the Australians and Americans who often grab a quick sandwich or heat up leftovers to eat at their desk, the Swiss tend towards a leisurely a 2-3 course hot lunch, followed by a customary coffee before heading back to their desks once their lunch hour (or two) is up. This is not to say that the Swiss are dwindling away their time during office hours; lunch breaks are mandatory by law and most people often use their hour for business chit-chat or networking, and enjoy a good meal in the process. It is also commonplace to lunch with your colleagues at the work canteen, so it is a culture which fosters social interaction amongst employees, even if you might only end up talking about work or engaging in polite chatter over your meal. I have to admit that I enjoy the Swiss approach to lunching and one often feels that the lunch break was in fact a break.
But as a visitor to the offices in the US, lunch was often a lonely experience for me. Several colleagues often went out of their way to lunch with me now and then, but I got the feeling early on that most tended to work through their lunch hours, that anything more than 15 minutes was only reserved for the odd occasion, like when a visiting colleague was in town. But as I often worked in the US for about a month at a time, I couldn’t expect a leisurely lunch everyday. Yet it didn’t feel right to sit in front of my computer with a styrofoam cup of soup and a plastic spoon when I was so used to sitting down to a proper meal with proper cutlery (or, as they say in the US, silverware). So on those days when I found myself alone at lunch, I would hop into the car and drive to one of the many malls nearby for some amusement. I didn’t mind so much hanging out on my own as it was rather an adventure to explore the mid-west while working there. And so I often found myself at a bookshop where I would grab a quick snack at their in-store coffee shop, and flick through books which I would never find back in Zurich, like the complete Paula Deen collection. Or the rather unusual semi-homemade offers by Sandra Lee. I must confess to having a soft spot for American cooking.
