Totenbeinli
The nuttiest and crunchiest of Swiss cookies.
Hi, I'm Andie.
I live near the Swiss Alps, in Bern, and I love not only melting cheese, but all kinds of Swiss cooking.
Hi, I'm Andie.
I live near the Swiss Alps, in Bern, and I love not only melting cheese, but all kinds of Swiss cooking.
All in Swiss Christmas
The nuttiest and crunchiest of Swiss cookies.
These buttery and tender sablés get a helpful kick from the addition of homemade Nocino—a liqueur made with green walnuts.
These sparkly holiday cookies are made especially tender by exclusively using spelt flour.
A popular Christmas dessert in Switzerland, especially the French-speaking part, is the forest-themed Bûche de Noël.
A nog-adjacent, custardy drink where the booze is already included in the bottle.
A Christmas-ready Tiramisu with chocolate and pears, and doused in Williams, a traditional pear Schnaps.
Here’s my compendium of Swiss Christmas recipes—from beloved Swiss Christmas cookies, to typical Christmas dinners, as well as food eaten during the season, whether at Christmas markets or on St Nicholas Day, the 6th of December.
Tannenzapfen, the German word for pine cone, makes the perfect design (and pun) for my festive Zopf, which is stuffed with raisins and candied peel, and decorated to look as though it’s fallen from a huge bready tree.
Need a last minute, homemade Christmas gift? Try out this easy homemade granola that tastes like gingerbread.
Perfect for numerous festive recipes, you can add candied peel wherever dried fruit is found, and it makes an elegant garnish to cakes and desserts.
This melty dish is a perfect starter for Christmas, whether served individually, or as part of a larger cheese board.
This buttery pear and raisin tart was traditionally served during Geneva’s Escalade celebrations in early December.
A spiced twist on the classic.
These bear paw cookies are a perennial favourite in German-speaking Switzerland.
Perfect for apéro (or anytime), these ham croissants are flaky on the outside and savoury on the inside.
Baked slowly, layer by layer, the Baumkuchen, or tree cake, is a (delicious) afternoon’s work.
The best of the second-tier of Swiss Christmas cookies.
It’s love or hate with these.
There isn’t a lot to be done for anise-haters, but there are plenty of ways to prevent a bland, brittle, dry biscuit.
Although these cookies take a bit of work, I can confirm that this recipe is easier than Rosina Gschwind’s recipe from 1892 that suggests beating the egg whites and sugar for an hour. It may take some fine motor skills to apply the icing, but at least your arm won’t fall off.
I know you only got your Samichlaus sack yesterday, but really, who can eat that many peanuts?
