Meitschibei
“Don’t be alarmed, it’s not a treat for cannibals.”
So opens the Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz article on Meitschibei, which in Bernese dialect means girls’ legs.
To me, it’s more a horseshoe than legs, and in the French part of the country it’s known as croissant viennois. Recently some Basel bakeries have changed the name to Glücksbringer—according to SRF, they did this to try and quell the offensive comments made about girls’ legs by customers to bakery staff.
The name aside, these are a classic Swiss baked good—made from a yeasted dough, then stuffed with a nutty filling. Similar to the Nussgipfel, but not as flaky or ubiquitous, this treat has probably been around since the early 20th century, and is still sold in bakeries throughout the country.
I found a recipe in my copy of der Schweizer Bäcker-Konditor, a textbook for bakers and pastry chefs from the 1940s.
The dough is similar to Zopf, and the textbook filling includes honey and Schraps, bakery scraps (old cookies and baked goods that are ground and added to fillings and products like bread pudding).
My version takes out the Schraps, but I like the flavour and consistency of the honey in the filling, as well as the citrus flavour from lemon zest and juice.
There are other recipes online, including this one using spelt flour and this one from Swissmilk that makes its filling with icing sugar and leaves out the citrus.
Dough:
250 g flour
25 g sugar
5 g salt
100 ml water, warm
5 g fresh yeast
75 g butter
Filling:
200 g ground nuts, toasted
1 tbsp cinnamon
pinch salt
80 g honey
25 g sugar
the zest of one lemon
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp warm water
Assembly:
1 egg, separated
For the dough:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together the water and yeast.
Make a well in the flour and add the liquid ingredients. Stir this together until a dough starts to form, then add the butter and begin to knead it on the table. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic. Alternatively, mix in a stand mixer with a dough hook.
Cover and let rise for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
For the filling:
In a bowl, mix together the toasted nuts, cinnamon, salt, honey, sugar, and lemon juice and zest. Add a little of the warm water to make a paste that is pliable, but holds its form. You may need slightly more or less water, depending on the consistency of your honey.
When you are ready to roll:
Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 C / gas mark 4.
Roll the dough out into a large rectangle, and cut into 16 smaller rectangles. Roll a bit of the filling into a tube shape, and place it onto the rectangle. Repeat until all the filling is used.
Brush around the filling with egg white, pinch the dough together to cover the filling, then tuck in the ends. Roll this gently until you have a uniform tube shape, then bend it into a horseshoe and place it on a parchment-line baking sheet.
Brush with egg yolk and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden.
Ground hazelnuts are the traditional choice, but I also sometimes use ground almonds.
Toasting the nuts beforehand gives an excellent flavour, but you can also skip this if you don’t have time.
These keep for a day or two in an air-tight container, but they taste best fresh.
Only flakier…
Nussgipfel
