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family baking traditions
Dec. 15th, 2019 09:31 pmOne of the Christmas baking traditions in my family is pfeffernüsse, but a variation that is a bit unusual in Mennonite tradition -- instead of the classic tiny little crunchy cookies that look like kibble, it's yeasty buns stuck together and with red sugar on top. The appearance and texture between the two versions may be entirely different, but the flavour profile is basically the same -- sweet and spicy.
I've always wondered why the red sugar on top is part of the experience, since I doubt 19th century Mennonite farmers in southern Ukraine would have had access to dyed-red sugar. But it is the way my Nana always made them, as she would have learned from her mother, and it is vital within my family tradition.
At some point my mother got her hands on a little cookbook of Mennonite pfeffernüsse recipes, which showcases the astonishingly wide variety of things different families have done with the basic idea. I got to see this recipe book recently. At the very end of the book is a brief section on the yeast version. And it talks about how, back in the old country, the traditional sweetener used in baking this was watermelon syrup.
Now, I have known for quite a while that watermelon syrup was a common sugar substitute for Mennonites in Ukraine, because melons grow so magnificently there -- so it was a way for farming families to get sugar that they could grow themselves, instead of shelling out money for refined sugar.
But when I read in that recipe book that the watermelon syrup gave the pfeffernüsse a distinctive colour, I was immediately like OH MY MYSTERY IS SOLVED.
It makes so much sense! The traditional pfeffernüsse had a reddish-pink colour, because of one of the essential ingredients. But when the makers of yeast pfeffernüsse moved to North America, watermelon syrup could no longer be the ubiquitous ingredient it had once been. But the colour was traditional! So they came up with a different way to get that traditional colour on their pfeffernüsse.
And over the generations, the red sugar on top has become the correct and traditional method instead. I'm sure if I were faced with pfeffernüsse made with watermelon syrup I would find it deeply weird, because it's not what I grew up with. But I'm so pleased to figure out that my family's tradition has deeper roots than I thought!
(And now I really want to find out what pfeffernüsse made with watermelon syrup tastes like. Boiling watermelon down enough to enough of a concentrate to make it a viable sugar substitute would make your baking taste pretty strongly of watermelon, I'm guessing!)
I've always wondered why the red sugar on top is part of the experience, since I doubt 19th century Mennonite farmers in southern Ukraine would have had access to dyed-red sugar. But it is the way my Nana always made them, as she would have learned from her mother, and it is vital within my family tradition.
At some point my mother got her hands on a little cookbook of Mennonite pfeffernüsse recipes, which showcases the astonishingly wide variety of things different families have done with the basic idea. I got to see this recipe book recently. At the very end of the book is a brief section on the yeast version. And it talks about how, back in the old country, the traditional sweetener used in baking this was watermelon syrup.
Now, I have known for quite a while that watermelon syrup was a common sugar substitute for Mennonites in Ukraine, because melons grow so magnificently there -- so it was a way for farming families to get sugar that they could grow themselves, instead of shelling out money for refined sugar.
But when I read in that recipe book that the watermelon syrup gave the pfeffernüsse a distinctive colour, I was immediately like OH MY MYSTERY IS SOLVED.
It makes so much sense! The traditional pfeffernüsse had a reddish-pink colour, because of one of the essential ingredients. But when the makers of yeast pfeffernüsse moved to North America, watermelon syrup could no longer be the ubiquitous ingredient it had once been. But the colour was traditional! So they came up with a different way to get that traditional colour on their pfeffernüsse.
And over the generations, the red sugar on top has become the correct and traditional method instead. I'm sure if I were faced with pfeffernüsse made with watermelon syrup I would find it deeply weird, because it's not what I grew up with. But I'm so pleased to figure out that my family's tradition has deeper roots than I thought!
(And now I really want to find out what pfeffernüsse made with watermelon syrup tastes like. Boiling watermelon down enough to enough of a concentrate to make it a viable sugar substitute would make your baking taste pretty strongly of watermelon, I'm guessing!)
