Beware of baking housewives! Advent is a dangerous time of year in
Embach as in almost every kitchen the annual biscuit bake is on. Old and
trusted recipes are brought out, new and untested ones considered, packets of
sugar stand ready and waiting and the box of little, shaped dough cutters is
dusted off. It's all very stressful.
It’s not only hazardous to get in the way of the baking process, it
could be dangerous if you inadvertently copied someone’s favourite recipe, and
certainly risky to visit any household around afternoon coffee time as you will
be presented with a plate piled high with keks
and pressed into trying them.
Why might this be a hazard? Well, these little biscuits are not only
produced in great volume, but also in unimaginable variety. A measure of
prowess is the number of different keks
you have made…and the numbers can run into the twenties.
Presented with over 20 different biscuits, you then “must try this new
one” and “can’t resist” that gingerbread one, and those little chocolate balls
are “irresistible” and before you know it you’ve tried every one and downed
calories equivalent to a three-course meal.
Everyone, makes vanilla kipferl,
a sort of horseshoe- shaped vanilla dough dusted with icing sugar. And then
there are stars, circles, hearts balls logs, cones, rectangles and squares.
Some are doubled one upon the other and filled, others are iced. Then there are
those coated in coconut flakes, icing sugar, bits of dried fruit or dipped in
chocolate.
Part of this wonderful tradition is, if like us, for whatever reason,
you have been unable to undertake the great bake in, kind people present you
with a plate of their biscuits for you to enjoy at home. So there is a lot of
swapping of keks around the community, increasing the variety you may find in
any one household. By the end of January everyone will have had enough, be full
to bursting and thinking of fasting during Lent.
So, step cautiously into this area at this time of year. The terrifying Krampus
may have gone but upsetting a biscuit baker, or over-indulgence in keks
sampling could have serious consequences.
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