In many European countries, there is a holiday in January during a time ,which many Americans associate with taking down their decorations from Christmas merriment. On January 6, when dried out pine trees and discarded wrappings pile up in the garbage bin, the Swiss, and many others nations, are celebrating Epiphany Day with a very special pastry and party games.
In Switzerland Epiphany Day relates to the day Jesus was revealed to the world when the three magi first saw the little Lord and gave him the three famous gifts: frankincense, myrrh, and gold. Like all the best holidays, their are delicious sweets that go along with the celebrations so we can indulge and then make resolutions on the morrow. Epiphany Day is no different for the Swiss and, like their language heritage, their pastry chefs use a menagerie of European styles.
What many in the States don’t know about the European pastry tradition, is how seriously the origins of a cake play into its identity. The German’s make pastries from elastic, sugarless dough that is folded and fluffed over and over to create the light airy crust of their classic strudels. The French use phyllo dough, a tissue paper like substance that is four or five times layered and carefully creased to maintain its shape. The Swiss’ Epiphany Cake is one of the many instances where the landlocked, crossroads country has taken its neighbors’ influence in full stride and created a lasting identity that is unique from any other.
The Dreikönigskuchen, or Epiphany Cake, is a ring cake made to commemorate the visitation of the Three Wise Men to baby Jesus’s crib in Bethlehem. The general shape of the delicious cake is taken from the star which the Magi followed from the East to see Christ. Fortunately European bakers and pastry lovers have been innovating for thousands of year and found a way to make this work to party goers’ advantage. The cake is formed into seven, large sticky buns before baking and forced into a deep, rounded baking pan before. This makes the segments puff straight up and when the baking is all done, the Dreikönigskuchen is easily torn asunder and shared with everyone.
There is another reason for easily dividing the cake into many distinct section. Similar to the green, gold and purple King’s Cake eaten during Mardi Gras and Carnival, the Epiphany Cake contains a winning token, which can be any piece of jewelry or figurine. The first person to crunch into the diamond in the dough, or narrowly miss it with their teeth, gets to be “king” for the duration of the party and every other guest who took a losing piece of cake must fulfill a wish of the King or Queen.
Now, even though it is far from Christmas, there is no reason to not begin experimenting with recipes for parties, because you never know when a friend will call you for a Holiday party in the middle of summer. This recipe is considered the German style of pastry and is from food.com:
Ingredients
- 4- 4 1/4 cups flour
- 2 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup warm milk, preferably whole
- 1 egg
- 1 stick butter, softened (1/2 cup)
- 1 1/2 tsp orange thinly stripped zest
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon thinly stripped zest
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1 almond
- egg wash:
- 1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp water
- Coating:
- 1/8 cup apricot jam
- 1 Tbsp hot water
- demura sugar, for sprinkling
Steps to follow when I actually attempt this.
little Peaces 