Kletzenbrot

St. Thomas’s Day falls on December 21^st, which, most years, also happens to coincide with the winter solstice. Even though the daylight hours are short, this day is traditionally devoted to preparing for the Feast of our Lord’s Nativity.

Up until this point in Advent, the Christmas merriment has been suppressed. Gaudete Sunday brought a peek into the joys and festivities with a little Christmas baking, but finally on St. Thomas’s Day, the real work begins. The custom of preparing one’s home for Christmas on St. Thomas’ Day can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when Christians found a sanctified counterpart to a secular tradition called Rough Nights. This series of nights included great noise and parades with demon-like masks, all intended to drive away evil spirits for the New Year. Heeding her Lord’s invitation to prayer and fasting, the faithful Christians instead quietly prayed at home and walked the fields with incense to bless the house and pray for God’s defense against all evil spirits. House blessings also commonly occur on or around Epiphany, but St. Thomas’s Day is yet another fitting day to prepare the home and hearts therein for Christ’s the celebration of incarnation.

Not only was the house blessed and thoroughly cleaned for Christ’s coming, but the Christmas baking would also finally begin. With the baking completed this day, the final days of waiting are endured not just by patient Christians but also by the very foods we prepare (Roccas).

There are as many variations of ancient Christmas foods as there are cultures, and fruit-filled breads are well-represented among them. One such bread is the Austrian Kletzenbrot, which Maria von Trapp includes in her book on her family’s liturgical customs that they not only enjoyed in Austria but also brought to the New World.

Kletzenbrot

Kletzenbrot literally means “pear bread” and is made up of flour, nuts, and fruit. Since pear grew in abundance in Austria, it made up the bulk of the fruit filling along with prunes and figs. In the vein of our food patiently awaiting Christmas with us, this recipe can take several days to make, even before the sitting process, depending on how much time a person has. The recipe we’re sharing is a yeasted option that can easily be made in half a day, but another option is to combine the milk, fruit, sugar, rum and spices the day (or days) before baking to allow the fruit to fully rehydrate and for all of the flavors to meld nicely together before incorporating them into a bread.

Similar to the figgy pudding and Stir-up Sunday pudding, the St. Thomas Kletzenbrot only gets better with age. The flavors from the fruits will meld into the dough over time, giving it an all around richer and deeper flavor come Christmas.

Ingredients

1 cup dried fruit (pear, fig, prunes, raisins), chopped

2 tablespoons candied orange peel

⅔ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

⅛ cup rum, optional

1 tsp cinnamon

½ teaspoon cloves

½ teaspoon allspice

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup water

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup milk, warm

1 packet yeast

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup nuts (walnut, almond, hazelnuts, pistachios)

Instructions

Combine the chopped fruit, candied orange peel, sugar, vanilla, rum (if using), spices, and one cup of water in a saucepan. Simmer on low for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, add two tablespoons of butter, and allow the mixture to cool.
While cooling, combine the warm milk (not hot to the touch) and yeast until the yeast is activated. Then combine with the cooled fruit mixture.
One cup at a time, add the flour into the wet ingredients and stir until a sticky dough forms. Cover the dough and let it rest until it has doubled in size.
Once doubled, work the nuts into the dough and shape into loaf, place in a loaf pan or form into small personal-sized loaves to rise once more until doubled.
Bake the loaf at 350 for 40 minutes or until the top is golden brown or approximately 20 minutes for miniature loaves.

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