Zopf is a traditional Swiss bread that is made on Saturday night to be eaten on Sunday morning. It's a braided white bread with a generous egg wash that looks an awful lot like a challah. The bread was rising when I arrived, so we split it four ways and each took a bit of dough to braid mini-zopfs:
My Zopf
Finished mini-zopfs
I think it was a remarkable act of restraint not to eat the zopfs hot out of the oven. But I guess they are destined to be Sunday morning food. They were quite tasty. I had Appenzellerland cheese on some (delicious - I cannot get enough of that stuff) and nutella on others (ditto!).
While I was visiting Schwellbrunn, I learned about another Fasnacht celebration. Apparently most of the Protestant Swiss carnivals are called Fasnacht (from the German Fasching), even though they all vary greatly depending on the region. And, they tend to take place the week after Ash Wednesday instead of before, as is the case with Carnivale celebrations in Catholic regions of the world. In Schwellbrunn there is a day for kids to dress up and walk in a parade, but the main event is a procession in which the teenagers of the village carry a big log (I think maybe a whole tree) in a wagon around the tiny villages and then back to the center of Schwellbrunn. The teenagers are dressed as traditional craftspeople and one wears a bear costume while the younger boys dress as clowns and ask for money. Once they get the log back to Schwellbrunn, they auction it off to the highest bidder. I'm not sure what happens to the log or to the money raised during the ceremony. Sadly, there are no photos to document this procession. Next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment