BREDELE

When I checked my inbox yesterday I had an email from my Mum. She lives in Paris but is originally from Alsace where the food of the region is very Germanic in style and is marked by the use of pork in various forms. Traditional dishes include baeckeoffe, a kind of stew of pork, beef, lamb, potatoes and onion cooked in Alsation white wine (much much much nicer than it sounds); tarte flambée or flammekueche, similar to a pizza base but covered with creme fraiche, onions and bacon (delicious!) and choucroute, sauerkraut prepared with various (surprise) pork sausages and other salted meats and charcuterie, and often potatoes.

The festivities of the year's end involve the production of a variety of biscuits and small cakes called bredele. There are many varieties of bredele, including anisbredela (aniseed), butterbredle (butter), schwowebredle (orange and cinnamon), spritzbredle (almond), small pain d'épices (gingerbread) and spice cakes which are traditionally given to children starting on St Nicholas' Day.

As she does every year, my Mum has made a batch of these bredele, pictured above. My favorite are the owls, hands down. Perhaps it's about time I picked up the mantle and started making these too. It might not hurt to have something homebaked with the M&S feast...