FRANKFURTER BRENTEN

This is denifitely the year of the gingerbread, I mean for this blog - and of course, all that I'm writing about -together with the recipes already shared in the past- I bake in my kitchen. Today's post is dedicated to Frankfurt (my birthplace) although the cookie in question is not typically gingerbread because the dough is not flavored with ginger, or any other spice. It's flavored with rosewater. The dough also consists of little sugar, alone or mixed with honey, and the smallest amount of flour. The basic ingredient, however, is almond paste (Marzipan). As in zázvorky, Czech gingerbread that does contain ginger, the dough is baked in very slow oven, resulting in white cookies.

Frankfurter Brenten have been a Christmas tradition in Germany since the Middle Ages. They existed in parallel with Nuremberg-style gingerbread, which is softer in texture and glazed. They are normally shaped as rectangles and imprinted with stamps that depict the city of Frankfurt. The imprints are not too elaborate compared to decorative patterns for other types of gingerbread. Newer versions of Frankfurter Brenten are not very thin, either. A similar dough, which is almost entirely made of almond paste, is used for Bethmännchen, also made in Frankfurt, and shaped like choux.

According to historic records, Frankfurter Benten were among Goethe's favorite sweets. Germany's most important literary figure was a native of Frankfurt and notorious gourmet but this particular food he must have liked since childhood. By sheer luck, a recipe used at his time was noted down in verse by the romantic poet -and clergyman- Eduard Friedrich Mörike (1804-1875). In the poem Frankfurter Brenten, he explains with humour the steps for making gingerbread: process the almonds, mix with sugar, cook over low heat, press through a strainer, leave to dry overnight (under a tile), shape, and finally bake in slow oven -resulting in 'yellow' cookies.

 

Portrait of Goethe at 38 years old - by Angelica Kauffman

 

Frankfurter Brenten are perhaps the simplest type of gingerbread you can find - and the most economical, given the lack of exotic spices. Of course, neither almonds nor sugar or rosewater were everyday commodities during the Middle Ages, that's why all types of gingerbread were developed in monasteries and eaten by upper and middle class people. The cookie is very lightly sweetened and tastes 100% of baked almond. My own version came out thinner, like historic recipes suggest, but modern versions of Frankfurter Brenten are normally finger-thick.

version 1 - uncooked

version 1 - finished

FRANKFURTER BRENTEN

The ratio of almonds to sugar, that is to say one pound vs. three quarters of a pound (the old-fashioned Swiss 'quad') is directly copied from Mörike's instructions; in a version noted down at the end of the 19th century as the original recipe used by Goethe's mother, the basic ingredients are used in equal parts. The quantity of rosewater is never specified but it's enough to moisten the ingredients, preferably with a dispenser. The additional flour and the egg white used for binding the dough (instead of slow-cooking until the mixture thickens) are borrowed from newer recipes. For lack of special moulds, I shaped the base in my palm and decorated each rectangle with Christmas (& New Year's) patterns that I shaped with cookie cutters or the knife. The base of the finished cookies is approximately 0.8cm thick.

   

I n g r e d i e n t s 

500g almonds

125g confectioner's sugar

3tbsp plain flour

rosewater

1 egg white

 

M e t h o d

Blanch the almonds, then grind very finely (preferably using a mill). Add the sugar and flour and mix well. Spray with rosewater until lightly moist, then bind with the egg white. Knead lightly with your fingers. Roll out the dough about 0.5cm thick. Shape with cookie cutters, moulds or your fingers. Place on two baking sheets and leave to dry for 24 hours. Bake under the middle rack, each load separately in a preheated oven to 160C, for 20 minutes or so. The gingerbread must be cream white.

 

 

version 2

N o t e

It's very likely that Mörike's advice was to use one quad (=375g) of sugar for one pound of almonds, which is nearer to a description of "Goethe's favorite cake" by a late 19th century source. That recipe, which is transcribed from a manuscript here, used equal parts of sugar & almonds. Mörike implies in his poem that housewives are tempted to cut down on sugar (apparently for reasons of economy), which is -nevertheless- a mistake. For the sake of precision, I made another batch of Frankfurter Brenten using 375g of sugar and no flour, since flour is excluded from Mörike's recipe. However, the method was still quite different: instead of cooking the ingredients, I used egg white for binding the mixture. The finished cookies were similar, in flavor and texture, to English macaroons.