Kletzenbrot (Dried pear bread)
Ingredients:
700 g Kletzen (pieces of dried pears)
200 g prunes (dried plums)
50 g walnuts
50 g almonds
About 1/2 teaspoonful each of rum, cinnamon, ground cloves, lemon peel
20 g yeast
400 g bread dough (In Austria, we can usually order this at a bakery)
Preparation:
First, cut the dried pears and the dried plums into small cubic pieces, add the spices and make the mixture slightly wet with the rum to marinate. Mix the yeast with some warm water. Then knead everything into the bread dough.
Put the dough into a well shaped, metal loaf tin to about half-full and leave it for the dough to rise. Bake it in a hot oven (200o C.) for 50 minutes or until baked.
History: Since mediaeval times, the Kletzenbrot was known as piradura. It was made around Thomastag (Thomas day) and served on Christmas Eve.
Photograph (c)2008 Hermann Mückler
