Think of springerles as the medieval greeting card of cookies for the 14th century’s 1%. Many of the foods we sell started out as peasant foods, the cuisine of the 99% in a way. Springerles are not one of them. Springerles (pronounced shpring-er-lees) are cookies originally from the Swabia region in southern Germany, where they’re […]
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Torrone is the Italian word for nougat with nuts mixed in (and like most things, it sounds much better in Italian). It’s been made in northern Italy since at least the 1400s. Though today you might find it year round, it started as a Christmas indulgence. These days most of it is mass-produced by machines. […]
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The Germans know their Christmas cookies. Depending on where you hail from, you might celebrate with spicy little pfeffernüsse or anise-scented springerles. But the real showstoppers are thick and chewy lebkuchen.
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The first time you taste Robert Lambert’s rare citrus fruitcake, it’s a revelation. The fruit is bright and sweet and tart. The nuts are deep and rich and toasty. The cake is lightly spiced with just a hint of the cognac it soaked in. It isn’t just good. It is exceptional.
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In 1329 the Bishop of Naumburg held a Christmas baking contest. Imagine a medieval fair and you’re on the right track. The trick was that the baked goods had to be okay for the Advent, which meant no butter and no sugar. The winner was stollen. It might have looked pretty similar to the cake […]
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There are plenty of stories about the origins of panettone, Italy’s most famous Christmas dessert, but the most romantic is this: once upon a time in Milan a poor baker named Antonio had a beautiful daughter who caught the eye of a local nobleman. When Antonio’s bakery was in danger of going out of business, […]
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