Season
All season, best in winter
Occasions
Sweet treat, Dessert
Estimated
Time
1 hour
+ waiting 1 hour

Bretzeli/
Bricelets.

Ingredients fills 1 large cookie tin
250 g
Buckwheat flour
150 g
Coconut blossom sugar
a pinch
Rock salt
⅓ tsp
Bicarbonate
3 tbsp
Black Sesame Tahina (fine ground)
2 dl
Water
⅓  tsp
Tonka Bean 
⅓ tsp
Saffron
2 tbsp
Sesame oil (unroasted)
if needed, more
Water
This is a very Swiss recipe. There doesn’t even exist an english name for it (as I know). The story probably goes back to the Catholic wafer (salty) baked in some monasteries, such as those in St. Gallen and Basel.

Later, the recipe became sweet and somehow found its way to the heart of the canton of Bern: to the Emmental, where the world-famous cheese comes from.

For my adaption of «Bretzeli» I went along the traditional «Bernese Cookbook» (from my mother's kitchen cupboard), where there exist 3 different recipes. I kept the measurements almost the same but changed the ingredients to my needs.

To bake them, a special Bretzeli-iron is needed.


  1. Mix all the ingredients well in a bowl with a spoon/spatula and add as much water as it forms a viscous batter. Set aside for about an hour.

  2. Preheat Bretzeli-iron.

  3. With two teaspoons put a small amount of batter into the middle of the iron. Quickly press the iron together and bake Bretzelis golden and crispy.

  4. After taking them out, they can be rolled into pipes or cones, or split into quarters. You can also put them around a glass or cup, to create a bowl.

  5. Plain pipes or quarters are usually served to coffee or tea.
    Bowls, cones or tubes can be filled and become a dessert like that.
How
to
I also tried out a version with coconut milk instead of the black tahini. Just change them out and adjust the amount of water.
You can also use white tahini. It might taste a little less nutty.