Grittibänz – the Swiss Classic

Put the White flour with the cold butter and salt into a large Bowl and rub the butter pieces between your hands until only small crumbs remain. Then add the yeast and the remaining ingredients and mix everything into a dough mass. Turn it out onto the work surface and knead the dough until it is nice and soft and smooth. Put it back into the Bowl, cover it with a Proofing cloth and let the dough rest for 20 to 30 minutes at room temperature.

Divide 900 g of the yeast dough into six pieces of 100 g each for the bodies and six pieces of 50 g each for the heads. The rest – about 65 g – is left for scarf, hat, nose and shoes.

Shape the 100 g pieces into a teardrop shape about 10 cm long, and form the head pieces as round as possible. Score the body three times to form arms and legs. Then place the grittibänz on a baking-paper-lined tray and set the head slightly overlapping onto the body.

With the remaining dough you shape scarf, hat, nose and shoes. For the scarf, roll out a strand of dough thinly, lay it around the head, twist it and press it firmly against the side of the figure. For the hat, lay a thin strand around the head and place a small pompom on top; for the feet you proceed in a similar way. There are no limits to your creativity here.

Cover the finished grittibänz with a dough plastic and let them rise for about 40 minutes at room temperature. Towards the end of the resting time, preheat the oven to 180 °C fan.

After the resting time, glaze the grittibänz twice with egg – for this, whisk a whole egg with an additional egg yolk. The double glazing gives the typical golden-brown, glossy surface.

For the eyes, press two raisins – or baking-stable chocolate drops – deep into the dough and cut the mouth with sharp scissors. If you like, sprinkle the grittibänz additionally with a little pearl sugar.

Bake the dough figures golden for about 12 to 15 minutes in the oven preheated to 180 °C fan. Then let them cool on a Cake rack – they taste best lukewarm.