Biberli

Biberli is a small pastry from the Appenzell region of eastern Switzerland, made by wrapping an almond filling in a honey-and-spice dough. When you cut the brown dough, a pale filling appears inside. Some have a bear or local scenery pressed into the surface.

A fragrant dough and an almond filling

The dough combines honey, wheat or spelt flour, sugar, milk and other ingredients, and is flavored with cinnamon, cloves, anise and other spices. A filling of blanched, ground almonds mixed with sugar and other ingredients is wrapped inside, and the pastry is baked. The moist sweetness of the nuts overlaps with the aroma of the honey dough. The combination of spices and the way the dough is rested vary from maker to maker.

At a workshop in Gais, almonds and sugar are run repeatedly through stone rollers, and water, lemon zest and a little kirsch are added to make the filling. The finely ground, smooth filling is then wrapped in the spiced dough.

Local images preserved in wooden molds

Some large Biber have a bear or herdsman design pressed into the surface with a wooden mold. At the workshop in Gais, the dough is rolled thin and two pieces are cut out, and one is pressed into the hollow of the wooden mold. The almond filling is spread over its back, the second piece is laid on top, and the pastry is removed from the mold and its edges trimmed. Brushing the surface with gum arabic after baking to give it a shine is also part of this workshop’s finishing.

Designs on the molds include the bear from the Appenzell coat of arms, as well as women in traditional dress, people doing embroidery, herdsmen and mountains. Large Biber are sought as gifts, especially during Advent and the Christmas season. A local baker says that people who come walking in summer sometimes eat small Biberli during a break along the way.

Biberfladen from the same region is known as a flat honey pastry without an almond filling. At one bakery, the surface is brushed with milk and lines are drawn with a fork, and the baked pastry is served with coffee or tea. Its finish and the way it is eaten differ from the Biber, which has a wooden-mold image and a filling.

Old spiced pastries and records of filled versions

According to a Swiss food-culture resource, a recipe for a spiced pastry with an almond filling appears in a St. Gallen cookbook from around 1800. In Appenzell, an even older record from 1597 mentions a pastry called “Piperzelten.” The record relates to a game in which pastries were handed out to people and the person it fell to last paid for them, but it does not describe the pastry’s ingredients in detail. The name of this old spiced pastry cannot be treated as the same thing as the emergence of today’s filled Biberli.

Glossary