Gourmet pleasures

During the Christmas period, as well as the pleasure of getting together with friends and family, there is also that of tasting the typically Alsatian seasonal treats. This is your chance to discover or rediscover all these unforgettable flavours and aromas!

Mulled wine

To keep the winter cold at bay, Alsatians have an unavoidable tradition: the stop for a mulled wine on the Christmas market! This drink blends with white or red wine the sweetness of honey, the sharpness of lemons or oranges and an assortment of spices: cinnamon, aniseed, nutmeg and cloves. And for children, the alcohol-free juices are just as tasty!

Bredle

"Bredle" are those little Alsatian Christmas biscuits beloved of those with a sweet tooth and all gourmets. They may look like simple confections, but Bredle come in an amazing variety of flavours, colours and shapes... They may be small and dry, but they take hours of preparation before you can nibble them! They contain rich ingredients - cinnamon, orange, aniseed, hazelnuts, but also chocolate, walnuts, coconut and praline are just some of the unmissable flavours! And Bredle making is also an event to share with family and friends. Alsatian tradition also sees them hanging from the Christmas tree. Cute, delicious and timeless, the Bredle is a jewel of baking, a gift to oneself and others!

Of all the different Bredle, the most well-known are:

• Butterbredle, butter biscuits, sometimes with lemon icing,
• Anisbredle, round and perfumed with aniseed,
• Schwowebredle, with almonds and a  golden egg glaze,
• Spritzbredle, little shortbread biscuits with a hint of lemon,
• Lebkuchen, little tongues of spice bread with smooth icing,
• Leckerli, diamond-shaped, also tasting of spice bread,
• Springerle, a type of aniseed bread, with a very characteristic taste - and among the first to be made in Alsace.

Spices

The little something that makes all the difference! During the festive period, spices are everywhere in Alsatian kitchens! With their subtle and irresistible aromas, they are an essential ingredient in regional cooking. Cooks sprinkle their apple or Quetsch plum tarts with cinnamon. The aromas of aniseed, ginger, nutmeg and cloves pleasantly permeate the air and sharpen the appetite!

Spice bread

Children expect to get spice bread for St Nicholas day. This speciality, made from wheat flour, honey and spices spells happiness for the taste buds! We are all familiar with the traditional spice bread figure decorated with a picture, a treat much appreciated by children who have been good enough to deserve one, but this smooth treat actually comes in a wide variety of forms and can be customised on request. There is something for every taste! The best known are the "iced tongues" perfumed with orange peel and coated with sugar icing, cinnamon stars, with hazelnuts and almonds...  If you want to share it as a dessert, you can do no better than a slab of old-fashioned spice bread, made with ginger and fruit. Pure honey spice bread can be enjoyed on its own or even used, as it often is at Christmas, to make canapés of a rare delicacy! Did you know that the Capital of Spice Bread, Gertwiller, is in Alsace?  Why not visit the Museum of Spice Bread and Alsatian Popular Culture !

Dried and citrus fruits

These are indispensable ingredients in Christmas baking.  Berawacka, a traditional Alsatian cake is made of nothing else! In Alsace, when they are not in the food, they are used as decoration!
Slices of dried orange are used to decorate traditional Advent wreaths. Hanging from the branches of the Christmas tree, sometimes accompanied by walnuts, these pieces of dried fruit give Christmas decorations an elegant, natural look! And orange, mandarin and lemon peel is often dried and left in a dish to diffuse its fruity aroma throughout the rooms, giving the house a delicately cosy feel.

Christmas beer

In the Middle Ages, Alsatian monks would prepare a strong, malt-rich beer for the Christmas festivities. Today, most of the breweries in Alsace continue the tradition by producing a special Christmas beer. There is a variety of different Christmas beers to cover all tastes. Christmas beer is round, often spicy and amber in colour. Ideally served at 10-12°, Christmas beer is the perfect accompaniment to most of the local specialities, and can also be used in cooking.

Foie gras

Towards the end of the 18th century in Strasbourg, Jean-Pierre Clause, cook to Marshal de Contades, invented the recipe for Alsatian foie gras. And so, over the centuries, goose or duck foie gras has become the quintessential festive food of the Alsatian Christmas! Cooked as a starter or served as the main course, toasted or pan-fried, it can be delicately placed on slices of spice bread or sandwich bread. Melting in the mouth and harmonising with the best local wines, Alsatian foie gras is gastronomic refinement incarnate and should preferably be enjoyed with a good glass of Late Harvest wine!