Z is for Zwieback

Zwieback are traditional German baked goods. Although commercial varieties may look like cookies, they are actually more like toasted bread. The dough is made with milk and eggs, and may also have a little spice in it. As you can see from the accompanying image, they could be compared to rusks or Melba toast. In fact, they are often used as teething biscuits.

The name zwieback, like the Italian biscotti means "twice baked." The bread dough is allowed to rise, formed into loaves, baked briefly, and sliced. The slices of bread are then laid out on a cookie sheet and baked a second time. A Russian Mennonite version of zwieback is made by sticking together two balls of risen dough. This variant takes less time to bake, and would be fun to try with kids who want to make little people or snowman shapes.

If you have a sweet tooth you will be happy to learn zwieback can be made with a little sugar and a sweet spice, like cinnamon or nutmeg. This zwieback recipe is a bit labour intensive compared to others published online, but it has lots  of photos and good accompanying discussion. I haven't tried it yet, so if anyone does I'd love to hear your feedback.

This content is copyrighted. Please feel free to share by sending others a link to this page, or contact the author about purchasing reprint rights. Thanks to Wikimedia Commons user Rainer Zenz for the graphic!