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Alsace
A dense loaf of dried and candied fruit, barely held together by a veil of dough, sliced thin like a secret kept for the festive season.
Pastry or bakery speciality from Alsace.
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The very name of berawecka divides opinion. A widespread interpretation has it deriving from Beera, 'pear' in the Alsatian dialect, since dried pear is traditionally its primary ingredient. But another origin, independently documented by a national media outlet and a regional website, sees in it a Yiddish root: Pessa'h, the Jewish Passover. Berawecka would thus originally have been the traditional dried-fruit cake of Alsace's Jewish community — once firmly established in the region — later adopted by Christians for their own end-of-year festivities. Prepared after the final autumn harvests, with very little dough and generous amounts of dried and candied fruit, it remained edible until the following Passover, at a season when fresh fruit was still lacking in the gardens.
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Every Alsatian family keeps its own berawecka recipe, handed down from generation to generation, with its own fruit proportions and its own spices. The Alsatian pastry chef and jam maker Christine Ferber is among them: she dries quetsches and pears herself before adding dried figs, dried apricots, candied lemon or orange peel, almonds and walnuts. Moreover, berawecka reaches well beyond the borders of Alsace: it is found, in similar forms, among the Christmas treats of Germany and Austria.
Appearance
A dense, compact loaf, barely held together by a thin layer of dough, visually dominated by pieces of dried and candied fruit pressed tightly against one another.
Aroma
A scent of warm spices — cinnamon, aniseed, nutmeg, clove — mingled with the sweet notes of fruit macerated in eau-de-vie.
Taste
Rich and generous, poised between the sweetness of dried and candied fruit and the depth brought by the spices and macerating eau-de-vie.
Texture
Dense and soft, slicing cleanly into thin slivers thanks to the low proportion of dough.
a thin bread dough, just enough to bind everything together, prepared with the juices from the maceration.
the dough is shaped into one or more small oblong loaves.
baked in the oven at a gentle heat, allowing the flavours to meld without drying out the loaf.
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Berawecka is enjoyed in very thin slices, at teatime or served alongside a slice of foie gras — a classic pairing on Alsatian festive tables. It pairs just as well with coffee or mulled wine. Well wrapped, it keeps for several weeks to several months: a very good berawecka, it is said, keeps from Christmas to Easter.
Berawecka bears no official quality mark (PDO (AOP), PGI (IGP), Label Rouge): it is a family and artisanal speciality with multiple, uncodified recipes handed down from generation to generation.
No producer is listed for this product yet.