St. Nick's Dough Men
Next Wednesday is St. Nicholas Day, or Samichlaus. I’m learning about Samichlaus traditions and will have more on Swiss Santa next week. Today I want to explore just one, food-focused aspect: the Grättimaa.
The Grättimaa is a man-shaped baked good. The recipe is similar to zopf, a braided, buttery bread that looks like challah. Raisins or almonds serve as the dough man’s eyes and buttons, and he ranges in size from roughly six inches to two feet. I’ve seen these dough guys in bakery windows for weeks now, but only in researching did I realize they’re Samichlaus-specific. They have been available in Migros (the other big Swiss grocery chain) since mid-October. I remember my mom making these when I was a kid, but I don’t associate them with early December.
The name Grättimaa is Basel-specific. This dough man more commonly goes by Grittibänz. According to the Swiss Idiotikon (my new favorite resource, all in German but for an English overview), he has also been known as a Hanselimaa or Hanselmaa in the Luzern and Solothurn regions (southeast and southwest of Basel, respectively) and as Elggermaa in the town of Elgg, near Zurich. “Maa” means man; “grätte” and “gritte” both mean spread legs or to straddle (grätschen), so this baked good man is standing with his legs apart. “Gritti”1 apparently also means an old, fragile man in Bern Swiss German2. “Bänz” is a nickname for Benedict, and Hansel is just the name Hansel. In the 20th century, Grittibänz gained popularity and has edged out most of the other names (though Grättimaa still appears with Grittibänz on the Coop packaging).
The baked good’s name isn’t the only thing that has become less varied: its shape and ingredients have also standardized over the years. The Iditiotikon cites a 16th-century reference to a dough lady, and lady-shaped baked goods were also around in the 1920s (not with spread legs, because that would be indecent) and weren’t reserved for December 6. In St. Gallen, people ate a dough lady with almond filling around New Year’s, and in canton Valais, children received baked ladies made from white flour and egg. In the 19th century, the Bernese were also making their bread mensch from gingerbread dough.
But now we’ve got the Grättimaa/Grittibänz, and in Basel in 2018, people waited in line for 30 minutes to buy their them from Gilgen Bakery in the old part of the city.3 For those open to getting their dough men from places other than the “best” Basel bakery, Coop sells Grättimaa in at least four flavors: sugar crystal dough boy, pretzel bun, plain, and one holding a chocolate bar. They seem to be available at most bakeries. The one by work has a sign in the window reminding passersby that Samichlaus is December 6 – order your Grättimaa.
Perhaps I’ll try making my first Grättimaa this weekend, either using this recipe or a Zopf recipe. Then again, when I came home from work yesterday, there was one from the landlady4 on our kitchen table.
https://www.luzernerzeitung.ch/leben/ratgeber/woher-hat-der-grittibanz-seinen-namen-ld.1074072
Mom
Ooops, I didn't read the footnote.
I wonder if he's related to Gritti but Gritti is not as refined. Nor made of dough. I love your posts.