Swiss biscuits – Chräbeli

Chräbeli, or Kräbeli are biscuits made with aniseed, from the town of Baden in the Swiss canton of Aargau. They are related to biscuits called anisbroetli (or in Germany they are sometimes called Nürnberger Springerle) , which although made of similar dough are usually imprinted using special molds (or springerle). In the Middle Ages, anisbroetli became a substitute for marzipan, the aniseed biscuits were often referred to as “common marzipan” or “peasant marzipan”. The white, elongated curved Chräbeli from Baden got their name from their shape: Chräbel is a dialect word for “claws of cats, dogs, birds”.

The basic recipe for Chräbeli has been around for at least a few hundred years. It was supposedly first mentioned in 1710 in a description of a trip to Baden. In the Oekonomische Encyklopädie, written J. G. Krünitz circa 1773, there is an entry called “Anis Gebackenes” which…