Ploatz
The Ploatz , also bloads , salt cake , Blaatz or also Plootz is a salty / sweet yeast pastry common in Upper Hesse , Mainfranken / Lower Franconia , Middle Franconia , the Rhön and Hohenlohe . It is a sheet cake made from rye bread dough with different toppings. Similar cakes from other regions are the Flammkuchen or the Bätscher .
etymology
In German, there is the word "Platz" for thin, covered or uncovered dough, and as a Franconian example, "Zwiwwelblootz". The diminutive of it is "cookie". In the German dictionary of the Brothers Grimm it is explained as follows: "flat (flat) thin cake, flat, bread cake, etc."
sheet cake
The backing layer of the cake consists of rye dough. The topping consists of potatoes , low-fat quark , rapeseed oil , chives or leeks , possibly bacon or belly side .
Examples of the “salty” Ploatz are the widespread Potato Ploatz (Garduffelsbloads) or the Zwibbelsploatz. When "Zwibbelsploatz", the main coating of onions supplemented with belly, leeks, chives and sour cream . The topping of the potato puddle consists of a mixture of boiled and then mashed potatoes, mixed with quark, rapeseed oil and chives.
Examples of the sweet variations of the cake are the Apfelploatz (with apples and sour cream) or the Beerploatz known from Haunetal (often with blueberries and sweet or sour cream and lots of sugar), as well as the sweet and sour plum cake called Guätscheploatz in Lower Franconia .
history
The Ploatz was a food of a poor peasant population. The respective recipe was based on the financial situation of the rural population. Likewise, the cake was not always available. This sheet cake was only available if a family or a community of farms (families) had baked in the village bakery or in the farm's own bakery. The backing layer consisted of rye dough that was left over from the bread-baking day. The topping layer also consisted of the food that was still available in the rural village community. The topping was therefore essentially based on what was harvested or whether a slaughter day was in town.
When the days of the village bakery came to an end, some families baked their tin Ploatz at the local bakery (back wages 1957: 30 pfennigs). With the spread of the electric oven and the simultaneous social restructuring of the rural village community, the Ploatz was hardly baked.
There was only another renaissance of the Ploatz when there were baking house associations or free communities ( baking house festivals) in the localities . At this time, the many regional recipes became known again, which often differed from farm to farm and from place to place. For example, the onions for the topping could be steamed or placed raw.
literature
- Wallweck, Plootz and egg rings. Custom pastries in Lower Franconia . In: Franconia. Journal for Franconian regional studies and cultural maintenance 56, 2004, pp. 426–434