Soul (pastry)

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Spelled souls from Biberach an der Riss

The soul is an elongated white bread roll from Swabian cuisine made from spelled , which comes from Upper Swabia . In other areas it is also referred to as the Swabian soul . The soul is crispy on the outside, soft, airy and moist on the inside.

It is only in the last few years that the soul has gained notoriety beyond its home country. Variants of the soul are now baked all over Germany .

history

The origin of the name is associated with the memory of All Souls' Day . This presumably ties in with a pre-Christian festival of the dead, as evidenced by the numerous cultic customs that have survived to this day. To treat poor souls with food offerings at the turn of autumn and winter promised a harvest blessing in the following year. Later, people in need were given “soul breads” and other pastries.

Another unsubstantiated but popular reason is that a baker in Ravensburg made the vow at the time of the Thirty Years 'War to give every beggar (“poor soul”) a loaf of bread every year at All Souls' Day if the plague would pass Ravensburg. From the generous vow, Swabian frugality eventually turned into souls (small compared to bread).

Manufacturing

Souls

The day before, a relatively soft dough is made from spelled flour, yeast , water, salt and sometimes also lard , which rests overnight in a large, shallow tub. For baking, the proofed dough is cut into strips from the large flatbread with a spatula, carefully pulled through wet hands, placed on baking paper, sprinkled with caraway seeds and coarse salt and baked until golden brown. Variants are also topped with mostly spicy cheese strips before baking.

In the traditional bakery trade, a spelled pre-dough is usually used, which matures at a temperature of approx. 30 ° C for up to eight hours and is essential for the consistency of the dough as well as the aroma of the end product. Alternatively, a long dough guide for the entire dough is used. Souls stay moist inside thanks to the high moisture content of spelled flour. The dough usually throws up large air bubbles. Due to the very soft dough, the hand-formed core runs out during baking, giving it its typically irregular shape. Characteristic for traditional production is a very high level of humidity in the oven ( steaming ), which is why traditional souls are also referred to as "wet baked".

variants

Gmünder Briegel

Between Stuttgart and the Bavarian border, nowadays roughly outlined by the districts of Göppingen and Ostalbkreis , here especially in the old district of Schwäbisch Gmünd , a similar type of bread is known, which is called "Briegel" or "Briegl". Briegel are particularly considered to be a regional delicacy from Schwäbisch Gmünder . In general, a bar is characterized by a significantly firmer, heavier dough. Compared to the soul, the Gmünder Briegel is more broad and not that long, whereas the Göppinger Briegel is particularly noticeable because of its very "crooked" appearance.

The Knauzen is made from a similar dough as the soul, but in a different shape .

In recent times, the bakery trade has brought various variations of the traditional form described above (wet-baked, with salt and caraway seeds) onto the market: half-length souls for those who are hungry, souls topped with smoked meat, souls with colorful sandwiches, souls baked with cheese, Lye souls, souls with additional ingredients in the dough (such as onion or bacon souls), etc.

Web links

Commons : Swabian soul  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Question: Why is the soul (a pastry from southern Germany) called soul? , at museum-brotkultur.de, accessed on September 22, 2017