Aromatic dried piers, the so called „Kletzen“, sweet cowards, juicy plums with pithy nuts and warming spices mixed with bread dough: spimply delicious such a seductive “Kletzenbrot”! It’s one of the oldest pastries of Austria and its  forms as well as its production could not be more different.

If as loaf, pita or even wrapped with a dough coating – always there are more fruits than flour. It’s a typical custom pastry and still a important part of the Austrian kitchen, especially during the Christmas season.

The roots of the “Kletzenbrot” date way back. Even the Celts mixed dried fruits with their bread dough. The “Piratura” then in the Middle Ages a popular bread, which also consists of dried fruits and nuts.

Originally it was a normal patry out of rye, for which only dried piers, dried apples and dried plums were used. Due to the growing prosperity, also imported fruits from the South, as cowards and raisins, were used later. During times when just little sweets were affordable, the “Kletztenbrot” was a special treat. At the beginning neither sugar nor honey was used for the preparation of the bread. Only the fruits made the bread sweet.

The roots of the “Kletzen”, the dried piers, also date way back. The custom to dry piers and to use them for preparing different dishes, is very old. Piers, apples and plums have been sliced during autumn. Then they got strung on a string and so they could dry in rooms. Bigger farms even had special huts for drying fruits. Inside there was a small oven with a dome. The dome had a frame with a ground out of braided rods. Thus the heat could reach the fruits spread there from all sides. The fruits have often been used as a storage for the winter.  


The self-made “Kletzenbrot” has been forgotten during the Second World War. But nowadays it enjoys great popularity extending far beyond the borders of Austria. It’s a symbol for fertility and a lucky charm.

If you want to prepare your own “Kletzenbrot”, we show you today how to do this.

For 1 kilo “Kletzenbrot” you need:

For the fruit mass:

500 g „Kletzen“ (dried piers or dried fruits as an alternative)
150 g dried plums
150 g cowards
150 g raisins
100 g walnut kernels
as well as spices: cloves, allspice, cinnamon, anise as liked

For the bread dough:

200 g rye flourl, 200 g wheat flourl, some salt, a little yeast, sourdough, water, caraway and coriander as liked

Preparation:

For one „Kletzenbrot“ you only need as much dough as you need to mix it with the fruit mass und to wrap the loaf out of the fruit mass with the rest oft he bread dough.
For the preparation of the bread dough you put the whole, little salted float into a bowl, than you make a little whole into the middle and mix in this whole some float, yeast and sourdough with lukewarm water. After one hour the dough is risen and you mix it with the left float and the corresponding amount of water. Use as much water as the float absorbs, so that one fixed bread dough results. This has to rest another half an hour.

Grind together the dried pies and dried plums, add cowards, raisins and walnut kernels and the spices, so that one consistent mass results. Mix the fruit mas with about 200g of the bread dough. Than form one loaf out of the mass.
Put the loaf out of the fruit mass on the rolled out dough and wrapt it. Now bake the loaf with 200°C ca. 1 or 1 ½ hours, until the fruit mass is wrapped with a crisply crust.

We hope you enjoy preparing your own “Kletzenbrot”!