This year, Gut Nisdorf on the German Baltic Sea is breathing new life into a very old but almost forgotten Easter tradition: Easter wolves!
The custom is over 500 years old and can only be found in the region of Pomerania. It was first mentioned in a document in 1451. At that time, bakers in Greifswald probably had to deliver a wolf to the council customs officer. In Stralsund, according to records, the wolves were delivered at New Year – which, according to the Georgian calendar, was Easter.
But the Easter wolves date far back in history: in paganism, it was a sacrifice to the grain demon at the beginning of spring. Until the 1930s, Easter wolves were baked on Maundy Thursday and Holy Saturday, but the exact recipes were not passed on. The wolves, however, consist of a bread roll dough with an approximately 15 cm long middle piece, with four stretched out legs.
This old tradition is now being revived by the Bio Kinder- und Familienhotel Gut Nisdorf who chose a sweet dough for its Easter wolves. The dough can also be made vegan; yeast did not exist in the Middle Ages but is used in this recipe :-). Try it out and enjoy it!
Easter wolves à la Gut Nisdorf
Ingredients
- 500g wheat flour 550s
- 1 cube of yeast or 1 packet of dry yeast
- 150 g oat flakes
- 200ml lukewarm (oat) milk
- 150 g honey
- 100 g butter or margarine
Directions
- Step 1 Dissolve the yeast and a little wheat flour in water.
- Step 2 Let the oat flakes soak in the lukewarm milk for 30 minutes.
- Step 3 Make the honey liquid in a water bath (about 40 degrees, then wait a little).
- Step 4 Also, make butter or margarine liquid and let it cool down lukewarm.
- Step 5 Now mix all ingredients to a dough and knead well. If necessary, thicken with flour or (oat-)milk. The dough should not stick anymore.
- Step 6 Let it rise (until it has at least double the volume), then knead it again and form the wolves.
- Step 7 Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 degrees.
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