Editors note:
This month's recipe is from BB member Jack Fritz. While we have other Kipfel/Kipferl recipes, this one piqued my interest because it was accompanied by a family history, a family tree, some Burgenland history, variations in how the kipfels are baked, and the number of generations it has been in use. The main difference in this version is that it calls for first baking a sheet of dough, then cutting out the crescent shapes after baking; the other recipes we have expect dough to be formed into crescents and filled before baking.

Jack's narrative starts with an abridged refresher course in Burgenland history (for new/younger members who may have just recently started their genealogy search). You may also be interested in reading this article which discusses the possible origins of kipfels.

So fix yourself some Kaffee mit Schlag, sit back and enjoy reading!

Jack writes:

The name "Burgenland" means "the land of castles". The numerous castles and walled towns were constructed as a line of defense of invasion from the West after the Magyars arrived in the 9th and 10th centuries. For thousands of years before that, the area was part of the Hallstatt culture, peopled by proto-Celtic tribes. More recently, it was overrun in turn by the Romans, Huns, Avars, Lombards, Franks and eventually the Magyars. In the late 17th century, the Ottoman Turks were driven out after ravaging the area for 250 years and, during the following period of relative peace and tranquility, the area was re-populated mainly by Germans thought to be from the Swabian area of Bavaria. A check of the German online white pages directory will show that there is a concentration of our German family names such as Fritz, Ganser and Liebentritt near the City of Ulm, which is roughly between Munich and Stuttgart, and to a lesser degree around Neumarkt in dem Tauchental (NiT) / Kethely in Burgenland, Austria.

The recipe I have is from a letter my mother wrote to a friend of the family, whose mother-in-law was also from NiT. She had requested that my mother send her a copy of the recipe for "Moons" as my mother called them, because of their shape being reminiscent of a crescent moon. (This a reminder of the unsuccessful Second Siege of Vienna in 1683 by the Ottoman Turks.) My mother got the recipe from my Grandmother Gisela Fritz who called them Magdalenie Kipfels (M. Kipfels). Grandma Fritz stored the recipes in her head but my mother finally wrote them down. If you look at our family tree, Gisela had a great-grandmother named Magdelena Zartler-Fritz (1814-1849). So that's two generations back from me to Gisela, and then another three generations back from my grandmother. We believe that she was the source of the kipfel recipe.

My niece Stephanie has carried on the tradition of making the M. Kipfels. When my two brothers and I met a couple of years ago, my one brother brought some of Stephanie's M. Kipfels with him and we all agreed that they were just like Grandma Gisela's. I also recently sent the recipe to my granddaughter, so that now makes a total of eight generations of bakers making these "Moons"!

(continued on page 2)

After my grandfather Johann died, my grandmother Gisela moved upstairs and we took over the first floor. I do not recall watching her make M. Kipfels but I do recall watching her make strudels on her large oak table. She would roll layer after layer of thin dough and would put fruit filling in between the various layers. I am presently sitting here typing on her oak table which we brought back to St. Louis after she sold her house.

I sent a copy of the BB recipe from Ed Malesky (in newsletter 295) to my mother's friend's sister-in-law, because her grandparents, who had emigrated from NiT, owned the two Muellner bakeries in Chicago. She confirmed that our M. Kipfels had the dough cut into crescents before baking, unlike Ed Malesky's kipfels, which had the dough rolled and filled before baking. My grandmother did also make something that looks quite similar to Ed's but we cannot seem to determine what she called them.

Here's an excerpt of the verbal directions from the letter that accompanied my mother's recipe:

Monday, Aug 30th, 1970

You asked for my recipe for the little moons (kipfels) and so I thought I would send it to you before I forget all about it again. I'll just call them "moons". Not only do I murder the pronunciation of the German name but I can't spell it either.

Grandma Fritz says to use one stick of butter and one of margarine. I beat the egg whites in my large bowl then pile them in the smaller bowl. Have everything else ready so the egg whites won't have to stand too long before you fold them [into the] creamed mixture. It is a little hard to get dough even in the pan. Grandma's trick is to drop the pan on the table a couple of times to level it. Sounds terrible and the first time I tried it the nuts and sugar flew all over the kitchen. After that I did it before I put the topping on but I don't really think it is necessary. I kind of gently spread the topping out where I get too much and it evens out in the baking. I use my donut cutter but you can use a glass to cut the moons.