Swiss Recipes: Sweets and Cookies

Luzerner Birnenwecken/Birewegge

A traditional sweet pastry made from filo dough with dried pears and prunes.

Ingredients

• 500 g [18 ounces] filo pastry
• 1 kg [36 ounces] dried pears
• 300 g [11 ounces] dried prunes
• 100 g [3 1/2 ounces] figs
• 200 g [7 ounces] walnuts
• 100 g [3 1/2 ounces] raisins
• 150 g [5 3/8 ounces] sugar
• 1 spoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon aniseed
• 1/4 teaspoon clove
• 6 spoons träsch [Swiss brandy made from pomace of fruits, e.g. apples, pears, prunes, cherries; you may use any fruit brandy like kirsch instead]
• 1 egg white
• 1 egg yolk

Preparation

Soak the fruits for at least 12 hours in cold water, then cook in the water used for soaking for half an hour and decant the water. Remove all hard parts as stems and kernels, hash the fruits. Add sugar, träsch, walnuts and spices and mix up.

Roll the dough to a rectangle of 3 mm [1/8 inch] thickness and add the fruit paste 1 cm [2/5 inch] thick. Leave 2 cm [1 inch] border. Roll the pastry and form a cuboid of about 30 cm [1 foot] length, 10 cm [4 inches] width and 2-3 cm [1 inch] thickness, close the two ends and glue with egg white. Brush the surface with egg yolk. Bake at 180° C [350° F].