Betty Bossi, the name both of a fictional cookbook author and the cookbooks itself, is one of the most popular, if not the most popular, Swiss cookbook series. Read our previous post about the history of Betty Bossi.
One of the most popular of the more than 100 Betty Bossi cookbooks is the one called Guetzle mit Betty Bossi (cookie making with Betty Bossi), a book filled with cookie recipes from Switzerland and abroad. You can find most of the classic Swiss Christmas cookies in this book and many other Swiss classics that are baked in Switzerland all throughout the year. The Guezle mit Betty Bossi book was first published in 1978 and brought some in Switzerland still unknown cookies like Brownies, Florentines or Vanillekipferl their fame. The hugely popular book was out of stock from 1993 until 2016 and was instead replaced by the book Das neue Guezlibuech (the new cookie book), which is good but just not like the original first one. Last year, to the delight of many people, the initial Guetzle mit Betty Bossi was back in print. This book is one of my cooking bibles, I use it for all my Christmas cookies; on this blog you can find a few of the Betty Bossi Christmas cookies recipes. There’s also many other cookie recipes I’m using throughout the year, for example the Wasserbretzeli and Lace Cookies.
This book, containing 118 recipes, is the original version from back in the 1970ies. It still contains the photos from back then, so don’t expect modern, bright food photos but the brownish, dark photographs from the 1970ies. The recipes though are still as popular as back in the seventies, and who can resist a good Swiss Guezli?
My Swiss mother -in-law gives me a Betty Bossi cookbooks regularly. I never know what to try! I have Das Neue Guetzlibuch. Can you recommend some favourites which I could try? I have to make Chrabeli, I think that was in our marriage vows! But so many others!
I would love an explanation of Swiss Christmas! My husband is Swiss and I am from the US of German background and would love to hear more!
I’ll write up some Swiss Christmas instructions this month. So far I’ve written a post on how to make Gritibänz, the Swiss Advent breadmen, a must for a Swiss December (http://www.littlezurichkitchen.ch/gritibaenz/) and I’ve translated a few Christmas cookies recipes from the old Betty Bossi cookies book (http://www.littlezurichkitchen.ch/christmas-cookies/). From Das Neue Guezlibuech I like the Mailänderli, Spitzbuben, Vanillehörnchen, Sablés and Brunsli, which are all classic Swiss Christmas cookies (and the Chräbeli too of course!). I also really like the Orangen-Schokolade-Tropfen as they’re made with brown flour and therefore are a bit different. A very popular Swiss dish for Advent dinner parties or for Christmas itself is the pork fillet wrapped in sausagemeat and pastry, the Filet im Teig (http://www.littlezurichkitchen.ch/filet-im-teig/=
Oh thank you so much! I will have to try the Grittibänz! I will definitely try those Guetzle, the Orangen chocolate ones sound great.