My neighbour's kitchen: Nut croissants (nussgipfel)

Birgit Koller shows us how she makes Swiss nut croissants (nussgipfel).

I was born in Switzerland. My mum is from Germany and my dad is from Austria. They moved away from their families in search of a better life. My husband, Jeff, was born in Australia but raised in England. We met there in a pub, when I was in a language school studying English and he was on a weekend away with friends. I was meant to return to Switzerland for university, but

I never went back! We stayed in England then came to Australia in 2000.

Wherever you go in Switzerland you’ll see these croissants. They’re almost like a baklava, but instead of filo pastry, we use a basic frozen puff pastry. Quite often in Switzerland you would use a dollop of quark (somewhere between a ricotta and a cream cheese), but here I just use cream in the mixture. You want it to have a porridge-like consistency.

My kids do like to help make nussgipfel, but I’m a little fussy about the rolling! When they roll it seems to go everywhere, so I’m a bit strict. I say “My mum would not approve of that look!”

- Birgit Koller

 

Recipe

Nut croissants (nussgipfel)

 

Photography by Sean Fennessey.   

As seen in Feast magazine, June 2014, Issue 32. For more recipes and articles, pick up a copy of this month's Feast magazine or check out our great subscriptions offers here.