Ever since I was small, I’d eagerly get up early in the morning on 6th of December and rush to the kitchen to see if St. Nicholas had left anything for me on the kitchen table. I can still remember the joy I felt by seeing a basket full of oranges or mandarinas, candies, chocolate, gingerbread cookies – and St. Nicholas bread which if fact wasn’t about St. Nicholas but rather his scary “companion”, parkelj* as we call him: the children here believe St. Nicholas goes around houses with parkelj and a couple of angels and brings presents to good children, while parkelj is there to punish the wicked ones. Don’t ask me what the punishment was like – I’ve always been a good girl!

*in my dictionary it translates literally as “hoof” or “claw” – go figure. However, apparently the expression “parkelj” comes from the German word “Spitzbartl” which translates as “goatee”. Parkelj is described as a devil, furry creature with horns and a very scary look.

The funny thing is, we tend to bake parkelj – shaped bread more than St. Nicholas one, even if it’s given as a present to the good children. I don’t really know why! So when I was kneading the bread dough yesterday, I decided to shape both – Nicholas and parkelj – in the end, they both taste good!

The dough I made is similar to the one I use for making bread, replacing water with milk and adding a few aromas, brushing it with egg yolk and sprinkling with sugar before placing it into the oven. This “bread” is eaten for breakfast and since I made two big creatures, we will have some tomorrow morning, too.

St. Nicholas bread
(makes two pieces)

500g of flour
20g fresh yeast
a pinch of salt
cca. 250ml lukewarm milk
1 Tbsp honey (acacia, lime tree…)
2 Tbsp sugar (I used blond cane sugar) + 1 Tbsp for sprinkling
1 egg yolk, mixed with 1 tsp milk
grated peel of a lemon
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
2 Tbsp of orange blossom water (optional)
1 Tbsp rum
4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil or melted butter
a few raisins or a prune, cut in small pieces (I used the latter)

1. Prepare the yeast mixture by placing yeast in a small pot, covering it with sugar, honey and little milk. Let rise for about 1/2h.
2. Place the flour in a big kneading bowl, add salt, honey, lemon peel, cinnamon, orange blossom water if using, rum, olive oil or butter and at the end, the yeast mixture. Stir the flour using a wooden spoon, then knead until obtaining a soft, elastic dough.
3. Let it rest in a covered bowl away from draught, for about 1 hour.
4. Dividing the dough in 2 parts and using a lot of imagination, shape one good-looking St. Nicholas and his companion. Mine were both about 35cms tall. I was having a great time laughing at my creation, so I warmly recommend to those of you who have children, to get them involved into this work. It’s very fun! Use the raisins/prune for the eyes, buttons and the cross on St. Nicholas’s hat.
5. Brush your creations with some egg yolk, then sprinkle with sugar and bake in preheated oven (200ºC) until nicely browned. In my oven it didn’t take more than 15 minutes.
6. Serve for breakfast. I either dip it in some warm milk/cocoa or eat it with butter.

I stuck a paper "tongue" to parkelj in order to make it a bit scarier