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AllerheiligenstriezelBraided sweet loaf

In Bavaria and Austria, godparents give their godchildren an Allerheiligenstriezel on All Saints' Day, 1 November: a large braided loaf of sweet yeast dough, brushed with egg and scattered with almonds or pearl sugar. The braid is said to recall the old custom of cutting a plait of hair in mourning, and the size of the loaf once showed how generous the godparent was. It is lightly sweet, with lemon and vanilla, and is eaten sliced with butter or jam. Some recipes add rum-soaked raisins; these are soaked in warm water instead. Chef's tip: braid four strands for an impressive, high loaf.

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Rybí polévkaCarp soup

In Czechia the Christmas Eve supper begins with rybí polévka, a soup made from the trimmings of the Christmas carp, which is often bought live at street stalls in the days before; here you simply ask the fishmonger for prepared carp trimmings and a fillet. The bones and trimmings make a clear stock that is simmered with carrot, celeriac and parsley root, then filled with flakes of carp and served with croutons fried in butter. Many families add the carp roe. Chef's tip: strain the stock carefully through muslin, as carp has many fine bones.

105 minCzechSoups
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KalanehWild leek stuffed flatbread

In Kurdistan and Kermanshah, Newroz arrives with the first spring greens on the hillsides, and families gather wild leeks to fold into kalaneh, thin griddle breads cooked over a fire or a hot pan and soaked in melted butter. The dough is plain and soft, rolled very thin around a pile of chopped leek or chives with a little salt and pepper, so the greens steam inside as the bread blisters. Eat it hot, torn into strips, with yogurt and tea at a Newroz picnic. The common mistake is wet greens, which turn the dough soggy and make it tear; dry them well after washing. Chef's tip: brush the butter on the moment the bread leaves the pan so it soaks right in.

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Australian rissoles

On Australia Day, 26 January, backyards fill with the smell of the barbie, and rissoles are as much a part of it as sausages: thick, homely patties of beef mince, grated onion, breadcrumbs and a splash of sauce, fried or grilled until browned. They are served with gravy and mash in winter, or in a bread roll with tomato sauce and salad on a summer afternoon. Some families now mark the day as a quieter long weekend, but the rissoles stay. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated onion dry, or the patties go soft and break on the grill.

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Chipa so'oCheese bread with spiced beef

In Paraguay, families bake chipa in the clay tatakua ovens on Holy Wednesday so there is food for Thursday and Good Friday, when cooking stops. Chipa so'o ('chipa with meat') is a cassava-starch and cheese bread wrapped around a little filling of minced beef cooked with onion and egg, then baked until crisp outside and chewy within. It is naturally gluten free. Chef's tip: knead the dough until it no longer cracks at the edges when pressed; dry dough splits around the filling.

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MazanecEaster raisin and almond bread

Mazanec is the round Easter bread of Bohemia, baked on Holy Saturday and eaten on Easter Sunday and Monday. The sweet yeast dough is rich with butter, egg yolks and lemon, studded with raisins and almonds, and scored with a deep cross before baking so it opens like a flower. Old recipes soak the raisins in rum; here they are soaked in warm tea, so the bread is alcohol-free. Slice it and spread with butter and honey. Chef's tip: give mazanec a long, slow bake at a moderate heat, because the rich dough browns quickly and the centre needs time.

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Velikonoční nádivkaBread, egg and smoked pork bake

Velikonoční nádivka ('Easter stuffing', also called hlavička) is a Czech and Moravian Easter dish, baked on Holy Saturday or Easter Sunday. Cubes of bread rolls are soaked in milk and eggs, then mixed with smoked pork and a big handful of young nettles, spinach or spring herbs, and baked until golden and puffy. It's eaten warm or cold, sliced, often beside roast lamb or chicken. For a vegetarian version, leave out the smoked pork and add 250 g fried mushrooms. Chef's tip: pick nettles wearing gloves and blanch them for 30 seconds, which takes away the sting.

75 minCzechMeat
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HrudkaEgg and milk cheese

Hrudka (also called sirok or egg cheese) is made in eastern Slovakia and among Rusyn and Slovak families abroad for Easter. Eggs and milk are stirred over a low heat until they separate into soft curds, then the curds are tied tightly in a cloth into a ball and hung to drain overnight. The pale-yellow, mild, slightly sweet 'cheese' is taken to church in the Easter basket on Holy Saturday and sliced at Easter breakfast with ham, bread and horseradish. It needs no rennet, so it is naturally vegetarian. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and stir constantly; high heat makes rubbery curds.

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Kapr na černoCarp in dark sweet-sour sauce

Before fried breaded carp took over the Czech Christmas Eve table, families in Bohemia served kapr na černo, 'black carp': fish simmered in a dark, glossy, sweet-sour sauce of root vegetables, gingerbread, prunes, nuts and dark beer. It is rich and spiced, closer to a medieval feast dish than to the modern menu, and served with bread dumplings or potatoes. This version uses a non-alcoholic dark malt drink so the sauce is alcohol-free; adults may use dark beer. Chef's tip: grate the gingerbread finely, so it melts into a smooth sauce rather than leaving soggy crumbs.

105 minCzechFish
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KaguyjyWhite corn pudding

On the night of 23–24 June, Paraguayans celebrate San Juan with bonfires, games like walking over hot coals and the 'paso de fuego', and a table of traditional foods, and kaguyjy (also mazamorra) is one of them. It is a soft, creamy pudding of cracked white corn (locro) simmered slowly in water and then milk with sugar or honey, sometimes with orange peel. It is eaten warm or cold. It is gluten free. Chef's tip: soak the corn overnight and cook it until each kernel is tender before adding the milk, or it never turns creamy.

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Pajagua mascadaBeef and cassava patties

Pajagua mascada is a Paraguayan street-food classic that appears on every table for the San Juan festival on 24 June, when bonfires burn and the night is full of games and traditional food. Minced beef is mixed with mashed cassava, onion, garlic and a little egg and flour, shaped into flat patties and fried until crisp. The name comes from Guaraní and refers to the 'chewing' of old Paraguayan cooks, who made it from leftover meat. Chef's tip: dry the boiled cassava well and remove its woody core, which keeps the patties light and crunchy.

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Dowina (Kurdish yogurt soup)

Dowina, called ash-e doogh in Persian, is warming spring food in Kurdish homes around Newroz, when yogurt is plentiful and the first herbs are cut from the garden. Rice and chickpeas simmer in a tangy, lightly thickened yogurt broth, finished with fresh dill, coriander and a sizzle of dried mint in oil. It is eaten warm, never boiling hot, with flatbread. The common mistake is to heat the yogurt too fast without stirring, which makes it split into grainy curds. Chef's tip: whisk an egg yolk and a spoonful of rice flour into the yogurt before it goes on the heat; it holds the soup smooth all the way to the simmer.

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OsterpinzeEaster anise brioche

Osterpinze is the Easter bread of Styria, Carinthia and the area around Trieste, a soft, golden brioche dome with three deep cuts on top for the Holy Trinity, so that it opens into a crown as it bakes. The dough is rich with egg yolks and butter and flavoured with anise and lemon; old recipes add a splash of white wine, left out here. It is blessed in the Easter basket on Holy Saturday and eaten on Easter morning with ham, horseradish and eggs, or with butter and jam. Chef's tip: make the three cuts with scissors just before baking, deep enough to reach halfway down, so the crown opens wide.

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Včelí úlkyNo-bake beehive biscuits

Včelí úlky ('little beehives') are a classic of the Czech Christmas cookie plate (cukroví), which families build up through Advent with a dozen or more kinds. They need no oven: crushed biscuits, ground walnuts, cocoa and butter are pressed into beehive moulds, filled with a smooth egg-yolk cream and sealed with a disc of biscuit. Traditionally a little rum is added to the dough; this version uses milk, and adults may add 1 tbsp rum. The cream is cooked to 71 °C so the yolks are safe, though anyone pregnant or vulnerable may prefer pasteurised yolks. Chef's tip: chill the filled hives before unmoulding, or they collapse.

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Khailmag (cream and raisin sweet)

Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year, means 'White Month', and white dairy foods stand for purity, plenty and a clean start to the year, so homes across the country set out cream, curds and sweets beside the steaming buuz. Khailmag is one of the most luxurious: clotted cream (or Mongolian öröm, the thick skin skimmed from boiled milk) is cooked with butter-toasted flour, sugar and raisins until it turns into a golden, fudgy porridge. It is very rich, so serve small spoonfuls with salty milk tea, or alongside ul boov biscuits and boortsog. There is no alcohol in it. Chef's tip: toast the flour slowly until it smells nutty; that toasting gives khailmag its caramel flavour.

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OblátkyChristmas wafers with honey

In Slovakia the Christmas Eve supper (Štedrá večera) opens with oblátky: large, paper-thin wafers stamped with a nativity pattern. The head of the household marks each person's forehead with a cross of honey, and everyone eats a wafer spread with honey, often with a sliver of garlic for health, before the cabbage soup. Families buy them from the church or bake them on a patterned wafer iron; this recipe also gives a pan method for thin, crisp wafers. Chef's tip: the batter must be thin like single cream, as a thicker batter gives a soft pancake instead of a wafer.

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Jam dropsJam thumbprint biscuits

Few things say Australian morning tea like a plate of jam drops: soft golden butter biscuits, each with a thumb-pressed hollow of glossy jam. Country cookbooks and school fete stalls have carried them for generations, and they are often the first biscuit Australian children learn to bake, because there is nothing to roll or cut. Serve them with a cuppa, or tuck them into lunch boxes; plum or apricot jam work as well as raspberry. Plenty of families make them without egg, using a little milk instead. Chef's tip: fill each hollow only level with the top, about half a teaspoon; overfilling is the common error, and the jam bubbles over and burns on the tray.

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TopfengolatschenSweet quark puff pastry squares

A Topfengolatsche is what Viennese office workers grab from the bakery on the way in, and what grandparents order with a Melange in a coffee house on a Sunday afternoon. The corners of a puff pastry square are folded over a lemony, vanilla-scented filling of Topfen (Austrian quark) with plump raisins, and the top gets a thin white glaze. It is flaky, light and not too sweet. Raisins are sometimes soaked in rum; warm water or orange juice works just as well, and the recipe below is alcohol-free. Wet quark is the classic problem, because it turns the filling runny and it leaks out in the oven. Chef's tip: hang the quark in a sieve lined with a clean cloth for an hour, or squeeze it, until it is as thick as soft cream cheese.

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Honey joysHoney cornflake cakes

Honey joys have been on Australian children's birthday tables for generations, next to fairy bread and chocolate crackles: crunchy clusters of cornflakes coated in bubbling honey butter and baked in little paper cases until golden and crisp. Children can stir and spoon them while an adult handles the hot syrup. They are for school-age children and not for babies under one, who shouldn't have honey. They contain milk and usually gluten (from malt in cornflakes). Chef's tip: bake them just until golden; a few minutes too long and the honey turns bitter.

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Sausage sizzle

The sausage sizzle is how Australians raise money for school fetes, sports clubs and polling days, and it is the easiest food for a backyard birthday: thick sausages barbecued until browned, laid diagonally on a slice of soft white bread with a heap of sweet fried onions and a squiggle of tomato sauce. One slice, one sausage, eaten in the hand. It contains gluten from the bread (and often the sausages). Chef's tip: cook the onions slowly on the flat plate before the sausages, and push them to the cooler side to keep warm while the sausages cook.

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Jaffles (Australian toasted sandwiches)

Jaffles are Australian childhood in a sandwich: thick bread sealed around a hot filling in a cast-iron jaffle iron over the campfire, or in an electric sandwich press after school and on rainy weekend lunchtimes. Cheese and baked beans, or cheese and tomato, are the classics, and the sealed edges keep everything molten inside. They contain gluten and milk. Chef's tip: butter the outsides, not the insides, so the bread turns crisp and golden against the iron.

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Buchtičky se šodó (tiny buns in vanilla custard)

Ask anyone who went to school in Czechia or Slovakia about the canteen, and buchtičky se šodó comes up with a smile: a bowl of tiny, soft, buttery yeast buns baked close together and pulled apart, sitting in warm vanilla custard. Families make it at home as a sweet main course or afternoon treat, especially in winter. The custard here is lightly sweetened. It contains gluten, milk and egg. Chef's tip: brush the buns with melted butter before they go into the tin, so they pull apart cleanly after baking.

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Jelly slice

Jelly slice is a fixture of school fetes, church bake stalls and birthday tables in Australia and New Zealand: a crushed biscuit base, a tangy layer of lemon and condensed milk set with gelatine, and a glassy top of red raspberry jelly, cut into neat squares. It needs no oven but a lot of fridge time, so make it the day before. It contains gluten and milk, and gelatine, so it is not vegetarian; agar-based vegetarian jelly crystals and a vegetarian gelling agent work if set according to their packet. Chef's tip: let the jelly cool until it is syrupy and only just warm before pouring, or it melts into the creamy layer.

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Kärntner ReindlingCinnamon raisin yeast cake

Carinthia's Easter loaf takes its name from the Reindl, the round, deep pan it is baked in, and in southern Austria no Easter basket goes to church without one. Inside the golden yeast crust is a spiral of butter, cinnamon sugar and plump raisins, so every slice shows a dark swirl. Locals eat it two ways: sweet with coffee on Easter morning, or alongside the savoury Easter platter with horseradish. Many bakers soak the raisins in rum overnight; warm water or tea works just as well and keeps it alcohol-free. A dry, crumbly Reindling usually means too much flour went in during kneading, so keep the dough soft and only lightly floured. Chef's tip: butter the pan well and dust it with sugar, which caramelises into a thin crunchy shell.

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