What Is Zweiback and Why Would I Knep It?: An Introduction

My mom grew up in Henderson, Nebraska, a hotbed of Mennonite culture and tradition, by all accounts, and one of the few things I know about her childhood in that sacred place -- besides the summer her and her friends found religion and burned their comic books -- is that my grandma made zweiback, or two-bakes, as they're also known, on Saturday night. In the Mennonite tradition, zweiback, as the alternate name implies, are two rolls baked stacked one on top of the other. The trick, I'm told, is keeping them stacked during baking.

In any case, my mom and her twin sister loved these rolls so much that they would sneak five or six apiece and eat them under the sheets after they'd gone to bed. A pretty impressive night's work for a couple of little girls. And, according my dad, an art that hasn't yet been lost. My mom bought a dozen of the rolls at this year's Schmeckfest in Freeman, South Dakota, and, by her own admission, could only bear to part with two. I'd like to think she ate them under the sheets for old time's sake.

Despite this hearty appetite for zweiback, I can only remember my mom making them once while I was growing up. Perhaps they bring to mind too many painful memories (my grandma died when my mom was but 13), or maybe they never tasted quite like she remembered, or maybe, more practically, they're just a pain to make.

Lately zweiback has become something of an obsession for me, the key to knowing my mom and the grandma I know very little about. You see, I come from a long line of German-Russian women who show love by feeding people the best food they can offer. Food shapes and defines a community even as it nourishes it, and because my mom and dad share a similar heritage and grew up in Mennonite communities, albeit in different states, knowing the food is akin to knowing who I am, or at least where I am and how I came to be there.

I don't know very much about Mennonite history or theology or if it's something I want to claim (at least some of) for myself. I don't know and so zweiback it is -- my first line of inquiry and kneping, I'll tell you now, is simply the way to shape the dough.