Dina Weber's Christmas Stollens have a loyal customer base across India. (Supplied)
To feed her travel bug, German-born Dina Weber would frequent India. She had done multiple backpacking trips across Asia before eventually settling down in Karnataka’s Mysuru in 2016.
“I came to India nine years back,” says Weber, baker and founder of SAPA (Sourdough & Pastry).
“There was a German philosopher in the ’50s who had said that India is the last country where people talk to one another without trying to get something from the other person. That made me really curious to see the country. I kept coming back to India and finally ended up staying back,” she recalls.
Weber landed in Mysuru following a friend’s suggestion.
“The city is so clean and calm. There’s yoga and a little bit of a music scene. It’s quite cosmopolitan in some pockets. Once I came here, it clicked instantly and I ended up staying. Now it’s been 7 years.”
SAPA originally started as a cloud kitchen. (Instagram/sapabakery)
While setting up a business in a new place came with its own challenges, the hospitality extended by the community helped.
It was a step by step process, she tells South First.
“SAPA was a small cloud kitchen, at first. Slowly, it became more institutionalised. The people of Mysuru have welcomed me and SAPA so well. They were always helping me out. That really mattered,” she adds.
Now, the quaint bakery, which started out of her home kitchen, is a brand that has built a loyal customer base across the country.
Christmas has always been a month-long celebration for Weber. Back in Germany, December is a month for a lot of baking, reading, hiking, walks, among other activities.
Christmas isn’t grand but a cosy affair for Weber. (Supplied)
“I come from the countryside. In Germany, each town has its own traditional Christmas market. So everybody has their favourite towns they drive to,” she informs.
However, Christmas isn’t grand but a cosy affair.
“We have the Christmas dinner, we play games. There’s a lot of dessert. On the day after Christmas, we go for a long hike in the forest. Similar to Deepavali here, it is a time when everybody comes home. There are friends’ reunions. So it’s like, you celebrate Christmas with your family, then go clubbing with your friends,” she shares.
At her Mysuru home, Weber tries to recreate her Christmas memories with her daughter.
“Even though I’m not religious, there is a lot of cosiness, tradition and value attached to this holiday. So here, we make our own wreaths and decorations for home. My daughter and I bake cookies together. We send Christmas cards to friends and family. I try to get her in the holiday mood,” she adds.
During Christmas, Weber’s kitchen is extra busy. There are of course the famous Stollens, Italian brioche called Panettone, traditional German gingerbread cookies and more.
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By introducing the famous Iron Ore Mountain Stollen (an indulgent combination of butter, dried fruits, nut flour, and an aromatic blend of spices, and butter), Weber makes it a point to infuse some of her German heritage into the Christmas offerings at SAPA.
“We have been doing Stollens for the last four years. We have regular customers, many start messaging in October asking when they can start ordering. This year, we are also making mulled wine and eggnog. We also have roast chicken and ginger bread cookies that are new additions. We try to bring in a lot of comfort food for people to have a nice meal,” she explains.
Besides her bakes at SAPA, this Christmas, Weber has one personal project. She has recreated her grandmother’s recipe of Hutzelbrot– a German fruit bread.
“My family is from the Black Forest. During summer, we make our own schnapps. My grandmother would harvest the fruits and dehydrate them. In the winter, she would rehydrate the fruits with our own schnapps. Then she would make this very fruit-heavy bread with rye. She’d let it sit and develop its flavour and then sends it to all of us. We’d eat it with cold butter– a delightful combination,” she elaborates.
Hutzelbrot is best had with cold butter. (Instagram/Dina Weber)
Weber is drawn to Hutzelbrot not only because of the memory associated with it but also its name.
“I find food origins and word origins very interesting. Hutzel is a very South German word for shriveled up things. Here, it refers to dehydrating the fruits and Brut is bread. I feel like the German language used to be very nuanced. A lot of it is lost now. But in some of these words like Hutzelbrot, you can still get a glimpse of the older language,” she says.
The process of recreating a recipe from memory took Weber two months.
She explains, “I read up on it and compared different recipes that I found online. Then I compared those to the recipe my mother had written down from my grandmother. I tried making it a few times with our head baker at SAPA. We did 4-5 trials after each of which we’d adjust the recipe a little bit. Finally, we had it.”
However, Hutzelbrot is not available in SAPA’s Christmas menu.
“We are not selling it. Firstly, it has a very specific taste so I don’t know how people would receive it. The other factor is that it’s so fruit dense, it would be very expensive,” informs Weber.
It was just a little project for her this Christmas.
“I don’t get to try so many new things amidst all the hustle of running a business. So it’s nice when I get a chance to do that. And when there is a family story attached to it, it’s even better,” she shares.
SAPA’s Christmas bakes get orders from across the country. (Supplied)
Over the years, Mysuru has become home for Weber.
I don’t feel very German sometimes, Weber quips.
“I feel like I’m part of the local fabric. A lot of people here know me and SAPA. I have a lovely circle of friends. I feel very comfortable and at home here. When I go to Germany, I start missing India –the streets, the liveliness, all the video and audio input you get. You don’t have that in Germany. So when I go there it’s so silent and I can’t deal with it,” she laughs.
Wrapping up the conversation, we ask Weber about her Christmas for this year. “To have a nice time at home with the family in Mysuru and for everything to go smoothly at SAPA during Christmas. It’s a very hectic weekend. I hope there is no power outage or breakdown of any machines,” she signs off.
SAPA’s Christmas goodies are now available in Bengaluru at the Christmas Bake Sale at Courtyard and at the organic shop in Bangalore Club.
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