Brötchen and Papa’s Midnight Baking

In the middle of the night.

At home, I remember Mutti doing almost all the cooking.

Papa rarely ventured into the kitchen, at least not that I can recall. But every once in a while, he made brötchen.

And when I say he made brötchen, I mean a LOT of brötchen.

I don’t remember how he started making them or where he found the recipe. Unfortunately, I never thought to ask him or Mutti. Papa died when I was just thirteen, and life at home changed quickly after that. Mutti had to go to work, and freshly baked brötchen were no longer something any of us were thinking about.