In the Advent season, the Tölzer Kurier takes a look behind a door in the district that is normally closed to the public in every issue.
Today: A bakery in Lenggries, in which cookies & Co. are made every day.
Lenggries -
In the heavenly Christmas bakery, it can be read in children's books, hardworking angels are responsible for the sweet delicacies.
They work diligently, it smells delicious, and sometimes they also sing Christmas carols.
Whether Marco Mellies, owner of the bakery of the same name in Lenggries, sings at work remains his secret.
But he knows what it's like in a real Christmas bakery - from October to Christmas Eve: Above all, it's a lot of work.
He has 20 types of cookies on offer.
They need to be refilled almost every day.
In his Christmas assortment there is everything a cookie heart desires, but also gingerbread and stollen.
The 30-year-old gets up every day at midnight, bakes rolls, bread and pretzels and then devotes himself to the Platzerl.
He continues after the lunch break and often on days off as well.
Mellies' days currently consist of work and sleep: "It's exhausting, but it is also the most beautiful and creative time of the year."
A dough kneading machine replaces the angel
Mellies enjoy "conjuring up" with spices.
There are vanilla croissants, heather sand, shortbread cookies, mini nut wedges or rascals, to name just the most common types.
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This door leads to the Lenggries Christmas bakery.
© Ines Gokus
Mellies' "workshop" is the large bakery in the rear building.
Instead of a host of angels, Mellies works here with another baker and modern technology: Many kilos of flour, butter and sugar are processed into smooth dough in the large kneading machine.
The baker also owns a biscuit machine from Holland.
With the help of various rollers, the cookies and especially the speculoos are given a certain shape.
“I think I'm the only one in the area who has something like this,” says the 30-year-old.
Mellies and his partner come from Paderborn and took over the former Waldherr bakery in March.
The couple feels at home in Brauneckdorf, even if they still have to get used to the Bavarian dialect, as Mellies admits with a smile.
There are about 45 cookies on each tray
There is space for 14 trays in the deck oven, and each tray has around 45 cookies per baking process.
The specialist has neatly filed the recipes in a folder.
"Every now and then I take a look inside because of the quantities." He has collected the recipes over time.
Some come from his father, who runs a family bakery in Paderborn.
Mellies adopted one or two other recipes from his predecessor.
He himself has already worked in England, the USA and Senegal and has successfully sold his speculoos everywhere there.
By the way: The baker still likes to eat Platzerl himself, at least when the season starts in October.
“The first speculoos of the year is the most beautiful,” he enthuses.
“You get a bit in the Christmas mood.” Ig
In the Advent door series, the Tölzer courier also looked into the crypt at Hohenburg Castle and into the detention cell in the Tölzer police station.