In 1296, in the city of Ulm on the Danube River, Franconian monks invented a culinary wonder. Thanks to the Old Salt Road, a trading route through Germany out to the Far East, the monks had access to cinnamon, cloves, and anise. They didn’t have much in the way of butter, flour, or sugar, but they had nuts from the forest and honey from the monastery’s apiaries. One day, a clever friar had the idea to knead the spoils of the spice trade into the kind of cakey, honey-enriched dough…
