Baking for Christmas

Christmas is just around the corner, and here, in Norway, part of the tradition is to bake cookies. It is common to count 7 different kinds, but most have more than that at home. They don’t necessarily bake them all (the store has a lot of delicious options) but most have cookies and cakes in cookie jars and tins, ready to be served if someone should drop by during the holidays.

Preparing for Christmas takes a lot of organizing on beforehand. To get everything done on time, and avoid intense stress mess (after all I want this season to be about family friendly values and spending quality time together with others), I plan December day by day. Too much planned in one day often results in nothing getting done at all; I just get caught in overwhelmed distress. Much because this is not only a month of extensive number of traditions and seasonal events at home, in sports-clubs and school, but it is also the season for end of term tests and grading. This is the height of the season, both at home and work.

 

Making tons of Christmas cookies (julekaker) is one of the Norwegian traditions. We tend to eat so many of them while baking, that by the time Christmas is actually here, we are almost fed up with them. But they are important to us.

The discussion on which kinds of cookies we should count as the real deal is an ongoing issue through out the country. There is no key or set rule to which ones to bake (or buy), but most families have their own traditional cookies they would like to include. On the net I found  the most common ones are:

«Smultringer», «goro», «fattigmann», «krumkaker», «sandkaker», «sirupssnipper» and «berlinerkranser». I bake a few of them, but far from all. I guess tastes have a say on what you bother to bake, as there is no point in baking just to throw them away when they get stale…  some time in March.

Smultring  are Norwegian doughnuts. They are smallish and usually prepared without glazing or filling, and are often flavoured with cardamom.

Smultrings are torus shaped and sold from trucks and, at Christmas time, from stalls. They are described as being "thick heavy dough fried in lard – best eaten while hot and with the grease still dripping! Smultring are popular with expatriate Norwegians including those in Minnesota who serve them with krumkake, riskrem (rice cream), and fattigmann at Christmas dinners.
^{(source wikipedia.com)}

Goro were traditionally the "rich man's" cookies in Norway – they are prepared from what used to be really expensive ingredients like butter and cream and they are baked on specially smithed irons that very often are family heirlooms. The cookies have a texture that's a cross between a cookie, a cracker, and a waffle, lightly flavored with cardamom. I just love the pattern these cookies get in the iron when baked. I don’t make them very often, though. My grandmother had an old fashioned iron, which had to be flipped, as it was heated by the fire or cooker, but my iron is a modern, electrical one and the cookies are just too thick to become as delicate and crispy as I like them.

Another cookie, which is made from almost the same ingredients as Goro is Fattigmann, or "Poor Man Cookies" which are twisted into pretty knots, quickly fried in oil or lard, and sprinkled with vanilla sugar or confectioner's sugar. They're a favorite in Norway and Sweden, and easy to prepare either with a special fattigman cutter or with a pastry cutter.

I don’t really make these either. I have tried, but... I just never got the hang of it. They just turned fatty and not that tasty at all... maybe I have the wrong recipe. My family never really had a tradition for baking these.

Delicate Norwegian krumkake cookies are baked on a circular cookie iron, then rolled into cones or cigars. They're guaranteed to crumble when eaten, in such a delicious way! There is no way you can eat these in an elegant manner, but I love them! I do not bake them in a large scale... I make them when I plan on serving them or when someone asks for them, as they are the best when just made. Or at least I think so.  I serve them alone, but most times I serve them filled with whipped cream mixed with fruit or berries (cloudberries is very popular around Christmas time) or with ice cream.

 

Serina Cookies are the ultimate Norwegian butter cookie, with a light texture that comes from using hartshorn (a.k.a. baker's ammonia or hornsalt) rather than American baking powder. Sprinkle them with pearl sugar and watch them disappear! Lovely to dip them in hot coffee and add some mocca taste to them  (I know, not very proper, but I do that to chocolate as well...)

 

"Sandkaker" (sand cakes) are formed in pretty fluted tins, quickly baked in the oven, and then served either inverted to highlight their beautiful shapes or else used as tart shells for both sweet and savory fillings. I usually fill them with vanilla custard and berries... or diced fruit. Any kind I have at hand makes these cookies a real treat.

The cookies my kids love the most is Spritz (Sprut in Norwegian), Christmas Cookies are crisp and delicious. Sprut cookies are always on my list of goodies to make.

I lay them together, filling the pair with a delicious frosting added a hint of rum essence.

 

A cookie I do bake a lot of and put in the freezer is Sarah Bernhard. An almond base with chocolate butter cream and chocolate icing.

When I am to serve them I take them out of the freezer, put the coffee on and they are thawned just right for serving by the time coffee is done. They are delicious and just melt in your mouth with an explosion of jammy taste of chocolate.  They are ok for Christmas, but I would turn big as a house if I made them all year round.

 

We also design and build a gingersnap house for each of the kids to decorate with sweets  of their own choice and confectioner's sugar. They get to crack it and eat it New Year’s Eve.

We bake big hearts and tie a bright red bow in them and hang them, i.e. the windows, for decorations... and then some figure shaped smaller ones for eating. Scrumptious!