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!
