When I first visited my mother-in-law Solveig Johnson’s house at 4821 N. 14th street in Tacoma WA, I knew I was at the home of serious cook. Her large sunny yellow eat-in kitchen that overlooked a vegetable garden was fully equipped with plenty of counters, ample storage space and a big pantry. The kitchen also was outfitted with numerous pull-out cutting boards and large drawer bins which held 25 lbs. of sugar and flour each. Solie also had a supplemental pantry filled with Ball jars of jams, preserves, pickles and home-canned vegetables in the basement and two large freezers filled with pies, rolls, breads, fruitcakes, soup stock, fish and casseroles (for funeral lunches) in the garage.
The kitchen’s dining area walls were decorated with assorted blue-white Royal Copenhagen and Porsgrund Christmas plates and a rosemaled plague with “Takk for Maten,” a Norwegian prayer of thanks for food. She owned numerous sets of dishes, flatware and serving pieces in various patterns which were always ready for guests.
Solie was an excellent all-round cook and baker. She first learned to prepare Norwegian food at her mother Johanna Gurine Bengsten Tayet’s side. Then, as a young woman during the Depression she gained sophisticated, upper class cooking skills while working for a wealthy Tacoma lumberman’s family.
Solie could whip up a meal for twenty family and friends in a flash as most of the ingredients were always on hand. There was always room for one more at her dining table. Sunday meals often consisted of a King or Coho salmon that my father-in-law Walt caught, roast turkey (not just for Thanksgiving), ham, lamb, or beef with numerous side dishes, accompanied by her storied-cinnamon rolls and lefse. There was always a dessert: a blueberry, rhubarb, apple or other fruit pies or steamed chocolate pudding with hard sauce or fruitcake and cookies galore. In between meals, there was always a pot of coffee and coffee cakes and other sweet treats.
As her mother Johanna Gurine had done for many years, Solie viewed November as preparation time for Christmas, her favorite holiday. Solie’s Christmas baking started before Thanksgiving and traditionally included numerous Norwegian cookies, cardamom bread, julekake and assorted American holiday treats. But the Norwegian cookies were always the stars of Solie’s sweet table, and she was always a traditionalist when it came to Christmas. She baked what her mother Johanna Gurine did before her and Johanna Gurine probably baked what her mother Gerjtrude Johansen Bengtsen baked before her. Solie had an extensive repertoire of Norwegian cookies. While she would bake the Norwegian standards that her mother baked, she also tried to please family members with favorite cookies. She also baked for friends, neighbors and elderly shut-ins from her church.
At the start of each November, Solie would fill her sugar and flour drawer bins and her refrigerator with butter and cream and start mixing and baking. Walt would load the stereo with her collection of long-playing records of Christmas music. For Solie, Christmas cookie baking was so much more than creaming butter and sugar and whipping eggs until fluffy. It meant togetherness and sharing love and traditions. She had warm memories of her childhood Christmases and wanted to share them with others.
As cookie production started, Solie made a social occasion out of the baking, inviting her sisters Bee Hammerstrom, Frida Gerla, or her sister-in-law Emma Johnson to help and gossip. An assembly line of sorts was set up and hundreds of cookies were baked every day. Over a few weeks, usually by Thanksgiving, the garage floor was so crowded with cookie-filled Folger coffee cans and other tins that the family car was relegated to the driveway.
In the weeks after Thanksgiving. Solie paid holiday visits to friends always with a tin of cookies as a gift. Even though Weldon and I lived far away in the Midwest, we always got a box of Solie’s cookies. But she also kept plenty on hand for the holidays at home.
And Solie baked cookies not only at Christmas time. Other times in the year, when Solie came to visit us in Chicago, I would turn my kitchen over to her and she would cook and bake Weldon’s favorites to her heart’s content.
Several years after Solie died in 2004, I learned about the Norwegian tradition of baking Seven Sorts of cookies for Christmas (syv slag til jul på norsk), allegedly to assure good luck in the coming year. As I read Norwegian cookbooks, I was intrigued by repeated mention of the Seven Sorts tradition and wondered, considering the staunchly Norwegian family she grew up in, why Solie never mentioned it. Weldon, a cookie devotee, does not remember any reference to Seven Sorts during childhood, but he recalls that a wide variety of Norwegian cookies appeared just before every Christmas. So a little sleuthing through Norway’s culinary history was in order.
According to Norwegian expert on traditions and food culture Astri Riddervold, the Christmas Seven Sorts cookie tradition is not particularly old. Easter was the major feast day of the year, not New Year nor Christmas (Jul) before 1582, when the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Norway. The first Norwegian cookies were thin wafers made on wafer irons. The wafers were closely linked to religious rituals, probably communion, and these wafer irons often were embossed with religious symbols which were later replaced with acanthus leaf designs.
These irons can be traced back to Holland. In the 18th Century, Amsterdam was a wealthy port city with extensive global trade. Dutch shipowners preferred Norwegian sailors and its merchant class preferred Norwegian housekeepers. Many Norwegian seamen signed onto ships departing Amsterdam, and their wives often signed on for domestic service while their spouses were at sea. Norwegian couples returned home often accompanied the “newfangled” kitchen gadgets, including wafer irons. Although these irons brought the idea of a cookie to Norway, they could not be used on a hearth and required iron stoves which were not widely used in Norwegian households until almost a century later.
Before the popularization of cookies, Norwegian Christmas baking was generally simple: preparation of vørterkaker, a sweet bread made from rye flour, honey and syrup. One of Norway’s earliest cookbooks, published in 1845 by novelist Hanna Winsnes includes no cookie recipes, only one recipe for Christmas cake, similar to today’s Christmas bread, julekake, a sweet yeast bread flavored with citron and raisins. According to Riddervold, cookies arose as an upper-class phenomenon in the 19th century. Christmas cookies require expensive ingredients: butter, sugar, eggs and white flour, which were hard to come by for many rural households in impoverished Norway. Affluent ladies in the towns who could afford these ingredients ate cookies while they sipped sweet wines. Тhe Seven Sorts tradition allegedly expanded throughout urban Norway by the end of the 19th century. It may not have reached Trondheim by the time Solie’s mother Johanna Gurine Bengsten emigrated to the US in 1903.
So Solie, born and raised in Tacoma, knew of the Norwegian tradition of baking Christmas cookies, but had no special name for it and was not limited by the number seven. Solie baked many more than seven Norwegian cookies every year.
So this year I decided to replicate seven of Solie’s favorite recipes I could master. There are still other recipes I must learn, which I will describe in another post. I inherited Solie’s cookie tools so this was a good opportunity to try them out and you can see the fruits of my labor.
A word about these cookie recipes: some were no more than a list of ingredients with instructions such as “mix and bake.” Thus, I had to research other similar recipes for more detailed instructions and baking temperatures.
Solie always made full recipes, regardless of how many cookies they produced. She never thought there could too many cookies and I provide the full recipes as written. But this holiday season I halved the recipes so we would not eat Christmas cookies through next summer!
Gingerbread Cookies (Pepparkaker)
Unlike American and German gingerbread cookies which are thick and soft, these Norwegian relatives are thin and crisp. Solie inherited this recipe from her mother Johanna Gurine.
2 cups (620 g) dark corn syrup (such as Karo)
1 cup (200 g) dark brown sugar, firmly packed
½ cup (110 g) butter, soft
2 teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
5⅓ cups (663 g) all-purpose flour
Decorative sugars, optional
Combine syrup, sugar and butter in large mixer bowl with paddle attachment and beat until smooth.
In another bowl, combine flour, spices, salt and baking soda and whisk until combined. With the mixer running, add several tablespoons of flour mixture at a time into the syrup-butter mixture until well incorporated before adding more flour.
Once wet and dry ingredients are combined, pat dough into a mound in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 days.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F (180 °C). Prepare cookie sheets by lining with parchment or lightly spraying with cooking spray.
Remove dough from refrigerator an hour before baking. Scoop out ¼ of the dough onto a well-floured surface. Form into a round disk and, flouring both sides of the dough to prevent sticking, roll out to a thickness of ⅛ inch. Cut out to desired shapes and decorate with colored sugars, if desired. Place cookies half inch apart on prepared cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 minutes. Repeat until remaining dough is used. Re-roll scraps and cut out cookies only once, discarding remaining scraps.
Remove from oven and cool in pans for 5 minutes. Transfer and cool on wire racks. Once cookies reach room temperature, store in metal tins or plastic containers. Keep in a cool place or freeze for up to one month.
Yield: 9-10 dozen.
Spritz
This cookie requires a cookie press which is readily available in most cookware shops and comes with assorted discs for varying cookie shapes.
1 cup (220 g) butter, softened
¾ cup (150 g) sugar
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 ½ cups (313 g) all purpose flour
Candied cherries or colored sugars for decoration, optional
Beat butter thoroughly with mixer. Add sugar gradually, continuing to beat until light and fluffy.
Add yolks, extracts, salt and beat well.
Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off; add flour in 3 additions to the butter mixture. Mix well after each addition. Dough will be stiff.
Fill cookie press according to manufacturer’s instructions. Use desired cookie disc; make cookies on cookie sheet with ½ inch (1.27 cm) separation.
Bake 8-10 minutes at 400 °F (200°C) or until just starting to brown at edge, being careful not to overbake
Yield: 6-7 dozen
Syrup Snaps (Sirupsnipper)
5 ounces (143 g) whipping cream
5.3 ounces (150 g) dark syrup
5.3 oz (175 g) sugar
5 oz (96 g) butter
15.8 oz (450 g) flour
½ teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon ground anise
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon hartshorn salt (ammonium bicarbonate)
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 egg white, beaten
Decoration:
3.3 oz (100 g) blanched almond halves
Bring cream, syrup and sugar to a boil. Add melted butter and cool until the mixture is lukewarm.
In large mixer bowl fitted with a paddle attachment, whisk the dry ingredients together, slowly kneading dough together until smooth. Cover surface of the dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Prepare cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper or spraying lightly with cooking spray.
Remove dough from refrigerator one hour before baking. Scoop out ¼ of the dough onto a well-floured surface and roll out into a thin sheet approximately ⅛ ”(.3 cm) thick, dusting with flour as needed to keep from sticking. Using a ruler, cut dough into 2 inch wide strips using a pastry crimping wheel. Then cut strips on a diagonal into diamond shapes and space on cookie sheets a half inch apart. Place a half almond in the center of each cookie. Glaze cookies with egg white before baking.
Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes until lightly golden.
Cool on rack. Store them in an airtight box in cool spot or freezer.
Yield: 5-6 dozen
Curled Wafers (Krumkaker)
This is probably the oldest Norwegian cookie because it is baked on a krumkaker iron, similar to the wafer irons brought by Norwegian cooks from Holland in the 18th century. Unlike other recipes in this post, the ingredients for krumkaker are determined by the weight of the eggs. Each egg produces 9-10 krumkaker. I used an electric krumkaker iron, but stove top irons are still available. These cookies customarily are rolled into a conical shape, but can also be enjoyed as flat wafers.
2 eggs
Sugar
Butter, melted
Flour
⅛ teaspoon ground cardamom
Weigh the eggs with shell on and note the total weight. Break eggs into large mixer bowl fitted with paddle attachment and add an equal amount by weight of sugar. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Beating constantly at low speed, add an equal amount by weight of butter and the same amount of flour.
Grease the krumkaker iron with a thin coating of butter or cooking spray. Heat iron until hot and a drop of water sputters on when sprinkled on surface. Place a tablespoon of batter slightly further than in the center of the iron. Shut iron and bake 1-2 minutes, checking periodically, until golden. Trim ragged edges of cake while on iron. Remove cake with spatula and immediately roll into a cone.
Cool and store in cookie tin or freeze for up to one month.
Yield: 20 krumkaker
Poor Man’s Cookies (Fattigman)
Several legends describe the unusual name. One legend says that the ingredients for this rich cookie were quite expensive, so that after buying the ingredients for this Christmas treat, the baker would be in the poor house. Another version says that this cookie was the one that the poor could afford because it used very little sugar which was imported and expensive.
7 egg yolks
½ cup (55 g) sugar
1 cup (230 g) whipping cream
¼ teaspoon lemon peel, grated
2 tablespoons brandy or cognac
2⅔ cups (313 g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
Oil for frying
Beat yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. Whip cream until stiff and add to eggs along with lemon peel and brandy. Add cardamom to flour and sift 2 cups ( 250 g) into egg mixture, reserving remaining ⅓ flour (63 g) to sprinkle over dough and for rolling.
With rubber spatula, form dough into a ball at the bottom of the mixing bowl. Wrap a sheet of plastic wrap around edges to prevent drying out. Refrigerate dough overnight.
Next day, empty reserved flour onto counter, remove small portion of dough and roll out into a thin sheet of dough, about ⅛ inch (.3 cm). Cut into diamond shapes using a fattigman cutter, ruler, and pastry wheel. Make a slit in the middle of the diamond and slip one corner of dough through the slit to make a knot.
Preheat oil until 350°F (180°C). Fry a few pieces at a time until lightly golden brown, removing with strainer to paper towel covered cookie sheet for draining and cooling. Maintain oil temperature at 350°F (180°C) while frying the remaining cookies.
Once fattigman are cooled, dust with powdered sugar and store in airtight container or freeze.
Yield: 6-7 dozen
Coconut Macaroons
5 egg whites
2 cups (220 g) powdered sugar
12 oz (340 g) grated coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoons almond extract
Preheat oven to 300°F ( 150°C).
In large mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly add sugar until well incorporated. Add coconut and both extracts.
Line several baking sheets with silicon mats or parchment paper. Lightly butter the parchment paper only. Scoop out coconut mixture with tablespoon measure and space an inch apart on baking sheets.
Bake for 20 minutes, rotating baking sheets after 10 minutes and checking browning. Macaroons are done when slightly tinged with gold at the rim.
Yield: 32 cookies
Hartshorn Cookies (Hjortetakk)
The Norwegian name of these cookies translates as “antlers of a hart (a red deer)” because the leavening used in early recipes was ground antlers, also called “salt of hartshorn” or ammonium carbonate. Baking powder is the contemporary leavening alternative and is usually substituted when ammonium carbonate is unavailable.
5 cups (625 g) sifted flour, divided
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder or ammonium carbonate
8 egg yolks, room temperature
2 cups (400 g) sugar
1 cup (230 g) whipping cream, whipped
¼ pound (55 g) butter, unsalted, melted and cooled
|Zest of 1 lemon
2-3 teaspoons ground cardamom
Canola oil for frying
Sift together 5 cups of flour, salt, baking powder or ammonium carbonate and set aside.
Beat egg yolks in mixer uSntil pale yellow and add sugar a few spoons at a time until fluffy. Slowly beat in whipped cream and melted butter. Add lemon zest and cardamom. Blend in flour mixture into the egg mixture until incorporated. Pat dough into a ball at bottom of bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Remove dough from refrigerator and leave at room temperature for 15 minutes so that it is pliable. On a floured surface, roll 2 inch balls of dough into pencil thick lengths about 4-5 inches long overlapping ends and cutting tips at an ring.) angle to resemble horns. (Or make two or three cuts along the outside of each
Heat oil in deep pot or fryer until 375°F (190.5 °C). Deep-fry two or three cookies at a time in the hot oil until golden. Remove with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel lined tray to drain and then to baking rack to cool. Store in airtight container or freeze.
Yield: 6 dozen, depending on size
Photo credits: Slava Johnson
One year ago this month: http://Turban Squash — Not Just for Show and http://Pumpkin Trio