Recipe: Krumkaker filled with cloudberry cream
And at no point are the winter nights colder and longer than during the last weeks before the New Year. If there’s any time of year in which Norwegians are in a more dire need of something to celebrate, this newsletter certainly doesn’t know about it.
Christmas is synonymous with food for most Norwegians. Even before Christianity came to the country nearly 1,000 years ago, midwinter brought about festive celebration. When Norwegians celebrate Christmas, they also celebrate the start of longer days and shorter nights. “Vintersolverv,” they call it.
Every family has its own set of special Christmas traditions, but a common denominator for most of them is the great abundance of food. One classic dish is ribbe, made from the ribs of pork. Another is pinnekjøtt, or dried, cured ribs of lamb. Yet another is boiled cod with potatoes and melted butter, a favorite in many families on the Norwegian West Coast.
But the most important aspect of the culinary Christmas traditions of modern-day Norwegian families has perhaps less to do with the main course than it has does with the baked goods that are consumed throughout the holiday season.
“Actually, the tradition of eating lots of cakes and cookies for Christmas is not a tradition at all,” says Frode Selvaag, the new head chef at the Ambassador’s residence. He explains: “The idea was brought in during the last century from further south in Europe, but now everybody sees it as very Norwegian.”
Tradition or no tradition, Christmas cookies are an integral part of today’s holiday feast.
“A common denominator is the abundance of sugar and butter in the recipes,” says Selvaag, “and I guess this has to do with the traditional ideas of this being a festive season where you eat and drink more than you would throughout the rest of the year.”
Krumkaker filled with cloudberry cream
4 tbs sugar
2 cups all purpose wheat flour
1/2 quarter heavy whipping cream
2 tbs water
1. Whip cream and sugar
2. Add flour and mix. Then, add water
3. Let the dough rest in a cool place for one hour.
Fry the cookies in a krumkakejern. Roll the cookies quickly while they are still hot, as shown above.
This is an old Norwegian tradition, and the design of the krumkakejern was often different from family to family.
Filling
Whip one cup of cream. Stir in 5 tbs cloudberry jam and 1 tbs cloudberry liqueur (or similar). Each cookie needs around 2 tbs cream.
Kransekake
1 lb finely ground almonds
1 lb powdered sugar
3 egg whites
Mix the ingredients into a dough and place in the fridge for the night. On the following day, form the dough into 1/2 inch thick rings of increasing diameter. Bake for ten minutes at 350 degrees F. When it has cooled, place the rings on top of each other so that they form a pyramid. Decorate with a glaze made of powdered sugar and water.
A tip for creating the rings: Draw the rings up on a baking sheet before you start so that you are sure you have the right sizes.
An alternative use for the dough could be to make them into delicious sticks: Roll the dough so that it’s the size of a finger and cut into 3 inch long sticks. Roast the sticks as above and let it cool down. When chilled, dip half of the stick into melted dark chocholate.