Written By Bethany Glosser
I’d like to introduce you to my sweet friend I am so honored to know, Bethany Glosser. We both fellowship at the same church and have started a small homeschool group for our kids. Please welcome her as this is her first post to write on a blog. I’m sure once you get to know her gentle spirit you’ll be just as excited as I am to see more posts written by her. Thanks Bethany, I love ya!!
I love the holidays, especially Christmas. It is a season steeped in traditions, sprinkled with sweet memories, and filled with good things like family, festive music, and, (of course) delicious food.
One of my favorite traditions that I am a part of at home is an annual Christmas cookie exchange. I look forward to it every year. A couple friends and I gather together with recipes and ingredients in hand to spend the day baking, listening to Christmas tunes, and enjoying each others company. At the end of the day, we divide our goodies with one another and each go home with an assortment of Christmas cookies. Well, sadly, the timing didn’t work out for me this year to participate in our little tradition.
Thankfully, this year I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the west coast with my mom and baby girl to visit my mom’s cousins in Washington State. It had been fourteen years since my last visit, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to reconnect with our extended family. Oh, and did I mention that our trip just happened to coincide with a family Christmas cookie exchange?
It was a fantastic trip full of firsts. Ellie’s first plane ride, her first time collapsing asleep in my arms (I know, at 6 1/2 months old you’d think she’d have that down by now!), her first time crawling (It’s more like creeping like an inch worm but it’s still WAY cool!), and my first helicopter ride (cross one off my bucket list!). All of these events were hugely memorable and wonderful to experience. I was truly blessed. And did I mention there were cookies?
The Cookie Exchange, Norske Style
After my mom, baby, and I settled in at our cousin’s house, we got busy baking. For our family cookie exchange we were partnered up with a relative to pick out a couple recipes to prepare and bake together. Fun idea, right?
I was partnered up with cousin Linda and my mom was partnered up with cousin Elaine, our ever-so-gracious hostess, and lucky us we all did our baking together. After brief discussion we landed on biscotti, Rolo turtles, and a traditional Norwegian cookie called Kringla. A soft, fragile cookie with a rich buttery flavor and a hint of sweetness.
They’re a lot like a sugar cookie, but with way less “sugar” and a lot more better-ness. (Yes, I did just make up that word.)
To make, the Kringla ingredients get mixed up. You then take small pieces of dough and roll them into long ropes about 1/2” in diameter and about 6-7” long. Then you make a figure-eight or pretzel shape and bake for about 5 minutes. It’s pretty simple once you get the hang of the rolling and pretzel shaping. And the fruit of your labor is so worth it. It was my first time to make these little gems, and I’m so glad I tried it out.
Kringla - a traditional Norwegian cookie. A soft, fragile cookie with a rich buttery flavor and a hint of sweetness.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 2 cups sour cream
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1 1/2 cups organic sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tsp. vanilla
Method:
- In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients, set aside.
- In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar.
- Mix in the sour cream and egg yolks.
- A tablespoon at a time, add the dry ingredients until it's all incorporated.
- Cover, and refrigerate the dough overnight.
- Break off a piece of dough to roll into a rope about 14” long and form into figure eight shapes. Bake @ 400F for 5 min. (Do not allow to brown, they will end up being dry and overdone.)
What traditions do you have for the holidays? How do you incorporate your family’s heritage into your holidays? Do you have any traditional cookie favorites? I’d love to hear how you and your family celebrate!
Yum! Reading this post makes me wish my Swedish Grandma was still alive to pass on her family recipes to me. She was an amazing cook! So was my Papa Dirk… my German Grandpa. I still have some family in Sweden and would love to visit. Someday maybe 🙂 Good job on your first post Bethany! Hugs.
Thank you, Mare! Much love sista. 🙂
My family taught me one final step when making Kringla. After baking, give each cookie a swipe of butter. Easiest to do by holding a stick of butter with one end unwrapped. Then broil the cookies for about 2 minutes to a very light golden color.
Thanks, DB! I may give that a try the next time we make some. I always say, “Butter makes everything better!” 🙂
I just put the dough in the refrigerator and it seems very soft. Will it firm up as it chills overnight? Also, how many cookies does this recipe make? If it makes more than we need, can the rest of the dough be frozen for later?
So glad you are trying it out! It is a very soft dough, so I’d say you’ve done a great job! 🙂 It will firm up significantly overnight in the fridge, but I think it stays softer than say a regular old sugar cookie dough. I’ve never frozen the dough (I’ve never had the need since they get eaten SO fast!), but I imagine that would work just as well as any other cookie dough. It just might need more thaw time to get it into a workable consistency.
It will get firmer As It chills.. A couple of tips…only take small portions out as you make the cookies… They work up better if cold…
The less you handle them,the more tender they will be…I section my dough in 5-6 portions, and use my rolling pin to roll out about 1/2″ thick, then take my pizza cutter and cut into width about as thick as my index finger, then finish shaping them into pretzel shapes…
Lastly, don’t over bake… You want them to be pale on top, and light golden brown on th bottoms…
Best warm, served with real butter, and hot coffee..
These look great! I’m learning about Christmas in Norway with my students and was thinking of making these with them. Do you know approximately how many cookies one batch makes?
Hi Esther! I apologize for not replying before the holiday. You know how crazy things can get, I’m sure! I don’t recall exactly how many a single batch of dough makes because we usually do MANY batches at once, but I’m guessing somewhere around 20-24? Did you end up giving it a shot with your kiddos? I’d love to see pictures of what you learned about Norway with your students!
Hey there, I grew up eating these cookies but it seems increasingly rare to find anyone who knows how to make them! With the help of my mom (I’m a 30 year old guy with admittedly little baking experience), we made a huge batch over the holidays using your recipe. The cookies were delicious, but we found the dough extremely difficult to handle and shape into the traditional pretzel shape; it would stick to our hands and to the counter unless liberally dusted with flour. Even when dusted, the dough broke apart quite easily while we tried to shape it. Is this a common problem, and if so have you figured out a solution that makes for easier molding? Thanks a lot!
So glad you tried it, Michael! It gives me such joy to hear of a grown man baking in the kitchen with his mom. Could there be hope for my little guys??? 🙂
I wish there was a simple solution to that issue, Michael! But in my experience it’s been the liberal flouring of the work surface (& hands!) and that ever-important overnight chilling that lead to the most workable dough. It is VERY sticky if not at just the right temp when rolling it… We let it warm just enough to make it workable and try to work as quickly as possible to get a bunch done before popping the dough back in the fridge for a while to re-chill. The longer it sits out, the warmer it gets, and the more difficult the rest of the process is.
i would love to try making these but just wanted to check if the flour would be self raising or plain? and if the baking soda is the same as bar-carbonate of sada? sorry i want then to be perfect as sound amazing and look so good!
Helen, all purpose flour is what you want for these, and I think sodium bicarbonate is the same thing as baking soda. ? Hope you enjoy!
It depends on what area in Norway you lived -what shape of Kringle you made! We made the Q shape! These recipes are missing the buttermilk that was in Mom’s receipt. Visiting my son in Boston so I did not have the receipt along to surprise him with a batch so will try your receipt!