Norwegian Cookies

Coffee Was Made for Norwegian Cookies Fests

You may not be familiar with Norwegian cuisine, nor their most outstanding contribution, Norwegian bakery goodies. The Norwegians are masters at the art of baking and Norwegian cookies are a mainstay in the culinary culture. If you visit a Norwegian household, there are two food items you'll always find available: coffee and cookies.

Baking is a Scandinavian obsession, developed and practiced with great skill and love for centuries. There are many Scandinavian cookie recipes which overlap by country, with small differences in technique and ingredients. Norwegian cookies recipes are distinguished by their use of tools used to shape the cookies and traditional decorating techniques.

Norwegian immigrants to this country, of the late 19th and early 20th century, brought all of the old world tools and techniques with them. Thus the art of Norwegian baking and the glorious custom of serving Norwegian cookies with a cup of coffee, is still practiced today.

Although the number of ingredients is somewhat limited, the available variations of the Norwegian cookies are delightfully diverse. The most commonly included ingredients are butter, almonds and cardamom. Most Norwegian cookies are distinguished by their melt in your mouth quality and the sweet, buttery fragrance.

When you look at the flavored coffees on the market today, you'll notice that almonds and other sweet spices are quite popular. This is true because of these spices' affinity with the coffee flavor.

So it comes as no surprise that the Norwegian cookies combines these two tastes in a plain coffee beverage, consumed with the heavenly cookies. It would be almost unthinkable for a Norwegian to offer coffee to a guest without a cookie to accompany it.

Just as the English have tea time, Norwegians have a similar ritual of coffee service. The table is set with linens and fine china. Instead of scones or muffins, you'll find two or three platters of buttery Norwegian cookies masterpieces, even for a simple afternoon coffee fest.

Among the selections you may find at a Norwegian coffee service are Mandelflarn, a scrumptious concoction with butter and almonds formed into thin cookies, with pale centers and crispy golden edges. Norwegian Berlin rings are fabulous cookies, with strands shaped into rings and sprinkled with pearl sugar.

The simple Norwegian butter cookie is also known as the 'dream cookie', characterized by the use of browned butter, which must stand and cool for at least 8 hours before including in the recipe. Toscabakelser, or Norwegian Tosca squares are rich in butter, eggs and almonds used as filling and icing for these treats.

So, if you haven't been so lucky as to have tasted these delights, make friends with a Norwegian neighbor. You may find you'll be asking for the recipes!