Norwegian Butter Cookies {Serinakaker}

One Year: Pumpkin Gingerbread
Two Years: Apple-Asian Pear Pie with White Cheddar Crust and Bacon Streusel
Three Years: Orange-Infused Sunflower Seed Butter Granola with Fennel and Golden Raisins
Four Years: Gingery Cranberry and White Chocolate Bars
Five Years: Chewy Molasses Cookies
Six Years: Avocado Horiatiki Salad

Norwegian Butter Cookies
Adapted from Food 52

4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup plus 6 tablespoons softened salted butter*
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 egg white, for brushing the cookies with
pearl sugar or colored sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Blend the flour, baking powder, and butter together in a bowl until it looks kind of like sand, using your fingers to rub the butter into the flour. Next, blend in the sugar with your fingers. Finally, add the egg and vanilla. I still use my hands for this but you can also use a wooden spoon, and mush, smash, stir, and push the dough until it comes together into a ball (it often seems a bit on the dry side). Once you’ve formed it into a ball, cover it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, let the dough warm up a bit; otherwise, it will be nearly impossible to work with. Break off pieces of the dough, and roll them into balls that are about 1 to 1 1/2 inches across, and put on cookie sheets. Once all the dough is made into balls, press your thumb into each to make an indentation. Most of the cookies will crack around the edges as you press into them. If they totally fall apart, just smash them up and roll them into new balls, but if there are just some cracks, that’s part of the look. Brush the tops of the cookies with the egg white to glaze. Then sprinkle either some pearl sugar or colored sanding sugar into each indentation. Bake the cookies for about 16 minutes, until golden. Move to a cooling rack and allow to cool. These cookies are delicious with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, or a mug of hot spiced wine. They keep for a week or two sealed in cookie tins, and they also freeze and defrost well, if you want to make them ahead.

*If you only have unsalted butter, then add 1 1/4 tsp salt to the recipe.


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