Finnish Christmas Cookies
Americanized recipe for Finska pinnar (Finnish Sticks)
https://mittkok.expressen.se/recept/finska-pinnar/
Finska pinnar dough is rolled into logs the size of ones finger and cut into small sections. The dough is then sprinkled with almonds and pearl sugar.
For these cookies I started by creaming together butter and sugar. I then added the flour and beat until a stiff dough formed. I then covered the dough and put the dough in the refrigerator to chill.
Once the dough was chilled enough I rolled the dough out on a floured surface. I then brushed the dough with egg and sprinkled chopped almonds and colored sugar. I then used a fluted cookie cutter to cut out diamonds and placed them on a cookie sheet and into the oven they went.
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/finnish-christmas-cookies
Cardamon Cookies
After grinding up over 10 cardamon pod seeds I was able to start mixing up this cookie dough. I mixed together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and cardamon. I then beat together sugar and butter and then added an egg. Next I added the flour mix to the butter and beat until it was smooth.
I then dropped teaspoon sized dough balls onto a cookie sheet and placed them into the oven.
https://www.food.com/recipe/finnish-cardamom-cookies
Aunt Hanna’s Cookies
The tale that is told is that these cookies were invented by a lady called Hanna Rehnbäck from a town called Raahe in the northern part of the Gulf of Bothnia. These cookies can be found year round, but are very popular for holiday cookie trays.
I started off by creaming butter and sugar together. I then beat in flour and baking soda. Once that was all mixed together I added whipping cream to form a stiff dough.
I then rolled a teaspoon size of dough into a ball and placed them on a greased cookie sheet. Next I pressed almonds into the dough. The recipe says that you can use either almonds or halved glazed cherries.
“Grandma’s” Sugar Cookies (“Zugar Gukis”)
The original recipe for these sugar cookies labeled “Zugar Gukis” is:
| 1 glass sugar 1 pound flour 1 egg | 1/2 pound butter 1/2 cup milk 1 teaspoon soda |
I started by creaming together butter and sugar until they are nice and smooth; I then added an egg to this mixture. Next I added in flour and baking soda alternately with buttermilk and vanilla and mixed until a stiff dough was formed. I then put the dough in the fridge to chill for a little while. After the dough was chilled I rolled small balls of dough and placed them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. I then took a water glass, dunked the bottom of the glass in water, and then dunked the bottom of the glass in sugar. I took that glass with the sugared bottom and stamped the cookie dough to flatten them out. I then placed them in the oven.
Finnish Christmas Ginger Cookies – Julpepparkakor
These cookies were originally called pepparkakor because they were baked with lots of pepper. These cookies became very popular because people believed they could cure sickness and depression and were a sexual stimulant. Julepepparkakor are just like pepparkakor, but they are cut and decorated into much fancier cookies during Christmas. Hearts, stars, angels, grandmas and grandpas, boys and girls, horses, roosters, pigs, cats, and manger animals are very popular cut outs.
I started by creaming butter and sugar together. I then added an egg, orange peel, dark corn syrup, and water and mixed them all together. Next I added flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. I mixed this till a dough formed. I then chilled the dough over night in the refrigerator.
The next day I rolled the dough out on a floured surface until it was only 1/8 inch thick. I used several different types of cookie cutters to cut out my ginger cookies. I placed the cut out cookies onto a greased cookie sheet and placed them in the oven.
Once the cookies had cooled I was able to decorate them with a frosting. For the frosting I mixed together an egg white, powdered sugar, almond extract, and milk to make a thin white frosting. I then put the frosting in a pastry bag and piped fancy decorations onto the cookies.
Photos by: Valerie Dingman