Scandinavian Christmas Food (the main thing!)

by Cathie Mayr

For Scandinavians of the past, one of the delights of Christmas was its seemingly endless variety of special pastries. Traditionally, housewives would immerse themselves in the flurry of preparing sju slags (seven kinds of cookies). And even that was fewer than in former times when women typically made as many as nine to eleven types of cookies. The number, which always had to be uneven, was a status symbol that indicated the family's wealth. The seven types of sweet delights likely to grace Scandinavian holiday tables included:

Smultringer, or doughnuts

Hjortetakk , or crullers, which are a rich, light cake cut from a rolled dough and deep-fried. These tied with Smultringer for first place in the hearts and stomachs of Scandinavians and were also known as "the lutefisk of Christmas cookies."

Sandkaker, almond cookies baked in fluted tins called sandbakelse.

Sirupssnipper, which are similar to gingersnaps, but diamond-shaped and decorated with a blanched almond.

Berlinerkranser, or "berlin wreaths," made from rich egg-yolk dough and sprinkled with large-grain sugar.

Goro, a rectangular cookie made with an intricately imprinted iron.

Krumkaker, a thin, cone-shaped cookie also baked on a decorative iron.

Fattigmann, dough twisted into a fancy shape and deep fried.

The oldest of these, krumkake and goro, along with vafler (a waffle-like
pastry) go back to at least the 1700s, based on the existence of the irons
which made them. The irons, which weighed fifteen pounds, were originally forged by hand by local blacksmiths and had long handles for use over open cooking fires. When woodstoves came along in the mid-1800s these decorative irons were redesigned to fit in the round burner holes, replacing the long-handled ones. They were so much easier to use that people called them maskiner (machines).

The Lutheran Church is credited with preserving Scandinavian ethnic cooking. The American phenomena of the ladies groups in the church basement kitchens fulfilled this vital role by creating shared cooking and
recipe-sharing opportunities.

Memories of food at Christmastime for American immigrants included these pastries, plus home-baked bread, baked beans, strong coffee with lumps of sugar and thick cream, open faced sandwiches, and rommegrot (Christmas pudding) - all made on wood-burning stoves.

You know your lefse from your lutefisk, and now your smultringer from your sirupssnipper? Visit our website from now until Christmas as Cathie Mayr, owner of Nordic Living, gifst us with some interesting and fun (yes, Scandinavians can have fun) tidbits about these Old Country traditions and more. Your inner Viking will thank you.

»Read the previous day's blog.