Thursday, December 18, 2008

My Favorite Gift From Grandma

I have always loved to bake, especially cookies!
I learned how to bake from watching my mom who is a wonderful cookie maker.
My mom had a wonderful teacher too - my Grandma.
For my 18th birthday, Grandma asked me if I was interested in anything of hers -
this is what I chose.
To me, the best part of this book is her handwriting on the inside front cover.
Oh, and the butter stains on the pages of our favorite tried and true recipes.
Every year at Christmas time my mom would bake many different kinds of cookies.
When I got married in 1990, I took over the Christmas cookie baking for our family. It's a tradition that's important to me and one I hope my girls will carry on too.
We're Norwegian, so we always have the traditional Scandinavian cookies at Christmas that my parents had growing up. Our must haves are: lefse, krumkake, fattigmand, spritz, Swedish cream wafers, and sometimes kransekake.
My hubby says it wouldn't be Christmas if he didn't have fattigmand,
so that's what I made today.
Fattigmand is a different kind of cookie - it's fried not baked.
It's rolled out thin like a pie crust and then you cut it in diamond shapes
using this handy cutter. I sometimes just use a pastry wheel to cut the dough instead.
When the dough is cut, you then pull one tip through the center slit to form its shape.
To cook, fry 'em in hot oil turning to brown evenly on both sides.
Fattigmand stores nicely in cooky tins.
Right before serving, sprinkle with powered sugar.
These are a must for our Christmas cookie tray.
Now that hubby got his request, I need to get busy with the others: Daddy, David, Nathan, Kyle, I'm working on yours...

7 comments:

LiLi M. said...

This is mouthwatering mmmmm I can almost smell them! What a fun tradition! These kind of traditions makes this time of the year even more special! Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing a piece of your family tradition. Looks wonderful. My great grandpa was from Norway - I've always wanted to Norwegian foods around Christmas time to honor that part of our heritage but it's hard to start new things. I have a krumkake maker, maybe I'll start with that and we love lefse.

Michelle May-The Raspberry Rabbits said...

Oh how I would love to try those cookies! They look so yummy!
What wonderful traditions.
bunny kisses,
shell

Rory said...

Oh, that book takes me back. My mom got it as a wedding gift back in 75. Every time I saw her get it out, I knew we were in for a treat.

Tammy said...

I have that same cook book! I love it! My favorite recipe is the Molasses crinkles...yum!

vintage girl at heart said...

Yum!!! What a wonderful tradition to carry on.. these look fabulous!!! Thanks for sharing!!

Unknown said...

What a lovely book and sweet memories! Thanks for showing me how to work that thing, LOL! I've always wondered what that kitchen gadget did! :)