Christmas baking!

I am really very fond of baking, so I decided to do some Christmas baking this year!
It's a tradition in Norway to bake 7 types of cookies for Christmas (but I don't think many people do it anymore..) Well.. I don't need 7 types but I at least made 4!

Here you can see my Kakemenn/"Cookiepeople", Burned almonds and Chilli Jam

The Chilli jam was not one of my 4 types, it was a gift for my mother and my brother-in-law!
Here is the Norwegian recipe and the English one!

Recipe for Burned Almonds 
400 g Almonds
1/2 dl water
150 g sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla sugar
1 spoon of butter

Spread the almonds on a baking tray covered in baking paper, and roast them in the oven on 200 degrees (Celcius) for about 8 minutes
Mix water, sugar and vanillasugar in a wide frying-pan or casserole and heat to a boil on full heat. Then reduce the heat to half, add the almonds and stir all the time.
The water will evaporate and the sugar will remain. Keep stirring and don't turn up the heat!
After a few minutes the sugar will start to melt. Add butter when the sugar has melted to your desire.
Spread the almonds onto the baking sheet again, and separate them as best as you can. Cool and then store in a cellophane bag or a jar!

Original norwegian recipe 

I also made Oreo Cheesecake Cookies (unfortunately only norwegian recipe as I can't be bothered to translate it right now) and Sandnøtter

Recipe for Kakemenn/Cookie People

100 g butter
2,5 dl milk
3,5 dl sugar
1 teaspoon baking ammonia (hornsalt)
12 dl flour

Melt the butter and mix in the milk.
Mix all the dry ingredients and add the milk and butter. Mix the dough together fast, put back in your baking bowl and store cold for 2 hours.
Use a rolling pin and roll the dough anout 5mm thick. Add some more flour if needed. Use cookie cutters to make cookies. and bake in the middle of the oven at 180 degrees (celcius) for 8-10 minutes.
The cookies should be the same color as the dough when you take them out of the oven. They might be soft, but as they cool, they will harden. Store in airtight box or bag to prevent drying.


Last but not least is Sandnøtter/sand-cookies! We used to call them grandma-cookies because my grandma used to make them for Christmas when I was a child.

Recipe for Sandnøtter
250 g soft/room-tempered butter
250g sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
500 g potato flour
125g flour

Heat your oven to 200 degrees (celcius) and cover 2 baking trays with baking sheets.
Mix butter and sugar to a fluffy buttercream. Add the egg and mix well.
Mix all the dry ingredients and use a sieve to sprinkle the dry ingredients into the buttermix. Mix to a dough and then make small balls and place on the baking trays. NB! Don't bake more than 20 cookies on one tray! Press a fork down on the cookies for a decorative finish! Bake in the middle of the oven on 200 degrees for 10 minutes