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When I was a child growing up in the idyllic 60s Christmas was always a special time at our house. My Mom, whose parents emigrated from Sweden, loved to carry on her Swedish traditions of smorgasbord on Christmas Eve and baking seven different kinds of Christmas cookies to give away at the holidays.
For weeks before the big day we would find her rolling out dough for her cut out cookies, wrapping dough to refrigerate for sliced cookies, and stuffing the cookie press with dough to make spritz cookies. My sister and I would help, placing the almond slivers just so on the Pepparkokor, using our thumbs to make a well for the jam in her red lips cookies, rolling the Mexican wedding cakes in powdered sugar, and decorating the cut outs with icing.
Our kitchen was a whirlwind of mixers, sheet pans, and cookie cutters. It was warm and cozy on a winter’s afternoon, filled with love, and the three of us, with sleeves rolled up and aprons on, would end up covered in flour and sugar and butter. Soon the counters would be strewn with cookie tins and wax paper-lined boxes filled with the fruits of our efforts and destined for far-flung friends and relatives, a tribute of our mother’s love of family.
Though sadly I have not continued my mother’s Christmas cookie tradition I have kept her recipes, And today, in honor of National Cookie Day, I share my favorite: the spicy Swedish Pepparkokor.
Swedish Pepparkokor Recipe *
Ingredients:
3 1/3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. cloves
1 tablespoon ginger
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
½ cup molasses
Slivered almonds
Directions:
- Sift dry ingredients together.
- In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar; add molasses.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet mixture and mix well.
- Shape into 2 rolls approximately 2 inches in diameter and refrigerate overnight.
- Slice rolls into 1/8 inch slices. Top with a slivered almond.
- Bake at 350° F for 10-12 minutes.
*On the first day of Advent, it is a Swedish tradition to take down all the Christmas decorations from the attic and bake Pepparkokor and Lussekattor. Then everyone goes out and window shops. This Sunday is know as “Skyltsondag”.