Oh my word. Christmas is all officially over and how did that happen, anyway? One of my traditions is always to make Grandma’s Christmas Kringla recipe, so I’m happy to say I did make that happen.
Thank my lucky stars I took the entire week off because otherwise I’d be sulking in a funk at the office, wondering what the heck I am doing work right now. (P.S. Don’t tell my boss I just wrote that.)
Instead, I don’t have to go back to reality until January 2. {Insert praise hands here}
We had a wonderful Christmas, celebrating with both sides of the family.
Teacher Man’s side of the family = a plethora of grandkids and great-grandkids that create a lot of joy and laughter in Grandpa’s house on Christmas Eve!
And once in a while, my kiddo lets me catch him in a very handsome pose for the camera. 😉
At my parents’ house on Christmas Day, Joe and Miss A. surprised most of us with this hilarious sweater combo at the start of the gift opening. I think this needs to be a tradition every year going forward.
And it wouldn’t be a blog post without sharing a pic of Joe and Miss Morgan.
This time, though, I snuck in a selfie with my nephew/Godson, Davis!
Our rule at Christmas: we must do the obligatory family photo right away upon arrival at the farm. If we don’t, the photo never happens. 😉
It has also come to my attention that I should share my Grandmother Inez’s Christmas kringla recipe so that it lives here on the blog forever and ever. Since my lefse 101 post is one of my all-time most visited posts on the blog, it seems only fitting I should add another Norwegian tradition.
But what is kringla, you ask?
It’s rather difficult to describe.
It’s a cookie – but more cake-like in texture and just slightly sweet. Kringla is shaped like a figure-eight. It’s light and a little fluffy. And I love it with a swipe of butter on the top.
If you believe Wikipedia, then the Norwegian version is actually called “Kringle” (or ‘kring-al”) and the Swedish version is “Kringla”, but my very Norwegian family has always said kringla so that’s what I’m going with. We also have several different recipe versions floating around my family but the one I share here is what my mom has — and she got this recipe from her mom (aka “Grandma Inez”). She figures Grandma probably had several recipes around – mostly because she was always testing versions for my Grandpa, who was picky about his kringla!
I have been working on perfecting this particular recipe for several years. The mixing of ingredients is no problem but it’s the actual working with the dough and shaping of the figure eights that takes a little finesse. It seems like it should be easy but the trick lies in not using too much flour — and yet, using enough flour. Oh, and there’s a “flick of the wrist” to create the figure-eight, according to my cousin Christine, who is a mean kringla maker herself!
Let me just say, though, that I believe in you, and I know you can handle this. 😉 If you try this, let me know how your kringla turns out!
Norwegian Kringla
Ingredients
- 1 cup sugar
- 1.5 cups sour cream use full fat
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups flour
- Extra flour for rolling
Instructions
- Mix the egg yolks, sugar, sour cream and salt with a hand mixer on medium speed.
- Add the baking soda, baking powder and vanilla and continue to beat on low speed until combined.
- Add 3 cups of flower and continue to beat on low speed until incorporated.
- Cover bowl and put in refrigerator and chill the dough overnight (or at least 8 hours)
- When you are ready to make the kringla, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and move a rack to the top shelf.
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- On a clean, flat surface, cover your work area with a silicone baking mat if you have one and then dust that with a bit of flour. (You can also use a large cutting board, clean countertop, or pastry board as your work surface.)
- Take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and spoon out a heaping tablespoon of dough. Roll this in flour on all sides to form a ball, then cut it into 3 equal pieces with a sharp paring knife.
- Roll out each section with your hands into a strip in the shape and thickness of a pencil. If the dough sticks to the surface, add a tiny bit of flour until it doesn't stick anymore. Don’t roll the strip too thin or they won’t raise. Place the strip onto the cookie sheet and form into a shape like the letter "B".
- Bake at 350 degrees F. on the top rack in the oven. (This is so the bottoms won’t over-bake and get hard.)
- Bake until just a very small hint of browning shows on top. (This was about 7 minutes in my oven, but watch your first batch closely to get a feel for timing as this could be as little as 5 minutes depending on your oven!)
Notes
- You may need to experiment a little with this process. Don’t get too hung up on the shape … if you get something close to a “B” or even a figure eight/pretzel shape, you are doing great!