Christmas Eve Celebrations
It’s December 24th, and we’ve been gearing up for this day for weeks! Tonight is the night that we Danes celebrate Christmas. There is so much good food to look forward to, like pork roast, duck, caramelized potatoes, pickled red cabbage, and more. Then there’s dessert, which is sweet, creamy rice porridge with slivered almonds and one hidden whole almond, which we compete to find first and win the “almond gift.” Then, we hold hands and walk around the Christmas tree, singing carols (very badly, at least in our family). And then, there’s the opening of gifts, which happens while we eat lots of cookies and marzipan.
Food Traditions
Clearly, food is a huge part of our holiday traditions. We’ve so enjoyed sharing our recipes for Danish Christmas cookies these past few weeks, and today is the final one! But don’t worry, more treats that you can make for New Year’s Eve will be coming next week 🙂 Anyway, here is our recipe for finsk brød. In Danish, this means “Finnish bread,” but apparently it’s not originally from Finland, so the name doesn’t make much sense. These are simple shortbread cookies sprinkled with chopped almonds and sugar. They are tender and crumbly and buttery – so delicious!
The Basic Recipe
The dough is so simple – just flour, butter, and sugar. Making it just requires striking a balance between overworking and underworking the dough. You need it to be soft enough to roll out and not too crumbly, but you also don’t want all the butter to melt. We usually chill our dough a bit before rolling it out, just so that the cookies don’t spread too much in the oven. Ultimately though, even if they look a little wonky, they will turn out absolutely delicious. Enjoy!
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Finsk Brød (Danish Shortbread Cookies)
Ingredients
- 300 grams (2 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
- 180 grams (13 tbsp) butter, unsalted
- 80 grams (1/4 cup + 2 tbsp) sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 egg for egg wash
- Turbinado or pearl sugar (regular white sugar is fine too)
- Finely chopped unsalted almonds (optional)
Instructions
- Crumble butter into flour until the butter is very finely incorporated. You can use your fingers – I just use this pastry blender because my (Emma's) hands are very warm (lol).
- Add the sugar and a pinch of salt and continue to mix/gently knead the dough by hand until it sticks together when you press a handful of it together in your fist (it will still be crumbly!). You will need the warmth of your hands to get it to come together at this point, since we are not adding any other liquid to this dough!
- At this stage, you can either wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for an hour or two, or you can immediately roll out and cut the cookies. I prefer to refrigerate, just because the final cookies hold their shape a bit better and don't spread.
- Preheat your oven to 390 F (200 C).
- Remove the dough from the fridge. We find the easiest way to shape these cookies is to gently roll the dough on a floured surface into a rectangle about the thickness of your finger (~1/2 inch) and divide using a dough scraper or a knife into rectangular pieces, about 3/4 in by 1.5in. If it still falls apart too easily, continue pressing/kneading it together with your hands until it is manageable.
- Alternatively, you can roll the dough into a log about the width of a finger, and cut into small pieces (1.5in in length) and press those pieces into rectangles.
- Transfer the rectangles onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Brush the rectangles with egg wash and sprinkle with chopped almonds (optional) and sugar.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges. Let cool and store in an airtight cookie container (they should keep for a few weeks at room temperature).
I have yet to try a recipe I didn’t like! And this one was soooooooooo easy! I love the sweet and savory desserts, and this definitely hit the mark! I veganized it so instead of egg wash and sugar, I used oat milk and agave to top them, and they turned out great! I can’t wait to try some of the other cookie recipes as the holidays roll around!
Yay we are so glad that it turned out well – and it’s amazing to hear that the vegan swaps worked!! Thank you as always for the support <3
What did you use for butter in making them vegan?
Mine keep falling apart out of the oven. What am I doing wrong?
Hi! Sorry to hear that they are falling apart – is the dough very sandy when you are shaping them? Sometimes, you have to knead it together gently so that they can keep their rectangular shape as you are shaping the cookies. Also, they could be underbaked – they should be golden on the bottom and also around the edges. Depending on your oven, they may need up to five additional minutes! Thanks for trying it out and leaving a comment! We hope they turn out better next time 🙂