Fattigmands Bakkelse

[devlin]

Fattigmands Bakkelse

These are a family favorite, Norwegian Fattigmands Bakkelse. They're labor-intensive, and totally worth it. They're one of my favorite things in the world, a real delicacy, and because they're labor-intensive, a holiday, or Christmas cookie, for the most part. This is my mother's/grandmother's etc. recipe.

• 6 egg yolks
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 c sugar
  
• 1 tblspoon melted butter
  
• 3 egg whites
  
• 3 c flour (I use pastry flour)
  
• 6 tblspns heavy cream, whipped to soft peaks
  
• 1 tsp cardamom (to taste and depending on freshness of the spice)
  
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1 tsp to a tblspn cognac or light rum or some similar liquor (or, to taste)
  
• 2 blks lard for deep frying (about 2 lbs)
  

powdered sugar for dusting

• 
  

Beat egg yolks til pale and thick-ish (several minutes); gradually add sugar and beat about ten minutes; whisk in butter and liquor; beat egg whites to stiff peaks and carefully stir or fold eggs whites and whipped cream into batter; whisk together flour, cinnamon and cardamom, and fold into mixture and chill. The batter will be heavy and very sticky. Chill a minimum of 5-6 hours. I chill the dough at least 12 hours, sometimes longer.

Heat lard in stock pot to 350 degrees. If you double the batch, it's useful to heat two pots and fry two batches at once.

Roll out the dough in three or four batches, leaving remaining dough in refrigerator between batches. To start, dust counter with flour and scoop out each batch of dough with a large spoon. Keep a small pile of flour nearby to use as you roll. Dust top of dough with flour. Flour your hands. Pat dough into ball and then flatten. Flour lightly again, make sure the counter top below is still floured (you generally need LOTS of flour for these, depending on your kitchen and your hands, but that's okay, don't be afraid to flour as you go along) and roll the dough out, turning and lifting the dough and making sure it's not sticking to the countertop. The dough should be rolled out as thinly as you can manage it -- very, very thin. After final roll, lift the dough quickly and again make sure the dough isn't sticking to the counter.

Using either a sharp knife or a pizza dough cutter, cut the dough into roughly 2 inch strips laterally. Then cut the dough horizontally so that you end up with rectangles of dough, about 2 X 1 and 1/2 inches. Make one small cut in the center of each rectangle. Make a bow out of each rectangle by pushing one end through the hole and out to the other side. Don't worry if they fall apart a bit or look unshapely or ungainly. Once you're done deep frying and shaking them in powdered sugar, they'll all look gorgeous.

Test the heat of your lard by dropping a tiny piece of dough into the pot. It should drop to the bottom and nearly immediately bubble and rise back to the top and begin to brown very quickly. Fry roughly 5 at a time. You may need to turn the heat up a bit because the dough will begin to cool the lard. When the edges begin to brown, flip them over and brown equally on the other side. Brown to a nice golden brown, not too dark or they'll be burned, but not too light or they'll be doughy. Remove with slotted spoon (or one of those Chinese fry strainer thingies that I can never remember the name of -- these work beautifully) and drain on a paper bag.

When you've finished frying three or so batches, dump about a quarter of a bag of powdered sugar into a paper bag, drop 4 or 5 cookies into the bag and shake the bag two or three times. Remove to large plate covered with a paper towel. Finish the remaining batches in the same way.

*Note on lard: many folks substitute other cooking or vegetable oils for frying these. You *may* do so, but the flavor will not be nearly as good as it will be by using lard, and the flavor of these cookies rely not only on the combination of spices and so forth, but the lard as well.

Keywords: Cookie, Intermediate, Christmas

( RG1539 )