Goro are the most decorated cookie in the Norwegian Christmas baking, pressed thin in an engraved iron so each one carries a pattern. The cardamom is standard; the design is not — bakers have long had irons cut with their own motifs, so a family’s goro are recognisable on sight.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 lb flour
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 11 oz butter
Method
- Whip the cream.
- Beat the egg and sugar until thick and lemon-coloured. Stir in the cream and vanilla.
- Set aside a small amount of the flour for rolling out, then combine the dry ingredients.
- Cut in the butter, stir in the egg mixture and mix until smooth.
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Roll out a small amount of the dough at a time and cut pieces with a pastry wheel to fit a goro iron.
- Bake until crisp and golden.
- Cool on a rack. Store airtight or freeze.
Keeping them
Goro keep unusually well, which is why they are baked early. Airtight they will hold for weeks, and they freeze without losing the snap — both reasons they appear on the Christmas cookie plate alongside fattigmann and sandbakkels.