Sandbakkels are pressed thin into fluted tins and baked until they hold their shape — a shell rather than a biscuit, named for the sand-coloured crumb. They are one of the seven sorts baked for a Norwegian Christmas, and the one that needs a particular piece of equipment: a set of sandbakkel tins. Four family recipes follow, all of them good, all of them slightly different.
Seasoning the tins
Do this once and the cookies will release cleanly for years. Grease the tins with shortening, heat them in the oven at 350°F for 30 minutes, then cool and wipe out the excess. New tins that have not been seasoned are the usual reason a batch sticks.
Anna’s Favorite
- ½ cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp powdered sugar
- ½ cup lard
- ½ cup butter
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp vanilla
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 cups flour, plus a little more
- Mix together the sugars, lard and butter.
- Add the egg, vanilla and salt, and stir.
- Add the flour and stir.
- Press into the tins and bake at 375°F for 8 to 10 minutes, until golden brown.
Sandbakkels — makes about 60
- 1½ cups butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 4 cups flour
- Beat the butter on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.
- Add the sugar and salt and beat until combined, scraping the bowl occasionally.
- Add the egg and beat.
- Beat in as much flour as the mixer will take, then stir in the rest by hand until the dough no longer sticks to your fingers.
- If necessary, cover and chill for an hour until the dough is easy to handle.
- Press about 2 tsp of dough into each seasoned mold and set the molds on a cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350°F for 9 to 11 minutes, until the edges are firm and lightly browned.
- Turn each mold over and cool on the sheet for 5 minutes. Tap gently on the base and remove the cookie.
Arloa Dahl’s Sandbakkels
- 2¼ cups flour, sifted
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup white sugar
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 cup butter, no substitutes
- Cream the butter and sugars. Add the almond extract, flour and cinnamon, and mix thoroughly.
- Chill the dough for 1 hour.
- Press a small amount into each tin. Keep it fairly thin — they rise a little. You get the feel for it after a couple.
- Bake at 350°F for 12 to 15 minutes.
- Cool slightly, then tap out of the tins.
“This recipe was given to me by a lady when I first married 50 years ago. My husband’s mother bought me my first set of sandbakkel tins. My daughter lives in North Dakota and she finds them at estate auctions and flea markets for me.” — Arloa Dahl
Birgit’s Almond Shells
The Swedish cousin, made in the same tins. Approximately 50 cookies, from Swedish Cakes and Cookies.
- ¾ cup butter or stick margarine, softened
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 cup ground almonds
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- 1 egg
- 1⅔ cups all-purpose flour
- Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the remaining ingredients, holding back a little of the flour.
- Knead the dough lightly, working in the rest of the flour.
- Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour.
- Form the dough into a narrow log, cut into pieces and press into greased tins.
- Set the tins on a baking sheet and bake on the centre rack at 400°F for around 8 minutes.
- Tap out of the tins immediately.
Sandbakkels sit on the Christmas plate with goro and fattigmann.