Making krumkaker

In Norway, there are traditionally seven kinds of cookies for Christmas. It’s almost the third Sunday of Advent, and I must confess that this year, I may not get past two kinds. Rome is sunny and not very Christmassy, but I’ve made pepperkaker (gingerbread cookies); and today I made krumkaker. Friends are having Christmas drinks, and these krumkaker are coming along tonight. These are waffle cookies, made on a special iron and rolled into small cones around a wooden tool. I like them plain, but they are great with whipped cream with cloudberries too. 

Krumkaker

3 eggs
150 grammes white sugar
150 grammes plain wheat flour
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
150 grammes melted butter
One krumkake iron
one krumkakepinne

If needed: 50-100 ml water

Melt butter and let it cool slightly. Whisk eggs and sugar until light and airy, fold in flour. Add cardamom. Stir in melted cooled butter. Leave to thicken for half an hour. (Or an episode of Serial, so maybe 40 minutes.)

Heat your krumkake iron (usually electric.) There is no need to butter it, there is plenty of butter in the batter. Make a test krumkake. Just a small dollop of batter, this is meant to be very thin, with almost lacy edges.

Hmmm, no, a little too thick, and a little burnt. I added 50 ml of tap water to the batter, stirred well and made another krumkake. Krumkake #2 was better, still a little thick so I added another 50 ml of water.

The batter had been standing for a while, but this is always a balance of right density, air humidity and This was more like it: thin, golden, and very crispy.

 See that little wooden cone on the right? That is a krumkakepinne. You take the cooked cake out and bend it around the wooden cone, to make it krum (bent, curved). Very hot to work with.

I have two, one new one and an older one with a metal handle I picked up in a thrift shop on our honeymoon Hurtigruten trip this  year. If you do not have a krumkakepinne, a wooden spoon handle works quite well as well, it will just be rolled and not curved.

Rolling to make it it krum. This has to be done fast, as the cookies come out piping hot and soft and then harden in few seconds as they start to cool. The cooking goes really quickly, and the change from golden to burned goes very fast, so this requires attention. Easy enough to do, though. I’ve heard the Italian pizzelle are similar, though flat and without cardamom, so I must look into that.

 Looking good! You can also bend it over a coffee cup to make a small bowl, which is the one on lower left. Store carefully in an air tight cookie tin, as they are fragile. These keep for ages.

I am bringing these to Fiesta Friday 46, with special thanks to the co-hosts  Margy @La Petite Casserole (buon viaggio!) and Juju @cookingwithauntjuju and Angie@thenovicegardener. So many gorgeous dishes to explore!