Christmas is right around the corner so it is time for brunkager (brown cookies)! Growing up in Denmark, Christmas always included brunkager. Brunkager are a very traditional Danish Christmas cookie that tastes a little like ginger snaps (even though this recipe does not have any ginger:). They are crunchy with a spicy flavor and not too sweet . They taste like Christmas ... at least to me! Growing up, my farmor and mom made these cookies and actually you probably can't go to a Danish home at Christmas time and not be served brunkager .... so this year, it was my turn to make some. YUM! I hope you love them as much as I do.
Brunkager (Danish Christmas Cookies)
Ingredients
200g whole wheat flour (150g soft wheat berries and 50g hard wheat berries)
1/2 tsp hartshorn
1 tsp clover
1 tsp cinnamon
125g butter, cut into pieces
90g brown sugar
48g corn syrup
20-30g almonds, blanched and finely chopped
Directions
Prepare your almonds by soaking them in boiling water and then remove the skin before chopping.
If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries (you may want to grind just a little more since you are going to sift the flour). I use my WonderMill on the pastry setting. Sift the flour twice removing some of the bran in order to make the cookies less dense.
Combine the flour, hartshorn, clover and cinnamon.
Then add the butter and mix it into the dry mixture using your fingers.
Mix in the brown sugar, syrup, and almonds until it forms a dough.
Once the dough is formed divide the dough into two logs and refrigerate them.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Once the dough has become firm enough in the fridge to cut the dough into thin cookies use a very sharp knife to do so (if the dough starts to become too soft to cut it, put it back in the fridge).
Place the cookies on a parchment lined/prepared baking sheet.
Bake for about 5 minutes.
ENJOY this little piece of Christmas.
