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Muskotsnittar, My New Favorite Holiday Cookie

muskotsnittar-spice-swedish-cookie-baked-fika

This year I had my act together and registered in time to participate in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap. I joined in the fun several years ago and had a good experience then, and I’m really glad I played again this year. In the years that passed the cookie swap has grown and grown and there’s a nice fundraising aspect to it, too—each participant donates a small sum to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, a nonprofit involved with funding research and development in the area of pediatric cancer.

Plus, it’s a chance to connect with other food bloggers and enjoy some delicious cookies. Only two of the three folks sent me cookies, but that’s ok—I loved baking mine and sending them out in pretty boxes more than anything.

This year I chose to bake muskotsnittar, a buttery Swedish cookie redolent with cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger that develops and intensifies in flavor each day. They happen to travel well, too, and I’m pleased to have learned that my cookies arrived without much, if any, breakage. This recipe for muskotsnittar is from the book Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall—you can buy it here via Powell’s or find it at your local bookstore (here’s mine, Astoria Bookshop—indie beats behemoth Amazon IMO). I have a great affinity for cooking and baking traditional foods from the Scandinavian and Nordic countries, and these cookies made me really happy. Bonus: each batch makes a lot, and they freeze better, so in my book these cookies have it all.

You can find the recipe, here. I made one little adjustment of adding a bit of salt to the dough. Here’s the list of ingredients:

Muskotsnittar
From Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall

2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature (Kerrygold is my fave)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

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Almond Shortbread

This weekend, I was craving something just a little sweet and with the texture of cake or a cakey cookie/brownie – fruit (citrus, primarily) and dark chocolate have been my main (though not solo) source of sweets since the beginning of the year, but sometimes I crave a different texture from fruit flesh and the snap of a chocolate bar. I remembered having come across a very simple almond shortbread recipe, and decided to give it a try.

My friend Marija posted it originally on her Facebook page, with a positive review accompanying it. This shortbread is gluten-free, appropriate for those following SCD diet, and a nice sweet treat if you are eating paleo/primal. It also gave me an opportunity to use delicious (and healthy) grass-fed butter and virgin coconut oil, along with some raw honey.

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