These, soft, pillowy cookies are formed into figure-8 or pretzel shapes and lightly flavored with nutmeg. They have a somewhat bread-like texture. In North America, they are commonly considered to be Norwegian (or Swedish) (see note* below, explaining this). See also Kringla I, a similar recipe.
Ingredients
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 large egg
1 cup sour cream (full fat or 14%)
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon freshly-grated nutmeg (to taste)
additional butter, melted
Directions
- Cream together first four ingredients. Sift dry ingredients together and stir into to creamed mixture to make a soft dough. Chill overnight, or wrap in plastic wrap, shape into a thin disc and 4 hours or until firm enough to handle. (Dough will be much too soft to handle if not thoroughly chilled).
- Pre-heat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured board, roll dough into forms about the size and shape of a pencil (approximately 8 inches long and about as thick around as a pencil, or a tiny bit larger). Form pretzel shapes, or figure-8s (sealing ends together with a bit of water), and place about 2 inches apart on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake about 7-8 minutes or until bottoms are slightly golden but the tops are still pale. (I found that they needed 8 minutes with my insulated AirBake cookie sheet, but only 7 on the non-insulated sheet).
- Allow to cool, then baste with additional melted butter.
Notes
- * Kringla cookies are practically unknown in Norway/Sweden today! They are family traditions for many North Americans of Swedish and Norwegian descent, but they are not, today, a Scandinavian tradition. This was confirmed to me by a Norwegian cultural historian, a Norwegian chef and a couple of Norwegian foodies (who were all mystified by Americans insisting that this Kringla is a Norwegian national culinary treasure while they themselves have never seen it in Norway), and my Swedish cousin. If you’ll ask them if they know what a kringla is, they’ll say yes. But the words Kringle and Kringla (in Norse and Swedish respectively) refer to the shape, and usually to a savory pretzel, not a cookie. If you ask them to describe a kringla, they’ll not describe something like this particular cookie. Sukkerkringler is a yeast dough topped with sugar. The closest cookie I found was a recipe for Smålandskringlor that looks similar, but using hartshorn (bakers ammonia) instead of baking soda, they are a crispy cookie baked until browned, and several recipes I found used rye flour.
A few possibilities exist:
– That Kringla cookies are indeed from some local region of Norway or Sweden, but they only became popular once reaching the US, and they (mostly) died out in Scandinavia or at the very least, never reached widespread popularity there.
– Kringla were something else and for various reasons changed over time in the USA, for example baking with baking soda instead of hartshorn will yield a softer cookie
– That Kringla cookies were developed in the USA by recent immigrants from Scandinavia
There is no way to really know!
If you want a Norwegian cookie that is very traditional in Norway TODAY, try Krumkake, Berlinerkranser, Fattigmann, Goro, Peperkaker. - From Nany in California, who adds: “I’ve used my Norwegian Grandmother’s recipe for years and thought you might like to try this. My grandmother baked these for Christmas and loved to dunk them in her coffee – I have continued the tradition.”