A few years ago, when I was living in the housing co-op and looking for a quick cookie recipe, I came across a blog post for something called “Norwegian Christmas butter squares.” I’d never found anything like it before: it created rich, buttery and chewy cookies, like a vastly superior version of the holiday sugar cookies I’d eaten growing up. About a year ago I went looking for the recipe again, and failed to find it. The blog had been taken down, and it sent me into momentary panic.
Luckily, I remembered enough to find it on the Wayback Machine, and quickly copied it into a file that I’ve saved ever since. I probably make these cookies about once a month, and they last about five days around my voracious husband – they’re fantastic with a cup of bitter coffee or tea. I’m skeptical that there is something distinctively Norwegian about these cookies, but they do seem like the perfect thing to eat on a cold day.
Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt Turbinado/ Raw Sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chill a 9×13″ baking pan in the freezer. Do not grease the pan.
Using a mixer, blend the butter, egg, sugar, and salt together until it is creamy. Add the flour and vanilla and mix using your hands until the mixture holds together in large clumps. If it seems overly soft, add a little extra flour.
Using your hands, press the dough out onto the chilled and ungreased baking sheet until it is even and ¼ inch thick. Dust the top of the cookies evenly with raw sugar.
Bake at 400 degrees until the edges turn a golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about five minutes before cutting the cooked dough into squares. Remove the squares from the warm pan using a spatula.
So I tried this recipe.
And it is GREAT.
It basically makes the platonic ideal of commercial sugar cookies, only in bar form. When I give them to people (which I do a lot, because this is one of those simple recipes where the results seem very impressive), I just tell them they’re sugar cookie bars.
hell yeah I can! these worked out pretty well though they are without egg (the usual binding agent) because I didn’t have egg in the house when I made them lmao. they ended up tasting really good and didn’t end up dry or anything though!
as they’re baked you bake them in whatever sauce you want to eat them with. usually it’s a tomato sauce (I make my own) but really go nuts yanno. just make sure there’s enough to coat them as they bake so they don’t burn!
Lavrentiy’s Baked Kinda Spicy No Egg Because He Ran Out Meatballs
ingredients
500g beef mince
one onion chopped finely (make sure it’s very fine or it’ll stop the mixture sticking together properly!)
one tablespoon paprika
two tablespoons breadcrumbs
salt & pepper
flour to coat the meatballs
one teaspoon of chili powder
one teaspoon cayenne pepper
oil (I used olive oil; vegetable oil would likely work too)
equipment
a large mixing bowl
a frying pan
an ovenproof dish
some aluminium (kitchen) foil
how to make this pile of stuff into meatballs
preheat ya oven (400F/200C)
get a large mixing bowl and throw in the mince, the finely chopped onion, chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, and bread crumbs
mix it all up. you’re gonna have to use your hands so it all mushes together nicely.
using your hands, scoop out small amounts of the mixture and shape them into little balls. I used a tablespoon and took a reasonable scoop, and they made some nicely-sized ones. I think we managed to get 16 out of this mixture.
sprinkle some flour on a clean surface (like you’re about to knead bread) and lightly roll the meatballs in them so they have a nice coating
heat some of the oil in the pan until it’s nice and hot (but not spitting at you) and throw the meatballs in
lightly fry them so they’re slightly browned all over – you’re not cooking them, you’re just sealing in the flavour and juices
put them into an ovenproof dish and set to the side
this is where you make whatever sauce it is you’re going to make, or tip the jar in, or what have you.
pour sauce over meatballs so they’re nice and covered
cover the dish with foil and put in the oven for 30-40 minutes
about 10 minutes before they’re done, remove the foil so they have a chance to crisp up slightly
serve them with whatever: rice or pasta, or in our case mashed potatoes!
PTA archive 