Kransekake Sticks another Bakers Odyssey!

I belong to a few Norwegian groups on Facebook. They are groups where people share their heritage and their recipes. This was posted on a site and I knew I had to try them. I love Kransekake and add the dipping of chocolate and I was sold. So I set out to make them. What I thought would be a relatively simple task....Baking is my thing... has turned into a journey of sorts. 

The recipe is so simple just 3 ingredients what could go wrong?  Here is the Recipe from M.F. Scott as posted...

****Beware read this whole article before trying these cookies...learn from my mistakes!!!!


Kransekake sticks


1 lb finely ground almonds

1 lb powdered sugar

3 egg whites

Mix the ingredients into a dough and place in the fridge overnight.

Roll the dough so that it's the size of a finger and cut into 3 inch long sticks

Bake for ten minutes at 350 degrees.

Once they've cooled down dip half of the stick into melted dark chocolate.

* Sometimes, after dipping in the chocolate, I'll have extra ground almonds that I'll dip the chocolate end into, just makes them a little more festive.

So I whipped out my handy food processor and ground those almonds up to what I thought was finely ground. And stuck it in the fridge over night.
 

The next day I'm all excited to get started with rolling these puppies out...I was dreaming of Kransekake all night. So I roll them out about the size of a finger...my index finger seemed like a good choice cut them to  3 inches... put them on a cookie sheet and poped them into the oven.

Now I've seen and eaten Kransekake sticks before so I know what they look like so when I opened the oven to take the cookies out I almost died... sorry I don't have a pic of this I was too much in shock.. My cookies had expanded soo much they were stuck together and all strangely shaped... ugh! I guess I picked the wrong finger. So the next batch I decided to roll out much thinner... the size of my pinkie finger and keep the cookies much further apart.
 

I put them in the oven again. This time they look a bit better but I know they still don't look like the Kransekake sticks I've seen.

But they tasted delicious (my husband and son ate the first sheet  no chocolate needed)...so I finished up the dough and figured once I dip them in chocolate I could hide some of the funny shapes and like I said they tasted delicious!

Now another person on the site also tries the recipe and posts a picture of her cookie asking if that is how they are supposed to look. And what do my eyes see... squiggly cookies that look like mine. So i say to myself OK Christine something is not quite right. Mind you it's 11:00 PM and I decide to search the internet to see what the heck is going on, is it the recipe..but they taste great...so I search the net to see what I can find.

This video sent me on my next quest:
A Baker's Odyssey "Kransekake" Recipe

OK so now I know what I did wrong what I thought was finely ground almonds were not fine enough. I don't own one of those nut grinders but I was sure in my arsenal of kitchen gadgets I must have something that will grind up those almonds fine enough! So out comes the Kitchen Aid and the special food grinder attachment..

In go the almonds and out comes...not what I'm looking for...and the grinder jammed up..oops! Ok what do I try next out comes the Kitchen Aid coffee grinder thin I bought for grinding up spices...

Another no go the results were worse than the food grinder and mind you its now 1:00 AM... my family is trying to figure out what the heck is she doing down there at 1 in the morning. So I go an view the video again...hum I think to myself I have a Pampered Chef cheese grinder that  sort of looks like part of that nut grinder thing so into the closet I go and pull that baby out!



What did I have to lose at this time of night and it was the last thing in my grinding arsenal! So in went the almonds and low and behold out came.... finely ground almonds... woo whoo!....maybe not as fine as the video but closer than anything I was able to achieve with anything else!

Now I'm thinking to myself I don't think Pampered Chef had almonds in mind for this greater..I hope it holds up..and am I going to do a pound of almonds this way? Well the answer was no way so I decided to halve the recipe. Buy the time I was done with the dough it was 2:00 AM but I was happy!

Kransekake Sticks

1/2 lb finely ground almonds (almost like a powder see pic above)

1/2 lb powdered sugar

1.5 ounces egg whites ( the whites from 1 1/2 eggs)

Optional about 9 oz. of good quality chocolate to dip the ends in.

*****************************************************

Finely grind the almonds so they are almost...I did say almost.... like a powder.

Add the ground almonds to the powdered sugar and mix buy hand till combined. Then put in the bowl of your food processor ...turn on and add the egg whites... process till combined. Put in a covered container and refrigerate over night.

Taking small portions of dough...Roll so that it's about the thickness of a pencil and cut into 3 inch long sticks. Place on parchment lines baking sheets..do not put them too close together!!!!

Bake for 6-7 minutes at 350 degrees. Start rolling out your next sheet while your first pan is baking.

Remove from baking pan to cooling rack.

As you can see they are still a bit squiggly but look sooo much nicer when you get the nuts ground to the right consistency!

Once they've cooled down  you candip half of the stick into melted dark chocolate. I am fussy about my Chocolate being an Official Chocoholic so I used Lindt for these I like the taste and consistency of the chocolate when it is melted.

Chop up the chocolate and melt in the microwave. I do  1/2 the chocolate at a time. Zap it for 30 seconds them mix and another 30 seconds mix and you should be good to go!



Once the chocolate has hardened store in an airtight container till ready to eat. This recipe even though it was 1/2 of the original made 50 cookies!

Also... if you are going to freeze them do not dip in chocolate...I did this and they get a blush on the chocolate..live and learn!

 A side note from the owner of the original recipe:

* Sometimes, after dipping in the chocolate, I'll have extra ground almonds that I''ll dip the chocolate end into, just makes them a little more festive.

Good Luck on your Kransekake Odyssey!!!!!!!



Pin It