Finskbrød (Danish Shortbread Christmas Cookies)

I was recently telling a friend about my favorite Scandinavian recipes and I realized that so many of them are Danish! Even my favorite Norwegian Christmas cookies are originally from Denmark. And so I was inspired to bake some more Danish Christmas cookies – this time finskbrød.

Finskbrød means Finnish bread, though it seems that this recipe does originally come from Denmark. And they continue to be popular Christmas cookies there. They are incredibly simple shortbread cookies made with just flour, butter and sugar – and then I like to decorate them with sliced almonds as well. I’ve also seen people add lemon zest or vanilla to these, but I think they taste fantastic without any extra flavoring.

I baked these in a lovely renovated barn I stayed in near Norway’s Atlantic Ocean Road for a couple of days. I decided to leave Bergen, and now I am on an open ended road trip with my dog Alfie, looking for the next place we’d like to live! I’m still going to try to bake when I can, though I do miss having a fully equipped kitchen. Luckily these cookies are so simple they were easy to bake in a new kitchen.

Tips

Be sure to use cold butter in these. I like to use a fork to mash the butter into the flour and sugar before switching to kneading the dough with my hands.

The dough will feel quite dry at first, but as you work it with your hands it will slowly come together into a ball. If it breaks apart, continue kneading. You can add a tiny bit of water if necessary, but first try kneading it for longer.

Let the dough cool in the fridge for 15 – 30 minutes before rolling it out. You can also freeze the dough at this point if you plan on making the cookies later.

Then divide the dough into four pieces and roll each out into a long sausage, about as thick as a large finger. I like to place the sausages together on a parchment paper so I can decorate the cookies all together, and then I slice and separate them out to bake.

Danes use clear pearl sugar on these, but if you don’t have coarse sugar you can use regular sugar instead. You can also top the cookies with chopped hazelnuts instead of almonds, if you prefer.

These cookies spread a bit in the oven, so be sure to space them apart from each other on your baking sheet. Bake them for 8 minutes, or until the edges begin to turn golden.

You can switch the recipe from US measurements to metric by clicking from “US Customary” to “Metric” under Ingredients.