Norwegian Sandnøtter Christmas Cookies With Lemon

Norwegians traditionally make seven types of cookies for Christmas, and each family usually has their own favorites they include in their seven. My Norwegian grandmother had her favorites, and then my mom and my aunt have their favorites, some of which they’ve passed on to me, while others of which I’ve… passed on.

My seven Norwegian Christmas cookies change a bit each year, but one cookie that I always include is Norwegian sandnøtter cookies.

You can find all of my Scandinavian Christmas recipes here.

Norway has so many delicious Christmas cookies, many of which are made from quite complicated recipes. I’m looking at you Sarah Bernhardt. But sandnøtter are so simple to make. They’re the perfect easy Norwegian sugar cookies.

And personally I think they’re even better than some of the more elaborate cookies that take hours to make, though I do love those as well.

Sandnøtter are a light sugar cookie. A lot of Norwegians make vanilla sandnøtter, but my family always makes a lemon version of sand cookies, which I personally think is so much better. Perhaps lemon doesn’t sound particularly Christmasy, but the little hint of citrus is so refreshing amongst all the warm spices in our other cookies.

And my Norwegian friends agree – everyone who tried my lemon sandnøtter this year commented on how delicious sandnøtter with lemon are.

Tips

These sandnøtter are made with potato starch instead of flour, which gives them a wonderful crumbly, sand-like texture. Okay maybe eating sand doesn’t sound appealing, but in this case it really is so good. They melt in your mouth. This also means that they just so happen to be gluten free cookies as well.

You do need to use potato starch for these, which is common in Norwegian super markets but not so common in some other countries. And no, corn starch will not work instead. But I used to make these as a child in the US, so I know you can find potato starch there too! Or you can order potato starch on Amazon here.

The grated lemon is what gives these cookies their lemon flavor. So if you prefer vanilla cookies you could skip the lemon and add in a teaspoon of vanilla sugar or extract instead. Or for orange flavored cookies you could grate orange peel into the cookies instead!

Mix the batter well until it’s smooth and a nice soft texture. You can also do this in an electric mixer if you prefer.

These lemon sand cookies don’t spread out much when baking, so the size and shape you put in the over will stay about the same. I like to keep the cookies smooth, so I just flatten them a bit with my hands, but if you want textured sandnøtter you can flatten them with a fork.

I bake lemon sandnøtter every Christmas, and every Christmas I wonder why I don’t make these all year round – they’re so simple, and so delicious. They also make an excellent gift because everyone likes them, and they’re quite sturdy as far as Christmas cookies go.

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