Sandbakels

When I was growing up,
every year at Christmas time
my mom would make Sanbakels.
These are a traditional Norwegian butter cookie
pressed into tins of various designs and baked.


On my holiday visits home,
since I have grown up
and started my own family,
I can always count on a Tupperware bowl
filled with Sanbakels waiting to be enjoyed.


Every year when Christmas rolls around,
and I am far away from my mom,
I get this urge to make my own Sanbakels.
The only problem with this idea
is that I own approximately 3 Sanbakel tins.
At the rate of 3 cookies baked every 15 minutes
it would take me an entire day
to bake a batch of Sanbakels.
I quickly become discouraged
given these statistics.
One year I searched every store
I could think of looking for Sanbakel tins
with no luck at all.
Another year I found them online,
but the shipping time
would have resulted in their arrival in mid January.
I have no desire to make Sanbakels in January.
Now, I know I should have just purchased them
and I would have had them the next year
when I decided I wanted Sanbakels,
but chances are I would have forgotten
where I put them by then.
(Like the package of 10 tins
that I vaguely remember buying
at a thrift store
possibly within the past 3 years.)

This year I decided while I was in Utah
helping my mom get through chemo and radiation
and with all of her Sanbakel tins at my disposal
I was going to bake Sanbakels.
I pulled out the tins


and the recipe
dictated by my mom
from my Grandma Christiansen.

Sanbakels

1 heaping cup of sugar
1 # butter
3 eggs
1 t almond flavoring
flour

That's it.

I had never actually gotten to the recipe part
of baking Sanbakels before.
I've always been stuck on finding the tins.
When I looked at this recipe it raised a few questions.
I do know what heaping means,
but if you can only find a 1/2 cup measuring cup
do you fill it heaping both times??
I was smart enough to figure out
that the # means pound
and I know that 4 sticks of butter make a pound.
(That's a lot of butter).
Anyone who passed home economics
knows that the lower case t stands for teaspoon.
However, the flour was a little trickier.
Flour - that's pretty vague.
My mom seemed to think
that maybe she used about 4 cups.
"You just keep adding flour
until it feels right."
Right.
Then the lack of a temperature
and a cooking time made me a little nervous.
Most things bake at 350 degrees so we'll go with that.
My mom and I did differ a little on the time though.
She kept telling me that my cookies weren't brown enough,
but I don't like my Sanbakels brown.
Sorry hubby, no offense meant, but I made pale Sanbakels.


They taste just like Christmas to me.
All I need now is some of Aunt Rose's Hot Punch
to wash them down.

Today I am thankful for

Childhood memories that make me feel happy.
A reminder of my Grandma Christiansen and my Norwegian ancestors.
Snow outside that makes baking cookies a lot more inviting.