Prairie Cooks: Holiday Post

At four o'clock Ingeborg calls up the stairway, "Myrrrrtle?" which is the signal for Myrtle to go down and set her Christmas cookies out for Kaffe Tid. We all troop down to the kitchen. Myrtle is a fantastic cookie maker. Her sandbakkels are incredible—each one a perfect fluted cup of flaky pastry. We can't make sandbakkels at our house because we don't have baking tins. Myrtle passes her cookies around to the grown-ups who are having their coffee around the kitchen table. We take our own cookies back upstairs, because we have got to get back to that Uncle Wiggily game. We are rabid for Uncle Wiggily, and none of us has won yet.

Myrtle's Sandbakkels (Butter Tarts)

Fluted tins (3 inches in diameter at the top and 1 inch high) are necessary to make these beautiful, cup-shaped Christmas cookies, which can be served alone, inverted on a plate, or filled with ice cream, whipped cream, lemon filling, or lingonberry preserves. Do not save this recipe for a rainy day: dry weather makes the dough much easier to work with.

1 cup butter

1 cup margarine (or lard or shortening)

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 large beaten egg

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a large bowl cream the butter, margarine, and sugar well with the almond extract, add the egg and the flour which has been sifted with the salt, until the flour is just absorbed. The dough will be soft. Flour the hands, divide the dough in half, and form two rolls about 9 x 2 1/2 inches. Wrap well in lightly floured waxed paper and chill at least several hours or overnight.

When dough is firm, slice the rolls in circles to 1/8 inch thick and press into the sandbakkel tins to form shells about 1/16 inch thick, making the bottoms slightly thinner than the sides (the dough will settle in baking). To facilitate forming the shells, if desired, press the dough with another sandbakkel tin the same size which has been dipped in flour.

Arrange the tarts on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart and chill again until firm (15 to 30 minutes) before baking in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and slightly brown around the edges. Remove the tins, inverted, to a cooling rack. Cool until tins can be handled, then twirl in the hands and press in gently with the fingertips until tarts loosen, then invert carefully on the rack. Let the tarts cool completely before storing in airtight tins. Makes about 40 3-inch sandbakkels.

Carrie Young and Felicia Young, Prairie Cooks