I always think of my mormor when I have brune kager. The first time I had it was during Christmas and as far as I can remember, they were one of her staple Christmas bakes.
So when my mum inherited her recipe book, I was ecstatic to find out that she had written down her brune kager recipe in it. The only issue though (as is with a lot of my mormor’s recipes) is that she would often leave out some minor details from her recipes like, how long to bake the biscuits for, at what temperature, how to combine the ingredients and even writing down ranges instead of exact figures such as 125 – 250gm of sugar. And realistically what difference does 125gm of sugar make anyway? Come to think of it, I am being a little unreasonable.
So, as my mum and I tried to decipher my mormor’s recipe, my mother did point out that she knew someone else who was very similar as well. Up until recently… (this last year) I pretty much cooked/baked the same way. I could tell you what I put in stuff but never how much – so writing down these recipes has been a really big change for me. Most of the time when I make the dishes again at home, I just wing it or as they say “let the spirits of my ancestors guide me” though I have finally learnt my lesson with baking – which is not nearly as forgiving.
This is the second time I have made my mormor’s brune kager and they are my favourite to make, not only because they remind me of her but because they are pretty simple. The dough takes 20 minutes to throw together, stores well in the fridge and gets better the longer its in there. After which, you just slice them and bake them for a couple of minutes. Really very little thought or effort required.
This time around however I have cut down the sugar a little and added cinnamon as per Dan’s request. As always, do let me know if you try this recipe – love to know what you think.
Ingredients
500gm plain flour
250gm unsalted butter
250gm light brown sugar
125gm golden syrup
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon
25gm almond flakes/chopped
1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
Method
1. Melt the butter, then add the sugar and syrup and combine.
2. Add spices to the sugar mixture
3. Add baking powder and sodium bicarbonate to flour.
4. Gradually add in flour to the sugar mixture.
5. Mix almonds into dough and roll into long blocks.
6. Place in the fridge for an hour.
7. Slice and bake on baking sheet for 10 minutes at 180 degrees till brown.