Every year for Christmas, my family and I travel down to Virginia to visit both sets of my grandparents. On my dad’s side of the family, I am part Swedish; however, my part-Swedish takes a dominant place in the family. My grandparents’ house is blue and yellow which are also the colors of the Swedish flag. At Christmas time, my family puts out Swedish Dala horses, multiple trees, nutcrackers, a collection of Santa Claus’ figurines, and dresses an American Girl Doll in a St. Lucia costume (St Lucia’s Day is a widely celebrated holiday in Sweden around Christmas). Along with all of these decorations,  my family makes Swedish Glogg (If you want the recipe let me know, but Glogg is alcohol) and multiple cookies including Brysselkäx Cookies. The cookie recipe has been passed down since my ancestors from Sweden, who moved here between the end of the nineteenth to the early twentieth century. Here is the family recipe:

Ingredients:

4 sticks of margarine

1 cup of sugar

2 egg yolks

2 tsp. vanilla extract

4 cups of flour

Colored Sugar

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar.

   

2. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract to the margarine and sugar mixture.
3. Then add the flour to the same mixture. The batter will be stiff, so mix with your hands when you can not stir easily.
4. Divide the dough into two equal balls.
5. With those two balls, divide each ball into two balls. In total, you should end up with four balls of dough.
6. Roll each ball of dough onto a countertop into a log. The log should be about the diameter of a “half dollar.” NOTE: the diameter of a half dollar is about 1.205 inches.
7. Roll each log of dough in colored sugar on top of wax paper.
8. Wrap each log of dough well in foil and refrigerate the logs of dough until you are ready to bake them. NOTE: the dough in foil can keep in the fridge for about a month when in Tupperware.
9. When ready to bake, slice the logs of dough about ¼’ in. thick. Bake at 350* for about 10-12 minutes in total. Turn the cookies around at around 5-6 minutes.
10. Enjoy!

I hope you try out this Swedish family recipe!

Abbie Lindblad ’24, Co-Arts and Entertainment Editor