Growing up with seven siblings in MinneSNOWta, we would do our Christmas baking together as a family. It was fun and messy. Each person had special jobs to do. We sang Christmas carols as we cooked and baked, providing warm memories for all of us. I passed this tradition on to my own children.  My grown daughter will still say when I go to visit her, “Let’s put on Christmas music and cook and bake!” even if it’s August!

GRANDMA’s FAVORITE is KRUMKAKA

½ cup whipped cream                                             

1 cup sugar

½ cup butter or margarine (melted and cooked)                                   

1 tsp nutmeg

2 cups flour

3 eggs                                                                  

1 tsp vanilla

Whip the cream, set aside. Beat eggs, add sugar, vanilla and nutmeg. Add melted butter. Fold in whipped cream and stir in flour. Drop by spoonfuls on a hot iron or griddle and bake, turning it after one minute. It comes out flat and you quickly shape it into a cone shape by wrapping it around a cone shaped iron and slide it off the hot iron when it is baked. Place it on waxed paper.

This is a delightful Norwegian cookie. It is light and melts in your mouth. It takes time to make, but it is to die for. It takes an adult (usually Grandma J) to run the iron for this special cylinder cookie, but worth the patience.

GRANDPA’S FAVORITE is CHRISTMAS “PUFF BALLS”

Grandpa would patiently gather up all these items and have the children or grandchildren cut things into little pieces. The real little ones got to roll glasses over the graham crackers to grind them all up into “sand”, as Grandpa used to say.

 Here’s the ingredients:

32 big marshmallows cut up into little pieces

½ cup of dates cut into little pieces

½ cup of red cherries in a jar cut into little pieces

½  cup jarred green cherries cut into little pieces

1 cup pecans…you guessed it…cut into little pieces

1 cup coconut

½ cup sweetened and condensed milk

1 cup graham cracker crumbs, ground very fine

Mix all the ingredients together, except the graham cracker crumbs. Make a little ball and then roll the ball in the graham crackers and place the ball on a piece of wax paper. The children like to make the balls and then roll them around in the graham cracker crumbs before putting their little balls on the wax paper.

A few words to the wise:

1. Make sure little hands are clean before you start!
2. When you store them in an airtight container, put wax paper between the layers.

They are soft, yummy, gooey good and Christmas colors.

Happy Christmas Baking!

From Jody Capehart