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Table of Contents Cookies in Sweden! Was there ever anything like the display of interesting cakes to be found everywhere in the Land of the Midnight Sun? The Swedish housewife cher ishes her small cake recipes as a birthright, handed down to her through many ages of meticulous housewifery. All classes in Sweden eat cookies and drink coffee every day. No matter when two friends meet they partake of small cakes and sip strong coffee from tiny cups. The coffee is served with thick cream and there is sugar to be used with the last half cup. The traveler is impressed with the little shops where cookies are sold. If she is an American housewife, who is forever looking for something different, she may be tempted to buy a great bag of small cakes and try sampling them all, hoping to discover the secret of their excellence. But to appreciate the real culinary art which goes into cookie making one must go to "Tea," where the meal is served with all the formality which makes it so different from the informal meal enjoyed in American households. The author went to "Tea" in many charming Swedish homes. She was sadly lacking in manners at first. Later she learned the little points of etiquette which must be rigidly followed. "Tea" at a famous medieval castle, presided over by a Baroness who is a modern woman, busy with many social and economic problems, was the pleasant culmination of tea drinking in a country that holds culinary art as woman's highest achievement. The tea table was drawn close to a sofa. It was a gro tesquely long sofa, magnificently carved, and exquisitely upholstered in hand woven damask. The Baroness had a twinkle in her eyes when she ex plained: "The sofa was made especially for the castle in the long ago days when the Baron and His Majesty the King were such good friends that elaborate entertaining was always going on. The place of honor was to the right of the hostess. The other guests sat according to their rank. The ones who had no place on the sofa were very unhappy about it. So the tactful Baron had a sofa made so long that many ladies of high rank could sit side by side as they drank their tea." Still the guest of honor sits to the right of the hostess on the sofa. The other guests sit around the table. The table was spread with a hand-made lace cloth from the province of Jamtland. The tea service was handsome hand wrought silver, very old, very artistic in design. Be fore each guest was a small plate on which was placed a round lace finger doilie no larger than the center of the plate. On the doilie rested the teacup and saucer. To the right of the plate was a small fork and a teaspoon. The guests removed their cups and saucers and placed them to the right of the plates. They put the finger doilies in their laps. They were ready for tea. There is an etiquette in serving the food. The routine is: a small fancy roll for the first food eaten. This is fol lowed by soft cake. The soft cake is usually a sponge cake filled with almond paste and whipped cream. Then come the hard cookies. The guest of honor must take some of everything. It is the epitome of bad manners for her to fail to take one of each kind of the small hard cakes. Frequently her plate is piled high with an assortment, which is disconcerting to the American. But the conventions must not be disregarded; for other guests must not take anything which the guest of honor has failed to take. The hostess pours and the tea is passed by the guests. She pours a tiny amount into her own cup to see that it is just right. Then she pours a cup and passes it to the guest of honor. The other cups are passed to her left. The guest of honor passes no tea. Cream and sugar is then passed. A maid, in conventional black uniform with sheer white cap and apron, passes the food. The formal service is similar to that in America. Food is passed to the left. The guest of honor is served first, then the hostess, then the other guests. Eating is leisurely engaged in. It is proper to stay not longer than an hour or an hour and a quarter. That time is spent at the tea table. When the meal is over the guests leave, unless the hostess gives a special invitation for the guests to remain longer for some definite further entertain ment. The author was invited many times to stay longer to see "Collections." Swedish women are great collectors. Their collections may be ancient Swedish textiles, or modern Swedish glass, or ivories from China, or etchings from the famous etchers of the past and present. Whatever the col lection is it is as excellent of its kind as was the food served by the soft-footed maid/ who never made a false move. (Tea Biscuit) This is the kind of biscuits that were served as the first food at "Teas." Sift together 7 cups flour 1/2 cup butter melted 1 tsp. salt 1/2 cup sugar 1/8 tsp. each: nutmeg, carda- 2 egg yolks well beaten mon, cinnamon 2 cups milk lukewarm 1/2 cup sultana raisins 1/4 cup currants 1 compressed yeast cake broken into 1/4 cup luke warm water Mix the flour, raisins and currants. Mix the butter, sugar and egg together and beat well, then add the milk. Pour the yeast into the flour. Gradually add the milk mix ture and blend into a smooth dough. Knead until the dough ceases to stick to the hands. Let rise in a warm place for six or eight hours, or to double the bulk. Knead again. Divide into small biscuits and roll them thin. Cover with almond paste or heavy sweet apple sauce, roll the dough over the filling and seal the edges. Bake at 450° F. for twenty to thirty minutes. To make the almond filling 1 cup almonds blanched 1 cup sugar and ground heavy cream Mix the almonds and sugar. Work in the cream, a few drops at a time, until the mixture is a paste. Swedish housewives have borrowed the use of baking powder from America. The baking powder is even im ported from America. Cookie recipes with baking powder are an indication that they are modern Swedish. Sift together 3 cups flour 1 cup butter creamed 1 tsp. baking powder 1 cup sugar 2 eggs unbeaten Add the sugar to the butter and mix well. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well. Add the flour gradually and mix into a smooth dough. Put the dough through the cookie press and form the cakes into small rings. Bake at 400° F. until light brown. 7 cups flour sifted 2 cups butter creamed I3/4 cups sugar grated rind 1/2 lemon 6 egg yolks well beaten Add the sugar and egg yolks gradually to the butter and mix well. Add the lemon rind and blend in the flour, using two knives to mix the dough. Put the dough through the cookie press, grinding it out in long strips on the biscuit board. Cut the strips in even lengths and form into small circles. Bake at 350° F. until light brown. Sift together cup flour 5 cups flour sifted tsp. baking powder 11/2 cups sugar 1 tbsp. butter melted 1 tsp. orange juice 3 eggs well beaten citron cut in strips Gradually add the sugar to the eggs, beating all the time. Add the butter and orange juice and again mix well. Blend in five cups of flour, then add the flour and baking powder and knead to a smooth dough. Roll thin, cut into small cookies, place a strip of citron on each, and bake at 400° F. until light brown. Sift together 4 cups flour 1 cup butter 2 tsp. baking powder 3 eggs well beaten 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 cup sugar Blend the butter into the flour. Mix in the eggs as lightly and quickly as possible. Roll into two long loaves. Bake at 350° F. for about thirty minutes. When baked cut slices one inch thick diagonally across the loaf. Return to the oven and toast to a golden brown. Sift together 10 cups flour 11/2 cups butter creamed 3 tsp. baking powder l1/2 cups sugar 5 egg yolks unbeaten Add the sugar to the butter and beat until very light Add one egg yolk at a time and continue beating until the eggs are well mixed. Gradually add the flour and knead to a smooth dough. Form into S shaped cookies with the hands, dip into coarse sugar, and bake at 400° F. until light brown. 2 cups almonds blanched 1 tsp. vanilla and chopped 5 egg whites beaten stiff 31/2 cups sugar Mix the almonds and sugar. Add the vanilla and fold in the egg whites. Form into small crescent shaped cakes and bake at 275° F. for thirty minutes. Spet Caka is the cake baked on a log. And in the old days the cake was actually baked on an oak log fitted with a handle like a spit of olden times. Now housewives have a piece of equipment which makes the work much simpler. But still the cake is baked before hot coals. The person who turns the spindle must be very dextrous, for the success of the cake depends upon the perfection of baking. Spet Caka is the cake of Scania, the southern province of Sweden. It has the place of honor among all the cookies at the two great celebrations of the year, Christmas and Midsummer Day. Making the Spet Caka is an important event. All the women of the family help with the beating of the eggs and the baking. The author had the privilege of seeing one of these famous cakes one Midsummer Day in Scania. That cake was a work of art. It stood about three feet high and was topped by a smaller cone which was used as a container for corn flowers. It was the centerpiece of the long tea table placed on the lawn, near the Maypole. There were dozens of other cakes on the table. They were eaten. The Spet Caka was left untouched. It was not until the midnight supper that the cake was eaten. The hostess served the cake by breaking off generous sized pieces and passing a piece at a time to the guests. It was delicious. But how was it made? A colonel of His Majesty's Army was at the same table with the author. It was he who found out how the festive cake was made. And it came to light too that the cake was a part of the menu for the birthday celebrations of famous or important people. 70 egg yolks unbeaten 31/2 lbs. sugar 70 egg whites beaten stiff 31/2 lbs. potato flour Beat the egg yolks and sugar together for one hour. Fold in the egg whites, then lightly fold in the potato flour. The dough is spread thinly on the utensil used for baking. |
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