Yummy Iceland: Snjókarlasmákökur

Sunday, October 15, 2023

Snjókarlasmákökur

Snowman cookies

We're in Germany, and on Friday it was still 86 °F (30 °C), even though it was already mid-October. So it still feels like summer, warm and humid...

However, a look at our terrace in Iceland quickly brings me to the realization that the summer of 2023 is already over - winter is approaching, and fast.

There have been quite a few snowstorms in Iceland this week. The ring road over the Hellisheiði was temporarily closed and even after it opened there was a solid blanket of snow on the road and a lot of wind and gusts of wind. Our house is actually somewhat sheltered, so we haven't had a lot of snow yet, but it was stormy and windy too. The wind even opened a closed door. Our neighbors were there and everything seems to be fine again. Winter has only just begun...

We're going back to Iceland next week - and to get in the mood for the winter conditions, I baked a batch of snowman cookies. Chocolate cookies in the shape of a snowman - smákökur , or " small cakes ", as they say in Icelandic.

I think the cookies are delicious - and child 3 in particular is very enthusiastic about them. It's nice to hear such praise!

Ingredients for 12 snowmen

100 g soft butter

80 g brown raw sugar

100 g white sugar

1 egg

1 pinch of ground vanilla

250 g flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 pinch of salt

100 g chopped chocolate

200 g white chocolate

80 g dark chocolate

small colorful chocolate lentils

Preparation

In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with the brown and white sugar until fluffy.

Add the egg and ground vanilla and stir until frothy.

Add more flour, baking soda and salt to the mixture and mix to form a smooth dough.

Finally, stir in the chopped chocolate with a spoon.

Then put the dough in the fridge for a good 30 minutes.

Then preheat the oven to 350 °F (170 °C) upper/lower heat.

Form an equal number of balls in two sizes from the dough (I "measured" the amount of dough with a teaspoon, always using a little more and sometimes a little less dough).

Place one large and one small ball directly next to each other on a baking tray lined with baking paper so that they can run together.

Bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (170 °C) upper and lower heat for about 10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool on the tray and then carefully remove them from the baking paper.

Slowly melt the white chocolate in a water bath.

Then dip the tops of the snowmen into the melted white chocolate or carefully brush them with the melted chocolate. Press an orange chocolate lentil onto the face as a nose and three different colored chocolate lentils onto the snowman's stomach as buttons.