My dear friend Lena Sodergren, a tall, gorgeous Swedish woman whom I’ve known for many years and who is my favorite friend in Louviers, has inherited a love for baking, baked goods, nuts, and a
host of other delicious foods from her Swedish culture. These simple butter cookies are a good example and the first recipe she shared with me when she heard Iwas working on this book. These little gems—
and they are little—melt in your mouth and fill it with the most luscious, rich, balanced toasty flavor. Don’t be tempted to make the cookies bigger—they are intended to be a one-bite affair, because they are so tender.
Makes about 56
Ingredients:
13 tablespoons (180 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature ½ cup (100 g) vanilla sugar
2¼ cups (300 g) all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon ne sea salt
1/3 cup (50 g) almonds, lightly toasted and nely ground or chopped
1/3 cup (50 g) hazelnuts, lightly toasted, skinned, and nely ground or chopped
Note: Lena suggests grating the nuts rather than chopping them, which results in a coarsely ground nut that gives off a more intense flavor than a chopped nut. I agree with her, and I grind the nuts for this recipe in a Mouli grater, the kind with a barrel that fits into a handle and is generally used for grating Parmigiano-Reggiano. If you don’t have one, just finely chop them by hand.
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl or the bowl of an electric mixer t with a paddle, cream the butter with the vanilla sugar until the mixture is soft and pale yellow.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and nuts, using your fingers to mix them all together. Stir the nut mixture into the creamed butter and sugar and mix just until the dough adheres—it will be quite
crumbly.
4. Using a teaspoon of dough, gently form small balls—they won’t be perfectly round, but this isn’t important—and place them 1½ inches (4 cm) apart on the prepared baking sheets. Using the tines of a fork, gently press on the balls to flatten them.
5. Bake in the center of the oven until the cookies are golden, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven, transfer to a wire rack, and let cool.
These little cookies will keep for 1 week in an airtight container.
