Krumkake – Norwegian Holiday Cookies

Krumkake is a delicate Norwegian cookie that is loved across generations. It’s decadent, delicious and worth every minute spent making it!

A great advantage of being married to someone from another country and culture is that there is always something new to learn every day.

So, are you out of holiday coma? I’m still recovering from all the good food and gifts and everything. This was my first holiday season in the U.S and I enjoyed it the most. What is better than spending the holiday season with family and loved ones? Well, true. Half of my loved ones are back in Iran and my heart goes out to them. But I am also so grateful that I have a wonderful family here in the U.S that make me feel at home and comfortable and have introduced me to Christmas baking!

Our favorite Christmas recipes: 

• Oatmeal Walnut Cookies
• Chewy Double Chocolate Cookies
• Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Skillet Cookie
• Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
• Peanut Butter Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
• Brown Sugar Pecan Cookies

You know what brings people closer? Sharing food and recipes, and especially old family recipes. To me, family recipes are the best, like my maman’s Chicken Frittata or  my sister-in-love’s stuffed fish. And for today, I have another old family recipe from Kyle’s grandma – who is the loveliest grandma of them all – called Krumkake, a special Norwegian holiday cookie. You may ask why these Norwegian cookies? It’s because Kyle is one-eighth Norwegian!

“Krumkake is delicious, delicate and full of memories!”

Kyle’s grandma made this beautiful recipe book for Kyle’s mom so she has all the favorite recipes. Such a great thing to do for your daughter, and also to keep precious family recipes alive and safe. She has written the recipe of Krumkake in that notebook and I’m going to post the exact recipe here with some minor notes to make it easier and simpler. Kyle’s mom and I made these Krumkakes together and we had so much fun making them. It was a wonderful time spent together and the result was these gorgeous, delicious cookies that I just couldn’t limit myself to eat only one! They are lacy, sweet, crunchy and so, so incredibly delicious. You know I’m all about easy recipes but this one is worth every minute spent making it!

See those adorable drawing on the recipe? My husband’s piece of art on his mom’s recipe book. I am not grinding my teeth! 

As you can see, the ingredients are pretty basic and accessible. When I first saw the recipe on mom’s book, I was like:

“Mom this looks so simple! All the steps and ingredients are easy!”
“It’s not as simple as it looks, Shadi 🙂 ”
“But how can it be challenging? It’s basically mixing everything and then cooking it!”
“We will see :)”

And we did see, it was not simple to make them and mom had told me of course because she had made them so many times! The stubborn Persian I am, though, thought it was just mixing and cooking!

“Despite the challenge, krumkake is a must-make!”

What makes these cookies (or some may call them waffles) special is the Krumkake iron that you can find either in Scandinavian shops or online. It’s like a waffle iron but is used on the stove. I think these days the electric Krumkake irons are also available.

The trick to have the perfect Krumkake is for the batter to have the perfect consistency, I would say the consistency is like cake batter, maybe even a tad bit runnier. It’s totally normal to ruin the first 3 Krumkakes, do not lose hope and keep going! This recipe yields  25-30  cookies so there will be enough batter to practice with!

The recipe has not mentioned to coat the iron with non-stick spray but Kyle’s mom and I discovered that it’s much easier if you coat the iron with non-stick spray each time you want to pour the batter. And the cooking time for each side depends on the heat, ours varied from 35 to 45 seconds. After a couple of trials and errors you will figure out the right amount of time for yours.

So, here is the precious Krumkake recipe from the loveliest grandma to you, my friends. I love you all so much and all I am asking of you is to gather family recipes and save them somewhere. There is nothing more precious in the world!

5 from 3 votes

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Krumkake - Norwegian Holiday Cookies

Krumkake is a delicate Norwegian cookie that is made through generations. It's decadent, delicious and worth every minute spent making it!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 25 -30

Author Shadi HasanzadeNemati and grandma

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup 12 tbsp melted butter
• 3 tbsp cold water We ended up adding 2-3 more tbsp, so 5-6 tbsp cold water in total
• 1 1/2 cup unsifted flour

Instructions

1. Beat eggs and sugar with mixer for 5 minutes until creamy and light.
2. Add melted butter, water and mix again.
3. Add flour and mix until fully combined.
4. Put the Krumkake iron over medium heat and let it get hot.
5. Open the iron and coat it with non-stick spray.
6. Pour one tbsp of the batter on the iron and close the iron. Let it cook for 35 seconds and then turn so the other side cooks for another 35 seconds too. Do not open the iron.
7. Take the iron off the heat, open it and take the krumkake out of the pan, roll immediately as it dries right away.
8. Repeat the steps again until all the cookies are ready. Coat the iron every time before pouring the batter.

Recipe Notes

The cooking time varies depending on the stove. It can be something between 35-45 second on each side. A good krumkake has the color seen in the photos, bright brown.