Kokostoppar

In the weeks leading up to Easter, I baked a lot of different cakes and cookies. One simple cookie stood out. The recipe comes from Magnus Nilsson’s The Nordic Baking Book (2018). Nilsson calls the cookies Coconut Pyramids. In Danish, they go by the name kokostopper, and in Swedish, kokostoppar. If you like coconut macaroons, then you will love these buttery cookies. The recipe makes about 20 pyramids.

 

2 eggs

90g sugar

200g desiccated coconut

good pinch of salt

75g butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

 

“Preheat the oven to 175°C/345°F and line a baking sheet with baking (parchment) paper.

 

Put the eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until mixed. Add the desiccated coconut, salt and the butter and stir until fully combined. Let the batter sit for 20 minutes so that the coconut can absorb a bit of the moisture and swell, this makes shaping the pyramids considerably easier.

 

Spoon 20 piles of the mixture onto the prepared baking sheet and shape them into pyramid shapes using your hands or a spatula. Bake for 10-15 minutes. They should be golden on the edges of the pyramid but blonde on the flat sides. Coconut pyramids go dry if overcooked. Remove from the oven and leave them to cool.”

 

This might be one of the tastiest—and certainly the easiest—cookies I have ever made. When I first read the recipe, I wondered if shaping the pyramids might be tricky, but it’s not. I used my hands to form some of the pyramids and a spatula to make others. I think hands work best. In his introduction to the recipe, Nilsson writes that “[t]hese pastries don’t have to be shaped like pyramids, I just like them that way. It works just as well to simply spoon them out onto the paper in rough piles before cooking them.” I like the pyramids, too. The shape makes for a fun cookie.

 

What makes kokostoppar special is the rich butter and coconut flavor. Many of the coconut macaroon recipes that I have collected do not include butter and use only egg whites. I have eaten plenty of these versions and some are great. Personally, I like the option of making a rich coconut cookie. I also like that these kokostoppar aren’t too sweet. 

Strassburgers

This is the first post in a short series on cookies. With the holiday baking season upon us, we will explore different cookies and their source cookbooks. Each cookie recipe is worth adding to your baking repertoire. First up, Strassburgers from a classic Swedish cookbook entitled Sju Sorters Kakor. Melody Favish’s English translation of this heritage cookbook is entitled Swedish Cakes and Cookies [2008].

Sju Sorters Kakor is an apt title for the original Swedish text. The literal translation of this title is “Seven Kinds of Cakes”, a reference to the traditional offerings at a Swedish coffee klatch. In bygone days, hosts aspired to present their guests with at least seven different cakes and cookies to enjoy over coffee and conversation. In its Foreword, Sju Sorters Kakor laments: “…in today’s world, there is seldom time for more than one or two kinds of cake.” Alas!

The English translation of Sju Sorters Kakor has much to recommend it. The book presents over 300 classic, homemade baked goods. I like the book’s clean layout and extensive photographs. The recipes primarily use metric measurements, but imperial measurements are also provided. (Choose one or the other, but don’t mix and match.) In a world of heavy, coffee table cookbooks, I appreciate this book’s smaller, handy size.

A favorite recipe from the book is for Strassburgers. To my eye these cookies resemble chocolate-dipped comets or shooting stars.

Oven Temp: 175°C (350°F)

• 100 g (7 tablespoons) stick margarine or butter, softened
• ½ dl (¼ cup) powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar or 1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1¼ dl (2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
• 1 dl (1/3 cup) potato starch or cornstarch

Garnish:

• Jelly or powdered sugar
• Melted semi-sweet chocolate

1) Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Gradually add the flour and starch, mixing well.

2) Using a cookie press or bag with a star tip, make mounds or lengths directly onto a greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.

3) Bake on the center oven rack for around 10 minutes.

4) Pipe a little jelly onto each cookie or sift powdered sugar over and dip one end in melted chocolate.

This recipe makes approximately 25 cookies. Some thoughts on the recipe: pre-heat your oven. I used butter, vanilla extract and cornstarch and was quite happy with the results. If you have a cookie press, consider using it. I used a pastry bag and found the dough quite stiff and difficult (but not impossible) to pipe. Perhaps this is why I was well short of the recipe’s approximate quantity of 25 cookies. I skipped the jelly and powdered sugar. Make sure the cookies are cool before dipping (not scooping) the cookies in the melted chocolate.