Holiday Kringla
Cookies
by Jerry Guarino
Every holiday
season, Karina made her famous Kringla cookies,
from a recipe dating back to her Norwegian
ancestors. The soft, doughy treats made from
buttermilk had a vanilla flavor that went perfect
with hot chocolate or tea, especially after
coming in from a snowy winter day.
Karina’s grandchildren were visiting this
Christmas, filling their big house with laughter
and lots of game times. Karina was making the
Kringla cookies when her granddaughter Mary and
Kelly joined her in the kitchen.
“Can we help Noni?”
“Of course, my sweethearts. Let me show you.”
So, Karina and her granddaughters mixed the
ingredients and rolled out the dough mixture. She
showed them how to cut it into long pieces, and
then roll the pieces into the shape of logs,
about a half inch in diameter.
“How do you make the shapes Noni?”
“Here. Once we have the long pieces, we take
each end and twist it like a pretzel, see.”
“It does look like a pretzel.”
Karina let Mary and Kelly make some too. Soon,
they had done a good job of forming a couple
dozen cookies.
“Good work girls. Now we bake them for
twenty minutes.”
Once they were done cooking, Karina took them out
to share.
“You know, hot chocolate goes great with
these. You girls want hot chocolate?”
Mary and Kelly agreed enthusiastically. “Yes
please.”
Karina took out some cocoa powder and made the
hot chocolate for the girls. They had a real
family moment that Karina and the girls would
remember for a long time.
“Now, it’s almost time for bed. You
girls get your pajamas on so Santa can come visit
tonight.”
Karina tucked them into the guest room bed, and
then put the presents under the tree. After an
hour, she was finished and tired, so she retired
to her room.
***
But Mary and
Kelly were too excited to sleep. They came
downstairs, saw the presents and decided to make
something for their favorite grandmother.
Being such smart children, they got out the
recipe for Kringla and carefully mixed the
ingredients. Kelly had an idea.
“What if we added some flavor to these?”
Mary looked around the kitchen. “What about
some of this?”
“Oh, that would make them delicious and a
special treat for Noni.”
After rolling out the dough, Mary started to
create the pretzel shapes.
“I think we can do better. Let’s make a
volcano shape, a cone.”
“That would look so cool.”
So, Mary and Kelly formed the soft dough into
small cones, like volcanos, wide at the bottom
and narrow at the top.
Into the oven they went and when they were done,
the girls took them out and laid them on a tray,
covering it with aluminum foil to keep them warm.
Karina woke up smelling the cookies and came
downstairs.
“Girls, what have you been doing?”
“Noni, you sit here. We have a surprise for
you.”
Kelly placed the tray in front of Karina, while
Mary brought her a cup of tea.
“They smell so good. What did you make?”
Mary took the foil off the treats. There was a
dozen perfectly formed Kringla cookies, little
volcanoes of soft, doughy goodness.
“Oh my”, said their grandmother. “Chocolate
Kringlas.”
Holiday
Kringla Cookies by Jerry Guarino
Copyright November, 2020 – All Rights
Reserved
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