Nov 12

Nov 12 Fattigman

So there went my plan to have a regular posting schedule on the website... Being away from my kitchen for the last 4 months hasn’t really helped with my productivity and frankly motivation. As it stands I am not hopeful to be back home until next year. So here lays my dilemma. Experimenting with the old and unusual recipes and making a mess in the process while being courteous to the hosts requires a delicate diplomacy. I also don’t want this space to go quiet for too long. So I thought since holiday season is coming I would republish some of the traditional Christmas biscuit recipes I wrote for a Latvian magazine a while back. Tradition is after all rooted in history.

Today I’ll start with one of my favourite childhood sweets – The Little Twigs (sometimes known as Bunny Ears). Growing up I never thought of them as Christmas sweet, they were in fact a summer treat. Mostly because I only visited the auntie who made them during my early childhood summer holidays. Since then the smell of sweet deep-fried pastry pasty have always reminded me of clouds of powered sugar and a dark wooden china cabinet where I could always find them hidden in a bowl under a towel. They had been on my wish-list of “Things I NEED to learn to cook” for a while now. To my surprise when I was researching Christmas biscuit recipes for the magazine I came across a Norwegian sweet called Fattigman. Why those are my Little Twigs!

As it turns out versions of these little biscuits have not only been around for centuries but are also known across Scandinavia under various names. In Sweden they are known klenäter, in Iceland – kleina, in Denmark – Klejner and Norway – Fattigman. Each country has a slight variation of the size, texture and ingredients. In some parts you can find them made as large as your hand, other parts they are small bite sized sweets. Some prefer them more crispy, some more puffed and airy. And then there are variations of spices and alcoholic add-ons.

Fattigman roughly translated as “poor mans cookies”, which is a misleading name. Its ingredients in the past were not only expensive but also a luxury. Things like butter, cream, spices and brandy were something only the rich could have had on a daily basis. However even a farmers wife would have saved up and used some of the more exotic and expensive ingredients on special occasions like, for example, Christmas. In fact if you look at the traditional Christmas recipes from around the Europe then you will start noticing this same pattern - the English has their mince pies and Christmas puddings, Italians - panettone, Spaniards a nougat called turrón and not to forget copious variations on gingerbreads across Europe.

Fattigman

5 egg yolks
85 grams sugar
85 ml cream
60 grams butter, melted
1 - 2 tbsp brandy, cognac or rosewater
seeds of 6 cardamon pods, ground
320 grams flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
oil or lard for frying
icing sugar for dusting

Whip the egg yolks with sugar until tripled in size, then whip up the cream and fold the two together. Add brandy (or cognac or rosewater) and melted butter and mix in. In a separate bowl mix in flour, baking powder and cardamon and sift in in. Mix everything together until you can a smooth dough. Cover and cut it in a cool spot to rest min 30 minutes. You can also put the dough in the freezer at this point if you wish. The longest I have kept the dough was about 5 months and it still tasted good.

When ready to fry them, heat the oil in a pan (it doesn’t have to be very deep) till about 170°C - 180°C. Divide the dough into smaller pieces and roll it as thinly as you like. Cut it into equal sized diamond shapes with a slit in the middle. To shape them simply take the tip of the longer edge and gently pull it through the slit. It is best to have made a few a them before start frying. Fry a few at a time, carefully not to overcrowding for couple of minutes on each side. Put it on a cooling rack. Remember to keep an eye on the pan as it sometimes like to bubble up. When that happens simple take a chopstick (I like to use them when frying) and gently stir to break the bubbles. Once all the twigs are fried and cooled dust them with icing sugar.

If you haven’t tried them before then I highly recommend you do. They however very moreish and most definitely will contribute to the after holiday stretchy pants syndrome. You have been warned!