Saturday, December 29, 2007

Do you have any Pomeranssinkuori?
















Didn't think so. It's a Finnish spice and an important ingredient in some gingerbread cookies that I make. I got the recipe (and the spice) from my Finnish friend Mimmu. Pomeranssinkuori is like lemon/orange peel.

I just made a double batch of the cookie dough and it called for 4 teaspoons of each of these spices: pomeranssinkuori, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, coriander, allspice, cloves and ginger. I've invited one of my friends over tomorrow to bake. I'll post pictures of my clever cookies tomorrow (I mean later today).

In the meantime, the dough is chilling. Mimmu told me once she had to hide the dough in her refrigerator so her kids wouldn't find it because they would eat it! I guess I can't really hide it from myself...

KORVATUNTURIN PIPARKAKUT or Finnish Gingerbread Cookies
shared by Mimmu Hartiala-Sloan

Combine and cream until light and fluffy:
8 ounces butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup dark Karo syrup

Then break in 1 egg, mixing well.

In another bowl combine:
3 cups flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
2 t pomeranssinkuorta or substitute 1 t each lemon peel or orange peel
2 t each ginger, coriander, nutmeg, cinnamon, cardemom, cloves and allspice

Carefully knead this mixture...you might add up to 1 cup more flour. Put the ready dough into a ziplock bag and into the refrigerator for at least overnight, and don't tell anyone about it or they'll eat it.

When you are ready to bake the cookies preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Roll out the dough very thin (2mm) on a very well floured surface. Bake the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet. Watch the cookies carefully for burned cookies are horrid. They should bake somewhere between 5-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the cookie. Immediately transfer them to a cooling rack. Pack them into tins and keep hidden for a few weeks if possible, thus the spices will mellow. Good luck.



Sadly, my friend Mimmu is moving to Finland in a few weeks (sad for her friends here -- wonderful for Finland!). She is like Mother Earth and is a dear friend. I feel lucky that she shared this recipe with me and the last of her pomeranssinkuorta!

4 comments:

Amy D said...

Wow! That's a long name, but man, those sound yummy. I can't wait to see pics of the results. Good luck!

rebecca said...

I'll vouch for these cookies being WONDERFUL! Mimmu gave out the recipe in RS years ago, and it's a family favorite.

Riteandritual said...

Gingerbread cookies bring back memories of growing up in Finland, but of course we just bought the frozen dough from the shop. The dough is really hard to find in the US, though, so I'm trying to make my own dough for home-baked gingerbread cookies for the family this year.
The pomeranssinkuori is a problem I ran into. I didn't exactly know what it was until I came to your blog: I bought a pomegranate thinking to shred some of its skin, like you do with lemons for Tiikerikakku (Fin="tiger cake"). Now that I see its a powdered spice, I'm not too sure of my plan anymore...

Anonymous said...

A bit of Finnish to clarify. Pomeranssi = Bitter orange, kuori = peel and given our habit of using compound words pomeranssinkuori means bitter orange peel. Simple?