Tales of Woe

I wanted to make Swedish Peppaarkakor cookies this year. My dad makes them. And I love them. They are thin and crisp. Or they can be soft and chewy. It depends on how you roll them.

So, I went to the store to get two of the required ingredients. Sorghum and ground cardamon. The first store didn't have either. The second didn't have sorghum but after a quick phone call to my dad, found out I could substitute molasses. I hunted for ground cardamon. An employee even helped me. They had two bottles. One for $12.49 and the other for $13 something.

I only needed one teaspoon.

I didn't buy it.

No Swedish Peppaarkakor cookies for me this year.

But here's the recipe in case a store near you sells the ground cardamon for a more reasonable price.

½ lb butter
1 ½ C Sugar
1 beaten egg
2 T dark syrup (Sorgum)
3 C flour
2 t soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t Cloves
1 t ginger
1 t cardamon crushed

Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg and syrup. Sift flour with other dry ingredients. Add to first mixture and mix well. Keep over night in refrigerator. Roll out thin. Makes over 100 thin cookies. Bake 5 to 10 minutes at 375F.
Mrs Oscar Freeman
Mrs David Anderson

And extra instructions from my dad:

You need a pastry cloth and rolling pin cover for rolling out the peppaarkakor. You put flour on the cloth and rolling pin cover to keep the dough from sticking. Use your spatula for making Swedish pancakes to pick up the cut cookies from the pastry cloth. Use parchment paper on your cookie sheet to bake the cookies – then you don’t have to wash the cookie sheet each time you bake them. Any questions? Ask Mom

If you make them, let me know! I'll send you my address and you can mail some to me. You know, just to be sure they turned out right.