What are brune pinner? Translated as “brown sticks”, these iconic spiced Scandinavian Christmas biscuits are an integral part of Norwegian Christmas celebrations, and are often featured as one of the seven kinds of cookies that every home will bake for guests during the run up to the festive season. And, in our opinion, this is one of the best biscuit recipes EVER! Not only does it take a couple of minutes to make the dough from store-cupboard ingredients, there is no rolling or using cutters; you simply squidge it down onto the baking tray and then slice it with a knife after it’s been baked!
Crisp with a hint of chewiness, the fragrant festive spices make these the perfect treat to go with everything from a glass of mulled wine to some ice cold milk.
Brune pinner (Norwegian “brown stick” spiced Christmas biscuits)
Ingredients (makes 40-50)
300g plain flour
200g sugar
200g room temperature butter
1 tbsp black treacle
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, separated
A pinch of salt
To decorate
Pearl sugar
25g flaked almonds
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Place the sugar and butter in the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk until light and fluffy.
- Add the flour, baking powder, treacle, vanilla essence, cinnamon and egg yolk and continue to combine until the mixture forms a soft smooth dough.
- Slice the dough into four equal parts and roll them out into sausages as long as your baking sheet.
- Laying two sausages on each sheet then press the dough down gently with your fingers so it measures roughly 10cms across.
- Repeat with the other two pieces of dough on the other sheet; brush the egg white over all four flattened sausages.
- Sprinkle pearl sugar over the dough, finishing off with a scattering of flaked almonds.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the top is starting to look drier.
- While the biscuits are still warm, use the tip of a sharp knife to gently score the join between the sausages if they’ve joined together. Cut each sausage into slices roughly 2cms wide, angling them slightly so they are slanted.
- Allow to cool before dividing the biscuits and serving; they will last a good two weeks in a biscuit tin, but the dough can be frozen very nicely so you could always bake two sausages and freeze the others!
