Honey coated chocolate cookies ~ bake number 6

16th December 

If you have a variety of heart cutters that is perfect,
if not, use what you have

I have had such fun trying out new
cookies this year to add to the blog for you.  Some will feature now each year in our 7 to bake for Christmas but all of them will be made again, we have really enjoyed it.  however, these have been the most fun to make, seeing the hearts swell up, ahhh, ad then covering them in chocolate and decorating with pictures evocative of my childhood has brought much pleasure.  So let's crack on...

A word about timing with these biscuits:
1)  the dough will need chilling for 24 hours
2)  the baked cookies will need storing for 1 week before covering in chocolate

They are worth the effort ♥

Although not typically Norwegian these are found all over Denmark and are worthy, I feel of being included in the 7 cookies for Christmas.  These cookies come from the book Scandinavian Christmas by the very talented Trine Hahneman, I have a couple of her books and they are great.  Good Christmas present idea for anyone keen on Scandinavian cooking.


♥ Honey hearts ♥

Different sized heart shaped honey cookies ready for baking

You will need:

500g honey
3 egg yolks
200ml buttermilk, [I just added table spoon of vinegar to milk and left it for 10 minutes as I could not find butter milk]
500g plain flour
100g of rye flour (or if you have to wholemeal)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp allspice

For the chocolate covering:  500g of dark chocolate, minimum of 70 % cocoa


1  Melt the honey and allow it to cool.
2  Ad the egg yolks, buttermilk and mix well.
3  In a different bowl sift both flours, baking powder,  bicarbonate of soda and spices.  Once well mixed add to the honey mixture.
4  Knead dough until smooth on a lightly floured surface.  Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours.  you can leave it for a few days if you desire.
5  Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius on the day of baking.  Roll out dough on floured surface until about 1 cm thick.  Using different sized heart shaped cutters if you have them, cut out a selection of each.  Or failing that use any cutters you have. Placing on a lined baking tray.
6  Bake for about 12 minutes.  the cookies should have swelled in size, like puffed up hearts, I loved this, made me squeal with happiness. 



Puffed up cookie hearts after baking

7  Cool on a wire rack and when cooled, place  in an air tight container for ONE WEEK!!!!  This is to allow the cookies to soften a little before being smothered in chocolate.  It is worth the wait.
8  Cover the hearts after a week with melted chocolate and place on either an edible decoration made out of rice paper or the old fashioned 'glansbilder' found all over Scandinavia or failing that, these hearts look fabulous left plain with chocolate. It makes them simple and elegant, I think.

Once covered in chocolate, kept air tight, these cookies can last for up to 2 weeks.



Adding melted chocolate makes the cookies look elegant



Glansbilder added for decorative purposes to the honey cookies



What are glasbilder I hear you ask or did I perhaps imagine that? As a child in Norway I spent may a happy day cutting out my glansbiler from the sheets that they came on.  I would loving keep them between pages of a scrap book and on meeting friends would sit for hours looking at theirs and begin the process of swapping.  It was a social time, it was a happy time and my memories of those days are perhaps why I love these cookies so much.

It is thought that glansbilder originated in Germany around the beginning of the 1940s, but soon many European countries were selling them.  today the hobby has died down amongst the younger generation but older people seem to be picking up the mantle.  In America, I believe they are called die cuts, in the UK scraps, maybe now you know what I am talking about.  Pictures printed and used for anything from decoupage to who knows what.  I even have an old hard case suitcase from the early 1950's that I covered with my glansbilder when I felt the time had come for me to stop swapping.  Maybe one of these days I'll pull it out of the loft and show you...

The remainder of the cookies waiting to be covered

Try the cookies, don't be put off about the time frame and

do not worry if you don't have any glasbilder, they look beautiful without them too.

♥  We have almost baked all 7 Christmas cookies   ♥