Traditional Norwegian Christmas Cookies / Døler

A traditional Norwegian recipe from tine.no

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In Context
Since these two ingredients turn up quite frequently in Scandinavian recipes and very seldom in recipes from English speaking countries, here’s a a little something about both:
Potato starch is starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain starch grains (leucoplasts). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed; the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. The starch is then washed out and dried to powder.

Potato starch contains typical large oval spherical granules; their size ranges between 5 and 100 μm. Potato starch is a very refined starch, containing minimal protein or fat. This gives the powder a clear white colour, and the cooked starch typical characteristics of neutral taste, good clarity, high binding strength, long texture and a minimal tendency to foaming or yellowing of the solution.

Potato starch contains approximately 800 ppm phosphate bound to the starch; this increases the viscosity and gives the solution a slightly anionic character, a low gelatinisation temperature (approximately 140 °F or 60 °C) and high swelling power.

These typical properties are used in food and technical applications.

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Vanilla sugar Pre-packaged vanilla sugar can be costly and difficult to obtain outside Europe but can be made at home. Sometimes it can be replaced with vanilla extract, where one teaspoon equals one package. However, when it is needed as a topping, vanilla extract is unsuitable.

Vanilla sugar can be prepared at home by combining approximately 2 cups of white sugar with the scraped seeds of one vanilla bean. Alternatively, you can simply add 1 to 2 whole vanilla beans to an airtight jar containing 1 to 2 cups of white sugar; let the mixture age for approximately 2 weeks then use 2 tablespoons in place of one packet of vanilla sugar; continue to replace sugar as it is used and the beans will last indefinitely.

Cheaper vanilla sugar is also available, made only from sugar and vanillin.

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