A few years ago, when I was living in the housing co-op and looking for a quick cookie recipe, I came across a blog post for something called “Norwegian Christmas butter squares.” I’d never found anything like it before: it created rich, buttery and chewy cookies, like a vastly superior version of the holiday sugar cookies I’d eaten growing up. About a year ago I went looking for the recipe again, and failed to find it. The blog had been taken down, and it sent me into momentary panic.
Luckily, I remembered enough to find it on the Wayback Machine, and quickly copied it into a file that I’ve saved ever since. I probably make these cookies about once a month, and they last about five days around my voracious husband – they’re fantastic with a cup of bitter coffee or tea. I’m skeptical that there is something distinctively Norwegian about these cookies, but they do seem like the perfect thing to eat on a cold day.
Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 egg 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt Turbinado/ Raw Sugar for dusting
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chill a 9×13″ baking pan in the freezer. Do not grease the pan.
Using a mixer, blend the butter, egg, sugar, and salt together until it is creamy. Add the flour and vanilla and mix using your hands until the mixture holds together in large clumps. If it seems overly soft, add a little extra flour.
Using your hands, press the dough out onto the chilled and ungreased baking sheet until it is even and ¼ inch thick. Dust the top of the cookies evenly with raw sugar.
Bake at 400 degrees until the edges turn a golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about five minutes before cutting the cooked dough into squares. Remove the squares from the warm pan using a spatula.
So I tried this recipe.
And it is GREAT.
It basically makes the platonic ideal of commercial sugar cookies, only in bar form. When I give them to people (which I do a lot, because this is one of those simple recipes where the results seem very impressive), I just tell them they’re sugar cookie bars.
Edit: Oh, right, and I just use normal white sugar to dust. As much as the dough can hold is best, which is why I always end up shaking the pan around like I’m panning for gold.
Ok, fellow children of the 80′s and before…Can I pick your brains?
I’m writing a fic. Dean and Cas are standing in the bunker’s garage, after a very intense conversation, that started with something super awkward and ended with some actual honesty about their feelings for each other, and they’re now just standing together, hugging, having a quiet moment. The boombox in the garage is on the classic rock station (a middle of nowhere rock station, so there’s probably country rock and some other rock-adjacent music that might be played now and again, as well. That expands the possibilities a bit. Keep that in mind.)
Dean is gonna start quietly singing along to the song that comes on the radio. He’ll basically be singing into Cas’s ear/shoulder/hair. I need an old, familiar song that would be very sweet and romantic and meaningful, that Dean could sing some of the lyrics to. The first one that came to mind was Loggins and Messina’s ‘Danny’s Song’ [In the mornin’ when I rise, you bring a tear of joy to my eyes and tell me everything’s gonna be alright.] But then I realized there’s no way, even after some super-duper honesty, that Dean would touch the lyrics [‘Even though we ain’t got money, I’m so in love with ya honey’] with a ten meter cattle prod.
I finally ended up with Bob Seger’s ‘Shame on the Moon’: [Until you’ve been beside a man You don’t know what he wants You don’t know if he cries at night You don’t know if he don’t When nothin comes easy Old nightmares are real Until you’ ve been beside a man You don’t know how he feels Ohhhh, blame it on midnight. Ooooh, shame on the moon.]
But…there’s almost certainly a better choice… something that would be more likely to played on a classic rock station…that Dean would find ‘cooler’ and make him feel a little less vulnerable singing it to Cas, but would still be sweet. Because he’s not trying to seduce Cas at this point. He’s trying to comfort him, let him know that what happened is ok, maybe even trying to make him laugh…
I can’t think of a good song. I need your help! The fic needs your help! DEAN NEEDS YOUR HELP!!!
i don’t know if it’s quite right but ever since Dean said ‘morning sunshine’ to Cas I’ve wanted him to sing some Queen to him
Ooh you’re the best friend that I ever had I’ve been with you such a long time You’re my sunshine and I want you to know That my feelings are true I really love you
Oh you’re my best friend
but that might just confuse things further >.<
The new rug caught a vicious hellhound. Or could this be a dog possessed by demons?
At first i thought Cas interrupted Sam while he was cooking a romantic meal for Gabriel and Sam walked out of the kitchen holding the pot lid somehow, BUT upon closer inspection (^^^^) this is clearly a serving plate with a keep warm lid. Sam IS making homecooked meals for Gabe to help nurse him back to health (No candy, Gabe!) and I never shipped Sabriel but I am amused.
i ship sabrial and i am feeling ?!?!?!!!!!!!!?!!??!?!??!!!!!!?!?!?!?
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