Every year, my dad’s side of the family celebrates Swedish Christmas, with blood sausage and meatballs and headcheese and all sorts of things I’m not likely to eat any other time of the year. I’ve baked lots of things with nordic flavors like cinnamon, cardamom and white pepper. But this year I wanted to bake up a cookie that really says SWEDISH CHRISTMAS*. I saw some cute peanut butter heart cookies on Pinterest and their criss-crossed fork marks reminded me of the paper heart baskets we made as kids (and I still sometimes make for grown-up time). So I decided to try my hand at a Scandinavian twist on the classic checkerboard cookie. This was the result! To say I’m pleased would be an understatement. I just adore these cookies.
Figuring out how to construct them involved a bit of geometry, a bit of algebra, a scale and a ruler. I love it when baking gets nerdcore. I’ve done all the calculating so you can just follow the directions below, it’s not as complicated as it looks! The dough I’ve used here is the Buttery Sugar Cookie roll-out dough. It’s my most foolproof and delicious roll-out cookie recipe and it’s really nice here.
I hope you’ll give these a shot. If you take your time and measure, they will turn out great!
*I believe technically the paper baskets are Danish, but they are a part of the cultural misinformation of my childhood, so they will always be Swedish to me.
How To Assemble Your Scandinavian Heart Basket Cookies:
ETA: Don’t let all these steps intimidate you! This is basically a traditional checkerboard cookie with some humps on the side. Just take your time and do one thing at a time. It makes a lot more sense when you’re doing it than it does when you’re reading it. I promise!
A few final tips about baking sugar cookies:
- Donāt try and do it all in one session. Ā The cookies actually turn out better if you let the dough sit overnight in the fridge. Ā Itās also just less overwhelming to do one stage at a time. Ā I usually make my dough 2-3 days before I need the cookies. Ā I do dough one day, assemble the log another day and bake the cookies on a third day. Ā That way it’s fun and not stressful.
- Heed the directions. Ā These sugar cookies are super buttery and have lovely crisp edges. Ā Because of all that butterĀ they need to be chilled in the fridge between cutting out and baking or they will lose their shape. Ā If you canāt wait the full 15 minutes, you can put them in the freezer for 5-7 minutes instead.
- If you find the process is getting messy or sticky, return the cookies to the fridge to cool down. You can also flour your board to prevent sticking.
- Bake one sheet at a time. Ā This will give you the most consistent results. Ā You want to bake them until the edges are just starting to brown, for me thatās right at the 11 minute mark but my oven is temperamental and trying to mentally break me. Ā If you take them out too soon, they may get too soft when you store them.
More Scandinavian Sweets From Bakers Brigade:
- Orange Cardamom Snowflake Cookies
- Gingerbread Birdhouse Cookies
- Swedish Coffee Cake Caramels
- Chewy Molasses Cookies
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- 2 sticks unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract or any other extract you like
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- red gel food dye I used Americolor Super Red
Ingredients
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- In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the salt and baking soda and beat to combine. Add the flour and beat until you have a smooth dough.
- Weigh your dough. Divide the dough in half, shape one half in a disk and refrigerate. Return the other half to the mixer and add the red food dye a little at a time until you reach the desired color. Then shape not a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough overnight if possible, at least for a few hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Form your dough into the patterned log as detailed above. Chill again for 30 minutes or so and then slice into 1/4" slices.
- Place 6 cookies per baking sheet and refrigerate the unbaked cookies for about 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.
- Bake cookies for about 11-12 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown. Remove from oven and let cookies cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store up to 2 weeks in an airtight container, freeze for up to 3 months.
- You did it!
This is amazing. Am anxious to try them. Thanks for all your detailed instructions!
Yay! Please come back and tell me how it went ā¤ļø
oh yes! pics!
I’m sharing your recipe and tips over at my FB page, Dansk Mad og Opskrifter. Even if it says Danish recipes, this cookie is iconic for Danes. Thanks so much.
How wonderful! Thank you ā¤ļø
A hell of a work… incredibile… but it cannot be swedish… this is a danish tradition.. the red and white heart ecc. and I do not think tha marzipan is so popular in Sweeden as it is in Denmark… bu I might be wrong; but the white and red heart is only danish.
Iām sure youāre right Merete! My Swedish grandmother and mother taught me how to make the paper baskets when I was a girl, so I associate them with our traditional Christmas feast. But Iād hate to spread misinformation, Iāll add a note to my post Oh, and These are sugar cookies, not marzipan ā¤ļø
I grew up making the hart shaped baskets too which is common in southern Sweden. Weād make both red/white ones and blue/yellow but those colours were harder to find.
Wonderful! I think Iāll try blue and yellow cookies too
Jane, do you think I could make the dough and assemble the log and then freeze the log at the stage? I think I’ll need to prep the dough about a week before I want to serve the cookies.
You can totally freeze this!
Thanks! I’ll let you know how it goes!
Love this and will be doing this tomorrow! Canāt wait to see the end result!
Thatās great! I canāt wait to hear how it goes. Feel free to email me at jane @ bakersbrigade dot com if you get stuck ā¤ļø
What a beautiful Christmas cookie in Danish colors! Do you know that the braided Christmas heart was invented by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1850. (known for his Fairy Tales) and since then used as decoration on the Christmas tree in Denmark. I will bake your cookies for my Danish Christmas.
Thank you Jane! No, I didnāt know that. Iāll have to add that to my post ā¤ļø
This looks so awesome! Iām going to do this for christmas. But here in Denmark ( ), I donāt know how much a stick of butter is. Could you help me with the measurements in gram?
Iām so happy youāre going to try them! A āstickā of butter is 114 grams ā¤ļø Happy baking!
I’m hoping to give these a try this year, thank you for the detailed instructions!
My mother is Swedish and my father Norwegian, so while the woven hearts may have originated in Denmark they are definitely used and loved throughout Scandinavia! They were part of my childhood Christmases!
Happy baking Linnea! Iām glad to hear your Swedish and Norwegian family celebrated with these lovely Christmas baskets too ā¤ļø
Omg…what a pain to make these… š š I followed the instructions to the tee..But this buttery dough sticks to everywhere; your knife, your work station, your hands etc. Anyways, I kept the dough in the refridge, but soon off it went to the freezer, easier to handle that way. Be aware that you keep you knife, work station, hands clean between handling the two colors so as not to contaminate the other color. — Yeah, there is a lot of measuring going on!
Oh sorry Minavaan, that stinks! Yes, cold cough is important. I also flour my board as I work pretty liberally and I think that also helps. Hope the end-product is worth it ā¤ļø
I am baking them right now. Six per pan. They look ok to me, not as pretty as yours And yes they do taste lovely! I did use a bit of flour on my work station even though I looked at your pics, and they did not show any flour on your board. So I wasnāt sure if I could use extra flour…
Iāll add a note in the post about flouring the board. Thanks for this feedback, so helpful ā¤ļø
Hey, I have Just baked this beautiful heart basket. They don’t look as perfect as yours, but I am happy with them. Had a small tast, was realy good, normaly I don’t eat sugar and white flour, but have baked them as christmas gifts. I baked doble porsjon. A lot of eork, but No problem, you have explained everything so good. Thank you and Marry Christmas from Norway I will tag you on Instagram
Hi Siri! Thatās wonderful, canāt wait to see the pictures ā¤ļø
Have you ever made these with chocolate sugar cookie dough instead of the red? (not as traditional ,but might be a nice flavour) – would you add melted chocolate to half the dough, or cocoa powder in place of some of the flour, or …?
I have definitely done this with traditional checkerboard cookies! I would add 1/4 cup cocoa to half the dough at the end of step 1. No need to reduce the amount of flour! If you try this, let me know what you think
Thanks, Iāll give it a go
The recipe dose not say where to add the almond extract.
Apologies Judy, you add it with the vanilla extract! Iāll get that fixed ASAP.
Thank you for posting this unique recipe & your technique. I made 2 batches & they turned out on my first try. My family loves them because they are not ātoo sweet.ā They are a big hit! They will be part on my Scandinavian holiday cookie platter from now on. Happy Holidays from North Dakota!
Oh my goodness, yay! That makes me feel about 10 feet tall. Thanks so much for sharing.
They’re pretty but my Danish is bleeding reading that intro They’re Danish, not Swedish and as far as I know swedes don’t even traditionally decorate using these.
The first “julehjerte” (“julehjerter” when plural) we know of was made by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. (You know, the author of the little mermaid and many more.) It’s like if we in the rest if the world called apple pie or George Washington traditionally Mexican
We make heart baskets in Norway too!
Yay!
Hi, how many cookies is 4 servings? Is it like about a dozen? Thank you! I want to try to male these for a cookie exchange.
I think a serving would be about 3-4 cookies š
Do you think I could use gluten free flour in place of the all-purpose flour? My daughter-in-law doesn’t eat gluten.
I don’t have a lot of experience with gluten free baking, but I think you could use any gluten free sugar cookie recipe and then bake a quick test cookie to make sure it holds it’s shape well enough. Let me know how it goes!
I was at a loss as to what cookie to make for my church gift baskets this year . I’m Swedish and when doing a search, your cookies showed up and I literally started salivating. I am going to make these over the weekend!