Fattigman Recipes

FATTIGMAN COOKIES

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Cream together eggs, sugar, and brandy, if using.
• Stir in melted butter.
• Gently fold whipped cream into batter.
• Sift together flour, cardamom, baking powder, and salt.
• With a light hand, mix dry ingredients into batter to form a soft dough. You want to avoid handling dough too much. Otherwise, cookies will end up tough.
• Chill dough, covered, for at least 30 minutes or overnight.
• Roll chilled dough out on a floured board to a thickness of 1/8 inch.
• Using a fattigman cutter or a pastry cutter, cut dough into diamond shapes about 1 1/4-inch wide by 3 1/2 inches long. If you're using a pastry cutter, cut dough first into 1 1/4-inch strips and then cut across these diagonally to form diamonds.
• Use a knife to cut a 1/2-inch slash in the middle of each diamond.
• Twist one corner of each diamond up through center slash to make a knot.
• Heat 2 inches of oil in the bottom of a heavy pot to 375 F.
• Drop in pastry knots and fry until golden brown, turning occasionally.
• Remove and drain on paper towels.
• Sprinkle cookies with vanilla sugar or confectioners' sugar and serve immediately.

FATTIGMANN

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat egg and yolks together. Stir in the cream, sugar, melted butter and cardamom. Mix in enough of the flour to make a soft but manageable dough. Handle the dough as little as possible or cookies will be tough.
• Heat oil in deep skillet to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). On a floured cloth, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into 2x2 inch diamond shapes.
• Fry in hot lard until lightly browned. Drain on paper and dust with confectioners' sugar when cool. The cookies should be uniform in size and thickness and shouldn't be fried too dark or too light.

FATTIGMAN

Steps:

• Beat eggs till light and fluffy. Add sugar and cream together with brandy (optional). Stir in the melted butter. Gently fold the whipped cream into the batter. Sift together the remaining dry ingredients and mix into the batter to form a soft dough. Wrap dough and chill for 1 hour or overnight. Roll the chilled dough (cut in half if space is limited) out on a floured surface to an 1/8" thickness. Cut the dough into elongated diamond shapes abour 1" wide by 3" long. Cut a 1/2" slit in the middle of each diamond (parallell to long side). Twist one corner of each diamond up through the opening make a knot. In bottom of heavy pot heat two-three inches of vegetable oil in the bottom of a heavy pot to 375º. Drop knots (making sure they are not crowed in pot) and fry until golden, turning when needed. Remove and drain on paper towels. Check oil temp before dropping in new knots to raise temp back up to 375º. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

TRADITIONAL NORWEGEN COOKIES - FATTIGMANN (84)

Steps:

• Beat egg yolks with sugar until thick and yellow. Add cream, and flour mixed with baking powder and cinnamon or cardamom. Fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites and add more flour, enough to make a pliable dough.
• Chill. Roll out dough as thin as possible and cut into diamond shapes with knife or fluted pastry wheel. Make a slit in center of each diamond and pull the tip end of diamond through slit as far as it will go.
• Drop into hot oil or shortening (350 F). Fry like doughnuts, but only until very lightly browned. They cook almost as fast as they are put into the hot shortening, so they must be turned and taken out quickly. Drain on paper and sprinkle with sugar.

FATTIGMAN

Steps:

• Beat together egg yolks and sugar.
• Whisk in cream.
• Stir in cognac and spices.
• Beat egg white until it's stiff and carefully stir into other ingredients.
• Mix in a little more than half of the flour.
• Let dough stand, covered and in a cool place, overnight.
• Use the remaining flour (as little as possible) for rolling out the dough; the less flour you use, the more tender the fattigman will be.
• Roll the dough out a little at a time and as thinly as possible.
• Use a fattigmann cutter to cut out diamond shapes.
• Make a small diagonal cut in the center of each diamond, and "thread" one point of the diamond through the cut.
• Heat lard to 350º F.
• Fry fattigman until golden brown.
• You must flip the fattigman to brown both sides.
• A chop sticks works great for this.
• Drain on paper towels.
• Best when 2 people work on these, one cutting/flipping and the other flipping in the hot oil.

FATTIGMAN

Steps:

• Beat together egg yolks and salt until thick and light.
• Beat in light cream, sugar and butter.
• Sift together flour and nutmeg. Add to egg yolk mixture with lemon rind.
• Mix well, then chill 1 hour.
• Roll out 1/4 of the dough at a time, keeping the remaining dough chilled.
• Roll 1/16 inch thick. Cut in 1 1/2-inch wide strips. Cut diagonally at 4-inch intervals. Make 1 inch slit lengthwise in center of each piece.
• Slip one end through the slit. Fry a few at a time in deep fat (350 degrees F) for 1 to 2 minutes or until golden.
• Remove from fat with a slotted spoon. Drain on paper towels.
• Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar. Store in an airtight container.