Traditional Norwegian Krumkake Recipe (Christmas Cookies)

Krumkake is a delicious Norwegian dessert that is half cookie, half waffle, and all tasty. Today, I am going to share my Norwegian Krumkake recipe.

Look at this beautiful cone-shaped treat with decorative patterns cooked right into it! Whether krumkake is already part of your holiday tradition or you are simply looking for a beautiful Norwegian dessert, this recipe is for you!

❓ What Is Krumkake?

You probably already looked at the picture. That is krumkake. The word literally translates into “curved cake,” although I am not sure I would classify this as a cake.

They are crumbly like wafer cookies but cooked like a waffle. Krumkake can be served plain, but it is often filled with whipped cream and topped with fruit or chocolate.

Like a waffle, it has a specialty iron that you need to make it. If you are reading this, there is a reasonable chance that you already have a krumkake iron or one was gifted to you. Hopefully, today we will put it to good use!

If you don’t have one, now is a great time to buy a krumkake iron, or maybe you just want to learn about this Norwegian heritage recipe. Whatever your reason, today we will celebrate this delicious Norwegian dessert!

🍦 Ingredients

This shares ingredients with many great cookie recipes, but has some unique stuff in there, too! Here is the full list:

• All-purpose flour
• Sugar
• Cornstarch
• Crushed cardamom seeds
• Eggs
• Heavy whipping cream
• Vanilla extract
• Butter
• Optional fillings and toppings: powdered sugar, whipped cream, raspberries, blueberries, or other fresh fruit

See the recipe card for quantities.

Cardamom in Krumkake

Cardamom is prominent in Norwegian baking, which I find particularly interesting because the spice is not native to the region. I previously included cardamom in my Holiday Glogg Recipe and explored the connection in that recipe.

Cardamom belongs to the ginger family and is native to South Asia.

Exactly how cardamom became so strongly associated with Scandinavian baking is debated, but trade brought the South Asian spice into northern European cooking centuries ago. Norway is an unusually heavy consumer of cardamom, with some estimates putting per-capita consumption at nearly 30 times the global median.

My Krumkake recipe has cardamom in it. If it is not a flavor you like, you can omit it.

That said, I feel like it adds a beautiful touch of flavor that helps make this already unique dessert a bit more special. If you don’t know where to find cardamom, check out your local grocery store (mine has it), or order some cardamom online (AFFILIATE LINK).

Krumkake Irons

You do need a special krumkake iron to make these cookies. That said, krumkake is a gorgeous little cookie that is really fun to bring out during the Christmas season and share with your friends and family. I feel that Krumkake can be part of a tradition, and having an iron just means you can help build or carry on that tradition.

Traditional krumkake irons were heated on the stovetop and flipped so both sides of the cookie could cook. Modern electric irons are easier to heat and often have nonstick cooking surfaces. I used a Cucina Krumkake Iron (Affiliate Link) in making our Krumkake.

Krumkake irons come in different sizes and designs and can heat at different rates.

The thing about your equipment is that you have to get to know it. Today, I am providing a recipe and process for you to make this delicious recipe. Still, part of making Krumkake is understanding and learning about your equipment.

Every krumkake iron will have differences that affect cooking time, so if your first cookies are not perfect, that is ok. Some recipes call for cooking just a few seconds on each side. I don’t need to flip anything for my iron, but it takes about 1 minute 30 seconds to get a desirable golden-brown crisp on my Krumkake.

On my Krumkake iron, I clocked the surface temperature from about 330°F to 360°F. Within that range, I found that the hotter end produced better browning.

Allowing the iron to heat up by closing it between cooks helped ensure I got that golden-brown color I was looking for.

Use these times as a starting point and adjust them as you learn how your particular krumkake iron cooks.

If you do not already own one, buying a krumkake iron is a small investment in a very specific tradition. Perhaps it is a tradition from your family, or maybe it is a tradition you are trying to create. Whether you are Norwegian or not, these are beautiful little cookies, and making them can be a fun cooking project to share with family or friends.

The electric iron I use has worked very well for this recipe. A traditional stovetop iron requires more hands-on heat management, while the electric style makes the process a little more straightforward.

🍲 Instructions

This batter is straightforward. Just a few ingredients, and once it is mixed together, the batter should have a peanut-butter-like consistency.

I mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ingredients in another before combining them. There is nothing all that unique about this batter except maybe cardamom.

Should You Cook Two Krumkake at a Time?

The iron I use has two cooking plates. Even if your iron makes two at once, I recommend cooking one at a time until you are comfortable with the timing and shaping process.

This makes it easier to learn the timing before moving on to two cookies at once. Once you have that down, perhaps you prefer to use both sides. It is a time-saver, especially if you are doubling or tripling the recipe for a large family event.

Shaping These Cookies

Once the Krumkake are cooked, you then shape them into cones. Your iron should have come with a cone roller or cone form, but you can order them separately online. It is simply a cone-shaped form around which you wrap the hot cookie.

After several seconds, the cookie will turn from soft and pliable to crisp and firm. Work quickly: the cookie begins to firm within seconds of leaving the iron.

A note of caution is that these cones can be hot during this time. The waffles off the iron can be a bit of a challenge if you are sensitive to heat. Perhaps you have a set of food-safe gloves that can help.

I had a friend recommend wrapping a few fingertips with tinfoil. You could keep a dish of cool water close to your station to cool down your fingers.

I usually handle them without gloves, although I have played a little hot potato with a few. Use whatever approach works best for you.

Do Krumkake Need to Be Cones?

No. If you want them flat, make them flat! It is that simple. I could see the case for leaving these flat, but the traditional way to make these is to turn them into cones. The cone shape also creates a pocket for whatever filling you want to add.

Fillings and Toppings

These cookies can be served plain, but cones are just begging to be filled. So, we filled them, and this is an excellent opportunity to make this recipe your own. We use whipped cream, raspberries, and blueberries for our Krumkake, but you don’t have to stop there.

Chocolate might make for a great topping, along with whipped cream, as well. Perhaps you could mix fruit preserves into your whipped cream and use that for your filling. I do have a homemade Whipped Cream recipe, but one that I think would work really well for this is the Kahlua Whipped Cream we used in our White Russian Coffee Recipe.

Really, there are many opportunities here, and if you can fit some kind of sweet goodness in the cone or dip the cone in it, it will probably work.

🤷 Substitutions and variations

There are a few ways that this can be changed up.

• Cardamom – Omit if you can’t find it or don’t like that flavoring.
• Filling – This really is a whole world you can experiment with. I love using whipped cream and fresh fruit, but almost any dessert topping is fair game!

📦 Storage

Store unfilled krumkake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days. For the crispest texture, wait to add whipped cream and fruit until just before serving. Once filled with whipped cream, refrigerate the krumkake and serve promptly.

🎓 Origin and History of Krumkake

Krumkake belongs to a long tradition of thin cakes cooked in patterned irons. According to Store norske leksikon, iron-baked cakes came to Norway from Holland in the 1600s and later became especially associated with Christmas.

By the mid-1800s, Norwegian cookbook author Hanna Winsnes was already including multiple krumkake recipes in her cookbooks. That puts the tradition much earlier than the 20th-century examples I originally found when researching this recipe.

The Smithsonian has a Nordic Ware krumkake iron whose model was first manufactured in 1948 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Nordic Ware itself was founded in 1946, and the krumkake iron was the company’s first consumer product. Nordic Ware still sells traditional-style krumkake irons today.

I also found krumkake in a 1920s Norwegian-American cookbook. It is a fun example of the recipe’s continued popularity among Norwegian communities in the United States, but the tradition itself is clearly much older.

If you have any information about the history of Krumkake, I would love to hear about it in the comments section below!

❓ FAQ

📝 Tips and tricks

• Learn your equipment. Different krumkake irons require different cooking times.
• Close your iron between each Krumkake to help it heat back up.
• Those krumkake can be pretty hot when they are just off the iron. Just know that. It is like playing a bit of hot potato… or hot Krumkake, I suppose.
• While I fill mine with whipped cream and fruit, explore your toppings!
• These do get crumbly when eating. Enjoy the crumble.
• Store unfilled krumkake in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
• Fill them just before serving so the shells stay crisp.

🛠 Products used in this recipe

• Krumkake Iron
• Cardamom Pods

😋 Did you make this recipe?

That is awesome, and thank you so much for giving this Krumkake recipe a try. If you could leave a rating in the comment area below, it would be greatly appreciated. This lets me know how I am doing and also helps others decide if they want to make this recipe. Most of all, thanks for visiting Ramshackle Pantry.