skorpor (& sunrise)

   Last week an obsession with Biscotti (and a facebook post) led me to Skorpor (which is pretty much the Swedish version). And oh my...! lemme just thank my sweet Scandinavian friend Jan Norberg (click on his name and listen to his music, cuz you will love it, he's waaaay magical!) for cluing me in to skorpor and the recipe.  And I learned of another dry biscuity bread category (baking nerd zone...), the Rusk.  yum, I LOVE Rusks!
  I am deep into cardamom and couldn't wait to make these. Of course I made a few tweaks to the recipe...

 Skorpor

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 ounces butter
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 tsp vanilla (or almond) extract 
• 1 cup finely chopped almonds  

1. preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Cream the sugar and butter.
3. Add the sour cream and the egg. Mix well.
4. Add all other ingredients. Batter will be sticky (no joke, really sticky!)
5. Grease a 10x15 jelly roll pan (basically a cookie sheet with edges) and spread batter evenly on pan with a greased spatula (I found it easier to grease my hands and press it into place)
6. Bake 30 minutes. Let cool completely.
7. Cut into 1/2" x 3" pieces and arrange on cookie sheet. Bake at 250F until light golden (mine didn't really appear to change color but I just touched them and took them out when they seemed biscotti dry/hard in texture. It took about 25 mins.
   
   
   Makes a lot! Perfect for working into holiday cookie gift boxes. So super good dipped in creamy coffee! Keeps well since you don't have to worry about them getting stale.

  The skorpor smelled insanely good, like heaven. when baking. The house still has a faint cinnamon/cardamom perfume vibe. I wish I could make a perfume that smelled like it, so beautiful!

 Those jars are only about half of the skorpor I made. I'm going to make attempt a gluten free version next week. I usually make non-gluten free treats for gifting (it's just too expensive to make gluten free for everyone) but that also means that from thanksgiving through new years I eat some gluten...

 And then this morning there was a really wonderful pink/orange/purple/blue fantasy going on in the sky. The light filtering through it was as if we were literally seeing the world through rose tinted glasses. Pictures couldn't quite capture it but oh it was stunning and my kids (even the teenager) were awestruck.

 oooh... hello there pretty sunrise!

  The intense cold snap (It was in the mid 20s during the day and dropping into the teens at night-pretty odd for the pnw-all week!) seems to have subsided. Today it got up to 43 and it felt almost warm. I feel pretty grateful for the moderate winters we get here. As much as I romanticize the winters of Connecticut (the ice storm!!) or dream of a snowy farm in Vermont or Maine, I'm not sure I'd be the happiest or most productive version of myself if I was battling consistently frozen fingers and toes. I'm still a California girl at heart.