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Below is a list of freebies that you can register for if you are pregnant in Norway.  I can’t believe how many free trial products are available – brilliant!  Some of the packs are better than others but they’re all free so make the most of them.  In most cases you’ll need to apply no earlier than 3 months before your due date.

Apotek1 Babybox:
Complete the online registration and receive and email.  Print off the email and walk into your local Apotek1 and pick up your box of goodies.  This is a pretty heavy box so pick it up at the end of your shopping trip!  Register here

Liberoklubben:
Complete the online form and you should receive a pack of sample products through the post.  I haven’t received it yet so can’t tell you what’s included but be patient.  Register here

Rimi Barnepakke:
Complete the online registration and you should receive a card through the post.  Go to your local Rimi and pick up your pack.  Really good box of goodies – takes a while for voucher to arrive.  Register here

Vitusapotek Babybaby:
Complete the online form, receive an email and print it off.  Take it to your local Vitusapotek and receive your pack!  This has to be the best box I’ve received so far so worth getting.  Register here

BAM gavepakke:
Register online and the pack will be sent through the post direct to your home.  It’s a fairly small pack but there are some good offers and discount vouchers in there.  Register here

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I love it when readers contact me via this blog.  When I started writing two and half years ago I just intended it to be a diary of experiences but I’ve met (virtually) so many lovely people who give me ideas, inspiration and positive vibes.  Some of the folks who contact me have their own blogs about Norway so I figured I should put together a post summarising some of the blogs I’ve come across whilst in Norway.

Diary of David:  A British chap living in Norway and experiencing Scandanavian life!
http://www.diaryofdavid.co.uk/

Quintessentially Burrows:  A Norwegian lady blogging about life with her Expat British husband
http://quintessentiallyburrows.wordpress.com/

My Little Norway:  Written by Moose and L Jay who live right up in the north of Norway in the Finnmark area
http://mylittlenorway.com/blog/

The Oslo Eye: A Canadian chap providing useful insights if you are new to Oslo
http://theosloeye.com/

The Girl Behind The Red Door:  An American expat who is a freelance writer – has a good section about her life in Norway
http://thegirlbehindthereddoor.com/norway/

Do you know of any others that need to be added to the list?

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The other day I called in at the local shopping center and had a cup of coffee at Baker Nordby.  Whilst standing in the queue I saw the 7 Christmas cookies for sale so being the curious type of girl that I am I couldn’t help but buy them to see whether my cookies were up to standard!  After all, I couldn’t really make a judgement on my cookies until I know what they’re supposed to taste like.  Eliot was so pleased…after baking hundreds of cookies and giving them away I then go and buy the full set from the local bakery!

Anyway, here’s my Christmas cookie comparison post to show whether homemade beats shop bought!  The Baker Nordby cookies are on the left.  My homemade cookies are shown on the right.

Smulteringer:

I’m not a big fan of these to be honest but shop bought clearly beat homemade.  They were light, fresh but a bit tasteless.  You could probably bounce mine on the floor like a rubber ball, they were so dense, hard and also tasteless.  Everyone who got my cookie gift tin did get a warning to watch their teeth.

Sandkaker:

I think we made a mistake on the recipe with this one – I think the ingredient quantities were incorrect on the website and we cut corners using ground almonds instead of doing the job properly and grinding them ourselves.  Shop bought were much lighter in colour, thin and crispy.  Ours were much thicker and harder but I think the taste was much better.

Goro:

Not much in this to be honest.  Both tasted and looked pretty much the same only my cookies had a dash of cognac in them because I was looking at the wrong instructions by mistake.  They also looked a bit more homemade because the biscuit is so brittle after cooking.

 

Krumkaker:

I think perhaps the homemade ones beat the shop bought on these.  They were a little thicker, tastier and had the homemade/burned look about them.  The shop bought ones were just a little too perfect :-)

 

Berlinskranser:

I think perhaps the taste was pretty similar on both of these – crumbly and buttery.  That said, mine were bigger and looked more like a wreath than the shop bought ones so for that reason I would say homemade wins.

 

Fattigmann:

These tasted the same – fried!  The ones bought in the shop weren’t folded in the same way we did our home-made cookies but the taste was pretty similar.  I’d have to vote our home baked version as the best because it took 3 people 2 hours to cut, fold and fry about 80 of them.  The effort put in made it the winner for me :-) !

Siripsnipper:

Oh – this was tricky.  They tasted completely different.  I preferred the shop bought cookies but Eliot preferred our home-baked version.  I must admit, our home-baked cookies were spicier and had the traditional almond on top.  Close run – I think they were equally as good.

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Finally – the end of the challenge!  This last cookie was baked post Lizzie Rose’s arrival with an enormous amount of help from Mum and Eliot.  I knew this one might be a challenge so the extra help was came at the right time.

I just wanted to bake this last cookie so the challenge was complete, the cookies were boxed up and people received them before the festive season was over!  Luckily it didn’t need that much butter because the shortage is still leaving the shelves empty in Norwegian supermarkets across the country!

The Fattigmann Cookie (or Poor Mans Cookie) is by no means a recipe for folks strapped for cash – it needs 12 eggs, a load of flour and some alcohol to make it work so whoever named this cookie was being sarcastic.  Mixing the ingredients isn’t the time-consuming part – it’s the folding!  I’ll explain later.  Again, we needed to add a lot more flour so the estimated 40 cookies turned out to be 80.  I’m starting to wonder if my measurement skills need some fine tuning.

Recipe:  Should make 40 but we ended up with approx 80

• 6 Eggs
• 6 Egg Yolks
• 1 1/2dl Whipping Cream
• 1 1/2dl Sugar
• 50g Butter
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/2 Teaspoon Cardamom
• 5dl Plain Flour
• Little cognac to taste
• 1kg Vegetable Fat/Lard for frying
• Crinkle pastry roller cutter – the same used for the Siripsnipper

Method:

1. Whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Whip the whipping cream and stir it into the egg mixture slowly
3. Melt the butter and add that to the mixture
4. Add the cinnamon and cardamom to the flour and sieve it all into the mixture little by little
5. Gradually work the mixture into a dough and put it into the fridge until the next day
6. Cut the dough into chunks and roll it out thinly .- approx 3mm.  You may need more flour for this part if the dough is sticky (ours was)
7. Cut into diamonds (like the siripsnipper) and then cut an incision in the center of each diamond
8. Take one end of the diamond and fold it through the incision pulling it completely through the other side – see picture
9. Fry the cookies in lard for approx 4 minutes or until golden brown – be sure to turn them regularly
10. Cool on a wire rack
11. If serving immediately, sprinkle some icing sugar over the top.  Otherwise put them into an airtight box

Sarah’s Tips:

• When you stir the whipped cream into the egg mixture it will look like it’s curdling.  Stir slowly and keep going.  It will eventually smooth out.
• The folding takes time and practice – make sure the dough mixture is dry enough that you can manage and manipulate the folding

Christmas cookie challenge complete!

You’re probably thinking that we have thousands of cookies around the house – you’re not wrong.  We have a lot but we’ve decided to package them up and give them away to neighbours and friends.   I hope they still taste okay!

You can also get a glimpse of behind the scenes in our kitchen during cookie making.  I’m not sure how I managed to get this much flour on my face given that I wasn’t anywhere near the mixing process at the time.

God jul blog readers!

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Nearly there with the Christmas Cookie Challenge – this time I baked Smultringer.  These are pretty similar to donuts but not quite the same because they don’t really need to be eaten fresh.  They’re a little more dense than the donuts I love to eat but just as fattening – these are cooked in 1kg of fat!  To be honest I’m not sure we did this recipe correctly.  Again, the dough seemed pretty wet so by the time we added more flour the 30 smultringers we thought we were making turned out to be 50!

Warning:  This requires deep fat frying so make with caution.

Recipe:  Makes approx 30 Smultringers

• 3 Eggs
• 250g Sugar
• 5dl Seterrømme – little like set sour cream
• 1dl Milk
• 4 Teaspoons Salt
• 2 Teaspoons Cardamom
• 750g Plain Flour
• 1kg Vegetable Fat/Lard For Frying
• Donut cutter

Method:

1. Whisk together the eggs and sugar.
2. Add the sour cream and milk carefully
3. Gradually add the dry ingredients and let the dough rest in the fridge overnight
4. Roll out the dough to 3/4 inch thick and use the cutter to cut the ring shape
5. Drop the donuts into hot fat until they’re golden brown
6. Remove them and place onto a wire rack with kitchen towel underneath so they cool
7. You can freeze or pop them into an air tight container

Sarah’s Tips:

• It’s really tricky to cook these in hot fat.  We burned the first 10 instantly because the fat was too hot.  In the end we kept the fat temperature fairly low which meant it took approx 5-6 minutes to cook through.
• When you drop the smultringer into the fat they will sink to the bottom and rise up to the surface as they start to cook.  Be careful they don’t over cook or burn when on the bottom.  We turned them regularly to make sure they cooked evenly.