February 27, 2004
The Double Chocolate Crisp Quest
And today, it is with a plea for help that I come to you, a call to your infinite wisdom and collective knowledge.
Last time I did something of the kind, you proved to me that you were as generous with your advice and insight as I had hoped, and although I have yet to make another attempt at poaching an egg - I never seem to feel like it until the eggs I have can't, in all honesty, be considered at their peak of freshness anymore - your precious tips will accompany me on my next foray, and you will be the first to hear about its relative or absolute success.
The matter at hand today is no less important than last time, for it involves chocolate: I am looking for a recipe to reproduce those Swedish Double Chocolate Crisps, made of two thin crispy buttery rolled oats cookies, sandwiched together by a layer of dark chocolate.
I have found a store-bought version at IKEA's Swedish food store, made by a Swedish brand named Gille. I've also had them freshly made at Nils, a Swedish sandwich place on Rue Montorgueil. I love both, but what I would love even more is a recipe to make these myself. I have searched the web to no avail : lots of references to the Gille cookies without a recipe, and lots of recipes for Swedish cookies, none of which looked like they were The One.
So if you are of Swedish descent and you had a grandmother wore her grey-blonde hair up in braided loops and she used to make these for the holidays when you were little and you loved to stand beside her and watch, absent-mindedly pleating the hem of her apron as you waited for a lick of the dough ; if you have a recipe for these crisps or if you otherwise have any information, tip or trail that would help me locate the missing cookie recipe, my gratitude shall shine down upon you for the seven generations to come.
And I shall name my first batch of these cookies after you.
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Comments (32)
Permalink | Posted by clotilde in Chocolate
Could I add my name to this plea too, please? I love these cookies too. Never leave Ikea without them :-)
Posted by Alberto on February 27, 2004 2:22 PMI have a Scandinavian baking book by Beatrice Ojakangas which may well include this recipe. It has lots of elaborate, authentic cookies. So I will check when I get home from work, and let you know. :)
Posted by eileen on February 27, 2004 3:49 PMOK, OK, now I feel the call to write a comment. I have very sneakily read your wonderful blog for months and never commented, but now when you need a Swede- here I am!
The biscuits you mean are what I would call havreflan or knackflan and I have never had homemade ones dipped in chocolate but that must be a easy (ehum) to do?
The basic receipe is something like this (there is one component that I can't translate but you might find it at IKEA, we have it here at ours in the US).
150g butter
150 ml sugar
50 ml "sirap" (it's liquid sugar, like maple syrup but with a neutral taste. If choosing from Swedish types choose the light one, the others are more suited for breads)
50 ml thin cream or milk
150 ml flour
100g almonds
Chop the almonds medium finely (don't remove the skins and don't chop too finely).
Mix everything else in a pan, heat gently but don't let it boil (just below the boil is perfect). Take the pan off the heat, add the almonds.
Spoon out on a baking sheet, about 1 tablespoon of goo well separated from each other. Bake at 200C about 6-7 minutes. Let cool a bit before you try and prise the biscuits off the paper.
OR
substitute the almonds for rolled oats (about 300 ml). They can be added in the pan (when heating).
I have also read receipes where you just melt the butter and mix everything else without heating. Choices, choices...
To be able to dip them in chocolate you might have to figure out a way of making them thicker, the ones I had as a child are very thin and melts in your mouth.
Posted by Cecilia on February 27, 2004 3:55 PMI can't help with the chocolate, but my "Favorite Swedish Recipes" by Selma Wifstrand gives this exceedingly simple recipe for the cookies.
Havrekakor:
3 cups oatmeal
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup butter
Mix ingredients and knead well until all is blended. Form the dough into small balls and flatten them crosswise with a fork. Place on a buttered cookie sheet and bake at 325F/160C until light brown, about 8 minutes.
Good luck!
Posted by Pierre on February 27, 2004 6:08 PMI would offer a guess that the Swedish "sirap" is what they call "golden syrup" in the UK. It's made of cane sugar I think. I believe I saw a recipe in Cook's Illustrated for another cookie like this, I'll check tonight and report back!
Posted by brian w on February 27, 2004 7:07 PMWorth a go, I think, Clotilde. We don't fill ours as a rule. But if I were of a mind to - I might just use Nutella. Your call, of course.
HAVREFLARN
Yield: from 2 to 3 dozen
1/3 cup sweet butter
1 1/8 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup white sugar
1 whole egg, lightly beaten
5 bitter almonds, toasted and ground
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F (225 degrees C).
Posted by cheesy chilaquiles on February 27, 2004 7:48 PMMelt the butter, and pour it immediately over the oats. Allow the mixture to cool.
Add the sugar, the egg, and the ground almonds to the oat mixture. Whisk the flour with the baking powder, and stir this in.
Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheets or use silicone mats. Position no more than 6 or 8 spoonfuls on each sheet as the cookies spread. Bake the cookies on the middle rack of your oven for about 6 minutes.
Remove havreflarn and cool on wire racks.
cecilia: the way u spell 'sirap' is the way it's spelt here in Malay @ Malaysia.
pierre : errr...that's quite a lot of butter! errr... is it suppose to be another ingredient?
clotide : ooppsss... am answering your comments. sorry lah. i'm writing down the recipes now. getting a small oven next weekend. :)
Posted by Wena on February 28, 2004 11:36 AMAlberto - And God knows Ikea works hard to make sure nobody ever leaves empty-handed! :)
Eileen - Oooh a Scandinavian baking book sounds interesting! How do you like this one? Looking forward to the recipe you'll find in it!
Cecilia - How nice to have a silent reader speak up! Thanks a lot for the recipe, it sounds good. Sirap is probably what we call "sirop de glucose" here... Were you born in Sweden, or in the US? Did your grandmother bake these? :)
Pierre - Thanks a lot for the recipe, very simple indeed! I guess one of these ingredients is butter and the other one is sugar, but which is which?
Brian - Oh, you're right, it's probably the same as golden syrup. Now here's a wonderful excuse to get a can of that delicious ingredient!
Cheesy - Thanks for sharing your recipe! Nutella is a good idea too, although I think the bitter chocolate works really well with the rather sweet cookies...
Wena - Oh please, feel free to answer the comments, the more the merrier! :) And congrats on getting an oven, I see lots of baking in your near future!
Posted by clotilde on February 28, 2004 2:02 PMI found the recipe I was thinking of, but it is for more of a "lace" cookie than what you are looking for. I'll post it anyway in case anyone is interested. You can make chocolate sandwiches with these or roll them into "cigarettes" or form them into little bowls as they cool. It's an American recipe so it uses measures instead of weights:
Orange-Oatmeal Lace Cookies
8 tblsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teasp vanilla
1 tblsp orange zest (optional)
1/4 teasp salt
6 tblsp flour, sifted
1 cup pecans, almonds or oats
1 tblsp heavy cream
Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment. Recipe makes 6 dozen cookies & they recommend doing 6 cookies on each sheet as they spread quite a bit.
Posted by brian w on February 28, 2004 10:54 PMBring butter, brown sugar & corn syrup to a boil in medium saucepan and stir for 5-6 minutes. Off heat, beat in vanilla, zest, salt, flour, nuts (or oats) and cream until smooth.
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls onto lined sheets and bake 6-7 minutes. Cool for about a minute then transfer to a wire rack with a thin spatula (or at this point you can roll them up, make little cones, or drape over an upside-down bowl to make little cookie bowls). Dip or spread with chocolate after completely cool to make sandwiches if you like.
Wow, I'm glad others have had better luck with finding this recipe, as my Scandinavian baking book has no mention of such a cookie! It's more based on Finnish baking, as the author is Finnish. Sorry about that!
Posted by eileen on February 29, 2004 12:04 AMThe book is great otherwise, though. It'ss called The great Scandinavian baking book, by Beatrice Ojakangas, and should at least be on Amazon.
Brian - That recipe looks wonderful too, and I love the idea of making cigarettes or cups with the cookies as they cool. Thanks!
Eileen - Thanks for looking anyway, and for the book recommendation too!
Posted by clotilde on February 29, 2004 4:16 PMWell, my first instinct would be to take two thin crispy buttery rolled oats cookies, and then sandwich them together with a layer of dark chocolate.
(smacking sounds are heard)
OK, OK, just kidding. But I've let Pierre know he needs to come back and answer the ingredients question. Pierre is an amazing cook - ask him about the lambic gelatin paté roll he made a couple of years ago, or his "healthy" truffles, or the homemade mead, or ... well, let's just say that people love to have him at parties.
Posted by Linus on February 29, 2004 11:33 PMHmm, sorry. Sugar. Of course.
Posted by Pierre on February 29, 2004 11:43 PM2/3 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar.
Linus - Loved your recipe, sounds easy! :)
Pierre - Thanks a lot for coming back with the correction!
Posted by clotilde on March 1, 2004 12:29 AMClotilde- I grew up in Sweden but moved about 10 years ago, first to London and then (about 2 years ago) to the US. Have hardly baked since I moved. Swedes are great lovers of cookies (or biscuits as I would call them) and coffee. An afternoon visit to someone's home would traditionally have been including an offer of coffee, a sponge cake and at least 4-5 types of cookies (a good party should traditionally have 7 types of cookies, apart for the cakes etc). Sadly my parents don't like biscuits, but one of my grandmothers did. She was more the shortbread type though :-).
Posted by Cecilia on March 1, 2004 1:26 AMCecilia - 4, 5, 7 types of cookies? *Apart* from the cakes etc? Boy, I think I could live happily in such a place! I'd be extra social and nice, just to be invited into people's houses and sample their biscuits! :)
Posted by clotilde on March 1, 2004 11:17 PMi just tried the recipe and they came out great....but i still prefer the Brussels cookies from Peperidge Farms better...they are a little bit lighter and don't taste so oatey....i would love to try and bake them at home....does anyone have a recipe for these?
Posted by Dave on March 22, 2004 12:43 PMDave - Great! Whose recipe did you try? Cecilia's, Pierre's, Cheesy's or Brian's?
Posted by clotilde on March 22, 2004 4:39 PMGreetings from foggy San Francisco.
Does anyone have the recipe for Swedish chocolate biscuits as sold at NK and other bakeries in Stockholm: an almond macaroon type base, buttercream filling shaped to a shallow cone, then dipped in chocolate. They are not what the English call "biscuits" and we call "cookies". I ate thousands of them in Sweden but cannot find the recipe.
Thank you. Mike
Posted by Mike Howard on March 26, 2004 5:44 PMTo Mike: They are called Biskvi or "Sara Bernard bakelse". Sorry, don't have any recipes though... too many steps for me so I usually just buy them.
You can probably order them from somewhere. Delicato is one company making them.
Posted by carin on August 16, 2005 12:58 PMI have been searching and searching for a recipe for the double chocolate crisps from Gille too and I cannot believe that all this info was here! I am going to read everything you all have posted and see if I can create them myself. My paternal Grandparents were born in Sweden and my Grandmother used to make the best swedish cookies, cakes pastries when I was growing up. Darn it if I can't find HER recipe! Thanks for helping!
Posted by Kim on April 23, 2006 3:49 AMOh my god!!! I cant believe I actually found this recipe. I moved from CA to NV (no IKEA here) and have been on a 2 year search for this cookie recipe. I am going to try all of the different ones and will let you know which one I like. Found a recipe for Chocolate Edged Lace cookies but wasn't quiet the same.
Posted by Susan on May 15, 2006 6:31 PMBest cookies ever. That with "florentine" cookies. Coffee & cream. ooooh.
So which recipe was it?
Posted by Fred on May 24, 2006 12:17 AMI bought these double chocolate crisp cookies from a local store and they are absolutely delicious. They are the reason why I went looking for the recipe. The store, Southern Season, has a web site in which these cookies are sold in case anyone is interested.
Posted by Alicia on June 19, 2006 3:28 AMThanks to everyone for the recipes.
A final word about the quest for the recipe for the "Ikea Double Chocolate Crisp cookies":
I have discovered that the ingredients listed on the recipe for Havreflarn cookies found on this American/Scandinavian website match exactly what is listed as ingredients on the wrappings of the Ikea cookies (except for chemicals IKEA uses to protect/store their cookies).
Therefore, Ladies and Gents, your search is over! Enjoy - I am about to make a batch. Happy Holidays to all.
Marie from Switzerland, living in Texas.
Posted by Marie - Arlington, TX on December 13, 2006 4:54 PMOne more word: Bake your cookies (as mentioned in my previous post) and once they are cooled, dip the bottom of each of them into a ganache (semi-sweet chocolate melted in oven - see Foodnetwork.com). Then, sandwich both bottoms together. Let dry and then, dip the edges (all around) of each sandwich, into the ganache and let dry once again. This will taste and resemble the Ikea cookies.
Posted by Marie on December 13, 2006 4:59 PMMarie - That recipe looks great, thanks for checking the ingredients against the packaged version's!
Posted by clotilde on December 15, 2006 10:44 AMUmm-YUM! It's going to be a busy September, testing these recipes. Thanks to all who posted them.
Posted by Pete on July 16, 2007 3:21 PMI'm glad you found the right recipe. You're describing my grandmother up there! But she died before she could leave me any old-tradition recipes. Those Rice Krispies Treats (yikes) I remember in her kitchen don't count.
Posted by AlisonH on July 18, 2007 2:50 AMHow about the "other" Ikea biscuits. I'm looking for the recipe for the thin tin like biscuits sold at Ikea. We have them in different flavours at the Ikea here: original, orange, coffee... and come in colourful boxes red, orange ...
Posted by Michael on August 8, 2007 9:13 PMHope someone can direct me to the recipe. Thanks in advance.
Words cannot express how grateful I am to have found this posting. I tearfully finished my last two IKEA cookies yesterday and have been in a funk ever since. It is wonderful to have found a site's worth of kindred spirits!
Posted by Jenny on August 26, 2007 3:23 AMOhhhh, I´m also looking for the ginger thins recipe, I´ve been trying different kinds of recipes but I´ve had no luck yet. Please let me know if you have the recipe, would be soo glad to get it!
Posted by perfectginger on August 4, 2008 11:45 PM