Spelt Vanilla Snittar Cookies

This recipe for spelt vanilla snittar cookies with homemade blueberry jam was first published on my previous blog, The Culinary Jumble, in November 2017. The images have been replaced and the recipe tweaked slightly.

The cookies are divine. Buttery, melt in the mouth, bliss. Snittar are popular Swedish cookies, cut on a diagonal slant. Snittar come in all kinds of varieties, and this one has a gorgeous homemade blueberry jam filling running along the middle. You can also vary the thickness and length, like these: 

With regards to taste, I find these spelt vanilla snittar cookies quite similar to shortbread but not quite as buttery, are a little drier and softer in texture. However, unlike shortbread, these are not packed to the rafters with sugar. You don’t miss it though – less sugar means the tartness and flavour of the berries seep through with every mouthful.

As with the majority of Swedish baking, these are dead simple. They are created with only a handful of kitchen cupboard staples, and to make it even easier, you could forego the homemade jam and use store bought instead.

The measurements below made around 30 Swedish vanilla snittar cookies with homemade blueberry jam, but blink, and they’re gone (if your house is anything like mine, that is).

Recipe adapted from Arla. 

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Spelt Vanilla Snittar Cookies with Homemade Blueberry Jam

Servings 30 cookies

Ingredients

Jam:

• 300g (3 cups) blueberries (see note 1) (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tablespoon water
• 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
• ½ tablespoon cornflour

Cookies:

• 125g (½ cup) butter (room temperature)
• 50g (¼ cup) sugar
• 1 egg
• 200g (1 cups + ¼ cup) spelt flour (see note 2)
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar (see note 3)

Glaze:

• 1 tablespoon water
• Icing sugar (as much as needed)

Instructions

Jam:

• Heat the berries, water and honey together until the mixture starts to boil.
• Cook for around five minutes, add the cornflour, and then cook for a further minute or two until it starts to thicken.
• Remove from the heat and set to one side.

Cookies:

• Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF). Line a large baking tray with grease-proof (baking) paper.
• Using a food processor or wooden spoon, beat the butter and sugar together until nice and fluffy.
• Add the egg and work the mixture until everything is well combined.
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar and add to the wet ingredients. Stir until a dough forms.
• Split the dough into three fairly equal parts.
• Roll each one into a long, thick sausage and flatten down slightly (it should be about 35cm long).
• Take a small spoon or your thumb, and gently make an indentation all the way down the roll (make sure it is not too wide, otherwise the cookies will break in half when baked).
• Spoon the cooled jam along the indentation. Repeat with the other two rolls of dough.
• Bake for around 15 minutes. The cookies will have started to brown but will still be pale. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for around 10 minutes.
• Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the cookies diagonally, but leave them where they are (if you try to move them when they are warm, they will crumble).
• Mix one tablespoon of water with enough icing sugar to make a thick drizzle. Dribble over the cookies. Enjoy!

Notes

Disclaimer: I weigh my ingredients and I am not familiar with using cups. For your convenience, I have converted the measurement into cups. However, as I have only baked these cookies using grams, results cannot be guaranteed if you choose to use cups and not weigh your ingredients. 

1. I've made these with both blackberries and blueberries. Any berry would work well.
2. I have used both spelt and plain (regular) flour to make these cookies. The amount of flour does not need to be amended.
3. If you don't have access to vanilla sugar, use extract instead.