Marvposteier is a fairly new addition to the Norwegian Seven Sort bakes.  It is not known how they become numbered among the originals, though modern baking and magazines would have had a lot to do with their popularity as they are a decorative little cake.  The name seems to give away a little of its creation – ‘marv’ could easily be a dialect word for ‘marg’, meaning marrow.  Just like the inside paste of bones, so is the marzipan paste of marvposteier.  It is likely that this bake was first developed as a savory pie using animal marrow.  And ‘posteier’ is equivalent to the word ‘pastie’ which is usually filled with meat.  In essence this bake is a mini sweet pie.

Here is our recipe.  It has become popular to put in a tablespoon of cognac which is called ‘Bestemors’ (grandmothers version) but we make it without because our children usually eat them and the alcohol doesn’t have a chance to evaporate.  It certainly doesn’t need alcohol.

Also, traditionally the cakes are shaped with a special mini pie form with a zig-zag circle called ‘sandkake-former‘ but any small pie form will do.

Usually the cakes have a cross decoration on top made from strips of the base dough.  However, I’ve read that some Norwegians don’t bother with it.  The crosses are not essential as they can be tedious to make and usually break when baking – the cake will still taste great without them, but we did add the cross to see what would happen.

Base
250g plain flour
200g butter (room temp)
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 egg yolk
3 tablespoons of water

Filling
150g of ground almonds*
200g icing sugar/powder sugar
4 egg whites

*You can use raw unsalted almonds and put them in a blender to ground them.  They don’t need to be dust but just small enough to make a grainy paste.

Method
Rub butter and  flour together in a bowl.  Stir in the egg yolk and water.  Stand for 30 minutes in a cold place.

Lightly grease mini pie tins or a cupcake pan.  Roll out the dough and lay over the forms, dressing the base and sides.  Save a little of the dough for the cross decoration.

Beat the egg whites stiff and carefully fold in the almonds and icing sugar.  Fill into the base and level.  Cut small strips from the dough and lay in a cross over each cake.

Bake at 200 degrees celsius for 20 minutes.  Bake on the bottom shelf as they need good heating from below so the pastry doesn’t turn out raw.  However, the inside is meant to be a little moist.

Let them cool completely before taking them out of their forms.  These can be frozen.

The Norwegian heart basket is a long standing tradition of weaving paper to create patterns.  The tradition is also in other Scandinavian cultures but the heart basket is particular to Norway.

As our family has name ‘craft workshops‘ leading up to Christmas, we are starting to experiment with the traditional crafts.  These felt heart cushions are delightfully easy (much easier than weaving paper) and add a new twist to the regular basket.

To make the heart follow the Woven Heart instructions on the post Norwegian Christmas Heart Baskets.  It is a lot easier to have a stiff pattern template to work from when using felt material.  Putting the straight three-sided edge along the fold still applies.  After the cut out, then weave the same as you would with the paper version.  It is not necessary to cut out the handle unless you want to use it as a decorative handle – I used just wool to act like the string on a Christmas tree ornament.

To continue from the Woven Heart instructions – Stuff the heart with cotton wool.  The heart can also be stuffed with Christmas spices such as star anise, cinnamon sticks, cloves or a mixture.

Next, lightly sew around the heart with wool.  Make a little hanging string by sewing wool in a loop and knot at the back top of the heart.  Sew a bow or spice to the front of the heart.  Hang on the Christmas tree, on the wall, in a doorway or window, on the fridge or put on a decorative platter.

Norwegian apples (eple/r) aren’t the prettiest I’ve ever seen, they are small, odd-shaped and have scratches and dints, but yet, they are highly valued when the season comes. Norwegians describe their apples as being ‘high on the tree and sour’.  (A phrase taken from the Fox and the grapes tale with the moral: You despise the things you can’t have.) Norwegian grown apples are usually for cooking because of their compact texture and tart flavour, while the sweeter, more juicy imports are for fresh eating.

Apples are grown in the south, east and western parts of Norway.  There are no native varieties of Norwegian apples.  Braeburn and Elstar are the two most common variesties grown.  Fuji, Delicious, Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Vista Bella are common imports.  Commercially, apples are grown only in the hottest parts of Norway, however, Norwegians do grow garden apples even as high as Troms.  Apples are produced into apple juice, cider, fruit wine, jams and jellies.

Apples were thought to be of value amongst the Vikings as on the Oseberg ship (850 AD) they discovered 54 preserved apples.  However, it wasn’t until Christianity spread through Norway, with the establishment of monasteries, that apples became more common in Norway.

One obvious benefit of using Norwegian apples is that they last longer and are fresher because there is no overseas transport.  We normally find them in the stores around Halloween and into November.  This is perfect timing as when the cold autumn comes you want a little more heartiness in your food.  In autumn Norwegian food traditionally becomes heavier with more butter baking and salted meats – perfect for a tart little apple.

We are lucky to have our own Christmas tree forest on the farm.

Every year we go Christmas tree hunting in the forest to pre-select a tree.  On little Christmas Eve (23rd of December) we return and chop down the tree and bring it inside to decorate  for Christmas Eve.

Farfar planted the forrest a long time ago over the ruins of a German army barrack.  The spruce trees are now about 10 metres tall so we have our own mini Black Forest.

We walk through the trees until one ‘speaks to us’.  It is always long and straight with many short furry branches.  (Short branches are best so it doesn’t take up too much room in the lounge.)

We can now tick this ‘to do’ item off our before-Christmas list!