We all have our standby cookie classics —- the butter-stained, chocolate-smeared recipe cards are well-worn and well-loved —- but once in a while, it’s good to switch things up. These Swedish Ribbons are game changers you wish you had baked up earlier. A buttery but soft meltaway cookie base houses a moat of jam. Drizzled with a simple glaze and sliced into strips, this cookie will be requested at bake sales and asked for in Christmas cookie tins. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Like a mysterious treasure, these cookies go by many names. In Sweden they are known as wienerstänger, syltsnittar, hallonsnittar, skurna, or syltkakor. Over in the US, they are known as Swedish raspberry ribbon cookies, raspberry diamonds, jelly slices, jam diagonals, and split-second cookies. Some people guess the cookies derived from Austria or Germany, where 20th-century cookbooks referred to recipes called jam breads. The Viennese version has a white cream with the raspberry jam, creating the colors of the Austrian flag.
So, where does Sweden fit into all of this? Well, the jam has a deep-rooted spot in the Swedish culinary scene. Lingonberry is the most famous berry in Sweden, but in general, jam was a way to have the vitality of summer berries in the deep and often long bouts of winter. Opening up a preserved jar of jam for the holidays would, in the past, have been considered celebratory. Wintertime was for the festival of Yule, which would have been represented via a variety of colorful Yuletide foods. These Swedish Ribbon cookies would have been perfect for the festivities — white in the glaze and the red of the jam — would have showcased the holiday’s most popular colors.
These cookies start like any other cookie out there. There’s a bit of dry ingredients in the form of flour, baking powder, and salt and wet ingredients, like butter, sugar, powdered sugar, and egg.
To start, you beat the butter with the sugar and powdered sugar. The tiny bit of powdered sugar adds a special texture to the cookies. They get a delicate and soft melt-in-your-mouth quality. To keep these cookies from crumbling, the egg acts as an important binder to the dough, keeping its shape.
Next, you add the dry ingredients in batches, making sure the dry ingredients don’t go all over the place.
The dough will still be soft, but carefully divide the dough into three portions.
On the parchment-lined baking trays, you form long logs. Using your hand, you press the logs down a bit.
Using the back side of your finger, make an indentation into the cookie dough. Carefully spoon some of the jam into the indentation and get to baking.
These cookies spread, so give them a good four to five inches between each other, or cook them on separate pans.
Once out of the oven, spoon the remaining jam into the cookie indentations. This will give the cookie a full appearance.
The glaze is super simple, just powdered sugar and milk whisked together until smooth and lump-free. Drizzled on top of the cookies gives something a little extra that makes it even more delicious!
These cookies have a superb texture. Slightly crispy on the edges, but super chewy and soft in the center. The jam has just enough zippiness and tartness to contrast the sweetness of the cookie and glaze. This is a perfect cookie for any occasion but looks especially pretty for the holidays, as it adds a bright, colorful addition and an interesting sharp shape against an ocean of round cookies in your cookie tin.
Swedish Ribbons (Hallonsnittar)
For the cookies:
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- 1 1/2 cups seedless raspberry jam
For the Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
To make the Cookies:
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- In a bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt, set aside.
- In another bowl beat butter, granulated sugar, and powdered sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes on medium speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Beat in egg, vanilla extract, and almond extract, scrape the bowl as needed.
- On a low speed, gradually add in the dry-ingredients making sure not to over mix the dough.
- Divide the dough into three portions and roll the dough into long logs about 12 to 14 inches in length.
- Place each log onto the baking sheets, flatten each log a little bit.
- Use a teaspoon or your finger to create an indentation into each log, fill the indentation with jam. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes until the cookie edges are slightly golden, let cookies cool completely. While still hot, spread on some more of the jam.
To make the Glaze:
- In a bowl whisk the powdered sugar with the milk, stirring until completely smooth.
- Drizzle on top of cooled cookies and then slice into 4-inch portions. Let glaze harden before storing the cookies into a plastic storage container.
Recipe adapted from Swedish Spoon.