Danish Fedtebrød – Coconut Cookie Slices with Rum Glaze

I’m so excited to share these Danish Fedtebrød – Coconut Cookie Slices with Rum Glaze with you today! My mum found my Danish grandmother’s Saffir Mel (flour) collection of cookie recipes down the back of a shelf the other day. The recipes were printed on thin magazine paper, A5 in size and very faded so I borrowed the booklet and scanned it in to my computer.

On flicking through all the recipes one stood out to my mum, Danish Fedtebrød. After school mum said she’d often pop into the local bakery and put one or two of these Coconut Cookie Slices on her mum’s tab. I can imagine what a fabulous treat this was for a hungry school girl!

So I set about making the Danish Fedtebrød with pretty scant instructions but imagined the size I was aiming for would be quite big if they were sold in a store. I also had to improvise with the hjørtetaksalt as it translates as bicarbonate ammonium which we don’t have in the UK so mum said to use bicarbonate of soda. The original recipe used a specific brand of margarine but I changed that to butter and it also called for rum essence but I only had real rum and couldn’t find any rum essence in my local supermarket.

Mum had never made these Danish Fedtebrød but her mother made them for her as a child so I was really intrigued to try them. I’m not the biggest fan of desiccated coconut but I really like these cookies and the rum flavoured glaze was subtle and not overpowering. My family loved the cookies too and I ended up making a couple of batches over 2 days.

I mixed my first batch of Danish Fedtebrøb by hand and made them a bit too big. On day 2 I made them a bit smaller and as I had a cut finger I decided to use my food processor which made the rubbing in and mixing last a couple of minutes rather than ten or so. However after tasting both batches I think the hand mixed cookies with their course short texture had more character than the machine mixed ones where the desiccated coconut was ground down further. However opinion was divided in the family over which was best so if you’re pushed for time or find rubbing in difficult then do use your food processor.

I do hope you try these Danish Fedtebrød with an afternoon cuppa, they are incredibly short and buttery with just the right amount of added sweetness from the rum glaze. For more Scandinavian or coconut cookie recipes do check out the following:

Finsk Brød – Fab Food 4 All

Danish Vanilla Wreaths – Fab Food 4 All

Marzipan Macaroons – Tin & Thyme

Chocolate & Vanilla Coconut Butter Cookies – Family Friends Food

4 Ingredient Hazelnut Cookies – Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary

As this is an old family recipe I am entering these Danish Fedtebrød into Inheritance Recipes over at Pebble Soup which is also run by Coffee & Vanilla.

And here’s an old advert I found for Saphir Mel!

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Danish Fedtebrød – Coconut Cookie Slices with Rum Glaze

Danish Fedtebrød - beautifully short buttery cookies packed with desiccated coconut and topped with a rum glaze.

Course Snack

Cuisine Danish

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 33

Author Camilla

Ingredients

• 125 g plain flour
• ¼ tsp hjørtetaksalt or bicarbonate of soda
• 125 g unsalted butter cut into cubes
• 65 g dessicated coconut
• 65 g granulated sugar
• For Rum glaze:
• 150 g icing sugar
• 2 tsp rum or rum essence to taste
• 2 - 3 tsp water or enough to form a glaze if using essence

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
2. Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
3. Sift the flour and bicarbonate or soda into a bowl.
4. Rub in the butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
5. Add the sugar and dessicated coconut and mix well.
6. Use your hands to form a dough.
7. Divide mixture into 3 equal portions.
8. Take one portion and squeeze into a long sausage shape and place on baking paper.
9. Use your hands to shape into a long rectangle about 5.5 cm by 27 cm.
10. Then repeat with the other 2 portions and space apart well on baking sheet as they will spread.
11. Bake on middle shelf of oven for 10 minutes (or until golden).
12. Make up the glaze by mixing the icing sugar with the rum and water.
13. When the cookies are ready and whilst still warm, spoon the glaze down the middle of each length and then make diagonal cuts.
14. Transfer to a cooling rack.
15. Store in an air tight container.

Recipe Notes

You can do all the mixing in a food processor if you find rubbing in difficult but the texture won’t be as open or course as when done by hand.