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!
This was my first batch which were a bit long but you can see they have a courser more open texture.
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 mum 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 Fedtebrød by hand and made them a bit too big. So 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 dessicated 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.
Danish Fedtebrød – Coconut Cookie Slices with Rum Glaze
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
- Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC.
- Line a large baking sheet with baking paper.
- Sift the flour and bicarbonate or soda into a bowl.
- Rub in the butter until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
- Add the sugar and dessicated coconut and mix well.
- Use your hands to form a dough.
- Divide mixture into 3 equal portions.
- Take one portion and squeeze into a long sausage shape and place on baking paper.
- Use your hands to shape into a long rectangle about 5.5 cm by 27 cm.
- Then repeat with the other 2 portions and space apart well on baking sheet as they will spread.
- Bake on middle shelf of oven for 10 minutes (or until golden).
- Make up the glaze by mixing the icing sugar with the rum and water.
- When the cookies are ready and whilst still warm, spoon the glaze down the middle of each length and then make diagonal cuts.
- Transfer to a cooling rack.
- 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.
And here’s an old ad I found for Saphir Mel!
Why not pin for later?
Camilla, Thanks for the recipe. Delicious!
Looks delicious! Do you know the alternative to rum? Our family has a negative attitude towards alcohol. Or rum will not be felt in cookies? Thx for sharing.
Hi, you can use Rum flavouring, I’m pretty sure there is no rum in that.
The rum glaze on these makes them delicious
It certainly does Richard:-)
Never had these before -certainly a recipe I’d try -the combination of favours is ENOUGH to win me over
Thanks Margaret, they are yummy:-)
These look wonderful, Camilla. I love old family recipes! I love the coconut/rum flavour combination. And I always change margarine to butter from my old family recipes as well.
Thanks April, yes butter is always better:-)
I love looking through old cookbooks, but even better if they have resonance with childhood memories. Most of my old American ones are a bit unlike anything I would now use, but they are interesting to read. I have been to Denmark a few times and will be going back sometime this year with a friend. We stupidly don’t tend to go into bakeries (I know, what’s wrong with us!) but if I see these long glazed bakes I will know what they are. Not sure I can pronounce them though. As for the hjørtetaksalt, I’m wondering if Bronte at Scandinavian Kitchen has some in stock? I’m sure she could get it for you if she doesn’t.
I never saw these biscuits in any Danish Bakeries as a kid so I think it must have just been during my mum’s childhood. You must try an authentic Danish pastry Kellie! I can live without the hjørtetaksalt as the bicarb seemed to do the job, but thanks for the idea of contacting Bronte:-)