Gluten-free Klub, Krumkake, Julekake

[glutenada]

Being a full-blood Norwegian, I grew up in a family that was always making Norwegian favorites. Klub, Krumkake, Julekake, Lefse.

Since going gluten-free 6 years ago, I've missed these favorites. So I started fiddling around and managed to create them gluten-free. Yay!

Julekake

Julekake is a Christmas bread that has candied fruit and cardamon in it. Makes the best piece of toast you'll ever have. Yummers!

Use your favorite bread mix. Until I made my own, I was using the gluten-free Pantry's favorite bread - works like a charm.

Follow the directions and add 1 cups of candied fruit (or you can use raisins), 2 Tbl grated orange zest (you can also just take a small orange and run it through the food processor - use the whole thing, rind and all) and 1 1/2 tsp cardamom. I like lots of fruit so I tend to use a bit over 1 cup.

Bake as directed. I adore this bread and make many many loaves at Christmas. It's the one time of year I enjoy a piece of toast with every meal.

Krumkake

You'll need a krumkake iron for this. There are 2 types you can purchase: stovetop and electric. My grandma made hers over the stove and anything worth making is worth doing right, so I also own a stovetop version. Apparently the electric one is easier and faster to use but half the fun is slaving away for hours over the stove! lol.

You can pretty much follow your standard Krumkake recipe, just using gluten-free flour instead. I prefer Tom Sawyer flour for all my baking needs, it consistently provides excellent results. Open Original Shared Link

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 tsp cardamom

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup milk

Beat eggs and sugar until thick. Add butter and cardamom and blend. Stir in milk and flour and beat until smooth. Let stand 15-20 minutes before using. This makes the dough more sticky and produces a better cookie.

Fry on krumkake iron until golden brown. Typically you can pull the cookie off the iron and then wrap around the cone but these are a bit more fragile so I start them rolling on the cone right from the iron.

Let sit on cone until cool and then gently remove.

Enjoy! You can fill them with whipped cream or eat them plain. We always snarf them down plain. Nothing like the delicate crispiness of a fresh Krumkake.

Klub

Klub is a potato dumpling. It is very hearty and filling and we serve it with lots of butter or sliced and fried the next morning with butter and maple syrup.

When we made these gluten-free, surprisingly, everyone enjoyed them MORE than with traditional flour. The general consensus was that they were not as heavy and better textured.

The basic ingredients are as follows:

potatoes

flour

chicken broth

bacon or ham or ham hock

oats

salt

Peel potatoes and either grate them or grind them up (we typically grind them with a manual food grinder - that's half the fun!).

Basic rule of thumb: 2 potatoes, 1/2 cup flour, handful of oats, approx 1/2 cup chicken broth. Plus whatever meat you'd like. We usually grind up leftover ham from the night before. Klub is a traditionally a meal we make when we have pork leftovers from a previous meal.

Mix it up by hand until you get a sticky dough that will keep it's shape. Add salt as desired. Add more flour or stock as needed until you get a nice thick, sticky mess.

Form into balls (large meatball or baseball sized) and then roll into flour to coat.

Boil on stovetop in a large pot of hot water until cooked through: 45-60 minutes.

Serve hot with butter. We plop these whole onto a plate and put a nice slab of butter on the side. You cut off a bite with your fork and add a smidgen of butter. Yum-o-licious! The bacon/ham is a nice treat.

If there are leftover, slice them and fry them in butter the next morning. Serve with butter and syrups. Totally delish!

I prefer Tom Sawyer flour and I get my oats from a certified gluten-free place - that's all they do and the owners themselves are celiacs so they are safe to eat. These can be made w/out oats if you cannot tolerate them. It's still good!

Open Original Shared Link

Open Original Shared Link

[Sientara]

I was wondering if you have a recipe for gluten-free lefse as well. I have been missing it since I cannot get any lefse around here. My grandma made krumkake over the holidays, I will have to try your recipe. The klub also sounds really good.

[glutenada]

I'm actually trying my hand at lefse this week. With all the other Christmas baking I did, I didn't have time to get that.

I'll post here when I am successful!

[Ahorsesoul]

I have the krumkake iron that my grandfather made for my grandmother when they lived in Drammen. It has a beautiful pattern on it of a lion. Years ago, I used my grandmother's krumkake recipe one Christmas. I remember I had to adjust the recipe but they turned out great (of course I didn't take notes). Then we had to replace our stove. We went with a smooth top stove. The iron does not work on it.

This year I found an electric single cermanic burner. My Krumkake iron fits on it great. I'll try your recipe next week.

Thanks for sharing these recipes.

I love finding recipes from my heritage.