Vegan brunkager - these vegan Danish Christmas cookies are delightfully crisp, with a spiced, caramel-like flavour.
They are easy to make, keep well and make great festive gifts.
These vegan brunkager are a wonderful festive treat which go perfectly with a cup of mulled wine, or with tea or coffe.
What Are Brunkager?:
Brunkager literally translates as 'brown cakes'. They are a traditional Danish cookie which are served throughout December.
Brunkager are a thin, crisp type of biscuit, with a warmly spiced, buttery caramel flavour and they often contain blanched almonds.
They get their brown colour from a mixture of spices and brown sugar. The dough also contains syrup, which helps to give them their crisp texture. Brunkager are made without eggs, so are easy to veganise.
What Do I Need To Make Vegan Brunkager?:
Vegan butter: Please, for the love of holy baking, use a block butter/margarine to make these cookies, not the spreadable kind in a tub.
Spreadable will likely make the dough too soft, and the biscuits may be more tough as it contains more water. I recommend Naturli Vegan Block or Flora Plant Butter.
Plain flour: Just regular plain (all-purpose) flour is best here. I haven't tried making these gluten-free.
Golden syrup: Traditionally brunkager are made with 'light syrup'. Golden syrup is a great substitute for this and is what I recommend using if you can't get hold of light syrup. Agave, maple syrup or corn syrup should also work.
Spices: Cinnamon, ginger, cloves and allspice.
Brown sugar: I prefer to use dark brown sugar but light will also work. Don't use white sugar.
Bicarbonate of soda: Brunkager are generally made with potash as the leavener. This isn't available in the UK but bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) makes a decent substitute.
Blanched almonds: You can leave these out if you want. You can also use flaked almonds rather than whole ones, which will make the dough easier to slice. I would use slightly less in this case - try 50g.
How To Make Vegan Brunkager:
(Full measurements and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the page)
Place the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan and heat gently until melted.
Remove from the heat and stir in the spices and bicarbonate of soda.
Add the flour and stir until no dry lumps remain.
Finally mix in the almonds.
Allow the dough to cool for a few minutes then scrape it out onto a large piece of baking parchment. Use your hands to shape it into a log.
Wrap the log of dough tightly in the parchment and twist the ends to seal it.
Leave the dough to rest overnight at room temperature. It will firm up as it sits.
Slice the log into thin slices, no more than 4mm thick.
Place them spaced apart on a couple of lined baking sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes until lightly browned around the edges.
Top Tips:
As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
Don't overwork the dough as that will make the cookies tough. Just knead it very briefly until it is smooth and then stop.
I leave the wrapped dough log overnight at room temperature to firm up. You can refrigerate it if you have to, but it does become very firm when refrigerated for too long which makes it difficult to slice without it crumbling. If this happens, leave it out at room temperature for a couple of hours until it has softened up a bit before slicing it.
Use a very sharp serrated knife to slice the cookie log, using a gentle sawing action. They should be sliced as thinly as possible.
Try adding the finely grated zest of an orange or lemon to the dough.
The baking time will vary depending on your oven. You may wish to bake a couple of test biscuits to determine how long they will take for you.
Make Ahead:
The baked cookies will keep in an airtight container for about 3 weeks.
The dough will keep in the fridge for about a week. It may become too firm to slice however so will need to sit out at room temperature for a while before slicing.
If you want to prepare the brunkager in advance, I recommend making the dough, forming it into a log, wrapping it and letting it sit at room temperature overnight.
The following day, cut the log into thin slices and freeze them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Once frozen, transfer the slices to a freezer-proof container for up to 3 months.
The cookies can be baked straight from the freezer, no need to defrost them first.
More Vegan Christmas Cookies:
- Vegan lebkuchen
- Vegan vanillekipferl
- Vegan chocolate pistachio biscotti
- Vegan gingerbread biscotti
- Vegan biscotti with almonds and cranberries
- Vegan chocolate orange shortbread
- Vegan cranberry orange shortbread
- Vegan pecan snowball cookies
- Vegan nussecken
- Vegan linzer cookies
- Vegan shortbread fingers
- Vegan gingerbread cookies
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Vegan Brunkager (Danish Brown Cookies)
Ingredients
- 125 g (½ cup + 1 Tablespoon) vegan block butter (NOT the spreadable kind. I use Naturli Vegan Block)
- 125 g (½ cup + 2 Tablespoons) dark brown soft sugar
- 65 g (3 Tablespoons) golden syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 250 g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 75 g (½ cup) blanched almonds roughly chopped
Instructions
- Start the day before you want to bake the cookies.
- Place the butter, sugar and syrup in a pan and heat gently until melted. Do not allow the mixture to boil.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice and bicarbonate of soda.
- Add the flour and stir until no dry lumps remain. Finally mix in the almonds.
- Allow the dough to cool for a few minutes, just until you can handle it, then scrape it out onto a large piece of baking parchment. Use your hands to shape it into a log. The dough may feel greasy, that is fine.
- Wrap the log of dough tightly in the parchment and twist the ends tightly to seal it.
- Leave the dough to rest overnight at room temperature. It will firm up as it sits.
- The following day, preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/gas mark 4. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.
- Use a very sharp serrated knife to gently slice the log into thin slices, no more than 4mm thick, thinner if you can.
- Place them spaced apart (they will spread as they cook) on the lined baking sheets and bake for 8-12 minutes until lightly browned around the edges and on the underside.
- Allow to cool on the trays for a couple of minutes then gently transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely. They will become crisp as they cool. Once cold, store in an airtight container.
Notes
- See post above for tips, details and step-by-step photos.
- As with all of my baking recipes I really do recommend using the metric measurements with a digital scale rather than the cup conversions. Cups are a wildly inaccurate measuring system and you will get far better, more consistent results using a scale, not to mention that it is also easier and less messy than cups!
- I leave the wrapped dough log overnight at room temperature to firm up. You can refrigerate it if you really have to, but it does become very firm when refrigerated for too long which makes it difficult to slice without it crumbling. If this happens, leave it out at room temperature for a couple of hours until it has softened up a bit before slicing it.
Solveig
The dough was very crumbly even though I left it out overnight, I wonder what may have caused it? They were still tasty but it was not possible to cut them thin.