Eggnog Kringla. A light, cakey Scandinavian cookie with a delicate eggnog flavor, topped with dusting of confectioner’s sugar and freshly grated nutmeg.

It’s always so hard to narrow down my Christmas cookie baking list.

This Eggnog Kringla is a mainstay, but it fell off the list the past couple of years because I was trying out other recipes and ran out of time.

I always have to make Italian Biscotti; that recipe and this one both require rolling and shaping the cookies. When I’m baking a ridiculous amount of cookies, sometimes this one falls off.

And then… I regret not making it. We love this cookie and my daughter specifically asked me, “Will you please, please, please make Eggnog Kringla this year?”

I had planned on it any way, so there was no pleading necessary. Two years without making it was two years too long.

I have no Scandinavian roots, but according to the magazine where I first found the recipe, “kringla” is Swedish. There are many different variations throughout Scandinavia, some salty and some sweet, all with different versions of the word, “kringle.”

Kringla apparently refers to a pretzel shape, which is the traditional shape for this cookie. The eggnog version was simply formed into a loop and I stuck with the simplified shape.

I love, love, love eggnog, so it was not a hard choice to go with the eggnog version. This recipe starts out like most cookie recipes. Whisk your dry ingredients, cream your butter and sugar then add the egg.

Once that’s done, you’ll alternate adding eggnog with your dry ingredients until you end up with a very sticky dough. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours. I usually just mix it up the day before I want to bake them.

The next day, take scoops of dough and roll into 1/2″ thick strips. I like to roll long logs of dough, then cut them into about 6″ strips instead of rolling one strip at a time. #nopatienceforthat

It’s the exact process I use to roll out Italian Biscotti. There’s a video in that post if you’d like to see how it’s done.

Then, each strip is formed into a loop right on the baking sheet. You can form into a pretzel shape,  if you’d like to be more traditional, but the loop works just fine for me.

They bake until they are just ever so lightly golden on the edges.

Once they’re cool, dust the tops with a sprinkling of confectioner’s sugar and then grate some fresh nutmeg on top.

You can use pre-grated nutmeg, but fresh nutmeg is so good and so aromatic and so easy to grate and has more flavor than dried. Soooo, grate fresh if you can. It’s wonderful.

You know how I always say I love chewy cookies that you can sink your teeth into? Well, I also love a dainty, light, not too sweet cookie that tastes like a bite of eggnog heaven.

These cookies are just that. The texture here is cakey and they are just delicately sweet with a light eggnog flavor. I know, when does eggnog and light ever end up in the same sentence? Right here, right now.

As I write this, I wonder if this recipe had fallen off my list for more than two years, because my son asked me what the name of this cookie was, and that kid has a memory like an elephant. I told him, “Eggnog Kringla,” and repeated it for him because kringla was a new word.

He bit into it with a little ring of confectioner’s sugar rimming his mouth and smiled at me. Ahhh, yes…now he knew why his sister begged me to make them this year. Soft, cakey, lightly sweet…eggnog, powdered sugar, nutmeg?

Definitely a cookie that should be made every year!

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