went to work in the forest. Just by looking at the recipe you can tell it's old one since nowadays no one uses that much butter and sugar since it is considered unhealthy. Mettäkakko sure was a calorie rich eating! And it needed to be since the work at the forest was hard and lots of calories were needed. This was also easy thng to take with you and it preserved for a long time. Sometimes it was made by using sour milk or mix of cream and milk (half and half). I made these by using milk.
These cookies are sort of mix between Finnish pulla and biscuit. It's crunchy like biscuit from the outside and inside it's beautifully mellow and when the first bite melts in your mouth you simply got to have another one. Surprisingly the biscuit is not overly sweet. I would have thought that with this much sugar in it it would be disgustingly sweet but it's not. And that's a good thing. Store them in an air tight container.
People used to bake a big batch of these and the dough was not divided in order to make a smaller portion so I made a big portion too just for the old times' sake. :)
1 kg ( 2.205 lb) milk500 grams (1.102 lb) butter
1 kg ( 2.205 lb) sugar
2 kg (4.409 lb) all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1. Heat the milk and melt the butter and sugar in it. Don't let it boil. Mix the flour with baking soda and baking powder. After the it has cooled a little add the flour mix and knead it into the liquid.
2. Let the dough cool in the fridge over night and bake in the morning.
3. Roll out the piece of dough and roll it into 0.5 cm (0.2 inch) thick sheet and take pieces by using a drinking glass as a cookie cutter.
4. Put them on a papered baking tray and bake in 225°C (450°F) for about 10 minutes or until they get a tiny bit color.
Traditionally these are made without sugar or almond toppings but I wanted to try out those too - just for a change. :) Either way they are nice.
