These are one of the easiest little treats you can bake. I wouldn't necessarily advertise them on their health benefits although they have potato flour in them. I don't think they would count as 1 of your 5 a day even if you ate a few. Apart from the potato flour they are essentially butter, cream and sugar. Which I think is just perfect for a biscuit. Or a cake - these are sort of half way between a cake and a biscuit. The original Aunt Hanna called them cakes, so maybe we should show respect and go with that.
I don't think I am named after the recipe, my parents were just generally fond of frumpy old names which me, my sister and three brothers are living proof of. But I don't hold a grudge against these little cakes. I remember feeling a closeness to them when I was a child and they were one of the first things I learned to bake.

This is a very simple old recipe from a time when simple ingredients were enough. It's a recipe that everyone's grandmother handed down to their daughters, there is one of these recipes in almost every family and they are all essentially the same.


I'm not sure how far in history the recipe goes, but there is some evidence they were invented by a lady called Hanna Rehnbäck, a stay-at-home mum from Raahe, a town in the northern shores of Gulf of Bothnia. I couldn't find a year but it must have been sometime during the 19th century at the latest, because copies of the recipe start to emerge in peoples recipe collections in the turn of the century. I bet these were the macarons of their day and every self-respecting home baker would have a go at these, style a plateful with a self-crocheted doily and some geraniums, paint a quick watercolour and pin on the noticeboard at the local church.

We will never know the full story of this little biscuit because unfortunately Hanna Rehnbäck had no time to sit down and blog her latest recipes enjoying a skinny soy frappe latte in the near-by Starbucks. Her days were spent milking the cows, helping in the field during harvest, in childbirth, churning the butter, baking bread, and biscuits of course, preserving fish, mushroom and berries, crocheting doilies and looking after her pre-conception era double digit flock of children.

I remember making these as a kid and I wanted to do the original version now, but I think they would be nice with a tsp of vanilla paste, or a little zest and juice of lemon. Or with a drop of almond extract. Endless possibilities! Maybe next time.

I suppose you could replace the potato flour with normal flour, but then I suggest you use very fine cake flower to keep the light and fluffy consistency. But potato flour is good to have in the cupboard. There is a fantastic whisky cake my mother makes, made entirely from potato flour. And some whisky and sugar etc of course. So go get some potato flour.

Hanna-tädin kakut - Aunt Hanna's cakes recipe (makes 59 - I'm sure you can stretch it to a nice even 60)

200g butter
2dl cream
3dl sugar
1,5tl baking powder
5.5dl plain flour
3dl potato flour

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Melt the butter and let it cool for a few minutes. Mix the butter with cream and sugar. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and sift into the butter mix. Mix well.

Mold the dough into small balls (about 2cm, a little less than an inch in diameter) and place on top of a baking tray covered with greaseproof baking papaer. Bake in 200C for 10 min or until they start to brown ever so sligtly.

Keep in an airtight container in room temperature. You can also freeze them.

Today I made some lavender shortbread biscuits in preparation for my parents’ visit in May. It is a bit like preparing for a Royal visit. Mum can be quite direct with her feedback, so I try to address any obvious areas of concern. Some are difficult to fix, like the fact that we don't live in Finland and have too many fireplaces. And I’m sure she can come up with some new, unpredictable ones as well. At least we will be in my house and if I want to cut tomatoes in cubes rather than segments for my salad I bloody well will! Still there will be manic cleaning and tidying, organizing, gardening and fixing in the run-up to their visit.


I have been planning the menu and will now start preparing stuff that can be done early and frozen.  Mum is a fantastic cook and I can’t compete with her, so I cleverly will make dishes that she normally doesn’t do. Sometimes it can backfire, like the time I served them sushi and they asked to have some bread and then spread the sushi on the bread.

Mum has a grueling meal schedule which I will struggle to match. The breakfast starts with a bowl of porridge and then moves on to a Scandinavian style cold breakfast spread; a selection of breads, cold cuts, cheeses, tomato, cucumber, sometimes gravadlax or cured whitefish or fish row with sour cream and some sweets like a bundt cake or cinnamon rolls. Lunch is usually a main course of fish or meat with lots of side dishes and various salads. Afternoon coffee is served with sweet buns, cakes and biscuits. Dinner is similar to lunch with a fairly elaborate main course, lots of sides and a dessert. Evening tea is served with something savoury, a tartlet, pasty or open sandwich and cakes. It’s a miracle we don't have a massive obesity problem in our family.

Lots of people who come to visit make the mistake of eating a lot at the first meal. An easy mistake to make, because it is all delicious, but they don’t know that in no time there will be coffee and a massive selection of cakes and after that’s been cleared off there will be another meal. We all know to eat as little as possible of everything to make sure we'll be able to handle the next meal. Husband has also learned. I remember early days he would really struggle trying to please mum, whose English is not great, but stretches to “Eat more!” and “Eat much!”. I remember once we had just had lunch and were washing dad’s car outside when mum came to call us from the veranda. Her message wasn't food related but husband panicked and said if he has to eat something now he will probably die.


So my menu which I'm still working on will be a fabulous collection of dishes that I know I can do well and that they don't often get. As I was planting some herbs today I thought of these lavender shortbreads I have made before. They have a lovely elegant and delicate taste of lavender and are a very English thing I thought. The recipe said it would make 24 biscuits. Whoever did the recipe must have done massive slabs of biscuits, because I got 64 out of the dough. I froze 30 for parents’ visit and husband and kids can finish the rest this week, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I did have one to make sure they taste ok. And they do.

The recipe I used is from here and I followed it pretty religiously.

Recipe: Lavender shortbread

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
 2/3 cup white sugar
 1/4 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh lavender
 1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint leaves
 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
 1/2 cup cornstarch
 1/4 teaspoon salt

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and confectioners' sugar until light and fluffy. Mix in the lavender, mint and lemon zest. Combine the flour, cornstarch and salt; mix into the batter until well blended. Divide dough into two balls, wrap in plastic wrap and flatten to about 1inch thick. Refrigerate until firm, about 1hour.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Cookie stamps will work well on these too. Place on cookie sheets.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, just until cookies begin to brown at the edges. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.