Every year a well stuffed box, wrapped in brown paper, would arrive at our home from Gotland Sweden,just days before Christmas. In it were lovely knitted items and my grandmother's (mormor) famous chocolate cake cookies.

Mom would immediately grab the wodded up newspaper pieces which had been used as packing material. Diligently ,she would start pressing out the crinkles and creases with her hands and then start reading it. The rest of us would don our new hats and mittens, open the cookie tin and start eating.

From behind her paper mom would start throwing out phrases like,"Get those hats off your heads. You'll get over heated." "Don't eat those cookies, they're for Christmas." "At least save a couple for your father."

Well I'll have you know those cookies never made it till Christmas and my father only got one or two the whole season. He never seemed to mind. Many years later I discovered that my mormor ( mother's mother) had given the recipe to my farmor (father's mother) and she would always make my father his very own private batch. Farmor figured that we had been well supplied by my other grandmother and her "poor baby" needed some of his very own, sort of like a "Mother/Son" secret.

When I was about 12 I went over to my grandmother's to pay a short visit and discovered my father sitting at the kitchen table eating my other grandmother's cookies. Freshly baked "other grand-mother's cookies." I could have called in a cookie crime but I didn't. Instead, I sat down at the table and decided to help "cookie face" aka "Dad", lighten his load. It was at that moment that it became a "Mother/Son/Grand-daughter" secret. Until now, when I'm sharing the fact that not only did I get Mormor's cookies but Farmor's freshly baked cookies. So to off set any bad feelings I'm leaving the recipe here.

Oh and here's a friendly reminder that next week is gnome week. I've been getting so much email. I'm so glad that everyone loves gnomes/Tomtes so much. If you have posted about gnomes on your blogs, leave me a friendly comment here and I'll highlight your blog and link back to you. In the spirit of tomtes and gnomes let's be gnomey together.

Mormor’s Chocolate Cake Cookies

·    1 cup of sugar

·    ½ cup of butter, softened

·    1 egg

·    2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate (cool)

·    1/3 cup of buttermilk or water

·    1 teaspoon of vanilla

·    1 ¾ cups of all purpose flour

·    ½ teaspoon of baking soda

·    ½ teaspoon salt

·    1 recipe of Chocolate frosting

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Mix sugar, butter, egg, chocolate, buttermilk and vanilla.  Stir in flour, baking soda,  and salt.

Drop dough by rounded coffee spoonfuls and place about 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake until almost no indentation remains when touched, 8 to 10 minutes. Immediately remove from cookie sheet, cool. Frost with Chocolate Frosting.

*Tip*

For evenly baked cookies, I place the cookie sheet, with the cookie dough on it, in the oven for 4 minutes . At that time I turn the cookie sheet and bake for another 8 minutes or until done. If baking two cookie sheets at a time, change the bottom sheet to the top and turn. Change the top sheet to the bottom and turn the cookie sheet for the remainder of the cooking time.

Chocolate Frosting

· 2 squares ( 1 ounce each( of unsweetened chocolate

· 2 tablespoons butter

· ¼ cup of water

· About 2 cups of powdered sugar

Heat chocolate and butter over low heat until melted. Remove from heat; stir in water and powdered sugar.

Once cookies are cool, spread frosting on top and if you want add a walnut for dramatic effect.