Rømmegrøt

This week I dove right into a recipe for one of my favorite desserts on a cold winter night - Rømmegrøt. Since many Norwegians immigrated to North Dakota and Minnesota in the late 1800s, these cookbooks are chock-a-block with family recipes from Scandinavia (with a dash of German recipes as well. Look forward to my first attempt at kuchen in the near future). Wikipedia tells me that North Dakota actually has the highest percentage of Norwegian Americans in the country, with 1 in 3 people claiming Norwegian heritage.

True to form for traditional Norwegian cuisine, it features enough dairy to choke a reindeer. The ingredients are incredibly simple, but the result is super rich and tasty. My family usually eats this dish around Christmas, so I think it's meant for special occasions.

This recipe comes from Cummings, ND's Norway Lutheran Church (1892-1992) cookbook. It was submitted to the book by D Nysveen.

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Rømmegrøt

1 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups whole milk, scalded

Cinnamon and sugar

Melt butter in heavy saucepan. Add flour to butter, stirring until well blended and smooth. Bring to a boil over medium heat and boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the scalded milk, stirring to prevent lumping. Bring to boil again. Add salt and sugar. Pour into crock pot to keep warm until ready to serve. Sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon and sugar on each serving.

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I've discovered that when you describe what Rømmegrøt is to a person who has never had it before, the reaction is usually one of disgust. Essentially you're just eating straight up bechamel sauce with sugar and salt in it. But one spoonful is enough to ease any qualms they may have about its contents. The process to make it is pretty quick, but it does involve a fair amount of whisk work (to prevent that dreaded lumping, of course).

Final Rating: 5/5 will make again and again until my veins run thick with butter