Klejner

The story

Klejner are fried pastries shaped like a bow, with a slit through which one end of the dough strip is pulled before frying. They belong to the Danish lineup of small cookies that are baked and fried in large batches for weeks before Christmas and stored in tins until the celebration itself. The dough is flavored with cardamom, and sometimes rum, and cut into characteristic diamond shapes with a slit through which one corner is drawn before the pieces are fried in hot oil until golden. Shaping klejner, with a special cutting wheel that leaves fluted edges, is often a job for several pairs of hands at once: children cut the shapes while the older generation does the frying, in a ritual that resembles similar fried-dough traditions across central and northern Europe, from Polish chrusty to Croatian kroštule, each with its own local twist. For the diaspora, klejner are among the most portable of Danish cookies, since they keep for days in a closed tin and travel easily to family gatherings without losing their crispness.