Today on Food on Fridays we encounter one of the popular pastries in Reykjavik.
As my mother said in her comment, that Reykjavik coffee shop I mentioned in yesterday’s post doesn’t look like your average Starbucks type coffee shop. It definitely didn’t have much of a sign out indicating it even was a coffee shop. But I noticed several people going into it, and others coming out of it, and when I looked inside I saw there were armchairs and sofas scattered around in addition to tables and chairs, and everybody had a coffee cup in front of them.
Yup, it was in fact a funky coffee shop. There was a tiny sign on the door that I finally spotted, but I think it was a neighborhood place that people who live there just know is there. It was pretty packed at about 11am in the morning.
Their specialty was espresso-based coffee drinks, but on the counter where you ordered they also had a few plates of cookies and other foods for sale. The plates of food were marked to indicate the prices per piece, but there were no names indicated. As I waited to order, I spied a plate of round cookie-like things topped with chocolate. I decided I should try one of those with my coffee. Purely for research purposes, you understand.
Anyway, when it was my turn, I ordered a coffee drink, and then, pointing to one of these chocolate-topped things, I asked the guy what they were called. He gave me a look of astonishment at the fact that I even had to ask, and said “sarah.” An unspoken “obviously,” accompanied that utterance, based on his tone.
As I said, this was not a coffee shop tourists usually patronize, so I guess if you’re from Reykjavik, you would have known what these things were. But hey, as I could have told him, “I’m not from around here” (I did not actually say that, of course). But I did ask him to repeat the name. He gave me that same look, and repeated in that how-could-you-not-know-this tone: “sarah“.
Now you’re seeing the named typed in this post, but remember I hadn’t seen it written down, and I had expected the name to be something in Icelandic. I mean, since I’d never seen a cookie like this before. So when I heard him say what it was, I wasn’t sure how to spell what he had said. I mean it sounded like the girl’s name “sarah”, but who knows how it would be spelled in Icelandic. At least that’s what I was thinking at the time.
Then when I sat down to have my coffee, I noticed a little card on the table that listed all the coffee types, as well as the range of cookies types that are sometimes offered (selection changes daily). And right there on that menu was listed a cookie called “Sarah Bernhardt”.
Sarah. I get it.
Well, sort of. You see, I’d never heard of a “Sarah Bernhardt” cookie before, so what exactly that was as a cookie was still a mystery. Since the coffee shop was a modern, hip one that offered free wi-fi, I pulled out my iPad and looked up information about this sweet, to see if I could find out why an Icelandic cookie is named after a famous 19th century French actress. I looked on the Internet, only to discover that a “Sarah Bernhardt” cookie is a popular Danish treat.
Hmm. That clears that right up, doesn’t it… Well, maybe it sort of does, at least in terms of why it’s popular in Iceland. Lots of things in Iceland have a Danish origin, since the Danes ruled over Iceland for hundreds of years; in fact, it wasn’t until 1944 that the relationship between Iceland and Denmark completely ended.
But why did the Danes name a cookie after Sarah Bernhardt? Well, that’s a good question. I gathered from reading various sites today that it isn’t an easy cookie to make, and attempting it can lead one to either into histrionics of high drama or total despair. Since Sarah Bernhardt was considered one of the greatest tragediennes in her day, perhaps that’s why this difficult-to-make cookie was named for her? OK, I’m joking, but I didn’t really find a better answer. 😉
In any case, here are some blogs that have a brief cookie history and recipe:
- http://www.bakeittilyoumakeit.com/the_red_bucket_diaries/2008/05/sandra-bernhard.html
- http://thefearlesscookingclub.com/2011/12/10/cookie-exchange-countdown-sarah-bernhardt-cookies/
- http://icecook.blogspot.de/2006/12/sarah-bernhardt-cookies-srur.html
- http://www.marthastewart.com/334207/sarah-bernhardt-cookie
- http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/SARAH-BERNHARDT-COOKIES-1276153
Here’s a photo of the one I got in that coffee shop in Reykjavik:
Sarah Bernhardt Cookie, Reykjavik, Iceland
Under the thin top layer of chocolate is an almond paste filling; the bottom is a crunchy cookie. I recommend it, as it was pretty tasty. However, I don’t know where you’ll find it outside of Iceland and Denmark. I don’t recall seeing them in any of the places I’ve lived myself, although a few of the blogs I listed above are by Americans who occasionally mention finding “Sarah Bernhardts” in shops in the U.S.
Of course, if you fancy a little drama in your life, you might go ahead and try making a “Sarah Bernhardt” in your kitchen. Good luck – or, as they say in the theatre – break a leg; here’s hoping your Sarah opens to rave reviews.