I love this coconut cookie recipe from my grandmother, Mormor!

When I was a kid we always had very white Christmases. I can remember years where we had snow up to our kitchen window. There was nothing I loved more than being inside with my Mormor, baking and cooking while the snow was falling hard.

I remember that one year it seemed like we would have a green Christmas. (You have to remember that this was the early ‘70s and global warming were unspoken words.)

Normally, in late December, there was already tons of snow. But this year? Lots and lots of rain. I was really upset and asked my Mormor if there was anything we could do to make the snow come. She told me that she had to think about it and that she would get back to me.

The day before Christmas, she told me a secret. She had heard that if we baked coconut cookies it would snow the very next day. After baking them we had to place some outside our door as an offering to the Snow God.

So what were we waiting for? We spent the whole day baking amazing coconut cookies. When night came, we placed a few outside our door and went to bed. Of course my Mormor had seen the weather report and knew that it would snow that night, the smart woman.

I woke up to a white winter wonderland the next day, and was so happy that we had managed to make it snow. Mormor said that we should keep it a secret–and we did, until now.


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You will need:
2 large egg whites
1 tablespoon sugar
2½ cups sweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
  1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
  2. Beat egg whites and sugar until foamy.
  3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
  4. On a baking sheet covered with parchment paper place 1½ tablespoon-sized mounds of the mixture.
  5. Bake until golden. This will take around 15–18 minutes.
  6. Cool on a wire rack.


I love this coconut cookie recipe from my Norwegian grandmother, Mormor!
Photography by Alexandra Grablewski

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