Every family I know has a special treat they prepare once a year at Christmas. Absenting lutefisk—which still appears at some of my Norwegian family’s gatherings and which (Uff Da!) they consider a treat—it is usually something delicious and much looked forward to.
When I was a little girl, it was Penuche fudge. My dad, who never cooked anything, had somehow learned to make this yummy brown sugar candy and did so only at Christmas. I’d watch as he’d boil sugar, milk and butter in a saucepan on the stove, always fascinated when he’d test the consistency by dropping a small blob in cold water until it formed a soft ball. Once finished and cut into squares, Pop hid it away and allotted me only an occasional piece during the entire Christmas season.
Another long-ago Christmas dinner treat that is used in my family today and that even I make is a special Norwegian side dish, called Jifta.
The authentic recipe for Jifta (also called, “Yifta”), which has been handed down from generation to generation, perhaps even brought over from the “old country,” can be found in vintage cook books. My niece Kristin found a Jifta recipe in the 1949 Madelia Minnesota Trinity Lutheran Church cookbook.
Yifta is festive and colorful. The ingredients are cranberries, whipped cream and graham crackers. Yifta actually is so rich and creamy, it could be used as dessert instead of a side dish. I believe I’ve tasted it with chopped walnuts in the mixture. Yum! Indeed, because it is layered and served in a glass bowl, it resembles an English trifle. I use a pretty antique cut glass bowl which makes for a lovely presentation.
Some recipes call for soda crackers instead of graham crackers. The spelling can also be Gifta. But this could be because when speaking Norwegian, the letter “g” is pronounced “y” as I recall from hearing my mother speak it with her sisters.
Yifta goes especially well with turkey, which is what we usually serve at my house for Christmas dinner, but its sweetness complements ham, as well.
With Christmas close at hand it seems only fitting that I provide the recipe:
Yifta Recipe
- Combine, 2 cups sugar, 2 cups water in saucepan till sugar dissolved. Add 1-1/2 lbs. cranberries and cook till split.
- Whip one pint whipping cream with 2 T sugar and 1 t vanilla into whipped cream
- Crush ¼ lb. graham crackers
- Using a glass bowl, put a layer of graham crackers at the bottom, then layer of cranberries, and then layer of whipped cream. Keep layering until bowl is full, ending with whipped cream.
- Garnish with cranberries
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
God jul, dear readers, and tusen takk for reading my column!
Carol Hall lives in Woodbury. She’s a longtime freelance writer, a University of Minnesota graduate and a former Northwest Airlines stewardess. Hall’s book, Stewardess, relives the golden
age of airline travel in the 1960s when she was a stewardess for Northwest Airlines. It is available for sale on Amazon.com.
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