Spelt Vanilla Snittar Cookies with Homemade Blueberry Jam

If you’re looking for an easy Swedish cookie recipe, these spelt vanilla snittar are a perfect place to start. Crisp at the edges, soft in the centre, and filled with a stripe of homemade blueberry jam, they’re as beautiful as they are delicious. They can be made with spelt or all-purpose (plain) flour. 

If you are new to spelt flour and would like to know more, please check out my tutorial: The Beginner’s Guide to Spelt Flour.

Spelt vanilla snittar cookies with homemade blueberry jam

These Swedish vanilla snittar cookies are crisp on the outside, soft inside, and filled with a strip of homemade blueberry jam. The dough is shaped into long rolls, indented down the middle, and baked with the jam in place. Once baked, they are sliced diagonally into slim cookie pieces, which is where the name snittar comes from.

This recipe was adapted from Arla, and uses spelt flour and quick homemade blueberry jam, but the recipe is very adaptable. You can use store-bought jam or other berries like raspberry or lingonberry. The cookies are simple to make with a few staple ingredients, bake quickly, and are always a hit. This recipe yields around 30 cookies.

What are snittar?

Snittar are a traditional Swedish cookie with a long history in home baking. They are often served at fika, the Swedish coffee break with a sweet treat. The name comes from snitta, meaning to slice, reflecting the method of baking in long strips and cutting diagonally into thin, elegant pieces.

The dough is simple, made from butter, sugar, eggs, flour, and sometimes flavourings like vanilla or cardamom. Logs or rectangles of dough can be plain, filled, or topped with jam, chocolate, or nuts. The slicing gives snittar their signature shape and makes them quick to bake in batches.

Variations include vanilla snittar, chocolate snittar, cinnamon snittar, and the popular kolasnittar with caramel. Despite these differences, snittar share a simple elegance, minimal ingredients, and straightforward preparation.

Homemade jam (and easy alternatives)

This recipe uses a quick homemade blueberry jam, gently cooked with water and honey or sugar, then thickened with cornflour. It produces a soft, glossy jam that holds its shape when baked into the cookies.

Snittar are flexible. You can swap the jam for raspberry, blackcurrant, lingonberry, cherry, apricot, or fig. Store-bought jam also works. Because the jam sits in a groove along the centre, only a small amount is needed, and it bakes neatly without spilling.

Cutting snittar

Snittar are traditionally sliced diagonally like shortbread fingers. After baking, leave them on the pan for a few minutes to firm up. Cutting them while slightly warm gives the cleanest slices and helps keep the jam in place.

If you wait until the cookies are completely cool, they can become fragile and may crack or crumble, especially thinner cookies. Slightly thicker cookies are more forgiving. For best results, cut them gently while still warm, then leave them on the pan to cool fully.

But what do they taste like?

It is often hard to imagine what any baked treat tastes like just from a picture. Snittar vary in texture depending on how the dough is rolled and baked. Thinner or longer cookies are crispier, while slightly thicker ones remain soft and tender.

These spelt vanilla snittar have a shortbread-like texture, crisp on the edges with a soft interior. They are lightly sweet, allowing the blueberry jam to shine. The jam groove ensures each piece has a balanced combination of cookie and filling.

A simple vanilla drizzle

A light icing drizzle adds a finishing touch to these snittar and highlights their shape. Mix a tablespoon of water with enough icing sugar to form a thick paste, then drizzle over the cooled cookies.

You can also use melted chocolate, a lemon glaze, or skip the drizzle entirely. The cookies are delicious on their own, but the drizzle gives a neat, professional-looking finish with minimal effort.

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Spelt Vanilla Snittar Cookies with Homemade Blueberry Jam

Servings 30 cookies

Ingredients

Jam:

• 300g (3 cups) blueberries (see note 1)
• 1 tbsp water
• 2 tbsp honey or sugar
• ½ tbsp cornflour

Cookies:

• 125g (½ cup) butter (room temperature)
• 50g (¼ cup) sugar
• 1 egg
• 200g (1 + ⅔ cups) spelt flour (see note 2)
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp vanilla sugar (see note 3)

Drizzle:

• 1 tbsp water
• icing sugar (as much as needed)

Instructions

Jam:

• Heat the berries, water and honey together until the mixture starts to boil.
• Cook for around five minutes, add the cornflour, and then cook for a further minute or two until it starts to thicken.
• Remove from the heat and set to one side.

Cookies:

• Pre-heat the oven to 175ºC (350ºF). Line a large baking tray with grease-proof (baking) paper.
• Using a food processor or wooden spoon, beat the butter and sugar together until nice and fluffy.
• Add the egg and work the mixture until everything is well combined.
• In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and vanilla sugar and add to the wet ingredients. Stir until a dough forms.
• Split the dough into three fairly equal parts.
• Roll each one into a long, thick sausage and flatten down slightly (it should be about 35cm long).
• Take a small spoon or your thumb, and gently make an indentation all the way down the roll (make sure it is not too wide, otherwise the cookies will break in half when baked).
• Spoon the cooled jam along the indentation. Repeat with the other two rolls of dough.
• Bake for around 15 minutes. The cookies will have started to brown but will still be pale. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for around 10 minutes.
• Using a sharp knife, carefully cut the cookies diagonally, but leave them where they are (if you try to move them when they are warm, they will crumble).

Drizzle:

• Mix one tablespoon of water with enough icing sugar to make a thick drizzle. Dribble over the cookies. Enjoy!

Notes

 

I have converted metric measurements (grams and ml) to imperial (cups and ounces) using online converters, so accuracy cannot be totally guaranteed.

1. I've made these with both blackberries and blueberries. Any berry would work well.
2. I have used both spelt and plain (regular) flour to make these cookies. The amount of flour does not need to be amended.
3. If you don't have access to vanilla sugar, use extract instead (add at the same time as the egg)