Sarah Bernhardt Cookies

Christmas in Iceland is a wondrous thing. You can expect snow, kaleidoscopic Northern Lights, reindeer, and, perhaps, a thriving black market for Sarah Bernhardt cookies. It’s not often that a cookie inspires such a fervor, but this is not your average cookie. Unassuming, like a simply wrapped present, the Sarah Bernhardt cookie conceals wonders beneath its chocolate covering. Under the velvet layer of chocolate lies a delicate, crunchy meringue cookie that gives way to a pyramid of silken buttercream. Three distinct textures converge into one miraculous bite. Dramatic to the last crumb, the cookie earns its celebrity distinction. But to appreciate the Sarah Bernhardt cookie’s many lovely layers, you must first appreciate Sarah Bernhardt herself.

Born in France in 1844, the woman who would become Sarah Bernhardt was originally christened Henriette-Rosine Bernard. One of her first acting roles would come at the age of 10, when she played the archangel Raphael in at Grandchamp, an exclusive convent school outside of Versailles, France. There was another, no less theatrical,