Lagkagebunde - Spongecake for Danish Layer Cake

Classic Danish Layer cake

I know I need a better picture of the spongecake inside.

Makes 3 thin cakes.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 150 g sugar
• 110 g all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or the seeds from 1 vanilla pod

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃).

If baking 3 thin cakes:

Spray three 9-inch (22 cm) baking pans. Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom of each and spray this too. Set aside. 

Whisk the eggs light and foamy with the sugar, it takes about 5 minutes to get maximum foaming when whisking on a stand mixer.

Mix and sift flour and baking powder together, and set aside. 

Very gently fold the flour, vanilla and milk in the foamy eggs. Be very careful not to deflate the egg mixture to much.

Pour the batter in the prepared baking pans, dividing the batter evenly between the three, if making 3 cakes. (Put about 155 g in each.) 

Bake the 3 thin cakes for about 7-8 minutes, until light brown.

If baking one big cake, to cut up in 3 thin discs after cooling:

Spray a 9-inch (22 cm) springform. Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom and spray this too. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs light and foamy with the  sugar, it takes about 5 minutes to get maximum foaming when whisking on a stand mixer.

Mix and sift flour and baking powder together, and set aside. 

Very gently fold the flour, vanilla and milk in the foamy eggs. Be very careful not to deflate the egg mixture to much.

Pour the batter in the prepared springform

Bake the large cake for 25-30 minutes, until light brown.

When cooled completely, place the cake on a sturdy work surface. Using a long serrated knife and a sawing motion, cut the layer horizontally to make 3 layers. Don't worry if the layers are not perfectly even. The filling and frosting will mask that. 

Almond Lemon Cake

Almond Lemon Cake

Some days you just feel like baking a cake. I was inspired by an almond cake by David Lebovitz and a normal Danish mazarin cake. To  give the cake some more texture, I used almond flour, and added some lemon zest for more flavor.

The cake was really good and I loved the texture. This cake will pair well with fresh berries and crème fraiche. It turned out that this cake is dog approved. My food driven yellow lab stole the rest of the cake, about ¾ of the cake, from the kitchen counter. It was gone in seconds. 

Serves 12 people or 1 hungry dog

Ingredients:

• 175 g butter, room temperature
• 115 g honey
• 210 g sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla paste or the seeds from ½ vanilla bean pod
• 5 eggs, room temperature
• 110 g almond flour
• 175 g all-purpose flour
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 lemon, the zest of
• 3 tablespoons sliced almond 
• 1 tablespoon confectionary sugar, for dusting

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 320℉ (160℃). Spray a 9-inch (22 cm) springform. Place a piece of parchment paper in the bottom and spray this too. Sprinkle the springform with flour, and discard the excess. Set aside.

Cream the butter with honey, sugar and vanilla, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, and mix just until fully incorporated. 

Mix together all-purpose flour, almond flour, baking powder and lemon zest. Fold the dry ingredients in the butter/egg mixture. 

Pour the batter in the prepared pan, and sprinkle the sliced almonds on top. Bake the cake covered with aluminum foil for 40 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for another 20-25 minutes.

Let the cake cool completely before removing from the pan. Sprinkle with confectionary sugar.

Enjoy!

Irish Brownie Dessert

Irish Brownie Dessert

There's a little bit of Irish in everyone on St. Patrick's Day.

Try this decadent, rich dessert.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

Irish Brownie:

• 50 g all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, unsweetened
• 125 g chocolate
• 50 g butter, salted
• 50 ml Guinness stout
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 1 tablespoon espresso, or another strong coffee
• 2 eggs
• 200 g sugar

Bailey's Mousse:

• 300 ml heavy whipping cream
• 165 g dark chocolate, I used Valrhona
• 50 g good milk chocolate, I used Valrhona
• 85 ml baileys

Topping:

• Whipped cream
• 4-6 mini bailey's

Directions:

Irish Brownie:

Preheat the oven to 350 ℉ and line a 8 x 8-inch baking pan with parchment paper, and spray it with cooking spray. Set aside.

Combine flour and cocoa powder in a bowl.

Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stir until smooth.  Remove from heat and stir in beer, coffee and vanilla.

Whisk eggs and sugars, in a large bowl until it’s thick pale yellow, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the chocolate mixture. Add flour and cocoa and mix until just incorporated. 

Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until the edges are firm and the center is set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Bailey's Mousse:

Chop the chocolates finely and put it in a bowl, set aside.

Heat the cream to a small simmer, pour it over the chopped chocolate. Let it sit for 20 seconds before stirring. Stir until you get a homogenous, shiny mixture. Let the mixture cool for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator.

Stir in the Bailey's and whip it with a hand mixer until light and thick. Be careful not to over mix, this will make it grainy. Place mousse in a piping bag.

Whip some heavy whipping cream until medium soft peaks, this will be the whipped cream for the topping.

Assembly:

Pipe some mousse in a small serving vessel. Place some of the brownie on top, pipe more mousse on top. Finish the dessert up with a scoop of whipping cream and place a small bailey's upside-down in the top. 

Enjoy!

The Danish Version:

Irsk Brownie Dessert med Bailey's Mousse

Ingredienser:

Irsk Brownie:

• 50 g hvedemel
• 1 spsk usødet kakao
• 125 g mørk chokolade
• 50 g smør, saltet
• 50 ml Guinness stout
• 1 tsk vanilje pasta /korn fra en vaniljestang 
• 1 spsk espresso, eller anden stærk kaffe
• 2 æg
• 200 g sukker

Bailey's Mousse:

• 300 ml piskefløde
• 165 g mørk chokolade, jeg brugte Valrhona
• 50 g god mælke chokolade, jeg brugte Valrhona
• 85 ml Bailey's

Topping:

• flødeskum
• 4-6 mini Bailey's

Fremgangsmåde:

Irsk Brownie:

Forvarm ovnen til 180℃. Smør en 20x20 cm bradepande og læg et stykke bagepapir i bunden, og smør også det.

Blandmel og kakao i en skål.

Smelt chokoladen, smør i en gryde og rør det sammen til en skinnende masse. Tag gryden af varmen og tilsæt øl, kaffe og vanilje. 

Pisk æggene med sukker indtil du har en bleggul tyk masse. Bland chokoladeblandingen i, og fold derefter forsigtigt melet i. 

Kom dejen i bradepanden og bag kagen i 30-35 minutter. Du skal gerne ende op med en blød kage med sprøde kanter. Afkøl kagen helt før du bruger den i desserten.

Bailey's Mousse:

Hak chokoladen fint, og kom det i en skål.

Varm fløden op i en gryde indtil kogepunktet. Hæld den varme fløde over chokoladen. Vent ca 20 sekunder før du begynder at røre. Bliv ved at røre indtil massen er homogen. Dæk skålen til og lad det køle i mindst 4 timer i køleskabet.

Rør bailey'en i og pisk massen med en håndmikser til den er tyk og luftig. Pas på ikke at overpiske massen, da det gør moussen grynet. Kom moussen i en sprøjtepose, og opbevar den på køl indtil du skal bruge den.

Pisk flødeskum til at toppe desserten af med.

Samling:

Sprøjt lidt mousse i bunden af en portionsskål, kom et stykke brownie ovenpå. Kom endnu et lag mousse ovenpå og top desserten af med en god klat flødeskum og sæt en mini Bailey's flaske ned i desserten. 

Velbekomme!

Puff Pastry - Wienerbrødsdej

Danish with custard and jam aka a Spandauer.

Most americans knows what a danish pastry is. Going in to pastry shops in America, you'll find a cheese danish. But even though Danes like their cheese, they would never, as in Never Ever Ever put cheese in a pastry, or in a wienerbrød, as they are called in Denmark. Wienerbrød translated is a bread from Vienna. That style of pastry originates from Austria, and became very popular in Denmark. Danes like their sweets. 

The Danish pastry is a laminated yeast dough much like the French croissant. There are many ways to make this lamination. The amount of layers are different from country to country and from baker to baker. You get the  flaky layers by folding sheets of dough with butter. 

There are different kinds of folding. 

Letter fold: Dough folded in thirds, like you would do a letter going into an envelope. (I did that for this recipe.)

1. Turn: makes 3 layers of butter

2. Turn: makes 9 layers of butter

3. Turn: makes 27 layers of butter.

Book fold: Dough folded to the middle and folded again on the middle like a book. This makes 4 layers per fold or turn as they are called.

1. Turn: makes 4 layers of butter

2. Turn: makes 16 layers of butter

3. Turn: makes 64 layers of butter

Some people claim that any more layers than 3 turns using a letter fold, will make the dough like a brioche instead of providing the flaky layers. The 3 turns makes 27 layers. You can mix the folding methods to get the amount of layer you want.

I'm sure that it is possible to make the laminating with more layers. Even in a normal kitchen without special equipment. Next time I'll be making a book fold in the second turn, making it for 36 layers.

Makes 16 pastries. Recipe adapted from Kvalimad.dk.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 375 g all-purpose flour
• 200 ml milk
• 25 g live yeast or 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 45 g sugar
• 50 g butter, salted and soft
• 1 egg

Butter block:

• 350 g butter, cold (use a european style butter, it contains less water, than the american butter)
• all-purpose flour for dusting

Remonce:

• 50 g butter
• 50 g sugar
• 50 g marzipan

Filling:

• vanilla custard 
• raspberry jam
• sugar
• chopped almonds
• Icing (confectionary sugar and water, made into a thick paste)

Directions:

Dough:

Heat the milk to lukewarm (99℉/37℃). Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk. Add the sugar. If using dry yeast, let the yeast wake up for about 5-10 minutes, until creating a foam on top. Incorporate the egg.

Mix in half of the flour, forming a sticky dough. Mix in the softened butter. Finally mix in the rest of the flour and knead the dough until you have at shiny, slightly sticky and elastic dough, for about 3-5 minutes.

Place the dough on a very lightly floured surface. Using a bench scraper and one hand, work the dough into a round. The tension will build as the dough achieves to the surface as you rotate it.

Place the dough back in the bowl and let it rise until doubled in size, for about 60 minutes.

Butter block: 

Place the cold butter on a well floured surface. With your palms press the butter a little flat. Using a rolling pin pound on the butter to flatten it. Fold the butte into its self, and keep pounding and folding until the butter has the same consistency as the dough. You want to end up with a 15x15 cm / 6x6 inch square of soft but still cold butter. If the butter is too warm or too hard, it will be hard to roll it out in the dough, and it might make holes in the dough, instead of the lamination.

Laminating:

Place dough  on a lightly floured surface, roll 4 wings out from the center, leaving a center (15x15 cm / 6x6 inch), the same size as the butter block.

Place the butter block over the center, fold the wings over the butter, making sure not getting too much flour in between the layers. Turn the dough over, so the seams are facing down.

Roll the dough to a rectangle, 3 times as long as the hight. Keep it lightly floured so the dough do not stick to the surface. Make sure to roll the dough with straight edges. This will ease the folding.

1. Turn: Fold the rectangle in thirds, like a letter. Now you have 3 layers of butter. Place the dough in the freezer for about 20 minutes to cool the butter again.

Repeat this 2 times, making 3 turns and ending up with 27 layers of butter. Let the dough rest on the kitchen counter for 10-20 minutes. (If your kitchen is warm, do the resting in the refrigerator.)

Now the dough is ready to use as a puff pastry for sweet or savory dishes.

If you want to make sweet pastries, you want to make the 3. Turn on a surface sprinkled with about 100 g granulated sugar, and sprinkle another 100 g granulated sugar on top. This will make the dough sweeter and more crispy.

Making Danish pastry/spandauer:

Remonce: 

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated.  Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Roll the dough out to a 40x40 cm / 15¾x15¾ inch square. Try to make the  edges as straight as possible. Divide the dough into 16 smaller squares.

Place a teaspoon remonce in the middle of each small square. Bring all four corners to the center and press down firmly on the top of the center of the dough. Each pastry has a small dent in the middle. Brush the pastries with egg wash (egg and water or milk, whisked together), and sprinkle with sugar. Place a heap teaspoon of custard or some raspberry jam in the dent, sprinkle some chopped almonds round the filling.  

Let the pastries rise covered until doubled in size, about 30-60 minutes.

Baking:

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃). And bake the pastries for about 20-25 minutes, until deep golden brown and crispy.

When cooled completely, drizzle some icing round the center.

Enjoy!

This post has been submitted to YeastSpotting

Tips:

The unbaked pastry can be frozen just, after shaping, individually, and can be baked straight out of the freezer, just add about 5 more minutes to the baking time.

Marble Cake - Marmorkage

Marble Cake - Marmorkage

This cake was one of the first cakes I've ever learned to make. I'm sure most danes learned to make this in school. But oddly enough I have not been able to make this cake the way my husband likes it. He like his marble cakes slightly on the dryer side, without it being crumbly. This time was the first time I got it right. 

Ingredients:

• 250 g butter

• 250 g sugar

• 4 eggs

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or the seeds from 1 vanilla bean pod

• 250 g all-purpose flour

• 1½ teaspoon baking powder

• 50 ml milk

• 2½ tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 tablespoon cold espresso or another strong coffee

Directions:

Preheat the oven for 355℉ (180℃). 

Butter a 4¾x9” (12x23 cm) pan. Line the bottom with some parchment paper.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars until very light and fluffy, mix in the vanilla paste. Add the eggs one at a time, and mix just until fully incorporated. 

Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl.

Fold in alternately dry ingredients and milk. 

Pour ⅔ of the batter into the prepared pan. Mix in cocoa and coffee in the last third of the batter, and pour it on top of the white in the pan. Using a knife “cut” in a zig-zag and up’n down motion down the pan to create a marbled effect.

Bake the cake for 45-55 minutes until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Turn out onto a cooling rack and leave to cool. 

Enjoy!

The Danish Version:

Marmorkage

Ingredienser:

• 250 g smør

• 250 g sukker

• 4 æg

• 1 vaniljestang, kornene fra 

• 250 g hvedemel

• 1½ tsk bagepulver

• 25 ml mælk

• 2½ spsk usødet kakaopulver

• 1 spsk kold espresso eller stærk kold kaffe

Fremgangsmåde:

Opvarm ovnen til 180℃.

Smør formen med smør og kom et style bagepapir i bunden.  

Rør smør og sukker sammen til det er let og skummende. Tilsæt æggene et ad gangen og derefter vanillien. Rør lidt af melet i og herefter mælken.  Bland resten af melet forsigtigt i dejen. 

Kom ⅔ dele af dejen i den smurte form, og bland resten af dejen med kakaopulver og kaffen. Kom resten af dejen i formen. Kør en kniv igennem kagen i et zig-zag-mønster, så den bliver marmoreret. Bag kagen i ca. 45 minutter indtil en kødnål/strikkepind, der stikkes ned i kagen, kommer ud uden dej på.

Afkøl kagen på en rist.

Velbekomme!