Sweet • Sour • Savory

Food blog on scandinavian style food done right.

Thanksgiving

Bourbon Apple Pie with Bourbon Whipped Cream

Cake, Brunch, Desserts, Holiday, ThanksgivingTove Balle-PedersenComment
Bourbon Apple Pie

Bourbon Apple Pie

Most people like Apple pie, but adding bourbon, just makes the pie a little better. It's not like you get drunk by having a piece of pie. The pie filling get so hot, that the liquor from the bourbon evaporate in the oven. But off course having the bourbon whipped cream will be classified as an adult dessert. This pie is a serious contender in any Thanksgiving pie-off.

Makes 1 pie (9 inch).

INGREDIENTS:

Pie Crust:

  • 260 g butter, salted and cold

  • 360 g all-purpose flour

  • 2 tablespoons confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

  • 75 ml water, ice-cold

Filling:

  • 6-7 apples*,

  • 100 g butter

  • 120 g sugar

  • 75 g brown sugar

  • 50 g water

  • 3 tablespoon cornstarch

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

  • 3 tablespoons bourbon

  • 30 g all-purpose flour

  • 1½ tsk cinnamon

  • 1 egg yolk for brushing the crust

Bourbon Whipped Cream:

  • 1 cup (2½ dl) heavy whipping cream

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

  • 2-3 tablespoons confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

  • 2 tablespoons bourbon

DIRECTIONS: 

Crust:

Cube the butter and place it in the refrigerator.

Put the flour and sugar in the food processor and pulse just until combined. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse until the mixture looks like small coarse crumbs. Drizzle the water over the flour and pulse again until the dough just comes together.

Divide the dough in two discs and wrap them separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for 3 hours.

On a floured work surface roll the dough out to about ⅒ inch thickness. You want the dough yo be larger than your pie pan, so you end up with a ⅓ inch overhang on a 9 inch pan. Place the pan with the dough in the refrigerator, until ready to fill.

Preheat the oven to 430℉ (220℃).

Filling:

Mix flour, cinnamon in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter, sugars in a saucepan. Mix the water with the cornstarch, and pour it in the butter/sugar mixture. Add vanilla and the flour/cinnamon, stir the mixture while the sauce thickens. Take the sauce off the heat and stir in the bourbon.

Peel, core and slice the apples in thin slices. Do not soak the apples in water, this will make the filling to watery. Place the apple slices in the pie pan, and pour the sauce over the apples.

Brush the edges with egg wash. Roll out the rest of the dough for the lid, as thin as the other part. Place the lid on top, and firmly press the edges together to seal them. you can do this by hand or with a fork. Use the excess dough to cut out decorations for the pie. 

Optional: brush the lid with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar on top.

Cut 4-8 slids in the dough lid, to allow the steam to escape during baking. 

Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 360℉ (180℃) and bake it for another 50 minutes until the pie is a deep golden brown. 

Let the pie cool completely, before slicing. This part is the hardest. The smell of this delicious apple pie, makes you want to dive in immediately. But if you let it cool first, and then reheat, it will make the slicing so much easier. 

Apple-Pie-Served.JPG

Bourbon Whipped Cream:

Whip the cold cream to soft peaks. Whisk in vanilla, sugar and bourbon.

Serve the pie with bourbon whipped cream or some vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

Cranberry - Orange Sauce

Christmas, condiments, Dinner, Holiday, Sauce, Thanksgiving, veganTove Balle-Pedersen1 Comment
Cranberry - Orange Sauce

Cranberry - Orange Sauce

 

I'm cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner this year, making my first turkey. Even though I have never roasted at turkey before, I do sometimes make cranberry sauce for the traditional Danish Christmas dinner. This is my favorite recipe:

Makes about 2 cups.

Ingredients:

  • 1 orange, zest and juice

  • 200 ml water

  • 125 g sugar

  • 340-350 g fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions:

Heat orange juice, orange zest, sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.

Stir in cranberries and bring it to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until sauce has  slightly thickened, about 5-10 minutes, and most of the berries have bust.

Let cool completely before serving.

Enjoy!

Butternut Squash Soup

Appetizer, Dinner, Soup, Thanksgiving, VegetablesTove Balle-PedersenComment
Butternut Squash Soup.

Butternut Squash Soup.

I love the fall season. Fall is the best excuse to make soups, and butternut squash soups are a fall staple here in the US. I earlier posted a roasted version, and to be honest I can't tell which is the best. 

This version is made mostly vegetarian, if you loose the cream and the sour cream and bacon topping. The crispy tart apples plays well with the clean flavors from the soup.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

Soup:

  • 1 butternut squash

  • 2-3 large potatoes

  • 2 carrots

  • 1 chili pepper

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

  • 1 heaped teaspoon grated ginger

  • 400 ml (1¼ cup) water

  • ½ lemon, the juice of

  • ½ teaspoon cumin

  • 1½ dl (little over 1 cup) heavy whipping cream

Topping:

  • 3-5 thin slices of bacon (+ a sprinkle ghost chili powder)

  • 1 crisp apple, cut in small dices, dressed in juice from ½ lemon + ½ teaspoon honey

  • roasted pumpkin seeds

  • 1 chili thinly sliced

  • creme fraiche (sour cream)

Directions:

Microwave the whole butternut squash for 2 minutes to soften it a bit, making it easier to cut.

Cut it in half, peel, deseed and dice the butternut squash. Peel and dice potatoes and carrots. 

Sauté the vegetables in a large pot in olive oil for a few minutes. Add water, chili, ginger and cumin. Bring it to a boil and cover it and cook it for 15-20 minutes, until the squash is tender.

Purée the soup in batches in a blender* until smooth. (You can also use an immersion blender.) 

Add the cream and season the soup with lemon juice, salt and pepper, heat soup through before serving.

Serve the soup hot with your favorite garnish and a slice of good bread.

*Be careful when blending hot liquids, it can make the lid pop off, and you may risk getting serious burns on you skin. You can remove the small cap on you blender lid and cover the lid with a clean kitchen towel. You need to hold on to the lid and towel. This will let the steam from the hot soup escape and avoid the lid from popping off. You can also get blenders like the Vitamix, where you can blend hot liquids, without any hassle.

Homemade Ragusa Bites

Christmas, Holiday, Sweets and Candy, ThanksgivingTove Balle-PedersenComment
Homemade Ragusa Bites

Homemade Ragusa Bites

7th Day of Christmas.

Ragusa is a hazelnut chocolate bar, with whole hazelnuts and dark chocolate on top. As a teenager this was one of my favorite chocolate bars, there is just something about chocolate and hazelnuts, that makes me happy.
This is my first attempt to make ragusa, and I had no idea, that leaving the chocolate bar in the refrigerator for a few days, would make it impossible to cut in nice and clean squares. Well, ragusa chunks are tasty too.

Makes a 8-9 inch bar.

Ingredients:

  • 250 g blød Nougat, hazelnut milk chocolate
  • 100 g roasted hazelnuts
  • 75 g dark chocolate (I use Valrhona)

Directions:

Melt the hazelnut chocolate over a double boiler. Add the hazelnuts, and make sure they all are coated in chocolate. Pour the mixture into a parchment paper lined loaf pan. Let the chocolate set in the refrigerator for a few hours. 

Temper the dark chocolate, and pour/brush it on top of the now set hazelnut chocolate. Let it sit in the refrigerator for 15 minutes, before cutting it into bites.
Enjoy!

 

Apple Pie-tini

Drinks, Holiday, ThanksgivingTove Balle-PedersenComment
Apple Pie-tini

Apple Pie-tini

Happy Thanksgiving to all my readers in the US (and Americans in general).

As a somewhat newly arrived Dane in the US, Thanksgiving is a Holiday we just have to pass to get to the December celebration. I have never been too fond of turkey. Well, I had a very good roasted turkey at a Thanksgiving celebration at my dorm in Denmark. We had an American exchange student (Andy) living there, and we all went all in on making a big Thanksgiving celebration with him. And as for most dinners with young people at a dorm, it turned in to a great Party. This party is still my fondest Thanksgiving memory.

I hope you all are enjoying the holiday.

Makes 2 drinks

Ingredients:

Drink:

  • 90 ml vanilla vodka

  • 90 ml apple cider, unfiltered

  • 25 ml lemon juice

  • 1-2 tablespoons honey

Decoration:

  • 1 apple, in slices sprinkled with lemon juice

  • 2 cinnamon stick

Rim:

  • lemon juice

  • baker's sugar (extra fine sugar)

  • ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

Cut up the apple and sprinkle the slices with lemon juice to prevent them turning brown.Mix sugar and cinnamon on a shallow plate. Make sure not to have any lumps of sugar. Pour some lemon juice in another shallow plate. Dip the rims of the glasses in the lemon juice, shake them to remove any excess juice. Dip the rim of the glasses in the sugar mixture, making sure to cover all of the rim.

Mix the ingredients for the drink in a shaker with ice. Pour the drink into the glasses and decorate with apple slices and cinnamon sticks.

Enjoy!