Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House

December 17 th.

Nothing says Christmas like a homemade gingerbread house.

Template for large gingerbreadhouse.

The recipe is from a Danish Weekly magazine

Ingredients:

• 125 g butter

• 200 g dark syrup or molasses

• 150 g brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground all-spice

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 egg

• 500 g all-purpose flour

Directions:

Melt butter, syrup/molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, and stir in baking soda and spices. Let the syrup cool down for a bit, before you add egg and flour. 

Add syrup to a stand mixer, and mix in the egg and flour and keep mixing until you have a smooth and shiny dough. 

Let the dough rest in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, before rolling out.

Preheat the oven to 355 ℉ (180℃).

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. The dough needs to be about 0.1-0.2-inch (3-5 mm) thick. Cut out the small and large house and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. If you want other shapes than gingerbread houses, use cookie cutters to cut them out.

Bake the cookies for about 5 minutes for cookies, and 10-12 minutes for the larger pieces for the houses.

For houses with candy windows. Bake the house-parts for 5-7 minutes, remove from the oven and fill the windows with crushed Jolly Ranchers hard candy. Bake the house for another 5 minutes until it's baked and the candy is melted and filled out the window frame. Glue the house together with royal icing or hot melted sugar. And go crazy with the decorating.

For cookies - decorate your heart out with color and sprinkles.

The Danish version:

Peberkagehus

Skabelon til et stort peberkagehus.

Opskriften er fra: Familie Journal.

Ingredienser:

• 125 g smør

• 200 g mørk sirup

• 150 g brun farin

• 1 tsk stødt sort peber

• 1 tsk stødt ingefær

• 1 tsk stødt kardemomme

• 3 tsk stødt kanel

• ¼ tsk stødt allehånde

• ¼ tsk stødt nelliker

• 2 tsk natron

• 1 æg

• 500 g hvedemel

Fremgangsmåde:

Smelt smør, sirup og farin i en tykbundet gryde. Når det er smeltet, tag gryden af varmen, rør natron og krydderier i. Lad massen køle lidt af og kom den i en stor røreskål. Tilsæt æg og mel, og bland dejen indtil den er glat. Lad dejen hvile tildækket i køleskabet, i mindst 4 timer inden den rulles ud. 

Rul dejen ud til den er ca. 4-5 mm tyk. Skær både de små og store huse ud.

Dejen bages ved 180°C fra 5 minutter til 10-12 minutter - alt afhængig af om det er små kager eller større flader til peberkagehuse.

For huse med "glasvinduer" bages husdelen først 5-6 minutte, tag dem ud af ovnen og fyld vinduesrammen ud med knust bolche. Bag husdelen videre i 5 minutter, indtil bolchet er smeltet ud i vinduesrammen og kagen er gennembagt. Lim huset sammen med royal icing og dekorer som du lyster. 

Kager dekoreres med glasur og sprinkles.

Homemade Marzipan

Homemade Marzipan

Marzipan is a big part of all the sweets and confectionary made in Danish homes in the weeks up to christmas. Living abroad it is very hard to find marzipan not to mention good marzipan. 

Ingredients:

Mazipan:

• 200 g almond flour

• 3 small bitter almonds, the skin scraped of

• 35 g agave nectar (I used organic blue agave nectar)

• 50 g (2 tablespoons) syrup*

• 2-3 drops almond extract (optional)

*Syrup (makes more than needed in the recipe):

• 50 ml water

• 90 g sugar

• 70 g light corn syrup (glucose syrup)

Directions:

Syrup:

Heat water, sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan until the sugar is melted into a clear syrup. Let the syrup cool completely before using.

Marzipan:

Scrape the brown skin of the bitter almonds. Ground the almonds to a flour. I chopped it finely and grounded it in a pestle and mortar with a ¼ teaspoon sugar.

Mix almond flour, bitter almond, syrup, agave nectar and extract in a bowl and use your hands to knead it into a uniform paste. Form the paste into a log, and roll it up in plastic wrap. and let it rest in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours for the flavors to blend.

Use the marzipan for baking, snacking, to make confectionery or as base for cream puffs.

Enjoy!

I used some almond extract because the bitter almonds didn't give me enough flavor in all my test batches. I will stay in the marzipan-test-kitchen until next christmas.🎄

Rullepølse - Spiced Meat Roll

Rullepølse - Spiced Meat Roll

December 15th.

Rullepølse is a traditional cold cut served for lunch in Scandinavian countries. The spices may be different for the different countries, but my favorite is the spiciness from pepper and allspice. 

Here I served rullepølse with meat flavored jello/gelatin, and raw onions. Another way is with mustard and pickled beets. Another more untraditional way is with mayonnaise and raw button mushrooms. The latter was my favorite way to eat my parents homemade rullepølse.

My parents always made rullepølse in the weeks up to christmas. Normally they would buy rullepølse at the grocery store. To be honest, the homemade tasted so much better, but in a busy life, we all take shortcuts. 

Makes 1 

Ingredients:

• 1 - 1½ kg (2-3 pound) pork belly or pork loin

• 3-4 tablespoons coarse sea salt salt

• ½ teaspoon sodium nitrite (food grade) optional*

Spice blend:

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• ½ teaspoon ground allspice

• 2-3 packets (21 g) gelatine

Cooking broth:

• water

• 2-3 teaspoons salt

• 10-15 whole peppercorns

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 onion optional

Directions:

If you are using a pork loin, you need to cut the meat into a large rectangle about ⅕ inch (1 cm) thick.  

Cut off any large chunks of fat, but don't make it too lean. Trim the ends so they are straight.  Trim any really thick places if that side is too thick when you roll it up. Lay the pork belly flat on a cutting board and sprinkle salt and sodium nitrite all over. Fold the meat up, and place it in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours. 

Rinse the meat, and pat it dry with paper towel. Lay the meat flat on a cutting board, and sprinkle it with ⅓ of the gelatin powder. Spread the chopped onion on top. Sprinkle a good amount of pepper and allspice blend on top, ending with the rest of the gelatin. 

Carefully roll or fold up the meat into a large sausage. Use cooking twine to tie the meat up all the way.

Bring water to a boil, and place the rullepølse in the water with salt, peppercorns and bay leaves. Cook the rullepølse for 2 hours at a simmer. 

When cooked, place the rullepølse in a press. I used two loaf pans and tied it up hard with more twine. Put the rullepølse in a large ziplock bag and into the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Remove the twine, and slice the rullepølse in thin slices, and serve it on rye bread or another good bread, as an open faced sandwich.

Enjoy!

*Sodium nitrite makes the rullepølse keep the pinkish color.

Christmas Panna Cotta

Christmas Panna Cotta

December 14 th.

I really like panna cotta, the best I ever had was a pistachio panna cotta at my local Italian restaurant. Next year I'll work on getting the texture on this one perfected. In the meantime I'll share this christmas themed panna cota with you. The orange sauce works perfect with the sweet soft panna cotta. 

Makes 4 

Ingredients:

Panna Cotta:

• 500 ml heavy whipping cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 1 vanilla pods, the sedds from

• 50 g sugar

• 6 g gelatin or 3 sheets of gelatin/husblas

• ½ lemon, the zest of

 Orange sauce:

• 250 ml fresh squeezed orange juice

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon butter

• ¼ orange, zest of, julienned

Directions:

Panna cotta:

Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod, and mix them with a tablespoon of the sugar. This will help distributing the seeds in the liquid.

Gently heat the cream, vanilla seeds, lemon zest and all the sugar in a saucepan, and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes, remove from heat. 

If using gelatin sheets, place them in a bowl of cold water to bloom for about 10 minutes. Squeeze the gelatin sheets and add them to the hot cream. Whisk the mixture until gelatin is dissolved.

If using powdered gelatin, sprinkle it evenly onto the hot cream mixture and the let it soak for a minute.

Whisk the mixture until gelatin is dissolved.

Pour the cream through a sift into portion sized glasses. (I rinsed the glass with cold water).  Chill the panna cotta in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.

To unmold the panna cotta, gently insert a knife around the edges of the moulds, and dip the mold in hot water for max. 10 secunds. Tip them onto individual plates, pour over the sauce. You can also serve the panna cotta in the glass, and just pour some orange sauce into the glass before serving. 

Orange sauce:

Put orange juice and zest, sugar and butter in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Cook the juice until it is thick like a syrup, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat, and allow to cool completely before pouring over the panna cotta.

Enjoy!

St. Lucia Buns

St. Lucia buns

December 13th is Saint Lucia day.

St. Lucia buns aka lussekatter aka lucia breads, is a classic Swedish bun. Served on St. Lucia Day, december 13. in celebration of the light coming back. Young girls dressed in a white dress and a red sash (as the symbol of martyrdom) carrying a candle in their hands. One girl (the Lucia bride) wears a crown or wreath of candles on her head, all of them singing the Lucia song.

These St. Lucia buns are light, sweet with a nice saffron taste. I have to make these again soon. These buns reminds me of my moms version of birthday buns, a recipe lost forever.

Makes 24 lussekatter.

Ingredients:

• 300 g (1¼ cup) milk 
• 25 g live yeast or 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 100 g (½ cup) sugar
• 1 teaspoon saffron
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 100 g butter, room temperature
• 500 g  (5¼ cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 egg + some for egg wash

Directions:

Put the saffron in a mortar and pestles with about a tablespoon of sugar, and pulverize the saffron-sugar.  In a saucepan heat the milk, saffron-sugar together until  the sugar dissolves and the milk warm to the touch, but not hot. 

Disolve the yeast in the warm milk, and add the rest of the milk. 

Add  the milk-mixture to the bowl of a stand-up mixer and mix in butter, egg, sugar, salt and most of the flour. Save some flour for the shaping of the Lucia buns.

Knead the dough for about 5 minutes. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for about 40 minutes until almost doubled  in size.

Pour the dough onto a flour dusted workspace and divide into 24 small balls. Roll the balls out into snakes, about 14 inches long. Then curl the ends in opposite directions, forming an "S" with spirals at each end. Place the buns on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and repeat. Cover the buns and place in a warm spot to rise until the dough shapes double in size, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 440°F (225°C). Brush the buns with some egg wash (beaten egg). Place raisins in the centers of the "S" spirals. Bake the Lucia buns  for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the buns are light golden brown.  Remove from oven and let cool covered by a kitchen towel for 5 minutes before eating.

Serve the buns warm with cold butter.

Enjoy!