Pickled Herring

Pickled Herring

9th Day of Christmas.

Pickled herring is an acquired taste, but it is a staple at every holiday lunch parties in Denmark. The fresh herring is cleaned and salted before getting pickled, aka marinated in a sugary vinegar dressing. The flavoring can vary, but this is the most basic and classic version. 

Ingredients:

Herring:

• 200 g salted herring fillets
• 4-500 ml water

Pickling Solution:

• 150 g sugar
• 200 ml white vinegar
• 100 ml water
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 6 whole allspice
• 5 whole cloves
• 2 bay leave
• 10 whole black peppercorns

Directions:

Rinse the salted herring fillets, and place them in a large shallow pan where they need to soak in cold water for 12-18 hours. The fillets have to be completely covered in water, but you need to have as much water as you do herring. This will remove the worst saltiness from the herring. After 12 hours take a small bite to test the saltiness. The fish has to be more salty than you would like to eat, the saltiness will mix with the pickling solution.

 Put all the ingredients for the pickling solution in a large pan, and bring it to a boil. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes, and remove from heat, and let it cool completely. 

Place the herring fillets in a large glass jar and pour the cooled pickling solution over. Again you want to have as much pickling solution as herring. Let the herring pickle covered in the refrigerator for at least 3 days before serving. The herring will keep in the refrigerator 14-16 days.

Enjoy!

Checkerboard Cookies

Checkerboard Cookies

8th Day of Christmas.

I only make cookies one time a year, around Christmas. Well, cookies like chocolate chip cookies, will be made all year round.

I really like vanilla cookies, and my husband loves everything chocolate. So these checkerboard cookies is the perfect compromise. They are fun to make, they look fancy, and luckily they are really tasty too.

Makes 100-120 cookies

Ingredients:

Vanilla dough:

• 170 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g confectionary sugar (powder sugar)

• 45 g almonds, bleached and grounded

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 255 g all-purpose flour

Chocolate dough:

• 170 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g confectionary sugar (powder sugar)

• 40 g almonds, bleached and grounded

• 30 g unsweetened cocoa powder, I use Valrhona

• 1 egg yolk

• ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 255 g all-purpose flour

Directions:

Vanilla dough:

Cream the butter until soft and creamy. Add the confectionery sugar, mix until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the ground almonds, egg yolk, vanilla and flour, and mix until  just blended. Be careful not to over mix the dough. 

Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper into a large rectangle about ⅓ inch (9 mm) thick. Transfer the dough onto a baking sheet and refrigerate for a minimum of 3 hours until hardened.

Chocolate dough:

Follow the instructions for the vanilla dough. Add the cocoa with the ground almonds. Roll and chill the chocolate dough as for the vanilla dough.

Assemble the cookies:

Remove one of  the doughs from the refrigerator, peel off the paper from both sides and set the dough onto a fresh sheet of parchment. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough lengthwise into square strips about ⅓ inch (9 mm) thick. Place the dough strips in the refrigerator, while repeating the other dough.

Remove dough strips from the refrigerator. Lay a strip of vanilla dough lengthwise on the baking sheet, then lay a strip of chocolate dough next to the vanilla, another strip of vanilla  and finally another chocolate, so you now have 4 strips alternating colors. Press the three strips gently together so that they stick to one another. You can brush the sides with some diluted apricot preserve, to help the dough to glue together.

Do this with the rest of the strips, so you end up with logs of striped cookie dough.  Place the logs on top of each other, so the chocolate and vanilla alternates and you have  4x4 colors per log.

Gently press the log together on all sides. Wrap the log with plastic wrap, a place in the refrigerator.   Make more logs with the remaining dough.

Chill the logs for at least an hour before slicing.

Preheat the oven to 375℉ (190℃). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Slice into cookies about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. Set the squares ½ inch (1 cm) apart on the baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until the vanilla parts are lightly browned. If your oven is baking unevenly rotate the sheet halfway through. Cool on the parchment paper on a wire rack. 

Store the completely cooled cookies in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

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!

Head Cheese - Sylte

Head Cheese - Sylte

6th Day of Christmas.

Sylte or head cheese as it is called in English is a cold cut danes often eat around christmas time. It might be an old tradition and maybe young people will not carry this tradition on, but if the sylte or head cheese is well made, it is very good. My dad was the one who made the sylte in my house. I loved the homemade version, but the commercial version was to hard, fatty and salty for my taste. Originally the sylte is made from meat from the head of the pig. But it is easier to use more available cuts, such as hocks, loin roast or pork belly.
I made this sylte so I can have this traditional cold cut for my Christmas lunch. 

Makes 2 medium or 3-4 small

Ingredients:

• 750 g pigskin from the pork belly
• 1 hock, with skin and bone
• ½ gallon (2 liter) water
• 200 ml vinegar
• 12 bay leaves
• 3 pounds (1½ kg) pork loin
• 5 teaspoons (35-40 g) salt
• 10 peppercorns
• 4-5 sheets husblas or 8-10 g non-flavored gelatin powder

Directions:

Put water, vinegar, Peppercorns, cubed pigskin and hock in a large pot, bring it to a boil and let it simmer for about 2 hours.  Discard the pigskin. Add the cubed pork loin to the soup, and keep simmering for another 1-1½ hours, until all the meat has fallen of the bone tender.

Remove hock and pork loin, and let it cool for a while, so you can handle it. Strain the soup into a clean pot. 

Soak the husblas in cold water or bloom the gelatin according to package instructions. 

In a large bowl, season the pork loin and the meat from the hock with salt. Pull some of the meat a bit apart. Fill 2-4 loaf pans ¾ up with the meat. 

Melt the husblas/gelatin in the soup and pour it over the meat. Cover the loaf pans and let them rest for about 24 hours in the refrigerator before slicing. 

Eat the head cheese on Danish rye bread topped with mustard and pickled beets.

Enjoy!

Homemade Mozart balls - Mozartkugler

Homemade Mozart balls - Mozartkugler

5th Day of Christmas.

Mozart balls or Mozartkugler is a small, round confection made of marzipan, nougat and dark chocolate, named after the famous musician and composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Normally the marzipan will be made of pistachios, but here I use regular almond marzipan, just adding chopped pistachios, for taste and crunch. 

These Mozart balls has been a family favorite for years.

Makes 15-18

Ingredients:

200 g marzipan

100 g soft hazelnut-chocolate (blød nougat)

20 g raw pistachios

150 g dark chocolate, I use Valrhona

Directions:

Chop up the pistachios very finely. Put in a bowl and set aside.

Dice up the hazelnut-chocolate into ⅓ inch (1 cm) cubes. Roll the cubes in the pistachios. Cover the cubes in marzipan. 

Temper the chocolate, and dip the balls in the chocolate. Place on a piece of parchment paper for the chocolate to set.

Store chocolates in an air tight container in the refrigerator. They will keep for a few weeks in the refrigerator.