Gingerbread Reindeers

One of the thing I remember from baking Christmas cookies with my mom, were making gingerbread men, women or pretty much all kinds of shapes. And the part where we got to decorate them with colorful icing. But I never thought to be this creative, turning the gingerbread man upside down, making a reindeer.

Makes a lot.

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

Decorating:

• 150 g confectionary (powdered) sugar

• 1 egg white

• a spinkle og cream of tartar

• food coloring

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 gingerbread men and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Bake the cookies for about 5 minutes, and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Royal Icing: 

Put all the ingredients in the bowl of the stand mixer. Whip the icing for 2 minutes, until it has an uniform consistency and is crisp white color. It starts off with a grayish hue.

Decoration:

Decorate the gingerbread men upside down like a reindeer with brown and white icing, red mini m&m's for the nose.

Medisterpølse - Danish Pork Sausage

Fried Medisterpølse - Danish Pork Sausage

Happy First Friday in December. I better start upping my game. Normally I get stuff ready for the blog for December. But this year have been different. Somehow the holidays sneaked up on me - again. But this time we have guest staying here for the past few weeks. So yet again I’m late to the Christmas preparations. But I will be posting christmasy stuff as I get to it.This medisterpølse have been on my blog - to-do list for the longest time. So with this happy December from me to you. 🎄

Medisterpølse/julemedister/christmas medister or Danish pork sausage is something I had very often for weeknight dinners. I was easy to make, and its was on the cheaper end of meats. During November and December the sausage get another seasoning, adding cloves making it more christmasy. This is what I was aiming for here, and I think I’ve succeeded.

Christmas medister is served warm on an open-faced sandwich with pickled red cabbage on Danish rye bread at Danish Christmas luncheons.

Making sausages is a labor entensive process, but the final product is well worth it. Another pro is that you know what's in the sausage.

Makes 3-4 medisterpølser.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg (2¼ pound) pork (could be a cheaper cut like shoulder)

• 200 g (½ pound) fatty pork belly

• 1 onion

• 1¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cloves

• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 2 teaspoons ground allspice

• ½-1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

• 3 tablespoons potato starch

• 2 egg whites

• about 300 ml chicken stock, ice cold

• 2-3 meter (yards) sausage casing.

Directions:

Make sure that all your ingredients are cold.

Cut meat, pork belly and onion in pieces that can go into the meat grinder. Grind it all 2 time on the corse setting. Add all the spices, potato starch and egg whites and mix it well. Start adding the cold chicken stock a little at a time. You want the mixture to be soft but by no means runny.  Put the mixture into the refrigerator to rest for 30-40 minutes. 

Rinse the casings in plenty of cold running water. Let tap water run through the casing. This way you’ll fine any holes in the casing. 

Take a little dollop of the mixture and fry it on a small skillet, and tast it, when its cooked completely. This way you can taste the mixture, without tasting the raw meat. Season the mixture with salt, pepper and other spices.

Use a sausage filler to fill up the casing. There are many different model on the marked, but follow the instructions for the one you have. 

But here is some general TIPS:

• Use nozzle that fits your casings. 

• Wet the tip of the nozzle with a tiny amount of meat mixture, this will help you getting the casing onto the nozzle. 

• Put all the casing onto the nozzle

• let the casing sit close to the tip, this will ease your sausage making.

• Do NOT tie a knot on the casing, this will just trap a lot of air.

• Gently pull and squeeze the casing while filling it with the meat mixture.

• Do NOT fill the casing too much, you are aiming for a soft sausage, the mixture will expand when heated.

Traditionally medisterpølse is made as one big sausage, but of course you can make smaller sausage links. Let the sausage rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator before cooking.

Raw Merdisterpølse - Danish Pork Sausage

How to cook a medisterpølse? This is a matter og taste or believes. Some would boil or lite simmer the sausage for about 10 minutes before pan-frying it. My mom never did that. She pan-fried it directly, and it worked just fine. The casing rarely split open.

I pan-fried it directly in butter on medium heat for 15-18 minutes until fully cooked, turnip the sausage a few times.

Another option is to put some water and butter in the pan, and place the raw sausage in the pan and then heat the whole thing up. Turning the sausage ones before the water evaporate, and the frying starts. This way you are pre-boiling and frying the sausage in 1 step, and no need for additional pots and pans.

Serve medisterpølse/pork sausage with boiled potatoes, pickled red cabbage and maybe even some pan-gravy. (Pan-gravy is made in the pan where you cooked the sausage, by adding some stock (water used to boil potatoes) and some milk/cream, then thickend, seasoned and colored with gravy browning).

Enjoy!

Mrs. Hobbs's Italian Rosemary Cookies

Italian Rosemary Cookies

These cookies are to die for!!!

How my friend and the whole world kept this recipe away from me, for so many years, it’s beyond my understanding.

If you only are baking one cookie this year, make it this one!

Makes 60-70.

Ingredients:

• 250 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 400 g sugar

• 2 eggs

• 30 g raw pistachios, finely chopped

• 10 g (3 tablespoons) fresh rosemary leaves, finely chopped

• 450 g all-purpose flour

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 3 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 orange, the zest

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add 1 egg at a time, making sure it’s fully incorporated, befor adding the next. Mix in orange zest, rosemary, and pistachios. Sift flour, sant and baking powder and incorporate it in the dough.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces. Roll each part into a log (2 inch in diameter), wrap in Glad wrap, shape the log into a square, by pressing the log onto the kitchen counter. Refrigerate overnight. Try to make a smooth surface to get an even look on the finished cookies. Well, the dough were very soft, so I didn’t get the smooth surface on my logs. 🙃

Cut the logs into thin cookies and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spacing about 1-inch apart. Bake until golden around the edges, about 5-7 minutes at 350°F. Cool cookies on the pan on wire racks. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Enjoy!

Beetroot Gravad Lax

Thanksgiving and December really sneaked up un me this year. As many others in California, we were living in unhealthy air due to the big wild fires. We tried to escape to the Sierras, and this threw my schedule way off. But now, over halfway to Christmas, I’am getting back into the game.
We are going to the annual Danish Christmas lunch, and I alway make gravlax. This year I decided to make 2 different versions, the regular and a pretty red beetroot and gin version.

The pretty pink gravlax is delicious too. I serve it with a dill and creme fraiche sauce.

Ingredients:

• 800 g side of salmon, skin on, scaled, pin-boned, from sustainable sources

Beet cure:

• 200 g raw beets (2 beets)

• 2 lemons, the zest of

• 100 g coarse sea salt 

• 50 g sugar 

• 50 ml gin (I used Hendricks)

Herb cure:

• 1 big bunch of fresh dill, finely chopped

• 6 sprigs, tarragon, the leaves, finely chopped

• 50 g fresh grated horseradish 

• 50 ml gin (I used Hendricks)

Directions:

In a food processor or mini chopper, blitz together the beets , gin, and lemon zest until they become a smooth paste. Transfer the beet mixture to a small bowl and mix in the rock salt, and sugar.

Rub a little mixture on to the salmon skin, then place the salmon, skin side down, in a large zip lock bag in a dish or baking tray. Pat the remaining mixture all over it so that the salmon is completely covered. Remove as much of the air from the zip lock bag as possible. Pace a little cutting board on top of the salmon, and place some weight on top to have an even pressure on it. Place in the fridge for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, gently unwrap the salmon and remove the beet mixture. Gently splash the salmon with a bit of water to rinse off any remaining cure and rinse the dish too.

Mix together the herb cure ingredients in a small bowl, place the salmon (skin side down) in a new zip lock bag in the dish. Cover the salmon evenly with the herb cure. Remove air and put the weight on back onto the salmon. Refrigerate for another 24 hours.

The next day, your cured salmon will be ready to enjoy. The herb mixture does not need to be rinsed off- just thinly slice the salmon and serve it as an open faced sandwich, with a creme fraiche (or sour cream) with dill.

Enjoy!

Pretzel Turtles

Pretzel Turtles

Theses turtles have become a part of my Danish Christmas celebration here in America. My sweet sweet neighbor gave me a tin of these every Christmas. I do not think Christmas woulds be the same without Pretzel turtles. Last year I was so recklees to move away from my sweet neighbors, and not only do I have to miss them, but I also have to miss out on this special Christmas Treat.  Now I had to learn to make them by my self. My version is with pecans only. They are nearly as good, they just need the sprinkle of Bobbie magic. Love you Bobbie. 

Makes 48 heavenly mouthfuls.

Ingredients:

• 48 rolo candies (2x5.3 oz bags)
• 48 mini pretzels
• 48 pecan halves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 300℉ (150℃)  degrees. Line an 18 by 13-inch baking sheet with parchment paper. Lay pretzels in a single layer on baking sheet then place one Rolo candy in the center of each pretzel. Warm in preheated oven just until chocolate and caramel have softened, about 4 minutes. Remove from oven then press 1 pecan into each rolo candy. Transfer baking sheet to refrigerator and chill until chocolate has set. Store in an airtight container at room temperature (preferably in a single layer - the chocolate softens up just a little at room temperature).

Enjoy!