Kransekage with Liquorice

Kransekage with Liquorice

With all the liquorice I've been using, I had to try liquorice in the kransekage

Kransekage: 

• 50 g almonds blanched
• 100 g sugar
• 1 egg white
• 250 g marzipan (I used Ren Rå, a 60% almond paste)
• 15-25 g marzipan with liquorice from Lakrids by Johan Bülow

Icing:

• white chocolate
• a sprinkle raw liquorice powder

Directions:

Put almonds and sugar into food processor with the steel blade in place and process until finely pulverized. Add the egg whites and process until smooth. Be careful not to heat the mass to more than 95 - 104°F, else the egg white will cook. 

Shred the marzipan and add it and the almond/egg white mixture to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat it until it's completely smooth and free of lumps. Form the dough into a ball, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven for 375℉ (190℃).

Roll the dough into logs as thick as your finger, and cut into 3 inch long pieces. Cut about 1 inch of each the pieces. Roll the 2 inch piece thinner, and flatten the log, and form a little slit where you put some marzipan with liquorice. Top the piece of with the rest of the dough you cut of.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden.  Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Kransekage with orange zest or chocolate

Kransekage with orange zest and chocolate

When I make kransekage for New Year's Eve, I always make small pieces with different flavor profiles. The classic with the danish nougat, a soft chocolate made with hazelnuts. Another flavor profile I really love is with orange zest.

Kransekage: 

• 50 g almonds blanched

• 100 g sugar

• 1 egg white

• 250 g marzipan (I used Ren Rå, a 60% almond paste)

• zest of 1 orange or

• 15 g nougat (the golden package on the photo)

Icing:

• confectionary sugar

• water

Directions:

Put almonds and sugar into food processor with the steel blade in place and process until finely pulverized. Add the egg whites and process until smooth. Be careful not to heat the mass to more than 95 - 104°F, else the egg white will cook. 

Shred the marzipan and add it and the almond/egg white mixture to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat it until it's completely smooth and free of lumps. Form the dough into a ball, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven for 375℉ (190℃).

If you make the one with orange zest, add it when you mix the batter.

Roll the dough into logs as thick as your finger, and cut into 3 inch long pieces. Press the top part, making a top. 

For the ones with nougat, cut about 1 inch of the pieces. Roll the 2 inch thinner, and flatten the log, and form a little slit where you put some of the nougat. Top the piece of with the rest of the dough you cut of.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden.  Allow to cool completely before icing them.

Kransekage - Danish Almond Cake

Kransekage

Kransekage is a traditional cake served at New Year's Eve at midnight with champagne, at weddings (back in the days) or at special occasions. I like kransekage with a  sweet champagne, because the sweetness of the cake makes the champagne very sour. Served with coffee it is actually perfect, but not very festive. 

Kransekage is made from Marzipan, an almonds paste, sugar, almonds and egg whites. 

Kransekage: 

• 100 g almonds blanched or ¾ cup slivered almonds

• 200 g (1 cup) sugar

• 2 egg whites

• 500 g marzipan (I used Ren Rå, a 60% almond paste)

Icing:

• confectionary sugar

• water

Directions:

Put almonds and sugar into food processor with the steel blade in place and process until finely pulverized. Add the egg whites and process until smooth. Be careful not to heat the mass to more than 95 - 104°F, else the egg white will cook. 

Shred the marzipan and add it and the almond/egg white mixture to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat it until it's completely smooth and free of lumps. Form the dough into a ball, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven for 375℉ (190℃).

Divide dough in 4. Roll each part into a 45 cm (18 inch) long sausage. Wet your fingers with a little water and gently press each log into a rounded triangle, continue to wet fingers as needed but careful not to get dough too wet.

For a kransekage top you'll need these lengths: 

The process

• 7 cm (2 3/4 inches) to make the top ball.

• 8 cm (3 1/6 inches)

• 12 cm (4 3/4 inches)

• 16 cm (6 1/3 inches)

• 20 cm (7 7/8 inches)

• 24 cm (9 1/2 inches)

• 28 cm (11 inches)

• 32 cm (12 2/3 inches)

Form the rings on a baking sheet lines with parchment paper.  Level the top of the rings by putting a baking sheet on top. Don't press to hard.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until golden.  Allow to cool completely.

Put the icing on the baked rings. Start with the biggest. Make sure to put the next on top of it before the icing is dried. Or glue the rings together with small dots of icing.

Decorate the kransekage with flags and confetti. 

Notes: 

You can use tempered chocolate instead of the icing.  

Edit.

This year, I weighed opted for another approach.
Making a 10 tiered top, I used 4 X 165g of the dough and rolled then into 4 x45 cm logs. + 1 x 81 g for  one 22 cm log.

The logs were then cut into these lengths:

• 8 cm

• 10½ cm

• 13 cm

• 15½ cm

• 18 cm

• 20½ cm

• 23 cm

• 25½ cm

• 28 cm

• 30½ cm

Lamb chops sous vide

Lamb chops sous vide

I got a new gadget for the kitchen this christmas. I got an Anova sous vide Immersion circulator. It's the nerdiest gadget to date. I almost feel like I'm back at the lab growing cells or making analysis.

Sous vide is cooking in a water bath at exact controlled temperatures. You put the ingredients in a vacuum sealed bag and cook it at the temperature you want your ingredient to end up with, but you have to take food safety in to consideration. If you want a medium rare steak (131℉ or 55℃) you cook your steak at 131℉ or 55℃ for a certain amount of time. The time seems to be some kind of trial and error. But I’m not the first to have this type of equipment in my home, so there’s a lot of websites recommending time and temperature for different ingredients.

These lamb chops was tender and moist, and by far one of the best I have ever had. Next time, I would remove more of the fat, no other changes.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 rack of lamb, cut up to 4 chops

• 2 sprigs of rosemary,

• 2 cloves of garlic

• 1 tablespoon butter

• salt and pepper

Directions:

Wash you hands very thoroughly. 

Pour boiling water over the rosemary. Cut the rack of lamb into 4 chops. Season the chops with salt and pepper. Place some rosemary leaves on each chop and a few slices of garlic. Place two chops in each vacuum bag and place some butter, rosemary and garlic slices on the other side of the chop. Vacuum seal the bags and submerge them in the 130℉ (54.5℃) water bath to cook for 2 hours.

After the 2 hours take the vacuum bags out of the water and remove the lamb chops from the bags. Sear the chops on a scalding hot pan, about a minute on each side.

Enjoy.

Liquorice, Lemon and White Chocolate Cookies

Liquorice, Lemon and White Chocolate Cookies

I have a thing with liquorice, I can have cravings for liquorice. I know it's a scandinavian thing, but I'm trying to introduce real liquorice for my American friends. The red "liquorice" with raspberry flavor has nothing to do with liquorice, none what so ever. 

I just bought the book Lakrids i Maden by Johan Bülow, and it was very inspiring. I want to try every recipe. I like the twists Johan Bülow gives to classic recipes like caramelized potatoes by adding liquorice.

I had to try make cookies with liquorice, but I wanted another flavoring than the one in Lakrids i Maden. Liquorice and white chocolate is a match made in heaven, and adding lemon into the mix, makes the flavor go to a whole other level.

This Is my take on a cookie with liquorice.

Ingredients:

• 200 g butter, salted
• 200 g sugar
• 75 g brown sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla paste
• 1 teaspoon fine liquorice powder (Bülow Fine Liquorice Powder)
• 200 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g white chocolate (a good one like Valrhona)
• 50 g sweet liquorice (like Bülows No. 1)
• 1 lemon, the zest of
• 75 g almonds, blanched and ground to a course flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Heat oven to 365℉.

Blanch the almonds, and ground them 

Mix together the flour, liquorice powder and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Combine the egg, milk, and vanilla and bring to room temperature in another bowl.

Cream the butter in a stand mixer, starting on low speed to soften the butter. Add the sugars. Increase the speed, and cream the mixture until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture slowly, and  mix until well combined.

Slowly add the flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl until thoroughly combined. Stir in the chocolate, liquorice and lemon zest. Scoop onto parchment-lined baking sheets, 6 cookies per sheet. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, checking the cookies after 5 minutes. Rotate the baking sheet for more even browning.

Remove the cookies from the pans immediately. Once cooled, store in an airtight container.