Pleated Christmas Heart Cookies

Pleated Christmas heart cookies

The pleaded or weaved heart is quintessential Christmas for Danes. The pleaded Christmas heart is said to contributed to the Danish Storyteller H.C. Andersen. The oldest known heart is kept at The H.C. Andersen Museum in Odense. As a child we learned to make pleaded Christmas hearts, and we placed them on the Christmas tree. Last year I saw someone make cookies like the pleaded hearts, I knew I wanted to make some. I took offset in the checkerboard cookies, and replacing the cocoa with food coloring.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 340 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 200 g confectionary sugar (powder sugar)

• 90 g almonds, bleached and grounded

• 2 egg yolk

• 2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 500 g all-purpose flour

• Red food gel coloring, for the red part of the dough

DIRECTIONS:

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 yolks, vanilla and flour, and mix until just blended. Be careful not to over mix the dough. Remove half of the dough, and mix the other half with red food coloring, until you get a bright red. I used Christmas red Wilton gel color, and I had to use most of the little jar, to get the right color. Wrap the doughs in plastic film and places dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, so the butter firms up, making it easier top work with.

Divide each color in 2, rolling one half into a log with a 1-inch (3 cm) diameter. The other half form it into flat squares. Cover the log and square in plastic wrap, and put it back in the refrigerator. Roll each flat square of the dough out between 2 pieces of parchment paper, to a little under ⅓-inch (9 mm) thickness. Place the dough on a baking sheet, and place it back in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

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) wide. Place the dough strips in the refrigerator, while repeating the other dough.

Remove dough strips from the refrigerator. Lay a strip of the white dough lengthwise on the baking sheet, then lay a strip of red dough next to the white, another strip of white and finally another red, 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 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 red dough and white dough alternates and you have  4x4 colors per log.

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

Take out the round logs, an cut them in half lengthwise. Firmly press 1 red and 1 white half log on top of the 4x4 colored logs. Placing them on to sides next to each other. Now you have a pleated hearty, when you cut the log in slices.

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 hearts about ½-inch (1 cm) apart on the baking sheet and bake for about 7-8 minutes, until the withe parts are very 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!

Fedtebrød - Danish Coconut Shortbread

Fedtebrød - Danish Coconut Shortbread.

These coconut shortbreads are one of the easiest cookies to make. But it doesn’t mean that they lack flavor or delicacy. They have a short snap, and almost melts in your mouth. The icing is originally with rum (I used rum extract for more flavor), but you can use lemon juice and lemon zest for a more bright flavor.

Makes about 40.

Ingredients:

• 200 g all-purpose flour

• 200 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g shredded coconut, unsweetened

• 100 g sugar

• ¾ teaspoon bakers ammonia (hjortetaksalt)

Icing:

• 150 g confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• 1-2 tablespoons rum (or a few drops rum extract)

• Egg white, pasteurized

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).

In a stand mixer, mix all the ingredients together, don’t overwork the dough, you just want it to come together.

Divide the dough into 6 even parts, and roll each part into thumb size logs. Place 3 logs on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, using the palm og your hand pat the dough flat, so it will be about 1.5-inch (4 cm) wide.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until they are light golden. While the cookies are baking make the icing, placing a damp towel over the bowl, to prevent the icing from drying.

Transfer the warm baked cookies to a cutting board, and ice the cookies, in one thick line in the middle of the cookie. With a sharp knife cut the cookie on diagonally, about 1-inch (2½ cm) wide. Let the cookies cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

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.

Danish Shortbread Sticks

December 3th

This is a take on the traditional Danish Shortbread or Finskbrød as they are called. I really like the addition of the lemon zest, and the more modern look. Normally Danes do not like changes to their traditional food and cookies. 'It has to be exactly like my mom made it' - but some changes are for the better, like this one.

Inspired by a Blomsterberg recipe.

Makes 30.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 200 g butter, salted, room temperature

• ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 60 confectionary (powdered) sugar

• 1 lemon, the zest of

• 275 g all-purpose flour

Topping:

• 1 egg,

• coarse raw cane sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃)

Mix all the ingredients until it forms a dough, be careful not to overwork the dough. Wrap the dough in plastic film, and let it rest for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a 6 x 12-inch (15 x 30 cm) rectangle. Transfer the cookies to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, set aside. Beat the egg, and brush a thin even layer on the dough. Sprinkle with a good amount of raw cane sugar. Gently press the sugar into the dough with the rolling pin. Put the dough into the refrigerator to chill for about 10 minutes. Cut the dough in half so you now have 2 squares 6x6-inches (15x15 cm) each. Cut each square in 14-15 long thin logs, 

Bake for 7-10 minutes, until light golden brown. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

American cookies are soft and chewy...... but I like them more on the crispy side. So I bake my cookies on lower heat, and maybe a little longer than normally. Resulting in a thinner and crispier cookie, just the way I like them.

I hope you will like these cookies too. 

Makes 12-15 cookies 

Ingredients:

• 113 g (1 stick) butter, salted and room temperature 
• 175 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla, I use vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt (fine)
• 125 g all-purpose flour
• 50-100 g semisweet chocolate chips (I tend to like less chips in my cookies, than most people)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 370℉ 8190℃). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 3-inches apart. I use a ice cream scooper. Bake the cookies until brown around the edges, about 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wirerack to cool. Repeat with the rest of the dough. 

ice cream sandwich

If you do not need all the cookies at once. You can scoop the dough on to a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze them. Place the frozen cookie dough in a freezer bag. Bake the cookies directly from the freezer, when you need them. Just add a couple of minuts to the baking time. 

You can use your fresh baked and cooled cookies to make ice cream sandwiches with your favorite ice cream. 

Enjoy!