Christmas cookies 2013 a recap

December 10th.

Last year I made some of my family favorite christmas cookies, and I want to revisit them with this recap.

Vanilla wreaths aka valillekranse a crisp, sweet and buttery cookie with a lot of real vanilla.

Almond specier aka Håkonskager s sweet cookie with almond paste.

Chocolate biscotti, spicy chocolate cookie. 

Danish gingerbread cookies aka brunkager. A perfectly crisp cookie containing nuts.

Peppermint Marshmallows

Peppermint Marshmallows

December 9th.

These peppermint marshmallows are a great little treat or dessert. But I think they would be perfect on a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day. You can also make them as gifts for the hostess at the next holiday party, you're going to. The marshmallows  look really festive and who would not like to get a homemade gift made with love?

Ingredients:

• 120 ml water

• 21 g (3 envelopes) gelatin

• 120 ml water

• 400 g sugar

• 240 g light corn syrup

• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract

• pink food coloring

Decorating:

• Melted dark chocolate

• 1-3 candy canes, crushed

Directions:

Grease bottom and sides of 11x7-inch glass baking dish with coconut oil. Dust it with sifted confectionary sugar, and set aside. 

In the bowl for the stand mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 120 ml cold water and let it sit to bloom/soften.

In a saucepan heat granulated sugar, corn syrup, salt and 120 ml water over low heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved. Heat to boiling, and cook without stirring until the temperature reaches  240°F (115℃) on a candy thermometer. Remove from heat.

Start whisking the softened gelatin on low, and slowly pour in the syrup. Increase speed to high, and keep whisking for about 10 minutes until white and almost tripled in volume. Add peppermint extract and food coloring and keep whisking on high for another minute. 

Pour the sticky mixture into the prepared baking dish, patting lightly with wet hands. Sprinkle a thick layer of sifted confectionary sugar on top, and let stand uncovered for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Dust a cutting board with about 1 tablespoon sifted confectionary sugar. Place remaining powdered sugar in small bowl. Place the big marshmallow on the cutting board and using a pizza slicer cut the marshmallow into the desired size, or use small cookie cutters to cut marshmallows into fun shapes. Dust the freshly cut sides of each marshmallow by dipping them into bowl of confectionary sugar. 

Store marshmallows in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 weeks.

I dipped the marshmallows in melted chocolate an sprinkled with crushed candy cane.

Christmas Liver Pâté

Christmas Liver Pâté

December 8th.

Liver pâté is a big part of the Danish Christmas celebration, especially for the christmas lunches. Most workplaces throw a Julefrokost, aka christmas lunch. It might not be during normal lunch hour, but more likely a big party at night including food and a lot of beer and snaps. I've been to large events, with stand-up comedians and live music. At a traditional julefrokost/christmas lunch one of the dishes will most likely be warm liver pâté with crispy bacon and sautéed mushrooms.

I gave my other liver pâté recipe a makeover. I wanted a smoother texture and I wanted to eliminate the pork fat. I really like how this turned out. This one will definitely be my go-to recipe. It's simpler to make and the favor is spot on.

Makes 5-6 small or 3 big loafs.

Ingredients:

• 600 g calf liver

• 170 g onion

• 90 g button mushrooms

• 240 g bacon

• 250 g butter, melted

• 200 ml heavy whipping cream

• 75 g all-purpose flour (use rice flour for a gluten free version)

• 2 eggs

• 30 g anchovy paste

• ½ teaspoon beef better than bouillon paste

• 2 teaspoons salt

• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon all-spice

• 1 teaspoon paprika

Directions:

Using a meat grinder at the finest setting, pass the liver, bacon onions and mushrooms through the meat grinder twice.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan. When melted take off the heat. Add the cream to cool it down. 

Mix all the ingredients together. Pour mixture into 5-6 small aluminum baking pans and top each with a small piece of bacon. (I wasn’t able to find the small pans, so I used a bigger size, and ended up with 3 pates. 

Bake the liver pâtés in a water bath at 360℉ (180℃) for about an hour. I preheat the oven, and place a slightly larger baking pan in the oven. Place the liver pâté on the baking pan and add some boiling water to the pan.

Let the liver pâté cool somewhat before eating. But warm liver pâté taste really good served hot with bacon and sautéed mushrooms.  

Enjoy!

You can freeze the uncooked pâtés and bake them, when needed. 

Other recipes for the christmas lunch:
Curry Salad for the pickled herrings.
Pickled beets for the liver pâté and frikadeller.
Danish Rye Bread
Pork roast 
Pickled red cabbage 

Jødekager, Jewish Cookies

Jødekager, Jewish Cookies

December 7th.

Jødekager, aka Jewish cookies, is another classic Danish christmas cookie. It might seem weird that jødekager is a christmas cookie, but this type of cookies you would find at the jewish bakers in the 1700's in Denmark. 

Jødekager has always been a family favorite, and I can't see that changing.

Makes about 60 cookies

Ingredients:

• 325 g all-purpose flour
• 250 g butter
• 175 g sugar
• 2 egg yolks

Topping:

• 1 egg white
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon 
• 30-40 blanched almonds

Directions:

Mix flour and butter. I use a pastry cutter to incorporate the butter in the flour mixture. Mix until the butter/flour mixture resembles wet sand. Mix in sugar and egg yolks. Be careful not to overwork the dough. 

Let the dough cool for 30-45 minutes before rolling it out on a floured surface. It needs to be about 0.1-0.2-inch (3-5 mm) thick. Cut out the cookies with a 2-inch cookie cutter, and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Brusk each cookie with egg white, and sprinkle with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Place a half almond on top.

Bake the cakes for 5-7 minuters until the edges gets light golden in color.

Cool the cookies on a wire rack and store them in an airtight container at room temperature.

Enjoy!

Bounty Christmas Trees

Bounty Christmas Trees

December 6th

These cute christmas trees is a no bake sweet. They are really easy to make, you just have to have some patience because there's some waiting time for the drying.

Ingredients:

• 300 g shredded coconut

• 200 g sweetened condensed milk

Decorating:

• Dark chocolate

• Coconut oil

• Shredded coconut

• Green fruit coloring

Directions:

Mix the condensed milk with the coconut, until you have a cohesive mass. Place the coconut in a baking pan lined with parchment paper. And press it to an even layer about ¾ inch (2 cm) thick. 

Cover the pan with som plastic wrap, and let it sit to dry for 4 hours or over night. Remove from pan and cut into small pointed triangles, see picture. 

Let the triangles dry for a bit. 

Add the additional coconut to a plastic tub (use an old one or a cheep one) pour some drops of food color into the coconut, and shake to color the coconut.  

Melt chocolate and coconut oil in an double boiler. You should temper the chocolate for a better result. 

Dip the triangles in the melted chocolate and sprinkle with the green coconut. 

Enjoy!