Gingerbread Ice Cream

Gingerbread Ice Cream

December 19th.

My aunt is known for her homemade ice cream. Every year she will serve ice cream for dessert at her christmas dinner. This is not the traditional Christmas dessert in Denmark, but there is nothing wrong with being a little rebellious. This gingerbread ice cream could be a new addition to my aunts ice cream repertoire, it screams christmas. You can serve it with a swirl of gingerbread cookies or as a gingerbread affogato. 

Makes a small pint.

Ingredients:

• 120 ml milk

• 240 ml heavy whipping cream

• 25 g sugar

• 50 g brown sugar

• 50 g dark syrup or molasses

• 1 pinch salt

• ¼ teaspoon vanilla paste

• ½ teaspoon cinnamon

• ⅛ teaspoon cloves

• ⅛ teaspoon allspice

• 2 pinches ginger

• 4 egg yolks

Directions:

Making the custard:

Pour the cream into a metal bowl placed in a larger bowl of ice, set aside.

Warm milk, sugars, syrup, spices and salt in a medium saucepan. Make sure the sugar and salt is dissolved completely.

In another bowl, whisk egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, while whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan, and heat the mixture over medium heat, until it thickens. Stir constantly in this process and make sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan. 

Pour the egg/milk mixture through a sieve into the cold cream. Cool the custard in refrigerator until ice is cold. 

Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and freeze it according to manufacturers instructions. Add the cookie pieces when the ice cream is ready to scoop out, and let them get mixed in. Scoop the ice cream into a freezer safe container, and freeze overnight before serving.  

Enjoy!

Æbleflæsk - Apple Pork

Æbleflæsk - Apple Pork

Æbleflæsk, or apple pork, is one of the oldest dishes in Denmark. It is rooted in the pre-industrial era, dated before 1860's. Back then, the diet consisted mostly of rye bread, smoked or salted pork, beer and more local ingredients like herring. 

Nowadays æbleflæsk is a lunch dish, mostly served at christmas time. As a child I didn't like it, but as I got older, I learned that the smoked, salty flavor from the bacon pairs perfectly with the sweet apples. 

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

• 500 g apples, peeled and cored
• 550 g thick sliced bacon, fried 
• apple cider
• sugar
• salt & pepper

Directions:

Peel and core the apples, and slice them up. Let them sit in some cider, to prevent the browning.

Fry the bacon in the oven or in a pan, until crisp, and it has rendered a lot of fat. 

Use some of the bacon fat to sauté the sliced apples, put the lid on, and steam the apples until tender. Season with sugar, salt and pepper. 

I like the apple to still have some texture, and not to be like an applesauce. 

Serve the steamed apples with the bacon on the side and a slice of good rye bread. 

Enjoy!

Royal Icing

The perfect icing for gluing and decorating gingerbread houses. 

Ingredients:

• 450 g (1 pound) confectionary sugar 
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3 egg whites

Directions:

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 of with a grayish hue.

Use icing to glue and decorate gingerbread houses.

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House

December 17 th.

Nothing says Christmas like a homemade gingerbread house.

Template for large gingerbreadhouse.

The recipe is from a Danish Weekly magazine

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

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 and large house and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. If you want other shapes than gingerbread houses, use cookie cutters to cut them out.

Bake the cookies for about 5 minutes for cookies, and 10-12 minutes for the larger pieces for the houses.

For houses with candy windows. Bake the house-parts for 5-7 minutes, remove from the oven and fill the windows with crushed Jolly Ranchers hard candy. Bake the house for another 5 minutes until it's baked and the candy is melted and filled out the window frame. Glue the house together with royal icing or hot melted sugar. And go crazy with the decorating.

For cookies - decorate your heart out with color and sprinkles.

The Danish version:

Peberkagehus

Skabelon til et stort peberkagehus.

Opskriften er fra: Familie Journal.

Ingredienser:

• 125 g smør

• 200 g mørk sirup

• 150 g brun farin

• 1 tsk stødt sort peber

• 1 tsk stødt ingefær

• 1 tsk stødt kardemomme

• 3 tsk stødt kanel

• ¼ tsk stødt allehånde

• ¼ tsk stødt nelliker

• 2 tsk natron

• 1 æg

• 500 g hvedemel

Fremgangsmåde:

Smelt smør, sirup og farin i en tykbundet gryde. Når det er smeltet, tag gryden af varmen, rør natron og krydderier i. Lad massen køle lidt af og kom den i en stor røreskål. Tilsæt æg og mel, og bland dejen indtil den er glat. Lad dejen hvile tildækket i køleskabet, i mindst 4 timer inden den rulles ud. 

Rul dejen ud til den er ca. 4-5 mm tyk. Skær både de små og store huse ud.

Dejen bages ved 180°C fra 5 minutter til 10-12 minutter - alt afhængig af om det er små kager eller større flader til peberkagehuse.

For huse med "glasvinduer" bages husdelen først 5-6 minutte, tag dem ud af ovnen og fyld vinduesrammen ud med knust bolche. Bag husdelen videre i 5 minutter, indtil bolchet er smeltet ud i vinduesrammen og kagen er gennembagt. Lim huset sammen med royal icing og dekorer som du lyster. 

Kager dekoreres med glasur og sprinkles.

Homemade Marzipan

Homemade Marzipan

Marzipan is a big part of all the sweets and confectionary made in Danish homes in the weeks up to christmas. Living abroad it is very hard to find marzipan not to mention good marzipan. 

Ingredients:

Mazipan:

• 200 g almond flour

• 3 small bitter almonds, the skin scraped of

• 35 g agave nectar (I used organic blue agave nectar)

• 50 g (2 tablespoons) syrup*

• 2-3 drops almond extract (optional)

*Syrup (makes more than needed in the recipe):

• 50 ml water

• 90 g sugar

• 70 g light corn syrup (glucose syrup)

Directions:

Syrup:

Heat water, sugar and corn syrup in a saucepan until the sugar is melted into a clear syrup. Let the syrup cool completely before using.

Marzipan:

Scrape the brown skin of the bitter almonds. Ground the almonds to a flour. I chopped it finely and grounded it in a pestle and mortar with a ¼ teaspoon sugar.

Mix almond flour, bitter almond, syrup, agave nectar and extract in a bowl and use your hands to knead it into a uniform paste. Form the paste into a log, and roll it up in plastic wrap. and let it rest in the refrigerator for 12-24 hours for the flavors to blend.

Use the marzipan for baking, snacking, to make confectionery or as base for cream puffs.

Enjoy!

I used some almond extract because the bitter almonds didn't give me enough flavor in all my test batches. I will stay in the marzipan-test-kitchen until next christmas.🎄