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

Havregrynskugler - Oat "truffles" with Marzipan and Cognac

Oat "truffles" with Marzipan and Cognac

Just another version of Havregrynskugler aka oat truffles.

Ingredients:

• 180 g oat
• 75 g butter
• 75 g sugar
• 10 g unsweetened cocoa (I use Valrhona)
• 1 tablespoon espresso, cold
• 100 g marzipan (almond paste)
• 2 tablespoons cognac

Directions:

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment mix butter, oats, sugar, cocoa, marzipan, coffee and cognac until you have a uniform texture. Add more cognac if needed.

Form small bite-size ball of the dough in your hands, and roll them in multicolored sprinkles.

Store the truffles in an airtight tin in the refrigerator.

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peel

Chocolate Covered Candied Orange Peel

December 23. - Making the last of my planed christmas treats. I don't know if I or the treats got covered the most in chocolate.

There is something about the combination of orange and chocolate, the flavors compliments each other perfectly. I alway buy chocolate covered orange peel at christmas time, and they are not cheap, by any means. So when I learned how make these at a Valrhona chocolate workshop at Sur la Table, I was very happy. I think you would like this recipe, so you can save some money making your own. It's actually really simple, but it takes some time, because you have to cook the peels 3 times to get rid of the bitterness. 

This is the recipe I got from my cooking class.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 large navel oranges

• 1,5 cups sugar

• ⅓ cup (180ml) orange flavored liqueur, Cointreau or Grand Marnier

• 1 cup sugar (to coat the cooked orange peels)

• 340 g Bittersweet chocolate (like Valrhona 61%)

Directions:

Cut of the top and bottom of the oranges and discard. Cut the oranges into quarters and remove all but the but 1/2-inch of flesh, which will assist in removing the bitterness of the  peel during the cooking process. Cut the quarters into 1/4- inch wide matchstick strips.

Place the orange slices in a medium saucepan, cover with cold water and place on the stove over a medium-high heat. Bring the water to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Using a strainer, remove the water and repeat the process with fresh water two more times.

After the third boil, drain and rinse the cooked orange peel under cold water and remove any pulp that is attached to the peel.

Return the orange slices to the pan with 1-1/2 cups of sugar and the liqueur and place on the stove over a low heat to cook, stirring constantly, until the sugar is dissolved, about 4 minutes.

Continue to cook on low heat until the sugar is absorbed by the peel, about 1 hour. While the peel is cooking, spread the remaining sugar evenly on a rimmed baking sheet. Remove the saucepan from the stove and immediately roll the orange peel strips in the sugar, separating the slices to coat them completely. Transfer the slices onto a sheet of parchment paper and then let them air-dry, about 20 minutes.

To dip orange peel with chocolate: Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Melt and temper the chocolate over a double-boiler.

Dip a slice of the candied orange peel into the chocolate, half-way or completely, thoroughly coating it. With a fork or a dipper, remove the slice from the chocolate, gently shake off the excess chocolate, and turn the slice out onto the paper. Repeat with the remaining slices. Let the chocolate dipped orange peel set up at room temperature, or chill in the refrigerator, about 15 minutes.

Cherry sauce - kirsebærsauce

Cherry sauce - kirsebærsauce

This cherry sauce can be used on ice or puddings, but I always make this for my christmas dessert, risalamande. 

Growing up my parents had a cherry tree in their yard. Every year, my mom would preserve cherries to use for Christmas. The best part of my moms preserved cherries was the small nuts from inside the cherry-stone. After being preserved, the tasted like almonds, so yummy.

When I turned 9, my parents decided to move, and in their new yard, there were no cherry tree. And this was the end of homemade preserved cherries in my family. Now we had to eat store bought cherry sauce, like most other danes. 

Moving to the US, gave me a challenge with the cherry sauce, but one of my Danish friends, who moved to the US 4-5 years earlier than me, had the answer. You make your own cherry sauce from caned cherries. 

This is Mrs. Olsen's recipe for cherry sauce - well I might have tweaked it a bit, but the credits goes to Mrs Olsen. 

Ingredients:

• 1 can pitted cherries in heavy syrup
• 1 cup (250 ml) concentrated cherry juice
• 2-3 tablespoons sugar
• ½ lemon, the juice from
• cornstarch
• water

Directions:

Heat the cherries, cherry juice and sugar in a saucepan, bring it to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch in cold water. Thicken the sauce with the cornstarch. Add lemon juice and sugar to taste. A spash of cherry liqueur only makes the sauce better.

Serve this sauce with ice cream, puddings or on risalamande.