December 1st.

Mulled Cider - Krydret Varm Cider.

Somehow December always creeps up on me, somehow I get surprised that Christmas comes right after all the festivity at Thanksgiving. This Year I hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner, so my Christmas preparations was somewhat delayed. 

I do intend to post 12 christmasy posts, for the 12 Days of Christmas. It will be a mix of food, sweets, cakes and cookies. So please stay tuned.

I start with a re-post of a hot mulled cider, mostly because I'm down with a cold, and the best thing to drink are warm drinks. And I really love hot mulled cider. 

I have never had it in Denmark, but it should be a Christmas stable as the mulled wine is.

Hot mulled cider, this lovely drink was all new to me 6 years ago. I thought that mulled wine aka glögg/gløgg/glühwein was a German/scandinavian thing. And adding warm spices to a non-alcholic drink, that was new to me, I'm sad to say. 😳

First time I had it was at a William-Sonoma store, and boy they got me hooked on that stuff. I love this when when winter approaches, and you need at hot strong drink to keep you warm. 

It has become a tradition to make hot mulled cider when we are having ebelskiver the weeks up to christmas. And to bee honest, I have the cider simmering on my stove almost every day. This fills my house with the sweet smell of christmas and it makes me very happy. 

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts good apple cider 

• 1 orange, zest of half

• 2 sticks of cinnamon

• 5-10 whole cloves

• 5-10 whole allspice berries

• 1-2 star anis 

• 3 green cardamom capsules

You could also buy a mulling spice mix, but I prefer mixing my own.

Directions:

Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan and heat the cider to a simmer. Turn down the heat, and let the spices steep in the cider for 5-10 minutes. Reheat the cider. Pour the cider through a sift into cups and serve immediately.

The Danish Version:

Varm Krydret Cider

Ingredienser:

• 2 liter god æblecider 

• ½ appelsin, skallen fra

• 2 kanelstænger

• 5-10 hele nelliker

• 5-10 hele allehånde

• 1-2 stjerneanis 

• 3 grønne kardemomme

Fremgangsmåde:

Kom alle ingredienserne i en gryde og varm det op til kogepunktet. Skru ned for varmen og lad krydderierne trække i cideren i 5-10 minutter. Varm cideren op og si krydderierne fra. Server cideren med det samme.

Cranberry - Orange Sauce

Cranberry - Orange Sauce

I'm cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner this year, making my first turkey. Even though I have never roasted at turkey before, I do sometimes make cranberry sauce for the traditional Danish Christmas dinner. This is my favorite recipe:

Makes about 2 cups.

Ingredients:

• 1 orange, zest and juice

• 200 ml water

• 125 g sugar

• 340-350 g fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions:

Heat orange juice, orange zest, sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.

Stir in cranberries and bring it to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until sauce has  slightly thickened, about 5-10 minutes, and most of the berries have bust.

Let cool completely before serving.

Enjoy!

Skidne Æg - Eggs in Mustard Sauce

Skidne Æg - Eggs in Mustard Sauce

Eggs in mustard sauce is a classic old Danish easter lunch dish eaten Saturday before easter. In Denmark easter is two sets of two religious holidays. Skærtorsdag (Maundy Thursday), Langfredag (Good Friday), Påskedag (Easter Sunday) and 2. Påskedag (Easter Monday). In between the sets of religious holidays, is Saturday. This Saturday called skiden lørdag (dirty Saturday . because it was used to clean up from all the entertaining Thursday and Friday, and make the house presentable for more entertaining during the easter days.  So the Danes wanted an easy dish to serve on this busy day, and the dish eggs in mustard sauce was born, and got the weird name dirty eggs or skidne æg.

In my family we didn't have egg hunts or easter egg roll. We got easter eggs, and we had the first of the 3 big family lunches of the year. I loved these lunches, because it was here we saw all our cousins and extended family. And we alway went for a walk in the forest close to my aunts house, and we saw the first real signs of spring, with the small flowers under the trees.   

Serves 2.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 2 large tablespoons all-purpose flour

• about 2 cups milk

• 2-3 tablespoons mustard, I used haft a coarse mustard and half dijon

• salt & pepper to taste

Topping: 

• cress or peppergrass sprouts

Direction:

Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Carefully add the eggs and boil until a little more than soft boiled. I cooked my large eggs for 7 minutes.  Cooking time varies depending on egg size.

Cress or peppergrass sprouts.

Drain the water from the eggs, and pour cold water into the pot to stop the cooking. Peel the eggs and set aside.

While coking the eggs make the sauce. Melt the butter in a small pan, you don’t want the butter to brown. When the butter is melted add flour and a pinch of salt and whisk vigorously, making the flour absorbing all the butter. Add the milk a little of a time, while whisking, until you have the right consistency, like a béchamel sauce. Let the sauce cook for 1-2 minutes, this with remove the floury taste. Season the sauce with mustard, salt and pepper. You want to have a strong mustard taste, so use your favorite non-sweet mustard.

Add boiled eggs to a serving dish, and pour over the sauce and sprinkle with cress sprouts. Serve the eggs with a slice of toasted danish rye bread. 

Enjoy!

Marieboller - Fastelavnsboller

Marieboller or marie buns is a fastelavn bun filled with vanilla custard. Fastelavn buns can come in many shapes and sizes. Some are baked with remounce and custard, some are filled with a a cream custard like this marie bun.

Fastelavn is a similar tradition as the American Halloween if you add some kind of piñata in the form of  barrel.  Children get dressed up, and go a kinda trick and treating in the early afternoon. You can read more about the Danish fastelavns traditions here.

Ingredients:

Vanilla custard:

• 3 egg yolks

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 2,5 dl milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

• heavy whipping cream, whippe

Pastry (piecrust): 

• 150 g cold butter, salted

• 250 g all-purpose flour

• 75 g confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• 1 egg

Cream puff (choux dough):

• 300 ml water

• 150 g butter, salted

• 175 g all-purpose flour

• 1 pinch salt

• 1 pinch baking powder

• 4 eggs

Sprinkles:

• confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

Directions:

Vanilla custard:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale in color. Whisk in the cornstarch and vanilla paste.

Heat the milk to a slow boil, set aside. 

While whisking vigorously drizzle the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, just a tiny bit at a time at first. Once you’ve added about ¼ of the milk, you can add the rest in a thin steady stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and reheat it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it starts to boil and is thickened. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl.  Sprinkle with sugar or press some plastic wrap against the custard so it won't form a pudding skin. Chill the custard completely in the refrigerator.

When the custard is cold, whip the heavy whipping cream. Fold the whipped cream in the custard a little at a time till you get the desired taste and texture. 

Pastry (piecrust): 

Mix the butter in the flour and sugar in a stand mixer. Add the egg and mix just until the dough starts to lump together. Form the dough into a disc and wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest for about 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

Divide the dough in two, and roll each in a rectangle 8¼ x 11 inch (21x28 cm). Cut the rectangles into 12 squares each.

Cream puff (choux dough):

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put water and butter in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. In a bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt. When the butter is all melted add all the flour at once, and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat and keep stirring until a dough is formed and it pulls away from the sides of the pan and is slightly shiny. 

Keep beating the dough with the wooden spoon until slightly cooled, about 2 minutes.  

Beat all the eggs in a bowl. Add a little of the beaten eggs, incorporating it thoroughly before adding more. Add the egg in small amounts until you have a thick paste but not runny at all.

Scoop the 24 dough ball onto 2 parchment paper lined baking sheet. If you have small tips on the puffs anyway, dab the tops of each puff with a fingertip dipped in water to smoothen the tops.

Brush the cream puffs with some egg whites, and place one of the pastry squares on top, pressing the corners onto the parchment paper. 

Bake the puffs for 18-20 minutes, until they are puffed up and golden brown.

DO NOT open the oven while baking cream puffs, it will cause them to deflate.

Let the puffs cool on a wire rack.

Cut the buns in half and fill it with prepared vanilla custard. Sprinkle with confectionary sugar and serve with a nice cup of coffee or tea. 

Enjoy!

Soft Liquorice Caramels v.2

Soft Liquorice Caramels

Thank you for stopping by my blog during the past years. It has been a fun but busy year, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. 
Christmas Night and Christmas Day came and went so fast this year. I love having my family and friends around me. My wish for next year, is to be more relaxed and  enjoy the evening more.

I wanted to make these soft caramels and got inspired by a recipe on a Danish blog called Valdemarsro.

Happy holydays from my family to yours.

Makes 15-20 pieces. 

Ingredients:

• 50 g light corn syrup, or glucose
• 100 g sugar
• 200 ml heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon sweet liquorice syrup
• 1 tablespoon raw liquorice 

Directions:

Prepare a 9-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, and set aside.

Mix corn syrup, sugar and cream in a saucepan, and bring it to a boil, while stirring. Lower the heat and let it simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes. The caramel is done when the mixture pulls away from the saucepan, when stirring, and you can see a slight crystallization when you stir. Mix in the liquorice syrup. Pour the caramel into the prepared pan, and sprinkle the raw liquorice on top. Let the caramel set on the kitchen counter for a few hours, before cutting into cubes. Wrap each caramel in parchment paper or wax paper and keep the caramels in a cool place in an airtight container. 
Enjoy!