Christmas Cream Puffs - Pebermynteflødeboller

Christmas Cream Puffs - Pebermynteflødeboller

December 2nd.

Peppermint is one of the most recognized tastes of Christmas. Red and white is classic christmas colors and you see candy canes and peppermint flavored coffee and chocolate everywhere. So why not make peppermint cream puffs/flødeboller. Even though cream puffs can be eaten all year round, these are very christmasy.  

Ingredients:

Makes 20.

Base:

• 200 g marzipan

Filling:

• 100 g (little over ⅓ cup) pasteurized egg whites 
• 200 g (1 cup) sugar 
• 50 ml (a little under ¼ cup) water
• a few drops peppermint extract

Chocolate coating:

• 200-250 g milk chocolate, a good one I used Valrhona

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Cut the marzipan log into 20 slices. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the marzipan for 5 minutes, let them cool completely.

Filling:

When making meringue it is very important that there are no fat residue on your bowl and whisk, otherwise the egg whites won't get fluffy.

The cream puffs without coating

Whisk the egg whites until they just turn fluffy. Meanwhile heat sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and keep it simmering until it reaches 243℃ (117℃). 

Pour in the scolding hot syrup into the egg whites while whisking. The meringue becomes pretty warm, but keep whisking for 15 minutes, until stiff peaks. Gently fold in the peppermint extract.

Add the meringue to a piping bag with a plain round tip. Pipe the meringue in a high peak.

Bake the cream puffs for 5 minutes, just until the surface sets, but haven't got any color. This makes it easier to cover in chocolate. Let the cream puffs cool completely.

Tempering the chocolate:

This is how I do it, but if you have your own way, that works for you, use that method.

Chop the chocolate finely, set just under ⅕ of the chocolate aside, and add the rest into a stainless steel bowl. Set the bowl on a saucepan with very hot water (don't let the bowl touch the water) . Let the chocolate melt while stirring. When the chocolate reaches 111℉ (44℃), take the bowl off the hot water. While stirring let the chocolate cool until it reaches 80-83℉ (27-28℃), add the rest of the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously until its all melted. Put the bowl with chocolate over hot water again, and heat the chocolate to 86℉ (30℃). Now its ready to use for coating.

Coating:

Place the cream puffs on a wire rack. Drizzle the chocolate on top until the whole peak is covered with chocolate. Tap the wire rack on the counter to get the excess chocolate to run off. Place the cream puffs in the refrigerator for a few minutes until the chocolate has set. 

The cream puffs will keep 3 days a 50-54℉ (10-12℃).

Enjoy!

Nordisk Jul - Nordic Christmas

Elgfilet, karameliserede rodfrugter og appelsinsalat med rosenkål, granatæble og mandler.

For mig har den Nordiske Jul og specielt den Danske Jul og dens trationer en helt særlig betydning. Det er selvfølgelig fordi jeg nu er udenlandsdansker.

Da jeg boede i Danmark var det lettere at lade sig rive med af nye trends og tendenser, for dybest set var de danske traditioner og højtider jo fastforankrede, det er en del af det at være dansker i Danmark. Som udenlandsdansker er det meget op til dig selv. Man er på mange måder rodløs. Man hører ikke til nogen steder. Mange af de ting vi som danskere tager for givet, er nu de ting vi glæder os mest over.

Rent madmæssigt, nu dette er en madblog, så er det nu himmelsk at få en rugbrødsmad med leverpostej eller markrel i tomat, hvor det tidligere var umådeligt uinteressant.

Her i huset holder vi dansk jul den 24. om aftenen. Vi har et rigtigt grantræ pyntet med bl.a. Dannebro og stjerne på toppen. Vi spiser and og/eller flæskesteg, med rødkål, brunede kartofler og flødesovs. Og selvfølgelig får vi risalamande med kirsebærsauce til dessert, og ja der er en mandelgave. Der er ingen der skal lave om på min gamle jul! Men der er ting, der mangler. Her er ingen sne, og kulden er det så som så med her i Californien. (Jeg ved godt, at jeg bare kan køre ind til Tahoe og så har jeg kulden og sneen, på et godt år).

Hvordan vil en Nordisk Jul se ud her i Californien? Nordisk, må være gode, nordiske, rustikke råvarer med elementer fra den mere traditionelle julemiddag.

Jeg har valgt at lave elgfilet med stjerneanis "stegt" sous-vide, med karameliserede bagte rodfrugter og en frisk appelsin/limesalat med rosenkål, granatæble og mandler. Billedet er taget uden saucen, som var en indkogt portvin monteret med lidt smør og tilsat lidt friske blåbær.

Denne middagskombination var et stort hit herhjemme. Kødet var perfekt rosa og smagte "vildt" med en diskret note af stjerneanis. De karameliserede rodfrugter, havde stadig lidt bid, og smagte fantastisk. Salaten brød sødmen og gav god tekstur til middagen. Alt i alt var det et kongemåltid.

Til 3 personer

Ingredienser:

Elg:

• ca 20 cm stykke elgfilet (3-400g)
• 1 stjerneanis, knækket i mindre stykker
• 1 klat smør
• salt, efter smag.

Rodfrugter:

• 3 gulerødder
• 4 pastinakker
• 3 jordskokker
• 1 lille knoldselleri
• 3 små rødbeder
• salt
• lidt olie, til bagningen
• sukker og smør til bruningen

Salat:

• 3 appelsiner
• 1 lime
• ca 250 g rosenkål, kun yderbladene
• ¼ granatæble
• 1 lille håndfuld hele mandler

Sauce:

• ca ½ flaske portvin
• 1 tsk smør
• 1 lille håndfuld blåbær

Fremgangsmåde:

Kødet:

Elgfileten renses for sener og saltes jævnt over det hele. Den knækkede stjerneanis fordeles også på fileten. Kom kødet i en vacuumpose, og læg en lille klat smør på toppen af kødet. Vacuumpak kødet.

Tilbered kødet ved 61℃ i 1 time og 40 minutter. Når tiden er gået tag kødet op af vandbadet, og tag den ud af posten. Dup kødet tørt med lidt køkkenrulle. Brun fileten på en glohed pande med lidt olivenolie og smør, så du får en god stegeskorpe.

Skær kødet tyndt, og server straks.

Rodfrugterne:

Forvarm ovenen til 200℃.

Skræl rodfrugterne og skær den i mundrette stykker. Rødbederne holdes for sig selv, og steges også for sig selv, så det hele ikke bliver rødt.

Kom rodfrugterne i ovnfaste fade, og vend dem i lidt olie og kom salt på. Bag rodfrugterne i ca 30 minutter, indtil de er møre, men stadig har lidt bid. Tag rodfrugterne ud og lad dem køle lidt ned.

Når du er klar til serveringen, smeltes sukker på en stor pande. Sukkeret skal dække bunden med en jævnt lag. Når sukkeret er smeltet og det er gyldent tilsættes ca. en teske smør. Rør rundt i sukkermassen til det lige bruser af. Kom de kølede rodfrugter på panden. Rør rundt i det hele, til alle rodfrugterne er dækket af et karamel lag. Server staks.

Saucen:

Kog portvinen ind til en sirup. Dette skal gøres ved ikke for høj varme. Tag siruppen af varmen og pisk smørret ned i saucen, dette vil tykne saucen lidt. Kom blåbær ned i den varme sauce og lad den varme igennem . Server saucen.

Saucen passer perfekt til al slags rødt kød.

Salat:

Vask rosenkålen, og gem de pæne yderblade, det er dem der skal bruges til salaten. Gem resten af rosenkålen og lav evt en rosenkålsmos en anden dag. Hak rosenkålsbladene groft.

Skræl appelsinerne og limen og skær dem i tyndeskiver. Hak mandlerne groft. Befri granatæblekernerne og undgå at få de hvide lameller med. Youtube er fuld af forskellige metoder, men jeg skærer bund og top af. Så skærer jeg kun skallen fra top til bund de steder, hvor jeg kan se der er et ophold i kernerne. Jeg trækker så både ud med kerner og piller dem fra skallen. Det sviner knap så meget som når man skærer kernerne over. Saml salaten på tallerknerne eller på et fad.

English version:

Elk with caramelized root vegetables and citrus salad

Ingredients:

Elk:

• 8 inch (20 cm) piece elk loin (3-400g)
• 1 star anise, broken into smaller pieces
• 1 teaspoon butter
• salt, to taste

Root vegetables:

• 3 large carrots
• 4 parsnips
• 3 sun chokes (Israeli artichokes)
• 1 small root celery
• 3 small beets
• salt
• a splash of oil for the baking
• sugar and butter for the caramelizing

Salad:

• 3 oranges
• 1 lime
• ca 250 g brussels sprouts, only the vibrant green outer leaves
• ¼ pomegranate
• 1 handful almonds

Sauce

• ca ½ bottle port wine
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 handful blueberries

Directions:

Elk:

Trim loin of excess fat and/or membranes. Season the loin and place in a large plastic bag with star anise and butter. Vacuum-seal. Cook the meat in a sous-vide water bath preheated to 142°F (61°C) for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Remove bag from the water and remove the loin from the bag. Pad it dry. Sear the meat on all sides in a very hot pan with a little oil and butter. Slice the meat thinly and serve immediately.

Root vegetables:

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃). Peel the root vegetables and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Keep the beets separate even during baking, to prevent all the vegetables from turning red. Dress the vegetables in oil and season with salt. Bake the vegetables in ovenproof dishes for about 30 minutes until tender, but not soft. Cool the vegetables. Just before you are ready to serve, heat a large skillet over high heat, pour in the sugar and melt it. When the sugar has turned the color of light amber, add the butter and stir with a wooden spoon. Carefully pour the vegetables into the hot caramel. Lower the heat and make sure the vegetables get covered in the caramel and get heated through. Serve immediately, otherwise the vegetables looses the shine.

The sauce:

Reduce the port to a syrup over low to medium heat. Remove from heat when the port can cover the back of a spoon. Stir in a teaspoon of salted butter, this will thicken the sauce a bit. Add the blueberries so they just get heated. The sauce is perfect with any kind of red meat.

Salad:

Rinse the brussels sprouts, save the outer leaves, these will be used in the salad. Save the rest og the brussels sprouts for anther day, maybe making this brussels sprouts pure. Chop up the brussels sprouts leaves roughly . Peel the oranges and the lime, and slice them up finely. Chop up the almonds. Place the brussels sprouts on a plate , place the oranges and limes on top. Sprinkle almonds and pomegranate on top.

Green Poisonous Cake

Green Poisonous Cake

Well, the cake isn't poisonous, but the green color makes it look a bit toxic. The cake is a regular poundcake with green food coloring and some marzipan for some luxury.

This green poundcake was a classic cake to bring to school at birthdays and for "klassens time," a kind of free-time, where you might discuss current topics and issues, and maybe eat cake.

The vibrant color made me think, that it would be perfect for Halloween.

Makes one 9-inch square sheet pan.

Ingredients:

• 250 g butter, salted, room temperature
• 250 g sugar
• 35 g marzipan or 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 medium eggs. room temperature
• 1 teaspoons vanilla paste or the seeds from ½ vanilla bean
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 cup (120 ml) milk
• green food color, I used a smallamount Wilton icing color

Frosting:

• 100 g confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa
• about 2 tablespoons water

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 355℉ (180℃). Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Cream the butter to fluffy and pale, with the sugar, add the marzipan and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated. Mix in one egg at a time. Mix flour and baking powder and add it with the milk and food coloring. Be careful not to over-mix the batter, mix until just incorporated.

Pour the batter in the pan, and bake the cake for about 25-35 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan. Mix the frosting, and frost the cooled cake.

Serve the cake with a good cup of tea or coffee.

Enjoy!

Danish version:

Grøn giftkage

Ingredienser:

• 250 gsmør, saltet, stuetemperatur

• 250 g sukker

• 35 g marcipan eller 1 tsk mandelessens

• 2 medium æg, stuetemperatur

• 1 tsk vanilje pasta eller kornene fra ½ vaniljestang

• 250 g hvedemel

• 1 tsk bagepulver

• 120 ml mælk

• lidt grøn frugtfarve, jeg brugte en lille smule grøn Wilton icing color

Glasur:

• 100 g flormelis

• 1 spsk kakaopulver

• ca 2 spsk vand

Fremgangsmåde:

Forvarm ovnen til 180℃. Beklæd en bradepande med bagepapir. 

Rør smør let og luftigt med sukker. Tilsæt marcipan og vanilje, og rør massen indtil du har en homogen masse. Æggene blandes i ét ad gangen. Pisk godt imellem hvert æg. Tilsæt de tørre ingredienser og mælk + frugtfarve skiftevis. Rør kun dejen så den lige er homogen. Hvis dejen overmikses ender du op med en tung og kompakt kage i stedet for en let og luftig.  

Hæld dejen i bradepanden, og bag kagen i ca. 25-35 minuter, indtil der ikke hænger dej ved en nål/tandstik, når den prikkes i kagen.  

Lad kagen køle i bradepanden. Bland glasuren, både en kakao, og en lille smule hvid. Dekorer den kølede kage. Jeg udstak mindre runde kager før dekoreringen.

Velbekomme!

40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken

40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken

When I saw this recipe on saveur.com, I knew I had to try it, because I love, love, love garlic. 40 cloves of garlic is a lot, but the garlic cooked in the sauce and became sweet and soft. There were no sharp garlicky taste. I really loved how the vermouth played off the tarragon and sweet soft garlic cloves. I opted for chicken thighs instead of a whole chicken cut up, and the thighs turned out juicy and flavorful. I served roasted root vegetables with the chicken and it paired up perfectly. We are definitely having this again soon.  

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 6 chicken thighs, skin on bone-in

• 40 cloves garlic, peeled

• 400 g button mushrooms, sliced

• ½ cup (1 dl) dry vermouth

• 1½ teaspoon chicken base + ¾ cup water (or a good chicken stock)

• 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon, chopped

• salt and ground black pepper, to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Heat oil in an ovenproof sauté-pan over medium-high heat. Season chicken with salt and pepper, and sear them in pan, turning once, until browned, about 10 minutes. Place the chicken on a plate and set aside. Add garlic to pan and cook until browned in spots it only takes a few minutes. Take out about ¼ of the garlic, and mash the remaining in the pan, and add mushrooms, vermouth and stock. Place the chicken back in the pan, with the whole garlic cloves. Bake the chicken for 15-20 minutes until tender. Garnish with tarragon.

Serve with roasted root vegetables.

Enjoy!

Liquorice Ghosts aka Liquorice Cream Puffs

Liquorice Ghosts aka Liquorice Cream Puffs

These liquorice ghosts or cream puffs are called flødeboller in Danish. Directly translated it means cream rolls, even though  there are no cream and no roll in them.  Basically it’s a wafer, or cookie, with an Italian meringue filling, and covered with chocolate. It is so so yummy, it should be illegal to make or sell.

Growing up, flødeboller was the go-to treat to bring to share at school at your birthday. And it is easy to make up games eating flødeboller, but one thing for sure, it will be messy. 

To make cream puffs it is recommended that you have a electric hand-mixer or even better a stand mixer, because you have to whisk vigorously for more than 15 minutes. 

Makes 20 medium flødeboller

Ingredients:

Base:

• 200 g liquorice marzipan or regular marzipan

Filling:

• 100 g (little over ⅓ cup) pasteurized egg whites

• 200 g ( 1 cup) sugar

• 50 ml (a little under ¼ cup) water

• 2 teaspoons fine liquorice powder

Chocolate coating:

• 200-250 g white chocolate, a good one I used Valrhona

• 25 g dark chocolate

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Cut the marzipan log into 20 slices. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the marzipan for 5 minutes, let them cool completely.

Filling:

When making meringue it is very important that there are no fat residue on your bowl and whisk, otherwise the egg whites won't get fluffy.

The naked ghost

Whisk the egg whites until they just turn fluffy. Meanwhile heat sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and keep it simmering until it reaches 243℃ (117℃). 

Pour in the scolding hot syrup into the egg whites while whisking. The meringue becomes pretty warm, but keep whisking for 15 minutes, until stiff peaks. Gently fold in the liquorice powder.

Add the meringue to a piping bag with a plain round tip. Pipe the meringue in a high peak.

Bake the cream puffs for 5 minutes, just until the surface sets, but haven't got any color. This makes it easier to cover in chocolate. Let the cream puffs cool completely.

Tempering the chocolate:

This is how I do it, but if you have your own way, that works for you, use that method.

Chop the chocolate finely, set just under ⅕ of the chocolate aside, and add the rest into a stainless steel bowl. Set the bowl on to a saucepan with very hot water (don't let the bowl touch the water) . Let the chocolate melt while stirring. When the chocolate reaches 102℉ (39℃), take the bowl off the hot water. While stirring let the chocolate cool until it reaches 79-82℉ (26-27℃), add the rest of the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously until its all melted. Put the bowl with chocolate over the hot water again, and heat the chocolate to 84℉ (29℃), and now its ready to use for coating.

Coating:

Place the cream puffs on a wire rack. Drizzle the chocolate on top until the whole peak is covered with chocolate. Tap the wire rack on the counter to get the excess chocolate to run off. Place the cream puffs in the refrigerator for a few minutes until the chocolate has set. 

Melt the dark chocolate and pipe eyes on the ghosts.

The liquorice ghosts will keep 3 days a 50-54℉ (10-12℃).

Enjoy!