Rullepølse - Spiced Meat Roll

Rullepølse - Spiced Meat Roll

December 15th.

Rullepølse is a traditional cold cut served for lunch in Scandinavian countries. The spices may be different for the different countries, but my favorite is the spiciness from pepper and allspice. 

Here I served rullepølse with meat flavored jello/gelatin, and raw onions. Another way is with mustard and pickled beets. Another more untraditional way is with mayonnaise and raw button mushrooms. The latter was my favorite way to eat my parents homemade rullepølse.

My parents always made rullepølse in the weeks up to christmas. Normally they would buy rullepølse at the grocery store. To be honest, the homemade tasted so much better, but in a busy life, we all take shortcuts. 

Makes 1 

Ingredients:

• 1 - 1½ kg (2-3 pound) pork belly or pork loin

• 3-4 tablespoons coarse sea salt salt

• ½ teaspoon sodium nitrite (food grade) optional*

Spice blend:

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

• ½ teaspoon ground allspice

• 2-3 packets (21 g) gelatine

Cooking broth:

• water

• 2-3 teaspoons salt

• 10-15 whole peppercorns

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 onion optional

Directions:

If you are using a pork loin, you need to cut the meat into a large rectangle about ⅕ inch (1 cm) thick.  

Cut off any large chunks of fat, but don't make it too lean. Trim the ends so they are straight.  Trim any really thick places if that side is too thick when you roll it up. Lay the pork belly flat on a cutting board and sprinkle salt and sodium nitrite all over. Fold the meat up, and place it in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for 24-36 hours. 

Rinse the meat, and pat it dry with paper towel. Lay the meat flat on a cutting board, and sprinkle it with ⅓ of the gelatin powder. Spread the chopped onion on top. Sprinkle a good amount of pepper and allspice blend on top, ending with the rest of the gelatin. 

Carefully roll or fold up the meat into a large sausage. Use cooking twine to tie the meat up all the way.

Bring water to a boil, and place the rullepølse in the water with salt, peppercorns and bay leaves. Cook the rullepølse for 2 hours at a simmer. 

When cooked, place the rullepølse in a press. I used two loaf pans and tied it up hard with more twine. Put the rullepølse in a large ziplock bag and into the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Remove the twine, and slice the rullepølse in thin slices, and serve it on rye bread or another good bread, as an open faced sandwich.

Enjoy!

*Sodium nitrite makes the rullepølse keep the pinkish color.

Christmas Panna Cotta

Christmas Panna Cotta

December 14 th.

I really like panna cotta, the best I ever had was a pistachio panna cotta at my local Italian restaurant. Next year I'll work on getting the texture on this one perfected. In the meantime I'll share this christmas themed panna cota with you. The orange sauce works perfect with the sweet soft panna cotta. 

Makes 4 

Ingredients:

Panna Cotta:

• 500 ml heavy whipping cream

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 1 vanilla pods, the sedds from

• 50 g sugar

• 6 g gelatin or 3 sheets of gelatin/husblas

• ½ lemon, the zest of

 Orange sauce:

• 250 ml fresh squeezed orange juice

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon butter

• ¼ orange, zest of, julienned

Directions:

Panna cotta:

Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod, and mix them with a tablespoon of the sugar. This will help distributing the seeds in the liquid.

Gently heat the cream, vanilla seeds, lemon zest and all the sugar in a saucepan, and let it simmer for 5-10 minutes, remove from heat. 

If using gelatin sheets, place them in a bowl of cold water to bloom for about 10 minutes. Squeeze the gelatin sheets and add them to the hot cream. Whisk the mixture until gelatin is dissolved.

If using powdered gelatin, sprinkle it evenly onto the hot cream mixture and the let it soak for a minute.

Whisk the mixture until gelatin is dissolved.

Pour the cream through a sift into portion sized glasses. (I rinsed the glass with cold water).  Chill the panna cotta in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours before serving.

To unmold the panna cotta, gently insert a knife around the edges of the moulds, and dip the mold in hot water for max. 10 secunds. Tip them onto individual plates, pour over the sauce. You can also serve the panna cotta in the glass, and just pour some orange sauce into the glass before serving. 

Orange sauce:

Put orange juice and zest, sugar and butter in a small saucepan and bring it to a simmer. Cook the juice until it is thick like a syrup, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from heat, and allow to cool completely before pouring over the panna cotta.

Enjoy!

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.

Honey Cake - Honningkage

Honey Cake - Honningkager

December 5th.

These honey cakes reminds me of the advents calendar I had as child. My mom bought 24 small gifts for me and for my brother. Every morning in December, until christmas, we got a small precent. It could be crayons, a new pencil or eraser. But some mornings we got a small piece of chocolate or a piece of honey cake. Even though December mornings were dark in Denmark, it was very easy for my mother to get us out of bed, mostly because of the awaiting gifts. You could call it a kind of blackmail, but for us it was a part of the christmas tradition and the Danish "hygge" - In lack of a better word cosiness.

Honningkager, can be translated to honey cake  or gingerbread cake, are a soft honey cake with a buttercream filling.

At the bakers shop where I worked, we sold these cakes as round and serving-sized. They were called honningkagebomber or honey cake bombs. The cakes were only sold around christmas time. Here is my version.

Serves 12

Baking time: 50-55 minutes

Prep.time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 100 g butter

• 150 g sugar

• 140 g (100 ml) raw honey

• 1 egg

• 100 ml buttermilk

• 2 teaspoons cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground all-spice

• ½ teaspoon ground cloves

• 1½ teaspoon baking soda

• 240 g all-purpose flour

Buttercream:

• 2 tablespoons pasteurized egg whites

• 100 g confectionary sugar

• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature

• ½ teaspoon vanilla paste

Decorating:

• about 200 g good dark chocolate (I used Valrhona)

• 1 teaspoon coconut butter

• sprinkles

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 300℉ (150℃). Grease a 9-inch square baking pan with butter, and put a piece of parchment paper in the bottom. This will make it easier to remove the cake from the pan.

Cake:

Melt butter honey and sugar in a saucepan, remove from heat when melted, and let to cool for a few minutes until lukewarm. Add egg, buttermilk, flour, baking soda and the spices. Mix the dough until fully combined, and pour it into the prepared baking pan.

Bake the cake for 50-55 minutes. Let it cool completely. 

Buttercream:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and whip the buttercream until thick and fluffy over a double boiler. I used a saucepan with very hot water, and placed my bowl on top of that. I didn't have it on the stove. It takes some time to get the buttercream nice and fluffy.

Split the cake in two horizontally. Spread the buttercream in an even layer on the bottom part, all the way to the edges. Place the top of the cake on the butter cream and press down to get it to adhere. 

Melt the chocolate and the coconut butter and mix it together. Brush the chocolate on top of the cake and put sprinkles on top.

Cut the cake into small squares and serve with a good cup of tea.

Enjoy!

English Christmas Cake

English Christmas Cake

December 4th.

Every year I see a lot of dried candied fruit in the grocery store, and I knew that most of them could be used for english christmas cakes. I have never tasted an English christmas cake, and of course this would be the perfect year to try it.

The cake is very heavy, but not as sweet as I had expected. Actually I thought that it would be to sweet for me, and to sticky, but it paired perfectly with a cup of coffee.

Adapted from a recipe by Andy Harris.

Serves 12-16 people.

Ingredients:

• 500 g  fruitcake mix
• 200 g raisins 
• 200 g dried currants 
• 200 g mixed peel 
• 200 g dried cranberries 
• 140 g glace cherries 
• 100 g mixed nuts 
• 150 ml dark rum 
• 3 teaspoons vanilla essence 
• 3 teaspoons almond essence 
• 400 g brown sugar. divided
• 250 ml water, cold
• 250 g all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice 
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 230 g butter 
• 5 free-range eggs 
• 130 ml tawny port 
• 70 ml golden rum

Decorating: 

• raw pistacios

Meringue:

• 100 g pasteurized egg whites
• 200 g sugar
• 30 ml dark rum
• 30 ml water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Sugared cranberries:

• 10-12 cranberries
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• extra sugar for dusting

Directions:

Combine dried fruits in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Transfer to a large bowl and add nuts, dark rum, vanilla, almond essence and 60 g brown sugar. Cover and soak in the rum overnight, then transfer to a saucepan. Add cold water and heat over high heat until it begins to simmer, then reduce to low heat and cook 15 minutes or until fruits soften. Allow to cool.

Sift flour with allspice, nutmeg, cloves, baking powder and salt in a bowl and set aside. 

In a stand mixer cream the butter and the remaining brown sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add fruit mixture and stir to combine, then add reserved flour mixture and combine well.

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Grease a 9-inch (28cm) springform with a little softened butter. Sprinkle flour around the sides and bottom and shake out excess flour. Spoon cake mixture into springform, and bake for 2 hours or until a cake tester comes out clean  when poked into the middle of the cake. Remove cake from the oven. Poke small holes all over the top of the cake with a skewer or cake tester. Combine port and rum  and pour over the cake. Allow to stand for at least 3 hours before removing from the springform. 

Sugared cranberries

Dissolve sugar in warm water, and dip the cranberries in the syrup. Roll the sticky cranberries in granulated sugar, until covered. 

Meringue:

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.

Whisk the egg whites until they just turn fluffy. Meanwhile heat sugar rum and water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and keep it simmering until it reaches 244℃ (118℃). Wipe any sugar crystals down the sides of the saucepan with a brush dipped in clean water.

Pour the scolding hot syrup into the egg whites while whisking. The meringue becomes pretty warm, but keep whisking for 10 minutes, until stiff peaks. Add the vanilla paste and whisk a few minutes longer to incorporate. The meringue should be firm and shiny.

Decorate:

Ice cake immediately with a palette knife, use a brûlée torch to lightly toast the meringue. Garnish with raw pistachios and sugared cranberries. 

Enjoy!