Old-fashioned Danish Apple Cake with a twist.

Old-Fashioned Danish Apple cake.

This is not a pie, its a no-bake cake.

This is the kind of cake or dessert, you’ll get at your grandmother after a heavy dinner with potatoes and gravy. Or you’ll get it at afternoon coffee, just a couple of hours before dinner.

Normally it’s made with applesauce and caramelized breadcrumbs and whipped cream on top. 

In my family, my dad wanted the “cake” to sit a while before serving, but I loved the heat and crispyness of the caramelizating. My poor mom couldn’t please us both.

I had this cake made with with French praline, at my friends house. The cake get the crunch and texture I longed for in my moms soaky cake. I have to accredit the danish Pastry Chef Mette Blomsterberg for this lovely cake.

Serves 5-6 people. 

Ingredients:

Apple Sauce:

• 6-8 apples (Pink Lady)
• 100 g sugar (depending on how sweet you want the Apple Sauce)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 1 dl water

French Praline:

• 50 g sugar
• 100 g almonds/hazelnuts 

Topping:

• heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Apple Sauce:

Peel and core the apples and cut them in small pieces. Cook the apples with the sugar, water and vanilla paste, until they are very soft. Cool the Apple sauce in the refrigerator.

Praline:

Using Almonds you have to blanch them. Boil the almonds for a minute or two. Strain the almonds and rinse with cold water. Rub the skin of the almonds and the are ready for use.

Using Hazelnuts: roast the nuts in the oven for about 10 minutes at 400°F (200°C). Cool the nuts. Rub the nuts in your hand or with a clean towel to release the skin from the nuts.

Melt the sugar in a sauté pan until it's golden brown. Add the nuts to the melted sugar and roast them for a few minutes.

Hazelnut Praline.

Pour the caramel into some parchment paper and let it cool. Try not to taste it - it's sooooo goooood. 

Blend the cold and roughly chopped caramel/praline in a food processor, or chop it really fine by hand. 

Whip the heavy whipping cream (do not ad any sugar)

Assembly:

Layer the apple sauce and the praline in small martini glass. Put in several layers. Put whipped cream on top.

Fish cakes - fiskefrikadeller

Fish cakes.

Fish cakes was a lunch dish in my home growing up. They were bought pre-made and they were very uniform and had a weird texture.

Back home in Denmark I bought a store-made batter and fried up the fish cakes in a skillet, making this an easy and healthy meal. Living in California we have a lot of fish available but no store-made fish cake batter. 

We tried several recipes before I came up with this. 

Serving 4

Ingredients:

• 400 g true cod
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 dl whipping cream
• 1/2 bunch of dill
• 75 g salmon
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• butter and oil for frying  

Directions:

Put the cod in a food processor and grind coursely. Add the salt and pulse until it gets sticky. The idea is to bind the moisture so that the fish cakes don’t fall apart. Add the egg, flour and cream a little at a time and pulse until combined.

Cut the salmon into small cubes (max 1cm X 1 cm). 

Place the fish batter in a bowl and stir in the salmon and chopped dill.

Let the batter rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. 

Using a spoon and your hand, make plum-size cakes and fry them in a mixture of half oil and half butter in a skillet, until golden brown on both sides.

Enjoy!  

English tea cake

English tea cake

My mom found the recipe for this english tea cake in a magazine in Denmark, and it became a family staple on special occasions. The spices and the crispy bottom is what makes this cake. 

Ingredients:

• 300 g brown sugar 
• 125 g butter (cold)
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 250 g sour cream
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 75-100 g chopped hazelnuts

Directions:

Crumble the butter in the flour and brown sugar, until it looks like bread crumbs

Crumble done.

Pour half of the mixture in a springform pan, and press it lightly.

Mix the other half of the mixture with the rest of the ingredients, and pour it in the pan.

Sprinkle the nuts on top, and bake for about 40 minutes at 356°F.

Cool cake completely on a rack before serving. 

Fennel salad

Fennel salad

Fennel salad - who comes up with things like this?

One of my danish friends gave me a book on salads by Claus Meyer called Salatværksted (Salad workshop). A great book with salads for every season. One of the first I had to try was this Fennel Salad. It's light, crispy and phenomenal with Salmon. What it lacks in color, it has tenfolds in taste.

• 4 small or 2 medium fennels

Dressing: 

• 1/4 cup Lemon juice
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic (finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons Sugar
• Salt 
• Pepper (freshly ground)

Direction:

Wash the fennels, cut it very thin on a mandolin. Put the fennel slices in ice cold water. 

Thinly sliced fennel and the dressing.

Mix the ingredients for the dressing, season with salt and pepper.

Drain and wipe the fennels dry with kitchen towel. Mix the fennel with the dressing and season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy

Crepes - pandekager

Crepes or danish pancakes

I grew up on crepes like these. We had them for dinner when my dad worked nights. Normally it's a dessert, but my brother loved them, and it was so much easier for my mom, than making a real dinner, after a long day at work. If we were really lucky we could get a scoop of ice cream inside of one of them. But normally the crepes was served with sugar and/or jam and roiled. 

Makes 10-12 crepes mad in a 8" skillet. 

Ingredients:

• 4 large eggs, room temperature

• 250 ml (little over 1 cup) whole milk, room temperatur

• 15 g butter, melted and cooled slightly, plus more for crepe pan

• 160 g all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• ¼ teaspoon salt

Directions: 

Add all the ingredients in a blender. Blend until combined. 

Let the batter rest for 20 minutes. OK - I always forget to rest the batter, and it works fine. 

To cook crepes, heat a crepe pan or 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Brush bottom of pan with a thin layer of melted butter. Using a ladle, pour just enough batter to cover the bottom of the pan, tipping it to coat evenly. Place pan back on heat and cook until batter is set and turned light brown. Flip the crepe with a spatula and cook another 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer cooked crepe to a plate and continue with the rest of the batter, brushing the pan with more butter as needed and stacking finished crepes on top of each other.

Serve crepes with jam, sugar, fresh fruit, nutella or ice cream, or mix and match.

Enjoy!