Apple Pie

Apple Pie

Nothing is as American as Apple pie. Well, this might not be true. But pies are a big thing here in the US. My favorite pie is Apple pie, and this one is one of the best. 

It's not all that simple to get the pie perfect. You need to have the perfect balance between a crispy/flaky crust and the creamy, sweet/tart filling. You want the pie to hold up to slicing and keeping the filling inside the crust. Making this Apple pie allows me to do this.

The recipe is adapted from Copenhagencakes.

Makes 1 pie (9 inch).

Ingredients:

Pie Crust:

• 260 g butter, salted and cold

• 360 g all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• 75 ml water, ice-cold

Filling:

• 6-7 apples*,

• 100 g butter

• 120 g sugar

• 75 g brown sugar

• 50 g water

• 30 g all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 1½ tsk cinnamon

• 1 egg yolk for brushing the crust

Directions: 

Crust:

Cube the butter and place it in the refrigerator.

Put the flour and sugar in the food processor and pulse just until combined. Add the cold butter pieces and pulse until the mixture looks like small coarse crumbs. Drizzle the water over the flour and pulse again until the dough just comes together.

Divide the dough in two discs and wrap them separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for 3 hours.

On a floured work surface roll the dough out to about ⅒ inch thickness. You want the dough yo be larger than your pie pan, so you end up with a ⅓ inch overhang on a 9 inch pan. Place the pan with the dough in the refrigerator, until ready to fill.

Preheat the oven to 430℉ (220℃).

Filling:

Mix flour, cinnamon in a bowl and set aside. Melt butter, sugars in a saucepan. Mix the water with the cornstarch, and pour it in the butter/sugar mixture. Add vanilla and the flour/cinnamon, stir the mixture while the sauce thickens.

Peel, core and slice the apples in thin slices. Do not soak the apples in water, this will make the filling to watery. Place the apple slices in the pie pan, and pour the sauce over the apples.

Brush the edges with egg wash. Roll out the rest of the dough for the lid, as thin as the other part. Place the lid on top, and firmly press the edges together to seal them. you can do this by hand or with a fork. Use the excess dough to cut out decorations for the pie. 

Optional: brush the lid with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar on top.

Cut 4-8 slids in the dough lid, to allow the steam to escape during baking. 

Bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 360℉ (180℃) and bake it for another 50 minutes until the pie is a deep golden brown. 

Let the pie cool completely, before slicing. This part is the hardest. The smell of this delicious apple pie, makes you wanting to dive in immediately. But if you let it cool first, and then reheat, it will make the slicing so much easier. 

Serve the pie with creme fraiche or a good vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

* Use apples that are good for cooking: Granny Smith, Pippin, Gravenstein, Mcintosh, Fugi, Jonathan, Jonagold or Golden Delicious.

Cremelinser - Custard filled Tartlets

Cremelinser - Custard filled Tartlets

Danes like their cakes. Cremelinser or custard filled tartlets is another classic danish cake. The cake is not overly sweet, but has great textures. I really like the crispy flaky crust with the creamy vanilla filling.

I remember cremelinser as an old lady cake, mostly because we only got them when we went to visit my grandmother. I got a new appreciation for the cake, working at the baker's shop, where we sold loads of them to people in all ages.

Makes 8-10 tartlets.

Ingredients:

Custard:

• 3 egg yolks

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 2,5 dl milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Pastry:

• 300 g all-purpose flour

• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• 1 egg

Directions:

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 thickens. 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.

Pastry:

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 2 discs and wrap it in plastic wrap, and let it rest for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 360℉ (180℃).

On a floured surface roll one of the dough discs to about 1/10-inch (3 mm) thickness. Cut out round a little larger than the tartlet pans. Line the pans, letting the dough hanging a bit over the edge. 

Roll out the other disc to the same thickness, and cut out rounds for tartlet lids.

Fill the tartlets ⅔ with the custard, and place the lid on top. Gently press down along the edge to seal the tartlet. Bake the tartlets for 15-20 minutes until light golden brown. The cooking time will vary depending on size.

Let the tartlets cool completely before removing from the pans. 

Enjoy!

Medaljer

Medaljer

Medaljer is a classic cream cake you will find in most baker's shop. The cake is a shortbread pastry with whipped cream, jam and custard. However simple the ingredients, it is a very tasty. In my young days I worked in a Baker's shop, and I have been decorating a lot of these medaljer to help the Pastry Chef. For the longest time, I wanted to become a pastry chef, but ended up as an engineer. Life takes it twists and turns.

Makes 8-12.

Ingredients:

Pastry:

• 300 g all-purpose flour

• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g confectionary sugar

• 1 egg

Custard:

• 3 egg yolks

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 tablespoon cornstarch

• 2½ dl (250 ml) milk (1 cup +1 tablespoon)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Filling:

• raspberry jam

• whipped heavy whipping cream

• custard

Topping:

• whipped heavy cream

• fresh berries or fruit, use whatever you like, blueberries, strawberries or a slice of kiwi

Icing:

• 150 g confectionary sugar

• warm water

• food coloring

Directions:

Pastry:

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.

Preheat the oven to 360℉ (180℃)

On a floured surface roll the dough to about 1/10-inch (3mm) thickness. Cut out round about 2¾-inch (7 cm) in diameter.

Bake the rounds for 8-10 minutes on a parchment paper covered baking sheet, until light golden. Let the cookies cool completely.

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 thickens. 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.

Assembly:

Make the icing, and put a thin layer on top of half the cookies. This will be the top part.

Whip the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks. Put the whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star shaped tip. Pipe a ring of whipped cream along the edges of the second half of the cookies, the lower part. You want to have some hight to the whipped cream, so you have a hole in the middle for the jam and custard. Pipe jam and custard into the hole.

Pipe a top of whipped cream on top of the iced cookie, and decorate with berries and nuts. 
Place the top part on top of the lower part. 

Serve the cakes immediately with a cup of tea or coffee.

Enjoy! 

Danish Rye Bread - without Sourdough

Danish Ryebread

Danes loves their rye bread. Sometimes you just don't have a couple of days to bake your bread, this can be made as a overnight bread.  Mix it in the evening and bake it the next day. If you don't want to keep and take care of a sourdough, this is the way to go.

Ingredients:

• 12-15 g live yeast, or 1 teaspoon dry active yeast

• 200 ml dark beer, I used Guinness 

• 240 ml buttermilk 

• 500 ml water

• 100 g all-purpose flour

• 150 g whole wheat flour

• 300 g dark rye flour

• 150 g cracked rye 

• 100 g whole rye berries

• 50 g bulgur (100% whole grain quick cooking bulgur wheat)

• 200 g flaxseeds

• 135 g sunflower seeds

• 18 g salt

Sprinkles:

• poppy seeds

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the liquid in the bowl of the stand mixer. Add the rest of the ingredients, and knead the dough for about 10 minutes.

Pour the dough into a big loaf pan (I use a Eva Professionel rye bread tin, which holds 3.3 liter).

Cover the pan with plastic wrap and place the loaf in the refrigerator to ferment for a minimum of 12 hours up to 48 hours. The longer the bread ferments, the more tart the bread becomes.

Preheat the oven to 350 (180).

Brush the bread with water and sprinkle with poppy seeds. Bake the bread for 90 minutes, remove the bread from the pan, and wrap the loaf in a clean kitchen towel, to cool completely before slicing.

Enjoy!

Mortens And - Roasted Duck

Duck roasting - from the oven cam.

Mortensaften - is celebrated on November 10th. 

The tradition that Danes and some parts of Germans eat duck on this night, dates back to before 1616. 

The story tells us that a monk called Martin or Morten in Denmark was forced to become a bishop, but he didn't want the job, so he hid in a pasture filled with geese. Not the smartest place, cause the geese honked and  Morten was revealed. As the tail goes Morten Bisp, now bishop ordered everyone to eat geese on November 10th as a punishment for the geese for ratting him out. 

Over time people switched to eating ducks, maybe because of the smaller size. 

The traditional way is to serve the duck with caramelized potatoes, pickled red cabbage and gravy, kinda the same way as the traditional christmas dinner/pork roast. To change things up, I caramelized an assortment of root vegetables and kept the red cabbage.

Ingredients:

Duck:

• 1 duck (7-8 pounds)
• 2 oranges
• 2 apples
• 2 handful of pitted prunes
• a handful salt and some pepper
• 1 star anise
• 3 whole allspice
• 5 whole cloves

Pickled Red Cabbage:

• 1 medium red cabbage
• 25 g butter, salted
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar (I mixed half balsamic and half blackberry-ginger balsamic for a sweeter taste)
• salt and pepper to taste

Caramelized Root vegetables:

• 3 large carrots
• 2 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

Directions:

Duck:

Preheat the oven to 265℉ (130℃).

Chop the oranges and apples in the size of the prunes. Mix star anise, allspice, cloves and the broken cinnamon stick with apples, oranges and prunes. Have the salt in a clean cup.

Take neck and giblets out of the duck. Make sure that all feather sacks are out of the duck, you don't want a hard part of the feather in the crispy skin.

Pad the duck dry with some kitchen towel. Salt the duck inside, and fill it with the fruit mixture. Close the opening with a  trussing needle. 

Truss the duck by placing the duck on a tray with the legs towards you. Tuck the wing tips under the duck. Cut a piece of cooking twine about 3 feet (1 meter), and center it on top of the neck end of the breast. Lift the neck end of the duck and pull the twine down around the wings and under the duck, then bring the ends up over the breast, towards you, and knot the twine, pulling it tight to plump the breast. Bring the ends of the twine around the ends of the drumsticks and straight up. Tie as before to pull the drumsticks together and form a compact bird; tie again to secure knot."

Well, I did it my way, and tried my best to get the compact duck. Sometimes I just pull the wing onto the back of the duck, and use a cooking rubber band to tie the legs together.

Salt the duck with a lot of salt. 

Put the duck in the oven, breast side down, and cook it like this for 3-3½ hours. Have a pan under the duck, and put the giblets, neck and water in it. This water/drippings will be the base for the sauce. 

After 3½ hours turn the duck breast side up, and roast it for another 1½-2 hours until the temperature in the duck reaches 158℉ (70℃). If the skin isn't crispy, give the bird a few minutes under the boiler, be careful not to burn the duck.

Take the duck out and let it rest. Pour the drippings from the pan through a strainer into a saucepan. Skim the fat from the surface. I use a fat separator, which makes this process a breeze. Save the fat in the refrigerator or the freezer. Duck fat is a flavorful fat, and is perfect to roast potatoes in.

Add some cream, blue cheese and red currant jelly to the drippings and thicken the sauce.

Remove the twine and carve the duck. 

Red Cabbage:

Remove outher leaves of cabbage, and cut cabbage into quarters and remove the white core. Thinly slice the cabbage across the quarters width-wise. To get uniform slices I use a mandolin.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the cabbage and sear it for a couple minutes. Add vinegar and sugar.  Simmer the cabbage for 10-15 minutes until cabbage is tender.

Season with salt, pepper, vinegar and sugar. Serve heated to pork roasts or roasted duck. 

Caramelized 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.

Enjoy!