Peppermint "Snaps"

Peppermint "Snaps"

December 7th - Third day of Christmas.

Danes do like to drink, they love their christmas lunch parties, having a lot of food and a lot of beer and snaps. But frankly, most danes do NOT enjoy snaps, but this sweeter shot might be more enjoyable. AND the drink is so pretty and pink - what not to like??

I have been dissolving many different kinds of hard candy in vodka during the years. Making different shots, for parties. Nowadays this is a rare occasion, because I rarely have hard liquor. 

Making almost 1 bottle.

Ingredients:

• 500 ml vodka
• 40 small peppermint candy canes

Directions:

Dissolve the candy canes in the vodka, shaking the bottle now and again.

Serve the peppermint "snaps" at lunch or use it for shots at parties.

Enjoy!

Please drink responsibly. And please no under-ages drinking. 

Honey Hearts - Honningkagehjerter

Honey Hearts - Honningkagehjerter

December 5th. Second day of Christmas.

Honningkagehjerter or honey hearts, are a classic December or christmas treat. As a child I got at least one of these in my advent calendar during the month of December. Honey hearts are kinda like a gingerbread cookie, but more spongy. The chocolate adds some creaminess and sweetness. A honey heart is the taste of Christmas.

In Denmark it is the tradition to put a glossy picture of a Santa or an angel on the heart, which adds to the Christmas cheer.

You have to start up the pre-dough a little early, but the result is scrumptious, and well worth the effort. but if you want to take a shortcut make this Honey Cake instead, it's not the same thing, but a bit similar.

Makes 16-18 hearts.

Ingredients:

Pre-dough:

• 450 g honey

• 450 g all-purpose flour

Cake-dough:

• 900 g pre-dough, shredded

• 2 egg yolks

• 10 g potaske (Potassium carbonate (K₂CO₃))

• 5 g ground cinnamon

• 5 g ground ginger

• 2½ g ground ground cloves

• 2½ g ground allspice

• 1 tablespoon orange zest, grated

• 1 tablespoon water

Topping:

200 g good dark chocolate, tempered

glossy pictures or icing and sprinkles

Directions:

Pre-dough:

Pour honey in a small cooking saucepan and heat to 104-122℉ (40-50℃). Pour the warm honey into the flour and knead it until you have a smooth mixture. I did that in my stand mixer. Place the mixture in an airtight container, and place it in a cool dry place for about 4-6 weeks. The pre-dough will turn very hard. 

Cake-dough: 

Preheat the oven to 350℉ (180℃). Line 3-4 bakings sheets with parchment paper, sprayed with baking spray and lightly floured. Set aside.

Mix the egg yolks with the potaske and set aside. Shred the hard pre-dough into you bowl for the stand mixer. Mix in the egg yolks, spices and zest. Start with your mixer on low for about 3 minutes. Then increase the speed to high and keep mixing for another 3 minutes. You end up with a smooth but somewhat sticky dough. If your dough seems to dry add a little water. 

Scrape the dough out on a work surface sprinkled with good layer of flour. Sprinkle more flour on top of dough and roll dough out to about ⅕-inch (5 mm) thickness. Make sure to keep flouring your dough, so the dough doesn't stick. Using a heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut out hearts placing them on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them with about 2-inches. Keep rolling the dough and cutting out hearts until all the dough is used up.

Bake hearts for 8-10 minutes. The hearts will be done when the cookie spring back when you gently press a finger in the center of the cookies. You don't want the cookies to deflate. 

Let the hearts cool completely on a wire rack. The hearts will be crispy at this point. So to soften them up store the cookies in the refrigerator in an airtight container, with a damp towel for 3-4 days. (Place the towel, so it won't touch the hearts.) As is the hearts will keep for weeks in the refrigerator.

When ready to eat, cover the hearts with tempered chocolate. Place a glossy picture centered on the heart. Or decorate with icing and sprinkles.

Enjoy!

Sweet Rice Pancakes

Sweet Rice Pancakes

December 3rd.

I hope you all are started to get excited for Christmas. I meant to start my 12 days for Christmas yesterday, but life got in the way. So here is my first post Risklatkager, a great dessert or Sunday afternoon snack.  

Growing up I loved when we had risengrød/Danish rice poridge for dinner. My dad did not like this. I think he got it way to often, maybe because it was a cheap and easy dinner. My mom often asked my brother, what he wanted for dinner, and he had for the most part 3 replies: Risengrød, meatballs and crepes (Danish pancakes). But one thing my dad loved was the desserts my mom made from risengrød, such as risalamande and these sweet rice pancakes. 

Makes 12-16 

Ingredients:

• 1 portion risengrød/Danish rice Porridge

• 100 g all-purpose flour

• 3 eggs

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 1 lemon, the zest from

• 1 teaspoon vanilla been paste

Directions:

Mix the cold porridge with the rest of the ingredients. The consistency of the batter will be rather thick.

Melt butter in a non-stick skillet add about ½ cup (1 dl) batter and fry until golden, then turn the pancake and cook until golden on the other side. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Serve the pancakes warm with maple syrup and fresh berries.

Enjoy!

December 1st

Gizmo the reindeer

December 1st. Finally, the countdown for Christmas is starting. 23 days until we are celebrating Christmas in Denmark (The evening of the 24th).

This year I will post 12 christmas themed posts, for twelve days of christmas. Making it more manageable for me, while I  get ready for christmas with my family.

I hope you will join me on this December celebration.

Let the fun begin.

Sourdough - Keeping and Feeding

A Sourdough man in a cup

I often use sourdough in my baking. I like the texture and flavor the sourdough give baked goods. I started using my sourdoughs 5 years ago, and they are still going strong. I was somewhat unsure how to start my sourdough, so I bought it online at KingArthurFlour.com. I divided it in two, feeding one with rye flour (for Danish rye bread) and one with whole wheat (for breads like Basic country bread a la Tartine). I bake with a young sourdough, which means it has fermented for about 8 hours, making for a mild flavor-profile. The longer the fermentation the more sour you bread becomes.

Many are afraid to bake with sourdough, because they have to maintain and feed it. But here are my tips and tricks to maintain a sourdough. 

Feeding:

Feed the starter every 2-3 weeks or about 8 hours before you need it for baking. If you bake everyday you don’t have to feed the sourdough before using.

If you have a liquid on top of the sourdough, discard this. If you mix it in, your sourdough get way to sour. Discard about half the sourdough before feeding, so you feed about ½-1 cup sourdough. I do not measure this. I just discard about half and do the feeding directly in the storage container.

Rye sourdough:                    

• ½-1 cup sourdough

• ½ cup dark rye flour

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup water

 Wheat sourdough:

• ½-1 cup sourdough

• ½ cup whole wheat flour

• ½ cup all-purpose flour

• 1 cup water

Directions:

Mix well, so all the flour is wet, let stand on the kitchen table for about 8 hour or overnight, fermenting. The sourdough will now be bubbling and smell kinda like beer. Now you can use the sourdough for baking, or store it in the refrigerator. 

When baking save about ½-1 cup of the fed sourdough for your next bake, this will be your new starter.

Keeping:

Keep the sourdough in the refrigerator in a closed container, double the size of the volume of the sourdough. The sourdough will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks with no feeding. With the long rest in the refrigerator you will have a dark liquid on top, discard this before feeding. (This will keep the sourdough from becoming to acidic.)

If you think your sourdough is gotten too sour to your taste. Just feed the sourdough 2-3 days in a row. This will freshen up the sourdough, and eliminate the harsh acidity you might have in the sourdough. 

Generally I only use "young" sourdough, meaning a newly fed sourdough in my baking.