Cinnamon Custard Rolls

Cinnamon Custard Rolls

I totally forgot about custard cinnamon rolls, until I stumbled upon a picture of them when browsing on Pinterest. Then I decided to try to make my version, with a vanilla custard, using some of my newly purchased plumb vanillas beans. Honestly the custard could be eaten, directly out of the saucepan, maybe with some berries. But it worked perfectly in the cinnamon rolls too. Transporting me back to my childhood. These cinnamon rolls is a great updated version to the traditional cinnamon rolls, making them a bit more fancy.

I would recommend to remove the rolls from the oven a bit earlier than I did, to prevent the custard from getting browned.

Makes 18-20 rolls.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 50 g live yeast ( 4 teaspoons dry yeast)

• 175 g butter, salted

• 500 ml milk

• 175 g sugar

• 2 teaspoons cardamom

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 800-850 g all-purpose flour

• 1 egg, for egg wash

Vanilla Custard:

• 200 ml milk

• 1 vanilla bean, the seeds (or caviar) from (or use 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract)

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 egg yolks

• 3 teaspoons cornstarch

Cinnamon Remounce:

• 150 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons cinnamon

Chocolate Icing:

• 85 g confectionary (powdered) sugar

• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa

• about 2 tablespoons varm water

Directions:

Dough:

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.

Warm the milk in a saucepan until finger-warm, remove pan from the heat. Melt the butter in the warm milk. Crumble the yeast into the warm milk and stir to dissolve. 

Add the liquid to the dry ingredients, and knead the dough for 3 minutes, to form an elastic dough. 

Let the dough rise for about 60 minutes until doubled in size. 

Cinnamon Remounce:

Mix all the ingredients with a hand mixer, until smooth and creamy, set aside.

Vanilla Custard:

if using a vanilla bean, split the bean and scrape the seeds (caviar) out. Mix the seeds with some of the sugar, this will help separating the seeds, and spread them throughout the custard. Place the empty bean in the milk in a small saucepan, and heat the milk until it is warm, but not boiling. Remove from heat, and let sit to cool down and the bean to infuse the milk with additional vanilla flavor. When milk is room temperature, remove bean from the milk. Whisk egg yolks, sugar, vanilla seeds, and cornstarch into the paste, and add it to the milk. Heat the milk mixture up over medium heat, while whisking until it thickens and starts boiling. Transfer the custard into a shallow bowl, and cover it with plastic wrap. Place the the wrap directly on top of the custard, so it won’t form a skin. Let the custard cool in the fridge until you need it.

Making the Rolls:

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it to a large rectangle (16x16 inches/40x40 cm).

Spread the filling in a thin layer onto the dough, leaving a thin edge closest to yourself, without filling.

Roll the dough into a large log, pinching edges together to seal. Cut the log into 20-24 slices. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the slices fairly close together. Cover and leave to rise for another 30 minutes. 

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃) - I used convection when baking these, heat oven to bake 420℉ (215℃) if you don't have a convection oven.

Brush the rolls with egg wash.

With a little spoon make a little dent/well in the middle of the cinnamon roll. Place about a teaspoon of the custard in each well.

Bake the rolls for 10-14 minutes until golden brown. 

Leave them to cool in the pan. 

Chocolate Icing:

Mix sugar ans cocoa with just enough water for it to form a tragic paste.

Frost the cinnamon rolls before serving.

Enjoy!

Danish Pancakes version 2 - Crepes

Danish pancakes.

Danish pancakes are thin like crepes, and is kinda of a dessert. But in my family we occasionally had pancakes for dinner. Maybe not an healthy option, but it was not on a regular basis.

I like my pancakes to be soft like the ones my mom made, but if you want the edges to be a little crispy (the edges mostly) then add a tablespoon regular beer, like a Pilsner. My mom didn’t do that, maybe because we rarely had any beer in the house, so I don’t do that either.

Right now this is my favorite recipe for Danish pancakes. I often make a double portion, and save the extra in the freezer, for an easy treat another day. When freezing fold each pancake in quarters, with parchment paper between each pancake, so you easy can defrost one or two at a time.

Makes 10-12.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs

• 400 ml milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract

• 4 tablespoons sugar

• 165 g all-purpose flour

• 1 pinch salt

Directions:

Add all the ingredients to the blender and blend it until a smooth batter. If you don’t have a blender, just whisk it by hand, until you get a lump free batter.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Brush the skillet with a small amount of 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 the other side for additional 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 the crepes with sugar, jam, or even ice cream.

Enjoy!

Pleated Christmas Heart Cookies

Pleated Christmas heart cookies

The pleaded or weaved heart is quintessential Christmas for Danes. The pleaded Christmas heart is said to contributed to the Danish Storyteller H.C. Andersen. The oldest known heart is kept at The H.C. Andersen Museum in Odense. As a child we learned to make pleaded Christmas hearts, and we placed them on the Christmas tree. Last year I saw someone make cookies like the pleaded hearts, I knew I wanted to make some. I took offset in the checkerboard cookies, and replacing the cocoa with food coloring.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 340 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 200 g confectionary sugar (powder sugar)

• 90 g almonds, bleached and grounded

• 2 egg yolk

• 2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 500 g all-purpose flour

• Red food gel coloring, for the red part of the dough

DIRECTIONS:

Cream the butter until soft and creamy. Add the confectionery sugar, mix until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the ground almonds, egg yolks, vanilla and flour, and mix until just blended. Be careful not to over mix the dough. Remove half of the dough, and mix the other half with red food coloring, until you get a bright red. I used Christmas red Wilton gel color, and I had to use most of the little jar, to get the right color. Wrap the doughs in plastic film and places dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes, so the butter firms up, making it easier top work with.

Divide each color in 2, rolling one half into a log with a 1-inch (3 cm) diameter. The other half form it into flat squares. Cover the log and square in plastic wrap, and put it back in the refrigerator. Roll each flat square of the dough out between 2 pieces of parchment paper, to a little under ⅓-inch (9 mm) thickness. Place the dough on a baking sheet, and place it back in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.

Assemble the cookies:

Remove one of  the doughs from the refrigerator, peel off the paper from both sides and set the dough onto a fresh sheet of parchment. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough lengthwise into square strips about ⅓ inch (9 mm) wide. Place the dough strips in the refrigerator, while repeating the other dough.

Remove dough strips from the refrigerator. Lay a strip of the white dough lengthwise on the baking sheet, then lay a strip of red dough next to the white, another strip of white and finally another red, so you now have 4 strips alternating colors. Press the three strips gently together so that they stick to one another. You can brush the sides with some diluted apricot preserve, to help the dough glue together.

Do this with the rest of the strips, so you end up with logs of striped cookie dough.  Place the logs on top of each other, so the red dough and white dough alternates and you have  4x4 colors per log.

Gently press the logs together on all sides. Wrap the log with plastic wrap, a place in the refrigerator.   Make more logs with the remaining dough.

Take out the round logs, an cut them in half lengthwise. Firmly press 1 red and 1 white half log on top of the 4x4 colored logs. Placing them on to sides next to each other. Now you have a pleated hearty, when you cut the log in slices.

Chill the logs for at least an hour before slicing.

Preheat the oven to 375℉ (190℃). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Slice into cookies about ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. Set the hearts about ½-inch (1 cm) apart on the baking sheet and bake for about 7-8 minutes, until the withe parts are very lightly browned. If your oven is baking unevenly rotate the sheet halfway through. Cool on the parchment paper on a wire rack. 

Store the completely cooled cookies in an airtight container.

Enjoy!

Mrs. Cross’s Christmas Syrup Cake - Sirupslagkage

Mrs. Cross’s Christmas Syrup Cake - Sirupslagkage.

This type of cake was one of my mom’s favorites. She always told a story about getting a syrup layer cake at a friends house, where the buttermilk came from their own cows. Maybe my mom’s childhood food memories were tied to fond memories like my own. The syrup cake were not tied to Christmas in my home, but by adding the orange jam and chocolate is leans itself towards Christmas. My mom served hers with a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top, the chocolate ganache make it more decadent.

Ingredients:

Batter:

• 125 g dark syrup

• 75 g sugar

• 75 g butter

• 250 g all purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon backing soda

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon ground cloves

• ½ teaspoon ground allspice

• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

• 150 ml buttermilk

Filling:

• 5-6 heaping tablespoons Orange jam

Buttercream:

• 250 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 250 g confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Chocolate ganache:

• 200 ml heavy whipping cream

• 200 g dark chocolate, finely chopped, I used Valrhona

• 10 g butter

Garnish:

• orange zest strips

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 355℉ (175℃).

Batter:

Melt butter, sugar, and syrup in a sauce pan, remove from heat, and let it cool for a few minutes. Mix the dry ingredients, and add it to the warm mixture, together with the buttermilk. Pour the batter into a 8-9-inch (22cm) springform, the bottom lined with parchment paper. And bake it for 30-35 minutes. Let the cake cool completely, before removing from the form.

Buttercream:

Cream the butter with the sugar for about 8-10 minutes, until it’s white and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla.

Ganache:

In a saucepan heat the cream to an almost simmer, remove it when small bubbles start forming at the edges. Pour it on top of the chopped chocolate and add the butter. Let it sit for about 30 seconds before you start stirring the mixture. This will give the chocolate time to start melting. Stir the ganache until it is smooth, glossy homogeneous.

Assembly:

Using a serrated knife, slice the cake horizontally in 2 layer, using gentle sawing motion. Spread the orange jam in a even layer on the lover part of the cake. On top of that spread all the buttercream in a thick even layer. Place the top part of the cake on top of the buttercream. Give it a little press to make the buttercream come out to the edge. Pour the ganache over the top of the cake, it’s ok if the ganache drips over the edges. Sprinkle with some orange zest on top, befor the ganache sets.

The cake will benefit from sitting a few hours or even overnight in the refrigerator before serving.

Enjoy!

Fedtebrød - Danish Coconut Shortbread

Fedtebrød - Danish Coconut Shortbread.

These coconut shortbreads are one of the easiest cookies to make. But it doesn’t mean that they lack flavor or delicacy. They have a short snap, and almost melts in your mouth. The icing is originally with rum (I used rum extract for more flavor), but you can use lemon juice and lemon zest for a more bright flavor.

Makes about 40.

Ingredients:

• 200 g all-purpose flour

• 200 g butter, salted and room temperature

• 100 g shredded coconut, unsweetened

• 100 g sugar

• ¾ teaspoon bakers ammonia (hjortetaksalt)

Icing:

• 150 g confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• 1-2 tablespoons rum (or a few drops rum extract)

• Egg white, pasteurized

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).

In a stand mixer, mix all the ingredients together, don’t overwork the dough, you just want it to come together.

Divide the dough into 6 even parts, and roll each part into thumb size logs. Place 3 logs on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, using the palm og your hand pat the dough flat, so it will be about 1.5-inch (4 cm) wide.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until they are light golden. While the cookies are baking make the icing, placing a damp towel over the bowl, to prevent the icing from drying.

Transfer the warm baked cookies to a cutting board, and ice the cookies, in one thick line in the middle of the cookie. With a sharp knife cut the cookie on diagonally, about 1-inch (2½ cm) wide. Let the cookies cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Enjoy!