Kransekage - Danish Almond Wedding Cake

Kransekage - Danish Almond Wedding Cake.

For me this is not a wedding cake, but a New Years Eve cake. Most Danes celebrates New Year by drinking champagne and eating kransekage. This year I decided to make numbers instead of the traditional top.

You get the best cake by using a mazipan/almond paste with more than 63% almonds, otherwise the cake will flatten, and flow out during the baking, masking a cookie.

Kransekage should be crispy outside and a soft inside.

Happy New Year from Copenhagen Denmark.

Makes about 100 cm kransekage (6 rings and the top ball)

Ingredients:

Kransekage:

• 75g almonds blanched or ¾ cup slivered almonds

• 150 g (1 cup) sugar

• 1½ (48 g) egg whites

• 375 g marzipan, use Ren Rå marcipan or this Almond Paste

Icing:

• confectionary sugar (powdered sugar)

• egg white

• water

Directions:

Put almonds and sugar into food processor with the steel blade in place and process until finely pulverized. Add the egg whites and process until smooth. Be careful not to heat the mass to more than 95 - 104°F, else the egg white will cook. 

Shred the marzipan and add it and the almond/egg white mixture to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat it until it's completely smooth and free of lumps. Form the dough into a ball, and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Preheat oven to 375℉ (190℃).

Weigh out 400 g Doug and roll it into a 70 cm log. By during this, you will get the perfect size kransekage, whether. you make pieces, a number cake or a top.
Bake the kransekage for 12 minutes or on til golden brown.

With the palm of your hand gently press each log into a rounded triangle. You can wet you hands a little so the dough won’t stick to your hands.

Form the logs into circles on the parchment paper. Make sure to connect the ends really well.

Cutting the log up making rings.

For the numbers you need 12 cm + 4 cm for the number 2. and 22 cm for the number 0.

If you make a top, you start with 7 cm, and roll it into a ball. For the next ring add 2 cm, so you form a ring out og the 9 cm piece. For each remaing ring add another 2 cm, this will make a perfect top. With this amount of dough, you can make a top with 6 rings and a top ball. (7 cm, 9 cm, 11 cm, 13 cm, 15cm , 17 cm, 19 cm )

A trick to making Danish Kransekage, is to make the rings tall. When you cut the rings or pieces is should be in the shape of a triangle.

Here you see the shape of rings or pieces cut through.

Don’t use the kransekage pans, the rings will become rounded on the bottom, and harder to stack. Shape the kransekage with your hands.

Bake the kransekage on parchment paper, on a double baking sheet, this will prevent the bottom from burning.

Mix the powdered sugar with egg white and water.

When making the icing, it should be thick, not runny at all. Put the icing in a piping bag, cut a tiny tiny hole in the bag. I use half water and half egg whites for the icing.

When piping the icing shouldn't be runny. You almost place the thin line of icing on the kransekage. the piping take time, don't rush it.

If you make a top place the rings on top of each other, lifting the rings with your fingers like hooks inside the rings. Glue the rings together with small dots of icing.

Enjoy!

Lemon Mousse Cake - Citronfromage-kage

Lemon Mousse Cake - Citronfromage-kage.

Lemon mousse is a classic dessert we had a lot growing up. The silky smooth mousse just melts in your mouth. So when I saw a former participant in the The Great Danish Baking Show, Micki Cheng made the lemon mousse into a dessert, I had to make it.

So with my lemon tree filled with lemons and it being Easter 🐣 we were in for a perfect storm.

It was an instant winner, it could even be a new must have for Easters to come. Well I would make it any time of the year - replacing the chocolate bunnies with something else chocolate or berries.

Disclaimer: This dessert is made with raw eggs. I recommend using pasteurized eggs. This minimizes the risk of getting Salmonella food poisoning. You can find pasteurized eggs in some supermarkets here in California, on safeeggs.com you can see where to find them in your neighborhood. In Denmark you'll find it right next to regular eggs. For tips and information on how to handle eggs, check out FDA’s website. The Danish version of FDA, Fødevarestyrelsen also has advisory on egg

Serves 8-12.

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 250 g shortbread cookies

• 100 g butter, salted and melted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Lemon Mousse:

• 3 teaspoons gelatin (6 sheets husblas)

• 4 whole eggs (read disclaimer)

• 100 g sugar

• 100 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice

• 300 ml heavy whipping cream

• 1 lemon, the zest of

Topping:

• 150 ml heavy whipping cream

• small chocolate bunnies or chocolate shavings

Directions:

Crust:

Crush the shortbread cookies, using a food processor or a rolling pin. In a medium bowl, mix together crumbs, melted butter, and vanilla bean paste until combined and crumbs are moistened. Press the mixture into the bottom of the spring form using either your fingers or the bottom of a small glass to form the crust layer.

Tips:

To ease the unmolding line the spring form with parchment paper in the bottom and some clear cake strips/cake collar, so the mousse won't adhere to the side of the pan.

Lemon Mousse:

Whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks, and set aside.

Whisk the eggs pale and fluffy with the sugar, set aside.

Mix the gelatin with half the lemon juice and melt the gelatin over a double boiler. Mix in the rest of the lemon juice and lemon zest.  

Using Husblas: put the sheets in a bowl of cold water for about 10 minutes. Over a double boiler melt the sheets with the water that adheres to it when removed from the bowl. Mix in the lemon juice and zest when melted completely.

Mix the gelatin lemon mixture with the eggs while whisking. Gently fold in the whipped cream. Pour the mousse onto the crust, and set it in the refrigerator for about 3 hours.

Gently unmold the mousse cake and place it on a platter.

Topping:

Whip the heavy whipping cream, and pipe the whipped cream onto the cake in a decorative manner. Place chocolate bunnies or chocolate shavings on top.

Serve the cake cold.

Enjoy!

Hasselback Potatoes

Hasselback potatoes is a Swedish dish invented in the 1950’s created at the Hasselbacken restaurant in Stockholm. And they were very popular during the 70’s and 80’s, but do no deserve to be forgotten. Personally i love them for their crispy outer and creamy center.

Normally I won’t add any flavors to the butter, but fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme goes really well with the potatoes, as do garlic. If you like another flavor profile, you can use other types of fat or oil, like olive oil and duck fat.

Serves 3-4 depending on the size of the potatoes.

Ingredients:

8-10 potatoes, the size of a golf ball, I used Yukon Gold potatoes

60 g salted butter (About ½ stick)

salt

Direction:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃), and line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper, set a side.
Place a potato up against a handle of a wooden spoon. Slice the potato into thin slices, not cutting all the way through. The handle of the spoon helps you not slicing the whole way through. Repeat with the remaining potatoes.

Place the potatoes on the baking sheet and brush them with the melted butter, making sure to get in between all the slices. Sprinkle with salt. Bake potatoes for about 55 to 60 minutes, brush the potatoes with more butter every 20 minutes. Bake until crisp and tender.

Serve them as a side.

Enjoy!

Fastelavnsboller - Lent Buns

Fastelavnsboller, Lent Buns.

Fastelavnsboller comes in many shapes and sizes. There are the pastry kind, filled with custard, or a fruit jam, the choux pastry kind, filled with a custard or another whipped cream-based filling, or the ones made with an enriched dough baked with remonce and/or custard. This one is a mix of the two latter ones. It’s basically an enriched dough with remonce and filled with a raspberry whipped cream.

Back in Denmark this year have been crazy, and the newest trend is selling the most fancy fastelavnsboller. There are huge lines to the bakeries to get your hands on these cakes, maybe the Corona restrictions made people want to have some extra special, I don’t know. Here is my contribution to this craziness.

Makes 15-18

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 500 ml milk

• 150 g butter, salted

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 50 g fresh compressed yeast, or 4 teaspoons dry yeast

• 800 g all-purpose flour (hold some back, to see if the dough need it all)

• 150 g sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1 pinch of salt

Remonce:

• 75 g butter, salted, room-temperature

• 75 g sugar

• 75 g marzipan or almond paste (with over 60% almonds)

Raspberry whipped cream:

• 500 ml heavy whipping cream

• 4 tablespoons raspberry jam

• 2 teaspoons chambord (raspberry liqueur)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• 1 tablespoon confectionery (powdered) sugar

Directions:

Remonce:

Mix the sugar and marzipan well. Add butter little by little until it’s just incorporated. Be careful not to over mix or the remonce will be runny when baked.

Dough:

In a large bowl mix most of the flour, I save about 1 cup, with the rest of the dry ingredients including the dry yeast if using.

In a saucepan heat milk and butter until finger warm, you want all the butter melted, remove pan from heat. Mix in the fresh compressed yeast, if using, and vanilla bean paste.

Mix in the milk/butter mixture and knead the dough in a stand mixer on medium for about 10 minutes until you have a soft, shiny elastic dough. The remaining flour should be added while kneading, if needed. Let the dough rise in a covered bowl for about 90 minutes until it doubled in size.

Divide the dough in two, roll each portion into a rectangle and divide it into 9 squares.

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Put a teaspoon remonce in the center of each square. Fold the four corners up to the center and press to seal all edges, letting the air inside escape. Put fastelavnsboller onto a parchment paper lined baking sheets with joint side down. Leave to rise covered for about 30 minutes. Brush with egg wash  and bake for about 10-12 minutes until golden. Let the bun cool completely, before cutting and filling.

Raspberry whipped cream:

Mix the raspberry jam with the liqueur and vanilla bean paste in a little bowl and set aside. Whip the heavy whipping cream with the sugar until you have s medium stiff cream. Gently fold in the raspberry mixture, and put the cream into a piping bag with a star tip.

Cut the top of the buns, and pipe some raspberry cream inside, place the top back on, put a little dot of cream on the top as decoration and sprinkle with freeze-dried raspberry or confectionary/powdered sugar. Serve the fastelavnsbolle with a nice cup warm tea or coffee.

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!