Gingerbread Reindeers

One of the thing I remember from baking Christmas cookies with my mom, were making gingerbread men, women or pretty much all kinds of shapes. And the part where we got to decorate them with colorful icing. But I never thought to be this creative, turning the gingerbread man upside down, making a reindeer.

Makes a lot.

INGREDIENTS:

• 125 g butter

• 200 g dark syrup or molasses

• 150 g brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 3 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ¼ teaspoon ground all-spice

• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 egg

• 500 g all-purpose flour

Decorating:

• 150 g confectionary (powdered) sugar

• 1 egg white

• a spinkle og cream of tartar

• food coloring

DIRECTIONS:

Melt butter, syrup/molasses and brown sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat, and stir in baking soda and spices. Let the syrup cool down for a bit, before you add egg and flour. 

Add syrup to a stand mixer, and mix in the egg and flour and keep mixing until you have a smooth and shiny dough. 

Let the dough rest in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, before rolling out.

Preheat the oven to 355 ℉ (180℃).

Roll out the dough on a floured surface. The dough needs to be about 0.1-0.2-inch (3-5 mm) thick. Cut out the small gingerbread men and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Bake the cookies for about 5 minutes, and let them cool completely on a wire rack.

Royal Icing: 

Put all the ingredients in the bowl of the stand mixer. Whip the icing for 2 minutes, until it has an uniform consistency and is crisp white color. It starts off with a grayish hue.

Decoration:

Decorate the gingerbread men upside down like a reindeer with brown and white icing, red mini m&m's for the nose.

December 1 st.

Decorating.

Happy December - Christmas is approaching 🎄🎅🏼

Here we go again, December 1 st. sneaked up on me again. This year I have no excuses. I didn't move, we didn't host Thanksgiving. Next year I will set an calendar alarm to warn me mid november, to see if that helps.

I started my Christmas cookie production today. I always treat my friends with a little box of homemade cookies, when we go to events during the holiday season. And People you normally tip. Americans tip everybody. Mailman, hairdresser, doctors, teachers, and and and.... eeeeeeverybody. This is still kinda new to me. But I still try to learn the unspoken rules here 9 years in. Most important person on my cookie list is my husbands boss. I do not dare skipping him 😉😉

This year I just want to bake all the basic Danish Christmas cookies like Vanillekranse, håkonskager, pebernødder, Danish gingerbread cookies, and Chocolate Biscotti. There might be more in the works, but let's see what happens.

I hope you want to join me on my December Journey into Christmas classics in sweets, cookies and food.

Happy December 🎄

Ebelskiver - Æbleskiver version 2.

Ebelskiver in the making.

December the 8th, I always think back on my maternal grandmother, it was her Birthday, she would have turned 114 this year. We always gathered at my Grandma's at her birthday and had gløgg and æbleskiver (ebelskiver). 

I posted my moms recipe for æbleskiver, but this year I tweaked them a tiny bit, adding some cream into the mix, and they are still really really good.

Makes about 25-30

Ingredients:

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 125 g butter (salted and melted)
• 250 ml milk (little over 1 cups)
• 125 ml heavy whipping cream (little over ½ cup)
• 2½ g salt (just under ½ teaspoon)
• 4 eggs
• ½ teaspoon cardamom
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 large lemon, the zest of

Directions:

Mix milk with flour, cardamom and baking powder till there's no lumps. Add the melted butter, egg yolks, salt and lemon zest. Let the batter rest for about 5 minutes. 

Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Whisk whites with a mixer until stiff peaks form. 

Gently fold in the egg whites, do not over mix the batter, but you don't want spots of egg whites in the batter.

Turning æbleskiver.

Heat the ebelskive pan. Fill the holes little over ¾.  As soon as the batter starts to bubble around the edge, turn* them halfway. When you have turned all halfway turn the ebelskiver all the way, so you end up with a perfect ball. Continue cooking, turning the ball to keep it from burning.

Serve the ebelskiver with confectionary sugar and a good quality jam.

* I use a knitting needle to turn the ebelskiver, but you can use a small fork.

Enjoy!

December 1st.

Mulled Cider - Krydret Varm Cider.

Somehow December always creeps up on me, somehow I get surprised that Christmas comes right after all the festivity at Thanksgiving. This Year I hosted my first Thanksgiving dinner, so my Christmas preparations was somewhat delayed. 

I do intend to post 12 christmasy posts, for the 12 Days of Christmas. It will be a mix of food, sweets, cakes and cookies. So please stay tuned.

I start with a re-post of a hot mulled cider, mostly because I'm down with a cold, and the best thing to drink are warm drinks. And I really love hot mulled cider. 

I have never had it in Denmark, but it should be a Christmas stable as the mulled wine is.

Hot mulled cider, this lovely drink was all new to me 6 years ago. I thought that mulled wine aka glögg/gløgg/glühwein was a German/scandinavian thing. And adding warm spices to a non-alcholic drink, that was new to me, I'm sad to say. 😳

First time I had it was at a William-Sonoma store, and boy they got me hooked on that stuff. I love this when when winter approaches, and you need at hot strong drink to keep you warm. 

It has become a tradition to make hot mulled cider when we are having ebelskiver the weeks up to christmas. And to bee honest, I have the cider simmering on my stove almost every day. This fills my house with the sweet smell of christmas and it makes me very happy. 

Ingredients:

• 2 quarts good apple cider 

• 1 orange, zest of half

• 2 sticks of cinnamon

• 5-10 whole cloves

• 5-10 whole allspice berries

• 1-2 star anis 

• 3 green cardamom capsules

You could also buy a mulling spice mix, but I prefer mixing my own.

Directions:

Put all the ingredients in a large saucepan and heat the cider to a simmer. Turn down the heat, and let the spices steep in the cider for 5-10 minutes. Reheat the cider. Pour the cider through a sift into cups and serve immediately.

The Danish Version:

Varm Krydret Cider

Ingredienser:

• 2 liter god æblecider 

• ½ appelsin, skallen fra

• 2 kanelstænger

• 5-10 hele nelliker

• 5-10 hele allehånde

• 1-2 stjerneanis 

• 3 grønne kardemomme

Fremgangsmåde:

Kom alle ingredienserne i en gryde og varm det op til kogepunktet. Skru ned for varmen og lad krydderierne trække i cideren i 5-10 minutter. Varm cideren op og si krydderierne fra. Server cideren med det samme.

Cranberry - Orange Sauce

Cranberry - Orange Sauce

I'm cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner this year, making my first turkey. Even though I have never roasted at turkey before, I do sometimes make cranberry sauce for the traditional Danish Christmas dinner. This is my favorite recipe:

Makes about 2 cups.

Ingredients:

• 1 orange, zest and juice

• 200 ml water

• 125 g sugar

• 340-350 g fresh or frozen cranberries

Directions:

Heat orange juice, orange zest, sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved.

Stir in cranberries and bring it to a boil, reduce heat and let simmer until sauce has  slightly thickened, about 5-10 minutes, and most of the berries have bust.

Let cool completely before serving.

Enjoy!