Homemade Liquorice Fudge

Homemade Liquorice Fudge

December 21th.

Making the last few treats for the holiday celebration. 

Makes about 60.

Ingredients:

• 397 g (1 can) sweetened condensed milk
• 150 ml milk
• 115 g (1 stick) butter (I used salted butter)
• 450 g sugar
• 4-5 teaspoons fine liquorice powder
• 1-2 teaspoons raw liquorice powder

Directions:

Line a square baking pan with parchment paper.

In a large saucepan on a medium heat, heat the condensed milk, milk, butter and sugar, stirring regularly, until the sugar has melted. Let the fudge simmer until it reaches 240℉ (115℃) or until soft ball stage. You have to stir constantly, otherwise the fudge will burn and you end up with bitter fudge.

Transfer the fudge to the stand mixer bowl, add the liquorice powder, and beat for about 10 minutes, until it loses the glossy caramel sheen and you have a thick but soft fudge. 

Scoop the fudge into the prepared baking pan and press it into the corners and even out the top. Let the fudge cool completely. Cut it into squares.

The fudge will keep in a sealed container at room temperature for several weeks. I have never tested this, because the fudge always seems to disappear in the first few days, in my house.

Enjoy!

Liquorice Ghosts aka Liquorice Cream Puffs

Liquorice Ghosts aka Liquorice Cream Puffs

These liquorice ghosts or cream puffs are called flødeboller in Danish. Directly translated it means cream rolls, even though  there are no cream and no roll in them.  Basically it’s a wafer, or cookie, with an Italian meringue filling, and covered with chocolate. It is so so yummy, it should be illegal to make or sell.

Growing up, flødeboller was the go-to treat to bring to share at school at your birthday. And it is easy to make up games eating flødeboller, but one thing for sure, it will be messy. 

To make cream puffs it is recommended that you have a electric hand-mixer or even better a stand mixer, because you have to whisk vigorously for more than 15 minutes. 

Makes 20 medium flødeboller

Ingredients:

Base:

• 200 g liquorice marzipan or regular marzipan

Filling:

• 100 g (little over ⅓ cup) pasteurized egg whites

• 200 g ( 1 cup) sugar

• 50 ml (a little under ¼ cup) water

• 2 teaspoons fine liquorice powder

Chocolate coating:

• 200-250 g white chocolate, a good one I used Valrhona

• 25 g dark chocolate

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350℉ (180℃).

Cut the marzipan log into 20 slices. Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake the marzipan for 5 minutes, let them cool completely.

Filling:

When making meringue it is very important that there are no fat residue on your bowl and whisk, otherwise the egg whites won't get fluffy.

The naked ghost

Whisk the egg whites until they just turn fluffy. Meanwhile heat sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring it to a boil and keep it simmering until it reaches 243℃ (117℃). 

Pour in the scolding hot syrup into the egg whites while whisking. The meringue becomes pretty warm, but keep whisking for 15 minutes, until stiff peaks. Gently fold in the liquorice powder.

Add the meringue to a piping bag with a plain round tip. Pipe the meringue in a high peak.

Bake the cream puffs for 5 minutes, just until the surface sets, but haven't got any color. This makes it easier to cover in chocolate. Let the cream puffs cool completely.

Tempering the chocolate:

This is how I do it, but if you have your own way, that works for you, use that method.

Chop the chocolate finely, set just under ⅕ of the chocolate aside, and add the rest into a stainless steel bowl. Set the bowl on to a saucepan with very hot water (don't let the bowl touch the water) . Let the chocolate melt while stirring. When the chocolate reaches 102℉ (39℃), take the bowl off the hot water. While stirring let the chocolate cool until it reaches 79-82℉ (26-27℃), add the rest of the chopped chocolate and stir vigorously until its all melted. Put the bowl with chocolate over the hot water again, and heat the chocolate to 84℉ (29℃), and now its ready to use for coating.

Coating:

Place the cream puffs on a wire rack. Drizzle the chocolate on top until the whole peak is covered with chocolate. Tap the wire rack on the counter to get the excess chocolate to run off. Place the cream puffs in the refrigerator for a few minutes until the chocolate has set. 

Melt the dark chocolate and pipe eyes on the ghosts.

The liquorice ghosts will keep 3 days a 50-54℉ (10-12℃).

Enjoy!

Peach Galette with Liquorice Whipped Cream

Peach Galette

We finally got some peaches from our three. The squirrels have been eating all the peaches for the last 5 years. But for the first year the humans are victorious! Well, to be honest we shared the peaches, we got about 20 small peaches, the squirrels got the rest.

I wanted to make a peach pie, but didn't have enough, so I had to scale down. So I had to try to make the more rustic peach galette. And Oh Boy, it was good. I'm definitely going to make this again.

Ingredients:

Crust:

Makes enough for two large galettes

• 375 g (4 cups) sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 120 ml (½ cup) ice cold water
• 340 g cold salted butter, cut into small pieces
• ⅓ cup sliced almonds + extra sugar for sprinkling
• egg wash (1 egg + a few drops of water, beaten together)

Filling:

• 4 large peaches, sliced into slices
• 1½ tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 ½ tablespoons sugar
• 30 g marzipan
• ½ teaspoon vanilla paste
• fresh mint for garnish

Liquorice whipped cream:

• 250 ml heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons fine raw liquorice powder

Directions:

Crust:

Add the flour, sugar and salt to a food processor and pulse just until combined. Add the cold butter pieces into the food processor and pulse until small coarse crumbs remain. Whisk mix  egg and water together. Drizzle the water/egg mixture over the flour and pulse again until the dough just comes together.

Divide the dough in two and wrap the dough disks separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes. 

If you only make on galette, the dough will keep for about 5-7 days in the refrigerator, or you can freeze it.

After 30 minutes, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Filling:

Add the sliced peaches to a bowl. Sprinkle the peaches with cornstarch, sugar and vanilla paste, and toss it all together and let the filling sit for about 10 minutes.

Remove one of the crusts from the fridge.

Roll one of the pie crusts into a ¼ inch thick disk. It's not important to shape the disk perfectly, you want it to look kinda rustic.

Place the dough on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Spread the grated marzipan in the center, leaving a 2-inch+ border of crust. Layer the peaches on top and fold border of the crust over the peaches. Brush the crust with egg wash, and sprinkle the slivered almonds and some sugar on the crust, and press it into the crust. Bake the galette until the crust and almonds are golden, about 40 to 45 minutes. 

Liquorice whipped cream:

Whip the heavy whipping cream until soft peaks. Fold in the liquorice powder.

Sprinkle with fresh mint leaves on the galette before serving. Serve the galette with liquorice whipped cream or a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Peach Galette with Liquorice Whipped Cream

Enjoy!

Lemon Curd/Liquorice Ice Cream

Lemon Curd/Liquorice Ice Cream

This is yet another lemon/liquorice dessert. I have been longing to make this ice cream combination since my trip to Denmark in September last year. We went to have ice cream at Ismageriet, my favorite ice cream place in Copenhagen. Ismageriet makes the most fantastic lemon/liquorice ice cream, and I knew I would try to copy it. 

This is my first try, and I know I didn't nail it, but I think I made a very good ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 300 ml (1¼ cup) heavy whipping cream (use a good organic one with only cream in it)
• 180 ml (¾ cup) whole milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 100 g (½ cup) sugar
• a pinch salt
• 1 vanilla pod or 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
• 3 tablespoons lemon curd
• 1-2 teaspoons raw liquorice powder

Toppings:

• 1 tablespoon lemon curd
• 1 teaspoon passionfruit juice
• 1 tablespoon sweet liquorice syrup

Directions:

Making the custard/ice cream:

Pour the cream into a metal bowl placed in a larger bowl of ice, set aside.

Warm milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Make sure the sugar and salt is dissolved completely.

In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they’re foamy and pale yellow, add the vanilla seeds or paste. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, while whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan, and heat the mixture over medium heat, until it thickens. Stir constantly in this process, and make sure to scrape the bottom of the saucepan. 

Pour the egg/milk mixture through a sieve into the cold cream. 

Cool the custard in refrigerator. 

Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and freeze it according to manufacturers instructions. When the Ice cream is almost ready to scoop out, add the lemon curd. Sprinkle with raw liquorice powder just before you scoop out the ice cream.

Freeze the ice cream in the freezer a couple of hours before serving.

Toppings:

Mix lemon curd with the passionfruit juice, before drizzling it over the ice cream.

Serving:

Scoop ice cream in a nice bowl and drizzle the passionfruit/lemon curd + liquorice syrup on top, and sprinkle with raw liquorice powder.

Enjoy

The making of the custard is a basic step in ice cream making. You can flavor your ice cream to you're liking after the custard is made. It's also possible to add flavor to the milk while heating.

The Danish version:

Lemon Curd/Lakrids is

Ingredienser:

• 3 dl  piskefløde 
• 1, 8 dl mælk
• 4 æggeblommer
• 100 g sukker
• 1 knivspids salt
• Kornene fra en vanillestang 
• 3 spsk lemon curd (engelsk citronsmør)
• 1-2 tsk raw liquorice powder (Bülow lakridspulver)
•  

Topping:

• 1 spsk lemon curd (engelsk citronsmør)
• 1 tsk passionsfrugt saft
• 1 spsk sweet liquorice syrup (sød lakridssirup)

Fremgangsmåde:

Isen:

Hæld fløden i en metalskål, som du sætter ned i en større skål med is.

Varm mælk, sukker og salt i en gryde, det skal ikke koge. Vær sikker på, at salt og sukker er helt opløst før du går videre i processen. 

Pisk æggeblommerne lyse og skummende i en seperat skål. Kom vanillekornene heri. Hæld lidt af den varm mælk i æggemassen, men du pisker, og tilføj langsom mere og mere mælk, indtil det hele er kommet i. Kom det hele tilbage i gryden, og varm cremen forsigtigt op under konstant omrøring, indtil massen tykner lidt. Det skal ikke koge og sørg for, at cremen ikke brænder på i bunden af gryden. 

Hæld cremen igennem en sigte ned i den kolde fløde, og rør rundt. Afkøl cremen yderligere i køleskabet inden den kommes i ismaskinen.

Frys isen som der står i vejledningen til din ismaskine. Lige før isen er helt færdig tilføj lemon curden og lakridspulveret. 

Frys isen et par timer i fryseren før servering. 

Topping:

Bland lemon curd og passionsfrugtsaften.

Servering:

Server isen i kugler og hæld lakridssiruppen og lemon curd/passionsfrugt "saucen" ud over, og slut af med at drysse lidt lakridspulver på toppen.

Velbekomme.

Hot Chocolates

Hot chocolates

On a lazy sunday afternoon I stumbled over a tweet from madsymfonien with a hot chocolate with marshmallows and liquorice. It looked so good, and I had just bought marshmallows the other day, so I had to try to make it.

My hot chocolate was made from ⅓ milk chocolate, ⅔ dark chocolate and whole milk. I added three different sprinkles on top.

The first had freeze-dried  blackcurrant, which added a nice tangy flavory to the sweet chocolate. The second crushed Raw Liquorice Drops, giving the chocolate a nice liquorice aftertaste, without being overpowering.The third had a very light dust of Ghost Pepper, which added a hotness to the chocolate without being to hot. Actually this one was the best chili hot chocolate I have ever had.