Liquorice marzipan cake - home-made

At Midnight New Year´s Eve it is tradition to enjoy marzipan cakes (kransekage) together with champagne/sparkling wine, when the bell will ring it´s 12 strokes.

Instead of buying finished liquorice marzipan in the supermarket, it is actually cheaper to make your ow version of liquorice marzipan buy mixing plain marzipan and liquorice powder together. By making your own liquorice marzipan you can every option of adjusting the strength of liquorice taste. At this point some of my good friends will start to have tics !!! as they know I am liquorice addicted. Anyway I have tried to "behave" myself, when I was making these liquorice marzipan cakes, as I will serving these marzipan cakes for other people. So I am looking forward to their judgement on the amount of liquorice powder used here :-)

Liquorice marzipan cake - home-made: - 16 pieces

• 250 g marzipan
• 62 g icing sugar
• 62 g almond flour
• 20 g egg white
• 1 teaspoon liquorice powder
• Decoration: egg white + icing sugar

1. Heat the oven to 220'C (conventional oven).
2. Stir the icing sugar and liquorice powder together with the egg white, so any lumps are removed.
3. Stir in the almond flour.
4. Knead the marzipan together with this sugar-almond-egg white together
5. Divide the marzipan cake mass into 16 pieces of equal size.
6. Form the marzipan cake mass into a triangle sharp.
7. Bake the marzipan cake mass at 220'C for 7-8 minutes.
8. Cool down the marzipan cake.
9. Decorate the top of the marzipan cake with icing sugar.
10. Let the icing sugar dry.
11. Enjoy !!!!

Suggestions for home-made marzipan cake for celebration of the upcoming New Year of 2015

I packed down Christmas yesterday afternoon, so now it is time to prepare for New Year´s Eve tomorrow, where marzipan cake (kransekage) is so tradtional to eat here in Denmark, as we step into a new year at Midnight. The marzipan cake is served together with sparkling wine/champane/bobbles, if you really would like to enjoy this combination make sure, that the sparkling wine is sweet, as the combo of dry sparkling wine and sweet marzipan is not creating any magic together !!!

If you would like to bake your very own marzipan cakes, I will already now share all my entire collection of various suggestions on marzipan cake (known as kransekage in Denmark), which I have created during the "life time" of Kitchen of Kiki in this blog post. It will leave you time to go shopping for the needed ingredients as well as baking them for New Year's Eve tomorrow.

I find, that the major advantages of making your own marzipan cake is, that you are in control of the overall  sweetness in the final cake, so you can make the cake more or less sweet according to your sweetness preference, instead for "just living with" the sweetness in the cakes, which you buy, which I find to be too sweet !!!

If you would like to have  more softness in your marzipan cake, you should freeze them after baking. The only drawback is, that I find freezing to reduce the overall flavour profile of the cake.

The "classic" type of marzipan cake is the white version of these zebra marzipan cake. The white version is made from plain marzipan, while the dark version is made from marzipan containing cocoa.

Another good tasting marzipan cake could be these marzipan orange cakes or with an extra little twist in of orange flower as here marzipan orange cakes with orange flower. A third suggestion giving similar looking cakes are marzipan cakes with clementine and Cointreau.

Another excellent taste twist on "kransekage" is pomegranate marzipan cake combining the freshness of pomegranate with the sweetness of marzipan.



As a colourful farewell to 2014 these baked marzipan confect are an option. The only drawback is, that the forest fruit marzipan (purple looking marzipan) is loosing colour during the baking !!! However, you do not need to worry about this topic, as Odense Marcipan has withdrawn this specific marzipan product from their product range.



Last year (2013) liquorice marzipan was the "new black flavour" within the marzipan world, as it so many other food items here in Danmark, so therefore I created these liquorice marzipan cake



Another fantastic flavour combination would be this marzipan cake with raspberry and lime, which you share with sweet heart.

I will not be making any of the above mentioned suggestion for New Year's Eve, as I will trying out a new recipe to mark the transition into 2015.

Good bye to Christmas Calender 2014

Hopefully you have been just a much fun reading my daily Christmas Calender posts for 2014, as I been having making them. I really like to create my very own Christmas Calendar just like the ones on TV ! For me it is a way for keeping my mood up during a long, dark, gray and rainy Winter season with days having around 7 hours of sun light in case, that the sun actually shows it´s face ! as it keep me busy instead of hiding under my duvet like a little moody and sleepy brown bear !!!

So I have baked cookies, cakes and scones, created Christmas sweets, which I have been using as stocking fillings for a good colleague at work as well as serving all these goodies at both the annual gløgg evening, the tradition rich Christmas lunch and filling up all the empty tins of my mother.

Reviewing your visits to my Christmas Calendar 2014, I have made a TOP 5 over the most popular Christmas Calendar Daily entries according to your preference:

1. German version of "brunkager" (brown Christmas cookies) (December 4) & Caramels with cashew nuts and sea salt (December 8)
2. Christmas cheese cake (December 3)
3. Bounty chocolate with marzipan (December 10)
4. Christmas scones (December 5)
5. Christmas scones with mincemeat (December 19)

So based on these most popular post I will conclude, that you here in 2014 like baked goods in form of cookies, cheese cake and scones and sweet goods in form of caramels & chocolate, which fits perfect into the Danish Christmas tradition.

However, just as interesting is, that the following post from the old Christmas Calendar of 2011 still are capable to remaining between the 10 most popular blog post ever,  so it is a true evergreens !!

• Day 7 2011 - Baked marzipan confect

Already now I will promise you, that 2015 will also bring bring you another Christmas Calendar. If you have an idea, please feel to leave a comment. You are also more than welcome to share your opinion on Christmas Calender 2014 at the same time.
I think, that I as many other bloggers appreciate your comments, as we when know, that someone actually is reading our blogs !! So do not be shy, but make my day by leaving a comment :-)

Christmas lunch 2014 for "The Wonderful Women"

This afternoon the annual Christmas lunch for "The Wonderful Women" took place. Actually we discussed how many times we have been meeting up for this Christmas lunch on either the third or forth Christmas Day !!! We did not end up with a precise answer to this (un)important of oures.

This time we went for our classic cheese tapas, which is mixture of two types of sausages, ham, pate, four different cheeses, olive and pickled onions. Along with the cheese tapas I had bakes two breads: the world´s best bread !!! (not my name suggestion) and a bread very suitable for butter.

As tradition demands we started the Christmas lunch with a bobbling cocktail containing pomegranate, gin and sparkling wine (I will share the recipe in the new year) and the drivers could enjoy CARROT LIFT. The non-drivers also became addicted to this home-made juice.

Based on last years good experience we continue with another new tradition by playing package game (pakkeleg in Danish), where each person as minimum had brought minimum two gifts. And these gift could be every thing incl. leftovers from Christmas. And all the new owners were very happy with their Christmas cookies, soap, books, candy, magazines, stockings etc.

And the end we did not have any room for the home-made ice cream (nougat ice cream and liquorice ice cream), so I will have to find some other persons, who can help me eating this ice cream.

CARROT LIFT

This was the second juice created on my new juicer, which I made from my very first JuiceSelvKassen from Årstiderne. I actually really liked the taste of this juice, so I will for sure be making this juice again.

The amount of 2 cm fresh ginger is giving some hotness/burning sensation to this juice, but it is not over the top, as with my very first attempt using fresh ginger in a juice.

CARROT LIFT:- 1 serving

• 3 carrots
• 3 apples
• 2 cm of fresh ginger

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Remove the top and bottom from the carrots.
3. Remove the stem and core from the apple.
4. Juice everything together.
5. Pour into a glass and enjoy :-)

DRINK PINK

One of the first juice to test on my new juicer from my very first JuiceSelvKassen from Årstiderne was this DRINK PINK. For me the colour was actually much more Christmas red than pink.

DRINK PINK: 4 servings

• 1 squash
• 2-4 stems of celery
• 1 broccoli - incl the stem, which is rich in nutrient
• 1 lemon - incl the peel
• 4 carrots
• 4 red beets
• ½ pineapple

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Remove the tops and bottoms from the carrots, red beets and stems of celery. Remove the rind around the pineapple.
3. Juice all the ingredients.
4. Pour into glass.
5. Store the remaining juice cold in the refrigerator for up to 1 day.

Juicer - kitchen equipment 26

As the annual Christmas present from work I have this year selected a juicer in form of OBH Juice Extractor Prestige, as I from time to time have been thinking buying a juicer for my kitchen without getting around actually doing it. The juicer came along with a small recipe booklet of 100 recipes of juice and smoothies.

First JuiceSelvKasse received

However, in order to get me started on using this juicer seriously  I have decided to get a regular JuiceSelvKassen from Årstiderne. This box contains ingredients for 2 portions of 3 different juices made from both fruit and vegetable. I think this will give me an excellent starting point for my own juice creation.

Some of the first things, which I have been juicing were palm cabbage and a plain head of lettuce. That gave a very, very green liquid, which I decided not to use further for any juice. Anyway I did not want to throw this green liquid, so instead off I added into a paste bolonaise sauce, which when went from having the usual red colour to being green !!!!

My second attempt was to made a juice from apples and fresh ginger. Here I added into so much ginger, that the finally juice was quiet burning to drink. Down the juice went anyway, so it could fit the surrounding season viruses.

I hope, that this juice will become a very used equipment in my little kitchen. And an active team player is getting ride of the fruit and vegetable, which I am struggling with sometimes to eat in my weekly vegetable box. If you can´t eat it, juice it !!!!

Well, keep dropping on a regular basis, and I will be sharing juice recipes with you :-) I think juice recipes will be a part of my TO-DO-LIST 2015.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 24 - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

I wish you a merry Christmas during your visit in my little kitchen :-) I hope you will enjoy your stay here, being either a short browse or a long stay.

Today is the day of farewell to this year Christmas Calendar 2014, which I hope have brought you joy during a perhaps stressful Christmas time. I have for sure got a kitchen full of Christmas goodies, when making all the many blog posts for this year´s Christmas Calendar.

Thank your for dropping by and have wonderful Christmas together with your family :-)

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 23 - cinnamon oat squares

I have twisting this recipe on Tove´s oat squares into Christmas style by adding cinnamon into the oat mix, replacing the light coloured sugar syrup with dark brown coloured syrup and finally using nougat for glazing the top of the cake. And it turned very well out :-)

Cinnamon oat squares with nougat:

• 100 g butter
• 180 g oat flakes
• 1 tablespoon (cake) wheat flour
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 100 g sugar
• 2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 2 tablespoon dark brown coloured syrup
• 100 g nougat

1. Heat the (conventional) oven to 200'C
2. Melt the butter.
3. Mix oat flakes, wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar, vanilla sugar and dark brown syrup together in a mixing bowl.
4. Add in the melted butter and stir everything together.
5. Cover a baking tray of 20 x 30 cm with baking paper and spread the mass into the tray.
6. Bake the cake at 200'C for 10 minutes in the lower part of the oven.
7. Spread thin slices of nougat on top of the warm cake, so it can be spread into a thin layer.
8. When the nougat is firmer again, but the cake into smaller sqaures, approx 24.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 22 - Liquorice pepper cookies

Pebernødder (pepper nuts) is a traditional Danish cookie for Christmas, so when I found a liquorice version of the cookie, I decided let it be a part of my Christmas baking for 2014.

I used this recipe Klidmoster´s lakridspeberkage, as starting point making a few modifications of my own. Instead of using brown sugar I went for the dark muscovado sugar, as a another of clearing up in the kitchen stock.

I also decided to add in lemon zest of ½ lemon, as lemon and liquorice is "traditional" flavour combination here in Denmark. However I can not pick any lemon flavour, so another time I would use from 1 lemon.

Liquorice pepper cookies:

• 100 g of sweet liquorice syrup
• 75 g of dark muscovado sugar
• 60 g of butter
• ½ organic lemon - only the zest
• ½ teaspoon grained black pepper
• ½ teaspoon grained ginger
• ½ teaspoon grained allspice
• ½ teaspoon grained cloves
• 1 tablespoon licorice powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ beaten egg
• 250 g (cake) flour

1. Melt licorice syrup, dark muscovado sugar and butter together in a cooking over medium heat.
2. Remove from heat and stir in all many spices and baking soda.
3. Let the mass slightly cool down, before the egg and flour is stir in, until it is a smooth dough. 
4. Let the dough rest cold for minimum 4 hours.
5. Heat up the fan oven to 180'C.
6. Cover a baking tray with baking paper.
7. Divide the dough into small pieces of 6 g, which is rolled into ball shape
8. Place the cookie dough on the baking tray.
9. Bake the liquorice pepper cookies at 180'C in the upper of the oven for 7 minutes.
10. Let the cookies cold on a rack, before they are stored in airtight container.

Gløgg evening for women of Vejle 2014

Again it has been time for inviting over some amazing women living locally to help me out removing the huge amount of surplus of calories filling up my new kitchen from my annual Christmas Calendar version 2014. Besides from eating plenty of calories, my good girl friends also admired my new kitchen, filled my kitchen living area with plenty of good talks and great laugther, while they did their best to eat my of my kitchen !!!!

The liquid part of the "menu" was alcohol-free cherry gløgg together with the usual coffee and Chaya Christmas tea, which could assist the local "helping mouths" in enjoying the following "creations" from the Christmas Calender 2014:

• Christmas scones with mincemeat
• World´s best cookies
• Bounty chocolate with marzipan
• German version of "brun kager" (brown Christmas cookies)
• Liquorice balls
• Almond confect
• Caramels with cashew nuts and sea salt

Besides from bringing me some much needed help I got these wonderful hostess gifts, which both are  bringing an extra decorative element to my home during the festive season as well as giving new food creation experiences in my kitchen.

And yes, ladies of Vejle you will be invited again for gløgg evening in 2015 :-)

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 21 - World´s best cookies

I have got the recipe on the world´s est cookies from a work colleague. These cookies are just tasting great, so do yourself the favour to bake these cookies in your own kitchen.

By either increasing or decreasing the baking time you can get your preferred texture in these cookies. The baking time mentioned below will give you a chewy texture, which is my preferred texture in cookies.

The addition of nuts are optional. I decided to use walnuts. In the original recipe the added nuts are hazelnuts. So just your preferred nuts in order to make these world´s best cookies into your best cookies :-)

I used a combination of dark and white chocolate in order to clear up in my box with various chocolate. Again here add your preferred chocolate :-)

Concerning the resting time for the cookies, the minimum time is 1 hour. However, everything between 1 hour and 72 hours are feasible. So in theory you can bake a small amount of the cookies for 3 days in a row allowing you to enjoy freshly baked cookies for 3 days :-)


UPDATE December 2014:
The sparkling sea salt crystals somehow fits into the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats having the theme of glitter, sprinkles, candles and shiny stuff. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers.

World´s best cookies: - 18 cookies

• 240 g (cake) flour
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 140 g butter
• 145 brown sugar
• 115 g sugar
• 1½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 100 g dark chocolate - chopped into small pieces
• 50 g white chocolate . chopped into small pieces
• 100 g walnuts - chopped into small pieces
• sea salt

1. Whip sugar, brown sugar and butter together on a mixer.
2. Add in the egg, and stir well again on the mixer.
3. Add in the salt, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla sugar and flour and mix everything into a homogeneous mass on the mixer.
4. Finally mix in the chocolate and nuts.
5. Place the cookie dough in a mixing bowl, which is placed cold in the refrigerator for 1-72 hours.
6. Heat up the (fan) oven to 175'C.
7. Divide the cookies dough in small lumps of 50 g each. Roll the lumps into ball shape.
8. Place the cookie dough on a baking tray covered with the baking paper. There should be good distance between the cookies as the cookies will start to float during the baking.
9. Bake the cookies at 175'C for 12-14 minutes.
10. Place the cookies on a rack and sprinkle the surface of the cookies with sea salt.
11. Let the cookies cold down, before they are stored in an airtight container.

Christmas Calender 2014 Day 20 - Cherry gløgg

Sometimes your Christmas preparation could be more easy using already prepared things, so you have the time to enjoy the company of family and good friends.

So when I tasted this premix for gløgg, I knew at once, that I would this alcohol-free gløgg in connection for the annual Christmas event for my good friends.

Instead of the classic raisins and almonds I decided to used dried cranberries and pine kernels. The recommendation to use dried cranberries is coming from the producer. And it works perfect combing the fresh sour taste of cranberries with the sweetness of this cherry gløgg.

Cherry gløgg: - 4 servings

• 0.75 l Selleberg cherry gløgg
• 2 handfuls of dried cranberries
• pine kernels 

1. Heat up the cherry gløgg and dried cranberries, the gløgg should not be boiling.
2. Serve in glasses.
3. Serve the pine kernels separately, so people can decided for them selves, the amount of kernels to be added.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 19 - Christmas Scones with mincemeat

When I saw this recipe by Lavender & Lovage on Christmas mincemeat scones, I knew at once, that I need to make my own version of scones with my home-made mincemeat. However, I decided to use my usual scone recipe, as it contains plenty of butter and therefore does not become to dry even 2.3 days after baking.

As the mincemeat brings quiet some liquid, I decided to increase the level of flour, otherwise the scone dough becomes to wet.


Christmas Scones: - 12 pieces

• 500 g cake flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 50 g sugar
• 125 g cold butter
• 1 egg
• 2 dl milk
• 300 g mincemeat

1. Whip the milk and egg together.
2. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar together in a mixing bowl.
3. Cut the cold butter into small pieces.
4. Grind the butter pieces into the flour mix.
5. Add the milk and egg without kneading it a dough.
6. Add the mincemeat, still without kneading it into a dough.
7. Place the dough on a pieces of baking paper.
8. Roll the dough into a longer roll.
9. Heat the oven (conventional) to 250'C.
10. Cut slices of the scone dough with a size of 3 cm. 
11. Bake the scone at 250'C for 10-15 minutes.

Christmas Calender 2014 Day 18 - Nougat ice cream

Well, if the weather can not bring cold, ice and snow for Christmas, when you have to make your own ice in form of this nougat ice cream. Nougat is another key ingredients in many types of Christmas candy, so why use nougat in ice cream ? I got this idea for making nougat ice cream, tasting a home-made version at some of my friends.

So if you have some nougat left after having made your Christmas candy, why not try to turn into ice cream as another version of Christmas candy ?


Nougat ice cream:

• 630 g whole milk, 3-3.5% fat
• 39 g skimmed milk powder
• 96 g sugar
• 32 g glucose syrup as powder
• 6 g ice cream stabiliser
• 200 g nougat

1. Dry-mix all the powder ingredients. Pout them into the milk, as the milk is whipped.
2. Pour the milk base into the a cooking pot and put in chunks of nougat as well.
3. Heat the ice cream mix over medium heat until hot, but not boiling.
4. Pour the ice cream mix into a plastic container with a lid on.
5. Cool down the ice cream mix in the refrigerator, let the mix stand for minimum 4 hours or night over.
6. Whip the ice cream mix prior to freezing it.
7. Pour the mix into the ice cream machine and freeze it into ice cream, which takes around 30-40 minutes.
8. Store the ice cream in the freezer.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 17 - Liquorice balls

I think that you already know, that I have an addiction to liquorice !!! so when I found this recipe on lakridskugler by Louisa Lorang, I knew at once, that I had to make this liquorice balls myself.

I decided to use a combination of combination of both raw liquorice powder and liquorice powder, as this is giving a stronger taste of liquorice. If you have a preference for strong liquorice powder I suggest, that you only use raw liquorice powder. The final taste is excellent without being to sweet.

Liquorice balls a la Louisa Lorang: - 20 balls

• 200 g almonds
• 2 soft dates - without stone
• 1 tablespoon raw liquorice powder
• 1 tablespoon licorice powder
• 2 tablespoon agave syrup
• 2 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon licorice powder

1. Slip the almonds by placing them in boiling water, which makes it easy to remove the skin of the almond.
2. Dry the almonds with kitchen towels.
3. Dry the almonds in the oven at 180'C for 3-4 minutes, they should change colour.
4. Let the almonds cool down.
5. Blend the almonds in a food processor to all right-fine almond flour.
6. Add dates and blend the mass again
7. Add in the liquorice powder and agave syrup. Blend until the mass sticks together.
8. Roll the liquorice marzipan into approx 20 balls.
9. Mix the cocoa and licorice powder together, and roll the balls in the powder mix.
10. Store the balls cold in air tight container.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 16 - Almond confect

I need to fill up some of my metallic tins, so they are ready for Christmas and the guests coming by to eat me "out of the house" !

I have located this recipe somewhere in a magazine, which I have forgotten the name of.

Almond confect:

• 200 g almond splits
• 1 egg white
• 100 g white chocolate
• 1 teaspoon freeze-dried raspberry
• 1 teaspoon raw liquorice powder

1. Mix the almond splits with egg white.
2. Roast the almonds in the oven at 175'C, until the splits are golden in colour.
3. Temper the white chocolate.
4. Mix in the almonds into the melted chocolate. Stir everything very well together.
5. Place a teaspoon of the chocolate coated almonds on the baking paper.
6. Sprinkle the almonds pieces with raspberry and liquorice powder.
7. Let the almond confect piece dry, before they are placed in air tight container.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 15 - Christmas TUC cake

The TUC cake recipe is one of my most overall popular blog posts, so I decided to twist this recipe into a perhaps coming classic Christmas cake recipe ?

I replaced the hazel nuts with almonds, as some people are allergy to hazel nuts. And besides from vanilla sugar I have added into some German Lebkuchen spice. Cinnamon alone or combination of cinnamon, cardamon, ginger and cloves could be another option, if you have no Lebkuchen spice in your kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 150 g TUC biscuits / salty biscuits
• 350 g sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 2 tablespoon Lebkuchen spice
• 200 g almonds
• 7-8 egg whites

1. Grind the almonds.
2. Crush the biscuits into a fine powder
3. Mix the biscuits with almonds, sugar, Lebkuchen spice & vanilla
4. Whip the egg white stiff
5. Blend the egg white into the dry powders
6. Pour into a baking form, diameter 22 cm
7. Bake at 175'C for 30-40 minutes

Simon Lévelt Christmas tea for my tea pot 29

During my recent business trip to Amsterdam I came back with a suitcase full of various interesting Dutch teas. And now the time has come for me to taste the first of these five teas, and having the time of year in mind, I decided to start of with the Christmas version in form of Simon Lévelt Christmas tea version.

This sinterklaas thee could actually plays the role of potpourri with both it´s look and smell of potpourri !!! The Christmas tea does not contain any tea leafs at all, as it made from orange peel, cinnamon, almond pieces, red beet pieces and flavour. The outcome of using this tea is cup full of red coloured liquid with refreshing flavour of orange. However, it is a long way from the usual black teas, which I traditional prefers.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 14 - Cherry Muffins

What to do, if you have some leftover cherry sauce from making ris a la mande, so you bake these muffins using cherry sauce. I have found the recipe in the magazine "Isabellas" (issue 02/2014), and I have no changes at all to it.

Cherry Muffins: - 10 muffins

• 50 g butter - melted
• 2 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 200 g (cake) wheat flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 170 g cherry sauce - blended - glass of M&S Morello Cherries in Kirsh from my last shopping expedition to England 
• 200 g Greek yogurt

1. Heat the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
2. Whip egg and sugar into a foamy mass.
3. Pour in the melted butter, after it has cooled down, and whip again.
4. Sieve in the flour and baking powder into dough.
5. Pour in the cherry sauce. Stir everything into a homogeneous mass.
6. Fill the dough into 10 muffin form.
7. Bake the muffins in the middle of the oven at 200'C for 25 minutes.
8. Cold down the muffins.
9. Enjoy a muffin together with a cup of tea / Christmas tea

Christmas Calendar Day 13 - Christmas pickled nuts

I have found this recipe on Christmas pickled nuts in the weekly magazine Søndag (issue 51/2013). The only change, which I have found is, that I have replace the hazelnuts with almonds, as certain people have allergy towards hazelnuts.

Christmas pickled nuts: - 3 glasses

• 1 organic orange - juice and zest
• 100 g walnut kernels
• 50 almonds
• 3 dl water
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoon fluid honey
• 1 cinnamon

1. Start by preparing the storage glasses with boiling water
2. Boil the nuts in the water for 2 minutes.
3. Drain the nuts in a sieve. Shake the nuts well to get ride of excess water.
4. Pour orange juice, zest, cinnamon, white wine vinegar and honey in a small cooking pot.
5. Add the nuts into the liquid. Bring everything to the boiling, and let the nuts simmer under lid for 5 minutes.
6. Fill the nuts and liquid into the storage glasses, which is closed with lids.
7. Store these pickled nuts cold.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 12 - Mincemeat a la Lavender & Lovage

Mincemeat has become an important ingredient for me in connection with Christmas. And for the very first time I have decided to make my very own mincemeat using this recipe on mincemeat a la Lavender & Lovage instead of buying it. Buying it is also something of challenge, as I live in Denmark, and mincemeat is sold in UK.

Let me list some recipe, where mincemeat plays an important role:

• Christmas mince pies
• Apple and mincemeat puffs

Mincemeat a la Lavender & Lovage:

• 450 g apple juice
• 450 g soft dark brown sugar
• 450 g cooking apples - cored & chopped – no need to peel
• 1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 475 g mixed dried fruits (sultanas, currants and raisins)
• 110 g chopped sucat
• 110 g almonds - medium chopped
• 1 organic orange - juice and zest
• 1 oraganic lemon - juice and zest
• 150 ml brandy or Cognac

1. Put the cider and sugar into a large saucepan & heat gently until the sugar has completely dissolved.
2. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, except the brandy/cognac and slowly bring to the boil – stirring all the time.
3. Lower the heat and cover the saucepan with a lid and gently let is simmer for 30 to 45 minutes.
4. Meanwhile prepare the storage glasses with boiling water.
5. Pour in the brandy/cognac and stir it very well.
6. Fill the mincemeat into the storage glasses.
7. Store the mincemeat in cold and dry place.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 11 - Bagels with cinnamon and raisins

A warm bagel with melting butter is one of my favourite on the bread side. So fare I have been buying frozen bagels, which I have heated in my oven, not very ambitious having a desire about baking my way through the entire bread book called "Hjemmebagt". So when I saw this recipe on bagels med rosiner og kanel a la Maden i mit liv, I decided it was time to cook and bake my very own bagels.

One important tip, which I want to share with you, is, that the baking paper should be greased with oil, before the bagel dough is placed on the baking paper prior to the raising process. If you do this, you will be able to take the bagel off without destroying the shape after the raising process. The very first time, I did not do this, as this tip was mentioned in the original recipe, and I needed up with flat and strange looking bagels !!!

Bagels with cinnamon and raisins a la Maden i mit liv: - 12 bagels

• 250 g lukewarm water
• 25 g yeast
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 25 g syrup
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 2 handfuls of raisins
• 450 gr wheat flour

1. Stir the yeast into the lukewarm water.
2. Add oil, salt, syrup, cinnamon and raisins into the water.
3. Add the flour and mix the dough for 10 minutes on an electrical mixer.
4. knead the dough smooth and shiny.
5. Let the dough raise for about 15 minutes in the mixing bowl.
6. Cover a baking tray with baking paper, which is greased with a thin layer of oil.
7. Divide the dough into 80 g.
8. Insert a finger down the centre of each dough ball and make a hole. Hold your finger down on the kitchen table and move it so round, so the bun revolves around.
9. Place the bagel on the baking paper and let the bagels raise for another 30 minutes.
10. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
11. Heat up a large cooking pot with water to the boiling point
12. Cook the bagel dough for approx 1 minute on each side. It is possible to cook 2-3 bagels at a time, if you use a large cooking pot. 
13. Place the cooked bagels on the baking tray covered with baking paper.
14. Bake the cooked bagels for 20-25 minutes at 200'C in the upper part of the oven, until the bagels are golden.
15. Cool the bagels on a oven rack.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 10 - Bounty chocolate with marzipan

Bounty chocolate is one of my favourite chocolate with it´s great creamy coconut center and rich milk chocolate coating. So when I saw this recipe hjemmelavet bounty med marcipan a la Isabellas, I knew at once, that I NEEDED to make these home-made Bounty chocolate with marzipan for Christmas.

I decided to make a bigger portion, so I could coat half in milk chocolate and the other half in dark chocolate, as dark chocolate sometimes is bringing a good balance to a sweet core, which marzipan very easy can bring.

Bounty chocolate with marzipan a la Isabellas: - 30 pieces

• 3 pasteurized egg whites
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 150g marzipan - grated
• 300g desiccated coconut
• 100g milk chocolate
• 200 g dark chocolate
• 
  

1. Pour the egg whites in a small saucepan with the sugar. Gently warm up, while constantly stirring this mixture, until is dissolved.
2. Remove this egg-mix from the heat and stir in the grated marzipan.
3. Knead in the desiccated coconut by hand, until the mixture comes together, when you squeeze it.
4. Form 30 small rolls, cover with foil and place them cool for about 15 minutes.
5. Temp the chocolate. Dip one piece of confectionery at a time in the melted chocolate.
6. Store in air-tight container.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 9 - clementines in cognac

I have located this recipe on clementines in brandy a la Jamsmith, and I thaught these clementines could be used either for dessert for coming guests or as hostesse gift for up-coming Christmas events.

I decided to add star anise as extra flavour twist to the cognac syrup.

I think these clementines would be as an extra twist to ice cream.

Clementines in brandy a la Jamsmith:

• 1000 g clementines
• 600 g cognac
• 150 g sugar
• 250 g water
• 6 star anis

1. Start ny preparing the storage glasses by filling them with boiling water.
2. Peel the clementines, remove as much of the white membrane as possible. Divide each clementine into single "boat"/unit
3. Pour water, cognac, star anis and sugar into a cooking pot over low heat. Heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved.
4. Fill the storage glasses for water and fill them with clementine units/"boats".
5. Pour the cognac syrup over the clementines, until the glass is full. Close the glass.
6. Store the glasses cold.

Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 8 - Caramels with cashew nuts and sea salt

I am getting better and better at making caramels. However, this portion of caramels turned out to be something of a challenge for me, as the addition of the all many nuts meant, that the temperature was dropping very, very fast, so the caramels were setting, before I had pour them into these small alu-forms. So I assume it would have been better to pour the caramel mass into one big tray covered with baking paper. When the caramels are cool down to fast, they do get that shinny look, which a caramel should have.

I have the recipe from a small Australian recipe book called "Women´s Weekly - little Christmas treats", which I have received as a gift from a good colleague working down-under.

Caramels with cashew nuts and sea salt a la Women´s Weekly:

• 220 g sugar
• 250 g dairy whipping cream 38% fat
• 60 g glucose syrup
• 160 g unsalted roasted cashew nuts
• 1½ teaspoon sea salt

1. Start by roasting the cashew nuts over high heat on a frying pan.
2. Cut the roasted nuts into smaller pieces.
3. Pour sugar, glucose syrup and whipping cream into a medium cooking pot.
4. Bring the cream mass to the boil, and let the temperature reach 120'C.
5. Stir in the cashew nuts and sea salt.
6. Pour the caramel mass into alu-forms or a baking tray covered with baking paper.
7. After the caramels have set, cut the big portion into smaller caramels using a hot knife.
8. Store the caramels in an air-tight container.

Tea shopping in Amsterdam

Last week I spend four days in Amsterdam in connection with work and participation with stand duty at HiE 2014. It can be though for your feets with three days of stand duty, as you spend quiet some time standing up.

Luckily I had some time for a little sight seeing around the city centre of Amsterdam on the day of arrival, where I went by both the tulip and cheese museum. The cheese museum has a great exhibition in the cellar about cheese production as well as a photo gallery, where you could take pictures with old-style cloth and cheese models. On the ground floor of the cheese museum you can taste various Dutch Gouda cheese.

I also managed to find two tea shops (Simon Lévelt & Citea), so I could return with five bags of tea, which I will enjoy in my tea pot.

I also located a small ceramic shop JC Herman , where I brought another tea cup and bowl for my green ceramic tea set. 

Finally I was stocking up at the airport with some more Dutch specialities such as speculoos paste, caramel filled waffles and milk chocolate sprinkles for using on bread.