Marzipan cake with raspberry and lime for New Year 2017

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.

This year I have been using this recipe from Femina on raspberry - lime marzipan cake.  I think, that my good friends in Horsens are relieve to see, that no liquorice is part of these marzipan cake :-)

The advantage of baking your own marzipan cakes is, that you decided on both the sweetness level as well as the taste of these cakes, if you want to twist the taste. For other suggestions for marzipan cake

Marzipan cake with raspberry and lime: - 25-30 pieces

• 250 g marzipan
• 100 g icing sugar
• 20 g egg white
• 2 tablespoon of freeze-dried raspberries
• 1 organic lime - only the zest finely chopped
• Decoration: icing sugar - optional

1. Heat the oven to 210'C (conventional oven).
2. Add marzipan, icing sugar, egg white, lime zest and freeze-dried raspberry into a medium mixing bowl. 
3. Knead the marzipan cake together by hand.
4. Divide the marzipan cake mass into smaller portions, which is rolled by hand into thinner rolls. Cut each roll into 3-4 pieces of equal size.
5. Bake the marzipan cake mass at 210'C for 8-10 minutes.
6. Cool down the marzipan cake.
7. Decorate the top of the marzipan cake with icing sugar - optional.
8. Let the icing sugar dry.
9. Enjoy !!!!

New Year cheesecake

After my success with the Christmas style cheesecake (created for the annual Christmas coffee), I decided to make anew cheesecake with the theme of New Year using a Philadelphia recipe. The New Year theme comes from the bottom layer of marzipan cake and the addition of sparkling wine in the cream cheese base.

I followed the recipe without making any modifications.
Another time I would bake the marzipan cake bottom layer some more, at it is too the wet side in my opinion.
I am also uncertain, if the layer of Daim chocolate should be a part of the cake another time, as Daim is not representing New Year in my opinion, but it does add a crunchy layer to a cheesecake with a lot of soft texture.
And finally I would reduce the actual portion of the cheese cake layer to half the amount as it become to heavy, when eating the cake.
The taste part of the cake works very nice with the addition of sparkling wine into the cream cheese cake mass.

New Year cheesecake: - 10-14 servings

Bottom layer:

• 150 g sugar
• 2 egg whites or 67 g pasteurised egg white
• 300 g marzipan - roughly grated
• 40 g dark chocolate - finely chopped
• 112 g Daim chocolate - finely chopped

Cream cheese cake mass:

• 900 g full fat cream cheese
• 200 g quark /fromage fraise
• 100 g icing sugar
• 1 vanilla pod - only the corns
• 7 sheets of gelatine
• 3 dl sparkling wine

Decoration:

• 10-12 fresh strawberries

Bottom layer:

1. Heat up up the oven to 220'C.
2. Whip the sugar and egg whites into a foamy mass.
3. Afterwards add in the grated marzipan, keep whipping until the mass is homogeneous.
4. Cover the bottom layer of the spring form with baking parchment.
5. Fill the marzipan cake mass into the spring form, distribute the mass evenly in the form.
6. Bake the marzipan cake bottom layer at 220'C for 15 minutes.
7. Remove the cake from the oven.
8. After a few minutes spread the chopped dark chocolate on top of the marzipan cake. Let the dark chocolate melt, use a brush to spread the melted chocolate evenly on top of the marzipan cake.
9. Let the cake cool down.
10. Spread the chopped Daim chocolate on top of the dark chocolate layer.

Cream cheese cake mass:

1. Add the gelatine sheets into bowl filled with cold water, let the gelatine sheets soak for 5 minutes.
2. Add the cream cheese into a medium-large mixing bowl. Whip the cream cheese together.
3. Add in the quark, and the mass together.
4. Remove the vanilla corns from the vanilla pod, use a spoon full of the icing sugar to separate the vanilla corns from each other.
5. Add in the vanilla corns and icing sugar, and whip everything together.
6. Heat up 1½ dl of the sparkling wine in a small bowl placed in cooking pot with hot water. Add in the gelatine sheets. Stir until the gelatine sheets are dissolved.
7. Afterwards add in the remaining 1½ dl sparkling wine.
8. Add in the sparkling wine little by little into the cream cheese cake, while you whip the mass. Whip the mass very well to ensure, that the gelatine is evenly distributed to avoid gelatine strings.
9. Fill the cream cheese cake mass on top of the marzipan cake layer in the spring form.
10. Store the cake cold in the refrigerator for minimum 4-5 hours or night over, so it can set.
11. Remove the cheesecake from the spring form.
12. Divided the fresh strawberries into half, place the strawberry pieces around the cake, before serving it.
13. Serve, perhaps with a glass of sparkling wine ?

Suggestions for marzipan cake for New Year celebration 2017

Christmas was removed from my home and kitchen this morning after the annual Christmas lunch  yesterday, 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 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 give you time to go shopping for the needed ingredients as well as baking them for New Year's Eve tomorrow and perhaps clear out the last Christmas marzipan left-overs.

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 2016 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.

In 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. Also in 2014 I made liquorice marzipan cake.

I 2016 I made these marzipan cake with ginger and lime.

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

In 2015 I made this fantastic marzipan horn.

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 2018, so look by tomorrow on New Year Eve day for the marzipan creation of 2017 :-)

Christmas lunch for the "The Wonderful Women" 2017

The annual Christmas lunch for "The Wonderful Women" took place this afternoon for an even bigger group this year - fantastic :-)

As usual we had the usual tapas selection from Osteriet with company in form of two home-made breads: rye bread and cooking pot bread with fig and hazelnuts. This year we also could enjoy these marinaded herrings.

As tradition demands we started the Christmas lunch with a cocktail in form of French Martini.

The dessert part of the Christmas lunch we could both enjoy this New Year cheesecake as well as a selection of sweets:

• Cookies with pickled ginger
• Peppermint fudge
• Bastogne biscuits
• "Pepper nuts" a la Urtekram
• Oat flakes pellets with fromage frais

The tradition also describes, that we have to play the gift play (pakkeleg in Danish) using a specific card game, so not dices as normal. All participants bring between 2-8 gifts, and in the card game you either end up with most of the gifts or not gifts at all. As the gifts can be everything between DVDs, paperbacks, ugly Christmas decorations, tea and chocolate, it is not good to get all the gifts ! One of the play card has a text, saying you should give a gift to each person under the age of 25 years, so we therefore decided to the card text should be re-written of the person get the most gifts this year. We are looking forward to experience the new text in 2018 :-)









As usual we spend some great hours in good company getting up to date with each others lifes :-)

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Merry Christmas to all of you

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 of 2017, 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 coffee 2017 for local friends

It this time of the year, when it is time again to invite some fantastic women for my annual Christmas coffee. As usual we had an evening, where my kitchen living area was full of good talks and great laugther, while my guests did their best to eat me of my kitchen !!!!

Hannibal the Cat was doing his best to eat my of the kitchen, as he decided to lick the cream topping of the Mont Blanc tarts, as he manged to enjoy 6 out of 9 tarts, while I lighting some tea light lamps out at the entrace as welcome to my guests.

The liquid part of the "menu" this time not the usual warm glögg, but instead a non-alcoholic drink in form of mulled cranberry and raspberry punch, as a lot my guest were driving. Besides from this punch coffee and my various Christmas teas were refreshing the "helping mouths" in enjoying the following "creations" from the Christmas Calendar 2017:

Ris a la mande cheesecake

Chocolate cherry muffins

Madeleines with almonds

Cookies with pickled ginger

Peppermint sweets

Bastogne biscuits

"Pepper nuts" a la Urtekram

Oat flakes pellets with fromage frais

Besides from helping me with eating plenty of Christmas calories, I also got some lovely hostess gifts incl amaryllis flowers, thank you so much for these great gifts :-) My guests know me to well, the colour of my new tea towels were fitting perfect with the colour of kitchen tiles.

And yes, ladies of Vejle you will be invited again for gløgg evening in 2018 :-)

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Peppermint fudge

My Christmas Calendar of 2017 is coming to an end this year, and I would like to share the last Christmas creation from my kitchen with you in form of the sweet treat. I have been making peppermint fudge using the rest flavour extract from these peppermint sweets. I used the recipe of chai fudge as starting point for the fudge part.

Peppermint fudge:

• 1 tin of 397 g sweetened condensed milk
• 450 g sugar
• 250 ml dairy whipping cream, 35-40% fat
• 2 tablespoons of peppermint extract

1. Mix the condensed milk, sugar and cream together in a large saucepan. Boil up this mass, while you stir regular. Cook the mass up to 115'C. 
2. Pour the fudge mass in a whipping bowl and add in the peppermint extract. Whip the fudge mass on speed 2 for 10 minutes.
3. Cover a baking form with baking paper.
4. Fill the fudge mass into this form.
5. Let the mass cool down
6. When the fudge is firm enough, cut it into squares of 2 x 2 cm each
7. Store the fudge in an airtight container.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Ris a la mande cheesecake

For my annual Christmas coffe I decided to make a cheesecake with ris a la mande as the theme. I had seen various recipes on such type of cheesecake. I decided to this recipe as staring point, which I when adjusted to my preferences.

Both Christmas coffee guests as well as my colleagues really liked the taste and the colour variation, so every single piece were eaten with great pleasure.

I am planning to make another cheesecake with New Year as theme for the next time, when I have guests coming around for the annual Christmas lunch for fantastic women.

Ris a la mande cheesecake: - 10-14 servings

• Biscuit bottom:
• 150 g brun kager
• 75 g butter
• Cake mass:
• 6 sheets of gelatine
• 300 g rice porridge
• 100 g plain full fat cream cheese
• 20 g sour cream, 18% fat - optional (I just had some leftover in the refrigerator
• 100 g icing sugar
• 3 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 3 dl dairy whipping cream, 35-40% fat
• Cherry sauce glaze:
• 500 g cherry sauce - main part of the cherries removed
• 4 sheets of gelatine

Biscuit bottom:

1. Destroy the brun kager into small pieces using a rolling pin. Fist place the brun kager in a freezing bag, so you can control the whereabouts of the cakes.
2. Melt the butter.
3. Stir the butter and brun kager pieces together in a medium mixing bowl.
4. Afterwards press the mass into the bottom of the spring form (18-22 cm).
5. Place the mass cold.

Cake mass:

1. Place the gelatine sheets in a bowl with cold water, let the sheets soak for 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the cream cheese and sour cream in a medium mixing bowl, stir it together using a cooking spoon.
3. Add in the icing sugar and vanilla sugar, stir t together.
4. Add in the rice porridge gradually, stir after each addition.
5. Squeeze the gelatine sheets from excess water. Melt the gelatine sheets in a water bath.
6. Add the melted gelatine gradually into the cake mass, while you keep stirring the cake mass to avoid lump formation.
7. Whip the dairy cream into foam.
8. Stir in the whiped foam gradually.
9. Fill the cake mass into the spring form on top of the biscuit layer.
10. Place the cake cold in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Cherry glaze:

1. Separate the cherries from the cherry sauce. The excess cherries could be used in these chocolate cherry muffins.
2. Meanwhile place the gelatine sheets in a bowl with cold water, let the sheets soak for 5-10 minutes.
3. Add the cherry sauce with a few amount of cherries into a cooking pot. Heat up the sauce to 35-40'C. 
4. Squeeze the gelaltine sheets for excess water. Add the gelatine sheets into the cherry sauce. Stir the sauce, until the gelatine sheets are melted into the sauce.
5. Fill the cherry sauce on top of the cheesecake.
6. Store the cheesecake cold in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours or night over.
7. Serve and enjoy.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Chocolate cherry muffin

Using the flavour combination of chocolate and cherry from the chocolate cherry trifle, which we made at the Christmas afternoon tea course at Denman, I decided to bake some chocolate cherry muffins for the annual Christmas Coffee, as I had some cherries left-over from the ris a la mande cheesecake.

I used a muffin recipe from the baking book "A piece of cake" as starting point, which I when adjusted to my purpose.

Chocolate cherry muffin:  - 15-20 muffins

• 150 g butter
• 2 dl sour cream, 18% fat
• 1 organic lemon - only the zest
• 2 eggs
• 150 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 165 g wheat (cake) flour
• 55 g cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 pinch of salt
• 100 g dark chocolate - finely chopped
• 15-20 cherries from cherry sauce

1. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
2. Melt the butter, afterwards add into the sour cream and lemon zest, stir together.
3. Add egg, sugar and vanilla sugar into a mixing bowl, whip it light and foamy.
4. Add in the cocoa powder, wheat flour, salt and baking powder. Mix it together into a homogeneous mass.
5. Stir in the chopped chocolate pieces.
6. Fill up the muffins half way with the dough.
7. Place a cherry into the muffin dough, fill more muffin dough on top, so the cherry is hidden.
8. Bake the muffins at 200'C for 15 minutes.
9. Check, that the muffin is baked, before removing it from the oven.
10. Cool down the muffin, before making the muffins out of the silicone form.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Mulled cranberry & raspberry punch

For the people coming around this evening for the annual Christmas Coffee, I will be serving this mulled punch as the "gløgg" item. This mulled punch is without alcohol, as a lot of my guests will be driving.

I found the recipe in a small recipe booklet within the December issue of Good Housekeeping. I have only made a few modifications to the amount of added raspberries and the infusion, which I have extended from 5 minutes to almost 24 hours to get a much of the flavour of spices into the mulled punch.

Mulled cranberry & raspberry punch:

• 2 l of cranberry juice
• 225 g raspberries - frozen
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 10 cloves
• 2½ c, fresh ginger root - peeled and finely chopped
• 40 g sugar
• 1 orange - cut into halve
• 1 orange for garnish

1. Add all the ingredients into a large cooking pot.
2. Bring it to the boil, and let it simmer gently for 10 minutes. Keep the lid on.
3. Place the cooking pot cold for 8-24 hours, so the spices can infuse the juice.
4. Strain the content through a sieve.
5. Press the fruit gentle to get all the juice out.
6. Bring the liquid back into the cooking pot, and heat it up to the boiling point.
7. Pour into glasses with is garnished with slices of orange.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Mont Blanc tarts

For my annual Christmas Coffee I have been remaking these Mont Blanc tarts, which I learned to make at the course in Christmas afternoon tea.

These Mont Blanc tarts are composed of various elements such as tart dough in form of flaky pastry, candied pecans, filling of chestnut and finally some vanilla flavour whipped cream, so what not to like ??

Mont Blanc tarts:  - 6-8 tarts

• Flaky pastry:
• 200 g plain wheat (cake) flour
• 120 g butter - cold, cut into 1 cm dices
• 30 g sugar
• ½ teaspoon white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoon ice-cold water
• Candied pecans:
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon liquid glucose syrup
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 120 g pecan halves
• 1/8 teaspoon flaky sea salt
• Filling:
• 60 g dark chocolate
• 320 g sweetened chestnut spread
• icing sugar for sweetening of the chestnut spread
• Vanilla whipped cream:
• 200 g dairy whipping cream, 35-40% fat
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon cognac

1. Add the flour, butter and butter into a medium size mixing bowl. Rub it together using only the finger tips and not the palms. Run it until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. 
2. Add in the water and vinegar, mix the dough very fast into a homogeneous mass.
3. Form the dough into a ball, which is covered in cling film and place in the refrigerator for minimum 1 hour or up to 3 days.
4. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes, if it has been in the refrigerator for more than a few hours. Place smaller portions of the dough on the kitchen tabletop, which has been lightly floured. 
5. Roll out the dough to a height of 3 mm, and cut out circle of 14 cm. The dough should only the rooled out 3 times in total.
6. Cover the tart forms (8-9 cm)  with the dough, gently press the pasty dough into the corners of the tart forms.
7. Place the tart forms in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
8. Cover the dough in the tart forms with baking parchment and fill with baking beans.
9. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
10. Bake the dough blind at 200'C for 18 minutes.
11. Removed the baking parchment and baking beans and bake for another 8 minutes at 200'C, until the tarts are golden brown.
12. Remove from the oven, and the let the tarts cold down, before they are removed from the tart forms.
13. Meanwhile increase the oven temperature to 210'C
14. Cover a baking tray with baking parchment.
15. Add the maple syrup, glucose syrup and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir until the sugar has melted, when add the salt and the pecans. Stir until the pecans are covered in syrup.
16. Place the pecans on the baking tray.
17. Bake the pecans in the oven at 210'C for approx 8 minutes, or until the syrup is bubbling around the pecans.
18. Remove the pecans from the oven, and let the pecans cold down completely.
19. Melt the chocolate. Glaze the inside of the tarts with chocolate. 
20. Set aside form 30 minutes, so the chocolate is stiff.
21. Sweetened the chestnut spread with icing sugar to desired sweetness level.
22. Fill up the tart with sweetened chestnut spread. Set aside.
23. Whip the dairy cream, icing sugar, vanilla extract and cognac into whipped cream.
24. Top up with the whipped cream on top of the chestnut spread, so it form a top. Cover the top with candied pecans.
25. Serve :-)

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Peppermint sweets

I have a bunch of people, which comes party crashing Wednesday for my annual Christmas coffee. I have been baking a lot some fare in December, and I will be creating some cakes in the coming 2 days, but I am a little low on the sweet treat side. Here I have found this recipe on peppermint sweets by Dr. Oetker.

I find the taste of peppermint too be to the low side, so i here I would recommend to increase the amount of peppermint extract from 3 teaspoons to 3½ teaspoons.

While I has mixing the various ingredients together, so I suddenly realized, that I did not have enough icing sugar !!! while most people would have been running off to the nearest supermarket, I grab my Bamix, which can turn caster sugar into icing sugar, when using the spice mill tool. Well, it can change the particle size, but it cannot change the colour from light brown into very white, so my peppermint sweets are not white in their colour.

Instead of using my hands for the rolling of the sticky sweet mass, I always use two teaspoons in order to make the individual sweets. This way you avoid to get messy hands and it is more easy to get a uniform size of each sweet.

Peppermint sweet:

• 1 cup of pasteurised egg white
• 3 teaspoons of peppermint extract
• 400 g icing sugar

1. Add the egg white and peppermint extract into a medium size mixing bowl. Stir it together.
2. Add in the icing sugar little by little, while the mass is stirred between each addition.
3. Keep adding in the icing mass, until the mass is firm, but still sticky.
4. Place a piece of baking parchment on the kitchen tabletop.
5. Use two teaspoons to form a smaller ball in the sizde of a hazel/walnut. 
6. Place these ball on the baking parchment. Press them flat using the backside of a teaspoon, which is dipped into water from time to time, so the peppermint sweet does mot stick to the teaspoon.
7. Leave the peppermint sweet to dry in the baking parchment for up to 24 hours, before they are stored in an airtight container.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Glazed turkey crown

This Sunday dinner could be regarded as a pre-test of the Christmas dinner. I think it can be could to practice one or two times, before one of the most important dinners of the year, the meal for Christmas Eve !!

I have located this recipe on glazed turkey crown in the a small recipe booklet from the December issue of Good Housekeeping. The only change is, that I have been using a turkey breast with a weight of 900 g and less bacon.

Glazed turkey crown: - 4 servings

• 900 g turkey breast
• 5 slices of bacon
• 50 g butter - soft
• 5 fresh tarragon sprigs
• salt & pepper for seasoning
• 200 ml hot vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1 tablespoon honey

1. Heat the oven to 200'C.
2. Weight your turkey breast in order to calculate the cooking time. 20 minutes per kg + 1 hour and 10 minutes as starting point. The turkey breast I was working with weight 900 g, so I calculated a cooking time of 1 hour and 30 minutes.
3. Rub the turkey breast with the soft butter and place the tarragon sprigs on top of the butter.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Lay a rasher of bacon on the left-hand side of the turkey beast. Place the second bacon rasher horizontally across the breast, repeat this pattern with the rest of the bacon rasher with plenty of space between those. Tuck the end of the bacon under the turkey breast.
6. Place the turkey breast in a small oven tray.
7. Pour the vegetable stock into the oven tray. Put the lid on the oven tray or cover the surface with foil.
8. Place the turkey breast in the oven at 200'C in the middle.
9. Roast the turkey for the calculated time, but 20 minutes.
10. Mix the mustard and honey together.
11. Remove the foil/lid from the cooking tray, glaze the turkey breast with the honey-mustard mixture.
12. Bake the final 20 minutes without the foil/lid.
13. Check, that the turkey breast is cooked by pinching the thickest part of the breast with a knife. The juice from the breast should run clear, otherwise give it another 10 minutes at 200'C.
14. Remove the turkey from the oven, when cooked. Place on a warm plate, cover loose with foil and leave it to rest for 20 minutes.
15. Meanwhile turn the vegetable stock from the oven tin into a sauce. 
16. Serve the turkey together with sauce of the vegetable stock, cranberry sauce, potatoes and vegetables.

Christmas Calendar 2017- Mulled cranberry & clementine sauce

I this recipe on cranberry sauce in a little recipe booklet from the magazine "Good Housekeeping, which I brought home with me from shopping exhibition to London. I made a few modifications, so it fitted to the amount of available cranberries as well as available ingredients in my kitchen.

Mulled cranberry & clementine sauce: - 4 servings

• 150 g fresh cranberries
• 80 g sugar
• 25 ml port wine
• 75 ml red wine
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2-3 cm fresh ginger - peel and cut into 4 smaller pieces
• 4 organic clementines - zest of 1 clementine & juice of 4 clementines

1.  Wash the cranberries.
2. Put all the ingredients into medium cooking pot.
3. Bring the ingredients to the boil.
4. Reduce the heat, and let the sauce simmer without lid for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove ½ the cranberries from the sauce. Remove the cinnamon stick as well as ginger pieces.
6. Blend the remaining ingredients in the cooking pot together.
7. Add the whole cranberries to the blend sauce.
8. Bring the sauce to the boil.
9. Pour the sauce into a serving bowl and served it as a side dish for the turkey breast.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Bastogne biscuits

I have a small addiction for Bastogne biscuits, and when a new package of Bastogne biscuits is being opened in my kitche, I have to hide them, so they do not disappear too fast.

I have found this recipe on Bastogne kiks, which I have no made changes to. During the baking process, my new taste modification were jumping into my mind, so sooner or later I taste new modification with you.

Bastogne biscuit a la Valdemarsro:

• 50 g brown sugar
• 50 g marble syrup
• 50 g butter . soft
• pinch of grated ginger
• ½ teaspoon cardamon
• pinch of vanilla sugar
• pimch of salt
• ½ organic lemon - only the zest
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 125 g wheat (cake) flour

1. Mix the brown sugar and marble syrup together in a medium mixing bowl.
2. Add in the butter, and whip it together using an electrical mixer.
3. Add in the flour, lemon zest, ginger, salt, vanilla sugar, cardamon and baking powder into the mixing bowl, and whip gentle. Finish off by knead the dough together by hand to bring the dough together entirely.
4. Place the dough cold in the refrigerator for minimum 1 hour or longer.
5. Heat up the fan oven to 180'C.
6. Cover the baking tray with baking parchment.
7. Divide the dough into 2-3 smaller portions. roll out each portion by hand to longer rool with a diameter of 1½ cm.
8. Press the roll flat using a fork to give the biscuit a pattern.
9. Cut each roll into a length of 3-4 cm.
10. Place the buscuits on the baking trays with a good distance between each biscuits.
11. Bake the Bastogne biscuits at 180'C for 10-12 minutes.
12. Cool down the Bastogne, before they are placed in an airtight container.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Kløben buns with pickled ginger

Since I was a little girl I have been loving to eat buns with a combinations of raisins, orange peel and sucat. I have made a few modification to this recipe on kløben buns in form of addition of vanilla sugar and finely chopped pickled ginger.

I have also changed the raising method from cold and long time raising to warn and shorter raising time.

Kløben buns with pickled ginger:

• 200 g milk
• 10 g (fresh) yeast
• 3 eggs
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 500 g wheat flour
• 50 g orange peel
• 50 g sucat
• 75 g raisins
• 50 g pickled ginger - finely chopped
• 75 g butter
• Eggwash

1. Dissolve the yeast in the milk. Add egg, salt and sugar as well into the milk.
2. Add the flour.
3. Knead the dough together for 10 minutes.
4. Let the dough rest warm for 4 hours.
5. Cut the butter into small pieces.
6. Knead the butter, orange peel, sucat and raisins into the dough.
7. Divide the dough into 12 buns.
8. Let the bun raise for 30 minutes.
9. Heat the oven to 200'C (conventional oven)
10. Coat the buns with egg (1 egg whipped together)
11. Bake the buns at 200'C for 15 minutes.
12. Serve the buns together with some butter !!!

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Lucia buns

Today it is Lucia day, which is a huge day in Sweden, where they will enjoy "lussekatte" together wiht the all the singing. In Denmark we have the same tradition with singing people in white dresses walking around with burning candles in their hands and the "Lucia bride" person in front of the group will have burning candle on top of her head !!! But we do not eat these buns full of saffron and butter.

I have locatede this recipe on a Swedish blog Lucia buns / lussekatter called Anne´s Food. The buns taste fantastic with this combination of butter and saffron.

Lucia Buns: 

• 40 g yeast
• 200 g milk, full-fat with 3.5% fat
• 50 g full-fat whipping cream, 38% fat
• 100 g butter
• 0,5-0.75 g saffron 
• 100 g sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ egg, beaten
• 500 g wheat flour
• ½ egg, beaten
• raisins

1. Crumble the yeast in a mixing bowl.
2. Meanwhile melt the butter in a cooking pot, when add the milk and cream to the melted butter. Heat up to 37'C and not higher, as higher temperature will kill the yeast.
3. Add the butter-milk-cream mass into the mixing bowl, stir until you have dissolved the yeast.
4. Place the saffron together 1 teaspoon sugar in a mortar and mix it well. Add it into the liquid in the mixing bowl. 
5. Add sugar, salt, the beaten egg and the flour into the mixing bowl. Work into a silky dough, the dough is very, very sticky and moist in the beginning, but it only takes a little kneading to change the texture of it. I always knead on time, 10 minutes, so I am sure, that the dough it needed enough.
6. Let the dough rest/raise warm for 45 minutes.
7. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
8. Divide the dough into 10 equal portions, I always a kitchen scale for this purpose in order to ensure equal baking of the buns.
9. The traditional Swedish shape of Lucia buns apparently is like a S-shape with a raisin placed in the middle of the swirls on each side.
10. Place the buns a baking tray covered with baking paper.
11. Let the Lucia buns raise for another 15 minutes.
12. Bake the buns at 200'C for 15-20 minutes.
13. Enjoy the Lucia buns together with a nice cup of tea/coffee.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Madeleines/mini muffins with almonds

Another recipe on madeleines with almonds, which I have located in the weekly magazine "Søndag". I have made no modifications to this recipe.

If you like I have Madeleine forms, when I could suggest you to try out these Madeleines with lime and rosemary or Madeleine with ginger, lemon and vanilla.

Madeleines/mini muffins with almonds:

• 120 g butter
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 3 eggs
• 200 g sugar
• 1 organic lemon - only the zest
• 125 g almond flour
• 250 g wheat (cake) flour
• ½ teaspoon cardamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 100 g milk

1. Heat up the oven to 210'C.
2. Melt the butter and honey together in a small cooking pot.
3. Whip the egg and sugar together in a mixing bowl using an electrical whipper.
4. Pour in the melted butter and whip until homogeneous.
5. Add in the flour, almond flour, lemon zest, cardamon and baking powder, whip gentle until homogeneous.
6. Pour in the milk, and whip gentle.
7. Pour the dough into either madeleine form or small muffin forms.
8. Bake the madeleines at 210'C for 10-12 minutes.
9. Cool down the cakes, before they are stored in airtight containers.

Christmas Calendar 2017 - Cookies with pickled ginger

I have found this recipe on Christmas cookies with pickled ginger in the weekly magazine "Søndag". I made a few modification, as I did not have all the required ingredients in my kitchen. The taste of these cookies is just great.

Christmas cookies with pickled ginger: - 20 cookies

• 75 g  milk chocolate - roughly chopped
• 50 g pickled ginger - finely chopped
• 170 g butter
• 220 g brown sugar
• 3/4 dl dark syrup
• 1 egg
• 275 g (cake) wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 5 cloves - mined in a molter

1. Heat up the oven to 180'C fan oven.
2. Whip the butter together with the brown sugar, dark syrup and egg.
3. Add in the wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves, and whip until homogeneous.
4. Stir in the chopped chocolate and ginger
5. Use two teaspoon to place dough in a size of walnuts on baking tray covered to the baking parchment with a distance of 5-6 cm.
6. Bake the cookied at 180'C for 12 minutes. After 6 minutes shift around with the baking tray to obtain an even baking.
7. Cool down the cookies, before they are placed in an airtight container.

Christmas Fair 2017 at Trapholt

The annual Christmas Fair at Trapholt has become a real most/have-do-thing for me, as the level of the different art booths is at a very high quality level. You can find "old" well known crafts people from previous years as well as new crafts designers.

Vases by Rikke Elgaard

Glass vases for flower onions

Bruuns Keramik

A good tip is to arrive from the very beginning in the morning, or perhaps even 10-15 minutes, before the museum and fair begins, so you are able to get a parking spots more or less next door to the museum. Besides from getting a good parking spot, you can also get a good look around the various arts and craft booths, before the fair area becomes over-crowed.

Aoife Soden Glass                                                                                                  Loise Maagaard

The entrance is now ½ entrance free to the museum (it used to be free entrance), but for 55 DKK you get access to both the fair as well as the museum.

So what could I "not live without" ?

Candle light holder by Louise Maagaard

Small vases by Jytte Lysgaard - Højer Keramik

Green glass decoration by Aoife Soden Glass

Green vase by Louise Maagaard