White Element serving dishes

When you invite people around for afternoon tea serving various scones, cookies and cakes on your Royal Copenhagen china you need some serving plates/dishes, which fit into this context. So in my local Royal Copenhagen outlet I found these two plates in the design of White Elements during the Summer sale, which means a price discount of 35% compared to the products of first class/sorting.

So now I can serve various cakes and cookies, when I use my Royal Copenhagen China tea cups for afternoon tea parties.

Apple & ginger jam

Despite the rainless Danish Summer the apple trees in my garden are booming with apples. So as a first step in preserving some of the many apples for later use I decided to make some apple jam from my Ingrid Marie apples using my jam recipe book as inspiration with a few modifications.

In the recipe on apple jam in this recipe book the core of the apple as well as the apple peel in added into a muslin bag, which I can find no explanation why to do so. The natural fruit pectin from the apple is not locate in the apple core, the fruit pectin is located in the entire apple, so I did not see the need to place neither the core nor the peel of the apple in such a muslin bag, so therefore I did not that.

I also decided to add the water, lemon juice, lemon peel and ground ginger into the cooking pan first, so this liquid mixture hopefully could reduce the browning of the apple boats, so I right after the apple cutting could place the apple boats here.

Apple & ginger jam: - 8 glasses

• 1.4 kg apples - washed, cored, peeled and cut into smaller boat shapes
• 600 ml water
• 2 organic lemons - zest and the juice
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 125 g crystallised ginger - finely chopped
• 1.4 kg sugar

1. Add water, lemon juice and zest and ground into the cooking pan.
2. Prepare the apples by washing them, removing both core and peel and finally cutting the apple into small boat shapes. Place the apple boat in the liquid in the cooking pan.
3. Put the cooking pan on the stove, heat up the content, so the apples are simmering. 
4. Let the apple simmer until the apple boat are tender and starts to cook out.
5. Prepare the jam glasses either by heating up in the oven or adding boiling water to them.
6. Add the sugar and chopped crystallised ginger into the fruit mass and stir until it is dissolved.
7. Bring the jam to a rolling boil and boil hard until the setting point is reached. Stir the jam frequently.
8. Test of set after 5 minutes using the flake test.
9. When the setting point is reached, remove the pan from the heat and leave it to stand for approx.  5 minutes. As the jam settles, push any scums from the surface of the pan to the side and remove it with a metal spoon. The purpose for the waiting step is well to build viscosity in jam, so the fruit pieces will be trapped inside the jam inside of be going to the top of jam.
10. Gently stir the jam after the resting time and pour it into the prepared glasses, fill the glasses up to the brim. Remove any scum for the surface of the jam using a tea spoon. Close the glass with a lid.
11. Leave the glass upright and disturbed to cool and set.
12. Store at ambient temperature.

Red gooseberry and currant jelly

I have been embracing the art of making jelly after my participation in the Summer preserves course using the different fruits, which I can get access to from gardens of friends and colleagues. As I had some left overs of red gooseberries after making red gooseberry jam and a some red currant in surplus as well I decided to make a jelly of red gooseberry and currant using this recipe on jelly from red and black currant as starting point.

And when I have experienced an issue with some defaults in the jelly during my experiment in the kitchen, I have looking into my jam bible of "First preserves marmelades jam chutneys" to find an explanation for the specific default.

After my work with the white currant jelly I learned, that I already needed to check the jelly consistency already after 2 minutes hard boiling, as this white currant was gelling, when I poured it into the glass.

Making this jelly I learned, that if you work with very small portions of jelly, when you should not stir the jelly during the cooking of the jelly mixture as this can give problems with too many air bobbles in the final jelly. In this jelly of red gooseberry and currant I now have one glass full of air bobbles !!

Red gooseberry & currant jelly: 1 glass

• 250 g red gooseberry - washed and cleaned, the stalks removed
• 150 g red currant - washed & cleaned, the stalks removed
• 250 ml water
• 75 g sugar per 100 ml juice

1. Place the fruit and water in large cooking pan. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, and let the fruit simmer gently for 20 minutes.
2. Mash the content of the pan, so the fruit breaks.
3. Place a jelly bag suspended over a large bowl.
4. Pour the mashed fruit/water into the jelly bag.
5. Leave until, the bag has stopped dripping. Alternative night over.
6. Prepared the jelly glasses. I add boiling water to the glasses, while other will heat the glasses in the oven at 120 minutes.
7. Measure the amount of fruit juice and weight out 75 g sugar per 100 ml juice.
8. Pour the fruit into large cooking pan and heat up the juice to the boil.
9. Add in the (pre-heated) sugar, Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
10. Bring the jelly mixture to a rolling boil (the jelly mixture has a lot of boiling foam on top).
11. Let it boil for 2 minute as starting point, as I was surprised by very fast gelling as I poured the jelly into the glass.
12. Test for a set after 2 minutes using the flake test (how the jelly is dripping from the cooking spoon). This is tricky, otherwise set, if the temperature is 104'C.
13. When the the texture is right, remove the cooking pan from the heat. Start right away to remove any scum from the surface of the jelly, using a large metal spoon.
14. Pour the jelly into glass jar, fill the jar to the top. Again remove any scum from the surface using a tea spoon.
15. Seal the jar with a lid.
16. Leave the glass upright and undisturbed to set.
17. Store at ambient temperature. 

China tea cups

In connection with celebrating my round birthday of 50 years round birthday of 50 years I had to come up with a list of possible birthday gifts !!! In my opinion these suggestions should be something, that I could appreciate in my new decade with pleasure on a regular basis.

As most of you probably already know, if you are regular reader, I really like to host an afternoon tea with a theme of some kind for good friends. And the only thing I have missed in this connection have been some real tea cups in china. Not coffee cups, but the real flat and delicate tea cups. So after a visit to a Royal Copenhagen Flagship store I found, that the series called "Prinsesse" and "Musselmalet Halvblonde" would suit my eye/taste.

Luckily my various birthday guests can along with their arms full of great presents including two sets of Prinsesse and Musselmalet Halvblonde, so now I have invite 3 guests for a real fine afternoon tea party :-)

The world´s best cookie - version 2

It is time again for the annual cake regatta at rowing club, where I have the honor of being the host here in 2018, as my cake hindbærsnitter (raspberry cuttings) won the title of 2017 champion baker of Vejle Roklub.

As the host for the annual cake regatta I get to select the theme for this year´s, and here I have selected the theme"cookies" as the challenge.

I will bring version 2 of the World´s best cookie as my contribution for the cake regatta this afternoon.

By adjusting the baking time, when baking cookies, you can get your preferred texture in 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 a combination of almonds and 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 :-) An option could be to added pecan nuts.

This time I used a combination of dark milk and white chocolate instead of a combination of dark and white chocolate, as I am not really a fan of dark chocolate, as I do not like the bitterness in dark chocolate. Again add in your preference within 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 :-)

As the cookies float a lot during baking it is important NOT to place too many cookies on one baking tray, so my recommendation is to place 5 cookies per baking tray, as seen on the photos below.

World´s best cookies version 2: - 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 milk chocolate - chopped into small pieces
• 50 g white chocolate - chopped into small pieces
• 50 g walnuts - chopped into small pieces
• 50 g almonds - chopped into small pieces

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 stir by hand the chopped 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 14-18 minutes.
10. Let the cookies cold down, before they are stored in an airtight container.

Meat balls in curry sauce a la Arla

Meat balls in curry sauce known as "Boller i karry" is a classic Danish food, which also is referred to mormormad (Grand Ma´s food). Meat balls in curry has always been one of my favourite food, which I always pick, when available for example in the canteen at work.

As it has been some time since I last made "boller in karry" I decided to make this dish for my weekly Sunday dinner, which I serve for my mother. This time I used a recipe from Arla, where I made a few modification as I had more meat and too little dairy cream of 8% fat substituting the missing dairy cream with full-fat milk.


Boller i karry - meat balls in curry sauce a la Søndag: - 4 servings

• Meat balls:
• 450 g minced meat of veal and pork
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ onion - finely minced
• 1 egg
• 1 dl dairy cooking cream 8% fat
• ½ dl full-fat milk, 3½% fat
• 9 tablespoon of fine oat flakes
• pepper
• 1½ l water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Curry sauce
• 20 g butter
• ½-1 onion - finely minced
• 2 teaspoon of curry
• 1 little apple - grated
• 2½ tablespoon wheat flour
• 1½ dl dairy cooking cream with 8% fat
• salt & pepper for seasoning
• turmeric - optional
• rice
• red pepper - medium chopped
• cucumber - medium chopped
• salted roasted peanuts
• mango chutney 

1. Start by mixing the minced meat and salt together for 1 minute, which makes the meat texture more stiff in it. 
2. Afterwards mix in the minced onion, egg and pepper followed by the dairy cream and full-fat milk.
3. Add in the fine oat flakes and stir well.
4. Let the meat mixture rest for ½ hour in the refrigerator.
5. Bring a cooking pot full of water (with salt) into the boil.
6. Form the meat mass into smaller meat balls, which when is added into the boiling water. The meat balls are ready, when they pop up to the surface of the boiling water. Boiling time is around 8 minutes. Remove the meat balls from the water. Keep the boiling water for later use in the curry sauce.
7. Let the butter fry at high temperature in a cooking pan without turning brown.
8. Add in the minced onion and let it fry for approx. 1 minute.
9. Reduce the heat and add in the curry and let it fry for another 1 minute.
10. Add in the grated apple and let it fry for another 1 minute.
11. Sprinkle over the wheat flour and let it dissolve into mixture.
12. Add in 4 dl of the boiling water from the meat balls little by little, as you whip the mixture.
13. Afterwards add in the dairy cooking cream, and let the sauce simmer gentle for 5 minites.
14. Season with salt and pepper and adjust if need the colour with tumeric.
15. Add in the boiled meat balls and heat them up in the curry sauce
16. Serve the meat balls in curry together with boiled rice, chopped red pepper & cucumber, roasted peanuts and mango chutney. 

White currant jelly

I keep experimenting using the various recipes and techniques, which I learned at the Summer preserves course using the different fruits, which I can get access to from gardens of friends and colleagues.

At this course we were making a jelly from red and black currant, so I decided to make a version based on white currants, which were in the garden of my good friends in Horsens. I did not make any changes in the recipe, however based on my experience in my own kitchen I would recommend you all ready to look for the setting of the gel after 2 minutes cooking, as my jelly started to gel, when I poured into the glasses.

If you work with smaller portion of jelly, when you should not stir the jelly during the cooking of the jelly mixture as this can give problems with too many air bobbles in the final jelly.

White currant jelly: 3-4 glasses

• 800 g white currant - washed and cleaned, the stalks removed
• 345 g black currant - washed & cleaned, the stalks removed
• 540 ml water
• 450 g sugar per 600 ml juice

1. Place the fruit and water in large cooking pan. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, and let the fruit simmer gently for 20 minutes.
2. Mash the content of the pan, so the fruit breaks.
3. Place a jelly bag suspended over a large bowl.
4. Pour the mashed fruit/water into the jelly bag.
5. Leave until, the bag has stopped dripping. Alternative night over.
6. Prepared the jelly glasses. I add boiling water to the glasses, while other will heat the glasses in the oven at 120 minutes.
7. Measure the amount of fruit juice and weight out 450 g sugar per 600 ml juice.
8. Pour the fruit into large cooking pan and heat up the juice to the boil.
9. Add in the (pre-heasted) sugar, Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
10. Bring the jelly mixture to a rolling boil (the jelly mixture has a lot of boiling foam on top).
11. Let it boil for 2 minute as starting point, as I was surprised by very fast gelling as I poured the jelly into the glass.
12. Test for a set after 2 minutes using the flake test (how the jelly is dripping from the cooking spoon). This is tricky, otherwise set, if the temperature is 104'C.
13. When the the texture is right, remove the cooking pan from the heat. Start right away to remove any scum from the surface of the jelly, using a large metal spoon.
14. Pour the jelly into glass jars, fill the jar to the top. Again remove any scum from the surface using a tea spoon.
15. Seal the jar with a lid.
16. Leave the glass upright and undisturbed to set.
17. Store at ambient temperature. 

Crab apples jelly

I keep experimenting using the various recipes and techniques, which I learned at the Summer preserves course using the different fruits, which I can get access to from gardens of friends and colleagues.

This time I have got hold of crab apples from the garden of my manager, so here I decided to make a jelly from those.

I decided to cut the entire crab apple into smaller piece as a way of both removing the core of the apple (I dislike the bitterness of apple core) as well as spoiled part of the apple. Do not worry about removing the natural fruit pectin within the apple getting ride of the apple core. The pectin is not located in the apple core, the pectin is located in fruit part of the apple.

I also decided to add in some acidity in form of apple vinegar for two reasons. First reason to get a more fresh taste, which boost the fruit flavour. Second reason a higher acidity level (lower pH) will give a faster and stronger gelling inside the jelly.

If you work with smaller portion of jelly, when you should not stir the jelly during the cooking of the jelly mixture as this can give problems with too many air bobbles in the final jelly.

Any left overs of the crab apples was be used for crab apple aquavit.

Crab apple jelly: 4 glasses per 1 kg crab apple

• 1 kg crab apple - washed and cleaned, the stems and core removed
• 800 ml water
• 100 g sugar per 100 ml juice
• 1/8 teaspoon apple vinegar per 100 ml juice - optional

1. Place the fruit piece  and water in large cooking pan. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat, and let the fruit simmer gently for 10-20 minutes, until the content becomes pulpy in appearance. 
2. Mash the apple pieces into apple mask structure.
3. Place a jelly bag suspended over a large bowl.
4. Pour the mashed apple/water into the jelly bag.
5. Leave until, the bag has stopped dripping. Alternative night over.
6. Prepared the jelly glasses. I add boiling water to the glasses, while other will heat the glasses in the oven at 120 minutes.
7. Measure the amount of fruit juice and weight out 100 g sugar per 100 ml juice.
8. Optional add in the apple vinegar in form of 1/8 teaspoon per 100 ml juice.
9. Pour the fruit into large cooking pan and heat up the juice to the boil.
10. Add in the (pre-heasted) sugar, Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
11. Bring the jelly mixture to a rolling boil (the jelly mixture has a lot of boiling foam on top).
12. Let it boil for 2 minute as starting point.
13. Test for a set after 2 minutes using the flake test (how the jelly is dripping from the cooking spoon). This is tricky, otherwise set, if the temperature is 104'C.
14. When the the texture is right, remove the cooking pan from the heat. Start right away to remove any scum from the surface of the jelly, using a large metal spoon.
15. Pour the jelly into glass jars, fill the jar to the top. Again remove any scum from the surface using a tea spoon.
16. Seal the jar with a lid.
17. Leave the glass upright and undisturbed to set.
18. Store at ambient temperature. 

CLAY 2018 year ceramic cup

The annual ceramic cup created for the ceramic museum CLAY is here in 2018 created by Agnethe Schimdt Bigum. And yes it has found it was into my collection of ceramic cups.It is available in both green and brown, so I naturally picked the cup in green for me. The price is 180 DDK.

Shopping of Thya products

 Last week I was yet another rowing trip together with a small group of rowers. This time we were enjoying the Western part of the big Danish fjord system called Limfjorden. In order to get the count of rowers to fit with the number of seats in the rowing boat, one rower had to spend either ½ or a whole day on land.

Being "the shopper" of the group I spend a couple of hours in both Lemvig and Nykøbing Mors, where I trawled the local shops. Besides from buying various cloths in form of rain cloth, training cloth, three new dresses and a long kimono I also found a shop with various special food items (wine, alcohol, tea, confectionery, cheese and jam).

In this shop I found different boxes of confectionery candy at only 20% of the original price due to end of shelf-life day and some local Thya products in form of apple juice and gin. The Thya gin contains local herbs/berries from the local area f Thy such as juniper, buckthorn, blueberry, pine spruce and angelica root. I am looking to taste both the apple juice as well as the gin.

Classic bun with sour cream & milk

 

At the bread baking course we learned to learned to bake these very classic buns. I decided to twist the recipe as I had some sour cream, which was one day too old standing in my refrigerator. I also replace the liquid part in form of water with full-fat milk, as I am as dairy person is NOT afraid of using full-fat dairy products in my kitchen !!

Classic buns with sour cream & buns: - 18-20 buns

• 650 g wheat flour
• 50 g sugar
• 250 g sour cream with 38% fat
• 50 g fresh yeast
• 50 g egg - or just use 1 egg
• 8 g salt
• 200 g full-fat milk

1. Weigh all the ingredients directly into the mixing bowl of the stand alone mixer. Keep salt & sugar away from the yeast.
2. Place the bowl on the stand-alone mixer.
3. Start knead the dough at speed 1 for 8 minutes.
4. Afterwards increase the speed to 4, knead for 2 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough. If it is not OK, when knead it at speed 4 for another 2 minutes. Again check the consistency. If needed, knead again for 1 minute and when check consistency of the dough.
5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place it on the kitchen table sprinkled with flour.
6. Let the entire dough raise for approx 30 minutes under a damp cloth.
7. When you evaluate, that the dough has raise enough, divide the dough into smaller pieces with a weight of 65 g each.
8. Shape the dough pieces into bun shapes. Place the bun pieces on the baking tray covered with baking parchment. 
9. Let the bun raise for second time for approx 40 minutes under a tea towel.
10. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
11. Bake the bun at 200'C for 10-15 minutes.
12. Cold down the buns, before serving them with a nice cup of tea/coffee.

Blackberry vinegar

At the Summer preserves course we learn how to make a fruit vinegar in form of raspberry vinegar. Our tutor also told us, that we could use the same recipe and when make blackberry vinegar, when the blackberry season starts in end Summer/beginning of Autumn.

A good rowing friend picked a portion of blackberries for me in return for sharing the fruit vinegar recipe with her. I think this was a pretty good deal for me :-) I can easily understand why, blackberry is named blackberry as your fingers turn quiet dark purple, when you work in the kitchen with these berries.

This vinegar can be used for salads, and could perhaps also combine well with goat cheese.

If you have been picking a lot of blackberries, you can also use these berries for jams such as blackberry jam with liquorice, blackberry jam with vanilla and lemon and my classic Christmas jam with blackberry. Other suggestions on blackberry vinegar without sugar addition are blackberry vinegar with rosemary and blackberry vinegar with tarragon.


Blackberry vinegar: - 6-8 bottles

• 450 g blackberry 
• 600 ml white wine vinegar
• 450 g sugar per 600 ml vinegar liquid

1. Place the blackberries in a bowl and pour over the vinegar.
2. Cover the bowl and leave it to stand for 3-5 days, stirring it a least once per day with a wooden, plastic or silicon spoon.
3. After 3-5 days infusion mash the fruit with a a wooden, plastic or silicon spoon.
4. Strain the mashed vinegar liquid through a sieve lined with muslin or use a jelly bag. Let is drain freely without pushing it to obtain a clear vinegar.
5. Measure the liquid. For every 600 ml liquid weigh out 450 g sugar.
6. Pour the liquid into a cooking pan and dissolve the sugar. Bring the vinegar to the boil.
7. Pour the vinegar into bottles and seal.
8. Store at ambient temperature.
9. Use for salads.

Ice cubes XXL - kitchen equipment 30

I have brought this ice cubes in size XXL in one of the local Inspiration shops located in Vejle. So fare, I have only been making ice cubes in size XXL for my favorite drink of gin tonic. However, I do many options for this ice cube forms, perhaps making sorbet, ice cream or ice cubes with whole berries inside ?

Shopping from Den Gamle By

Together with a good rowing friend I recently visited the exhibition of some of the the Danish Queen's dresses at the musuem "Den Gamle By" in Aarhus.

At this outdoor museum you can see various types of town houses from different locations in Denmark, which has been re-build at this museums. In some of the houses they have created different shops, where you can buy souvenirs with relation to the museum.

In some of these shops I found two post cards with old Danish classic commercials, one for oat flakes and the second for vanilla pods. I also brought a glass vase for force growing hyacinth during Winter time in the living room.

And finally some tea from Perchs in form of a special version created specific for the museum in form of both a special decoration of the museum on the tin and off cause the tea. The tea is a mixture of black & green tea with addition of rose petals, jasmin flowers and flower flavouring.

Tapas on a week-end eve

Tapas is an easy way to serve a meal on a week-end eve.

I served a selection of various Italian meat slices (ham & sausages), matured Cheddar with tomato and chilli jam, fresh seafood salad with mayonnaise, green olives with almonds inside and small tomatoes. All of this was eaten with either whole grain bread or baguette (served on my fantastic olive chopping broad from Greece).

And off cause I used some of my green ceramic collection for this meal (green ceramic plate from Skagen, Studio Arhøj ceramic plate and some Studio Arhøj ceramic bowls)

For this meal we enjoyed gin & rose lemonade together with a glass or two of white wine.

Classic buns

 

At the bread baking course we learned to learned to bake these very classic buns. This recipe can used for types of bun with addition of grated carrot or grated squash in combination with different types of seeds. You could also used different spices such as saffron or cardamon. I think it is the best bun recipe, I have ever used for baking buns. So it is not the last time, that I will be baking buns using this specific recipe. Other versions of this bun recipe: classic buns with sour cream & milk

Classic buns: - 16-20 buns

• 650 g wheat flour
• 50 g sugar
• 100 g fat (plain vegetable oil or butter) - personally I prefer butter
• 50 g fresh yeast
• 50 g egg - or just use 1 egg
• 8 g salt
• 250 g water

1. Weigh all the ingredients directly into the mixing bowl of the stand alone mixer. Keep salt & sugar away from the yeast.
2. Place the bowl on the stand-alone mixer.
3. Start knead the dough at speed 1 for 8 minutes.
4. Afterwards increase the speed to 4, knead for 2 minutes. Check the consistency of the dough. If it is not OK, when knead it at speed 4 for another 2 minutes. Again check the consistency. If needed, knead again for 1 minute and when check consistency of the dough.
5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place it on the kitchen table sprinkled with flour.
6. Let the entire dough raise for approx 20 minutes under a damp cloth.
7. When you evaluate, that the dough has raise enough, divide the dough into smaller pieces with a weight of 60 g each.
8. Shape the dough pieces into bun shapes. Place the bun pieces on the baking tray covered with baking parchment. 
9. Let the bun raise for second time for approx 40 minutes under a tea towel.
10. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
11. Bake the bun at 200'C for 10-15 minutes.
12. Cold down the buns, before serving them with a nice cup of tea/coffee.