Champagne sorbet for New Year 2019

Nice cup of champagne sorbet

Traditional New Year is celebrated by eating marzipan cake. However, some days ago I noticed, that a local ice cream shop here in Vejle was selling champagne sorbet. But buy champagne sorbet, when you have your own ice cream machine. I will not use the "real stuff" in form of champagne, as such a bottle cost too much. I prefer to drink the champagne. So instead of I am using a sweet Asti :-)


I found this recipe on champagne sorbet by Valdemarsro, which I decided to use without any modification. 

The texture of this champagne sorbet is very, very soft, so you could scoop the sorbet directly from the freezer. The taste of this sorbet reminds me about the taste of elderflower, which gave me the idea of making elderflower sorbet, which could be served together with a glass of sweet sparkling wine.

Making champagne sorbet is quiet time consuming, as you have to let the sorbet mixture cold 3-4 hours or night over, before you can actually run it on the ice cream machine. And the freezing process on the ice cream machine takes 1 hour, before you can place the sorbet in the -18'C freezer for further freezing.

The main íssue here is the use of sparkling wine in the this sorbet. Addition of alcohol into ice rceam/sorbet is lowering the overall freezing point of the ice cream/sorbet and thereby makes it more difficult to freeze. Lowering the freezing point also means, that the ice cream/sorbet become more soft/less hard, when you scoop it. Therefore you should not take out the ice cream/sorbet from the freezer 20 minutes before serving it. 
So it will actually be a benefit, if you use a sparking wine with a lower amount of alcohol compared to sparkling wine with more than 10% alcohol.

I am wondering if the use of whipped egg white could help to build more overrun (air incorporation) in the final sorbet ?

Champagne sorbet:

• 180 g sugar
• 2 dl water
• 4 dl sparkling wine 

1. Add the water and sugar into a cooking pot, and heat it up until, the sugar is dissolved. 
2. Let the liquid part cool down slightly, before the sparkling wine is poured in. 
3. Cold down this sorbet mixture  for min 4 hours or night over in the refrigerator.
4. Pour the sorbet mixture into the ice cream machine. It takes approx 30 minutes, before the mixture before thicker. Let the ice cream machine run for approx 1 hour. 
5. Pour the champagne sorbet into the containers, which can be frozen.
6. Place the champagne sorbet in the freezer for 3-4 hours, before you serve it.

Marzipan cake with nougat filling for New Year 2019

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. It is best to drink a sweet type of champagne/sparkling wine, so the champagne does not clashes with the sweet marzipan cake.

This year I have decide to make the marzipan cake with a nougat-licorice filling, so I could use up the last nougat after making Christmas sweets. The licorice taste could be judged as too strong by some people, while other persons will have a higher trace hole for licorice. Already now my good friends in Horsens will start to "fear" to taste these marzipan cakes.

I think, that the use of licorice into the nougat as well could work good for a Christmas sweet a la this nougat confect

At it takes time for the nougat filling to set again after the melting of the nougat in the microwave oven, you need to start the creation process either the evening before or very early on New Year's Eve.

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.
Another advantage by baking your marzipan cake is, that you can use leftovers of marzipan after all the Christmas activities of home-made marzipan based Christmas sweets.

Marzipan cake nougat filling: - 16-18 pieces

• 95-100 g soft nougat
• ½ teaspoon licorice powder
• 1/4 teaspoon raw licorice powder
• 400 g marzipan
• 125 g icing sugar
• 1 egg - only the egg white or 35 g egg white 

1. Melt the nougat in the microwave oven, little by little.
2. Stir in the type types of licorice powders. If you want a less strong taste, when only use ½ teaspoon licorice powder without raw licorice powder.
3. Fill the melted nougat-licorice into a small dome shaped silicone form.
4. Place the nougat filling in the refrigerator for minimum 2-3 hours or night over.
5. Heat the oven to 220'C (conventional oven).
6. Add all the ingredients into a mixing bowl. 
7. Knead all the ingredients together into a homogeneous mass.
8. Divide the marzipan cake mass into 16-18 pieces of equal size.
9. Press the marzipan cake mass flat, place one piece of nougat filling on the marzipan, and wrap it in marzipan, so the nougat filling is completely covered by marzipan.
10. Gentle roll the marzipan cake in a round form a la a small bun. 
11. Bake the marzipan cake mass at 220'C for 7-8 minutes. After 4 minutes baking time turn the plate around to get a more even baking of each marzipan cake.
12. Cool down the marzipan cake.
13. Happy New Year :-)

New Year 2019 - suggestion for home-made marzipan cake

Tomorrow it is the last day here in 2019, so it is time to prepare for New Year's Eve tomorrow. Here in Denmark the tradition is to eat marzipan cake (kransekage) together with a glass of champagne (it is best to drink sweet champagne, when you eat marzipan cake to avoid a clash in your mouth between sweet cake and dry champagne), as we step from the old year into the new year.

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. 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.

I will not be making any of the above mentioned suggestion for New Year's Eve, as I will trying out a new version of marzipan cake to mark the transition into a new decade in form of 2020, so look by tomorrow on New Year Eve day for the marzipan creation of 2019 :-)
I can already tell you, that the marzipan cake involves a center of nougat, so I have aleady started the preparation work this evening, so the nougat can set.

Besides from the marzipan cakes I will also make a champagne sorbet for tomorrow, as I saw, that the local ice cream shop is selling champagne sorbet. And when you have your own ice cream machine, it is not a option to buy champagne sorbet ! I will tell you, that I am NOT going to use the "real stuff" in form of champagne, as such a bottle cost too much. I prefer to drink the champagne. So instead of I am using a sweet Asti :-)

marzipan cake with rose

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.

Cooking pot walnut bread

For the Christmas lunch yesterday afternoon I baked with cooking pot bread with walnuts. I used this recipe on basic cooking pot bread with modification in form of addition of brown sugar and chopped walnuts.

I realized yesterday morning, that I instead of tespoon had used tablespoon in connection with the addition of the salt. I decided to bake the bread, but I also baked a back-up walnut bread walnut bread in case the cooking pot bread could not be eaten due to too salty taste. Both bread was actually eaten with great enjoyment of all people around the table.

Cooking pot bread with walnuts:

• 5 g yeast
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 50 g brown sugar
• 80-1000 g walnuts - medium chopped
• 500 ml water
• 650 g wheat flour

1. Stir yeast and water together in a big mixing bowl.
2. Afterwards add the flour, salt, brown sugar and walnuts and stir very well with a cooking spoon. 
3. Rise the dough to rise at room temperature overnight - minimum 12 hours.
4. Take the dough out off the mixing bowl, move 1/3 of the dough in over the rest of the dough, keep repeating this process until you have a small size of the dough.
5. Clean the mixing bowl for any dough leftovers.
6. Glaze the dough bowl with oil.
7. Place the dough again in a clean dough, let is rise again for 2 hours.
8. Heat up the cast iron cooking pot (2 l) incl. lid on a rack in the lower part of the oven at 250°C (fan oven) for ½ hour.
9. Remove the hot cast iron cooking from the oven, remove the lid. Cover the bottom of the cooking pot with oat flakes, as this will prevent the dough from sticking to firm to the surface.
10. Place the dough in the hot cast iron cooking pot.
11. Put the lid back on. Place the cooking pot in the lower part of the oven, let it bake at 250°C for 30 minutes.
12. Remove the lid from the cast iron cooking pot, and let the bread bake at 225°C for another 15-20 minutes. 
13. Let the bread cool down, before you slice it.

Christmas lunch for the Wonderful Women 2019

Welcome :-)

The annual Christmas lunch for "The Wonderful Women" took place this afternoon for a complete group of great girl friends

Cooking pot walnut bread & classic walnut bread as back-up

As usual we had the usual tapas selection from Osteriet together with some home-made cooking pot walnut bread. Actually baked two bread, as I this morning realized, that I had added too much salt into the cooking pot. 3 tablespoons of salt instead of 3 teaspoons of salt. I decided to bake the bread, but I also baked a back-up walnut bread walnut bread in case the cooking pot bread could not be eaten due to too salty taste. Both bread was actually eaten with great enjoyment of all people around the table.

My presents for the annual pakkeleg

The tradition also describes, that we have to play the gift play (pakkeleg in Danish) using a specific card game, so no 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.

Parcel mountain

Actually we are very trendy with our sustainable approach to playing "pakkeleg" as our presents have NOT been brought for this specific event, but they can be everything from your cupboard such as books, kitchen items not used etc.

We have also learned, that we have to give approx 3-4 gifts to each participants as starting point to avoid, that either one ends up with all the gifts, or that the table ends with all the gift.

Ready to play "pakkeleg"

We still need to get the text on one of the play card rewritten, as it has a text, saying you should give a gift to each person under the age of 25 years, so here we are awaiting the new card text to be made, lets hope it will be ready for next years Christmas lunch. We have now waited for two years, lets hope we get this extra card for the play in 2020 :-) 

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

We ended the Christmas lunch with a cup of tee/coffee and a slice of this cherry cream cheese cake Christmas style.

And I got these great hostess gifts, a warming ice remover for the car windows, a green plant and a Tupperware storage container with some sweets :-) Uuhhmm

Christmas Calendar 2019 day 24 - Merry Christmas

I wish you a merry Christmas 

I want to wish all of you a merry Christmas and thank you for dropping by on small visits to my little kitchen :-) I hope you have enjoyed your visit(s), few or many, here, being either a short browse or a long stay.

Today is the day of farewell to this year Christmas Calendar of 2019, 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 2019 Day 23 - Pink glögg

At the annual Christmas coffee I served this pink glögg for my guests as part of the liquid menu. I have found this recipe the Christmas magazine being a part of the weekly magazine Søndag.

I have made a few changes to the recipe, which turned out pretty successful according to my guests. I reduced the amount of added vanilla pod, fresh ginger to half (the half amount of fresh ginger did still give enough of warming sensation). Instead of using hibiscus flower I used AquaRosa Tea from Kusmi.

As other suggestions for mulled wine/glögg you can also take a look at mulled white wine, pink glögg with pomegranate juice, apple glögg, mulled cherry & cranberry punch & Winter cider.

Pink glögg: - 4-6 serving

• 1 organic lemon - only the peel
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 whole cardamon seeds
• 1 teaspoon rose pepper
• ½ vanilla pod - cut open
• 2 tablespoon Aqua Rosa tea from Kusmi
• 1 tablespoon dried rose petals
• 25 g fresh ginger - peeled and sliced
• 50 cl cranberry cordial
• 75 cl rose wine
• 1½ dl sugar

1. Pour the cranberry cordial into the a cooking pot.
2. Add in all the dried ingredients, and bring it to the boil.
3. Remove the cooking pot from the stove, and place the cranberry cordial cold for 2-4 hours or night over.
4. After the infusion time place the cooking pot on the stove and add in the rose wine, and bring the glögg to a gentle simmer.

Christmas Coffee 2019

In keep with tradition I as usual invited some local friends around my house (and kitchen) for the annual Christmas coffee, so my guests can could help me eating some of the many home-made Christmas calories. It is also great to fill up my kitchen living area with plenty of great friends, talk and laughter during these very short and dark Winter days.

Again with in keep tradition (second year in a row !) I asked in advance my guests, if they would drink tea or coffee (not an option to drink both coffee and tea !!!). I have enough china tea cups, but I needed to borrow china coffee cups from my mother, so all my guests could be served on various blue china pattern.

The liquid part of the "menu" this year was pink glögg together with various Christmas and the classic coffee.








As the eatable part of this Christmas coffee was:

Christmas buns with orange & sucat

milk chocolate brownie with pecan nuts

cookies with ginger and lime

almond cakes with raspberry

Chocolate crincles & marzipan roll with nougat filling

pepper nuts with licorice

Selection of nougat confect, nougat confect with pecan nuts & marzipan with blackcurrant and cognac

I got some lovely hostess gifts in form of a Christmas decoration with candles, home-made biscottis and home-made Christmas tree made from tree and cornet made from leather. The Christmas tree has found it's place among my other Christmas three made from ceramics. 

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 22 - Milk chocolate brownie with pecan nuts

For the Christmas coffee I baked this chocolate brownie. The recipe is a Tupperware originally based on dark chocolate, however as I prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate I replaced the dark chocolate with dark milk chocolate. The use of milk chocolate gives a lighter colour.

I also decide to use a mixture of sugar and brown sugar to bring a more dark flavour to the brownie. However, the original recipe is made with "only" sugar, so use the type of sugar, which you have in your kitchen.

I imagine, that you could add in some cinnamon to this brownie recipe for more of a Christmas twist.

Milk chocolate brownie with pecan nuts: - 1 cake

• 200 g dark milk chocolate
• 150 g butter
• 4 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 100 g brown sugar
• 100 g wheat flour
• 100 g pecan nuts

1. Heat up the oven to 180'C.
2. Melt the dark milk chocolate together the butter in the microwave oven.
3. Whip the eggs and sugar together into a foamy mass in a mixing bowl.
4. Add in the wheat flour and whip it together.
5. Stir in the melted butter and chocolate.
6. Stir in the pecan nuts.
7. Pour in the brownie dough into a 1 l silicone flat form.
8. Bake the brownie at 180'c for minimum 30 minutes.
9. Check the brownie is almost baked, before removing it from the oven.
10. Let the brownie cool down, before it is removed from the silicone form.

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 21 - Spiced cream cake with cream cheese filling

It is time to celebrate my Christmas vacation, which started yesterday afternoon. The cake bun contains plenty of various spices and plenty of walnuts.

So now I will sit and enjoy a great cup of Christmas tea together with a slice of this cake :-)

Spiced cream cake with cream cheese filling:  - 1 cake

• 140 g walnuts - medium chopped
• 2½ dl boiling water
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 120 g butter - soft
• 200 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ teaspoon vanilla corn or 2 vanilla pods
• ½ organic lemon - zest and 2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 360 g wheat flour
• 2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon carnation
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 450 g icing sugar
• 75 g butter - soft
• 200 g full fat cream cheese

1. Heat up the oven to 180'C.
2. Chop the walnuts, add them into a mixing bowl, add into baking soda together with the boiling water. Set the walnuts aside.
3. Add the butter and sugar into another mixing bowl, whip into a foamy mass.
4. Add in the eggs, one by one, whip the cake mass between each addition of the egg.
5. Add in the vanilla corn, lemon zest an lemon juice. Whip the cake mass.
6. Add in the wheat flour and the various spices together with the mixture of walnuts and water.
7. Whit the cake mass until it is homogeneous.
8. Fill the cake into either 2 spring forms of 17 cm or 1 spring of 21 cm.
9. Bake the cake in the lower part of the oven at 180'C for either 30 minutes for 2 spring forms or 45-50 minutes for 1 spring form.
10. Check, that the cake is bake, before removing the cake from the oven.
11. Cool down the cake.
12. Add the icing sugar and the soft butter into a mixing bowl. Whip it together, until it is homogeneous.
13. Add in the full fat cream cheese, whip the cream together at high speed for approx. 5 minutes.
14. If one cake has been baked, divide the cake into 2 pieces.
15. Place one piece of cake layer on the serving plate, place the cream cheese filling on top of the cake bun, place the second cake bun on top of the cream cheese filling.
16. Spring the top of the cream cake with icing sugar.

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 20 - Marzipan with black currants & cognac

It is time to make some more Christmas sweets for the upcoming Christmas, this time it is a sweet treat based on marzipan.

Marzipan with black currant and cognac:

• 300 g marzipan
• 30-40 g dried black currants
• 3-4 cl cognac
• dark chocolate

1. Let the dried black currants soaked in cognac for 2-3 hours or night over. 
2. Knead the soaked black currants and remaining cognac into the marzipan.
3. Divide the marzipan into smaller pieces, which it rolled into small bread shapes.
4. Melt the dark chocolate.
5. Cover the marzipan pieces with the melted dark chocolate.
6. Store the marzipan pieces in an airtight container.

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 19 - Cherry Cream Cheese Cake Christmas style

Two years ago I made this ris a la mande cheese cake, so this year wanted to make a cheese cake with the ingredients from the Danish Christmas dessert ris a la mande or rice pudding in form of cherry sauce and almonds. I used from inspiration from this recipe on cheesecake med cherry by Ditte Julie making several modifications.

The almonds in form of burned almonds in bottom cake layer and the cherries sauce in both the cream cheese cake layer as well as jellied top layer.

Cherry Cream Cheese Cake Chrsitmas style: - 10-14 servings

• Biscuit bottom:
• 230 g Bastogne biscuits
• 130 g butter - melted
• 75 g burned almonds - medium chopped
• Cake mass:
• 5 sheets of gelatine
• 200 g plain full fat cream cheese
• 100 g sour cream, 18% fat 
• 95 g icing sugar
• 2 dl dairy whipping cream, 35-40% fat
• 370 g dessert cherries - 240 g cherries & 130 g cherry cordial
• Cherry sauce glaze:
• 370 g dessert cherries - 240 g cherries & 130 g cherry cordial
• 2 sheets of gelatine

Biscuit bottom:

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

Cake mass:

1. Drain the cherries from the cherry sauce and place them 
2. Place the gelatine sheets in a bowl with cold water, let the sheets soak for 5-10 minutes.
3. Add the cream cheese, icing sugar and sour cream in a medium mixing bowl, stir it together using an electrical mixer. 
4. Squeeze the gelatine sheets from excess water. Pour the drained cherry sauce in a cooking pot and add the gelatine leaves in the cherry sauce. Melt the gelatine sheets in the sauce. 
5. Add the cherry-gelatine into the cake mass, while you keep mixing to avoid lump formation.
6. Whip the dairy cream into foam.
7. Stir in the whipped foam gradually.
8. Fill the cake mass into the spring form on top of the biscuit layer.
9. Place the cake cold in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

Cherry glaze:

1. Separate the cherries from the cherry sauce. Place the cherries on top of the cheese cake.
2. Meanwhile place the gelatine sheets in a bowl with cold water, let the sheets soak for 5-10 minutes.
3. Add the drained cherry sauce into a cooking pot.
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 2019 Day 18 - Christmas buns with orange & sucat

Since I have learned to bake these classic buns at the bread baking course, they have become a favorite of mine. In beginning of this December I baked these carrot buns with orange, where I found the addition of orange to work great. Therefore I wanted to make another twist on these buns with the use of orange and sucat. 

As a good friend was coming around for a cup of tea and she is lactose intolerant, I decided to use water and oil instead of the usual milk and butter.

Christmas bun with orange and sucat: - 16-20 buns

• 650 g wheat flour
• 50 g sugar
• 100 g rape seed oil
• 50 g fresh yeast
• 50 g egg - or just use 1 egg
• 8 g salt
• 1 organic orange - zest and the juice squeezed of the orange 
• 200 g water 
• 50 g sucat
• 1 egg - whipped for glazing

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 under a damp towel..
6. Let the entire dough raise for approx 40-60 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 75-80 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 damp tea towel.
10. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
11. Glaze the buns with whipped egg
12. Bake the bun at 200'C for 15-16 minutes.
13. Cold down the buns, before serving them with a nice cup of tea/coffee.

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 17 - Pepper nut with licorice

I continue to bake for the Christmas coffee taking place later this week, this time is one of the Danish Christmas classic in form of "pepper nuts". "Pepper nuts" is a spiced small round cookie, where there is an extra addition of licorice, which is another typical Danish classic.

I have this recipe in a small leaflet, which I got together with the weekly magazine "Søndag".

You could also have a look at these recipes on "pepper nuts" licorice pepper nuts, giant pepper nut cookies, pepper nut muffins & pepper nuts a la Urtekram.


Pepper nut with licorice: - plenty

• 190 g butter - cut into smaller pieces
• 190 g sugar
• 1 tablespoon dark syrup
• 1½ teaspoon cardamon
• 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/4 teaspoon licorice
• 1 egg
• 340 g wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 50 g white chocolate
• 1½ teaspoon licorice granulate

1. Start by adding all the ingredients into the mixing bowl of the stand alone mixer.
2. Knead the ingredients together. End by knead the dough by hand.
3. Cover the dough with cling film and let the dough rest in refrigerator the night over.
4. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
5. Divide the dough into smaller pieces, which is rolled by hand into a small ball.
6. Place the ball shape cookie on a baking tray covered with baking parchment.
7. Bake the pepper nuts at 200'C for approx. 10 minutes.
8. Let the pepper nuts cool down.
9. Cut the white chocolate into medium size, which is melted.
10. Dip the top of the pepper nuts into the white chocolate.
11. Afterwards sprinkle the white chocolate with licorice granulate.
12. Store in airtight containers.

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 16 - Cookies with ginger and lime

And I keep baking for the upcoming Christmas coffee taking place Thursday evening this week. This dough requires a minimum rest of 4 hours in the refrigerator after you have kneaded it together. So, I made this dough yesterday afternoon, and when I did the baking this evening after work. So, these cookies requires some planning.

I have found the recipe in a small Christmas leaflet coming together with the weekly magazine "Søndag", and I have made no changes to the recipe, besides from not removing the skin of the almonds before grinding them into flour, perhaps you can call this "whole grain" almond flour ?

The combination of ginger and lime zest is great, and the amount of ginger is fine in my opinion as it gives a strong ginger flavour.

Cookies with ginger and lime: 25-40 cookies

• 125 g almonds - grained into flour
• ½ teaspoon carbamate
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 2 organic limes - zest 
• 125 g brown sugar
• 125 g wheat flour
• 65 g butter
• 1 egg
• 200 g icing sugar
• 2 organic limes - the juice

1. Add all the ingredients into the mixing bowl of a stand-alone mixer. Knead the dough together.
2. The last part of the kneading is done by hand to really collect the dough into a homogeneous mass.
3. Roll the dough into 2 long rolls, which is covered with cling film and place in the refrigerator for minimum 4 hours or night over.
4. Heat up the oven to 180'C.
5. Cut the cookie roll into thin slices.
6. Place the cookie slices on a baking tray covered with baking parchment.
7. Bake the cookies on the second lowest oven shelf for 8 minutes at 180'C.
8. Cool down the cookies.
9. Mix the icing sugar and lime juice together for decoration of the cookies.

Knit poncho - part 3

I have made a lot of progress on my upcoming knit poncho. The knitting is very easy, so I can easily knit in front for the TV, as it is straight knitting. I just have to reduce the amount of knit mask on every second row. 

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 15 - Chocolate Crinkles

I keep baking for the upcoming Christmas coffee, which takes place in the coming week. I have found this recipe the small leaflet from the weekly magazine Søndag. I have made no changes to this recipe.

Chocolate Crinkles: - 20-25 cookies

• 110 g soft butter
• 150 g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 160 g wheat flour
• 80 g cocoa powder
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 dl icing sugar
• peppermint candy - crushed for decoration

1. Heat up the oven to 175'C.
2. Add the soft butter and brown sugar into a mixing bowl and whip it into a foamy mass.
3. Add in the egg one by one, whip between each addition of the eggs.
4. Add in the remaining ingredients but the icing sugar, whip into a homogeneous mass.
5. Use a soup spoon to take to divide the cookie dough into pieces.
6. Form each piece into a ball shape, which is place in soup bowl full of icing sugar.
7. Roll the cookie dough, so it is completely covered by icing sugar.
8. Roll the cookie into ball shape.
9. Place the cookie dough on baking trays with baking parchment.
10. Sprinkle the cookies with icing sugar.
11. Bake the cookie at 175'C for 12-13 minutes.
12. Cool down the chocolate crinkles.
13. Store in airtight containers.
14. Before serving sprinkle the chocolate crinkles with crunched peppermint candy.

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 14 - Christmas biscotti

It is time to bake some cookies for the upcoming Christmas coffee, so i fill the stomachs of my guests. I have found this recipe in small Christmas recipe leaflet from the weekly magazine Søndag. I have made no changes to the recipe. You could also have a look at this recipe on muscovado biscotti.

Christmas biscotti:

• 150 g marzipan - cut into smaller pieces
• 300 g wheat flour
• 200 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground carnation
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 150 g whole almonds

1. Heat up the oven to 175'C.
2. Add all in the ingredients in the mixing bowl of the stand alone mixer.
3. Knead everything together.
4. At the end knead the dough together by hand on a piece of baking parchement
5. Divide the dough into two parts.
6. By hand roll the each dough piece into a size of 5 x 35-40 cm.
7. Bake the dough at 175'C for 20 minutes.
8. Remove the biscotti from the oven.
9. After a cool down, slice the biscotti into pieces of 1 cm.
10. If needed bake the biscotti pieces at 150-C for 5-10 minutes to get the desired dryness.
11. Cold down.
12. Store in an airtight container.

Christmas Calendar 2019 Day 13 - Lucia buns Luskatte

Today is Lucia day a day of singing girls in white dresses and candlelight in their hands. Besides from the singing and the candles you should also eat Lucia buns (buns with saffron) known as Lussekatte in Sweden, where the day of Lucia is an even bigger event than here in Denmark.

The Danish Lucia song by Alex Garff:

Nu bæres lyset frem                       - Now worn light up
stolt på din krone.                          - proud of your crown.
Rundt om i hus og hjem                  - Around the house and home
sangen skal tone.                            - the song should sound.
Nu på Lucia-dag                            - Now on Lucia Day
hilser vort vennelag                         - welcome to our friends
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.               - Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia

Her ved vor ønskefest                    -  Here at our desire celebration
sangen skal klinge.                          - the song to fade.
Gaver til hver en gæst                     - Gifts for every guest
glad vil du bringe.                           - glad you bring.
Skænk os af lykkens væld              - Grant us the happiness wealth
lige til livets kvæld                          - right to life eve
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.               - Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia.

As starting recipe for the bun I used this recipe on classic buns, which really have become my favorite bun recipe. Other recipes on Lucia buns could be these saffron buns a la Anne´s Food,  Lucia buns, saffron pot buns, Lucia buns year 2017 & Lucia buns 2018.

How to roll the bun into the right shape you can below on these photos:

Lucia buns: 18-20 buns

• 650 g wheat flour
• 50 g sugar
• 125 g butter - soft
• 50 g fresh yeast
• 1 egg
• 8 g salt
• 0.25 g saffron
• 1 organic orange - zest and juice
• 2 dl whole fat milk
• egg wash for glazing

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 30-40 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 75 g each.
8. Shape the dough pieces into the shape of Lucia bun look at the photos above
9. Place the bun pieces on the baking tray covered with baking parchment. 
10. Let the bun raise for second time for approx 40 minutes under a tea towel.
11. Heat up the fan oven to 200'C.
12. Bake the bun at 200'C for 15 minutes, turning the baking trays around after 8 minutes to get an even baking.
13. Cold down the buns, before serving them with a nice cup of tea/coffee.