Sweater in orange - part 1

The knitting of this sweater in orange is coming along little by little, when sitting in front of the TV for the news or other programs in the evening. After I have knitted the bottom knit border, which is a pattern of purl and stitch masks, now all the masks are plain garter stitches.

The sweater is knitted more or less in one go, starting from the bottom of the sweater.

Walnut bread a la "Maden i mit liv"

For the Christmas lunch I baked this cooking pot walnut bread. However, in the early morning I realised, that I instead of teaspoon 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 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.

As the back-up walnut bread, I used this recipe on walnut bread by "Maden i mit liv". Well, I used the ingredients, but the kneading procedure was the only I always using when baking. And that is to weigh all in the ingredients into the mixing bowl and when knead the dough for minimum 10 minutes on the stand-alone mixer.

Walnut bread a la "Maden i mit liv": - 1 bread

• 2½ dl water
• 20-25 g fresh yeast
• 1 tablespoon dark syrup
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 80 g walnut - roughly chopped
• 100 g whole grain wheat flour
• 2 tablespoon oil
• 350 g wheat flour

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. Let the dough rest in the mixing bowl 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, form the dough into one piece of bread.
8. Place the bread dough on the baking tray covered with baking parchment. 
9. Let the bread raise for second time for approx 40 minutes under a damp tea towel.
10. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
11. Bake the bread at 200'C for 30-40 minutes.
12. Cold down the bread, before serving it.

Mini Milk Ice

I am trying to get into the habit of making home-made ice cream again using my ice cream machine. As January for many people is a month with focus on eating less fat & sugar, I decided to this ice only skimmed milk with 0.5% fat and as well reduced the sugar amount. I decided still to use sugar and not to use high intensive sweeteners (HIS) like aspartame, as the use of HIS will give a different flavour profile together with a very different texture, which is more hard in it.

In order to lower the sugar content, I decided to use a combination of sucrose and fructose. Fructose is more sweet than sucrose, fructose also lower the freezing point of the ice (= make the ice more soft). However, as I lower the overall sugar addition, I think, that the softness of the ice will remain quiet close to than of my normal ice cream recipe.

Also the combination of sucrose and fructose provide a sweetness sweetness synergy. I have a rule of thumb that 3% sucrose + 3% fructose equal 10% sucrose. ing fructose brings more sweetness, as these two sugars together have a sweetness synergy

I used this recipe on chai ice cream as starting point for making the recipe on this Mini Milk Ice. The work "Moni Milk" comes from the name of the milk type, which I use. Skimmed milk with 0.5% fat is called "Mini Milk" in Denmark. And I think you have also notice, that I not using the word "Ice cream" in the recipe, as it does not contain any cream and the overall fat content is below 8%, which is the minimum fat content for a product to become a "cream".

Mini Milk Ice: 4-6 servings

• 630 g mini milk, 0.5% fat
• 39 g skimmed milk powder
• 30 g sucrose
• 30 g fructose 
• 32 g glucose syrup as powder
• 6 g ice cream stabiliser
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder or 1 vanilla pod

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

Clementine Jam

The citrus fruit are in season again, so it is time to make the various citrus jams again. I have used this recipe on orange jam as starting point for making this jam on clementines. In order to made a gelled texture in the jam, I had focus on using clementines with hard texture. I did also add in some citric acid. And yes, I had success in making a jelled clementine jam.

It takes some time to make this jam, as the applied citrus fruit has to soak cold in water for 24 hours, before it turned into jam.

I will be selling some of the jam at work to my colleagues, as I cannot eat 6-8 glasses of jam within reasonable time. And as usual I will donated the money to charity. The donation this time will be done to Julemærkehjemmene.

Kirsten's clementine jam: 8-10 glasses.

• 6 clementine with peel
• 8 dl water
• 1 teaspoon citric acid powder
• 800 g sugar
• potassium sorbate - optional

1. Wash the clementines thoroughly.
2. Do the cutting of the clementines on a chopping board, so all the juice can be collected and be used in the jam mixture.
3. Cut the clementines into smaller boat shapes. Afterwards slice the clementine "boats" into thin slices. Use a shape knife for all this cutting.
4. Remove any seeds during the coating process, as they will give more bitterness in the final jam.
5. Clementines slices and juice in added into a medium-large mixing bowl. Pour the water into the lemon mixture.
6. Store the clementine mixture cold in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
7. Pour the clementine mixture into a large cooking pot. Add in citric acid to the mixture.  
8. Let the clementine mixture simmer gentle for 1 hour without the lid on the cooking pot.
9. Prepare the jam jars by filling them up with the boiling water.
10. If the clementine slices appear too thick, you could consider to blend the mixture, before the addition of the sugar.
11. After 1 hours boiling add in the sugar.
12. Bring the clementine jam to a rolling boil and boil hard until the setting point is reached. Stir the jam frequently.
13. Test of set after 4-5 minutes using the flake test.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. Leave the glass upright and disturbed to cool and set.
17. Store at ambient temperature.

Sweater in orange

At the knitting festival in Horsens in October I brought this yarn for a sweater in the colour of orange. So after I have finished the knitting of this knit poncho in green, I am now starting to knit this sweater in the fantastic colour of orange.

The yarn for this sweater is sweater is a mixture on two yarn type. The more heavy yarn is 55% lambs wool and 45% cotton. The lighter yarn is Super kid Mohair, which is 66% mohair, 4% wool and 30% polyamid.

The sweater is knitted more or less in one go, starting from the bottom of the sweater.

Christmas Calndar 2019 - Farewell

It is time to say farewell to my Christmas Calendar 2019 and pack it way. I have had a great time making this Christmas Calendar and I hope, that you have enjoyed the Christmas journey in my kitchen during the month of December.

I keep myself entertained during the dark and grey Winter time creating my very own Christmas Calendar just like the ones on TV ! For me it is a way for keeping my mood up during a long, dark, gray and rainy Winter season with days having around 7 hours of sun light in case, that the sun actually shows it´s face ! as it keep me busy instead of hiding under my duvet like a little moody and sleepy brown bear !!!

So I  have baked different stuff and made Christmas sweets, which I have been using as stocking fillings for a good colleague at work as well as filling up all the empty tins of my mother and off cause to serve it at various occasions such as the annual Christmas coffee for local friends and finally but not least the traditional Christmas lunch for the Wonderful Women.

Reviewing your visits to my Christmas Calendar of 2019, I have made a TOP 5 over the most popular Christmas Calendar Daily entries according to your preference:

1. Oat flakes pellets wit skyr
2. Carrot buns with Christmas twist
3. Nougat confect
4. Pickled red onions with Christmas twist
5. Lucia buns - Lusekatte

So it seems like, that you like to eat the sweet stuff just like me, which fits perfect into the behaviour of most Danes during December :-)

I will already now promise you, that I will make a new Christmas Calendar in 2020. If you have an idea, please feel to leave a comment. You are also more than welcome to share your opinion on the Christmas Calender 2019 at the same time.

I think, that I as many other bloggers appreciate your comments, so we actually get the feeling, that someone is reading and enjoying our blogs !! So do not be shy, but leave me a comment.

Knit poncho - finally finished

Finally I have finished my knitting of this knit poncho. The recipe on this poncho have two ways to finish the neck part. First I tried the first option, but this gave closing, which was too close in neck for me. Therefore I decided to re-knit the top part, which was 1/3 of the entire poncho in order to have a more open neck closing. 

I am looking forward to use this poncho during the remaining part of the Winter. 

Champagne Cheese Cake

In the line with the theme for the New Year afternoon tea in form of champagne and marzipan I decided to make this Champagne Cheese Cake using inspiration from this cherry cream cheese cake Christmas style.

The marzipan part inside in this cake is the use of makrons containing marzipan. In order to have firmness in the bottom cake layer I used an almost equal ratio between digestive biscuits and these marzipan makroners.

The champagne part again was dry sparkling wine, as I did not want to spend expensive champagne inside this cake (or inside these champagne scones). The sparkling wine was used in the cream cheese cake mixture.

My friends from Horsens really liked the taste of this cream cheese cake. Another suggestion for a New Year cheese cake could be this New Year cheesecake.

Originally I was considering to add a jellied layer of sparkling wine on the top. But, I was a little concerned, if the gelled layer would be to too difficult to cut on top of softer cheesecake. Another concern was, if the taste would to be too dry and lack sweetness.

The Champagne Cheese Cake did not lack such a jellied top layer.

Champagne Cheese Cake: - 8-10 servings

• Biscuit bottom:
• 100 digestive biscuits
• 125 g makroner with marzipan
• 130 g butter - melted
• Cake mass:
• 4 sheets of gelatine
• 300 g plain full fat cream cheese
• 100 g sour cream, 18% fat 
• 100 g icing sugar
• 2 dl sparkling wine
• Fresh raspberries for decoration - optional

Biscuit bottom:

1. Break the digestive biscuits and marzipan makroner into small pieces using a rolling pin. First place the biscuits and makroner in a freezing bag, so you can control the whereabouts of the cakes.
2. Melt the butter.
3. Stir the butter and biscuits 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, icing sugar and sour cream in a medium mixing bowl, stir it together using an electrical mixer. 
3. Squeeze the gelatine sheets from excess water. Pour ½ dl of sparkling wine into a cooking pot and add in the gelatine leaves. Melt the gelatine sheets in the wine. 
4. Add the wine-gelatine into the cake mass, while you keep mixing to avoid lump formation.
5. Stir in the remaining sparkling wine by hand.
6. Fill the cake mass into the spring form on top of the biscuit layer.
7. Place the cake cold in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours.
8. Decorate the cheesecake with fresh raspberries prior to serving.
9. Serve the cake with a sweet glass of real champagne :-)

Champagne scones

In connection with celebrating the transition from 2019 to 2020 I had invited my good friends from Horsens around for New Year afternoon tea. For me the theme of New Year is something with champagne/sparkling wine and marzipan. I did no use champagne for these scones, as I do not want to use the "real stuff" as such a bottle cost too much. I prefer to drink the champagne. Instead of I used dry cava.

Making these scones with sparkling wine instead of the normal milk as liquid ingredients was an experiment of mine, which turned out pretty good. The taste was actually good. During the baking of these scones I could smell alcoholic flavour coming from the oven.

I used this recipe on these Easter eggs scones as starting point. Another time I think, I should have  used 450 g wheat flour instead of 400 g flour, as the scone dough was to messy to work with.

Champagne Scones: - 12 pieces

• 400 g (cake) wheat flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 50 g sugar
• 75 g marzipan - medium grated
• 100 g cold butter
• 1 egg
• 2 dl sparkling wine 

1. Heat the oven (conventional) to 220'C.
2. Mix the flour, salt, baking powder, marzipan and sugar together in a mixing bowl.
3. Cut the cold butter into small pieces.
4. Grind the butter pieces into the flour mix.
5. Whip the egg together.
6. Add in the whipped egg and sparkling wine.
7. Mix wine-egg and flour-butter together without kneading it a dough.
8. Place the dough on a pieces of baking paper.
9. Flatten the dough into a height of 3 cm.
10. Use a glass to cut out scone pieces or place the dough into heart shape silicone form.
11. Bake the scone at 220'C for 15-20 minutes.

New Year afternoon tea

This afternoon I started of the new year of 2020 with an afternoon tea with New Year as theme for my good friends in Horsens. For me the theme of New Year is something of champagne/sparkling wine and marzipan. Besides from drinking Christmas tea we enjoyed a bottle of sweet champagne.

As usual for afternoon tea we started of with scones, where I had used a combination of sparkling wine and marzipan as main ingredients to make these champagne scones.

After the scone it was time for the cake part, this time in form of cream cheese cake again with sparkling wine and marzipan as main ingredients in form of this Champagne Cheese Cake. I used raspberries for decoration of the cream cheese cake. My friends from Horsens really liked the taste of this cream cheese cake. It is quiet funny to see how the sun light makes shadows on the top of cheese cake.  

After the cheese cake we enjoyed a small cup of champagne sorbet. The texture of this champagne sorbet is very, very soft, so you could scoop the sorbet directly from the freezer. The taste of this champagne sorbet reminded us 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.

Marzipan is on of the main ingredients inside kransekage, so therefore the final part of this afternoon tea was these marzipan cake with nougat filling.