Birthday coffee 2022

For the first time in 2 years I could invite guests for a birthday coffee on my actual birthday. This was really great and fantastic to have a house full of guests again after corona. 

A classic Danish birthday coffee contains three key ingredients: freshly baked bun served with plenty of butter, cream cake and hot chocolate. Hot chocolate or drinking chocolate has no space inside my kitchen, as I DISLIKE the taste of hot chocolate and cocoa milk !!! I still recall my dislike, when I as a child was served hot chocolate at the other children´s birthday :-(

So instead of hot chocolate my guests could choose to kick of the evening with either a glass of sparkling wine or a glass of Frozen Rose or both. The Frozen Rose got a lot of fans this evening. And as usual this gets the talk running, before we sat down at the table.

And as usual we start of the eating part with saffron buns saffron buns, which I always make for my birthday. For me saffron buns really equal birthday celebration for me, as the use of saffron in huge amount is a great way to celebrate life/birthdays.

Afterwards it was time for the first cake in form of a cream cake with a filling of rhubarb compote, pickled rhubarb on the top and the cream filling being a mixture of whipped dairy cream, cream fraiche 38% fat, icing sugar and vanilla corns. 

The second cake was another rhubarb cake, this time with marzipan, which is another great combination. 

I will be sharing the various recipe from this birthday coffee in the near future.

I received some very nice birthday gift in form of different yarn, books, china tea cup, cake book, knitting project bag and some great looking flowers. Thank you very much to my friends and mother for some great gifts and your excellent company :-)

Shopping in Malmö

 

Last week I went to Malmö for the Nordic Dairy Congress. I managed for do some shopping during some of the programme breaks. I went to some supermarkets, where I stocked on both saffron and vanilla powder. The saffron I will use to bake saffron buns for my upcoming birthday. I use the vanilla powder instead of vanilla pods.

I also managed to located two shops selling hand-dyed yarns produced by local yarn dyers. I found two merino yarns in green made by Joladesign.se, and in the shop Garderobendesign I also found some merino and mohair as well hand-dyed in some other green colours by Garnlycka.se.

Four of the merino yarns fits perfect together in  a knitting project of some kind. And one of the merino yarn and mohair I intend to use to knit West Side by Susie Haumann.

Hveder 2022

 

Today Thursday evening is this the evening before Store Bededag (Great Payer Day) (a Danish religious holiday celebrated on the 4th Friday after Easter). And it is the peak evening for enjoying roasted "hveder" - wheat buns with cardamom.

This year I tested out a recipe I located in the weekly magazine "Hendes Verden - issue 19 / 2022" being rich in egg. I have have no changes to the recipe expected for the kneading and raising procedure, where I used my usual way of kneading & raising. The recipe could do with some more cardamom or perhaps a combination of cardamom & vanilla sugar.

"Hveder" (wheat buns) with cardamom a la "Hendes Verden": - 12-14 buns

• 600 g wheat flour
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 80 g butter
• 25 g fresh yeast
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 250 g full-fat milk
• 1 teaspoon cardamom 

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. Cover the dough in the mixing bowl with a damp tea 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 80 g each.
8. Shape the dough pieces into bun shapes. Place the bun pieces relative close in pans covered with baking parchment. 
9. Place the pans with bun dough in the oven (fan oven at 35-40'C). 
10. Let the bun raise for second time for approx. 40 minutes inside the oven, you could on top fill some boiling water into a container below the dough in the oven
11. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
12. Bake the bun at 180'C for 20 minutes.
13. Serve the buns warm with butter. Or slice them into 2 and roast the buns in the fan oven at 200C until light brown in the colour.

Recipe suggestions for hveder for Store Bededag 2022

  

This evening is the evening before Store Bededag (Great Payer Day) (a Danish religious holiday celebrated on the 4th Friday after Easter). And it is the peak evening for enjoying roasted "hveder" - wheat buns with cardamom.

Having discovered the great taste of home-made "hveder", where is no turning back for commercial baked "hveder". The combination of freshly grounded cardamon covering your kitchen in wonderful flavour and eating freshly baked/roasted buns is a combination made in heaven !!!

As inspiration for you I hereby share a selection of the various "hveder", which I have been baking over the years. And tomorrow I will share the recipe of the hveder 2022, which I will be baking this year.

Happy baking

Hveder 2020

Hveder a la Søndag



hveder -wheat buns with cardamon

Hveder a la Isabellas

Hveder af purpur hvede og surdej

Hveder med inspiration from "Maden imit liv"

Hveder med marcipan

Klassike hveder

 

Hveder 2021

Easter Calendar 2022 - mango lemon mousse

 Easter Calendar 2022

Today is Easter Monday or second Easter day, which is the the final Easter vacation day here in Denmark.

And I will end my Easter Calendar 2022 with yet another mousse recipe, this time I have made mango lemon mousse as the sweet final to yet another Easter lunch/dinner.

When you make this dessert, you need a lot of mixing bowls and you need to whip the different ingredients in a specific order, so you do not need to clean the mixer between each whipping part.

When you mix the melted gelatine into the lemon juice, I always used my electrical whipper, so I am certain, that I do not need up with gelatine lumps. And I also use the electrical whipper, when I added the lemon juice-gelatine liquid into the whipped egg yolk-sugar mix. For the rest of the mixing I do it gentle by hand.

I decided to use pasteurised egg yolk and pasteurised egg white. In Denmark each contain of egg yolk contains 2 egg yolk, while each container of egg white contains 1½ egg white, so therefore I used 3 egg whites. If you start from fresh eggs, when you divide three eggs into egg yolk and egg white.

Mango lemon mousse as dessert requires some planning, as the gelatine needs for set for minimum 4 hours or night over in the refrigerator.

As I am working with frozen fruit, which many times requires heating up, I actually do the cooking of the frozen fruit the evening, so the fruit is cooled down, before it mixed together with the whipped cream. This is done to avoid, that the whipped cream is melted during mixing.

Lemon-lime mousse: - 4-6 servings

• 4 leaves of gelatine
• 3 egg white
• 4 egg yolks
• 65 g sugar
• 2½ dl dairy whipping cream, 38% fat
• 1 organic lemon - zest & lemon juice
• 250 frozen mango pieces

1. Zest the lemon and juice the lemon.
2. Add the mango pieces into a cooking pot together with the lemon zest and juice. Bring it to the boil.
3. Blend the mango, and place it in bowl, which is stored cold night over.
4. Place the gelatine leaves in cold water for 10 minutes.
5. Place the egg white in a clean mixing bowl, and whip the egg whites into a firm foam.
6. Pour the dairy whipping cream in another mixing bowl, and whip the cream in a airy foam, which is not too firm.
7. Place the sugar and egg yolks into another mixing bowl, and whip it thick foam.
8. Melt the gelatine leaves in a small container in a water bath.
9. Pour the melted gelatine into the cold mango lemon mix, whip well while gentle during pouring. Use the electrical mixer.
10. Pour the mango lemon gelatine mix into the whipped egg yolk-sugar, whip well while gentle pouring. Use the electrical mixer.
11. Gentle stir in the whipped dairy cream into the egg yolk & sugar mass, little by little. Stir by hand.
12. Gentle fold in the whipped egg white in the cream mass, little by little. Stir by hand.
13. Fill the dessert mixture into either a large serving bowl or smaller serving bowls/ glasses.
14. Place the lemon mousse cold in the refrigerator for minimum 4 hours or night over.

Easter Calendar 2022 - lemon moon cocoktail

 

Easter Calendar 2022

Today it is Easter Sunday, which is the fourth day in the Danish Easter vacation. However, there is still another vacation day tomorrow, so lets celebrate it by enjoying a drink. I have found this recipe here: Bigfarmboys cocktails recipe. I have made no modification to it.

Big Farm Boys Citronmåne: - 1 cockail

• 4 cl gin
• 4 cl Big Farm Boy citrin cocktail syrup
• ½ organic lemon - juice and zest
• ice cubes

1. Place the lemon zest in a cocktail
2. Pour gin and cocktail syrup in a cocktail shaker together with lemon juice and ice cubes.
3. Shake everything together.
4. Pour into the cocktail together with an ice cubes.
5. Cheers and enjoy :-)

Easter Calendar 2022 - orange jam with ginger & vanilla

  

Today it is Good Friday (Langfredag) being the second day of the Danish Easter vacation. So today, I will enjoy my vacation time making some home-made jam from orange for my Easter Calendar 2022.

I will be selling some of the jam jars 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 (Julemærkehjemmene).


Orange jam with ginger & vanilla: 6 glasses.

• 6 organic oranges with thin peel
• 2 organic lemons
• 600 g sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla powder
• potassium sorbate - optional

1. Wash the orange thoroughly.
2. Cut of bottom and top of two of the oranges and throw away.
3. Cut the these two orange incl. the peel into small pieces. Remove any seeds. Place the orange pieces and the orange juice into the cooking pot.
4. Do the cutting of the oranges on a chopping board, so all the orange juice can be collected and used in the jam mixture.
5. Grate the zest of the remaining oranges and lemon, and add the orange & lemon zest into the cooking pot.
6. Peel the orange & lemon, and afterwards cut the oranges and lemon into smaller pieces. Remove the orange seeds during the coating process, as they will give more bitterness in the final jam. Add orange & lemon pieces together with the juice into the cooing pot.
7. Add freshly grated ginger and vanilla powder  together with sugar into the cooking pot.
8. Bring the jam to the boiling pot. Let it simmer gentle for 15 minutes under lid.
9. Remove the lid from the cooking pot, and the jam simmer for another 15 minutes.
10. Use a blend to get a more homogenous texture. 
11. Prepare the jam jars by filling them up with the boiling water.
12.  Stir in potassium sorbate, before you fill the jam into the jam jars.
13. Fill the jam into the jam jars. Close the glass with a lid.
14. Store at ambient temperature.

Easter Calendar 2022 - lemon-lime mousse

Easter Calendar 2022

Today it is Maundy Thursday (Skærtorsdag), which is a public holiday here in Denmark and starting off the Danish Easter vacation with 5 days off from work. After two years of Easter with restriction in relation to corona, it is again possible to meet up with friends and family for Eastern lunches. A typical Easter dessert is lemon mousse.

When you make this dessert, you need a lot of mixing bowls and you need to whip the different ingredients in a specific order, so you do not need to clean the mixer between each whipping part.

When you mix the melted gelatine into the lemon juice, I always used my electrical whipper, so I am certain, that I do not need up with gelatine lumps. And I also use the electrical whipper, when I added the lemon juice-gelatine liquid into the whipped egg yolk-sugar mix. For the rest of the mixing I do it gentle by hand.

I decided to use pasteurised egg yolk and pasteurised egg white. In Denmark each contain of egg yolk contains 2 egg yolk, while each container of egg white contains 1½ egg white, so therefore I used 3 egg whites. If you start from fresh eggs, when you divide three eggs into egg yolk and egg white.

Lemon mousse as dessert requires some planning, as the gelatine needs for set for minimum 4 hours or night over in the refrigerator.

Lemon-lime mousse: - 4 servings

• 3 leaves of gelatine
• 3 egg white
• 4 egg yolks
• 65 g sugar
• 2½ dl dairy whipping cream, 38% fat
• 2 organic lemons - zest & lemon juice
• 2 organic lime  zest & lime juice

1. Place the gelatine leaves in cold water for 10 minutes.
2. Place the egg white in a clean mixing bowl, and whip the egg whites into a firm foam.
3. Pour the dairy whipping cream in another mixing bowl, and whip the cream in a airy foam, which is not too firm.
4. Zest the lemons & limes and squeeze the lemons & limes for their juice.
5. Place the sugar, lemon zest and egg yolks into another mixing bowl, and whip it thick foam.
6. Melt the gelatine leaves in a small container in a water bath.
7. Pour the melted gelatine into the lemon & lime juice, whip well while gentle during pouring. Use the electrical mixer.
8. Pour the lemon-lime juice-gelatine mix into the whipped egg yolk-sugar, whip well while gentle pouring. Use the electrical mixer.
9. Gentle stir in the whipped dairy cream into the egg yolk & sugar mass, little by little. Stir by hand.
10. Gentle fold in the whipped egg white in the cream mass, little by little. Stir by hand.
11. Fill the dessert mixture into either a large serving bowl or smaller serving bowls/ glasses.
12. Place the lemon mousse cold in the refrigerator for minimum 4 hours or night over.

Welcome to Easter Calendar 2022

 

Welcome to Easter Calendar 2022

Easter is just about to start. In Denmark we have public Easter holiday in form of 5 Easter days incl. two days in the week-end (Thursday - Monday). The schools are closed the three days just before Easter, so so many Danes will have  vacation as a family in this upcoming week.

This is the first Easter since the break out of corona, that we here in Denmark again travel outside Denmark or meet up with friends and family without any corona restrictions.

As usual I will be celebrating the Easter with a small Easter calendar, where I will share a recipe from my kitchen on each of the Easter days. I hope you will look from time to time, so I am busy with in my little kitchen. 

The first blog post will start in this Easter Calendar 2022 will Maundy Thursday  :-)

Burning Love - mashed potatoes with topping of vegetable and bacon

 

A classic Danish main course is Burning Love (Brændende kærlighed), which is mashed potatoes served with a topping of fried bacon and chopped onions. I have found a recipe with extra vegetable in the topping, which I have used as inspiration. I served this dish as one of my regular Sunday dinners with my mother.

I have previously made this version of "Burning love" in form of Burning love - mashed root fruit with bacon topping

"Burning Love" - mashed potatoes with topping of vegetable and bacon:  - 4 servings

Mashed root fruits:

• 1000 g potatoes
• 2-2½ dl milk
• 25-50 g butter
• salt & pepper for seasoning

Bacon topping:

• 150 g bacon in small squares
• 2 red onions - finely chopped
• 2 carrot - finely chopped

Other topping:

• Pickled red beets
• Chives

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into medium squares to obtain equal boiling time.
2. Place the potatoes in a medium-large cooking pot. Fill in water, so all the potatoes are covered with water.
3. Boil the potatoes in the cooking pot covered with the lid for approx. 20 minutes.
4. While the root fruit are boiling fry the bacon pieces on a hot frying pan.
5. When the bacon pieces are crispy and brown in colour, when add in the chopped onion. and carrots. 
6. Fry the onion and carrot , until they are soft. 
7. Keep the bacon topping warm on the frying pan, until serving the dish.
8. When the potatoes are soft, empty the cooking pot for water. 
9. Mash the potatoes into a rough puree.
10. Add the milk into the potatoes mash. Stir well. 
11. Add in the butter, and let it melt.
12. Season the mashed potatoes with salt and pepper.
13. Serve the mashed potatoes with bacon topping, pickled red beets and decorate with chopped chives.

Shrovetide bun a la Semla style

Today Sunday it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ? It is the peak day for eating Shrovetide buns, until you can not stand the sight of these very rich and fatty buns for another year.

Shrovetide bun are connected with fasting, which starts 49 days before Easter. And when in the fast period you are not supposed to eat meat and wheat flour as well as not drink milk or alcohol. So before the fast started there was big parties, where you would indulge in these foods. Fastelavnssøndag (Shrovetide Sunday) and the following Monday were the last days, where you could eat meat. The following Tuesday was the last day of eating wheat flour, where wheat buns were baked and eaten. This White Tuesday is also known as Pandekagedagen (Pan Cake Day) again relating to the use of wheat flour in pan cakes.

This year I am baking Shrovetide buns, which are in the style of semla otherwise  known as the Swedish version of Shrovetide bun. Here you bake the buns, where you afterwards empty the inner part of the bun and fill it up with a filling and top of with whipped cream. I have found this recipe in the weekly magazine "Hendes Verden" (issue 8/2021).

The traditional Danish "fastelavns"/Shrovetide song is like this:

Fastelavn er mit navn                                             Shrovetide is my name

Boller vil jeg have                                                    Buns I would like to have

Hvis jeg ingen boller får                                          If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade                                                When I will make trouble

Boller op, boller ned                                               Buns up, buns down

Boller i min mave                                                   Buns in my tummy

Hvis jeg ingen boller får                                         If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade                                                When I will make trouble

Shrovetide bun a la Semla style: 12 buns

Dough:

• 500 g wheat flour
• 75 g sugar
• 150 g butter - melted 
• 25 g fresh yeast
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1 teaspoon cardamon 
• 200 g milk
• egg wash for glazing

Filling:

• 200 g bun crums
• 2 apples
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 30 g butter
• 350 g caramel sauce
• 2½ dl dairy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

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 entire dough raise for approx. 30-40 minutes under a damp cloth.
6. When you evaluate, that the dough has raise enough, divide the dough into smaller pieces with a weight of 80 g each.
7. Place the bun pieces on the baking tray covered with baking parchment. 
8. Let the bun raise for second time for approx 45 minutes under a tea towel.
9. Heat up the fan oven to 200'C.
10. Bake the bun at 200'C for 15 minutes, turning the baking trays around after 8 minutes to get an even baking.
11. Cold down the buns.
12. Cut the top of the buns. Remove the inner part of the buns. Save the bread crumbs for use in the filling.
13. Peel the apple and cut it into 1 x 1 cm squares.
14. Turn the apple pieces around in the sugar.
15. Melt the butter in a cooking pot.
16. Add the apple pieces into the melted butter. Cook the apple pieces soft in the butter, before they are mashed.
17. Add in the caramel sauce and the bread crumbs.
18. Cook this for 2-3 minutes.
19. Cool down this filling.
20. Whip the dairy whipping cream and vanilla sugar together in whipped cream.
21. Fill the apple-caramel filling into the buns, top on with whipped cream and place the top bun piece on top.
22. Served together with coffee/tea.

Make Nine 2022 - knitting ambitions

 

On a knitting vlog, which I watch during back in 2020, I saw that some knitters were making a Make Nine plan for an upcoming new year. I found this to be a great idea, as it would bring me some structure to all the many knitting ideas, which I collect in magazine, online knitting shops and knitting vlogs. 

So, for 2021 I made such a Make Nine 2021 knitting project plan, which I actually managed to complete. Yes, I was a little pressured, as lot of Make Nine 2021 projects were sweaters or other knitting projects, where I struggled with the knitting firmness, so I had to re-knit again on a different size of the knitting needle. 

My good friend from high school  was also struggling, so for 2022 we have decided to add smaller projects to our Make Nine 2022 list. Again I have made my Make 2022 plan on a piece of carton, which you can see a photo above. Next to the project, there is two small boxes. The upper box is named WIP (Work in Progress), and here I can place a cross as well as the date, when I start on the specific knitting project. The lower box is named FO (Finished Object), where I again to make a cross and write the date, when I have finished the knitting of the specific project. 

For my Make None 2022 I have decided to knit from nine different designer, so I can get try various designers instead of just knitting from more or less one knit designers. My list looks like this:

1. SoHo bandana by Susie Haumann
   
2. Lun sommerbluse by Charlotte Tøndering
   
3. Chunky T-shirt by Katrine Hannibal
   
4. Sunna by Helga Jona
   
5. Birds of a feather by Andrea Mowry
   
6. Sweater No 14 V-neck by Myfavouritethings knitwear
   
7. Vega V-neck by Lene Holme Samsøe
   
8. Vest fra Magasinet Sally´s
9. Stockings

Suggestions for Shrovetide buns for Fastelavn 2022

  

shrovetide buns in Spring colour

Sunday it is Shrovetide Sunday (Fastelavnssøndag) here in Denmark. What does it mean ? It is the peak day for eating Shrovetide buns, until you can not stand the sight of these very rich and fatty buns for another year.

Shrovetide bun are connected with fasting, which starts 49 days before Easter. And when in the fast period you are not supposed to eat meat and wheat flour as well as not drink milk or alcohol. So before the fast started there was big parties, where you would indulge in these foods. Fastelavnssøndag (Shrovetide Sunday) and the following Monday were the last days, where you could eat meat. The following Tuesday was the last day of eating wheat flour, where wheat buns were baked and eaten. This White Tuesday is also known as Pandekagedagen (Pan Cake Day) again relating to the use of wheat flour in pan cakes.

The traditional Danish "fastelavns"/Shrovetide song is like this:

Fastelavn er mit navn                                             Shrovetide is my name

Boller vil jeg have                                                    Buns I would like to have

Hvis jeg ingen boller får                                          If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade                                                When I will make trouble

Boller op, boller ned                                               Buns up, buns down

Boller i min mave                                                   Buns in my tummy

Hvis jeg ingen boller får                                         If I get no buns

Så laver jeg ballade                                                When I will make trouble

If you have no clue, what kind of Shrovetide Bun to bake tomorrow, please look below for further inspiration.

And if you want to know that Shrovetide bun, which I am baking Sunday, when re-visit my blog again Sunday :-) This year I have baked Shrovetide bun a la semla-style.

Shrovetide bun with apple twist

Classic shrovetide bun with remonce

Shrovetide bun with raspberry filling

Shrovetide bun with caramel sauce

Shrovetide buns with liqourice



Shrovetide bun with cherry and marzipan



Shrovetide bun with raspberry and marzipan



Speculoos shrovetide bun



Shrovetide bun with marzipan cake filling



Shrovetide bun with marzipan filling

Shrovetide bun with Valentine twist

Knitting projects finished during 2021

Also 2021 turned out to be a year, where corona continued to set the agenda for many people in various ways. So, again it meant for me, that I spend a lots of days working from home (being grateful for this opportunity due to both job position and company policy) as well evenings spend at home due to the closure of cinemas, cafes etc. As "entertainment" I spend a lot of my spare time knitting various projects, while I attended phone meeting at work or watch TV or vlog/podcast on youtube with focus on knitting.

Looking at my knitting projects at Ravelry, I can see, that I have finished the knitting of a total of 17 different projects from bread basket cloth, over vest, cardigans to two different Christmas sweaters.  For all these various knitting projects I have used 22.931 m's of yarn, so quiet close to the amount of yarn used in 2020.

Nine of these 17 knitting projects were a part of my Make Nine 2021 knitting aspiration, which I managed to finish off late November 2021. Based on my experience I will included smaller projects in my Make Nine 2022 ambitions, so it does not become too stressful knitting the various projects.

My friend from high school and I have decided to make a new Make Nine 2022 knitting again this year. I will share this list quiet soon :-)

Here below you can photos of some of my various knitting projects finished in 2021:

So Faded by Andrea Mowry

Christmas sweater 2020 by Önling/Katrine Hannibal

Yakokse by Annette Danielsen

Hals sweater by Sigknitture

Chunky Cardigan by Skabagtig.dk

Peacock Tee by Lene Holme Samsøe

Endelave slipover by Kit Couture

Femina's bøllehat

Tyk-tynd T-shirt by Skabagtig.dk

Trio Sommer by Hanne Larsen

Irma knit top by Önling/Katrine Hannibal

Oblique poncho sweater

Sunday sweater mohair edition