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Archive for May, 2013

Best Kranskage

Best Kranskage

I was making Kransekage again the other day and decided to try a new recipe. It turned out to be the best tasting Kransekage recipe I have come across so far. It is less dense than the Kransekage I posted about earlier, the dough is softer so you can pipe it out and the finished product is slightly more “cake-like”. That being said, if you intend on making a Kransekage tower like I did for our 25th wedding anniversary, I would not used this recipe because it does not hold its shape as nicely as the other recipe.

Pipe marcipan out with a large plain round tip and shape into triangle.

Pipe marcipan out with a large plain round tip and shape into triangle.

The original directions asked you to pipe it out using a triangular tip, which I don’t have. So I used a large round plain tip (#809) instead and shaped the marcipan into it’s classic triangular shape with my wet fingers. When you do this, careful not to use too much water on your fingers and keep rinsing and wetting your fingers to avoid the marcipan from sticking. Also the Kransekage cookies seemed to brown faster than the other Kranskage recipe so keep a very close eye on them (lower your oven temperature by 10-20 degrees, if needed). And finally, the original recipe called for Odense Bagemarcipan which I am not able to get here in the US so I used my regular Odense Original 60 % almonds (used to be called Ren RĂĄ marcipan). These cookies are really wonderful and I hope you enjoy them. 🙂

Best Kransekager

Best Kransekager

Kransekage (makes 15 pieces)

Ingredients:

For Cakes:

250 gram Odense Original marcipan (used to be called Ren RĂĄ)

125 gram sugar

55 gram pasteurized egg whites

For Glaze:

40 gram confectioners sugar (sifted),( plus more if needed)(1.4 oz)

15 gram pasteurized egg whites(0.5 oz)

For the chocolate:

55 gram bittersweet chocolate

Directions:

Double up two large baking sheets for extra insulation to avoid burning the bottom of cakes. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C).

For the cakes: Pour egg whites into a small dish and add sugar, stir and let sit for 30 to 60 minutes. Using your stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cut the marcipan into smaller pieces and add egg whites/sugar mixture, beat until you have a completely smooth mass without any lumps (5+ minutes). Scrape dough into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain round tip and pipe out logs onto baking sheet that are finger length (about 8 cm/3 inches). Wet your fingers with a little water and gently press each log into a rounded triangle, continue to wet fingers as needed but careful not to get marcipan too wet. Bake for 14 to 18 minutes or until golden.  Allow to cool completely.

For the glaze: Beat together confectioners sugar and pasteurized egg whites on high-speed for at least 5 minutes. The glaze should be pretty thick and no longer flow together when beaters are stopped, add more sifted confectioners sugar if needed. Load glaze into a plastic bag and snip off tip to create a very tiny opening. Begin decorating, moving the tip back and forth across the logs making sure to extend the tip out over the edge to allow the glaze to droop down the outside in a loop style fashion. Allow glaze to dry completely before dipping ends into chocolate.

For the chocolate: Chop chocolate into small pieces and melt over a water-bath of gently simmering water. Dip each end of Kransekager into melted chocolate and place on baking sheet. Allow chocolate to set (to speed up this process place Kransekager in refrigerator for 10 minutes, take out and bring back to room temperature. Store Kransekager in an airtight container. Enjoy!

Source: Odense

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Gulerodsbrud

Gulerodsbrud

My sister Jonna is the one who brought this wonderful recipe to my attention. She shared pictures of her finished Gulerodsbrud on Facebook and it sounded and looked so good that I just had to try the recipe right away. And let me tell you, these rolls did not disappoint. Taste one of these rolls straight out of the oven, as is, it’s a little piece of heaven. Let them cool and you can serve them with butter, or my favorite way, with some ham and prosciutto.

Making Gulerodsbrud

Making Gulerodsbrud

Not only are these buns now one of my favorites but making them is quite an adventure. I have never encountered a process like this and it was a lot of fun. First you make your dough, it’s firm and elastic. Then you make a well in the center and add eggs, sunflower seeds and grated carrots. Wrap it up like a nice little present and then you chop up the dough until it’s in small pieces. Now it’s a real sticky mess and you make little piles of dough on your baking sheets, bake and voila…you have super soft, delicious rolls with a slight thew from the sunflower seeds. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.

Chop dough into small pieces

Chop dough into small pieces

Gulerodsbrud, makes 12-15 buns

Ingredients:

5 1/2 dl water (18.3 fluid oz)

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (or 50 g cake/fresh yeast)

1 kg all-purpose flour (2 lb 3 oz or 35 oz)

75 g sugar (2.6 oz)

15 g salt (0.5 oz)

75 g butter (2.6 oz), at room temperature

2 eggs

150 g sunflower seeds (5.3 oz)

4 grated carrots (I got 230 g or 8 oz)

Directions:

Sprinkle yeast over warm water (100-110 degrees F) and let sit for 10-15 minutes. In your stand-mixer, combine flour, sugar and salt. Add water and yeast to flour and mix to combine, add butter and continue to mix until the dough is smooth and elastic. Place dough in a bowl and cover with a clean, dry tea towel. Allow dough to rise for one hour.

Line 2-3 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Pour dough out onto your work surface and give a quick knead to deflate. Make a deep well in the center and place the eggs, sunflower seeds and grated carrots into the well. Pull outer edges of dough over the center and close like a big ball. Using a large knife or a dough scraper, cut the dough and filling into pieces. Continue to scrape the spilled eggs, seeds and carrots back into the dough and continue to cut up the dough until the dough is cut into small pieces. At this point the dough is a pretty messy affair. Take handfuls of the sticky dough and place onto the baking sheets. Let the piles of dough rise for one hour (they will not rise much).

Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C). Bake buns for 15 minutes or until golden in color. Enjoy!

This post has been submitted to Yeastspotting.

Source: Claus Meyer

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