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Chocolate-Almond Biscotti

Posted in Chocolate, Cookies, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 20, 2015| 6 Comments »

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Making Biscotti has been on my to-do-list for years now. I love Biscotti and buy them often at the store, but knowing now how delicious and easy they are to make, I’m gonna have to try making them again real soon. This particular Biscotti is meant to be softer than your standard Biscotti and it is a little piece of chocolate heaven. I love the fact that it is softer and I must confess, I had two in one setting.

Making Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Making Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Chocolate-Almond Biscotti (makes 15 Biscotti)

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour (270 grams)

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa (45 grams)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature (85 grams)

1 cup sugar (215 grams)

2 large eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup blanched, chopped almonds (70 grams)

1/2 cup chocolate chips (85 grams)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C). Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt, stir and set aside. In the bowl of an electrical mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and smooth, 3-5 minutes. Add eggs one at the time, mixing well in-between and scraping down sides as needed. Add flour in three increments, mixing to combine, dough will be firm. Stir in almonds and chocolate chips.

Place dough on baking sheet and shape into an approximately 12 x 4 inch flat log (30 x 10 cm). Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.

Lower oven temperature to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Place Biscotti log onto a cutting board and with a sharp serrated knife, cut into 3/4 inch slices (2 cm). Place slices back onto baking sheet, cut side down, and bake for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

Source: adapted from Martha Stewart

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Vaniljekranse a la Blomsterberg

Posted in Christmas, Cookies, Danish, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 22, 2014| 20 Comments »

Vaniljekranse a la Blomsterberg

Vaniljekranse a la Blomsterberg

This year I wanted to try a different Vaniljekranse recipe for Christmas, although my Mom’s recipe still remains my favorite. When I saw Mette Blomsterberg’s recipe I wanted to try it because, #1 she is a very talented Danish pastry chef and #2 this recipe says you can use a pastry bag with a star shaped decorating tip to press out the cookies. This is of particular interest for those of you who don’t have the traditional star attachment for a KitchenAid machine (which I know is a great fustration to many Danes living outside Denmark). And so I tried it out and it is possible to press the cookies out using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, however, I didn’t have the muscle to continue on with it. So unless you have a very strong and preferably handsome mountain man handy to help you out, I think you might have a hard time.

Making Vaniljekranse using a pastry bag with a star decorating tip.

Making Vaniljekranse using a pastry bag with a star decorating tip.

Lets talk a little bit about butter. This year I was lucky enough to find real Danish Lurpak butter at a local high-end grocery store. It is expensive, but the result is a wonderful, very creamy buttery taste to your cookies. Is it worth the extra cost? To most people, probably not, but it sure is a fantastic creamy butter. Also, I want to point out that when you bake in Denmark it is a given that you use salted butter, whereas in the US you typically bake with unsalted butter, unless otherwise stated, and then a little salt is built into the recipe on the side. Just worth noting (it actually took me 28 years to realize this, ha).

Creamy Danish Lurpak butter

Creamy Danish Lurpak butter

Vaniljekranse (makes about 35 cookies)

Ingredients:

1 whole vanilla bean

180 grams sugar

200 grams salted butter, room temperature

1 egg, room temperature

75 grams almond meal/flour

250 grams all-purpose flour

Directions:

Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and press the seeds into a tablespoon of the sugar. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla seeds until smooth and creamy (4-5 minutes). Add the egg and continue mixing until fully incorporated. In small increments, add almond meal and flour, mix until dough comes together.

If you plan on using a piping bag with a star tip to press out dough and form into circles, roll up your sleeves and use dough immediately.

If you plan on using a star attachment for you KitchenAid mixer, wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in refrigeator for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Cut dough into small segments and load the dough into the meat grinder attachment on your KitchenAid machine. Run the dough through the star attachment into long strips, place dough onto baking sheet and cut dough into 4 inch long pieces and form into circle. Bake in the middle of oven for 10-14 minutes or until just turning golden. Cool on baking sheets for a couple of minutes before moving them to a cooling rack. Once cookies are completely cooled, store in an airtight cookie tin.

Merry Christmas and Enjoy.

Star attachment on KitchenAid meat grinder.

Star attachment on KitchenAid meat grinder.

Source: adapted from Mette Blomsterberg

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Chokolade Specier – Chocolate Butter Cookies

Posted in Chocolate, Christmas, Cookies, Danish, tagged , , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2014| 8 Comments »

Chokolade Specier

Chokolade Specier

Chokolader Specier is a traditional Danish Butter Cookie loaded with chopped chocolate. Danish butter cookies have been around since 1933 and I am sure you are familar with the dark blue tins of Royal Dansk Butter cookies being sold in many stores today. Usually I am not a big fan of butter cookies, but add lots of chocolate and you can count me in. These chocolate butter cookies are not overly sweet and the crumb is soft and flaky. I guess, if you stretch your imagination, you could think of these Chokolade Specier as the Danish version of the American Chocolate Chip cookie.

Scrape seeds from Vanilla bean and press into a teaspoon sugar, this will separate the seeds.

Scrape seeds from Vanilla bean and press into 1 teaspoon sugar, this will separate the seeds. Add chocolate and mix to combine. Press dough into logs, chill. Slice and bake.

Chokolade Specier – Chocolate Butter Cookie (makes 60-70 cookies)

Ingredients:

300 gram butter (salted) , at room temperature (10.5 ounces)

125 gram confectioners sugar (4.4 ounces)

375 gram all-purpose flour (13.2 ounces)

seeds from 1 vanilla bean

1 teaspoon sugar

200 gram semi-sweet chocolate, chopped (7 ounces)

Directions:

Cut open the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds out. Press the seeds into 1 teaspoon sugar with the flat side of a knife, this is to separate the seeds, set aside.

Using your hands or a mixer, combine butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla bean seeds and flour. When the dough starts to come together add chocolate and mix until combined. Pour dough onto work surface, press the dough together with your hands and then roll into logs 4 centimeter (1.5 inch) wide. Try to work quickly so the warmth from your hands doesn’t alter the chocolate. Wrap logs tightly in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for at least 4 hours before baking.

When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (390 degrees Fahrenheit). Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Slice dough into 5-10 millimeter (0.2-0.4 inch) thickness and bake for 8 minutes. Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight cookie tin. Glædelig Jul and Merry Christmas!

Source: adapted from Kager til Kaffen

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Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted in Chocolate, Christmas, Cookies, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 12, 2014| 6 Comments »

Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been on the hunt for a go-to-cookie for a long time now. One that fits anytime of the year, one that is quick and easy to make and I think I have finally found one. I have made these both with and without the walnuts, not everybody like nuts you know, and they are equally good with and without. They tend to spread out a little more without the nuts, but that’s OK. These cookies have a wonderful background flavor of brown sugar, which reminds me of a Blondie, and the combination of walnuts and cranberries gives them a slight crunch and makes them nice and soft, all at the same time. These cookies are definitely a keeper and I think you’ll really enjoy them as well.

IMG_4909

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (360 grams)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature (226 grams)

3/4 cup sugar (155 grams)

1 cup packed brown sugar (185 grams)

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips (280 grams)

1 1/2 cup dried cranberries (140 grams)

1 cup chopped walnuts (112 grams)

Directions:

Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (175 degrees Celsius).

Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside. Cream butter and sugars until smooth and soft, about 2-3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Add vanilla and mix until fully incorporated, scrape down sides of bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour in three increments and mix only until fully incorporated. Add chocolate chips, cranberries and chopped walnuts, mix only until incorporated. Working quickly, roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls (approx. 4 cm), place on prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart (5 cm). If dough feels very soft when rolling, place baking sheet with dough balls in refrigerator for 5 minutes before baking. Bake for 16-20 minutes or until done. Cool and baking sheet for 2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack. Enjoy!

Freshly baked Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Freshly baked Cranberry-Walnut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Source: adapted from Bakerella

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12 Days of Christmas – Conclusion

Posted in 12 Days of Christmas, Other, tagged , , , , , , , on December 12, 2010|

My Mom and Dad’s old julestjerne hangs in my window every Christmas

First of all, I just wanted to thank everyone for all of your nice comments and emails that you have left me during the 12 Days of Christmas series. It has been such a great pleasure and I have had a lot of fun in creating this series and now that it has come to a conclusion it is almost a little bittersweet. The positive response I have gotten has been unexpected and very impressive, it has brought back a lot of wonderful memories for myself and I am happy that I have been able to share some of them with you. I look forward to bringing you more delicious food and desserts and feel free to stop by My Danish Kitchen any time you like. Merry Christmas and Glædelig Jul to everyone.

Our Christmas tree with Danish and American flags

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12 Days of Christmas – Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Posted in 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas, Cookies, Dessert, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 19, 2010| 6 Comments »

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

Jam Thumbprint cookies are a regular visitor in our home at Christmas time. It has been my son’s favorite ever since he was a little boy and they always seem to simply just disappear. Use whatever your favorite jam is. What I used this time was strawberry, cherry and a wonderful jam containing apricot, peach and passion fruit which have become wildly popular here at our house. Also, it is not an accident (well it actually is….but it’s not) that the recipe calls for both vanilla bean as well as vanilla extract. I did that totally by accident one year because I misread the recipe but it turned out even better, so ever since then I have used both. But if you don’t have the vanilla bean on hand just go with the extract, they still turn out great.  🙂

Thumbprint Cookies (makes 37 cookies)

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (230 g)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon fine salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 whole stick or 113 g), at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar (140 g), plus more for rolling

1 large egg

1 vanilla bean – seeds scraped from pod (optional)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/3 cup of your favorite jam (strawberry, cherry etc)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

In another bowl, whip the butter and sugar with an electrical mixer until smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in the egg, vanilla bean (if using) and the vanilla extract until combined. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients in 2 additions, mixing just until incorporated.

Scoop the dough into a 1 inch ball, toss in the extra sugar and roll using the palm of your hands. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press a thumbprint (or I use a 1/2 teaspoon measuring spoon) into the center of dough ball, about 1/2 inch deep. Fill indentation with about 3/4 teaspoon jam.

Bake cookies until edges are golden, about 15 minutes. Rotate the pans from top to bottom about halfway through baking. Cool cookies on the baking sheets. Enjoy.

Store cookies in a tightly sealed container.

Glædelig Jul and Merry Christmas♥

1/2 teaspoon measuring tool makes indenting the cookies easy

Fill with your favorite jam

Source: adapted from Food Network

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12 Days of Christmas – Vaniljekranse (Vanilla Wreaths)

Posted in 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas, Cookies, Danish, Dessert, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 15, 2010| 18 Comments »

Vaniljekranse

Vaniljekranse

Vaniljekranse is a traditional Danish cookie made in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  I have very fond memories of helping my Mom and Dad make vaniljekranse when I was a little girl. It’s a fun process of the dough coming out of the grinder into strips, cutting the strips into pieces and forming them into circles. The cookies have a sweet vanilla flavor and are slightly crunchy on the outside. Making Vaniljekranse makes for wonderful Danish family “hygge” (coziness).

Vaniljekranse are not difficult to make, however, it took some doing to actually make it happen. The reason being, that in Denmark there is an attachment to your meat grinder that has a star shape on it. So the dough is run through the meat grinder with the star attachment. I could probably just have used a pastry bag with a star tip, I tried it, but it takes a lot of muscle to get the dough out. The other option would be to use a cookie press and you can get some sort of circle pattern, but I really wanted to show the making of this cookie the authentic way.

Vaniljekranse

Vaniljekranse

So I described the attachment to my wonderful husband Joe, he looked at the thickness of the meat grinder discs, and him being a Blacksmith and all, he was able to fabricate the disc for me…Yeah! My wonderful husband is so brilliant, I think I’ll keep him  🙂  He helped me make this cookie the authentic way. Thanks Joe.

Update: I have since then been able to buy a star attachment in Bilka in Denmark while we were home for a visit, it fits my KitchenAid mixer perfectly.

Star attachment for KitchenAid

Star attachment for KitchenAid

Star attachment for KitchenAid

Star attachment for KitchenAid

Vaniljekranse

Ingredients:

375 grams flour (13 oz)

125 grams cornstarch (4.4 oz)

375 grams salted butter (13 oz)

100 grams slivered almonds (3.5 oz)

250 grams sugar (8.8 oz)

1 vanilla bean

2 teaspoon vanilla powder

1 egg

Directions:

Place slivered almonds in food processor and blend until a powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl add flour and cornstarch, blend together. Cut butter into small pieces, add butter to flour mixture and blend together on low-speed with a handheld mixer until it starts to become crumbly. Cut open vanilla bean and scrape out seeds. Add vanilla seeds, vanilla powder, almonds and sugar, blend to combine. Add egg and mix to combine. Using your hands, press mixture together until it forms a dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 390 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Using the star attachment for your meat grinder, pastry bag or cookie press to form your cookies. Traditionally, you will use a star attachment for your meat grinder. Cut dough into small segments and load into the meat grinder. Run the dough through the star attachment into long strips, place dough onto floured surface. Then cut dough into 4 inch long pieces and form into circle. Place on prepared baking sheets.  Bake in the middle of oven for 8 minutes or until slightly golden. Cool on baking sheets.

Glædelig Jul and Merry Christmas♥

Ground up slivered almonds

Dough coming out of grinder

Strips of dough

Vaniljekranse

Source: adapted from my Mother’s recipe

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