Category Archives: Christmas

Christmas Traditions: Krumkaker

Krumkake is one of the original traditional 7 Christmas cookies to be served for Christmas each year in Norway.

They are baked in a special decorative two-sided iron griddle, similar to a waffle iron. While hot, the 13–20 cm krumkake are rolled into small cones around a wooden or plastic cone form. Krumkake can be eaten plain or filled with whipped cream (often Cloudberry Cream) or other fillings.

If you are allergic to chicken eggs, you can use egg-replacer or try duck eggs. I have tried that with success several times.

Ingredients:

  • 6 eggs (or equivalent of Egg-replacer)
  • 250 grams of sugar (2 cups)
  • 250 grams of melted butter
  • 250 grams of all purpose flour
  • 125 grams of potaoflour (1 cup)
  • 1 teaspoon of ground cardamom
  • 3 dl heavy cream / Whipping cream / milk or water (water makes the cookies extra crunchy)
  • 2 teaspoons of vanillasugar

Directions:

Whip egg and sugar until light yellow and fluffy

Add melted butter (cooled down), cream / milk or water.

Use 1 tablespoon dough in the middle of the iron griddle and cook until golden.

Immediately roll onto a Krumkake-roller and form before cooling down.

Enjoy!

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Christmas Traditions: Grandma Elises’ Pepperkaker

Proper Norwegian Gingerbreadmen

This dough yields about 100 cookies

  • 400 grams of sugar
  • ¾ dl dark syrup
  • 1 ½ dl water
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground lemon or grapefruit peel
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground clove
  • 1-2 tablespoons of cognac
  • 250 grams of margarine (butter)
  • 1 kg all purpose flour
  • 10 grams baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

Bring to boil: sugar, syrup, water and margarine in a casserole.

Blend the spices in Cognac, add the mixture to the sugars and cool down.

Add the dry ingredients (All purpose flour, baking powder and baking soda), mix thoroughly and cool dough till next day.

Let it rest in room temperature for 2-3 hours before working it as it is easier to work when tempered.

Roll the dough thin (0,2-0,25 cm on a rough estimate) with a Rolling pin. Use cutting molds to carve cookies.

Cook in oven on a baking paper covered pan on 180C for about 5-10 minutes. Cool down.

Now its time to Decorate.

I made a Pepperkakehus:

To get proper windows use Gelatine plates

Pepperkakehus

Then we decorated a bunch of cookies in traditional christmas style (hearts in pink etc.)

However, in these 50 shades of Grey times, I made a few kinky cookies that I wrapped up for my boyfriend for Christmas.

I had so much fun making these after I saw some pictures on google some years ago.

PepperkakeKinky04 PepperkakeKinky02 PepperkakeKinky05

Pork Tamales for Christmas

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 kg Banana or Platano leaves
  • 1 kg of Corn flour (masa)
  • 1/2 kg posta de cerdo
  • 4 cups potato purée
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 3 cups pork lard
  • 1 cup pre cooked rice with Achiote (not overcooked)
  • 6 sobres de consomé de pollo
  • 4 dientes de ajo picados
  • 2 chiles dulces cortados en tiras
  • 1 roll of cilantro
  • 1 Chicken Breast
  • 1 branch of celery
  • 1 ramita de tomillo
  • 1 chile picante
  • 1 zanahoria cortada en rodajas
  • 1 lata de petit pois (erter)
  • 1 rollo de pabilo
  • Sal y comino molido al gusto

Filling Per Tamal

  • Dried Prunes
  • 1 -2 Olives
  • Green Peas
  • Red bell peppers
  • Rice with Achiote
  • Raw Potatos
  • Raisins
  • Cooked meat
  • ¼ kg de de encurtido de mostaza picado para el relleno del tamal.

Preparación:

Cocinar la carne de cerdo con ajos, tomillo, apio, chile picante y sal. Sacar la carne del caldo y desmenuzarla. Reservar el caldo y cuélelo.

Cocinar el pollo en un poco de aceite con achiote, ajos, chile picante, culantro y consomé.

Aparte, mezclar bien en una olla la masa con el puré de papa, el aceite, la manteca de cerdo, consomé, sal, un poco del caldo de carne y caldo del pollo y cualquier otro condimento de su gusto, hasta darle un buen sabor a la masa.

***** En Noruega nunca he visto que venda la Manteca de cerco como en CR, lo que yo he hecho acá, es comprar bastante tocineta y pornela a tostar para sacarle toda esa grasa que equivale a lo de la receta y le da el mismo sabor ya que es cerdo y es la grasa de la tocineta.

Recortar las hojas y limpiarlas bien, poner las hojas a soasar y sacarles la nervadura. Se coloca de una a una en un disco de cocina y ellas se ven cuando cambian un poquito de color y esta preparadas para armar el tamal. Ya listas las hojas, coloca una hoja de platano horizontal y otra encima vertical.

Colocar una cucharada sopera de masa sobre las dos hojas de plátano ya preparadas para armar el tamal. Agregar una cucharada de arroz, un pedacito de carne, un pedacito de pollo, 2 rodajas de zanahoria, 1 tira de chile dulce, petit pois, unas hojitas de culantro y cualquier otro ingrediente que desee opcional.

Envolver bien cada tamal, que no quede ni muy apretado ni muy flojo. Formar piñas de 2 tamales y amárrelas bien. Cocinar en agua hirviendo por 45 minutos.

*   Reserve un poco de los caldos de la carne y el pollo para el final, por si la masa que da muy seca. *    La masa debe quedar bien mezclada y mojadita, si queda muy seca el tamal puede quedar duro.

Recuerde, comerlo con un poquito de salsa lizano!!! J

Una vez que los tamales de hayan cocinado y enfriado, puede congelarlos hasta durante 6 meses.

Waldorf Salad

The Waldorf salad is one of the most classical ingredients to a Norwegian buffet table, however it tastes delicious with any white meat like Turkey, Chicken and Pork.
The Waldorf Salad origins from the legendary Hotel Waldorf Astoria in New York.

  • 3 Apples (peel and remove the core)
  • 3 Stick Celery
  • 1/2 Pineapple (fresh or canned – I use fresh)
  • 50 grams of Walnuts (buy a 75 gram bag as you need some for decorations as well)
  • 1 ½ dl Mayonnaise
  • 3 dl whipping Cream
  • ½ Lemon
  • 200 grams Red or Blue Grapes

How to do:

  1. Cut the Apples, the Stick Celery and the Pineapple in pieces.
  2. Whip the cream and mix the whipped cream with the mayonnaise.
  3. Mix the Apples, the Stick Celery, the Pineapple and Walnuts with the cream mix.
    Add a little bit of Lemon juice for taste.

Decorate with walnuts and Blue / Red Grapes.

Fra Tine

Violet Chocolate Truffles covered in Chocolate

The past days I have been very busy preparing for christmas. The last experiment (It is the first time I ever tried making this) was Chocolate Truffles with Violet flavour covered in chocolate!
However they came out real yummy and this is the recipe!

400 grams of dark chocolate
2,5 dl of whipping cream
50 grams butter
10-15 drops of violet extract for food flavoring

150 grams chocolate to cover the truffles in chocolate
Chocolate Transfer Sheets with Christmas patterns

Day 1:

Heat whipping Cream and Chocolate. Remove from heat, break 300 grams of chocolate into the hot mixture and stirr until the chocolate has melted. Add the food flavoring.
Poor the mixture into a pan, cover up and let it rest overnight.

troeffel

Day 2:

Cut Truffles into small pieces (ca 2×2 cm) and freeze for a few hours.

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Heat the rest of the chocolate in a waterbath and make sure it does not surpass 40C degrees (just above body temperature).
When the chocolate has melted grab the now frozen chocolate truffles from the freezer and dip until covered in the melted chocolate. Add a piece of Chocolate transfer paper (while chocolate is still melted) and leave on a baking paper to cool off. Once the chocolate is hard you can remove the transfer paper and the prints will stay on the chocolate :D

choco-navidad

They came out absolutely delicious !!! and I just love how the christmas patterns look!

Awesome small gifts for friends and family !

Keep cool and dry.

Remember that the choice of chocolate is important and the better the chocolate, the better the taste!

Strawberry Santas

Here is a cute tip to make small and big kids enjoy a healthy snack for christmas and advent.

What do you need?
1 lb large strawberries
1 pkg (8 ounce) cream cheese, softened
3-4 Tbsp powdered sugar (or sugar substitute – to taste)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Rinse the strawberries and cut around the top of the strawberry. Remove the top, (enough for a hat).

Clean out the whole strawberry with a paring knife, if necessary (some of them are hollow already. Prep all of the strawberries and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla until creamy. Add cream cheese mix to a piping bag or Ziploc with the corner snipped off. Fill the strawberries with cheesecake mixture.

Once strawberries are filled, top with the ‘hats.’ Decorate according to photo.
If not serving immediately, refrigerate until serving.

jordbærnisser

This is where I found the original recipe.

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