And so it begins...Advent

It's my favourite season of the year ~ WELCOME to you all.  Thank you for old friends revisiting and if you are new, so glad to have you onboard, pull up a chair, grab yourself a drink, tea or coffee or if the hour permits, perhaps something a little stronger, I have a penchant for a glass of Argentinian Malbec these days, although a cocktail or two never goes amiss! 
Every year I bake seven different
cookie varieties in the lead up to
Christmas, here you see
6 from a previous year

Here over the coming days, I will share with you the happenings of our eclectic home, a fusion of Scandinavian baking and crafts with anything else from anywhere else, all with the theme of home-crafted, home loved Christmas wonderfulness.  

For me, this time of year conjures up anticipation, excitement, wonderful smells and coming together to make things both edible and for decoration and gifts.  I was lucky and I fully acknowledge that in my home growing up, there was such a joyful emphasis on Christmas that it has not only seeped but has become a full-blown on love for me with the season of Advent.  Not everyone is as lucky or as fortunate; having a Scandinavian mother certainly helped me in this instance but I hope those of you not as over the top as myself can take a sense of joy that this blog may give you sparks of ideas to try or to allow the joy of this time of year to seep in and not despair at what many feel is now a commercial time of year.  This year more than ever, the pandemic that shall not be named has made this an unusual era to live in and what now looks to be an unusual Christmas too.  So more than ever I want to submerge myself in cinnamon and cardamon smells, craft paper and anything else that I can create to make the house a Christmas home.  Come along for the ride, follow me each day or dip in and out as you please.  You are more than welcome here at the eclectic home, if only I could open my actual doors to you all, these virtual ones will have to do...

Which leads me onto my first bake for Advent and Christmas.  It is traditional in Norway to bake a variety of cookies to enjoy with the family and to have ready for both expected and unexpected visitors alike.  We may not have many visitors this season but it is not stopping us from baking.  Norwegians always baked seven different varieties and many families have their 'set' must bake cookies.  We tend here to mix it up a bit each year and try new ones to us but always, always a Scandinavian variety.  One cookie that we make however every year without fail and would not be Christmas for us without it is the infamous pepperkake.

What is a Norwegian Christmas without pepperkake?  It’s the Norwegians answer to ginger cookies, but with a more mellow subtle flavour.  Some Norwegian recipes pack a punch with their spices but we in our family have a much gentler warming spice coming through.

I share with you again, the very same recipe that I have shared every single year.  If you’ve still not made it then I urge you to give it a go and bring some ‘kos’ * to your home this Christmas.






Method:

  Melt on a low heat, the syrup, sugar and butter.

  Allow to cool ever so slightly and then beat in the egg thoroughly.

  Sift in the flour, baking powder and spice and mix well.

At this stage the dough is quite gloopy, I tend to leave it in the pan and then place it in the fridge overnight, but you can transfer to a smaller bowl if you so wished.  This year I allowed it to cool in the pan for an hour or so and once it began to be semi-hard, I removed the mixture from the pan and rolled it into two fat sausage shapes, wrapping each separately in cling film and then placed into the fridge overnight.  This allowed me to slice off the next day exactly the right amount to roll out small batches at a time.  TIP: this dough softens very quickly, so only roll out and use a small amount at a time.

  The next day take out only a small amount of dough (see note 3) and roll out on a floured surface to about 3-4 mm thick and cut out shapes placing cookies on a greaseproof lined baking tray.  this is important.

  Bake on 175 degrees for approximately 10 minutes, or as in my fast oven less, until just golden brown.

  Cool on a wire rack before either icing or placing in an airtight container.  These will last for 2-3 weeks


I love heart shaped pepperkake the best.
But any shape works well 



This year as well as making the pepperkake cookies I also made house sides out of pepperkake for my advent candle display.  Some old followers may remember I did something similar with disastrous consequences see here, (scroll to the end) for what happened.  

This year I feel more confident that all will survive and so Sunday just past, we lit our first advent candle. We are most definitely on count down to Christmas Day.  Although if I am honest, it is these December days and nights that I savour the most.  Being in the kitchen, the hub of the home, baking and creating with family all around.  This year will be different from others as we will not be able to see all our loved ones. But we have promised ourselves that once we are through this pandemic we will come together if not to have another Christmas Day, but to at least have a family celebration of just being able to hug each other and be close.  Bring on that day.  In the meantime, I’m making the most of what and who I am allowed to be with and my heart swells.  I know I am one of the lucky ones.  



I drew out four different height and width house sides



Rolled out the pepperkake
dough onto the drawn templates


Bake for longer than the cookies bake until crisp so they
do not soften over the coming days


To make the icing so it is thick and has a shine to it.  I don’t measure out but I add in a good amount of icing sugar, one egg white and if need be top up with a few drops of water to form a thick paste.  I use a piping bag and nozzle normally but could not locate it sure we have someone who comes in and moves things around as I seem to not be finding many many things these days.  So I used a plastic food bag, added in the icing to that and then snipped off a teeny tiny corner of the bag and was able to pipe that way.  It would explain why my piping is a tad thicker than I would have liked but it still gave an ok effect.  It’s not as if we’re entertaining this year, is it?


Iced and ready to go, each house was numbered 1-4
to match the number of Sundays in Advent



Pepperkake house fronts for Advent


The first Advent candle was lit on Sunday



  Wishing you all a warm and joyful Advent 


*kos ~ Norwegian form of hygge, we have hygge in Norway too but generally use the word kos and koselig, to mean warmth, comfort, cosy, loving, cuddling up type feel.  all the things that help us get through dark winter days.  It's a time to look forward to for all of these things not a time to despair.

16 comments:

  1. Well, I was first here and did leave a comment, I thought, but it's 'disappeared' . . . And I can't remember what I said now LOL

    But, anyway, am SO glad you are doing this again!! I'm saving all your ideas, from this year and all the previous, for when I have my own home to decorate and entertain in. Although . . . if you share the pattern for that heart decoration, I'll be making some of those . . .

    Big hugs to you, Selma and thanks so much again <3

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    1. I too have thought in the past I have left comments only to find I had not, easily done! Thanks as always Linne for popping over, it means so much to have you come back year after year, sending hugs x

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  2. As always, I’m looking forward to your daily posts, Selma. I’ll be be posting a little something myself as well. We all need a little joy this year. X

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    1. Thanks Jules, always think of you at this tie of year. Just popped over to your blog and left a comment! Daily posts, yay!!!

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  3. Thank you for sharing, Selma. As always I am delighted to share in your warmth and inspiration. What a beautiful candle display! All things nativity are consuming me at the moment - this too is having to take a different shape this year. I am excited for our first advent surprise excitement in the classroom this morning.

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    1. It's such an exciting time, hope the children enjoyed the excitement but were then able to settle to work ;)

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  4. I love the notion of kos. I get that feeling reading your posts! I finally made pepperkrake last year; so good. I LOVE your house...thank you for sharing

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    1. Thank you Beth, I strive to have a home that is koselig x

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  5. Yay! Pepperkake! Thank you Selma for the joy you bring with your Advent blog. Using your fabulous recipe I have made these delicious biscuits a few times in the past and am determined to try some different varieties to give as gifts this year. Do you know whether it is advisable to freeze any of them? xx

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    1. Thanks Jan, so glad you have enjoyed the pepperkake over the years, good questions about freezing, some do, some don't. I will endeavor this year to try and state that in the ones that I make. Many are better keeping the dough in the fridge as with pepperkake and just baking as and when needed.

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  6. Hello Selma

    So lovely to see your christmas posts again and to be able to join you virtually for advent. I was wondering if you would be making pepperkake as I started reading then yes, there it was! If I ever see any recipe for pepperkake I always think of you. I hope that all is well with you, OK with us although lots of changes afoot. I am looking forward to following your posts, thank you so much for doing this and if you ever write a book, please sign me up for one of the first signed copies! I would treasure it. Happy Christmas and much love to you and yours, Amy xx

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    1. So lovely to see you here Amy, you have been in my thoughts. when this wretched time is over we should try to catch up. hope all the changes afoot are happy and willing ones and if not that you can move along with it and know that you will come through the other side my friend hugs to you x

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    2. Hi, Amy! Just jumping in here to say that I wore the Meg shawl to my friends's wedding in Edinburgh in May of 2018 and people loved it! I haven't made the 'danglies' for it yet, but still have plans to do so. Hope you are doing well. I think of you so often and really miss your blog. Take care ~ Linne

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  7. I love your houses, the icing looks great and so professional. x

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    1. Thanks Karen, love to see you back, hope you and yours are well. Hugs to you x

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I will always read all comments and will try to reply but it may take me a couple of days, do please pop back and lets get a conversation going...