Gløgg toppers

It's the season of gløgg (mulled wine) and pepperkake (Scandinavian spiced biacuits). Both often drunk and eaten together. Normally house visit after house visit by the end kf the winter most Norwegians are ready to call it a day on bith these foodie delights.  It's a bit like putting the decorwaway after Christmas, you loved having them out but its time to have a minimalist feel back in the home. That sais we are still goimg strong in the wintwr season so why am I blabbering on about having too much of a good thing. 

I decided it woukd be lovely to combine the too in a slightly different way and to create a gløgg topper.  Im nit thr fitst to think of this, it is a bit akin to how tapas began, putting thefood as a lid on red wine to combat the flies.  Well we dont have flies as its not hot but its a fun way to present a cookie.

 

Gløgg cookie topper

Glogg cookie toppers

You will need:

310g plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

180g butter, softened

200g sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

♥  Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.

♥  In a separate bowl cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

♥  Add the eggs one at a time, continuing to mix.  

♥  Stir in the vanilla extract.

♥  Add the flour to the mixture and mix until the dough comes together.  It is really important not to over mix as the cookies will be tough.  So stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together.

♥  Divide the dough into two equal parts and chill in the fridge for a minimum of an hour.

♥  Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius and line a couple of baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

♥  Roll out one of the dough balls onto icing floured worktop, into as close as you can get to a rectangle about 5-6  mm thick.  Then cut out long strips about 5 mm wide.  I used a pizza wheel to cut the strips.

Use a pizza cutter for speed and straight(ish) lines

♥  Layout half the strips in a vertical direction with a couple of mm gap between each piece.

♥  Fold over carefully every other strip, so that the strip is folded down over itself when folding be careful not to crack the dough.  See photo for clarification., folder over strips are B. 

Fold over alternate vertical strips
each time you place a horizontal strip

♥  Next, take another strip and lay it horizontally (see photo and the green hand-drawn strip) into the empty space, so that it lays on top of the remaining vertical strips.  Flip back the folded strips so that they now lay over the horizontal strip.

♥  Now fold over the remaining strips, shown as A in the photograph, and lay the next horizontal strip down.  Repeat this process until you have used all your strips.

♥  Very gentle roll over the lattice formed strips to help them adhere to each other, but do not press too hard.

♥  Take the cup or glass that you will use for serving your gløgg in and use it as a cookie-cutter. See photograph.  Please each cut out gløgg topper onto the lined baking sheets.  These should not swell on baking so can be placed fairly closely next to each other.

♥  repeat with the second dough ball or leave in the fridge for another time, will keep for a few days.

Use the cup or glass you are going
to serve your gløin as a cutter

Gently tease the pastry out from the cup
and place on the lined baking sheet

You can place the gløgg toppers quite
closely together on the baking sheet

♥  Bake for about 6-8 minutes or until golden brown.

Bake till golden brown

♥  Cool on the baking sheets, do not remove to a wire rack.

♥  These gløgg toppers should hold in an airtight tie for about a week or could be frozen for about a month, remembering to thaw completely before serving.

Just as you are serving your drinks pop a gløgg topper over the warmed gløgg.

♥  The gløgg toppers should not be over the gløgg glass for too long or they will become soft and soggy!

Skål! as they say in Norway

A festive tray of gløgg, gløgg toppers and Norwegian
Brent mangler ( burnt almond) more on this tomorrow 

Hope you are all feeling the festive cheer 

❤️What are your festive plans this weekend?❤️