Hazelnut Roses

December 19th 2018

Hazelnut Roses

Today, for me, marks the last day of baking the 'syv slag', the seven must bake Christmas cookies that a Norwegian home should have for bringing in the season, ready for unexpected and invited guests alike.  And if like me you have baked the seven or even just one or two, you may have already run out of one variety of cookie already!  I am about to bake my second batch of pepperkake this year and my third of the sugar cookies.  Every year I tell myself to bake bigger batches, you think I would have learnt by now!  Although maybe I should take a leaf out of my mormor (mother's mother) leaf and just say, 'You eat whilst they are here and when they are gone they are gone for another year...'   She was much slimmer than me!

Pepperkaker: Cookie 1
Serinakaker: Cookie 2
Brunne Cookie: Cookie 3
Chocolate Biscotti: Cookie 4
Chocolate Christmas Cookie: Cookie 5
Vanilla Wreath Cookie: Cookie 6

So the last cookie recipe I share with you today is very similar to an old favourite I have shared before but with a slight twist in that, we mix two types of nuts.  You can, of course, use any nut you like and keep it to only just one type if you prefer.  This simple and quick recipe comes from Trine, link below and if you like melt in the mouth and favour a nutty meringue-like cookie, then this is for you... enjoy...

Cookies made using a small star nozzle for piping

You will need:

100g ground hazelnuts
75g ground almonds
150g sugar
2 egg whites
pinch of salt
For the decoration:
whole hazelnuts to decorate
100g chocolate for melting








♥  Preheat the oven to 180 Celcius.
♥  Mix the ground nuts and sugar thoroughly.
♥  In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until very stiff.
♥  Carefully fold in the nuts to the egg whites trying not to lose too much air.
♥  The mixture needs to be stiff enough to hold its own shape but not so stiff that it cannot be piped.
♥  Spoon the mixture into a piping bag with a large as possible star nozzle.

Once baked the cookies look more appealing

♥  Pipe directly onto lined baking trays.  Depending on the size of your nozzle either pipe a rose shape or if your star is on the small size pipe in concentric circles.
♥ Bake for 10-14 minutes or until just golden do not overbake otherwise the cookies will become too dry.
♥  As soon as you remove the trays from the oven place a whole hazelnut in the centre of each rose.  Press the nut in firmly to avoid it falling out later.  Leave to cool on the tray for a good five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
♥  Once completely cold, melt some chocolate and dip the underside (or brush the underside) of the cookie.  Allow the chocolate to set by placing the cookie upside down on the wire rack.  I tend to cover only half of the cookies with chocolate bottoms.
♥  These cookies freeze well but place some baking paper between each cookie if you are to freeze.  These defrost in about 15 minutes once removed from the freezer and will keep for 3 months.

Hazelnut Roses without chocolate bottoms

This lovely cookie recipe comes from one of my favourite Scandinavian cooks, the Danish Trine Hahnemann, do pop over and see her recipe and cookie:  Trine's Hazelnut Roses

It was hard to show you that the cookies had chocolate
underneath, so I turned them upside down!

Cookie number 6, Vanilla Wreaths
and Cookie number 7, Hazelnut Roses

 ♥  Seven cookies now baked for Christmas  ♥

Scandinavian Christmas baking 7 ~ Lemon almond cookies

Lemon Almond Cookies
December 20th    

Today I bring the 7th and last bake of cookies in the run up to Christmas.  I have so enjoyed this year trying out new 'små kjekks' for the traditional 7 bakes of a Norwegian Christmas and have found some new favourites.  It's lovely to have such a selection now to choose from each year.  Here you can find a link to each of the other 6 bakes for 2017:   1 Pepperkaker  2 Hvite Pepperkaker    3 Julecookies    4 Juliga Kolasnittar   5 Havreflarn Cookies   6 Bordstabelbakkels  For previous years bakes visit the drop down heading on the home page and click on Christmas posts.

All 7 cookies baked for Christmas in true Norwegian tradition

Lemon almond cookies,
photo from Trine's Mat blog

The 7th cookie today comes from the talented Danish cook Trine In this cookie recipe  almonds, a favourite of any Norwegian cook is used but the twist with these is that she adds lemon zest to give the cookie an entirely different flavour and feel.  Not so typically Christmas in taste, yet, I found the lemon took away the almost too sweet taste that an almond cookie can have, try this as something different, I would be surprised if you did not like this.  For Trine's original recipe and how the cookies should look, I urge you to visit her page:  here

Ingredients for Lemon almond cookies

Lemon Almond Cookies
You will need:

♥  175g ground almonds
♥  175g sugar
♥  1-2 lemon zest
♥  1 tbsp plain flour
♥  1/2 tsp baking powder
♥  2 egg whites
♥  icing sugar for decorating, optional

1  Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius

2  Mix the almonds, lemon zest and sugar thoroughly.

3  Add the sieved flour and baking powder and mix well.

You can see the mixture here is
lumpy and I think over whisked

4  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites so they are only just stiff, DO NOT OVER WHISK ~ I over whisked and think that is why my cookies did not spread out well on the baking tray and were difficult to pipe!  More on this in a minute. 

5  Add the egg whites carefully into the almond mixture until you have a smooth and soft mixture.  Mine was a little stiff and I suspect because I over whisked.

6  Put the mixture into a piping bag and place small drops on a lined baking tray leaving a good space between each cookie 'drop' to allow them to spread.  You should be able to get between 10-14 on each tray.

The cookies in the foreground have been
squished half way through baking whilst
those at the back show what they looked like
before I squished them!

7  Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until they are a lovely golden colour. NOTE:  As my mixture was a little too stiff halfway through baking I could see they had now spread out as expected so I took them out of the oven and squished them with a palette knife to the desired cookie depth and width. 
 It is important that they are not over baked, the cookies should be still soft inside.

8  You can decorate the cookies with some drizzled icing sugar and let them rest for a few minutes on the baking tray before transferring them onto a wire rack for complete cooling.  Moving them immediately from the baking tray could result in broken cookies as they will be very soft.

9  Place in an airtight box until needed.

Lemon almond cookies, not as pretty as they could
be but worth making as the taste is amazing. 
I am adding these to my must make each year list

Trine's lemon almond cookie, mine will
look like this next time, I must remember
not to over whisk the egg whites!

Feeling festive and ready. 
All the  pre baking is now complete ♥

 

The 7 Norwegian Christmas cookies for 2017

   

In the cup are caramel cuts, to the right are table stacking cookies,
tied in string are oat cookies, in the middle are the cranberry
and almond cookies, to the left are the lemon almond cookies,
in front of those, the dark hearts are pepperkaker and to the
side, the paler hearts are the white pepperkaker. 
All 7 cookies for Christmas ♥

 In case I do not pop back to eclecetichomelife before Christmas as there are still many more things I wish to do in 'real' life that I may not have time.  It has been such fun sharing my December journey with you and hope you have enjoyed it as much as I.

♥  I wish you all the warmth, health and happiness 
in the world my friends, 

♥  Merry Christmas & God Jul  ♥

Scandinavian baking 6 ~ Table stacking cookies

Bordstabelbakkels ~ Table stacking cookies
December 17th

Bordstabelbakkels

Today is the 3rd Sunday in Advent and we are only a week away from Christmas Eve.  I am so excited.  Today I bring you the 6th of the 7 cookies that I bake in the run-up to Christmas.  Have you baked any of the cookies yet or any of your own?  Do let me know please, would love to hear from you. 

Today's cookie is Bordstabelbakkels, literally translated as Table Stacking Cookies and if you look at the photographs, I think you can see this is a very apt name.

what sets these cookies apart from others is that you have the cookie base itself and then what we call the filling but actually makes the cookies have two different textures and taste.  I love these cookies but be warned the egg whites and icing sugar mix for the filling must be really stiff before you add the ground almonds otherwise the filling spreads more that is really desired when baking.  this happened to me this year but time was not on my side to make another batch to photograph for you, so excuse the very amateur look of these cookies, but they are still worth it, the taste is divine. 

You can see where the cookies get their name
from each rectangular cookie is stacked upon the other

You will need:

♥  1 egg
♥  1 tbsp double cream
♥  125 g sugar
♥  250 g plain flour
♥125 g butter at room temperature

For the filling:

♥  3 egg whites
♥  180 g icing sugar
♥  180 g ground almonds


1   Whisk together the egg cream and sugar.  

2  Add the sifted flour and butter and mix to form a dough.  

3  Place the dough in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.          

The filling was not stiff enough before
baking so has spread a little too much

4  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.  

5  Prepare two baking trays with greaseproof paper  

6  To make the filling, whisk the egg white until they form white peaks and carefully add the icing sugar.  

7  Gently stir in the ground almonds.  

8  Roll the dough to approximately a thickness of 2mm.  

9  Cut out the cookies so they form rectangles of about 2 x 8 cm.  Place each cookie on the prepared trays.   

Bordstabelbakkles ~ Table Stacking Cookies

10  Using a piping bag, preferably with a round nose hole pipe a line of the filling along the middle of each cookie. 

11  Bake in the oven for about 6 minutes or until they are golden.  

12  Cool on a wire rack.  

13 These cookies will keep for a couple of weeks if kept in an airtight container.

Bordstabelbakkels, the 6th cookie baked before Christmas, only one more to bake...

♥  Hope you are all enjoying the run-up to Christmas.

Scandinavian Christmas baking 5 ~ Havreflarn cookies

Havreflarn Cookies ~ Oat Cookies
December  15th 

Is it obvious that this is my favourite time of the year? The kitchen decorated in red and festive songs

Havreflarn (oat) cookies

on the radio is where you will usually find me in December.  I truly am at my happiest.  Feeding the beast that is this blog does mean that posting every day in December each year pushes me to try out new cookie recipes and seek out new traditions as well as trying some old ones that perhaps were not so common to our family and I am totally enthralled by this adventure.  It is not a chore blogging in December it is pure pleasure and thank you for coming along for the ride. 
                                        

Today's recipe comes from Manuela a Norwegian blogger living in Sweden with her husband and 5 children.  Not a professional baker in the sense she studied the art of baking but more that she has a passion for it and has learnt by trial and error.  Her photographs of her bakes are always in pastels and delicate shades and you can tell she too is doing something she loves... It is no wonder that she was voted Norway's best blogger a few years ago.

This 'small cake' recipe is full of flavour and texture and a good addition to the 7 cookies that we bake for Christmas, as it has none of the classic warming spices, it makes for a complimentary taste. I tend to only sanwich half the cookies with melted chocolate and leave the others as 'single' cookies. 

Ingredients needed for the havreflarn (oat) cookies

Havreflarn cookies ~ oat cookies

Havreflarn dough ready to make into cookies

You will need:

♥  200g unsalted COLD butter

♥  150 g sugar

♥  250 g oats (I use porridge oats)

♥  38 g plain flour

♥  1 tbsp egg white

♥  1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

♥  1 tsp vanilla bean paste

For the filling:

♥  175 g dark chocolate

♥  sea salt for drizzling

Roll into small balls slightly smaller
than the size of a teaspoon

1  Put all the ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly until it forms a dough.  See photograph.

2  Make small balls slightly smaller than the size of a teaspoon and place them on a lined greaseproof paper tray.  Space the balls a good distance apart as they will flatten out and swell.

3 place in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

4  The cookies will be very soft when they come out, so do not handle them.  I tend to pull the whole sheet of greaseproof paper and put it on the cooling rack.  Once the cookies can be handled they can then be placed directly on the cooling rack.

5  Once the cookies have crisped up, melt the chocolate either in a Bain Marie or in the microwave and add 1-2 teaspoons of the melted chocolate to one cookie.  Drizzle on some sea salt on top of the chocolate and then carefully place the second cookie on top.

6  Enjoy!

Cool the havreflarn cookies on a wire rack,
see how they have spread evenly in size

Add melted chocolate to one side of the
cookies and sprinkle with some sea salt

Havreflarn oat cookies all ready for eating or gifting

The oat cookkies have a melted chocolate and sea salt filling

♥  Have you made any cookies for Christmas?

Scandinavian Christmas baking 3 ~ Julecookies

Julecookies ~ Christmas cookies  
December 8th  

I have found a new favourite Norwegian cookie, aptly named as the simple Christmas cookie.  It has all the flavourings of the infamous   pepperkaker  (ginger Christmas biscuit) but with added nuts and dried fruit.  It is all the taste of Christmas in one bite AND such a quick simple recipe.  I will definately be making these again and again.

Roll the dough into a sausage shape

Julecookies

You will need:

125g butter
150 g sugar                                                                         

125g brown sugar
2 dsp of golden syrup
1 egg
200 g of chopped almonds OR walnuts
100 g dried cranberries OR raisins
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
3/4 ground cloves
2 fl oz double cream
400 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

♥  Pre heat oven to 175 degrees Celcius

Place balls of dough on baking sheet
and then squish to cookie shape

♥  Mix together the butter, both sugars and syrup.
♥  Add the egg and beat in well.
♥  Add the nuts, dried fruit, and the spices and finally the cream, flour and baking powder.  Mix altogether to form a dough.
♥  Roll the dough into a sausage shape and take a bit of dough at a time and form into balls approximately 4 cm in diammter, (size is not vital).
♥  Place the balls on a baking sheet with greaseproof paper and squish them down a bit to resemble a cookie shape, do not flatten too much, leave some depth.  See photo for better clarification.
♥  Bake cookies in the oven for about 12 mins or until an even golden colour.
♥  Cool on a wire rack.
♥  I tend to leave mine plain and do not decorate but it is usual to decorate with icing sugar as in the photograph.

Julecookies, Christmas in one bite

I used cranberries in  my cookies but
you can use other dried fruit too

Icing adds a decorative touch to the Julecookies

♥  Have you baked anything for the Christmas season yet? 

Almond cookies Christmas Cookies 6

December 17th

Almond cookies and mulled wine

Christmas must literally be around the corner as somehow we are already on Cookie making number 6 during Advent.  By now you may have realised that Scandinavians love there ground spices in their Kransekake
cookies and they also love using nuts most especially almonds.  The below cookie is actually variation of the Norwegian Celebration cake made for special occasions, Christmas included.  I shall be making mine next week, for a peep at what a Kransekake is, click here ~

Almond Cookies

MAKES ABOUT 24 ~ begin the day before you want to make the cookies

blanched almonds 100g 
caster sugar 200g 

After adding egg whites the mixture is quite runny

egg whites 2
homemade marzipan (see below) 500g
walnut halves 24
dried apricots 6
tempered dark chocolate 200g

For the homemade marzipan: [or you can buy good quality ready made]
blanched almonds 500g 
icing sugar 100g, plus extra for kneading 
water 50ml



If making marzipan:
Whizz the blanched almonds in a food processor until they are finely ground.  Add in sifted icing sugar and a small amount of the water a bit at a time. You do not want the mixture to be sticky.  Place the marzipan in the fridge for about an hour or alternatively in the freezer for 15 minutes.  

Grate the marzipan

To make the almond cookies, whizz the almonds and sugar together in a food processor until finely ground. Add the egg whites and whizz again until you have a smooth, white mixture. Make sure the mixture does not get too hot in the processor, otherwise the egg whites start clotting.  

Now grate the marzipan and then blend it into the almond mixture  If the marzipan is soft

this becomes a nightmare of stickiness so do make sure it is good and hard before beginning. 

Transfer the mixture to a bowl, cover tightly and leave to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours or until the next day.

Shape the mixture into 24 rectangular cakes about 2cm wide and 6cm long, like shortbread fingers. 

Divide the dough into quarters and roll
each one into a log shape

Slice each log/quarter into six

Photo for size purposes

Press a walnut half on to one end of each almond finger, and two strips of dried apricot on to the other end.

Add walnut and apricot before baking

Preheat the oven to 190C. Place the shortbread fingers on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 15-18 minutes. In my oven they took about 12 minutes.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.  

Melt the chocolate gently in a double boiler, then dip the bottom of each almond cake in the chocolate and leave to set on a piece of baking paper.  Eat and enjoy.

Adding the chocolate to the ends just adds the finishing touch

Eat & Enjoy ♥

♥  Hope life is not too stressful

 and you can enjoy the season too  ♥

A Christmassy Five

December 16th

We are now down to single figures before the big day and I am in my element.  This time of year brings extra work and I know that can be stressful and tiring but really for me, it's just the best time of the year.  The twinkly lights that you see everywhere light up what would otherwise for me be such a dark depressing time of year that just the lights lift my spirits without even all the other goodies. Over the past week I have continued to bake, entertain, shop, wrap and decorate as well as trying to live the day to day life.  I'm sure I'm in good company with you all, want to take a peak?



Slippers for Christmas

I have been making these slippers for years, a pattern passed down to me from Mamma.  Pop over to the post and see how to make the slippers and how to Christmas pimp them too!  Christmas slippers

St Lucia Day

This week saw the annual feast of St Lucia and I shared a classic saffron bun recipe with everyone. Eat and enjoy, this is a perfect bake for those who do not like to over indulge in the very sweet cookies around at this time of year.  St Lucia

Scandinavian Mulled Wine

The Scandinavian version of mulled I must confess to loving it,  much more than the mulled wine we are served here in the UK.  I share 3 different recipes with you on this post.  Gløgg

Let's hide the packaging!

Alcohol is expensive in Norway and the cheapest way to buy wine is by the box.  Siting a box on the dinner table is not so attractive and the Scandi's came up with a clever way of covering it up.  On this post I share with you my pattern for a knitted wine box cover.  Wine box cover



A taste of something different

Mostly in Norway Christmas cookies have some form of spice added to them from ground cardamon to cloves  and many in between.  so when i can across this cookie from Norway, I had to give it a try. Great for those not a spiced cookie lover Finger Cream Cookies

Joining in with  Amy sharing a Christmas Five with you all.  Apologies for not commenting on your blogs last week, I will endevour to rectify that and will be coming around for this week too, I love seeing what you have to share.

♥   Enjoying the days of Advent   ♥

Fingerkremkjeks Christmas Cookies 4

December 11th


As always this month is running away and we are quickly at Christmas cookie baking 4 of 7.  As this is the third year of posting about Småkaker (Small cakes) at Christmas whereby Norwegian families

Fingerkremkjeks Norwegian Christmas Cookies

bake 7 varieties of biscuits for the festive season, I have now shown you all the ones that we dip into.  Therefore I am searching far and wide and looking to other Norwegians to see what their family favourites are.  As you would expect many are the same as the ones I have already blogged about.

However in trawling through old Norwegian Christmas magazines, I stumbled upon the following recipe from 2004, whereby the article implies that Christmas is not Christmas for many Norwegian families without this biscuit.  Blow me down, I have not seen it or heard of it before, so baking I began...

Dough ready for the fridge

Fingerkremkjeks 
~ Finger Cream Biscuits

You will need:

♥  250g butter
♥  150g sugar
♥  2 egg
♥  500g plain flour
♥  1 tsp vanilla sugar or essence a drop or two
♥  1 tsp hornsalt or baking soda

♥  possibly a little cream  

Filling:

♥  250g coconut oil
♥  1 egg
♥  250g icing sugar
♥  red food colouring
♥  rum essence

1  Whisk the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.  Stir in eggs one at a time.

Once refrigerated the dough will be hard

2  Mix in the flour, vanilla sugar, hornsalt into the butter mix.  If the dough is a tad too hard then you can add a drop or three of cream to loosen it up a bit.

3  Let the dough rest in the fridge OVERNIGHT.


4  The dough will now be very hard and can actually be sliced.  I tend to slice off a piece and then use that to roll out.  Roll out dough to a thin level, approx 3-4 mm.  Using a glass and not cookie cutters cut out circles and place on a lined baking tray.

5  Bake on 150 degree C for 10-15 minutes or until light golden brown.  In my oven it was barely 10 minutes.

6  Cool on a wire rack

7  Meanwhile make the filling by melting the coconut oil and then allowing to cool slightly.

Sliced dough, ready for rolling

8  Whisk egg and icing sugar together and then add cooled coconut oil and a drop or two of red food colouring and rum essence if using.

9  Making sure the filling has stiffened a bit before loading up the biscuits, otherwise the filling will spill out.  Make sure to place filling in the center of the biscuit before placing the top biscuit and gentle pushing down to spread the filling.

10  Biscuits must be stored in an air tight container.

Using a glass to cut out the biscuit shapes

Ready for the oven

Place the filling in the center of the biscuit

All ready to eat

Adding ribbon can turn the biscuits into an great edible gift

♥  Let me know if you make them, enjoy!  ♥