Hazelnut Cookies

December 13th ~ St Lucia Day

Christmas cookies iced with pine branches

Early last year I was enticed after seeing it on social media to purchase the beautifully presented book Bakeland   Nothing else on my cookery bookshelf is quite like this book.  It is a work of art and truly inspirational, all the bakes are inspired by nature and Nordic scenery.  So this Christmas bake of artistic design comes from Bakeland.  You can, of course, use any cookie dough for this design, but I urge you to try this recipe it has a slight warm liquorice slant to it, delicious.  Not to everyone's taste admittedly but there is something quite lovely about these.  Perfect for those who crave a tad less sugar in their cookies I'd say!

Bakeland

Today we make Cookie Number 5 of the 7 in the lead up to Christmas 2019.  

Have you baked any cookies yet? 

Use a coffee grinder to grind 

Hazelnut Cookies 
with Star Anise


You will need:   

♥  225g butter
♥  200g sugar
♥  1 egg
♥  300g plain flour
♥  2 tsp ground star anise

When grinding spices they are
not always fine enough, so I also sieve it!

♥  1 tsp salt
♥  1 tsp baking powder
♥  150g hazelnuts, finely chopped
♥  20g pretzel sticks or twiglets at a push



For the icing:
♥  1 egg white
♥  1 tsp lemon juice
♥  200g icing sugar
♥  green liquid gel food colouring



*  Whisk the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

Cover the dough and refrigerate for at
least 30 minutes.  I have actually kept
mine in the fridge for up to 2
weeks before using it!

*  Add egg and keep mixing.

*  In a different bowl, sift the flour, star anise, salt and baking powder.  Mix together.  [For the star anise, I grind my own in an old coffee bean grinder that we now use only for spices, but you can use a pestle and mortar, or obviously buy ground star anise!]

*  Stir in the hazelnuts.

*  Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture.

*  Knead the dough until it forms a sticky ball.

*  Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.

Create equal size oval cookie shapes

*  Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

*  Divide the dough into oval shape balls, each should be 25g.  Place on a greaseproof paper-lined baking tray and flatten slightly.  I made a basic oval shape with my hands and then used a rolling pin to create an even depth to each cookie.  Each cookie should be about 3-5mm thick.

* Press pieces of pretzel into the cookies in branch shapes, make them different so to be more 'natural' rather than all the same.  I could not find the straight pretzel pieces so had to improvise and used Twiglets instead.  See photograph for clarification.

*  Bake in a preheated oven at 190 Degree Celsius for 8-10 minutes or until the edges have slightly darkened.

Add the branches before baking

*  Cool for a couple of minutes on the baking tray before transferring onto a wire rack. Cool completely before icing.










Icing the cookies:
Mix the icing sugar up using the lemon juice (it is best to strain the lemon juice to avoid any bits in the icing) and egg white as the fluid to form a paste thick enough to pipe and for it to hold its shape.  Add the green colouring too, adjust the consistency as necessary.  I needed LOTS of green colouring, probably did not use a good enough quality one and still, I would have preferred the green to have been darker, this is something I will look into, anyone have any suggestion of good food colouring for a strong colour to try?

Place the icing in a piping bag with a SMALL tip.  Pipe straight lines, it is best to draw the lines away from the pretzel sticks to look like needles on a pine tree.  Adding more pine needles in layers as the previous ones dry adds a certain amount of realism to the branches.

Have fun and play!

The icing began slowly but you quickly get into the rhythm of it, just
remember to ice away from the branches and JUST GO FOR IT

As the icing dried you can go back over and almost layer the pine needles upon
each other to try and create a more realistic edible pine branch !!!

Hazelnut cookies and the Bakeland book on my kitchen window sill

A very different looking cookie on the coffee table today.

♥  Wishing you all a Happy St Lucia Day 
and a wonderful weekend  ♥

To find out more about St Lucia, click : here.  You will also learn about the traditional bake that is made and eaten today 13th December all over Scandinvaia but especailly Sweden.

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  ♥

St Lucia

December 13th 2018

Saffron buns for St Lucia day

Today all over Scandinavia people will be eating saffron buns and singing the Santa Lucia.  Me?  I am nothing if not predictable the saying goes.  Every year from 2013 on this day I write about St Lucia day, just look:

2013 including a lovely video , 2014 including recipe  , 2015, 2016 and 2017


Rather than reiterate what this day is all about, grab a coffee and have a little nosey through the previous years posts to get the idea.  It really is a lovely day.  And here in London last weekend the Swedes especially celebrated in Westminster Cathedral and some lucky ones were invited to the Swedish ambassador's house for singing.  Tonight in various churches around Scandinavia and anywhere where there is a Swedish settlement there will be friends gathering and coming together.  A joyous time.  For those of you with a sense of humour, have a look at the link What not to say to a Swede today...

What not to say on St Lucia Day

Meanwhile, it is early here and I am about to have may breakfast including for today of course, Lussekatter (saffron buns)

Breakfast on St Lucia day 

I hope today is lit up full of light and love for you all.

♥  Happy St Lucia Day  ♥

Spot St Lucia girl with real candles in her hair

Today is especially good this year as Mamma arrived from Norway and Ella comes home from university, my heart signs to have a full house again.  

Breakfast rusks

December 10th 2018

Breakfast rusks

I tend to bake sweet things and less the savoury.  My husband is an extraordinarily great cook and my efforts pale into insignificance, we make a great partnership but every now and again I foray into his world.

A fabulous book landed on my doorstep not so long ago, I had pre-ordered it having already purchased over the years Bronte's previous two Scandinavian books, so I knew that I would enjoy the next one too.  Bronte's book   If you buy one recipe book this year, I urge you to buy this one ~ I am not paid to say this, nor do I know the author, I just genuinely love her cookbooks.
Over coffee and sitting by the fire, I came across a recipe that made me think back to help yourself breakfasts and the aisles of a Norwegian supermarket and decided it was time for me to try my hand for the first time into breakfast rusks.  As a child I loved rusks but in Scandinavia, these hard, almost dried cold toast like consistency bites are to be found everywhere, I'm not selling it, am I?  Bare with, they ARE good.

One of the  latest edition of Scandinavian
food books to hit our shelves

As with all things Christmassy in Scandinavia, we like to throw in some spice and the old cardamom favourite is the star in these rusks.  Make some for a leisurely side to a weekend breakfast or have them ready to eat and go on a weekday morning.

Cardamom Rusks ~ makes about 40

You will need:

100g softened butter
50g soft light brown sugar
400g white strong flour
100g wholemeal flour
2 tsp ground cardamom
2 tsp baking powder

After creaming the butter and sugar,
add all ingredients, it will
start to form crumbs and then
mould it to a dough

1 egg
200ml milk
1/2 tsp salt



♥  Preheat oven to 220 Celcius and line baking tray with greaseproof paper.
♥  Cream butter and sugar, then add all the remaining ingredients.
♥  Roll out the dough, it will be sticky, use extra flour, into balls, about the size of an egg.  Place on baking sheets.
♥  Bake for 10 minutes.
♥  Remove from the oven and then carefully slice each roll in half.
♥  Replace on baking tray cut-side up.
♥  Reduce oven temperature to 180 Celcius and bake for a further 15-20 minutes.
♥  Ensure the rusks are baked through for a very crispy result.
♥  Leave in the oven with the door open to dry completely and crisp up.
♥  Eat with butter and jam or cheese and preserves.

Beginning to form a dough

Roll the dough into egg sized balls

Bake initially for only 10 minutes

Then cut the rusks in half before
returning to a reduced heat oven

Once completely dry, eat and enjoy your rusks,
they make for a great breakfast or snack

Cardamom rusks

♥  Do you vary what you eat for breakfast, 

or do you have the same thing every day?  ♥

brunn biscotti

December 8th 2018

It's all about making the 7 biscuits in Norway in the lead up to Christmas, using old recipes handed down from generation to generation or finding and experimenting with new ones.

In recent years the Norwegians have fallen in love with Italian food and with them also both being huge coffee drinkers it was obvious that many would also enjoy the Italian biscotti.  This type of biscuit can now often be found as one of the 'new' 7 biscuits of Christmas.  I have shared with you biscotti before, one with dried cranberries and pistachio nuts, a perfect Christmas biscuit, but this year I wanted to please my daughter more as chocolate is her thing.  So what better than chocolate biscotti?


Chocolate Biscotti

Sticky dough, so use floured hands
to form the sausage shapes

You will need:

140g sugar
3 egg
150g plain flour
75g cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract

75g almonds
50g white chocolate
50g dark chocolate

♥  Whish the eggs and sugar together until it forms a thick creamy texture.

♥  Add in all the dry ingredients and mix carefully.

♥  Add in the whole almonds and roughly chopped chocolate.  Try not to mix the dough too much if possible.

♥  Divide the mixture into two.  It will be very sticky so use flour on your hands and try to make two long half flattened sausages and put them on the lined baking trays.  See photo.

♥  Bake in the oven at 180 Celcius for approximately 20 minutes.

♥  Allow the biscotti to cool for a few minutes and then slice each roll.  Each slice should be about 1cm thick.

♥  Place the slices bake on the lined baking trays and bake in a reduced heat oven of 130 Celsius to dry out the biscotti further.  Biscotti means twice bake.  To allow them to dry completely will take about 30 minutes.

Biscotti has been baked once and
now ready to slice for the second baking

Biscotti are great as they store well
for about 3 weeks in an airtight container.

Biscotti are a perfect accompaniment to coffee, they are quite hard as
they are baked twice and  I must confess to
enjoying dunking them in my coffee.
Shhh... don't tell anyone...

This recipe was one I found on Elin's wonderful Norwegian baking blog, she has so many tips and treats, it is well worth a visit.  Elin's biscotti

♥  You'll find me this weekend sneaking off for secret cups of coffee with the odd biscotti or two  ♥

Serinakaker ~ a popular Scandinavian Christmas biscuit

December 4th 2018

Serinakaker:  If you really want uniform cookies,
then each dough ball should weigh 15g

Along with pepperkaker , serinakaker are my favourite Christmas cookie.  Scandinavians like to add spice to their cookies and this one uses vanilla.  Although we only bake these at Christmas, they are really perfect for any time of the year, they truly are scrumptious.  Very quick to make and melt in the mouth, what is not to like?


Not only is this a favourite in our household but throughout Scandinavia too.  I blogged about these cookies exactly four years ago to the day, see the post here.  I possess 10 slightly different variations of this cookie recipe but my latest find may possibly be my favourite.  Written by the talented Dane, Brontë Aurell and featured in her latest book  Scandinavian Christmas, a book whose introduction pulled at my heartstrings and made me shed a tear has not been far away from me in the kitchen since I purchased it back in October.  If you are keen on trying new foods and are interested in Scandinavian Christmas food, then this is a book for you.

Serinakaker:  Bakers sugar compromises of very large sugar grains
that do not melt entirely when baked, if unavailable, use chopped almonds

Serinakaker


You will need:

300 g plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
200g of cold butter, cubed
125g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 egg
1 egg white
bakers sugar or chopped almonds

Lined baking trays

Serinakaker:  Brush with egg whites
and sprinkle with Bakers sugar

♥  Mixing flour, baking powder and salt add the cubed butter and mix until breadcrumb like.

♥  Next, mix in the icing sugar and vanilla sugar/extract.

♥  Add the whole egg and mix until the dough just comes together.

♥  Wrap the dough in cling film and leave in the fridge for minimum an hour, I left it overnight.

♥  Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

♥  Divide dough into quarters, leaving 3/4 in the fridge and working with a quarter at a time, the dough softens fairly quickly. Each quarter should make about 10 cookies.  Roll each quarter into 10 balls of similar size.  If you want the cookies to be exact then measure each ball on scales at 15g each.

Serinaker:  Flaten the cookies
with the bottom of a flat glass

♥  Place the balls evenly spaced on the lined baking trays, remembering they will spread a little in the oven.  Press each ball gently to squash it a bit, I used the base of a drinking glass to go this to produce a level surface.


♥  Brush each cookie with egg white and sprinkle with either the bakers' sugar or chopped almonds, don't be shy give a good sprinkling.

♥  Bake for about 10 minutes or until just golden.

♥  Cool on a wire rack and then store in an airtight container.

These cookies will last for several days but do occasionally become a tad soft, if this is the case, I often pop them in a preheated oven of 150 degrees Celcius again for about 5 minutes making sure to allow them to cool completely to crisp up before eating.

♥ These are Moorishly delicious, you have been warned ♥

Do let me know if you bake them and thank you to everyone who has commented here, on Facebook, on Instagram, emailed me directly and to those silent readers too.  

It's lovely having you back my friends.

Serinakaker

Christmas markets Scandi style

December 3rd 2018

Bunad ~ traditional Norwegian national costume,
each county has its own designated dress,
you can pinpoint where people come from.

Christmas markets are not a new thing but in recent years their popularity has soared.  It was once if you wanted to experience such a thing you had to fly to the continent for a jolly and indeed such trips are still popular but now we have our very own in most towns and cities; some are incredible.  But for me the Scandinavian market, although not the biggest nor the best to be found is still my very favourite of them all.

On a small section of the road nestled between the Norwegian and  Finnish church in Rotherhithe, South London on the penultimate weekend in November every year you will hear the singalong voices of joyous Scandinavians.  An important market for those unable to travel back to their homeland for Christmas, where they can pick up food delicacies not found in an  English superstore.  Where wearing a National costume is not out of place and where copious amounts of black coffee, open sandwiches, pølse (hot dogs) and waffles are consumed.

Scandinavian market London

A market is a place where friends who may not have seen each other for sometime meet up and goodies are bought.  I meet with my mother's Norwegian 'Klub' friend and daughter this year who I had not seen in over 15years as well as meeting my aunt and a dear dear friend.  Whilst waiting for them to arrive I perched on a cold bench outside the Norwegian Seaman church and began to knit.

Public knitting in London

Not looking up and concentrating on knitting I had not noticed two women stop at the side of the park, one who whispered to the other ,  'She must be Norwegian, look she's knitting,' to the other who was squinting at her phone trying to text me to say they had arrived, when looking up, the two of them together thought, is that Selma knitting over there in the park?  Firstly I needed to remind them that knitting has had a resurgence in the past few years and the Scandinavians are not the only ones who knit and secondly, I secretly wondered if their glasses prescription may need upping a bit! And yes, they took a photo of me!

Knitting outside the Norwegian
Seaman Church, London

Small details on the Norwegian church

A native Norwegian in her bunad and s
selling lots of 'nisse' like Christmas decorations

In Norway, we decorate anything that stays still long enough for Christmas

The Danes were there too

As were the Finnish, but not the Swedes, their church is a
short tube ride away, also on the same weekend
but I never seem to manage to make it there, one day!

A Finn perusing the wares in the Norwegian church

Just loved the clever name

The brewery between the fjords
and mountains in beautiful Flåm

And for those of you interested there was the new microbrewery from Norway selling their beer too, lovely website, do go and have a look.  Microbrewing in Norway

Toilet humour

As always before a long journey home I like to make use of the facilities, this time in the Finnish church and had to smile at seeing this framed picture next to the toilet.

~ On the journey home I reflected on the richness of my heritage and was not for the first time grateful laden down with kitchen goodies ready to make for the coming festive season...

♥  Sending you warm wishes wherever you are  ♥