So Excited

For the first time in my 37 years, I did something I thought I would never do:  I made a fruitcake.  Yes, that's right, a fruitcake.  It all started back in the summer when I was flipping through Nigella's Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess, which has turned into my resident baking bible.  I came across a recipe for Christmas Cake and thought it sounded like so much fun to make.  I was also really excited by the idea of making something, putting it away for 3-4 weeks, and then getting it out with great anticipation.

The photos I'm sharing of my cake are rather pitiful, but it doesn't matter because I just had the best time whipping it up and can't wait till Christmas gets here.  Plus, I will share more when we actually dig into it and see what it looks like on the inside.  I know that fruitcake has a terrible reputation, but I have high hopes for this one.

Christmas Cake
Adapted from How to Be a Domestic Goddess

4c      golden raisins
1.5c   raisins
3/4c   currants
3/4c   glacé cherries
3/4c   candied orange peel
1/2c   chopped walnuts
1/2c   chopped almonds
3/4c   Marsala
1c      butter
1c      brown sugar
2T     molasses
1.5t   orange zest, grated
1.5t   lemon zest, grated
6       large eggs
3T     orange marmalade
3.5c   flour
1/4t    cinnamon
1/4t    nutmeg
1/4t    cloves
1t       almond extract
1/4t    salt

10" round pan or 9" square

1.  Place all of the fruit and nuts in a large bowl, and add Marsala.  Cover and let soak overnight.

2.  Preheat oven to 250F.

3.  Line our pan with a double thickness of parchment paper, to come up a few inches above the rim of the pan.

4.  Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the molasses and orange and lemon zest.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, and then the marmalade.

5.  Sift the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.  Add the almond extract and combine thoroughly.

6.  Put cake mixture into the prepared pan and bake 4 to 4.5 hours or until a cake tester comes out clean.

7.  When the cake is cooked, brush with a couple of tablespoons of extra Marsala.  Wrap immediately in its pan--using a double thickness of aluminum foil--as this will trap the heat and form steam, which in turn will keep the cake soft on top.  When it's completely cold (mine took over 6 hours on the counter to get cold), remove the cake from the pan and rewrap in foil, storing, preferably in an airtight tin or plastic container, for at least 3 weeks.

Christmas Goodies

After Hjerl Hede we stopped to see our friends Mette and Søren and their kids Frederik and Agnete. They had us for coffee, tea, and the most terrific platter of homemade Christmas treats. Except for two, which her mother made, Mette baked and prepared everything.

I was intrigued by the cookies called Vanillekranse because we had just seen them rolled, pressed, and shaped at the Hjerl Hede bakery, so I knew they must be a traditional holiday staple. The Pebernødder cookies are little bite-sized buttons of goodness that are crunchy, spicy, and sweet. You see them practically everywhere throughout Denmark at this time of year. In fact, when we flew into the airport last weekend coming back from the U.S., I had a need to use the phone in one of the international rental car company offices. Sitting right there on the desk was a tin of Pebernødder for the taking. And I noticed a few days ago at a supermarket called Kiwi there was a box sitting at the cash register, again for customers to take as they please.

Mette also prepared some delicious candy made of chocolate and marzipan and another kind with chocolate nougat rolled up around marzipan that had been mixed with powdered sugar to make it less sticky and easier to work with.

I am so grateful to have such good friends here in Denmark, and even more so because they share such wonderful food, drinks, recipes, and more with us!

Vanillakranse Cookies

Recipe adapted from Dianasdesserts.com

1.5c butter, softened

2 1/4c granulated sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

1 1/2 t. vanilla extract

3.5c flour

1/2c finely ground almonds (almond flour preferably)

1. Cream butter and sugar.

2. Add remaining ingredients and mix until smooth.

3. Put dough into a cookie press to make a serrated strip of dough (see photo above) and shape into a wreath. If you don't have a cookie press, use your favorite cookie cutter.

4. Place on a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet and bake at 325F for 8-10 minutes or until very lightly brown.

Note: If dough is difficult to work with, refrigerate 30 minutes.

Turns out, I don't mind seeing a pig slaughtered

This past weekend I traveled to a wonderful place in Denmark called Hjerl Hede. If you are not Danish, don't even think about trying to pronounce it correctly.

Hjerl Hede is an open air museum with many different buildings, stables, recreation areas, and more that mimic Danish life in the old days. Even though my toes were frozen for the better part of three hours, it is without a doubt one of the best and most interesting experiences I've had in Denmark. We went with our friends Kira and Kevin and their children Freya and Anton. The place was packed because Hjerl Hede is closed from November through March but opens up for three special weekends in December to celebrate Christmas, old-fashioned Danish style.

I was absolutely amazed by the sight of a real live pig being slaughtered, and all the steps that were involved using techniques that would now be considered archaic. I wasn't sure I would be up for seeing all the blood and guts, but I had a hard time pulling myself away. So fascinating. Even the kids were into it.

Finally Back Online and Cherry-Habanero Sauce

I thought I would end my 4+ week hiatus with a post about the food I brought back from my trip to the U.S. and share a fun condiment recipe courtesy of my stepdad.

Here's the deal: ever since my residency in Denmark began, I started keeping a mental--and eventually, paper--list of food items not accessible in my little corner of the world. Of course, some of these items might be found in Copenhagen or even Denmark's second largest city, Aarhus, which is nearer to where I live, but let's get real. It's simply not practical to grocery shop two hours away--unless you live in Alaska or Siberia and you have no other choice.

Among the items pictured, I also returned home with a box of currants, two boxes of matzo ball mix, various spices and extracts and some glacé cherries and candied orange peel for a special Christmas cake I'm planning to make. I thought for sure that customs would pull me aside and ask if the contents of the bags of whole wheat pastry flour were some sort of toasted cocaine, but thankfully I made it through with no questions asked. While I was dying to bring back a bunch of cans of black beans, I opted for dried instead and used my can allotment for poppy seed filling and sweetened condensed milk.

I also picked up some bulk steel-cut oats and quinoa. If you cant tell from my photo, there is also a bag of almonds. Strange you might say, are there not almonds in Denmark? Of course, but I am crazy about the dry roasted variety, and I've yet to find any in my vicinity. There are also some ziploc baggies with the unboxed contents of Annie's Organic Macaroni and Cheese. We can't even find Kraft in our town, let alone Annie's! Only when you are really serious about cooking do you go to this much trouble during a vacation. Finally, the candy represents various interests: the dum dums are for my son, the kisses were bought because I really cherish memories of eating kisses out of a candy dish at Christmas time, the caramels because one day I was daydreaming about caramel apples. And the chocolate chips because if you haven't heard me say if before, it is impossible to find NORMAL chocolate chips here! But I'm not bitter or anything.

On to today's recipe. Through a friend of a friend, my stepdad got his hands on an amazing recipe for Cherry-Habanero Sauce. I'm a wimp when it comes to spicy foods and sauces, but this sauce makes the most delicious condiment for eggs, meats, and roasted or steamed vegetables. I tried a little on steamed broccoli and it really brought out the life in the tree tops and woody stems. But a little is all you need...unless of course you want a burning mouth or happen to enjoy that particular sensation.

Canned in cute little jars, this condiment makes the perfect holiday gift for your favorite food lovers. Thanks, Len, for opening up my world by introducing me to this wonderful sauce.

Cherry-Habanero Sauce

2c Ketchup

2/3c Vinegar

1/2c Onion (finely chopped)

1c Cherry preserves

1/4c Yoshida's

1/4c Water

2 Habanero peppers (chopped)

2 Bay Leaves

1 Clove Garlic (finely chopped)

Mix all ingredients together in a sauce pan and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Cool to room temperature. Pulverize mix in a food processor or blender until well blended. Strain for an even smoother finish.

Add and incorporate:

1/2t Salt

2/3c Brown Sugar

1T Liquid Smoke

Makes 3 cups.

The next four weeks

Just a quick note to say that Anatole and I are in Oregon visiting my family and enjoying all sorts of familiar comfort food. Highlights so far: crock pot pot roast, homemade cherry-habanero sauce, refrigerator muffins, and steel-cut oats. More details soon...

Carrot rice soup and apple clafoutis

Dinner last night was a bowl of delicious carrot rice soup and a slice of warm apple clafoutis. I am a huge fan of soup, and I can't stop baking with apples these days, so this was the perfect combination to keep me busy before dinner.

I saw the carrot rice soup on Everybody Likes Sandwiches and thought it looked really easy and really good. I didn't have dried chilis or marjoram in the house, so I substituted a teaspoon of herbs de provence instead. The recipe mentions that the soup can be made with either pre-cooked rice (white or brown) or dry rice cooked directly in the soup. I chose to make a batch of brown rice ahead of time and stir it into the pureed soup. This is a wonderfully deep-flavored soup that's perfect for chilly fall days. The only thing missing in mine was salt. I thought that my homemade chicken stock (from my pot pie expedition) would impart enough saltiness, but no. I simply added a pinch or two of ground sea salt after the fact, and that worked fine.

Sometimes when I make soup I like something sort of fun to go with it. That's where the clafoutis came in. I had apples and while I'd only made clafoutis before with plums or cherries, I googled apple clafoutis and discovered the most amazing recipe courtesy of Michael Chiarello (my photo doesn't come close to doing this dessert justice). Ever seen Michael on the Food Network? He has to be one of the nicest cooking souls around. I did not adapt the recipe in any way except that I used 2% instead of whole milk, because that's all I had in the fridge. It didn't seem to negatively affect the baked clafoutis in any way. We had a near-empty container of Greek yogurt in the fridge, so I added a dollop of that to my piece and some creme fraiche to the boys' pieces. Alan couldn't stop raving about it but then he's a fan of virtually anything if it's origins are French.

Buckeyes

For a recent girls night out, I said I'd bring dessert. I'm not really sure why, but I became infatuated with making something in the peanut butter-chocolate family. Maybe it was because we were getting close to Halloween, and I was dreaming of peanut butter cups. Or maybe it was that a neighbor presented me with a handful of lovely horse chestnuts that, though inedible, remind me of chocolate covered peanut butter balls, also known as Buckeyes.

I did some checking around and the word buckeye has multiple significance. The candy, buckeyes, made by dipping little mounds of peanut butter fudge into melted chocolate, are said to resemble the eyes of male deer (bucks). Then there's the Ohio buckeye, the state tree, along with the Ohio State University Buckeyes, the name of the school's sports teams and students.

But I digress. What you're really after is the recipe, which I liberally adapted from various recipes floating around the web.

Buckeyes

1c (236g) soft butter
2c (475g) peanut butter - creamy or crunchy
4c (1000g) powdered sugar - divided in half

1.5 bars of dark chocolate (I used 70%) -- chopped into small pcs
1/2t vegetable shortening or oil

1. Mix butter and peanut butter together until well incorporated and blended.

2. Slowly add in sugar and taste after dumping and mixing in the first half. You want enough sugar to be able to roll the mix into balls, but not so much that it's sickeningly sweet (but if that's your thing, by all means...)

3. Once your mix is ready, stick the bowl in the fridge for 20 or 30 minutes.

4. Remove from fridge and, with clean hands and using your palms, roll bits of mix into 1" balls. Place balls on a baking sheet lined with either waxed paper or foil.

5. Once your tray is full, place either in fridge for 30 min or freezer for 15 min

6. Melt chocolate and shortening. If you have an ice cream scooper, you'll want to have it handy. Once chocolate is melted fill the scoop with chocolate and dip cold peanut butter ball into the chocolate, coating half or more. Place on new sheet of waxed paper or foil and, once finished with the batch, re-refridgerate or freeze. Makes about 70, depending on the size of your balls. That sounds funny.