Traditional and modern Scandinavian and Nordic recipes.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Honey Ginger Cake Recipe - Honning Ingefær Kage Opskrift

When I bake the Honey Ginger cake, it brings back memories visiting my grandfather as a child.  He would go to the local bakery and I buy me a slice of ginger cake.  Hope you enjoy this recipe.





Ingredients
  • 2/3 cups of honey, liquid
  • 5 ounces of butter
  • 3/4 cup of brown sugar 
  • 3 eggs 
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
  • 1 to 2 teaspoon cinnamon, ground 
  • 1/2 a cup of candied fruit cake mix, chopped
  • 1/8 cup of candied ginger, chopped

Kitchen Utensils
  • large bowl
  • medium bowl
  • electric or hand mixer
  • wooden spoon
  • measuring cup 
  • toothpick or long skewer
Instructions:
1: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, honey and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

 
2:  In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, ground cloves, ground ginger and cinnamon.
 
3: Add the flour mixture a little at a time into the egg mixture. Mix with an electric mixer.  Continue adding a little at a time of the flour mixture.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Then fold in the candied fruits.

4: Butter, or spray with a nonstick vegetable spray, a loaf pan. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan  Bake in the center of a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 50 to 60 minutes. 

5: Insert with a toothpick or a long skewer into the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs. If the toothpick comes out moist, then bake the cake a little longer. 

6: Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

Serve with coffee, tea, milk or even hot chocolate! Enjoy!

Honey Ginger Cake Recipe - Honning Ingefær Kage Opskrift by Karen Grete & Heidi (mother/daughter team). 

We hope you enjoyed the Honey Ginger Cake video! Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel Scandinavian Today.  Our channel has videos including
*how to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe (Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)
*How to make St Lucia Buns - A Swedish Saint Lucia Saffron Bun Recipe - Lussekatter
*how to make Swedish Glogg for Christmas & cold evenings! (glögg or mulled wine recipe) 
*Jansson's Temptation A Swedish Christmas dish - Janssons Frestelse
*How to make Swedish Sour Cream Cucumber Salad with Dill. svensk gurksallad.
*How to Make Marzipan for Scandinavian Baking & Candies A simple homemade recipe- marcipan - marsipan
*Brunsviger - A classic Danish cinnamon coffee cake
*how to make aeblskiver (æbleskiver)
*how to make Danish Christmas Klejner
*how to make Danish sugar browned potatoes (brunede kartofler)
*how to make Danish red cabbage (rødkaal)
*How to make Danish Cucumber Salad (Agurksalat)
*How to Make Marzipan for Scandinavian Baking & Candies A simple homemade recipe- marcipan - marsipan
Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/

Follow us either on Twitter @scandinavtoday, Blogger, Google+, Google Pages, Pinterest and Subscribe to our YouTube Chanel Scandinavian Today!  Let's get cooking Scandinavian foods!

Saturday, February 22, 2014

How To Make Bread Pudding

 
We were inspired to make bread pudding when we heard one of the celebrity chefs was going to serve bread pudding at an award show.  I was planning to see the awards show to see which international movies were going to win.  So, I thought it would be fun to serve bread pudding during the evening of the show.  I really like this recipe because of the ingredients such as honey, raisins and diced apples. So, let's get started!

Ingredients

  • 1/2 a cup of honey
  • 1/3 cup of brown sugar
  • 5 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons of vanilla
  • 1/2 cup of raisins
  • 1 cup of diced apples
  • 3 cups of torn bread
  • 2 cups of milk
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
Click on our YouTube video 
to see how Karen Grete prepares this delicious dessert!

 Kitchen Utensils
  • 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan
  • measuring cups
  • small-medium pot
  • wooden spoon
  • measuring spoons
  • large mixing bowl
  • medium bowl

Instructions 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 13 by 9 by 2-inch pan.

Next break cups of bread into small pieces into a medium-large bowl.  Heat the milk on medium heat.  Add honey and brown sugar into the milk. No need to boil the milk.  Just need the  honey and brown sugar to melt. 

Next pour some of the milk custard mixture over the 3 cups of torn bread. (The rest of the milk will be mixed with the eggs.)  Lightly push down with a fork the bread until it is covered and soaking up the egg mixture. Let the bread mixture sit for 20 minutes.

Next add 5 eggs into a large mixing bowl. Then, pour and whisk the remaining warm milk mixture into the eggs.  Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla and cinnamon (optional) into the egg mixture. Beat until well mixed. Add 1/2 a cup of raisins and 1 cup of diced apples.  Finally add the 3 cups of torn bread that has been soaking in the milk mixture. Mix well. Pour bread mixture into a prepared baking pan. 

Set the baking dish in a large, shallow roasting pan. Add very hot tap water to the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.  Now we are ready to put this into the preheated oven and bake for an hour. Bake the bread pudding until a knife inserted near the center comes out almost clean,
 
Serve warm or at room temperature. Generously dust the top of each slice with confectioners' sugar or with a rum sauce.   Check out our recipe blog post to make the rum sauce.
http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/2014/03/how-to-make-rum-sauce-for-desserts-and.html
Below are 3 different ways to serve the bread pudding with the run sauce.

Serve the bread pudding in a bowl. Which is great because you can add as much rum sauce as you like in a bowl.
Serve the bread pudding in a pretty glass such as a martini glass. This will really look impressive if you have guests.

Serve the bread pudding on a plate.  You can give it a pretty presentation with the rum sauce.

We hoped you like our recipe and serving ideas. Enjoy!

Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/

*how to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe (Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)


Follow us either on Twitter @scandinavtoday, Blogger, Google+, Google Pages, Pinterest and Subscribe to our YouTube Chanel Scandinavian Today!  Let's get cooking Scandinavian foods!

Monday, February 17, 2014

How to Make Icelandic Potato Salad - Kartoflusalat

 
The Icelandic Potato salad is a delicious and filling dish that is perfect as a side for meat dishes such as steaks.  However we think it is so good it is perfect as a side dish to a sandwiches or for summer picnics too.  If you want to know how to make this potato salad, just follow these steps.
 
Click on this YouTube video 
to see how the Kare Grete prepares this delicious salad!
 Ingredients
  • 2 large potatoes (boiled tender, peeled & cubed)
  • 2 eggs (hard-boiled & chopped)
  • 2 red or green apples (peeled, cored & chopped) 
  • 1 small dill pickle (chopped)
  • 1/2 a red onion (chopped, larger if desired)
  • half a cup of parsley as garnish 
  • half a cup of Icelandic yogurt 
  • half a cup of mayonnaise
  • a dash of curry powder (a nice substitute is mustard)
  • lemon juice (optional as desired)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
Kitchen Utensils
  • large bowl
  • cutting board
  • knife
  • measuring cup
  • wooden spoon
  • juicer(optional for lemon)
Directions:
1 ) mix the prepared ingredients: potatoes, eggs, pickles, and one apple into a big bowl. Add a portion of the red onion and stir well.  The other portion we will use the onion as garnish.
2)  next add half a cup of Icelandic yogurt and half a cup of mayonnaise. Toss the mixture well until the ingredients are thoroughly blended and the salad has a rich, creamy consistency.
3) add a dash of curry powder, lemon juice (if using), salt and pepper to taste and stir well. Add more salt, curry or mayo as needed. 
4) finally garnish with the second chopped apple and remaining chopped red onion. Then add parsley on top of the salad. This gives the salad wonderful color.
Cover and refrigerate for a few hours. This will allow the ingredients to blend. You can serve this tasty potato salad cold or at room temperature.
Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/
*how to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe (Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)


Follow us either on Twitter @scandinavtoday, Blogger, Google+, Google Pages, Pinterest and Subscribe to our YouTube Chanel Scandinavian Today!  Let's get cooking Scandinavian foods!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Finnish Blueberry Yogurt Pie - Mustikkapiiras - Super Easy To Make!

This is a really easy blueberry pie to make.  Plus, it is a refreshing pie to have during the summer season.  If you plan to have a barbeque or a summer party, you could make this pie the night before.  The pie is great cold but you can serve it warm as well.

We were interested in making this delicious Finnish blueberry pie because it has a couple of our favorite ingredients which are blueberries and yogurt.  Almost every weekend, my children and I always have yogurt and we add some type of berry such as blueberries.  So I had to make this recipe when I saw the ingredients. 
So let's get started.  First we need to make the pie shell then the filling. Finally we will assemble and bake. Be sure to look at our YouTube video to see how to make the pie too.


Pie Shell
  • 3/4 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup unbleached white flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon. baking powder
  
See our YouTube video 
to see how Karen Grete prepares the blueberry pie.
Kitchen Utensils
  • electric mixer
  • bowl
  • 9 or 10-inch pie pan
  • wooden spoon
  • measuring cup
1) Preheat the oven to 350F. 
2) Butter and flour a 9 or 10-inch pie pan. 
3) Beat 3/4 cup sugar and soften butter until the mixture is smooth and creamy with an electric mixer.  Add the egg and blend well. 
4) Mix into the wet ingredients the baking powder. You might want to switch from the electric mixer to a wooden spoon or use your hands to mix the dough. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time and to form a soft dough. The dough will be sticky, like sugar cookie dough.
5) Butter pie pan. Dust the pie pan generously with flour. 
6) With flour-dusted fingers pat the sticky dough into the bottom of the prepared baking dish.  Push the dough up to cover the sides of the pan and create a raised edge of dough around the dish.
7) Put the pie pan in the refrigerator to cool down while making the blueberry filling.

FILLING
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 tablespoons of sugar
  • 1 cup of plain yogurt (vanilla yogurt optional)
  • 1 freshly squeezed lemon
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 2 cups of blueberries, fresh or frozen
Kitchen Utensils
  • whisk
  • bowl
  • measuring cup
  • spoon
1) Mix the eggs, sugar, yogurt, lemon juice and vanilla extract with a wooden spoon in a large bowl until smoothen

Assembly 
1) Remove cold pie pan from the refrigerator
2) Place the 2 cups of blueberries into the cold pie shell.  
3) Gently pour in the filling so the berries are coated and evenly distributed. If need be gently tip the baking dish to spread the filling around  to fill in the gaps. 
4) Bake in the preheated 350 degrees F oven.  Bake the pie for 50 to 60 minutes, until the crust is browned and the custard has set. 
5) Chill well.

 
The blueberry pie can be served warm or cold.  Also the pie can be served plain or with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  A nice cup of coffee goes well with this too.
The pie will hold well in the refrigerator for a couple of days. 
Also the recipe is versatile to add other types of berries such as raspberries or too. Enjoy!
  
Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/
*how to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe (Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)


Follow us either on Twitter @scandinavtoday, Blogger, Google+, Google Pages, Pinterest and Subscribe to our YouTube Chanel Scandinavian Today!  Let's get cooking Scandinavian foods!



Friday, February 14, 2014

How to Make Carrot Apple Salad - Gulerod æble-salat

Ingredients
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 large green or red apples
  • 1/3 cup of raisins
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped almonds
  • 1/2 a lemon of lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon of honey or sugar

Kitchen Utensils
  • 1 large bowl
  • 1 grater or food processor
  • 1 knife
  • 1 cutting board
  • 1 potato peeler

Preparation
1)  Add into a bowl a half a cup of lemon juice and honey
2) Wash and core 2 large fresh apples.  Peeling the apples are optional. Grate (coarse or fine) the apples on a grater into the bowl of lemon juice.  The lemon juice keeps the sliced apples from turning brown. Mix the apples quickly in the bowl.
3) Wash and peel the carrots. Grate the carrots on a coarse or fine part of the grater in a large bowl. Another option is to use a food processor and transfer to a bowl. Mix everything in the bowl.
4) Add both the raisins and the almonds.  Mix everything in the bowl
5) Taste and add in some more honey if you think more is required.
6) Pop the salad into the fridge until you need to serve it.

 You now have a delicious apple and carrot salad!!!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Sima (mead) A Finnish fermented sweet bubbly lemonade drink for May Day celebrations

Celebrate the arrival of warmer weather by preparing Finnish Sima this spring!  Sima is a a lightly fermented sweet bubbly lemonade served during May Day celebrations including the Finnish Vappu festival. In Finland, Vappu is one of Finnish's biggest carnival-style festivals. The celebration begins on the evening of 30 April and continues to 1 May. 

Below is a recipe which takes 3 to 4 days.  It is worth the wait. It tastes sooooo good!

Ingredients:
  • 8 cups of water
  • 2 large lemons
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1 cup white sugar plus sugar for bottles
  • 1/8 tsp. yeast
  • handful of raisins
Kitchen Utensils
  • A big pot
  • measuring cup
  • cutting board'
  • knife
  • potato peeler 

Preparation

 First day

  1. Boil 4 cups of water to a steady boil.
  2. Add all the white and brown sugar into the container. Mix well until the sugar is mostly dissolved.
  3. Wash the first lemon and slice it up.  Add the slices, too, into the pot of water.
  4. Wash the second lemon well. Use a lemon zester or a potato peeler to remove the outer yellow rind of the lemon in strips, being careful not to include the bitter white pith. Put the zest into the pot of water
  5. Add 4 cups of cold water so that the mixture is lukewarm for the yeast to activate. The yeast produces the carbonation. If unsure, take a small cup of the mixture from the container, dissolve the yeast in it and then mix it back. Just dropping a crumb of fresh yeast into the container will also work.  
  6. Cover and allow to sit at room temperature for 24 hours or until surface begins to bubble slightly.  
 Second day

  1. We are ready to bottle the mixture. First add 5-6 raisins and 1 teaspoon of sugar to each bottle before you pour the sima in.  The drink will look cloudy.
  2. After bottling, let the bottles stand at room temperature out of direct sunlight for 2 more days. The raisins will bloat up and float to the surface.
Third or Fourth Day
  1. Finally, move the bottles to your refrigerator. The sima is ready, and should be served cold. Because of this, traditional sima is a fresh product that does not store for long.  It will keep for at least a week in the refrigerator.
  2. Sima is usually accompanied by a munkki (donut), a tippaleipä (a special Vappu funnel cake) or a rosetti (rosette). Besure to check out our rosette recipe too!

Monday, February 10, 2014

How to Make Danish Medal Cookies With A Pastry Cream Filling- Medaljer Kage Opskrift

These cream cakes (Medaljer) are very common in Danish bakeries and homes.  These are made in countless variations.  The primary ingredients are the cookies, custard, whipped cream, and icing.  Below is the recipe for each of the primary ingredients.  Once each item is made it just requires assembling to make a delicious treat.  First step is make the cookie.
Cookie Ingredients:
  • 1 1/4 cups of flour
  • 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 5 tablespoons of softened butter
Kitchen Utensils
  • bowl wooden spoon 
  • pastry blender
  • measuring cup
  • rolling pin
  • baking tray
  • parchment paper
Cookie Preparation
Combine sifted confectionery sugar and flour in a large mixing bowl. Mix well by hand or with a wooden spoon. Add softened butter and knead with either a wooden spoon or a pastry blender.   Next add one egg and mix the mixture with a wooden spoon  Continue mixing the dough.  Use your hands to form a smooth round ball of dough.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for one hour.
Preheat oven at 400F. Roll dough on lightly floured work surface to 1/4 or 1/8" thickness. Cut into round cookie shapes with medium-sized wineglass or a cookie cutter.    Bake on a greased baking sheet or lined with parchment paper for about 8 minutes or until pale golden brown. Place on the center of the oven rack and bake at 4oo degrees.  Remove to a wire rack to cool.  Can be kept in an airtight container until needed.
Custard As a Pastry Cream for the Medal Cookies - Creme budding opskrift

Custard Ingredients:
  • 2 cups of milk
  • 2/3 cups of flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4  cup of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • pinch of salt
 Kitchen Utensils
  • kitchen pot
  • large bowl
  • measuring cup
  • wooden spoon
 
Click on the YouTube video 
to see how Karen Grete prepares the custard.
Custard Preparation 
Heat milk over the stove at medium heat.  Do not boil the milk. Combine sugar, flour, salt and the two eggs in a bowl  Mix the mixture in the bowl. Add a little of the egg-sugar-flour mixture to the warm pot of milk that is on the stove.  Pour a little more of the mixture into the warm milk, stirring constantly.  Stir constantly to avoid the custard becoming lumpy and to prevent it from burning.  When the custard has thickened pour it into a bowl.  Next add the butter and stir it into the warn mixture.  Then add vanilla into the milk mixture. You don't want the vanilla to boil. So the vanilla should be added last.

Cover over the bowl of custard with plastic wrap.  Place the bowl in the fridge at least two hours. You can sprinkle sugar over the custard while cooling so that a skin will not form too. Cool custard completely in the refrigerator - a minimum of 2 hours. 
 
Icing Ingredients:
  • 1 cup of confectionery sugar
  • a glass of water
  • almond flavoring (optional)
  • food coloring (optional)
Kitchen utensils
  • bowl
  • spoon
  • measuring cup
 
Icing Preparation
Sift powdered sugar into a bowl.  Add a couple of tablespoons of water into the sugar.  Stir until a smooth mass is obtained.  If need be, add a couple more drops of water.  Optional add flavoring or food coloring. Color and taste can be varied by mixing in lemon flavoring, cocoa. etc. 
 
 Click on the YouTube video 
to see Karen Grete assembles the cookies.

Assembly:
When the cookies and the custard are cool, we are ready to assemble all of the primary ingredients.  Choose half of the nice cookies to be the tops. Glaze half of the cookies with the sugar icing using a knife.  Let the glaze stiffen.

Next on the other cookie use a pastry bag to pipe out whipped cream to create a circular boarder or a ring on the edge of each cookie. Fill the center of the cookie with the custard using a spoon. The whipped cream ring holds the custard in. Place the glazed cookie glazed side up on top of the custard.  Garnish with a dab of whipped cream over the glazed cookie. 



Add a fresh fruit such as strawberries or blueberries on top.

Refrigerate until serving. Serve the same day !

Our Scandinavian recipes including Danish, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish are on http://scandinavtoday.blogspot.com/

*how to make Danish Christmas rice pudding with cherry sauce dessert recipe (Risalamande med kirsebærsauce)


Follow us either on Twitter @scandinavtoday, Blogger, Google+, Google Pages, Pinterest and Subscribe to our YouTube Chanel Scandinavian Today!  Let's get cooking Scandinavian foods!