Traditional and modern Scandinavian and Nordic recipes.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

How to Make Danish Pancakes with Ice Cream and Fruit Sauce. A Traditional Dansk Pandekage Recipe

When I was growing up my mother used to make Kale Soup then have Danish pancakes for dessert.  As children we used to cling to our mother while constantly asking when the pandekager were done.  Years later, if there is one thing our family still loves to eat is danske pandekager or Danish Pancakes. 

Danish pancakes are very similar to crepes.  However, traditional Danish pancakes are served as a dessert.  Also, it appears that the Danish pancakes are bigger in size than the crepes and possibly a little sweeter too.  







 Ingredients:
  • 1 cup of all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons of sugar
  • a pinch of salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups of milk
  • European butter for frying
  • grated lemon peel 
  • optional filling for the pancakes such as sugar, fruit or nutella
 
See our YouTube video to see how we made the Danish pancakes too! 


Cooking Utensils:
  • a whisk or a fork
  • small bowl
  • spatula
  • grater
  • a large non-stick frying pan
  • measuring cups
  • measuring spoons

Directions:
  1. Add all ingredients (except butter) into the bowl.  Mix well until all clumps are gone.
  2. Let the batter sit in a large measuring cup for 20 to 30 minutes. 
  3. Now you are ready to start frying pancakes! Add a bit of butter to a non-stick skillet and heat until medium warm.
  4. Tilt the pan approx 90 degrees and pour batter from the top. The batter will, run down and fill the pan from rim to rim. You can also pour the batter in the middle of the pan and quickly make circling motions to distribute the batter all over the pan. The goal is to have as thin a batter layer as possible.
  5. Cook until the pancake is a bit stiff.  Before you flip the pancake be sure the pancake is firm on the edges. 
  6. When ready flip over the pancake.  You will see it is nice and golden brown. Cook the other side for another 1 minute.  The pancake should be light brown on both sides.
  7. When ready, remove the Danish pancake from the frying pan.
  8. Repeat the steps until you have used up all of the batter.

The smell of danske pandekager on the pan is sure to attract everyone in the neighborhood.

In Denmark, pandekager are normally served at kaffetid (coffee hour) at 3 p.m. Formally we usually have coffee or tea with the pancakes.  If we have guests we serve the pancakes on our Royal Copenhagen China and our Georg Jensen silverware.  
 
Danske pandekager can be eaten in many ways. The traditional way is to eat Danish pancakes is to drizzle sugar or marmelade in the center of the pancake.  Then roll up the pancake into a roll. My favorite way, albeit the messiest way is with vanilla ice cream and home made fruit sauce. Please see our blog and YouTube video (below) on how to make home made fruit sauce too!

A more modern way to eat Danish pancakes is with bananas and Nutella (Chocolate hazelnut spread). We never had Nutella with our pancakes growing up in Denmark. It is probably the last 10 or 15 years that eating Danish pancakes with Nutella is a popular choice too.  

  Filling ideas:
  • fresh fruit - cut up strawberry's, bananas, blueberries, raspberries, etc
  • jam or jelly
  • sugar
  • whipped cream
  • Nutellla
What's Your Favorite Filling?

Saturday, April 20, 2013

How to Make A Berry Sauce. A Fruit Sauce Using Strawberries and Blackberries for Your Desserts

In Denmark, it was a necessity to have fruits withstand long storage during the winter months. Fresh strawberries (Jordbær) is a Danish favorite.  Jordbær literally means 'earth berries'.  You can find strawberries in many of the Danish desserts including as a fruit sauce.

With summer coming the farmers markets will have a great assortment of  beautiful berries including blueberry, strawberry, blackberry and raspberryChoose berries that are fresh, ripe and in season for the best flavor.  This fruit sauce recipe uses both a strawberry and blackberry sauce.
  

Strawberry Blackberry Fruit Sauce for Desserts

Easy and cheap to make, this berry sauce is delicious spooned over vanilla ice cream. If you like a warm sauce it is delicious over pancakes, waffles and cheesecake too!


Ingredients:
  • 1/4 water
  • 1 cup of strawberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1 cup of blackberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 1/4 cup of water
  • 1 teaspoon of cornstarch
Kitchen Tools:
  • saucepan
  • measuring cup
  • wooden spoon
  • teaspoon
  • knife
  • cuttingboard




  1. Wash strawberries and/or blackberries.  Remove stems; cut large berries in half or roughly chop them.
  2. Combine water, strawberries or blackberries or both in a saucepan. With this recipe we chose to have both berries. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally and bring to boil.
  3. After it gets hot add 2 tablespoons of sugar. Bring to a simmer over medium heat until sugar has dissolved, about 10 minutes. Adjust sugar, if necessary, and cook until dissolved.
  4. Keep in mind it will take a while until the fruit will become soft.  So, you will need to keep stirring the sauce too.
  5. Next, in a cup or small bowl, mix together the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Gently stir the cornstarch mixture into the berries so as not to mash the berries.
  6. Cook until sauce thickens, about 15 minutes.
  7. Simmer gently until thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Thin sauce with water if it is too thick for your liking.





Other typical fruits incorporated into the Danish cuisine are
  • Apples (Æbler) Popular in traditional dishes as 'winter apples' store well. Can be fried and served with Flæsk (thick bacon)
  • Blackcurrant (Solbær) means literally 'sun berries'.  Eaten fresh with desserts. Can be used with fruit sauces.
  • Cherries (Kirsebær) When in season eaten fresh. Cherries are used in making Heering, a famous cherry liqueur, produced in Denmark. Also, cherries are made into the famous cherry sauce or kirsebærsauce. Kirsebærsauce is commonly made for the Danish Christmas Rice Pudding called Risalamand which is on both on our blog and video (below too).

     
  • Gooseberry (Stikkelsbær) literally 'thorny berries'. Used for stewed gooseberries (stikkelsbærgrød).
  • Pears (Pærer)
  • Plums (Blommer)
  • Raspberries (Hindbær) Eaten fresh.  Also, used for preserves and fruit sauces.
  • Redcurrants (Ribs) Made to jelly or simply mixed raw with sugar as (Rysteribs).  Also used with fruit sauces. Served to roast.
We hope you enjoyed our blog about making the easy fruit sauce. Please check out our other postings including.  


*how to make Swedish Glogg for Christmas & cold evenings! (glögg or mulled wine recipe) 
*how to make aeblskiver (æbleskiver)
*how to make Danish Christmas Klejner
*how to make easy Danish cucumber salad (arguksalat)
*how to make Danish sugar browned potatoes (brunede kartofler)
*how to make Danish red cabbage (rødkaal)
Please let us know what you think!

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!







Sunday, April 14, 2013

How to Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Chocolate covered strawberries make an easy and elegant candy dessert.  This is a fun and great sweet treat to whip up in a hurry.  They are great to take to parties, give as a gift, or just to enjoy on your own.   What a treat to have right after work or on the weekend! 

 



With summer coming the farmers markets we will have a great assortment of big beautiful strawberries.  Choose strawberries that are fresh, ripe and in season for the best flavor.  Plus, you'll want to get some large red strawberries.  That way you can make show stopping chocolate dipped strawberries with either a variety of chocolates, roll them in all sorts of toppings and even soak it in your favorite liqour! 


When possible, use the fresh strawberries from the farmers markets to get the best flavor and pickings
This recipe includes an option to soak your strawberries with Finnish vodka.  We wanted to give the strawberries a Scandinavian flare to this delicious dessert. You might or might not want to soak your strawberries in vodka.   Depending how busy you are you can make everything the same day or over a 2 day period.

First Step is to soak the strawberries with vodka (optional)
Soaking strawberries in Finnish vodka for at least 1 hour infuses the fruit with vodka flavor.  Multiple options to use vodka infused strawberries are chocolate dipped strawberries, topping for ice cream, as a filling for pies, or freeze them and add them to adult smoothies.  So, there are multiple delicious ways you can serve vodka infused strawberries.

Ingredients:
1 pound (500 g) fresh strawberries with leaves
1 cup (240 ml) vodka

Kitchen Tools
  • a bowl
  • a plate
  • a fork
  • a jar
  • a spoon
  • color coded toothpicks

Instructions:
Rinse strawberries in a bowl and dry thoroughly. Poke holes into the strawberries with a fork. This will allow them to soak up more of the vodka. Next, place the strawberries inside the jar. Pour a cup of vodka over the berries. We used a Finnish vodka when making this delicious dessert. 

Refrigerate the jarred fruit for 1 to 24 hours. If you’re not sure how strong you want the strawberries, taste one after a few hours and see if you want to continue the soaking process. Open the jar and remove the berries from the vodka using a spoon.   

Cooking Tip: We recommend to color code your strawberries with vodka and strawberries without vodka with toothpicks.  We used red toothpicks for all of the vodka soaked strawberries and blue toothpicks for the strawberries without vodka.

Place them on a baking sheet, and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

Second Step is to Dip the Strawberries into Chocolate
 

 



Ingredients:
  • 16 ounces milk chocolate chips
  • 16 ounce white chocolate chips 
  • 2 tablespoons shortening
  • Bowl of almonds

Kitchen Tools:
  • measuring cups
  • parchment lined or foil
  • 1 skewer 
  • a baking sheet
Directions:
Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with aluminum foil or parchment paper. The strawberries needs to be washed in advanced and dry and at room temperature before making the chocolate.  If the strawberries are cold, the chocolate won't stick too well

First step is to decide which chocolate to melt.  You can substitute white or milk chocolate for semi-sweet, or experiment with double-dipping the strawberries in different chocolates to vary the flavor and appearance. 


In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and shortening, stirring occasionally until smooth.  In a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water, combine bittersweet chocolate and shortening. Stir occasionally.  (Another option is to microwave your chocolate chips for 30 seconds then stir.) Remove it when some pieces are still not melted, and stir until they melt. If you are using white chocolate, be sure to remove from heat as soon as it is mostly melted.  White chocolate can be sensitive.  



Cooking Tip: Overheated chocolate gets thick and hard to work with, so it's important to keep a careful eye on the chocolate.  If you are using low-quality chocolate chips, you might need to add a little vegetable shortening to thin it out and make it easy to work with. 
   
Next Step is insert a toothpick into the top center of each strawberry where the stem is.  Holding the strawberries with color coded toothpicks. Dip strawberries into the melted chocolate. Don't cover the strawberries entirely because you want to see some of the lovely red strawberry.  Twirling in a circular motion to evenly cover most of the berry. As you lift it from the chocolate, twirl it so that any excess chocolate drips back into the bowl.  As you are dipping your strawberries the chocolate is starting to harden it up then you can microwave it. 



Place the berry on the prepared baking sheet and repeat with remaining berries and chocolate.  Once all of the berries are dipped, cool at temperature for five minutes.  By letting it cool it helps the chocolate from cracking. Then refrigerate then refrigerator for 15 to 30 minutes to set the chocolate. These strawberries taste best when eaten the same day they are made.




Decorating the Strawberries (optional)
When the strawberries are in season, you can't go wrong dipping them in chocolate! But what about dipping them in almonds, sprinkles, chocolate chips, coconut, etc...? They are gorgeous and delicious!

 

When the strawberries have all been dipped in chocolate, dip a fork into the white chocolate, and drizzle back and forth over berries to stripe.  Drizzling light chocolate over a strawberry dipped chocolate gives it a dramatic look.









You can use other toppings such as shaved coconut, chopped up almonds, and tiny chocolates





We hope you enjoyed our video and recipe! Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel Scandinavian Today.  Our channel has videos including  

These recipes are perfect for the family. Please let us know what you think! 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!

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Æblekage a Delicious Danish Apple Cake Recipe. Learn How to Make This Traditional Danish No Bake Dessert.

This traditional Danish dessert called Æblekage is really simple to make and delicious. Æblekage translates to Danish apple cake.  

 
No Bake Æblekage


Eventhough it translates to apple cake it is actually a No Bake apple cake!  If you have homemade applesauce, breadcrumbs and whipped cream you are ready to go!  




See our YouTube video to see how we prepare this delicious dessert. 
Plus, like and Subscribe too! 

Ingredients:
  • 3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
  • 12 slices homemade-type white bread, ground fine in a food processor (about 2 1/2 cups)
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 3-4 cups homemade chunky applesauce (recipe follows) or bottled chunky applesauce
  • 1 cup lingonberry, raspberry or strawberry preserves plus additional for garnish
  • 1 cup of whipped cream for garnish and as an accompaniment
Kitchen Tools:
  • skillet pan
  • rolling pin
  • sandwich bag
  • measuring cup
  • spoon
  • handheld mixer
  • bowl
  • cooling tray
Instruction:

First stage is either to make your own applesauce or use applesauce from a jar.  We prefer to make our own applesauce as it is less runny. A firmer chunkier applesauce holds better with this dessert.  The breadcrumbs are less wet with a firmer applesauce.   If you want to make your own applesauce, see our Danish applesauce recipe. 






Next you need to make whip cream in a small bowl with a handheld mixer. You can set it a side and keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to use the whipped cream.

Now we are ready to make breadcrumbs golden. We like to use leftover dry bread so nothing is wasted.  Put the dry bread in a sealed plastic bag.  Crumble the breadcrumbs by both banging the bread and rolling a rolling pin over the sealed bag.  Keep crumbling the bread and add the sugar.

Scandinavian Cooking Tip: Another option is to grind the bread is if you have a food processor. However, we like to use the rolling pin instead because there is less clean up.
 
In a large heavy skillet melt butter over moderate heat.  Now stir in the bread crumbs. You can add additional sugar if you like the breadcrumbs to be sweeter. The sugar gives the breadcrumbs a nice flavor and crunchiness for the dessert. Stir the breadcrumbs constantly and break up the lumps, until golden for about 5 minutes.

Stir breadcrumbs until it all becomes golden
Once the breadcrumbs are golden our recommendation is to spread the golden crumbs over a tray to cool.  A pizza tray works well for this.  You want to keep stirring the breadcrumbs to make sure the breadcrumbs don't start clumping together and are cold too.

Æblekage was a recent viewer request on Google+.  If you have any Scandinavian dish requests for us to make, please feel free to let us know!

The final stage is to assemble the Æblekage. In either individual size glasses or a large pretty glass bowl we need to layer the golden breadcrumbs and the applesauce.  Make sure to have a clear glass because it is so pretty to see the layers! First layer is the golden breadcrumbs and spread it across.
Next layer is the applesauce.  

Here is homemade applesauce! Yum! Looks delicious! 


Repeat the steps until you are at the top.  The last layer is the whipping cream.  Spread the whipped cream across the entire surface from glass rim to glass rim. Final step is to add a tablespoon of preserves on top such as either lingonberry, raspberry or strawberry preserves.  Also, as you are layering the proportions are quite forgiving, so feel free to experiment. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

We like to serve the delicious dessert with either a cup of coffee and/or a glass of port.  For extra garnish we usually have a a bowl of preserve and a bowl of whipped cream on the coffee table.  That way folks can add more flavoring to their liking. 
 
We serve this delicious dessert with either some port in a glass or coffee.

We hope you enjoyed our video and recipe! Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel Scandinavian Today.  Our channel has videos including  

These recipes are perfect for the family. Please let us know what you think! 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!