Strawberry Rhubarb Almond Muffin - A Yummy Summer Muffin Recipe

These muffins are simple, quick delicious and easy to make.  You can serve these muffins any time of the day warm or cold. Great for to have either for breakfast or as a snack.

Ingredients for Muffins:

• 3/4 cup strawberries, diced bite size
• 3/4 cup rhubarb, diced bite size
• 3/4 cup of almond paste, diced bite size
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2-1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1 cup sour cream 
• 4 oz. (8 Tbs.) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly or at room temperature
• 2 large eggs 
• 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract 
• cooking spray

Topping:

• 3 Tbs. granulated sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon 
• 1/3 cup of sliced almonds 

Kitchen Utensils

• large glass bowl 
• 3 medium bowls 
• measuring cup
• measuring spoons
• whisk or electric mixer
• spatula 
• ice cream scoop
• knife
• cutting board
• 12-cup muffin pan

Instruction:

1. First, preheat your oven to 400°F and position a rack in the center of the oven. 
2. The second thing to do is line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper so nothing sticks.
3. Next dice the rhubarb, strawberries and almond paste.  You want these about as small as a blueberry and no larger than a 1/4 of an inch.  If the fruit is not sliced up into small pieces, there is a chance that the fruit will sink to the bottom because the fruit is heavy. Set the everything aside in a bowl.
4. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients including flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt with a spoon.
5. In a medium bowl, use a hand held whisk to whisk together quickly the sour cream, melted butter, eggs, orange zest and vanilla until smooth.
6. Now  take 2-3 tablespoons of your flour mixture and put it into your strawberry, rhubarb and almond mixture.  Give the fruit and almond paste a quick little mix to coat them in the flour so the flour adheres to it.  That way when the muffins are baking, the fruit will not sink all of the way down. 
7. Next, combine the dry ingredients right into the wet ingredients with a spatula.  Don't over mix.  The batter should have lumps and not be completely smooth.
8. Now fold the fruit into the flour mixture with a spatula until the batter just comes together.  The spatula prevents from over mixing the flour and from smashing up the fruit so these are going to be a nice muffin.
9. Next, add an ice cream scoopful of batter into each muffin cup and make them all of the same size. The batter should mound a bit higher than the tops of the cups.
10. In a small bowl, combine the almonds, sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Sprinkle a generous 1/2 tsp. of the cinnamon almond sugar mixture over each muffin batter.
11. Now we are ready to bake the muffins in preheated oven 400°F for about 20-25 minutes.  Bake the muffins until they’re golden brown.  The easiest way to tell if the muffins are baked is to insert a toothpick into the center.  If the toothpick comes out clean then you know they are done.
12. Transfer to a wire rack and let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes.
13. These muffins are best when freshly baked, but they’re still good the second day.

Tosca Cake - A Nordic Cake Recipe with Almond Topping and Fresh Fruit...Oh My!

Tosca cake is a Nordic favorite, apparently named for Puccini's opera. It's a delicate sponge cake with a caramelized almond, praline-like topping. Enjoy having a slice of Tosca cake before or after you see Puccini!

 Cake Batter Ingredients: 

• 3/4 cup sugar 
• 2 eggs 
• 4 tbs unsalted butter 
• 1 cup flour 
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• lemon peel or 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt

Caramelized Almond, Praline-like Topping Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup almonds, roughly chopped 
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 2  tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. milk or light cream

  
 Kitchen Utensils

• measuring cup
• measuring spoon
• large mixing bowl
• electric mixer
• spatula
• grater 
• springform (approx. 24 cm. in diameter)
• medium pot

Instruction:

Preheat oven to 325F degrees.

Beat eggs and sugar well. Stir in the melted cooled butter, lemon zest, the flour and baking powder.  Do not over mix.

Pour the cake batter into the greased and floured springform (approx. 24 cm. in diameter). Place the tin in the oven and bake the cake for approx. 25 to 30 minutes. 

While the cake is baking prepare the topping. Mix sugar, butter, milk and flour in a saucepan on low heat until the butter has melted. Meanwhile it is a good time to continue chopping the almonds.  Once ready add the almonds into the pot and get the mixture to a boiling point. Keep an eye on it. Then turn off the stove once it reaches the boiling point.

When the cake is baked so much that it maintains its shape (after approx. 25 minutes), pour the almond mixture over the cake.  Spread the almond mixture across the cake.  Then place the baking pan under the grill (at approx. 400F) in the oven for approx. 10-15 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.

Let the cake cool down before slicing.

Serve the cake plain or with whipped cream and/or fresh berries.

Rugbrød Drys - Danish Rye Bread Sprinkles

RYE BREAD SPRINKLES WITH ALMONDS 

Ingredients:

2 slices of rye bread 
1 tblsp coarsely chopped, blanched almonds 
2 tblsp brown sugar (or white sugar)
1 tblsp Canola Oil or butter 

Sprinkle finished rye bred on yogurt or "tykmaelk"

Rye bread Sprinkle 

Place rye bread, almonds and sugar in a food processor and pulse until desired consistency.  Pour the canola oil or butter and toast the rye bread crumbs on the pan for approx. 3-5 min. and keep stirring, so the rye bread crumbs don't burn. Pour the rye bread sprinkles onto a plate to cool down.

Place the rye bread sprinkle in a plastic bag or jar. It will keep  for approx. 1 week.

Strawberry Rhubarb Almond White Chocolate Chip Bar - Summertime Recipe Deliciousness!

Strawberry rhubarb almond white chocolate chip bars are easy to make and deeeelicioussss! A perfect treat to make during the summer season. Let's go over the ingredients to get started.

 

Ingredients:

Fruit Topping:  

• 2 cups sliced strawberries and 
• 2 cups of rhubarb
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1/4 cup of orange juice 
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla 

Dry Topping:

• 1 cup of white chocolate chips
• 1/2 a cup of sliced almonds 
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
  

 Dry Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 1/2 cup of oatmeal
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup sliced almond
• 1 ½ cup of grated almond paste
• 1 (cup) stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened on a plate
• sliced almonds

Kitchen Utensils

• large mixing bowl
• parchment paper
• baking dish
• electric mixer
• measuring cup
• measuring spoons
• spatula
• wooden spoon 
• heavy bottomed saucepan
• grater
• pastry blender

Instructions

First thing you want to do is get your oven preheated to 350°F.  Then, line your parchment paper to come up the sides of a 9 inch baking dish. That way you can easily lift out the bars perfectly every single time.  Also you might want to spray just to ensure that nothing sticks to the baking dish. 

Preparing the Toppings:

1. In a small bowl, combine sugar, cinnamon and sliced almonds.  Set this aside until we are ready to sprinkle as a topping. 
2. In a heavy bottom saucepan add strawberries, rhubarb and a little bit of water.  Add sugar and vanilla. Cook over medium heat and stir occasionally.
3. In a bowl, whisk cornstarch with orange juice until dissolved. 
4. Now, stir the orange juice mixture into the saucepan. Boil until thickened and translucent. Remove saucepan from heat and onto wire rack to cool.
5. Meanwhile, while fruit spread is cooling we are ready to make the dry mixture.  

Preparing the Dry Ingredients:

1. In a large bowl, mix quickly the oatmeal, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, brown sugar and a dash of salt.  
2. Then in the same bowl, mix the dry mixture and crumbled almond paste with fork until small clumps form.   
3. Next add the butter into the bowl.  Use a pastry blender to cut into the butter.  Mix with fingers or a pastry blender or a food processor until the texture of small crumbs. Set aside.
4. Then stir 1/4 cup of almonds into the large bowl and mix completely.

Assembling the Ingredients:

1. Now we are ready to combine both the dry and the fruit topping.  First set aside at least a ½ a cup the dry crumb mixture to be used later. 
2. Add a layer of dry mixture on the bottom of the baking dish. Press the dry mixture onto the baking dish using a bottom of a measuring cup. This will help firm up the dry mixture.
3. Then sprinkle a little bit of white chocolate chips across the dry mixture.
4. Now we are ready to spread fruit mixture across the dry mixture. 
5. Add another layer of white chocolate chips across the fruit mixture.
6. Spread on top with reserved crumb mixture with a spoon so you can see the strawberry mixture peeking through.
7. Finally sprinkle remaining white chocolate chips and the cinnamon almond slice mixture on top. 
8. Bake these for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown and preserves are bubbly. Let these cool completely on a wire rack before serving.
9. Refrigerate any leftovers but you might not have any.

How to Make Marzipan for Scandinavian Baking & Candies A Simple Homemade Almond Paste Recipe

Marzipan is great for Scandinavian baking including cakes, cookies and candies.  Marzipan is a confection consisting primarily of ground almonds and usually sugar.  Here is a a homemade way to make fresh marzipan.

First, you need almonds without the skin on it.  If you want to save money, you might want to blanch your almonds by removing the skin. Below are the instructions to blanch your almonds. 

Ingredients 

• 2 cups of plain raw almonds (not roasted, oiled, or salted)
• a bowl of boiling water 

 

See our YouTube video to see how 

Karen Grete creates the marzipan paste.

How to Blanch Almonds

1. Place almonds in a bowl of boiled water for a minute or two.  The water should barely cover over the almonds.
2. Then after a few minutes, the skin of the almonds should look slightly wrinkled. Don't let the almonds sit too long in the water because it will loose crispness.
3. Carefully pinch off the skins with your fingers. The almond should slide right out of its skin. 
4. Sometimes the skin won't come off so easily.  It might be the water is getting cold.  If it is then reheat the water. 
5. Leave to dry in another bowl. 

 Prepare the marzipan

• 2 cups of blanched almonds
• 1 cup of sifted confectioners' sugar 
• 1/2 a teaspoon almond extract 
• one or more tablespoons of water
• 1 bitter optional instead of almond extract

1. Now we are ready to ground the plain blanched almonds in a food processor or blender. Add a little at a time of blanched almonds, grind, pour out into a bowl.  Repeat until you have grounded all of the almonds.
2. Next add powdered sugar into the bowl of grounded almonds. Stir the mixture.
3. Add one tablespoon of water at a time into the bowl.  You don't want to add too much water as it is just to get the mixture to stick together. 
4. Next add almond extract.  
5. To test if it is sticking together, start squeezing the mixture with your hands.  If it is not sticking add a little more water. If the mixture is too sticky, add a little more confectioners' sugar.
6. Dust powder sugar on a marble or a smooth surface. Pour the almond ground mixture over it.  
7. Coat your hands in powdered sugar and begin to knead the marzipan.  Knead until smooth.
8. Your marzipan can now be used immediately. Otherwise, store by wrapping it in plastic wrap and keeping it in an airtight container.

 
THUMBS UP for more marzipan recipe videos!  If you have any questions, please let us know.
xoxo,
Karen Grete and Heidi

We hope you enjoyed the marzipan recipe! 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 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 St Lucia Buns - A Swedish Saint Lucia Saffron Bun Recipe - Lussekatter
*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)
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!

Strawberry Rhubarb Almond Crisp Dessert Recipe

 

Strawberry rhubarb almond crisp is wonderful summer dessert.  This takes little to no effort to put together which is great for last minute dinner parties. If you have friends coming over last minute, this is the dessert to make. 

The great thing about this recipe is that you can use fresh or frozen rhubarb. It is only takes a handful of ingredients so lets get started. 

Ingredients

Topping 

• 1 cup old fashioned oats (not instant)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour 
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1 cup almond paste 
• 1 stick (8 tablespoons) softened butter 

Filling 

• 4 cups of fresh or frozen, sliced 
• 4 cups of fresh or frozen rhubarb, 1/4" diced
• 1 cup sugar 
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest 
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Kitchen Utensils

• measuring cup
• measuring spoon
• large mixing bowl
• wooden spoon 
• 9" x 13" baking dish or similar size, slightly greased
• grater 
• pastry blender or food processor

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Set rack in the center of the oven.

For Topping: 

1. Using a grater, grate almond paste into a large mixing bowl.
2. Add oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt into the large bowl. Mix well with a wooden spoon. 
3. Add soften sliced butter into the bowl.
4. Mix with fingers or a pastry blender or a food processor until the texture of small crumbs. Set aside.

For Filling: 

 

1. Clean both the strawberries and rhubarb.
2. Dice both strawberries and rhubarb and remove the ends.  It does not have to be perfectly sliced since we will be baking it shortly.  (You could substitute the strawberries with apple instead which is soooo good.) 
3. In a large bowl combine strawberries, rhubarb, sugar, flour, salt, ginger and lemon zest. Mix well. The sugar will help sweeten the rhubarb juices. The flour will help thicken the juices. 

Assembling the ingredients

1. Pour and spread the strawberry rhubarb mixture into baking dish. 
2. Spread crisp topping over entire surface.
3. Bake until fruit is bubbly and the top is a beautiful golden brown, approximately 30 to 40 minutes. That is it and so easy to make. 
4. Loosely cover top with foil if browning too quickly. 

Delicious served warm or cold.  But let it cool for at least 10 minutes if you want to eat it shortly after baking.  Otherwise, if you try to eat it earlier, you might burn your mouth. 

When ready, if you scoop out from the pan, you can see the lovely thick juices.  You might still seem some steam.

Perfect to be served with either whipped cream, yogurt or ice cream.  If you take a bite, it is a perfect combination of the strawberries and rhubarb and sugar with the sweet and tartness. plus the crunchy almond topping. 

Did you know that a crisp has oatmeal to the topping and a crumble does not have oatmeal to the topping. 

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)

*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)

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!