Hindbærsnitter - Hans Christian Andersen's Favorite Danish Raspberry Bars (Not a PopTart)

Tillykke med fødselsdagen Hans Christian Andersen!!  Hans Christian Andersen's birthday was on April 2nd.  So we thought it would be fun to make his favorite raspberry bars in celebration of his birthday! 

 Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (or 2 1/4 cup flour and 1/4 cup almond flour)
• 1  cups confectioner's sugar 
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 8 tbsp butter, diced into small cubes
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar for glaze
• 2-3 tbsp water
• 1 cup raspberry jam or preserves
• decorating sprinkles / nonpareils

 
Click on our YouTube video to see 
Karen Grete preparing the raspberry bars.
•  

Instruction:

1. Whisk together flour, 1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar.
2. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles small crumbs (it will be the texture of basic pie crust dough). 
3. Mix in beaten egg to form a soft dough and add the vanilla extract. 
4. Divide dough into two halves, cover each with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for one hour.
5. Preheat oven to 375º. Using a rolling pin roll out each half of the chilled dough into an 10" x 10" square.
6. Trim the edges to make them square, then carefully roll the dough around your pin and transfer to parchment paper-lined baking sheets.
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
9. Spread raspberry jam on bottom layer and cover with top layer. 
10. Combine 1 cup confectioner's sugar with 2 Tbsp. water to form a thick glaze. Spread on top layer of cookie and sprinkle with nonpareils. 
11. Once the glaze has "set" (about 10 minutes), cut into bars.

Enjoy with a glass of milk, a cup of coffee or tea.
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Send us pictures of what you like to serve with the Raspberry Bars!
xoxo
Karen Grete and Heidi

Trivia:  This classic bar is believe to have been around since the 1700's.  If you go to Denmark, try one of these popular  raspberry bars at one of the local bakeries.

*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)

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!

Very Berry Scandi Muffin - A Delicious Berry Muffin Recipe.

These muffins are so yummy made with any of the summer berries that you might find.  I used blueberries, red currants, red gooseberries, red raspberries and a hint of elderflower syrup in this recipe!!  These summer muffins are perfect for breakfast, brunch or a snack.

 Ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour
• 4 teaspoon of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• ½ a cup of red currants
• ½ a cup of raspberries
• ½ a cup of blueberries
• ½ a cup of red gooseberries
• 1 -2 teaspoons of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of elderflower syrup over gooseberries to macerate for 15 minutes
• ½ a  cup of white sugar
• ½ a cup of brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon of orange zest/ lemon zest
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• ½ a cup of oil
• 1 cup of plain yogurt

  

Kitchen Utensils:

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

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 12 muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients including flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt with a fork. Then set the bowl aside.
3. Combine red raspberries and red currants in a bowl.  Add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar.  Muddle the fruit in a bowl.  Then set aside.
4. Add 3 tablespoons of elderflower syrup into a bowl of red gooseberries.  Mix with a spoon and set aside.
5. Now  take 1 tablespoons of your flour mixture and put it into a bowl of blueberries.  Give the fruit a quick little mix with a spoon 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.  We will do the same with the gooseberries just before we add into the batter.
6. In a medium bowl, use a hand held whisk to whisk together quickly the yogurt, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla until smooth.
7. Then add in oil, white sugar, brown sugar, red currant raspberry mixture into the bowl of wet ingredients.
8. Next, combine the bowl of dry ingredients right into the wet ingredients with a spatula.  Don't over mix.  The batter should have lumps and not be completely smooth.
9. Now fold the fruit into the batter 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.
10. Next, add an ice cream scoopful of batter into each muffin cup and make them all of the same size.
11. To give little extra Scandinavian touch add almond paste slices into each of the cups.
12. Add blueberries on top of the batter. This will make the muffins pop visually.
13. Sprinkle sugar on top as the final topping.
14. Now we are ready to bake the muffins in the preheated oven 350°F for about 20-25 minutes or 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.
15. Transfer to a wire rack and let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes.
16. These muffins are best when freshly baked, but they’re still good the second day.

We hope you enjoyed the video on how to make this recipe! If you like the 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 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)

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!