The 100th Wedding Anniversary Cake – Danish Layer Cake (Lagkage)

This past Friday marked the 100th wedding anniversary of my maternal grandparents. Their love story is shrouded in drama and intrigue. Although they were both Danish, they actually married in the United States.

Young Laura, only 20 years old and full of adventure to see the world, had traveled to Wisconsin over a year earlier to visit family. Her older groom toiled in his love for her and finally decided to tie the knot. (She had told him specifically that if he wanted to marry her, he had to come and get her!) The small ship from Denmark to England ran aground and he was two days late arriving in Liverpool. His cross Atlantic journey was quite rough, as the SS Empress of Britain had already departed and instead, he traveled on a freighter ship. It was a very stormy trip. At one point three of the life boats were torn away, disappearing into the sea. The 1500 mile train trip from New York City to Wisconsin was not without mishap either. Along the way, his travel trunk went up in flames at a train station that caught on fire. He lost his wedding suit, plus all the presents and congratulatory greetings that came with him.

February in Wisconsin still meant a winter wedding. Following the ceremony, performed by Banker Larsen, the newlyweds ventured throughout Wisconsin and the State of Washington for a few months. They then headed to the east coast to sail home to Europe later in April. Unfortunately their ship, the Titanic, never made port in New York City and their actual return was on an ocean liner lesser known.

It seemed to me that my grandfather went to great lengths to win his bride. Their 100th wedding anniversary deserved a special meal. As I began planning, I considered what food my mother would prepare when recognizing major milestones such as this one.

A traditional celebration cake in Denmark is the Danish Layer Cake (Lagkage or Lagekage). As children, we remember our mother making it for special company and also for our birthdays. Eventually we protested, wanting a sweeter cake, as the richness of lagkage isn’t enjoyed as much by a younger palate. Though my father never acquiesced.

I have yet to source my mother’s recipe. My hope is that it was shared around and eventually I will find someone who is still making it. I remember that it had many eggs, beaten to light yellow ribbons. I remember that she used potato flour instead of all-purpose flour. And I remember the sharpness with which each layer was cut. Though when I was assigned to cutting the layers, things got pretty wobbly. Whatever the cake recipe for lagkage, it is typically a génoise or a sponge cake.

The recipe I used this weekend makes each layer individually. I was attracted to this idea in order to avoid those wobbly layers, but also because a crusted top is easier to cover without crumbly bits getting into the filling or icing.

The cake turned out to be a very close approximation to the one my mother made. I was a bit stunned actually at how absolutely delicious it was. It made me realize just how much I missed her celebration cakes.

DANISH LAYER CAKE (Lagkage)
4 layers of cake
Custard
Raspberry jam
1/2 litre of whipping cream, whipped and sweetened to taste

Cake:
(Adapted from one posted by Karen Hansen on Food.com.)

This cake recipe bakes two layers of the cake. You need to make the recipe twice to have the four layers you need.

2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tablespoon cold water
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup flour
1 3/4 teaspoons cornstarch
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 egg whites

Preheat oven to 450ºF.

Measure out the flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt. Mix well.

Separate the eggs. Whip the egg whites until stiff.

In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks until lemon yellow. Add the water and sugar and beat for 2 minutes on high. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Add the flour mixture gradually and beat well.

Fold in the egg whites.

Bake in two ungreased 9-inch cake pans (I used my springform pans) for 10 minutes.

Repeat!

Custard:
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup whole milk

Whip eggs, sugars and cornstarch together. Bring milk to the boiling point. Pour slowly into the egg mixture stirring constantly. Once combined pour back into the pot and bring to a boil. Stir constantly. When the first large bubbles start remove from the heat. Quickly run the custard through a sieve. Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface of the custard. Place in the fridge to cool down completely.

Assembly:
Place one layer on a cake plate. Cover with one third of the cooled custard. Drop small spoonfuls of jam all over the custard.

Repeat with the next two layers. Top the cake with the remaining layer.

Whip the cream and sweeten to taste with extra fine granulated sugar. About a tablespoon.

Skim coat the cake with the whipped cream. Then add a layer of cream to cover it completely without any cake showing through. Using a piping bag, decorate your cake with your own design flair!

Vanillekranse – Denmark’s Christmas Wreath Cookie

If only one cookie is made in Danish homes at Christmas time it would likely be vanillekranse. (The English would say vanillakranse. I have also seen it written as vaniljekranse.) Pronunciation is always a challenge for young children. As such, we just took it upon ourselves to use our own pet name, ‘hole cookies’. (Or would that be ‘whole cookies‘?)

When we were just wee, I remember my mother making so many Christmas cookies that she kept them in large cherry pails. This was one of those cookies that was made en masse. I would only be guessing, as a small child’s sense of perspective is often grander than reality, but I would say that she made at least 4 batches of vanillekranse. After all, it was my father’s favourite.

As it was in many homes, my mother took on the leadership role of creating the spirit of Christmas in ours. The month of December was brimming with anticipation as we all did our part to prepare and develop the feeling of ‘hygge‘.

There was the trip to the back woods to find the perfect spruce tree. She had final say before it was cut down and hauled home on the toboggan. She picked out the ornaments, many of them home-crafted with her supervision.

The collection of Christmas decorations were strategically placed about the home. Some did not survive our small hands or clumsy moves. One St. Nicolas in particularly was almost fully decapitated. But every year he was again tenderly placed out on the shelf with his head readjusted in place, secured only by a small section at the back of his neck.

The Christmas dinner itself had many traditional dishes reserved for special occasions and sometimes just this once a year.

But it was really the steady flow of Christmas baking throughout the year’s closing month that had us feeling the special day nearing. That feeling of ‘hygge‘ was easily achieved.

When she passed away, we made a pact to keep the tradition of her beautiful Danish Christmas cookies a part of our celebration time together, each picking our own favourite to make for our day of gathering. My choice was made for me since it was agreed that I would ‘inherit’ the implement that actually produces the wreath-shaped cookie.

It has been 8 Christmases now that we have been striving for our mother’s perfection. I sense that she would be very pleased.

TIPS:

I buy my ammonium carbonate at the Swiss Pastries store at Carlingwood Mall. It comes in a glass test tube. They also sell ammonium bicarbonate in a similar tube. Read the label carefully. Ammonium carbonate is an important ingredient as it is what gives the cookie its crisp snap while allowing the cookie to not be dry. I have also seen the ingredient at middle eastern grocery stores such as the Mid East Food Centre on Belfast Road near St. Laurent Blvd and the Queensway.

If you can’t find vanilla pods, use 2 teaspoons of pure extract. In fact make sure the almond extract is also pure. Artificial extracts will not yield the rich flavours that make this cookie so unique. Using a vanilla pod is worth the effort though.

I buy my ground almond at Rainbow Natural Foods on Richmond Road near Britannia. They keep their product refrigerated vs. in the dry bins to maintain its freshness and keep it from going rancid.

If I want to make double the cookies, I still make each batch singularly as not to over handle the dough. When I made two batches this year, I decided to count the cookies. We made 35 dozen.

VANILLEKRANSE

2 vanilla pods
500 grams all-purpose flour
250 grams sugar
125 grams ground almonds
1/2 teaspoon ammonium carbonate
375 grams Butter
2 teaspoons pure almond extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Cut the vanilla pod lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the tip of the knife. Put in with a wee bit of the sugar to be used for the recipe to help mix it through the dough and avoid clumping, as it is quite moist.

Measure the flour, sugar, ground almonds and ammonium carbonate. Mix well. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter until the butter is in the form of very small pebbles. Drizzle the extracts and egg mixture over the dough. Incorporate the wet ingredients. Work the dough with your hands until it forms a ball. If it feels a bit sticky, add just a dusting of flour. If it is too sticky, the cookies won’t hold their ridges. Do not overwork the dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour.

Use the small star hole in the press plates for the meat grinder.

Put the chilled dough through the grinder and push out a long rope of dough through the small star pattern. Try to keep the dough as chilled as possible, keeping portions in the fridge until you need to refill the hopper. The ridges of the star pattern will stay intact more so when the dough is still chilly. To keep the long rope consistent, the hopper needs to stay reasonably full and you will need to push down on the dough in the hopper to keep forcing the dough into the grinder. Watch your fingers though!

The ropes are then cut into 4″ lengths. I create a ‘jig’ in order to move very quickly with my 4″ cuts. It ensures a consistent size and shape of cookie. If you have a piece at the end of the long rope that is much shorter than 4″, it goes back into the hopper.

Join the ends to form a wreath. Try to minimize the handling of the rope as you do this. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. (Some prefer to cover their pans with parchment paper.)

(I was thrilled to have my niece helping me this year!)

Bake the cookies at 350ºF for 10-12 minutes or until they are slightly golden. Let them rest and cool on the pan for 5 minutes before removing.

Store in an air tight container. Vanillekranse cookies freeze well.

Bacon Jam Meets The New Nordic Cuisine

For today’s mid-morning feast I used my homemade bacon jam in a modern day version of smørrebrød, Denmark’s open-faced sandwich. Although there are dozens of very traditional and precise constructions for smørrebrød, I have had a hard time sticking to conventional recipes.

One food blog I read faithfully is Danish Open Sandwiches (Smørrebrød) by Marcus Schioler. It is out of Montreal of all places and showcases many classic recipes of the beautiful things that go into architecting authentic smørrebrød. I am in awe at the food work he has done on the blog in just one year. It really is impressive. And inspiring.

Tending to just go with what’s on hand, tastes that I think will work and a look that is attractive, I have done my own ‘smørrebrød’ thing when I load up layers on a sturdy bread base.

Perhaps my favourite post by Marcus would be a recent one titled New Nordic Open-Faced Sandwiches. Marcus frees me from my guilt of being reckless in my smørrebrød build. In this post, Marcus details the New Nordic Cuisine manifesto and I find out I might be okay. The most important thing to keep in mind though is to source your food locally. Already a mantra in our home, I think I am reasonably safe.

So how did I get to making bacon jam? Bacon jam is not typical Danish fare. You won’t find the recipe in the century old Frøken Jensens Kogbog. However, the Danes do love bacon and it often shows up on smørrebrød in some form – the rendered lard as a spread or the crisped bacon as a layer or a topping.

Throughout 2011 I kept hearing the phrase ‘bacon jam’. Anything bacon is good, right? But what really is bacon jam? What makes it jam? Is it made with fruit? My curiousity was piqued.

Then I finally tasted it. Two presentations at Savour Stratford’s Tasting Tent event incorporated bacon jam into their dishes. Chef Nick Benninger of Nick and Nat’s Uptown 21 in his 5 way “Porkapoluza” and Chef Sean Collins & Greg Kuepfer of Pazzo Ristorante as a topper on their arincini balls.

Shortly after that spectacular experience, I was reading that Skillet Street Food‘s bacon spread was being showcased at Toronto’s All The Best Fine Foods where owners are supporters of the local food movement. (Though, interestingly, Skillet Street Food is American.)

But the craze doesn’t stop. Since those jarred beauties have been tucked away in my fridge, a fellow food blogger, Kelly Brisson, demonstrated her bacon jam creation on a local morning show. Loblaws grocery chain is also on the bandwagon with their President’s Choice Black Label Bacon Marmalade.

My prediction? Expect to see more applications of bacon jam out there in 2012. Perhaps a North American focused condiment for now. Let’s see if this trend takes hold around the globe.

May I present my Breakfast Smørrebrød – Bacon Jam meets The New Nordic Cuisine.

BREAKFAST SMØRREBRØD
1 slice of Art-is-in Bakery’s Crazy Grain bread
Bacon Jam, spread thickly and to the edge
Scrambled eggs made with scallions and local cream
Salt and pepper
Oven roasted tomato, chopped (I made and froze in October)
Dollop of bacon jam
Kiss of sour cream
Garnish of fresh cilantro, chopped

BACON JAM
Adapted from recipes by Martha Stewart and @Yzhalia

750 gr bacon
2 cooking onions, diced finely
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
3/4 cup port
1 1/2 tablespoons molasses

In a large skillet, render the bacon over medium-high heat. It is easier to do it if the bacon has been cut into chunks first. You want the bacon to be cooked but not crisped. Remove the bacon pieces from the pan and drain on paper towels.

Pour off the the rendered fat. But don’t discard. It can be kept in the fridge and used for other purposes. (Wonderful for the preparation for hash browns for example. A Dane will love it as a spread on rye bread.)

Using a tablespoon of the fat, sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent. Add the apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup, port and molasses and bring to a boil, deglazing the roasty bits of bacon (the ‘fond’). After a few minutes add the bacon.

Pour the bacon stew into a Dutch oven if you have a very low simmer on your cooktop or a slow cooker set to high. Leave uncovered. Cook for approximately 4 hours until the liquid is very sticky and syrupy. It may take less time in the Dutch oven.

When you think it is done, transfer the bacon stew to your food processor and pulse it until you have a consistency that leaves small pieces but is not a purée. If you feel it is too runny, return it to the skillet and bring it to a boil for a few minutes. With the sugars in the mixture, it won’t take long to thicken. When you use it, you don’t want it to ‘run’. It should be the consistency of a ‘jam’.

Fill sterilized 125 mL jars to 1/2″ from the top. Seal with lids and rings that have been scalded. Keep in the refrigerator for up to a month.

LOCAL SOURCES:

Bacon – Bearbrook Game Meats Inc. purchased at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market, Lansdowne Park
Onions – Roots and Shoots Farm, Manotick Station, outside of Ottawa, purchased at the Ottawa Farmers’ Market, Lansdowne Park
Garlic – Abbey Hill Farms, Richmond, outside of Ottawa

Crazy Grain Bread – Art-is-in Bakery, Ottawa
Eggs – Bekings Poultry Farm, Oxford Station, outside of Ottawa, found in many specialty grocery stores around Ottawa, including Brian’s Butchery
Tomatoes – Waratah Downs Organic Farm, Iroquios, south of Ottawa, purchased at the Main Street Market

Finskbrød – Denmark’s Black Tie Shortbread

Finskbrød is Denmark’s version of the Christmas shortbread. One observation of my Scandinavian heritage is that everything tastes better with almonds. So it is no surprise that they have decorated this worldly classic with ‘their’ signature nut for extra taste and texture.

Like all great shortbreads, finskbrød is particularly light, buttery and ever so tender but firm. They pretty much melt in your mouth. The sugar/ground almond topping adds an extra je ne sais quoi that takes it from semi-formal to black tie. A beautiful food presentation is characteristic of Danish hospitality.

Maybe you have enjoyed many thistle stamped shortbreads over the years. Could this be the Christmas your cookie platter hops over a border or two?

* If you are interested in a variation, this latest recipe from fri.dk is a twist on the classic and has a spot of cognac in the dough. It is also less sweet than the recipe I make. If your Danish is rusty, Google translate does a terrific job. What I like about this recipe is that the almond used for the topping is made from a raw almond with the skin remaining. I think it is a sharp look if you want to go ‘upscale rustic’.

FINSKBRØD

COOKIE DOUGH:
500 grams all-purpose flour
350 grams butter, cool but not chilled
125 grams granulated sugar

TOPPING:
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
3 tablespoons ground almonds

Weigh the flour and sugar. Mix together. Cut in the butter until the pieces are very small. Work together with hands until a ball forms.

Wrap the dough and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

Roll the dough to a thickness of 1/4″.

With cookie cutter or knife, cut dough in 3/4″ long strips and then on an angle every 2″ to form a diamond shape, technically parallelograms.

Brush on beaten egg. Combine the equal parts ground almond and sugar. Sprinkle the almond/sugar mixture over the cookie dough and make sure all cookies are well covered.

Using a small offset spatula, gently lift each cookie and place on an ungreased baking sheet. They will rise a bit and also spread out a bit, but they can be placed reasonably close together on the cookie sheet.

Bake in 375ºF oven until golden brown. Check them at 10 minutes to see how they are coming along. Rotate the pan 180ºfor the last few minutes. In my oven and with my pans I find 12 minutes works well.

TIPS:

• Use fresh butter. This is critical. My favourite butter is Lactantia. When I buy it, I store the extra bricks in the freezer until I need it in order to preserve its freshness.

• Use salted butter for this recipe. Unsalted butter will leave a bland taste. Typically in baking you use salted butter unless noted. The balance of salt in the Lactantia butter is to my taste.

• Roll the dough between two sheets of wax paper. This way you avoid adding more flour to the dough and throwing off the balance of the rich buttery taste. (I push in the edges to re-form them because they will split apart during rolling.)

• Egg wash the cookies and sprinkle the almond/sugar mixture BEFORE they are placed on the pan. Not only is it faster, this minimizes the mess on the pan and potential over baking of many small sugary nutty crumbs. A smell I don’t want permeating into the cookies.

• Cut the diamond shapes before putting on the topping. This allows you to pull away the imperfect pieces of dough at the edges so that the extra dough it can rolled again and not wasted.

• Make sure to use fresh nuts. I buy my ground almonds at Rainbow Natural Foods, Inc. here in Ottawa (Lincoln Fields). They store their ground almond in a refrigeration unit. I do the same at home.

• DIRTY FAMILY SECRET: If you use these cookies in a baking contest at work, always test them before sharing! No one should ever taste a flawed finskbrød. Consult an ‘expert’ if in doubt. 😉 You never want to run the risk of losing your job.

HOW TO: Rødkål – Danish Braised Red Cabbage

Rødkål (braised red cabbage) is a very popular dish in Denmark. It is commonly served with roast pork, sausages, duck, goose, frikadeller or turkey. I find the dish tastes much better when it is reheated the second day.

Whenever I received a red cabbage in my CSA basket this summer from Roots and Shoots Farm, I almost always made rødkål and froze it for future use.

This time when I made rødkål I had two cabbages. One regular size and a wee one. So I made one and half times the recipe below.

I think that rødkål is considered most authentic when it is made with red currant jelly. But plum jam works well too. We had homemade of both growing up but more often than not it was the plum jam that was plentiful.

Rødkål – Danish Braised Red Cabbage

1 Red Cabbage, shredded
Salt
2 tbsp Butter
2 tbsp Vinegar
1 Apples, diced or shredded
1/4 cups Plum Jam, or red currant jelly

Shred cabbage. I use my KitchenAid food processor and use the straight blade of the double blade. This gives a thin cut.

Melt butter with vinegar in dutch oven. Add shredded cabbage. Lightly sprinkle salt on each layer as it is added to the pot.

Skin the apple, core and quarter. I use my large shredding blade for processing the apple. Or sometimes I just dice it. Because I tend to use the McIntosh apple, it breaks down well in the braising process no matter what its starting shape.

Add plum jam and diced/shredded apple to the dutch oven. Mix with the cabbage.

Keep the lid on. Make sure that the cabbage does not cook dry! Add a bit of water if you are worried about that. Cook at least for 1 hour on a very low simmer.

The braised cabbage freezes well. It was a way of softening up the cabbage too, which is why I love having it as a reheated dish. It just seems so much better. I freeze it in portions so I don’t have too much when I go to use it.

To reheat, put the thawed cabbage into a pot on a very low simmer and add a bit of plum jam or red currant jelly. Heat it through. I find the cabbage looks a bit pale when I freeze it, but when I reheat it with a bit of jam, the dark colour comes back.

We ALWAYS have rødkål with turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Danish Cucumber Salad with English and Lebanese Cukes!?

I have a charming recipe for cucumber salad that came from my mother and is much like every other cucumber salad recipe in Denmark, where they actually call it Agurkesalat.

Because of the vinegar marinade, it tastes a bit like a fresh pickle.

I enjoy my Danish cucumber salad as a side dish much like I would enjoy coleslaw. It goes well with the Danish meatball called frikadeller. At times I just like to snack on it.

I decided to make this recipe today since I had a beautiful English cucumber from Roots and Shoots Farm in my latest CSA basket.

I think it is kind of quirky that I make my Danish cucumber salad with English and Lebanese cucumbers.

Danish Cucumber Salad

1 English cucumber, thinly sliced
4 Lebanese cucumbers, thinly sliced
6 – 8 tablespoons sugar
1 cup water
1 cup vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Slice cucumber very thinly. (I use a mandoline.) Sometimes I take the skin off, but I will often leave it on, especially if the cucumber is young and fresh.

Combine the marinade ingredients and add the slices of cucumber to the bowl. It should sit for at least 15 minutes before serving (with a slotted spoon). It is best served cold. It will keep for several days.

If you want to make a smaller salad, just use the English cucumber and reduce the marinade ingredients by half.

Æbleskivers filled with michaelsdolce™ Raspberry & Orange Jam

The Danish pancakes balls called æbleskivers can be served as a breakfast treat or dressed up as a dessert. My post back in May details the construction process and shares my favourite batter recipe.

I recently tried Michael Sunderland’s michaelsdolce™ Raspberry & Orange Jam to fill the centers of my æbleskivers. (Because of this, I skipped putting vanilla extract in the batter.)

After the batter was in the pan for a minute, I dropped a half teaspoon of this bright, vibrant jam into the middle. Raspberry and orange are two of my favourite flavours.

When I served them up, I couldn’t resist drizzling a wee bit more jam onto the warm morsels. Orange zest, chocolate shavings and a dusting of icing sugar prettied up the plate.

If you are considering buying an æbleskiver pan, I recommend going to CA Paradis in Old Ottawa South or Hendrix near the Ikea plaza. They both carry the cast-iron Lodge Pro Logic æbleskiver pan.

If you are looking to try the many michaelsdolce™ jams, you can find them at close to a dozen stores in Ottawa and also now at Pusateri’s Avenue Road store in Toronto. Check out his gorgeous website.

Pickled Beets (Syltede Rødbeder)

As soon as I picked up my Roots and Shoots Farm CSA produce last Wednesday, I had my mind set on pickled beets. I have never made them before, but we are big fans and my mother used to make them effortlessly through the years. I paid absolutely no attention to that particular job as she performed it time and time again. So I had to hit the books to find a recipe that best emulated the old family favourite. For me I wanted to start with what I knew and then experiment from there. So this effort was all about basic pickled beets.

Pickled beets and marinated cucumbers are so popular on the dining tables in Scandinavia that I knew this is where I needed to head to find the perfect recipe. You may find syltede rødbeder served with Denmark’s native meatball called frikadeller, on an open faced sandwich they call smørrebrød, or just out on the buffet table like we would serve gherkins. They are a refreshing snack and we often just go to them for a quick nibble.

PICKLED BEETS (SYLTEDE RØDBEDER)
Source: Best of Danish Heritage Cookbook and more

15 beets approximately, medium size
1 litre vinegar
750 gr sugar
fresh horseradish (optional)

Scrub beets well but do not cut ends off, as the beets will “bleed” and lose colour. Cook in salted water until tender, 15 to 45 minutes depending on the size of the beets. Drain and cover with cold water. Peel, slice and place in jars. Bring vinegar and sugar to a boil and pour over beets. If a slice of fresh horseradish is placed in each jar, the contents will last longer. Cover and seal. Store in a cold place.

Danish Æbleskiver

I’m hip! I have an authentic æbleskiver pan. (Pronounced AY-ble-ski-wyr).

Æbleskiver (or eblsekiver as it is spelled in North America) are traditional Danish pancakes in the shape of a 2″ round ball. Williams-Sonoma has made æbleskiver wildly popular of late by offering a modern day version of the distinctive pan through their store and website, starting just a few years ago. They sell the well-known Minnesota-based Nordic Ware brand which is made of cast aluminum with a non-stick coating. And sell they do!!

Williams-Sonoma also cleverly make available 2 mixes, a cookbook and specialized sticks for turning the batter at half time. Other larger sellers such as Amazon and Walmart are now pushing this single purpose pan as well.

My pan is quite heavy since it is made of cast iron and has become well-seasoned over its 50 plus years (and two generations) of use.

Æbleskiver is most often served at Christmas time in Denmark and is not considered a breakfast dish. This idea has been popularized in North America. Typically æbleskiver is served with jam or they are lightly dusted with powdered sugar before serving. Or both! This time I used pure Canadian maple syrup to dress up the little balls. In the past I have also put little treasures (like a dollop of jam or Nutella) into the cooking batter just before I turn them in the pan. Also, fillings could be savoury – pesto, bacon, chopped onion, cheese… It isn’t surprising that they are most often served at breakfast now but they do make a nice dessert.

Today the Danish Club of Ottawa met at St. John’s Lutheran Church Hall in New Edinburgh to celebrate 35 years of going strong here in the nation’s capital. It seemed fitting to use this family heirloom today to do our part in recognizing this community that is still very rich in tradition.

I never did document the family recipe that was used in our home as I was growing up, so when I came across a recipe in a 1986 Canadian Living magazine, I tucked it away in my collection, hoping to continue the use of this then very obscure pan.

DANISH ÆBLESKIVER
Source: Canadian Living Wintertime Cooking 1986
Servings: 6

What do you get when you cross a dumpling with a doughnut and a fritter? A little Danish pancake called an æbleskiver which gets its name from the special pan its cooked in. To eat æbleskiver pull them apart, put a little jam in the middle and roll the outside in sugar. If you prefer, fresh fruit can be cooked in the middle of each one. Fingers are the only tools you’ll need to enjoy these delicious morsels.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 2/3 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
butter

In food processor or blender, process flour, baking powder, soda, salt, buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla for about 5 seconds or just until blended, scraping down side of bowl once. Do not over-process. Heat well-seasoned æbleskiver pan over medium-high heat and grease wells thoroughly with butter or oil. Starting with middle well, fill each three-quarters full of batter. Cook in batches, reducing heat as necessary, until tops are bubbly.

Using small knitting needle or skewer, quickly turn each dumpling over, trying not to pierce too deeply.

Cook until well browned and tester inserted in centre comes out clean.

Serve immediately. Makes about 36 æbleskiver.

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 232 Calories; 9g Fat (36.1% calories from fat); 9g Protein; 28g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 124mg Cholesterol; 634mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1 1/2 Grain(Starch); 1/2 Lean Meat; 1/2 Non-Fat Milk; 1 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

Smørrebrød – The Danish Open-Faced Sandwich

Well, I found my heat-buster dish for supper last night. It seemed to be the talk of the day in Ottawa. What does one prepare when the humidex is pushing 42ºC? And purely by happenstance I found my answer.

Yesterday I watched Episode #42 of MyDenmarkTV.com. (And now I have absolutely no recollection as to how I ended up there in my Internet surfs.) Chef Katrine Klinken, Danish chef, food writer and educator was on the show to talk about Danish food traditions and she also made a few smørrebrød dishes. For those of you not familiar with the term smørrebrød, it is a Danish word that stands for “butter and bread” and it refers to open-faced sandwiches, a national dish in Denmark. Although there are some very classic combinations of foods for smørrebrød, you are really only limited by your imagination. In fact smørrebrød is a very common dish in other Scandinavian countries and their word for it is quite similar.

And if you want to read more…..Karen Elisabeth Lesney, from Northern California, and of Danish heritage (and cousin of famous Danish chef Claus Meyer!), has a blog called Topless Bread that is dedicated to everything ‘smørrebrød’. One of her posts eloquently describes the The Origins of Traditional Smørrebrød.

Regular readers by now know just how much I love to ‘move stuff along’. I had at my service, a wee bit of baby spinach, one remaining tomato, and a leftover BBQ’d striploin steak done rare to medium rare. Tucked away in the freezer was my favourite Dimpflmeier Flaxseed Rye Bread.

Rye bread is a typical start to smørrebrød. Being calorie friendly, I skipped the butter. I just covered the bread with a heap of spinach and then weighed it down with a few slices of tomato. Since the steak had been covered in Montreal Steak Spice before grilling, I didn’t bother with seasoning for the sandwich since the carpaccio style slices of the rare to medium rare striploin would carry the day. I topped the sandwich with a dressing of well-drained, prepared horseradish that had been mixed with a bit of mayonnaise.

It is worth noting that it is quite customary to eat smørrebrød with a fork and knife. A more sophisticated approach than just picking it up in your hands. And you use the fork and knife to both cut and eat, in the European manner. (Culture Smart! DENMARK: A Quick Guide to Customs and Etiquette says that eating the American style, cutting up your food first and then putting down your knife to eat just with your fork, is considered childish by most Europeans, Danes included. Wow. Bold.)

My particular smørrebrød matches really well with a tall, icy Tuborg pilsner.

SMØRREBRØD [Here just one of many combinations]

Rye Bread
Baby Spinach
Tomato Slices
Roast Beef or Steak
Horseradish
Mayonnaise