merry christmas - glædelig jul

 

happy little christmas eve and christmas recipes

Today is little Christmas Eve- Lille Juleaften! I can't believe Christmas is already here.

As a danish family we have always celebrated the night before Christmas Eve - Lille Juleaften (Little Christmas Eve). Historically this is the day the tree is bought and decorated. In our family we have the tradition of playing a game called ten thousand while eating lots of yummy Christmas treats.

So if you are still wanting to bake some treats before Christmas or to enjoy the rest of the season, here are some yummy Danish Christmas treats featured on this blog if you want to try something new and delicious.



Vanillekranse

Brunkager

Danish Rye Bread with Dried Fruit, Seeds and Nuts

Æbleskiver

Ginger Cake (Ingefærkage)

wordless wednesday

 

seattle

While we were in Washington for Thanksgiving, we took a quick trip to Seattle to soak up the city a little. 

 

 

 

milling mondays: whole wheat ginger cake (ingefærkage)

Here is another good recipe to use at Christmas time/fall/or whenever you want to eat something yummy:) In lieu of ginger bread lattes, cookies etc ... I thought ginger cake would be yummy to make this time of year. In Denmark this cake is called a Ingefærkage and is a pretty common cake.

This moist cake has a spiced taste of ginger and cloves and is not too sweet. The raw sugar also gives it a slightly unexpected crunchy bite.

Whole Wheat Ginger Cake (Ingefærkage)

print-email-text recipe

Ingredients

250g butter

300g brown sugar

6 Tbsp orange marmalade

500g whole wheat flour (2/3 soft wheat berries and 1/3 hard wheat berries)

1 tsp baking soda

4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cloves

4 eggs

8 1/2 oz milk (2 1/2 dl)

6 tsp raw sugar



Directions

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix sugar og butter together well.
Then add one egg at a time before adding the marmalade and milk.

 

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries (you may want to grind a little more since you are going to sift the flour). I use my WonderMill on the pastry setting. Sift the flour twice to make the cake less dense.

Add the flour, baking soda, ginger and clove to the mixture and combine all of it together.

Line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper and then sprinkle it with raw sugar.

 

Then pour in the cake batter.

 

Bake the cake for about 30-40 minutes (if it gets too dark cover with foil until the cake is baked all the way through) and then let the cake cool on a rack.

When you are ready to serve, you can add some frosting (I usually blend together powdered sugar and some drops of water to make a glaze) and add some raw sugar on top for an added crunch.

ENJOY!

christmas tree farm 2013

We joined Michael's sister and family at the tree farm after Thanksgiving to help them find a Christmas tree. It was fun getting to be part of this tradition again this year.

  

  

 

meeting brooklyn

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving this year was meeting our new niece Brooklyn. She was born three weeks after we were there in January so it was long overdue. What a cutie! She is so adorable, smiley. laid back, cuddly and loving. So glad we got to meet her finally.

 

diy thursday: bathroom air freshener

 

This is a super simple and very effective trick to help your bathroom smell good.

This air freshener is relatively inexpensive and lasts for the length of your toilet paper roll (assuming you go to the bathroom regularly;))

All you need is a toilet paper roll and your favorite essential oil smell.
 

Drop a few drops of the essential oil on the cardboard part of the toilet paper roll and the aroma of the oil will fill your bathroom/toilet room.

wordless wednesday

 

thanksgiving 2013

This year we spent Thanksgiving in Stanwood with Michael's family (minus the Kelley family:( ).
We had a good time connecting, playing and meeting our new niece for the first time (more to come on that later). I will post more pictures from our visit in the days to come.

 

 

 

 

 

milling mondays: brunkager (danish christmas cookies)

Christmas is right around the corner so it is time for brunkager (brown cookies)! Growing up in Denmark, Christmas always included brunkager.  Brunkager are a very traditional Danish Christmas cookie that tastes a little like ginger snaps (even though this recipe does not have any ginger:). They are crunchy with a spicy flavor and not too sweet . They taste like Christmas ... at least to me! Growing up, my farmor and mom made these cookies and actually you probably can't go to a Danish home at Christmas time and not be served brunkager .... so this year, it was my turn to make some. YUM! I hope you love them as much as I do.

Brunkager (Danish Christmas Cookies)

print-email-text recipe

Ingredients

200g whole wheat flour (150g soft wheat berries and 50g hard wheat berries)

1/2 tsp hartshorn

1 tsp clover

1 tsp cinnamon

125g butter, cut into pieces

90g brown sugar

48g  corn syrup

20-30g almonds, blanched and finely chopped

Directions

 Prepare your almonds by soaking them in boiling water and then remove the skin before chopping.

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries (you may want to grind just a little more since you are going to sift the flour). I use my WonderMill on the pastry setting. Sift the flour twice removing some of the bran in order to make the cookies less dense.

Combine the flour, hartshorn, clover and cinnamon.  

  

 

Then add the butter and mix it into the dry mixture using your fingers.

 

Mix in the brown sugar, syrup, and almonds until it forms a dough.

 

 

Once the dough is formed divide the dough into two logs and refrigerate them.

 

Preheat oven to 375F.

Once the dough has become firm enough in the fridge to cut the dough into thin cookies use a very sharp knife to do so (if the dough starts to become too soft to cut it, put it back in the fridge).

 

Place the cookies on a parchment lined/prepared baking sheet.

 

Bake for about 5 minutes.

ENJOY this little piece of Christmas.

 

milling mondays: whole wheat almond cake

 

If you love almonds, you will love this cake. This cake is absolutely yummy. It reminds my of my farmor's baking. This cake is moist and the perfect amount of sweet.

Whole Wheat Almond Cake

 recipe adapted from good housekeeping

Ingredients

1/4 cup sliced almonds

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (2/3 soft wheat berries and 1/3 hard wheat berries)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup butter, melted

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Sprinkle the almonds on a prepared 10inch pie dish.

 

Mix together the egg, sugar, milk, and almond extract until smooth.

If you mill your own flour, grind your soft and hard wheat berries. I of course use my WonderMill.



Pour the batter into the prepared dish with almonds.  

 

Bake the cake for about 40 minutes until the edges are golden brown.

 

Let the cake cool in the dish before cutting.

ENJOY!