This Sunday it was the 1st Sunday in advent and it really marks the beginning of Christmas in Denmark. I spent my Sunday making a Advent wreath
The wreath has four candles, each of which is lit every one of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Eve the 24th of December.
Traditionally the Advent wreath is made out of fine spruce twigs and cuttings, often decorated with red berries and spruce cones, white candles and red ribbons for attaching the wreath to the ceiling. Every Sunday a new candle is lit together with the one(s) already lit the previous Sunday. This means that all four candles - each one obviously shorter than the other(s) - are burning all together on the forth Advent Sunday.
The Sundays in Advent is also used with good friends
it is common to meet with friends and make Christmas decorations, paper cuts and sweets and cookies.
In my family we bake aprox 4-5 different cookies
1) klejner which are cardamom lemon cakes cooked in oil or fat ( Palm fat - but traditionally there were cooked in lard or clarified butter( I use clarified butter/ghee)
2) brunekager brown spice cookies with cardamom, cinnamon and candied peel
3) vaniliekranse vanilla wreaths ( vanilla almond butter-cakes
Not traditional danish- but a tradition in my family :
4) chocoladekringler ( cocoa pretzel with white icing)
5) Italienske citron/rosmarin ( Italian cookies with lemon peel and rosemary
Some also bake pebernødder small, hard biscuits called pepper-nuts.
and honingkager honey-cakes in all kinds of shapes decorated with white icing.
These cookies involves compromises for me..
first of all they all contains sugar…
and they also contains white flour…
well I bake them with 100 % pastured organic butter, my own good eggs, spelt-flour and I say that is it … it is only Christmas once a year…
Another thing that is part of Danish Christmas is sweets.
In my family we use a lot of organic dry fruit and nuts, dark 70 % chocolate and marzipan ( In DK it is always 66-70 % almonds and just sugar added - nothing else)
I think my sticking to home-made stuff and avoiding all commercial candy makes it easy to have a balance… there is a limit of how much good chocolate and marzipan you can eat !!
Home-made marzipan bars:
aprox 900 grams almonds with skin
aprox 400-450 grams good quality honey- not runny !
dark chocolate to cover at least 70 % cocoa
Heat honey i a large bottomed pot
In a food processor grind almonds to fine flour- add honey slowly
You´ll end up with a sticky mass - spread almond paste in 1.5 cm thick layer and dry in a hot kitchen for a few days..
Cut in small bars and cover with chocolate
Another great thing:
Orange/dark chocolate truffle
300 grams dark chocolate 70 %
200 ml heavy cream ( 38 % fat)
2 tbl honey
30 gram butter
peel finely grated of 1 unwaxed organic orange
More chocolate to cover
Chop chocolate fine put it into a bowl
Heat cream and honey and orange peel
Pour over chocolate and beat to it is smooth and melted.
Add butter and beat until it is melted.
Pour into a form with baking paper and let it cool in the fridge or a cool place.
Once it is very cold and stiff cut in small squares and dip in dark chocolate.
Now this might be mostly for grown ups…
but really I know lots of kids that like dark chocolate …
if they are never served the Crappy candy they get elsewhere they´ll end up preferring quality chocolate and nuts and dry fruit…
End of part 1-
next time
Part 2…Christmas dinner and Danish
Christmas lunches….
About the Author...
I am a 35 year old woman who lives with my teendaughter in an old wooden house on a hilltop in Denmark. I have got a BA in prehistoric archeology and got a teacherdegree as well. I love books, plants, animals, kids and nourishing food.
Dec 9th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Henriette, I love your Christmassy post - the recipes sound gorgeous. We try to have a low key - home made Christmas here in France. Can you please post the recipe for the klejner? I think I have tried something similar in IKEA, they were gorgeous, I would love to try and make them myself. I love the idea of biscuits that are half sweet and half savory!
I also have a question related to Christmas trees. Do you (or your mother, or grandmother) know how to make cough sirop or pastilles from pine buds? I bought a packet of pine bud cough sweets in the market last week, it was a very traditional brand and I would like to try and make them, or the sirop myself. I have looked on the internet, but haven’t come across a recipe yet. Our family are suffering from colds at the moment and these little sweets really were a comfort to my children.
I have looked at the pine trees around here and I think that the buds will only appear in spring, but if I can make some then, I could save it for the following winter.
Thanks so much - I thought that you may know, considering you spent so much time in the forest!!!
Louisa.
Dec 9th, 2007 at 9:48 pm
Thank you Louisa
First we seem to have 2 recipes for sirup
1) common spruce (Picea abies )sirup - good for coughs, colds, sore throat
In spring when the tips are pale green and fresh- pick them and put them in a glass and fill with raw honey.
You can add alcohol on top - I don´t … but then you need to be careful with hygiene. Let it stand a dark - but not too cold place for 3 months or so- sieve the honey/ sirup and store to next winter.
2) Pine sirup Pinus silvestris - good against bronchitis, asthma etc.
400 gram new pine tips and 1 litre water- boil slowly a hour or 2.
Sieve liquid/tea and add back to pot . add 250 grams honey and boil carefully until it resembles sirup.
I use elderberry sirup a lot against especially flues.
Klejner
250 gram flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cardamom
fine grated peel of 1/2 organic lemon
75 gram sugar
1 large egg
2 tbl cream
at least 250 gram fat ( coconutfat, (clean no taste) lard or ghee) I haven’t tried the ghee yet -it is supposed to work well….
Beat egg , sugar, lemon peel, spice to it is creamy and pale yellow.
Mix flour and baking powder, add butter to it like when you do a pie dough- crumble to it resembles grated cheese - add egg/sugar mixture.
Store pastry in the fridge 12- 36 hours.
Roll out thin about 3-4 mm thick and cut in diamond shaped pieces apron 8 cm long.
Make a length-wise slash through the centre of each with the point of a knife. Pull one end of the piece through the slash to form a half-knot.
Cook carefully in the hot fat - they should be golden brown - taste best the first days
Dec 9th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I will try both sirops and elderberry sirop in the spring. I assume you make the elderberry in the same way, with the berries in autumn? We have rosehips here too.
I’m off to try the Klejner now!!
Thanks so much for your recipes!
Dec 10th, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Elderberrysirup( something you make in september….
1 kg) elderberries woody stems removed and rinsed ( use common black elder)
1 liter water
500 g sugar ( I havn´t tried it with other sweetner yet but I do think honey might be good as well)
one freshly-squeezed lemon
1. Put the elderberries in a large, non aluminium pot with the water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low boil and cook for 15-20 minutes, until tender and soft.
2. Pass through a food mill, then discard the skins and stems
3. Pour the juice back into the pot sieve it trough a fine mesh (?)
add sugar, and cook at a low boil over moderate heat for 15 minutes, until the syrup has thickened .Add lemon juice. Cool completely.
4. Pour into a bottle or jar and store in the refrigerator or cold larder.
I sometimes combine other dark berries like raspberries,blueberries and dark sour cherries with the elderberries.
But it is really the elderberries that works against the flu:
A few clinical studies have shown effectiveness of Sambucol, a formulation based on an extract of elderberry, in the treatment of both adults and children with either type A or B influenza. Sambucol reduced both the severity and duration of flu symptoms in otherwise healthy subjects, but should not be considered a substitute for influenza vaccination in high risk individuals ( ?)
. An in vitro study of Sambucol showed possible effectivness against the H5N1 avian influenza virus
From Wikipedia
I sometimes buy a already made product… but really I have lots of eldertrees around my hen yard so it is pure lazyness.
Dec 10th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
When can I come over for dinner?
Dec 10th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
mmm… sounds worth doing - though I have a dilemma, I know of two elder trees near me, but I want to make elderflower cordial in the spring and elderberry wine in autumn, with the sirup too - I hope I have enough fruit!!! I always like to leave some berries for the birds too.
Looks like I will have to find an additional tree!
Dec 10th, 2007 at 9:42 pm
:-D welcome any time
Dec 10th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I know the dilemma - but we have so many elders hers so I just need to find others trees to pick from.
BTW some dry elderflowers to make a tea - good with fever and kids with a cold.
Dec 17th, 2007 at 6:10 pm
Henriette,
I have just made your marzipan bars. Yum! they are not dry yet but can not stop eating it. Does it lose it’s stickiness when you touch it when it is dry? I think I will have eaten it before it dries….;-)
Dec 18th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
Yes it looses some of its stickyness - but not all -that is why we cover them in dark chocolate 70 % :-)
However type of honey matters as well- last year I used my own honey that is quite firm and they dried out quicker than this year when I had to use some store bought honey hat was more runny- due to a lousy summer = almost no honey.
Dec 19th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
I have cut the marzipan bars into squares and have put them in the fridge to nibble on (which is quite often). If they do not dry out properly but get covered in chocolate anyway, do you advise to keep them in the fridge or can they stay in an airtight container in the cupboard? (keeping in mind it is summer here.) My husband buys our honey from the markets and are only able to find runny honey. This honey we have been told is only filtered and not pasteurized.
Thanks Henriette… ;-)
Dec 19th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
If you cover it in chocolate - please do not put them in the fridge
Chocolate is best kept in a dry cool place - around 15-18…in the fridge it will be too damp and the chocolate will get greyish… Doesnt matter much for taste - but it doesnt look pretty.
However if it is very hot summer- maybe you can store them in a very closed /air tight ( ?) box in the fridge… but it is not ideal
If you keep the bars in the fridge without chocolate - they will stay moist for a long time and not dry out.
Most of the time I have made these in December and until I found them dry enough( 2-3 days)
I have kept them in my warm and dry kitchen- turning them frequently - however I used less honey for the batch I made this year - so they are less sticky …. but they sure taste good even when they are sticky :-)