Swedish Apple Pie

This is my go to dessert when I need to bring one to a fall pot luck.  I've brought it to every Thanksgiving I've attended since my friend first gave me the recipe almost 15 years ago.  It's super easy as it is more of a crisp than a pie, and is always well received.  For the record, I am not Swedish, neither is my friend, so not sure where the name is from.  She got it from a Girl Scout cookbook her troop put together.

5-6  Macintosh apples

2 sticks butter

1 egg

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Peel, core and cut apples into chunks.  Put into a 9x9 baking dish.  

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar so all apples are covered.  

Combine egg, flour and sugar.  Melt the butter and add that to the sugar mixture.  

Pour on top of the apples to cover.  Spread out the flour/sugar mixture with a spatula if needed.

Sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar.  

Bake for 35-45 minutes (until golden brown) and a little crisp on the edges.

Let cool a little and serve with vanilla ice cream

 

Æbleskiver

200 g flour
1 tbsp sugar
20 g yeast
3 dl milk (approx)
3 eggs
Butter for greasing pan

Mix the flour and sugar. Warm the milk and add the yeast in some of it. Stir yeast/milk mixture into the flour/sugar mixture. Stir in the rest of the milk a little at a time. Add the eggs one at a time. Let the dough rise in a warm place for approx an hour.

Before frying, pour the dough in a pitcher. Warm the pan and add butter to each hole. Then fill with dough. Once they are browned on one side, turn over to the other side to finish baking.

Serve warm with powdered sugar and raspberry jam and gløgg.

Vanilla Wreaths

My favorite butter cookies in the little Danish tins are the vanilla wreaths. Since I prefer homemade cookies, I've been looking for a recipe for a while. My cousin posted this one the other day and they turned out really well.

300 g sugar
1 vanilla pod
350 g salted butter (cold)
400 g flour
1 egg
50 g finely chopped almonds
1 piping bag with star shaped nozzle

Preheat oven to 375.

First prepare the vanilla sugar mixture. Carefully scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod. Add 2 tbsp sugar and mix well. Then add the remaining sugar a little at a time, stirring each time to keep the vanilla evenly mixed.

In a large bowl, crumble the flour and cold butter together until it has a crumby texture. Add the sugar mixture and almonds and stir well. Then add the egg and mix until the batter is smooth.

Fill the piping bag with dough and make little circles on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

I couldn't find my piping bag so instead I made a long roll in wax paper and cut off cookies about 1/3 inch thick. I also forgot to use parchment paper on the sheet. Despite these two modifications, they still turned out well. I did buy a piping bag today so will try that with the next batch.

The recipe was attributed to Ilse Jacobsen a Danish designer, I'm not sure if she came up with it herself or where she got the recipe from.

Note: I got a piping bag and I still can't get them to pipe out in nice wreath shapes, so still just doing a logrolling and cutting them.

Time for Cookies

Stockings are hung by the chimney with care, children have scattered decorations around the house, frames with old Christmas card pictures are spread around, velvet ribbon has been hung to receive Christmas cards from friends far and wide. The only thing left to do this weekend is to start on the cookies. I love butter cookies and the best recipe I've found is from the experts at Land o Lakes.

Best Ever Butter Cookies

I do omit the orange juice but otherwise these are perfect. We'll make the batter this morning and since we have a busy afternoon with dance class and two parties the actual rolling, baking and decorating will probably have to wait til tomorrow.