Trine Hahnemann’s recipe for Kringle with Rosehip Jam and cookbook review: Scandinavian Baking

#TrineHahnemann #ScandinavianBaking #QuadrilleBooks #HardieGrant

Oh, this time of year puts me right in the mood for Scandinavian baked treats, so I grabbed Trine Hahnemann’s Scandinavian Baking: Sweet and Savory Cakes and Bakes, for Bright Days and Cozy Nights. She never disappoints!

I flipped through, flagging recipes to try. Cardamom knots. Yes please! I read the intro, “When the Robbers Came to Cardamom Town is a legendary Scandinavian children’s story about a very peaceful place where three robbers enter in the night… but they are rather nice and do not take any more than they need. In the end they go to jail, but soon they are reformed and part of Cardamom town everyday life. Why Cardamom town, I don’t know… I suppose it just shows how much we love cardamom!” NO WAY! I coughed on my coffee a little bit, because my little one and I had this conversation about a year ago…

I still can’t even. No one cares if the spice is appropriate?! Okay, I’m totally off-topic now.

This is an amazing Scandinavian baking book! It’s filled with both sweet and savory bakes. The range is really impressive. She gives measurements by both cup and weight, so you’re set no matter what your preference is. Her instructions are really clear, though her tone is super relaxed, the perfect balance of homey and precise. The chapters are: Cakes and Pastries * Midsummer * Breads and Savories * Christmas.

I’ll tell you all about the rest of the book in a minute, but first, I want to share Trine’s recipe for Kringle with Rosehip Jam with you! A huge thanks to Hardie Grant Books | Quadrille for permission!

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KRINGLE WITH ROSEHIP JAM

MAKES 3

Quintessential farmhouse baking. When I was around eight years old, my mother rented a cottage as an experiment in trying to live in the country. I became friends with our next-door neighbor, whose parents had a big farm. Her mother baked the best kringle I had ever eaten and she baked several times every week. This is best the day you bake it, but you can reheat it the next day and serve it warm.

For the kringle: 
7 Tbsp [100 ml] lukewarm whole milk
3½ Tbsp [50 g] fresh yeast (They come in little cubes and you usually find a little box of them in the dairy section near the feta cheese. ~Jen)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup [100 g] superfine sugar
½ tsp salt
1 2⁄3 cups [350 g] butter
4½ cups [550 g] 00 grade (tipo 00) flour, plus more to dust

For the filling:
1 1/3 cups [150 g] almonds, chopped
1 cup [200 g] superfine sugar
1 1/8 cups [250 g] butter
10½ oz [300 g] rosehip jam (or Apple compote, see page 37)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1¾ oz [50 g] slivered almonds

Pour the milk into a bowl, crumble over the yeast, and stir to dissolve. Add the eggs, sugar, and salt, cover, and leave 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the butter into cubes and, with your hands, rub them into the flour. When the 30 minutes is up, mix the yeast mixture into the flour mixture. Knead on a floured work surface until you have a smooth dough. The dough is very delicate, so you might have to use a little more flour and handle it with care. Place in a bowl, cover, and leave to rise at warm room temperature about 1 hour.

For the filling, mix the chopped almonds into a paste with the sugar and butter.
Set aside.

Return to the dough. Roll it out on a floured work surface into a rectangle. Fold it into three, crosswise, like a business letter (see photo, page 92), then turn it by 90°, roll it out, and fold it once more, in the same way.

Now divide the dough into three and roll each out into a rectangle. (I made the rectangles about 16″x6″ each. ~Jen)

Divide the filling into three. Spread each portion out over a 1½ in [4 cm]-wide strip down the middle of each dough rectangle. Spread the rosehip jam on top. Fold the short ends up over the filling and then the long sides, first one side over the filling and then the other, so they overlap by 3⁄8 in [1 cm]. Place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, cover with dish towels, and let rise again, in a warm place, for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 425°F [220°C].

Brush each pastry with the egg and sprinkle with the slivered almonds. Bake
15 to 20 minutes, keeping an eye on them so they don’t turn too dark. If they are looking too dark, reduce the oven temperature to 400°F [200°C]. Cool on a wire rack and serve warm or cold.

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My thoughts and pics of the bakes I tried:
1-2) Cardamom Knots (Knutar) – p 109. I am so in love with these. The dough is a rich, easy, buttery one, and the knots are fantastically fragrant. The whole house smelled amazing. The flavor is a lightly sweet, buttery cardamom, and they are nice and soft.

 

3-4) Sausage Bread Rolls – p 230. Delicious, and super kid-friendly dinner. I couldn’t get my hands on the specific sausage she mentions, chipolatas, so I used lil’ smokies. My kids loved the pesto version, too.

 

5-7) Basic Danish Pastry Dough – p 93. This dough is wonderfully buttery and flaky and much easier than it sounds. She gives terrific step-by-step photos along with the written instructions. It just takes a few very easy folds and a little patience waiting for fridge time. (A butter square about 13 ¼” is about 17” on the diagonal to fit perfectly into that dough.)

 

8-9) Christmas Stars – p 264 using the Basic Danish Pastry Dough on p 93. These are just wonderful. If you make the dough the day before, they’re a snap to pull together at breakfast time. They have a lovely prune filling.
10-14) Doughnuts and Spiced White Glogg – p 278. If you’ve never made aebelskivers before, you’re in for a treat. These little pancakes are fried in just a tiny bit of butter instead of deep frying in oil. We adored the warm spiced glogg. This is a cozy treat, perfect for snuggling up by the fire watching Christmas movies. (I found elderflower cordial both on Amazon and in the mixer aisle at the local liquor store. This is my aebelskiver pan. Yes, it’s spelled ebelskiver and ebleskiver sometimes. I use these aebelskiver turners, but if you have knitting needles, those work, too. :D)

 

15-16) Nordic Cheese Bread – p 190. This is exceptionally good bread. It’s got several eggs in it, so it’s nice and rich, and the sharp cheese taste is perfection. It’s a very easy loaf to make. You mix fresh yeast with water and a small portion of the flour and let it sit. Then you come back later and put that together with the rest of the ingredients. I mixed it with a dough hook on the stand mixer. It said knead lightly, so I was expecting to lightly knead for a while. No. The dough was smooth and lovely after about 6 passes. I just joined the ends of my bread log together. She must have twist her dough log, because hers is so much prettier. Trying that next time. 😀

 

17-19) Kringle with Rosehip Jam – p 112. This is the best kringle I’ve ever made. The almond/butter/sugar filing with a schmear of rosehip jam is delicious, and the kringle dough is super buttery, soft, and wonderfully easy to make. (I got the rosehip jam on Amazon.)

 

20) Raspberry Eclairs – p 34 using the Choux Pastry on page 20. These are delicious! They’re not overly sweet. The cream is sweetened with fresh raspberries and the seeds from a vanilla bean with just a tiny bit of powdered sugar. The top is glazed with dark chocolate. They are super rich!

Some others I have flagged to try: Tilly’s Dream Cake – p 25 (cake with macaroons, cream, marzipan, and chocolate) * Jens Jorgen Thorsen Meringue – p 32 (caramel cream, figs, and chocolate) * Rosehip Roulade – p 44 * Choux Ring with Plums and Cream – p 46 * Napoleon’s Hat – p 63 (pastry with marzipan and chocolate) * Lingonberry and Marzipan Cake – p 64 * Florentines – p 66 * Rum Balls – p 71 (made with day old pastries!!!!!) * Apricot and Chocolate Marble Cake – p 72 * Fall Pear and Nut Tart – p 75 * Meringue-Topped Rhubarb Cake – p 88 * Jam or Pastry Cream Danish (Spandauer) – p 98 * Poppy and Sesame Danish – p 100 * Choux Pastries with Rhubarb Cream – p 131 * Pink Meringue Kisses – p 138 * Sourdough Bread – p 178 * Mormor’s White Bread with Poppy Seeds – p 187 * Nordic Spelt Focaccia with Fruit and Nuts – p 188 * Walnut Bread – p 192 * Classic Course Wholemeal Bread (Grahamsbrod) From My Childhood – p 196 * Fridge Harvest Focaccia – p 234 * Beet and Bacon Muffins – p 237 * Norwegian Potato Pancakes (Lefse) with Salmon and Spinach – p 240 * Roast Beef and Horseradish – p 252 *

*I received a copy to explore and share my thoughts.

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Need more of Trine Hahnemann in your life? Me too! I blogged about another book of hers, Scandinavian Comfort Food, about a year ago. It’s not comfort food in the American sense of the word, but comforting to your body – mostly really delicious, nutritious fare that’ll leave you feeling terrific. I fell totally in love with that book. Yes, I highlighted a pastry, but I can’t resist Scandinavian goodies. lol! Here’s that post if you’d like to check it out! 😀

Poppy Seed Danish recipe and Cookbook Review: Scandinavian Comfort Food: Embracing the Art of Hygge