Kringle Cutouts and Snowflake Cookies for A Very White Christmas

 
The first two things that I made to kick off my holiday baking were these pastry cookies called Kringle Cutouts. This recipe won the 2010 Holiday Cookie Contest sponsored by our local newspaper. I practically grew up on the Danish pastry called Kringle in my hometown of Racine, Wisconsin. Quoting from Wikipedia, "Racine claims to be the largest North American settlement of Danes outside of Greenland. The city is particularly known for its Danish pastries, especially kringle. Several local bakeries have been featured on the Food Network."

These pastry-like cookies are a very tasty substitute for Kringle! I filled half with the recommended raspberry jam and the rest I filled with apple pie filling. Both were great and the filling possibilities are as big as your imagination. A drizzle of white icing makes them taste even more authentic.

Another Scandanavian-style recipe I found at Genius Kitchen (click for the link). These beautiful star-shaped cookies can also be turned into tree ornaments by using a plastic drinking straw and cutting out a hole in one of the star tips. You can find the recipes for both holiday treats at the end of this post.

Since the holidays are all about friends and family, I'd like to share two adorable white decorations I have received from thoughtful cyber friends recently.  The first came from my friend, Monique, at La Table de Nana.  We've been cyber friends since 2002!  Monique knows I have been a collector of Annalee Christmas decorations since my daughters were little girls. We both have two daughters, and now we both have grandsons. We became friends sharing our love of gardening and that has continued with our love of cooking...

For our Christmas table I did Christmas Tree napkins (click for link to tutorial).

I used touches of gold and silver mixed into the predominantly white table.  A crystal bowl filled with white and silver ornaments was the centerpiece. A couple of snow birds to cheer the table covered with a white damask table cloth. The gold chargers are from World Market.

As the sun sets, the table takes on a golden hue and we'll feel snug and warm inside as the night light changes the white snow to blue. 

Kringle Cutouts

Adapted from the 2010 Christmas Cookie Contest Winner
(sponsored by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Newspaper)

Printable Recipe

2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, cut in chunks
1 cup sour cream
Raspberry jam

Icing (see recipe below)

In medium bowl, combine flour and salt.Using a pastry cutter, cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Add sour cream, first stirring and then kneading with your hands. Dough will be slightly sticky. Shape dough into a ball, cover and refrigerate 1 hour. Remove dough from refrigerator and let sit for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Divide dough into 2 equal parts. Roll out on lightly floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness, adding more flour, if needed if dough becomes too sticky. Cut out with 2-3 inch round (plain or scalloped-edge) cookie cutter. I used this great gadget from Pampered Chef to both cut them out and seal them.

Place about 1/2 to 1 teaspoon, depending on the size of your circles, of raspberry jam on center of circle. Fold in half and gently pat edges together to form a seam. If a little filling oozes out during baking, that's alright, you'll be able to tell what filling is inside ;)

Bake in preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. (Mine took a little longer). Cool completely on racks.

Pipe icing over cooled cookies decoratively using a pastry bag or a zip-lock bag with a corner snipped off.

Icing:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons butter
¼ teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla)
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

In bowl, combine all ingredients, stirring until smooth.

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Scandanavian Snowflake Cookies
Adapted from food dot com
Printable Recipe

Makes about 30 Snowflake Cookies

2 cups plain flour
1 cup icing sugar
11 tablespoons/150g of chilled butter, cubed
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon almond or vanilla extract
Milk, to mix
4 ounces of your favorite white icing
Edible glitter or edible sparkling cake dusting powder

Place flour and the icing sugar in a food processor. Process for 30 seconds. Add butter. Process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and vanilla. Process until dough comes together. If it is too dry, add some milk.

Transfer to a lightly floured surface. Knead dough until smooth. Press or roll into a 9"/20cm circle. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 180C/360F, and line 2 flat baking/cookie trays with parchment paper or silicone liners. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of parchment paper until about 1/8-1/4"/5mm thick.

Using snowflake biscuit/cookie cutters, cut shapes out of dough. Place on them gently on to the trays. (It is important to work with very cold dough to get the shapes to release properly.) Press leftover dough together and repeat cutting out shapes, chilling dough again, if it gets too sticky to work with.

Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, swapping trays after 5 minutes, or until just golden around the edges. Allow to cool on trays completely.

Decorate with white icing and then dust them with edible glitter/edible silver dusting powder while the icing is still wet.

Note: to make holes for hanging on the Christmas Tree: Just before baking, take a plastic drinking straw and press into the top of the snowflake shapes. If the holes have closed up while baking, use the drinking straw again while they are still hot to open the hole.

Mustard Puffs

I loved the simplicity of this recipe when I first saw it in Dorie Greenspans' new cookbook Around My French Table.  Dijon mustard wrapped in puff pastry and baked until golden brown. And it can be prepared ahead of time. Perfect for Thanksgiving, I thought!

I had hoped to use the French mustard that a good friend brought back for me from her trip to France in September but when I read how much mustard I would be using, I chose a good, locally produced, mustard rather than using my dear gift. Instead,  I used a deli-style mustard with horseradish so the mustard flavor would really stand out.

The puff pastry is rolled out, the mustard is spread on the lower half of the dough and then the top is folded down over the mustard half.

Then, the dough is cut into strips and placed on a lined baking sheet and baked until golden brown and delicious. My biggest change to Dorie's recipe was using freshly ground, coarse pepper and sea salt to top the puffs.  I loved how it brought out the flavor of the mustard. Perfect with a glass of wine on a chilly fall evening!

These are easy and soooo good! I found that the mustard flavor increases the cooler they get. You see them served in a beer glass and they would taste wonderful with beer. You will find the recipe below.

I got a head-start on setting my Thanksgiving table, anything that be done ahead of time makes Thanksgiving Day so much more enjoyable. The instructions from making the turkey napkins used to be found on Better Homes and Gardens you can do a Google search for turkey napkin fold and find lots of places to find instruction and lots of other cute ideas for your Thanksgiving table. 

Mustard Puffs
Adapted from Mustard Batons by Dorie Greensspan
Printable Recipe

2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
All purpose flour, for rolling out puff pastry
½ cup Dijon mustard
1 large egg
Coarsely ground pepper
Sea Salt

A ruler
Pizza or pastry cutter

Place the racks inside the oven so that the oven is divided into thirds. Preheat oven to 400F. Place a silicone baking mat or parchment paper on two large baking sheets.

Take one pastry sheet out of the package and keep the other refrigerated until ready to use. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it measures 12 x 16 inches, approximately, with the shortest end facing you. Find the middle and mark it lightly. On the lowest half, spread about ¼ cup of mustard, stopping about 1/8 inch from the side and bottom edges. Fold the top of the dough over the bottom. Mark the pastry every ¾ inch or so, then cut into strips using a pizza/pastry cutter or sharp knife.

Carefully, transfer the strips to one of the lined baking sheets (keeping about 2 inches between them since they will puff up) and chill or freeze while you work on the second sheet of puff pastry. At this point, you can freeze them on the sheets and then wrap air-tight until ready to use for up to 2 months.

When ready to bake, beat the egg with a little cold water and brush the tops of the strips. Sprinkle them with coarsely ground pepper and sea salt (Dorie suggests poppy or sesame seeds).

Bake for 8 minutes, rotate and transfer the sheets, then bake for another 7 to 8 minutes until golden brown. Cool slightly before serving.

Fresh, Uncured, Ham (Porchetta) for Easter

This year, instead of making a traditional cured or smoked ham for Easter, I opted to make a fresh or uncured (also called green) ham which I ordered from the butcher.  I found the recipe in a folder of our past Gourmet Group menus from 1999.  I'm so happy I found it once again!

The ham is rubbed with olive oil, garlic, rosemary and fennel and allowed to marinate overnight.  Then, it is roasted for 6 hours in a low-temperature oven.  It was delicious and you will find the recipe below.

I also wanted to share the bunny napkin fold that I used for our Easter table.  Isn't it cute?  You can find the directions here.  I added the raffia tie and whiskers to make it easy to unfold and use at dinner.

Tender Roasted Fresh Ham

Recipe adapted from Food and Wine (Unfortunately, since I first published this article, the original link is no longer available.  I am including links to several other recipes for fresh, roasted ham that are similar in preparation.)

Fine Cooking, Food 52, Saveur, New York Times 

Printable Recipe 

Serves 12

One 12-pound fresh ham roast from the leg, bone in
10 garlic cloves, halved
1 tablespoon chopped rosemary
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons olive oil
Freshly ground pepper

Fresh arugula for garnish

Using a sharp knife, make incisions about 1 inch apart at least 1/2 inch deep all over the ham.

Using a spice grinder, chop and rosemary and fennel until finely ground. Pound the garlic to a paste and add the ground rosemary and fennel seeds, 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and combine. Stir in the olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper.

Push about 1/2 teaspoon of the garlic paste deep into each incision using a wooden skewer to push it deep into the incisions. Rub the remaining paste all over the ham. With the ham fat side up use a knife to score the fat 1/2 inch deep in a crosshatch pattern. Wrap the ham in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 300°. Place the ham in a roasting pan into which it fits snugly and bring to room temperature. Rub the ham with generous amounts of kosher salt and pepper and roast in the oven for 3 hours. Remove the pan from the oven and siphon the pan juices using a bulb baster if you have one and place in a small saucepan. Return the ham to the oven and roast for 3 hours longer, or until it is deeply browned and the meat is very tender.

Siphon or spoon any remaining pan juices and fat into the small saucepan. Skim off the fat and strain. Let the roast stand for 15 minutes. Heat the juices and reduce while the ham is resting. Carve the ham, serve on a bed of fresh arugula and serve with pan juices.