The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Week 10-England

 The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Week 10-England

(Source: Britannica.com)

England is a giant part of my DNA. By far, the majority. I have some family rituals we grew up with at Christmas that are British, courtesy of my paternal grandmother, who hails from Canada, with a very English family. She put coins(foil-covered to keep from getting dirty) in cakes, and it wouldn't be a Christmas without the Christmas crackers with the toy, a joke, and a tissue paper crown. I never knew that was an English tradition growing up, I just knew I was the only person I knew who did this. It always felt so special. 

One of the problems with finding a dish to make for a project like this, is that so many of America's Christmas traditions come from England, so I've eaten a lot of their Christmas foods already. Except for one dish: mince pies. Those never truly made their way across the pond, did they? So, since I have never made them before, I knew that was the dish to make. 

I tracked down a recipe, which turned out to be Paul Hollywood's recipe, from The Great British Bake Off, which is one of my favorite shows to watch at the end of a long day and just need something to relax to. Here is the link to the recipe.

I bought a jar of mincemeat before this project started and have been waiting to use it. I really like the idea of doctoring the jarred stuff with fresh fruit. It's pretty sticky sweet and not much texture because it's already cooked, so the fresh fruit adds some nice texture.

Here is the filling all mixed together. The smell is incredible! I'd never had mincemeat so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Here are all the elements for the pies, before they're put together.

This is the butter and flour mixed together. It's almost like shortbread dough at this stage.

Here is the dough with the egg mixed in. I thought it was too dry, but it held up pretty well once I mixed it for a while. I tried not to over mix, it is pastry, after all.

Ready for the chill step!

Mine made nearly twice as many as the recipe said it should, so it's possible that the dough was too thin. The recipe doesn't say how thin the dough should be, so I was just doing what looked good to me.

The filling looks very nice in these little pies!

I don't know what went wrong with these. The pastry cooked, and the pies taste great. But the sides don't want to stick together, and the bottoms, are very crumbly. Paul Hollywood always talks about how much he hates "soggy bottoms" in pastry, and he definitely doesn't need to worry about that with these. They're a great size though.

The pies made a huge mess and stuck to the muffin tin and I just didn't feel like cleaning it before making the second batch, so I just decided to throw it all in a pie dish and call it a day. So now I have an actual mincemeat pie, as well as the tarts. It all tastes really good, it just isn't very pretty. I might cut up the pie and freeze the slices to enjoy throughout the year and give some to my parents. I gave them a bag of goodies from the blog project at Christmas so they can enjoy what I've done so far.

I can see why mince pies are so popular in England at Christmas. I wish that tradition had made its way over here so I could have enjoyed eating these my whole life! I think I need some more practice with them, and I might just go with pre-made dough in the future, but I think mincemeat pie will be part of my Christmas tradition from here on out!

The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Eastern Europe

 The 12 Weeks of Christmas: Eastern Europe

Eastern Europe shows up as a very small part of my DNA test results, and doesn't break it down into individual countries, so I just picked two Eastern European nations at random and found recipes that worked for this project. I am happy to say that both of them turned out really great!

This weekend's recipes were: Hungarian Stuffed Cabbage Rolls and Albanian Baklava. 

I made the baklava yesterday, since it needed a long time to sit, and did the cabbage rolls tonight. Both of them were a bit labor intensive, but so worth it in the end!

First up, the cabbage rolls.

I did a half recipe since I'm just one person and don't need to eat all that the recipe makes. It's very easy to cut in half though, so that was nice. Blanching cabbage is not very hard, just make sure to turn it over a couple times so the water gets into all the creases.

Here are several of the elements lined up to go. I had canned diced tomatoes that I added a can of tomato sauce to and some water. Then I used a hand-held blender to try to puree it and it exploded all over, including on my pink pants, so that was fun to clean up. At least I managed to get it out of my clothes without staining them!

The sauteed onions with paprika mixed in. Paprika is a must for Eastern European cooking.

Here is the filling all mixed together. I didn't feel like getting my spice grinder so I just used whole caraway seeds instead of ground. It's harder to taste when it's whole, so if you can grind it, I recommend it.

I used about half the cabbage for the rolls and shredded the rest like it tells you to. I followed the instructions exactly as it told me to.

The cabbage leaves were a little small so I wasn't able to fold them quite like little burritos, but they still worked just fine. And yes, that's my foot at the bottom of the picture!

All the rolls ready to cook!

Topped with the rest of the shredded cabbage.

Topped with the tomato sauce and some water to cover the cabbage. Bring it to a boil, stick the lid on, and turn it down to simmer for about an hour. Just enough time to get a baked potato cooked for the side. Since I made less, it didn't take nearly the two hours the recipe calls for.

Here is the finished product.

You can see the texture of the interior. It's really soft and tasted like other cabbage rolls I've had before, so I must have done it right! I was really happy with this meal! And I had to have a good dessert to go with it. I love baklava, but have never actually made it before. Here is my experience with it!

I was worried that with honey and sugar in the syrup, it would make for an overly sweet baklava. Luckily this turned out not to be the case at all. This cooks for a while until it turns into a clear syrup.

I ordered honey from the honey shop at the Pike Place Market, and was really impressed with it. If you are a honey fan and want to support a small local business, check out their website here and order some of their products for delivery!

The ground walnuts with the cinnamon mixed in. The walnuts are slightly bitter, but the syrup blends well with it so they both mellow each other out.

On the left is the syrup, on the right is the butter. Don't believe what the recipe says for butter, you will need two whole sticks of melted butter to do this right!

This is a labor-intensive process. Each sheet of phyllo has to be cut down to fit into the 9"x13" pan and you're left with a bunch of scraps you have no idea what to do with. I'm probably going to get creative if they're still good in a couple days.

Each layer of phyllo gets buttered. Then you layer the walnuts throughout it. This took at least 45 minutes to assemble.

Here is the final layer. It's worth cutting the sheets down because it wouldn't have fit into the pan otherwise.

You cut the diamonds before it's baked, or it will never cut afterwards.

Freshly baked baklava right out of the oven! Pre-syrup.

And post-syrup. You need to let it sit at least four hours, or overnight for it to truly soak in properly. It really does blend well. The phyllo is buttery and crispy all the way through. It's amazing! My sister, who doesn't like baklava gave it a try and is now a baklava fan! 

I have to say, this is the best baklava I've ever had. Most stuff I get from restaurants is overly sweet or too chewy. This is light and crisp and hard to stop eating. 

This meal was festive and amazing! It's not a traditional Christmas meal for me, but I can see why it's popular in Eastern Europe. It's hearty and filling. Just really good comfort food. I highly recommend both these recipes if you like these types of dishes!

Merry Christmas!

The Twelve Weeks of Christmas: Week 8-Sweden and Norway

The Twelve Weeks of Christmas: Week 8

Sweden and Norway

(Source: Britannica.com)

Yesterday was St. Lucia Day, so I thought it was appropriate to do Sweden and Norway this weekend. Both of these nations are newer arrivals on my DNA tests, but I'm happy to add them to the mix of me!

I had an ambitious set of recipes for this weekend and am happy to say that I made all of them, and they all turned out to be amazing! All three of them come from one of my cookbooks, so I won't be able to share the recipes, but if you are interested at all in Scandinavian food, or studying Christmas traditions from around the world, I highly recommend the book.

Scandinavian Christmas, by Bronte Aurell. I have a couple of her cookbooks and I really like them. Everything I've made from them has turned out really well. Tonight's dinner was Norwegian meatballs, Hasselback potatoes, and a Kransekake, which if you've watched all of the Great British Bake Off, you have seen before!

The meatballs were very easy to make, and I modified it from the original recipe by baking them in the oven instead of pan-frying them. I just think it's easier that way, and ensures that they cook all the way through. I chose the recipe because it was dairy-friendly, and I've had Swedish meatballs before, but not Norwegian meatballs. I liked the spice blend it called for. I thought it was unusual for a meatball. It turned out really great. I didn't make a sauce and didn't feel like I needed any. I think tomorrow they'll be even more flavorful!

The mixed ground pork and spices. I don't see why you couldn't do this earlier in the day if you wanted to. It would give the spices time to blend in more.

You don't make these into round meatballs, but they're supposed to look like small hamburger patties. Sliders, basically. I baked them at 350 degrees for about a half hour, turning them over halfway through. The recipe says to add some milk, but cautions about using less if it's too loose of a mixture. I actually liked the consistency of mine and ended up not adding any milk at all, which makes these dairy-free, if that's an issue for you.

On the side, were the Hasselback potatoes. Now, this isn't a new recipe, but it's new to me. I've heard of these forever, but I've just never done them, for some reason. I think I'll have to start doing them more often though, cuz they were awesome!

It's hard to cut them down far enough but not all the way through. The ends tended to get cut all the way off, and these probably needed to be thinner, but this was ok for a first attempt, I think.

Before they go in the oven. Seasoned with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil.

Halfway through baking, you take it out and drench the potatoes in melted butter and sprinkle breadcrumbs over it. I put more butter on top of the breadcrumbs to make sure they got nice and golden in the oven.

And here's the golden brown finished product! 

Both of these items were fast and easy to make. You could easily do these as a weeknight meal, if you wanted. I just made green beans to go with it on the side. The dessert, though, was a bit more involved, though it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Let's move on to the Kransekake now!

This recipe is a bit on the expensive side because you'll have to get three packages of marzipan, which is never cheap. If you don't like marzipan and almonds, this is not the recipe for you. But if you do, and you happen to need gluten-free baked goods, this is absolutely the recipe for you!

All the prepped ingredients, ready to go. On the right is a shot of what the final product should look like.

The recipe said the eggs should be frothy. Not stiff or soft peaks, just frothy.

This is what it looks like after adding the almond extract, sugars, and almond flour.

This is the dough after adding the shredded marzipan. I added more almond flour to help thicken it more.

I rolled out the rings very carefully with wet hands. The recipe says to use molds, which I didn't have, so I just did it freestyle and even though it didn't come out perfect, and they definitely spread out when they baked, I'm happy with the outcome.

I ended up needing the full 12 minutes it called for to bake these. The biggest ones spread out enough that I probably should have only done three on the pan instead of four. But it all worked out in the end.

The icing recipe calls for an actual raw egg white, which I don't do, so I made my own icing with milk, almond extract, and powdered sugar. I put it in a ziplock bag and cut the end off to use to pipe it. It was too big and it just gushed out so I kind of just spread it all over the rings because I figured deliciousness was more important than prettiness.

They stacked nicely. Obviously it's a bit of a rough version of what it should be, but the important thing is that it was tall! And exciting to make! And chewy and delicious. It says it can be frozen so I have frozen the rings to eat throughout the winter. I set a couple aside for my parents too. I wish I'd had the flags for it. Maybe for next year...

Here is the final product! Dinner on the plate, and the dessert next to it. Cookbook in the background. I was really happy with this meal. It would definitely make a delicious Christmas or Christmas Eve dinner. I'm curious to see if the meatballs will be even more amazing tomorrow night after they have a chance to really sit for a while. I couldn't taste the individual spices in them, but it was just all together well seasoned and tasty.

It was nice to have energy to throw myself into this blog project again. It is a fun project and it's nice to be able to enjoy it again! Make sure to tune in next week to see what's next up! God Jul!