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!