Friday, 11 December 2020

December 11, 2020

 

Our 11th yule calendar entry is another yule recipe! Miss Lina has sent us two recipes to drool on. Them are two Norwegian desserts that go well together! The last one is some sort of a biscuit too. So better bake them in a safe distance from Miss Lina, biscuits seem to vanish mysteriously when she's around.


Multekrem and krumkaker!

So yer have devoured yer yule meal and feel like a sweet pudding afterwards? Few things are as grand as multekrem and krumkaker!



Multekrem/Cloudberry cream

One of the more popular yule afters in Norway is multekrem, or cloudberry cream. This is remarkably simple to make, if you have cloudberries. Then you just add some sugar to yer cloudberries, whip up some cream and mix together. Or yer could use cloudberry jam and fold it into whipped cream. Simple!

Sadly, unless yer in the Nordic countries, these lovely berries are hard to come by... Which is a shame, because they are proper grand. Golden, soft and juicy sweet, slightly tart, and very very popular. They mostly grow wild near marshland, and if yer find a good spot to pick them, you absolutely must keep it a secret. Else, someone else could come by and pick yer berries next year. 

If you don't have cloudberries? Fear not, yer can use other berries too: Raspberries and blackberries in particular. Sweeten them, mix them with whipped cream and enjoy!

Basic recipe for cloudberry cream:
3 dl double cream/heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
3 dl sweetened cloudberries

Whip the cream with sugar until fluffy and nice. Gently fold in the sweetened cloudberries.

Here's a video showing how it is done (in Norwegian, but the steps should be self-explanatory): 
 

 


Krumkaker/curved cakes

Krumkake, or curved cake, is a thin Norwegian waffle biscuit (or cookie, for culinary term-challenged folks across the big pond...). They're similar to Italian pizelles or any other thin waffle/ice cream waffle cone, but of course much tastier than all them others *nods firmly*

Krumkaker are baked in griddle irons with special decorative patterns. Once they are removed from the iron, they are rolled up into cone shapes and left to cool. Yer can eat them on their own or serve them along with multekrem (or even fill the cones with multekrem). The combination of the thin, crisp waffle and the soft sweet berry cream is just heavenly.

If you don't have a krumkake iron, there are still ways to make them. If yer have a pizelle iron, use that. Yer could also fry them in a pan (with butter), pressing the batter thin with a flat lid or the bottom of a smaller pan. Just remember, don't use too much batter (really, not too much. Try a topped teaspoon first to see if yer able to make that thin enough).

Basic recipe for krumkaker: (makes 30-35 thin cakes)
4 eggs
250 g sugar
250 g butter, melted
250 g flour (fine wheat)
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional)

Melt the butter over medium heat and set aside to cool for a little while.

Beat the eggs and sugar together until smooth and fluffy. Stir in butter, flour and cardamom. Leave batter for 15 minutes.

Heat your iron and grease it with butter. Add a large teaspoon of batter and fry until golden brown (in proper irons this might not take more than a minute). Be prepared to experiment a bit with (and sample) the first couple.

Remove the very hot cake from the iron (use a knife to lift it off the iron, or use a pair of cooking tweezers) and fold it into the shape you'd like. Use a special krumkake pin to form a cone, roll it around a regular pin to make a tube, or hang it over a cup to make a crispy container.

Once cooled, store in an airtight box. 

Making of-video here too:
 

 

* Images from https://www.matprat.no

2 comments:

  1. How attractive--thank you! I always enjoyed mention of cloudberries in a book--such an ethereal name.

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    1. They are lovely! In Finnish we have many names for this berry, even for the different stages of ripeness. They are very popular and sought-after, so if someone knows a good cloudberry spot, they will do their best to keep it secret. I have some in my freezer from last summer, so might try this recipe on yule!

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