Julen Brød

God jul!

It just is not a Norwegian Christmas without Julen Brød. For those of you who have no idea what that means, it is Christmas bread. That is pretty easy to figure out though. Norwegian is the closest language to English that I have found outside of the English speaking world. Norwegian recipes have a special place in my heart in the same way that German ones do. Actually, it’s all Feno-Scandinavian recipes and German recipes.  Anyways, if you do not like fruit cake, you may not like this. I do, but that is just me.  This is another recipe that is in metric units that you will need to convert. I will convert the temperatures on this one for you. So that will be less work.Enjoy!

Ingredients

·         7 g active dry yeast

·         235 ml warm water, about 110 degrees to 115 degrees

·         100 g sugar

·         1 egg

·         55 g butter or margarine, softened

·         3 g salt

·         2 g ground cardamom

·         470 g whole grain flour

·         70 g raisins

·         120 g diced citron or mixed candied fruit

Directions

·         In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water

·         Add sugar, egg, butter, salt, cardamom and 470g flour and mix well

·         Stir in raisins, citron and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough

·         Turn onto a floured surface

·         Knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes

·         Place in a greased bowl, turning once to greased top

·         Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

·         Punch dough down and divide in half

·         Shape each portion into a flattened ball

·         Place in two greased 9-in. round baking pans

·         Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour

·         Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown

·         Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

Pebber Nodder

God jul!

Pebber Nodder is a cookie from Danmark that is made around Christmas time. They are a type of spiced shortbread cookie that one can eat with Glogg. They are quite delicious. They are fairly easy to make and they keep really well. So, here you go.

Ingredients

·         1 cup of butter

·         ½ cup of vanilla sugar

·         ½ cup of white sugar

·         2 large eggs

·         2 ½ cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

·         1 teaspoon of ground cardamom

·         1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Directions

·         Preheat the oven to 350°F

·         Mix the butter in sugars in a large bowl until smooth

·         Beat in eggs one at a time and stir until light and fluffy

·         In a separate bowl, mix the flour, and spices

·         Stir in flour mixture with butter and sugar mixture until well blended

·         Separate into six parts

·         Roll into a rope about ½ an inch in diameter

·         Cut into ½ inch pieces

·         Place on a cookie sheet and bake for ten minutes or until light brown