Caramelized Onion Pie

This pie is nothing less than delicious…. The combination of the crisp pie dough and the perfectly seasoned creamy caramelized onions is indescribably good!! It is so good that we eat almost all of it alone and went to bed with a terrible stomach pain!

It is definitely one of those recipes which we will make again and again and again…….. Maybe we’ll even have as a side dish for Thanksgiving together with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy 🙂

 

Ingredients (6 servings)

Pie Dough

2 2/5 cup flour

2/3 cup butter, cold

2 small eggs, beaten

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 lemon, juice

1 egg, beaten (for brushing)

 

Caramelized Onions

5 large onion, sliced

2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

3 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

1/2 cup apple juice

1 cup cream

1/2 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded

 

Pie dough: Cut the butter in to small cubes and place it in a mixing bowl together with flour and salt. Use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer to mix until it looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the two beaten eggs and the lemon juice and mix until just combined. Pour the combined dough on to slightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes. Make sure that there are no lumps in the dough – it should be smooth. Wrap in plastic foil and fridge while making the caramelized onions.

 

Caramelized onions: Melt the butter in a sauce pan at medium heat and add onion slices and thyme leaves. Stir once in a while until onions begins to get soft and stick to the bottom of the pan. This takes about 15-20 minutes at medium/low heat. Then add about half of the apple juice and let simmer until evaporated before adding the other half of the apple juice.
Sprinkle the flour on top of the caramelized onions when the remaining apple juice has evaporated and stir to combined. Then slowly pour the cream into the onions while stirring to combine. Let simmer for a further 3-5 minutes before tasting and seasoning with salt and pepper. Set a side while rolling out the pie dough.

Cut the pie dough into two pieces – 2/3 and 1/3. Roll the largest piece out until it is large enough to cover a the bottom and sides of a 9 inch pie dish. Place the rolled dough in a greased and floured pie dish. Pour the caramelized onions into the pie and sprinkle with the shredded gruyere cheese. Grease the edges with beaten egg.
Roll out the remaining dough, cut a few holes in it so any remaining liquids can evaporate, and place on top of the caramelized onions. Press the dough together with your fingers or a fork. Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg. Bake at 400F for 30-35 minutes and let rest on a wire rack for further 15-20 minutes before serving.

Onion Pie 1

Serve as a side dish for oven roasted chicken or on a larger buffet 🙂 Onion Pie 2

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (6 servings)

Pie Dough

300 g flour

150 g butter, cold

2 small eggs, beaten

0.5 tsp. salt

0.5 lemon, juice

1 egg, beaten (for brushing)

Caramelized Onions

5 large onion, sliced

2 tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

3 tbsp. butter

2 tbsp. flour

1.25 dl cup apple juice

2.5 dl cream

1.25 dl Gruyere cheese

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Amazing Whisky and Chocolate Ice Cream

A few weeks ago we finally bought an ice cream maker and googled hundreds of recipes trying to decide which one to make first… While googling, I looked up at our whisky collection and immediately knew that our first ice cream should contain one of our many delicious whiskies. Then I started googling and whisky ice cream and found a recipe that both looked and sounded delicious.

Then the next question popped up…. which one of our many delicious whiskies should be used?? We ended up using a 14 year old Bowmore with a soft smoky taste which compliments the dark Amedei chocolate pieces perfectly.
Knowing just a bit about whisky you might find it odd that we have chosen to use a quite expensive whisky, but as the whisky taste is very intense in this ice cream we find it important to use a good quality whisky 🙂

If you wonder whether you can serve this ice cream to people who do not enjoy whisky due to the strong liquor taste, I can tell you that neither of my parent drink whisky – or any other strong liquors for that matter – and they LOVE this recipe. We have only had the ice cream maker for a few weeks, and they have already ordered a second portion 😀 So there is no excuse not to try it!!

 

Ingredients (6 servings)

2 cups cream

2/5 cup whole milk

2/3 cup condensed milk

4 tbsp. malt whisky

2 vanilla pods, seeds

1 cup dark quality chocolate

 

Whip the cream until it is light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients except the chocolate and fold with a spatula until combined.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and let it run for approximately 20 minutes. Chop the chocolate and add it after 15 minutes.

Serve immediately or transfer to an airtight container and place it in the freezer until serving 🙂

Whisky Ice Cream 1

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (6 servings)

5 dl cream

1 dl whole milk

200 g condensed milk

4 tbsp. malt whisky

2 vanilla pods, seeds

120 g dark quality chocolate

Home Made Favorite Lasagna

Almost every one knows how to make lasagna, but only few knows how to make a fabulous lasagna. And in the past we were no exception!! It has taken us several years to reach what we believe is the PERFECT result, but after using this recipe a few times we are certain that this is our favorite lasagna recipe – and the best is, that everything is home made 😀
Most people use béchamel sauce in their lasagna but you can use whatever sauce you like.

Do you have a favorite lasagna recipe??

 

Ingredients (4-6 servings)

Pasta

3 large eggs

1 tbsp. olive oil

2 1/3 cup Tipo 00 flour

 

Meat sauce

2 pounds beef, minced

2 large onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp. dried thyme

1 tbsp. dried oregano

6 tbsp. tomato paste

1 cup red wine

 

Cheddar Sauce

2 cups whole milk

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. flour

1 cup mild cheddar cheese

1 cup aged cheddar cheese

Salt

Pepper

 

Filling

1 pound fresh spinach

1 large onion

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

 

Directions

Pasta: Combine the three ingredients for the pasta and knead the dough until evenly combined and firm. Cover with plastic wrap and fridge for one hour.
While the pasta dough is resting in the fridge you can make the meat sauce and prepare the filling.
Roll the pasta dough on a pasta maker when you are ready to assemble the lasagna.

 

Meat Sauce: Melt the butter in a medium sauce pan and sauté the chopped onions and garlic together with dried thyme and oregano. Transfer to a plate when the onions has absorbed all the butter. Brown the minced meat in the same sauce. When browned, add the sautéed onions, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes and red wine and stir to combine. Turn down the heat and let cook until most of the liquids has evaporated – approximately one hour.

 

Cheddar Sauce: Melt the butter in a sauce pan, add the flour and whisk to form a roux. Slowly pour the milk into roux while whisking. Be careful not to add the milk to fast as it will ruin the roux. Turn down the heat and let cook for a few minutes while the whisking. Remove the roux from the heat, add the shredded cheese and stir until melted and combined. Season with salt and pepper.

 

Filling: Wash the spinach in cold water to remove any dirt. Sauté in a medium hot frying pan together with the chopped onion until all the spinach juice has evaporated. Transfer to paper towel to dry.
Clean the pan and to do the exact same thing with the mushrooms.

This lasagna has three layers of pasta in an 7 x 12 inch dish, so if your dish is smaller/larger you should ignore the measures used below.

Cover the bottom of the the dish 4/5 cup meat sauce. Pour 1/2 cup cheese sauce on top of the meat sauce and cover with pasta plates.

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Do the same with layer no. 2 but place the spinach between the meat- and cheese sauce. IMG_1628

In layer no. 3 is meat sauce, cheese sauce and mushrooms.IMG_1629

Now you should have used all your pasta plates (if your dish is 7 x 12 inches) and the final layer consists of the remaining meat- and cheese sauce. IMG_1630

Cover with aluminum foil and let rest in the kitchen table while your oven reaches 400F. Leave the foil on and bake in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for additional 15 minutes.
Let rest for 15-30 minutes before serving.

Serve with a an easy and fresh salad, for example romaine lettuce, sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumbers.IMG_1632

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (4-6 servings)

Pasta

3 large eggs

1 tbsp. olive oil

300 g Tipo 00 flour

 

Meat sauce

900 g beef, minced

2 large onions, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 large tomatoes, chopped

1 tbsp. dried thyme

1 tbsp. dried oregano

6 tbsp. tomato paste

2.5 dl red wine

1 tbsp. butter

 

Cheddar Sauce

5 dl whole milk

1 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp. flour

2.5 dl mild cheddar cheese

2.5 dl aged cheddar cheese

Salt

Pepper

 

Filling

450 g fresh spinach

1 large onion

450 g mushrooms, sliced

Moist and Crispy Donuts with Sugar Coating

The Demant family is definitely a donut loving family, so it hurt our greasy hearts that we are not able to buy good, soft and greasy donuts in Denmark. Several places sell donuts but most often it is just a heavy and dry chocolate covered replica of a donut… One could wonder if the ‘creaters’ had ever tasted a real good donut – like those from Crispy Krem 😀

The recipe for these donuts is actually a CRONUT recipe (for those of you who do now what cronuts is, the easiest way to describe them is that it is a love child between a donut and a croissant). Actually we are not allowed to call it cronuts, as the ‘inventer’ has gotten copyright on the name – how wired is that??
Well, to get back to the recipe the butter was a little to soft and I blended it a few seconds to long so the flour mixture ended up being small crumbles instead of large one. Another thing which I did wrong (if the result were to be cronuts) was that I properly folded a rolled the dough to much without there being any flour between the layers, but as you can see on the pictures below it all ended happily with perfect moist, crispy donuts – actually my very first home made donuts 🙂

Donuts are actually easier to make than expected, but this recipe takes at least 12-15 hours including the resting time. I do not know if all donut recipes take that long, but I definitely believe that the long resting time has done something good for the end result – but try it yourself and leave a comment with your opinion 🙂

 

Ingredients (14 donuts)

1/4 cup water, room temperature

1/4 cup whole milk, room temperature

2/3 cup butter, cold

2 cups flour

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. dry active yeast

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup canola oil for frying

2/3 cup sugar for coating

 

Combine water, milk and yeast in a mixing bowl and stir for a few seconds. Cut the cold butter into small cubes and place it in a blender together with flour, sugar and salt. Blend for a few seconds until butter and flour begins to crumble.IMG_1597

Add the crumbled flour mixture into the wet ingredients and use a plastics spatula to combine. IMG_1598

Pour the combined dough onto a floured surface and form a ball. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest in the fridge for 2 hours.IMG_1599

Place the rested dough on a lightly floured surface and roll it out until it is approximately 1/2-inch thick. Fold and repeat the process 4-5 times. Fold the last layer three times, wrap it in plastic foil and fridge over night.

Unwrap the rested dough and roll it out on a slightly floured surface. It should be approximately 2/3 inches thick. Use a 2 1/2 inch pastry cutter to cut out 14 donuts, and a 1 inch pastry cutter to cut the hole in the middle of the donuts. Place the donuts on a piece of baking paper, cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for an additional hour. IMG_1604

Place the canola oil in a frying pan and turn on the heat. The oil is perfect at 300F. Fry the donuts for 2-3 minutes on each side or until golden brown.IMG_1605 IMG_1606

Let the fried donuts rest on a piece of paper towel for a few minutes until dry, then turn them in the sugar 🙂

If you do not plan to eat them all at once, you can store them for 2-3 days in an airtight container at room temperature.IMG_1608 IMG_1609

Bon Appétit!

 

Ingredients (14 donuts)

0.6 dl water, room temperature

0.6 dl whole milk, room temperature

150 g butter, cold

250 g flour

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. dry active yeast

1/2 tsp. salt

2.5 dl canola oil for frying

1.6 dl sugar for coating

Lebanese Lamb Meatballs with Herb Dressing

This week is ‘try something totally new week’ and the Middle Eastern cuisine seemed to be worth a try. We have successfully made lamb before but never minced lamb, so we were quite excited about the result.
We do not know an awful lot about lamb meat, but our experience says to choose low fat lamb meat as to much fat might add a wooly taste to the dish. Making meatballs you need at least 5-10% fat to end up with the perfect consistency, and in this instance we will recommend that you choose low fat lamb meat and them some beef with a little more fat – that way you can avoid that your hard work ends up tasting like an old sheep 🙂

Another thing with these meatballs is the spices…. The Middle Eastern cuisine use a lot of interesting spices and one of them is cinnamon. In Denmark we often combine the smell and taste of cinnamon with christmas, cookies, cakes, rise pudding and so on… So when a meat recipe calls for cinnamon, we rethink making it! But today we are both glad that we decided to make these fabulous meatballs, but in our version of the recipe we have only added half of the advised cinnamon and you can still taste it, so we are glad that we did not add the entire recommended amount.

The last thing to comment on before you go ahead and make these delicious meatballs, is the dressing. Or wait… actually, we have nothing else to say than FABULOUS. We will definitely make this dressing again, as it can be served for all sorts of salads, casserole or just as dipping for a good home baked bread 🙂

 

Ingredients (4 servings)

Meatballs

1 pound beef, minced

1 pound lamb, minced

1 egg

2/3 cup bread crumbs

2/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled

4 shallots, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/5 cup parsley, chopped

1/5 cup mint leaves, chopped

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Canola oil for frying

 

Herb Dressing

1 2/3 cup sour cream

3 tsp. tahin

1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped

1/4 cup parsley, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 lemon, juice

Salt and pepper

 

Garnish

3 tbsp. pine nuts

Mint and cilantro leaves

 

Place all ingredients for the meatball, except canola oil, in a mixing bowl and knead until combined evenly.
Make teaspoon-sized balls and fry them in canola oil for a few minutes until golden brown. Remove the meatballs from the oil and place them in a heat proof dish and bake in the oven at 400F for 15-18 minutes or until they are well done.

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While the meatballs bake in the oven, you can prepare the yoghurt. Place all the yoghurt ingredients in a bowl and stir well to combine. Fridge until serving.

Sprinkle the pine nuts and herb leaves over the finished meatballs and serve with yoghurt together with chopped cucumber, tomatoes and naan bread or as we had it, in corn tortillas. IMG_1579

 

Bon Appétit!

 

Ingredients (4 servings)

Meatballs

450 g beef, minced

450 g lamb, minced

1 egg

1.5 dl cup bread crumbs

1.5 dl feta cheese, crumbled

4 shallots, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

0.5 dl parsley, chopped

0.5 dl mint leaves, chopped

1 tsp. ground cumin

0.5 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

Canola oil for frying

 

Yoghurt

4 dl sour cream

3 tsp. tahin

1.25 dl cilantro, chopped

0.6 dl mint leaves, chopped

0.6 dl parsley, chopped

1 garlic clove, minced

1 lemon, juice

Salt and pepper

 

Garnish

3 tbsp. pine nuts

Mint and cilantro leaves

 

Breaded Schnitzels with Celery Puree and Capers

Last night we had these delicious breaded ham schnitzels with buttered capers and celery puree. Traditionally, schnitzels is made from veal, but we often use ham instead as it is cheaper (and we almost always have ham in freezer )! Another tradition when serving schnitzels is butters peas, french fries, capers and anchovies, but we wanted to try something new and with celeriac growing in the garden it was a obvious choice.
If you are not a huge fan of lemon thyme, you can of cause replace it with regular thyme, some other herb of your own choice – or you can just leave out the herbs and serve a plain celery puree.

To decide whether to use the apples or not, we made a portion with and a portion without. The portion without was great – the soft celery puree, the crisp schnitzel and the salty capers, while the portion with apples was absolutely fabulous!! The apples added the sourness so it ended up containing four tasting notes which, in combination, can end up as the perfect meal 🙂

Hope that you will enjoy making and serving this recipe for your friends and family.

 

Ingredients (4 servings)

Schnitzels

4 ham schnitzels

2 tbsp. flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 cup bread crumbs

Salt

Pepper

2 tbsp. butter

 

Celery Puree

1 large celeriac

4 cups whole milk

1 tbsp. fresh lemon thyme leaves

Salt

Pepper

 

Garnish

10 slices bacon, fried and crumbled

2 tbsp. capers

1 large apple, diced

 

Season the schnitzels with salt and pepper and turn them in flour followed by the beaten eggs and the bread crumbs. Leave in the fridge to rest while you make the celery puree.

Peel the celeriac and cut it into 1-inch cubes. Place in a sauce pan together with the milk and bring to a boil. Be very carefully when you boil milk. Turn down the head as soon as it begins to boil and let cook for 20-25 minutes or until you can mash a cube with a fork. Separate the milk from the celeriac and place celeriac and thyme leaves in a blender and add tablespoons of milk the milk while blending, until you reach the wanted consistency. Season with salt and pepper and let rest while you fry the schnitzels.

Melt 1/2 tbsp. butter at medium heat and fry two of the schnitzels for 3-4 minutes on each side. Add another 1/2 tbsp. butter when you turn the schnitzels. Do the same with the two remaining schnitzels. Toss the capers in the remaining butter from the schnitzels.

Serve the schnitzels on top of the celery puree and garnish with the buttered capers, crumbled bacon and diced apples.

IMG_1576

Bon Appétit!

 

Ingredients (4 servings)

Schnitzels

4 ham schnitzels

2 tbsp. flour

1 egg, lightly beaten

2.5 dl bread crumbs

Salt

Pepper

30 g butter

 

Celery Puree

1 large celeriac

1 liter whole milk

1 tbsp. fresh lemon thyme leaves

Salt

Pepper

 

Garnish

10 slices bacon, fried and crumbled

5 g butter

2 tbsp. capers

1 large apple

Raspberry Yoghurt Ice Cream

Almost everyone we know LOVES ice cream and could eat it every day if possible 🙂 But we also know that most ice creams contain a large amount of fat which we try to avoid in our everyday cooking.

Instead of dropping the everyday ice cream, you can choose a variation which is both tasty and much less fatty: yoghurt ice cream. The yoghurt chosen for this ice cream contains 0.5% fat but many recipes use Greek Yoghurt with 2-10% fat, so the choice of yoghurt is only a matter of taste. I used a low fat variation, as it is the yoghurt I eat for breakfast every day and had some leftovers.

The raspberries are from our own garden and has a fabulous combination of both sweets and sour flavours. I only use the raspberry juice, as I hate getting the small cores between my teeth, but once again it is a matter of taste!

Hope that you will find this ice cream as delicious as we do 🙂

Ingredients (4 servings)

2 cups raspberries

1 1/3 cup yoghurt, natural

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/5 cup water

Blend the berries and strain the juice through a strainer. Fold the juice into the yoghurt and set a side while preparing the rest.

Place water and sugar in a sauce pan bring to a boil. Let boil for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg yolks under intense whisking and keep whisking until the mixture is thick and light yellow (like eggnog).

Pour the mixture into the yoghurt and stir until combined. Pour into your ice cream maker and let run for 40-45 minutes. Transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and freeze for at least 1 hour before serving.

Serve for brunch with honey roasted nuts and fresh berries or for dessert after a heavy dinner.

IMG_1573

Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (4 servings)

250 g raspberries

3 dl yougurt, natural

4 egg yolks

120 g sugar

0.5 dl water

Cuban Rum Ice Cream

We have wanted an ice cream maker for years, but Chris has been reluctant to let me as he claimed that he was not a huge fan of ice cream (the reason is that he is cheap 😉 ) Then one day I decided that now was the time to buy one and take the consequence if he god mad (I served the first ice cream and waited for his opinion before telling him that I had bought it, and he loved it)! So I began to search the web to find out which model to choose and on top of the wishlist was a Gelatissimo Exclusive but it is quite expensive and as we are planning some life changing events which quite certainly will be very expensive, I decided to choose an cheaper model.

We have had a Kitchen Aid stand mixer for several year and we use it almost every day – couldn’t live without it! Searching the web for reviews of Kitchen Aids ice cream maker I found mixed opinions but an old colleague of mine have spoken very well about, and I therefore chose to buy it and test it for myself (the price was of cause a huge part of the decision). This Cuban rum ice cream is my third ice cream and I must admit that I am very happy with the result and feel that Kitchen Aids ice cream maker is very good taking the price into consideration.

IMG_1568

Ingredients (6 servings)

2 cups cream

2/5 cup whole milk

2/3 cup condensed milk

2 vanille pods, seeds

4 tbsp. Cuban Rum

 

Dark Quality Chocolate for topping

 

Whip the cream until light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients and and whisk to combine. Pour into your ice cream maker and let it run for approximately 20 minutes or until it tells you that the ice cream is finished. Serve immediately if you want a soft ice cream or transfer to an airtight container and freeze. We always freeze the ice cream for 2-4 hours before serving as we like the consistency to more firm than soft ice, but it is a only a matter of taste 🙂

Serve after a good dinner with a glass of rum 🙂

IMG_1570Bon Appétit!

Ingredients (6 servings)

5 dl cream

1 dl whole milk

200 g condensed milk

2 vanilla pods, seeds

4 tbsp. Cuban Rum

Orange Cake with Chocolate chips and Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

This was my first ever orange cake, and I must admit that i am quite proud of myself. It looks good and tastes delicious – what more can one demand?

 

Ingredients (10 servings)

1 stick butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 1/4 cup flour

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbs. baking powder

1/4 tbs. salt

1/2 cup orange juice, fresh-squeezed

2 tbsp. orange zest

1/3 cup dark chocolate chips (I prefer to use Amedei Toscano Black 70%)

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

7 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup confectioners sugar

2 tbsp. orange zest

 

In one bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking powder.

In another bowl whisk together butter and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric mixer, then add one egg at a time and whisk thoroughly between each egg. Now add vanilla extract and whisk again.

Shift in flour mixture i two batches, alternating with orange juice. Whisk until just combined and smooth. Fold in orange zest and chocolate chips (if your chocolate chips are big, you might want to chop then into smaller pieces).

Add half of the batter into a 6 inch greased springform pan and bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for about 20-23 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let rest on a wire rack for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the springform. Do the same with the other half of the batter. Let both cakes cool completely.

When the two cakes are cooled down, whisk together cream cheese and half of the confectioners sugar. Then add one tbsp. sugar at a time until the frosting has the right texture. Whisk till the frosting is smooth and fluffy. Fold in 2/3 of the orange zest.

Add one forth of the frosting on top of one of the cakes, and spread it around and make sure that you get all the way to the cake edge. Take the other cake at put on top of the first one. Cover the whole cake with the rest of the cream cheese frosting and sprinkle the last 1/4 tbsp. orange zest on top.

 

Ingredients (10 servings)

113 g butter, room temperature

112 g granulated sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

155 flour

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 tbs. baking powder

1/4 tbs. salt

1.25 dl orange juice, fresh-squeezed

2 tbsp. orange zest

50 g dark chocolate chips (I prefer to use Amedei Toscano Black 70%)

 

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

200 g cream cheese, room temperature

2.5 dl confectioners sugar

2 tbsp. orange zest