Category: Holiday

Irish Soda Bread

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Irish soda bread is a long standing Irish staple that uses baking soda and buttermilk for leavening instead of yeast. A cross is cut in the middle to help it raise while baking. I make this bread often throughout the year, especially on days I’ve not allowed time for a regular yeast bread!

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups flour

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 cup butter cut into small pieces

1 1/3 to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

Optional: 1 cup currants

 

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a large baking sheet or line with parchment paper.

Mix all dry ingredients in laarge mixing bowl. Next cut in butter with pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add buttermilk and mix together until a slightly sticky dough forms. Transfer to to prepared baking sheet and shape into an 8 inch round.

Make a cross in the middle and bake 50-60 minutes until golden brown and the crust is firm.

Cool on baking sheet 10 minutes and then move to wire rack to finish cooling.

 

 

 

 

Simple Sugar Cookie Cutouts

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I LOVE this sugar cookie cut-out recipe because not only is it yummy and easy to roll out, but it requires NO refrigeration!

This recipe is very easy for little to help with because it doesn’t dry out and get crumbly as you add flour and it cuts so easily! We do a lot of cookie painting and frosting in this house so a simple recipe is a must-have!

You’ve got to give this recipe a try!

INGREDIENTS:

  • 1 cup (2 sticks) butter
  • 1 cup cane sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1 egg
  • 3 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoona baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Add butter and sugar to mixing bowl and cream on high until light and fluffy. Add egg and extracts and beat until mixed well.

Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, add all dry ingredients and whisk together. On low speed, slowly add the dry into the wet until well combined.

If the dough is crumbly, that’s fine. Simply work the rest of the dough together with your hands.

Divide dough into several workable balls.

Form a disc out of one ball at a time and roll onto a floured surface using as much flour as necessary. Cut out with your favorite cookie cutters and, using a thin spatula, place each cut-out onto a parchment covered cookie sheet.

Bake 6-8 minutes but do not let brown. Cookies will continue to bake a few minutes when you pull them out of the oven.

Carefully pull the parchment off the cookie sheet and let the cookies cool. Frost and decorate however you wish!

Swedish Meatballs

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The aroma of cinnamon, cloves, and ginger from these tiny treasures always takes me back to Grama’s Christmas kitchen as a child. These wonderful smells remind me of the quiet dark snowy roads between the church and Grama’s as we took in all the Christmas lights and sang “Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go…”.

Christmas Eve at Grama’s was the highlight of the celebration! In fact, one of my most favorite memories was seeing the frosty kitchen windows from the outside while taking small detours into the snowbanks alongside the driveway. I remember walking in her back door with my brothers after the Christmas Eve vigil and smelling Christmas!

We had a wonderful feast and then were finally allowed to run upstairs and start bringing down the gifts. Up and down we went gathering gifts and watching the piles under the tree grow larger and larger.

Grama was amazing at creating a magical Christmas. They’re my favorite memories in the whole world! I’m so excited to share a little piece of those memeories with you in this recipe. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Grama Turnell’s Swedish Meatballs

Ingredients

2 pounds ground beef

1 egg

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup onion, pureed

1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs (or 3/4 cup almond flour for grain/gluten free)

2 tablespoons cinnamon

11/2 tablespoons ginger

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

2 teaspoons thyme

2 teaspoon sea salt or Real salt

1 teaspoon pepper

beef broth (perferably bone broth)

Preheat oven to 350.

In a large mixing bowl mix dry ingredients together well. Add beef, egg, cream, and onion and mix together thoroughly.

Form into smal 3/4 inch balls and palce into large baking dish. Fill baking dish until 1 inch deep with broth. Sprinkle balls with salt and cinnamon. Bake until well browned.

Best served with lingonberry or raspberry jam!

These freeze really well so you can make ahead. Guaranteed to be a party favorite for any occasion (people literally flip out over them).

Merry Christmas!

Swedish Butter Cookies

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(Butter cookies bottom center)

Warning! These are totally addictive! I found this recipe a few years back and am just thrilled with the results.

Simple ingredients, easy to make, melt-in-your-mouth-goodness. Add these into your cookie repertoire this year! They also freeze REALLY well!

Ingredients

  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 2 cups all purpose flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill, urganic unbleached, unbromated)
  • 2 teaspoons pure maple syrup

Recipe

Preheat oven to 300. In mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together and then add into creamed mixture.

Divide dough into 8 equalish parts and then roll into 9 inch logs. Place each log 3 inches apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment. Bake 25 minutes or until barely browned. Pull out and immediately cut into 1 inch slices.

Cool on wired racks then lightly sprinkle with powdered sugar or Christmas sprinkles.

Kladkakka (Scandinavian gooey white chocolate cake)

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This new addition to our Swedish Christmas traditions was a smashing success! After just one bite, the family was begging for more. Just 6 simple ingredients and a quick bake will bless you with a heavenly, gooey, white chocolate delicacy making you look like a baking genius! For real, you’ve got to try this!

Ingredients

  • 4 sticks of butter
  • 5 oz. quality white chocolate (I usually use Ghiradelli chips)
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup castor or granulated sugar
  • 1 cup unbromated, unbleached flour
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar or extract

Recipe

  1. Preheat oven to 350 and prepare 1 round cake pan (I use a 9 inch round springform pan, lined with parchment and sides, greased and flour-dusted
  2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium, remove from heat, and stir in chocolate pieces until melted.
  3. Beat eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
  4. Sift all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add to egg mixture. Fold in the vanilla and chocolate butter until well combined.
  5. Pour into the prepard pan and bake 15-17 minutes. It will only be fully cooked around the edges, but the center should not be wobbly, just sticky and wet.
  6. Let cool in pan one hour.

You may serve the Kladkakka as is or you can sprinkle with powdered sugar and fresh raspberries or lingonberries. You can also serve it with a side of Lingonberry jam, lemon curd, or raspberry compote.