Christmas is nearly here!

Christmas in Sweden is one of my absolute favourite times of the year! Partly because of the build-up towards the big day. The four Sunday's before Christmas the Swedes celebrate "advent" with lots of candles and good food! This Sunday is going to be "the First Advent" which means that here in sweden we are finally allowed to put up Christmas decorations. So now you know what I will be doing this week-end!

Today Jnytt Extra's Christmas issue came out, together with an article where I made some typical Swedish Christmas sweets but with my own twist.

Click on this link to check it out!
http://issuu.com/jnytt/docs/december_2011/35



Photo by Cathrine Levan

 Do you want to get into the Christmas mood? Here come some of the recipes: (to see these recipes in Swedish, click here: http://jnytt.se/nyhet/43934/heidis-julgodis)

Chocolate snowballs:

Photo by Cathrine Levan

150 g butter, room temperature
200 ml sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
5 tbsp cocoa
350 ml oats
100 ml coconut
4 tbsp espresso
100g Daim, roughly chopped (Daim is a typical Swedish chocolate, can be substituted by using normal milk chocolate)

200g white chocolate
200 ml coconut

1. Mix the butter and sugar together. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the white chocolate and 200 ml coconut) and mix them together well. Roll the mixture into small balls (about 3 cm in diameter). Put them into the freezer for at least 30 minutes so that they get firm.
2. Melt the white chocolate carefully. Dip the chocolate balls in the white chocolate and then in the coconut.
A TIP: Once you have dipped the balls in the chocolate, drop them into a deep bowl with coconut and shake it around...it's much less messy that way ;-)

Photo by Cathrine Levan

Mini red velvet cupcakes with gingerbread icing:

60 g butter
150 ml sugar
1 egg
100ml buttermilk
1 tsp red food colouring
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp white vinegar
250 ml (1 cup) flour
50 ml cocoa
1 pinch salt

Icing:
50 g butter
100 ml cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp of gingerbread spices (like cinnamon, cloves and ginger)
200 ml icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
2. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy. Mix in the egg, buttermilk, food colouring, vanilla, bicarb and vinegar.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, cocoa and salt together. Add them to the wet ingredients and stir until they are just mixed.
4. Fill mini cupcake cases until just over half full.
5. Bake in the oven for about 8-10 minutes. Cool completely.

Icing:
1. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. Beat all the ingredients together with an electric beater for a few minutes until the icing is creamy and smooth. Pipe the icing onto the cupcakes and decorate with some sprinkles.

Watch this space for some more recipes!


Have a great day!

Love,
Heidi