It's that time of the year to bring back one
of my cousin's delicious recipes.
That's right...Fat Tuesday is just around the corner.
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Her får du opskriften!
Fastelavn...or 'Fat Tuesday'!
by any other name it's still time to eat and enjoy life!
photo courtesy of politiken dk
Growing up in Denmark, the annual festivities of Fastelavn was the Nordic equivalent of Halloween for us kids. It was an event filled with wonderful costumes, baked goods and the occasional treat of additional loose change in the pocket. We would run of to the front doors of every house and upon the door being opened would sing out our little 'fastelavn' jingle...
"Fastelavn er mit navn,
boller vil jeg have.
Hvis jeg ingen boller får,
så laver jeg ballade."
...which essentially, translate to 'fat tuesday is my name and buns we will have and if we don't get our buns, we will make a lot of noise'...but, of course, the Danish one rhymes!
In celebration and memory of receiving these wonderful baked treats, here is another recipe from our cousin Claus Meyer.
Below is the English translation from the original Danish.
FASTELAVN (Fat Tuesday) BUNS with CREAM AND REMONCE
Serves 15
Fastelavnsboller med creme og remonce
Special note: Best results from using original metric measurements
Dough:
250 g flour
75 g butter
½ package yeast
1 dl milk
1 egg
Salt
15 g sugar
Cream:
Vanilla, the grains from a ½ vanilla bean
1 egg
15 g sugar
2 tbsp. corn starch
2 ½ dl milk
75 g chopped almonds (slivered almonds)
Remonce*:
100 g sugar
100 g marzipan
100 g butter
*Remonce is a Danish pastry filling or topping made from creamed butter and sugar, sometimes flavored with cinnamon, marzipan or nuts.
METHOD
Chocolate fillings and coatings:
A bag of dark chocolate buttons, or approx. 100 g good dark chocolate. 6 buttons per dumpling, 4 and 2 as filler to cover.
Dough:
Dissolve yeast in milk. Mix flour and butter in a bowl. Whip the egg with salt and sugar and mix it with milk. Knead the flour mixture and milk mix well together. Cover dough with a tea towel and let it raise for an hour.
Cream:
Split vanilla bean and scrape out the pods. Whisk eggs, sugar, corn flour and vanilla well together. Heat milk to just below boiling temperature and mix with egg mixture. Pour egg and milk back into the saucepan and heat while you're whipping it until the cream becomes thick. Add the chopped almonds (i prefer slivered almonds) to the cream and let cool.
Remonce / Danish Pastry Filling:
Mix the cane sugar and marzipan together. Add enough butter a little at a time until it is worked completely into a smooth ball. Be careful not to work it too long as it will be too liquid when baked.
ASSEMBLY
1: Knead the dough quickly and divide portions into two pieces. Roll each piece out to an approx. ½ inch thick sheet and cut into 7-8 pieces. On each piece, add a tbsp. cream, one tablespoon of remonce and 4 chocolate buttons. Fold the corners of dough over the filling in and bring them together, so it does not spill out: first, fold the four corners into one another so that they overlap over and then fused and squeezed together.
2: Next, turn the buns over so they meet face down allowing them raise to double the size of a greased baking sheet.
3: Brush them with water and bake them at 200 ° for approx. 15 minutes until they are nicely golden.
4: As soon as they come out, decorate them with two chocolate buttons each, so the chocolate can slightly melt.
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