danish food week, day 5: the miscellany

Dear friends, I hope you have enjoyed my self-proclaimed Danish Food Week as much as I've loved putting these posts together. Since I wrote about æbleskiver before I decided to pursue this venture, I thought I'd dedicate the final post to all of the little (edible) things that made Denmark... well, Denmark, for me.

A little tea and coffee cake break in Holbæk.

Baked sesame bun, by Maibritt.

Simple yet perfect rice and carrots, by Maibritt.

Sliced cucumbers and tomatoes.

Dinner outside just before sunset.

Honey toast and Danish cream (for tea and baking).

We had tea every morning and every afternoon. My ideal ritual.

Really and truly, the best honey I've ever tried. I'm so glad I brought some home with me.

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A few week-end thoughts:

1. In none of my posts did I mention rødgrød med fløde. This was a fruit pudding we ate multiple evenings but the lighting was always so bad that my photos came out like this, at best. We made it from gooseberries.

2. Speaking of which, it sounds like I wasn't the only one who thought gooseberries were mystery fruit!

3. I'm not done with my Denmark posts yet, but, I know I wouldn't have been able to experience any of these amazing foods without even-more-amazing host parents.

4. A special thanks to Pugly Pixel for the free downloads to make my banners this week. Your website is a creativity gold mind.

danish food week, day 4: fromage

Unlike yesterday's profiteroles, this dish is actually a traditional Danish dish despite its seemingly French name. That isn't to say that fromage isn't French, but to say that the name is also used for another dish up in Scandinavia. This dish is essentially a custard-like pudding that is so fluffy it's like eating clouds. If clouds tasted like coffee and bananas.


fromage di maibritt

3 eggs (separated)
1/2 cup warm coffee
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon granulated gelatin
1 cup cream
2 bananas sliced (with 1/2 banana set aside for decoration)

In Bowl 1, beat egg whites until fluffy with stiff peaks. Put the bowl in the refrigerator. In a separate cup, mix the coffee and gelatin together. In Bowl 2, mix the yolks and sugar. Once the egg and sugar are mixed, slowly stir in the coffee-gelatin mixture (make sure the coffee isn't too hot or it'll curdle). In Bowl 3, beat cream until whipped cream is formed with stiff peaks. Gently fold in the contents of Bowl 3 into Bowl 2, one half at a time. Then add the contents of Bowl 1 (egg whites), folding slowly and only around the edges of the bowl. When everything is just mixed, fold in banana pieces. Refrigerate for at least two hours. Right before serving, decorate with extra banana slices and sprinkle with bits of coffee or espresso.

Enjoy with Don Luciano*

*This is a joke, because my host dad's name is Luciano and we found a bottle of Don Luciano the day before.

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danish food week, day 3: inside-out profiteroles

It seems as though Maibritt has found a way improve upon profiteroles (believe me, it's possible).

First, she baked them so close together that they morphed together, forming a sheet of profiteroles.

Then, instead of filling the choux pastry with cream, she lathered them with homemade whipped cream and gooseberry jam on top. How is this an improvement, you ask? Well, before, the amount of cream you got was limited to the area of empty space inside the choux pastry. This approach allows you to pile on as much as your heart desires (mine desired a lot).

And, if you couldn't already tell by the copious amounts of photos I have for one single dish, this was my favorite dessert during my stay.

danish food week, day 2: stikkelsbær

Gooseberries! If you're anything like me, you'll have had no idea what these were. For a long time, I wasn't really sure that gooseberries actually existed because a) I'd only heard of them in story books and b) I'd never seen them in real life.

Until Denmark! Luciano and Maibritt had a gooseberry bush growing in their backyard and during my week there, we went out to pick as many berries as we could 2-3 times (always coming back with overflowing bowls). Maibritt-- being the amazing cook she is-- cooked some into a double berry tart (does anyone know what this berry is called?), homemade jam, and rødgrød (coming soon).

I'm not sure if it's fair to call gooseberries Danish, but, the wild berries I ate there were a huge part of my culinary experience. Whether we found berries in the forest or the backyard, whether they were baked into something or eaten fresh-- they were always delicious. And they'll always remind me of Denmark.

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danish food week, day 1: smørrebrød

On a blog where most all food eventually reverts to sweets and desserts, I've decided to start with something savory: smørrebrød. Before visiting Denmark, I'd never heard of smørrebrød (or much Danish food, for that matter). One morning before heading out to town, I was scrolling through Pinterest and Johanna pinned a photo of smørrebrød. I thought it looked good and repinned it-- little did I know I'd be having some for lunch later that day!

In Holbæk, Maibritt took me to a tiny smørrebrød cafe (really, it was so small we walked right by it the first time) with a huge display of tons of smørrebrød. If you can't tell already, smørrebrød is pretty much an open-faced sandwich. They're beautiful garnished, come in a variety of options, and allow you to eat multiple kinds at a time as opposed to just eating one kind of sandwich.

Since we couldn't sit at the cafe and it was raining outside, we ate at the public library in Holbæk's city center. I was a little shocked at first (who eats in a library?! that's sacred, no-food allowed ground) but then saw that the library had a designated cafe just for people like us.

Of all of my lunches in Denmark, this was my favorite. (Although I'm sort of cheating, because the first and fifth photos are actually of Maibritt's homemade smørrebrød a few days later). Needless to say, I have a new favorite way to enjoy sandwich-esque ingredients.

Banner decals courtesy of Pugly Pixel.