17 1/2 oz ground bitter almonds
17 1/2 oz icing sugar
3 tbsp potato flour
3 egg whites
ICING
5 oz icing sugar
1 egg white
Directions
This recipe requires bitter almonds. Bitter almonds
are poisonous if eaten raw but baking destroys the
toxins and produces a more concentrated flavour. If
bitter almonds are unavailable, then ordinary almonds
will suffice.
The Story:
Roal Dahl: (...) Like "krokaan" and "riskrem",
"kransekake" (pronounced 'kranserkaker') is a totally
Norwegian food, which every Norwegian man, woman and
child knows as well as the British know baked beans
and sausages. Happily, it is a good deal more subtle
than either of those bland old British stand-bys.
It is, in fact, a magnificent many-tiered cake made of
ring upon ring of wonderful macaroon-like biscuit, and
no self-respecting Norwegian house is without a
kransekake on the table for the Christmas feast.
At Easter they do it all over again, except that the
kransekake is turned upside-down to make a basket, and
one of the larger rings is broken in two to form
handles for the basket.
Over there they love their kransekake so much that it
has become a sort of national symbol, which they
bedeck with Norwegian flags on these festive occasions
(...). A kransekake is obviously a bit of trouble to
make, but in Norway every mother, sweetheart and cook
thinks that the trouble is well worthwhile, and with
this I heartily agree. It isn't only the actual taste
that is so seductive; it is the aura of grandness this
great towering cake gives to the table that makes it
so splendid.(...)
The Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 400 oF / 200 oC.
Oil the kransekake moulds if you are lucky enough to
have them; don't worry if they are not available.
Sieve the icing sugar and potato flour into a bowl
with the ground almonds.
Very lightly whisk the egg whites until fluffy and mix
into the dry ingredients.
Knead to a soft but firm dough.
Pipe into the moulds or roll the mixture into
5/8-in.-thick ropes on a worktop lightly dusted with
icing sugar. The small rope should be 5 1/2 in. long
and the next 1 in. longer and so on. Make approx 14-15
ropes.
Join the ropes into rings and place on an oiled baking
tray, allowing plenty of room for expansion.
Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes until crisp and golden.
Leave to cool completely before removing.
To assemble, sieve the icing sugar into a bowl.
Add the egg white and beat until smooth.
Make a greaseproof piping bag and fill with some of
the icing. Snip off the point of the bag. Pipe icing
on top of the largest ring and stick the next sized
ring on top. Continue sticking the rings together in
this way to form a pyramid.
Now decorate each ring with a dropped line forming a
scalloped effect.
Norwegians decorate the kransekake with Norwegian
flags and red ribbons tied into bows at Christmas, and
with flowers and eggs at Easter.
From: Felicity and Roald Dahl, Memories with Food at
Gipsy House, Viking, Penguin 1991, ISBN 0-670-83462-9
Typed for you by Rene Gagnaux @ 2:301/212.19 (or
2:301/707.20)
Servings: 1 cake
Kransekake Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cake
The History of Recipes
It is possible to read the history of `recipes` back into antiquity, in fact as far back into recorded history as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and quite possibly further than that. Interesting though that maybe, these, early cookbooks were just very simple hieroglyphic instructions for preparing food.
Fascinatingly, the oldest recipe in existence, according to experts in ancient history are some clay tablets in the Sumerian language which describe the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who drank it feel blissful and exhilarated. As our culinary historical trip moves on a few more years there were two recipe books which were published in the 14th Century : a book titled `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary named `Curye on Inglish`. Perhaps surprisingly, these have no connection with the indian curry that appears on menues today, but instead accounts of the types of meals cooked for the rich people of those days. In the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought back many foods and spices from Arab countries, such as parsley, basil and rosemary. These new foods and spices prompted an explosion in books on cooking, some of which are kept safe in private cookery archives. Over the following few hundred years, the upper-class families of Wesstern Europe competed to serve up the most extravagent banquests, and as a consequence, cooks and their collection of recipes increased in prestige. Nevertheless, it wasn`t until the 19th century that fine cooking and recipe publications became popular. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally famous Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, spent years to assembling, trying out, and recording recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. The introduction of television brings us TV cookery programs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing us all to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Kransekake recipe.
