The best Christmas recipes

Bake together - just like the old days

Christmas baking has always been an important part of Danish Christmas preparation, with the whole family gathering around the table to make the cookies of the year. From grandma twisting klejner to the kids rolling gingerbread and poking shapes out of brownie dough, it's a gathering point for generations. It's a time to share memories and create new ones.

Cookies that tell stories

Each cookie has its own story in the Danish Christmas tradition. Vanilla wreaths are known for their crispy sweetness, while spiced brownies have roots that go way back in time when they were made from spices that were rare and precious. Gingerbread, small and delicious, was often hidden in Christmas games for children to find in the old days.

Baking for Christmas is a way to hold on to the old Danish traditions, where the smell of Christmas fills the kitchen and the joy of baking together is just as important as the cakes that come out of the oven.

VANILLA COOKIES

Vaniljekranse

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups flour 
1/3 cup sugar 
1 egg 
7 oz. butter 
1 pinch baking powder 
The seeds of 1 vanilla pod 
2 oz. blanched, finely chopped almonds

Combine the ingredients and then refrigerate the dough for a couple of hours. Press the dough through a piping bag, so you get long lines of dough. Cut into pieces about 4 inches long. Shape each piece into rings. Bake at 350-400 degrees (F) for about 8 minutes.

CHRISTMAS COOKIES

Brunkager

Ingredients 
1.1 pounds butter 
1 cup sugar 
2 cups syrup 
5 oz. blanched, chopped almonds 
¼ oz. cloves 
1 oz. cinnamon 
1 ¼ oz. cardamom 
½ oz. potash (you may substitute baking soda) 
6 ¼ cups flour 
Finely chopped rind of 1 orange

Slowly heat the butter, syrup and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in the spices, almonds, orange rind and potash. Stir in the flour once the dough is lukewarm.

Shape the cold dough into rolls of the desired size. Pack each roll in aluminum foil and freeze for a day or preferably longer. Take the rolls directly from the freezer and cut them into paper thin slices.

Bake at the top of the oven at 340 degrees (F) for 5-6 minutes. Put the cookies in an airtight container once they have cooled off completely.

GLÖGG WITH RUM-MARINATED RAISINS

Glögg (mulled wine)

Ingredients:
6 quarts red wine 
28 cardamom seeds 
80 cloves 
8 cinnamon sticks 
4 pieces of ginger 
4 bay leafs 
1 ¾ cups sugar 
Rind and juice of 2 lemons 
Rind and juice of 2 oranges 
1 ¾ cups water 
Rum 
Raisins 
Chopped almond

Marinate the raisins in the rum for a few days (or weeks) before preparing the toddy and keep them refrigerated in an airtight container.

Heat four cups of red wine with the spices, sugar, lemon and orange in a small saucepan for half an hour keeping the lid on. Let it sit until the next day.

Strain into a larger saucepan. Pour in the rest of the red wine and keep the toddy at 175 degrees (F), though no warmer than that. Add the chopped almonds and marinated raisins before serving.