Santa isn’t at the centre of Christmas celebrations in Iceland: trolls are. Icelandic children place a shoe by their bedroom window and are visited by the 13 ‘Yule lads’ in the 13 days before Christmas.
Kim-Joy has taken inspiration from this tradition with the decoration for her Christmas canelé recipe – a type of French pastry with a caramelised outside and soft, custardy centre.
Canelé Christmas trolls
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Bowl
- Cake moulds
Ingredients
- 500 ml whole milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (or 2 vanilla pods)
- 200 g caster or granulated sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 2 medium egg yolks
- 50 g salted butter plus extra butter or plant-based butter (or 60% beeswax and 40% butter), for greasing
- 100 g strong white bread flour (to make gluten free, substitute with gluten-free flour plus ¼tsp xanthan gum)
For the icing:
- 100 g icing sugar, plus extra to adjust consistency
- 20 ml water plus extra to adjust consistency
For the whipped cream:
- 100 ml double cream
- 20 g icing sugar
- Food dyes
For the decorations:
- Sprinkles
- Edible eyes
- Edible gold and silver paint
- Hard pretzels, Matchsticks or Pocky
Method
- Add the milk and vanilla to a small pan and heat until starting to simmer, then turn off the heat and leave to cool for about three minutes.
- Meanwhile, whisk the sugar, eggs and egg yolks together in a large bowl. Melt the butter in the microwave for about 15 seconds, then whisk into the sugar and eggs until combined.
- Put the flour (or gluten-free flour plus xanthan gum) in a separate bowl. Add one-quarter of the milk mixture to the eggs and whisk in. Add one-quarter of the flour and keep whisking. Keep alternating and mixing well until everything is incorporated. Finally, add the rum and whisk again. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, then chill in the fridge for at least 24 hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 250°C, then coat your moulds. You can use any type of mould, but copper ones will give the best results. If using silicone or metal moulds, just coat with a little butter. You can use just butter in the copper moulds too, though the canelés will have a shinier crust and slide out more easily if you use a 60% beeswax and 40% butter mixture, all melted together (just melt in short bursts in the microwave). In order to get a thin and even coating, pour the mixture into the mould, then pour it straight back out.
- Remove from the moulds straight away, tapping if they are a little resistant to come out. Place on a wire rack to cool.
- To make the icing, whisk the icing sugar and water together in a bowl. Whip the cream with the icing sugar in a separate bowl until soft peaks form. Once the canelés are cool, you can decorate each one in a different way to create your Christmas trolls. Pipe cream on top and decorate like a Christmas tree. Try adding icing drips down the side. You can add sprinkles and eyes to these to decorate or paint them once set. Stick in pretzels, Matchsticks or Pocky for arms and ears. Have fun and see what you can come up with!
Nutrition
Christmas With Kim-Joy: A Festive Collection Of Edible Cuteness by Kim-Joy is published by Quadrille. Photography by Ellis Parrinder.
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Kim-Joy (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Last update on 2024-05-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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