The Norwegian Kransekake is made for special occasions like Christmas or 17. of may Norway’s national day. The Danes also have their version of this and use it as a wedding cake.
The towering cake is basically made from almonds sugar and eggwhites. This might seem simple enough. However, there are many details that go into making a good kransekake. For starters, you will need the molds which you can get a hold on trough Amazon. To get the consistency just right you also want to get a hold of an almond grater. This is important to get the texture of the cake just right. What you are aiming for is a mix of finely ground almonds and some larger chunks that creates some bite in the cake.
Kransekake Texture
The final texture of the cake should also be sticky, and not crisp or cracking. Some actually always freeze the kransekake to make sure the cake doesn’t dry out and remains moist. If you end up with a ring that snaps off as you break them, something has gone wrong. To enforce this soft texture we, like to add a bit of liquid glucose to the recipe.
another important element of this cake is to preheat the dough before it goes into the fridge to cool off. Some recipes try to solve this by kneading the dough until enough heat develops. We found that to be quite hard and uncontrollable and therefore choose to use the oven method described in the recipe.
Almonds
You have several options when it comes to how to prepare your almonds. If you don’t mind the almond skin. you can just go ahead and grind the almonds. If on the contrary, you prefer a smoother dough, as we do. We recommend peeling the almonds. This can be quite a lot of work depending on how high of a tower you are aiming for. But in our opinion, it is worth all the trouble. If you are feeling experimental you can, of course, peel just a portion of the almonds to get some skin in the dough.
Peeling almonds
There are many ways to get the skin of the almonds, but so far we found this method to work the best. Boil enough water to cover all the almonds. add one tsp of natron pr liters of water. This will help the almonds release from the skin. add the almonds to the water and wait for the water to boil. Keep the almonds in the boiling water for 1 minute. Quickly cool down under running cold water. Now all you need to do is to press the almonds between your fingers until they pop out of the skin.
it is also important to dry out the almonds again after peeling them. We like to spread them out on a baking tray and dry them in the oven at 50 degrees Celcius, fan on with the door ajar. The almonds are dry when they break in two with a snap. If they bend before breaking or feel soft, they need to dry out more before grating.
Kransekake
Equipment
- Almond grinder
- Mixing bowl
- Knife
- Kransekake mold
Ingredients
Kransekake
- 1 kg almonds (the skin of, ground twice)
- 900 gr powder sugar (as finely ground as you can get it)
- 200 gr eggwhites
- 70 gr glucose syrup
- 4 tbsp rice flour (for the molds)
- 2 tbsp melted butter (for the molds)
Icing
- 1 egg white
- 240 gr powder sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
Day 1
- Set the oven to 50 degrees Celcius
- Mix suggar and almonds in a bowl
- add glucose and eggwhites and mix well
- Press the dough into a large thin square and wrap with plastic wrap
- Bake the dough in the oven for 30 minutes
- Remove the plastic wrap and roll up the dough
- Wrap once again and leave it in the fridge until the day after
Day 2
- Set the oven to 180 degrees Celcius
- Brush the molds with melted butter and coat with rice flour
- Roll out the dough to finger-thick rolls, and ease them into the mold
- Cut the edge and press the ends well together before evening out the seams
- Bake the rings for about 12 minutes or until slightly brown
- Leave the rings to cool completely before removing them from the molds
- Mix the ingredients for the icing in a bowl and add to a piping bag
- Make a test for the stacks before gluing them together with the icing
- Decorate the cake according to your preference
Notes
This cake can be a bit complex to make the first time around so don’t be afraid to ask us if you need help.
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