Danish Vanilla Wreaths (Vanille Kranse) are traditional Danish butter cookies made with chopped almonds.
Every tin of Danish Butter Cookies has Danish Vanilla Wreaths (Vanille Kranse) in it but homemade ones taste so much better.
My mother used to make these cookies every Christmas using a special star shaped disc on her meat mincer. She’d wind the handle and out would come little strips of dough that she would curl round to form a wreath shape.
I can’t tell you how long I have wanted to make these cookies for but not having a traditional meat mincer had always been my stumbling block. Last year I saw that Oxo made a Cookie Press and it was only available in the US at that point but I knew that this would be the ideal contraption for me to make my mum’s Vanilla Wreaths!
Imagine my delight then when I found out that the Oxo Good Grips Cookie Press was now available in the UK – finally I could make these cookies that had been evaded me for so long!
My daughter and I experimented with a few of the different shaped discs that came with the cookie press and some shapes were more successful than others. I think the heart shapes were the easiest but the wreath shapes did pretty well too.
Making the cookies was as simple as pushing a plunger and the press was really robust, steady and comfortable to use. I think we put the press through its paces as it probably wasn’t ideal to use finely chopped almonds in the dough.
However, with a few mishaps (which just got scooped back into the bowl of dough) we made 84 very professional looking cookies.
I can’t wait for Christmas so that I can use the snowflake and tree shaped discs (12 different shaped discs in total). I love that the discs come with their own little storage case as so often you buy a new gadget and you wonder how you’re ever going to find the bits and pieces that go with it.
Cleaning the Cookie Press was a doddle as both ends unscrew for a quick wash in soapy water some parts are dishwasher safe but why bother if you’re washing plunger anyway!)
The Oxo Good Grips Cookie Press comes with a handy instruction booklet with a few recipes in it but I think many cookie recipes would be suitable to put in this press.
I’m not a great fan of rolling out and re-rolling cookie dough as it becomes so soft and difficult to handle in the end – this cookie press takes away the fiddle, saves time and keeps your kitchen counter clean.
This is a gadget I’m really going to use a lot in the future! It has an rrp of £25 and is currently available from Lakeland.
We had great fun trying out the different shapes!
So I hope you’ll join me in enjoying a nice cup of tea and some Danish Vanilla Wreaths on Saturday (Eurovision Song Contest) and let’s hope for a fair contest this year!
More Cookie Recipes
If I’ve whet your appetite for cookies here are some more Scandinavian and British cookie recipes:
- Danish Fedtebrød – Coconut Cookie Slices with Rum Glaze
- Finsk Brød(Finnish Shortbread)
- Hallon Cookies from Scandinavian Christmas by Trine Hahnemann
- Chocolate Orange Love Heart Biscuits
- Crispy Clementine Cookies
- Chocolate Melting Moments
- Cinnamon Star Cookies
- Icelandic Christmas Cookies
Competition
I was so impressed with the Cookie Press that I asked Oxo if I could give a couple away to my readers, so if you’d like to be in with a chance of winning one please go to the rafflecopter at the bottom of this post and tell me: What type of cookie dough you would use in the cookie press first?
How to enter:
Complete the Rafflecopter form below to confirm your entries made via blog comments, Twitter, etc.
This giveaway will close at midnight on 06/07/2013.
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Terms and conditions:
Only open to UK participants over the age of 18.
There are 2 prizes of the Oxo Good Grips Cookie Press rrp £25. There’s no cash alternative and the prize is not transferable. No part or parts of the prize may be substituted for other benefits, items or additions.
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As these Danish Vanilla Wreaths are made from scratch I am entering it into Laura at Must Bake Cakes Biscuit Barrel Challenge where the theme is favourites, so these definitely fit the bill! Plus I’m entering The Spice Trail where the theme is vanilla which is run by Vanesther of Bangers & Mash and being hosted this month by Solange at Pebble Soup.
Pin for later!
NB: Thank you to Oxo for providing the Cookie Press and prizes. I was not paid and all opinions are my own.
Danish Vanilla Wreaths (Vanilla Kranse)
Ingredients
- 250 g Plain flour
- ½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- ½ Vanilla pod split and seeds scraped out with a knife
- 50 g Almonds chopped very finely (almost but not quite ground)
- 200 g Slightly salted butter I use Lurpak of course!
- 125 g Granulated sugar
- ½ Egg lightly whisked
Instructions
- Pre-heat the oven to 200⁰C.
- Sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl and add the chopped almonds and seeds from the vanilla pod.
- Chop the butter into the dry ingredients and then rub in with your fingers until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
- Mix in the sugar and egg and then knead to form a dough.
- Place the dough in cookie press and press out wreath shapes onto ungreased baking trays (or any shape you wish).
- If you don’t have a cookie press chill the dough for 30 minutes then take small amounts of dough, roll into a sausages and form small ring shapes. Or if you have a traditional meat mincer with a star shaped nozzle use this to form small lengths of dough that you then curl round to form a ring. Place ring shapes on baking trays.
- Bake for 6 – 8 minutes (turning the tray half way for an even bake).
- Makes 84 biscuits.
Amy Fidler
These look great x