The Swedish Christmas Table: Traditional Holiday Meals, Side Dishes, Candies, and Drinks

By Jens Linder and Johanna Westman

Yuletide is a time of delicious smells wafting through the halls: onions sizzling on the stove, a wood fire gently moldering in the grate, and fresh-baked gingerbread ready to hang on the tree. It’s a time of tradition, and recipes handed down from one year to the next. The Swedish Christmas Table is a festive homage to the international history of the month of snow and mulled wine, advent calendars and gathering family.

Set your table with such seasonal delicacies as:
Mulled wine, egg nog, and seasonal cocktails
Roasted nuts
Fudge, nougat and marzipan
Christmas ham
Vegetable pie with roasted walnuts
Frosted fruit
And so much more to delight and impress

Discover new holiday favorites and update old traditions. Featuring vibrant and retro holiday collages, The Yuletide Table is a Christmas cookbook to inspire, cherish, and hold on to for years to come.

Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Good Books and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of cookbooks, including books on juicing, grilling, baking, frying, home brewing and winemaking, slow cookers, and cast iron cooking. We’ve been successful with books on gluten-free cooking, vegetarian and vegan cooking, paleo, raw foods, and more. Our list includes French cooking, Swedish cooking, Austrian and German cooking, Cajun cooking, as well as books on jerky, canning and preserving, peanut butter, meatballs, oil and vinegar, bone broth, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Skyhorse
• Release date: Nov 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781632202000

Book preview

Advent morning

The Sundays of Advent provide a lovely anticipation for Christmas. You want things snug, warm, and a little luxurious—well, something out of the ordinary. Hot drinks with a bit of elegance, the smell of freshly baked bread, and a taste of sweetbread sets the mood when you’re about to light the advent candles.

Advent morning chai

These days, chai is often on the menu at cafés, but sadly they’re all too often made from sugary powder mixes. If you make chai at home you can experiment to find your perfect blend of sweetness and spices. Use a Rooibos and you’ll have a lovely nightcap as well.

4–6 CUPS

2 tsp cardamom seeds or 4 cardamom pods

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tsp ground cinnamon or 1 cinnamon stick

10 cloves

3⅓ cups (800 ml) water

approx. 3½ tbsp (50 ml) black tea or 2 bags, e.g., Earl Grey

approx. ½ cup (100 ml) raw sugar

1⅔ cups (400 ml) warm milk

1. Put the cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves in a pot and pour in the water.

2. Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat, and let simmer for 10 minutes. Take the pot off the heat and add the tea leaves or tea bags and let it steep for 5 minutes.

3. Strain the tea and sweeten to taste. Heat the milk and froth it with a milk frother or whisk vigorously.

4. Fill two thirds of the cup with tea and the rest with warm, frothy milk.

Warm apple drink

A lovely and fresh warm drink for both the grown-ups and the little ones. The apple drink is also suitable as an alternative to mulled wine, especially for the children.

4–6 CUPS

1 quart (1 liter) fresh apple juice or apple cider

1 orange, juice

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves

2 star anise

FOR GARNISH:

1 apple, sliced

cinnamon sticks

1. Place all the ingredients of the drink in a pot and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.

2. Pour into heat resistant glasses or mugs, garnish with apple slices and cinnamon sticks, and serve.

Hot chocolate

Make hot chocolate from your favorite variety of chocolate and top it off with a dollop of whipped cream. The best for a cozy advent morning! If you like, you can spike the hot chocolate with espresso or a dash of rum.

2 CUPS

2 cups (500 ml) milk

½ tsp vanilla extract, or 1 tsp vanilla powder, or ½ vanilla bean

1¾ oz (50 g) dark chocolate

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

2 tbsp raw sugar

⅔ cup (150 ml) whipped cream

1. Heat the milk with the vanilla in a pot. If you’re using a vanilla bean, cut it lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and put them in the milk together with the bean.

2. Chop the chocolate and mix it into the warm milk along with the cinnamon and sugar. Stir. Remove the vanilla pod before serving.

3. Serve the hot chocolate with lightly whipped cream.

Luxurious hot chocolate

Here’s an extra powerful variety with lovely dark chocolate. It has a high percentage of cocoa, coconut milk, vanilla, and richer milk. Feel free to experiment by adding a little rum, maybe a little cacao, or lessening the fat and sugar and increasing the vanilla flavor, or simply exchanging the milk for water. Top it off with a little cardamom or garnish with a cinnamon stick.

4–6 CUPS

1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean

3 oz (80 g) dark chocolate (70–80%)

1 quart (1 liter) old-fashioned milk or whole milk

½ cup (100 ml) raw sugar

½ cup (100 ml) coconut milk

1. If you’re using a vanilla bean, slice the bean lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and put it and the bean in a pot together with the rest of the ingredients. Heat slowly until the chocolate has melted.

2. Remove the vanilla bean and serve the hot chocolate with lightly whipped cream.

Danish apple loaf

with cardamom

This loaf tastes almost like a big beautiful apple Danish—stuffed to bursting with apples and cardamom.

2 LENGTHS

0.35 oz (10 g) fresh yeast

¾ cup (200 ml) whole milk or half-and-half

2 eggs

2 tsp (10 ml) granulated sugar

1 lemon, zest

1 tsp crushed cardamom seeds

approx. 3 cups (750 ml) wheat flour

1½–1¾ sticks refrigerated butter (6–7 oz [175–200 g])

FILLING:

2 lbs (1 kg) apples

1 lemon, juice

¾ cup (200 ml) raw sugar

1 tsp crushed cardamom seeds

3½ tbsp (50 g) butter

FOR BRUSHING AND GARNISH:

1 egg

powdered sugar

1. Crumble the yeast into a container.

2. Heat the milk until lukewarm, 98°F (37°C). Pour over the yeast and stir until the yeast dissolves. Mix in all the ingredients for the dough, except the butter. Knead into a smooth dough. Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

3. Peel and cut apples into thin wedges. Coat them in the lemon juice and half of the sugar and cardamom.

4. Place the dough on a flour-covered work surface and roll it out into a large, thin square. Using a cheese grater, grate a layer of cold butter onto half the dough and fold the remaining half on top. Roll the dough out again, grate a new layer of butter onto half the dough, fold again, and repeat the procedure a third time.

5. Cut the dough in half. Put the dough halves on separate baking sheets and roll them into two squares. Line the apples down the middle and top with pats of butter for the filling and the remaining sugar and cardamom. Cut slices in the sides of the dough, toward the line of filling, so you get approximately ½-inch wide strips of dough. Place every other strip of dough to the right, every other to the left over the apple filling, like a braid.

6. Let the lengths rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

7. Brush the lengths with a whisked egg. Bake them in the lower part of the oven until they’re beautifully brown and cooked through. This it takes 35–40 minutes.

8. Let cool and dust with powdered sugar.

Advent bun

with saffron and almond paste

A juicy and generous cake to impress the family.

APPROX. 12 BUNS DISTRIBUTED ACROSS 2 LARGE CAKES

0.9 oz (25 g) fresh yeast

⅓ cup (75 g) butter

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk or half-and-half

a pinch (½ g) of saffron (1 envelope)

½ tsp salt

⅓ cup (75 ml) granulated sugar

2½–3 cups (600–700 ml) wheat flour

FILLING:

7 oz (200 g) almond paste

3½ tbsp, (50 g) butter, room temperature

⅓ cup (50 g) roughly chopped almonds

FOR GLAZING:

1 egg

ICING:

⅔ cup (150 ml) powdered sugar

2 tbsp water

1. Crumble the yeast into a container. Melt the butter in a pot over low heat. Add the milk and crumble in the saffron. Heat until the milk is lukewarm, 99°F (37°C).

2. Pour the saffron milk over the yeast and stir until the yeast dissolves. Add salt and sugar and mix thoroughly. Mix in the flour and stir vigorously until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to the edges of the bowl. Don’t hesitate to use the dough hook attachment of a hand mixer. Cover the dough and let rise for 45 minutes.

3. Roughly grate the almond paste for the filling. Mix the grated almond paste with the butter and the chopped almonds.

4. Grease two springform pans. Line the pans with parchment paper.

5. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

6. Place the risen dough on a floured work surface and knead lightly. Then roll it into a rectangle. Spread the filling evenly on top and then roll the dough into a tube shape starting from the long side. Cut the roll into slices a little over an inch wide. Place them in the cake pans leaving a fair amount of space between each one, cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise for another 30 minutes.

7. Brush the buns with the whisked egg and place the pans in the lower part of the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes.

8. Let the buns cool in the pan for a couple of minutes before detaching the ring and let them cool completely.

9. Whisk together the icing and pour it over the buns with the help of a spoon. Or use an icing bag made from a plastic baggie with a corner snipped off.

ADVENT CALENDAR MADE FROM SOCKS

Got a lot of odd socks in the drawer? Make an advent calendar for the kids.

You need: 24 odd socks, 24 small clothespins, string, felt, scissors, fabric glue.

Cut out numbers from the felt and glue them onto the socks. Hang the socks along the string with clothespins and hide small gifts inside.

Johanna’s Christmas

It’s that tingly feeling you really want. Like the night before Christmas Eve, when there’s rustling in the living room and heavy aromas of spices and frying fats waft from the kitchen. These are aromas you recognize so well, that you’ve been longing for and associate with magical, precious moments. That tingling sensation might belong to one’s childhood, but it never disappears completely.

My lovely, precious moments are like twinkling Christmas tree lights, shining with comfort and magic. Mine are memories of evenings when I was allowed to stay up with my mom to pour the Knäck toffee into molds; of the moment in the kitchen when we tasted the rind of the ham when it was brought from the oven; of early Christmas mornings when the early birds were awake and stirring the rice porridge. The dark of winter outside the windows, candles flickering on the table, the scent of orange and cloves.

My family’s Christmas is quite a personal history. Sure we’ve got homemade meatballs and glazed ham. We make Jansson’s Temptation (according to Grandma Alva’s traditional recipe) and we pickle herrings and cure salmon, but on our Christmas table we also always have some Italian charcuterie because we love that. Some years we’ll put a risotto Milanese on the table, and instead of ris à la Malta we usually serve clementine sorbet. A Christmas table is like a scrap book of a family’s history. For us it features the years when we lived in Italy, Grandma’s traditional art of cooking, and my brother’s Gothenburg influences.

Each year, there’s one additional dish that has to be there, maybe another toffee on the candy table, and a new kooky ornament for the Christmas tree. And yes, some dishes might have to make room for replacements. But the tingly feeling of anticipation? That always remains.

Swedish spice cake

with frosting and dried fruit

This heavenly cake doesn’t just complement an advent morning in December but is perfect year round. If there’s any left over, you can toast a slice of day-old cake in the toaster or frying pan and serve it with lingonberry cream as a Christmas dessert. With frosting, the cake should be eaten as soon as possible. Without frosting, it’ll keep for several days and can also be frozen.

1 CAKE

7 tbsp (100 g) butter, room temperature

1 cup (250 ml) brown sugar

2 eggs

⅔ cup (150 ml) sour cream

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

1¼ cups (300 ml) wheat flour

FOR THE PAN:

1 tbsp butter

2–3 tbsp bread crumbs

FROSTING:

1¼ cups (300 ml) powdered sugar

3 tbsp whipping cream

½ cup (100 ml) chopped nuts and dried fruit for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Butter a loaf pan and dust it with bread crumbs.

2. Combine the butter and sugar into a creamy mixture. Add in one egg at a time. Stir well and add the sour cream. In a separate bowl, combine the spices and baking soda with the flour. Stir the flour mixture into the batter. Pour the batter into the pan.

3. Place the pan in the lower part of the oven and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cake cool a bit before you tip it out of the pan.

4. Mix the powdered sugar and whipping cream into a thick frosting and spread it on top of the cooled cake. Finally sprinkle the nuts and dried fruit on top.

ELEGANT AND SHINY HOT CROSSED BUNS

Brush the freshly baked buns with sugar water: 1 tbsp granulated sugar dissolved in 1 tbsp boiling water. This will make them extra shiny and fancy looking.

English hot crossed buns

Traditionally these spiced, juicy buns are served during Easter in Great Britain, among other places. But the spices and the raisins make them perfectly suited for a cold December morning as well. The icing in this recipe makes the buns a bit sweeter, which makes them that much better, in our opinion. However, the icing can be left off and the buns simply eaten with butter.

30 BUNS

1.75 oz (50 g) yeast

⅔ cup (150 g) butter

1¼ cups (300 ml) whole milk or half-and-half

2 eggs

½ cup (100 ml) granulated sugar

2 tsp ground cardamom

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp salt

¾ cup (200 ml) raisins or candied citrus peel

1 lemon, zest

5 cups (1200 ml) wheat flour

ICING:

5 tbsp powdered sugar

1 tbsp whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla sugar

1. Crumble the yeast into a bowl.

2. Melt the butter in a pot over low heat. Add the milk and heat until the mixture becomes lukewarm, 99°F (37°C). Pour the milk over the yeast and stir until the yeast dissolves.

3. Crack the eggs in a small bowl and whisk them lightly. Pour the majority of the egg mixture into the milk, but save a couple of spoonfuls to brush the buns with later.

4. Add sugar, spices, salt, raisins, or citrus peel, and mix well. Pour in the flour and mix vigorously, preferably with the dough hook attachment on a mixer, until the dough is smooth and releases from the bowl. Cover the dough and let it rise for 1 hour.

5. Place the dough on a floured work surface and knead it well. Divide into halves and shape them into two lengths. Cut each length into 15 pieces and shape them into round buns.

6. Preheat the oven to 450°F (225°C). Place the buns close

Reviews for The Swedish Christmas Table

[S · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is great! Not just for Christmas cooking. Excellent ideas in a very fun book.