Sunday, January 04, 2009

Mandelmusslor - a very traditional Swedish dessert

mandelmussla

Here's what we had for dessert after Christmas dinner! It's a Swedish classic, and something my grandmother used to make. Mandelmussla literally translates into "Almond Mussel", or probably "Almond Shell", and it's made from an almond shortbread. You'll get the recipe soon - I'm just to tired to type it at the moment, but I promise to share it. You bake it in small fluted metal tins, that come in various shapes and sizes. The prettiest ones are no longer sold though, so you have to try your luck at fleamarkets...

It's served with softly whipped cream and jam - here's a mixed jam with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries.

Update: here's the recipe.

5 comments:

Something About Mary said...

I'll be waiting patiently for the recipe. It looks like a simple, yet special dessert.

Anonymous said...

Looks very much like a traditional dessert from Puglia, called "bocconotti" (something like "small mouthfuls"), except they're not made from almond paste but from regular shortcrust pastry, and you fill them with black cherry jam BEFORE baking them. There's a variation with almond paste filling, though!
Here's a picture: http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/9786/p1080025ez7.jpg

Anne said...

Valeria, how interesting! I have to clarify that almond paste isn't used in these either though, but actual almonds in the shortbread dough.

Anonymous said...

These reminds me of my grandmother, she used to them on very special occassions. They were wonderful!

glamah16 said...

You know I got a set of pans manufactured in Sweden just for this. All shapes, etc. I just used them as tartlette pans.Take it easy Mommy.