mandelmusslor or almond shells
Mandelmusslor is a traditional Swedish Christmas dessert, the lovely almond shells are filled with whipped cream and jam.
Mandelmusslor are my favorite on the sweet section of the Christmas smorgasbord. The shells are crisp and has a nice, sweet almond taste.
They are baked in small tins in various shapes. I never baked them myself before, only helping my mother baking them and then we were using my grandmother’s old tins. I was super happy when I found these tins in a fleamarket in November!
The first dough I made was a failure and the shells broke when removing them from the tins. The first dough contained egg, and I think the problem was that it started rising too much when in the oven.
So I had to find another recipe without egg. I based my second dough on this recipe, that I almost followed, just adding some bitter almond and vanilla. And I didn’t peel the almonds, both because I’m lazy but I also think the thin peels add some nice texture to the dough. The bitter almonds really enhance the almond flavour, but can of course be left out if you don’t enjoy the taste of them.
2 bitter almonds / 2 bittermandlar
60 g sweet almonds / 60 g sötmandel
250 ml flour / 2,5 dl vetemjöl
110 g butter, room temperature / 110 g rumstempererat smör
75 ml sugar / 0,75 dl strösocker
half a vanilla bean / en halv vaniljstång
First grind the two bitter almonds into a fine flour, I used my blender to do this. Then add the sweet almonds and run the blender until they also are ground into a fine flour.
Then use your hands and mix the almond flour with the rest of the ingredients into a dough, I also added a dash of cold water to make the dough come together. Let it rest for an hour in a cool place. Turn on the oven on 200 degrees.
Brush the tins with melted butter, and press some dough into the tartlet tins. Don’t make the shell too thin as they will easily break then when removing from the tin. Finish the exceed dough off with a knife to get an even and nice looking edge.
This dough will turn into about 20 almond shells.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, in the middle of the oven on 200 degrees. Flip the tins over as soon as possible when you have removed them from the oven and let them cool before you release the shell from the tin. You can use a small, sharp knife to carefully release them from the tin if needed.
Even tough these almond shells are a bit tedious to bake, they are really quick to prepare when serving them. Just whip some cream and fill the shells, then top with a nice jam.
My favourite jam is made from åkerbär, and I picked these berries this summer when we were visiting our summer cottage up north. But you can of course use any jam that you like.
