A Swedish Christmas Gathering – Glögg (and a Blue Cheese Tart)

All through December in Sweden, we get together for little Christmas parties, or “glögg” parties. Glögg is spicy mulled wine served with almonds and raisins that we drink together with ginger snaps (“pepparkakor”) – often served with stilton cheese – and saffron buns (“lussekatter”). It’s a lovely way to get into Christmas and the flavors and scents are beautiful.

Since Alec’s birthday is right before Lucia, we always have a glögg party for our families and his godparents for his birthday (he has a separate kids party). This year we added these blue cheese tarts and these gorgeous saffron truffles to our menu and both were a hit!

Click past the break for the blue cheese tart recipe!

BLUE CHEESE TART

300 ml flour
8 ginger snap cookies (ideally Swedish “pepparkakor”)
100 gr butter
3 Tbsp water
200 gr blue cheese
250 gr quark (see here for substitutes)
100 ml milk
4 eggs
peppar
pomegranate seeds (around 1/4 of a pomegranate)

To make the crust, chop up the butter, pulverize the cookies (either put them in a bag and smash them with a rolling pin, or use a food processor), and use your fingers to quickly mix them with the flour and water to form a crust. Press the crust into a medium pie dish and leave it to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 200°c and make the filling: in one bowl, crumble the blue cheese. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and add quark, milk and pepper. Add the blue cheese to the egg batter and pour it in the pie crust.
Bake in the bottom of the oven for 30-35 minutes until it has firmed up and become a beautiful golden colour.
Top with pomegranate seeds and serve warm or cold.

Get a recipe for homemade glögg here.

Also, my famous cheese tart and saffron biscotti!