My 2010

This was my 2010. I wish you all the best in the New Year!



In January, we had our traditional 13-course dinner (soon to be repeated), and I made awesome chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. I baked great cookies. On a sad note, our darling cat Hamlet passed away, and we were all very sad. (This is obviously not really qualifying for "best of", but it was so significant I wanted to include it.)



In February, Starbucks finally came to Sweden! (Only to the airport, but still.) I bought my first Le Creuset pot, and had lunch cooked by René Redzepi. The recipe of the month was broccoli slaw, something which I've made over and over.



March: Not very memorable food-wise, since I had stomach flu for several days. However, I posted about a great beef stew, Momofuku Compost cookies and Vanilla Bean Cupcakes that I was more or less ordered to give to the baby.



April finally brought some sunshine to Sweden, and spring began. I had salad with a creamy lemon dressing, potato gnocchi with ramps, a wonderfully simple tomato sauce, tons of avocados with garlic, and a great Lemon Mango Mousse cake for Easter.



In May, Titus turned one, and we had a big party. (Or three.) We went to both Gothenburg and Berlin for long weekend trips. I made pickled salmon for the first time, which was excellent. I figured out that I could use phyllo dough instead of regular pie crust - yum! And there was another cool press lunch, with Norwegian superstar chef Geir Skeie. Last, but certainly not least, I got a new recipe for scones that were much less crumbly and thus much better.



June passed by quickly. I don't think we cooked much, but I made a Lemon Strawberry cake for yet another birthday party, and a special princess cake for the royal wedding. (Although I didn't post about it until August.) And I used my turning slicer to make shoestring potatoes. And a new stand mixer moved in, which allowed for these cranberry hazelnut bagels.



July was hot. I posted a guide to Stockholm. We had our annual Fourth of July party, and ate the tasting menu at Lux Stockholm. I got hooked on crochet. I took a class in Indian cooking. Bought a new cookbook shelf. We ate coconut chicken nuggets, rhubarb chicken and baguette French Toast.



August brought red berry jam, baked adobo chicken, shrimp pad thai and crispy orange veal. Titus started pre-school, and I went back to work.



September was hectic at work, since it was election time. We ate creamy mushrooms on toast, cauliflower cheese and a great feta-cashew dip. And I made wedding cakes for my P:s sister who got married.



In October, I started my Wednesday bookmark feature, which I'll try to keep up in 2011 to help share the link-love and hopefully introduce you to other great blogs. My blog turned 6 years old. I had a chocolate truffle cake recipe in a Swedish newspaper. The best cookies were Lemon Cinnamon Snickerdoodles, and the best food; Ginger Chicken meatballs.



November was all about New York! I went with my two girlfriends Lena and Dagmar, and we had a blast. We also went to eat Christmas food when we came home. And I cooked a nice chanterelle caesar salad, for a girl's night dinner that was actually featured in a Swedish newspaper.

And finally December. It's gone by so quickly, and it's been all about christmas preparations. I had my annual cookie swap. I let you provide the questions for a Q-and-A which was a lot of fun. We went to the Christmas market at Skansen. I did a christmas candy round-up, and baked Lingonberry Gingerbread as well as Saffron White Chocolate buns. And don't miss the Lemon Parmesan Sweet Potato gratin.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Pistachio White Chocolate Cookies

I didn't make a whole lot of cookies for christmas this year, but these ones were certainly memorable. They feel very luxurious, and are well worth the cost of using rather expensive pistachios. As most cookies, they freeze well, and can be eaten directly from the freezer. (Not that I know this from experience, no...)

I found these at a lovely blog called Honest Fare.

Pistachio White Chocolate Cookies

110 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
120 g sugar
100 g brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
50 g rolled oats
100 g white chocolate, finely chopped
100 g unsalted pistachios, chopped

Beat the butter with both kinds of sugar until fluffy, about three minutes. Add the egg, milk and vanilla, and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and oats. Add this to the batter. Finally stir in the chocolate and pistachios.

Dollop (I love my cookie scoop) onto a baking sheet, with plenty of room in between. Bake at 175°C for 8 minutes, until they're lightly colored at the edges. Leave to cool a bit until you move them from the baking sheet.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kakor med pistage & vit choklad

Questions - now with answers!

So - I let you ask the questions, and here are my answers! This turned out to be a very long post! Thanks for contributing everyone, it's been a lot of fun and I'll definitely do this again! (And of course, you're always welcome to ask me anything!)

Deborah asked: Have most people in Sweden eaten a taco? And if so did it have the Taco Bell-style pre-fabricated shell?

Yes, totally! Tacos, and tex-mex is extremely popular here. Indeed, a lot of Swedes eat tacos every Friday or at least a few times a month. And sadly, they all have the pre-fabricated version. You can't buy masa in Sweden, so noone makes their own tortillas or chips, and all that are sold are pretty low-quality. Strangely, there are almost no Mexican restaurants (certainly no high-end, and just a few fast-food varieties) at all, despite Swedes obviously liking the flavors so much. A Swedish taco evening typically has hard shells, perhaps soft flour tortillas as well, seasoned ground beef, salsa from a jar, minced onions, corn, grated cheese, tomatoes, lettuce and perhaps some taco sauce. Some add weird stuff like bananas or peanuts. A friend of mine insists on hamburger dressing on hers...

John K asked: What type of cuisine, that you enjoy, would you say is not very easy to find in restaurants in Stockholm?

That's easy: Mexican. Upscale, good quality Mexican. There's nothing.

Cecilia asked: What's your favorite traditional Swedish food? Do you think you could post more Swedish recipes? It's so hard to find Swedish recipes on the internet that are in English!

I'd have to say Swedish meatballs, served with cream sauce, boiled potatoes and lingonberries. I' not a huge fan of traditional Swedish food in general, which is probably why I don't blog about it all that much. I could do an effort though - any dishes in particular that you all would like to see me make?

Courtney asked:
So I am a little obsessed with the ligonberry jelly at Ikea, since Ikea is Swedish I might be stereotyping but do you use this a lot and what is your favorite dish to use it in?

Oh, it *is* a very popular condiment! I don't eat it much myself, but I definitely want it with my meatballs. Or my Wallenbergare. Or my kåldolmar. (Neither of which I eat more than once a year or so.) It's also a must on potato pancakes ("raggmunk"), or with black pudding. The best kind is just lingonberries stirred with sugar, raw - my mom makes that once a year, and I usually get a few jars to put in the freezer. It keeps extremely well.

Michele asked:
Is there a traditional New Years meal in Sweden?

Nope! Just a bit fancier than usual - the stores seem to sell a lot of lobster and beef tenderloin. And lots of champagne!

Three Cookies had three questions: Why is there no KFC, or restaurants selling fried chicken?
What is your favourite non-Swedish food? What is your favourite cookie?

As to the first one, good question! I wish there was a KFC! They did try back in 1980, though. I suppose fried chicken just isn't a big part of our culture, even though chicken is quite popular. There is a fast food restaurant called Rooster though - not a chain, just a single shop (that closed down, then re-opened with what I think are new owners and less good food) that has all chicken on the menu. Fairly good, but nothing like KFC.

My favourite non-Swedish food.. well, that one takes some thought. I like a lot of different cuisines - Chinese, Thai, Mexican (hey, if they use cilantro, I like it!), Italian, classic French... nothing much beats a great steak. But if I'd have to pick a single dish, I'd say quesadillas. At least it's one of the things I eat most often - it's our go-to dish for when we're grumpy and too tired to cook much. (And I forgot to mention my dad's Pelmeenid! It's Estonian and absolutely great!)

And as for my favorite cookie, I'm very partial to these hazelnut cookies.

Samantha asked:
So, this may be a little naive, but is English a well-spoken language in Sweden? Also, after reading your entire blog (yes, I did - ha!) and noticing late last year there was a sort of "blogging by mail" event going on, would you ever want to start one of those yourself - in high hopes to getting some of the food that you would not traditionally get elsewhere?

Yes, English is spoken by pretty much everyone! It's mandatory in schools from age 10 (possibly even younger these days) and since Swedes don't dub their movies, everyone is exposed to a lot of English language. That has its ups and downs, but for tourists, it's great. People are happy to help, and definitely do NOT expect you to know any Swedish.

And hey, good idea! It's been a long time since I participated in a blogging event like that (or any blogging events really). Definitely something to look into for 2011.

Meri asked:
1. To what extent is Swedish food vegetarian-friendly?
2. What's your approach to cooking/baking for your boy? (who looks very cute, if I may add) Is he interested in food and kitchen stuff?

Well, traditional Swedish food is *not* very veggie-friendly. It's heavy on the meat and fish, for sure. But as for actually eating vegetarian in Sweden, it's easy. Just about all restaurants have a lot of veggie options, and both vegetarianism and veganism are fairly well-spread these days.

Oh, I really want Titus to be very involved in cooking and baking! He got a little play kitchen for his first birthday and he has tons of pretend food. (I even bought him a wooden sushi set... ) So - imagine my shock when he turned out to be one of those kids who wasn't very interested in food! He didn't start on solids until late, and really only started eating a lot around when he was one year. (He totally refused baby food, anything puréed. I read up on baby-led weaning, and that's pretty much how we've done it.) He's however exposed to a lot of different food, and enjoys almost everything now. He doesn't like any kind of pasta (weird, I know) and is very conservative when it comes to fruit. (Apples are his favorite, and he'll accept bananas.) However, he loves coriander and doesn't mind spicy food at all. His very favorite: risotto. All kinds.

Maisa has an interesting one!
Following your blog I know that you love food and work in politics. What is on your agenda when it comes to Swedish and/or EU food politics?

(Let's just make clear that I work in very local politics and don't have anything to do with actual food politics.) My main concern is to make sure people are well informed. I'm happy that you have to put a lot of information on the labels, and I know people are learning more and more about making good choices. I really do believe in the individual's right to make that choice though! I don't think "fat tax" is a good idea, and I'm against the farmer subsidies in the EU. I'm concerned about diversity and thus not happy about the Swedish department of agricultures latest idea to make it harder for people to grow small crops. (Ok, not super-well explained, I'm afraid.) On a local level, I think it's really important to have good food in the schools and pre-schools, to teach kids not only about nutrition but also about the joy of good food. It should be tasty and healthy!

Annekids asked: Last summer we were on holidays in Sweden. Beautiful country, lovely people! We ate a lot of Hallakaka bread(maybe I wrote it completely wrong, I hope you understand what I mean). Here in Holland I would like to bake it too, but I can't find the recipe. I hope you can help me, I would appreciate it!

Hällakaka! I've never tried making it myself, but I'll be happy to give it a go. Thanks for the suggestion!

Gaviota asked: I was wondering if you knew where to order Dala horse cookie cutters from?

I found a store here. They seem to ship internationally, so send them an e-mail! (If it's any problem with payment, let me know and I'll help.)

Eileen asked:
I grew up with Swedish/American cooking. My 1st generation grandmother always used clove along with cinnamon in apple pie and sweet rolls, and added clove to "stewed chicken," because her Mor did. I think her Mor might have been from Skane. Is this typical of Swedish cooking?

It is! Cloves are used quite a bit, and I think it's especially common in Southern Swedish cooking. They're also used a lot at christmas, and a common christmas decoration is studding an orange with cloves. The scent is delicious!

Lisa asked: I saw this segment on the today show that claimed swedish people eat a kind of hot dog dipped in cornmeal fried for new years, is that true? I've been to sweden many times and have never heard of it.

Never heard of it, and I really, REALLY doubt it since you can't even buy cornmeal here.

Aimee asked: when you travel in Sweden where are your favorite places to go (outside of Stockholm of course)? And-do you tend to like more outdoor activities (camping, skiing, hiking and such) or indoor activities (museums, theatre, etc)?

Well, we mostly really travel to visit family in friends. We do have a cabin about four hours north of here, in Dalarna, which is a beautiful spot. It's a great place for outdoor activities. We often go to Linköping/Motala where my in-laws live, and we also try to go to Gothenburg to visit with friends about once a year or so. I rarely travel north anymore, but I used to do quite a bit of downhill skiing when I was younger.

Questions and answers!

I thought I'd do what so many other bloggers do, and have a little Q and A session. So, anything you want to know about me, or about Swedish food, perhaps? Post your questions in the comments, and I'll do a post with the answers!

Edamame Dip

Feeling a bit full after the holidays? Had too much sweets? Well, this good-for-you vitamin-packed veggie dip is a tasty idea - hope you enjoy it! It's great on its own with veggies or pita crisps (or potato chips, if you're so inclined), or on a sandwich with a slice of cured ham.

Edamame Dip

200 ml shelled edamame beans (about 1 2/3 cup)
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 shallot, minced
fresh coriander, a handful
1/2 lime, juiced
3 tbsp smetana (substitute crème fraîche or thick yogurt)
salt

Bring the beans to a boil in a little water, without salt. Drain and rinse with cold water. Put in a food processor with the ginger, garlic, shallot, coriander and lime. Process until smooth, then stir in the smetana or your chosen alternative. Season with salt.

Recipe in Swedish:
Edamamedipp

Cookie Swap 2010

I love the idea of holiday cookie swaps - you get together, eat cookies, and share them. Everyone goes home with several different kinds, and only has to bake one. Pretty perfect! I hosted one last year, and knew I definitely wanted to repeat it, so I did. We were five, plus two cookie-happy kids, and had tons of yummy cookies! Lena made Candy Cane Biscotti. Dagmar brought oat flour cookies as well as beautiful snowflake and zoo animal cookies. Emily did a great update on a classic Swedish "peasant-cookie" with almonds, including candied orange peel and dark chocolate. And Christina brought classic pepparkakor as well as delicious buttery shortbread cookies with rosemary. I had made macarons - really quite a botched batch, but filled with Saffron White Chocolate Truffles, they were still a hit! I also had bowls of Peppermint Marshmallows and Caramel Cookie Brittle for everyone to nibble on - both went quickly!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Christmas Market at Skansen

If you're in Stockholm in December, I heartily recommend going to the Christmas market at Skansen. Skansen is an outdoor museum and zoo - and it's always worth a visit.


Lots of different kinds of crisp bread. (To make your own, check out my recipes here and here.)


There's a lot to eat at the market. This stall served...


...elk! "A taste of Scandinavian wilderness", as they called it. It's a great-tasting meat, actually!


Sugared almonds. Always, always found at christmas markets, and I always buy them.


This stall sold different sorts of christmas-y drinks.


Skansen is gorgeous all year round, and it has old houses from different parts of Sweden.


One of few animals we met on this cold winter day.

Caramel Cookie Brittle

As usual, my blog timing is totally off, which means I have tons of christmas things to tell you about over the coming weeks. Prepare for christmas cookies well into January! (Especially since I plan to use the week between christmas and New Year's for a sort of yearly round-up of my favorites.) Anyway. I've been trying new things as usual, and this cookie brittle is pretty interesting. I found the recipe in several places, so I suppose it's quite popular, and it was also quite a hit at the party I brought it to. I wasn't a huge fan myself, I think the caramel was a bit too dark, and if I make it again I'll probably cut a minute or two off the baking time. That said, it's very low-effort, and very tasty. Do try it - you could decorate it with lots of things - I think some sea salt would be elegant, but crushed M&M:s would be delicious.

Caramel Cookie Brittle

150 g saltines
250 ml brown sugar
220 g butter, unsalted
300 g dark chocolate

Place the saltines in a lined baking pan, close together and touching.

In a small saucepan, bring sugar and butter to a boil and let it cook for three minutes. Mine looked badly separated but I didn't let that bother me.

Pour the caramel over the crackers, and make sure all are well covered. Bake at 200°C for 6-7 minutes.

Melt the chocolate - I always use the microwave - and pour over the now caramelized crackers. Place in the fridge to set completely, and break into small pieces.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kolakaks-bräck

Peanut Butter Cookies

I got a pretty cool cookie stamp from Coolstuff.se (made by Suck UK) to try out! Isn't it cute? I wasn't sure what cookies would work well with it though - I think shortbread would be ideal, or at least cookies that don't contain much in the way of rising agents.



These ones worked ok, but still puffed a bit more than I had expected. The cookies looked much better before baking! They also became much larger than I had expected - these are indeed American-sized. They freeze well, and are absolutely delicious.



Peanut Butter Cookies
24 large cookies

200 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
120 g sugar
100 g brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200 g peanut butter
220 g flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
70 g salted peanuts, finely chopped

Beat the butter and both types of sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix well. Stir in the peanut butter, and mix until it's a smooth batter.

Add the baking soda and flour - don't overmix. Finally fold in the peanuts.

Place the dough in the fridge for a while if it's sticky. Then roll into balls and flatten - either with a cake stamp, or with a glass dipped in flour.

Bake at 175°C for about 12 minutes. Let cool before attempting to move them from the baking sheet.

Recipe in Swedish:
Jordnötssmörskakor

Vanilla Peppermint Marshmallows

Even though I've made marshmallows, I remembered it as being a bit difficult. Stupid me. It isn't. At all. Anyone can do it! (If you have a decent stand mixer, that is.)

I wanted to try making these minty, and since I'm recently addicted to Bath & Bodyworks Twisted Peppermint scent, I thought I'd combine vanilla and peppermint extract. Delicious!

Vanilla Peppermint Marshmallows
makes about 80

2 tbsp + 2,5 tsp powdered gelatine
125 ml cold water
125 ml warm water
125 ml white baking syrup (or corn syrup)
500 ml sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg whites
1 vanilla bean
1/2 - 1 tbsp peppermint extract
red food coloring
200 ml powdered sugar

Prepare a tin - mine was about 24*30 cm - by greasing it with oil and sifting a thick layer of powdered sugar to cover the bottom and sides of the pan.

Pour the cold water in the bowl of your mixer, and sprinkle in the gelatine powder.

Mix warm water, white baking syrup, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Boil until the syrup is 116°C. Pour it over the gelatine (it's gping to bubble fiercely) and stir until combined. Beat the mixture on high speed until it's really thick, white and shiny. (5-6 minutes.)

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff. Mix those, the peppermint, a tiny bit of red food coloring and the seeds from the vanilla bean, into the marshmallow batter. Whisk until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Make a swirly pattern on top if you'd like - just take some red food coloring on a toothpick and randomly swirl it through the pan. Sift an even layer of powdered sugar on top, and place the tin in the fridge for at least three hours.

Next, turn the marshmallow slab out onto a cutting board. Cut into large dice, and sift more powdered sugar so that every side is covered - if not, it will be very messy.

When you're done, keep at room temperature, in an air-tight jar.



Recipe in Swedish:
Pepparmintsmarshmallows

Early christmas celebrations

Christmas Candy - a small round-up

I've done a whole lot of christmas candy over the years, so I thought I'd post a round-up to help you find some new favorites.

Caramels & Toffee:
Chocolate-Dipped Almond Toffee
Hard Caramels
Knäck
Crisp-Bread Knäck
Espresso Caramels
Lingonberry Toffee
Vanilla Bean Caramels
Gingerbread Toffee
Lemon Vanilla Toffee
Pecan Chocolate Toffee
Walnut Knäck


Brittle & Bark:
Cashew Brittle
Pistachio Brittle
Peppermint Bark
Cherry Pistachio Bark
Chocolate Orange Hazelnut Bark

Chocolate:
Coconut Truffles
Peppermint Patties
Saffron White Chocolate Truffles
Peanut Butter Cups
Peanut Nougat
Peanut Truffles
Rocky Road

Other stuff:
Orangettes
Vanilla Bean Marshmallows
Walnut Vanilla Marzipan

Hard Caramels

So. Candy. This is real hard candy, the kind you perhaps wouldn't even think to make at home. It's the sort of candy you want to suck, not try to chew - it's very hard, but softens after a while. The flavor - wonderful.


I was really attempting to re-create a candy from my childhood's christmas markets, but this didn't come very close. Still, very good.

And it's not difficult. Just be careful - don't burn yourself, and watch your teeth as you at them!

(This is a small batch and it *can* be doubled.)

Hard Caramels

150 ml sugar
75 ml cream (full-fat)
75 ml golden syrup (no substitutions, sorry - possibly some very light molasses)
1 tbsp unsalted butter

Mix everything in a heavy saucepan, and boil the mixture until it reaches 150°C exactly. Pour onto an oiled baking sheet or marble slab, and work the sugar until it starts to set. Use an oiled spatula (or two) - pull and fold, pull and fold.

As the candy cools, it'll become firmer, and when it's cool enough to touch, switch to working with your hands. I like to wear gloves, CSI-style, as that somewhat helps with the not-burning-my-fingers.

Pull the candy into a long, thin rope, and cut into individual candies using a pair of oiled scissors.

Recipe in Swedish:
Kolakarameller

Wednesday bookmarks, Dec 15

View from my office window, December 15. Sunny and cold!

With Christmas fast approaching, I'm definitely starting to spend more time in the kitchen. I'm focusing on cookies and candy, since both of those can be prepared well in advance, and they make great gifts, too. I'll definitely try to make a little guide to Swedish christmas food and christmas candy - look for that later this week.

For now, let's see what I've bookmarked from other blogs this week. Not So Humble Pie is one of my favorite blogs - gorgeous photos and delicious recipes - and this week, she's made caramel-wrapped marshmallows. Impressive! I've made marshmallows before, and that was easy, so maybe I ought to try this.

And if I should fail, this recipe for Peppermint Crisps looks much easier. I'm a huge fan of chocolate and mint together, so this is a definite must-do!

Not sweet, but sweet potatoes. I have some left over from thanksgiving, and have thought about baking them into fries. This recipe is the one I will try.

Maybe I'll make this edamame hummus to serve it with? I do love edamame, but I hate normal hummus - but I have a feeling I'll like this one. I think I'll switch cilantro for the parsley though...

That's it for today! If you want to see more bookmarks, my Delicious page can be found here.

Pre-Chewed Gingerbread Men

I'm always on the lookout for cool cookie cutters - aren't we all? - and I have to admit I was drawn to these ABC ("Already been chewed") gingerbread men cutters. Aww! They're made by Fred Worldwide, and in Sweden, sold by Coolstuff, who sent these to me for review.

I tried them out with my favorite recipe for pepparkakor and I have to say that although they're fun, the cutters themselves kind of suck. They lack sharp edges which makes it a bit hard to get clear details, which in turn makes them a bit pointless. If you don't see the bite marks, well... they just look sort of broken. Anyway - they are rather innovative!

And the cookies are great, regardless of the shape!

Saffron Buns with White Chocolate

Tomorrow is St Lucia's Day which is always very celebrated in Sweden. (You can read about it here.) A must for me is the saffron Lucia buns, but since saffron makes the dough very dry, I prefer my buns to have a moist and sticky filling. I found this idea at one of my favorite Swedish food blogs, Linnéas Skafferi - butter and white chocolate. I use less saffron than she did, mostly because I just didn't read the recipe very well and missed it, but it was still very good.

I was aiming to make normal, small buns, but ran out of paper liners after half the batch, and so decided to make one huge, giant bun. Or a snail - a large Saffron Snail. Not sure if you can see it in the photo, but the thing is so big! It nearly covered the entire baking sheet.

And fed most of the office. Everyone was surpremely grateful, and it tasted delicious. The rest of the buns are safely stashed in the freezer, I'll give them a few seconds in the microwave before serving, as they're at their very best served slightly warm.

For more traditional Lucia Buns, you'll find my earlier recipe here, and another one filled with almond paste, here.

Saffron Buns with White Chocolate
makes 60 small buns, or two huge ones

50 g fresh yeast
600 ml milk
1/2 g saffron
175 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 egg
140 g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1100 g all-purpose flour

Filling:
200 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
400 g white chocolate, finely chopped

To decorate:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp water
pearl sugar

Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Pour over the milk, and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add the saffron.

Cut the butter into small cubes and add to the bowl, along with the egg, sugar and salt. Gradually add the flour, and work into a smooth and supple dough. (It took me about 10 minutes, using my Kitchen-Aid)

Cover with a towel, and leave to rise until it's doubled in size. It will take about two hours - since you're not heating the milk beforehand.

Divide the dough into half, and roll the first half into a large rectangle. Spread with half the butter, and sprinkle with half the white chocolate. Roll, from the long side, into a tight roll. Either cut slices, about 1,5 cm thick, and place in paper bun liners (they look like slightly shorter muffin cups), or shape the entire roll into one huge bun.

Repeat, with the other half of the dough. Cover with a towel and leave to rise for one hour.

Whisk the eggs with the water and salt, and brush gently onto the buns. Sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Bake at 175°C for about 15 minutes - longer if you're opting for the large one, I baked mine for 25 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Saffransbullar med vit choklad

Christmas gift of the year - the easy coffee machine?

Every year, the stores try to predict what this year's christmas gift will be. One strong contender this year is the coffee machine, the ones that uses pods. I have a Nespresso at home, and a Nescafé Dolce Gusto at work, and I have to say I do like both very much. (Other brands include Tassimo, Café Martello and Lavazza Amodo Mio.)

What's your opinion? Do you like these? Any one in particular? And do you think they make good christmas gifts?

The Nobel dinner

Nope, not invited this year either! (I'm as surprised as you are, that is to say, not at all.) But the menu sounds lovely:

Duck galantine with apples, pumpkin,
pickled vegetables and spicy jelly

Fried truffled turbot, winter salad with chanterelles and
truffled oxtail gravy

Milk chocolate and orange Bavarian cream, flavoured with Gammeldansk Bitter,
served with an orange salad

The Nobel Prize Website.

Banana Cream Puffs

A while ago, I told you about a great new dessert cookbook by Frederik Zäll and Daniel Roos: Lyxlagat Sött & Gott. Today, I'm participating in a cook-off with four other bloggers: Matplatsen, Linnéas Skafferi, Bagerskan and Passion 4 Baking. We've all chosen a recipe from the book to try out and showcase.



Want a book of your own? The publisher, Grenadine, has promised me an extra book to give away to a lucky reader. It can ship anywhere in the world, but it *is* in Swedish. If you want it, leave a comment and I'll pick a random winner by the end of the week - make sure to include your e-mail!

My choice, or really Per's: Banana Cream Puffs. I didn't make the full recipe, which would have made ten, but instead cut it in third and got four nice little puffs which was perfect after dinner. Very tasty! And very photogenic, which is why you get so many pictures. I couldn't resist! We were asked to supply some step-by-step photos as well, but I never manage that - I don't know how you can focus on both cooking and photographing, it really doesn't work for me.

Frederik also includes ideas for what to drink while baking (his choice is a Double Bastard Ale) and I hope he won't be too disappointed when I admit I was just having coffee. Coffee goes very well with this by the way, and if you're not afraid of sweets, a mug of warm chocolate would be even better.

As for music to cook too, I'm a bit reluctant to confess that I was listening to an endless loop of Christmas carols, which is really my listening of choice during December.

Banana Cream Puffs
Makes 4

1 egg
40 g all-purpose flour
100 ml water
35 g butter

Filling:
100 ml cream (full-fat)
1 tsp vanilla sugar (preferrably homemade)
1/2-1 tbsp cognac
1 banana, very ripe

Decoration:
Dark chocolate
powdered sugar

Start with the dough. Bring butter and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Stir in the flour and stir really well to make sure you don't get any clumps. Keep stirring for a few minutes, until it looks like a nice coherent dough. Let it cool completely.

Next, add the egg. I used my Kitchen-Aid but you can beat it in by hand as well. Make sure to beat it really well, to make the dough smooth.

Shape four balls on a baking sheet, and bake for about 15-20 minutes at 200°C. Don't open the oven during baking, or the puffs will fall!

Remove, and leave to cool while you prepare the filling. They'll look something like this:



Mash the banana. Whisk the cream with the vanilla sugar into soft peaks, and stir in cognac to taste.

When the puffs are cool, split them with a sharp knife. On the bottom half, spread a layer of mashed banana and top with a spoonful of cognac-laced cream. Top with the lid, and decorate with melted chocolate and powdered sugar.

Serve straightaway - they don't keep well at all!



Recipe in Swedish:
Bananbakelse

Wednesday Bookmarks, Dec 8

On my way to work

Christmas is approaching fast, and that's probably why I'm bookmarking so many cookies! I love baking for the holidays, and have already tried a few new recipes. Among them, and I will post my adaptions of the recipes when I get around to it, are these Peppermint Chocolate Crinkle Cookies, and super-delicious Pistachio-White Chocolate Chip cookies. Mmm!

Next to try - but I ran out of chocolate - is this Chocolate Caramel cookie brittle. It's intriguing, as it starts with a layer of saltines! I imagine it'll have that perfect balance of sweet and salty...

Speaking of sweet and salty, I love peanut butter cookies. This is a recipe for chocolate cookies with a hidden peanut butter center, and I have to try that sometimes.

I've only tried Almond Roca once, and I've never thought of making it myself, but according to this recipe, it seems easy enough. My favorite candy this time of year is Peppermint Chocolate Bark - I've made it many times, but I think I'll try it slightly differently this year, inspired by this post at Confections of a Foodie Bride. Swirled!

Speaking of peppermint, and just to prove I didn't only bookmark cookies this week, here are two different riffs on minty frozen desserts. The first one - in Swedish - is a parfait which is not technically an ice cream but close enough. And finally, a regular recipe for Peppermint Ice Cream from a cute blog called Cherry Tea Cakes. She's made it into ice cream sandwiches - not sure if I'll have the patience myself, but the recipe sounds great!

And if you want to see all of my bookmarks - this is where to find them.

Lingonberry Gingerbread

Every winter, my husband wistfully speaks of soft gingerbread cakes. Being somewhat mean, I've never baked that for him, but I finally gave in. And it was a great time to try out this cute s-xl cake pan that was sent to me from CoolStuff.se - it means that people who're not so fond of soft cakes (me) can have a small piece, while people who are very fond of it (husband) can have a large piece. Or several.



Not that you can't just use a knife. Of course. But this pan is pretty fun! I found it easy to use, too. It's sturdy enough to move into the oven even filled with batter, and it released the cake quite easily. (I did butter it a little, just in case.)

I had smetana at hand - a very thick, fat soured cream. You can use sour cream instead, or all yogurt. Or all sour cream. As long as it's slightly sour, to give the baking soda something to react with, you're fine.

Lingonberry Gingerbread

100 g butter
100 ml lingonberry jam
2 eggs
200 g sugar
75 ml smetana or creme fraiche
75 ml mild yogurt
180 g flour
1,5 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Melt the butter. Add the lingonberry jam and set aside.

In a bowl, mix the flour with the baking soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and salt.

Beat eggs and sugar until very fluffy. Add the smetana and yogurt. Stir in the flour mixture, and finally the butter-lingonberry mixture.

Pour everything into a buttered cake pan and bake at 175°C for about 20 minutes if your pan is as wide as mine is. If you have a smaller pan, which will give a higher cake, it'll need to bake for longer. Make sure to check it with a cake tester, which inserted into the center should come out clean.

Recipe in Swedish:
Mjuk pepparkaka med lingon

New York, part 4

Ok, the final part of our New York trip! This post has a LOT of photos, which will largely speak for themselves.



We had lunch at the very aptly named Excellent Dumpling House in Chinatown (On Lafayette, near Canal St). I had Shanghai style noodles, which were great.



Dagmar had some sort of dish that was supposedly really spicy, but in reality just a bit sweet and not hot at all. Weird.





We then headed to Doughnut Plant, which is nothing less than fabulous. We bought pretty much one of everything - well, almost - and then headed to a nearby park to devour them.



It was pretty cold and chilly, but that was fine. This is Dagmar, taking her first bite.



My absolute favorite was the Crème Brûlée. It has a vanilla pastry cream filling and burnt sugar on top. The only fault with it is that it's too small. And that I don't know how to recreate it at home. If you do, please tell me



The coconut cream filled was also very good.



And the plain one. And all of them.



After all those doughnuts, we still wanted dinner. So we went to Dos Caminos. After frozen margaritas - very strong ones, and tasted of no alcohol whatsoever, very dangerous - we ordered a double batch of the best guacamole I've ever had. Luckily it's easy to find the recipe online, and I've already made it twice. Not as good - mostly because you can't find the same style of tortilla chips here (only thick ones, and I prefer the slightly crisper, thinner ones...) but still very good. My own adapted recipe will come once I've made it a few more times!



My entrée was ok but nothing more - it was a flank steak and I thought it was a bit overpriced.



At least compared to the wondrous side dish called Mexican Street Corn. I could have ate nothing but this (and the guac) and still have been very, very, very happy. Absolutely delicious. (It's essentially grilled corn, slathered in crema (or mayo?), and topped with mexican cheese (I bet parmesan would work) and cayenne pepper. And lime. Oh. Please eat it if you come across it. It's great.



And that concludes our New York trip! We had a great time, ate well, and shopped exactly the right amount of stuff for ALL of our bags to weigh in at an even 50 pounds, which was the limit.