Finnish Sweet Buns, or Pulla

A lot of things have happened in my kitchen since my last post.

First of all, at about 7PM on Christmas Eve, just as I was baking some Christmas loaves, my oven and stove suddenly broke. I had to wait five days until we finally got them repaired! In the meantime, I did a lot of microwave cooking - I had no idea the device could be used for so many different purposes. I even baked a sourdough loaf in microwave oven... (I do NOT recommend it, though; but microwave bread is anyway better than no bread at all...). Anyway, I wasn't very convinced - and will continue to use my microwave oven mostly to melt butter and chocolate :)

Secondly, the warehouse where I've got a lot of my family's stuff stored is going to close next month. So I spent one entire day going through many things I haven't seen in years, thinking what to keep, what to give away or sell, and what to put straight to the garbage. One of the nicest surprises were my old cookbooks, from about 30 years ago! I was super happy to be able to give them to my kids.

It seems that those old recipe books have not lost their interest... During the two past days, my kitchen has been under the invasion of cute halflings dressed in aprons, baking the most delicious findings from those old books! Like these traditional Finnish sweet bun "boys" (pullapoika) from yesterday.

For the dough you need:

• 250ml hand-warm milk or water


• 25g fresh yeast


• 100ml sugar


• 1 tsp salt


• 1-2 tsp cardamom


• about 700ml all-purpose flour


• 100g softened butter (f0r a vegan version, use margarine)

To decorate:

• raisins


• almonds


• 1 egg (for a vegan version, use vegan milk for brushing)

The method:

Crumble the yeast and place in a baking bowl. Pour the hand-warm milk in the bowl and stir until dissolved. Add sugar, salt, and cardamom. Then, add flour gradually stirring with your hand until the dough is smooth but still sticky. Lastly, add the softened butter and knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic. Add more flour if needed. (My halflings didn't knead the dough at all, yet their buns turned out perfect. Just telling you this in case you're feeling lazy ;) )

Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let ferment until doubled in size, or about 1 hour.

Pour the dough onto a baking surface and beat the air out of it. Shape as you wish, decorate with raisins and almonds, and proof about 15 minutes. Brush with egg and bake in a preheated oven (200C) until your buns are golden brown.

Sweet buns are best eaten when they are still a bit warm - is there anything better in this world than warm home-made pulla?

The Last Stretch: Raspberry Truffles and Soft Toffee Candies

I bet a lot less sweets would be eaten if everyone made their own candy: first, it takes quite a lot of time, and second, you really get to see what goes in them! The amount of sugar and fat is just beyond imagination.

But hey, it's Christmas, so we don't really care! (Do we ever? ;) )

Anyway, today I made the last stretch to complete my reverse advent's calendar and prepared two different sweets. First, raspberry truffles that featured in the Finnish Elle magazine a few years ago, and second, soft toffee candies from a really old cookbook I've lost a long time ago. Luckily, a friend still has a copy and e-mailed me the recipe!

To make about 25 truffles you need:

• 300g semi-sweet dark chocolate (I used a 66% one)


• 25g butter


• 25ml heavy cream


• 100ml frozen or fresh raspberries


• 1 Tbsp sugar


• plus cocoa powder, for dusting

And this is how to proceed:

Place the chocolate, butter, and cream either in bain-marie or in a micro-wave-proof bowl. Heat the mixture so that the butter and chocolate melt. Stir well. In a small saucepan, bring the raspberries and the sugar to the boil. Let boil 2-3 minutes or until the liquid has almost disappeared (especially frozen raspberries contain lots of water!). Pour the raspberry mixture into the chocolate mixture, stir, and let cool in the fridge until it's hard enough to handle.

Then, take small teaspoons of the mixture and form into balls. Cover each truffle with cocoa powder ( I rolled them in a small bowl containing cocoa powder). Place your truffles on a plate and let cool again, either in a cool room temperature or in the fridge. Store in a tin box - but not for a long time! Truffles have to be eaten within 2-3 days ;)

And this is what you need to make about 50-60 small toffee candies:

• 100g butter


• 200ml molasses


• 200ml heavy cream


• 300ml sugar


• 1 Tbsp cocoa powder

This is how to proceed:

Melt the butter in a heavy pan. Add molasses, cream, sugar, and cocoa powder. Stir well and bring to the boil. Let simmer over medium heat for about 35 minutes. Stir once in a while - especially towards the end.

Pour the toffee-to-be on a large plate covered with a parchment paper. Let cool in room temperature until the toffee is hard enough to be cut in pieces. You can also cool it in the fridge to make things go faster - my fridge was full of Christmas food and my balcony full of snow, but I wasn't in a hurry. (I wrapped the gifts in the meantime!)

Toffee candies should be wrapped individually in small (tin) papers, because they are somewhat sticky.

Now my advent's calendar is accomplished, and I wish you all a merry Christmas!

Day 21: Sweet Christmas Bread, Finnish Style

You remember I wrote in my previous post about one almost never coming to think of recipes that wouldn't already exist? The following is the exception justifying the use of almost; at least I couldn't find anything similar with a quick Google research.

The first bread I ever baked from scratch was a Finnish Christmas loaf, and, if my memory is to be trusted, it turned out perfect. It was the classical recipe from the best-known traditional Finnish cookbook, Kotiruoka, or Home Cooking. It's baked with molasses, fennel, bitter orange peel, and caraway seeds - and lots of yeast. Which is the reason why I wanted to modify the recipe, to be baked with sourdough starter instead of yeast.

The result was the most delicious and moist loaf ever! (If you happen to like sweet bread and anise taste, that is. I'm the only one in my family who does! More bread for me......!)

This is what you need for two loaves:

• 200g sourdough starter (on the stiffer side)


• 400g buttermilk


• 200g rye flour


• 200g spelt flour


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 12g salt


• 100ml molasses, divided


• 1tsp aniseed or fennel seeds (I couldn't FIND my fennel seeds, so I used aniseed instead)


• 1tsp bitter orange peel


• 1tsp caraway seeds


• plus some more fennel and caraway seeds for the topping

Combine starter, all three flours, and buttermilk in a baking bowl. Stir so that the flour gets moist and let stand about 20 minutes. In the meantime, combine 60ml of the molasses, the orange peel and slightly crushed fennel (or aniseed) and caraway seeds in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and remove from heat.

Now, add salt and the molasses mixture into the baking bowl. Knead about 10 minutes or until you have an elastic, smooth dough. I had to add some water because my flour was very thirsty (whole-grain rye and spelt flour tend to be...).

Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment overnight, or about 8 hours.

After the fermentation, beat the dough about 2 minutes and divide it into two parts. Proof each loaf in a proofing basket about 1 hour.

Transfer the loaves on a baking tray and brush with the rest of the molasses (add about 1 Tbsp water to make it liquid enough for brushing) and sprinkle with some seeds.

Bake in 225C for about 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to about 180C and bake until thoroughly cooked, about 45 more minutes. This bread burns easily, so check every once in a while. If necessary, cover the loaves with a wet parchment paper.

Let cool and enjoy with lots of butter!

P.S. I baked this bread now twice with sourdough starter, and the oven spring with the first batch was incredible: first, the loaves didn't seem to rise at all, but suddenly they had turned into small "volcanoes"! The second batch didn't turn out that pretty - but just as delicious ;)

P.P.S. I baked these loaves yesterday but didn't have time to write the post. Today, I'm going to bake Linzer Schnitten - among my favourite Plätzchen! And then - two more days to go!!

 

 

Day 20: Christmas Jello Cubes

When I was a kid, my mom used to make jello cubes in different colours and flavours around the Christmas time. I remember how much fun it was to cut those colourful cubes and toss them in sugar - and get to taste quite a few at the same time! What made the whole thing so special was that back in the 80's, all those ingredients (agar, colouring agents, aromas) had to be bought at the pharmacy.

What wasn't fun was the horrible stench of cooking agar. I didn't want to be anywhere near our kitchen when the cooking part was done! Somehow this didn't seem to bother my mom. And funny enough, it didn't bother me now - one more sign that I'm not getting younger ;)

The other night, I was lying in my bed and couldn't sleep. Suddenly I remembered those jello cubes - and had an inspiration: what if I made ones with glögg, or a Christmas drink popular all over Scandinavia? I had to get up and check if someone had already come up with that idea - and, as (almost) always is the case, I found two recipes for glögg jello cubes. I tried this one, and the result is awesome!

For about 34 smallish jello cubes you need:

• 250 ml water


• 250 ml sugar


• 7,5g agar


• 100ml glögg concentrate (I used my favourite brand, Marli) - or any other syrup of your liking


• plus some extra sugar for tossing the cubes

This is how to do it:

Place water, sugar, and agar in a sauce pan. Bring to the boil and let simmer, constantly stirring it, until all of the agar has dissolved and the liquid thickens. According to the agar package I used, this should have taken 5-10 minutes. The recipe said 30 minutes. I cooked mine for about 20 minutes, but this was clearly too little - all of the agar hadn't dissolved yet.

Then add the glögg concentrate (or syrup) and stir. Remove from heat. Pour the mixture in a rectangular recipient (about 10cm times 20cm), the bottom of which you have covered with a piece of parchment paper. Let cool in the fridge or outside until completely set.

When the jello is set, reverse it on a working surface and remove the parchment paper. Cut the jello in cubes about 2cm times 2cm. Toss the cubes in sugar and place on a plate. Let dry for a few hours and store. If you can resist eating them before, that is!

Day 18: Stars, Moons, and One More Log

Today, I baked two of the most beloved Plätzchen: Vanillekipferl and Zimtsterne. Vanilla crescents and cinnamon stars, that is! For the stars I used the recipe from last year, but for the vanilla crescents I tried a traditional German recipe that I couldn't make work last year. Only this time, I was equipped with a special form for this kind of cookies, and that made all the difference; the cookies turned out impeccable!

So here's the recipe to try if you've got that Kipferl form at your disposal:

In a bowl, combine 100g ground almonds, 50g sugar, 150g all-purpose flour, 8g vanilla sugar, and a pinch of salt (if the butter you're using is unsalted). Add 150g butter cut in small cubes, and rub the flour in the dry ingredients until you can form a ball with the dough! Take small amounts of the dough (about 12g) and form long sticks. Bend them to fit in the Kipferl form. Bake in a preheated oven (150C) about 20 minutes or until well cooked but not brown yet. Let the cookies cool a bit and very, very carefully transfer them on a serving plate. They break very easily at this point! Sprinkle some confectioner's sugar on top and enjoy one of the best things ever invented in Germany ;)



In addition, I felt confident enough to make one more Christmas log; the feedback this morning was overwhelmingly positive! This time, I added 1 Tbsp extra strong instant coffee in the butter icing - sublime! I also used potato starch in the batter instead of all-purpose flour (a bit less than half the amount) and the Swiss roll came out just the way it should. I was planning to freeze the log, but my kids convinced me to serve it tomorrow for their dad's birthday. Oh well, maybe I'll have to make a third one this year..

 

Day 17: Chocolate Yule Log

Today, I didn't bake anything for my reverse Advent's calendar.

Instead, I finally made one of my dreams come true: I baked a real bûche de Noël, or a Yule log! (How cool that the word yule exist, by the way - just like jul in Swedish!) Theoretically, I could have kept it for our Christmas dinner - according to some recipes I read, a Yule log can be frozen up to three months.

But this one is going to a very special purpose: a class I'm teaching is going to eat it tomorrow - it's their last French class before their Christmas holidays... Hope they'll be as thrilled as my kids who got to eat the test version today - and made me promise we'll have one for the Christmas dinner as well ;)

At the same time, I got the chance two other things I had never done before: making a real ganache and butter icing - how can I have missed these two this long?! Well, now I know how to make them!

The following recipe is for one log. It's adapted from this recipe - I browsed a lot of different ones, and somehow this seemed perfect. And it was...

I made double this portion, and used about 1/4 to make a small test version, and the rest to build a very big log! I'd say one portion is big enough for 10 people.

I had some serious problems in getting the Swiss roll done properly: it broke in several places when I tried to roll it in. Luckily, everything is covered with that butter icing, so no-one will see that. Anyway, I'd be thankful for some tips about how to make a perfect Swiss roll!

This is what you need for the Swiss roll:

• 4 eggs


• 3/4 cup sugar


• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour


• 1/4 cup cocoa powder


• 1 tsp baking powder


• 3 Tbsp melted butter

For the ganache:

• 180ml heavy cream


• 180g dark chocolate (about 60% or so)

For the butter icing:

• 1 cup butter, softened


• 1,5 cups confectioner's sugar


• 3 Tbsp cocoa powder


• + a bit of heavy cream, if needed

For the decoration:

• marzipan figures


• confectioner's sugar

First, prepare the ganache. Bring the cream to the boil in a saucepan, remove from heat, and add the chopped chocolate. Stir until the chocolate melts. Place in a cool place - this time of the year, even my room temperature was cool enough! Fridge is not a good option, though; try a cold-water bath instead if your house is warmer than mine. Let the ganache-to-be stand about one hour. Then beat the mixture until it gets fluffy and somewhat less dark. This took about 7 minutes with my spiral whisk!

Then it's time to prepare the Swiss roll. Combine flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a bowl. Set aside. Beat the eggs and the sugar in another bowl until the mixture is pale and thick. Add sifted flour mixture and the butter and stir until well combined. Pour the batter on an oven tray covered with a parchment paper. Leave a margin on all sides. My cake was about 35cm times 25cm.

Bake in a preheated oven (200C) about 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. In the meantime, place another parchment paper on a baking tray. Sprinkle some sugar on it. Once you take the cake out, reverse it immediately on the sugar-covered parchment paper. Remove the original paper and roll the cake in, starting from the side closer to you. (Like I told you, mine broke in several places. I have no idea what went wrong!) Let the cake cool while you prepare the butter icing.

Soften the butter and beat it until it gets creamy and fluffy. Then add sifted confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder, and rub them in the butter. Add some cream if needed (I didn't need any, but then again, I just couldn't use all of the sugar amount either! It felt horribly over-sweet as it was - with maybe 3/4 of the sugar amount of the original recipe!).

When the ganache and the butter icing are ready and the cake has cooled to room temperature, it's time to build the log. Roll the cake out again, spread the ganache evenly on top of it, and roll in again. Spread the butter icing on your log and, using a small spatula, create a wood-a-like surface (this was really easy with the butter icing! I just love it!). Decorate with any marzipan figures you like, and sprinkle with some confectioner's sugar. We want some snow for Christmas, don't we?!

I made my marzipan leaves and mushrooms myself. I had planned to buy them, but, well, maybe I just don't know the right places to go in Helsinki - or there aren't any available. At least I couldn't find any. So equipped with some natural-coloured marzipan and a bottle of green and red colour I managed some mushrooms, green leaves, and red berries.

The log can be kept 2-3 days in the fridge (if it fits ;) ), or frozen.

P.S. You can flavour the ganache and the butter icing - next time, I'll use some coffee in both! Or how about orange? Or - well, just consult your Flavour Thesaurus for further ideas!



 

Day 16: Zedernbrot, or a Happy Marriage Between Lemon and Almond

The first time I tasted these very lemony, very almond-y Christmas cookies was at a friend's place. They were made by her mother-in-law, and the recipe was top-secret. I managed to convince my friend to convince her mother-in-law to give me the recipe, and the plan worked!

But here's the thing - I lost the paper on which the recipe was written.

The other recipes I've found give a good result as well - like this one I posted last year. This year, I used 100g roasted ground almonds and 100g plain ground almonds (last year only roasted almonds because that was the only organic variety I could find). I also reduced the amount of lemon juice, because last year the dough was a bit too liquid.

And I decorated my Zedernbrot cookies with some finely chopped candied lemon peel!

 

Day 15: Linzer Cookies

Ten days to go, and I still hadn't baked almost any of the iconic German Christmas cookies - Zimtsterne, Spitzbuben, Zedernbrot, Linzerschnitte...

So now it was time to get back to the track. I decided to bake Linzer cookies, the recipe of which I was almost sure I already shared last year - but I didn't... So now it's time to share it!

These sandwich cookies taste a bit like gingerbread but they are much softer! Fill them with any red jam that you like - my favourite is a mixture of raspberry and redcurrant jam.

This is what you need:

• 150g softened butter


• 50g sugar


• 1 egg


• 150g all-purpose flour


• 75 ground almonds


• 75g ground hazelnuts


• 1/3 tsp baking powder


• 1/2 tsp cinnamon


• 1/4 tsp cloves


• 1/4 tsp cardamom


• a pinch of ground nutmeg


• a pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)


• red jam (raspberry, redcurrant...) for the filling


• some confectioner's sugar to decorate

This is how to proceed:

Beat butter and sugar until the mixture is creamy. Add the egg and stir until well combined. In another bowl, combine all the other dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar-egg-mixture and stir until you get a smooth batter. It is a bit liquid at this point, but don't add any flour!

Let the dough rest in the fridge about 2 hours.

Now, preheat the oven to 180C. Roll the dough out and cut hearts (or other forms of your liking) with a cookie cutter. Bake the cookies until the start to get some colour.

Once out of the oven, let the cookies cool down. Then spread jam evenly on the flat side of half of the cookies. Sandwich with the rest of the cookies. Sprinkle with some powder sugar and serve!

If you're planning to keep the cookies longer, do the sandwiching part only just before serving them.

Day 14: Orange Cookies with Almond and Rosemary

Ever heard of the Flavour Thesaurus? If not, do take a look at it! It's a great source of inspiration, suggesting which flavours pair well one with another. And it's an entertaining read, too!

So I had already decided to adjust my Rum Raisin Cookie recipe and to use homemade candied orange peel instead of raisins, and I was exploring the different options of other ingredients to go with. Rosemary seemed a good candidate, due to its fresh taste and the small surprise effect it would create.

And it sure was a good choice! This recipe will yield about 25 incredibly tasty cookies!

What you need:

• 100g homemade candied orange peel, cut in small cubes


• 50ml Cointreau (the alcohol will disappear during the cooking, but if you want, replace with orange juice)


• 1 Tbsp orange syrup (from the candied peel)


• 3 twigs of fresh rosemary


• 100g butter, softened


• 50g sugar


• 1 egg


• a few drops of vanilla extract


• 50g ground almonds


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 1/2 tsp baking powder


• (a pinch of salt, if you're using unsalted butter)


• plus some confectioner's sugar

Preheat the oven to 175C. Combine the candied orange peel, Cointreau, orange syrup, and two of the rosemary twigs in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, remove from the heat, and cover until the rest of the dough is done.

Beat the softened butter and the sugar in a baking bowl until white and fluffy. Add the egg and the vanilla extract, stir well, then add the almonds and the flour in which you've mixed the baking powder (and the salt, if using). Add the orange peel mixture (remember to remove the rosemary twigs!) and stir until well combined. The batter should be soft but not too liquid - add more flour if needed.

Use a teaspoon to place small heaps of batter on a baking tray covered with a parchment paper. Leave some space between the cookies as they spread a bit in the oven. Now you need the third twig: hide one rosemary leaf in each cookie! Bake them until golden brown, or about 15 minutes.

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and serve immediately - or hide well ;)

 

Day 13: Saint Lucy's Buns

Yesterday I didn't bake anything for my reverse advent's calendar. The reason is - I had the honour of doing the catering for my godson's birthday party! So I spent the whole day in the kitchen cooking and baking for the big event.

But around midnight I prepared the dough for today's project. I wanted to bake Saint Lucy's buns, which are a tradition in Sweden - and increasingly so in Finland as well. I've baked them a couple of times, only this time I wanted to use sourdough starter only instead of yeast. The result was incredibly soft and tasty - my starter seems to be in good form again!

Traditionally, these buns contain saffron which lends them a very beautiful yellow colour. Well, I had forgotten to buy saffron, and by the time I wanted to make the dough, it was already too late to buy any. So mine were white this year.. but very tasty nonetheless (and much cheaper, of course ;) ).

This is what I needed for 13 buns:

• 100g stiff sourdough starter


• 250ml liquid (I used a mix of water, cream, and quark)


• 50g sugar (this is very little, and the buns were just slightly sweet - feel free to add more)


• 1/3 tsp salt


• 100g butter, softened


• 1 egg


• 0.5g saffron (which I had forgotten to buy...)


• about 400g all-purpose flour

Combine all ingredients in a baking bowl. Knead until the dough is smooth, or about 10 minutes. Cover with a damp kitchen cloth and place in a warmish place overnight (or about 8 hours) to ferment.

When the dough has more or less doubled in volume, place it on a baking surface and punch the air out. Divide the dough in about 13 parts. Roll each part about 20cm long and form buns in a shape of S.

Place the buns on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. Cover with a kitchen towel and proof about 20-30 minutes. Brush the buns with egg yolk and decorate with raisins (place them deep enough so that they don't burn!). Bake in a preheated oven (220C) about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Enjoy your buns just as they've cooled enough!

I froze five of my buns for Christmas.. let's see if they are still so soft when defrosted ;)

P.S. After having read the story of Saint Lucy in Wikipedia, I can't look at these buns without thinking that those two raisins symbolize the poor girl's eyes.. a very macabre story indeed!

 

Day 11: A Total Panforte Disaster

Panforte was among the new recipes I wanted to try this year. It's a traditional Italian Christmas cake, combining candied fruit and different kinds of nuts with honey, sugar, and spices. As the name suggests, it's very rich - and it keeps well, even several months.

I had a stash of different nuts I had bought still back in Germany, and I thought this would be an ideal purpose for using them. I had read that the traditional panforte from Sienna combines 17 different ingredients, because the city of Sienna has 17 districts.

So I chose the following 17 ingredients: pine nuts, pistachios, almonds, hazelnuts, chocolate, cocoa powder, flour, sugar, honey, butter, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and Cointreau and adapted my recipe from that of Nigella.

All seemed to be perfect - the batter, the smell, and the taste and texture of my panforte just after I'd taken it out of the oven (I made four small ones and thought we'd eat the first one right away). It was like chocolate fudge and different nuts married with ginger bread! Heavenly indeed...

...until the disaster happened: as soon as the three other panforte cakes had cooled, it became clear that they could only be eaten by a robot or anyone else having their teeth replaced by chain saws.

I even tried to soak one of them in hot water with some honey in it, but the only thing that happened was that some of the chocolate dissolved in the water - and the panforte itself was still totally inedible (at least for a human being with a normal set of teeth).

The mistake might have been that I kept the panforte too long in the oven  - although they were still very soft when I took them out; anyway, too many precious ingredients are now on their way to a landfill site for me to try panforte any time soon :(

 

Day 10: Anisplätzchen, after all!

I had planned to bake something completely different today, but in the morning, I found myself looking for Anisplätzchen recipes - remember those famous German aniseed cookies that even the professional bakers might not get right?

The recipes didn't look too complicated, just that they advised to beat the batter 45 minutes with a kitchen machine, which I don't have, so I had some doubts whether I could manage to make the batter just with a spiral whisk.

Maybe I had beginner's luck or maybe these cookies are not that hard to make after all, because they turned perfect the first time! Or maybe I have to thank the Finnish weather conditions - dark, cold, extremely windy ;)

This is what you need to make 17-20 small cookies:

• 1 egg


• 75g confectioner's sugar


• 1 tsp ground aniseed, plus some entire seeds to decorate


• a few drops vanilla extract


• 75g all-purpose flour


• a pinch of baking powder

This is how to do it:

Combine sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and ground aniseed in a baking bowl. Turn your TV on, sit comfortably on your sofa, take a deep breath - and start beating. I did this for about 30 minutes. The mixture should be fluffy, creamy, and honey-like. (Honestly speaking - I think mine was all that even after 10 minutes, but I continued beating, just to be sure!) Now add the flour in which you've added the baking powder and stir until well combined.

With two teaspoons, place small drops of batter (about 1 teaspoon) on a baking tray covered with parchment paper. My initial batter was too liquid - the eggs I use are rather large - so I had to add more flour at this point. The batter should be firm enough so that the cookies don't go totally flat! Sprinkle the cookies with some entire anise seeds.

Let the cookies dry 6-12 hours in room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 175C and bake the cookies until they are hard but not yet getting any colour. If you've done everything right, a miracle will take place: those initially quite flat cookies will rise and get what the Germans call Füßchen, or "small feet".

You can't imagine how happy I was when I took a look at my cookies after 10 minutes or so and saw that the miracle had indeed happened...

Now I'm sipping some coffee with two different aniseed cookies and can't decide which ones taste better :)

 

Day 9: Aniseed Cookies

Last year a friend of mine told me that if I wanted some real challenge in my Plätzchen baking, I should try Anisplätzchen - they are almost impossible to bake right, even if you're a professional baker; whether they succeed or not depends namely on the humidity of air, among other things.

The seed of this challenge got planted in my brain, but I don't feel up to it just now. Maybe next year...!

But I wanted to try something with aniseed, and luckily there is a variety of other Christmas cookies that feature this little liquorice-tasting seed!

This seemed an easy recipe, and it was. The only tricky part is when you take the cookies out of the oven: you have to be really quick to stretch them over a spoon to get the right shape. They are elastic only about 1-2 minutes once they're out, after that they harden and can't be shaped any more.

For about 35 cookies you need:

• 2 eggs


• 120g sugar


• 1 tsp ground aniseed


• 60g all-purpose flour


• a pinch of salt


• entire aniseed seeds to decorate

Preheat the oven to 200C. Combine eggs, sugar and ground aniseed in a baking bowl. Beat until the mixture is creamy and fluffy. Then add sifted flour (in which you've added the salt) and stir until well combined. Place small drops of about one teaspoon on a baking tray, covered with parchment paper, and bake in the oven about 7 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown in the middle and a bit darker from the sides.

While the cookies are baking, take out as many tablespoons as you have cookies in the oven. Once you take the cookies out, you need to be fast: with each spoon, take one cookie from the baking tray (be careful, don't burn your fingers!) and stretch in on the outside of the spoon. Place on another tray and let cool completely. Repeat with the rest of the cookies.

Enjoy with a glass of mulled wine, for example!



P.S. As you can see in this picture, I also baked some rum raisin cookies today.... They are my son's all-time favourite cookies!

Day 8: Little Josephines

Last weekend I baked two Chocolate Mousse Cakes, so I had a lot of egg yolks that I had to use as soon as possible. Luckily I didn't have to wait long to get an inspiration.

In the morning I was reading one of my favourite baking books Underbart är gott, and happened to see an interesting recipe that only required four ingredients: egg yolks, butter, marzipan, and almond flakes. That sounded so crazy I just had to try these little cakes called Josephines. I was almost sure this could only result in a disaster - I mean, what kind of a batter would you get using only those ingredients?!

But weirdly enough, the batter was smooth and the Josephines themselves.. well.. I feel like repeating myself, but they are like almonds gone to heaven!

I don't think they will keep well, though; they are very moist - maybe in the fridge they'd keep up to a week or so, but I think I'll make a second batch just before Christmas and serve these first ones asap ;)

For 10 small-cupcake-sized Josephines you need:

• 300g marzipan


• 170g butter


• 90g egg yolks


• about 10g almond flakes


• plus some extra butter for the forms

This is how you make them:

Grate the marzipan into a baking bowl. Add softened butter and stir until well combined. Then add egg yolks and stir again until smooth. Prepare the cupcake forms: I suggest you use silicon ones - I tried in both silicon and aluminum ones, but although I had buttered the aluminum forms really well, the Josephines wouldn't come out of them well. Place some almond flakes into each form, then fill with batter and bake in a preheated oven (150-170C) about 15 minutes or until well set.

Let the Josephines cool before taking them out of the forms.

Serve immediately!

P.S. I have no idea where the Swedish name Josefiner comes from: a quick Google search in English and French didn't result in any similar recipes... so I'll call them Josephines until I find out what they really are called in English :)

 

Day 7: Greek Almond Stars

This is a recipe I’ve wanted to try for a long time, and I’m glad I finally did! These almond stars, flavoured with brandy and vanilla, are among the prettiest cookies I’ve ever baked! They are very tasty and easy to make.

The original recipe is from Rena Salaman’s The Greek Cook. I had to change the measures a bit - especially the amounts of sugar and flour. Here’s my version:

For the dough you need

• 225g butter


• 125g sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 2 egg yolks


• 3 Tbsp brandy


• 1/2 tsp baking soda


• 160g ground almonds


• 350g all-purposed flour


• a pinch of salt (only if using unsalted butter)


• plus about 100g confectioner’s sugar for dusting.

Set the oven to 175C. Combine softened butter, vanilla sugar, and sugar in a baking bowl. Stir with a wooden spoon or spatula until creamy and white, then add the egg yolks and stir until well combined. Add the brandy in which you have dissolved the baking soda. Lastly, add almonds and flour and work the dough with your hands until you can form it into a ball.

Roll the dough about 1cm thick (the original recipe suggested 2,5cm but for me it was just too much and my cookie cutter is only a bit less than 2cm deep…). Use a cookie cutter to cut small stars. Bake the cookies until they almost start to get some colour - be careful, they burn very easily!

Once out of the oven, sprinkle some confectioner’s sugar on top. Take a big plate and sprinkle its surface with confectioner’s sugar, too. Let the cookies cool a few minutes, then transfer them on the plate and dust them with more confectioner’s sugar so that they are totally white.

Serve your stars with a cup of strong coffee!

Day 6: Panettone

My first contact with panettone was back in 1996 when I was interrailing in southern Europe during the Christmas holidays. In Italy, I bought a huge panettone to take home with me and tied it to my tiny backpack, to the amusement of many co-travelers. But it certainly was worth the trouble!

Ever since, I’ve been a regular user of those mouth-watering Italian Christmas cakes. About two years ago, I realized that it would theoretically be possible to bake one at home, but I still didn’t dare trying it myself. “It’s just too complicated, it’s better to buy one”, advised even the owners of an Italian restaurant back in Germany.

I decided that this year it was time to make my own perfect panettone. Not a "fake one" like I’ baked before - sweet bread with the same flavours as panettone – but a real one.

And judging by everything else but the taste, I’ve managed it this time. (I’ll only be able to taste my panettone tomorrow, but I’ll let you know how it was as soon as we’ve had breakfast!)

The recipe I used is based on this Italian recipe. My Italian is far from being perfect, and I understood roughly half of what I read. I even tried Google translating it into Finnish – which only resulted in the best laugh I’ve had in a long, long time. (It seems that the machine translation has only developed in quantity, not in quality since the time I was studying :) )

This is what you need for 1 big panettone (about 1300g) or two small ones (about 650g):

For the first dough:

• 60g very stiff sourdough starter, refreshed three times with the same flour you’re going to use for your panettone


• 1g fresh yeast, dissolved in 90ml water


• 75g sugar


• 70g egg yolks


• 240g flour (I used a mixture of Italian flour type 00 and all-purpose flour)


• 85g butter

 

For the second dough:

• all of the first dough


• 40ml water


• 80g egg yolks


• 2 Tbsp sugar


• 2 Tbsp orange syrup (from the homemade candied orange peel)


• aromatic butter - made with 90g butter, melted the previous day together with 1 Tbsp honey, 1 vanilla pod, and the grated zest of 1 organic lemon and 1 organic orange, then stored in a cool place


• 120g raisins


• 60g homemade dried orange peels, in small cubes


• 2g salt (4 if using unsalted butter)


• about 200g flour (the original recipe said 60g, but I needed a lot more)

First of all, you need to make sure your sourdough starter is ready for the job! Refresh it on the first day three times, first at about 7AM, then at noon, and still at 4PM or so. Use the same flour as you are going to use for the panettone – special panettone flour seems to be available, but not here, so I used a mixture of all-purpose flour and Italian flour type 00. Make sure that your starter at least doubles in size between the feedings. The original recipe said it should triple – mine the most certainly didn’t; then again, I couldn’t control the temperature – it should have been 28-30C, and even in the warmest and most draft free spot in my kitchen, the temperature must not have been more than 25C. The starter should also be stiffer than usual - for 100g of starter, I used 100g flour and 40ml of water for the first feeding, then 100g flour and 70-80ml of water for the second and the third one.

During the first day, prepare the candied orange peels (use this recipe, only cut the peels into small cubes, instead of long stripes) and the aromatic butter for the second dough.

At about 7 or 8 PM, prepare the first dough. Combine all ingredients of the first dough in a baking bowl and knead about 10-15 minutes (I don’t have any kitchen machine, so I knead by hand). Then cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel and place in a warm and draft free place and let ferment overnight.

In the morning, check that the dough has at least doubled in volume. (If it hasn’t, too bad – my guess is that you’ll have to start all over again!) Mine had, so I proceeded to the second dough.



Add all the ingredients of the second dough into the first dough (remember to remove the vanilla pod from the aromatic butter!) and knead again about 10-15 minutes. Let the dough rest about 1 hour in a warmish place (about 25C). In the meantime, prepare your panettone papers: I didn’t have any, so I looked for instructions for making my own. This is what I used to make mine, and it worked well! Thank you, Chef in disguise!

Then place the panettone in the panettone paper. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and proof until doubled in size, again in a warmish and draft free place. This took about 8 hours.

Heat the oven to 190C and bake the panettone about 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 160C or so, and bake until well baked. Panettone tends to burn on top, so keep an extra parchment paper on hand – if needed, just wet it and cover the panettone with it.

Take the panettone out and let cool enough that you can touch it without burning.

Now comes the weirdest part: one way or another, you should be able to hang your panettone upside down for the next 12 hours or so. The best way to do this is to wash well 2 knitting needles for each panettone, push them through it and place on top of a bowl (or on top of four glasses turned upside down, like I did). Be careful if using metal needles like I did: they get very hot!



Some recipes said you could eat your panettone right away, others instructed to wait a couple of days. Well, I don’t care, I the most certainly will try the first one tomorrow!

Sweet dreams :)

7.12: And here's the final product:



 

Day 5: Hallongrottor - the Best Cookies in the World

When I was a kid, my grandmother used to bake cookies that we called the Best-in-the-world. They were small round sandwich cookies with raspberry jam in the middle. Unfortunately, I don’t have the recipe anymore.

But maybe I wouldn’t need it, either: looking at my family devouring the first batch of Hallongrottor yesterday, I could see me and my cousins devouring the Best-in-the-world-cookies. The first batch was gone before I even found the tin box in which I had planned to store them. But luckily, they are extremely easy and quick to do! So today, I baked again ;)

Here’s a revised recipe from last year. This time, I added egg yolk in the dough, to make it more manageable. (I used to add a bit of water if needed, but it's not a very good idea: the cookies tend to spread more in the oven...)

For 25-30 hallongrottor you need

• 225g butter or vegan margarine


• 85g sugar


• 250g all-purpose flour


• 60g marsánpulver (or other vanilla pudding powder)


• 1 ⅕ tsp baking powder


• 1 pinch of salt (only if using non-salt butter)


• 2 egg yolks


• raspberry jam

Preheat your oven to 180 C. Cut the butter into small cubes and place in a baking bowl. In another bowl, combine sugar, flour, vanilla pudding powder, baking powder, and salt (if using). Work the mixture with your fingertips until fine and crumbly, then add egg yolks and work the dough until it's easy to form it into a ball.

Divide the dough into 25-30 parts (mine weighed 20g). Roll each of them into a small ball and place on an oven tray covered with parchment paper. Press a hole in the middle of each cookie, using your finger, and fill the holes with raspberry jam. Bake about 12-15 minutes, or until well cooked but not brown yet.

Store them very soon after baking if you want to have any left for Christmas!

Day 4: Gingerbread with Rye Flour

For today, my son had scheduled Finnish gingerbread cookies. Which I did bake, following the recipe I posted last year.

Well, almost. I made a small change: I used a mixture of rye flour and all-purpose flour, inspired by Biberli cookies from yesterday.

This resulted in the most perfect gingerbread dough ever! Well, apart from the greenish colour before baking the cookies, that is. But otherwise, the dough was smooth and very easy to roll even very thin – and thin is what I like my gingerbread cookies to be! My very biased jury said these were the best gingerbread cookies ever.

So here is the recipe from last year, re-posted, but with different flour. At least my rye flour was thirstier than other flour types, so I used slightly less flour.

This is what you need (it’s impossible to say how many you’ll get, it depends on the size of the cookie cutters you’re using - but one portion gives you one big plate full of them):

• 50ml molasses


• 125g butter


• 90g sugar


• 0,5 tsp cinnamon, ground ginger, cloves, bitter orange peel, each


• 0,2 tsp cardamom and allspice, each


• 1 egg


• 450ml flour (more or less 280g) - half rye, half all-purpose


• 0,3 tsp salt


• 1 tsp baking soda

Place butter, sugar, molasses, and the spices in a pan. Warm until the butter has melted, then let cool to room temperature. In the meantime, measure the flour, salt, and baking soda in a baking bowl. When the butter-spice-mixture is cool enough, beat it until pale brown, add the egg, and beat one minute more. (I do this using a twirl whisk.)

Pour the mixture into the flour mixture and stir well. Note that the dough is quite soft at this point, but do NOT add more flour. Now, place the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours, or preferably overnight. This will allow for the flavours to develop to their full potential!

When your dough is ready, roll it out on a flour dusted work surface until about 2-3 mm thin. Cut out cookies, using cookie cutters of different shapes. Place your cookies on an oven tray covered with parchment paper.  Bake in a preheated oven (200 C) 6-8 minutes. Note that size matters here: on each tray, place cookies of more or less the same size - otherwise the small ones will burn before the big ones are done.

I suggest you make at least double portion of this dough and keep it in the fridge. It keeps easily one week, and then you can bake cookies whenever you feel like it - and enjoy that heavenly smell of freshly baked gingerbread!

Day 3: Biberli, or Swiss Gingerbread with Almond-Kirsch-Filling

Biberli is what happened to me when I let the kids decide what I should bake next. They chose a recipe I had never heard of before, with no picture, and with a name that didn't tell me anything at all: Biber is German for beaver, -li is a suffix that the Swiss love to add after all possible words, it seems.

But good that they did, because these gingerbread cookies are absolutely gorgeous, with a soft almond-kirsch-filling wrapped in crispy, spicy gingerbread crust.

And after a quick look at the best dictionary in the world I found out that the name for this type of cookies the most likely comes from a dialectal variant of Pimpernuss, or bladdernut (!), that was used as a spice in Biberli. Speaking of which: instead of the spices in this recipe, you can use a ready-made gingerbread spice mix.

This is what you need for the dough:

• 120g honey


• 50g sugar


• 30g butter


• 1 tsp cinnamon


• ½ tsp ground cloves


• 1 pinch of the following: dried orange peel, ginger, cardamom, coriander


• 1 pinch of salt


• 100g all-purpose flour


• 100g rye flour


• 1 tsp potash (or baking soda)


• 1 Tbsp kirsch or similar

..and for the filling:

• 1 smallish egg white


• 100g ground almond


• 40g sugar


• 1 Tbsp kirsch or similar

…and for the wash:

• a bit of milk


• 1 Tbsp honey


• 1 tsp cornstarch


• 1 Tbsp water

Combine honey, sugar, spices and butter in a saucepan. Heat until sugar has melted, then remove from heat. Dissolve potash in the kirsch. Place flour in a baking bowl. Add salt and the honey mixture and the potash-kirsch-mixture. Work the dough with your hands until it’s smooth. The dough looks and smells awful – don’t be scared, that’s normal :) The greenish colour comes from the rye and the weird smell from the potash (baking soda doesn’t smell that strong!). Let the dough rest 2-3 hours in the fridge.

For the filling, just combine all ingredients until you get a somewhat firm paste.

Roll the dough into a long rectangle about 8 cm wide. Work the filling into a long roll – it should be as long as the dough rectangle is. Place the filling roll in the middle of the dough. Pull both sides gently towards the middle, so that the filling stays fully covered. Press the seam together and turn the roll so that the seam faces down (see the picture below).

Now, use a sharp knife to cut small triangles out of the roll, like when baking cinnamon rolls the Finnish way. Brush the Biberli with milk and bake in a preheated oven (175 C) about 15 minutes, or until they start to gain some colour. In the meantime, prepare the liquid for the second wash: combine cornstarch, cold water and honey in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil and remove from heat. Once the cookies come out of the oven, brush them with the warm honey mixture. Let cool completely, then either enjoy – or store!

I’ve noticed that this kind of Lebkuchen (or gingerbread) tastes a bit bitter on the first day. Miraculously, the taste improves a lot in one or two days!



 

 

 

Day 2: Candied Orange Peel

I admit – I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life! But nothing as serious as having thrown away the best part of all the oranges I’ve ever eaten – the peel, that is. Even the not-so-tasty oranges have a luxuriously delicious peel! Of course, I’m talking about organic, non-treated oranges; the peel of waxed oranges is not edible (correct me if I'm wrong!).

So, instead of throwing away orange peels, dry them and use for baking. Or, even better, try this recipe of candied orange peel! I found it in Rena Salamans great book "The Greek Cook".

It’s amazing how during the 36 hours of making the candied orange peel the whole house is filled with irresistible orange smell. (But don’t worry, the active time of making them is actually quite short!) Only that smell makes the work worthwhile. In addition, candied orange peels are a real eye-catcher and they taste heavenly!

Here the time-planning is crucial: for me, it made sense to soak the peels late in the afternoon, let them stand the required 24 hours, do the cooking part early in the evening, and let stand until this morning.

For about 36 pieces you need:

• 4 organic oranges


• 400g sugar


• the juice of one small lemon or half a big one


• …and some strong yarn & a needle

Peel the oranges in a way that you get long stripes about two to three centimeters wide. Roll the stripes tight and secure them by binding 10-12 together in a “bracelet” (see the picture above) with needle and yarn.

Place the “bracelets” in a bowl filled with cold water. Let stand about 24 hours. Change the water 3-4 times. This is done to reduce the bitterness of the orange peels.

Drain the peels and place in a big saucepan. Cover with 2 liters of cold water. Bring to the boil and let simmer for 15 minutes. Drain the peels and repeat the procedure with fresh water. This time, let the peels simmer about 10 minutes or until they start to soften. Be careful not to overcook them.

Drain the peels again. In the meantime, prepare the syrup: place sugar and water in a heavy pan. Warm until the sugar has dissolved (add some more water if necessary), then let boil over a low heat until the mixture turns into thick syrup, or about 5 minutes. Be careful, it burns easily! Now, remove the yarn and place the peels into the syrup. Let simmer over a low heat about 5 minutes. Let cool and stand overnight.

Next morning, bring the mixture once more to the boil. Let simmer 5 more minutes, add the lemon juice, stir, remove from heat, and let cool completely. Place the peels and the syrup in well-washed jars.

If you sterilize the jars, the candied orange peels should keep easily for two years. I’m not going to try to find out if that’s true, though… Just happy if they make it until Christmas!

P.S. Don't throw the syrup away: it can be used in baking, or for flavouring of pancakes, yoghurt, and so on.



 

Day 1: Stollen

When baking for a day still quite far away in the future, it’s important to make sure that what you’re baking will still be good on the D-day.

So what could be a better candidate than a Christmas cake that was traditionally baked in Germany around the Christmas time - and eaten until Easter? This Christmas wonder is called Stollen - and that's what I decided to start with.

Most Stollen recipes involve a lot of yeast. I’m not a big fan of yeast, and I prefer baking with sourdough starter instead. So I tried to bake my Stollen with sourdough starter, with only a tiny bit of yeast as a guarantee it would ferment properly (maybe it’s the low temperature in my house, but my starter hasn’t worked perfectly lately).

It’s impossible to say whether the recipe I’ll share withyou is a good one. I will only be able to tell in about two week's time - that's how long it takes for this cake to develop its taste fully. But judging by the taste of the dough and the smell of the Stollen, I’m very optimistic!

For two smallish Stollen (a bit less than 450g each) you need:

• 120g sourdough starter, refreshed about 6-8 hours before with milk


• about 2g fresh yeast


• 100ml milk


• 2 Tbsp rum


• 1 egg


• 80g butter, melted


• grated zest of 1 organic lemon


• 50g sugar


• a pinch of salt


• a pinch of cardamom


• a pinch of cinnamon


• 140g sultanas


• 3 Tbsp candied lemon peel


• 40g ground almond


• 250g all-purpose flour

• plus about 70g melted butter and 4 tsp confectioner’s sugar on top

This is how you make it:

Combine lukewarm milk and yeast in a baking bowl. Add starter, egg, melted butter, sugar, salt (if using non-salted butter, consider using two pinches), lemon peel, and rum. Then add almond, sultanas, candied lemon peel, cinnamon, cardamom, and lastly, the flour. Knead until the dough is smooth, about 5 minutes, and add more flour if needed. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let ferment in a draft-free place overnight.

In the morning, punch the dough on a baking surface and divide in two. Take one part and using your hands, form a rectangle. Fold the rectangle in the middle to form a Stollen, and place it on a baking tray covered with a parchment paper. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Make sure that no sultanas are on the surface - if there are, push them gently inside the Stollen; sultanas tend to burn very easily! Proof about one hour. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake the cakes until they are golden brown on top and also well baked inside.

Once out of the oven, brush each Stollen with about 35g melted butter and sprinkle 2 tsp confectioner’s sugar on each. Let cool completely. Then wrap the cakes into a tin foil, place in a plastic bag and store in a cool place (not the fridge, though, it’s too cold and humid) for at least two weeks.

I’ll try to wait two weeks before tasting my first Stollen. I’ll keep you posted about the results!

P.S. Obviously, this recipe was no consolation for the kids - so we had some mousse au chocolat as a dessert instead! But hope they'll have better luck tomorrow.

Christmas Cookie Calendar in Reverse

Last year, I got hooked to the German tradition of baking a variety of different Christmas cookies, or Plätzchen. I tried out 17 different German and non-German recipes, and it was a great experience. After that experience there just isn’t a way back to the Finnish only-one-type-of-gingerbread-cookies tradition.

So this year, there will be a variety of Plätzchen as well.

But in a slightly different way: this year, it will be a sort of reverse advent calendar!

Let me explain.

When I was a kid, I used to get an advent calendar every year. Some of my friends got a candy calendar, but mine only had pictures. I was so jealous!

This year, it was my kids turn to ask for an advent calendar with candy - or even worse, with Legos/Playmobils/some other plastic stuff in them. I will stick to the picture calendar, but at the same time, I’m going to offer a different kind of advent experience to the whole family and to myself. I’m going to bake cookies or cakes every day in December until Christmas, as if it were an advent calendar. I will bake only small or at least moderate amounts, and will store a certain amount of each, so that on Christmas Day we’ll have 24 different Christmas cookies, sweets, or cakes. A Christmas present for myself, how cool is that?

At the same time, during these 24 days there will be some leftovers to taste, (almost) every day! And hopefully a consolation for the kids ;)

I have a challenge for YOU: Join me in making your own advent calendar in reverse, with your own favourite recipes – or with the ones you always wanted to try but didn’t find the time yet. It doesn’t have to be every day, either: even if you make one contribution every three days, you’ll have 8 sorts by Christmas. Not bad, huh?

The picture in this post is one of my attempts to make a perfect Panettone, during last year's Christmas bake-off. My biggest challenge this year will be to finally manage to bake a perfect one! Stay tuned!

Chocolate Mousse Cake

You know the feeling when you get to eat something divine, ask for the recipe and are lucky enough to get it, try it out yourself – only to be bitterly disappointed with the result? Well, this is what happened to me with an absolutely exquisite chocolate mousse cake. A Portuguese friend of mine had served this tempting and delicious chocolate dessert a few months ago.

After the first failed experiment, I decided not to bake that cake anymore. I just couldn't take the disappointment anymore.

Things recently changed. The reason is that I have been drowning in egg whites that have been left over from pastéis (where you only use the yolks). And I got an idea: what if I used a lot of egg whites in the chocolate mousse cake, instead of whole eggs? Luckily enough, it worked! This cake is fluffy, tasty, and dangerously addictive. Bake at your own risk!

For one cake you need:

• 7-8 egg whites


• 2 eggs, whites and yolks separated


• 150g butter


• 250g dark chocolate


• 200g sugar


• 8g vanilla sugar


• 100g all-purpose flour

First, melt the chocolate and the butter in a saucepan or in the microwave. Add the two egg yolks and stir. Let cool a bit. In the meantime, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then add sugar and vanilla sugar gradually and continue beating. Now, add flour and the butter-chocolate-mixture to the egg whites and stir gently so that all ingredients get well combined. Pour into a buttered round cake form and bake in a preheated oven (175C) until the sides set but the center is still a bit liquid, or about 15-20 minutes.

Let the cake cool well and serve it plain or with some vanilla sauce or ice cream. And good coffee, of course!

P.S. I asked my daughter if the cake tasted as good as Orlanda's. "Well, almost", was her honest answer!

Pastéis de 4114 km de Belém

All my friends know how good I am at keeping secrets. Not very good, I’m afraid. In fact, I suck at it! So no way I’d be able to keep the recipe of almost perfect pastéis as a secret for two centuries… even two days would have been tough!

So here you have it, the not-so-secret recipe of mine. It's quite complex, though, so please ask if you've got any problems at any point!

It is mandatory that the puff pastry be homemade. But don’t worry, I suck at making puff pastry almost as badly as at keeping secrets. And yet I managed to do it – for this purpose, the dough just doesn’t have to be perfect (like, say, for croissants, which I’ve failed miserably every time I’ve tried to make them so far). Any attempt you make will be good enough for pastéis!

I used 1/3 whole-grain wheat and 2/3 all-purpose flour, but for a more traditional result, use only all-purpose. Not everyone is a fan of whole-grain like myself! And not everyone has as good flour as I have, and even I am tragically running out of it. (Time to visit Germany to get some more?!)

For about 30 pastéis you need:

For the dough:

• 400g flour


• 225ml warm water


• 200g butter


• (1/4 tsp salt but only if using unsalted butter)

For the filling:

• 12-14 egg yolks (reserve the whites to use for some other purpose)


• 200g sugar


• 4 Tbps cornstarch


• 1,2 liters heavy cream


• zest of one organic lemon, cut in long stripes


• one vanilla pod

First, make the filling. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, stirring constantly. This tends to burn really easily, so don’t even think of leaving the custard, even for two seconds! Let cool completely and make the dough in the meantime.

To make the dough, place the flour in a baking bowl. Make a hole in the middle, pour in the warm water, and work the dough with your hands until it’s smooth. Always start with a bit less water and add more if needed. It should be firm and smooth at the same time.

Now roll the dough out to a rectangle a bit smaller than an A4 paper. Smear half of the dough with softened butter. Fold the unbuttered half over the buttered one. Now, turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a long rectangle. Fold in three parts and let rest in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Repeat this rolling-out-and-folding-in-three still twice. Don’t worry if some butter comes out – just make sure to use enough flour so that the dough doesn’t glue to the baking surface!

After the last fold, let the dough rest in the fridge some 10 minutes and roll it out into a rectangle as thin as you can. Then, roll the dough in just as when you’re making cinnamon rolls.

Now comes the hard part: cut the rolled-in dough into pieces of about 1,5cm thick and place each in a buttered pastéis form or a muffin form. Take the form into your hands and with your thumbs, work the dough gently so that it in the end covers the sides of the form as well. (This might sound complicated, still hanging there?) It’s important to find the right amount of dough: it should be very thin but not break. Once you’ve done a couple of them, you’ll find the ideal amount of dough!

Then return to your filling. Remove lemon zests and vanilla pod (which you can use 2-3 times) from the custard. Fill the dough-covered forms with the custard. Bake in a pre-heated oven (250C) for about 10 minutes or until your pastéis get brown spots but don’t burn (which happens very easily, so don’t leave them unattended in the oven!). I’ve been told that the real pastéis get baked in 400C, but even 300C was way too much for my oven and my pastéis. Remember to place an extra tray on the bottom of your oven to catch any extra butter that might drip during the baking.

Serve your pastéis warm or cold, with or without some cinnamon on top!

P.S. Of course,  you can use ready-made puff pastry – but it just won’t be the same…

P.P.S. Needless to say, the distance between my new home and  Rua de Belém, 84-92 is 4114 km!

 

A Must in Lisbon: Pastéis de Belém

If a wanna-be vegan with a severe case of lactose intolerance arrives in Lisbon and rushes immediately to Pastéis de Belém to eat half a dozen of little custard pastries, either that person must have some issues – or those pastries are just divine. Not denying completely the first possibility, I’d say the second option is closer to the truth. Actually, pastéis de Belém have been nominated the 15th most delicious thing in the world!

Pastéis de Belém have been baked with the same secret recipe ever since they were invented in 1837. They are sold exclusively at the iconic coffee shop bearing the same name. The whole establishment in an incomparable experience. When entering the building, you’d say you’re in a Turkish bath: the walls are covered with azulejos, typical Portuguese oriental-looking decorative tile works. The omnipresent smell of pastéis reveals that this is a totally different thing.

When you first look around, you think the place is full. Then you see a passage leading to the next room, which is full as well and which leads to yet another one – until there’s one with tables available. (I’ve been wondering how many rooms they actually have? Is there an end?)

Then you sit down – and might be lucky and get served right away. But more often than not, the waiter attending you is older than your grandfather and might not notice or hear you at all in the beginning. Sooner or later, he’ll choose to ask what you’d like to have – and I strongly recommend you ask for at least two pastéis, if not meia duzia of them, and a coffee. And a whole duzia to take with you, of course!

All this taken into account, it’s actually amazing that pastéis hadn't sooner become the target of my culinary obsession. Maybe I just thought it would be impossible to make anything comparable. Even the Portuguese fail miserably with their pastéis de natas – a version of pastéis that shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence with those of Belém.

But then I started thinking. And reading. And thinking some more. What makes those of Belém so superior to any other pastéis? It’s the filling, of course, so fluffy and tasty and not overly sweet. “Like flan gone to heaven,” said a friend of mine. But even more it’s the dough: it’s not any ordinary puff pastry they use. It’s got very fine layers, and it’s crispy and oh so tasty!

After having thought enough, I made an experience. (My first experience was actually before having read anything, and it was a terrible disaster.) And it worked. Oh, my, God. It worked. I’m not saying I re-invented the pastéis de Belém, but still. The result was clearly better than all the natas I’ve had so far. The best review came from my son: “Mum, these taste almost like those of Belém!”

And the recipe? Oh, no! I’m not going to reveal it! My intention is to keep it a family secret for at least two centuries. I can already imagine secret family meetings behind closed doors where the recipe will be passed to the next generation. So no, there’s not going to be a recipe after all!

Apfelstrudel, or Apples the Austrian Way

During the past few weeks, I’ve been drowning in apples. And I’m not the only one – it’s been (and still is) an incredibly good apple season in Finland!

But what to do with these huge amounts of malus domestica? I’ve already pureed several kilos of them, I’ve made Tarte Tatins and other apple pies, and there’s still a lot left!

Then it struck me that I’ve actually never tried to make the iconic Austrian apple dessert, Apfelstrudel, at home. So I did some research and started working! After one not-so-well-succeeded attempt, I found the perfect recipe. My starting point was this one from chefkoch.de.

Note that it’s important NOT to peel the apples. If you do, you end up losing a lot of the taste. You'll need a bit less than 1kg of apples to get 800g of sliced apples.

This recipe yields two strudels, each one enough to feed about 6 people. If you want to make only one strudel, I suggest you make one portion of dough anyway: keep half of it in the fridge, because you the most certainly will want to make another one SOON!

Dough:

• 50g whole-grain spelt or wheat flour


• 200g all-purpose flour


• 2g salt


• 1 egg


• 20g neutral-tasting oil (sunflower, for example)


• 100ml warm water

Filling:

• 800g apples, unpeeled but cores removed, sliced very thin


• 100g butter, divided


• 100g breadcrumbs


• 140g sugar


• 170g raisins


• zest of one organic lemon


• 8g cinnamon

Plus about 300ml neutral-tasting oil for the oil bath (see the recipe)

This is how to do it:

First, prepare the dough. Combine flour and salt in a baking bowl and make a hole in the middle. In another bowl, combine warm water, oil, and the egg. Stir, then pour in the hole. With your hands, work the dough until it’s smooth and elastic. Now follows the weirdest part: fill a small bowl with oil. Work the dough into a ball and place it in the oil. Yes, you read right! Let the dough rest in the oil bath for about 30 minutes and you’ll get the most elastic dough ever!



In the meantime, prepare the filling. Melt 50g butter in a pan. Stir in the breadcrumbs and continue stirring for about 2 minutes, or until the crumbs start gaining some colour. Remove from heat.

Place the apple slices in a bowl. Add the sugar, raisins, cinnamon, grated lemon zest, and the breadcrumb-butter-mixture. Stir until everything is well combined.

Now, take the dough from the oil bath. Remove excess oil and divide the dough into two equal-sized parts. Pat each in a bit of flour. Now follows the second weirdest part: roll the dough out on a kitchen towel into a square, as thin as you can, about 35cm*25cm. Oddly enough, the dough doesn’t stick to the fabric – especially if you sprinkle it with a bit of flour.

Melt the rest of the butter. Brush the rolled dough with about 2/3 of the melted butter. Place the filling on the dough, leaving about 3cm on the sides uncovered and about 5cm at the bottom side. Fold the sides (see the picture). Gently roll your strudel like a Swiss roll – it goes surprisingly easy with the towel!



Transfer your strudel carefully onto a baking tray so that the seam-side faces down (and proceed to make the second strudel). Bake your strudel(s) in a preheated oven (190C) for about 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Be careful not to let them burn, though; burned raisins taste horribly bitter ;)

Brush the strudel(s) with melted butter once they’re out of the oven. Let cool a bit and sprinkle with (vanilla-flavoured) confectioner’s sugar.

To me, strudel tastes the best when cooled down to room temperature, but I totally understand if you can’t wait that long! Vanilla sauce or ice-cream is a must with Apfelstrudel, of course.

Sourdough Bagels

A bit more than one year ago, I started baking bagels with the recipe from “New York – les recettes culte”. Everyone loved them, and still do. They are everything you’d expect for good bagels to be – delicious and chewy!

Then I got curious: would it be possible to bake perfect bagels without yeast, using only levain instead? And, as usual, the answer is yes! No yeast needed, unless you want the fermentation go faster. (Then just add ½ tsp dry yeast or so.) I used 50% whole grain, 50% all-purpose flour, which I found a perfect compromise between health and pleasure ;) It’s possible to use 100% whole grain, but, well, one would have to get used to it first.

A very significant advantage of this recipe is that the dough doesn’t need to ferment twice – convenient for a lazy baker like myself!

Here’s what you need to make 10 mouth-watering bagels:

• 300g whole-grain wheat or spelt flour


• 325g all-purpose wheat flour


• 325g water


• 150g sourdough starter


• 10g salt


• 2 Tbsp olive oil


• 2 Tbsp agave syrup (or other liquid sugar)


• 1 Tbsp gluten

And for the poaching:

• 3 liters water


• 1 Tbsp salt


• 1 Tbsp potato starch


• 1,5 Tbsp agave syrup (or other liquid sugar)

And some sesame and/or poppy seeds to decorate

This is how to do it:

Mix all ingredients in a baking bowl. Knead until you get a smooth but strong, chewing-gum-like dough – that takes about 10 minutes, at least if kneading by hand like I do.

Let the dough (and your poor hands!) get 10 minutes of rest before going to the next step!

Now divide the dough into 10 parts, each weighing about 110g. Form a smooth ball out of each, then make a hole in the middle. This, by the way, is the unorthodox way of making a bagel: actually, you should roll each piece in a long snake-like-form, then close the ends to form a circle. I’ve tried that method as well, but for me it just doesn’t work!

Place the bagels-to-be on a baking tray covered with a baking sheet. Dust them with a bit of flour, cover with a cling film and let ferment in room temperature for about 4 hours or in the fridge overnight.

Then it’s time to turn your oven on (225 C) and boil the poaching water in a large saucepan. Mix the starch with 100ml of cold water and add it to the poaching water, mixing with a spiral whisk so that the starch doesn’t go clumpy! Then add salt and syrup. Poach your bagels for about 30 seconds from both sides, remove with a skimmer, and place back on the oven tray.

Sprinkle with seeds – my favourite ones are black and white sesame seeds and poppy seeds.

Bake your bagels until they are golden brown, or about 20-25 minutes. Let cool on a rack before serving them!

P.S. Note that the amount of water you need for the dough depends on the flour you use: my whole-grain flour is very “thirsty”, that is: it needs more water. So I'd advise you to start the dough with a bit less water and add more if needed.

Putin's Pickles

I was strongly advised against calling my pickles “Putin’s Pickles”. I didn’t follow the good piece of advice, though, as very often is the case. (Will I ever learn?!) These pickles don’t actually have anything else to do with good old Vladimir except for the fact that they are made with a Russian-style recipe – without vinegar, that is.

Besides, many things in Finland are called Putin’s something these days: there’s been Putin’s cheese, Putin’s butter, and there’ll be Putin’s fish, from what I’ve read. All this because European products are no longer welcome in Russia, and now we poor Finns are drowning in food that is not good enough for uncle Vova.

But enough of politics and back to the pickles.

This is the way my parents used to prepare pickles every autumn. I’d never done it before myself, but now it was really the time! It’s not difficult at all, and the result is so much superior to anything you can buy that it is more than worth the trouble (not as much trouble as waiting, by the way). All you need is a bucket with a lid, cucumbers, blackcurrant leaves, horseradish, dill, and brine. One slice of rye bread is also needed to start the fermenting process.

What you need is:

• enough pickling cucumbers to fill a 3-liter bucket


• about 30 large blackcurrant leaves


• a couple of slices of horseradish


• some dill


• 1,5 l water


• 1,5 tbsp salt


• one slice of rye bread

First, make the brine: Bring the water to the boil, add the salt and let it melt. Let cool a couple of hours or overnight. Wash the cucumbers well and place them into cold water. Let them stand a few hours or overnight.

Then take cucumbers out of the water and place them in layers with blackcurrant leaves, dill, and horseradish in the bucket until you’ve used up all of the cucumbers. Pour the brine over the whole – they should be completely covered. If not, prepare more brine. Place one slice of rye bread somewhere in the middle!

Now starts the waiting part: first, only partly cover the bucket with the lid (that means, the cucumbers should get some air). Let stand in room temperature about 2-4 days, or until some foam appears in the liquid. By this time, the cucumbers will have gained their typical smell – a bit sour, yet fresh and very pleasant. The time needed depends on the temperature – I did mine during the great heat wave, and only 2 days were needed.

Then place a small plate on top of the cucumbers and press, making sure all of your future pickles are under water. Close the lid well and place the bucket in your fridge. Check once in a while – after 2 to 4 weeks (mine took almost 4 weeks but do check every few days), the cucumbers will have turned into the most delicious pickles you’ve ever had! They will have changed colour from fresh green to yellowish green, they should be soft yet not too soft, and when you cut them (lengthwise, of course!!), you can see that they are almost translucent from the inside.

That’s when it’s time to enjoy your pickles: cut them lengthwise and eat with rye bread, butter, smetana, and a bit of honey. Or the vegan way: just with sto gram vodka!

Salla's Sunflower Bread

After one month of packing, one week of traveling, and one month of unpacking I’m finally more or less installed to my new home.

Before even starting unpacking, though, I started baking bread. So the first morning in our new home, we already had sourdough bread for breakfast!

I’ve baked a lot of different breads now: Finnish rye bread, spelt bread, a French country-side loaf with 10% rye and 90% all-purpose flour. But today, I baked four loaves of the most delicious bread I’ve baked so far here in Finland!

I came up with this recipe thanks to my friend Salla who loved my rye bread but suggested I could add sunflower seeds to it. At the same time, I thought of adding a bit of spelt for a richer taste and a softer result. And it worked amazingly well! The bread has a crunchy crust, a very soft inside, a nice nutty taste – and the best thing is: the sunflower seeds on top get roasted, so they add an indescribably rich flavour to the whole experience.

This is a basic 1-2-3 recipe, but I write the measures down anyway, just in case!

For two nice small loaves you need:

• 200g sourdough starter


• 400g water


• 200g whole-grain spelt flour


• 400g whole-grain rye flour


• 12g sea salt


• a generous handful of sunflower seeds for the dough, another one for the topping

In a baking bowl, combine starter, water, and the flours. Let stand 20-40 minutes. Then add salt and knead about 10 minutes, or until you just can’t anymore. Add a handful of sunflower seeds and knead one minute more.

Cover the bowl with a moist kitchen towel and let ferment 5-10 hours at room temperature (my dough normally ferments overnight). Then knead the dough quickly again, and form it into two equal-sized balls. Transfer the dough balls into floured proofing baskets. Cover with a kitchen towel and let ferment about one hour.

Heat your oven to 250C. Now you have to be quick: transfer both loaves on a baking tray, brush them with water, cut “sun rays” on top (like in the round bread in this picture) and sprinkle generously with sunflower seeds. Place a cup filled with water on the baking tray for a better crust.

Bake the loaves at 250C for 10 minutes or so, and then reduce the temperature to 200C and bake until well done but not burned, or about 35 minutes more.

Enjoy with butter or good olive oil!

P.S. My camera is still missing - probably in one of those still unpacked boxes - so my N9's camera will have to do for now!

Clafoutis, or the Reason Why Cherries Were Created

For me, summer only really starts the day I can make the first clafoutis, or French cherry pie! This year, that happened on Wednesday. Since then, I’ve baked six clafoutis – that is an average of 1,2 per day. That might tell something about how irresistible this thing is!

The recipe is from my very old version of Larousse de la Cuisine, which I haven’t seen for ages – but that’s ok, because this is one of the few recipes I could recite by heart even if woken up in the middle of the night.

You’re supposed to use cherries without removing the pits, and I’d suggest you really don’t. If you remove the pits, the whole thing gets coloured by the cherry juice, and doesn’t look that great…

For about six servings you need:

• 500g cherries


• 4 eggs


• 80g flour (I use 40g whole-grain, 40g all-purpose wheat)


• 80g butter


• 125g sugar


• 1 tsp vanilla sugar


• 250ml milk

This is how to do it:

Set your oven to 190C. Place the cherries (with their pits still in!) in a round cake form with a diameter of 26cm or so. Melt the butter. Crack the eggs in a baking bowl, and beat them lightly together with sugar and vanilla sugar (I emphasize the word lightly! A bit like when you’re doing an omelette…). Then add flour, stir until it gets well mixes, then add milk and butter, and slightly stir again.

Pour the batter over the cherries and bake your clafoutis until it’s set and nicely brown on the top. Remove form the oven and let cool a bit. Then decorate with confectioner’s sugar and serve – either a bit warm, or completely cooled down. And enjoy the summer! :)

Zucchini Feta Fritters with Tzatziki

When the kids are craving for pasta pesto with broccoli and the somewhat bigger kid  announces he will only eat low-carb for dinner from now on, what does one do? Well, one makes the pasta (10 minutes, remember?), then takes a look at the fridge and comes up with a new, rather quick Greece-inspired recipe!

So I’m proud to present these delicious and fluffy fritters with zucchini, feta, and dill, served with a generous helping of tzatziki. This recipe is not as quick as some others: it took me 20 minutes to make this dish, mainly because I could only fit three fritters easily in my pan at the same time. So, if in a hurry, use two pans!

This recipe is for two people, especially if served with a slice or two of good bread. If you - like me - are not afraid of carbs, that is!

For the fritters:

• 140g zucchini, grated


• 75g feta


• 2 eggs


• 1 Tbsp pine nuts


• 2 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped


• salt and black pepper to taste

For the tzatziki:

• 10cm piece of cucumber


• 4 heaped Tbsp natural yoghurt


• 1 small garlic clove (or to taste)


• 1 Tbsp olive oil


• salt and black pepper to taste

First, make the tzatziki: grate the cucumber very fine and drain in a sieve to get the excess water out. Then combine in a bowl with yoghurt, crushed garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Stir, cover, and place in the fridge for the time you make the fritters.

Now, it’s time to make the fritters. First, crush the feta with a fork. Then place all ingredients in a bowl, stir until well combined, and fry the fritters in a large pan with a little bit of oil over a medium heat. This amount of batter results in 6 smallish fritters. It was a bit challenging to fry them – in the beginning, the batter tends to spread a lot, which you need to stop by moving the runaway batter back with a spatula. But after that, it’s easy! Once they’re done from one side (about 4 minutes or so), turn them and fry until both sides are golden brown.

Serve the fritters with tzatziki, sliced fresh vegetables - and maybe some good bread!