Toast bread

I bake nearly all bread we eat here at home and here is a recipe I have tried, tested, changed and finally I am happy with. It is very basic and easy to bake and makes one great big loaf good for slicing and freezing, then you will always have toast bread at home. It can be made very plain but I like to add extra goodness such as whole wheat flour and seeds.

500 grams white flour
150 grams whole wheat flour
10 grams dried yeast
500ml milk
50 grams butter
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp golden syrup
2 hand fulls of mixed seeds (lins seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds...)

Melt butter and add milk and heat until luke warm, add golden syrup. Dissolve yeast in the liquid. In a bowl mix flours, salt and seeds. Pour the liquid in to the dry mix and blend with a wooden spoon. When it comes together to a dough start kneading with floured hands. When the dough is elastic put aside to prove for 1h or until it has doubled in size.
Tip the dough out on to a floured surfade and shape in to one loaf. Put in a bread tin and let prove again until double in size.
Bake on 225C for 10min, turn down heat to 200C and bake for another 20min. Take the loaf out of the tin and bake for 5 more minutes to get a crust all around. Let cool on a rack before slicing.

Remember December

It is january 2011 and nearly half way in to this absolutely grey and dull month I am going to treat you all to a little peak of what was going on in my house in december 2010. A lot of sweet treats were made since Christmas seems to be the time of the year that everybody (including me) indulges in chocolates, cakes and biscuits, all washed down with mulled wine.

Chocolate toffes made with my dads mums recipe...

Mint kisses; a typical Swedish treat usually made around christmas.

Wild strawberry and milk chocolate truffles.

My own Baci; italian milk chocolate and hazelnut truffles

Hazelnut macaroons with whiskey butter cream

At the moment there seem to be as many macaroon makers as there is food blogs; nearly every blog I follow or read has pictures and recipes of their favourite macaroons. To me it is like chemistry class all over again, and all this whisking, sieving, folding, resting and waiting is a bit intimidating. It is so worth it though, trust me, because it is all those little steps that makes a macaroon perfect. Mine turned out just fine to the look, divine to the taste. So a little work on my technique and even I will be able to present a perfect macaroon on my blog. For now I give you the recipe of a not so perfect, very yummy hazelnut macaroon.

Hazelnut meringue
150 grams icing sugar
60 grams ground hazelnuts
2 egg whites

Make sure the hazelnuts are finely ground, add half of the icing sugar, mix and sieve. Beat egg white until soft peaks appear, slowly start to add icing sugar bit by bit while beating. Continue whisking to a firm meringue. Gently fold in hazelnuts and icing sugar, stir just so all is well blended and has lost a bit of its volume, be careful not to stir too much.
On a tray with baking paper drop small rounds of the mix using a piping bag or a tea spoon. Let rest in room temperature for 1 hour.

Bake in the middle of the oven on 150C for 12min. Let cool completely before removing from the paper.
Whiskey chocolate butter cream
50 grams soft butter
120 grams icing sugar
10 grams cocoa powder
2tsp whisky

Beat sugar, butter and cocoa powder until smooth and creamy. Add whiskey and stir again until well blended.

To put macaroons together pipe a small bit of butter cream on of the bottom one meringue and press one on top, bottom to bottom. Chill before serving

Cinnamon buns

The 4th of october is the cinnamon buns day in Sweden but they are baked and eaten all year around. I made some last week to put in the freezer. It is so handy to defrost a few buns if someone pops over for tea or if I decide to go for a picnic. Baked goods are always tastier when fresh but if you freeze the buns as soon as they have cooled down they will taste perfectly fine when defrosted.

Dough
50 grams fresh yeast/ 14 grams dried yeast
500ml milk
150grams butter
85 grams caster sugar
1tsp salt
900 grams plain flour
1tsp cardamom, ground

Filling
100grams butter, room temperature
80grams caster sugar
2tbsp cinnamon, ground

1 egg
pearl sugar or flaked almonds

Melt butter in a pan and add milk, let it be luke warm. Add the butter and milk to the yeast in a large bowl and mix until the yeast has dissolved. Add sugar, salt and cardamom. Add 2/3 of the flour, mix into a paste. Gradually add more flour while working the paste into a dough, you might not need all flour, the dough is good when it is elastic and easy to work. Let prove under a cloth until it has doubled in size.

Gently knead the dough on a floured surface. Divide into 2 pieces. Roll out to big squares about 2cm thick. Spread the butter evenly over the dough, sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. You can either roll together like a swiss roll and cut into little swirls, or fold once and cut into strips that you twist around little swirly braids. Let rise for about 30min on a baking tray on baking paper or in muffins paper cups.

Brush with beaten egg, sprinkle with pearl sugar or flaked almonds and bake for 8-10min on 220C.

Mocha cup cakes

This recipe is something myself and my Swedish friends all remember from our childhood. It was something our mums would bake a large tray of and cut into squares, decorate with either coconut or colourful sprinkles. They freeze very well so sometimes we kept them in the freezer but the best is of course to enjoy them fresh. I made cup cakes out of the recipe and gave away some to my Swedish friend Stina, she knows how to appreciate a mocha cup cake. A little taste of Sweden in Ireland.

Muffins
1 egg
75 grams butter
130 grams caster sugar
130 grams plain flour
1.5tsp baking powder
75ml milk
1 1/2tsp cocoa powder

Melt butter and put aside to cool down. Combine flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Whisk egg and sugar until very fluffy and pale, add butter and stir until smooth. Add the dry ingredients through a sieve and fold in, last add milk and stir until all is well blended. Fill muffin cups to 2/3 and bake on 175C for 20min or until a skewer comes out dry. Let cool down.

Frosting
50 grams butter, soft
1tbsp cocoa powder
3tbsp coffee
180 grams icing sugar

3tbsp dessicated coconut

Beat butter, sugar and cocoa powder until smooth, slowly add coffee while still beating, continue beating the frosting until fluffy.

Spread the frosting on the cold muffins, sprinkle with dessicated coconut.

Spiced biscotti with muscovado sugar

I have made these biscotti before with almond and cardamom, but since christmas is near and all I can think about is mulled whine I thought I'd give them a kick; dark muscovado sugar and ginger bread spices. Perfect with a cup of mulled wine or even an irish coffee.

50 grams butter

35 grams ground almonds

105 grams sugar

1 egg

160 grams flour
1/2tsp baking powder
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cloves

Blend almonds and butter until well mixed. Mix flour, baking powder and spices. Beat sugar and egg until white and fluffy. Combine all ingredients until it forms a quite loose dough. Shape 2 rolls the lenght of the baking tray you are using, transfer the dough to the tray with baking paper. Lightly press the dough out a little so you have the rolls about 2cm high and 3-4cm wide. Bake on 200C for 15 min. Take out and cut into little biscuits, put back on the tray and let dry on very low heat, say 50C for 2h or until dry.

Spiced muffin with mandrin frosting

Winter has come to Ireland and it felt like great waking up to a white world saturday morning. Ireland is not so used to the snow and therefor we seem to get a little more isolated here when the snow comes. In Sweden it kind of happens every year so people just get on with it but here the snow is a great excuse to stay in all day and bake cup cakes. I wanted something with a seasonal touch and what could be better then than a gingerbread muffin? The recipe is Swedish and is usually baked in a loaf tin but if one wants cup cakes then cup cakes it is. This recipe makes 10 muffins.

Muffins
50 grams butter
1 egg
95 grams caster sugar
100 grams plain flour
1/2tsp bread soda
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp ground cloves
80 grams sour cream

Melt the butter and put aside to cool down. Mix all dry in gredients in a bowl. In a seperate bowl whisk egg and sugar until thick and fluffy, add sourcream and butter, stir until combined. Add the dry ingredrients through a sieve and fold in gently. Fill muffin cups up to 2/3. Nake on 175C for 25 min in the middle of the oven.

Frosting
100 grams soft butter
150 grams icing sugar
2 mandrins
1 egg yolk

Beat sugar and butter until white and fluffy, add the egg yolk and zest of the mandrins, continue to beat until well combined. Add 2tbsp of freshly squeezed juice and beat again until smooth.

Spread frosting on top of the muffin and decorate with some mandrin zest.