Creamy lime and coconut biscuits

Sick and tired of dry and crumbly biscuits? I have a solution; fancy biscuits. These ones are crispy, thin, brandy-snap like little biscuits filled with a lime butter cream...oh did I forget to say that they are perfect to keep in the freezer and eat just a tiny bit defrosted?! Basically they are just delicious.
I have made them since I was a kid, and when looking around for something to snack on it felt like gold wort finding these biscuits in the freezer.

Biscuits
35 grams butter
50 grams sugar
50 grams dessicated coconut
1tbsp flour
1/2tbsp milk

Melt butter and sugar in a pot on low heat. Add coconut, flour and milk and let simmer for 2 min while stirring. Put teaspoons of the mix on to a baking tray. This has to be done in batches because the mix will melt and float out a lot. Bake on 180C for 6-8min, or until golden. Let cool down before filling.

Butter cream
45 grams icing sugar
50 grams butter, room temperature
1 egg yolk
1 lime

Beat butter and sugar until thick and pale. Add the egg yolk and continue beating the mix until smooth. Add the zest of the lime and juice to taste. Spread the butter cream between two bicuits and keep in fridge or freezer.

Sunday morning sunflower bread rolls

Usually I bake scones on sunday mornings for breakfast, but last night I got the brilliant idea to make little bread rolls to prove over night and bake off in the morning. I was well impressed by how easy it is to get perfect bread with very little work involved; the little rolls did not look much to the world last night but this morning they came out of the oven looking great, and the taste was even better.

Day one

8 grams fresh yeast
125ml cold water
150 grams strong flour, white
4 grams salt
1/2tsp honey
25 grams sunflower seeds, lightly toasted in a hot, dry pan

Dissolve the yeast in the water and add honey, seeds and flour. Mix until it forms a dough and add salt. Knead the dough with a little oil on your hands until it is elastic and easy to work. Divide into 8 pieces, form little balls and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover with clingfilm and let prove over night in the fridge.

Day 2

Take the tray out of the fridge and let prove in roomtemperature for about 30 minutes. Bake in the middle of the oven on 225C for 10-12min with a tray of water in the bottom of the oven.

A swedish take on biscotti

In Sweden it is just as common with biscotti as in Italy, the recipes may vary but the concept still is the same; a small, kind of hard biscuit, usually flavoured with spices or nuts. This is one of those recipes that you can play around with depending on what you like. I think cardamom and almonds is a perfect combination but I can imagine these biscottis also would be very tasty with hazelnuts and orange zest, or maybe ginger bread spices and dark muscovado sugar, or maybe even lavender sugar if that tickles your fancy...ok you get the picture now I think.

50 grams butter

35 grams ground almonds

105 grams sugar

1 egg

160 grams flour

1/2tsp baking powder

1tsp ground cardamom

Beat butter and almonds together. Mix flour, baking powder and cardamom. Whisk 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 gor 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.

Another baguette

I know I said that there is only one recipe that works for me when it comes to baguettes but the other day I had to try something I dont do very often; proving the dough over night. To do this you need to do polish (starter dough) and you need time. I takes 2 days to get this bread ready but belive me, it will be worth it. Texture and flavour really improves by letting the dough take its time.

Day one

Polish

70ml cold water
40grams rye flour

50grams strong bread flour

3grams fresh yeast

Dissolve the yeast in the water and add both types of flour. Mix until it creates a thick paste. Let this prove in a warm spot under a damp cloth for at least 10 hours.

Day one, evening

Dough

8grams fresh yeast

350ml cold water

470grams strong bread flor

65grams wholeweat flour

10grams fine sea salt

polish

Mix the yeast with water and polish. Add both types of flour and mix, add salt and start kneading the dough by hand for a least 7min. Let the dough prove over night in the fridge, in a bowl covered with clingfilm.

Day two

Take the dough out of the fridge and work it by hand for a couple of minutes, let prove for about 30min. Bake out 4 baguettes and let prove again for about 40min. Heat up the oven to 225C. Bake the bread in the middle of the oven for 18-22min with a tray of water in the bottom of the oven.

Jam

These lovely rhubarb are from Martins parents garden and have been living in my freezer for a couple of weeks now, waiting to be used in something. So the other day I was making raspberry jam and decided to try making rhubarb jam as well. It is so delicious on toast or freshly baked bread, I think I will even try to make rhubarb jam cakes.
Jam sugar is now available in the super market here in Ireland and it makes life so easy when making jam. All you need is jam sugar and what ever fruit or berries you like.

Rhubarb jam
170grams rhubarb, chopped
120grams jam sugar
1tsp vanilla sugar
1/2tsp cardamom

Mix sugar and rhubarb in a pot and let melt on low heat. Bring to the boil and let simemr for 3-5min, test if the jam i ready by putting a small bit on a cold plate, if it sets within a minute it is ready. Add cardamom and turn of the heat, let stand for 5min. Transfer to clean, hot jars.

Raspberry and vanilla jam
200grams raspberries
200grams jam sugar
1/4 vanillapod (only the seeds)
Mix raspberries, vanilla and sugar in a pot. Bring to the boil and let simmer for only 2 min. Turn off the heat and let stand for 10min. Transfer to clean, hot jars.

Wild strawberry and vanilla liquor

When I was in Sweden this summer I spent a few days out in our country house, and at this time of the year the fields are full of little wild strawberries. I picked more than a litre and brought it over to Ireland to save some of the taste of summer. But what do you do with a litre of wild strawberries that has been in a plastic jar on a 2 1/2 flight? Well, the only sensible thing was to put them in a bottle of Eau de Vie and sugar and let the alcohol take flavour from the berries and then turn into lovely liquor.

The other day the bottle had been sitting in my window for a few weeks and it was time to strain it and flavour with vanilla. The only problem was that I am not the owner of a muslin cloth that is usually used to strain liquids that you want to become clear. Looking around for a tea towel or something similar I found one of those textile shopping bags that I for unknown reason had washed. I felt so smart when I decided to put this bag in a fine sieve and strain the liquor through it. It worked a treat; out came perfectly, clear red liquid that smelled just like summer it self!

1litre berries

330ml eau de vie

400grams sugar

Put 200grams of the sugar in a bottle together with the berries and alcohol. Let stand in a sunny window for 2 weeks. Add the rest of the sugar and leave for another 2 weeks until the sugar has melted. Strain the liquor and poor into a clean bottle, add more sugar if you like it sweeter. I also put a 1/4 of a vanilla pod in the bottle. Let stand in a cool, dark place for a couple of months and then open on a cold autumn day and remember the summer.

Blueberry jam cakes

If there is one thing you will see a lot of on my blog it is blueberries. It is one of my favourite berries and they are not just very tasty; they are good for you too. They are full of antioxidants and are classed as one of the new "super foods".

In Sweden we pick buckets full of blueberries in the forrest just around the corner from our country house. Usually we freeze some and the rest we make jam of, and if you have a jar of homemade blueberry jam you have to make these little jam cakes. It is so easy and just the perfect thing to have with a cup of tea or coffee.

200 grams butter, roomtemperature

85 grams sugar

1tsp bakingpowder

300 grams plain flour

4-5tbsp blueberry jam

2tbsp icing sugar+water

Beat sugar and butter until pale and fluffy. Mix bakingpowder and flour, add to the sugar/butter-mix. Mix just enough until it forms a dough. Divide into 20 pieces. Roll little balls and put in small muffincups. Make a little well in the middle of the dough with your finger and fill with 1/2tsp of blueberry jam.

Bake on 175C for 18-20min. Let cool down. Mix icing sugar with just enough water to create a thick icing. Drizzle on top of the cakes.

Serve with a cup of tea or coffee!