Swedish semlor

I'm baaaack!!!

Hi and merry Christmas and Happy New Years and long time no see. So, I decided to continue. I do like blogging about food, but I might add a post or two about other stuff too.

First out is a recipe for semlor (semla sing, semlor pl), a cardamon flavoured sweet bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream, traditionally eaten on Shrove's day, or, as it's called in Sweden, Fat Tuesday. Here in the UK the tradition is to eat pancakes on this day, usually with lemon and sugar. Really tasty too, but almost nothing beats a semla. Fat Tuesday was this week, but I hadn't time to bake then and therefore baked this weekend instead.

The other reason I decided to bake semlor is that it reminds me of home. My grandma always makes here own, usually smaller than the one's you find at the bakeries, and with her homemade slightly chunky almond paste. I thought a lot about my grandparents and family during the past weeks, as my granddad has been very ill and sadly passed away a couple of days ago. Sometimes it is very hard being an expat, you never feel more far away than on occasions like this.

Anyhow, I used a basic semla recipe, but I tweaked it a bit by adding more cardamon and changing the filling slightly. Here in the UK, you can't find mandelmassa, a less sweet almond paste compared to marzipan, and I like my filling to really taste of almonds and be a bit chunkier, like my grandma's, so I added chopped almonds to it.

The result was delicious, so delicious I had more than two. The exact number will however remain a secret as it's slightly embarrassing. In particular as I still managed to eat a full dinner....

Semlor (12 buns)
7.5 dl strong wheat flour
25 g dried yeast
0.75 dl sugar
2 tsp ground cardamon
a pinch of salt
100 g butter
2.5 dl milk
1 egg, beaten

Filling
200 g marzipan or mandelmassa
150 g chopped almonds
0.5 dl milk or cream

5 dl whipped cream

Mix flour, yeast, sugar, cardamon, and salt together in a large bowl

Melt the butter, add the milk and warm to 40C, slightly hotter than finger temperature

Add the butter and milk to the flour mix, stir together to a dough.

Knead the dough for a couple of minuter, add more flour if necessary.

Leave the dough in the bowl, covered with a tea towel, to rise for 45 min

Divide the dough into 12 pieces, roll each to a small bun, and place on a buttered oven tray.

Cover with a tea towel and leave to raise for another 30 min

Brush the buns with egg wash

Bake for 10-15 min in the middle of the oven at 225C

Remove from the hot oven tray and let the buns cool down

To make the filling, coarsely grate the marzipan (this is easiest to do if you first leave it in the freezer for 30 min) and mix together with the chopped almonds and milk.

Whip the cream, it should still be a little loose

Cut of a thin lid from the buns. Scoop out a hole in the middle of the bun, this additional bread can be added to the almond paste if you like (I usually don't bother...).

Add the almond paste to the bun, and also add a generous amount of whipped cream. Place the lid on top. If you like, sprinkle the lid with icing sugar (I didn't have any at home, and don't think it's really necessary).

Enjoy!

Lemon coconut biscuits

Since I moved to the UK I've really developed an addiction to biscuits. Today I'm working from home and really fancied something sweet, but our cupboards were completely devoid of even the tiniest crumble of biscuits or sweets, so I decided to bake something instead. This is an easy recipe based on what I could find at home. These biscuits are heavenly, melt in your mouth delicious, with a light lemon flavour and a bit of crunch from the coconut.

Lemon and coconut biscuits (15 biscuits)
100 g butter
0.75 dl sugar
zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 dl flaked coconut
1 dl ground almond
1.5 dl flour

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Cream butter and sugar, stir in lemon zest and baking powder.

Stir almond, coconut and flour into the butter mix.

Roll out the cookie dough into a 2-3 cm wide log, and cut into 1 cm slices.

Transfer slices onto a buttered baking sheet and flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake for around 15 min.

Let cool slightly and devour with a cup of tea or coffee.

Apricot and meringue cake

Today it was my turn to bake for the cake club at work. We take turns bringing in cakes, it's an easy way of making a boring Monday slightly better. Belonging to a cake club makes me feel a bit... old? It's not very rebellious at least. Maybe it is time to admit that I'm 35, and the most exciting thing happening on Monday is not a cool gig anymore, it is being treated to a piece of cake.

Whatever reason you've got to make a cake, you should make this golden cake. It's got a light sponge, filled with apricot compote, and topped with meringue. It was best at the day of making it, as the meringue was still a bit crunchy. It was still good today at the cake club, but then the meringue was more like a soft marshmallow fluff.

The apricot compote is also great spread on toast or with a croissant. Or maybe on porridge or in yoghurt if you want to be a bit more healthy. But in that case, maybe you shouldn't be reading cake recipes :)

Apricot and meringue cake
Sponge
5 egg yolks
175 g butter
2 dl sugar
2 cm fresh ginger, grated
zest from 1 lemon
1.5 tsp baking powder
4 tbsp milk
1.5 dl flour

Meringue
5 egg whites
2 dl sugar
2 tbsp ground almond
1 dl chopped blanched almonds (or use flaked almond, I was going to but forgot to buy it and therefore used chopped almonds instead)

Apricot compote
250 g dried apricots
juice from 1 lemon
1 dl water

Preheat the oven to 175C.

Butter and bread a 30 x 20 cm rectangular cake tin, or a 24 cm round cake tin.

Stir sugar and butter together until smooth, then add the egg yolks one at the time

Stir in lemon zest, ginger, baking powder and milk.

Finally add the flour and stir until you've got a smooth batter

Pour the batter into the cake tin.

Make the meringue by first beating the egg whites until stiff.

Then add the sugar and whisk for a couple more minutes

Cover the cake batter with the meringue topping. You might not need all of the meringue, you want around a 3 cm uneven layer

Sprinkle the cake with ground almond and chopped almonds

Bake for 20-30C, or until the meringue has settled and the cake is done.

Leave the cake to cool.

While the cake is baking, make the apricot compote.

Add apricots, lemon juice and water to a pot.

Simmer whilst stirring on low heat until you have a smooth glossy compote (takes around 10-15 min). If necessary add more water if the compote starts to get dry while you cook it.

Let the compote cool.

Divide the cake into two halves

Cover the bottom one with the apricot compote and then sandwich the two together

Saffron cake

I'm not a big fan of Christmas as a holiday, it's to commercial and I find a lot of the traditions quite restraining. Maybe I would feel differently if there wasn't Christmas stuff in the shops already in September. It's only November now, but I've already heard enough Christmas songs. At work I'm for sure the grinch, and my colleague S is definitively the Christmas fairy.

Anyhow, there are things I do like about Christmas, like a lot of the traditional food and drinks. In Sweden we make a lot of cakes and buns with saffron before Christmas. This is a slightly different saffron cake compared to the traditional ones. It got a beautiful yellow colour, and helps me feel maybe a tiny bit more happy about Christmas approaching.

Saffron cake
200 g butter
0.5 g saffron
2 eggs
3 dl sugar
1.5 dl milk
1.5 cm fresh ginger, grated
4 dl plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
juice from 1-2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 175C

Butter and bread a 24 cm cake tin

Melt the butter

Using a pestle and mortar, powder the saffron threads with a little sugar

Whip eggs and sugar. Add saffron, butter, ginger, and milk.

Add the baking powder

Finally add the flour and make a smooth batter

Pour the cake batter into the tin, and bake for 45 min.

While the cake is still hot from the oven, pierce the surface with a fork and pour onto the lemon juice.

Dust over the cake with icing sugar before serving.

Here is a different Christmas song, Achtung Christmas by Tyskarna från Lund (the Germans from Lund). The band started as part of a Swedish comedy group, Varanteatern, and makes fun of stereotypical synth music.

Kladdkaka - Swedish sticky chocolate cake

Kladdkaka is a Swedish sticky chocolate cake, a bit similar to chocolate brownies. Kladdkaka is very popular in Sweden and is served in most cafes. I made this as dessert to have after the chili on our birthday party. It is very easy to do, the only thing is to keep an eye on the time, if it is left to long in the oven it goes dry and you really want it to be quite gooey and loose.

I used a recipe from a Swedish blog dedicated to kladdkaka and other chocolate cakes, the original recipe can be found here http://kladdkakerecept.blogspot.com/2007/11/lyxig-kladdkaka.html

Kladdkaka (8 portions, but sometimes it is enough for only 2 people as it is delicious...)
100 g butter
100 g dark chocolate, I used Green&Black 70% dark chocolate, chopped
4 tbsp cocoa powder
2 eggs
2 dl sugar
1 1/4 dl flour
1 pinch of salt
2 tbsp strong coffee

Preheat the oven to 175C.

Butter and bread a 24 cm cake tin.

Melt the butter, and add the chopped chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted in the hot butter.

Pour the butter and chocolate mixture into a bowl, add the sugar, salt, flour, coffee and eggs. Stir until you have smooth and glossy batter.

Pour the cake batter into the tin, and bake for 20-24 min. The cake should still be quite soft and gooey in the middle when you take it out.

Let the cake settle for a couple of hours before eating. It's great on it's own or you could serve it with ice cream or whipped cream and raspberries. You can also vary the recipe by adding for example raspberries and pistachio nuts to the cake batter.

Here is more Swedish electro to go with the cake, Rebecca & Fiona's The luminary ones

Cinnamon buns

Cinnamon buns (kanelbullar) are probably one of the most popular baked goods in Sweden. You can buy them in every coffee shop and grocery store. Cinnamon buns even have their own day in Sweden, it can be celebrated on the 4th of October. Everyone loves cinnamon buns, and maybe no one more than Swedish expats. It's just something so comforting, so much like home to have a warm newly baked cinnamon bun and glass of cold milk. That they also taste divine is a bonus.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I brought a cake on the wrong day for the cake club at work. To remedy this, I decided to bake cinnamon buns and bring into work the following Monday. This was met with protests from my Swedish flatmate, she thought it was very unfair that I would bake cinnamon buns when she was away from London and couldn't have any. I had to promise her to leave a bag of buns in the freezer for her for when she would be back. Like I said, cinnamon buns brings out a lot of feelings.

This recipe is again from the fantastic Sju sorters kakor cake recipe book from ICA bokförlag.

Cinnamon buns (45 buns)
dough:
150 g butter
5 dl milk
50 g yeast, fresh or equivalent quantity dry (I like Sainsbury's own as there is no need to reconstitute it first)
0.5 tsp salt
1-1.5 dl sugar
1-2 tsp ground cardamon
approx 13 dl strong white flour

filling:
100 g room tempered butter
1 dl sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
0.5 tsp ground cardamon

1 egg
sugar

Melt the butter and add the milk, warm to 37C (finger warm).

If using fresh yeast, dissolve the yeast in some of the warm milk, then add the remainder of the milk and butter, salt, sugar and cardamon. If you use dry yeast, mix it with the flour before mixing it with the milk, sugar etc.

Then add the flour, start with approx 2/3 of the flour (so mix the dried yeast with only 2/3 of the flour, or you might not add all of it...), and work the dough until smooth and not sticky. Add more flour if necessary.

Let the dough rise to double size in bowl covered with a tea towel (or use clingfilm, it works as well). This usually takes 30-60 min.

Work the dough in the bowl for a couple of minutes, and then move it to a work surface lightly sprinkled with flour.

Divide the dough into two pieces, and, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a large rectangle, roughly 0.5-1 cm thick. Cover the dough with a thin layer of butter, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and cardamon.

Start rolling together from one of the long edges until you got a long roll. Divide the roll into 1-1.5 cm thick slices. Place the slices with one of the cut surface facing upwards in paper forms (I use the ones for muffins/cupcakes) and place on a oven tray. Cover with a tea towel and let rise to double size. This again takes 30-60 min. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Heat the oven to 225C (if using electric fan oven) or 250C (if using a conventional electric or gas oven).

Brush the cinnamon buns with egg wash, and sprinkle with sugar. In Sweden you would use a type of sugar with larger granules, pärlsocker (pearl sugar), but normal granulated sugar works as well.

Bake in the middle of the oven for 8-10 min.

Enjoy!

Fyris apple cake

Where I work we have a cake club. Every Monday we take turns bringing in a homemade cake, and this is truly the highlight of that day (sometimes week I'm sad to say), and we had some glorious cakes so far. My memory is not fantastic, and I was convinced that it was my turn to bring a cake on the Tuesday after the August bank holiday, so I decided to do one of my favourite cakes. It turned out to actually not be my turn, but I don't think anyone really complained about getting cake on a Tuesday instead of a Monday.

My mum used to bake this quite often in particular during the autumn when the apples are at their best. The combination of cinnamon and apples are a classic, and this cake is so easy to make that I highly recommend it. I've taken the recipe from a classic Swedish cake recipe book, Sju sorters kakor (Seven types of cakes) from ICA bokförlag. The title refers not to that the book only contains recipes for seven types of cakes, but to the tradition that if you invited someone over for coffee in Sweden, you should serve them at least seven different types of cakes or biscuits. This would be called having kafferep in the olden days, and I guess is the Swedish version of cream tea. Having a proper break for coffee and maybe a cake or cinnamon bun, called fika in Sweden, is still very popular. Fika can be just a short break at work, or last for hours at a cafe or at home. One of the things I miss most about living abroad is meeting up for a fika.

Anyhow, here's the recipe for this lovely cake. I have no idea why it is called Fyris apple cake, maybe it refers to the Fyris stream flowing through my Swedish hometown, Uppsala?

Fyris apple cake
125 g butter
1.5 dl sugar
2 eggs
2.5 dl plain flour
1.2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
3-4 apples - for example my favourite, the Braeburn apple
1-2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Heat the oven to 175C

Butter and bread (use bread crumbs, can be bought in some grocery stores, or polenta) a round tin form, 24 cm in diameter. Using bread crumbs or polenta makes it easier to remove the cake without it sticking to the tin.

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add one egg at the time, and then the flour mixed with the baking powder. Stir in the milk to a smooth batter and pour into the form.

Slice the apples thinly and stick into the batter.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over the cake.

Bake for 30-40 min in the lower region of the oven (if you have an electric oven, otherwise in the middle).

Enjoy as it is or with a good custard or vanilla ice cream.

If you want to make a larger one, just double or triple the recipe and use a large oven tin and cut into squares.