Buns (updated recipe)

We still use the basic bun recipe, but some modifications have been introduced over the years.

In summary:

• heating milk and melting shortening separately makes it easier to control for the right temperature (in the original recipe the milk would usually be too warm by the time the shortening was fully melted)
• 50 g (one packet) of fresh yeast is sufficient
• I prefer adding more flour at first, so the dough is less sticky when left to rise (and no extra flour is needed when shaping the buns)
• I prefer making smaller buns, so more like 32 buns from this portion

Ingredients:

• 150 g shortening, melted
• 5 dL milk, lukewarm
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 50 g fresh yeast
• approx. 1,1 kg flour ^[1]
• 2 + 1 eggs
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 100-200 g seeds + a little extra for sprinkling on top ^[2]

First shortening is melted and transferred to a large bowl, then milk is heated till lukewarm and transferred to the same bowl. With the tip of a little finger the shortening and milk mixture is checked for not being to warm (should be barely above finger temp). When the temperature is right 1 tbsp of sugar is added before crumbling fresh yeast into the bowl and mixing a little. At this point approximately 1 kg of flour and seeds as wanted are added, then 2 eggs and 1/2 tsp salt. The dough is assembled and kneaded quickly by hand adding a bit more flour if too sticky - but not too much. It should still be a bit sticky by the end.

The dough is left under a kitchen towel to rise for 30-60 minutes (or even longer if time allows), then rolled into buns by hand and placed on 2 baking pans lined with baking paper. Let rise for at least 30 minutes after shaping under kitchen towels before brushing with 1 whisked egg and sprinkling with desired seeds.

Baked at 220 C (conventional oven) for 12-14 minutes - until nicely golden on top.

^[1] Can be ordinary wheat flour or a mixture of ordinary wheat flour with whole grain flour, bran, Graham flour or similar - as long as the majority of the flour is ordinary wheat flour.

 

^[2] My favourite seeds are pumpkin seeds in the dough and sesame seeds or poppy seeds on top. Other options include: Sunflower seeds, flaxseed or even walnut pieces.

Almond-paste Rolls

When I first started baking egg-free treats I thought I would need to bake and bring for work more often than turned out to be the case. In fact, now I've been here for 2 years and the position is over, so there will be no more group meetings for me to which I have to bring egg-free baked goods. This leaves me with a surplus of ideas, so if I find the time the series will continue on this page.

These rolls are based on a recipe I got from my mother when I first told her I needed egg-free cake recipes. I baked them recently for one of the last work-related occasions: the celebration of the acceptance of my latest paper.

For these rolls I used an almond paste not sold as marzipan^[1] but I think marzipan should work quite well also.

Ingredients:
- 250 g (8.8 oz) margarine
- 2 dL (⁴/₅ cup) milk
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) fresh yeast
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar (+ extra for sprinkling)
- ¹/₂ tsp salt
- 500 g (1.1 lb) flour (+ extra for rolling)
- 250 g (8.8 oz) almond paste^[1]
- 1-1.5 dL (²/₅-³/₅ cup) heavy cream (for brushing)


The margarine was melted over low heat, then milk was poured in and heating on low was continued until the mixture was lukewarm. The milk-margarine mixture was transferred to a bowl and fresh yeast was stirred in followed by sugar, flour (in portions) and salt. This dough was set aside to rise for half an hour.

The risen dough was parted in 4 roughly equal portions, and each of these were rolled to a circle some 24-25 cm (10 inches) in diameter. Each circle was divided into 8 triangular slices. Each triangle was added a thin layer of almond paste and rolled.

The rolls were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and allowed to rise an additional 15 minutes before brushing with heavy cream^[2] and sprinkling with granulated sugar.

The rolls were baked 225 C (450 F) until golden (12 minutes) and transferred to a grid to cool.


The rolls were quite popular - more have already been requested...

^[1] The almond paste I used is 50% almond, 50% sugar - marzipan is often a different composition (usually less almond and more sugar).
^[2] If you are not in need of strictly egg-free rolls, you could certainly brush with a lightly beaten egg in stead of heavy cream.

Naan...ish

Given that naan simply means 'bread' the recipe below does of course qualify. But in terms of giving the kind of breads I was thinking off - the kind you tend to get when you order naan at an Indian restaurent - it's no so successful. However, I think they are quite nice in their own right.

When I started looking up naan recipes and asking my Indian friends, I quickly realised I was in trouble: Almost every source advocated the use of a baking stone in order to achieve the desired product. I didn't want to get a baking stone, nor did I want to give up just yet - so in the end I got what follows:

Ingredients:
- 1 dL (²/₅ cup) lukewarm water
- 50 g fresh yeast
- ¹/₂ tsp sugar
- 880 g (almost 2 lbs) wheat flour + more for rolling
- ¹/₂ L (2 cups) A-fil ^[1]
- 1 tsp salt
- 5 tsp nigella seeds

The yeast was stirred into the lukewarm water, followed by sugar, about half of the flour and the A-fil. Then the salt and the nigella seeds was added and the rest of the flour was stirred/kneaded in in portions. The resulting dough was slightly sticky.

The dough was left to rise for 2 hours (1 hour most likely would be sufficient), before dividing into 8 parts. Each piece of dough was rolled into oblong breads about ¹/₂ cm (¹/₅ inch) thick using plenty of flour.

The breads were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper - the size of oven I have now fits three bread on one sheet. They were baked at 225 C (450 F) for 15 minutes.

As I said, they weren't quite what I originally had in mind, but I still liked them - especially as a side to curries.

^[1] Lactobacillus acidophilus-containing thickened milk. Buttermilk, unsweetened yoghurt or a mix thereof are probably good substitutes (although this may then change the amount of flour needed).

Pebernødder

Having not found the time to bake a whole series of Christmas cookies this year, I opted for one cookie that really brings the holiday spirit for me: pebernødder (which would translate as 'pepper-nuts').

Realizing I had never made them myself, I requested my mother's recipe and once I had that I went looking for ingredients. The tricky part turned out to be the ground (dried) bitter orange peel that the recipe called for an ill-defined amount of. This I didn't manage to find before making the dough, so I substituted finely chopped candied orange peel - ironically, I did find it in the local store while the dough I had made was resting in the fridge at home. Which brings up another point: my mother's recipe strongly recommends leaving the dough in the fridge for a day or two before shaping and baking.

Ingredients:
- 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) flour
- 125 g (~ 4 oz) unsalted butter
- 125 g (~ 4 oz) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- ¹/₂ tsp ground ginger
- ¹/₂ tsp ground cloves
- ³/₄ tsp ground cinnamon
- pinch of white pepper
- zest of ¹/₂ lemon
- very finely chopped candied orange peel (about the same volume as lemon zest)^[1]

The butter was worked into the flour by hand, then all the other ingredients were added and kneaded to an only slightly sticky dough. The dough shaped into a ball, wrapped in film and stored in the fridge for a day before continuing.

Coming right out of the fridge, the dough is fairly hard - but with a little patience you can pry off a chunk and roll it into a rod approximately 1 cm (²/₅ inch) thick. As the rod becomes thinner and your hands warm up the dough it becomes progressively easier to work. The rod was sliced into approximately 1 cm (²/₅ inch) thick pieces. Each little piece was rolled to a small ball and placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

They were baked at 212 C (415 F) for 10 minutes - and should be allowed to cool off completely before eating. I sampled one while they were still warm and was afraid I botched them, but by the time they were old I could taste I had done it right after all.

^[1] As mentioned above the original recipe called for "a little ground (dried) bitter orange peel" instead of candied orange peel.

Mint Julep Cake (Round 2)

Remember the Mint Julep Cake? I thought it was delicious, but I still felt that it could be optimised a little bit.

Most importantly I was disappointed that the mint wasn't sufficiently prominent in the ganache. I realise this was my own fault for using mint syrup instead of mint extract. When I tried it a second time I used a LOT more mint syrup than I did the first time, but we still couldn't really taste the mint. That's when I started considering caving in and actually buying mint extract - but then I realised that the mint extract you can buy (at least around these parts) is always peppermint extract. Peppermint is banned in the Throat-Erator household.^[1] I realise I could try to make my own mint extract (and maybe one day I shall), but in the interest of having a quick procedure I decided to see what I could squeeze out of some fresh mint...

I bought 2 mint plants at the store, picked all the leaves and mashed them (I used my garlic press for this). The mass of mashed mint leaves didn't volunteer any juice, but when placed in a small fine sieve and pressed I was able to obtain about 1 tsp of a dark liquid with a rather peculiar smell. Now, I know that smell is highly concentration dependent, so the peculiar smell did not concern me - in fact, it encouraged me since I was aiming for a highly concentrated mint extract substitute. I went ahead and used it all - scroll to bottom for the result.

While I was at it, I also adjusted the amounts of both ganache and butter bourbon sauce.

Updated recipe as follows...

Ingredients (day 1):
- 340 g (12 oz) flour
- 400 g (14 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 225 g (8 oz) margarine
- 2.5 dL (1 cup) A-fil^[2]
- 4 eggs
butter bourbon sauce (day 1):
- 100 g margarine
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 6 tbsp bourbon (I used Jack Daniels)
minty, white chocolate ganache (day 2):
- 265 g (²/₃ of a 14 oz can) sweetened condensed milk
- 200 g (7 oz) white chocolate
- juice squeezed from the fresh leaves of 2 mint plants

In a large bowl, flour was mixed with sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla sugar.

In a separate bowl, softened margarine was whisked together with A-fil and eggs.

The liquid was poured into the dry mix and everything was mixed until a smooth homogeneous batter resulted. The batter was poured into a greased and floured spring form of 22 cm (9 inch) diameter. The cake was baked at 175 C (350 F) for an hour (the difference in baking time since the previous edition is due to the fact that I moved in between - the oven in my new apartment is different).

While the cake was baking, the butter bourbon sauce was prepared: powdered sugar, water and margarine was stirred over medium heat till melted and homogeneous (shouldn't reach boiling). Then it was removed from the heat and stirred for an additional two minutes before the bourbon was stirred in.

While the cake was still hot holes were poked in the top (with a knife) and the butter bourbon sauce was poured over. Then the cake was allowed to stand and cool while absorbing the butter bourbon sauce.

Later, the cake was covered with film and stored in the fridge overnight before making and applying the ganache.

For the ganache I first squeezed the juice out of my mint leaves as described above. Then I melted white chocolate together with sweetened condensed milk over low heat with constant stirring. When homogeneous the heat was turned off and the mint juice was stirred into the mixture.

The ganache was allowed to cool for half an hour before applying it to the cake - after which the cake was immediately put in the fridge in order for the ganache to set (I did check up on it to make sure the ganache didn't flow too much - like the first time I made this cake).

I have to say I was very pleased with the result - the extra bourbon was spot on, as was the amount of ganache. But the best part was that this time we could taste mint!

^[1] To quote Mrs. Throat-Erator: "Makes me feel like I'm eating toothpaste!!"
^[2] The original recipe called for buttermilk - however, this is not available in Swedish stores as all buttermilk produced is currently delivered directly to bakeries. I decided to opt for A-fil because of it's tangy freshness - for more on A-fil see here.

Russian Tea Cakes

This is how it happened: We were getting close to the day that it would yet again be my turn to provide some egg-free baked delicacies for a work gathering, when suddenly Mrs. Throat-Erator tugged my sleeve and said: "Please make these so I can bring some to work for my birthday". I checked the recipe .. no eggs required. Then I checked with my boss about the detail of the nut allergy: "I'll survive pecans". And so I decided to make a large batch of cookies.

Ingredients:
- 760 g (~24 oz) margarine
- 860 g (~30 oz) flour
- 140 g (~5 oz) powdered sugar + more for rolling
- 3 tsp vanilla sugar
- 3 tbsp water
- 350 g (~12 oz) pecan nuts^[1]

The margarine was worked into the flour using the hands - the resulting mixture was quite sticky. The vanilla sugar, powered sugar, water and chopped pecans were worked into the dough - which was still rather sticky.

The dough was rolled into balls of about 2.5 cm (1 inch) diameter - in the end the cookies were a bit on the large side of what I'd expected, so I guess I'll aim for smaller somewhat balls next time, say 1.5-2 cm (³/₅ - ⁴/₅ inch) instead. The balls were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and flattened slightly - to about 1 cm (²/₅ inch) thickness with the bottom of a drinking glass (this required a little patience and practice since the dough tended to stick to the glass). I got some 80 cookies out of this batch.

The cakes were baked at 162.5 C (325 F) for 25 minutes, then moved to a rack to cool.

The cool cakes were rolled in powdered sugar - and mighty delicious.

Since these go both by the name of Russian tea cakes and Mexican wedding cookies, I don't really know if they are truly Russian (or Mexican) - both seems unrealistic. But I do know that they go very well with tea, and I find them most appropriate since I'm currently drinking mainly Russian tea.

^[1] You'll find these cookies made with hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, almonds, macadamias... you name the nut, basically. I think I'd like to try some other nuts in this recipe one of these days.

Bacon & Egg (Spelt) Pizza

Here's a concept that might be somewhat controversial: eggs on pizza. I know Some people don't approve - even I wouldn't want it all the time, but when I do want I think it's absolutely divine.
I made it this time on a spelt dough, but obviously that is optional.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen spelt pizza dough
- durum flour (for rolling)
- ~ 250 g (~ ¹/₂ lb) chunky tomato sauce with garlic
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- 1 red onion, sliced
- 3 thin slices of bacon
- 2 eggs
- dried oregano
served with a salad:
- mixed lettuce
- chickpeas


The rolled dough was topped with tomato sauce, mozzarella slices, onion rings and bacon pieces. It was baked in the oven at 225 C (450 F). This time I baked it for 15 minutes, before taking it out of the oven and cracking the two eggs on top of it and putting it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. This was perfect for cooking the egg-whites but leaving the yolks runny.^[1] After removing from the oven the second time, the pizza was sprinkled with dried oregano and served with a simple salad.


And how was it?? In the words of my muse: "Honey, this is the best pizza you've ever made!"

^[1] If you want firmer yolks, I'd try baking 10 minutes before the eggs, 10 minutes with the egg. If you leave the eggs on for the entire baking time they get too much.

Spelt Pizza Dough

Having discovered how easy it is to make pizza dough, I decided to start making variations. Following my previous recipe for 4 portions of pizza dough, and substituting about half of the ordinary flour with spelt flour gave a dough that was somewhat darker.

Ingredients:
- 5 dL (2 cups) lukewarm water
- 50 g (ca. 2 oz) fresh yeast
- 500-600 g (1.1-1.3 lbs) wheat flour
- 500 g (1.1 lbs) spelt flour
- 4+2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp salt

The yeast was crumbled into lukewarm water, which was then added 4 tbsp olive oil. The first 500 g of wheat flour was stirred in before adding the salt. The spelt flour was kneaded into the dough in portions - towards the end I added just a little more wheat flour to get the right texture. The dough was then kneaded for a couple of minutes more before adding 2 tbsp olive oil, covering and leaving in a warm place to rise for 1.5 hours.

The dough was parted in 4 portions - some was used immediately for a potato pizza and the others were frozen for later use. The final result is a bit different from the standard recipe, but still very good.

Kladdkaka

There's chocolate cake and there's chocolate cake - and then there's kladdkaka. I guess it's symptomatic of my level of proficiency in Swedish that until recently I though kladdkaka was simply an abbreviation from chokladkaka, meaning 'chocolate cake' (yes, I assumed wrongly that chocolate in Swedish was spelled chokladd with double 'd') - when in fact it simply means 'goo cake'. The name hints at the fact that when done right, the centre of the cake is in fact quite gooey - soft, viscous and not at all dry.

By now you might be thinking of a good moist brownie - which is essentially what kladdkaka is. Tradition dictates that it is round and that wedges are served with a dollop of whipped cream. This was how I first encountered it, in the cafés in Stockholm where it is one of the staple cakes along with the ubiquitous cinnamon rolls.

I'd been wanting to try my hand at it for a while when a friend directed my attention towards the winning recipe (in Swedish) from the 2009 Swedish championships in kladdkaka (!!) - which I proceed to describe below (with minor modifications). The spiced fudge included in this recipe is pure luxury - the kladdkaka without the fudge is perfectly delicious in it's own right - although I suspect the fudge was part of what set it apart to become the winning entry in the kladdkaka competition.

Ingredients:
- 2 eggs
- 340 g (12 oz) sugar
- 90 g (¹/₅ lb) flour
- 40 g (1.4 oz) powdered cocoa
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- ¹/₄ tsp salt
- 100 g (3.5 oz) unsalted butter, melted
fudge:
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) cream
- 1 tsp honey
- 2 tsp powdered cinnamon
- 2 tsp powdered cardamom
- 200 g (7 oz) milk chocolate
to serve:
- whipped cream

The eggs and the sugar were whipped to a white foamy mass. Separately, the flour was mixed with cocoa, vanilla sugar and salt before stirring it into the sugar-egg mass. Lastly, melted butter was stirred in before pouring the batter into a greased and floured spring form (diameter ~ 22 cm / 8.5 inches). The cake was baked in the bottom of the oven at 175 C (350 F) for 20 minutes.


While the cake was cooling a bit, the fudge was prepared. This is where I deviated from the original recipe: as I don't have a mortar I used powdered cinnamon and cardamom rather than freshly (lightly) crushed cinnamon sticks and cardamom seeds. The original recipe brings the cream, honey and spices to a boil, then lets it stand for minutes to extract flavours from the spices before reheating, filtering off the bulk of the cinnamon sticks and cardamom seeds and mixing with the milk chocolate. Since I used powdered spices, there was no need for filtration, and thus no real reason to let the warm cream stand to extract flavours - I simply let the cream stand long enough to break the milk chocolate to bits before mixing.

The fudge was applied on top of the cake and the whole thing was cooled in the fridge for 1.5 hours before serving with freshly whipped cream - delicious perfection.

It's rather heavy, so I didn't have enough guests to finish it off right away. Leaving it in the fridge overnight, I found that the texture wasn't quite right the next day - at least not when coming straight out of the fridge. Also, I do think less fudge could suffice.

Pear Pie

When I recently discovered I had never made this pie for my muse I was stunned: I didn't make this pie one single time in the past five years? Really? But I used to make it quite often..

Ingredients:
- 150 g (5.3 oz) margarine
- 240 g (8.5 oz) flour
- 125 g (4.4 oz) sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- ¹/₂ tsp ground ginger
- 1 egg
- 1 can of halfed pears in syrup
optionally for serving:
- whipped cream

The margarine was cut in small pieces and worked into the flour by hand before adding sugar, vanilla sugar and ground ginger. The dough was then completed by working the egg into the mixture. The dough was left in the fridge for an hour before parting in two and rolling each piece.

One piece of dough was placed in a buttered and floured pie shell. Pear-halves were arranged on this pie bottom (in this case as many as could be fitted in - there were an excess of pear-halves in the can I used). The other piece of dough was used to form a lid over the pear-halves, and the pie was brushed with the syrup from the can of pears.


The pie was baked at 200 C (400 F) for 40 minutes - is delicious served warm with a dollop of whipped cream, but also works quite well cold.

Easter 'Hen'

It's funny how sometimes nostalgia creeps up on you and you end up doing things that your parents used to do. Take Easter as an example: admittedly, I don't have a whole lot by way of Easter traditions, but recently I found myself wanting to bake this hen-shaped bread that I remembered my mother making for Easter. As I recalled it, it was mostly the shape that set it apart and I suspected that my mother had simply used her standard bun recipe for the dough. Upon asking I was informed that there was a special recipe, which I would receive via e-mail later.

After receiving said recipe and reading it, I concluded that it was in fact pretty close to the aforementioned bun recipe if only half portion, less sugar, more salt.
Ingredients:
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) margarine
- 3.2 dL (1 ¹/₃ cups) milk
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50 g (1 ³/₄ oz) fresh yeast
- 1 + 2 + 1 eggs
- 700 g (ca. 25 oz) flour
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 1 walnut piece
- white and black sesame seeds
The margarine and milk was heated on medium until the margarine had melted, then the mixture was transferred to a large bowl and allowed to cool to about body temperature before adding the sugar and the fresh yeast. One egg was added and the first 500 g (ca. 1 lb) of flour was stirred into the dough. Then the salt was added and the rest of the flour was kneaded into the dough in portions. After kneading thoroughly the dough was left to rise for 40 minutes.


A baking sheet was lined with baking paper, and a hen was shaped - (NB: this was my first attempt and I'm sure there are other ways to do it) - a piece of dough was made into a flat, roundish piece to serve as the body of the hen, while two smaller pieces were cut to make them roughly resemble a tail and a head. For the nest, two rolled pieces of dough were braided. Still having more dough a piece was cut to roughly resemble a wing and with the odd bits of remaining dough some small 'stones' were added beneath the nest.

Two whole, raw eggs were washed and then placed so it looks like the hen is sitting on them in the nest. Finally the entire hen was brushed with a beaten egg, decorated with sesame seeds and a walnut piece (as the eye), and baked at 200 C (400 F) for 20 minutes.

Served while still warm. The baked eggs in the nest are very much like hard-boiled eggs and my mother would usually add one for each person taking part in the Easter brunch. As I made it just for two people, I only used two. If one wishes, one could easily get more creative with the decorations.

Stromboli

Stromboli - or 'pizza roll' as one might be tempted to call it - is nothing less than American addition to the palette of Italian food, supposedly named after a 1950 American-Italian film starring a Swedish actress as a Lithuanian on the volcanic island Stromboli (near Sicily). One month ago I hadn't heard of ANY of these, but that all changed when a colleague brought some stromboli to work for lunch one day.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- ca. 150 g (5.3 oz) tomato sauce
- 120 g (4.2 oz) thinly sliced smoked ham
- 200 g (7 oz) mushrooms, sliced
- 1 red onion, cut in boats
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- 1 jalapeño chilli, finely cut
- bunch of fresh marjoram
- egg for brushing

The dough was taken out of the freezer the night before and left in the fridge to thaw, then rolled with durum flour just as when making pizza.

The rolled dough was topped with everything - not getting to close to the edges is a good idea here. The dough was then carefully rolled and transferred to a baking sheet lined with baking paper, brushed with a beaten egg and baked at 200 C (400 F) for half an hour.

After baking served as slices with a little rocket (arugula) - looks quite pretty doesn't it..

Italian Sausage Pizza

Long time ago - when I was still living in California - I made a pizza with Italian sausages. Recently, I started thinking about this one again, and I thought I'd give it a go when I found some salcissia at the supermarket - although I was somewhat doubtful that these would be exactly like American "sweet Italian sausage".

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- 285 g (10 oz) salcissia fresca
- ca. 150 g (5 oz) tomato sauce
- 1 onion, cut in thin boats
- 125 g (4.4 oz) mozzarella, sliced
- bunch fresh basil
- salt and pepper

While frying the sausages in a pan, the pizza dough was rolled out using durum flour for dusting. The tomato sauce was spread evenly on the dough. The onion was cut in boats by dividing into 16 pieces along the axis. The onion boats were laid out on the pizza.

When the sausages were done, they were sliced and placed on the pizza, followed by slices of mozzarella and leaves of fresh basil. The pizza was baked at 225 C (450 F) for 15 minutes.

Sprinkled with salt and pepper and served hot!

Onion Pizza

For testing my first batch of my frozen pizza dough, I let myself be heavily inspired by this recipe.

The night before I wanted to make the pizza I took out one of the doughs I had put in the freezer.

Ingredients:
- 1 portion frozen pizza dough
- durum flour for rolling
- olive oil
- mustard
- 2 white onions, sliced
- balsamic vinegar
after baking:
- salt
- pepper
- parmigiano-reggiano cheese, grated
- rocket salad

The dough rolled out nicely, no differences to the freshly made variety. The rolled out dough was brushed with a little olive oil and mustard.

The onion rings were caramelised in a large pan and added some balsamic vinegar towards the end. The caramelised onion rings were spread on the pizza dough and it was baked at 225 C (450 F) for 13 minutes - when out out the oven, sprinkled with salt, pepper, freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano and served with rocket.

Delicious. Now I have three more easy pizzas waiting for me in the freezer.

Shrovetide Buns (Egg-free)

While it is pointless to whip up an egg-free dough for a bun filled with an egg-based custard, it makes sense if you remember that Shrovetide buns can also be jam-filled. For these I used extra margarine as well as extra milk to make up for the missing egg in the dough.

This is a wee bit late for the season this year, but here goes anyway..

Ingredients:
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) margarine
- 1.5 dL (²/₃ cup) whole-milk
- 50 g (ca. 2 oz) fresh yeast
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 400 g (14 oz) wheat flour
filling:
- ca. 200 g (7 oz) raspberry jam
glazing:
- powdered sugar
- optional powdered cocoa
- water

The margarine and milk was heated on low heat in a small pot until the margarine had melted, then transferred to a large bowl and allowed to cool until lukewarm. The fresh yeast was crumbled into the lukewarm milk-and-margarine, then the sugar was stirred in followed by the flour. The dough was kneaded for some minutes, then covered and left to rise for 1 hour.

After rising, the dough was rolled out to approximately 40 x 45 cm (ca. 15" x 18") and cut in 12 pieces. A largish tsp of raspberry jam was placed in the middle of each piece of dough and the dough was folded around the jam and the resulting buns were placed on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. The buns were then covered and left to rise on the sheet for 45 minutes.

The buns were baked for 10 minutes at 225 C (450 F) - and it appears I need to improve my technique for closing the buns as some jam ran out onto the baking sheet during baking.

The buns were served with a freshly applied glazing made by stirring together water and powdered sugar - approximate amounts (for one bun): 1 tsp water + 6 tsp powdered sugar (for a nice chocolaty variation substitute 1 or 2 tsp of the powdered sugar with powdered cocoa).

Frozen Pizza Dough

The next logical step after establishing that pizza dough can be made the day before and kept in the fridge until use was to try to freeze it. This would also allow me to make such a large batch of dough that I could use an entire pack of fresh yeast..

Ingredients:
- 5 dL (2 cups) lukewarm water^[1]
- 50 g (ca. 2 oz) fresh yeast
- 1050 g (2.3 lbs) wheat flour
- 4 + 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp salt

The fresh yeast was crumbled into the lukewarm water and stirred, then added 4 tbsp olive oil and half of the flour. The salt was stirred in before adding the rest of the flour in portions while kneading the dough. The dough is perfect when so much flour has been added that the dough is neither sticky nor crumbly when pressing it between your thumb and your index finger - after kneading it for some extra minutes, the ball of dough was coated with 2 tbsp olive oil, the bowl covered and the dough allowed to rise for 2 hours before parting in four (each portion good for a pizza some 30 x 40 cm (12" x 15")). They were then immediately put in the freezer.

^[1] Conveniently made by mixing 3 dL cold tap water and 2 dL boiling water - needed only to stand for a short while to cool to lukewarm.

Banana cake (test)

Last time I was baking my banana cake, I realised halfway through that I didn't actually have any baking powder - the packet I thought I had turned out to be baking soda. Now, baking powder is (or at least can be) a mixture of baking soda and an acid, so in order to use baking soda in stead of the baking powder the rest of the ingredients have to be sufficiently acidic. This - as I've understood it - is not merely a question of leavening, but also one of taste. Baking soda in a batter with too little acid might result in a somewhat alkaline taste, which is not desirable in any cake I'm familiar with.

For these reasons it's not given that baking soda can be substituted for baking powder, but then a friend of mine pointed out that bananas are in fact somewhat acidic (as per this list) and therefore the banana cake might work out just fine with baking soda..

Naturally, such an idea had to be tested: are bananas sufficiently acidic to make banana cake using baking soda?

Ingredients:
- 100g (3.5 oz) margarine
- 140 g (5 oz) flour
- ²/₃ tsp baking soda
- 200 g (7 oz) sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla sugar
- 3 eggs
- 2 well-ripened bananas
frosting:
- 100 g (3.5 oz) dark chocolate

While the margarine was melted in a small pot, the other ingredients were prepared in 3 separate bowls: the bananas was mashed with a fork, the flour was mixed with the baking soda, and the sugar, vanilla and eggs were whipped to a pale foamy viscous mass. The flour-mix and the melted margarine (which should be too hot) was stirred into the egg-foam and finally the mashed bananas were stirred into the batter as well.

The batter was poured into a greased and floured bread pan and baked at 175 C (350 F) for 52 minutes. After cooling in the bread pan, the cake was moved to a large plate and covered with melted dark chocolate.

After standing for several hours to let the chocolate harden, the cake was tested: it tasted just fine - so, bananas are sufficiently acidic...

Buns (Egg-free)

Continuing the egg-free baking theme I wanted to have an egg-free version of my basic bun recipe. To achieve this goal, I needed two slightly different egg-substitutes: some extra liquid for the dough (I went for soured/thickened milk) and something for brushing the buns immediately prior to baking (I went for whole milk). As an aside I felt like using whole wheat flour - and so it went..

Ingredients:
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) margarine
- 5 dL (2 cups) milk
- 50 g (2 oz) fresh yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1.1 kg (2.4 lbs) whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2.5 dl (1 cup) A-fil^[1]
- 130 g (4.5 oz) flax seed
- 100 g (3.5 oz) sunflower seeds
- a little whole milk for brushing
- poppy seeds for decorating

The margarine was put in a small pot together with the milk and heated on medium-low heat till the margarine was melted. This mixture was transferred to a large bowl and allowed to cool to lukewarm before adding crumbled fresh yeast and sugar. The first half of the flour was stirred in, followed by the salt, thickened milk, flax seed, and sunflower seeds. The rest of the flour was added little by little and kneaded into the dough until the dough had the right texture (I aimed for neither sticky nor crumbly). When enough flour was added the final dough was kneaded for an additional couple of minutes before shaping 32 buns and placing them on baking sheets lined with baking paper - with good distance between them. The shaped buns were covered with a cloth and left to rise on the baking plates for 45 minutes.

The risen buns were brushed with a little whole milk and sprinkled with poppy seeds before being baked in the middle of the oven at 200 C (400 F) for 15-16 minutes. After baking the buns were immediately moved from the baking plate to a grid for even cooling.

This worked quite well.

^[1] Lactobacillus acidophilus-fermented milk.

Cinnamon Rolls (Egg-free)

Now that I'm living in Sweden I partake in 'fika' on a regular basis - to fika is to sit down with friends/colleagues/whoever and have some coffee and cake (although in my case it's tea and cake as I don't drink coffee). The majority of my fika experiences take place at work, and a substantial part of them occur at our weekly group meetings, for which we take turns at bringing bread and/or cake. It's sort of an unwritten rule that it should be home-baked, but that should be doable for someone like me.

Then my new colleagues told me about the tricky bit: our boss is allergic not only to nuts, but also to eggs. Off the top of my head I couldn't think of a single cake recipe in my repertoire that didn't include eggs - although after thinking a bit more about it I came up with one. Naturally, I felt compelled to overcome this challenge. Upon researching the subject, I found that there are in fact lots of recipes for baking without eggs on the internet. Never-the-less, I will post about here about my experiences with it.

For the first round, I chose the perhaps most quintessentially Danish/Swedish cake: the cinnamon roll. These are ubiquitous (if in somewhat different versions) in both Sweden and Denmark.


Ingredients:
dough
- 50 g (2 oz) fresh yeast
- 5 dL (2 cups) milk
- 125 g (4.4 oz) margarine
- ½ tsp salt
- 125 g (4.4 oz) sugar
- 5 tsp cardamom
- at least 900 g (2 lbs) flour
filling
- 150 g (¹/₃ lb) margarine
- 12 tbsp dark brown sugar
- 6 tbsp cinnamon

The milk and the margarine was mixed in a small pot and heated on low heat until the margarine was melted. The lukewarm mixture (let it cool for a little while if too warm) was poured over crumbled fresh yeast before adding sugar, cardamom, salt, and flour. The dough was kneaded for some minutes until smooth. The dough was covered and left to rise for a couple of hours (this was definitely plenty of time - if allowed to stand until the volume has doubled it should be sufficient).

While the dough was rising, the filling was made by mixing all the ingredients on low heat and then cooling the mixture to get a dark brown paste - if it's too runny it will cause problems later.

The risen dough was rolled out using a little little extra flour. The filling was spread evenly on the dough and then it was rolled into a log. The log was sliced and the slices were placed on a sheet of baking paper.

Tip: to prevent the rolls from uncoiling the outer end was stretched slightly and placed under the roll.

They were baked at 200 C (400 F) for 13-15 minutes.

Served warm - they can easily be frozen and re-heated in the oven. For the luxury version, they can be decorated with a frosting made from water and powdered sugar.

Potato Pizza 2

We read about a variation on this concept .. and realised it was sufficiently different to merit a post on its own. I think the two are equally good - just different.

Ingredients:
- 2 portions pizza dough
- olive oil
- 4 yellow onions, finely diced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- fresh thyme
- salt & pepper
- 8-10 potatoes, thinly sliced
after baking:
- parmigiano reggiano, freshly grated
for serving:
- fresh arugula (rocket)

The finely diced onions were caramelized in a little olive oil together with crushed garlic, fresh thyme, salt and pepper - then set aside.

Each portion of the pizza dough was rolled aided by durum flour.

Each pizza was topped with a layer of caramelized onions, then potato slices and sprinkled with oil, salt and pepper.

The pizzas were baked in the oven at 225 C (450 F) for 20 minutes.

After baking the pizzas were sprinkled with more fresh thyme and freshly grated parmigiano reggiano - and served with a little fresh arugula.