Category Archives: fika

Fika & Cheese Party with Madame Fromage (Philadelphia)

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A Fika Party with Madame Fromage (Philadelphia)

Saturday November 7, Tenaya Darlington aka Madame Fromage will be hosting an afternoon Fika with me at her house in Philadelphia. And we both would love you to join us.
For the occasion, we’re designing a cozy mulled wine gathering with fika treats and cheese. There will be a variety of bread and cookie samples  from the fika book and Tenaya will specially design a luscious cheese board to match the treats. There will also be a baking demonstration and I will show you one of the best ways to make glögg (Swedish mulled wine). Tenaya will give you her personal stories behind the selected cheeses.

We are both super excited to see you there. And I’m also thrilled to finally meet Tenaya, who has been one of my favorite blogger and food writers for years. Last year we collaborated on an illustrated cheese calender, which resulted in four seasonal cheese posts (see links below).  I’m super honored that she wants to host this little cheese salon with me, for you.

The Fika book and Tenaya’s wonderful cheese book will be on sale at the party. You can pre order them to a special price when you purchase your ticket. I will also have a few fika and cheese prints for sale at the party.

If you want to know more about fika and how to pair it with cheese you are most welcome. We have 15 spots for this special fika hour.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7  4-6 p.m.
price: $20 person
Total spots: 15

SOLD OUT!
Psst did you miss this? Well you can easily host one yourself! Here, Tenaya brings you behind the scenes and reveals how successfully host a Fika & Cheese party at home.

A little background about your hosts

Tenaya Darlington aka Madame Fromage is a cheese blogger and writer in Philadelphia. Her latest book, Di Bruno Bros. House of Cheese: A Guide to Wedges, Recipes, and Pairings. At the moment she is finishing up her next cookbook which is a cocktail collaboration with her brother André Darlington.

Johanna Kindvall is a blogger and illustrator from Sweden who lives in Brooklyn. Her latest book is Fika: The Art of The Swedish Coffee Break, with Recipes for Breads, Pastries, and Other Treats (Ten Speed, 2015), by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall.

The Cheese Calendar 
Winter Blues: A Pairing Party for 8 to 12 (part 4)
Smoke and Funk: A Fall Cheese Board (part 3)
Late Summer Cheese Picnic (part 2)
Your Spring Goat Cheese Primer (part 1)

Celebrating with Cardamom Buns

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Today (October 4) is the kanelbullens dag (Cinnamon Bun Day) in Sweden. Swedes call these type of buns Vetebullar (wheat buns) which refers to the sweet yeast dough that can be baked plain or filled with different types of fillings such as cinnamon, almond paste, vanilla or cardamom. In my opinion, kardemummabullen (the cardamom bun) is the queen of Vetebullar and I think she (and the others) deserves to be celebrated on this day too.

Another good reason to bake these buns is that just a few days ago my book Fika turned 6 months old. The book is doing really well so I’m extra thrilled having some buns with you today.

To make it even more festive I have added some ground almonds to the cardamom filling. I also topping the buns with cardamom sugar, which made these buns super cardamom rich. If you want to minimize the sugar intake, you can top the buns with slivered almonds.

Happy bun day!

Kardemummabullar (Cardamom Buns)
Adapted from the recipe in the book Fika – The Art of Swedish Coffee Break by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall

makes 30 buns

dough
7 tablespoons (3.5 ounces, 99 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1½ cups (360 milliliters) milk
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
4½ cups (1 3/8 pounds, 638 grams) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (1.75 ounces, 50 grams) natural cane sugar
1½ teaspoons whole cardamom seeds, crushed with mortar & pestle
¼ teaspoon salt

filling
½ cup (2½ ounces, 70 grams) blanched almonds
7 tablespoons (3.5 ounces, 99 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup (3.5 ounces, 99 grams) natural cane sugar
4 teaspoons whole cardamom seeds, crushed with mortar & pestle

topping
cardamom sugar:
4 1/2 teaspoons sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cardamom powder.
or slivered almonds
1 egg, beaten

Prepare the dough: Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the milk. Heat until it’s warm to the touch (about 110°F/43°C). In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in 3 tablespoons of the butter & milk mixture. Mix and let sit for a few minutes until bubbles form.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cardamom, and salt. Add the yeast along with the remaining butter & milk. Work together with a dough whisk or with your hands until you can shape the dough into a ball. Transfer dough to your countertop and knead for about 3 – 5 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough should feel moist. If the dough feels sticky, add a little bit more flour. You can check if you are done kneading by making a slice into the dough with a sharp knife. If you see even small air bubbles throughout, you are done. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a bowl. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm and draft-free place until almost double in size, about 1 hour.

Grease a baking sheet or place medium paper liners on the sheet.

For the filling, grind the blanched almonds in a food processor together with the sugar until just slightly coarse. Add the butter in small portions at the time. Lastly, add the crushed cardamom. Mix until an even spreadable paste.


When the dough has finished rising, take half of the dough and place it on a flat surface. Roll it out with a rolling pin to an 11 x 17 inch (28 x 43 cm) rectangle. Spread half of the filling on top of the rolled-out dough so that it covers the whole area (see diagram). Grab one of the edge of one of the long sides, fold it over so it meets the other side (like folding a paper on the middle, see illustrated diagram above). Slice the folded dough into 15 equal stripes. Stretch & twist every stripe and swirl them up to a nice bun (see video). Place each of them on a the greased baking sheet or in a paper liner. Repeat with the second half of the dough. Cover the buns with a clean tea towel and let rise for about 45 – 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 435°F (225°C).

When the buns have risen and you are ready to bake the buns, brush every bun with beaten egg and sprinkle each with cardamom sugar .

Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and cover with a tea towel to cool. Serve freshly baked or freeze when they are completely cooled.

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related links

• Kanelbullar (Cinnamon Buns) – kokblog recipe

• More bun shapes and a sneak peek into my kitchen over at Pantry Confidential

• How to twist Cinnamon Buns by Brontë Aurell, ScandiKitchen café. Video by Ryland Peters & Small

• want more?  Check out –> Fika – The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break. The cookbook is all illustrated by me, Johanna Kindvall and the recipes are created and developed together with Anna Brones. Published by Ten Speed Press. You can get the book here (see more shopping links in the left sidebar).

 

Pantry Confidential in my Kitchen

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© Johanna Kindvall

A couple of weeks ago I was baking cardamom buns for the wonderful ladies Hana Choi and Christine Han at Pantry Confidential. If you are interested, you can read the interview and get a sneak peek into my kitchen here. The post also includes the Fika book recipe of Vetebullar (base dough for cinnamon and cardamom buns).

Hana has a background in journalism and food with a Grande Diplôme at The French Culinary Institute. In 2011 she started her blog style fare, where she shares beautiful things mixed with recipes and reviews of places she visits in NYC or when traveling. Christine is an anthropologist and photographer, based in NYC. She use photography as a tool to tell people’s stories. And she does that really well. Her specialities are food, weddings and travel.

Together they run Pantry Confidential, were they peek into food lover’s home kitchens around the city of NY.  I really like their concept and I find it really fun to get a look into the kitchens of other food personalities. Here are a few of my favorites: Michael Harlan Turkell, Olga Massov, Yossy Arefi and Kristin Appenbrink.

So when Hana contacted me three years ago and asked if they could come to my kitchen, I was obviously super flattered. But as I was in the middle of packing my kitchen stuff in the East Village, on our move to Brooklyn, I asked to postpone it. Then a year past while I was waiting for building approvals and what else you need to start a major house renovation. We definitely had a “gut” job ahead of us. Our new place was unlivable with plants growing into the kitchen and many other issues I don’t want to talk about.

During this time we rented a friend’s apartment. As the kitchen wasn’t really mine we decided to wait a little bit longer. The following year we finally lived in the house with a barely functional kitchen and a bathroom. But that was pretty much everything that was working. Our first night in the house we didn’t even have proper heating (and that was in February 2013).

The year after when our kitchen was almost ready we decided to take a break from renovating. We were almost ready but hungry to fully work on our own projects. Then Hana gave birth to her daughter Lana so Pantry Confidential took a year off. This year we were all finally ready.

It’s not everyday my food gets this kind of exposure (normally I just take a quick photo to document the process for potential drawing later).  At first I was nervous and worried if the bread would be baked properly or if the cardamom buns looked good enough in front of the camera. But as soon as Hana and Christine entered my home I felt totally relaxed. Both of them are so professional and they made me feel I was just baking with friends. And in the end, I was.

Thanks Hana and Christine! It was a great pleasure to have you in my kitchen. You are welcome back anytime.

© Johanna Kindvall

Follow these lovely ladies on Instagram: Hana,  Christine and Pantry Confidential.

Also check out my recipe for Cinnamon Buns (kanelbullar)

Fika: Cardamom Biscuits

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kindvall-biscuit-diagram-5

A couple of years ago I had the honor to have lunch with Russell at London Eats here in Brooklyn. It felt like we had known each other for years. Like me, he is very much into baking. And he does it pretty well. In December he has the wonderful tradition of baking 12 cakes and cookies, which he share on his blog. As Russell lived in Sweden for a while, you can also find some Scandinavian pastries on his site as well.

The other day I baked Cardamom Biscuits based on one of Russell’s recipes. But don’t confuse this kind of biscuit with a typical American biscuit. In UK a biscuit is a sweet or savory small cracker (or cookie) while in US a biscuit is like a small soft scone. In Sweden you call it kex.

The recipe is based on Russell’s recipe for Abernethy biscuits. Instead of using Caraway seeds, which is the tradition for this kind of biscuit, I used cardamom as the flavor. The result was fantastic. It really is a perfect snappy biscuit that works beautifully together with a strong cup of tea, coffee or a glass of milk.

kindvall-biscuits

Cardamom Biscuits
(about  40)

Adapted from  Russell’s (London Eats’) Abernethy biscuits

240 grams (little more than 1 2/3 cup) all purpose flour + extra for dusting
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
85 grams (3 ounces) butter
85 grams (3 ounces, little more than 1/3 cup) caster sugar
2 teaspoons whole cardamom, crushed
one egg
one tablespoon milk

Mix together flour and baking powder in a bowl. With your fingertips rub in the butter until it resembles a coarse meal (a little like breadcrumbs as Russell describes it).  Mix in the sugar and the crushed cardamom.

Beat the egg in a small bowl and add it together with the milk to the flour mixture. Work the dough together with your hands until you can shape it into soft ball.  If the dough feel too sticky or too dry, add more flour or milk.  Wrap the ball in plastic wrap. Let rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (355ºF). Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

On a floured flat surface roll half the dough thinly (less than 1/2 cm thick, about 1/8 inch). Cut out rounds with a small glass. Place them on the prepared cookie sheet and make neat patterns with a wood skewer. Repeat until all dough is all used up.

Bake the biscuits for about 10 – 15 minutes. The should have a nice color. Watch them carefully so they don’t get too dark. You may need to turn the baking sheet once to get an even color.

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also check out my other fika related recipes here.

 

Fika: Book Events: NYC, West Coast & London

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kindvall-fika-events-2

Do you want to fika with me?
Next week we are celebrating by having some Fika – The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break events here in NYC, at various cool places around town.
Both Anna and I will be there! I’m very excited!
Not in NYC? There is also an opportunity to meet Anna on the west coast later in May or meet up with me in London at the beginning of June.

Hope to see you all over a fika!

Manhattan

Book signing at Fika NYC on Monday May 4, at 3 to 5pm
Join us for a chat while having fika. Psst! I have heard there will be chocolate balls!
Address: Fika Tower’s Loft  – 824 10th Avenue btw 54 and 55 th Street

Brooklyn

Book signing at the Nordic coffee shop Budin on Wednesday May 6, at 5 to 7pm
Join us over a chat while having some Scandinavian Drop Coffee with your fika.
Budin also has a great beer selection!
Address: 114 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn

Book signing at the bar of 61 Local on Thursday May 7, btw 6 – 8 pm
Join us for some fika talk over a beer and cardamom buns (made from our recipe)!
This bar has a great selection of crafted beers.
Address: 61 Bergen Street, Brooklyn

Anna will continue to…

West Coast

Fika at Book Larder on May 12, btw 6:30 to 8pm
Address: 4252 Fremont Ave N, Seattle.
Anna will be there and talk about Fika

Fika at Broder Nord on Friday May 15, btw 6 to 8:30pm
There will be cinnamon buns, aquavit cocktails and kroppkakor.
Address: Broder Nord, 2240 N Interstate Ave, Portland
Tickets here.

And Johanna will go to…

London

Book signing at Fika London on June 3, at 5-7pm
Come chat with me while having fika. Pssst they have kladdkaka (chocolate sticky cake), Swedish Pancakes  and  Cinnamon Buns. And more!
Address: 161 Brick Lane, London

Hope to see you all!

You can read more about the book here.