Category Archives: sweet

Gingerbread Cookies (Pepparkakor)

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My memories of making gingerbread cookies (pepparkakor) are limited to my childhood when my sister and I rolled out dough and cutout shapes like the classic gingerbread men, women and pigs. It was fun for awhile, but our efforts only used up half the dough before my mother took over and cut out about 100 more. There were always too many gingerbread cookies in the house, no one seemed to eat them so they often lasted until Easter. At which point my mother had enough and fed them to the birds.

My mother’s cooking has always been a great inspiration but I’m afraid to say that gingerbread cookies isn’t one of them. So I decided to asked Anna Brones to join me in a gingerbread post. While creating the article together, I realized what my mother’s dough was missing. Anna (and her mother) always doubled the spices!
Read Anna’s gingerbread story at EcoSalon.

Anna’s Pepparkakor (Gingerbread Cookies)
(about 75-100 cookies)

¼ cup (50 ml) heavy cream
2/3 cup (150 ml) light syrup* or molasses
almost 1 cup (160g) sugar
3 ½ oz (100g) butter
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 cups (420g) flour (+ some for the rolling out)

Melt the butter and the syrup on low heat. Let cool before adding the other ingredients. Work the dough well. It’s important that the spices are freshly milled. Let the dough rest overnight in a cool place so the spices have time to fully develop their aromas. The resting will also make it easier to roll out the dough.

Roll out the dough and cut out shapes with gingerbread cutters. Bake in the oven at 375ºF (190ºC) for about 6-8 minutes. Keep an eye on them as they burn easily.

This dough can also be used for a gingerbread house. Just roll it out slightly thicker. Have fun!

This recipe is a modification of the original at the Swedish shop Svensk Hemslöjd in Stockholm.

*You can buy light Syrup (ljus sirap) at Ikea. You can also use ”Lyle’s Golden Syrup” that you can find in British food stores.

*

Anna’s Franska Pepparkakor (French Gingerbread Cookies)

1 cup (almost 250 ml) almonds, chopped
7 oz (200 g) butter
1/2 cup (100g) sugar
1/2 cup (120 ml) molasses
4 tsp ginger
4 tsp cinnamon
4 tsp ground nutmeg
4 tsp cardamom
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups (420g) flour
Cream butter, sugar and molasses.

Mix dry ingredients with almonds, then combine with butter, sugar and molasses. Knead together with your hands.

Roll dough into cylinders, about 12 inches long and wrap in wax paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut dough into 1/4 inch slices. Bake at 380 for 10-12 minutes.

This recipe is adapted from the Swedish classic: “Sju sorters kakor.”

*

Other Swedish baked classics

Semlor – cardamom rich bun is filled with almond paste and heavy whipped cream
Kanelbullar – Swedish Cinnamon Bun
Lussebullar – Saffron Buns
Mazariner – Guest post by Anna Brones

Caramelized Apple Tart (EcoSalon)

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A couple of weeks ago I was asked to do some recipe articles for EcoSalon. As the site belongs to one of my favorite sites I was beyond thrilled. EcoSalon has several interesting food columns, such as Foodie Underground by Anna Brones and The Green Plate by Vanessa Barrington. (BTW Anna Brones is also the woman behind the guest post Semlor for Fat Tuesday Tuesday that was posted earlier this year here on Kokblog). The site also has articles on fashion, culture, design and sex. EcoSalon, as the name shows, is about ecology and green.

My first article is about Apples in New York City followed by the recipe: Caramelized Apple Tart (see below). Read the whole story here.

 

Caramelized Apple Tart
4-6 people

dough
1 ¼ cup (about 300 ml) regular flour
3.5 ounces (about 100 grams) butter
3 tablespoons sucanat*
1½ teaspoons finely crushed cardamom
splash of water

filling
4 apples (preferably apples that are sour + firm inside, ex. Granny Smith)
4-5 tablespoons sucanat* (depending on how sour the apples are)
juice from one lemon
2½ ounces (70 grams) butter
½ cup (100 ml ) almonds, toasted and chopped

heavy cream, whipped with a little sugar

Start by mixing together butter, flour, cardamom and sucanat. When the butter is well divided add a splash of water. Work the dough together and let it rest in the fridge for at least one hour. Line a greased 9 inch (about 23 cm) spring form. Pre-bake at 400°F (200°C) the pie shell for about 10-15 minutes until it has got some color. Let cool.

Wash and peel the apples. Cut in half, take out the seeds and slice the rest of the apple in thin slices. Sprinkle the slices with sucanat and lemon juice. Cook over medium heat in a frying pan until they start to get juicy. Add ½ of the butter. Keep cooking the apples until they starts to caramelize. If you think the apples need more sugar you may add some now and let cook for a little bit more. The color should be golden and have some brown spots. Remove from heat and add the rest of the butter and toasted almonds. Let cool a little before arranging the apples inside the baked pie shell. Bake at 450°F (230C) for about 15 minutes until the apples have gotten some nice color. Serve with whipped cream.

*Sucanat is a brown sugar extracted from sugar cane. It’s perfect to bake with and gives cakes and cookies a richer taste. In the U.S. you can often find Sucanat in organic shops. If you can’t find sucanat you may use muscovado sugar or even regular brown sugar instead. When I’m in Sweden I use Farin sugar which works really well too.

Vanilla Ice Cream (guest post)

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This summer a friend asked me what was the maximum temperature that egg yolks should reach while making ice cream. He was a little upset as many ice cream recipes aren’t clear about that. He’d just experienced what happens when you heat up the eggs too high! It separates! As it was a shamelessly long time ago that I made my own ice cream I couldn’t answer him. A few days later when I was reading Johan Kohnke’s Vanilla Ice Cream recipe (below) I was happy to see that he very carefully described every step.
With this guest post I think its time for me to start making ice cream again. I especially love vanilla ice cream, but this recipe can be a fantastic base to add other flavors to. I will definitely make my other favorites: fig, pistachio or salt-licorice. Thanks Johan!

(damn good) Vanilla Ice Cream
by Johan Kohnke

100 years ago,  ice cream (and chocolate) became more common in Sweden.  Ever since then, the Industry has made efforts to cultivate the taste of ice cream and make it more economically. Still, there are few things in life that beats ice cream made at home. Home-made vanilla ice cream contains cream, sugar, egg yolks and vanilla bean.
At Savoy Hotel, Malmö (Sweden) they always have a bucket of their own vanilla ice cream. It’s served in simple silver bowls. To sneak a scoop from the cold-buffet manageress was the absolute prime joy of the day. You can play with flavors endlessly but I stick to just plain vanilla ice cream. If there are no fresh or frozen berries to serve warm with the ice cream, then a simple chocolate sauce is super. It’s the simplest thing in the world: Mix together one dl sugar, one dl cacao, one dl water. Bring to a boil and let cook to a just thick enough consistency. You can make the sauce any time but the ice cream needs at least two days to be really good.

Vanilla Ice Cream
(about half a liter)

5 dl half & half (or 50 milk and 50 heavy cream)
115 gram egg yolk (grrr so complicated: use about 5-6 egg yolks if you don’t have a scale)
125 gram sugar, (1.75 dl)
17.5 gram honey, (one large table spoon)
one half or a whole vanilla pod (depending on the size and the taste)

Whip sugar and egg yolks until the sugar has dissolved and the batter feels airy.
Scrape out the beans from the vanilla pod and place pod and beans together with the half & half in a saucepan. Heat the cream mixture to just about 100ºC. The liquid should just simmer and not boil. Add the honey.
I have a digital thermometer to specifically control the next step. Pour in the sugar and egg yolk batter. Whip like crazy and let the temperature just reach 82ºC. (Any higher temperature and the ice cream mixture will be wasted!!!) Cool the whole thing immediately in a water bath in your kitchen sink. The temperature should reach 8ºC before placing in the fridge for 8 hours. Its no good skipping this part, I have tried! If you do, you just better buy ice cream instead! The fat in egg yolk needs time to swell, end of story!
Before you run the batter in an ice cream maker, fish out the vanilla pod. Store in the freezer and you have simple vanilla ice cream at hand for your special treats.
The recipe is adapted from the Swedish confectioner Mikael Palm’s ”gräddglass” recipe.

See other posts by Johan Kohnke here on Kokblog.

 

Wild Cherry Pie

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There is an old railroad path where the tracks have been gone for many years. Nasty weeds such as stinging nettles are about to take over as almost no one walks there anymore. Along the path a little further on grows some black cherry trees.  The cherries are tiny, sweet with a slight almond taste. They are absolutely fantastic and something I long for every summer.  Its a great treat (despite the burning weeds) to eat directly or to freeze for pies and hot sauces in the Autumn. As they are just too good to be left on the tree for the birds to eat, I will continue coming back each year.

Wild Cherry Pie
serves 4

almond dough
300 ml (1 ¼ cup) milled almonds
100 g (3 ½ ounces) butter
5 tablespoons sucanat

about 750 ml pitted black wild cherries (or similar)

With your hands mix together butter, milled almonds and sugar. Work the dough together. As this is not a crumble, the dough should feel a little sticky. Let it rest in the fridge for about an hour. Grease a 9 ½ inch pie form and arrange the cherries in the form. Flatten some of the dough out in your hand and place over the cherries. The crust should be about 1/4” thick. Repeat until all the cherries are covered. Bake the pie in the oven at 200°C (400F) until the crust has started to get color, about 15 minutes. The crust should be a little crisp and still buttery. Serve warm with some whipped cream.

This recipe was first published at Honest Cooking, 1 September 2011.

 

 

Sticky Chocolate Cake (kladdkaka)

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Most Swedes have probably made Sticky Chocolate Cake (kladd kaka) at least once or twice in their lives. If not they’ve eaten it for sure. I don’t know if this sticky chocolate cake is originally from Sweden but its something that’s definitely a Swedish thing to bake and enjoy. The ingredient that really makes this cake, aside from the unsweetened cocoa powder, is the ingredient that isn’t there: baking powder. The idea is that the cake should be chocolate rich, sticky and dead baked (it doesn’t rise)!

Most recipes for Sticky Cake contain the ingredients: egg, sugar, cocoa powder, flour, salt and melted butter. The ratio varies from one baking Swede to another. However the ingredients are simply mixed together with no fuss and baked just enough.

I have enjoyed it filled with mint or licorice, topped with whipped cream and bananas, flavored with Cognac or just plain and wonderful. In my latest version I have switched the flour to milled almonds. I also use the richest unsweetened cacao powder (like Valrhona) and, as I’m married to a Pole, I like to top the cake with Poppy seeds (makiem). The flavoring is plain, with Rum or star anise.

Kladdkaka

2 eggs
250 ml (1 cup) sucanat (or muscovado sugar)
4-6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (of good quality)
one teaspoon salt (less if using salted butter)
200 ml (almost 1 cup) milled almonds
4 oz (a touch more than 100g) butter, melted

alternative flavors (optional)
1-2 star anise (crushed and soaked in 2 tablespoons of vodka for one hour)
about two tablespoons Rum

topping
poppy seeds

Whisk eggs and sucanat together in a bowl. Stir in the milled almonds, cocoa powder and salt. Pour in the butter and stir until smooth.

Add the flavor (optional), either Rum or the star anise infused vodka to the mixture.
Pour the mixture into a greased 9” spring form. Sprinkle some poppy seeds on top.

Bake the cake in the oven at 350 F (150°C) for about 15 minutes. The cake should just be set on top and sticky inside. Let the cake cool off.

This recipe was first published on Honest Cooking, 4 May 2011.