Brownies

Per got to choose dessert last time we had guests, and he picked brownies. He wanted a really classic brownie, with "no stuff in it". Stuff, meaning nuts, usually. I myself love walnuts and dried apricots in brownies, but he prefers plain. So, here goes, a very plain brownie. Still, very good! And as you can see, I served it with ice cream and a creamy caramel sauce that was just divine!

Brownies
(printable recipe)

200 g dark chocolate
125 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
280 g sugar
1 small vanilla bean, seeds
2 eggs
150 ml flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Finely chop the chocolate. Set aside half of it. Melt the other half. Beat butter and sugar until fluffy, and add the seeds from the vanilla bean. (Feel free to use extract if you prefer.) Mix in one egg at a time. Stir in the melted chocolate, and then the flour and cocoa powder. Finally add the rest of the chopped chocolate.

The batter will be fairly stiff. Scrape it into a buttered pan (mine is about 20 cm square) and bake at 175°C for about 25-30 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Brownies

OMG

I've written about my love for Starbucks many times, but not even I am
this desperate! (for new readers: no, no Starbucks in Sweden.) I found
this in my local supermarket today - ground coffee in 12 oz bags, for
139 SEK. That's about $17! Apparently the store is aware that this is
crazy, since they felt the need to point out the price for a flight to
New York...

Rebound relationship hurts!

Well before I move further into what I am about to share, let me just explain what ‘rebound relationship’ actually means. It basically means a relationship that occurs shortly after the break-up of a significant love relationship.

At this moment, I just don’t care anymore coz I think I need some advice and help! I’m not shy nor am I proud to say that I think i've involved myself in a 'rebound relationship'. And now I just kinda have some problem! Well, I broke up with my ex bf (of a year and a half) around few months ago (3 months to be exact) but even before that we actually did break up in December ‘08. We have had problem since quite sometimes ago and have been on and off since then but we were still trying to patch things up and none of us really met someone new till recently (about a month ago) I met this new guy who is now my bf. And to be exact, it’s been a month that we’ve been together. With this new guy, I’ve got to admit that I’m really happy. He treats me well and really takes care of me. If I would compare from A to Z, he’s perfect with a capital P! He’s like every girl’s dream of a bf! From his look, his attitude, the way he treats his gf (that’s me!), there’s nothing else you would want to ask!

Everytime i look at my bf, he reminds me of this Zachary Quinto.

But then WHY do I still keep remembering my ex and still misses him so much??? I still keep dreaming about him and wished those good old days will be back again! But then there’s more pain than happiness in the relationship. I guess chemistry does play a big part in a relationship!
Well I know if I’m back with my ex, I will really miss my current bf now but even now I feel like I’m stuck in the middle! I can’t fully love my current bf yet coz some parts of me still misses the old one!

WHAT SHOULD I DO PEOPLE?

Would you wear BLACK on your wedding day?

Hmmm...I know I've been away for quite sometimes and never updated my blog since..my apology to those who's been asking me to update my blog...especially to Rayan who's been complaining and asking me to update this blog cos it's the only way he can communicate with me at the moment... lol! So, here it goes...

I’m seeing all these gothic trend kinda wedding these days and I just wonder, shouldn’t marriage suppose to be something pure sacred and holy? Why wear BLACK? Call me old fashioned but I’d still prefer white for my wedding day and I don’t think I would go for any gothic theme kinda wedding! I find it very insulting! Ok even IF you have to have black colour on the wedding dress, why not go for something that’s suppler that wouldn’t look so ‘Ooh she must be kidding to be wearing that on her wedding day!’

OH NO!!!!

And IF you to wear black so badly, why not wear it during the wedding photos shoot for the wedding album? That wouldn’t look so bad! Coz some black dress doesn’t look that bad…ON A WEDDING PHOTO!

I actually like this...

and this too...

Maybe some might NOT really be interested in white, why not go for something like peach or something light that still look very supple and not so over-the-top.

Gold is nice too

Light green maybe?

Cream?

I wouldn't mind this one too..!

Coz if someone would ask me, I rather go for simple than ‘extravagance’ for my wedding day. Yes, understood wedding is only once in a lifetime but what’s with all the over the top dress and colour? I mean in 10 years time, looking back at the photos I bet you’ll regretted the decision of getting something so called unique and extravagance! Coz every fashion and trend has a limited period of time and choosing something simple and traditional would be a very wise choice coz it’ll stay that way all the time and won’t really go out of fashion. Even if it is, it won’t be so bad.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

I've made bagels before, but I like this recipe that I found over at Smitten Kitchen. I've simplified it by not retarding the bagels overnight - but you certainly can - and I find that it works really well like this as well. I also don't bother with different oven temperatures or rotating the sheets, but then again, I have a convection oven with fans, so it bakes pretty evenly.

You can certainly omit the cinnamon and raisin for variety, and top them with whatever you like. I don't like toppings on my bagels, but I do like a bit of flavor in the dough itself. Any ideas for other things than cinnamon? I'm thinking of doing a more bread-y version with caraway seeds.

After baking, I slice all the bagels and freeze them. Every night, I defrost two, and then pop them in the toaster for breakfast for me and Per. Very convenient!

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels
(printable recipe)
makes about 15

Starter:
1 tsp dry yeast
600 g high-gluten flour (can be labelled as strong or bread flour)
625 ml water, lukewarm

Mix everything, and leave to rise for about two hours.

Main dough:
the starter
1 tsp dry yeast
450-500 g high-gluten flour
5 tbsp sugar
3 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp molasses or honey

200 g raisins



Knead everything but the raisins into a very hard dough. It shouldn't feel sticky. Count on 8-10 minutes in a Kitchen-Aid, or twice the time if you do it by hand. Add the raisins towards the end.

Divide the dough into 15 equally sized pieces (my bagels are usually around 120 g) and shape into round balls. Leave to rest for 20 minutes.

Shape each ball into a bagel, by poking a hole in the middle with your finger, then gently stretching the hole and twirling it around your fingers. Leave to rest for another 20 minutes. At this point, you can retard the bagels by placing them in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Bring a wide pot of water to boil, and add 1 tbsp baking soda. Boil the bagels for one minute on each side (I can usually fit three at a time), and then place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 225°C for 10 minutes.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bagels med kanel och russin

Happy Birthday to Us!

My husband and my birthday fall within 3 days of each other so why make two cakes when you can make one gigantic one?

We almost had enough candles for both of us, two short.

Here's the slice the cake is 2 french vanilla cake mixes with the addition of lots of eggs, butter, and milk. The layers and blackberries and the new Philadelphia instant cheesecake stuff. It all worked out very well and the cake was delicious! Don't believe me we still have a TON in the freeze you can come try.

BBA: English Muffins

These made an amazing breakfast for dinner evening, and they were a lot of fun to make as well.

Here is the dough all ready to fry.

After being cooked in the griddle on both sides and baked for a couple of minutes.

Fork split. Not quite the big hole you see from the grocery store, but they tasted a million times better.

Sausage, cheese, and egg english muffins and hash browns for dinner! Unfortunately, none of the english muffins lived to see the next morning.

BBA: Corn Bread

The week we were supposed to make corn bread my and my husband were headed up to north Idaho with some friends to stay in their cabin. So, I pack all the ingredients and we made it up there. My husband loved this bread will all of it's flavor and texture. I however, felt that it was a little overloaded. I am more of a fan of fluffy cake like cornbread.

After one meal this was all that was left to come home with us!

BBA: Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

Now this is one of my favorite recipes so far in this book! This bread was simply amazing! My favorite thing to do with it is to toast it and make peanut butter and banana sandwiches. Amazing!

We almost didn't get any pictures of this one because we ate it so fast, but my darling husband took some before he finished it off.
The only thing I wish I could figure out is how to keep the bread moist and sealed up without the moisture making the cinnamon sugar mixture on top turn to goo.

BBA: Cinnamon Buns and Sticky Buns

The introduction to this recipe in the book states that this was the recipe he would give his students when the wanted to make cinnamon buns as good as the ones in the mall from Cinnabon. Well, that is a fantastic idea! Make homemade cinnamon rolls as goopy and delicious as those in the mall! Well, here's what I learned. If you want to make goopy cinnamon rolls you need to add more than a sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar and maybe even butter! I think these turned out more like those cinnamon swirl donuts you get when their out of all the other good kinds. Danny thinks I'm crazy and that they were great and that I have just been brain washed by years of my parents making overly stuffed cinnamon rolls. I'm not sure but, when I want a cinnamon roll I am not looking to taste the wonderful bread, I'm in it for the goop!

Oh a word on the sticky buns. In the book it says that it takes practice to know just when to pull these from the oven when the glaze as been caramelized and the dough is cooked through. Well on the first try we were pretty close they tasted great but the caramel became a little too hard. However, this was solved by leaving them in the car all day at our family reunion then they tasted great soft and warm :)
Sorry, we made these on our way out of town so I forgot to take some better pictures.

BBA: Ciabatta :(

As you can guess by the frown in the title ciabatta and I are no long friends. I love ciabatta and was very eager to make it myself assuming it would turn out as amazing as everything else I had made from this book, but I was incredible disappointed!

However, from reading other baker's responses I think the second way the book states to make it, biga version, works better so next time I get the guts I'll try that.

Here's the crust. I guess in my frustration with my holeless ciabatta I didn't even take a picture of the crumb. Oh well it really wasn't worth looking at anyways. *Sigh*

BBA: Challah

Wow! It's been a long time. It seems that baking and blogging has proven to be too much for me, but I have kept on track with the baking at least. I am going to throw up everything I've made in my absence and recommit myself to writing better blog posts once I move. So here is my apology in advance for all the short posts I'm about to make. Stay tuned and they'll resume to their prior glory in a couple or months :)

A word on Challah: According to the book challah is the braided sabbath bread of Judaism symbolic of God's goodness and bounty. The braids traditionally separate the loaf into twelve distinct sections representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

Oops this on this loaf the top braid slipped off the top. It ended up more of a side-by-side double braid.

The crumb. This was a nice soft, light bread. Actually, I think this could make a delicious french toast as well.

Macarons from Laduree

We had friends over for dinner the other night - friends who came straight from Paris! Knowing what I'd love, they presented me with this cute little box and I was very excited to see an assortment of macarons from famous Ladurée. I'm really having fun making my own macarons, but it was perfect to get to try out these - many think that they're the best in the world. These were chocolate, pistachio, raspberry and I think vanilla - I loved them all, but the vanilla was really outstanding. Or was it really vanilla? It had a caramellish element to it that I really enjoyed.

Fruit Slinger

Oh hi. Remember me? I used to blog here, see I wanted to do a food blog with insightful comments and magazine-perfect food photography. But then I kind of realized that I'm way better at reading that stuff than I am at writing it.

I just discovered Fruit Slinger which is a collection of gorgeous fruit photography (this may be an odd thing to love, but whoa, the textures and patterns, the perfect imperfections, always attract me), meditations on seasons and people, and recipes that I know I won't follow but will at least point me in a direction.

Coca Cola Baked Ham

Oh enough with the soda already! Honestly, another recipe involving cola? Yes. Really. Cola is actually quite nice to cook with - it's sweet and slightly spicy and the flavor does go very well with meat. This recipe comes from the lovely and entertaining The Cracker Kitchen cookbook by Janis Owens (I've written about it before) and I'm very pleased with it. I made this for Easter (and yes, I really should have posted about it before) and we just ate it plain, with fresh pineapple. It'd go really well with a potato au gratin though!

Coca Cola Baked Ham
(printable recipe)

About 2 kg cooked ham
1 can of Coca Cola
6 tbsp brown sugar

Mix the cola and sugar in a large plastic bag, and let the sugar dissolve. Place the ham in the bag, tie it, and leave it to marinate overnight. Turn the bag a few times to make sure the whole ham is covered.

Bake at 175°C for 45-60 minutes, basting it a few times meanwhile. Leave it to cool slightly before serving. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Recipe in Swedish:
Coca cola-bakad skinka

Pane Pecorino

Sourdough bread, plenty of grated pecorino, a handful of arugula, a few walnuts, a drizzle of honey. Texturally interesting as well as very flavorful - a perfect light dinner.

Cauliflower Pasta with Toasted Bread

Oh, I know - many of you hate cauliflower, and I always get upset e-mails about it. I know. But many of you seem to love it, too, and since I personally enjoy it very much, I'll continue to blog about it every now and then!

This pasta is pretty carb-y - in fact, it's pretty much all carbs! Sometimes, that's just what I'm craving...

Cauliflower Pasta with Toasted Bread
(printable recipe)
Serves 2

200 g spaghetti
200 g cauliflower, small florets
2 slices of white toast
2 tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tbsp olive oil + extra for frying
1 tbsp chili oil
parmesan

Dice the toast, and fry with the breadcrumbs in some olive oil. Set aside. Boil the cauliflower florets in salted water for 3-4 minutes. They should be soft, but still retain some bite. Drain and set aside.

Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water. Drain, but save some of the cooking water. Toss with the cauliflower, toasted bread and breadcrumbs, chili oil, olive oil and parmesan. Add some of the pasta water to make it saucier, and top with extra parmesan if you'd like.

Recipe in Swedish:
Blomkålspasta med rostat bröd

Easiest Peach Mint Iced Tea Ever

Ever? Not as easy as turning the metal lid on a glass single serve bottle and hearing that wonderful THWOCK! But... pretty easy. You need:

Two tea bags-- I used Bergamot.
Hot water. Boil that stuff!
Peach nectar. Thick, fresh, peachy...
Sliced lemons
Fresh mint.
A jug or a big old jar.

Steep your tea in the hot water for as long as you like-- remove bags-- muddle in some mint, drop some fresh lemon slices in, glug in your peach nectar to taste, powerchill for 30 minutes in the freezer even if you like... then add ice cubes...

Then, you chug-a-lug! Or sip. You choose.

Delightful! Perfectly delightful!!!

MISTAKE!

There are certain things in life where you know it’s a mistake but you don’t really know it’s a mistake because the only way to really know it’s a mistake is to make the mistake and look back and said ‘YUP THAT WAS A MISTAKE..!' The bigger mistake would be that not make the mistake because then you go your whole life not really knowing if something is a mistake or not!

I got 'em from 'How I Met Your Mother'...and I thought that i should post it!

Yellow Pepper Soup with Salsiccia

Soup time! Per isn't a big fan of soup for dinner, but it's acceptable if it has some sort of meaty, crispy topping. Bacon is the obvious choice, but the store had a great deal on salsiccia a while ago so I picked up a package that turned out to be perfect for this soup. It's a rather sweet soup, and quite spicy and smokey depending on how much Pimentón de la Vera that you add - that's something you should have in your spice cupboard by the way, it's a really neat spice.

You can add onions and garlic as well. I try to stay away from those right now, or at least onions. Garlic seems to be ok for Titus but onions definitely gives him a tummy ache.

Yellow Pepper Soup with Salsiccia
(printable recipe)
serves 2

olive oil
2 yellow peppers
3 medium potatoes
2 large pieces of grilled red pepper (jarred, or homemade)
4-500 ml water
salt
1/2 tsp Pimentón de la Vera (smoked, hot paprika)
1-200 ml single cream

handful of arugula
2 salsiccia sausages (or other spicy sausage), sliced

Cut the peppers, potatoes and the grilled pepper into smaller pieces. Fry the yellow pepper in olive oil for a few minutes until slightly softened. Add the potatoes, the grilled pepper, and enough water to just cover. Boil until the potato is soft, then blend the soup. I prefer an immersion blender but you can definitely use a regular one, or a food processor.

Add the cream, and season with salt and the hot, smoky paprika.

Fry the salsiccia slices until crispy, and add the arugula for a moment so it wilts. Serve the soup topped with sausage slices and arugula.

Recipe in Swedish:
Gul paprikasoppa med salsiccia

Lunch at bistro Voltaire

Stuffed pepper with grilled halloumi and herby home made fresh cheese.
Very good!

Darling baby

Titus is just over two months, and growing so fast. I got a special request for some new photos of him - I'm happy to oblige, of course. He smiles a lot, and is starting to laugh, too. Adorable!

Blue Cheese Bacon Burger

Here's a nice burger we ate the other night. It has a blue cheese sauce on it, which was a pretty good idea. Normally, I would just crumble on blue cheese for this combo, but this makes it milder and creamier, and it was excellent with the crispy bacon. (The burgers by the way are made by Scan, and sold as "bistro burgers" in the frozen section of the grocery store. It's the first mass-market burger that I really like, so we always keep these at hand for quick meals.)

The recipe came from Bobby Flay's new book, "Burgers, Fries & Shakes", but I don't think I'll repeat this particular recipe again - I'll probably improvise, next time. It needs a little bit tweaking.

The book is nice if you're into burgers - the burgers are basic (Flay tells you to not add anything at all to the meat, just to shape it and season the outside for maximum juiciness) but the toppings and additions are quite exciting. The section that made me put this away quickly was the chapter on shakes, though. Every single one sounded absolutely irrisisible, but considering they seem to contain at least the daily calorie requirement - I'll pass.

Printable recipes

I've been thinking about printable recipes for a long time. (A very, very long time.) Finally, a tutorial on Food Blog Alliance helped push me in the right direction, and from now on, all recipes will have a link to a printable version of them, so you don't have to cut-and-paste anymore. (And mostly so I don't have to do it.) I'll be adding the feature to old recipes too, but it'll take me some time, considering the sheer volume of recipes on this site.

Anyway - hope you'll like it!

Macarons with Vanilla Bean Buttercream

I finally made macarons! I've been gearing up for this, gathering courage, for a long time. A very, very long time. A few years, actually. And now that I've done it? I can't imagine what kept me for so long, because this was a breeze! I had read so many descriptions of how to make them, and long cautious tales about how disastrous they could turn out, I was prepared to have to make many, many batches before finally succeeding.

Well, surprisingly, my first one turned out great. Really great! And it wasn't hard at all. I had read that the egg whites should ideally be aged, but those of you who read me frequently know that planning ahead - that far ahead - isn't really my strong suit. I let mine sit at room temperature for a few hours, and that was fine. The eggs weren't super fresh - they had been in my fridge for at least a week, or more - so maybe they were already aged. I don't know. It worked.

I'm experimenting with keeping these in the fridge and freezer for a few days, to see if they're as good as when freshly baked - we'll see. I do want to make some variation of these for Titus' baptism, but they will need to be made in advance. And I really have to come up with some interesting flavor - I think I'd prefer something blue-ish... perhaps a white chocolate-blueberry ganache as the filling? This filling was just a very basic fast buttercream - very tasty though!

Many people write about macarons - the theory, what they should look like, common mistakes etc - I won't. Instead, check out David Lebovitz's great collection of links.

Macarons
About 15 filled cookies
(Printable recipe)

3 egg whites, at room temperature
2 tbsp caster sugar (or in my case, homemade vanilla sugar)
200 g powdered sugar
110 g almonds, blanched

Combine powdered sugar and almonds in your food processor, and grind until very fine. Sieve. Re-grind any lumps or big pieces of almonds. Mix carefully (they tend to separate a little bit when sieving, since the sugar falls through first.)

Beat egg whites and sugar until you have a thick, glossy meringue. Don't overbeat. Stir in the almond-sugar powder, and fold together. Don't overmix this - most seem to say that you should use less than 50 strokes. (You can try it by dolloping a little batter on a baking sheet - if the peak falls down, it's ready. If it doesn't, try a few more strokes.)

Pipe small rounds on a baking sheet with baking paper. If you'd like, sprinkle some extra ground almonds on half of them. Leave at room temperature for 30-60 minutes, to form a skin.

Bake at 150°C for 15-20 minutes. (I have a convection oven, and 15 minutes was perfect for me.) Let them cool completely before filling. Unused shells can be frozen, or kept in an air-tight container for a day or so.



Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
100 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
90 g powdered sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 egg yolk

Split the vanilla bean open, and scrape out the seeds. Mix all ingredients to a smooth cream. Pipe or spread on half of the cookies, then top with another cookie. Keep in the freezer, or serve straight away - they should keep a few days in the fridge as well.



Recipe in Swedish:
Macarons med vaniljsmörkräm