Baked Apple

I feel that sometimes we forget the simple things in life. And in cooking. Often, there's a rush, a strain to always experience new things, exciting things, unusual things. But let's not forget that sometimes, simple and old-fashioned can be just as good. Or even better.

This simple baked apple makes a wonderful dessert on a cold day. Serve it with cold vanilla sauce, or ice cream.

Baked Apple

1 apple, peeled and cored
1-2 tsp butter
1-2 tbsp almonds, chopped
2-3 tsp spice sugar (or use a mix of cinnamon and sugar if you don't have any spice sugar at hand. But you *should* make some!)

Place the apple in a small oven-proof dish. (I use ramekins from Le Creuset.) Push butter and almonds into the hole. Top with the rest of the almonds, if you like me can't fit them all inside. Sprinkle with spice sugar. Bake at 175°C for about 30 minutes, or until the apple is soft.

Recipe in Swedish:
Ugnsbakat äpple

Cookbook Watch - a little bit of this, a little bit of that...

I have four very different books to tell you about. Very, very, very different. From each other, that is. And, from the rest of the market, too. First, a book by Swedish food enthusiast (and blogger!) Lisa Förare Winbladh. It's called Ditt Nya Skafferi (="Your new cupboard")and it's published by Damm.

This is a truly beautiful book for those who love food, but it's not for the faint of heart. It contains tons of ingredients you've never heard of before (well, at least new to me!), and wonderful southeast asian-inspired recipes. And, what makes this truly different is Lisa's insightful advice and knowledge about all of this. She searches for the genuinely best, and gives you advice on what dates to use and why, what goji berries really are and why you should use them, and that dried shrimps can be kept in the freezer, to keep the scary smell away until you want to use them.

I was lucky enough to be invited to the release party, and thus lucky enough to taste some of the wonderful food. Well, I was also a recipe tester (albeit a not very good one, as I have a hard time sticking to a recipe without making modifications!) and have posted pictures of some of the food that I've made here here and here. So what's the first thing I'll make? Well, I think it'll have to be Bak Kut Te - a brothy, spicy, warming soup. And for dessert, brownies with orange blossom water and pistachios!



Enough with the books in Swedish, please! Yes, I know - many of you don't speak Swedish and are not so interested in the Swedish cookbook scene. Sorry. Well, this one is for you then! It's called The New Art of Japanese Cooking by Chef Masaharu Morimoto (published by Dorling Kindersley). Japanese food? Ah, sushi? And tempura? That's it, right? No. It's not. It's so much more. And this book really showcases that. It's playful, it's inspiring and it's fun. And it's, I'm sure, delicious.

Me, I'm dying to make gyozas with bacon-cream reduction. How tasty is that?! Or frozen lettuce with a caesar salad dressing?! Well, it's something I've definitely not thought about before, and that's why this book is so interesting. Chef Morimoto is well known as a celebrity chef, as he is Japanese Iron Chef on Iron Chef America. And he has restaurants all over the world. And now, a cookbook. That you should have, if you're at all interested in Japanese food, or at least in modern, playful cooking.



Not feeling up to all that complicated cooking? Well, that's ok. This little book is called Köp Hem Fem (="Buy Five") and it's a book from Allt Om Mat which is also one of Sweden's largest food magazines. (Published by Prisma.) Each and every recipe here contains no more than five ingredients (apart from certain cupboard staples) and everything is easy to find in your local supermarket. No need for specialty shopping here!

This book is certainly not a great read, like the others I've mentioned. It's nothing to leisurely leaf through and dream about all the food - but it's practical, and that's nice too. It has fast, simple every day recipes and that can be very good when you're not particularly inspired to "play in the kitchen" and just want something good to eat.

I also really appriciate that Allt Om Mat has a test kitchen, and really works through each and every recipe to make sure it can be replicated at home. That's good, because it means you can be confident about cooking. I'd say that this is the perfect book if you want to venture into more cooking, and adding a few easy dishes to your repertoire.



Finally, a book that I've mentioned briefly. It's written by my friend Kinna Jonsson and her mother, and the graphic design is made by Kinna's sister. The recipes are from five generations of women in their family, and I love that this is a real family project. But more than that, I love that it's a great book. It has all kinds of bread, cookies and cakes - each one sounding more delicious than the next! I haven't baked from it yet, but I've tasted some of the goodies from it and they're all super. So - this book is the perfect christmas present for someone who enjoys baking, and who's excited about traditional Swedish recipes. You can order it here, or find it in select bookstores.

French Salad with Broad Beans, Bacon and Poached Egg

Happy Halloween! I have a great salad to tell you about today, but I have to warn you: some people might find it scary. Because, see, it involves poached eggs. And poaching eggs? That can be very scary indeed. If you don't know how to. And I, sadly, don't. So what to do? I used a gadget, of course.

I've already told you about Poach Pods, a great little invention by FusionBrands. And perfect for poaching eggs. It just makes it so easy! Well, I guess it's probably quite easy to do it the old-fashioned way too, but I don't know - I find it scary.

The salad though, that's not scary at all. It's just really, really good. And it'll serve two, as a light dinner or a hearty lunch. Using frozen broad beans are ok, but I would never use canned or dried. Much too mealy for my liking.

French Salad with Broad Beans, Bacon and Poached Egg
Serves 2

1 head of romaine lettuce
100 g bacon
3 slices day-old bread (preferrably sourdough)
500 g fresh broad beans (unpodded weight)
handful of cherry tomatoes
2 eggs
1/2-1 tbsp olive oil
1-2 tsp red wine vinegar
1-2 tsp dijon mustard
flaky sea salt

Dice the bacon and fry until crispy. Remove from pan, and place on a piece of paper towel to de-grease. Don't wipe out the pan! Cut the bread into small dice and fry in the bacon drippings until golden and crispy. Remove to a plate and let the croutons cool.

Pod the broad beans and boil them for three minutes. Then peel off the white, thick membrane - unless they're very tiny. Cut the cherry tomatoes in half.

Poach the eggs, or if this is just too scary, just boil it. You'll be fine.

Whisk oil, red wine vinegar, mustard and sea salt together. Clean the romaine lettuce and arrange on a platter. Scatter the other ingredients on top, finish with the egg, and drizzle the dressing to finish.

Recipe in Swedish:
Fransk sallad med bondbönor & bacon

Roasted Veggies with Chèvre

Ah, this is one of my favorite dishes to eat with a nice piece of lamb. It goes so well together! And it's so simple. Use your favorite soft-ish vegetables (no roots here, that will take much longer), like zucchini, bellpepper, broccoli, red onions and I used mini asparagus as well. Drizzle with olive oil and some flaky sea salt, and bake for, say, 15 minutes at 200°C. Crumble a round of chèvre cheese over it. Enjoy. Enjoy very much.

Daring Bakers: Bostini Cream Pie

My third challenge already! And this time, I was afraid. Seriously afraid. Not because of the steps involved in this recipe, chosen by Mary at Alpineberry, but because of the *extremely* high calorie count. This felt like I would gain a pound just from looking at it. Two if I actually ate. So what to do? I couldn't skip a challenge just because of that, could I? Solution: cut the recipe in fourths. I did. It was fine. No problems. I then served ten mini portions of it, for my Tupperware party. That was a mighty fine solution, if I dare say it myself. (And I do!) That means that the full recipe would have served 40 and not 8 - certainly a massive improvement for the calorie count!

Anyway. I should also admit that I didn't like the sound of the recipe very much. Vanilla custard, cake and chocolate sauce. Huh. I felt that it was going to be so-so, and wasn't very excited. In fact, I had to force myself to reach out for the tiny cup and try it. But then! Oh then, I had no problems wolfing it down - because this was delicious! Really, really delicious! The custard was smooth and creamy, the cake light and airy and delightfully orange, and the chocolate glaze was slightly salty (I used salted butter) and rich with dark chocolate. It all went perfectly together. And a mini portion was just the right size.

I encountered no problems while cooking - this was very straightforward, and easy to make. The custard held together nicely, which was no huge surprise since it contained corn starch. The cake - I baked mine in the bottom of a regular loaf pan and then cut out ten nice squares. And I used freshly squeezed orange juice, straight from the orange, to make it more flavorful. (Worked out nicely!) The glaze - took about two minutes to make, couldn't be easier. All in all, a very nice challenge, and I'm so glad to be in the Daring Bakers because without it I'd have never chosen to take it on. Now, I'm glad I did!



You can find the recipe here. And don't forget to visit the Daring Bakers blogroll and see how everybody else did!

My other challenges:
August - Milk Chocolate Caramel Tart
September - Sticky Buns

Swedish Crisp Bread with Sunflower seeds

I know it took me ages to finally try my hand at Swedish crisp bread, but once I did, I did it several times. Here's another recipe - it's really good, and it's really easy. The only labor intense part is rolling out the dough, but it's not difficult in the least. Use plenty of flour so it doesn't stick to your rolling pin (and yes, you do want a special knobbly rolling pin, a kruskavel, for the final rolling, and you'll do fine. This bread is great to serve as a small appetizer with some interesting dips, or to eat with the food. It's nice for a late night snack too. Or for breakfast. Really, it's hard to think of time when this wouldn't be appropriate. Oh - wait, I got it. Don't eat this in bed.

Swedish Crisp Bread with Sunflower seeds

25 g fresh yeast
500 ml tepid water
3 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey
800 ml coarse rye flour (3.2 cups)
200 ml wheat flour (0.8 cups)
200 ml wholewheat flour (0.8 cups)
150 ml sesame seeds (0.6 cups)
100 ml sunflower seeds (0.4 cups)
3-4 tbsp linseed

Decoration:
More sesame seeds
flaky sea salt

Dissolve the yeast in the water, and add salt, honey and rye flour. Stir and add all other ingredients. Knead by hand or in a machine, and add some extra wheat flour if the dough is too sticky. Move the dough to a clean bowl, cover with tea towel and leave to rise for one hour.

Roll out the dough into a long sausage shape, and divide into 15 pieces. Roll out each piece into a thin round. Use flour so the dough doesn't stick, and turn it often. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and sea salt before the final rolling.

Roll a few times with a kruskavel. If you don't have one, prick the dough all over with a fork. Use a small glass or a cookie cutter to remove a hole from the middle of the round, or just cut a cross in the middle of the bread before baking it so it will easily break into nice pieces after baking.

Place directly on a baking sheet and bake at 200°C (that's for a convection oven, use 225°C in a regular oven) for 10-12 minuter. You have to turn them after half the time or they will burn.

Recipe in Swedish:
Knäckebröd med solrosfrön

Garlic bread

Oh, come on - another batch of cinnamon rolls? But no. No, not at all. This is a tear and share garlic bread. It just happens to look a lot like cinnamon buns. Which isn't very surprising, since it's made the same way - a yeasted bread dough, rolled out into a rectangle, and spread with spiced butter. In this case, butter, garlic and herbs. Rolled up, cut into thick pieces, placed together in a pan to rise, and then baked.

Was it great? Honestly, I've had much better garlic bread so I won't even bother with the recipe. Make some cinnamon rolls instead.