Havin' Me Some Chocolate

Havin' me some chocolate.....or at least that's what the title of this Swedish Fika cookie recipe reads like.  Havreflarn med Choklad is the next installment of Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break written by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall.  This chapter is all about the traditional must haves for serving your guests during a gathering.  I was excited for this recipe because it seemed on the healthier side being made with rolled oats and well.....chocolate.

Havreflarn is the essential oat crisp cookie and even though I looked for the actual meaning of the word all Google would show me is that I could buy them at Ikea.  Thanks Google but the nearest Ikea is 6 hours away!  Anyway the whole purpose is to try out these recipes, right? Right!

Okay so I didn't have any oats in the pantry.  This recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats.  So I went off to the Bulk Barn to  secure my oats.  Easy squeezy.  The chocolate part of the recipe wasn't so simple.  The recipe lists 4 ounces of 60% bittersweet chocolate.  I spoke with the cashier and she advised me that semi sweet chocolate would be the same as 60%.  So I grabbed a bag of the semi sweet bittersweet bakers chocolate.  As I write this I've completed the recipe so now I know that next time I'd look for something sweeter, perhaps just the regular semisweet and not bittersweet at all.  I found that if you have a bit of a sweet tooth this will taste a little "blech" to you.  The cashier and I discussed the differences in Swedish recipes including measurements however all the ingredients can be found here just as they are there.  My findings are that it's likely chocolate and all sweets in general are probably not as sweet as they are here in Canada.  It's often that way with many European baked goods.  I don't mind that and there's nothing wrong with the recipe being not as sweet as we are accustomed but I think I'd definitely tweak the chocolate for the filling when making these sandwich cookies again.

Just as I'd adjust the filling sweetness I'd also change up the amount of butter.  I noticed that in the last recipe as well.  This recipe lists 3.5 ounces of unsalted butter and I think I could have cut that back to at least 3 ounces for sure because the batter was very loose so this time I added more flour to make it come together a bit better.  I crossed my fingers and toes doing this but my instinct told me it would spread out far too much if I left the batter alone.

Everything went just fine following this recipe.  I didn't have any mishaps and there wasn't any vague steps.  The likelihood of me making this again is great.  And just now I'm thinking that a jam would make an excellent alternative to the chocolate filling.  The recipe said it made 16 sandwich cookies and I came out with 17....so bonus!  The confusing part (and perhaps a misprint in the cookbook) was when it stated to use a large bowl for one thing then another bowl for another and instead of stirring it all into the large bowl it reads the other way around.  * facepalm *  Another thing I found out after searching for alternative recipes on the Internet is that most people make this recipe right in a pot on the stove.  You melt the butter in a pan, stir in the oats and then add all the other ingredients.  This seems far simpler and cleaner than the version in my cookbook.  I must remember this for next time!

Cookies:  

1 1/2 cups rolled oats (processed to be finer)

1 tbsp flour (but I used more like 3 tbsp.'s)

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

1/2 cup cane sugar

3.5 ounces unsalted butter (but I'd cut back to 3oz)

Filling:

4 ounces 60% bittersweet chocolate (aka semisweet)

1 tsp ground ginger

Bake at 350 degrees for 9 minutes.

Leave flat to cool before filling.

As an interesting alternative don't let the cookie cool completely but bend them around a wooden handled spoon for a different effect.  Of course then your choice of filling would be altered as well but it does make for a pretty display.  If you look for other recipes also note you can add many other flavourings as well and what I saw were even similar to Lacey's Cookies which I've bought at Costco.

Hubby's first description of the cookie was "fine".  *eyeroll*  When I asked for more he said he liked them because they weren't sweet and despite my remark to use a sweeter chocolate he would not.  I'll take his word over mine.  He is the Swede in this duo after all!