Thumbs & Slices

After the total and complete disaster of the Fikonrutor recipe I admit I wanted to throw in the towel.  Is it really worth it to work my way through the Fika cookbook?  I felt very discouraged.  Then I turned the page.  I turned the page to the next recipe of Jam Thumbprint Cookies (syltgrottor) and since it was the week of Valentine's Day I thought this would be a fitting cookie with it's slight licorice flavour and sweet raspberry jam.  

The recipe for syltgrottor makes only 24 large thumbprint cookies in mini cupcake papers.  I even had pink heart papers already stashed in my pantry which I had at one time purchased at Dollar Tree.  The recipe found on page 41 of the Fika cookbook went pretty much as directed except I once again found the dough not wanting to come together enough so that I could form balls with the dough.  I did have to add a little bit of water to be able to work the dough properly.  I'm not totally sure why this happens.  Are the measurements off or is it just a difference in Canadian to Swedish products?  Who knows, but the addition of water worked and I was able to form the dough into balls and form the thumbprint.

This recipe is a fairly simple recipe and quick to make.  Hubby and I were on the fence about the anise seed flavouring.  The licorice flavour from the anise seed matched well with the raspberry and it's not something I would have normally been drawn to which I like.  The whole reason I decided to embark on making all the fika recipes was to do and try different things.  That being said, if I was wanting to make a thumbprint cookie I probably would not turn to this exact recipe again.  That doesn't mean it doesn't taste good or it didn't turn out...I just mean that there are better recipes available and I'd most likely turn to those instead.

Having gained confidence from the syltgrottor recipe turning out I also made Martas Skurna Chokladkakor.  Who Marta is I don't exactly know but two things are for sure....1) Marta knows how to make great smelling cookies and 2) Marta likes chocolate.  Translated these are basically Sliced Chocolate Cookies.  This recipe makes 48 cookies and is the most successful turnout of a cookie recipe in this Fika book.

The recipe says that this cookie is traditionally topped with pearl sugar.  I didn't feel that a special trip to Bulk Barn was in order and rummaged around in my pantry for decorative sugars.  I came up with either red or green Christmas sugars.  As much as I love green, I felt that green on a chocolate cookie wouldn't display as the prettiest cookie so I went with red.  Two other changes I made this time was that instead of the cane sugar which I was also out of, I just used regular sugar AND instead of mixing by hand I used my Kitchen Aid mixer to combine all the ingredients.  I honestly think the mixer alone is what made this dough so workable.

The dough is shaped into long logs then brushed with egg and sprinkled with (red) sugar.  I had a picture of this process but have omitted it because once I looked again and as proud as I am of the accomplishment it does not look appetizing in the slightest. 😝  The logs baked perfectly in my hottish oven at slightly under the 400 degrees it states and indeed baked for 15 minutes.  While warm they get sliced into cookies and I used my Cake Boss dough scraper which I received free once when purchasing Keurig coffee cups.

The chocolate cookies taste similar to a brownie and are crisp on the outside but tender on the inside.  I know Hubby likes them because he's enjoyed most of them.  Now I'm looking forward to the next recipe which is very similar but almond flavoured.  Will it turn out as well?  You'll have to stay tuned to see if this Swedish baker in training makes it all work out!

 

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!