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!

 

fikonrutor

Woh...woh!  No need to swear!  Unless you just watched the Atlanta Falcons lose the Super Bowl like I just did.  No, Fikonrutor is not a bad word but are fig squares in Swedish and is found on page 38-39 in the Fika The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break cookbook.  It seems easy enough or is it?  Read ahead to see what else besides the Super Bowl has me grimacing!

This recipe appears like a perfectly delightful bar type of cookie.  Looks are deceiving.  The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of fig preserves.  I didn't even try very hard to to look for anything remotely fig preserved because I knew outside of squeezing it out of a bag of Fig Newtons I wasn't going to find it.  I had first thought of using a pie filling instead but would I use raisin or mince meat?  Luckily I re-read the recipe description and it said Fikonrutor is traditionally made with raspberry jam so when we were at Walmart Saturday I bought a jar of raspberry jam as well as a jar of strawberry because I've looked ahead to the thumbprint cookies that come after this recipe.  I'm planning a bit ahead.

Sunday (today) after church and lunch I got busy making up the dough.  1/2 cup ground almonds, 1 1/2 cups flour, 2/3 cups cane sugar (used the last of mine up), 6 ounces butter and 1 egg.  I mixed it by hand as instructed but it wasn't coming together very well in spite of my mushing and mushing together of the ingredients...so I added about a tablespoon of water and Voila!  It came together lickedy split and I rolled it into a log, put it in a Tupperware container and threw it in the fridge.  The recipe said for at least and hour or more.

During that time Hubby and I decided to go out and enjoy the day.  At first we thought maybe we'd go for a walk but once in the car we saw the oil maintenance light come on the dash which meant to change the oil.  For the record before this I had told Hubby I didn't want to go out because I didn't want to spend money.  Off to the Great Canadian Oil Change we went.  The oil change took less than 20 minutes and cost $71.  Then we thought we'd go for coffee and hit up one of our favourite Tim Hortons locations right in downtown Saskatoon.  We both had cafe mocha's and carrot muffins. I paid with a gift card.  Funny to do this when my intention was to bake something at home to have with coffee!  On our return trip home we thought we better fill with gas so this little excursion cost us $110.  Ugh!  See!  Should have stayed home!

Innocent dough.

Back at home I re-read the fikonrutor directions...roll 3/4 of the dough in a rectangle then top with the jam and use the remaining dough to make a lattice pattern.  Easy for someone who is not rolling pin challenged like myself!  I cannot roll out a rectangle to save my life!  The base went fine but remember this dough was chilled and by working with it was warming up.  Cutting the lattice was easy but separating the pieces to lay on top was very difficult.  I did what I could to make it work all the while becoming extremely frustrated.

In retrospect, while I was making the lattice I should probably have put the baking tray back in the fridge to make certain the butter remained hard.  I did not and I suspect this is the first part of perhaps why this "adventure" when awry.  

The instructions said to preheat the oven to 400 degrees F and as I've mentioned in previous blog posts my oven is about 25 degrees too warm so I set my oven on 375.  I probably should have put it on the described 400 this time.  *shrugs*  

One of these is not quite like the other 🙈

 Okay, so the baking tray went into the oven and I started to tidy up my mess from the counter and took out the chicken pot pie which was going into the oven next for our supper when I heard a 'booiiiiing' come from the depths of the stove.  Cringing I opened the oven door to see my cookie sheet which has never before warped...twisted and warped.  What the heck?!  Wait! It gets better.  Now the one end of the cookie sheet is raised off the wire rack in the oven and all the dough and raspberries are slowly seeping towards the other end. 😱😱😱 I grabbed another dish and tried to weigh down the raised end but to no avail.

Fikonrutor!

At this point I check my recipe instructions one more time "Bake for about 10 minutes."  ABOUT?  about??  It doesn't tell me what it should look like when cooked or how the edges should be nor any definitive time limits.  Yes, I should have kept it in the oven longer even if I have a history of over doing the recipes.  I'd rather have almost burnt over raw....which is what I ended up with.

FIKONRUTOR!!

Yet, last weeks cookie had similar instructions about cooling so with a slight crumb of hope I continued on.  I cut it into squares like it said which is when it became apparent that most of the squares hadn't cooked at all and everything seemed very slippery, oily and buttery.  I did let everything cool and was able to separate some squares which had cooked and they did taste good. (Yes, I still sampled.)  I debated what to do and I left them cooling and resting on the counter for some time....

....then I gave up.  Instead of the 35 squares I was supposed to end up with I got maybe 15.

This recipe SHOULD have been very very easy squeezy.  If I were ever to attempt it again which I probably won't because I put a red dot on the page (which basically means run for your life) I would just squish all the dough into a 9 X 13 baking dish and put the jam on top and not mess around with the rolling of the dough or the lattice top.  I would definitely bake it at 400 and I would definitely need to bake it longer than 10 minutes...probably closer to 20 considering this experience.

I did give one to Hubby to taste test and he said "ah - hmmmm nommm"

I'm learning that when you try the recipes in this book you have to read between the lines and go more on instinct and baking skill than exactly what the instructions are telling you.  Also I haven't found a big benefit to using the cane sugar and I think when I try the next recipe I'll just go with regular sugar.   It doesn't hurt to have a back up treat to have on hand when your baking is a disaster.  Thank goodness for afternoon excursions!

Thank goodness this is a thing!  KitKat to the rescue!

 

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!

Orange Almond Slices

Apelsinsnittar.  

Say that three times fast.  Actually, I don't think I could even say it once.  You'd almost think these cookies had apples in them, but it's quite the opposite as they are composed mostly of almonds with orange and ginger for additional flavours.

Earlier when I looked at the recipe to make sure I had all the ingredients I noticed that again I was being forced to separate the eggs.  Why do I do this to myself?  This time though the white is not beaten nor folded into anything else so I thought I'd be fine and reminded myself to really pay attention and make sure I got every step.

The basis for the cookie is somewhat like a shortbread.  The recipe can be found on another blog ( Fike Cookbook Review ) which also gives a review of the Fika cookbook.  I went googling this time to find out what apelsinsnittar are supposed to look like.  I know what mine look like but what are they actually supposed to be?  This is the only downside to this cookbook because it has illustrations and I've found I'm not sure if what I've made is actually what it's supposed to be.  Hubby says I should concern myself with flavour and not looks.  That doesn't sound very Fika to me.  The only exception to the missing picture ordeal has been the vettebullar and that's because I had a pretty firm grasp on what a cinnamon bun is.  *smile* 

The dough itself was easy to make.  No issues there.  Once done I popped it into the fridge just as I would Mom's sugar cookie recipe.  The next step was to turn on the oven and as I've mentioned previously my oven is hotter than most so to be extra careful this time I used the thermometer to properly set the stove.  Everything I make tends to be over cooked.  Ugh.  Next up is the filling.

Duhn.  Duhn.  Duhn.

Hopefully Mom doesn't see this & want her processor back!

In my Mothers food processor...you see I borrowed it approximately 20 years ago and never gave it back...You process the blanched almonds, cane sugar, and almond extract "until it comes together" BUT "it could be smooth or it could be sticky depending on the almonds."  Oh thanks!  Because that's clear.  *eyeroll*  I ran the processor until Hubby came to inquire as to what the racket was and still it didn't seem like it was "coming together".  So I did it some more until it kind of seemed like it might have at least formed an alliance.  I added the egg white and orange zest and it smelled pretty good and when I stuck my finger in it I'll admit it tasted pretty good too.

Rolling the dough was easy and I did it between two sheets of plastic wrap as it advised.  My biggest weakness as I've come to discover is rolling things into shapes.  Each quarter of dough was supposed to be in a rectangle of a certain size.  Mine ended up being more ovular, if that's a word.  Also the 'logs' I was supposed to construct varied in length.  Good thing I wasn't building something important here.

On the centre of each oval a scoop of almond paste was portioned out.  Wait.  Almond paste?  Is that what that was supposed to be in the food processor?  Okay, isn't almond paste the white stuff that goes on the top of Christmas fruitcakes?  THAT is not what this looks like at all.  But I forage ahead.

Logs made and into the oven they go.

They smelled good.

😕Not very log shaped 🙈

So then they got put on the kitchen cupboard until they were cooled enough to glaze with the orange juice and icing sugar.  I used an actual glass juicer from my hall china cabinet.  It reminded me of being a kid and squeezing oranges for breakfast on the weekends.  Each log was supposed to be cut into 12 cookies but I just cut them into what I thought were a good cookie size.  I'm pretty sure I didn't get 48 like the cookbooks says, but meh, who cares right?  I'm on an adventure of baking here and not everything is going to go as it should.  We found that out last week!  On inspection the 'almond paste' filling wasn't enough or baked into the cookie.  Yet when I googled images to compare they seem kind of alright.  Also mine are almost a lady finger size while other images were more of a fig newton size.  My bad.

The moment of truth.  I give one to Hubby.  He tells me they are over done. (shakes fist at oven)  But over all they are good yet not really a favourite.  He notices they are very buttery or perhaps oily and he doesn't care for that.  It's mysterious because I weighed the butter to make sure I had the right amount.  As a back up taster, I gave one to our basement suite renter aka Renter Person and he liked it however I could see that he may have just been polite.  One doesn't criticize free food right?   My own assessment was that the flavour was nice and if I had company pop by I would probably bring these out for coffee.  For all the fuss with the filling though, I'd in all honesty find something more convenient to have on hand.

My version of Apelsinsnittar.

 

Cardamom Cake

Saturday I decided to prepare my cardamom seeds since I was forced to purchase them as whole and in the shell.  It is a tedious task but as I found out last week well worth it.  This time instead of using the mortar and pestle I thought I'd use the mini chopper I have.  It seemed like a great idea but in fact it did nothing to the little black seeds.  So as a last resort I dug out the Starbucks Barista coffee grinder which I gave Hubby for Christmas many moons ago and cleaned it of all coffee grounds.  It worked like a charm.  However now, and henceforth it shall be referred to as the cardamom grinder although a friend thought that cardamom flavoured coffee might be an adventurous treat after all, cardamom is used in chai tea.

Kardemummakaka.  Having gotten the (k) cardamom out of the way I set out to make kaka.  It stands to reason that 'kaka' means cake and yet when I think about other foods such as krumkaka or ostkaka those aren't cake at all.  Hmmmm.  When I looked to Mr. Google for help he told me the word was translated from Japanese.  Anyway those of us who speak mostly English (and some days that's a challenge) kaka doesn't sound like something you'd desire to eat.  But here I am making it.

After last weeks vettebullar I decided to cut down the cardamom by 1/4 and use 3 teaspoons instead of the called for 4 teaspoons.  We aren't sure if we are fond of the strong flavour or maybe this just isn't a spice we are accustomed to using.  Anyway this was the least of my battles.

As I worked through the recipe, which I will link here (with an interesting soundcloud) ----> kardemummakaka  I began to realize this wasn't a very simple staple of Swedish Fika to make.  Divide the egg whites and yoke, blend to form stiff peaks and mix and fold but don't over mix.  Oh what have I gotten myself in to?!  * cue Home Alone expression here *

While it smelled delicious baking in the oven I fear I may have a well greased/floured pan of lemon and scrambled eggs.  There is only an illustration of a cardamom cake on page 30 of the Art of the Swedish Coffee Break cookbook and what I peer at through the oven door doesn't seem to rise to the occasion.  After my huge success of conquering yeast last week this recipe may be a dud for me.

* waits patiently for cooling to occur *

 Some thoughts:

1. I didn't beat the egg whites enough 
2. When folding in the egg whites to the main mixture maybe I over did it.
3.  My bundt pan is too big as the recipe makes a 6 cup and it seems mine is larger.
4. Nothing is actually wrong.

 * turns it out onto a plate *

Oh something is wrong alright.

Bad lighting & a funky colour

The real test is from Hubby who comes along just as I'm trying to figure out if the cake is indeed edible.  He likes it!  He likes it!  It's moist and tasty and despite me telling him I'm sure I did something wrong he tells me that it's perfectly fine.  He is right - it does taste really good and I think I'd actually call it a lemon cardamom cake.

If I had company coming over would I make this cake to serve to them?  Probably not or I'd have to think twice and proceed with caution.  The eggs being separated and then questioning how stiff stiff peaks actually are...I feel like it's not worth the heartache when there's the whole rest of the book to discover.  This recipe will go under the 'try again and see' file because no matter what it looks like (kaka) it turns out that it tastes delish in spite of itself.

Vettebullar

For Christmas this year (2016) Darren aka The Hubby gave me a cookbook called Fika The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break written by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall.  Darren comes from Swedish and Norwegian heritage and the customs and food has always mystified me...except for the Lutefisk.  With my own background being mostly British and Scottish I've decided this is an excellent opportunity to bake and try all these wonderful delights.  Will I succeed?  Who knows, but I think it's going to be amazing and the best part is...no lutefisk required.

First, what the heck is fika anyway?  Fika, pronounced feekah, is not only going for coffee, as we tend to know it such as grabbing a cuppa joe to wake up in the morning but it's sitting down with a friend and enjoying a beverage and a treat.  This reminds me of when I was a little girl and my Mom and Grandma would go shopping and then stop to have 'lunch' as Grandma would say.  It was taking some time to relax and share in company.  I really like the idea. "Ska vi fika?"  Let's take a break, spend some time together and relax.

Since this is about trying the recipes in a swedish cookbook we also have to understand that fika is not always about going out.  It's also customary to provide fika when someone drops in or visits.  So put on your coffee pot and turn on your keurig because we're about to make vettebullar.

Wait, wha?

Bullar.  Buhler. Booler.  However you say it, it means buns in Swedish.  Vette is the word for wheat.  So basically vettebullar would mean wheat buns but in this recipe it uses cardamom and cinnamon and is sweetened using cane sugar instead of regular sugar.  

So off to the grocery store I went where I found neither cardamom seeds nor cane sugar.  Instead I had to purchase these at Bulk Barn.  The cardamom was purchased whole which means they are in pods.  I had to google exactly how to extract the seeds and I found the most efficient way was to crush them with a rolling pin like I would a clove of garlic and then pry open the shell.  Once opened the seeds fell into a bowl easily.  It was at this point that I noticed the aroma of cardamom seeds like this are nothing like the ground kind which I had in my pantry and as my Mother In Law would say "came over in the arc."  As for the cane sugar, as far as I can tell it's less refined and in larger chunks yet smaller than a decorating sugar.

After church Sunday I set out to make this iconic fika recipe.  I'm not going to post the actual recipe because I suspect the writers of the book would prefer actual revenue and not me just giving it all away for free.  I also think that this recipe except for the spices and cane sugar is somewhat similar to most cinnamon bun recipes.

Good Dough Rising

I was excited to use my Kitchen Aid dough hook for the very first time since we purchased the professional mixer a few years ago.  This is because after trying and failing miserably many years ago to make yeast anything I decided never again and Hubby gave me a bread maker instead.  Well, that was back when that jar of ground cardamom was bought so with fingers crossed and high hopes I watched as the dough doubled with the first rising.  Hallelujah!  It was then cut in half, rolled out and coated with the filling mixture.  Each half made 16 small buns which were put on cookie sheets for a second rising then finally into the oven.  My oven is about 50 degrees warmer than normal so even though the recipe said 435 degrees F I set my oven for 400 and checked often throughout the 10 minutes.

Ta-da!  I am so impressed with how these buns baked up.  I feel like this was a monumentous occasion!  I concurred the yeast!  The real test came when the baking aroma lured Darren into the kitchen who was all too eager to try.  He had to eat two vettebullar to be able to judge accordingly.  His analysis...and I agree...is that this recipe makes a flavourful bun but not harshly sweet.  This is not a sticky bun but rather a fragrant delicious accompaniment to a strong cup of coffee.  Just as it should be. 

Vettebullar perfection