Le Cake... Apricot,Almond and Lemon Bread

Part cake.Part bread kind of like a spork...

LE CAKE! Such it is. Again, I have found this bread recipe I wanted to share with you all. It is as wacky as it possibly could be. Black pepper, chili powder, lemon..What? How so? Why?  Well, let's just try to give this little French delight it's praise. I have to admit. I am a breadaholic and proud to be. I seem to be featuring a lot of bread on this blog, but hear me out... Bread is gorgeous and needs some much needed attention.
This interestingly odd recipe comes to you via David Lebovitz via Susan Loomis book Nuts in the Kitchen  Harper Collins.
Susan Loomis is a  American cookbook author and runs her very own french cooking school in France called On Rue Tatin.http://www.onruetatin.com/     

Organic unsulphured  apricots available in most groceries. They are dark in color naturally.

You may choice another form of dried fruit or nut for the ones recommended. If using apricots, Susan recommends you use apricots that are unsulphured if possible.  Chili powder is optional you may omit if the idea is a little to much for your taste-buds.

Ingredients:


1½ cups(200g) flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 rounded teaspoon sea salt
1 rounded teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 large eggs, at room temperature
8 tablespoons (110g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
7 ounces (210g) dried apricots, coarsely chopped
6 ounces (180g) Gruyere,Comte,or Emmental cheese. I used Racclette, finely grated about 2 cups
½ teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
grated zest of one lemon
1/3 cups (60g) almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped


Directions:


1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F or 220 degrees C. Butter a loaf pan, line it with parchment paper, then butter the parchment paper.


2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl. Stir the black pepper.(if your using chili powder, add that here as well.)

peppery flour 

foaming the eggs

3. In a bowl of a stand mixer, or by hand, whisk the eggs until frothy(about a minute) then stir in the dry ingredients. Mix in the melted butter until thoroughly blended,then fold in the dried fruit, cheese, fennel seeds,lemon zest, ans almonds.


4. Scrape the batter into the the prepared buttered load pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

All in cheese, fruit, nuts, flour lemon,spices, butter

5. Remove the cake from the oven and let sit for 5 minutes, then tip it out onto a cooling rack. Wait a few more moments, then remove the parchment paper and let cool completely before serving.

cake, bread ..... LE CAKE..or bread..? You decide.

Cut the bread into slices with a sharp bread knife, then cut the bread diagonally into triangles. Serve as a nibble or as an tasty morsel before dinner.

Fresh right out of the oven...mumsigt!!

This cake  will keep well wrapped up to three days at room temperature. Do not refrigerate the cake or it will get dry. It can be frozen for a least one month.


I loved this cake about 20 minutes right out of the oven. It is a fantastic treat for yourself. I would make this anytime we have friends around for a drink party. It is a very enjoyable little moreish goody you can give yourself anytime of the year. 

INTRODUCING::: Dill and cheese bacon potato Cornbread

sweet, savory, chewy,moist and delicious

I am a lover of all things bread. I just can not help myself. It is my favorite " go to" food at anytime of the day. The weather just opened up over Sweden and dumped our first real snow fall of the season. Lilla A is waiting ever so patiently to get out to the sledding hill with his best buddy his pappa. I am going to stay indoors and whip us up a pot of soup and add a little lover to the mix with my dill potato, bacon and cheese corn bread. 


This recipe is ever so veritable. With or without the bacon or the potato. Mix it up and make it as you desire. I add the bacon to give me a full meal and if I am serving with a large buffet meal. I keep it pretty simple and minus the potato and bacon. It is a good little lover, and it never disappoints! 


ingredients:


3-5 medium 350 grams cooked Cherie potatoes(waxy potatoes works best here)
125 grams corn flour
140 grams 6-8 slices- bacon chopped and fried to a slight crisp
60 grams sugar
400 grams white flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 medium shallots minced
225 grams unsalted butter/salted can be used, but don't add the 1 teaspoon as marked above
440ml full fat milk
400 grams of any hard cheese good melting like cheddar.
35 grams or about 3/4 cup of chopped fresh or frozen dill
3 large eggs lightly beaten


Directions:

organically grown and local produce is always the best 

boiled, cooled, peeled and sliced

• Measure out your flours
• set white flour in the fridge and let cool at least one hour as you prepare the rest of the ingredients (helps to keep the bread fluffy and not so dense)
• Scrub your potatoes and leaving the skin on boil in well salted water until cooked. Strain and let cool until you can handle them. Peel  all 3 and slice 2 into slices, and grate one potato and set aside
• Combine the chilled white flour, corn flour, sugar, baking powder, salt in a large bowel and set aside

Using a non-stick frying pan. Fry up your bacon and when it it is cooked to a slight crisp, but not burned. Remove and drain on a couple pieces of paper towels. When cooled. Chop into bite size pieces and set aside. *Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of the bacon fat and add your minced shallots and fry over a low heat until well caramelized, but not burned. Add a little butter to the pan if need be to help fry the shallots.Take off the heat and add to a small bowl to cool.

Adding the cooled butter to the milk/shallots, egg mixture

best to shred potatoes when completely cooled. 

It is important to let the mixture rest for the complete 20 minutes

Ready for the oven

• Add your chopped bacon to the "dry ingredients" and set aside
• melt your butter and add your cooled caramelized shallots  grated potato and add the milk
• lightly beat your 3 eggs and add to the milk,shallot,grated potato and butter mixture
• In a separate large bowel add half your grated cheese, dill and using a wooden spoon add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.Blend until just incorporated. Be careful to not over mix and let the mixture sit undisturbed for 20 minutes
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/360 degrees F

Grease a long deep rectangular baking pan and add the mixture to the prepared pan.
Add the sliced potato slices in a unison manner to the top of the mixture and cover with the rest of the cheese bake for 30-35 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean. 

Light, savory, comforting and oh so me....

Lovely, and so good.

Cool and cut into large squares and serve slightly warm or at room temperature. use as any side dish and store any leftovers in the refrigerator. It is lovely sliced and toasted and served for breakfast for the next day.

Sollenbronx Bread Scandinavian bread with nuts,seeds and dried fruit

happy holidays....

Homemade bread is the best gift to yourself. It gives you the pleasure of  comfort.  I am so sorry for getting this post out so late, but I am here now and I will not bore you with all my details of cut fingers, work..etc... I want to introduce my readers to some of Sweden's more unusual recipes and I think this one sure has the place of deliciously interesting and fun to make.I adapted this recipe using dried prunes instead of figs/dates and Greek yogurt instead of Swedish traditional Fil milk(sour milk/yogurt).

I found this recipe in my favorite magazine ELLE MAT & VIN Sept-Okt NR 5 2011 ISSUE. Baking with the stars. This is a favorite of Doreen Månsson a t.v. personality on the national t.v. channel SVT.

SOLLENBRONX BREAD

oatmeal 

ground in the mixer to a fine powder

Flaxseed and sunflower seeds 

sifting the flours

dried fruits and nuts at their finest!

Flour Mixture:

700 grams white flour

400 grams oatmeal flour I used organic regular oatmeal ground in a mix master until powder.

200 grams rye flour

1 teaspoon salt

100 grams unsalted sunflower seeds

100 grams flaxseed's

100 grams hazelnuts

100 grams walnuts

100 grams dried apricots

100 grams dried dates or figs( I used dried prunes )

1 liter of Greek Yogurt

Sour  milk blending:

1 liter/ 1000 grams/ of Greek Yogurt

200 grams dark syrup ( I wouldn't use maple as it is too sweet)

1½ teaspoons of baking soda

Adding syrup to yogurt and baking soda

after wet is added to dry and mixed into a stiff dough

Directions:

Mix the sifted flours,dried fruit, seeds,salt and nuts, into a large bowl, and mix the Greek yogurt into a smaller bowl add the syrup and baking soda. Add the yogurt/syrup mixture to the flour mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until you get a thick and well combined dough.

I added a sliced pear on top and dusted with flour and a bit of salt

Prepare two loaf pans with a thin layer of butter and press in the dough. Lightly cover the tops of the loafs with a fine dusting of flour and a little salt and a slice pear if you wish. Bake in the lowest level rack position in your oven for 1½ hours at 175 degrees c or 350 degrees F.You can cover the tops of the loafs with a little tin foil if the tops are beginning to get a little dark.

I just love this bread I hope you do to.

After the bread has baked in the oven for 90 minutes. remove the loafs from the pans and carefully wrap the loafs in clean dish towels while very hot( be careful to not burn yourself). Let sit covered in the towel for at LEAST 5 hours.

Happy holidays wherever you are and thank you for making my blog a success. I love each and everyone of you readers. All the best to you and yours in 2012. 

Love,

Nicole  

 

. Got MILK?? We apparently don't..welcoming our neighbors to the south.....

MMOOOOOOOVE ON OVER, WHAT NO BUTTER!

Get it where you can. This a Finish brand VALIO, but a superb quality

Wait a minute I have a confession to tell you. I am hoarding butter. Salted, and unsalted. I don't care where it comes from, but I am not sharing. Currently Sweden is on a massive shortage of butter. Well, the cream actually. It seems, the researchers of the world have made a remarkable discovery, that BUTTER is actually good for you. Yep, go figure we can eat the stuff in droves! So..... to make a long story short. Up went the demand in Sweden, and the poor little dairy farmers, just can not keep up with demand.

There's a few factors to why we are in such a funk, at this time of year, (this has happened in December..Christmas baking...) but now in the fall. Some people ask why? Why so  little cream available to the butter industry. (Here is a link to an English article http://www.thelocal.se/36412/20110928/  Normally dairy cows in the summer produce less milk. Giving less whole fat cream needed for the production of butter.

Now the largest Dairy producer ARLA has informed the population that Arla are in the process of shipping cream from Denmark to help the Swedish butter shortage, and the little cream Swedish cows are producing will go to making Swedish butter, but our whipping cream will defiantly be coming from our neighbors.

I thought to welcome our lovely neighbors I would make my first attempt at baking Danish Poppyseed rolls better known as TEBIRKES. (will post at a later date...(hint...hint... tomorrow).

MUMSIGT....look at all those layers. I am so proud of these..

If your reading this in Sweden, snatch up a fridge full of butter, as this is expected to go on for at least another 4-6 weeks. Here's a little photo of the first batch still baking in the oven. See you tomorrow and I wish I had smellavision right now....my kitchen smells just fabulous. A loaf of sourdough is next in line for the oven......See you later..
If you live in the area, all the ingredients are available at our local store. Tempo Rävlanda stationsvägen Rävlanda. You will always find helpful and friendly service with proprietors Maria and Tomas.  

Lovely Home Baked New York style Bagels via Brunkebergs Bakery Stockholm

my very first attempt at New York style bagels from my very own kitchen

The scent of fresh bread filtering the air in my kitchen, always makes me glad. The wishing I could share that exact moment with a  trillion people repeatedly fills my mind and heart. I do not know why I LOVE
to share my food with people. It is like a drug for me. To make people happy with my baking and cooking.The act itself truly fills some sort of void in me,and I  hope it never goes away.

I have a personal challenge to bake and cook as many recipes from the years of subscribing to Elle Mat&Vin magazine, and this particular recipe comes from one of their more newer issues. Jan-Mar "NR 1 2011 VINTERMYS (wintercozy) issue.

Brunkebergs bakery is a top of the line bakery with a traditional, but yet artisan quality and is famous for many lovely breads and of course these bagels.You can check out their website here, but it is only in Swedish http://www.brunkebergsbageri.se/ New York is a long ways from Sweden, so I do hope they do you justice, because they are fantastic, and better yet. They came from my kitchen.

BRUNKANS BAGELS


Step one:


for the batter stage:


300 grams of water
25 grams of yeast
300 grams of bread flour with a high protein level
30 grams of honey


Step two:
the batter dough
300 grams water
30 grams vegetable oil
25 grams yeast
800 grams bread flour with high protein level
15 grams sea salt
egg for egg washing
sesame seeds, poppy seeds or what ever you like on your bagels
corn flour for dredging as much as you need i used about 1/2 cup or so of each 


Method:

step one batter process

Using your stand mixer is best here. You can make these by hand but you need to work the dough for a very long time at each step as it needs to have a lot of "elbow grease" to break down the gluten and make a smooth and elastic dough. 


Mix the ingredients from step one into a batter, and let sit at room temperature for at least two hours in a draft free spot or in the fridge over night.
Step two:

step two after two hour rising 

Blend the batter from step One with all the other ingredients minus the OIL AND SALT. work the dough in your stand mixer using the dough hook for 10 minutes, or by hand for at least double the time equaling 20 minutes of good hard kneading. Add in the vegetable oil and the salt and work the dough for another 10 minutes in your stand mixer or by hand for another 20 minutes of hard kneading.THE DOUGH SHOULD BE SILKY AND ELASTIC. Let the dough sit in a large bowl to rise for at least one hour.

twenty little pieces ready for rolling

rolled and proofing for 30 minutes

whooohooo  reminds me of a certain dough boy:)

After the dough has risen for the full one hour. Dell out twenty equal size pieces. Roll the pieces into 30 cm balls. Prepare your baking sheets with baking parchment paper that has a generous amount of flour sprinkled over the entire surface. Lay your rolls 3-5 cm apart and toss around the balls gently so they are slightly covered in a light dusting of flour. Let them sit covered with loose fitting plastic wrap to sit and rise for another 30 minutes.
Meanwhile as they are rising. Set out your cornflour, and toppings ie: sesame seeds, poppyseed in their own bowls. Set aside. Whisk up your egg wash in a small bowl and have your pastry brush close by.

it works use what you can from home is sometimes the best investment

Fantastic, are they not?

cornflour for the bottoms and white sesame seeds and white poppyseed  for toppings

dusting the bottoms in corn flour 

After the 30 minutes have passed. Use your finger to poke a indent into  the roll, and using a round cookie cutter or cannelloni tube(I used one of Lilla A's toys) to remove the center and give you the bagel shape you want. Remove the "centers" and place them to the side. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, and have some sort of draining rack prepared. I used my oven rack and a large four sided baking tray.Using a slotted spoon add no more than 4-5 bagels at a time and let them cook for ONE minute on each side. Remove with the slotted spoon and let drain and slightly cool.Preheat your oven for 225 degrees C or 437 degrees F.


Using your pastry brush. Brush a little bit of egg wash over the tops of the boiled bagels and as they are still somewhat moist from boiling. Dip the bottoms into the corn meal and dip the egg washed tops into your desired toping. Covering as much as you desire to have. Set back onto your floured baking sheets you used for the proofing stage. Continue to boil and drain, egg wash and cornflour, roll toppings on all the bagels until completed.

ready for the oven

Bake in a preheat oven for 15-20 minutes. I baked mine for a little longer as I have a very old stove. Watch them, they should have a nice golden color to them.

look at that beauty crunchy on the outside and soft and sweet in the inside.

wow, finely my very own bagels.proud I am.

NOTE: I was kind of nervous when they came out of the oven, as they seemed hard... BUT AS THEY COOLED THEY BECAME MUCH SOFTER AS THEY SHOULD BE. I recommend that you stay close by and remove them when they are just golden. Better to be safe then sorry.... Let them sit to cool for 10 minutes and fill with what ever filling you desire. From cream cheese and smoked salmon to just butter and jam. Enjoy and happy bagel baking.  Eat after cooled and store in a well sealed bag. Will stay fresh for two days, but then you will need to either toast them or reheat in the oven. These freezer  extremely well, and can go from freezer to oven-toaster. It is better to slice them in half if you choose to use the straight from the freezer to toaster method.

Squeak and Sizzle mouth teasers.

I have a confession to make. I love croutons. I love store bought, homemade, about any type of croutons there is.There's something so satisfying in a handful of those crunchy, salty, herb filled little mouth teasers that I just adore. Here is the recipe for my Root toot'n winter soup croutons.

Oh,  wow, I am so happy, but sadly I ate them all..

1/2 cup of olive oil

3-4 cloves of mashed garlic

it's best to let the oil sit for at least 30 minutes to en fuse 

(I usually let this happen when I start my soup)

1 cup of Real Parmesan cheese, nothing from that little green can you know who I am talking about!

 I day old bagget works the best here

cut in half then cut those half's in quarters and cut into bite sized pieces

salt and pepper and a dash of chili powder

Add the bread and spices and strain the olive oil over the bread and toss out the garlic pieces.

Toss well and add half a cup of the Parmesan and lay in a 175 C oven for 15 minutes take out and move around and add the rest of the cheese put back in oven for another 10-15 minutes until golden. Make sure you keep an eye on them so they do not burn. Remove from the oven and add them quickly to your soup and enjoy the squeak and sizzle they make when they hit the soup. These croutons can be sealed in a bag or jar and kept for one week, but make sure they are completely COOLED before storing otherwise you will get a mushy crouton.Not so much fun. Enjoy.