Bread and butter

I've been thinking about the use of butter in bread. It's surely healthier to use sunflower oil, but how can one make a real croissant with it? Moreover, one eats about 2-3 slices of bread a day (regardless its kind) and home-made bread is not an everyday occurrence, so why not make it tasty?! Because yes, bread with butter tastes many times better than bread with sunflower oil. Just as I'm about to finally convince myself about the superiority of butter, I think of olive oil. Divine! I made this year's Christmas eve bread with it (fasting day in Bulgaria). Now that's a memorable flavor! Cheap as it is not, I'd still go for it unless some special pastry dough is on the agenda. Then I'm gonna smile at the thought of the recently introduced "fat tax" and head for the dairy section. :D How do you solve this quandary?

I had half a package of yeast left, so this morning was a last call for using it - nothing should go to waste! ;) Since we really liked the dough I used last time (dough), I made a braided bread with tomato pure, feta cheese and herbs filling, and a couple of buns. Admittedly, I've become fond of bread without any filling, as it bakes better and I can choose what I wanna have it with afterwards. How do you prefer your bread?

Winter and Chai Latte

I find the long dark evenings up north as depressing as cosy. Missing the day light is one thing, but getting blown away by an unforgiving wind is an entirely different matter. That being said, sipping a cup of tea under a duvet, listening to the wind's song and chatting with family and friends is worth the temporary discomfort.

What I love and dread about winter most is snow! Right now we're missing it in Denmark, but I have a few pictures of the snowy Pirin mountain in Bulgaria to console myself with. 

Returning to my point about tea, tonight my adorable sister asked me to make some chai latte for her. We found a recipe from BROOKLYNSUPPER, which sounded dreamy and I got working. Unfortunately, it turned out a bit too spicy for her taste. So, now I'm wondering for next time whether I should simply reduce the spices or look for something milder altogether. Has anyone got a chai latte recipe they love?

Peach and cocoa cream (Vegan)

I had a mission: present my lovely fruit salad of diced oranges and pears topped with home-made vegan pear ice-cream and a hint of honey. Time wasn't on my side though and the ice-cream thickened only after it was dark outside. No matter how I tried to photograph the plate, it just wasn't as good as day-light photographed food. That's probably because I'm only equipped with a flash, but also because I'm clueless how to be creative with the lights at home. Truth be told, right now it doesn't make the top of my list of tricks to learn anyway.

Since the pear ice-cream is a simplified version of the peach and cocoa cream, I'll dedicate this post to the latter.

Ingredients

3 peaches

1 banana

20 g almonds

400 g coconut milk

1 1/2 spoon cocoa powder

2 t. sp.  honey

Method

1. Mix the coconut milk with the honey.

2. Peal the peaches and start blending them with the banana and the almonds. Continuously add 320 g. coconut milk and blend until smooth.

3. Pour the mixture in serving glasses/ bowls, leaving a little space for a tiny layer of the cocoa cream.

4. Combine the remaining coconut milk with the cocoa powder until well integrated.

5. Pour the cocoa cream on top and keep the layer thin. (The cocoa layer is a bit bitter, as I don't add more honey, but I like the contrast it creates. Feel free to adjust!)

6. Let the cream refrigerate for an hour, so it can thicken. Serve cold!

Vegan desserts - the kind that makes you feel good even after the plate is empty! I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! :)

Fruit days

I'm a fruit person. I've always had at least an apple a day, but certainly more than 2. Last year, while reading about raw food, I discovered just how healthy it is to have one cleansing day when one eats only fruit. It keeps your blood sugar at a normal level, while also supplying you with vitamins, enzymes, fibers and proteins (however little quantity). At the same time, they're easily digested and aid the cleansing process of the body by not creating additional work for the liver and supplying the necessary nutrition for the body to function properly. Considering the amount of toxins we burden ourselves with (meat/ eggs/ milk - I cringe at the thought about animals' diet of food supplements and antibiotics - alcohol, beauty products, the environment, etc.), having a day when we can take a breath and let our system recover sounds like a very basic thing to do. Some may say that we adapt. Maybe! Sometimes our cells mutate though and by the time we notice, it's time to visit a doctor. I'm not saying that a day would save us from health issues either. But it's a start and while I'm at it, make them two! So, I pronounce that this blog's fruit days are Wednesday and Friday!

How do you feel about having a fruit day?

Soft buns with filling

It's amazing how many people return to baking their own bread. Hardly surprising though! Nothing compares to the smell of freshly baked bread coming out of your oven! Kneading has been one of my favorite activities in the kitchen and I'm always up for it. So, whenever someone from my family or friends gives a hint that they'd like to have some home-baked bread, I'm up for it. Like today.

Usually I use only feta cheese for the filling, but today I decided to add a bit of extra flavor to it. Some of the buns were with feta cheese, spearmint and basil filling, others with feta cheese and double concentrated tomato pure, and the third ones with feta cheese and garlic.

Ingredients

250 ml milk

25 g. fresh yeast

2 eggs

30 g. soft butter

1 tb. sp. sugar

1 t. sp. salt

flour (as much as it takes to form soft dough - approx. 500 g.)

125 g. feta cheese

double concentrated tomato pure

basil

spearmint

minced garlic

Method

1. Heat the milk until its lukewarm. Then add the yeast, 1 tb. sp. flour and the sugar in 150 ml. milk and stir until everything integrates. Set aside for about 10 min. until the yeast doubles its volume.

2. Sift the flour in a large bowl. Add the salt, the eggs, the remaining milk and the yeast. Start kneading.

3. Little by little add the butter. Continue kneading for about 10 minutes or until the dough feels soft, but not sticky. Hit the dough 100 times on the counter (It's an old trick shared by elderly women and bread bakers in Bulgaria. It helps the flour integrate better.)

4. Let the dough rest for about 40 min. in a greased bowl and covered with a towel.

5. Separate the dough in 8 parts. Roll them out to form rectangulars. Put from the filling I've suggested or whichever you prefer. Fold the rectangulars and extend them until they become like ropes. Be careful that the filling doesn't come out of the dough. Then either form knots or "snails".

6. Add 1 tb. sp. milk to 1 egg yolk and whisk them together. Spread the mixture on top of the buns and sprinkle with sunflower seeds, sesame or poppy seeds.

6. Bake in a 200 C oven until ready.

I also made two buns (picture below), which had no special form and the filling was just in the middle. I'm not sure whether I liked them most because of their feta cheese, basil and spearmint filling or because the bread tastes better without much feeling, but they have officially become #1 bun. Decorating them was also very entertaining and I recommend it was an activity to moms with children. Your little helpers could have a whole independent role in the process of baking buns. Enjoy! :)

Potato pizza

Remember when I said rice is better than potatoes unless they're baked? Well, today I baked some potatoes with other vegetables and mozzarella. The way I arranged everything in the tart form reminded me a lot of pizza, so that's how I called it.

I admit I get a little zealous when I work on my idea of palatable art. It's also a great thing nobody around me is too eager to give their opinions on how food should look, cause I might get in a war over it, metaphorically speaking. 

Ingredients

5 boiled potatoes

125 g. mozzarella 

3 eggs

50 g. milk

1/2 red pepper

1 carrot

peas

cauliflower 

basil

spearmint

Method

1. Slice the potatoes and the mozzarella.

2. Cut the rest of the vegetables in your preferable way.

3. Arrange the potatoes and the mozzarella in a tart form like shown on the picture above. Fill the middle with diced potatoes.

4. Decorate with the rest of the vegetables.

5. Whisk the eggs and the milk. Add the spices to it.

6. Pour the mixture, starting from the outer layer of the form and finishing with the middle. Be careful, not to spoil your arrangement.

7. Bake at medium high temperature until ready.

Next time I would put the peas more to the periphery, cause they weren't covered by the egg mix and got a bit too dry.

Kvæfjordkaka with walnuts

Two years back, a Norwegian friend mentioned this delicious cake known as verden's beste kake (World's best cake). It's the most special of cakes and is thus reserved for occasions like birthdays, weddings and the national holiday. I admit, I couldn't wait for a more special occasion than my monthly visit by a few of my closest friends. I wanted to surprise them with a local dessert (interpret "local" loosely) that was guaranteed to please. Apart from the very specific methodology for preparation, it was actually one of the easiest cakes I had attempted, while at the same time visually appealing. Needless to say, it was a success and everyone appreciated it. I can't forget to this day how happy I felt when a Swedish friend commented that the taste had brought her home. Don't we all cook to please the ones' we share our food with?! I only wish I hadn't lost my pictures of that first Kvæfjordkaka.

The second time I made it was in honor of my successful passing of the driver's exam and my last day at home. I spent the holiday season with my parents in Bulgaria, where I indulged in Bulgarian vegetarian cuisine - my favorite! As soon as the holidays arrived though, I could only think about ways to represent my newly found Scandinavian cuisine with the one at home. It was gonna be its debut to my parents, so it had to be something amazing. So, it was decided! I'm not particularly fond of making the same dessert twice, so I needed something that will set it apart from the first one. After a small discussion with my dad, a few changes were integrated and I ventured on a what seemed a very long, but exciting cake-making.

I should warn here that if you want to learn precisely about Kvæfjordkaka, you should visit The transplantedbaker who I learnt the classic cake from.

So, here is my adaptation:

Instead of making a single layer of pastry and meringue, one cooked on top of the other, baked them separately. For the pastry layer, I used the Transplanted baker's recipe. Then, I cut out circles with a glass, so I could make individual portions of the cake.

Since my dad prefers a meringue layer mixed with walnuts, I added them to the egg whites once they were beaten and carefully folded the mixture. 

Then I proceded with the baking of that layer and cut out circles from it as well.

Instead of mixing the pastry cream with whipped cream, I refrigerated the pastry cream (which became as thick as butter and used it by itself. It is delicious enough by itself, I have to say.

Next, I used one pastry layer, then one meringue layer, interchanging them until I had two of each. One of the towers I named "the tower of Pisa" - I think we all can guess why. :)

Once I was done assembling the pieces, it was decoration time. My parents would have liked me to simply use the rest of the pastry cream and then sprinkle chopped walnuts on top, like I did with one of them.

I had white and dark chocolate in my possession though, and there was no way I would take the easy road! So, what came next was a series of chocolate melting, ohs and ahs as quite a few of my ideas fell in ruins, desperation, talk about necessity of continuos practice in the art of chocolate decoration and a few simple, but more or less successfully executed pieces (I wanted them all to have different appearance). Eventually, I labored on three pieces and finished the last four in the manner my parents had suggested.

Note that I used the whipped cream to top the little cakes before I finished them with the chocolate.

Hopefully, next time the decoration will be more accomplished. :)