A Walk Through Østerbro

Do you remember Christmas last year? If not take a look here. If we were covered in snow last Christmas, then this year we drowned in the rain.

Right before the holidays Vincent and I went for a walk through Copenhagen. We managed to put Østerbro more or less behind us, when it started to come down. Here is a couple of pictures I took on the way, before I had to put my camera away. The rest of the day was spend trying to avoid being too much outside. Denmark was indeed wet and dark this time.

Christmas Time

Another Christmas has passed and I had a nice time in Denmark with friends and family. Of cause there was as always too much food and other good stuff, but that goes with the time of year.

Here is a couple of pictures from the Christmas days. I hope all of you had a nice time as well.

A Christmas Classic

No Christmas without konfekt or konfekt-making. So of cause I persuaded my mum to wait making konfekt until we arrived. There are still new variations to try, and this year we made seven. Three favorites and four new ones. So yummy.

Day In The City

Christmas is approaching and so in order to sort the last couple of Christmas presents and visit some galleries while in Denmark, we went to Copenhagen this Friday. We spend the first hour running in vain since it seems that all the good book stores in Copenhagen are closing. Such a shame.

Afterwards we sat down at Democratic Coffee to get some strength to handle the chaos of the many people in the city. Luckily the Galleries were free of the masses. I didn't take any pictures in the galleries we visited, but I can warmly recommend the current exhibition at Gl. Strand Kunstforening with Artist Niels Pugholm. It was very impressive and I could have spend many hours in there reading the many texts on the walls. They were both fun and interesting. (But only if you can understand Danish.)

Then we went to Nørrebro, as I wanted to try Grød for lunch. Though their interpretation of grød is quite wide, it shows that it is possible to do other thing than plans porridge. Quite a nice cookbook too. And then on the way back to meet a friend we stumbled upon a lovely little cacti store. With so many cute small and big cacti and succulents and beautiful ceramics. I wanted to take them all home.

Sunday Is...

Time for Lussebullar

Today is Lucia and since we haven't done so many Christmas sweets at our house this year, I decided to try and make some sourdough Lussebullar.

Lussebullar is a Swedish tradition, in Denmark we have young girls walking around in white dresses and with candles, singing a song on this day. But I felt more in the mood for a baking challenge.

It is the first time ever I am making these myself, and therefore - of cause - also the first time I am trying them with a converted sourdough recipe. They turned out really fluffy, yummy and delicious with butter on top, and quite surprisingly not sour at all. So a complete success.

Since I worked with sourdough I already started Friday afternoon, making the starter. So even when the dough in itself is not that much work, it is still quite a long process.

I am super happy about the recipe, and since I wouldn't change I thing, I have written it below, in case you would like to try it out yourself.

Lussebullar (30 buns)

- 5 dl soyamilk.
- 250 g quark 20%
- 0.5 g saffran
- 1.5 dl runny honey
- 17 dl spelt flour (more or less)
- 100 g unsalted butter
- 3 spoons of active sourdough starter.

- raisins
- 1 egg

DAY 1
Add soyamilk and 5dl of the flour to a bowl, mix well and add 3 spoons of active sourdough starter (the one I use is a rye sourdough, but you can use any kind) Leave the mixture in the bowl overnight, almost completely covered with a tea-towel. Since you have to leave it out overnight I use soyamilk, to avoid the milk from going sour. You can also use water and add milk powder the next day.

DAY 2
Next morning when the new sourdough has started to bubble and risen slightly, mix in quark. Then add saffran, honey and about 10dl of the flour. Here you can also add a bit a salt if you prefer, but the final dough will rise more if you leave this out. Knead the dough and add more flour if needed, until you have a nice springy dough. Cut butter in small pieces and incorporate it a little by little. When all butter is added and you have a dough that will easily slip the bowl, cover bowl with a plate and put it in the fridge for at least 24 hour. (you can leave it for longer, but the longer, the more sour the buns will turn out)

DAY 3
Take the dough out of the fridge and add to a floured surface. Here you cut it into 30 equal size lumps. Shape each into a S-shape and ad a raisin to the two centers. Leave on a baking-tray, covered with a wet cloth in a warm place for at least an hour. You will see when the buns have started to rise a bit more. Before putting them in the oven, whisk an egg and brush the surface of each bun with the egg-mixture.
Bake on 225 degree celcius for 10-12 minutes. I used a staeming devise for the first 5 minutes, but this is not mandatory since the dough contains a lot of butter.

Leave for an hour to set and voila.

If you want to make them with conventional yeast this is the recipe from which I converted.