Birthday

As it often happens, my father came to town to celebrate his birthday with us. It was such a nice day, he has definitely behaved well this year (as they say in Denmark). It was perhaps the first day where it felt like spring, and after the almost obligatory birthday brunch – with sourdough Brunsviger – we went for a very long walk, to burn off some calories and enjoy the sun.

So many bushes had already started to show some green, plus all the little spring related flowers were popping up the ground. We walked along the canal and had a coffee at Concierge before starting to make our way back to home. In the end we dropped by the a new store around the corner, where we stocked up on craft beer so we could have a birthday toast. 

Fastelavn er mit navn...

This weekend we had a little Fastelavns celebration. Or rather Fastelavn was an excuse to invite some people for coffee and cake and spend a nice Sunday afternoon in good company. I made two different kinds of Fastelavnsboller and a little Fastelavnsris (this is the decorated branches). They were normally used to beat people with to remind them of Jesus suffering) but no one got beaten here. Instead we had a lovely afternoon with too much sugar and just enough talking.

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.

Home Baking

I am having so much fun with sourdough at the moment. Since I have dropped all sugary cake for the moment, I had to find something else to bake. I managed to make a really good potent starter and am now using it as base for all the bread we eat at home.

Emilie from The Clever Carrot had written this really good and easy to follow tutorial on how to make the perfect sourdough bread, and since I started doing my bread this way it has become really interesting and fun. I have been making many spelt and rye breads over the past month, buns and pizza all with sourdough.

At the moment I am in the process of trying to adapt some standard yeast recipes til only using sourdough and my first try, where I made a brioche dough, was quite successful (I had to Frenchmen test it out). It lacked of cause the traditional shape, since I don't posses a brioche baking form, and it could have been a little more light in the texture, but a very good starting point to go from.

From The Field To The Table

One thing I love about the summer is strawberry season. It is not necessarily my favorite berry of them all but it is for me highly connected to the sensation of summer.

Like a couple of years ago we went to Hoppengarden to pick some ourselves, and for some reason we always end up picking until the bowls are more than full. Almost three kilos we got, if you disregard the ones we ate out there. From this I made a wonderful gluten and sugar-free strawberry marzarin tart, strawberry jam and strawberry basil toppings for our Sunday pancakes.

So delicious.