Warm Wheats

Recently my dad came to visit and he brought a little treat from the Danish bakery. It just so happened that his arrival collided with Big pray day (Store bededag) - as I like to call it - and I asked if he wouldn't have a bit of spare room in his suitcase for these delicious buns.

It is basically just a sweet bun with added cardamom, but specifically made for this occasion. I've had more or less luck the last couple of years making these myself, but this year, I opted for the easy way. They were nice, warm, and crunchy just like they are suppose to be.

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.

Thanksgiving Dinner

After suggesting it herself, I encouraged Teal to have Thanksgiving dinner. It was also an occation to celebrate moving in to her new home. Therefore I experienced my first thanksgiving dinner ever, which was a lovely evening with good food, company, fun games and of cause giving thanks.

Stuffed!

As always, Christmas consisted of a considerable amount of food. In fact we are still celebrating with the leftovers.

There was everything that we usually eat for Christmas eve and the following days family lunch and a extra French twist at the 2nd day of Christmas with a menu of Foie gras and Confit de canard. My parents made a ton of cookies and konfekt and my aunt brought her almost mandatory chocolate covered almond cake, which recipe my grandmother once got from someone in the bus. We call it rutebil-kage. 

With all this delicious and fatty winter food I am happy that Christmas is only happening once a year.

Jule Tivoli!

There might not be a real Christmas without a trip to Tivoli... or at least it is hard to Imagine. For the past 15 years I have had a tradition with my father involving a trip to the same restaurant, eating the same dish, taking a walk in Tivoli and ending up at Glassalen watching the Crazy Christmas Cabaret.
This year is no different.

I really love Tivoli at Christmas, it is so dreamy with the many lights and because of the cold and all the clothes you have to wear it for some reason seems much more hyggeligt than the rest of the year. Here is how it looks in summertime.

Another Christmas Greeting!

To avoid getting overexposure before the actual Christmas days I normally don't do too many Christmas things doing the month of December. Though one thing I do every year is to send out Christmas greetings, because I really enjoy making them and I know a handwritten letter will always be appreciated. At the same time it is a nice way to remind friends in other ends of the world that even when I don't see them every day, they still have a place in my thoughts. So this year is no different and I think I might never have written as many greetings as I was busy with the past couple of days.

Summer Strawberries!

One thing I love about Denmark in the summer is the Danish strawberries. It might seem odd, since I can get strawberries everywhere, though there is something very special about them, especially since the season is only a month long.

The traditional danish way of eating strawberries is with milk, raw cream and sugar. Sometimes I like vanilla ice cream as well. 

We either bring all our empty kitchen bowls and go pick our own with our bottoms high in the air and eat while in the field, or if we are more lazy buy them already picked. For me I think they are special because I dislike anything that taste like strawberries, if not fresh strawberries. Plus the fact that I can only get them for such a short period each year, makes me wait with anticipation the rest of the time.