Lets celebrate the Light (St Lucia)

December the 13th we celebrate  St Lucia and the light. All of Sweden celebrate this day with a traditional Luciatåget. A girl dressed as Lucia who leads the tåget (train) with other children and young people who dressed as bridesmaids, star boys, gingerbread men and elves. The procession they marches around the school, kidergarten or indeed at work and sing traditional songs like “Santa Lucia”, “We come from Pepparkakeland” and “Staffan was a groom”.

 

Adolf Fredriks Ungdomskör – Luciafirandet

Celebrate the light with some Saffron!

Don´t forget to bake some lussekatter and lussebullar or why not some lussekattsemlor which is a different saffron variation of semlor.

We are ready with my LO to celebrate the light with some saffron.

HOT Simittt!!!

It’s long time not sharing any recipes I hope you will like this favorite recipe it goes best with accompany of tea or just basically as bread or kind of pretzel for lunch box or freshly baked HOT right from the oven right to the belly.

Here is how to do it!

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon yeast

1 cup lukewarm water

1/2 cup oil

2 tablespoon organic molasses

2 tablespoon water

organic sesame seeds

make indent in the center of the flour add yeast.

Add little water and mix.

Add salt and oil star to knead.

Add all the water continue kneading.

Cover the dough with plastic foil leave it 1 hour.

Mix molasses and water in deep plate.

In another plate add sesame seed.

Dived dough to 6 pieces.

Make long rolls then twist each one then make it ring shape.

Dip the twisted rings into molasses mix then to sesame seeds.

Leave it 1 hour.

Bake for 20-25 min. 220 C preheated oven.

Special Valentines Semla

A traditional Swedish recipe using little creativity could make difference like using different shaped cutters making them special for Valentines day or any day to share with loved ones of course if you live them organic shaped as they are it wont make them less delicious and bunny 🙂 so it's up to you to add more creativity or leave them as they are the goal is to make delicious dessert in most Enjoyable way!

 
For 18 semla rolls
• 1 tablespoon cardamom seeds
• 3 dl milk
• 50 g fresh yeast
• 1 dl granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 150g soft butter
• 1 egg
• 11-12 dl flour special

 For Filling
• 400 g almond paste
• A dash of milk
• 8 dl whipped cream
• Egg for brushing
• Powdered sugar

 If you like to make homemade almond paste (1/2 kg)
• 250 g almonds
• 2 1/2 dl granulated sugar
1. crush and scale almonds .
2. Mix the almonds until smooth in household blender.
3. Add the powdered sugar OCH Blend for 5-7 minutes checkouts It Becomes smooth paste.

Semla
1. Crush cardamom seeds and heat the milk until you can hold your finger in, 37 degrees.
2. Crumble the yeast into a bowl and dissolve with milk, granulated sugar, salt, butter and eggs.
3. Add the flour a little at a time and work together to form a smooth dough .
4. Allow to rise the dough in a bowl covered with a cloth until doubled in size in 45-60 minutes.
5. Turn out dough onto a floured surface.
6. Divide the dough into 18 pieces and shape them into round buns.
7. Place the buns on baking trays with baking paper with the seam facing down.
8. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
9. Allow to rise under a cloth for 45-60 minutes .
10. Brush the buns with beaten egg and bake them in the oven for 6-7 minutes . Allow to cool .
11. Cut off the tops of the buns and scoop out the guts 
.12. Stir the guts with grated almond paste and a dash of milk until creamy.

13. Fill semla buns with marzipan, pipe the cream over and put the lid on. Dust with icing sugar.

You can make it more more exciting and modern way by adding sliced strawberries or other delicious healthy berries it's all up to you bring up your imagination and what you like best if it's chocolate for you try using chocolate chips or chocolate cream why not to try mix and match through your taste.  

Trios sisters cookies

Cute cookies and different presentation!

Good thing about the dough of this cookies is you can chill it up to 2 days isn’t that great!

Also it’s very fun to make it with children they can roll the balls and make the indentations and fill each round with different jam.

If you are more than 3 sisters you can stick more rounds with each other it’s really fun or maybe less.

Anyway let’s have some FUN!!

2 -1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 sticks butter (softened)

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tbs raspberry jam or cherry jam

2 tbs apricot preserve

2 tbs strawberry preserve

Whisk flour salt.

Beat butter and sugar with mixer about 4 min. add egg and vanilla mix at low speed.

Mix in flour mixture in 3 batches till dough forms.

Divide dough in half and form each into 6 inch disks wrap it in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour.

Preheat oven 175 c.

Roll 3 separate level tsp of dough into a ball then flatten each ball 1 inch wide and less than 1/2 inch thick.

Arrange them into triangle and make deep indentation in center of each round with help of 1/2 inch thick spoon handle.

Arrange them 1 inch apart on baking sheets.

Fill indentations with about 1/88 tsp jam avoiding any large pieces of fruit.

Bake 15- 20 min. till golden brown.

Cool on baking sheets 5 min.

Enjoy fun sisters or one size bite sister! just use your creativity and have so much delicious & fun!

Honey bee Quince

My mother told me a lot about how they were happy when they had a chance to get a quince from the tree; they were putting it in their wardrobes between their clothes to give nice smell to their clothes at that times when they did not have perfumes. I can imagine quince scented wardrobes it was very nice, safe and healthy way to smell good…. and she adds those time the quinces and all fruits were smelling really good but now days unfortunately and sadly they didn’t…  and after it begins to getting ripe in the wardrobe they took it and made it into a dessert like this — during those days nothing was to throw but to use it use it reuse it! When she prepare this dessert always as I use to ask her what were they doing that times it’s always nice to hear old quality stories especially during long winter nights.

Favorite winter dessert!

I’m always getting very exited when doing this veryyy simple but amazing dessert. The smell, the taste, the look Oh my GOD it’s terrific!

This is why honey bees like it :)))

First you need fire if you have fire place or stove like me you are very lucky you just have to wait until the log is turn to a nice fire it’s relaxing to sit in front and watch for a while.

Come on get up it’s time to take one nice smelled organic quince wash it well.

I wish I had a tree.

Wrap it with aluminium foil like this

Put it on top of the fire-coals. I remember my mom was covering it with fire-coals as well you can do the same or turn it every 10 min. to cook every part of it.

I check it out. It wasn’t cooked yet it wasn’t soft and the skin should be burned. Cover the foil again put on fire-coals to wait more.

It should be burned more than the picture more than half of it should be burned. This takes 40 min. with me because I didn’t have enough coals and the quince was big.  If you have enough coal and to cover it with them maybe this will take 15 or 20 min. I think.

Remove it from foil cut it in half first.

Peel the burned skin. Remove the seeds from the pits. It smells amazing.

Put 1 tsp of honey in each half of quince cut nice slices. If you like more honey drizzle over more honey or you can serve it with scoop of ice cream.

This is for 2 person but I ate all of it veryyummmmyyyy.

The end…. happily!

Nothing left behind sorry.

Sesame Rolls

Baking love! I love baking-cooking it really makes me feel I don’t have any problems just if I will not get tired I think I will bake&cook all day. Let’s start the recipe.

For filling I use instead of parsley black olives you can use what you like if you don’t like cheese then just use olives or olive paste  to fill them.

125 gr unsalted butter melted

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 cup lukewarm milk 

1 cup lukewarm water 

2 eggs

2 tbs instant yeast

1 tbs sugar

1 tbs sea salt

flour

Filling

Feta cheese

Parsley

For top

1/2 cup water

1 tbs grape molasses

Sesame seeds

Stir all ingredients

Add as enough flour until you get form soft dough

Leave it 1 hour.

Take lemon size pieces

Open them with pin or hands

Put filling in center Roll them

Dip the top side of pies in molasses water then to sesame

 With sharp knife cut 2 or 3 cuts on top of each 

Leave them 30 min on baking sheets.

Bake them in preheated oven at 200 until golden brown on top.

Quick Kourabiedes

Who don’t like or love easy, delicious and quick recipes?

For kourabiedes I had original one of course it’s tastier but it takes longer time to make this one guaranteed and very easy to follow and really delicious.

1 cup flour

3 tbs unsalted butter

4 tbs powdered sugar

1/2 cup  sliced  almonds

1 egg white

1/2 tbs baking powder

For the top as enough powdered sugar

Preheat oven 180 c degrees.

Put the almonds and flour in pan

Roast them until they turn pink

Cool them completely

Add all other ingredients

Knead until it takes form

Open it with pin 1 or 1.5 inches thick

Cut it with tea glass or moon shaped cookie cutter.

Bake them just when they start to turn pink.

Remove them from oven.

When they are lukewarm with help of shaker or strainer decorate them with powdered sugar or just roll them into powdered sugar.

It’s done ready to enjoy your kourabiedes as quick as you can!

Profiterol from scratch!

As like me do you think it’s very hard or impossible to make this delicious filled puffs called profiterol because at Istanbul at Inci Profiterol I ate many times this delicious profiterols and every time I ate them I think they are the best profiterols around the world! but when I ask myself how can I make them or at least is it possible to make them at home? The answer was Oh impossible!

Until I tried to make them from scratch very surprisingly  they were very easy to make and this one is guaranteed recipe. When I was serving this to my family and friends always asking me where I bought them but the truth is I made them at home! even still I can’t believe that I can make them at home from scratch.

So here it’s the recipe for you to try and see!

For Puffs

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/4 tsp salt

1 -1/4 cups flour

4 large eggs at room temperature

For Filling

1- 1/2 cups heavy cream or whole milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 small box instant vanilla pudding mix

For Chocolate

1/2 cup sugar

2 tbs flour

1 tbs full cocoa powder

1 cup milk

Chocolate

Put all ingredients in pan stir occasionally, boil (3-5 min.)until it gets thick.

Fillig
Stir all ingredients together until you have thick filling.

Let it set 1 hour in refrigerator or you can prepare it one night before.

The Puffs

preheat oven 200 degrees.

Combine water, butter and salt in medium pan heat until butter melted.

Bring to rolling boil.

Add flour all at once stirring vigorously until smothes out and flows the spoon around pan. (this should take less than 30 seconds)

Remove it from heat cool it 5-10 min. it should be lukewarm.

With mixer beat the eggs one at a time in lukewarm mixture after adding the last egg continue beating 1 minute more.

Take 1 teaspoon full of the dough and drop it on parchment papered pans leave 1 inch between the puffs.

bake them 20 min. when they turn medium golden brown.

Remove them and cut a slit into the sides of puffs.

Return them to oven cook them 5 min. more.

Remove them and let them cool on a rack.

Gently open each puff alone natural fault line.

Fill bottom with 2 teaspoons of filling and replace with the top half.

Put all filled puffs on serving plate pour the chocolate on top put it in refrigerator.

Enjoy with loved ones !

I think it will be your one of the best loved recipe!

Holiday Treats: Mandel Bollar

Mandel Bollar, a Swedish favorite cookie is perfect for this time of year. So easy to make, delicious to eat, and looks great. Reminds me of snow and represents the magic of the season (pictured above the peanut butter cups). Here is the recipe – make it and enjoy it with your loved ones!

200 grams mandelmasa (sweet almond paste

200 grams butter (room temperature, soft)

1 1/4 cup flour

1 egg white to brush on top

almond flakes to roll the balls in

Mash the butter until it is smooth. Grate the almond paste (medium sized side of grate). Mix the two ingredients, add the flour and mix further. Roll the dough as a log – chill in the fridge for an hour. Cut the log into 40 equal pieces – roll into balls. Brush the tops with egg yolk, and roll in almond flakes.

Preheat oven to 175 degrees and bake the almond balls for only 10 minutes. Do not overcook.

Bon Appetit!