Food shopping in Flensborg

During my last shopping trip to Flensborg, Germany I found these three new food items, which managed to find their way into my shopping backet together with yogurt, sausages, cat food etc.

The first has a cake kit for a Orea pie, which caught my eye. I will later tell you, how I found this cake kit.

The second thing was a mixture of marzipan and marmalade !!!!! Strange thing, which caught my interest.

And the third and final thing was another version of speculoos, which I absolute adore and can not live without !!! I also refer to this as Belgian Nutella :-)

Preben´s squash cake with cinnamon cream cheese glazing

Last week-end I took part in get-together for rowers participating in the Danish Summer rowing trip on the Thames. Besides from baking some bread (oat flakes bread with linseed & Rowan's five grain bread) I also baked some cake for the afternoon coffee break, which we had on our whole day rowing tour on the fjord of Vejle.

It is not an easy task to transport a cake with glazing in a rowing boat, therefore I had the cream cheese glazing in a separate container, so the glazing was first added on top of the cake just before we ate the cake. So quite many of my fellow rowers thought, that I was spreading humus on of the cake !!!!

Squash is very much in season, so I decided to this squash cake with cream cheese glazing seasoned with cinnamon. I have got this specific recipe from a colleague at work by the name of Preben. The use of cinnamon in the cream cheese glazing gives an excellent flavour twist combined with a colling sensation.

If you do not make the cream cheese glazing, when the squash on it´s own is actually both lactose-free.

Preben´s squash cake with cinnamon cream cheese glazing:

Cake:

• 5 eggs
• 500 g sugar
• 2½ dl (rapeseed) oil
• 325 g (cake) wheat flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons soda
• 3 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 275 g squash - grated
• 50 g walnuts - roughly minced

Cream cheese glazing with cinnamon:

• 200 g full-fat cream cheese
• 125 g butter - soft
• 125 g icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cake:

1. Heat up the oven to 200'C.
2. Whip the sugar and eggs together into a foamy structure on stand-alone mixer.
3. Add in the oil, baking powder, salt, soda, vanilla sugar and cinnamon, whip again.
4. Add in the flour and whip again.
5. Stir in the grated squash and minced walnuts by hand.
6. Fill the cake dough into a round form (28 cm).
7. Bake the cake at 200'C for 50-60 minutes.
8. Check by fork or meat needle, if the cake is baked.
9. Cool down the cake.

Glazing:

1. Whip cream cheese, soft butter, icing sugar, vanilla sugar and cinnamon together on stand-alone mixer.
2. Spread the glazing on top of the cold squash cake.
3. Enjoy :-)

Crispbread Classic a la Svansø

Besides from the breads (oat flakes bread with linseed & Rowan's five grain bread), which I baked for last week-end´s get-together for rowers participating in the Danish Summer rowing trip on the Thames, I also make some classic crispbread.

Making this crispbreads I used the easy approach in form of a plastic bag from Svansø full of the grain mix, so I did not have to buy five bags of various grains (oat flakes, sun flower seeds, linseed, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds), where you do not everything up.

It is a very process to make your own crispbread. You just mix the dough together on a stand-alone mixer, put the dough between pieces of baking paper before rolling the dough very fine followed by baking the crispbread. You can actually make these crispbread without getting your hands in contact with the dough.

The taste in these crispbread is perfect, so I will for sure make them another time in my little kitchen.


Crispbread Classic a la Svansø:

• 310 g of Svansø Knækbrød Classic mix
• 300 g wheat flour
• 1 dl olive oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 300 g water

1. Heat up the fan oven to 170'C.¨
2. Weigh all the ingredients into the mixing bowl of a stand alone mixer.
3. Stir the dough into a homogeneous mass.
4. Divide the portion into two equal portion, which is rolled out between two pieces of baking paper using a rolling pin.
5. Remove the top baking paper, followed by cutting the dough into the individual pieces.
6. Bake the crispbread at 170'C, until they are crisp and brownish in colour.
7. After baking the crispbread break them into individual pieces.
8. Cool them down and store them in air thigh container.

Rowan´s five grain bread

Last week-end I took part in get-together for rowers participating in the Danish Summer rowing trip on the Thames. I was responsible for food part upon arrival of the rowers Friday evening. The food was cheese tapas from the local cheese shop (easy part involving making the food order). So therefore I had plenty of time for making various breads for this cheese tapas such as oat flakes bread with linseed and this five grain bread

I decided to the bread this easy way as well, this means making knead-free cooking pot bread !!! After looking at various recipes in the bread book "Det æltefri grydebrød", I decided to bake this Rowan five grain bread.

Instead of adding grated carrots I added in grated squash, as I had some leftovers from this squash cake.

Rowan´s five grain bread: - 1 bread

• 10 g fresh yeast
• 50 g sour dough (optional)
• 500 g cold water
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 100 squash - grated
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 75 g mix of five grains
• 50 g cracked wheat
• 25 g oat flakes
• 525 g wheat flour
• Oil

1. Stir yeast, sour dough and water together in a big mixing bowl. Add salt, sugar, cracked wheat, five grain mix, oat flakes and grated squash into the liquid and stir well.
2. Afterwards add the wheat flour and stir very well with a cooking spoon. 
3. Rise the dough to rise at room temperature overnight - minimum 12 hours.
4. Take the dough out off the mixing bowl, move 1/3 of the dough in over the rest of the dough, keep repeating this process until you have a small size of the dough.
5. Clean the mixing bowl for any dough leftovers.
6. Glaze the dough bowl with oil.
7. Place the dough again in a clean dough, let is rise again for 2 hours.
8. Heat up the cast iron cooking pot (5 l) incl. lid on a rack in the lower part of the oven at 250°C (fan oven) for ½ hour.
9. Remove the hot cast iron cooking from the oven, remove the lid. Cover the bottom of the cooking pot with oat flakes, as this will prevent the dough from sticking to firm to the surface.
10. Place the dough in the hot cast iron cooking pot, put the lid back on. Place the cooking pot in the lower part of the oven, let it bake at 250°C for 30 minutes.
11. Remove the lid from the cast iron cooking pot, and let the bread bake at 225°C for another 20 minutes. 
12. Let the bread cold down on the cast iron cooking pot for 30 minutes. before it is taken out.

Oat flakes bread with linseed

Last week-end I took part in get-together for rowers participating in the Danish Summer rowing trip on the Thames. I was responsible for food part upon arrival of the rowers Friday evening. The food was cheese tapas from the local cheese shop (easy part involving making the food order). So therefore I had plenty of time for making various breads for this cheese tapas.

I decided to the bread this easy way as well, this means making knead-free cooking pot bread !!! After looking at various recipes in the bread book "Det æltefri grydebrød", I decided to bake this oat flakes bread with linseed.

Oat flakes bread with linseed: - 1 bread

• 5 g fresh yeast
• 30 g sour dough (optional)
• 350 g cold water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 50 g linseed
• 125 g oat flakes
• 200 g wheat flour
• Oil

1. Stir yeast, sour dough and water together in a big mixing bowl. Add salt, sugar, linseed and oat flakes into the liquid and stir well.
2. Afterwards add the wheat flour and stir very well with a cooking spoon. 
3. Rise the dough to rise at room temperature overnight - minimum 12 hours.
4. Take the dough out off the mixing bowl, move 1/3 of the dough in over the rest of the dough, keep repeating this process until you have a small size of the dough.
5. Clean the mixing bowl for any dough leftovers.
6. Glaze the dough bowl with oil.
7. Place the dough again in a clean dough, let is rise again for 2 hours.
8. Heat up the cast iron cooking pot (1½-2 l) incl. lid on a rack in the lower part of the oven at 250°C (fan oven) for ½ hour.
9. Remove the hot cast iron cooking from the oven, remove the lid. Cover the bottom of the cooking pot with oat flakes, as this will prevent the dough from sticking to firm to the surface.
10. Place the dough in the hot cast iron cooking pot, put the lid back on. Place the cooking pot in the lower part of the oven, let it bake at 250°C for  25 minutes.
11. Remove the lid from the cast iron cooking pot, and let the bread bake at 225°C for another 15 minutes. 
12. Let the bread cold down on the cast iron cooking pot for 30 minutes. before it is taken out.

GREEN GINGER

I was positively surprised by this juice. I was expecting a healhty (= ugly) tasting juice due to the use of curly kale and spinach beet, as these ingredients very often bring a loot of bitterness into the final juice. I actually enjoy this juice, as it was quiet sweet without being over bitter, and it could had used an extra 2 cm ginger to be more dominated by ginger in the taste.

GREEN GINGER: 3-4 servings

• 300 g curly kale´
• 150 g spinach beet
• 4 cm ginger
• 1 lemon - with peel4 apples
• 6 apples

1. Clean all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together.
3. Enjoy and store the rest of the juice cold in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.

Tea shopping in London

My first Summer vacation, which took place in beginning of July, I went rowing on the Thames from Oxford to and through the entire city of London.

Passing through London meant, that we had some time for sightseeing as well as shopping in London. So I had in advance made a mental "shopping list" of buying tea and books, which I also managed to do.

Fortnum & Mason was for sure on my TO-DO-LIST both drinking tea and browsing through the various departments. Selecting the very pots of tea, which I had room for in my suitcase was a "tough job" among the many delicious teas in Fortnum & Mason. I decided to buy:

• Rose Pouchong - tea & rose petals
• Countess Grey - tea, flavouring (bergamot and light orange) & marigold petals
• Chai - tea, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cumin, coriander, star anise & fennel

I can not wait until I have room in my tea tins to enjoy these teas :-)

Spending time in book shop is another TO-DO thing for me, and London is full of book shops. I think I spend one hour (too little time) doing only a small browsing around a book shop of 5 floors !!! Besides from English crimes I found a cake baking book called "Sucré" from Ladurée, a cake book full of mouth-watering photos.