Apple Cooler

How to stay cool on a warm Summer day ? Well, you could make this Apple Cooler, which is very refreshing on a hot Summer day. I have got this recipe from a good work colleague travelling regular in the Middle East.


UPDATE 26 July 2015:
This drink is being forward for the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats having the theme of BBQ fodder biscuits and cookies. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers.

Apple Cooler: 3-4 drinks

• 5 dl apple juice
• plenty of mint
• 5 dl sparkling water
• plenty of ice cubes

1. Put the mint into the apple juice, and let the mint infuse the apple in the refrigerator for minimum 2 hours.
2. Fill ice cubes into a glass.
3. Fill half the glass with the mint infused apple juice.
4. Fill the rest of the glass with sparkling water.
5. Drink and become refreshed on a hot Summer day :-)

Rose cookies

When I was baking these Earl Grey cookies, I needed to divide the all the ingredients into two parts in order to room enough in my small food processor. Doing that gave me an excellent opportunity to create my own flavour version in the second portion !!

Instead of working with Earl Grey tea I thought about using elder flowers and elder flower cordial, but the season for blooming elder flower are over for now here in Denmark, could I noticed after a walk around my local neighbourhood checking the flower versus berry situation on the many elder trees. As I walked around I noticed, that the tub rose still are flowering, so using rose as ingredients instead of jumped into my mind. So the tea leaves were replaced by rose sugar and rose extract.

The cookies got another 2-3 minutes more than the Earl Grey cookies, so the shape of these rose cookies collapsed as the butter melted during the baking process compared to the tea cookies. So watch your cookies closely like hawk during the baking part !!! depending on what shape you would like to have.

The cookies has flowery flavour notes, while the taste is not flowery at all, so perhaps some more rose extract should be added. However, be careful, as the use of flowers easily moves from being delicate towards tasting like soap !!!

Rose cookies:

• 130 g (cake) flour
• 40 g icing sugar
• 5 tablespoons rose sugar
• 125 g cold butter (with salt) - cut in smaller pieces
• 2 teaspoons rose extract

1. Weight all the dry ingredients into the food processor and mix it thoroughly
2. Add butter pieces and rose extract into the dry ingredients, let the food processor mix, until a cookies dough is formed.
3. Roll the cookie dough into a long roll on a piece of baking paper or cling film.
4. Place the cookie dough cold in the refrigerator  for minimum 30 minutes or longer.
5. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C
6. Cut the cookie dough into slices of 6-8 mm.
7. Place the cookie slices on the baking tray covered with baking paper.
8. Bake the cookies at 200'C in the upper part of the oven for 10-12 minutes
9. Let the cookies cool down, before they are stored in an airtight container.
10. Enjoy together with a nice cup of tea :-)

Classic twist bread

After having enjoyed a barbecue meal on warm Summer evening, a great and easy dessert could be to bake the twist bread as a classic finishing touch. Last year I tried this version of twist bread with marzipan, which in my opinion is not being something special, so do not waste your money on buying marzipan for such twist bread. So stick to the classic recipe for this occasion.

Classic twist bread: - 3 twist breads

• 120 g milk - lukewarm
• 20 g butter - melted
• 5 g yeast
• 1/4 teaspoon salt  
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 200 g wheat flour

1. Mix melted and lukewarm milk together
2. Stir flour, yeast, salt and sugar together in the mixing bowl.
3. Add in the liquid phase.
4. Knead the dough together on the electrical mixer, I kneaded for 5 minutes on speed 2.
5. Place the dough in the smaller, cover the bowl with a lid and let the dough rest for 2-3 hours as room temperature, until it is time for baking the twist bread.
6. Divide the dough into 3 portions, and roll each piece into a long piece, which when is twisted around a sticks.
7. Hold the stick with dough over bonfire glows or barbecue charcoals.
8. Bake for 8-12 minutes or until the twist bread easily can be removed from the stick.
9. Fill the hole in the twist bread with jam, speculoos, Nutella or chocolate.

Karin´s Cake - cake with rhubarb and lavender

For the excellent monthly blogging event known as "Tea Time Treat"  managed Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers, Jane has selected flapjacks and tray bake as theme for July.

Here in July I can harvest both rhubarb and lavender in my little park, so when my very good girl friend in Horsens shared this recipe of her´s on a cake with me, I decided to bake this cake for the tea table of July, where you sit in your garden drinking tea with lavender, eating cake with lavender and smell the wonderful flavour of lavender surrounding you :-) At this stage my good friend is about to have nightmares about lavender soap attacking her !

Actually I am quiet amazed, that my good girl friend so freely shared with recipe me, as it included the use of lavender !!!! I think, she still recalls these quiet soap-like meringue with lavender and orange bloom, which almost did her in !!!!

Karin´s Cake - cake with rhubarb and lavender:

• 300 g rhubarb - chopped into a length of 2 cm
• 2 stems of lavender - the flowers - and NO than 2 stems
• 1 egg
• 150 g sugar
• 75 g milk
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 100 g (cake) flour
• 20 g almond - chopped - optional

1. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
2. Whip egg and milk together in a mixing bowl.
3. Add in the sugar, baking powder and flour and whip again.
4. Stir in the rhubarb pieces and lavender flowers.
5. Pour the cake mass into a baking tray.
6. Decorate the surface with chopped almonds.
7. Bake the cake in the middle of the oven at 200'C for 30 minutes.
8. Cold down the cake, before it is cut into pieces.

Tomato pie with basil and mozzarella

For another monthly blogging challenge called "Cooking with herbs" hosted by Karen from the lovely Lavender and Lovage, Karen has selected as the beautiful basil  the theme for July.

Basil is a herb, which requires warm climate for optimal growth. However, I have been able to have my own outdoor basil for the last 3-4 years on my south-facing terrace in a pot standing very, very close to my house without any difficulties.

I decided to make a combination using this recipe on tomato pie with oregano and basil by "Maden i mit liv" as inspiration combining it with the classic Summer appetiser of slices of tomato and fresh mozzarella cheese garnished with fresh basil and balsamico. The taste is fantastic, so I be making this pie again, when my tomato plants are booming with tomatoes.

Tomato pie with basil and mozzarella: - 4 servings

• 1 roll of ready-to-use pie dough
• 400 g cocktail tomatoes
• 4 eggs
• 200 g milk
• 150 fresh mozzarella cheese - sliced
• 1 handful of fresh basil - chopped
• salt and pepper for seasoning
• basil for garnish

1. Cover the pie tray with the pie dough, prick it with a fork and pre-bake the pie dough at 200'C for 10 minutes.
2. Cut the tomatoes into halve. Place them with the cut surface up no the pre-baked pie dough
3. Beat eggs, milk, slices of mozzarella cheese grated cheese, freshly chopped basil salt and pepper together.
4. Pour the pie filling over the tomatoes.
5. Bake the pie at 200'C in the middle of the (conventional) oven and let the pie bake for approx 30 minutes, until the surface is brownish and pie filling is firm.
6. Garnish the tomato pie with some more fresh basil.

New mile stone - 150.000 pageviews

Welcome to my kitchen

Another amazing mile stone being passed number in form of 150.000 page views into to life here in my little kitchen of mostly baking and even smaller garden/park and tiny kitchen garden. So within one year the amount of page views has been doubling from 75.000 to 150.000.

For me blogging is a way of relaxing my mind from work related things. Blogging is also an inspiration for me, as it provides me with a tool of trying out my things in my kitchen instead of of sticking to the usual recipes, when cooking or baking.

Only one my blog post (blood orange jam) written here in 2014 has made it all the way to the overall Top 10 list, but the newer blog post also have to compete with blog posts from the last 3½ years, so it is becoming more and more difficult to make it to the top !!!

The overall Top 10:

1. Plums in port a la Dansukker - 30 August 2012
2. TUC cake - 20 February 2011
3. Dinner at"Mad hos Mads, Horsens - 30 November 2012
4. Tea shopping at Kusmi in Paris - 30 September 2011
5. Wheat buns (varme hveder) for Great Prayer Day - 20 May 2011
6. Help in the kitchen - kitchen equipment 23 - 6 November 2013
7. Blood orange jam - 6 March 2014
8. Meeting some Danish food bloggers in REAL life - 21 September 2012
9. Putting the Summer on bottle - making blackcurrant rum - 16 July 2011
10. Pomegranate marzipan cake - 7 January 2012

And the trend of more and more readers coming from out-side Denmark is still continuing, where the readers coming from USA is actually the single biggest country among my readers. One can speculate, if this is relating to the popularity of Nordic kitchen ?

 As usual I am ending the mile stone review with an update on my KPIs for the blog looks like this (in my professional life colleagues and managers are discussing Key Performance Indicators on a regular basis):

Review day: 21 July 2014
Start day - first posting: 13 November 2010
Development on "Hjemmebagt": 73 recipes - 34 accomplished = 39 recipes to bake
Amount of cooking books in my kitchen: 58 books - my list has no been updated for a while
Page views: 150.000
Publish posts: 868 excl. this
Followers: 15
Blogs followed: 17

Page view per country:

• Australia: 1%
• Canada: 1%
• Ukraine: 1%
• Norway: 1%
• Portugal: 1%
• France: 3%
• Germany: 3%
• UK: 4%
• Russia: 7%
• Other countries: 23%
• Denmark: 27%
• USA: 28%

Thank you for visiting me, Hannibal the Cat and my kitchen :-)) Hope to see you again in the near future :-))

Earl Grey cookies

Every since, that I have been enjoying afternoon tea at Simply Tea in Aarhus, where I was introduced to cookies with tea leafs inside, I have been wanting to bake my own Earl Grey cookies. Now I have managed to find a starting recipe on a blog called "The More than Occasional Baker". I have made no changes at all to the recipe, well I decided only to bake ½ the amount, as my food processor is relative small.

The cookies has a wonderful taste between lemon zest and Earl Grey, so it is not the last time, that I will bake these cookies. Also my colleagues were big fans of these cookies.

Earl Grey cookies a la "The More than Occasional Baker":

• 130 g (cake) flour
• 40 g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon of Earl Grey tea leafs
• ½ organic lemon - only the zest
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 125 g cold butter (with salt) - cut in smaller pieces
• ½ teaspoon water

1. Weight all the dry ingredients into the food processor and mix it thoroughly
2. Add butter pieces and water into the dry ingredients, let the food processor mix, until a cookies dough is formed.
3. Roll the cookie dough into a long roll on a piece of baking paper or cling film.
4. Place the cookie dough cold in the refrigerator  for minimum 30 minutes or longer.
5. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C
6. Cut the cookie dough into slices of 6-8 mm.
7. Place the cookie slices on the baking tray covered with baking paper.
8. Bake the cookies at 200'C in the upper part of the oven for 10-12 minutes
9. Let the cookies cool down, before they are stored in an airtight container.
10. Enjoy together with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea :-)

Cake lunch at conditoriet "La Glace"

Saturday my mother and I went for excellent cake "lunch" at the most well known patisserie in Copenhagen (conditoriet La Glace). We very lucky with the weather, meaning that most of the guests were sitting outside eating cake and drinking coffee, leaving us plenty of room for sitting inside, so we could breathe in the entire patisserie with it´s guest, cake ladies and cakes moving around with every single spoonful of our chosen cake !

I choose a slice of walnut cream cake and a raspberry macaroon, while my mother went of one of the famous cream cake from La Glace called the "Sport´s cake" ! Both cream cakes were excellent.









The walnut cream cake was made from two sponge cakes (made from almonds) with a tall layer of cream filling between. And the cream filling was flavoured with vanilla and of cause plenty of chopped walnuts. As top layer a icing layer with coffee flavour decorated with a glazed walnut. This cake has been giving me some new inspiration for make another walnut cream cake in my own little kitchen. I have recently been making this  walnut cream cake a la Svinkløv Badehotel, where the cream filling contained a combination of both chopped walnut and dark chocolate. However, a cream filling only with chopped walnut is appealing more to me, as I am NOT a great fan of dark chocolate.

The macaroon had a good refreshing taste of raspberry. However, the meringue part was to dry for my preference. I have a preference on a crispy meringue with a chewy inside.

Tea and one slide of cream costs 116 DKK in total. I will give this experience 5 stars.

Summer Scones with raspberry, rosemary and white chocolate

I have signed up for participating in Food Blogger Challenge # 3 - Summer food is focusing on three raw materials, which either should be used with the savoury or sweet kitchen. For the sweet challenge the three ingredients are fruit, herb and chocolate. A more obvious choice would have been to make panna cotta with white chocolate, fresh fruit and some lemon balm as the green dot. When I though baking a pie with white chocolate filling and topped of with fresh raspberries and again some lemon balm as the herb part.

However, with some very warm Summer weather, I did not feel like baking forever in my kitchen, so scones with the three key ingredients jump int my mind as the option !!! So went into my little kitchen garden, where I could fresh raspberries and rosemary.

In my first suggestion for a Summer Scone I used lemon balm, raspberry and white chocolate. However, I could not taste the lemon balm at all. The amount of raspberries was too high, so the scone dough was to soft and the amount of white chocolate as well to much, so the overall sweetness was too much in my opnion.

So after some rethinking I decided to use rosemary instead of together with reduction in the amount of raspberries and white chocolate. On top of this I decided to let the rosemary infuse the scone dough cold in the refrigerator for 30 minutes prior to baking.

Summer Scones: - 12 pieces

• 450 g cake flour
• ½ teaspoon rosemary - finely chopped
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• 60 g sugar
• 125 g cold butter
• 1 egg
• 200 g milk
• 50 g white chocolate - chopped into smaller pieces
• 75 g fresh raspberries

1. Mix the flour, salt, chopped rosemary, baking powder and sugar together in a mixing bowl.
2. Cut the cold butter into small pieces.
3. Grind the butter pieces into the flour mix.
4. Whip the milk and egg together.
5. Mix milk-egg and flour-butter together without kneading it a dough.
6. Add the chocolate pieces and fresh raspberries.
7. Place the dough on a pieces of baking paper.
8. Roll the dough into a longer roll size.
9. Place the scone dough cold in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
10. Heat up the oven to 250'C
11. Cut the dough into slices of 3 cm, before placing them on a piece of baking paper
12. Bake the scone at 250'C for 10-15 minutes in the upper part of the oven.

Sommer Scones med hindbær, hvid chokolade og rosmarin

Jeg har tilmeldt mig Madbloggerudfordringen # 3 - sommermad, hvor udfordringen er skulle anvende 3 udvalgte råvarer i enten det salte eller det søde køkken. Jeg valgte den søde version, idet jeg har en sød tand. De 3 råvarer er frugt, krydderurter og chokolade. Et oplagt valg ville have været at lave panna cotta med hvid chokolade, frisk frugt og noget citronmelisse som den grønne prik over i´et. Jeg overvejede ligeledes en tærte med fyldning af hvid chokolade fyldning og dekoreret med friske hindbær og igen noget citronmelisse som krydderurt delen.

Men det suveræne dejlige varme sommervejr sat en stop for, idet jeg havde lyst til at bage i længere tid i mit køkken, så i stedte for besluttede jeg for at lave scones med følgende tre råvarer: hindbær, hvid chokolade og rosmarin. Både hindbærrene og rosmarin kunne jeg endda høstede i min lille have.

I mit første forslag til en Sommer Scone brugte jeg citronmelisse, hindbær og hvid chokolade. Men jeg kunne ikke smage citronmelisse overhovedet. Desuden var mængden af ​​hindbæralt for høj, så scones-dejen blev for blød. Og samtidig var mængden af ​​hvid chokolade ligeledes for stor, så sconene blev for søde selv for mig med min søde tand.

Så derfor besluttede jeg mig for at anvende rosmarin i stedet for samtidig med en reduktion i mængden ad både hindbær og hvid chokolade. Oven i dette besluttede jeg at lade rosmarin afgive mere smag til scones dejen ved at opbevare dejen koldt i køleskabet i 30 minutter før selve bagningen.

Hindbær og hvid chokolade er en klassiker i det søde køkken, hvor hindbærrene friskhed passer som hånd i en handske til sødmen fra den hvide chokolade. Rosmarin giver lige det extra twist til hele smagsoplevelsen.

Sommer Scones med hindbær, hvid chokolade og rosmarin: - 12 stykker

• 450 g kage mel
• ½ tsk rosmarin - finthakket
• ½ tsk salt
• 1 ½ tsk bagepulver
• 60 g sukker
• 125 g koldt smør
• 1 æg
• 200 g mælk
• 50 g hvid chokolade - hakket i mindre stykker
• 75 g friske hindbær

1. Bland mel, salt, rosmarin, bagepulver og sukker sammen i en skål.
2. Skær koldt smør i små stykker.
3. Smuldre smørret med mel blandingen.
4. Pisk mælk og æg sammen.
5. Bland mælk-æg og mel-smør-blandingen uden at ælte dejen for meget sammmen.
6. Tilsæt chokolade stykker og friske hindbær.
7. Læg dejen på et stykker bagepapir.
8. Rul dejen til en længere rulle.
9. Placer scones-dejen koldt i køleskabet i 30 minutter.
10. Varm ovnen op til 250'C.
11. Skær dejen i skiver af 3 cm, før du placerer dem på et stykke bagepapir.
12. Bage scones ved 250'C i 10-15 minutter i den øverste del af ovnen.

Stressful afternoon tea at Perch, Aarhus

This afternoon I "enjoyed" Afternoon Tea at Perch´s tea room in Aarhus together with my Estonian girl friend. It was a mixed experience for both us.

We had in advance booked a table for two for 16.00. We were there on time, however, no specific table was ready for us. The waitress first needed to clear a table for us. I had in advance decided, that I wanted to enjoy the full monty in form of the afternoon tea called "Perch Large Ceremony".

The afternoon tea consists of one pot of tea of your own choice from the extensive tea menu card. Here the waitress was able to tell without hesitation, what each tea is. In addition to the tea you are served a glass cold crémant, which was having an excellent taste. 

The food part was made up of three finger English-style finger sandwiches (cucumber, egg salad and ham with cheese), where I found the sandwich bread to be too stall/dry. Two very excellent tasting crisp scones served with clotted cream, great tasting lemon curd and blackcurrant jam. Two smaller cake: one macaroon and a chocolate something. The cakes were described as delicious, in my opinion they were good, but not over the top neither on visual attributes or taste.

My Estonian friend choice a Summer version of a scone served with whipped cream with elder flower and strawberries. There was plenty of whipped cream and strawberries, but the taste of elder flower could not be located at all !!!

The tea and food were served for us at 16.45 together with the message, that we needed to be finished at 17.30, where the tea room would close !!! I mean, it took the tea room 45 minutes to serve the afternoon tea for us and when we are told to eat it within 45 minutes !!!! At 17.15 a waitress was coming around to all the various guests remaining in the tea room, reminding everyone, that the tea room was closing in 15 minutes time !!!! In my opinion an afternoon tea session is supposed to the a relaxing break in a busy day, so I DO NOT need to be reminded on a regular basis about the amount of time, which I have left to eat and drink, before I am kicked out !!!!

As a small detail. It would also have a good thing, if the tea pot would have been fitted with a tea cosy to keep the tea hot for a longer time. I really dislike it, when my tea become cold.

The afternoon tea costed 210 DKK incl tea and crémant. I will give this afternoon tea two stars due to the the taste and texture of the sandwiches & cakes, but mainly due to the fact, that the extreme focus by the waitresses on, when the tea room would be closing.

Abrikos marmelade med lavendel

For meget lang tid siden faldt jeg over denne opskrift på aprikos marmelade med lavendel af "Lavender and Lovage", som jeg efterfølgende har ladet mig inspirere mig af, da jeg gik i gang med at lave denne marmelade i mit eget køkken. Jeg elsker det,  når jeg kan twiste mine marmelader eller kager med tilsætning af diverse blomster, idet jeg finder at det virker some prikken over i´et på smagen. 

Jeg har prøvet på ikke at lade mig rive med af min blomsterglæde, da jeg tilsatte de enkelte små lavendelblomster til allesidst. Jeg ønsker nemlig ikke, at den endelig marmelade skal smage af sæbe, hvilket en overdosering af lavendel meget nemt kan bevirke. Anvendelse af ​​lavendel giver efter min mening denne marmelade et fransk twist, hvorfor jeg planlægger at medbringe et glas marmelade til en af gode arbejdskollagaer, der er franskmand. Jeg håber ikke, at han får et chok. Det tror, jeg dog ikke, idet man kan købe ren lavendel marmelade i Frankrig :-)

Af følgende justeringer til den oprindelig opskrift er, at jeg anvender væsentligt mindre sukker i mit hjemmelavet syltetøj, idet det giver mere frugtsmag i syltetøjet, udover bare at være sødt syltetøj. Min præference er at anvende et forhold på to dele af frugt til en del sukker. Det bevirker også, at et geleringsmiddel, såsom pektin er nødvendig for at få mere fasthed i slut marmeladen i forhold til marmelade med et højere tørstofindhold. Desuden fjernede jeg også citronsaften, idet jeg i stedet for anvender enten hvidvins- eller æbleeddike til at justere til smagen ind til min ønskede præference for frugt og friskhed.

Ligesom med opskriften på Midsommer Marmelade - jordbærmarmelade med hyldeblomst, så deltager jeg også med denne her opskrift til i opskriftskonkurrencen "Danmarks Lækreste Syltetøj", der arrangeres af magasinet Isabellas og Dansukker. 

Abrikos marmelade med lavendel:

• 860 g abrikos - hver skåret i 6 stykker
• 100 g vand
• 12 g pectin / geldannende pulver
• 430 g sukker + 50 g sukker til allersidst 
• 1/4 tsk hvidvin eller æble eddike - valgfri 
• 5 stilke lavendel.

1. Varm abrikos skiver op sammen med vand i en gryde sammen over svag varme. Rør rundt regelmæssigt.
2. Varm frugten op til 80'C. Tørbland pektin / geldannende pulver sammen med 50 g sukker. Tilføj denne tørblanding langsomt til abrikosen, mens du røre rigtig godt i gryden for at undgå klumpedannelse.
3. Lad abrikos koge yderligere 5 minutter under regelmæssig omrøring.
4. Tilsæt resten af sukkeret.
5. Bring marmeladen op til kogepunktet og lad det koge i 2 minutter.
6. Smag på marmelade. Hvis du finder, at den er for sød i smagen, kan du tilføje lidt eddike til for at bringe friskheden tilbage til smagen. Jeg plejer at gøre det i mindre trin, så jeg kan finjustere smagen til min præference. Det er mere let at tilføje nogle ekstra, end at fjerne en overdosis af noget. Som udgangspunkt bemærkede jeg, at jeg er nødt til at øge sødme niveau for at få mere modenhed ind i smagen for denne her abrikos marmelade, så jeg havde brug for at tilsætte at tilsætte yderligere en ekstra 50 g sukker og nedjustere mængden af eddike til kun 1/4 teske.
7. Forbered marmalde glassene ved at fylde dem med kogende vand. Det er specielt vigtigt, hvis du ikke anvender konserveringsmidler i din marmelade. Desuden skal du opbevare marmeladen i køleskabet for at øge holdbarheden.
8. Fyld glasset med marmelade, afslut med at placere individuelle lavendel blomster på toppen af ​​marmeladen. Jeg justerede mængden af ​​lavendel, afhængigt af størrelsen på marmelade glasset, hvorpå glasset lukkes med låg.
9. Opbevar marmeladen koldt.

Apricot jam with lavender

Quiet some time ago I noticed this recipe on apricot and lavender jam by Lavender and Lovage, which I must admit I found quiet interesting to use as inspiration for some jam cooking in my own little kitchen. I really to twist my jam cooking and cake baking by twist the flavour by addition of more kind of flowers, so the use of lavender is fitting perfect in this preference of mine.

I did my best to control the amounted of added individual lavender flowers, so the final taste of this jam is not turned into a soap flavour. The use of lavender is my opinion giving a French twist, so I am planning to bring a glass of this jam to one of my French work colleagues. Lets hope he will not get a chock by the lavender. I think this will not be case, as you can buy pure lavender jam in France :-)

One of my modification was, that I am using less sugar in my jams, so get more fruitiness and just plain sweetness in my jams. Therefore I use a ratio of two parts of fruit to one part of sugar. This also means, that a gelling agent so as pectin is needed to get more firmness in your jam compared to making jams with a higher dry matter content. I also decided to remove the lemon juice, as I a keen user of white wine or apple vinegar to adjust to my desired preference of freshness as this increase the fruitiness in the final jam.

As for Midsummer Jam - strawberry jam with elder flowers I will also be forwarding this specific recipe to a Danish competition hosted by the magazine Isabellas and Dansukker, the name of this competition is "Danmarks Lækreste Syltetøj" (The most delicious Danish Jam).

Apricot jam with lavender:

• 860 g apricot - each cut into 6 pieces
• 100 g water
• 12 g pectin / gelling powder   
• 480 g sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon of white wine or apple vinegar - optional
• 5 strings of lavender.

1. Heat up the apricot slices together with water in a cooking pot together over low heat. Stir on a regular basis.
2. Heat the fruit up to 80'C. Mix the pectin/gelling powder together with 50 g sugar. Add this dry-mix slowly to the apricot, while you stir very well in the cooking pot to avoid lump formation.
3. Let the apricot cook slowly for another 5 minutes. Stir on a regular basis.
4. Add in the rest of the sugar. 
5. Bring the jam to the boiling point and let it boil for 2 minutes.
6. Taste the jam. If you find it too be to sweet/matured in taste, you can add some vinegar to bring freshness back to the jam. I normally do this in smaller steps, so I can fine tune the flavour profile to my preference. It is more easy to add some extra, than to remove an overdose of something. As starting point I noticed, that I need to increase the sweetness level as starting point to get more ripeness in this apricot jam, so I needed up with adding an extra 50 g sugar and also the vinegar amount was reduced to only 1/4 teaspoon.
7. Prepare the jam glasses by filling them with boiling water. I do not use any preservatives in my home-made jam, so this is important to increase shelf-life of your jam. Another thing you can do is to store the jam cold afterwards.
8. Fill the glass with jam, place individual lavender flowers on top of the jam. I adjusted the amount of lavender depending on the size of the jam glass and when close the glass.
9. Store the jam cold.

Midsommer Marmelade - jordbærmarmelade med hyldeblomst

Denne uge har jeg "lånt" et jordbærbed bestående af 3 rækker på hver 5 meter af jordbærplanter for den fantastisk "gratis" af en roven. Jeg synes, at ​​det er et fantastisk tilbud - tænk at kunne plukke friske jordbær hver eneste dag for 0 kr !!! Jeg ved ikke noget bedre end at sidde på hug en dejlig sommerdag/aften i et jordbær og svælge mig i sommervarme jordbær :-)

Det eneste, som jeg ikke havde overvejet nærmere, var mængden af ​​jordbær, som jeg kan plukke hver dag ! Jeg kan plukke imellem 1-2 kg jordbær hver evige eneste dag !!! At spise 1-2 kg jordbær vil være noget af en opgave med mindre du har en større husstand. Så jeg måtte iføre mig min idehat, så jeg kan få alle disse mange dejlige jordbær.

En af mine første idé var at lave denne her Midsommer Marmelade, som er en kombination  af jordbær og hyldeblomster, som begge har højsæson på nuværende tidspunkt. Samtidig kan jeg også deltage med denne her opskrift i opskriftskonkurrencen "Danmarks Lækreste Syltetøj", der arrangeres af magasinet Isabellas og Dansukker. 

Jeg elsker denne her kombination af jordbær og hyldeblomster, det gør, at marmeladen smager som ren magi :-) Og mine kolleger, der ligeledes havde fornøjelsen at smage den pågældende marmelade i går morges til vores ugentlige morgenmøde, elskede også smagen i min marmelade og udbad sig samtidig opskriften.

Midsommer Marmelade - jordbærmarmelade med hyldeblomst:

• 800 g jordbær - skåret i to halvdele
• 3/4 dl hyldeblomst koncentrat
• 12 g pectin / syltetøjspulver
• 450 g sukker
• 4 stilke hyldeblomster - kun blomsterhovederne
• ½ tsk hvidvineddike eller æble eddike - valgfri

1. Varm jordbærene op sammen med hyldeblomst koncentratet i en gryde sammen over svag varme. Rør regelmæssigt rundt.
2. Varm frugten op til 80'C. Tørbland pektin / syltetøjspulver sammen med 50 g sukker. Tilsæt denne tørblanding langsomt til frugten, mens du rører rigtig godt rundt for at undgå klumpedannelse.
3. Lad jordbærene koge langsomt i yderligere 5 minutter. Rør regelmæssigt rundt.
4. Tilsæt af sukkeret.
5. Bring marmeladen til kogepunktet og lad det koge i 2 minutter.
6. Smag på marmelade. Hvis du finder, at den er for sød, kan du tilføje lidt eddike for at give marmeladen en mere frisk frugtsmag. Jeg plejer at tilsætte eddike lidt eller lidt, mens jeg finjustere smagen til min præference. Det er meget letter at tilsætte mere eddike end at fjerne for meget eddike, hvis smagen er blevet for syrlig.
7. Efter tilsmagningen tilsættes hyldeblomster og der rør rundt igen
8. Lad marmelade koge i yderligere 2 minutter.
9. Forbered marmalade glassene ved at fylde dem med kogende vand. Det er specielt vigtigt, hvis du ikke anvender konserveringsmidler i din marmelade. En anden måde at forlænge holdbarheden på er, at opbevare marmeladen koldt i køleskabet bagefter.
10. Fyld glassene med marmelade og luk glasset.
11. Opbevar marmeladen koldt.

Midsummer Jam - strawberry jam with elder flowers

This week I have "rented" a strawberry bed consisting of 3 rows of 5 meters of strawberry plants "for free" of a rowing friend. I think this is an amazing offer, as I can go and pick fresh strawberries every single day. The only thing, which I did not consider was the amount of strawberries, which I picking everyday. I pick between 1-2 kg strawberries every single day !!!! Eating 1-2 kg strawberries can prove to be something of task, if you are not a large house hold. So I have to come up with idea as how to use all these strawberries !

One of my first idea was to make this Midsummer Jam combined strawberries and elder flowers, which both are peeking around Midsummer :-) I will also be forwarding this specific recipe to a Danish competition hosted by the magazine Isabellas and Dansukker, the name of this competition is "Danmarks Lækreste Syltetøj" (The most delicious Danish Jam). My colleagues did enjoy a portion of the Midsummer Jam yesterday at our weekly breakfast meeting, and found it all to be very tasteful and a the same time asked me to share the recipe with them, which I hereby do :-)

I love this combination of strawberries and elder flowers, it makes the jam taste like pure magic :-)

Midsummer Jam - strawberry jam with elder flowers:

• 800 g strawberries - cut into halves
• 3/4 dl elder flower cordial
• 12 g pectin / gelling powder
• 450 g sugar
• 4 stems of elder flowers - only the flower heads
• ½ teaspoon of white wine or apple vinegar - optional

1. Heat up the strawberries together with the elder flower cordial in a cooking pot together over low heat. Stir on a regular basis.
2. Heat the fruit up to 80'C. Mix the pectin/gelling powder together with 50 g sugar. Add this dry-mix slowly to the strawberries, while you very well in the cooking pot to avoid lump formation.
3. Let the strawberries cook slowly for another 5 minutes. Stir on a regular basis.
4. Add in the rest of the sugar. 
5. Bring the jam to the boiling point and let it boil for 2 minutes.
6. Taste the jam. If you find it too be to sweet/matured in taste, you can add some vinegar to bring freshness back to the jam. I normally do this in smaller steps, so I can fine tune the flavour profile to my preference. It is more easy to add some extra, than to remove an overdose of something.
7. After the tasting adjustments have be done, add the elder flowers and stir well again.
8. Let the jam boil for another 2 minutes.
9. Prepare the jam glasses by filling them with boiling water. I do not use any preservatives in my home-made jam, so this is important to increase shelf-life of your jam. Another thing you can do is to store the jam cold afterwards.
10. Fill the glass with jam and close the glass.
11. Store the jam cold.

Lunch at Fur Bryghus

At my recent small Summer vacation break to the wonderful island of Fur together with my great girl friend from Copenhagen we spend a fantastic day in sunshine biking around the entire island of Fur.

Therefore I can now state, that I both been rowing and as well as biking around the island of Fur.

On our biking tour around the island we passed by Fur Bryghus, where we could eat lunch as well as drinking beer or home-made elder flower cordial. I was drinking elderflower cordial, as I am not a beer drinker, as I do not like the bitterness of beer, dark chocolate and red wine !!!

Most of the people having lunch at the same time as we did, we recognised from the hotel, where we been breakfast a few hours before hand :-) So Fur is a small island.

For lunch I enjoyed fried fish meat balls served together with rye bread, cucumber marinated in beer and a fresh salad, where pickled cranberries were playing an important role. It tasted great, and so did the elder flower cordial as well with it´s simplicity.

As I enjoyed the simplicity of this classic elderflower cordial I started to think about making another portion of elderflower cordial with a more classic taste of elderflower and lemon, besides from the usual elder flower cordial a la Palle, which I traditional makes every Summer. You can still find some blooming elder flowers here in Denmark, so this idea of mine is not unrealistic.

This lunch costed 189 DKK incl soft drinks, and I will give this lunch five stars for it´s great taste and all the attention to the details on the colour side.

Bun with pumpkin seeds

Spending 2-3 days rowing in the morning or evening I need a steady supply of buns to bring with me for this rowing trips of 15-20 kms.

Again I have making making modification to my "standard" bun recipe of 1000 g flour to 700 g liquid phase. This time part of the liquid was fromage frais/fresh cheese, which needed to be used. I noticed, that the bun dough was becoming firmer, so sometime into the knead process on the kitchen mixer I added in some more part to a get a more soft dough. Here you have to use your intuition or your "Fingerspitze Gefühl", a German word, which we use in Denmark.

As the colourful touche I added some pumpkin seeds.

After the first raising process at ambient temperature, you can store the bun dough cold in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, allowing you to have freshly baked bun every day in an easy way.

Buns with pumpkin seeds: - 22-24 buns

• 30 g salt
• 25 g yeast
• 300 g whole grain wheat flour
• 700 wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
• 390 g fresh cheese/fromage frais or buttermilk
• 330 g water
• 100 g sunflower seeds

1. First add the yeast, flours and salt into the mixing bowl of the mixer.
2. Start to whip on low speed, slowly add in the fresh cheese, water and honey. Knead the dough on the mixer for 8 minutes.
3. Add in the pumpkin seeds and knead for another 2 minutes
4. After the kneading process, let the dough raise warm for 1-1½ hour.
5. Divide the dough into equal size buns, I always a kitchen scale for this purpose in order to ensure equal baking of the buns, I target a dough amount of 80-90 g per bun.
6. Place the buns a baking tray covered with baking paper, and let the buns raise for another 45-60 minutes.
7. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
8. Bake the buns at 200'C for 30 minutes in the middle part of then oven.