Hveder for Store Bededag - wheat buns for Great Prayer Day

This evening is the evening before Store Bededag (Great Payer Day) (a Danish religious holiday celebrated on the 4th Friday after Easter). And it is the peak evening for enjoying roasted "hveder" - wheat buns with cardamon.

Having discovered the great taste of home-made "hveder", where is no turning back for commercial baked "hveder". The combination of freshly grounded cardamon covering your kitchen in wonderful flavour and eating freshly baked/roasted buns is a combination made in heaven !!!

Previous years I have been using this recipe on "hveder", however I like to taste new versions of classic recipes, so this year I have located this recipe hveder from the blog "Maden i mit liv". I have the following adjustments to the original recipe. As usual I reduced the yeast amount from 50 g to 25 g to minimise the yeast flavour notes, I added vanilla sugar to boost the overall taste and finally I have used a combination of "plain" wheat flour and whole grain wheat flour.

It is as well the first time, that I have used steam from boiling for the second raising of the bun dough inside the oven prior to baking the buns. And it was quiet amazing to see, how the volume of the buns were increased during this way of making the second raising. Therefore I think, that I will using the method for my coming baking of buns.


UPDATE 17 April 2016:
These wheat buns have been forwarded for the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats having the theme of  local regional recipes. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers.

"Hveder" with inspiration from "Maden i mit liv": - 25 buns

• 100 g butter - melted
• 250 g water
• 250 milk
• 25 g yeast
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cardamon
• ½ teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 300 g whole grain wheat flour
• 700 g wheat flour

1. Add melted butter, milk, water and yeast in the bowl on the mixer. Mix slowly (speed 1) for ½ minute.
2. Afterwards add in eggs, salt, sugar, vanilla sugar and cardamon. mix slowly (speed 1) for ½ minute.
3. Pour in the flour, continue to knead the dough on speed 1 for 10 minutes.
4. Place the dough in bowl with a closing lid, let the dough raise for 2 hours.
5. Divide the dough in equal sizes of 80-90 g. Place the bun pieces in a baking tray covered with baking paper.
6. Place the baking tray with dough in the oven without heat together with another tray filled with boiling water. Let the buns raise and "grow" together in the steam for 30 minutes.
7. Take water and bun dough out of the oven.
8. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 200'C.
9. Bake the buns in the baking tray at 200'C for 30 minutes placed in the middle part of the oven.
10. Cold down the buns
11. Cut the wheat bun into 2 pieces - lets those roast at 200'C for 6-8 minutes
12. Served hot or cold together with butter - plenty of butter, cheese and some fantastic home-made jam.

ORANGE DREAM

The name for this juice is very fitting indeed with it´s colour. The taste is also very good. The texture is more filling, which I think is due to the use of sweet potatoes. So I would be making this juice again voluntary

In the original recipe the clementine should be juiced with the peel, however I decided to juice the clementine without the peel to get a juice with less bitter taste.

ORANGE DREAM: - 3-4  servings

• 4 sweet potatoes 
• 4 oranges - without peel
• 15 carrots
• 1 clementine - without peel

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. 
3. Pour into a glass and enjoy :-)
4. Store remaining juice in the refrigerator.

The kitchen garden is getting ready for a new season

My "kitchen garden " basic consist of a selection of various pot, a capillary box, two apple trees, one raspberry bush and 4 rhubarb plant in planted in small corner of the garden.

I have received a small collection of seed potatoes from a good working colleague, as I am planting potatoes in 8 plastic potatoes pots. So if I had to buy my own seed potatoes, when I would not plant potatoes, as I only have a need for 8 seed potatoes.

This year I receive 2 Sava, 2 Linzer, 2 Erica and 4 Ariella potatoes.




When I planting potatoes I also planted a new lemon thyme and a new oregano in my green ceramic pots, so the overwinterting herbs (mint, lemon balm and rosemary) could get some new company.

While I busy outside in the garden Hannibal the Cat was taking an afternoon nap inside.

I am keeping an open eye with my garden everyday, so I see, if the apple tress have started to bloom. And the tulips I am keeping an open eye with.

GREEN TREAT

Again I have received a new JuiceSelvKasse from Årstiderne, so my juicer is going to work again, this time making this juice, which looks like liquid grass in colour, Luckily enough the taste is not like grass.

It is difficult for me to pick up the taste of parsley in this juice. I can easily detected the flavour of broccoli, citrus fruit incl. the bitterness from the lemon peel and the apple.

It is actually quiet difficult for the juice to juice the spinach leaves.


GREEN TREAT: - 3-4  servings

• 4 apples
• 2 small handful of parsley
• 1 lemon  with peel
• 2 oranges without peel
• 1 broccoli
• 150 g spinach leaves

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. 
3. Juice the spinach and parsley in between the apples
4. Pour into a glass and enjoy :-)
5. Store remaining juice in the refrigerator.

Spaghetti with tiger prawns , chili and sun-dried tomatoes

Busy again eating a pasta dish in my little kitchen, again testing a recipe, which I have found in the weekly magazine Femina, issue 15/2015.

I really like the use of tiger prawns and the use of baby salad leaves as topping on the paste dish. However, the amount of added white wine is too high, as the sauce is too acidic in taste. The seasoning with garlic and chili is fine, but otherwise I am not happy about the taste and consistency of the pasta sauce. So I will not repeat this dish another time in my kitchen.


Spaghetti with tiger scrimps, chili and sun-dried tomatoes: - 4 servings

• 500 g spaghetti
• 2 cloves of garlic - finely chopped
• 1 chili - de-seeded and finely chopped
• 3 tablespoon of olive oil
• 500 g tiger scrimps without shell
• 6 sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 organic lemon - zest and juice
• 300 g fresh salad baby leaves of any type
• salt and pepper for seasoning

1. Cook the spaghetti according to it´s cooking instruction.
2. Heat up the oil in a frying pan. Add garlic and chili into the hot oil.
3. When the garlic has got some colour, when add the tiger prawns. Let the tiger prawns fry for a few minutes.
4. Blend the sun-dried tomatoes in a homogeneous mass using a hand blender.
5. Add the tomato mass, white wine, lemon zest and juice to the tiger prawns, and let the sauce cook for 2-3 minutes.
6. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.
7. Mix the pasta sauce together with the drained spaghetti.
8. Top of the dish with baby salad leaves.

New sofa cushion under creation

After the creation of my first knit sofa cushion for my library, I have been busy looking for new cushions and blanket/plaid in green colours and shades, as I would like to change the colour scheme of the library from purple/red into mainly green. So a transformation can easily end up with costing a fortune, so I am on approachint this task with a cost optimisation view point !!! such as knitting sofa cushion myself or buying cushion second hand.

I have spend approx 510 DKK on yarn and 5 buttons. You can easily pay 600-700 DKK for a designer cushion. The yarn is from Rowan and consist of 50% woll, 25% alpaca and 25% viscose, The yarn looks like tweed with blue and whittish spots in the main colour of green.

The pattern for this cushion I have found in free magazine, where the front side of the cushion will be wicker pattern and the back-side will be in stockinette stitch.

Pasta in cream sauce with aspargus, dill and lime

Everything turns more and more green outside from day to day. And one vegetable, which really is a spring vegetable is asparagus.

So I when I saw this recipe in the weekly magazine "Femina", issue 15/2015, I knew, that I had to make it due to the use of asparagus.

The taste of the pasta sauce is good, however I would like some more texture as the paste is very liquid.

Pasta in cream sauce with asparagus, dill and lemon: - 4 servings

• 400 g pasta
• 2 x 500 g green asparagus
• 3 spring onions
• organic lime - zest and juice
• dill - finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 dl cooking water from the pasta
• 1 dl dairy whipping cream, 38% fat
• Parmesan cheese - finely grated

1. Clean the asparagus, and crack of the ends, where the asparagus naturally crack.
2. Cut the asparagus into a length of 5 cm.
3. Finely chop the spring onions.
4. Boil the pasta.
5. Heat up the oil on a pan.
6. Fry the asparagus pieces
7. Add in the spring onions and lime zest.
8. Pour pasta water, dairy cream and lime juice into the pan with asparagus.
9. Boil up the cream sauce.
10. Season with salt and pepper.
11. Drain the water from the pasta.
12. Pour the cream sauce over the pasta.
13. Top of with grated Parmesan and dill.
14. Enjoy your green looking meal as you look in a spring green garden :-)

FRUITY CAULIFLOWER

As a frequent reader you will perhaps recall, that cauliflower is not one of my favourite vegetables !!! Most times I use it for soups without being really satisfied with the taste and mouthfeel.

So when I yet again received a cauliflower in my weekly vegetable box, I decided to try to juice the cauliflower as more painless way of getting ride of this much hated vegetable of mine !!!!

As a way of hiding the cauliflower flavour, I went with a combination of apples and pears (some other left-over from vegetable box).

It turned to be an OK flavour combination. You can feel some dryness/flouriness coming from the cauliflower in the juice. So I think I have found a good way of using cauliflower for the future.


FRUIT CAULIFLOWER: - 3 servings

• 1 cauliflower incl. stem, but without green leaves
• 5 apples
• 5 pears

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. 
3. Pour into a glass and enjoy :-)
4. Store remaining juice in the refrigerator.

Easter Egg collection of 2015

My collection of Easter eggs received or brought in connection with Easter 2015:

• "Quail eggs" from Peter Beier
• Finnish Mignon egg (nougat chocolate made with almonds and nuts poured into a real eggshell from Fazer
• Decorate Easter egg from Nordisk Kompaniet
• Easter Lakrids ( cripspy mint choc coated liquorice) from Johan Bülow

I still have the eating pleasure of these Easter egg in front of me :-))) even though Easter 2015 finished one week ago !!!!

LEMON MINT

It is always with great interest, that I receive the JuiceSelvKasse as one of my weekly vegetable boxes, as this box always brings me a lot of inspiration for new juices. It can be in form of ingredients, that I would never that used for juice on my own. And can also be in form of "been where, done that and no reason for doing it again" !!! ingredients or combination of ingredients for use in juice.

This LEMON MINT is very refreshing in it taste, so I would for sure make it again.

Regarding the lemon, you can juice the lemon with peel, if you like bitterness in your juice. And if you are no fan of bitterness, you should juice the lemon without the peel on.

The same remark is also fitting for the mint. Only juice the mint leaves, if you are no fan of bitterness. If you like the bitter twist in your juice, then you should juice both the mint leaves and mint stems.


LEMON MINT: - 3-4  servings

• 4 stems of celery
• 6 apples
• 1 cucumber
• 1 lemon - without peel
• 1 handful of mint - only the leaves

1. Clean and rinse all the ingredients.
2. Juice everything together. 
3. Juice the mint leaves in between the apples
4. Pour into a glass and enjoy :-)
5. Store remaining juice in the refrigerator.

Knitted top is ready for the Summer

Yes, I and this knit top are ready for the coming Summer of 2015. Perhaps I could even start to use it now, as we have the most fantastic Spring weather here in Denmark ?

I have started on another new knitting project in form of another new sofa cushion.

Classic Easter Egg - Easter Calendar 2015

Today is Easter Monday or second Easter day, which is the the final Easter vacation day here in Denmark. So tomorrow the normal working day starts again for many people !!! but not me, as I am continue the Easter vacation until Monday 13 April.

As the Easter is getting to an end, I think it is time to finally use up the last marzipan and chocolate remaining in the cupboards from Christmas. We have a saying in Denmark, that Christmas lasts until Easter !!!

One way of using up the finally marzipan and chocolate is to make classic Easter eggs, which is a core of marzipan roll into an egg shape, and afterwards dip into the melted chocolate. You can easily twist the taste with elder flower cordial, nougat and liquorice or plenty of liquorice.

UPDATE 13 March 2016:
These Easter eggs are being forward for the monthly blogging event Tea Time Treats having the theme of Easter and Spring. Tea Time Treast is managed by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Jane from The Hedge Combers.

Classic Easter Egg: - 15 pieces

• 300 g marzipan
• 100-150 g dark or milk chocolate

1. Divide the marzipan mass into 15 pieces and roll them into egg shape.
2. Melt the chocolate - take the time and make a proper tempering of the chocolate.
3. Coat the marzipan eggs with chocolate
4. Decorate the marzipan eggs
5. Let the chocolate coating settle, before they are placed in tins.

Easter Tapas - Easter Calendar 2015

Today it is Easter Sunday, which very often is celebrate with a big Easter lunch with friends and family.

Eggs is traditional a key food ingredients in connection with celebration of Easter. So in the simple lunch dish (or tapas dish) you only need two/three ingredients: egg + lumpfish roe + chives !!!

Lumpfish roe (also known as Danish caviar) is in season here in Denmark in February - April.

Easter Tapas: - 2 servings

• 2 eggs
• 50 g of lumpfish roe
• chives

1. Boil the eggs, until they are hard boiled, approx 8 minutes.
2. Remove the egg shell as well as the yolk.
3. Fill the hole from the removed egg yolk with lumpfish roe.
4. Sprinkle chives.
5. Serve.

Easter Waffles - Easter Calendar 2015

Today it is Easter Saturday, which is the third day in the Danish Easter vacation. Today we should enjoy some Easter waffles for a brunch, before we seek out the supermarkets for a new round of food shopping for the rest of the Easter vacation.

Therefore I decided to turn these sweet waffles into a Easter version by adding in marzipan.

Vanilla Waffles: -  8 servings

• 3 eggs
• 410 g milk
• 240 g (cake) wheat flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 110 g butter - melted
• 50 g marzipan - roughly grated

1. Heat up the (conventional) oven to 220'C.
2. Whip milk and egg together by hand in a mixing bowl. Stir in the melted butter.
3. Add flour, salt, sugar, marzipan and baking powder. And stir everything into a homogeneous mass.
4. Place the silicone waffler forms on a baking tray covered with baking paper.
5. Pour the waffler dough in the silicone forms.
6. Bake the wafflers in the middle of the oven at 220'C for 8-9 minutes.
7. Remove the wafflers from the oven, de-mould the wafflers from the silicone by turning up-side-down and place the wafflers on the baking tray itself.
8. Bake the wafflers with pattern side at 220'C for 6-8 minutes until they turn golden.
9. Serve together with fresh fruit and ahorn syrup.

Easter Scones - Easter Calendar 2015

Today it is Good Friday being the second day of the Danish Easter vacation. Today should be an easy baking day, so therefore I making scones again using inspiration from the Easter Egg in form of marzipan and milk chocolate.

These scones are to the sweet side due to the use of marzipan and milk chocolate.

Easter Scones: - 12 pieces

• 450 g all pupose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 50 g sugar
• 125 g cold butter
• 1 egg
• 2 dl milk
• 100 g marzipan - roughly grates
• 100 g milk chocolate - roughly chopped

1. Mix the flour, salt, 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. Add the milk and egg without kneading it a dough.
5. Place the dough on a pieces of baking paper.
6. Roll the dough into a longer roll.
7. Heat the oven (conventional) to 250'C.
8. Cut slices of the scone dough with a size of 3 cm. 
9. Bake the scone at 250'C for 10-15 minutes.

Easter cookies with marzipan and milk chocolate - Easter Calendar 2015

Today it is Maundy Thursday (Skærtorsdag), which is a public holiday here in Denmark and starting off the Danish Easter vacation with 5 days off from work. And at the same time it is the start for my little  Easter Calendar 2015, where I every Easter day will be sharing a new recipe having a relation to Easter of some kind.

As alternative to making home-made Easter eggs from marzipand and choclate, I decided to use these Easter eggs ingredients (chocolate and marzipan) for making cookies.

I have use the cookie dough recipe from these liquorice cookies with cranberries as dough base for these cookies with raspberry and white cookies.

You can easily use this cookie dough as a hostess gift, as you can wrap the dough including the baking instruction, so the hostess/host afterwards can bake her/his own home-made cookies.


Easter cookies with marzipan and milk chocolate:

• 500 g all purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 375 g cold butter - diced in small squares
• 500 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 100 g marzipan - roughly grated
• 100 g milk chocolate - roughly chopped

1. Sieve the all purpose flour into the mixing bowl. Add in the salt and butter squares.
2. Mix on KitchenAid using the K-spade on speed 3-4, until the butter has disappeared into the cookie dough.
3. Add in the sugar, eggs, marzipan and milk chocolate. Mix until the cookie dough just gathers. Over mixing will give cookies with less crispness.
4. Divide the dough into 3 portions of 500 g each.
5. Roll the cookie dough into longer strings. Cover each cookie string in baking paper.
6. Place the cookies dough cold, either in the refrigerator or freezer.
7. Heat the fan oven to 190'C
8. Cut the firm cookie dough into slices of 1 cm.
9. Place the cookies on a baking tray covered with baking paper.
10. Bake the cookies in the upper part of the oven at 190'C for 8-10 minutes.
11. Cool down the cookies, before storing them in airtight containers.

Welcome to April - Welcome to Easter

Welcome to April -

Welcome to Easter

This year Easter is placed in the some of the very first days of April. Easter in Denmark can easily be linked to eggs, chocolate and marzipan.

So on my agenda for April I have food, which can be used for celebration of Easter in form of 5 day Easter Calendar, which starts tomorrow Thursday 2 April, as we celebrate Easter from Thursday to Monday here in Denmark.