Grissini lollies

My little girl loves pink these days.  Everything has to be pink.  So when it came to decorating the Grissini sticks we had pink sprinkles of course.  With all the candy everywhere around us I like making things like that …minus the sprinkles, I am not proud of that : ) .  There is so much stuff out there that I have no Idea how is made and what I am making  my kids eat, all kinds of unnatural shit.

You can go all the way here and make your own sprinkles and make the Grissini sticks.  I didn´t this time.  but the Grissini sticks I used comes from Italy and they make them with stone milled organic flour.  The chocolate is a good quality chocolate.  Best of all, the joy we had making them was priceless.

Grissini lollies

• Grissini sticks
• Good quality chocolate
• Sprinkles

Melt the chocolate in a bowl.  Cover the grissini sticks with the chocolate, I used spoon to cover them.  Leave a little space uncovered for holding.

Spread out the sprinkles on a plate or board, roll the grissini sticks in sprinkles.  Leave in a standing position until the chocolate had dried.

When Winter met Fall

Dessert for Christmas and winter wonderland in Iceland

 

I was asked to give readers of a local news paper good recipe for dessert.  I went for the coconut dessert because it is one of the best I´ve had and it is fresh after a heavy Christmas dinner. With some red and green it even looks very festive.

I have blogged about it before and you can find the recipe here.

When we get show in Iceland we sometimes say “King Winter has arrived”. He sure arrived with a blast couple of weeks ago with lots of snow, but the snow was gone few days later.  It was such a pretty sight in the country.

My backyard

By Meðalfellsvatn

Laxárnes seen from Drengur

Sandwich cake – smörgåstårta

I made this cake for my son on his first birthday.  When you are this little you are not getting a bite of a chocolate cake so I decided to make a cake he could taste.  There for I made a pretty cake made of bread, a fancy sandwich cake.

In Icelandic we call Sandwich cake, “brauðterta”, translated “bread tart”.  It is made with bread and lots of mayo.  This version is easy on the mayo though and it is really tasty. A smoked salmon is perfect in sandwich cake.  Here we made a mousse out of the salmon with some Crème fraîche.  This recipe uses also cream cheese and I tell you, smoked salmon and cream cheese is the perfect combo.

I got this recipe from Saveur.  Follow this link to get the recipe.  Read on to see how I pulled this off…

First of all, I buy a classic sandwich cake bread in the store, since this kind of food has been a tradition in Iceland for a long long time.  It is a soft white bread.  You can of course bake your own or go to the bakery and buy a nice loaf.  You can see below how it is cut length wise.

The first layer was the salmon mousse and cucumbers.

Then we get a bread and on top goes butter, salmon, mustard sauce…

…and the salad

Another bread and repeat until you finish the slices of bread, I had 5 slices.

Then you get your creative side out and decorate it with sliced egg, little cooked shrimp, smoked salmon

and flat leave parsley.  But first you put the cream cheese on the cake, like you were putting a frosting on a normal cake.

I made roses out of the salmon… it is easy you just roll up the strip of salmon.

I had left over bread and made triangle sandwiches with mousse, parsley and salad.

The birthday boy was happy with the cake and most of all loved drinking milk with a straw…muuu

We drove around the fjord, close by we have a farm, they sell the nicest organic lamb and pork.

The goat got comfy at the cafe.

French Chocolate cake with vanilla whipped cream and strawberries

This is the prettiest cake I´ve ever made, and French Chocolate cake is always a treat!  You can buy really juicy and gorgeous Icelandic strawberries in the stores now.

Make your own jam

French Chocolate cake with vanilla whipped cream and strawberries

• 480 g good chocolate (56% or 70%)
• 250 g butter
• 6 eggs
• 100 g flour

Melt together chocolate and butter.  Mix the eggs until light and fluffy with an electric mixer ( I use Kitchen Aid). Add the chocolate to the eggs, then flour.  Mix well together with a spoon.

Butter up a 24 cm spring form pan, pour in the chocolate mix.  Bake for 5 minutes at 220°c.  Cover the spring pan with foil and bake for another 10 minutes.  Cool before serving.

Whipped Cream

• 1/4 L Heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract or use fresh vanilla

Whip the cream, add sugar and vanilla.

Splash homemade jam over the whipped cream.  I put a little bit of Ganache on the cake before the cream. Just because I had it.  It is not necessary since this cake is pure chocolate…

Add strawberries

Extra jam

Cream Puff Day

Today was a Cream Puff day in Iceland.  We call it Bolludagur.  I am not a fan of Cream Puffs, so I didt´t make them this year, I did last year and they turned out really nice.  This recipe is solid.  My mom and mother in law have been making them for like 105 years…. ok maybe 45 years.

We cut them in half and stuff them with cream and jam, and on top we have melted chocolate.

Cream Puffs

• 125 g butter
• 2,5 dl water
• 125 g flour
• 3-4 eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar

Boil together water and butter.  (add sugar and salt if you will)  Add flour to the pot and stir until smooth.  Some keep the pot on the stove while stirring the flour to the melted butter, others not.

Put the dough in a Kitchen Aid. (or similar stand mixer)

Add the eggs, one at a time.

The dough should not be too thin.

REMEMBER…IMPORTANT!

Never open the oven while the cream puffs are in there

Keep a good distance between the cream puffs.

Use rather less eggs than too many, even only a half an egg too much can ruin a recipe.

 

If you want to traditional Icelandic food this is one of it…

 

When is summer coming?

 

Almond – Date – 70 % Chocolate cake

My daughter was 3 the other day, we had a little birthday party, couple of friends with parents.  We knew less was more.  The kids had a good time, it was no stress and what was the important thing, the birthday girl was thrilled with the birthday party.  She got a cake with candles, couple of friends and balloons.  For her, that´s a birthday party!

I tend to over do sometimes  … For this birthday I was thinking, what kind of awesome cake should I do… But I live and learn so the day after I was thinking, what kind of cakes do people eat?  What kind of cake does my girl want?  I asked her… She wanted Dora the Explorer cake.  NO!! I was not gonna make a real size Dora the Explorer with all the friends made of fondant that no one likes to eat!

I made a very nice chocolate cake with nice cream (Betty fu*****  Crocker, better than most home made cakes, so light and fluffy.  Cakes are unhealthy anyways, from a box or not) and Dora… I simply cut out one of the paper plates, put it on a grilling pin and stuck it to the cake…voilá …we have  a Dora cake.  Trust me, the 3 year old was thrilled.  Fondant smondant…nobody finds it tasty!

Then I almost blew it… Instead of candles I bought this thing, in a shape of the number 3,  you light up and it sparkles …It was not a success… “MOM, I want to blow candles!”.  Thank god I had candles, three if them.

My lesson for you and myself.  They are kids, we got traditions, let´s stick to them and keep it simple.  The only one I am trying to impress is the birthday girl, not the guests!

I made a hamburger cake once, it was fun.

This year I was on the healthy side, of course I had a Pig in a blanket ( Hot dog in a pizza dough bun) .  But I had a healthy cake and a pot full of Chicken Chili Stew.

The healthy cake was really good.  It comes from a girl called Ebba Guðný I was told.

Almond – Date – 70 % Chocolate cake

• 1 cup dates, soak them in water
• 1 cup almonds
• 120 g 70 % chocolate
• 1/4 cup sugar (raw if you like)
• 3 cups flour (spelt if you like)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons water ( from the dates)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Mix everything together.  I roughly chopped the almonds and the chocolate. you can chop them or even put them in a food processor.

Put the mixture it in a baking tray, bake for 40 minutes at 150 °c.  Serve with cream or Ice cream.

Christmas Count Down …3 – The ultra chocolate chip cookies with lots of chocolate

Are you still baking for Christmas?  I am, If I do it any sooner it´s all gone by the 24th… right?

I did 3 types this year.  The ugly but tasty toffee one I talked about in the last blog, gingerbread cookies and these the Ultra chocolate cookies.  I usually bake Biscotti as well some times during the holidays between Christmas and New Years Eve..

I am not a big cookie person, but it´s nice to have some if people stop by and for the little ones and of course I do grab one or two oooor three now and then.  These were more easy to make then the fancy ones, just a scoop of teaspoon on the plate.

The ultra chocolate chip cookies with lots of chocolate

• 175 g chocolate
• 125 g butter
• 2 eggs
• 100 g sugar
• 75 g brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 75 g flour
• 25 g cocoa (Dutch Cocoa, I use 70% from Black & Green)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 200 g Chocolate, chopped
• 100 g hazelnuts

Heat oven to 180°c.

Melt the 175 g of chocolate with butter on low heat, stir constantly.

Put eggs, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl ( I use Kitchen Aid). Mix well until it becomes light and fluffy.

While the machine is on low speed add the melted chocolate with the butter .

Add flour, cocoa and baking powder, mix well.

At last add the chopped chocolate and hazelnuts.

Put the dough with a teaspoon on a oven plate lined with parchment paper and bake for 7-8 minutes.

They are gone now 😦

And so is December basically, all gone almost…

 

Christmas Count Down…5 – Ugly Cookies and Fluffy muffins

I made the ugliest cookies ever.  They are probably the tastiest I´ve ever made …but I din´t have good quality time when making them…stressed about 100 other things I should be rather doing aaaand I am not a good cookie baking the first place.

 

THANKFULLY I have a 3 year old and I can tell everyone that she helped me make them… she really did for the first hour but when it came to decorating it was all me.. yes I have photos and yes I will post the recipe very soon…BECAUSE they are really good.

This was a winning recipe for an Icelandic Food Magazine for a Christmas baking recipe and I know the girl who won, that´s why I wanted to try them.  They are really good cookies but all I can say, make sure you have time to make them because it takes at least 3 hours to do this recipe properly.

BUT, I like to bake muffins  because it´s no fuzz when it comes to mixing the ingredients, you just put everything in a bowl and whisk it together with a fork or a wooden spoon for few strokes,  the less you mix the better I´ve heard.

I´ve been doing the same recipe (with blueberries)  for a while, but decided to try a new one, a chocolate one.  I saw a tasty photo of a muffin with a recipe to try.  I changed it a bit by using butter instead of oil and a little bit less sugar.  It was a good one.  Very fluffy and not too sweet.

Fluffy muffins

• 1 3/4 c flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons cocoa (a good one)
• 3/4 c sugar (I used a liiiittle bit less)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 c butter (or 1/3 oil)
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tablespoons espresso coffee
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Handful of good chopped chocolate

Put dry ingredients in a bowl, mix.  Add the rest and mix well with a wooden spoon or a fork or something.

Enjoy with a cup of tea or glass of milk…or red wine

Window 19…

Christmas Count Down …6 – Gingerbread cookies

I made gingerbread cookies yesterday with a recipe I got from my mother in law, very old.  It is actually called syrup cookies due to the amount of syrup. If you need a good recipe for gingerbread cookies this one is very nice.

You can either make the cookies very thin or a little bit thicker.  Then you get more chewy cookies, I like that.

Gingerbread Cookies

• 250 g flour
• 125 g sugar
• 75 g butter
• 1/2 cup syrup(150 g)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
• 1 teaspoon clove, ground
• 1 teaspoon ginger, ground
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 egg

Mix everything together in a Kitchen Aid or some electronic mixer. First the dry ingredient and then the rest.  The butter should be at  room temperature.

When you got a nice dough put it in the fridge and let it rest for 1-2 hours.

Now it ´s ready to be flatten and cut how ever you like.

Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes at 180°c.  Don´t bake them for to long.

6 days left…

 

Brownie in a cup – ready in 4 minutes

I see easy recipes, I have to try them.  This one was easy, it takes no time to make and the result….  It´s not too bad.  I had it in the micro for 1 minute and 40 sec on high like they say, maybe It would be o.k to have it for only a minute.

It´s a must to serve some  Ice cream with this Brownie though.

Brownie in a cup

• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tbsp water

Add dry ingredients in a cup (a cup that can be put in a micro).  Mix oil and water to the dry ingredients.  Mix well with a fork.  Put in  a micro on high for 1. min and 40 sec.

I used a bit more water, maybe 5 tbsp, and I would try less time next time…and maybe add some chopped chocolate to it.

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