Bread recipe – spelt and wheat

Tags

Bread, Bread project, Recipe, spelt, Wheat

This bread recipe is very similar to the rye, wheat, and oat bread I shared earlier this week. This is, however, a version with spelt. Not very much is changed, but you still get quite a different tasting bread.

Start with mixing water and yeast, add a pinch of sugar.

• 6 dl water (a bit more than a pint)
• fresh yeast (about the size of the nail of your pinky finger)
• a pinch of sugar

Start with wheat flour and add a pinch of salt. Mix the flour with the water before adding the rest. Wheat rises easier than the other types of flour, and you thus want to mix that with the yeast and water straight away. Add a pinch of sugar to give the yeast a little extra oomph.

• 5 dl of sifted/bolted wheat flour
• a pinch of salt

The flour you add afterwards can be of any type you want. For this bread I added.

• 2 dl whole spelt flour
• 8 dl sifted spelt flour

Add a few handfuls of seeds and grains, for example:

• whole spelt
• sunflower seeds
• linseeds

I added a total of 2 dl grains and seeds.

Now, mix everything together and let some machine do the kneading for you. Let it run for about ten minutes. When kneading dough you would have to let Kenny (The Kenwood) knead it for over 30 minutes in order to do any harm to the dough. However, it’s a little different with spelt. Spelt should not be knead for more than 15 minutes, 10 minutes is perfect 🙂 While kneading, continue to add flour until the dough becomes a ball that no longer clings to the bowl. Afterwards cover the bowl with plastic and leave to rise for 2-12 hours (letting it rise much longer than that will cause the yeast to ferment and it will taste and smell of alcohol – not recommended!).

After having let the dough rise, knead it just a wee bit more. Add flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers and make two loaves and place in two bread forms. Let the breads rise for another 20-30 minutes. Bake in the centre of the oven at 200 degrees Celcius for 1 hour.

Test if the bread is done by knocking on it, if it sounds hollow, it’s done.

Bread recipe – oat, rye and wheat

Tags

Bread, Bread project, Oat, Recipe, Rye, Wheat

Freshly made home-baked bread straight from the oven

An easy recipe for a very tasty bread. Follow the guidelines given in the rules of the game and you’ll have get a perfect result.

Start with mixing water and yeast, add a pinch of sugar.

• 6 dl water (a bit more than a pint)
• fresh yeast (about the size of the nail of your pinky finger)
• a pinch of sugar

Start with wheat flour and add a pinch of salt. Mix the flour with the water before adding the rest. Wheat rise easier than the other types of flour, and you thus want to mix that with the yeast and water straight away. Don’t stress it though, just soak the flour.

• 5 dl of sifted/bolted wheat flour
• a pinch of salt

The flour you add afterwards can be of any type you want. For this bread I added.

• 2 dl whole wheat flour
• 4,5 dl whole rye flour
• 5 dl of rolled oats

With the flour add the seeds or whole grains you prefer. I added:

• sesame seeds
• sunflower seeds
• linseeds

Combined that came to a bit more than a cup of seeds. Add as you prefer.

Now, mix everything together and let some machine do the kneading for you. Let it run for about ten minutes, while adding a bit more flour until the dough become a ball that does no longer cling to the bowl. Afterwards cover the bowl with plastic and leave to rise for 3-12 hours (letting it rise much longer than that will cause the yeast to ferment and it will taste and smell of alcohol – not recommended!).

After having let it rise for that long, knead the dough. Add more flour until it no longer sticks to your fingers. Make two loafs and place in two bread forms. Let the breads rise for another 20-30 minutes. Bake in the centre of the oven at 180 degrees Celcius for 1 hour.

Test if the bread is done by knocking on it, if it sounds hollow, it’s done.

The bread project – the rules of the game

Tags

Baking, Bread, Food, Yeast

I started a bread project sometime in a previous life (or so it seems). I have now made it! I can no bake bread. And they’re good too 😀 I had a few criteria that needed to be fulfilled before I could call the project successful:

• it had to be easy
• baking couldn’t be time consuming and fit well into a busy schedule
• the bread would have taste good
• and be healthier than most shop-bought breads
• and without additives and stuff I’m unable to pronounce

I now bake about two times each week. I spend 30 minutes all together in the evening making the dough, and another 30 minutes in the morning. During those 30 minutes I multitask, as they consist of no more than 10 minutes actual work while the rest is spent waiting. To do this I need some kind of kitchen appliance that kneads dough. I am very happy with my now tired and weary Kenwood. Now, before starting on the recipes there are a few tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way (I have now been baking for about a year, and have tried and failed a lot).

• the yeast should be fresh as it is easier to work with
• yeast packed in plastic foil will last for weeks in the fridge, and work perfectly fine no matter what the date says
• you never need more than a few grams of yeast, I use a piece the size of my pinky fingernail
• always use cold water with fresh yeast

Then onto making the dough, which really is very simple.

• preferably let your machine knead the dough for 10 minutes
• the dough has the right consistency if it lets go of the bowl (it forms like a ball while kneading)
• let the dough rise twice, first in its bowl, then shape it before placing it in a bread form
• don’t add sugar, honey or syrup if you plan to let the dough rise overnight
• always add a pinch of salt

I make the dough in the evening. Then leave on the counter overnight. In the morning I knead it a bit more, adding more flour until it no longer sticks to my fingers. I make two bread and place them in their forms, turn on the oven and hit the shower. The breads don’t need to rise for a long time, and by the time I’m dressed (20 mins later) the oven is warm and I bake them for about an hour.

Summer cake

Tags

Cake, Raspberry, Recipe, Summer cake

Nothing says summer like this cake does. It should be eaten outside on a sunny day, with a glass of champagne on the side along with fresh strawberries and raspberries. I served this along with the Oreo cake last week and they were both well received.

The recipe is from Manuela’s Passion for Baking, a truly calorie-rich food-blog.

 

The cake is made up of two layers, for the first you need:

170 grams of ground almonds

3 eggs

175 grams of sugar

Whisk the eggs and the sugar until white, then add the ground almonds. Cook at 180 degrees for about 25 minutes.

 

Second layer:

250 grams of sugar

3 egg whites

1 egg

50 ml of lemon juice

The zest of about 2 lemons

65 grams of flour

A pinch of salt

The juice from 275 frozen raspberries

The only trick to the second layer is the raspberries. Put the amount you need in a microwave and heat them up a bit. Make sure they are slushy before you try to use them. Sieve the raspberries so that you end up with the only the juice from the berries. Mix all the ingredients together.

The batter for the second is very thin, and is supposed to be. Pour it on top of the cooked first layer and cook for an additional 25 minutes. When the top layer is no longer liquid the cake is done. Check how thin the top layer is by shaking the form a bit to see how the top layer moves.

Oreo cake

Tags

Cake, Oreo, Oreo cake, Recipe

I have added a new cake to my list of favourites – oreo cake. It was served last weekend and was gone by the end of the day, which I see as an indication of success. The recipe was found at Trines Matblogg, which is unfortunately not in English. This is the cake and the recipe in Norwegian. 

The cake proved very easy to make; three layers, one bowl, and electrical whisk and a microwave is about all you need. Plus the ingredients:

First layer: 

300 grams of oreos

100 grams of butter

 

I melted the butter , threw in the oreos and mashed it all. Put all in a form directly on a serving platter.

 

Second layer 

200 grams of cream cheese

1 cup of frosting sugar

1/3 litres of cream

about 50 grams of oreos

 

Mix the cheese and frosting sugar, whip the cream and gently mix the lot. Chop the oreos and add to the mix.

 

Third layer: 

Chocolate mousse made from about 1,5 cups of milk

about 50 grams of oreos

 

I was lazy and did not bother making mousse from scratch. There are numerous recipes for mousse online, and there are most likely also ways to cheat no matter where you’re from.

 

The layers are made in chronological order. Simply put one on top of the other and decorate with chopped oreos and/or melted chocolate. The cake is as easy as it gets (at least if you don’t make the mousse from scratch). Hope you enjoy 🙂

Christmas cookies

Tags

Christmas cookies, Norwegian Traditions

I never posted anything about the christmas cookies we baked. I assume I’ll wait with the details for another, say, eleven months or so, but I wanted to post a few pictures of what we made last month just to show you a teaser of Norwegian christmas cookie traditions.

One of the classics are ‘cakemen’. Name is pretty self-explanatory, we make cookies in the shape of men and women. Son loves these and every time he sees something that reminds him of these he’ll ask for a ‘cakeman’.

I baked these for the very first time this yule. It’s my grandmother’s recipe (my father’s mom) and all her six grandchildren crave these cookies for the yule season. I am quite pleased with how mine turned out, but they weren’t as good as hers.

Lussekatter is baked on the 13th of December and resemble things associated with St Lucia, who we celebrate on that day. We have made it a tradition to make them on the eve of December 12, but I’ll get back to that again in almost a year’s time.

 

Catch up again in about a year and I’ll have more details for you on yule cookies. Hopefully I’ll see you around in the months before until then as well. Have great evening 🙂

 

Yule goats (Julegeiter)

Tags

Baking, Christmas traditions, Food, Norwegian Cuisine, Recipe, Yule goats

Roll out as regular rolls, a little more oblong, then make a cut in each end

This is a local type of sweet rolls associated with the yule season. I don’t know how common it is outside the city boundaries, I have grown up with it living in a small town across the fjord, but many of the people I’ve met living in the outskirts of the city have never heard of it. It could also be decreasing in popularity, or the younger generations are less fond of it than their parents and grandparents. I have often been met with questioning faces when asking for it in the local supermarkets, but they usually sell the rolls in every one of them.

Dette er en lokal bollelignende gjærbakst som vi spiser til jul. Jeg vet ikke hvor vanlig den er utenfor byens grenser, jeg har vokst opp med dem i en liten by over fjorden for Stavanger. Mange jeg treffer fra utkanten av Stavanger har aldri hørt om dem. Kanskje er de ikke like populære som de en gang var, eller så er den yngre generasjonen ikke like glad i dem som sine foreldre og besteforeldre. Jeg har ofte blitt møtt med spørsmålstegn av ansikter i butikkene her, men likevel ser det ut som de fleste dagligvarebutikker selger dem til jul.

I don’t know what gives these rolls their peculiar name, yule goats, but one theory is the cut end of them resembling the hoof of a goat. The only thing that makes these rolls different to regular sweet rolls is the rye flour and the syrup.

Jeg vet ikke grunnen til det noe spesielle navnet, men en teori er at kutten i endene ligner på en geits hov. Ellers er den kun sirupen og rugmelet som gjør disse bollene annerledes fra vanlige boller.

Mother demonstrating the correct technique for rolling out the rolls

 

The how-to of the dough is the same as here, except the syrup which is added with the liquid.

Tilberedning av deigen er lik som den her, bortsett fra sirupen, som enkelt tilsettes væska i begynnelsen.

5-6 dl of milk

A bit of yeast, amount depending on how much time you have to let it rise

4-5 tablespoons of syrup

About 650 grams of wheat flour

200 grams of rye flour

5-6 dl melk

4-5 ss sirup

Litt gjær, mengden avhenger av hvor lang tid du har til heving

Ca 650 g hvetemel

200 g fint rugmel

100 g smør

Cook at about 225 degrees until tanned. Eat with brown goat cheese for ultimate Norwegian experience.

Stek på 225 grader til de er blitt gyldenbrune. Spises med brunost og godt smør.

Polar breads – children friendly rolls

Tags

Bread, Food for Kids, Polar breads, Recipe, Rolls

I have recently cut down on carbs, and thus eat not bread (or at least very little) which means that every time Husband is off to work, Son is the only one eating bread. Of course he doesn’t eat too much, and as he has become used to seeing me eat anything but bread, he wants the same treatment. I don’t think he should eat bread no matter what the cost, but it is very easy when going out to just put two slices together and hand it to him. It’s not messy, and he can easily eat them with no help from anyone else. He doesn’t like regular rolls, so I was looking for something more baby friendly. I found a recipe for some “polar breads”, which are bascially small, flat rolls. Soft, yummy and much better than those you buy in the store. (There are so called “polar breads” sold at the stores here).

Jeg har kuttet ned på karbohydrater i det siste og spiser lite brød, noe som resulterer i at det blir spist veldig lite brød mens Mannen er på jobb. Etter hvert som Sønn har blitt vant med å se meg spise alt annet enn brød, har han blitt veldig skeptisk til skiver. Jeg synes ikke det er nødvendig at han skal spise brød, men noen ganger er det veldig enkelt å smøre en skive, det søler lite og han spiser den lett uten hjelp fra andre. Jeg var på jakt etter en oppskrift på polarbrød, og fant en veldig god en. Og så lenge jeg kaller dem for boller, elsker Sønn dem og spiser dem uten og klage.

For quite a lot you need:

100 grams oatmeal

300 grams whole grain wheat flour

1-2 tablespoons of honey

A little yeast (depending on how much time you have)

A little salt

2,5 dl water

3 dl milk

1 dl of vegetable oil

Til ganske mange trenger du:

100 gram havregryn

300 gram sammalt hvetemel

600 gram hvetemel

1-2 ss honning

Litt gjær, mengden avhenger av hvor mye tid du har til heving

1/2 ts salt

2.5 dl. vann

3 dl. melk

1 dl vegetabilsk olje

 

Run the oatmeal in a food processor or something similar and until it looks more like whole grain flour. I didn’t have enough of oatmeal and used the same made by barley. I love the taste barley gives, so I absolutely recommend trying it if you haven’t already.

Kjør havregrynet i en foodprocessor eller lignende til det ser ut som grovt mel. Jeg hadde ikke nok havegryn og erstattet ca halvparten med byggflak. Jeg elsker byggsmaken i bakverk, og vil absolutt anbefale deg å prøve viss du ikke allerede har.

Let the dough rise until it has doubled in size. Roll it out making it about a centimetre thick. Punch out small circles and let them rise for a little while. I used the same punches I used for the small focaccias, see here. After you’ve let them rise, about double size, or a little less, then cook for 6-10 minutes at 225 degrees.

La deigen heve til omtrent dobbel størrelse. Kjevle den ut til ca en cm tykkelse. Stikk ut sirkler med 10-15 cm diameter og la de heve på brett til ca dobbel tykkelse. Jeg brukte de samme formene som på de små focacciane jeg skrev om tidligere, se her. Steik i 6-10 min på 225.

If you bake a batch then freeze them. They are ready to eat only a few minutes after you take them out of the freezer, just remember to keep them wrapped in plastic so that they don’t dry out.

Viss du lager en del fryser du dem bare. Tar du opp et par tiner de på få minutt. Bare husk å holde dem i plastikk så de ikke tørker ut.

The recipe is based on a the recipe found here.

Apple cake

Tags

Apple Cake, Baking, Food, Recipe

We had some surprise visitors yesterday. I didn’t have much to offer, so while the boys talked computers and watched the kids, Silje and I put together a cake. I thought I’d share the recipe with you. It’s very easy and doesn’t take much more than 30 mins.

Vi fikk nokså overraskende besøk i går og vi hadde lite å tilby, så mens mannfolka snakket om dataer, powertools og diverse annet, heiv Silje og jeg sammen en kake. Jeg tenkte jeg skulle dele oppskrifta med dere, den er veldig enkel og er ferdig på nesten 30min.

Start of slicing peeling and slicing some apples. I used 3 altogether. Dice a bit more than one and half of the apples and set to boil in a pot. Add a few tablespoons of water or juice.

Skrell og del  3 epler i båter. Kutt nesten to av dem i biter og ha i en gryte med et par spiseskjeer vann eller juice. Ha lokket på og la eplene koke.

Whisk together 125 grams of sugar and two eggs until white. Gently stir in about 100 grams of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and one teaspoon of vanilla sugar. Melt and add 100 grams of butter, and there is the dough.

Pisk 120gram sukker og to egg til eggedosis. Forsiktig vend inn 100gram mel, en teskje bakepulver og en teskje vaniljesukker. (oi, ble nesten en orddeling der, men hadde ikke gjort så mye, vanilje sukker ofte…) Smelt og ha i 100gram smør.

Now, back to the apples, these should be boiled tender by now, you can either mash them or use them as is.

Så, tilbake til eplene, disse burde være møre nå, så du kan enten mose dem eller bruke dem som de er.

Butter a cake form and sprinkle it with flour. Add a layer of the dough, then the apples you boiled and another layer of the dough. Decorate the cake with sliced apples and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Smør en kakeform og dryss på mel. Legg et lag med røre i bånn, så eplene du kokte, deretter et lag til med røre. De resterende eplebåtene skjærer du i tynne skiver og bruker til å dekorere kaka. Strø på kanel og perlesukker.

Cook for about 30 mins at 200 degrees and serve warm with ice-cream. Yum!

Stek på 200 grader i omtrent 30 minutt. Server varm med vaniljeis. Nam!

Sourdough Breads

Tags

Bread, Food, Project Bread, Sourdough

I’ve had a sourdough project contaminating my kitchen for the past two weeks, this weekend it was finally mature enough to result in two breads. And the fact that it did result it bread, means I’ve done it right! I’ll get back to you on the details of making a sourdough starter, as for now, the result:

Jeg har hatt et surdeigsprosjekt som har infisert kjøkkenet mitt de siste to ukene, denne uka var surdeigsstarteren endelig moden nok til å bli til brød. Og det ble faktisk brød av det også, noe som betyr at jeg har gjort det riktig. Jeg kommer nok tilbake til surdeigsbaking og surdeigsstartere senere, men nå, resultatet:

Now that I have a starter means I have done the job for everyone who’d like to try themselves. If you’d like to have a go, let me know, and I’ll give you part of my starter (which you can bake with right away.) It’s the simplest way of baking breads and a tradition that goes back centuries. No yeast, nothing unnatural, simply a bit of homegrown mould 😉

Nå når jeg har en starter betyr det at jeg allerede har gjort jobben for andre som også vil prøve surdeigsbaking. Viss du har lyst til å prøve så gir du meg et lite hint så skal du få en bit av starteren min, som selvfølgelig er klar til å bake med med en gang. Det er verdens mest naturlige måte å bake brød på og en tradisjon som går mangfoldige år tilbake I tid. Ingenting unaturlig, ingen gjær, bare god gammeldags hjemmegrodd sopp 😉

According to wikipedia, sourdough originated in Egypt about 1500 BC, so, what I said about centuries is a bit wrong, let me correct that to millennias! We’re out of bread again today, so baking again tonight. Hopefully I have a great result to show you tomorrow.

I følge Wikipedia så startet egypterne med surdeigsbaking omtrent 1500 f.Kr, så hva jeg sa om mangfoldige år kan rettes til årtusener. Vi er tomme for brød I dag, så det blir baking igjen I kveld. Forhåpentligvis har jeg et bra resultat å vise dere I morgen.