Lussekatter

Tags

Baking, Christmas traditions, Dough, Food, Lussekatter, Norway, Recipe, Yeast

I am rarely able to bake and display in one day, but today will be an exception to that rule; today is the night before Lussi (the day of Saint Lucia). Living in a country that is predominantly protestant, there has never been much focus on saints. There is also very little focus (if any) on religion in the celebration of Lussi.  For me, Lussi has meant school or kindergarten celebrations (I’ll elaborate in a bit) and the baking of Lussekatter.

In kindergartens or school (the lower grades) Lussi is celebrated by kids dressing in white and parading through the school or kindergarten or through a care home to entertain the elderly. Every kid is dressed in white and holding a white candle. One girl, often with long blond hair, is crowned Lucia and leads the parade. She wears a crown holding candles.

It is a celebration of light in the darkest time of the year. The Christian traditions have mixed with old heathen traditions resulting in a tradition now that I believe most Norwegians would not be able to connect to any religion or faith. What is obvious though is the symbolic white and bright in a time of darknes, where there is a bit christianity mixed in with the mentioning of St. Lucia, and the devil through the lussekatter (lussi cats – referring to Lucifer the cat), and the lighting of candle and dressing in white to bring light in order to scare off the heathen creatures of the underworld lurking in the night.

Anyway, the reason why we bake these lussekatter might not be interesting at all (especially not with such an inadequate introduction), but the main reason is the tradition itself (at least it is to me). And the fact that the lussekatter are bright, ocher-y yellow also adds to the fun.

Today Son and I have spent some good, quality time together, dancing along to christmas songs while kneading a bright, yellow dough. I think I had more fun than him! I’ll give you the recipe in case you want to try it yourself:

• 2,5 dl of milk (the more fat the better)
• 25 grams of fresh yeast
• 75 grams of butter
• 0,5 grams of saffron or 1 teaspoon of turmeric
• 1 teaspoon of cardamom
• 1 egg
• about 6 dl of flour

Cook for 5-8 mins at 250 degrees celsius.

This year I made one batch with saffron and one with turmeric. I have never tried saffron before, for reasons unknown to me. The saffron was a nice change, it gave a better colour, better smell, but is still a little new to me. The turmeric smell and taste is what I’m used to. But I think saffron might win in the long run…

Saturday night pizza

Tags

Dough, Food, Pizza, Pizza crust, Pizza dough, Recipe

It was a dark and stormy evening. We were visiting some friends on a Saturday and it was getting late. We thanked our hosts for having us over and explained we had to get going in order to get the Saturday pizza on the table, eat it, and have Son in bed at a reasonable time. My friend looked at me, the suspicion gleaming from her eyes. Make and eat a pizza and have Son in bed in the course of 90 minutes? (which would also include a 20-minute drive from their house to hours). I nodded, she looked at me in disbelief. And that’s when I pulled the ace from my sleeve:

I make a big batch of pizza dough which results in about 8 individual pizzas. After leaving the crusts in the oven for thee minutes I freeze them, and on Saturdays I thus only have to visit the freezer and half the pizza is already made. I do the same with tomato sauce. Leftovers from the past week that go well on a pizza, are also kept and used the following saturday. Saturday night pizza is a piece of cake!

I promised my friend the recipe and instructions for these crusts. That was ages ago! Sorry AM that it has taken so long! Here it is:

The recipe is from this book, which is a very good book for everyone who goes through a period of experimenting with baking. This book has taught me loads!

• 1 kg of all purpose flour (regular white wheat) (about two pounds)
• 6,5 dl of water (about there cups)
• 10 g of fresh yeast (a lump the size of your smallest join on your little finger)
• 15 g of salt (I never measure, so about a teaspoon?)

Now, you want to do this on a day where you have other things to do. As what takes the longest is sitting watching the dough rise (do NOT sit and watch the dough rise, you’ll be bored and clearly you must have better things to do on a Saturday!) Let the machine knead the dough properly for 15 minutes or so. Keep it on low speed and turn up the music! Then let the dough rise for 1-2 hours. Divide the dough into equal parts of about 250 grams (about half a pound) and cover them with plastic and let them rise for another 45 minutes. It is important to let the dough rise in order to get an easy dough to work with afterwards.

Roll each part out into pizza crusts, prick them with a fork, and cook them at 225 degrees (celcius) for 3 mins.

I was making these on a Saturday while Husband was away at work. I had just put Son to bed, came back downstairs, put the last of the crusts into the oven, and sat down to breathe. I of course forgot all about the crust, which resulted in this:

Moral of the story? Don’t prick the crust with a fork and cook them for about 10 mins, and you’ll have some lovely pita breads instead 😉 Hope you enjoy!

Pizza dough

Tags

Cooking, Dough, Food, Pizza, Recipe, Staurday

Every Saturday is pizza day. Unfortunately we haven’t made pizza together, the three of us, for about two months. Saturday often ends up as the day we plan things with friends, and afternoon dinner gets scheduled out, and Husband has also been off working for some weeks. But next Saturday we’re back on!

This recipe is nothing fancy, and most of you probably have a pizza dough recipe you regularly use. A friend of mine sent texted me some days ago asking me for my recipe, and I thought I’d also share it with everyone else.

 

5 dl flour

2 dl water

Olive oil

Salt

Yeast

 

If you want something a bit different, replace half of the wheat flour with durum wheat. Durum wheat is used a lot more in Italy than here, and gives the dough a more exclusive taste and texture.

Mix the yeast and water. Remember correct temperature when using yeast; if you put your pinky finger in it and it feels rather warm nor cold, it’s perfect. If you’re using dry yeast the water can be slightly warmer, but still not too warm as that will kill it. Pour in somewhere between two and four tablespoons of olive oil. Add the flour and just a wee bit of salt. Mix and knead for a while, roll it out and leave it to rise for as much time as you have before adding the topping. Bake at 225 degrees (or more) until it’s done.