Fudge Brownies – aka dry chocolate cake

I’ve got brownies on the brain. Needed to get it out of the system. Hence this post. Not that I need an excuse to make brownies, but that’s how it is. I do have a theory though, to this brownie obsession. I dyed my hair last week – from blonde to brown. So now, my boyfriend refers to me as brownie, instead of blondie. And hearing the word brownie a couple of times during the day, well, it gets to you one way or another! So unconciously this brownie-craving has been building up, and now it was about time to do something about it. And what better day than today to celebrate my new haircolour with brownies! I seriously needed to do something else than reading chemistry for a change, so I decided to take a day off reading and spend some quality time in the kitchen, followed by some quality time in front of the TV with baked goods, instead.

It’s with slight disappointment that I’m writing this, because I just took them out of the oven, and worst case scenario occured. I overbaked them! Arrgghhh! I hate when that happens, when all you want is gooey fudgy brownieness and what you get is simply chocolate cake. And it’s not the same when your mind is set on brownies. (Breathe in, breath out. It’s gonna be ok, it’s just overbaked brownies.) It was a good chocolate cake though. And with a little frosting it wasn’t so bad after all. I’m still posting about it and sharing the recipe, because I believe this was my mistake, and that these brownies can really be great. Just take a look here where I found the recipe! Now that’s what I call brownies. I have yet to make a truly succesful batch of brownies, but I will try this recipe again, closely watching the oven.. So give it a try and tell me how it turns out!

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour (4 dl)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lb butter (225 g)
2 cups sugar (4,5 dl)
1/4 cup water (0,5 dl)
11 oz semisweet chocolate (300 g)
2 oz unsweetened chocolate (50 g)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
1 cup pecans (2,3 dl)

Preheat oven to 325 F (200 C) and line a 9″x13″ baking pan with aluminum foil, allowing the foil to overhang the ends of the pan by a couple inches. Grease the foil with nonstick spray.

In a large saucepan, bring the butter, sugar, and water just to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring.
Remove from the heat. Stir the chocolates into the sugar mixture until completely melted. Let cool to warm so that the eggs won’t curdle.

Stir the vanilla into the chocolate mixture. Then add the eggs, and mix thoroughly.
Stir the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture just until the batter is evenly blended. Less mixing = more tender brownies. (Ooops, I didn’t read that until now… no wonder they came out the way they did. When will I learn to read through recipes before starting?)
Stir in the nuts.Turn out the batter into the pan, spreading it evenly to the edges.
Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until the center is barely firm when tapped. (Keep an eye on them, as every oven is different! 25 minutes was way overdue for me)Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool to warm, about 20 minutes. Or not! Just dig in and get warm hopefully fudgy brownies all over!

Do I dare…. French macarons

THE DARING COOKS OCTOBER 2009 CHALLENGE: MACAROONS

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe.

When I got to know this month’s challenge was french macaroons my first thought was YES! I love macaroons. I fell instantly in love with these wonderful creatures when I was in Paris a few years back. I was wandering down Champs Elysées, and spotted a bakery that I had to enter. There were lots of things to choose from obviously, but the macaroons stacked on the shelves immediately caught my eye. They were so cute, looking like sweet mini-hamburgers, I knew I had to try them. They had all kinds of flavours and colours, but I safed it, and chose the chocolate macaroon. One for me and one for my boyfriend. We went outside and sat down on a bench, and took these mysterious things out of the paper bag. (At this time I had never heard of macaroons, and didn’t know what to expect.) I took a bite – looked at my boyfriend who just did the same – we both smiled and started to giggle. It was sooo good! I didn’t know what to say but smile at this. That crisp shell sandwiched together with a thick layer of tasty chocolate ganache was probably one of the tastiest chocolate-things I had ever eaten. From that day, I was a dedicated macaroon lover.

I dreamt about it, and started exploring the net looking for recipes, just to realize this was a big thing in the baking world. Big, because of its delicioius taste, its super cute look, the varieties in taste, filling or colour, but also, if not mostly because making macaroons is an art. It takes time. It takes practice. And there are a gazillion ways on how to supposedly get the best result, and I have a long looong way to go when it comes to making perfect macarons. So, after my first thought, I started to move from Yes! to oh-oh, No….. My two previous tries didn’t turn out too well. Not too bad either, but I didn’t get those characteristic feet around the edges. And they were a little uneven in size and shapes. The taste was good, but they were quite flat, and not very impressive looking. Not like the mini-hamburger I had in mind. More like a crèpe, I’m afraid. But third thimes a charm, right?

So, I rolled up my sleeves, put on my apron, and started to bake with great confidence. A little too confident maybe. I had read about what to do to ensure the feet. Letting the piped shells rest for some time before popping them in the oven, stacking them on several baking trays and not over-folding the batter. I tried it all. Though I think I failed at the last one. My bowl was a little too small, and it was hard to fold the batter properly, and it sunk together too much at the end. And my piper was not acting very cooperative, so the batter turned more and more runny as my kitchen got more and more messy.

I eventually gave up and spooned the batter onto the tray instead, and popped them in the oven. And to my disappointment, no sign of feet. I still had a slight hope maybe one of my 3 trays would grow some feet, but no, not this time either. Arrgh. My kitchen turned against me today, ever had a one of those days? First I managed to continue whisking above the eggwhites, in the air, leaving eggwhites all over my kitchen bench. Then, my piping-instrument was just acting just evil, also leaving a great mess, only this time brown and chocolate flavoured. I had a real yin yang thing going on there… Then, I dropped my bowl of grinded almonds on the floor…. And then, no feet! I think I deserved some feet today. But the taste was good, though. I made all the shells with cocoa powder and decided to be more creative with the filling. I had plain chocolate ganache of course, and used that as a base. I also made some with coffee flavour and some snickers-macaroons, with peanut butter and ganache. Not overly creative, but what can I say – I’m a chocolate lover!

They were all quite good, despite their sad apperance. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I didn’t have too great expectations. So somewhat surprised, I found them really good! They had a crispy edge, with a softer chewy texture, and with a heavenly thick layer of chocolate gancache in between, the missing feet were almost forgotten. The peanut butter-chocolate ones, aka snickers macaroons were delicious too. You gotta love that peanut-chocolate combo! I can’t really say I feel any closer to mastering the art of French macarons yet, but after all, I am an amateur. It was a fun challenge though! And a tasty one!

Noodles and veggies

I’ve had serious noodle-cravings lately. I love noodles, always have and always will, but I don’t eat it that much longer. When I was younger, and discovered noodles for the first time, I made myself a bowl for supper several times a week. I loved that hot soup and the noodles together, and my personal touch, a few slices of cheese that meltet into the noodles…. yum. So every now and then I remember the noodle-days, and start dreaming about some noodle dish. Like today. My body was also craving vegetables after a rough weekend. And you might think I had too much to drink. Nope. Not alcohol-related rough, but rough in the matter of food. There were burgers, pizza, cookies, chocolate and sushi – all meat, cheese, sugar and wheat and hardly anything green. And I do need my veggies. My body doesn’t handle all that meat that well, and no one shouldn’t eat too much meat anyway. So today noodles and veggies were on the menu!

I had bought some eggnoodles and broccoli, and decided to leave the rest to whatever my fridge contained. It was like always packed with stuff, but I somehow managed to pull out some mushroom, spring leek and cabbage in addition to the broccoli. I chopped, boiled and stir fried, and that was that, and pretty good too!

Ingredients (2 people)
200 g eggnoodles
1/3 broccoli
2-3 champingons
2-3 spring leeks
2 handfuls chopped cabbage
Garlic and chili

Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the noodles, cook for a couple of minutes til it’s al dente, then remove from heat and drain. Chop the vegetables in more or less equally sized bites. Heat some oil (sunflower or corn) in a wok, and add the broccoli and mushrooms. Stir fry for a few minutes til it starts to soften and colour, then add the rest of the veggies. At the end stir in finely chopped garlic and chili.

Seasoning
1 teaspoon honey/brown sugar
1 teaspoon 5 spice powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon maizena
water

Mix everything together, and add water until it reaches desired consistency. You want it to be like a sauce, runny, yet a little syrupy and thicker. I didn’t really measure up the spices, so taste to see if it needs more of anything! When you have your tasty seasoning sauce ready, pour it over the noodles, and serve! Yumyum on a plate!

Dorie’s chocolate chip cookies

Now that autumn is here, there’s something in the air. Something besides leaves and water. Something that makes you crave things, like baked desserts, apple pies and to me also cookies! Chocolate chip cookies, to be exact. It might have something to do with the post where I found this recipe as well. Maybe. But still, I’ve had cookies on my mind for some time now, so it was time to put thoughts into action. Like every other baker, I’m on an everlasting search for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Though, I’m not sure if I really want to find the perfect recipe, I mean, the fun is searching and trying, right? Anyway, when I stumbled upon this recipe at slowlikehoney, especially with those mouthwatering photos, I knew I had to give it a try. The fact that the recipe was from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking, from my home to yours, gave me even more faith in it. I don’t have the book, but I think I have to purchase it on Ebay or something, because I’ve come across so many delicious things from that book, and everybody says it’s great. So, definitely on my wish list!

I remember when I started baking, my favourite thing to make was probable chocolate chip cookies. Only, we didn’t call them that. My mom has a recipe from her mother, and there, they’re called Old Virgins. Or Gamle Jomfruer, in Norwegian. A kinda strange name for a cookie, indeed, but despite the name, I loved baking and eating them. I remember them as crunchier than a regular ccc, but just as good! And back then, (jeez, it sounds as if I’m waaay old) I hadn’t tasted another ccc, so to me, it was the best. But now, with all my cookbooks, and all the recipes on the internet that are available, I felt that my mom’s old virgins could not possibly be the best. I mean what are the chances? But now, many recipes later, I think maybe they’re not so bad after all. They never were bad, but maybe they were actually better than I imagined. I know for sure I’ve made my batches with not-even-close-to-perfect-chocolate-chip-cookies. And wouldn’t it be nice if I came back to that recipe, after all that searching? Like closing the sircle. Hmm, interesting thought. I’ll have to make them again soon to taste what they were really like.

But that was a degression and really has nothing to do with these cookies, because they were, I think, pretty close to perfection! Even though I overbaked them slightly, they still had a chewy center and crispy edges, and large chunks of chocolate and roasted hazelnuts. Just the way I like it. And they even remained chewy, or soft, after cooling, which is not always the case. Hmm, I wonder if this could be it? When do you know, really? I mean I can’t really omit that there is a better recipe out there. But maybe I’ll never get my hands on that one, so for now, I think this is as good as it gets. Chocolate chip cookie heaven.

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie?
Origin: “Baking: From My Home To Yours” by Dorie Greenspan

Ingredients:
● 2 cups/ 4,5 dl flour
● 1 tsp. salt
● 3/4 tsp. baking soda
● 230 grams/ 2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp
● 2,3 dl/ 1 cup sugar
● 150 grams / 2/3 cup light brown sugar
● 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
● 2 large eggs
● 300 grams 12 oz. bittersweet chocolate (I didn’t use all that chocolate, half of it was enough for me)
● 2,3 dl/ 1 cup chopped walnuts (I used hazelnuts instead)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven 190 C degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment or spray with cooking spray.

2. Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda together.

3. Beat the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute until smooth (you can use a stand mixer, but I don’t have one so I used a hand mixer). Add the sugars and beat for another 2 minutes, until well blended. Beat in the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for1 minute after each egg goes in. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients in 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated. By hand with a wooden spoon, mix in the chocolate and nuts. The dough can be covered and refrigerated for up to 3 days. (Normally, I put it in the fridge for just a half an hour just to firm it up but this time I couldn’t wait. )

4. Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonful onto the baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls.

5. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time and rotating the sheet at the midway point- for 10 or 12 minutes, or until they brown at the edges and are golden in the center. Pull sheet from oven and allow the cookies to rest for 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool to room temperature.

Serve while hot with a large glass of cold milk. Ahh, the sweet smell and taste of home. Try this recipe today, you won’t be sorry.

Glutenfree apple cake

Finally, the season’s first applecake was made. At least my first. I’ve been longing for this moment, but life got in the way, I guess. It’s a sure sign that summer is over, and autumn is upon us, when applecakes and other apple creations are being made around every other home. The sweet sweet smell of cinnamon and apples sneaking around the house, meaning apple cake is on its way sure is on my top list of why I love atumn! Together with the crisp air, that I get to wear my collection of scarfs, flea markets, Norwegian apples and plums, and of course staying inside baking and munching while the rain is pouring down! Ahh, nothing better than that.

Of course, apples are available all year round, but nothing compares to the crisp and tangy Norwegian apples that are to be found only this time of year. They are perfect on their own, but they are also ideal for baking. They have enough taste and sourness to them to survive the baking process and still remain tasty. I want to taste the apples too, not just the cake.

And I had the perfect apples for this. You see, there is a park close to where I live, with apple trees….. And nobody seems to pick those apples, so I did! I mean, public apple trees, means public apples, means the apples are meant for the public (me). So my conscience is clean! Even though I tried to hide the best I could. I am a grown woman after all, with my pockets bursting with apples. Ahem.

Anyway. They maybe weren’t all ripe, but that means even more taste. Stolen apples = baking. And I had a specific recipe in mind. Applecakes are always good, but I seemed to remember this as a really nice one from my glutenfree diet a year ago. So here’s my virgin apple cake for the season – let there be many more!

Ingredients
150 g real butter
150 sugar
3 eggs
250 g glutenfree flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
About 6 apples, depending their size

Mix butter and sugar well. You can easily use brown sugar – that’s even better!
Stir in one egg at a time.
Sift flour, bakingpowder and vanilla sugar, and stir into the mixture.
Pour the batter in a greased spring form.
Cut the apples in thin slices. Put them in a bowl with loads of sugar and cinnamon, and toss them around, making sure they are all covered in sweetness. Then press them down and into the batter, as many as you can.

Bake in a preheated oven set to 175 C for about 35 minutes.
(The recipe says 30 min, but the last time I made it the center was running, but this time, after 45 minutes, it was a little overbaked, so my best guess is 35-40 minutes, but keep an eye on it! Every oven is different.)

Serve lukewarm with whipped cream, watching the rain pouring down outside. And realize, autumn isn’t too bad after all.

Chili con carne

Chili con carne. My most recent dinner discovery! And I’m so exited about it! It’s just so good in all it’s simplicity. And perfect for the season that’s upon us. (I’ve finally let go of summer. It was hard. But at least, that means I’m free to embrace autumn in all it’s delicious glory!) And this is it, chili con carne, you say? I say yeah! I’m slow. Of course I’ve heard about it before. I have recipes for it and I’ve even tasted it some time long ago, but now it’s here to stay with me.

It was a week ago, I was out on the town with two girlfriends of mine, and we were discussing food and exchanging dinner suggestions. (like the housewives we are) One of them told me that her boyfriend makes a mean chili con carne. With meat, beans, tomatoes and lots of spices – and her description, along with the look on her face, made me rethink whatever I thought of this dish. Chili con carne was coming up, this very weekend.

So, when Sunday came, I found a recipe. And after a quick glimpse I saw that this should be really fast’n easy! It was indeed. Basically all you have to do is fry the meat, crack open a few cans, some onion chopping and seasoning! And pronto, chili con carne is served. I guess you can make a fancier chili con carne that would take more time, but there is absolutely no reason for that. Because this is seriously good. And I usually don’t like ground meat dinners. So, that should be a sign of quality, right?

Ingredients
(Serves 4)

500 g ground meat
1 onion
1 can of chopped tomatoes
2 different cans of beans
garlic
chili
cinnamon
cumin
cilantro
guacamole
tortilla chips

The second time I made this I made a few adjustments, which worked just fine. Instead of a second can of beans, I added some sweetcorn. Instead of canned tomatoes, I used fresh ones and a little tomato pure and ketchup. There’s no need to measure anything up, just have fun, trust your own taste and experiment!

Instructions:
Fry the ground meat, and cut in chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Remove from pan.
Chop the garlic, chili and onion. Heat some oil and fry until it softens and turns golden.
Add the tomatoes, beans and spices. Season to taste, depending how spicy you like it. Add a cup of water, turn the heat down, and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve along with guacamole and tortilla chips.

Blueberry tartlets

Another weekend, yet another blueberry recipe. That seems to be my mantra at the time. And now that mom gave me this nice Tupperware tartlet silicone form, I needed to give it a test run and decided to combine these two. Though I have a ton of frozen blueberries in the freezer, I bought some fresh berries. The season will soon be over, and then I can use the frozen ones. But until then, I will enjoy the fresh berries for as long as possible. One of my favourite blueberry recipes is my mom’s blueberry pie. And, no, the berries will not be baked. Only the crust. The crust is filled with a cheese-cream, and blueberries are sprinkled on top. Simplicity itself, but simply delicous too! So I decided to make mini-pies or tartlets. And they were just as good as their larger relative, but a lot cuter, I have to say!

Crust
2,5 dl all purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1,5 dl unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 large egg yolk lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 200°C. Blend flour, sugar, and salt. Add butter and crumble it in, using your fingers, until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the egg yolk. Mix together until moist clumps form. Cover with cling foil and chill in the fridge for 1 hour. Cut crosswise into 6 equal rounds. Press each round over bottom and up sides of 8 cm diameter tartlet pan. Pierce crusts with fork. Bake tartlet crusts until lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Cool crusts completely on rack.

Filling
1 dl whipping cream
80 g philadelphia cream cheese (1/3 of a regular pack)
2,5 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Whip the cream stiff. Stir in the cheese until smooth. Sift the icing sugar and vanilla, and stir into the mixture. Fill the cooled crusts with the cheese filling, don’t overfill them, but leave some room for the berries.
And then, bring out the blueberries (or another berry of your choice) and add them on top. Serve and enjoy!

Daring bakers: Dobos torte

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful
of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos
Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

So, what is the Dobos Torta (or Torte)?
The Dobos Torta is a five-layer sponge cake, filled with a rich chocolate buttercream and topped with thin wedges of caramel. (You may come across recipes which have anywhere between six and 12 layers of cake; there are numerous family variations!) It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners’ and Gingerbread Makers’ Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

Finally, I got around to make the challenge for August, this very torte. I don’t know why I kept delaying it, cause it wasn’t that hard after all. It looked a bit intimidating with all those layers, and not like something I would just throw together on a regular weeknight. But with only one week left, I couldn’t wait any longer for an occasion, and decided to challenge myself. And the next day my mother invited us for dinner, so I could bring the dobos torta someplace after all. I don’t like having an entire cake within the house. There is only one end to that.

Anyway. I started by making the buttercream. Actually, I made it the day before. It was easy. I was afraid it wouldn’t thicken enough, making a creamy mess of a cake, but luckily that didn’t happen. It was perfectly creamy yet firm enough to form. Especially after cooling overnight in the fridge.

Secondly came the sponge cake layers. I initially thought I was supposed to make one sponge cake, and then divide it or cut it in many thin layers. So, the lazy baker that I am, I was a little disappointed when I realized that I would have to bake one layer at a time. A little more time consuming than I had planned, but I quickly understood that this was the way to go. Because those layers would be even more uneven if I had to cut them myself. So, patience, my friend. It will be worth it in the end. I had a little more than 1 litre of batter which was divided into 7 layers. Or I tried to divide them more or less equally, giving about 1,5 dl batter per layer. I could easily have made 10, but the first ones came out a little thick, and 7 was more than enough for me. So when the last one was done, I put them on a rack to cool.

Then the fun part could begin: assembling the cake! I took the chilled buttercream out of the fridge, and separated it in 7 sections. I took the thickest sponge layer as my bottom layer and spread one section of buttercream evenly over it. Then I took another sponge cake layer followed by a layer of buttercream and repeated this until I was done. I saved a little buttercream to cover the sides and even out eventual lumps.

The caramel was made quite easily and quickly. Well, it could have been, but I messed it up a bit. My first attempt was burned. I decorated the cake with it before tasting it, but once I had a taste I realized it tasted to much burned, so I had to remove it from the cake and make another batch. Caramelize sugar, remove from heat and add butter and lemon juice. Seems easy enough. But this time the sugar caramelized into lumps and wouldn’t melt, so I had to sift it to get out the liquid caramel. But it came out a lot better, not rock solid, and without the taste and look of burnt sugar. I poured – eh sifted -the caramel into a springform, and cut out 12 slices. When it had cooled and set completely, I put them on top of the cake. (And since I destroyed the first caramel which was attached to a sponge cake layer, I didn’t bother to make one single layer of cake to pour the caramel over. So my top layer was all caramel.)

And it turned out looking quite good! Especially when you cut into the cake and see all the layers hiding inside. Makes you feel like a pro. Cause, as much as I love to bake, I tend to be quite lazy, I want quick results, so I avoid things that takes a little more time. Like this. But thanks to DB I get to do this too! So a big thank you for a great challenge! And of course I should add that it tasted great too. I loved the buttercream, and caramel is always good. I received many compliments for this one! My family thought it looked impressive when I placed it on the table, but they didn’t know what was hiding inside the cake. And once they cut through it and saw all the layers, they were even more impressed. So, if you’re looking to impress – this is a great option.

Once again, thanks for a great challenge!

Lentil & pepita salad

My boyfriend is working late again. Meaning he won’t eat dinner at home. Meaning I have to make dinner for one. For me. But hey, that’s ok! I can make things he doesn’t like, but that I love. Like fish. Though I never do that actually. To much hazzle. Or I can make a vegetarian dinner without anyone searching through the plate looking for meat. And I almost always end up eating vegetarian when I’m alone. Something simple I can throw together, usually with ingredients I already have. I don’t bother to make something fancy and time consuming when it just for me, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be flavourful! Oh no, it can be just as good. Or better.

So I thought salad today. Cleaning my hermetics pantry the other day I found a lot of different beans and lentils, and figured I could use some of them. I picked the lentils. For some inspiration I searched 101cookbooks.com, a beautiful blog with lots of great recipes for healthy dinner options, which was what I was looking for, and found this recipe.. I took a quick look at the ingredients, and saw that I had about everything needed. Not that it really mattered, cause I didn’t really follow the recipe, but it was a nice starting point. Since I don’t have a morter, yet, I didn’t make the pesto. I just chopped the cilantro and garlic instead. Then I roasted the pepitas, opened the can of lentils and gave them a good rinse. I also added some slices of pear. And I replaced the salad with spinach. And with a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, this turned out great! Really tasty with a lovely crunch provided by the pepitas.

I love to eat this kind of food. You can feel it does you good. All you need is a can of lentils, some pepitas and whatever greens you feel like throwing in. Good for me and good for you.

Norwegian waffles

Sunday afternoon. What to do, what to do. It’s raining. I mean it’s really raining. Seriously raining. Non stop, pouring down, like it only can in this city. I almost forgot how wet it can get here. But it’s Sunday, so I don’t need to leave the house under any circumstances whatsoever. That would have to be to get some missing ingredient for whatever I decided to bake, because these days are made for staying inside baking. Well, I can’t say there was much baking involved after all. I decided to make waffles, because I had all the necessary ingredients. Even though the shops are literally around the corner from my flat, and it would take me no more than 5 minutes to get there and back, I wouldn’t go out today. It was that wet. So waffles it was.

That’s the great thing about waffles. You can use whatever you have in the fridge. It comes out good anyhow. And it’s a Norwegian tradition. Everyone makes it, everyone likes it, and not a week goes by without a waffle being eaten in the average Norwegian home. And every home has their own recipe, so there are many variations. Soured milk or sour cream is common, but can be replaced by fresh milk. Whatever you have really. It’s a nice way to clean up your fridge. Get expired products to use or use that last dab of milk/youghurt/ice cream/buttermilk or other dairy you might have. I had some eggyolks and expired youghurt waiting to perform, so into the waffles they went. I usually don’t use youghurt or buttermilk in my waffles, but that depends on how you like them. I like my waffles a little crunchy, so I add a little water, that makes them nice and crispy. And the rest is up to you! But if you need a waffle guideline, it goes something like this. Or you can try this so called perfect waffle recipe (in norwegian)

2 eggs
3 dl flour
2 dl melted butter
½ teaspoon baking powder
2 dl milk
2 dl vann
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
some sugar – depends how sweet you want them.

Stir everything together, and let it stand for about 30 minutes. Fry in a preheated waffle iron, preferably heartshaped. (And whether there should be 4 or 5 hearts is an eternal discussion, but there should be 5. End of discussion.) Spoon 2/3 cup of batter onto the preheated waffle iron at a time. Close the iron and cook until steam no is no longer coming out and the waffle is browned. Serve with butter and sugar (my favourite) or jam and sour cream and a cup of strong coffee. Mmm. Who needs to go out?