Raspberry crumble muffins

First of all let me give you a warning. These muffins are not for the faint at heart. I repeat, not. But they are dangerously tasty. Like most bad things are… Still interested? Thought so!

This is actually a TWD recipe, or Dorie Greenspan anyway. But originally it’s a crumble cake with blueberries. I made that about a year ago, (blog post here), and fell in love. Oh my. It was so sinfully good! That thick buttery crumb. The moist cake, and the berries. What’s not to love? Did I mention the buttery crumb? Yes I did. Anyways. My sister called me this morning and invited herself and her daughter along with my mother on a visit today. So I saw this as a great opportunity to remake this wonderful creation! I cannot be trusted alone with goodies like this, so when 3 girls were coming my way, I thought I could push some of the calories onto them. Not that I’m the calorie counting type. I mean, take a look at the recipe. But like I said, me and cakes? Just the two of us? I see trouble. I see myself becoming fat in a near future.

This time I decided to use raspberries instead. I have loads of both in the freezer, but somehow I find it a lot easier to use the blueberries. But this seemed like somehing that would turn out well with raspberries too, so that’s what I used. I left out the nutmeg and cinnamon too. I didn’t want any taste interruptions. Also, just to take a walk on the wiiild side, I made muffins instead of a loaf. I know! Totally crazy. Besides, I just bought these overly cute pink polka dotted muffin forms. (And this way it’s just different enough to post it as a new recipe…hehehe)

Blueberry Crumb Cake going raspberry cupcake
(Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, pages 192-193)
8 servings (1 loaf or 12 muffins)

Crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ cup sugar
1/3 cup (packed) light brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped walnuts

Cake Batter
1 pint (2 cups) blueberries (preferably fresh, or frozen, not thawed)
2 cups plus 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2/3 cup sugar
Grated zest of ½ lemon or ¼ orange
¾ stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. ( 175 C) Butter an 8-inch square pan and put it on a baking sheet.

To make the crumbs: Put all the ingredients except the nuts in a food processor and pulse just until the mixture forms clumps and curds and holds together when pressed. Scrape the topping into a bowl, stir in the nuts and press a piece of plastic against the surface. Refrigerate until needed. (Covered well, the crumb mix can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)

To make the cake: Using your fingertips, toss the berries and 2 teaspoons of the flour together in a small bowl just to coat the berries and set aside. Whisk together the remaining 2 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Working in the bowl of a stand mixer or in another large bowl, rub the sugar and zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the butter and, with the paddle or whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter at medium speed until light, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, beating for about 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla extract. Don’t be concerned if the batter looks curdled – it will soon smooth out. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixture and the buttermilk alternately, the flour in 3 parts and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients). You will have a thick, creamy batter. With a rubber spatula, gently stir in the berries. Scrape the batter into the buttered pan or muffin forms and smooth the top gently with the spatula. Pull the crumb mix from the fridge and, with your fingertips, break it into pieces. There’s no need to try to get even pieces – these are crumbs they’re supposed to be lumpy and bumpy and every shape and size. Just scatter the crumbs over the batter in a more or less even manner.

Bake the very low caloric cake for 55 to 65 minutes, (muffins for 25-30 minutes) or until the crumbs are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. It might seem underbaked, but if the crumbs are golden they should be ready. My muffins felt very runny, but I had to take them out not to burn them. But if you have the willpower to let them cool for a bit, they will be perfect. Firmer but deliciously sticky. We ate them with a spoon… Transfer the cake/muffins to a rack and cool just until it is warm or until it reaches room temperature.

Like all good coffee cakes, this needs nothing but coffee. But seeing my niese drinking milk with it, I guess that works too. The point is, you have to neutralize them. It’s best served the day it is made, but if you should be lucky enough to have anything left, it can be wrapped well and kept overnight at room temperature. For you to enjoy the next day. As breakfast, lunch, for coffee or dessert with a scoop of ice cream. Anything goes with these babies.

Buckwheat noodles with greens

Fridays have lately become my vegetarian day. My boyfriend’s off to play football, so he’s not eating dinner. Which leaves me alone with the ever so hard desicion – what to have for dinner. But somehow it’s a lot easier when it’s just for yourself. You don’t have to make a proper dinner – unless you want to – and of course, you can toss together whatever you like without having to compromise. And I quite often have to, as does my boyfriend, since our dinner preferations are very unlike. He needs meat. I need veggies. He likes traditional. I like modern. So when I make dinner for myself only – I opt vegetarian. And light. Most often a salad or something. I don’t need that meat. But last week I bought a pack of soba noodles and decided to make something of that.

I’m a big Nigella fan, and in her book Forever Summer there’s a recipe with soba noodles that I’ve been wanting to try ever since I got the book. But until now, soba noodles have been impossible to track down in this city, so I more or less forgot about it. But only more or less. You can never really forget a recipe that gets to you. Especially with a picture and Nigella’s description along. So today was the day that I finally could give it a try! Since this was my dinner I added some sugar peas and cucumber as well. And I replaced the sesame seeds with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I’m glad to say it was perfect. Luscious cold sesamy flavoured noodles. With crispy green vegetables and roasted seeds. Perfect solo dinner, I must say. (Whereas my boyfriend would have considered this as an appetizer.) But he’s gone. I’m here, and I’m satisfied.

Soba noodles with sesame seeds
Serves 4 as part of a meal – or 2 when eaten as they are.

75g sesame seeds
salt
250g soba noodles
2 teaspoons rice vinegar
5 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons honey
2 teaspoons sesame oil
5 spring onions

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan over a high heat until they look golden brown, and tip them into a bowl.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add some salt. Put in the soba noodles and cook them for about 8 minutes (or according to packet instructions) until they are tender but not mushy. Rinse with cold water until the noodles have cooled.

In the bowl you are going to serve them in, mix the vinegar, soy sauce, honey and oil. Then finely slice the spring onions and put them into the bowl with the cooled, drained noodles and mix together thoroughly before adding the sesame seeds and tossing again.

Leave the sesame seed noodles for about half an hour to let the flavours develop, although this is not absolutely necessary or sometimes even possible according Nigella. And I agree. Not necessary. Not possible. I’ve been waiting for this long enough!

New old plates

There hasn’t been much blogging or baking lately. I realize that. I’m just trying to eat my way through our pantry and our freezer, before I fill it up with more stuff. But now that I have these beautiful new plates, I have to put something onto them soon.

I was at the salvation army shop yesterday. And I don’t think I’ve ever entered that shop without buying something. There’s always something. Most often – a lot of things. I love second hand shops, flea markets and the salvation army shop. It’s so much more satisfying finding something there than in – let’s say – IKEA. Not that I don’t love Ikea, but when you find something in a second hand shop, it’s so much more personal. You feel grateful and lucky for finding that one special item, and hold on to it like it was your baby. Well, maybe you don’t, but that’s my shopping style, anyway. I’ve been to one too many flea markets. That’s what 9 years in the school band does to you. It’s in my blood. My dna. I’m becoming one of those who lines up 2 hours before it opens, with my knitting, pushing my way through the queue running like a maniac to the kitchenware… No, I’m not quite there. Yet.

Anyway. Yesterday was no exeption. I found two beutiful plates that I just had to have. Especially the flower-printed one had my name on it. And raised in a flea market, I know to turn the plate to see where it’s made and what it is. And this was Figgjo Flint. My favourite! A Norwegian porcelain company whose older/retro products have become very popular. The other plate was Swedish. Don’t remember the name, and I’m too lazy to get up. Besides I bought a pack of napkin rings. Brand new!

So next thing: food. I promise. These plates – filled with something – are coming to a blog near you. Soon.

Roasted broccoli and prawns

I just had this for dinner – and I could not believe how something so simple could be so tasty! Broccoli never tasted better. Well I like broccoli either way, but I knew this was a hit when even my boyfriend loved this dinner, despite it’s health factor! “This broccoli munch-munch- is so tasty! That was kind of surprising!” Those were his exact words. Now that’s a success. Another dish added to my repertoire.

I spotted this dish on the amateur gourmet, probably the funniest food blog there is. I was very intrigued about this way of preparing broccoli. That was new to me!The broccoli turns crispy and caramelized, adding Middle Eastern spices (cumin seeds, coriander seeds), and then prawns… well so few and simple ingredients can acutally transform into a meal. A very good meal. Plus it couldn’t be easier. I followed the recipe, but didn’t measure anything up. No need to. Go with the flow. Plus I added some sugar peas and zucchini as well.

Roasted broccoli and prawns

Heat the oven to 210 C (450)

On a large cookie sheet, toss together 1 broccoli cut up into florets (medium-sized. Small enough to get the sides nice and caramelized, but you still want some al-dente resistance!)
2 Tbs olive oil,
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds (or 1/2 tsp. ground)
1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp. ground)
1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper and 1/8th tsp hot chili powder.
Spread into a single layer and pop into the oven for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss together the prawns, shelled and deveined, with 2 Tbs olive oil, lemon zest from one lemon, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a bowl. When the broccoli’s been in the oven 10 minutes, add the shrimp to the broccoli and toss carefully.

Roast another 10 minutes, tossing once halfway through, until the broccoli is “tender and golden around the edges.”

And that’s your dinner!
I served it in a big bowl of rice.
So simple. So delicious.

Caramelized banana cake

I never buy bananas for eating. Quite logically, since I don’t like them. But what I do like, is anything banana flavoured, exept bananas. Weird, I know. Banana bread, banana ice cream, banana fudge, banana milkshake, banana cake – you get the picture. It just transforms into something way better. So I never end up with overripe bananas by accident, “forcing” me to make banana cake, because I don’t buy them in the first place. Which is kind of sad, because I love banana cake, and you’re excused to make it when your bananas turn black. But when life doesn’t give you overripe bananas – go out and get and get them! So when I spotted a big bag of brown-turning-black bananas at the supermarket for a give-away-price, I immediately visiualized this banana cake, and bought them. This was my sign! The supermarket aka life gave me over ripe bananas for this purpose. I’m sure. Well, not a moment too soon. I bookmarked this recipe a long time ago, but for the lack of bananas in my life, making it just never happened. The recipe is from J’s Kitchen - a beautiful blog with just as beautiful photos and mouthwatering food. She made 3 versions of this banana cake, I decided on the last attempt which she said was the best. Although they all look good to me. She also said it wasn’t very sweet, but I thought it was more than sweet enough. At least for breakfast. The perfect monday morning breakfast. I actuallt skipped the gym this morning and replaced it with banana cake, quality butter and cinnamon coffee. It was the right thing to do.

Caramelised Banana Cake

70 + 10 gr butter
40 + 40 gr caster sugar
2 bananas thinly sliced
2 eggs
180 gr plain flour
20 gr cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
80 ml milk

Preheat oven at 180C and prepare baking pan.
Caramelise the bananas: in a nonstick frying pan, heat 40 gr sugar and 1 tablespoon water until it starts to caramelise. Add 10 gr butter. Let the butter fully melt, then add sliced banana. Cook until softens – mash while cooking. Cool.
In a bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, and baking soda.
Beat 70 gr butter and 40 gr caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one by one, mixing well after each addition. Add cooled caramelised banana.
Fold in flour mixture alternating with the milk in 3 additions, starting and ending with flour mixture.
Pour into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes (depending on pan size).

(The original recipe says makes 4 mini loafs. I made one regular loaf instead, and baked it for 40 minutes. It could probably have baked a little longer, but I was hungry and I like slightly gooey cakes.)

Peshawari Naan

I cannot explain how much I love Indian food. I eat it on a very regular basis. Weekly, actually. Luckily, my boyfriend shares my enthusiasm, so it’s very easy to decide on Indian when we want something tasty for the weekend. We’ve both developed great skills, if I may say so, in preparing Indian food at home. Practise makes perfect I guess! But there is one thing that’s been missing in our very private Indian restaurant. And that is naan. When we go out to eat Indian, like most other people, we order naan. But not the plain kind. No, no, no. The peshawari kind, also known as sweet naan. It’s like regular naan bread, but with a sweet filling of raisins, nuts and sugar.

If you haven’t tried it, I encourage you to! Next time swap the regular naan for some peshawari goodness. That sweet taste goes so well together with the spicy Indian dishes. I cannot recall exactly how I discovered it, or when or how the transmission from plain naan to peshawari went, but I guess I read about it. And since I like all things sweet, I imagined this would be delicious, and quite right, this is seriously good. And ever since I took my first bite into peshawari naan, there was no going back. Naan would never be the same. From now on naan to me equals peshawari naan.

But at home, we can’t order naan. And I’ve always thought of it as too much work, though I’ve been wanting to make it for years. So until now, naan has been replaced with garlic bread. If I only knew how ridiculously easy it would be to make naan, (I thought I would need a spesific oven, maybe some strange flour and it took me quite a while to figure out that the mystery filling in sweet naan was actually things as common as raisins and nuts) I would have started a long time ago. But better late then never. My new year’s resolution works! (I marked several recipes I’ve been meaning to try – naan beeing one of them)
It was so good – the texture was just right, and the filling….. Ohhh my. From now on, there will always be peshawari naan in this household. Ready for any Indian dinner!

I found a recipe from my beloved book The Complete Book of Indian Cooking by Veronica Sperling. Probably one of my favourite cookbooks. I also used it for the lamb pasanda I made. But the recipe said not to fill the naans, but that’s what I wanted, so I found a recipe on BBC by Anjum Anand as well. So my naans were something in between, I guess. I used almonds instead of pistachios for instance. Here’s the BBC recipe:

Ingredients
250g/8¾oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
110-130ml/4½fl oz milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
30g/1oz flaked almonds
1 tbsp butter, melted, for serving

Filling
70g/2½oz pistachios, shells removed (or almonds)
35g/1¼oz raisins
1½ tsp caster sugar

Directions
Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Mix the milk and oil together in a separate bowl. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients.
Slowly mix together the dough by working from the centre and incorporating the flour from the edges of the well until you have a smooth, soft dough. Knead for 8-10 minutes, adding a little flour if the dough is too sticky.

Place in an oiled bowl, cover and leave in a warm place for at least an hour, until the dough has doubled in size. Then knock back and form into five equal-sized balls.

For the filling, pulse together the pistachios, raisins and sugar in a food processor until the mixture forms a coarse powder. Divide into five equal portions.

Preheat the grill to its highest setting and place a heavy baking sheet on the top shelf to heat.
Roll out each of the five portions of dough balls into thick circles. Fill half of each circle with one portion of the filling leaving about a one-inch margin around the edge. Wet the dough around the edges with a little water and fold each circle in half to enclose the filling. Pinch the dough around the edges to close.

Gently roll out each naan into a teardrop or oval shape. Prick with a fork and place the naan on the hot baking sheet and grill for about 1-2 minutes until there are nice brown spots on the surface. Brush with the melted butter and serve hot.

Pea and prawn risotto

I really don’t have any new year’s resolutions.
Healthier better life? Don’t think so. I mean, why bother, we all know how that eventually turns out. Nah, I’m content with the way things are, so I’ll just continue down that road.

But then it hit me – why not make some fun resolutions? Resolutions that you can actually look forward to! And what would that possibly be, you say. Food, I say. Of course. I already have a list of bookmarked recipes that I want to make. And I have lots and lots of cookbooks, which I honestly don’t use that much. I like to read them, though. Sit down with a cup of tea, a nibble and a cookbook, and read it, yes – as a novel, but I rarely use them as a source of recipes. For that I have the internet. Damn Tastespotting. It’s hard to ignore.

So I decided.

New year’s resolution 1: I will try out more new recipes.
This is escpecially dinner-wise I’m thinking. I tend to make the same things over and over again, but with all my cookbooks, not to mention all the food blogs out there, there should be plenty of inspiration for me to shake things up a bit.

New year’s resolution 2: I will plough through one of my cookbooks.
As often as possible, but at least once a month, I’ll pick a recipe from the chosen book and make it.
Haven’t decided which one yet.

And starting now, I present to you, Jamie Oliver’s Pea & Prawn risotto. (Alright, I found the recipe online, but I’ve never made it before!) It was absolutely delicious. I’m a huge risotto fan to start with, and adding prawns – it had to be a hit. And it was. I loved the sweetness the peas provided, together with the garlicky prawns and buttery risotto…. What can I say. This is so added to my dinner repertoire! I’m looking forward to future favourite recipes beeing discovered this year!

Pea & Prawn risotto

Ingredients (serves 2)
200g Arborio rice
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
half an onion, finely chopped
small glass of white wine
1 pint chicken stock
150g cooked king prawns
50g frozen peas
30g freshly grated parmesan cheese
2-3 knobs of butter
salt and black pepper

As usually I didn’t have wine – but don’t leave it out if you have some!
I also left out the parmesan. In my mind that didn’t seem to go well with the prawns! But I’m not sure… Let me know if it turns out good!

Heat the chicken stock in a pan to a very gentle simmer.
Heat the olive oil in a large pan with a knob of butter. Gently fry the garlic and onion over a medium heat, until the onion is softened and almost transparent. Add the rice and coat with the olive oil, garlic and onion mix. Cook for 2 minutes.

Pour in the white wine and cook until the liquid is absorbed. Once absorbed, add a spoon of the simmering stock and cook until absorbed. Continue until all of the stock is absorbed and the rice is al dente. Stir in the remaining butter, the parmesan cheese, prawns and peas and seasoning. Cook gently for a minute or so to warm the prawns and cook the peas.
Sprinkle with maldon salt and freshly grounded pepper, and serve.

Oreo peanutbutter chocolate torte

I cannot tell you how long I’ve been dreaming about this cake. When it first appeared to me, I was what you could call cake-struck. I mean, just take a look at this. It looked sooo good, and was immediately bookmarked on my baking-list. 10 syllables titles are always a good sign. But I began to realize that it would be a little too much to throw together on a regular weekday, just because of a sweet craving. It was even too much for a weekend dessert – after all, there are just 2 of us in this household. And though we’ve eaten our way through entire cakes before, this was different. Just a quick look at the ingredients, (32 oreos, 2,5 cups heavy cream, 350 g cream cheese and 1,5 cups peanut butter….to name some) I knew 2 things about this cake. 1: this had to be good. I mean, oreos, peanut butter, sugar, cream cheese and chocolate – how could so many calories possibly fail? and 2: this was a cake for special occacions and more than 2 people.

So it was put on hold. For a long time. The right occasion never seemed to appear. Until now! New Years Eve! What better day for some cake-extravaganza? Maybe I should have opted for something lighter after dinner, but screw that, I was making this cake while I had the chance. If not now, when would I ever make this cake? Well my birthday I guess, but that’s far away, and this had been put off for far too long already. Finally, I would be making the delicious oreo-peanutbutter-torte that I first set my eyes on at annies-eats, but originates from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours. (Which I’ve tried to purchase online, but seems impossible as Amazon will not ship this book to Norway, so I guess I have to travel myself to the US, go to a bookstore, purchase this book, and return. Unless anyone out there will help me getting this cookbook?) Until then – I always have the internet. Here’s the recipe!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Torte

For the crust:
32 Oreo cookies, finely processed into crumbs
5 1/3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Small pinch of salt

For the crunch:
1 1/4 cups salted peanuts, finely chopped, divided (for the filling, crunch and topping)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. espresso powder
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

For the filling:
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
12 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups creamy peanut butter (not natural)
2 tbsp. whole milk

For the topping:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

(I would maybe increse the amount of oreos- yes, really- as I found it a little hard to cover the sides completely. And I think I would leave out the cinnamon next time, I don’t think that flavour blended well together with the rest. But that’s just my humble opinion.)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F. Combine the oreos, salt with melted and cooled butter. Crush everything together until it resembles small crumbs. I found it best to put the oreos in a plastic bag and go at it with a rolling pin! When you’re done, press everything into a springform pan covering the bottom and the sides. Freeze the crust for 10 minutes, then bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack completely before filling.

To make the crunch, combine everything in a bowl, but using only 1/2 cup of the chopped peanuts. Toss with a fork to mix, and set aside.

To prepare the filling whip 2 cups of the cream until it holds medium peaks. Beat in 1/4 cup of confectioners’ sugar and whip until the cream holds medium-firm peaks. Scrape the cream into a separate bowl and refrigerate until needed.

Wipe out (do not wash) the mixer bowl, replace the whisk with the paddle attachment, and beat the cream cheese with the remaining 1 cup of confectioners’ sugar on medium speed until the cream cheese is satiny smooth. Beat in the peanut butter, whole milk, and 1/4 cup of the chopped peanuts until well combined.

Using a large rubber spatula, gently stir in about 1/4 of the whipped cream just to lighten the mousse. Still working with the spatula, stir in the crunchy peanut mixture, then fold in the remaining whipped cream. Scrape the mousse into the crust, mounding and smoothing the top. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight. (Eventually put it in the freezer for a frozen version, or to speed the freezing process, as I did.)

To finish the torte, put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave the bowl over the water just until the chocolate softens and starts to melt, about 3 minutes; remove the bowl from the saucepan. Bring the 1/2 cup of cream to a full boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and, working with a rubber spatula, very gently stir together until the ganache is completely blended and smooth.

Pour the ganache over the torte, smoothing with a metal icing spatula. Scatter the remaining peanuts over the top and chill to set the topping, at least 20 minutes. When the ganache is firm, remove the sides of the springform pan. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Or you can freeze it and thaw in the fridge a few hours before serving. I decided to give mine a little freeze as I think it’s much easier to slice when frozen – besides, I like slightly frozen cakes. Either way, it’s delicious. Satiny smooth mousse like or the colder version; snickers ice cream-torte, only with added oreos! You have to try this some time. I know I’ll be making this again! This is what I call cake. Or torte. What’s the difference anyway? Who cares. Capitol C, capitol A, capitol K, capitol E. CAKE. Cakealicious is what this is. Or torte. This is confusing. Next subject, please!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to photograph it until today. I forgot to bring my camera on New Years Eve, but luckily there was a lot cake left. That much that me, my mother and my sister each got 1/4 cake to share with our respective men… So needless to say, today, 3 days later, after spending too much time in room temperature plus travelling around the city, through the snow, beeing sliced and shared, it lost some of it’s glory. But not its taste. So don’t judge by it’s slightly messy apperance! Make this cake as soon as you get the chance – you will regret if you don’t. Be realistic and have only this new year’s resolution – make this in 2010.

Merry Christmas everyone

So, the day we’ve been anticipating and preparing for for days, weeks and months, is finally over. It’s all so strange, I think. All that work we put down in baking, buying presents and carefully wrapping them, ends in one day. Well, I know Christmas isn’t only Christmas Eve, but that is the main part after all. I always feel a little empty when it’s over, but it only lasts for a little while, and then I realize there are more days off work to wander around the house in comfy clothes, eating cookies and candy, and go for a walk to get some air and work up some appetite for next meal!

Christmas was perfect. I celebrated with my parents, my two sisters, my brother in law, my overly cute niese and my grandmother. And we had a white snowy Christmas, which is not the case every year. And I got a lot of nice things, many food-oriented items, of course. I’m a foodie, after all. So here’s some of it:

1: Turron and nougat-ish chocolate from Spain. My sister is currently studying in Valencia, and brought home these delicious sweets. I know it’s good, cause my other sister has been living in Spain and introduced me to this. So thanks sis!

2: Gingerbread cutters and porcelain pie form. I wished for gingerbread cutters and got what I wanted. 3 sets of cutters… So I should be more than ready for next Christmas! The pie pan I got from my mother in law, and I know that will come in handy as I looove pie – in any shape. And I only had a small one from before.

3: Crème brulée kit; including heart-shaped ramekins, a blow torch and gas. Crème brulée here I come!
Thanks sis! (my other sister)

4: Tea, Cinnamon-flavoured coffee and pepper & chili jelly! Also from my little sister.

I also got a toaster from my mother and exclusive chocolate from my best friend! All in all, great presents!

Vørterbrød (Wort bread)

Vørterbrød is the Norwegian name for wort bread, apparently. I really didn’t know how to translate this, or what to call this bread, until now, that I found a definition of what vørter beer, one of the main ingredients, is.

Vørter beer (wort beer) is a non-alcoholic, unfermented drink produced through the carbonation and sterilisation of wort made from malt, hops and water. It is thus, per definition, not a beer and should not be labelled beer, but was given a dispensation to this in the Norwegian Beer Act of 1912 regarding production and taxation of beer. The reason for this is found in the history of Vørter beer.

Vørterbrød is a type of the traditional Christmas bread with raisins like panettone, stollen and other variations that seems to be part of many different Christmas cuisines around the world. Here in Norway there are two kinds: Christmas bread and wort bread (or cake, as some call it) The Christmas bread is made of wheat, raisins and sometimes succades.

Wort bread, one the other hand, is made of part wheat, part rhye, raisins and spices like anise, ground cloves, cinnamon and pepper. All good Christmas things into one. It has a much richer taste, and maybe it takes some getting used to, because it tastes a lot more than the ordinary Christmas bread. More spices, more syrup, more dense, more of everything and a lot better in my opinion! I love it. And the smell…..Oh, the smell. Lovely licorice-like and a dark brown colour from the rhye and the syrup.

You have to try it. Warm thick slices straight from the oven with a thick layer of good quality butter. Or a slice of Norwegian brown cheese – gjetost, if you’re into that. I’m not, but a hear this is the perfect combo. Well, what do you know. I’m back from my divine lunch, and I have a confession to make. I’m a brown cheese convert. That wasn’t bad at all. It was delicious. I, a non-brown cheese eater, can recommend brown cheese on wort bread. It’s delish. The bread is quite spicy, well not spicy, but filled with spices and flavour. And the cheese is very sweet, so together: A match made in Christmas heaven.

I found a recipe on the net that I was going to use. For some reason, I started to flip through the pages of one of my breadbaking-cookbooks from the bakery Åpent Bakeri, and found a recipe there. To simplify, meaning not having to write down the recipe from the net or dragging the computer into the kitchen, I decided on this recipe instead. And when the dough was done and I was done kneading, it hit me: The wort beer! I forgot it! I read through the recipe to check, and to my surprise, no wort beer in the wort bread recipe… That is strange. Well, at least I didn’t do nothing wrong. So I guess I’ll have to use it next Christmas. Or sooner. Or else: One more year in the fridge. (yes, I had some left from last year.)

Vørterbrød
250 g raisins
5 dl water
600 g wheat
400 g rhye
10 g (2 ts) sea salt
100 sugar
50 g yeast
100 g syrup
0.5 ts ground pepper
0.5 ts cinnamon
0.5 ts ginger
0.5 ts ground cloves
0.5 ts ground anise
50 g butter

(You’re supposed to soak the raisins for one day, but I didn’t and it tasted fine, so you can leave that part. I also left out ginger and pepper. Didn’t have any and it was too snowy outside…)

Directions
Add sugar, egg, butter, salt, cardamom and 2 cups flour; mix well. Stir in raisins and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough.

Turn onto a floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Use as little flour as you can, the dough should be a little sticky. Place in a big bowl covered with clingfilm. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down and divide in half. Shape each portion into breads. (I made one bread and the rest buns. Of course you can make only buns too, if you prefer) Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour. Brush the breads with one whisked egg.

Bake at 200 degrees C or 395 degrees F for 40-50 minutes or until dark golden brown. Cool on wire racks. Serve while still warm with butter, cheese or jam. Have yourself a merry little Christmas moment.