Gulerodsbrud - Carrot Rolls

Gulerodsbrud - Carrot Rolls

These rolls are so good and delicious. The carrots and sunflower seeds elevates this otherwise ordinary roll to an interesting and delicious treat. I first made these in 2009, when I found the recipe on the Danish Food blog "Newyorkerbyheart", and they have been some of my go-to recipes for rolls for brunch. Originally the recipe is from Claus Meyers “bagebog" - a book with a lot of basic recipes, a book I'm trying to "bake" my way through.

Gulerodsbrud is best the day you bake them, but I like them slightly toasted, or reheated in the oven. Just spread on some butter, a good cheese or my favorite right now, gooseberry jam. 

This time I added some whole wheat flour (20%) to change it up a bit. Next time I'll add a larger percentage, because it was still white rolls, and I was aiming for a healthier bread.

Makes 12 big rolls

Ingredients:

• 50 g live yeast (I used 2 packs fleischmann's active dry yeast)

• 500 ml warm water

• 800 g all-purpose flour

• 200 g whole wheat flour

• 75 g sugar

• 15 g sea salt

• 75 g butter, room temperature

• 2 eggs

• 150 g sunflower seeds (I only had 122 g - but I worked fine anyway)

• 4 carrots, peeled and grated

Directions:

In a large bowl mix warm water 105-110℉ (40-45℃) sugar and yeast. If you use dry yeast, wait until it starts foaming, before adding anything else.

Mix in salt and the flour’s until combined. Add butter and kneed the dough until it’s smooth and elastic, 6-8 minutes if kneading by hand. (I kneaded the dough on the kitchen counter, to better stretch the dough.) Cover the dough with a dish towel and allow dough to rise for about one hour.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. 

Make a well in the center of the dough and pour in the cracked eggs, sunflower seeds and grated carrots into the well. Close the dough over the filled well by pulling the dough edges over the well. 

Using a dough scraper, or a large knife, cut up the dough into pieces to mix in the filling. Keep doing this, making sure to scrape the filling into the dough, until you have mixed in the filling. This is a very messy process, but it is worth it in the end. The dough won’t be uniform, but It doesn’t matter, the rolls will also be uneven in shape, but they are really good anyway.

Divide the dough in 12 pieces and place the sticky dough onto the baking sheets. Let the rolls rise for about one hour. 

Preheat oven to 430℉ (220℃). 

Bake the gulerodsbrud fort about 15 minutes or until golden. Let cool completely on a wire rack before serving.

Enjoy.

Lemonade

Lemonade

Lemonade is the taste of summer. This sweet and sour refreshing drink is not just for kids. We have a Meyer Lemon bush in our yard, it surpluses me the lemons for most of the year, but it might run out this year if I keep making lemonade. 

I had the best  lemonade on my very first trip to San Francisco. We were sitting at a restaurant in Sausalito on a terraces over the water, a sunny January day, overlooking San Francisco - it was perfection. I spend this afternoon on my terrace reading and sipping lemonade.  

Here is my version of the perfect summer drink.

1 pitcher full 

Ingredients:

Simple syrup:

• ½ cup (1 dl) water
• ½ cup (1 dl) sugar

Lemonade:

• 3-5 lemons, the juice of (I used Meyer lemons)
• 3-4 cups water for diluting
• ice cubes

Direction:

Make the simple syrup first, by heating the water and sugar, while stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. Let the syrup cool down.

Juice the lemons. Pour lemon juice into a pitcher with water some simple syrup and ice cubes. Add more water and syrup to the lemonade to your taste

Enjoy.

Kiksekage - Chocolaty Biscuit Cake

Kiksekage - Chocolaty Biscuit Cake

Kiksekage is an old classic non-bake cake very popular in the 70's and 80's in Denmark. But it's not a Danish cake. It's actually a German cake called "Kalte Hund" or cold dog, and the British has a similar cake, the chocolate fridge cake.

My chocolate loving husband, asked if I could try to make a kiksekage, and I was somewhat reluctant, chocolate is not my thing, but I promised to look into kiksekage. My only experience with Kiksekage, was the one my mom made, and to be honest, I didn't care for it. Weird - I loved everything sweet back then.

A traditional kiksekage is made with coconut oil (palmin), eggs and cocoa powder, but why not make the cake with premium ingredients. It's not like good chocolate is hard to find. During my research for the perfect kiksekage, I found Lone Kjærs recipe. This one was made with condensed milk instead of eggs and she used about ⅓ of the butter other recipes called for. So I decided to go with Lone's recipe.

Ingredients:

• 300 g dark chocolate (I used Valrhona 61%)
• 1 can condensed milk. 400 g
• 35 g butter
• 1 orange, the zest of
• about 20 squared vanilla biscuits
• sprinkle: chopped pistachios

Directions:

Line a loaf pan (9x5 inch or 22x12 cm) with parchment paper (Spray the inside of the pan with cooking spray, so the parchment sticks to the pan, don’t spray the inside of the parchment paper). You can also use plastic wrap to line the loaf pan. Chop the chocolate coarsely and put it in a small saucepan with condensed milk and butter. Let the mixture to melt over low heat. Be careful not to burn the mixture, stir occasionally until the mixture is homogeneously, then remove the pan from the heat and mix in orange zest. Pour a thin layer of chocolate in the bottom of the pan. Add then a layer of biscuits. Continue to layer chocolate and biscuits until you have 4 layers in total, ending with a chocolate layer. Sprinkle with the chopped nuts and cover the cake with a piece of parchment paper. Store the cake in refrigerator at least 4 hours before serving.

Serving:

Flip the cake out onto a pretty platter, remove any parchment paper. Do this about 10-15 minutes before serving. Slice the cake with a sharp knife. Tip: heat the knife in hot water, to ease the cutting.

Enjoy.

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise comes in jars or tubes, well it did in my house. I knew how to make it, but I never saw the point. Until my sweet sister-in-law told me that she made the perfect mayonnaise a day she was out, and didn't wanted to run to the store.

My sister-in-law was right, it's really easy to make mayonnaise yourself. I used a jar and an immersion blender, which minimized my dishes too. It also made it easier, so I didn't have to whisk vigorously. The mayonnaise had a more sour taste, than the store bought ones, and I really like that. I don't want sweet mayo with my shrimps or fish.

Disclaimer: This dessert is made with raw eggs. I recommend using pasteurized eggs. That minimizes the risk of getting Salmonella food poisoning. You can find pasteurized in some supermarkets here in California, on safeeggs.com you can see where to find them in your neighborhood. In Denmark you'll find it right next to regular eggs. For tips and information on how to handle eggs, check out FDA’s website. The Danish version of FDA,  Fødevarestyrelsen also has advisory on egg

Ingredients:

• 1 egg yolk (pasteurized) 
• 1 teaspoon mustard (Dijon)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• lemon juice from ½ lemon
• 1,5 - 3 dl Oil (Rapeseed or another neutral oil)
• white pepper

Directions:

Whip the egg yolks with the mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper with a whisk (I used an immersion blender). Slowly add the oil in a thin stream to avoid separating the mayonnaise. Adjust the taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

If you want to add taste to the mayonnaise you can add spices to the oil. I like adding chili, garlic or rosemary.

Shrimp cocktail - the 80's are calling

Shrimp cocktail - the 80's are calling

Shrimp cocktail might be the only seafood appetizer of the 80’s. We had it in a martini glass or in an avocado. It was everywhere, at every party and special occasion. The only excitement was whether you got the avocado in your lap or not. 😀

But to be honest I liked the shrimp cocktail of the 80's, greens, shrimps and a thousand island dressing. If it could be a little lighter, the shrimp cocktail would be perfect, as the flavors are so good.

Last week I was going through some of my cookbooks, and I read Claus Meyers updated version of the shrimp cocktail. (From the book Salatværkstedet). I used this recipe as my inspiration. I used my own version of thousand island dressing, another kind of salad and bread, otherwise I leaned against Meyer's recipe.

I use cold water shrimps because they have more flavor than warm water shrimps.

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

Shrimp cocktail

• 275 g cold water shrimps (I used shrimps from IKEA)
• 12 green asparagus
• 3 slices sourdough bread, cut into logs
• 2 small lemons, zest and fillets
• 10 leaves of romaine lettuces
• dill
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt & pepper

Thousand island

• 1 cup (240 ml) sour cream
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 6 small sun-dried tomatoes
• ¼ cup (½ dl) tomato ketchup
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ¼ teaspoon chili powder
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• ½ tablespoon lemon juice
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

Thousand Island dressing

Blend tomato and ketchup together. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and season to taste. Set aside.

Shrimp cocktail

Heat olive oil in a skillet, and toast the bread logs in the oil. When they get a nice color, place them on a piece of kitchen towel, to remove any excess oil. Sprinkle with salt.

Wash the asparagus and snap the dry stem ends off of each asparagus. Use the same skillet to roast the asparagus for about 2 minutes. The asparagus should be cooked, but still have a bite. Cut the asparagus into bite size pieces, save some bigger pieces and the heads for garnish. Set aside.

Using a lemon zester, make strips of lemon zest, bring these to a boil in some salted water. Leave the zest in the water until you need to use them.

Fillet the lemons with a sharp knife. Cut the top and bottom off the lemon. Set your knife where the white meets the flesh and start cutting downward in a curved motion following the shape of the lemon. Keep doing this until you have peeled the lemon. Carefully cut the filets out.

Chop the romaine lettuce finely, leave out the core part. Mix the romaine, dild, asparagus, lemon-zest and -fillets. Dress the salad with a splash of olive oil.

Assembly

Serve the shrimp cocktail in a maison jar or another rustic glass, to set it aside from the shrimp cocktails of the 80's.

Layer the cocktail: salad, shrimps and dressing. Layer until you have a nice serving size. Garnish with bread logs, asparagus and dild.

Enjoy.