Focaccia

Focaccia - I should have used a larger baking pan, because the bread came out to high.

I love bread, most kind of bread, but I know its not good for me to just munch on. Anyhow I bought a pound of live yeast, so I have to bake bake bake. 

Focaccia has always been a bread I wanted to try to make, but I have never got around to it. Now was the time. 

I like the crispy top on the soft, salty flavorful bread. I looked up a bunch of recipes and made a concoction. 

Ingredients:

• 3,25 dl water finger-warm
• ½ dl olive oil
• 10 g live yeast
• 500 g all-purpose flour or a high protein flour. 
• 10 g sea salt

Toppings:

• sea salt
• olive oil
• rosemary like spices (or jalapeño)

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add a teaspoon sugar if you are using dry yeast, and wait until it starts to foam. Add the oil. 

Mix the salt with the flour and mix it in to the wet ingredients. 

If you knead the dough by hand, knead it for 12-15 minutes. 

If you knead it in a stand mixer, mix it for 3 minutes at low and then 8-10 minutes on high. 

The dough should be sticky. 

Let the dough rise in the bowl covered by a tea towel for about 3 hours. 

Grease your baking pan with olive oil. Pour the dough into the pan and press the dough with your fingers to spread it out and get the wells for the spices and oil. 

Pour a good olive oil on top and sprinkle with coarse sea salt and rosemary. Press salt, oil and rosemary into the dough with your finger. 

Let the focaccia sit to rise for 45 minutes before baking it for 20-25 minutes at 440℉ (220℃).

Let the bread cool in the pan before serving. 

Kanelstænger - Cinnamon Danish

Kanelstænger - Cinnamon Danish

Kanelstænger, or Cinnamon danish, is one of the more common pastries in Denmark. They are kinda like a large cinnamon roll cut up. Compared with real pastry, where you roll layers of butter into a dough, this recipe is really easy to make. The worst part is the custard, and when you have made that a few times, its easy too.

Ingredients:

Custard:

• 3 Egg Yolks
• 3 tablespoons Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Cornstarch
• 5 dl (2 cups) Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Paste

Dough:

• 40 g live yeast or 3½ teaspoons dry yeast
• 1¾ dl (¾ cup) water
• 35 g sugar
• 4 g salt
• 4 g cardamom
• 1 egg
• 35 g butter, salted & room temperature 
• 400 g all-purpose flour

Remonce:

• 200 g butter, salted & room temperature 
• 200 g sugar
• 35 g cinnamon

Directions:

Custard:

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale in color. Whisk in the cornstarch and vanilla paste.

Heat the milk to a slow boil, set aside. 

While whisking vigorously drizzle the warm milk into the egg yolk mixture, just a tiny bit at a time at first. Once you’ve added about ¼ of the milk, you can add the rest in a thin stream, whisking constantly.

Pour the mixture back in the saucepan and reheat it over medium heat. Whisk constantly until it thickens. Remove from heat an chill the custard in a bowl in the refrigerator. Sprinkle with sugar or press a film of plastic wrap against custard so it doesn’t form a pudding skin.

Remonce:

Mix the ingredients to a brown paste, set aside.

Dough:

Dissolve the yeast in the finger-warm water, add the sugar and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the egg. Mix flour salt, cardamom and pour it into the yeast-mixture with the butter. Knead the dough until it's elastic and shinny. Let the dough rest in a bowl covered with a tea towel for about 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 3 pieces, and roll them to 15x25 cm (6x8 inch) rectangles.

Spread ⅓ of the remonce on the dough, leave a little piece along the long side clear.  Put ⅓ of the custard in a line on top of the remonce covered long side. Fold the dough over the custard and roll the rest like you would a cinnamon roll. Place the roll on a parchment lined baking sheet. 

Using a scissor cut slits at an angle almost all the way through with 2 cm (¾ inch) apart. Flip the dough pieces to the side. The first right the other left, alternating all the way to the end.

Repeat with the last two pieces of dough.

Let the pastry sit to rise for about 45 minutes. Brush with egg-wash and sprinkle with chopped almonds and raw sugar. Bake for about 15-18 minutes at 400℉ (210℃).

If you want to freeze some of the kanelstænger, do that after making the slits in the dough, and freeze them on a baking sheet and wrap them in when frozen.

Source: Lagkagehuset.

Braided Nutella Bread

Braided Nutella Bread

This bread is everywhere, and now it's here too. In all the commercials for Nutella, they tell you it's a healthy option at breakfast. This makes this bread ultra healthy, with the three layers of Nutella!

The bread is really fun to make and look awesome at a party. The Nutella bread reminds me of the cinnamon bread we had as children. At lunch time we'd go to the bakers shop and buy half a cinnamon bread to eat instead of the healthy lunch we brought from home. Well, fortunately it didn't happen that often.

I'll think you could make the bread with a cinnamon remonce in stead of the nutella.

Makes one 25 cm/10 inch bread.

Ingredients:

• 450 g all-purpose flour
• 70 g sugar
• 35 g live yeast or 2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 180 ml milk
• 30 g butter,
• 2 egg yolks, save the whites for brushing
• 1 cup (240 ml) Nutella

Directions:

Combine flour and sugar in a bowl, and set aside.

Heat the milk in a saucepan until it’s warm, add the butter, and take the mixture of the heat, and let the butter melt in the milk. You want the milk/butter mixture to be finger-warm. Let the yeast dissolve in the milk.

Add the yeast mixture and the egg yolks to the flour, and mix until its combined. If using a stand mixer, keep mixing for 4-5 minutes on medium speed to get the dough elastic and soft. If kneading by hand, keep kneading for 10-12 minutes.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place, and sit to rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Knead the dough to deflate, and divide the dough in 4 pieces, and form them to balls. 

On a lightly floured surface roll each dough ball to a 10 inch/25 cm discs. Place one dish on a parchment lined baking sheet, and use a plate to outline where to put the Nutella. Heat the Nutella for a few seconds in the microwave to make it easier to spread.

The dough braided.

Spread a thin layer of Nutella on the dough. Put another disc on top, and repeat outlining and spreading Nutella. Add third dough disc and repeat with the Nutella. Put the last dough disc on top. Place the plate on top, and cut of any excess dough round the plate with a sharp knife. Remove the plate.

Place  a small cup in the middle of the dough, to mark the center. Cut the dough at 3, 6 9 and 12 o’clock and cut each quarter into 4 pieces, so you end up with 16 slices connected to the center circle.

Take 2 neighboring slices and twist them two times away from each other, connect the two in the end, and pinch them together forming a point. Do this with all the slices, and now you have a star flower formed bread.

Cover dough loosely with a damp tea towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush surface of the bread with the egg whites. Bake bread for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Surbrød - Bread with Caraway Seeds

Surbrød - Bread with Caraway Seeds

Surbrød is traditionally used for gravid lax, smoked salmon or open-faced shrimp sandwiches. Surbrød means sour bread, even though it's not made with a sourdough, at least nowadays. A surbrød is a white bread, with a small amount of rye flour and caraway seeds. In my family we rarely had surbrød, only my mom liked it. 

I think it was normal not having surbrød. I had an after-school job at a bakers shop and we didn't sell a lot of surbrød. And most of all it was bought by old ladies. Now, and in the last few years, I actually like bread with caraway seeds, like my soft pretzels - kommenskringler. Does that makes me an old lady, well, I hope not. 😳

The recipe calls for "sigtemel" which is a sifted flour made from 30% rye and 70% wheat, so I made some adjustments to the recipe. Normally you will use buttermilk, but I used whole milk, a splash of lemon juice and a tablespoon of plain yoghurt.

Ingredients:

• 400 g all-purpose flour
• 105 g dark rye flour, sifted
• 35 live yeast (1 pack (7 g) fleischmann's active dry yeast)
• 2 tablespoons (15 g) caraway seeds + some for sprinkles
• 12 g salt 
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 300 ml whole milk 
• a splash lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon plain yoghurt
• 1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

Directions:

Warm up the milk, and dissolve the yeast in the milk. If you use dry yeast add a few pinches of sugar. 

Mix flours, caraway seeds, salt honey and sugar. Pour in the milk/yeast mixture and add the butter, and mix it to an elastic soft dough. Let the dough rise for about 30 minutes in a warm spot.

Knead the dough for a few minutes, and divide the dough in two round balls. Set to rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Brush the breads with milk and sprinkle with caraway seeds. Score the breads with a sharp knife or cut with scissors.

Bake breads for 30-40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy bread with butter,  with your favorite cheese or with gravad lax.

Gravad Lax - Gravlax with Mustard Sauce (Rævesauce)

Gravad Lax - Gravlax with Mustard Sauce (Rævesauce)

Gravad lax, gravad laks or gravlax is a dill-cured salmon, normally served with a mustard sauce. Gravad lax means buried salmon, referring to back in  the old days, where the fishermen cured the fish and buried it in the ground for a few days. Now you would never put the fish in the ground when you have the refrigerator. 

Gravad lax is one big favorite in my house, if you ask my husband IT IS the favorite, when it comes to fish cold cuts, way better than smoked salmon. Gravad lax is perfect for appetizer, for small Hors d'oeuvre or on an open-faced sandwich on rye bread. The sweet salty salmon almost melt in your mouth, and with the mustard sauce, it's a little slice of heaven.

Eating Raw Seafood - What You Need To Know:

It's always best to cook seafood thoroughly to minimize the risk of food-borne illness. However, if you choose to eat raw fish anyway, one rule of thumb is to eat fish that has been previously frozen for 24 hours. FDA

Ingredients:

• 750 g (26 oz) fresh salmon filet with skin on

• 3 tablespoons sugar

• 2 tablespoons salt

• 2 teaspoons crushed white pepper

• 2 bunches dill, chopped

Directions:

To minimise the risk connected with eating raw fish, you should freeze the salmon before preparing it. When defrosted, scale the salmon and remove all small bones, but leave the skin on.

Mix salt, sugar and pepper and sprinkle it all over the salmon, cut the salmon in half. In the dish you are going to marinate the salmon in, sprinkle a good layer of dill, place the one piece of salmon, skin side down. Sprinkle a thick layer of dill on that, and place the second half on top sin side up. Sprinkle the rest of the dill on top. Put some plastic wrap over the salmon and use a weighted cutting board to press on the salmon. Refrigerate for 24−48 hours, turning the salmon filet a few times. Rinse the salmon in cold water, and pad it dry. 

Use a sharp knife to cut the gravad lax. (Filet knives, boning knives, and Japanese sashimi knives work well for this role.) The gravad lax should be sliced paper-thinly at an angle (15-20 degree angle), making sure not to get any skin on the slices. 

Serve the gravad lax on a slice good bread, with a mustard sauce.

Mustard sauce - Rævesauce

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons brown sugar

• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 8 tablespoons oil (use a neutral oil - not olive oil)

• dill, finely chopped

• salt & pepper to taste

Direction:

Whisk sugar, mustard and vinegar together and add the oil in a thin stream to make the emulsion. Stir in the dill and season with salt and pepper to taste.