Vintage lenten buns.

The recipe for this year's lenten buns comes from an old cookbook. Dating from 1908. But the recipe itself is even older.

The bun

120ml warm milk
15g fresh yeast
2 tbsp rose water
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 tbsp spirit, 80 proof
260g flour
75g sugar
50g butter

Dissolve the yeast in warm milk with a spoonful of sugar. Wait till it starts to foam.
Now add the rose water, spirit, cardamom, salt and three-quarters of the flour. Knead well.
Cover and let rise in a warm place for an hour.
Cream soft butter with sugar until pale and fluffy, mix into dough. Add the remaining flour and knead well.
Cover and let rise again.
Knead the dough briefly and form into eight round buns, leaving enough room between them on the baking sheet. Brush with egg wash and let the buns rise until doubled in size. Bake in a 200c oven for about 10 minutes. Brush hot buns with egg wash once more, this prevents them from drying out while cooling.


For the filling (*a more common version)
bun crumb
100g marzipan
130ml double cream
vanilla
25g sultanas

Cut off the bun tops, set aside. Using a paring knife and a small spoon, scoop out the crumb, creating a good-sized cavity. Place all of the crumb into a bowl, mixing it with marzipan. Heat the cream with vanilla and sultanas. When cool enough to handle, mix into the crumb. Make sure it is an even, smooth paste and fill the buns.


To serve
400ml double cream
4 tbsp icing sugar

Whip cream with sugar and pipe a mound on each bun. Cover the buns with the reserved tops and dust with icing sugar.


*The book lists a second, more elaborate filling as well, which I will probably tackle next year.

Shrove Tuesday is one of the tastiest holidays, only second to Christmas.
Fluffy and gorgeous lenten buns, bilberry kissel, pigs' trotters, split pea soup, pancakes, fritters...

Here, it is also known as sledging day. Everyone, old and young, will make at least one run down the hill, using whatever they have at hand - a sledge, a briefcase, a plastic bag, a tube, a bum sledge ( we used these a lot as kids but we always called them bum-pans).

Actually, anything goes, my granny told me yesterday that when she was younger, she used to go sledging with all her colleagues using just large enamelled bowls!

This year there is no snow though, it has all melted away. Yes, all gone! It is bizarre. Snowdrops started blooming in February.

Still, I won't let that little fact bother me.

I used the same recipe as before.
Only difference is that I used my iSi cream whipper to add the whipped cream.

I myself haven't eaten any buns yet, but hope to soon.. if there's any left. The kissel with whipped cream is delicious, I had two servings of that.

Lenten bun recipe and photos from the year before.

This year's lenten buns with a heaping of blackcurrant whipped cream.
Used the same dough as last year. The recipe can be seen here.
The only thing I changed was the addition of blackcurrant cordial which I added to the cream.

It's the Big Garden Birdwatch weekend and I'm trying to count our feathery friends. Were it not for the snowfall and the neighbour's cat that is. I'm clearly not getting a realistic count with the cat climbing up the postament and chasing the birds. Seems I might have to skip this year.

Nevermind.
I've been meaning to share this with you for a while.
The humble bread and butter pudding got a makeover.

I was never a fan of bread and butter pudding. To me it seemed so plain in taste and kind of a soggy, slobbery mess. Until I saw Paul Ainsworth's take on it. That did spark some ideas and I came up with with a bread and butter pudding even more decadent than his.

It is truly rich. At first one might think that this little ramekin is not enough to satisfy a craving but trust me, for most people it is enough.
It is quite easy to put together, the hardest part being the custard but go ahead, you can cheat and buy it ready made if you're in a hurry.


Luxury bread and butter pudding

8 slices of toast, crusts removed
80g marzipan
60g butter
about 100ml cowberry jelly (cranberry, blackcurrant, something with an acidic kick)
5 egg yolks
500ml milk
60g sugar
vanilla
flaked almonds




First, make the custard. Whisk egg yolks with sugar until pale and tripled in volume. Scald milk with vanilla. Trickle hot milk over the yolks, stirring continuously. Heat the mixture over a bain marie until starting to thicken. Cover and set aside to cool.

Butter four ramekins.
Spread softened butter on all of the toast slices and trim into rounds suitable for the ramekins. You have to use trimmings for the middle layer toast rounds.
Divide marzipan into 8 equal chunks and flatten these into round disks between your palms.

Plop a teaspoon of jelly into each ramekin, spread around and cover it with a round of buttered toast and plop another teaspoon of jelly on top. Next layer should be a marzipan disk, followed by a round of buttered toast, then again a teaspoon of jelly, another marzipan disk and the last round of buttered toast.
Pour the custard over the puddings, the toast slices should soak it all up. It's ok to fill the ramekins to the brim. Sprinkle some flaked almonds on top. Let stand in the fridge, covered with cling film, for at least 3 hours but you can easily leave them overnight.

Let ramekins come to room temperature before baking, otherwise the moulds might crack.
Pre-heat the oven to 120C. Place ramekins in a roasting tray and fill it with enough hot water to come half way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Do not let them try out, these should have a creamy mouthfeel.
You can brown the tops under a grill or with a blow torch.

Last week, armed with cute wellies and baskets we set off to the woods. There were some wild raspberries to be had and plenty of bilberries, you know, the smaller but tastier cousin of the blueberry. Or as some might call it, the European wild blueberry.

Warning! Fire hazard. On the right you can see the firebreak, a barrier to stop the progress of a wildfire. Seems a bit neglected though.

Bilberry and marzipan tartlet and bilberry pies
Makes one 16cm tartlet and four 8cm pies.

230g flour
1 tbsp sugar
pinch of salt
vanilla seeds
150g butter

In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, salt and vanilla.
Cut butter into small cubes and rub into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add about two teaspoons of cold water and mix the dough until it comes together.
Flatten into a disk and let rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes.


For the tartlet:
100g marzipan
250ml custard*
about 250g bilberries
1 tbsp sugar

Take about one-third of the dough and roll into a 20cm circle. Butter the sides and base of a 16cm round tin and sprinkle with a bit of ground almonds or flour, but best to use a tin with a removable base.
Ease the pastry into the tin, making sure the sides are all neat and even, trim if necessary. If there is a tear or two, just patch it up with extra dough.
Now take the marzipan and roll it into a 16cm disk, a slim flat circle that you will place on the bottom of the pastry.
Pour the custard on top and pop the tin into a 180C oven for about 10-15 minutes.
Carefully take the tin out of the oven and top it with bilberries. Make sure there are plenty because they will collapse a little during heating. Sprinkle with sugar and place back into the oven for about 10 minutes. Now, if you like, you could use a blowtorch to caramelise the top.


For the pies:
200g bilberries
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp Framboise

Gently heat half of the bilberries with Framboise and cornflour until some of the berries start to break down. Add the rest of the bilberries to the mixture. Set aside to cool.
Take the other two-thirds of the dough and roll it out as thinly as possible. Cut out four 12cm circles and place them inside four pie rings or tins. Trim the excess. Fill the pies with bilberry mixture. If you happen to have any custard left over, add a spoonful to each pie. Now take all the leftover dough and roll it out again, cutting out four 10cm circles to cover the pies. Pinch the edges together and trim. Cut a hole in each of the pastry lids, to let the steam escape. Bake in the oven for about 15 - 20 minutes.


*Custard
3 egg yolks
30g sugar
200ml milk
1 vanilla pod

Whisk egg yolks to ribbon consistency. Heat milk with scraped vanilla pod and sugar until scalding. Pour hot milk onto the egg yolks, whisking continuously. Tip back into the saucepan and cook over a very low heat (or bain marie) until starting to thicken. Pour into a bowl, cover and leave to cool.

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday and bakers all over the country (and all over the Nordic) were, and probably still are, whipping up fluffy lenten buns. I made my own this year. Two times even. The first version seemed to be too buttery and not airy enough. Wasn't happy with the shape either. After careful consideration and armed with a scientific approach, I tweaked the recipe to alter the structure of the bun. Second try resulted in perfectly round buns with a texture quite similar to the ones you'd get from shops or good bakeries. I do not consider it to be perfect, yet, but still very close.

I prepared two different fillings. After quaffing them all down, most of the family expressed their preference for the classic marzipan.

 Toast Skagen (couldn't find löjrom!) and a muffin made of leftovers.

Last week, during a casual trip to the small grocery store on the corner of the street, I found this darling bottle of milk.
I couldn't have been more excited! Organic whole milk from Riido Farm, produced less than 8 km from our house.
Cute as a button, too!

Semlor - Swedish lenten buns


30g butter, melted
2 quail eggs or 1 small egg white
160ml milk
15g fresh yeast
50g sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/8 tsp salt
300g flour
milk and a bit of sugar, for brushing


Sieve flour into a bowl. Heat milk to 38°C. Mix yeast with sugar and warm milk. Pour into the flour, add cardamom, salt, quail eggs and butter. Mix it all together and knead into a smooth dough. About 7 minutes with a machine or a bit longer by hand. Cover and let rise in a warm place for about 50 minutes.

Divide the dough into nine equal pieces. Briefly kneading each piece between your palms, roll the bits of dough into beautiful spheres and place on a baking tray, leaving enough space between them. The buns will be double the size after rising and baking. Cover the tray and leave to rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 210-220°C. Brush the buns with sweetened milk and bake in the oven for 8 minutes. Do keep an eye on them as they will brown quickly. If the buns are not done after about eight minutes, then the oven is not hot enough. If the buns seem to get burnt then the oven is too hot.

After removing the buns from the oven brush them again with sweetened milk. This prevents the crust on top from going too brittle or tough while cooling.


Traditional filling

135g quality marzipan, ca 60% almonds
3-4 tbsp milk
300ml double cream
icing sugar, to taste

Finely chop or grate marzipan into a bowl. Add three tablespoons of milk.
With a serrated knife, cut the tops off the buns. Not too much, about half a centimetre is enough. Now dig a hole into each bun, removing a spoonful of crumb from each. Place half of the breadcrumbs into the bowl, discarding the rest. Using a fork, mash the marzipan and crumb mixture into a nice soft paste. Add a bit more milk if it is not soft enough, but it should not be runny.

Use this marzipan paste to fill the cavities of the buns.
Sweeten double cream with icing sugar, about two-three spoonfuls, and whisk until fluffy.
Top filled buns with a good heaping of whipped cream and replace the bun caps on top.


The most common alternative filling consists of whipped cream or curd cheese paste mixed with some sweet and sour jam, like cowberry, cranberry or blackcurrant.


Serve alongside a steaming cup of coffee or on a deep plate, submerged in warm milk infused with vanilla.

About two weeks ago, the big chill rolled in and unfolded its fluffy white blanket.
The temperature dropped from a rather tame -8°C to a toe-curling -25°C (even colder on the mainland), and on clear days the air was literally sparkling, as if filled with diamonds! Right now it's snowing, again.

If this continues as it has done thus far, we should be able to visit our neighbouring island by driving across the frozen sea. In a couple of weeks, perhaps. It is always great fun! Especially when the ice moves due to the wind and therefore develops some bumps, cracks and splits along the way. People will then place wooden boards over the largest splits to avoid losing their cars to the bottom of the sea. As sometimes does happen.

I find ice ferns on the windows mesmerising. Found these gorgeous creations on the eastern window in the sitting room. Keep gazing at them every day. Checking the progress. Sadly, ice flowers are becoming quite rare in this day and age since more and more people opt for hermetic plastic windows.

Art director at work. Showing me the ropes.

Tehumardi apple juice from Saaremaa.

Probably my favourite juice. Apple juice, produced right here on the island, from specially selected apple varieties.
I could ramble on and on about its superior taste with hints of meadows and peaches. And it looks fab as well!

I had a bit of marzipan left over from December (really!) and with the help of some glamorous rhubarb, turned it into muffins.

Rhubarb marzipan muffins


120g flour
1 tsp baking powder
60g sugar, plus extra
60g butter, melted
120ml buttermilk
1 egg
120g rhubarb, chopped
80g good quality marzipan, not the overly sweet stuff


In a bowl toss together flour, baking powder and sugar.
In a jug mix together melted butter, buttermilk and the egg.
Line a 6-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Cut 50g of the marzipan into small dice, toss it in a spoonful of caster sugar, just enough to cover the bits with some glittery sugar granules. Measure the rest of the marzipan (30g) into 5g pieces and roll these into six perfectly round balls.
Sprinkle rhubarb with about two teaspoons of sugar and toss to cover evenly.
Preheat the oven to 190°C.

Pour wet ingredients from the jug into the dry ingredients in the bowl. Mix a little. Add rhubarb and mix through. Don't fret if it looks a bit lumpy, it's fine, you don't want to overwork it. Drop two fat spoonfuls of dough into each of the six cases, then sneak in a ball of marzipan and cover with the rest of the dough. Sprinkle the sugared marzipan bits on top and bake for 25 minutes, lowering the temperature by 15 degrees after the first five minutes.