Tirarmisu

Runny, too much cocoa powder, but good anyway!

Fancy Chocolate Cake (real name to come)

Blueberry Pie

Lemon Merengue Pie

Lemon Custard Cakes

Semlor

"Underbara!!"

Johan Scale: MVG

Semlor, stora och små, www.recept.nu

Gingerbread Cookies (Pepparkakor)

Here it is, the kick-off to Christmas season! I decided to try my hand at making these delicious cookies. I got a recipe from an expert- Johan's mom! And I needed them for the weekend. The reipe says to let the dough sit in the fridge for 2 days (I think I'm seeing a trend) so I made the dough a couple days ago. I began by boiling some light syrup, sugar and water together. I added that to the butter, cinnamon, cloved and kardemum. One the butter melted and the mixture came close to room temp, I added the flour and baking soda. Then it looked like this:

I had so much fun rolling these out! Unfortunately, it was by myself, but I still have 1/2 the dough left, so Johan can help me next time. Does anyone have a good technique to keep the pastry cloth in one place while trying to roll stuff out?

Johan' mamma was so kind to lend me some cookie cutters! These are traditional shapes for the pepparkakor. I have no idea why they use a pig, but they taste the same whatever shape! The trees are the perfect size- bite size.

This is my stack of cookies after one cooking session. Okay, there were a few more. I can't expalin what happened to those.

And here they are ready to head off to the First Advent celebration! I know, I know. Way more pictures than necessary of cookies. But I just had fun making them and it really got it feeling like Christmas! And got my house smelling so good!

Best/Worst Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever

I have always been an enormous fan of chocolate chip cookies. They were a weekly occurance at my house growing up. I have to stock up with bags and bags of chocolate chip when I visit the US so I can make the little angels- they don't sell chocolate chips here. So, a while ago I read a blog post from orangette which referred to this article in the NY Times. I suggest you read it for yourself. There was an extensive search for the world's best chocolate chip cookie recipe. They spoke to famous bakers around new york and accumulated the best tips to make this recipe. So of course, I had to try it. I was lukcy enough to aquire some of these chocolate disks (which the recipe recommends to get layers of chocolate) from my mom (thanks, mom!) so last week was the week.

The recipe doesn't call for much that is unusal. It calls for bread flour and cake flour, but those don't exactly exist here, so I used regular flour. And it said to cream the butter and sugar for 5 min in a stand mixer. I don't have a stand mixer, so I used my good ol' electric hand mixer for 5 min. And, I didn't have quite enough butter on hand, so I was a little short. So, I creamed the butter and sugar, added eggs one at a time, added vanlila, then the sifted flour, baking soda and salt, 'til just combined. The dough was really thick. Then it called for 20oz chocolate discs, next time I'd put just a little less. It sounded like a lot, and it was a lot. But it didn't make them taste bad. This was stage 1:

So the first trick/thing that makes these different, is that one should refrigerate the dough for at least 24hrs, 3 days is prefered. Apearantly because the moisture in them (butter) is not very liquid, it takes a long time for the flour to properly absorb the moisture. Well, I'm not asking questions, I just obeyed. So this sat in my fridge for 3 days. The second trick is to make the cookies big- dough ball about the size of a large golf ball. This gives the cookie dimension. The outer rim is crispy, the next inch is normal, and the inside is nice and soft and gooey. So, I put these huge balls of dough on my sheet, followed by the third trick, a little sea salt. I sprinkled just a touch of sea salt on top of the cookies, before they were baked. They baked for about 18min and looked like this:

So, why does the title of this post include "worst?" This made so much dough, I was constantly picking at the delicious dough for the 3 days it sat in the fidge. The yield said 6 cookies. Not quite. I made about 12 cookies, with a little dough left over to continue snacking on the dough. Keeping in mind that Johan isn't too big on sweets, one can conclude that I at so much cookie dough/so many cookies in the last week! I probably gained 5lbs. Don't get me wrong, these cookies were fabulous. I was so happy with them. I could have bought the anywhere and would be satisfied. The salt was an interesting contrast to the sweetness, I totally agree with the layers of chocolate the discs provide, and the 3 consistencies where delicious! Theses were amazing, and obviously worth the 5lbs I gained. But next time, I'll need to share a few more of them.

White Chocolate Pistachio Brownies

I hesitate posting this one, because I wasn't wowed by this recipe. But at the same time I wasn't disappointed, i ate the whole pan! In fact, it's an extremely rare occasion that I find a brownie I don't care for. But I was just a little excited about these- White chocolate and pistachio brownies. I love pistachios in chocolate bars so thought this was a great idea! But The pistachios had almost no flavor and became quite soft when the brownies were baked. The brownie batter called for butter and olive oil, an odd addition I thought, but I like adding oil because it always makes whatever I'm baking SUPER moist. These were no exception. Super gooey, moist brownies. I will take some of the blame for these, I don't usually use the finest possible chocolate when baking. In fact, I just buy whatever's at the nearest supermarket- I bake too often to be able to afford fancy chocolate! And I (knowingly) used the wrong kind of chocolate. It was not baking chocolate, but regular sweetened chocolate. I reduced the sugar, but the chocolate had such a strong flavor it defintiley would've been better with nice chocolate. The same goes for the white chocolate- I couldn't taste it at all. I may as well have left it out, but maybe if it were nicer quality it would have made a difference. I just wanted to post because the recipe came from my Swedish food magazine, the same one my friend Jessie got!

Elle Mat & Vin, Sept-Nov 2008

Apple Sauce

In another attempt to fully live out fall this year, I thought I would try to preserve some swedish apples by making apple sauce! I found a recipe in my most recent issue of Bon Appetit, bought some apples and finally gave it a go! I began by peeling and coring the apples, this took up the most time. I then boiled them in a little lemon water with cinnamon and allspice (called kryddpeppar in swedish) and a lot of sugar. They boiled, or simmered for about 20min which seemed to be plenty of time. I tasted it and added more cinnamon and allspice. And that was it! Not to tricky. And I'm pretty happy with it! I considered leaving out the sugar because I usually buy unsweetened applesauce anyway, but thought the first time I'd stick to the recipe. And, I think it's too sweet. Next time I'd leave out the sugar and add even more spices! I love cinnamon and apple together! The consistency was a little gummy, but I attribute that to that I didn't use the apples the recipe suggested (Granny Smith, Fuji and Johnathon), I used an assortment of swedish apples (called Ingrid-Marie, Red Summer Apples, Katja or Discovery). But it turned out good. Nothing super exciting, but not disappointing! I really need to get some real canning equimpment, it would make this process much easier!

"Three-Apple Applesauce" from Bon Appetit, Oct 2008

Caramel-Pear Butter

The Swedish pears and apples are amazing. I regularly eat both throughout the year, so when the Swedish varieties popped up, I was quick to try them. And have been eating them by the plenty. But now it's getting cold and I'm afraid to loose these. So I've been thinking of ways to preserve the apples and pears. This month in my Bon Appetit, they offered a recipe for Caramel Pear Butter, which sounded perfect. My mom used to buy a delicious apple butter, so I thought I must give it a try. I went to a local market and bought a kilo pears for less than $2 (10SEK) and I was set. I boiled the pears in a little lemon juice and apple juice for 20 min or so. The recipe then said to "Press the pear mixture through a fine plate of food mill..." well I certainly don't have a food mill, so I just puréed the stuff in a blender, that worked perfectly. I returned it to the pot, added some brown sugar and nutmeg, then simmered for an hour to let thicken. And it was done- and amazing. I was truly shocked at how good this was! Sweet, with such a strong pear flavor! I couldn't wait to put some on some toast. I considered just serving myself up a bowl of it, it was so good. But I managed to seal a jar for later use and then enjoyed the bit I'd allowed myself for now. I am so tempted to go buy more pears and make more.

Julie Scale: 5.5

Bon Appetit, October 2008 or http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Caramel-Pear-Butter-350119

Smördegspaj (Butter dough pie? Lets just say Apple Pie)

Johan, the founder of the Johan scale listed at the bottom of every post, is in charge of bringing a treat to his department on Friday. Which implies that I am making a treat for him to bring. So I am (more than happily) trying a few treats for him to try, and decide what to bring. I thought because it's fall, and the Swedish apples are so good! We should try something with apples. This is a recipe from a book called "Our Cook Book" and is on every shelf, and even in every college corridor room that I've seen! I guess it's a bit like the "Better Homes and Garden" Cookbook for Sweden. It was super simple, the crust was just flour and butter. Then I peeled and sliced the apples, sprinkled on some suger and cinnamon, baked it for a few, and viola, a delicious dessert! It was really, surprisingly good! But, apparently, Johan didn't quite feel the same way- as reflected in his rating on this one. Well, I guess we'll just have to keep on trying!

Johan Scale: 3.5

"Vår Kok Bok"

Rocky Recchuiti Brownies

I have always been a sucker for desserts- especailly brownies! It's been a little while since I splurged on a dessert, so I decided it was time to try this one. From one of my favorite books- "Chocolate Obsession." I have yet to be disappointed by any recipe in this book. Maybe that's a little unfair to say since they recipes are all for sweets? I don't know. But these were quite simple. I was shocked to see that my local grocer doesn't carry unsweetened baking chocolate. What?! Super strange. So I really just used cocoa at 55% (all they had available) and then put in less sugar. I know what you're wondering- why didn't I use nicer chocolats. Well, I would have but I'm a cheapskate and wasn't at a store that sold fine chocolate to get any. Next time though, it would have made a world of difference. The recipe suggests home made marshmallows (that's what's on top of these brownies) but there's no way I was going to whip up some marshmallows just for this recipe, so I used the store-bought ones I already had. Roasted walnuts are mixed into this batter along with extra chunks of the chocolate. They baked for 45min, so one must be patient. But they turned out to be super gooey, chocolatey and delicious!

Johan Scale: 4.5

"Chocolate Obsession" by Michael Recchuiuti and Fran Gage

Devil's Food Cupcakes with White Chocolate-Espresso Topping

Wow. These were so good! This recipe came from a cookbook called Chocolate Obsession, but Michael Recchiuti and Fran Gage. Michael Recchiuti ownes this wonderful chocolate shop in the Fairy Market Building in San Francisco, which is where I was introduced to him and his chocolate. This is stupidly only the second recipe I've tried from this book. That will change. The cakes are extrememly moist using vegetable oil instead of butter, and the zest from an orange adds an extra layer of taste. I did have some trouble with the ganache topping, which I blame on the poor quality white chocolate I used (thanks for the hint, mom!) But in the end, the frosting set up fine and was unbelievable! Such a great combination of dark and white chocolates, orange and coffee. These I will make time and again, next time I will try to distribute the ganache more evenly!

Johan Scale: 5

Apple Caves (äppelgrottor)

I got this recipe from my Elle: Mat & Vin, Aug-Sep 2008 issue, a Swedish food magazine. They were quite good! My favorite part was how simple they were. They were quite quick as well. It's not quite the height of apple season (in fact, it's not apple season at all) but I didn't care. One begins by frying the apples in butter, then adding some cinnamon and sugar. The "cave" is a little more like a cookie, but really good and simple. I served them with vanilla ice cream which I think finished it off.

Johan Scale: 3.5