Karin´s Kitchen

Mellow bakers July

2010-07-24T06:24:00.002+02:00

I joined Mellow bakers to bake myself through Bread by Hammelman and in july we baked
a sourdough rye with high percentage water. Remindes me very much of what we can get in the stores here

Bialys, a favourite, a non boiled bagel with a filling of onions instead of the hole, nice chewy texture. I changed the filling to pesto and some chopped up sundried tomato.

and a french bread, a baguette kind of bread but made in the same day. I think Anna´s twisted baguettes" ( popular swedish recipe ) are much better and easier to make if you want to make something and don+t have time for the poolish

And now my freezer is full of bread

Bread baking babes bakes naan

2010-01-24T20:14:00.005+01:00

I grew up calling this "frying pan bread" little did I know about indian cooking...Í don´t know that much today either and honestly I´m not so fond of indian cuisine even though I try it sometimes in case I changed my mind...
This time I did a cross between the two recipes and found that I was actually a little fond of the curry flavour.
This is what I used:

2 cups flour
0,5 tsp salt
about 15 grams of fresh yeast
1 tbs curry
1 tbs olive oil
2/3 cups water + 2 tbs extra to get a dough

Since this is a small batch I did it in my foodprocessor and just mixed it together. I then let it rest for 30 minutes in the bowl. Kneaded it a bit, diveded it into 3 pieces that I let rice for 60 minuter. Rolled out to thin flat pieces about 25 cm and let it rest for 5 minutes and fried them on both sides using a little olive oil in the fryingpan. It worked best on mark 6/12 but thats on my stove...Then I let them cool slightly before tearing them into pieces and digging in.

Will I do these again? Of course I will!

Greek Christmas cockies

2010-01-11T18:51:00.004+01:00

The nice thing about trying things from different cultures is that it´s OK to eat them year around. Like if you are swedish you eat saffron buns for christmas and wouldn´t dream of doing it in the summer. So I can eat these cockies year around and I don´t mind.
The first time I had them they were made into half moon shapes but i just cut them, a little due to laziness...

Kourabiedes about 40 st
150 g almonds
250 g butter
1,5 dl caster sugar
1 eggyolk
0,5 Tbs cognac
5 dl flour
0,5 tsp bakingpowder
1 pinch pure ground vanilla

Ground or mix the almond to almost powderish
Mix butter and sugar untol fluffy and smooth
add eggyolk and cognac ( or probably any other alcoholic fluid )
and then the flour, bakingpowder and vanilla.
The dough is quite soft.
Shape 2 logs about 3 cm wide, wrap them with plastic or paper an put in the fridge over night.

Heat the oven to 175 degrees Celcius
Cut the logs in 0,5 cm slices and put them on baking sheets
bake fore about 15 minutes depending on size.
Let cool
mix orange blossom water or rose water with som water and splash a little over th cockies and then sprinkle caster sugar over them or coat them with it.

Even the dough tastes great!!

Viennese Striesel

2009-12-20T18:55:00.004+01:00

Bread baking babes are baking again and I´m home and have opportunity to try it out. The recipe is here.
I basically did as the recipe sayd until it came to dried cherries. Don´t have any at home...don´t want to go out to get some so I took dried cranberries instead. I also ditched in half a packet of "suckat" a kind of kandied pumpkin peel.

by making first a braid using 4 pieces of dough and then put a three-piece braid on top made it look really nice

The Striesel ready to cut

I liked it!

Saffron buns

2009-12-06T09:45:00.003+01:00

It´s Christmastime and not really my thing but one thing that I always do is make Saffron buns or Lucia buns. The have different names basically depending of what shape they are made in. The shape that I do are called "julgalt" jul is swedish for Cristmas and galt is the word for the male pig. There are a lot of other traditional shapes. They are decorated with raisins. I have for family issues omitted them. I have a brother who thought where was flies in the buns when he was a kid and still ( at 45 ) picks them out...
These buns have some untraditional things in them but that really improve the flavour

Lucia buns 40 pieces

75 g fresh yeast, that will be 1,5 package dry yeast
100 g butter
4 dl milk
1 dl heavy cream
1 dl white sirup, hmm you could probably use sugar instead
0,5 dl sugar
250 g kesella, ricotta will make it here
1 g of saffron + 1 tsp sugar
200 g almondpaste
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsk ground kardemum
0,5 tsp salt
16- 17 dl flour or more
raisins
1 egg for basting

Divide the yeast into small pieces in large bowl.
Melt the butter on the stove and add milk, cream, sirup and kesella/ricotta. Use a beater to break up the kesella/ricotta. When lukewarm, pour it over the yeast and let the yeast dillute.
Using a pestlar and mortlar work the sugar and the saffron to a powder. Add it together with vanilla, kardamum, salt and sugar. Shred the almondpaste and add it too.
Add enought flour to get a loose dought that still does not stick to the sides of the bowl.
Let rise under a teatowel for abot 35 minutes, it should double it´s size.
Divide the dought into 40 pieces and shape buns. The "julgalt" is a "S" shape that is done by rolling each dough piece 15- 20 cm long and rolling the tops to the middle from both but opposite sides. If you want raisins push them down in the center of the swirls, pressing them into the bun.
Again let them rise for 35 minutes. Baste them with the egg and bake them for 8 - 10 minutes in 250 degrees owen, let cool on rack under a towel. They freezes well.

Chinese flower stem buns

2009-10-03T20:01:00.002+02:00

Bread baking babes have gone steaming and I went along. The original recipe can be found here and I followed it rather well exept I mixed it all using my food processor including all that working the dough using the rolling pin. I also replaced the 25 grams of chili with 1 tsp of sambal oelek. After steaming the first 6 buns I decided to do the last 6 in the oven

This is not my cup of tea, not even with sweet chili sause to dip it in...

But at least I tried...

Black Russian

2009-08-28T10:55:00.003+02:00

Bread Baking Babes are baking Black Russian, so did I.
Following the recipe from Görel at Grain Doe
I made two loaves of something that tastes a lot like swedish limpa bread, something that I try to avoid. I did not like this bread but It was fun trying out a different way to bake ( with the soaking) and I also tried to let it rest for a few days to improve it. No!
I´m gonna go for another Black Russian!

2 cl Kahlua
2 cl vodka

Stir and serve on ice!

Bread baking babe June asparagus bread

2009-08-04T11:28:00.002+02:00

I know it´s august now but I was a day late in june so it´s been put on hold...

There is really nothing wrong with this bread, but I don´t like it ALL in ONE bread and even though the asparagus tastes good, it´s a little to much work and since I run a single household I freeze the bread and the asparagus doesn´t cooperate with the rest of the bread when it comes to thawing...
But I still think it´s a good way to decorate a bread!

Beirut tahini swirls

2009-07-25T11:00:00.006+02:00

This babe-buddie are very fond of these swirls, as a swede used to eat cinnamon buns this tastes a little different. The filling reminds me of Halwa, no surprice since it´s made of sesame seeds and sugar and I can think of adding some spices to it just like halwa comes in different flavours, and it was a fun and little different way to shape them, reminding me of Balkan style pitas filled with cheese, potatoes or other goodies. A batch of 6 is enought since they need a little work and I don´t have the skill of a Beirut babe...
Beirut is actually one city that I hope that I one day will be able to visit!

Beirut Tahini Swirls 6

1/8 pkt of fresh yeast
1 C lukewarm water
2,5 C flour ( ICA I love ECO strong wheat)
2 tsp sugar
1 Tsp olive oil

Filling:
1 cup tahina
1 cup sugar

With this amount of liquid I use the foodprocessor and mix it into a dought in seconds that I let rise until double size, did not take as long as 2-3 hours, but it was a warm summer day....
The filling was mixed together with a spoon and was not as hard as others I´ve seen on the net but it was probably easier to spread it on the dough this way. When I was ready there were filling left.
Cut the dough in 6 pieces and work 3 at the time.
Roll them out to a rectangle. I did not get the size the recipe says but made them as thin as I could, spread out 2,5 Tbsp of the filling and rolled it up like I was making really tiny cinnamonbuns and then rolled it into a big swirl that I left until I finished two more. Then I flattened them again not getting the size in the recipe. I baked them on my stone in 200 degrees Celcius and flipped them after 15 minutes to do 5 more on the other side. I baked directly on the stone but since they leek a little I recommend using a paper to cover the stone.
Did the last three the same way.
For a more detailed way to do them turn to Natashya who was hosting

Oops, I did it again!

2009-05-29T12:28:00.003+02:00

I just had to try it again using Whole wheat flour ( graham )I made half a batch ( there´s a space limit in my freezer.. I took 2 dl wholewheat when making the Biga. Works well!

Italian Knots

2009-05-28T12:33:00.004+02:00

I saw the "Bread baking babe" thing on Lucullian delights and decides that I want to join and that I really need a foodblog in english to do so...so you are invited to my kitchen! The kitchen is located in Malmö in the south of Sweden or where ever I like to cook or eat this blog will be only about baking...at least I think so...

I decided to to the Italian knots and had problems with the recipe, probably due to flour I think. So after the first batch that didn´t work too well ( but tasted great!) I took notes and here´s my version using strong wheat called "vetemjöl special" I always use the "I love ECO" brand from ICA and I used butter instead of lard
The original recipe and the instructions for making the knots are here

Day 1
The Biga
6 dl flour
fresh yeast, size of a pea
3 dl cold water

let the yeast dillute in the water and mix in the flour. Let stand under plastic or a lid until day 2

Day 2
The Biga
14-15 dl flour
60 g butter
4 dl tepid water
25 g yeast, that´s half a package here in Sweden
0,5 dl olive oil, extra virgin
0,25 dl honey
1 Tbs salt

Using your finger tips break the butter into the flour until it´s little crumbles.
Let the yest dillute into the water, add the oil and honey and let the honey dillute too.
Mix everything together and knead the dough until it doesn´t stick to the bowl. Start with 14 dl flour and add more if needed.
Let rise under towel until it double it´s size.
Make the knots. I made 16 and they are BIG. Normal buns; 24
Let them again rise until they have doubled their size.
Bake them for 30 minutes in 200 degrees until done.