recipe

Omenakakku – Finnish Apple Cake with Herbs

- Tobia 6 Comments

It’s this time of year again where we celebrate together and I serve up some Finnish delicacies. Once again I’ve some baked goodies for you. Omenakakku – this Finnish Apple Cake is more like a breakfast cake. It’s dense, it’s rich and with the addition of the rolled oats and herbs it has an interesting flavor. I haven’t come across anything like it yet.

I know you also want to have some dinner choices and I promise one of those days I will get around to it. But not today. Since I am planning of staying married we have a couple more celebrations ahead of us. But let’s not procrastinate any further.

seeking creative life omenakakku finnish apple cake

Here is what you need for omenakakku – Finnish Apple Cake.

  • 250g butter, room temperature
  • 200 g sugar (I used 150g regular and 50g brown sugar)
  • 4 eggs
  • 350g flour
  • 150g rolled oats
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp ground ginger powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 300 g finely chopped apples
  • 1 handful cinnamon-basil leaves, chopped
  • 1 handful mint leaves, chopped
omenakakku finnish apple cake seeking creative life

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Mix butter and sugar until slightly foamy.
3. Add in eggs and beat.
4. Now add in flour, baking powder, rolled oats and spices. Mix well.
5. Grate apples, chop herbs and combine with dough mixture.
6. Pour dough into baking tin.
7. Bake approx. 30-40 min – it depends on the size of your tin. Make sure to test the dough. I personally like a cake slightly underbaked.

seeking creative life craftaliciousme omenakakku finnish apple cake

You can serve the omenakakku the true Finnish way with whipped cream and cranberry jam. I had it with a bit of butter. As I said before it feels a bit like a baked breakfast choice. It fills you up pretty good and sustains for quite some while too. You might actually be able to leave out the sugar altogether to make it a bit more healthy. I will give that a shot next time.

I will leave you to your weekend for now. While you read this I will roam the city of Oslo and have a short vacation. If you like of hop over to Instagram to follow along.

Happy baking

Tobia
craftaliciousme omenakakkku finnish apple cake

Pumpkin Muffins – perfect fall dessert

- Tobia 2 Comments
seeking creative life Pumpkin muffins perfect fall dessert

In all my time blogging I have never shared a muffin recipe here. Not because I don’t like them. Not because I don’t bake them. No I didn’t share because I am very protective of my recipes. Some at least. Today I feel like sharing tough. Not any muffin recipe no. Pumpkin Muffins – perfect fall dessert and my all time favorites. I’ve used to make them quite often but it’s been almost 10 years I last made them. Ingredients were hard to come by back then. Nowadays it’s a bit easier though.

I can not even say why those muffins are something special. They are sweet but not too sweet, they are always moist and soft even when days old – in case they last that long. I used to bake them for my host family and it’s actually a recipe from my host mom from back in the day.

craftaliciousme seeking creative life Pumpkin muffins perfect fall dessert

But without further ado here are the ingredients to make Pumpkin Muffins:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup of sugar
  • 8 oz / 230g pumpkin pie filling – you can buy it on amazon or make your own
  • 3/4 vegetable oil
  • 1,5 cups of flour
  • 1 tsp of baking soda
  • 1 tsp of baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cups semisweet chocolate chips

If you want to make the pumpkin pie filling from scratch: cut up a pumpkin. I have used the regular halloween pumpkin as well as Hokaido. But in oven on low temperature until soft. Thats it. I have not done cooking it because I feared the taste will diffuse in the cooking water.

How to whip up your pumpkin muffins:

  1. In a large bowl beat eggs, sugar, pumpkin and oil until everything is smooth.
  2. Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
  3. Add to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
  4. Fold in chocolate chips
  5. Fill greased muffin pan.
  6. Bake at 200°C/400°F for about 16-20 minutes.

This makes about 12 muffins. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Enjoy

Tobia
seeking creative life Pumpkin muffins perfect fall dessert craftaliciousme

PORKKANAVESIRINKELIT – Finnish Carrot Rolls

- Tobia 4 Comments

It’s time for our annual Finnish get-together. How awesome of you to join me for the fifth time and celebrate with me. I promised you dinner last year unfortunately the recipe I was going to serve needs to be in the oven for 5 hours or so. Not very ecological when cooking for 1-2 people. So instead let’s have some hot steaming porkkanavesirinkelit – Finnish for carrot rolls. Could be part of your dinner too however I enjoy them in the morning.

Finnish Carrot Rolls PORKKANAVESIRINKELIT spread

Here is what you need:

  • 100 ml of warm water
  • 50 ml of milk
  • 50 ml vegetable oil

  • 7g of yeast which equals one pack of dry yeast

  • 1/2 tsp of sugar
  • 3 spritz of agave sirup
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 100g grated carrots
  • 500 g flour (I used 350 whole grain and 150 wheat)
PORKKANAVESIRINKELIT finnish carrot rolls hands

Here is how it’s done:

Dissolve yeast in warm water, milk and add sugar, salt and oil. Add too carrots and mix well. Now add flour and knead dough until it comes off your fingers. Let rise in a warm place. I prepared the dough at night and let it sit over night.

Form little balls and gently press flat. Let them rise a bit more while you start heating a pot with 2 l of water and add 2 teaspoons of salt for cooking. Preheat oven 200-degree.

Make a hole in the middle of the buns with your thumb and drop them into the water a few at a time. Allow to boil for about a minute and bring them to baking paper to dry.

Bake the rolls about 15 minutes until they have a beautiful color.
Serve with salted butter or marmalade.

Finnish Carrot Rolls –PORKKANAVESIRINKELIT

Now I would suggest you enjoy them still warm and fresh out of the oven. At least that is how I prefer homemade fresh rolls.

As you know I love a good winter hence my winter wedding. However it seems like yet another winter where Berlin is not really blessed with snow. We’ve only gotten one or two days with a tiny bit of snowflakes. Nothing stayed on the ground of course. While I haven’t given up completely on winter yet I see the signs for spring all over. And therefore I was wondering if those rolls might actually be a perfect addition to an Easter brunch. What do you think?

Well for now let’s enjoy the cold weather.
Happy Friday

Tobia
PORKKANAVESIRINKELIT – Finnish Carrot Rolls for easter brunch

Chickpea Salad with Tuna

- Tobia 2 Comments

Hello hello,

today I have a quick home cooked salad for you. cooked salad you wonder. Yes! I love food that is warm. I also like salad. So I often mix the best of both: cooked veggies and some cold ingredients. For today I raided my pantry and I came up with a glass of cooked chick peas and can of tuna. This is how the Chickpea Salad with Tuna was born.

chickpea salad with tuna

 

Are you ready. Here is what you need:

🖤 chopped shallot
🖤 chopped clove
🖤 glass of pre-cooked chickpeas
🖤 handfuls of chopped tomatoes
🖤 twig of rosemary
🖤 salt, pepper, lemon juice
🖤 can of tuna
🖤 handful of lettuce/spinach/chard, etc

Let’s get cooking:

  1. Preheat olive oil in pan. Add chopped shallot and clove. Saute.
  2. Add chickpeas and let simmer for a bit.
  3. Add tomatoes and rosemary.
  4. Let simmer until everything looks good but is not all broken up.
  5. Remove from heat.
  6. Add tuna and spice to liking.
  7. Add salad greens and serve immediately.

Next time I do this dish I will probably add a bit of avocado too.

Let me know if you give this a try and how you’ve liked it.

Happy weekend y’all,

Tobia

Spicy Fruit Punch for winter days

- Tobia 2 Comments
craftaliciousme seeking creative life Spicy fruit punch

After being locked up for the last few days I needed to get outside today. I knew it got cold but I was still a bit surprised how cold it was. Winter was in the air. I could almost smell snowflakes but not quite yet. When I was strolling the streets I thought to myself this will be a really cold long winter. We hadn’t had those in a while. I am looking forward. Just need to get used to the cold. Cold air makes everything feel fresh and new. However when I came home I was chilled to the bone. Time for a spicy fruit punch to warm me up.

Good thing I had all the ingredients already at hand. Let me invite you for a glass and if you are not able to stop by let me share the recipe with you.

What you need:

♥ bag of homemade chai tea
♥ redcurrant juice
♥ mint

Preparations are quite simple. Boil the chai tea in water and let simmer for about 30 mins. Add approx. same amount of juice to the concoction. Heat up. Fill in glass and decorate with min leaves.

craftaliciousme seeking creative life Spicy fruit punch

If you enjoy this recipe you might also like Kuuma Karpalomehu – Finnish Hot Cranberry Juice. Now I wander what your favourite hot drink during winter time is. Let me know so I can give it a try.

Happy winter,

Tobia

spicy fruit punch for cold winter days