Do you have the luxury of an own garden? If so you are probably in high BBQ season. We only BBQ with friends in their garden or when in the country home. So I hardly have the chance to enjoy the delicious food. But we did bbq this year and while I’m usually in charge of dessert this time around that was already covered. So I decided to make some homemade bbq dips. And let me tell you it was yum.
➢ Keep on ReadING
Some days call for soul food. Like really you need it to take another breath on this damaged world we live in. Please tell me I am not the only one. While I am often drawn towards hot semolina for breakfast. I recently remembered “Quarkkeulchen”. Something my mom made only every once in a while. It’s a Saxonian dish, very regional in Germany. Not a lot of people know about it. It’s a shame because souldfood coming out of a pan is always a good idea. And Saxonian Quarkkeulchen are pretty much the best there are.
As so many great dishes it is actually a meal made of left overs. Here you traditionally use boiled potatoes. But let’s be honest there is no such thing as left over potatoes. At least not in this house. Maybe the reason why it’s not often made.
➢ Keep On ReadINgIt’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.
Here is what you need for omenakakku – Finnish Apple Cake.
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.
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
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.
But without further ado here are the ingredients to make Pumpkin Muffins:
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 Hokkaido. Put in oven on low temperature until soft. That’s 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:
This makes about 12 muffins. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
Enjoy
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.
Here is what you need:
7g of yeast which equals one pack of dry yeast
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.
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
