That's how the cookie crumbles!

If you find yourself with some leftover chocolate (I know it's a rare phenomenon, but occasionally it does happen) or don't feel like eating it with out butter, oat and other yummy things: this is a great little number to make if you want a quick fix. It is basically a giant chocolate chip cookie  - sort of - with simple ingredients and takes just about 30 minutes to make.

Piece of Cake!

100-150 grams of chocolate
123 grams of butter
3 dl Oats
1,5 dl flour
1 tsk baking powder

Melt the butter and mix in all the dry ingredients.
Pat the batter out on a baking tray, the batter will be quite hard.
Break the chocolate into large, chunky pieces and stick into the batter.
Place in the over, 200'C, for ca 15 - 20 minutes or until golden.

Tear and Share

Happy New Year!

We're back.

For now.

Fingers crossed. 

To kick off this cold and rainy January we'll serve you up some comforting and spicy bread, to chew on while wishing you hadn't eaten quite so much during Christmas. We know we did. 

Cumin and cracked black pepper tear and share bread

• 2 pints of flour
• 2 satchels (14 gram) of dried yeast
• pinch of salt and sugar
• whole cumin seeds (roughly ground)
• cracked black pepper
• 1 egg
• sea salt
• 3 dl of water

1. Mix you dry ingredients, hurrah!
2. Pour up the water, make sure it is warm to the touch (around 37 degrees celsius).
3. Kneed the dough lightly, until it's got a doughy consistency. Let rest in a warm place until doubled in size.
4. Kneed the bread for ten to fifteen minutes, then shape into balls and place next to each other.
5. Let rest in a warm place.
6. Glaze with egg and sprinkle a bit of salt and back pepper on top.
7. Place in the oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown, at 250 degrees.

Muddymudcake

This is an empty pie dish. 

It's not very happy. But with some butter, chocolate and liquorice it feels a lot better - or maybe that's just me. As always, finding a name/translation into English has been tricky - but fun! Because it is, as always, quite close to an English term/translation - here the English term Chocolate Mud cake - but not quite. In my search through the Wild Wild Web I came across an interesting little blog that was discussing, well, exactly what I am discussing right now. In a way.

For now, let's just call it Mud Cake and get on with it.

I guess every place, family, etc, has its or their own classic dish or cake that is made over and over until perfect (or as near as one can come). When I was a child, simple sponge cakes and Mud cake (or Kladdkaka) where the first ones I learnt to bake. Mud cake especially since it is so simple and quick to make. I suppose one could think of it as a 'ruined cake', as the aim is to achieve a crusty shell and a gooey, almost runny, middle.

There is probably over a 100 different ways of making them and here is also about a million different recepies, some which I hope to try very soon. Just to shake things up I decided to starts things off not with a Classic Mud cake, but one with liquorice!

Liquorice is something I've lately become very interested in (yes, I tend to obsess a bit about food). Liquorice comes in many different forms - sweet, salt, to almost tar-tasting - and it can be an acquired taste. What I had never thought of, however, was using it in cakes. In a small, cosy shop, I found a stack of liquorice products and one of them was this small jar of powdered liquorice (and I was strongly advised to try this cake). And who am I to say no to a challenge?

 Liquorice Mudcake

1. 150 grams of butter
2. 3 tablespoons of liquorice powder
3. 3 eggs
4. 3 dl sugar
5. 2 tablespoons of syrup
6. 2 dl of flour
7. 6 tablespoons of cacao

• Put the oven on 175 degrees. 
• Melt the butter, and then mix together the dry ingredients. 
• Stir in the syrup and butter. 
• Pour the batter into a greased tin or pie dish. 
• Bake in the lower part of the oven, roughly 20-25 minutes. You want it really doughy and soft in the middle! 
• Serve with raspberries and whipped cream (or vanilla ice cream.) 

Perfect Morning moment

Imagine - Sunny morning, fragrant freshly brewed cup of coffee, homemade bread with fresh things on top.

Avocado sandwich

• Avocado
• red onion
• lemon juice
• salt/pepper
• smoked paprika

Mix everything together. Make sure the onion is chopped as finely as possible and season according to your taste. 

You might want to be little careful with the smoked paprika (my new spice obsession, which smells a.m.a.z.i.n.g), which can give your sandwich topping a somewhat funky colour. 

Garlic on Garlic with Garlic

The perk of having a somewhat randomly stranded Scandinavian house guest, is that they provide dinner every now and again. The following is a product of JJ's sorted family history and food culture, which spans from Scandinavia all the way to Greece (and beyond). A good mix as it turns out, it is yummy.

PS. Although the dish is called Garlic Chicken you don't need to add all the garlic in the world as it was done by our Guest in the Kitchen, who has a slight garlic fetish. The chicken was fried with half a garlic (6-8 gloves), which might be a little on the excessive side. Similarly the potatoes don't necessarily need to be covered in garlic as well.

Guest in the Kitchen: JJ's Garlic Chicken with pan fried Garlic Tatties 

Marinade

• Olive oil
• Lemon Juice
• salt & pepper
• coriander Oregano
• 1 egg
• 
  

• Chicken ( breast per person)
• Olive oil
• Garlic

Make sure that the marinade has a thick consistency
Split a chicken breast (per person) into two halves and cover the pieces with the marinade. Let it sit in the fridge for about 2 hours before cooking.

Potatoes
Boil the potatoes in small pieces
Heat up a pan with olive oil
Mix salt pepper, chili powder, garlic powder - mixed herbs and fresh chopped garlic, lemon juice.
Throw on and keep browning the potatoes in the oil mix until golden brown. Enjoy immediately.

Serve with a side salad

Let the good times roll

A classic treat in most bakeries and cafes, I decided to try and make them myself. Turned out to be a bit of a challenge since I used uncoloured marsipan and had to add colourings myself - I also made them rather small (to make it easier to eat many). But hey, what are summer holidays for if not for playing around with silly things like this?

 Punsch-roll:

• 100 grams butter 
• 1 dl icing sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla essence
• 3 tablespoons of cacao powder
• ca 4 dl of cookie crumbles (I made crumbs of a small Victoria sponge)
• Flavour the batter with Punsh or Arrack essence 
• ca 200-250 grams of Marsipan
• 3 tablespoons of icing sugar
• 100 grams of milk chocolate

1. Stir together butter, sugar, vanilla and cacao powder.
2. Add the crumbs.
3. Add flavouring of your choice.
4. Shape into two long rolls (I had do more than two due to space restrictions).
5. Let rest in the fridge for a while.
6. Flatten the marsipan with a rolling pin, add the batter and roll together - cut into ca 4.cm long pieces.
7. Dip the ends in the melted chocolate and leave to set on baking paper.

  

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Sweet Pies are made of this

The berry season is, I know, usually at the end of the summer. But if you have them, eat them. Blueberries especially are a source of antioxidants and C-vitamins - and probably loads of other healthy stuff. By how much these healthy benefits are reduced however, when mixed in with a mass of sugar, flour and oats, I can't say, but who needs desserts to be healthy anyway? Let's eat!

 Blueberry pie (or tart, if you need the distinction)

• grams of blueberries
• 200 grams of butter
• 1 dl of Oats
• ca 3 dl of flour
• 1.5 dl of sugar

1. Melt the butter, and add the oats and sugar - let soak for a minute.
2. Add the flour, mix well until the batter if firm enough to be pressed out into a pie dish.
3. Pour in the blueberries! How much you need/want depends on how big a dish you use.
4. Sprinkle a little bit of oats and sugar on top - or even some cinnamon. 
5. Place in the oven, 175'C, for about 25-30 minutes. 

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