Christmas time

Amidst all the Christmas rush and the overflowing amount of flavors, colours and things, I find myself craving for something simple for a change. Simple and clean flavors, real comfort food I suppose it could be called, warm bowl of porridge is my choice. Though it was no fast food, as I recently got a brand new fireplace, with a wood burning oven, and I've been experimenting with it ever since. The making of the porridge took about 6 hours, but the result was worth it. (This can be made quicker on the stove or a regular oven. )


I also used, I think it's called hulled barley in English, where the barley is whole, not broken, but the outer layer is removed. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) To the barley I added 0,5 litres of hot water, and then 1 litre of milk and a pinch of salt. After covering the bowl with foil, it went to the hot oven for about 5 hours. It's not so easy to regulate the temperature in this kind of oven, or at least I haven't got the knack of it yet, so easiest thing is to make foods that are not so particular to the exact temperature.


After few hours the porridge is ready when it looks and smells ready. With some cold milk and sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar, it's my kind of Christmas.


This Christmas is special as it's the first time I'm spending it in my new home.

Wish You All a relaxing and peaceful Christmas time, and also the Very Best for the New Year 2011!

Potato pastry with apple mash

One of my favorite food authors has to be Vivi-Ann Sjögren. This now over 70 year old Finnish lady, an author and an actress has traveled the world and gotten to know the flavors and recipes from all over. Her cooking is not posh or fancy, but down to earth, and she speaks strongly in favor of using simple ingredients, and basically utilizing what ever is in season and you have lying around. The scraps or leftovers are not to be thrown away, but rather utilized in a new, lovely and tasty recipe. She does remind me of Nigel Slater, or rather given her age, Nigel should be called "The Vivi-Ann Sjögren of England". For spring, there are recipes for deep-fried dandelions and for winter stews and stocks, but this potato pastry with apple mash felt very appropriate for just now, especially as I've dug up my potatoes and cooked gallons of mashed apple. I did modify it, only ever slightly, adding a sprinkle of salt to the pastry, some vanilla sugar to the whipped cream and icing sugar on top.

From Vivi-Ann Sjögren's book "Vivi-Annin keittiössä"

150 g cooked and mashed potatoes
150 g butter
150 g all-purpose flour (white wheat flour)
5 dl apple mash
2 dl whipping cream
icing sugar
salt

Mix potato, butter, sprinkling of salt and flour together and leave to set in cool place for an hour. Roll small balls from the dough and roll out flat and thin. Prick with a fork and bake in the oven, in 220 Celsius until crispy and light brown. Cool and then spread apple sauce on one piece of pastry, whipped cream on another, pile them and stock with third piece of pastry, with sprinkling of icing sugar.

Best of Autumn

Time to prepare for those long, cold winter nights, time to make pickles, jams and jellies. I've tasted the pickled cucumbers I made about a month ago, and hmm... I don't think they were quite the success I was hoping for. They still look pretty in their glass jars in my cellar, but the taste leaves something to be desired for, or rather they are quite hard, not really pickled enough. But as I have a tree full of apples, and I've eaten as much apple goodie as I can, it was time to make some mashed apple sauce. I love it with some oatmeal porridge, or with crepes or toast.

There's no need to peel the apples, but wash them well, and cut in to lobes. For this size of saucepan I used less than desilitre of water, it is there just to prevent the apples from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan. Let them soften in the boiling water for few minutes, the less you cook them, the more vitamins there will be left.

Then grind or mash them.

Add some sugar and I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon. Keeps well in the freezer or in clean glass jars.

Wish You Happy Friend's Day! (And lots of pulla for Good Luck)

These days the Finnish nation is divided into two. Those who have their Shrovetide pullas with jam and those who want it filled with almond paste. Shrovetide (laskiainen in Finnish) originates from Christian culture, and originally marked the days before fasting, seven weeks before Easter. Shrove Sunday, which is today and Shrove Tuesday, which is also called The Pancake Day in English speaking countries, and Mardi Gras in French, has traditionally been celebrated by eating heavy and greasy food, as this has been the last chance to do it. And the greasier your hands were after eating, the better luck and crop that year.

Although as with many festive days, the original reasons for celebration have been somewhat forgotten, many enjoy the traditional foods associated with this day. Pea soup, and special sweet bread, pulla, filled with whipped cream and either with almond paste or strawberry jam. Some people like to have their pulla in a bowl of hot milk. The day is also celebrated by going downhill sledging, for example in Helsinki student groups gather in a local park with the best hill for the purpose, and get creative with their sledges, which can pretty much take any shape or form from card board boxes to sofas with skis. (Some photos of it in Helsingin Sanomat)

You can make your, now also internationally acclaimed, pulla with this recipe. Cut the top off, take some of the pulla off inside to make room for jam (I best like raspberry jam) or almond paste and some whipped cream, and put the hat back on. You can also dust the top with some icing sugar.

Today happens to be also Valentine's Day. Compared to Shrovetide, this is a relatively new day in Finnish culture, and therefore not so rich with traditions. We call it “Friend's Day”, and I would like to wish all of you lovely people out there, near and far, Happy Friend's Day! It's a priviledge and such a joy to get to know you!

My Blueberry Soup

The cup is from Tiimari, with a Pattern Bakery -pattern.

With temperatures still below -15-20 degrees Celsius, hot drinks are an absolute must at the moment. If you've preserved berries from last summer, now is a perfect time to utilize them. Blueberry soup is calming and relaxing, the perfect hot after a walk outside.

For the soup you'll need (makes 6 portions):

6 dl water
400 g blueberries, can be frozen
1 dl sugar
cinnamon stick

for thickening:
2 dl water
4 tbs potato flour (can be substituted with corn flour)

to decorate:
cream
vanilla sugar

Heat water until it boils. Add berries, cinnamon stick and sugar. Boil for couple of minutes. Mix cold water with potato flour. Move pan from the stove, add the thickening as a thin stream and mix the soup at the same time. Boil the soup quickly. Let cool a bit and decorate with whipped cream and vanilla sugar.

P.S. Guess what the new trend-food is amongst the celebrity? Image-magazine says Guardian said (phew, talk about rumors), it's porridge! Not just any old porridge of course, but posh luxury porridges with for example rice, maple syrup, stewed apple and white miso-paste. But what could be more posh than princess porridge, I ask. I wonder if they're having that?

Comfort Food Extreme

We've been blessed lately with snow and temperatures dropping down to -25 Celsius degrees. With this weather, I feel one is entitled to turn to real comfort foods. For me, besides all forms of potato, one of the most comforting and relaxing foods will have to be sweet bread, in Finnish called "pulla". And with cold glass of milk, please. Pulla gets eaten all year around, at festive occasions, or on your everyday coffee break. The dough is pretty simple, but you can be creative as to how you want to shape it. A big plaited loaf, cinnamon buns, simple ball shape or pulla-boys or girls with raisin eys are probably the most common ones.

These photos are of me mum making her trademark pullas. I truly apologise for the bad quality of some of the photos, my excuses are, on top of not being a professional photographer, a) although taken in front of a window, there just isn't much daylight at the moment in Finland, b) she was going pretty darn fast.

Anyway, for the dough you will need:

0,5 litres milk
50 g yeast
2 tsp salt
2 dl sugar
2 tsp cardamon (not the pods, but open them and use the bits inside)
1 egg
14 dl wheat flour
100 g butter

Add yeast to hand warm milk. Mix with salt, sugar, cardamon and egg. Add flour little by little, whisk more at first to mix some air in to the dough. Then knead until it feels alive in your hands, say maybe 10 minutes or so. Add soft butter towards the end of kneading. Let rest in a warm place, covered with a tea towel. When the dough size has doubled, knead it softly to remove the airbubbles, for couple of minutes.


Cut pieces of the dough with knife and start rolling it under your hands to form long shapes.


Cut pieces of app. 10 cms.


Press two pieces together at top.


Twirl one of the dough pieces around the other. Press the ends together to form a circle.


Set on a baking sheet on a baking tray, brush with some egg and sprinkle with sugar.


Bake in oven, 225 degrees for 10 minutes or so, until golden brown.

House of dreams

We hope you all had wonderful holidays!

In my family we have a tradition of building a gingerbread house for every Christmas. The years have seen all kinds of designs including an airport, a church, a Moomin-house, several cabins, a couple of reindeer herds and the ambitious 4-floor apartment building, which turned out to be inedible. The dough was too hard. Usually buildings have met their doom on New Years eve, when children have fought over the best parts - the ones with most icing and candy.

This year it was just me building the house. I decided on a miniature model of a new playhouse, which will be built at our summer cottage next summer. The house is my parents' and my pet-project for the their grandchildren in the family. Although it took a couple of days, the process is always fun all the way from designing and drawing the parts to the last sprinkle of powdered sugar on top. Though I have to admit I took a shortcut this time: ready-made, frozen dough.

We'll see whether, once built, the actual house will have as many fans as it's gingerbread version.

Have a great year 2010!

Christmas Stars

My favorite Christmas pastry. Not only because of the taste, though they are lovely, but also because they are so easy to make. Especially if you buy the ready-made dough from the store. It's just regular puff-pastry, which of course you can also make yourself.

Cut squares app size of 10 cm x 10 cm. Make an incision of app. 3 cms from each corner towards the middle. Fold every other corner up towards middle. Squeeze these corners together and press down. Add a dollop of plum marmalade or jam on top of middle part. Bake in the oven in 225 degrees Celsius for 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, The Day of the Finnish Christmas. In the morning there will be rice porridge with plum soup, then sauna and after that the Christmas Dinner. In the evening a visit from Santa Claus with presents. We Finns have lots of special foods that are eaten only on Christmas, for example Christmas ham, carrot or turnip casserole, rosolli which is a special beetroot salad with whipped cream, Christmas bread etc. My favorites are the gravad lax, cold smoked salmon, herrings and roe with sour cream and shallots. So there's lots of recipes to write about for years to come.

What ever is your style of spending the holiday season, we at Pattern Bakery hope it will filled with joy and peace. Merry Christmas!

Auntie Hanna's cookies

I don't have an aunt called Hanna myself, but these are another traditional Finnish cookie. Not just for Christmas, my grandma used to have these in her cookie box all year, but now my mother makes these at least for Christmas. The flavor is quite delicate, some might even say plain, but I think one of these to accompany my cup of espresso is a perfect combination.

3 dl sugar
1 tsp baking soda
3 dl potato flour (similar to corn flour)
4 dl wheat flour
1,5 dl cream
1,5 melted butter

Mix the dry ingredients, add cream and butter. Mix until the dough is firm and even. Take smallish lumps of the dough, about 1 tbsp or so, and roll between your hands. Bake in the oven, 175 degrees Celsius, for about 8-10 minutes, until slightly golden brown.

Preparing for Christmas

I have a confession to make; I'm not a very good at baking things. I like the food I make, and bread is fine, but there is definitely something about the sweets I can't grasp. Even making a sponge cake is like gambling for me, I never know how it will turn out. Maybe it is because I prefer savory things to sweets or because the baking recipes and measurements should be followed accurately, and I like to make it along as I cook? I don't know, but this is my excuse for these Christmas recipes being from and made by my mother. I still wanted to post about few essential Finnish flavors and scents of the coming holiday season, and the first will be these gingerbread cookies. They come out quite crispy and therefore this dough is perfect also for building gingerbread houses.


250 g butter
2 dl sugar
1,5 dl syrup
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground clove
1 egg (on the large side)
1 tsp salt
9 dl wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda

Place butter, sugar, syrup and spices in a sauce pan, heat until it boils and whisk until the mixture has cooled.

Add egg and salt to mixture. Combine flour with the baking soda in a separate bowl and add to the mixture. Leave to set overnight in the fridge.

Roll a part of the dough at a time to a thin layer and cut the cookies out of it with a cookie mold. Place the cookies on a baking tray lined with a baking sheet and bake in an oven (200 Celsius) until brown, about 8-10 minutes.

Keittokuu-kausi

Looks like this month is turning out to be a month for soup recipes. Suppose there’s something very comforting about a steaming hot bowl of soup when It is A Dark And Stormy Night outside. Here’s one of my favorite recipes, creamy and velvety soup of Jerusalem Artichokes, which are also in season at the moment.

1 clove of garlic
1 onion
500 g Jerusalem artichokes
2 potatoes
thyme
1 liter vegetable stock
2 dl cream
salt and black pepper
butter or oil to fry

to garnish: hazelnuts or sunflower seeds

Soften the chopped onion and garlic in a large pan, then add the peeled and chopped artichokes and potatoes, and fry gently for few minutes. Add the stock, thyme, and simmer for about 30 minutes. Liquidize, for a really smooth result pour through a sieve, add cream and reheat. Season to taste. Garnish with toasted nuts or seeds.

(A footnote warning: Some people call them Fartichokes. Appropriately, I think)

More mushrooms

Even though we've already seen the first snowflakes, the yellowfoot chanterelle can take few minus degrees easily, and it's still worth hunting. They're also easy to dry and can be used through out winter. A big thanks to auntie Leila, who has taught me everything I know about yellowfoot chanterelles, where they live and what to do with them. The best places to pick them are also best kept secrets, but this recipe from her I can share.

1 liter yellowfoot chanterelles (You can use this recipe for any other kind of mushroom soup too)
1 onion
1 carrot
app. 8 dl vegetable stock
1 tbsp flour
1 dl cream
butter or oil
salt and pepper

Fry the cleaned and chopped mushroom in butter or oil few minutes, so most of their liquid evaporates. Add chopped onions and roughly grated carrot and soften for a while. Add flour and mix, then add vegetable stock. Let simmer for 30 minutes. Add cream, and salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with fresh parsley, if you likes.

Harvest

When the first frost decorates the leaves, it's time to collect the carrots and beetroots. The frost makes them a bit sweeter, but of course they shouldn't be left for long. I had only a little vegetable patch, but it was enough to share a borscht-type beetroot soup with few friends, and maybe some roasted beetroots in the future. For a starter we had pickled gherkins with honey and sour cream, and an apple goodie for dessert. Here's the recipe for borscht for 6 person:

6 beetroots
1 potato
1 onion
1 carrot
4 tomatoes, or a can of whole tomatoes
250 g cabbage
2-3 jalapenos
vegetable stock
salt and black pepper
vegetable oil

to garnish:
fresh parsley
sour cream (or smetana in Finnish, this is very thick sour cream, about 42% fat)

Chop the beets, cabbage, potato and carrot into small matchsticks. Soften the chopped onion in a saucepan big enough to hold the whole soup, app. 2 litres. Add the vegetable sticks and soften for few minutes, don't let them brown. Add enough stock to cover, the de-skinned tomatoes and chopped jalapenos. Let simmer for 25 minutes or so. Take app. half of the soup aside and pure the rest. Combine the smooth soup with the chunky, add salt and pepper to taste and reheat gently. You can also add more vegetable stock if you think it needs more liquid. Sprinkle parsley on top and add a dollop of sour cream on top of the soup on your plate.

Apple goodie

Few months after having the Finnish Hanami under the apple tree blossoms, it's time to harvest. Apple crumble is the season's recurrent dessert, so easy to make and oh so good. My family has always called it "omenahyvä", which translates apple good.

Peel the apples and cut them into lobes, and sprinkle into a buttered, oven proof pan. Mix the apples with sugar and cinnamon. On top goes a crumble mix, rub about 100 g of butter with app. 2 dl wheat flour, 1 tsp both vanilla sugar and salt. Bake in the oven in 200 degrees Celsius, for about half an hour, or until the crumble is nice and golden. Some vanilla custard or ice-cream would be nice here too...

Preparing for cold, dark winter evenings...

Excessive amounts of currants in the garden. What is a girl to do? As there are lots of rules and restrictions about advertising alcohol in Finland, you have to guess yourself, I best not say no more.

Mushroom picking last weekend

Northern Milk Cap (haaparousku)

Hedgehog Mushroom (vaalea- ja rusko-orakas)

Woolly Milk Cap (karvarousku)

Yellowfoot Chanterelle (suppilovahvero)

Chanterelle (kanttarelli)