Semla(Semlor in plural form)
I have decided to blog for the next few post about my fav Swedish food/pastry.
Havign stay in the coutnry for a period of time, I have grew to like some of their food despite of the big texture and taste difference. For example, we are very use to soft fluffy cakes, while their cake are rather dry and hard.
One of the pastry I like is Semla. I rem it was Yanyin who actualy introduce me to this pastry or rather bun if u wan to call that. She told me its a festive pastry, and so they do not have it often... onli during the period of Lent. Of cos I wasnt game to try it at all bcos I am afraid of the sweetness.. but the word almond paste make me soft hearted and wants to try. I love anythg w almond.. the smell perks me up. and so I bought 1 piece to try when I was out doing my usualy grocery shopping at Maxi then. oh mine its really good... subsequently whenever i sees it, i will alwasy buy 2 for myself as lunch since I hardly have anythg for lunch back thr.
A quick search on the web explains more bout this pastry
A semla is a traditional pastry in
Sweden,
Finland and
Estonia, associated with
Lent and especially
Shrove Tuesday. The name derives from the
Latin semilia, which was the name used for the finest quality
wheat flour. In the southernmost part of Sweden,
Skåne and by the
Swedish speaking population in Finland, they are known as fastlagsbulle (fastlagen being the equivalent of
shrovetide), and in the rest of Finland as laskiaispulla. In Estonia it is known as vastlakukkel.
The oldest version of the semla was a plain bread bun, eaten in a bowl of warm milk. Today, the semla consists of a
cardamom-spiced
wheat bun which has its top cut off and insides scooped out and is then filled with a mix of the scooped-out bread crumbs,
milk and
almond paste, topped with
whipped cream. The cut-off top is then put back as a lid and dusted with icing sugar. It is nowadays often eaten on its own, with coffee or similar, but there are still those who eat it in a bowl of hot milk. In Finland, the bun is sometimes filled with jam instead of almond paste.
The semla was originally eaten only on
Shrove Tuesday, as the last festive food before Lent. However, with
Protestantism the Swedes stopped observing Lent, and the semla in its bowl of warm milk became a traditional dessert every Tuesday between Shrove Tuesday and Easter. Today, semlas are available in shops and bakeries every day from shortly after Christmas until Easter. Each Swede consumes on average five bakery-produced semlas each year, in addition to all those that are homemade.
King
Adolf Frederick of Sweden died of digestion problems on
February 12,
1771 after consuming a meal consisting of lobster, caviar,
sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne, which was topped off by 14 servings of semla, served with bowls of hot milk. Semla was the king's favorite dessert.
This was the sweet chosen to represent Finland in the
Café Europe initiative of the Austrian presidency of the
European Union, on
Europe Day 2006.
Just now I was digging out all my swedish cookbook.. and finaly I found the piece of recipe Elisabeth (my very close swedish friend) gave me just before I came back to singapore.
I guess I do not want to lose this piece of valuable recipe and thus i decided to safe keep it by bloggging bout it here.
Recipes as follows
25g fresh yeast
75g butter
2.5dl milk
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 dl sugar
7-8dl white flour
1 egg
Prepare the dough in bread maker or mixer till smooth , then knead down dough on a floured tabletop. divive to 10 big bun or 20 small ones.
Let it rise for 30 mins till double the size.
Brush bun with beaten egg and bake at 225 degree int he lower rack for 10 to 15 mins.
Filling:
Almond paste 200 g
OR
1 1/2 dl grinded almond
1dl sugar
1 dl milk
Fill bun with almond paste, whipped cream and decor with icing sugar... Viola.. u get nice semla.
In fact for the sake of this semla, I even buy a cookbook that feature this recipe in english.. let mi dig it out.. I suppose my collection of the sweidish cookbook have this recipe too..
now im missing my friends over there....
Tiramisu
My sister req a Tiramisu Cake for her birthday.. smart rite? she noes its gonna b one of the best cake in the world..
A simple one...
This tiem round im more adventurous, i really add alot of liquor to soak the sponge fingers, in the past i am afraid they turn too soggy... well lucky its not too soggy now either..
and Since we are gg out for Sakura buffet.. I doubt we have space in tummy to eat the cake after dinner... eversince Serene got married, I have to think of ways to let her bring back her share of yummy...
So I made some tiramisu in the plastic cup for her
While me and dear already ahd out share of tiramisu last nite.. a super large cup one too... hehe
白の戀人 aka Shiroi Koibito
Serene brought back some Shiroi Koibito from Hokkaido yesterday... its quite nice except its a tit toos weet... since its white chocolate. However its very addictive. I guess those who went to Hokkaido or Japan would have seen this even at the airport.
I have been procastinating bout makin this since I have not tasted this before. I wan to slap myself for not buyin a box when i was at Narita last year. Anyway... I finaly tasted it and get my butt off the chair to bake this..
this is how the original cookie from Hokkaido looks like..
And these are mine.
Sprinkled with lavendar to remind Serene of HokkaidoI would say mine is really not as neat when it comes to the filling part since the filling is not easy to make.. quite messy... since its v oily and u need to make it neatly.. and worse thing is it melt so fast once out of fridge.. I cant never find a way to keep it in its firm form.. but I will try again... Well at least I know I have done this.. I will surely do it again becos we all love this.. esp when chill in fridge.
Tomolo the kids ( my sisters) will get to eat htese.. Bet they will be snatching... meanwhile.. I beenmaking frequent trip to the fridge... poping a few pieces of them into my mouth..
I din even realise I haven had dinner today...
Half Shell Garlic Scallop with Crab Meat Pasta
We bought this pack of scallop from the supermart the other day... and being a very carbo person.. I decided to eat this w pasta.. with loads of garlic of cos.
I bake the scallop w garlic and a dash of white wine
then cook the pasta and stir fry it lightly with canned crabmeat which have a sweet taste.
Addin in the ham and mix vegetable as well as more garlic... and topped with parmesan cheese n raw garlic.. it became our dinner...
If only i have more mozerrela cheese.. i could have bake the scallop with it too..
Book Shelf Lapis
My friend choo kindly share this recipe with mi which she got from the lapis recipe book.
Extremely tedious.. but well.. its really yummy..
Next tiem is hall do the plain colour ones to save ont eh effort hehe.. yummily sinful cake ...
Pretzel again..
I am too bored..and cravign for some kind of bread.. I hate those slices of white bread... Past 3 days I been surviving on my garlic bread... and so I tot pretzel will be good...
This time round i shaped them better...
Anyway here U go...
Parmesan Pretzel... super yummy
Jalapeno chilli Pretzel... spicy.. but reminds me of the good old days in Max Burger with their cheese nugget
Cheeze Fondue
Our 1st encounter with fondue was back in Sweden... well strange rite.. nt Switzerland. Of cos subsequently, our holiday that brought us all over gave us chance to try more types of fondue in Geneva. Particularly cheese fondue... the cheese are rather strong I must say. and i kind of like it so logn as i do not have overdose of it... come to tink of it.. the smelliest cheese from Amsterdsam cheese factory was no better haha...
Reminiscing the good old days in Europe, and also taking advantage of the cool weather... Dear and I decide to have our long awaited cheese fondue at home...
Armed with onli the cheese fondue and some bread that is grill to crisp.. and some garlic portebello mushroom...
Oh well.. now wats next?? white wine fondue perhaps?? and then I can use my stowed away stainless steel fondue pot. ...
Cute Butter cookies
After many tries.. finaly I managed some butter cookies with my disney cutters w/o breaking the ears of t6he piglet and face of the tigger... GGuess the trick is add in more flour to the dough and really chill it well.. of cos the cool weather this few days helps too.
Gave them away to the kids... they simply love it.. prob due to the cute shape hehe
And here is 1 more of the pralet i did.. I hope u r not getting bored viewing it since I got more orders of this coming up.
Using my left over sugar paste flowers... I love the 'sweetie' look of it thou my frosting werent that neat cos I frosted the cake while its cold. the frosting kind of harden really fast since it contain a high amount of chocolate.
My 1st Cupcake Orders
Couple of weeks ago, YY call to order cupcakes. She req for sth pretty. and since its for her daughter, its a gd idea to make flowers I guess.
I decided to do a chocolate cupcake with white chocolate chip which I believe the kids will entice.
Time flies... it was just like yesterday when I did confinement for YY, and now Anneli is already 4 year old...
one of the request is to collect the cake in advance, 1 day advance to be exact... not wanting to fridge them at her own home, thus I cannot do too much cream in case they turn bad.. therefore the fondant idea...
YY had asked the cupcake be packed individualy so that the kinds at the party can bring home.. and so
So dear and I tie them up nicely the nite before... and wel.. it turn out like they are wedding flavours.
Happy B'day Rae Yao
My bakes for today
With the hectic week for the past few days...
after settling the pooh cake on friday... when i see guest finishing upt he cake in no time(a whooping 4kg cake), today i have to do another order.
Zijun order a pralet for her birthday... actualy it was quite funnie.. she wanted a cake but she cannt decide what she wants and she say: jus bake what u tink is GOOD.
Since she loves chocolate.. I guess my latest pralet in the menu is just right for her
The yellow wording seem just right for the whole brownish cake. I hope this cake will make her day since she been thru quite a bit for the past 1 year..
Hope she enjoy this w her boyfirned and her family..
Serene ask mi to join her at mum's place today... being a married girl, she no longer can enjoy my bake as often as last time.. and i decided to bake her something to bring home.
Fruit pastry is the easiest.. since I have got all the ingredients at hand.
Really resting time till thursday where i do my 1st cupcake order...
Black Forest Pooh Cake
Last month while we went to Bintan for holiday with dear's friends, I got an order from one of our friends.
She req for a pooh bear cake for her boy 1st Birthday...
She did not want the pooh head (which I tink looks nicer), she opted for this.. and thus...
This is not easy fo rmi as compare to the head .. cos this one need finer details sicne the cake is not as big.. and to fulfil her req of 3kg, I need to do a base for the bear resulting int he rect part of the cake...
Thou Im not very satisfied with this yet.. since I thinkt he details really do need some fine tuning... but for now.. so logn as it taste nice.. nothg else matters...
HaPPy Birthday Zack...
Lychee Wolf Berry Ice Jelly
Weather real hot these days.. and I came across this magazine from the bookstore...saw the coverpage pic v attractive and bought it.
In it is this series of ice jelly recipes and tot its good to try since i got loads of ice jelly powder and konnyaku powder at home
very easy to do
2g of ice jelly powder
2g of konnyaku powder
60 g of sugar
450ml water
150ml lychee syrup
some lychee to add in
some wolfberries to add in
2tsp of lemon juice
Method:
1. Boil water with the sugar and jelly powder.
2. Off fire, Add in wolf berry, lemon juice and lychee syrup.
3. POur into cup or glasses.. add in lychee and let it cool before u fridge it.
I think the combination of jellypowder and konnayaku powder give the whole jello a diff texture..Really nice.. so much tat.. I have to do another recipe for dear the very evening.
Rice Paper Spring Roll
I did some similar spring rolls yesterday for lunch.. with diff filling thou, and dear seem to like it. So much tat I do no thave a chance to snap a photo of it.
So today.. feeling lazy. I decided to make sth with the rice paper again. This time round I decided to wrap it up with the spicy bean paste sauce with minced meat... improvised a little and added soem tofu as well as tang myung. The spicy bean apste is a little too spicy fo rme..mayb nxt time i shall add lesser..
Got dear to wrap his own spring roll.. guess it makes the dinner more interesting since we can roll it ourselves and adjust the filling to our liking... and its n mess at all...d efinitely better than rolling popiah... I rem dear use to eat popiah thi sway at home too.
Will post up the recipe shortly
Griottines
Was reading thru a blog of a member in the forum, and saw that she mention somethg bout Griottines. Reminds me that I impulsively bought that time at Carrefour. Pretty ex.. about $9plus I think, and i tot since they are chrries in liquere. they are pretty close to the kirsch I wanted... and so thats how it end up in my hse... left in my baking cupboard since then. Maybe Its too precious to let mi experiment on anythg and therefore Im waiting till now..
Since Karen was talking bout it earlier on, I decided to put up a post here to show her the one I got. Maybe she can get it at Carrefour too since she is looking for this.
It comes in a red box like this... Very small little box.. can be easily mistaken as perfume maybe??
I opened up the bottle and I can smell the cherry fragrance soak in the alcohol..suddenly I tot of brandied cherry icecream.
Now..who can advise me on how to use tis bottle of so precious cherry properly???
Kirsch
After years of hunting for this via various DFS.. and still failed, fina;y i decided to settle for this localy... well nt too bad..
This is actualy cherry liquere.. and its often use when u make black forest cake. of cos the black forest U buy from the normal cake shop probably will not contain this. Too expensive to add them in i guess.
This bottle here is BOLS brand.. its a very establish brand.. in fact they have various flavour and even my favourite lychee flavour.. maybe I should buy that too and make my lychee martini hehee... SLURP
anyway.. finaly with this.. I tink nxt week's black forest cake order will be even mroe exciting than before... I got the order to make Zack's bday cake... mummy zack wants the vlack forest cake.. and they are inviting me to their party as ewll. and I think i want to bake sth to bring along for them too =)
Looking forward to using this liquere
Hazelnut Macaron
decided to do the hazelnut ones since I have got hazelnut flour at home. and the filling was just normal chocolate ganache... However when we ask her aunt for some alcohol to add into the ganache.. to our surprise, we were given Godiva Liquere... GOSH... my fav godiva.. anyway.. jus 2 tbsp of that.. actualy turn my whole ganache into godiva alike ganache... sooo happie and now Im hooked onto the alcohol.. im looking high and low for it
anyone knows where to get it let mi know yeah??
Anyway heres our hazelnut macaron...
its not as smooth as the almond one.. nonetheless its the learnin experience that counts.
Fruit Pastry
It been a craze among the girls to make thi spastry.. and finaly I catch on the craze after lazing around for few days...
Well, I was so afraid that this pastry texture will b way below my expectation as I had earlier on taste dit at Lucy's place. and many of them who tried actualy had a dry pastry... so with all my guts I use my left over strawberries as well as cherries to do it.
Looks nice yea? I also use my new pie tin to bake this... tall and nice now.
Thou my pastry is not as soft as lucy but I must say it did not fail me.
1 good evidence is I have been eating it sicne it came out of the oven... and.. 1 /4 of the whole cake is already gone.
I hope there is enough to go round when we bring it over to dear's friends' house for the drinking session.
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Back fr the gathering at friend's house... well all the pastr are gone by time I left... the biggest joke was the guys mistook the strawberry as mushroom cos the fruits all wrinkled up... resulting in the appearance of the underside of mushroom.. and of cos... cherries became red dates... how oriental can guys be huh?? hahaha
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15th July
did this once again.. for Serene to bring home..also giving them to Zijun and my parents when i go bk later on...
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Teachers Day Order
Escargots
This garden slug.. is a delicacy... I think its originated from France? anyone can correct me?
Anyway we love this... At French Stall we never fail to order this... and we also buy from the supermarts.... it use to be HUGE escargots.. but recently I notice they aremuch smaller.. sometiems even half the size..
For the hot hot weather in singapore we have been encountering the past 2 weeks.. This make a perfect supper for us... pairing along w ice cold beers...
Beggar's Chix
Did this Beggars chix today after putting it at the back of my mind for a long time
certainly this dish is not very ideal for a HOT day like today... otherwise it really taste good
Its is baked in the case of dough like the above
after it is baked for 2 hours or more... I remove it from the oven, dough turn really hard...
I ask dear to join me to breaking it since I tot once in awhile he shld get involve w wat im doing.
And breakin thg prob is the best thg he like to help mi with hahaa
The inside of the chicken look really nice...
in fact the breast meat was s tender.. i tink we had onli tat part and the thigh for our dinner .. remains of the bird is in the fridge now.. perhaps that will b my lunch tomolo...
