Sweet • Sour • Savory

Food blog on scandinavian style food done right.

Cake,Drinks

Braided Nutella Bread

Bread, CakeTove Balle-Pedersen14 Comments
Braided Nutella Bread

Braided Nutella Bread

This bread is everywhere, and now it's here too. In all the commercials for Nutella, they tell you it's a healthy option at breakfast. This makes this bread ultra healthy, with the three layers of Nutella!

The bread is really fun to make and look awesome at a party. The Nutella bread reminds me of the cinnamon bread we had as children. At lunch time we'd go to the bakers shop and buy half a cinnamon bread to eat instead of the healthy lunch we brought from home. Well, fortunately it didn't happen that often.

I'll think you could make the bread with a cinnamon remonce in stead of the nutella.

Makes one 25 cm/10 inch bread.

Ingredients:

  • 450 g all-purpose flour
  • 70 g sugar
  • 35 g live yeast or 2 teaspoons dry yeast
  • 180 ml milk
  • 30 g butter,
  • 2 egg yolks, save the whites for brushing
  • 1 cup (240 ml) Nutella

Directions:

Combine flour and sugar in a bowl, and set aside.

Heat the milk in a saucepan until it’s warm, add the butter, and take the mixture of the heat, and let the butter melt in the milk. You want the milk/butter mixture to be finger-warm. Let the yeast dissolve in the milk.

Add the yeast mixture and the egg yolks to the flour, and mix until its combined. If using a stand mixer, keep mixing for 4-5 minutes on medium speed to get the dough elastic and soft. If kneading by hand, keep kneading for 10-12 minutes.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and place in a warm place, and sit to rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Knead the dough to deflate, and divide the dough in 4 pieces, and form them to balls. 

On a lightly floured surface roll each dough ball to a 10 inch/25 cm discs. Place one dish on a parchment lined baking sheet, and use a plate to outline where to put the Nutella. Heat the Nutella for a few seconds in the microwave to make it easier to spread.

The dough braided.

The dough braided.

Spread a thin layer of Nutella on the dough. Put another disc on top, and repeat outlining and spreading Nutella. Add third dough disc and repeat with the Nutella. Put the last dough disc on top. Place the plate on top, and cut of any excess dough round the plate with a sharp knife. Remove the plate.

Place  a small cup in the middle of the dough, to mark the center. Cut the dough at 3, 6 9 and 12 o’clock and cut each quarter into 4 pieces, so you end up with 16 slices connected to the center circle.

Take 2 neighboring slices and twist them two times away from each other, connect the two in the end, and pinch them together forming a point. Do this with all the slices, and now you have a star flower formed bread.

Cover dough loosely with a damp tea towel and let rest for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush surface of the bread with the egg whites. Bake bread for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.




Lemonade

DrinksTove Balle-PedersenComment
Lemonade

Lemonade

Lemonade is the taste of summer. This sweet and sour refreshing drink is not just for kids. We have a Meyer Lemon bush in our yard, it surpluses me the lemons for most of the year, but it might run out this year if I keep making lemonade. 

I had the best  lemonade on my very first trip to San Francisco. We were sitting at a restaurant in Sausalito on a terraces over the water, a sunny January day, overlooking San Francisco - it was perfection. I spend this afternoon on my terrace reading and sipping lemonade.  

Here is my version of the perfect summer drink.

1 pitcher full 

Ingredients:

Simple syrup:

  • ½ cup (1 dl) water
  • ½ cup (1 dl) sugar

Lemonade:

  • 3-5 lemons, the juice of (I used Meyer lemons)
  • 3-4 cups water for diluting
  • ice cubes

Direction:

Make the simple syrup first, by heating the water and sugar, while stirring until the sugar dissolves completely. Let the syrup cool down.

Juice the lemons. Pour lemon juice into a pitcher with water some simple syrup and ice cubes. Add more water and syrup to the lemonade to your taste

Enjoy.

 

Kiksekage - Chocolaty Biscuit Cake

Cake, Desserts, Sweets and CandyTove Balle-Pedersen3 Comments
Kiksekage - Chocolaty Biscuit Cake

Kiksekage - Chocolaty Biscuit Cake

Kiksekage is an old classic non-bake cake very popular in the 70's and 80's in Denmark. But it's not a Danish cake. It's actually a German cake called "Kalte Hund" or cold dog, and the British has a similar cake, the chocolate fridge cake.

My chocolate loving husband, asked if I could try to make a kiksekage, and I was somewhat reluctant, chocolate is not my thing, but I promised to look into kiksekage. My only experience with Kiksekage, was the one my mom made, and to be honest, I didn't care for it. Weird - I loved everything sweet back then.

A traditional kiksekage is made with coconut oil (palmin), eggs and cocoa powder, but why not make the cake with premium ingredients. It's not like good chocolate is hard to find. During my research for the perfect kiksekage, I found Lone Kjærs recipe. This one was made with condensed milk instead of eggs and she used about ⅓ of the butter other recipes called for. So I decided to go with Lone's recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 300 g dark chocolate (I used Valrhona 61%)
  • 1 can condensed milk. 400 g
  • 35 g butter
  • 1 orange, the zest of
  • about 20 squared vanilla biscuits
  • sprinkle: chopped pistachios

Directions:

Line a loaf pan (9x5 inch or 22x12 cm) with parchment paper (Spray the inside of the pan with cooking spray, so the parchment sticks to the pan, don’t spray the inside of the parchment paper). You can also use plastic wrap to line the loaf pan. Chop the chocolate coarsely and put it in a small saucepan with condensed milk and butter. Let the mixture to melt over low heat. Be careful not to burn the mixture, stir occasionally until the mixture is homogeneously, then remove the pan from the heat and mix in orange zest. Pour a thin layer of chocolate in the bottom of the pan. Add then a layer of biscuits. Continue to layer chocolate and biscuits until you have 4 layers in total, ending with a chocolate layer. Sprinkle with the chopped nuts and cover the cake with a piece of parchment paper. Store the cake in refrigerator at least 4 hours before serving.

Serving:

Flip the cake out onto a pretty platter, remove any parchment paper. Do this about 10-15 minutes before serving. Slice the cake with a sharp knife. Tip: heat the knife in hot water, to ease the cutting.

Enjoy.

Hot Chocolates

Drinks, LiquoriceTove Balle-PedersenComment
Hot chocolates

Hot chocolates

On a lazy sunday afternoon I stumbled over a tweet from madsymfonien with a hot chocolate with marshmallows and liquorice. It looked so good, and I had just bought marshmallows the other day, so I had to try to make it.

My hot chocolate was made from ⅓ milk chocolate, ⅔ dark chocolate and whole milk. I added three different sprinkles on top.

The first had freeze-dried  blackcurrant, which added a nice tangy flavory to the sweet chocolate. The second crushed Raw Liquorice Drops, giving the chocolate a nice liquorice aftertaste, without being overpowering.The third had a very light dust of Ghost Pepper, which added a hotness to the chocolate without being to hot. Actually this one was the best chili hot chocolate I have ever had. 

Classic Fragilité Cake

Cake, DessertsTove Balle-Pedersen5 Comments
Classic Fragilité Cake

Classic Fragilité Cake

UPDATE !

The last few times I made this fragilité, I couldn’t get the buttercream fluffy. The taste was perfect, but missing the creamy fluffy cream.
Today I didn’t use a double boiler. I just whisked the butter pale and fluffy, then added the egg yolks, and kept whisking. Then I added coffee, cocoa and powdered sugar, kept whisking until the buttercream was perfect fluffy and yummy.

The classic fragilité cake with coffee buttercream originates from the same Danish pastry chef, Johannes Steen, who also made The Sarah Bernhardt cookie. And must originate from the beginning of the 1900s, when Denmark was very influenced by everything French. 

Fragilité means fragile, and it describes the cake well. It's made with delicate layers of crispy meringue with hazelnuts, layered with a mocha/coffee buttercream. The cake feels very light and fluffy, but don't let it fool you, it's filled with great tasting calories😋

Ingredients:

Meringue:

  • 100 g hazelnuts

  • 200 g confectionary sugar

  • 4 egg whites

Mocha buttercream:

  • 3 pasteurised  egg yolks

  • 100 g confectionary sugar

  • 150 g butter, salted and room temperature

  • 3 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder

  • 1,5 teaspoons instant coffee 

Directions:

Preheat the oven for 400℉ (200℃).

Chop the hazelnuts. I used the mini chopper that came with my immersion blender, and ended up with a coarse hazelnut flour. Mix the hazelnuts with half of the confectionary sugar.

Whip the egg whites, in a stand mixer, until you have soft peaks. Add the sugar and keep whipping until you have a shiny meringue with stiff peaks. You should be able to turn the bowl upside down.

Fold the hazelnut mixture in.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper, spray it and sprinkle with sugar. I used a 9" x 13" (20x30 cm) pan.  

Spread the meringue evenly in the pan, and level of the top.

Bake the meringue for 2 minutes at 400℉ (200℃), then lower the temperature to 305℉ (150℃) and keep on baking foe another 40 minutes.

Buttercream:

UPDATE !

I whisked the butter pale and fluffy on my stand mixer. Then added the egg yolks, and kept whisking. Then I added coffee, cocoa and powdered sugar, kept whisking until the buttercream was perfect fluffy and yummy.


Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, and whip the buttercream until thick and fluffy over a double boiler. I used a saucepan with very hot water, and placed my bowl on top of that. I didn't have it on the stove. It takes some time to get the buttercream nice and fluffy.

 

Cut the meringue in two, and place the one part on a cake stand, spread all the buttercream  on it in an even layer. Put the other half of the meringue on top. 

Decorate the cake with some melted chocolate or a sprinkle of confectionary sugar.