Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble 

Crumbles was new to me when I moved to the US, I have no idea, why we never made this before. Crumbles is perfect when you need to make a quick dessert. And you can make it with fresh or frozen fruit. This time I made it with the classic combination: strawberries and rhubarb. 

Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

Berry filling:

• 225 g strawberries
• 190 g rhubarb
• 20 g sugar
• 2½ tablespoons cornstarch 
• 1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Crumble:

• 125 g brown sugar
• 55 g all-purpose flour
• 60 g rolled oats
• 75 g slivered almonds
• 75 g butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425℉ (220℃). 

Wash and slice strawberries and rhubarbs and mix them with sugar, cornstarch and vanilla paste. Set aside while making the crumble. 

Mix brown sugar, flour and oats in large bowl. Add chilled butter, using your fingers, blend butter into mixture until coarse crumbs form, then mix in the almonds. 

Divide strawberry/rhubarb mixture among 3-4 ramekins. Divide oat mixture among dishes, sprinkling it evenly.

Place ramekins on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350℉ (175℃), and continue baking until the crisp topping is golden brown and rhubarb filling is bubbling at edges, about 15-20 minutes longer. Let the crumbles cool for a while before serving.

Serve crumbles with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or some cream fraiche.

Enjoy!

2 Kinds of Hveder - Wheat Rolls

Toasted rolls - ristede hvedeknopper

Even though I'm a expat, I do celebrate Danish Holidays. This gives me (almost) double-up on holidays, the more the merrier 😃

Store Bededag or Prayers Day is coming up on Friday. According to traditions everybody had the day off on Store Bededag even the bakers. You were actually meant to stop all work, play, travels and all games. To make up for not being able to get any fresh bread on Store Bededag, the bakers made an abundance of hvedeknopper (wheat rolls), to tie people over. And the tradition of eating the toasted hvedeknopper the night before Store Bededag was born. Ok people was meant to save the rolls to the next day, but who can resist a fresh-baked roll?

Hveder is one of my favorite rolls. The soft, sweet, fresh baked cardamom roll is so delicious served with some butter. Most people toast the rolls, but I prefer them not toasted. 

Here are my recipes for Hveder:

Traditional Hveder - hvedeknopper:

Hveder - sweet rolls

Grove hveder - 3-Grain sweet rolls:

Toasted 3-grain rolls - ristede grove hvedeknopper

Cinnamon Knots - Kanelsnurrer

Cinnamon Knots - Kanelsnurrer

This is a take on a cinnamon roll, without the frosting. In my opinion these are a million times better than the classic cinnamon roll. The cinnamon knot is still cake-like, but it is not overly sweet.
The cinnamon knots reminds me of the Danish kanelstang without the custard.
Yum, yum, yum.

This recipe is adapted from Claus Meyer.

Makes 12-15.

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 500 ml cold milk
• 50 g live yeast, 4 tsk dry yeast
• 1 egg
• 975 g all-purpose flour
• 150 g sugar
• 10 g salt
• 15 g cardamom
• 150 g butter, diced room temperature

Filling:

• 200 g butter, soft
• 200 g sugar
• 20 g cinnamon

Directions:

In the bowl for a stand mixer dissolve the yeast in the cold milk. Add sugar, salt, cardamom, egg and flour. Knead the dough for 7-8 minutes until you have a smooth not sticky dough.

Add the butter dices to the bowl and mix the butter into the dough on low speed. It's a bit messy, but the dough will come together again. Knead the dough for another 7-8 minutes. Let the dough rise covered for about 60-80 minutes. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 60 minutes.

Mix the filling by whisking it together with a hand mixer, set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Divide the dough into 12-15 even balls. 

Roll out each dough ball into thin rectangles-ish. Spread some of the filling onto the dough in a thin layer. Roll up the dough to a log. Seal the log by pinching the edge into the dough.

Cut the roll in two almost all the way, and twist the now two strings around each other, filling-side up, and  finally tie a knot on the dough. 

Place the knots on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. 
Bake the cinnamon knots for 12-14 minutes.

Serve cinnamon knot with a nice cup of tea or coffee. 

Enjoy!

Ginger Chicken

Ginger Chicken

I love clean thai dishes with few ingredients and this it a hit in my book. The ginger is a lovely bright flavor and it pairs perfect with the oyster sauce and the chicken.  It will be back on the menu in my house again soon. Nadia you are a star.

Recipe adapted from Foodfanatic Thai.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts, diced 

• 250 g shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

• 1-2 onions, depending on size, cut into small wedges

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 40 g ginger, cut in thin sticks

• 100 ml (about ½ cup) oyster sauce 

• 100 ml (about ½ cup) chicken stock

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce

• 1 teaspoon palm sugar, or regular sugar

• ½ teaspoon ground white pepper

• oil for frying

• 5 scallions, sliced

• 1 chili, thinly sliced for topping

Directions:

Wash and slice all the ingredients, so you have everything ready to go in the wok/pan. 

Heat oil in a wok, add the garlic just to get fragrant a few seconds, then brown the chicken, while stirring. Add the onions and cook until almost translucent, it takes a few minutes. Add, mushrooms, ginger, oyster sauce, sugar, pepper, fish sauce and stock. Cook for a few minutes until all the ingredients are tender and the chicken is just done. Finally add the scallions, and let then just warm before serving. 

Serve the ginger chicken over rice or cauliflower rice, sprinkle with chili to add some heat.

Enjoy!

Starting a Sourdough

I often use sourdough in my baking. Personally I think that a young sourdough gives bread a nice delicate taste, and a chewy  crumb. You might think that sourdough breads are very acidic, and the San Francisco kind is very acidic. Too acidic to my taste. But after tasting Basic country bread from Tartine, I knew, I had to bake this mild sourdough bread. My relationship with sourdough started there and then.
Initially I bought a sourdough online to get started right away. Maybe because I thought it would be difficult to make your own. But now I do believe, that I need a recipe for sourdough here on my blog. 

I started up a new sourdough after Claus Meyers recipe. Meyer has been a pioneer in the Danish kitchen. And right now he is trying to build up a Danish/Nordic style bakery restaurant at Grand Central Station i New York. His bakery is already among the 12 best bakeries in NY according to Zagat. 

Here is how to start a sourdough from scratch.

Ingredients:

• 350 ml (1½ cup) water
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup whole wheat flour
• ½ cup dark rye flour

Directions:

Mix all the ingredients in a plastic jar, make sure you don't have any lumps in the "batter." Let the sourdough sit on the kitchen counter for 4-5 days, with the lid loosely placed on top. Whisk the "batter" 1-2 times every day. 

After the 4 days the batter is starting to bubble and get an acidic smell, this means that the sourdough is ready to use. If the batter isn't sour yet, let it sit on the counter for another 1-2 days. 

Now you have a few options. Do you want to have your sourdough living on the kitchen counter? This is recommended if you bake every day or every other day. You need to feed the sourdough every 5-6 days, and you need to bake with the sourdough the first 8-24 hours after the feeding*.

You can keep your sourdough in the refrigerator in between feeding, this is recommended if you do not bake with it all the time. Read more about keeping and feeding a sourdough here: Sourdough - Keeping and Feeding.

* Feeding: take ½ cup sourdough (discard the rest), ½ cup all-purpose flour, ½ cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup water. Mix it well and let it sit covered on the kitchen counter for minimum 8 hour before using.