Overnight Oatmeal

Overnight Oatmeal

I have been wanting to make this for the longest time. Why it has taken me so long, I do not know. This is an easy, delicious, and healthy breakfast, to just grab and go in the morning. So, so much better than classic warm oatmeal. The overnight oatmeal will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. The longer it sit, the more soggy it will become. I always make overnight oats for 2 days. 

You can change this up in so many ways. Overnight Oats pretty much have no rules, you can use whatever you like. But as a rule of thumb use twice as much liquid as oats. If you do not add any thickening seeds like chia or flax seed, use a little less liquid.

Liquid: You can use pretty much any kind of milk you prefer, but if you use a sweetened milk, you might have to skip adding any additional sweetener. For a tangier flavor you can use or add buttermilk or thinned yogurt. 

Seeds: I personally like flax seeds in my overnight oats, but you can use chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds or again use your favorite seeds.

Sweeteners & spices: I use brown sugar in my overnight oats but feel free to use maple syrup, honey or whatever you like. Spices give you more flavor options. Use vanilla, cinnamon, unsweetened cocoa or cardamom or keep it plain and simple.                                                                                   

Toppings: I like to have fresh berries or fruit and chopped nuts as topping. But yet again it's all up to you. By adding cocoa nibs you get good texture and a chocolaty flavor for a new twist.

Makes 1 portion.

Ingredients:

Oatmeal:

• ½ cup (45 g) old-fashioned oats

• 1 cup (240 ml) milk

• 2 tablespoons seeds (like flax, chia, pumpkin, sunflower)

• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

• 1 pinch salt

• 1 pinch lemon zest

Topping:

• chopped almonds and pistachios

• mixed berries and/or fruit.

• a drizzle of honey

Directions:

Mix the ingredients for the oatmeal in a maison jar or another sealable container, stir it well. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 8 hours. 

Stir the oatmeal, heat it or not, and add the toppings of your linking. 

Enjoy!

Overnight Bread

Overnight Bread

Bread will always be my kryptonite. After a long pause in my bread baking, I started up again with this simple overnight bread. 

Great tasting bread with a good crispy crust. An easier take on a sourdough bread, when you don't have time to bake a Basic Country bread a la Tartine. 

Makes 2 small round loafs.

Ingredients:

• 150 g whole wheat flour
• 500 g all-purpose flour
• 500 ml water
• 5 g live yeast (about ½ teaspoon dry yeast)
• 50 ml sourdough (leaven)
• 15 g salt

Directions:

Leaven:

Feed your sourdough or leaven the night(about 8-10 hours) before you want to start making the dough. 

To test leaven's readiness, drop a spoonful into a bowl of room-temperature water. If it sinks, it is not ready and needs more time to ferment and ripen. If it floats, it's ready to use. As it develops, the smell will change from ripe and sour to sweet and pleasantly fermented.

Bread:

Mix water, yeast, sourdough and whole wheat flour in a stand mixer. Add all-purpose flour and salt, and knead the dough for 10-12 minutes, to build up the gluten in the dough.

Grease a dough-rising bucket  with a thin coat of olive oil. Let the dough rise in the prepared bucket, lid on, for about 90 minutes at room temperature. Place the dough overnight in the refrigerator.

Next take out the dough, and pour the dough on a non-floured kitchen table, divide the dough in 2 and shape them into rounds.

Line 2 baskets with clean kitchen towels, generously dusted with flour. Transfer each round to a basket, smooth side down and let to rest, covered, at room temperature, about 1 hour before baking. Meanwhile preheat oven with the dutch oven to 500℉ (260℃).

Gently flip one bread into heated dutch/french oven. Score top twice using a razor blade matfer lame. Cover with lid. Return to oven, and reduce oven temperature to 450℉(235℃). Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove lid and continue to bake until crust is deep golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes more.

Transfer loaf to a wire rack, and let it cool completely.

To bake the second loaf, raise oven temperature to 500℉ (260℃), wipe out dutch/french oven with a dry kitchen towel, and reheat with lid for 10 minutes. Repeat the bake.

Enjoy!

Baileys French Toast

Bailey's French Toas 

Normally I like savory food  for breakfast, but sometimes I just have to have pancakes or french toast. 

We all know that Facebook is filled with videos with recipes, and this Baileys french toast is adapted from one of those videos, made by Taste. This was one recipe I had to try.
I tweaked the recipe a bit, and added the fresh berries. You need something healthy to at least try to balance the meal a bit.  

Serves 3-4. 

Ingredients:

Bailey's Whipped Cream:

• 100 ml heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons Baileys 

French Toast:

• 100 ml heavy whipping cream
• 100 ml  Baileys 
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 4-6 slices brioche bread, sliced thick

Topping:

• raspberries
• grated chocolate

Directions:

Baileys Whipped Cream:

Whip the cream and Baileys in a bowl until medium stiff peaks, set aside

French Toast:

Mix eggs, cream, Baileys sugar, salt and vanilla in a shallow flat bowl.

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Give the brioche slices a quick dip in the in the egg-mixture. Fry the brioche until golden brown, then flip to cook the other side. Serve with Baileys whipped cream, fresh berries and a sprinkle of chocolate shavings.

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!