Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms

I love almost all thing mushroom, and grilled portobello mushrooms is right up my alley. It's a quick side for a backyard BBQ. Adding the parmesan make a perfect flavor combination.

The sesame seeds on the photo, is an accidental 'cross contamination' from the chicken on the grill.

Ingredients:

• 2 portobello mushrooms
• ½ cup (1 dl) freshly grated parmesan
• about ¼ stick (ca 30 g) butter, salted and soft
• a splash of olive oil, for brushing the top of the mushrooms 
• A sprinkle of chopped parsley

Directions:

Preheat the grill.

Clean the portobello mushrooms with a damp paper towel and remove the stems. Brush the caps with olive oil and set aside gills side up.

Mix butter and parmesan, and divide it evenly over the mushroom caps. Grill over hot grill for about 10 minutes. You want the mushrooms to be soft, but not mushy.  Let the mushrooms rest for a few minutes, to soak up the butter.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies

American cookies are soft and chewy...... but I like them more on the crispy side. So I bake my cookies on lower heat, and maybe a little longer than normally. Resulting in a thinner and crispier cookie, just the way I like them.

I hope you will like these cookies too. 

Makes 12-15 cookies 

Ingredients:

• 113 g (1 stick) butter, salted and room temperature 
• 175 g sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla, I use vanilla bean paste
• 1 egg
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• ⅛ teaspoon salt (fine)
• 125 g all-purpose flour
• 50-100 g semisweet chocolate chips (I tend to like less chips in my cookies, than most people)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 370℉ 8190℃). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter with sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 to 5 minutes. Mix in egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about 3-inches apart. I use a ice cream scooper. Bake the cookies until brown around the edges, about 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a wirerack to cool. Repeat with the rest of the dough. 

ice cream sandwich

If you do not need all the cookies at once. You can scoop the dough on to a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze them. Place the frozen cookie dough in a freezer bag. Bake the cookies directly from the freezer, when you need them. Just add a couple of minuts to the baking time. 

You can use your fresh baked and cooled cookies to make ice cream sandwiches with your favorite ice cream. 

Enjoy!

Chocolate & Walnut Babka

Chocolate & Walnut Babka

Babka is an Eastern European brioche sweet yeast bread. Kinda similar to the Cinnamon Bread I knew from growing up in Denmark. Same but different.
Every slice reveals pockets of molten chocolate with crunchy walnut bites in the soft and sweet brioche bread. The intense chocolate filling makes this loaf a really great cake. As a not that chocolaty girl, all I can say is YUM, YUM, YUM.
 

Makes 2 loafs

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 1½ cup (3 dl) whole milk

• 113 g butter, salted

• 100 g live yeast, or 8 teaspoons dry yeast

• ¼ teaspoon vanilla paste

• ¼ teaspoon cardamom

• 100 g sugar

• 1 large pinch salt

• 750 g all-purpose flour

Filling:

• 185 g dark chocolate

• 125 g butter, salted

• 100 g confectionary sugar (powder sugar)

• 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

• ¼ teaspoon vanilla bean paste

• ½ teaspoon strong coffee

• 125-150 g walnuts
  
  Glaze:

• Honey

• lemon juice

• hot water

Directions:

Dough:

Heat the milk until warm and melt the butter in it. Pour the mixture into a bowl. Make sure the milk is only finger warm before adding the yeast.

Add yeast, sugar, salt and vanilla paste and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Add all the flour, and finally the eggs. The dough is very wet, but keep stirring, it will form a dough.

 Let the dough rise until it's doubled in size, for about 1 hour. 

Melt butter and chocolate, and mix in sugar, cocoa, coffee and vanilla. Let the mixture cool down, set aside.

Pour the dough out onto a flour dusted workspace, and fold the dough 4 times, to deflate it. Divide the dough in 3. Roll out each part so they are twice as long as your loaf pans and about four times as wide.

Spread the filling evenly on the dough, leaving a strip along the short side free of filling. Sprinkle with the chopped walnuts. Roll up the dough, like you would cinnamon rolls, ending with the part that is free of filling.

My rolls were a bit soft, so I chilled them in the freezer for no longer than 20 minutes, just to firm them up.

Cut all 3 the rolls in half lengthwise, so you end up with 6 half circles, and braid 3 of the halves, with the filling "lines" facing upwards. Fold the end in under the braid, and place it in a parchment paper lined loaf pan. Repeat with the other 3 of the halves for the second loaf. 

Let the loafs rise for about 30-45 minutes.

Preheat the oven for 375℉ (190℃).

Bake the loafs for 45-60 minutes, covering the loafs with aluminum foil the second half of the bake time, to prevent burning the crust.

Brush a little glaze on the loafs after letting them cool for a while.

Enjoy!

Sifted Rye Bread - Sigtebrød

Sifted Rye Bread - Sigtebrød.

This is a very old type of Danish bread. When I worked at a Bakery in Denmark, we only sold a few, if non, sifted rye breads a day. And the customer would most likely be an old person. I think younger people wanted the fancy seeded breads. But quite frankly the sifted rye bread is very tasty. The crumb is a little more compact, without being dense. The recipe calls for "sigtemel" which is a sifted flour made from 30% rye and 70% wheat.

Makes 2 breads.

Ingredients:

• 50 g live yeast (4 teaspoons dry yeast)
• 400 ml tempered water
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 300 ml (1¼ cup) buttermilk
• 300 g all-purpose flour
• 700 g sigtemel (210 g dark rye flour + 490 g all-purpose flour)
• ½ teaspoon ground caraway seeds
• 5 teaspoons salt

Directions:

Dissolve the yeast in the water. If you use dry yeast add a few pinches of sugar. 

Add buttermilk, flours, ground caraway seeds, salt and honey, and knead the dough for 5-8 minutes to build up the gluten. Let the dough rise for about 60 minutes in a warm spot.

Knead the dough for a few minutes, and divide the dough in two.

Use the heels of your hands to gently flatten the dough into a rough rectangle. Fold the bottom third up, like a letter fold. Fold the bottom third of the dough over on itself. Press the folds with the heels of your hands, to seal. Fold the dough once more, building up the surface tension. This will help the loaf rise evenly and keep its shape. 

Place the loaf in a greased pan with the seam facing down. Repeat with the second loaf. I have a large pan that will hold both loafs, letting them “grow” together.

Preheat oven to 400℉ (200℃).

Let the loaf rise for another 40 minutes. Poke the top with a fork, and brush it with some milk. Bake loaf for 30-40 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!

Gruyere & Thyme Gougères

Gruyere & Thyme Gougères

Gougères are the perfect party snack served with a glass of sparkling wine. They are totally addictive. Gougères are small savory hors d'oeuvre made with choux pastry with addition of some kind of strong dry cheese like parmesan, gruyere, or a sharp cheddar. 

You can choose to fill the Gougères with some kind of creamy savory filling, or split them to make tiny sandwiches with ham or salmon. 

Makes about 30 small bite-sized puffs.

Ingredients:

• 250 ml water

• 100 g butter

• 130 g all-purpose flour

• 4 eggs

• 100 g gruyere cheese

• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped

• 1-2 pinch salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). Grate the cheese and chop the thyme, set aside.

Put water and butter in a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil over medium heat. When the butter is all melted add all the flour at once, and stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat and keep stirring until a dough is formed and it pulls away from the sides of the pan and is slightly shiny.  Remove from heat.

Keep beating the dough with the wooden spoon until slightly cooled, about 2 minutes.  

Beat all the eggs in a bowl. Add a little of the beaten eggs, incorporating it thoroughly before adding more. Add the egg in small amounts until you have a thick paste but not runny at all. Stir in the cheese and thyme.

Fill a large pastry bag fitted with an open tip, with the dough. Pipe quarter-size circular mounds about 2 inches apart, onto the parchment paper. To get the best tops on the gougéres stop pressing on the pastry bag before you lift it, make a small circular move with your wrist as you lift the tip of the puff. Dab the tops of each gougéres with a fingertip dipped in water to smoothen the tops. 

(You can freeze the gougéres unbaked, at this point, and bake them right out of the freezer, adding a few more minutes to the bake time.)

Bake them for 18-20 minutes, until they are puffed up and golden brown.

DO NOT open the oven while baking, it will cause them to deflate.

Let the gougères cool slightly before serving.

Serve the gougères as a snack with a good glass of sparkling wine.

Enjoy!