Swedish Pepparkakor

It is here! Christmas is everywhere! I just love this time of the year. The lights, the spirit, the food...
Here in Sweden two sings confirm that Christmas is coming. The stars and candles in the windows and the pepparkakor in the supermarkets.
Pepparkakor are a must in every event during Christmas. Today I bring you the Swedish recipe. It is also suitable for vegans. All you need to do is use vegan butter.

Ingredients:

150g of butter or vegan butter
2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
1 teaspoon of ground clove
2 teaspoons of cardamom
450g of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
175g of granulated sugar
90ml of honey
100ml of water

We start by mixing the butter with the sugar and the honey. When we get a smooth mixture we add the water, the ginger, the cardamom, the clove, the cinnamon and the baking soda and we keep mixing until we get an homogeneous blend.

With the help of a spoon we will add the flour little by little while we keep beating to avoid lumps in our dough.

We wrap it in a plastic foil and leave it in the fridge for a whole day.
When we are ready to bake we take the dough out of the fridge and we start kneading with a roller pin and cutting with the forms we prefer. We need to get it really thin to make them swedish style. The most popular are little men and women, christmas motifs and houses.

You can even make some decorations for the tree!!!

                  

We have also made a gorgeous house decorated with royal icing and sugar decorations. The perfect decoration for any Christmas party!!

We will continue with Christmas recipes next week. Don't miss the Christmas ball cake!!

Terrifying pumpkin cupcakes

The scariest night of the year is here!!! Get ready to make the most terrifying cupcakes you have ever seen.

Today we are making deadly delicious pumpkin cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. You can use any buttercream you prefer but I thought this one would let us taste the pumpkin flavour a little better. 

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

110g of butter (room temperature)
240g of brown sugar
2 eggs
225g of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1g of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon (powder)
1/2 teaspoon of ginger (powder)
100g of pumpkin puree
120ml of milk
5ml of white vinegar

We start by adding the vinegar to the milk and we reserve it aside.
Next we whisk the flour, the cinnamon, the ginger, the baking powder and the baking soda in a bowl.

In a separate bowl we mix the butter with the sugar using the electric mixer on low speed until it gets fluffy and smooth. We add the eggs one by one while we keep mixing. We add half of the dry ingredients mixture and half of the milk. 

We beat until it is well combined and then we add the rest of the dry ingredients and the rest of the milk. We will continue beating on low speed until we get a nice homogeneous batter. It is time now to pour the pumpkin puree and mix again.

We are ready to divide the mixture in the baking molds with the help of an ice cream scoop.
We will bake them at 170ºC for 22-25 minutes.

Ingredients for the buttercream:
300g of icing sugar
5ml of vanilla extract
225g of butter (room temperature)
2 tablespoons of milk

We put everything together in a bowl and we use the electric mixer on low speed for a couple of minutes and then on medium speed for 5 minutes more. We will get a smooth and creamy buttercream.
I divided the buttercream in two bowls to die one half orange and the other half black. 

It is time to use your imagination!!! Let's decorate!!
I made some scary (and not so scary) fondant figures to make the toppers of the cupcakes. Check out the gallery page to see more details.
Happy Halloween!!! 

 

Carrot cake with walnuts and coconut frosting

I think this time of the year calls for recipes made with carrots, pumpkins, nuts... But I did want to make something to remember that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease. So I combined both!

Ingredients for the carrot cake:

125g of grated carrot
145g of butter (room temperature)
160g of granulated sugar
140g of all purpose flour
40g of chopped walnuts
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 of a teaspoon of ginger
a pinch of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

We start by whisking the flour, the baking soda, the baking powder, the cinnamon, the ginger and the nutmeg all together in a bowl.

In a separate bowl we mix the butter and the sugar with the electric mixer on low speed until it gets fluffy and soft. Then we add the eggs and we continue beating. While we keep mixing we add the vanilla extract. Now it is time to put the carrots and the walnuts in the mixture. We will use the electric mixer to get everything nicely combined.





Next step is to mix the contents of the two bowls so we will add our dry ingredient mix to the other bowl little by little while we keep mixing on low speed.

We will pour now the mixture into a baking mould and put it in the oven at 175ºC for 30 minutes.

For the presentation today I cut out four circles from the cake to make two minicakes.

Ingredients fort he frosting:
125g of butter (room temperature)
160g of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of milk
40g of flaked coconut

We put all the ingredients in a bowl and we beat them with the electric mixer on low speed for around 5 minutes until we get a smooth and fluffy cream. I added some pink food colouring to match my theme this week.



Now we just fill and decorate the minicakes with the help of a pipping bag.






Do not forget it is Halloween this week and things in the kitchen are going to get spooky!!

Vegan Minidonuts

This is a perfect recipe when you expect visitors and you want to surprise them with something that is usually not homemade.

This is the vegan version of the classic chocolate and sugar glazed donuts. The tricky thing today is time as they require to sit aside twice along the process.

Ingredients
225g all purpose flour
7g of cardamom powder
15g of vegan "butter" (room temperature)
15g of granulated sugar
15g of fresh yeast
150ml of soya milk

We put in a bowl the yeast and the soya milk and we let it grow for 15 minutes. It really grows so make it in a bowl big enough for it to double its size. 
In a separate bowl we mix the flour, the sugar, the cardamom and the vegan "butter" until all the ingredients are integrated and then we pour in our yeast and soya mixture. We keep mixing with our hands until we get a smooth paste that does not stick to the sides.
Now we cover it with a cloth and let it rest for two hours.
When we come back the dough will have doubled its size. We need to knead it with our hands to take out part of the air, just for two or three minutes. Then we will spread it with a roller and we will cut the donuts with a couple of rounded cookie cutters. And now it is time to let them grow again. One hour will be enough.

Next step is to fry them in sunflower oil which will not affect the final taste. You need to put quite a lot oil and it is preferably to use a deep saucepan. We will fry them one by one for a short time at medium heat and we will keep turning it until it gets golden brown. Be careful because they burn very easily. 

Once they are completely cold we can deep them in the sugar or chocolate frosting.

Ingredients for the frosting
Sugar
100g of icing sugar
30ml of water

Chocolate
90g of icing sugar
35ml of water
75g of dark chocolate

We mix the water with the sugar and it is ready to deep your donuts in it.
We  do the same thing for the chocolate frosting and we add the chocolate which we have previously melted in the microwave. 

This time I made minidonuts but you can make them in any size or shape you want. You can also vary the frosting adding some drops of your favourite extract or lemon juice.
See you next week! We will make our own pink week! 

Chocolate cupcakes with swiss meringue buttercream

You know those times when you just can't stop thinking about chocolate?
Yesterday I had one of those days and this is the consequence.

Today I bring you chocolate cupcakes and minicupcakes. Very easy to make and delicious for any special occasion or just for breakfast.

Ingredients for 12 minicupcakes and 10 cupcakes

220g of granulated sugar
180g of all purpose flour
40g of unsweetened cocoa powder

115g of unsalted butter (room temperature)
3 eggs
1 and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
120ml of milk

We whisk together the flour, the cocoa powder and the baking powder. We reserve aside.
We beat the sugar with the butter until they are well combined and then we add the eggs one by one while we keep mixing on low speed. We add half of our dry mix and the milk. We beat on low speed until everything is well integrated and then we add the other half of the dry mix. We keep mixing until we get a smooth and shiny batter.

We distribute the batter in our molds using an icecream scoop so all the cupcakes come out with the same size. In the minicupcakes I put one scoop and in the cupcakes I put two.
We bake the minicupcakes for about 12 minutes at 180ºC. For the cupcakes we use the same temperature but it will take 22 minutes to get them ready. 

We let them cool in a rack before pipping the frosting on top.

We are making a swiss meringue frosting which combines perfectly with the chocolate of our cupcakes.

Ingredients
225g of granulated sugar
4 egg whites
350g of unsalted butter (room temperature)

We put the sugar and the egg whites in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (bain marie) whisking until the sugar is totally melted. It is important not to stop whisking at any time.

With the electric mixer we beat until we get soft peaks. This is going to take quite a while so be patient.

Next we will add the butter little by little while we use the electric mixer on low speed. It will get to a point where it seems like this

But if you keep going it will turn in a smooth and soft buttercream.

You will fill a pipping bag with a nozzle of your choice and top the cupcakes.

Enjoy these smooth and tasty cupcakes!

 

Macarons three flavours

When we lived near Geneva we use to walk along the great shop of Ladurée. Amazing colours and flavours were in the shopwindow and you could not resist their charm. That is when I decided I would learn how to make them myself.
Making macarons is not easy but you will succeed if you are organised, methodic and patient.

There are three different merengues you can use to make your macarons: swiss merengue, french merengue and italian merengue. I have tried the recipes with the italian and the french merengues. I have not find a great difference in the taste or consistency of the macaronsIn Ladurée they use the italian merengue which is more elaborated and you will need a sugar thermometer to make it. The simplest one is the one based on french merengue and that is the recipe I bring you today.

Ingredients for 28 coquilles (14 macarons)
100g of icing sugar
45g of egg whites
a pinch of salt
15g of granulated sugar
60g of almond powder or almond flour

When baking it is always important to measure precisely the ingredients to obtain a perfect result but for this recipe is extremely important as any change in measuring will affect drastically to our macarons.
Once we have everything measure we start by sifting the icing sugar with the almond flour. I do it twice because any small grain in the mixture will spoil the shell of your macarons. This dry mixture is called "tant pour tant"
In a separate bowl we beat the egg whites with the salt on low speed until we get a foamy peak. We add the granulated sugar and we keep beating on medium speed until we get a firm peak and a fluffy mixture. We will add the food colouring at this point in case we want to use some. We need it to be in powder or gel. If we use the liquid format it will affect the texture of the merengue.

Now it is time to add the french merengue to the "tant pour tant". This process is called "macaronage". First we will add a half of it and with a spatula we mix it with folding movements. Once is integrated we add the rest and we keep folding until we get a batter that flows from the spatula to the bowl without breaking.

We put the batter in a pipping bag with a big round tip and we pipe them about 2cm round on a tray with baking paper on it. We tap the tray on the bottom a few times to let them get the round flat shape and it will help also to take out the big air bubbles that could ruin our macarons shells.

The next step is extremely important. We have to let them dry. This is the "croutage"phase. We will not put them in the oven until we can touch the "coquilles" and feel they are not sticky. How long would this take? It depends on the humidity you have in your kitchen. Here in Sweden it takes like 4 or 5 hours to get them well dried. If you do not respect this times this is what will happen. No foot on your macaron and they will come out all cracked.

Once they are dry we set the oven at 140° C and they will bake in 14 minutes in a medium-low position in the oven. We do not really bake them, we are drying them. This process is really delicate so you want to check them regularly and see if the foot is forming and if the colour does change. If they start to turn brown-ish it means they are overcooked. It really depends on your oven so maybe you will need to adjust the time of baking.

Once they are done we will let them cool completely before removing them from the parchment paper. If they are still hot they will break.

Now it is time to decide which filling you will use. I decided to put some lemon buttercream, chocolate ganache and raspberry mousse. You will use a pipping bag to make sure we put the right amount on each macaron and we distribute it nicely so it does not overflow.

Give them a try and let me know how it goes!