Happy New Year 2011!

Although this blog has been quiet lately, I still want to take the time and wish you all a wonderful this year! I really hope that I can put more effort into this blog from now on. I have some recipes to share with you even as it is and even more ideas about what to do in the future. I also tried out some new things during Christmas, but unfortunately on so tight a schedule that I didn't have time to take decent photos.  Successes encouraged me to give then another try though and even though some of the are holiday dishes, I'm pretty sure you will see them here sometime later, and if not sooner, then around next Christmas.

All in all, I wish you all a happy and a blessed year 2011!

A scene from my current town on the last day of 2010.

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Vermont Apple Pie

My new cook book mentioned this treat as a Thanksgiving dish so to honor that American holiday I made this exactly a week ago on Thanksgiving Thursday night. And yum! This is good! This has a little bit of the fall with the apples, a little bit of Christmas with the gingerbread, little bit of both with cinnamon. So the pie felt very fitting at this time of year, because Thanksgiving is a holiday that is somewhere halfway between fall and Christmas. My taste buds enjoyed this pie even better after it had cooled down and, apparently, so did my hubby's. This seemed to taste better by the day. My first experience with the new cook book was definitely a good one, and it wouldn't be impossible, if I made this a second time before baking anything else from the book!

I give the recipe in European measurements as that's how it was given in the book as well. I trust this recipe is a familiar one to American readers already. Also, the recipe uses a pie crust recipe from the same book. That recipe will follow the actual Vermont Apple Pie recipe. I cut down the amount of apples as it seemed to be so much (the apples were big and my mold wasn't huge). I give my changes in brackets. For this pie mold I'd also cut down the pie crust next time as well. I'm not sure, if cutting it to half would be too much. I intend to make this again and when I do, I'll try making it with less pie crust and afterwards can give my comments regarding this question. 

Vermont Apple Pie

1 unbaked pie crust (for that recipe scroll down)
8-10 apples (5)
1 dl sugar
1½ dl crushed gingerbread cookies
1 T flour
½ tsp cinnamon
a pinch of salt
1 dl crushed walnuts (I used a nut mix)
50 g melted butter
3/4 dl maple syrup

Turn on the oven to 175 C. Peel the apples and core them. Cut them into slices and place half of them on top of the pie crust. Mix sugar, crushed gingerbread cookies, flour, cinnamon, salt, walnuts and butter well together in a bowl. Spread half of the mix on top of the apples. Place the remaining apples on top and sprinkle the rest of the mix on top of them. Bake for 50 minutes. Heat the maple syrup until it almost boils. Pour over the apples. Bake for another 15 minutes.

Pie Crust

½ dl orange juice

1 egg

1 T sugar

1 tsp salt

5 dl flour

1 tsp vanilla sugar

200 g butter

Mix the orange juice, egg, sugar and salt in a small bowl. Mix the flour and vanilla sugar in a big bowl. Cut the butter into pieces and put in with the flour. Use a knife to cut the butter to smaller and smaller pieces until it has blended in with the flour. Add the orange juice mixture and mix until the whole thing is mouldable. Cover with a kitchen film and keep in cool for at least four hours.

I have to admit something. I noticed the "cool for 4 hours" when I was didn't have time to cool for 4 hours, so my pie crust stayed in the fridge for max 30 minutes. Then I just pressed it on to my pie mold. The rest of the recipe (which I'm not posting now, as this pie only needed unbaked pie crust) would have showed that this pie crust makes both the bottom and the top of a pie and that is one reason why I thought it might be good to have a little less of it in this pie, because it only needs the bottom and in my opinion it doesn't have to be as thick as it now was. 

Anyway, I loved this pie and I'm really glad that even with the occasional exhaustion my new job is giving me, I managed to bake something for Thanksgiving. The weekend is going to be a busy one with not a lot of time staying at home, but next week I'm hoping I'll manage to get some Christmas baking done too.l

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American Sweets

On my third day at my new job, a book representative was visiting at the school's teachers' lounge. He had with him all kinds of books, mainly story books though. There was one box that included books related to arts and crafts, holidays and - food. I browsed through a Christmas related book from the box, before this particular cook book caught my eye. After flipping through its pages a while, I was pretty convinced that this is the book for me! It is not a surprise to anyone who reads this blog regularly that I like American food and pastries and as the price was right too (I purchased this for 14 €) I didn't need long to decide. Besides, I told myself that as an English teacher, who is supposed to introduce the target culture as well as the language, this book is practically a must to keep up my professionalism! ;)

The book is written by Jill Parker and Joyce Parker, a mother and daughter and the photography is by Patrik Giardino, Jill's husband. The content is divided under seven sub-categories: 1) Cookies & Bars, 2) Muffins & more 3) Coffee cakes, 4) Cakes & Cheesecakes, 5) Pies & more, 6) Candy and 7) Kids, Sweets. The recipes have been adapted to the Scandinavian cooking and are in Finnish.

There are great many recipes I look forward to trying out, the Chocolate Fudge Triple Layer Cake of the cover not being the last on my list. Hopefully I'll have time very soon to try out the first ones from this book and share with you my experiences with it!

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Seasoned tea

This picture has been waiting to be published for great many weeks. I have been busier than in a long time these past couple of weeks. October 25th I was in a job interview and only a couple of hours after leaving the school, the head called me saying that I got the job. This triggered a snowball effect. The town where I started work this Monday was so far from where I have lived the past five years that it wasn't possible to work from there. I had to start apartment hunting with my hubby. Over three weeks after that phone call, I am now posting this from our new home. (I even have a bigger kitchen now!) I made this warm drink just a day or two before that interview and having a mile long "to do" list and checking them off one by one throughout the weeks, publishing this finally is the next thing to cross off from my list. (I'm glad I'm back blogwise as well to something I consider normal life, although starting my very first job after graduation still takes some adjusting and I might not be able to post as often as I'd like.)

I spotted this recipe from the website of the magazine I'm subscribing, Kotivinkki. This was named tea glögg at their site. Glögg is a Nordic equivalent to mulled wine, at least that's what Wikipedia says about it. I prefer my glögg without alcohol and that is the kind that is typically sold in Finnish grocery stores too. The most usual base for non-alcoholic glögg is grape juice, although I've seen varieties with other juices too. This recipe, then again, uses tea as the base. This isn't really glögg in the real sense of it, at least to me, a glögg lover, but I did really like this drink as well. The words that in my opinion best describe this drink is liquid gingerbread. A cup of this warms you up nicely after a cold day. It's easy too, first of all, easy to make, and moreover, you only have to make it once and after that just boil some water to enjoy it...

... because, this recipe makes a concentrate. I made it according to the original recipe, but the amount has lasted more than four servings to me. I probably drink it a little blander than meant? It's been strong enough for me. The concentrate I bottled up and keep it in the fridge: still some left!

I didn't left my concentrate to acquire taste overnight, a couple of hours seemed to do the trick. The cinnamon stick is in the glass for photogenic reasons. But remember, they are re-usable!

Seasoned tea or Tea glögg or Liquid gingerbread

500 ml / generous 2 cups water

4 bags of black tea, e.g. English Breakfast (I used vanilla seasoned black tea)

1 cinnamon stick

I tsp cloves

2 T honey

Bring the water to boil and put the teabags and spices in. Take out the teabags after 5 minutes. Let the liquid acquire taste for a couple of hours or over night. Add the honey. Bland the drink with hot water to taste.

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Apple oatmeal crumble

I love that I live in a country where all four seasons show. I know that the Finnish winter is long by some standards and more prominent than some of the other seasons, but we still get all four of them, no doubt about that. It seems to me that mostly when one season is drawing to an end, I am ready for the next one to roll in. Having four seasons gives the year, and life in general, more of a rhythm and pace. During these last 12 months, I've loved our seasons more than maybe ever before.

Last winter was at times very, very cold and snowier than I can remember for a very long time. When you're wearing enough, the coldness isn't a problem. Besides, you can always go inside, where it's warm, and in Finland it really is warm inside, because the houses are properly insulated and keep the cold out even when it's absolutely freezing outside. And I adored the luxury of having a lot of snow. The summer again war a lot warmer than a typical Finnish summer. I loved the warm weather, but by the end of August, I definitely was ready to welcome fall.

I love fall. True enough that I love all seasons, but I do love fall. I love it when the weather gets crisp and it's easy to breath. I love the bright wonderful colors that maple trees and aspens flaunt with. And when the leaves drop down to the ground and make a rustling sound when you walk through them. Later they might get a silver lining from the morning frost. I'm a visual person and can just stop on my way to look at something I think is beautiful. I love the colors of autumn. To me, apples seem to mirror  all those colors and things I love about fall. So that's why, fall is the perfect time to make apple oatmeal crumble.

I couldn't believe myself, when I realized I haven't posted this recipe! This, my absolute favorite fall dessert! A recipe that I have, in my opinion, pruned into perfection by making it all over again, with little tweaks and modifications. It certainly is time to share it now! This is the ultimate comfort food for me.

Apple oatmeal crumble

1 BIG apple or a couple of smaller ones

2 tbl brown sugar

about 100 g / 1 stick (½ cup) butter

1 dl /  ½ cup sugar

2 tsp powdered cinnamon

3 dl  / a full cup oatmeal

Butter the dish. Peel the apple(s) and slice them and then put them in the dish. Crumble the brown sugar on top of the apple slices. Prepare the tosca crumble by melting the butter and sugar on a saucepan. Mix in the cinnamon and then the oatmeal. Mix together and add on top of the apples. Bake in 200 C / 390 F for about 20 min. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Enjoy preferably wearing comfortable clothes and watching your favorite show on television. Best when warm, but works well warmed up in the microwave oven the next day, assuming there's some left.

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"Fake" rye bread

Rye bread - A Finnish thing

I'm a subscriber (and I always struggle with spelling that word!) of a Finnish magazine Kotivinkki that also publishes recipes of really good-looking and tempting dishes. For some reason, however, I have not really tried out the recipes before. Maybe it's because I don't want to get my precious magazine all covered with flour and stains that I usually can't escape when cooking or baking from a cook book or some written recipe. I don't know. Anyway, this month's issue was dropped down to our mailbox and the theme of this month's recipes in the food section was something that finally made me use the magazine as my guideline in the kitchen. Bread.

Read More

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Sweet potato soup

Oh. My. Word. 

This was THE fall dish for me. My new go-to comfort food to rescue me from the dreary rains of the season that I know are just around the corner. Trying to scare and depress me. But I'm not afraid. Because I have this recipe up my sleeve. And candles. (And the occasional bite of something chocolaty, which I'm not going to say out loud, because my new healthy diet, where by the way this dish falls into.)

This soups was as simple as it gets. It didn't take too much time either. So ideal for fall. Even the color's right and reminds me of maple trees that can get so bright orange that they're like torches burning bright even when it rains. This soup made me feel satisfied and comforted and hopefully you will have the same feeling. On the side I served some rolls I made the day before. The dough was from my go-to bread recipe, with the exception of improvising with seeds and flours.

Sweet potato soup

approx. 1 kilo / 2.2 pounds sweet potato
1 liter / 4 1/5 cup water
two vegetable stock cubes
freshly ground pepper to your taste

Peel the sweet potato(es) and cut them into rough cubes. Put them in the pot and add the water. When the water is boiling add the stock cubes and the pepper. Let cook until the sweet potato is soft and done. Puree the soup. Done. ENJOY!

I told you it was simple :)

The Simplest Sweet Potato Soup

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Texas Sheet Cake

Continuing with the American dishes. A couple of weeks ago my hubby had his birthday and for that I decided to try this recipe I got from a dear friend in the States. I could not miss out on an opportunity to make this cake as it contained both chocolate and cinnamon together (both of which I adore!)  and I was pretty sure that the buttermilk would do only good things for this cake.

I was not disappointed. This cake was delicious! Wonderful! The frosting could've been a bit firmer but I was pretty sure it stayed so runny because I didn't get the American measurement of it, or maybe I should have let it set a little while longer. Which I was not able to do because this cake smelled so divine! It also could be that it's supposed to be fairly runny? I don't know. Anyway, it did not bother me one bit and I'm sure to make this cake again some time. Which unfortunately won't be very soon, as I've decided to buck up and take a closer look at what I eat and exercise more. The summer really messed up my eating routines... My only chance is to make it and take it - not being the only one eating it besides my husband - and hopefully there will an opportunity like that in the near future.

I'll give you the recipe as I was given it plus giving the Celsius grades. With the amount of powdered sugar I'd just add it as you go until you think the consistency is right.

Chocolate Sheet Cake or Texas Sheet Cake

1 c. buttermilk
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2 c. granulated sugar
2 c. flour
1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. vegetable oil
4 tbl. cocoa powder
1 c. water

Preheat oven to 375 F / 190 C degrees. In a large bowl, combine first six ingredients. In another bowl, combine sugar and flour. Bring butter, oil, cocoa, and water to a boil on the stove. Pour over flour mixture and mix well. Add chocolate mixture to the buttermilk/egg mixture. Pour into a greased sheet pan or jelly roll pan and bake for 25 minutes. Frost while warm.

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c. butter
6 T. milk
3 T. cocoa powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 bag powdered sugar

On the stovetop, combine butter, milk, cocoa, and salt until the butter is melted. Do not boil. Pour into a large bowl and add powdered sugar, until it is to the desired consistency. Should be spreadable. Frost the yummy warm cake, and don't forget to lick the beaters. Enjoy!!

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America's Most Wanted Recipes

In the previous post I mentioned the trip to the States. This book is from that trip, a gift. (Thank you!) Its purpose is to offer copycat versions of the dishes that are popular in the restaurants of the United States. Eating in is a lot cheaper than eating out and with this book you can create your favorite restaurant dishes and enjoy them in the comfort of your own home. For me this book is wonderful also because I couldn't go out into a restaurant to eat these dishes even if I wanted to! Not all the restaurants mentioned in the book are familiar to me, so I'm probably going to do some online research about the places to get an idea what kind of restaurants they are and what kind of food they usually serve, before starting to cook from this book.

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Lemon Meringue Pie

Now I actually have a good reason for the pause in blogging: vacation. For the whole of July we were almost everywhere but home and I have not baked or cooked a lot. Besides, the weather has been so hot and humid (and unlike Finland) that even the thought of a hot oven has convinced me to stay put near the fan and not to heat up the already too warm an apartment even more. But now we are back in the normal course of life and it's even a little bit cooler (although not a lot) and we hosted a meeting for our Bible Study group last night so I decided to bake something, and deal with the consequences of a hot oven.

During our vacation, my husband and I together with his parents spend two weeks in the State of Washington, USA to visit some newly found family of my father-in-law. Therefore, I found it only proper that the first recipe I blog after that trip is something typically American. I took this recipe from a cook book that I got for last Christmas called Maailman ihanimmat leivonnaiset (The world's most wonderful pastries). It is a Finnish cook book put together by a couple of journalists from the Finnish food magazine Maku (Taste). This was the first recipe which I tried from the book, although the wonderful pictures have drawn me to browse it through a number of times before. As this recipe is probably known to my readers across the Atlantic, I will give the recipe as it is in the book i.e. in metric measurements.

I really loved the combination of the little sour lemon pudding and the sweet fluffiness of the meringue. This is the first time I did this pie myself and I'm sure it's not the last. This was fairly easy and quick too, and not difficult to make it gluten-free, if you just use gluten-free flour.

Lemon Meringue Pie

about 10 pieces

Crust:
100 g butter
3 dl flour
2 tbs sugar
½ tsp baking powder
1 tbs water

Filling:
1½ dl sugar
2 dl water
1 dl lemon juice
2½ tbs corn starch
4 egg yolks
50 g butter
1 tbs vanilla sugar

Meringue:
4 egg whites
1½ dl sugar

Line the springform pan (about 24 cm in diameter) with a baking parchment. Grease and flour the pan.
Make the crust. Mix the dry ingredients with the room-temperatured butter. Then add the water and squeeze the dough to an even texture. Press the crust on the bottom and on the sides of the pan. Put the pan in the fridge for 15 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200 C. Put another piece of parchment of top of the dough in the pan and pour about 3 dl of dry peas, beans or rice. Press the parchment a little bit so that it stays on properly.
Bake it with the weight for 15 minutes on the lowest rack of the oven. Then take the weight off and bake for another 5 minutes.

When the pie crust is in the oven, make the filling. Measure all the ingredients except the butter and the vanilla sugar into a saucepan. Whisk continuously while the mix heats up until it thickens and starts to boil. Take the pan off the heat, add the butter and vanilla sugar while whisking.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean dry bowl until it is properly foamy. Add the sugar little by little. Continue to whisk until the foam is hard and glossy.

Pour the lemon filling on top of the pie crust and even. Spoon the meringue on top and make little waves in it. Bake the pie for another 10 minutes until the meringue is golden.

The pie is at its best just after cooling down.

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