Chaps Can Bake Too: Chocolate Chip & Cinnamon Christmas Cookies

Well, it's that time of year again. We're on the cusp of Christmas Eve and, to be honest, I am about as full of Yule-tide cheer as a hungover Scrooge.

However, baking always restores morale a little, nothing more so than cookies. I took a batch I made recently to a birthday party packed to the rafters with hoards of Icelandic children and the cookies were polished off within a couple of hours.

This recipe is easy - the cookies take all of 15 minutes to prepare, and, served with the morning coffee, they're also an easy way to impress the female in your life.

Here in Scandinavia they love baking with cinnamon and use it in just about everything. For me, the smell of cinnamon cookies wafting through the house is just lovely. Feel free to experiment though - this recipe works just as well with cardamon and a few rum soaked raisins.

You'll need to assemble the following:

• 125g unsalted butter.
• 150g flour.
• 1/2 tsp baking powder.
• 100g golden caster sugar.
• 75g demerara sugar.
• 2 tsp vanilla extract.
• 1 egg, beaten.
• 2 tbs porridge oats.
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon.
• pinch, sea salt.
• 100g dark chocolate, broken in to small chucks.

Proceed as follows:

• Pre heat oven to 190 degrees.
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan.
• Meanwhile mix the 2 sugars in a bowl and pour in the melted butter.
• Beat in the egg, cinnamon and vanilla.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder.
• Add the salt, oats & chocolate and thoroughly stir the whole lot. You should by now have a fairly loose mixture.
• Evenly space pudding-spoon sized dollops on a paper lined baking tray. (They'll spread out a fair bit during cooking.)
• Cook for 8-10 minutes until the cookies turn golden brown
• Remove from oven and leave to firm up for a couple of minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Perfect with a mug of mulled wine. Skål! And a merry Christmas to you all!

Chaps Can Bake Too.

Swedish Saffron Buns.

No Swedish Christmas is complete without buns... 

Saffransbullar, traditionally made for Sankta Lucia on 13th December, are eaten over the course of Advent. Most Swedish families will have their own recipe, however there are umpteen available online.

Along with pepparkakor (ginger-snaps) the smell of them baking, for me, is about as Swedish as it gets. For Swedes, these two things signify Christmas and the mere thought of a yuletide without them would provoke social collapse. (Well, people might start openly disregarding traffic laws or not retuning library books on time, which amounts to the same thing.)

By weight saffron, derived from dried stigmas of the Saffron Crocus, is the world's most expensive spice, so it is no surprise it's used only for high days and holidays. Your supermarket will generally have small sachets of the stuff available.

Interestingly, Cornwall has a long tradition of baking with saffron too, both in bun and cake form. As with Sweden this was only done on special occasions, as the name Revel or Tea Treat buns would suggest. The Cornish tradition is to spice things up with cinnamon and / or cardamon. A fantastically moist spiced saffron fruit cake we tried in St Ives lives on in the memory. (Alas the name of the bakery escapes me.)

The Swedes keep things simple, just adding raisins to the mix. (Well, they do consume cinnamon buns (kanelbullar) for the rest of the year, so advent probably comes as a welcome break.)
We've taken the liberty of adding a dash of rum - this intensifies the flavour and deepens the golden yellow colour of the finished buns.

Easy to make, saffron buns really are a treat, especially when washed down with lots of glögg. (Female Swedish helper optional.)

Ingredients:

• 1g saffron
• 2tbsp rum
• 50g fresh yeast
• 175g butter, room temp
• 500ml milk, room temp
• 200ml sugar
• 1/2tsp salt
• 800g white flour
• 100ml rasins
• 1 beaten egg, for glazing

Procedure:

• Mix the rum and saffron together in a glass and leave for a half hour to infuse
• Cube the butter
• Crumble the yeast and mix with the milk, butter and the saffron rum in a bowl or mixer
• Add the sugar, salt & flour and work together for 15 mins in a mixer, or 20 mins by hand
• Cover & leave to rise for an hour at least (or over night somewhere cool - some say this improves the flavour)
• Soak the raisins in water for 30 mins. (This way they won't rob the buns of any moisture when baked)
• Take the dough out of the bowl and, with a little flour, work in to shapes. (The S shape called Julgalt is most common, but there are several others)
• Place them on a baking tray, lined with paper, and leave to rise for 30 mins
• Pre heat oven to 225°C
• Plonk two raisins at the tips of the S and glaze with the egg
• Bake for 8 to 10 mins.
• Leave to cool on rack under a tea towel

Perfect for a boozy elvakaffe!

Chaps Can Bake Too..

Illegal Stout Bread...

It is nearly the weekend, so time to again turn our thoughts to food & drink.

Living life on the edge.. the Danish Police could be here any second.

I've not ever been a fugitive from the law before, however this bread contains marmite, illegal here in Denmark, so I suspect my days as a free man may be numbered!

Based on a German recipe I found, this is a mite more involved than last weeks' soda bread offering but don't let that put you off - this is some of the nicest bread I've tasted. Wonderfully aromatic with the complex taste of the stout mixed with marmite & honey.

The dough is left to rise overnight, and then again for a few hours, creating a lovely moist loaf.

Ingredients:

1. 10g of fresh yeast (or a 1/4 tsp of the dried stuff.)
2. 1 liberal dollop Marmite.
3. 1 tbsp honey.
4. 330ml stout or porter, room temperature.
5. 400g strong white or spelt flour.
6. 200g rye flour.
7. 1 tsp salt.
8. 25g warmed butter, diced.
9. 1 tbsp left over beer, for brushing

Procedure:

1. Crumble the yeast in to a jug, add the beer, honey and marmite and mix well.
2. Mix the flours, salt and butter in a large bowl until you have something that resembles bread crumbs.
3. Make a well in the middle and pour in the liquid. Gradually work over until it is all mixed together and you have a sticky dough - if too wet add a little more flour.
4. Turn out on to a floured work top and knead enthusiastically for 10 minutes. The dough will gradually firm up.
5. Plonk in to  a bowl, cover & let dough rise for a minimum of 6 hours, ideally overnight in the fridge. The dough should double in size.
6. Turn out on to work top again and punch to deflate.
7. Shape in to a round and place on a baking sheet.
8. Cover & leave in a warm place to rise for 1 to 4 hours (depending on the initial temperature of the dough.)
9. Preheat oven to 200ºC / 400ºF / Gas-mark 6.
10. Assuming you have not already drunk any left over beer use it to brush the loaf. If you want to dust with cracked rye.
11. Score the loaf with a sharp knife.
12. Bake for 35 mins or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped underneath.

Enjoy!

Chaps Can Bake Too...

Spelt & Rye Soda Bread

Soda bread. Actually fairly easy, tastier than the shop bought stuff and any special lady acquaintances will love you for it.

Baking, until a couple of years ago, was a bit of a blind spot with me. However, with the cost of a decent loaf of bread in Copenhagen around the 35DKK mark (approx £4) necessity has meant that I've learnt pretty quickly. And chaps reading this can too.

Soda bread is easy. There is no yeast involved, therefore no buggering about with kneading or waiting for the dough to rise. The whole operation takes a mere half hour. The results will be immensely satisfying and far better than the bland stale offerings pedalled by supermarkets.

This bread is a Scandinavian take on a recipe I found here. As a rule our Nordic cousins regard with deep scepticism any bread that does not include rye flour in the mix. So to prevent open rebellion here at New Utility HQ I've thrown some in. It adds a lovely deep golden brown hue and depth of taste to the finished article. Makes enough for one small loaf.

Ingredients:-

1. 100 grams rye flour.
2. 200 grams spelt flour.
3. 2 tsp baking powder.
4. 230ml buttermilk.
5. Pinch of salt.
6. Flour for dusting.

Procedure:- 

1. Pre heat your oven to 200°C with a baking tray in it.
2. Mix the flours, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.
3. Pour in the buttermilk and mix thoroughly ensuring that there is no excess flour left at the bottom.
4. The dough will be quite wet, scoop out on to a floured work surface and gradually form in to a round.
5. Plonk the formed dough on to your baking tray (I suggest you might want to use baking paper here too.)
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. If you get a hollow sound when tapping on the bottom of the loaf you're good to go.
7. If you have the patience cover loaf with a tea towel to cool for a bit.
8. Devour with liberal amounts of butter and any strong cheese.

That's it. Enjoy.