Prinsess semla, prinsessapulla - a combo of a bun and princess cake

The winter time delicacies of Finland include a laskiaispulla. Essentially, a bun filled with either marzipan (the only right way ;) ) or jam and topped with whipped cream.The same bun is eaten in Sweden too, the home for Princess Cake, a lovely sponge cake filled with strawberry jam, cream mousse and whipped cream and topped of with green marzipan. Absolutely divine.

The Swedes, always being a bit better than us Finns, have now found a way to combine these two. Thimons bakery did it. On their Instagram account you can see a video of how the buns are done.

And the result is heavenly. And so pretty. And now - also glutenfree. :)

You will need: pulla (buns), whipped cream, marzipan (and a tiny amount of milk), green (and pink) marzipan and if you like, a bit of strawberry jam.

You can find my pulla recipe here . But for your convenience, it can be found at the bottom of this page, too (without the saffron mentioned in the original recipe.)

FILLING
250 g almond paste
2 tbsp milk

Grate the almond paste, pour into a bowl, add the milk and beat even with an electric mixer.

METHOD
Take out your green marzipan and roll it flat with icing sugar. Place the marzipan sheet on top of your bun, try to ease out most of the crinckles. Cut off the excess marzipan around the bun, leaving about 1 cm everywhere so taht you can press the ends underneath the bun.

Cut the top off. Add a good dose of the almond paste filling, pipe a generous amount of whipped cream, add an optional squirt of starwberry jam, replace the lid. Almost done now! For extra pretties, add pink marzipan flowers as ornaments and sprinkle with some icing sugar.

Almost (!) too pretty to eat. :)





PULLA (BUN) RECIPE

Ingredients:
5 dl milk, at around 45 degrees Celsius
2 tsp Psyllium
½ tsp salt
2 dl sugar
1 tbsp ground cardamom
2 eggs
2 dl flour (gluten-free mix)
5 + 2 dl of rice flour
2 bags of yeast


Method:
Heat the milk up to about 45 degrees Celsius. It needs to be hotter than your hand, because it will sit for a while until the yeast is added. Add the salt, sugar, cardamom and psyllium and whisk shortly with an electric mixer. Leave to sit (and swell) for about 2 minutes, whisk again and give it another 2 minutes.

In the meantime, mix together the rice flour and yeast. To the milk, add the eggs, whisking well. Add the yeat and rice flour, mix well. Finally, add the gluten free flour mix a spoonful at a time until the consistency is right.  Whisk well, for at least 3 minutes. Then, let the dough stand (and swell) for about 10 minutes.

Then, flour your hands and scoop out the dough. It will be a bit looser than a standard dough, but you should be able to manage it in your hands nonetheless. Gently roll them into balls in your hands, place them on a lined baking tray. You will probably need to flour your hands before each rolling session.

Cover the rolls/buns with a cloth and let them rise for about 30-40 minutes.
Before placing the rolls in the oven, gently brush them with a lightly mixed egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 200 degrees Celsius, for about 12 minutes, until nice and golden brown.

This recipe will make about 15 rolls.

The feel of Fiskars

Last week I visited Fiskars village with my daughter. The village is located in South Finland, very close to Tammisaari. It originated over 300 years ago as an industrial factory (mind you, as much as a factory can exist in those times) and today it is a home to many designers and artists.

I visited the village for the first time around 10 years ago with my university. It was September or October and the place was mind-blowingly beautiful. Before my daughter was born, I went there again with my husband but for reason or another, he was not too impressed.

Last week we had some mother-daughter time and I decided we should visit Fskars again. After all, it´s only about an hours drive from our home.

We both thoroughly enjoyed our time. I felt so at peace there and wondered how far I have come from my dreams 10 years ago of living in an old red brick building, surrounded my oak trees, history at my finger tips. I am not saying I am disappointed with my choices, quite on the contrary. But isn´t it silly, how a place or a space can touch your soul so profoundly that even 10 years later, you feel the aftershock?

So, maybe I am having an early midlife crisis (oh dear....) or then I am just feeling nostalgic. But it is good, I think, to go back to the things you love the most. Do you know what your architectural style is? I just realized mine; 1900 red brick industrialism. I grew up next to Finlayson factories near Tampere and went to school overlooking an old organ factory; both red brick buildings. Did I just get used to them? Are the memories of childhood making those spaces so dear to me? Or did they just affect my sense of style at a delicate age?

Either way - visit Fiskars, it is so worth it! :)

We stayed at the beautiful Hotel Tegel. I loved it.

The room was immaculate. I pretty much always enjoy hotel rooms, at least on some level, but - admittedly - I also almost frown at something. Here, everything was perfectly to my taste. My daughter loved it, too, by the way. (Especially those Iittala pillow cases by Klaus Haapaniemi.)

The scenery is so pretty.

Desico candle factory is also situated in Fiskars. I do not like scented candles at all, but the colours are great!

At the Fiskars museum, there are craft shops for kids. We had a magical moment in the sunshine with a lovely young lady playing the kantele and (here) the jouhikko. She sang so beautifully and the notes, lyrics and melody took my back to my childhood hobbies (Finnish folk music and folk dancing). Thank you again, we both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. (Kids get to try the instruments, which was great.)

At another shop, there was a lady reading old Finnish tales of hölmöläiset (goofies). I do not think they have had a more eager listener! :) My girl had cookies and drank juice whilst eating every word the lady read. Maybe not so interesting to all children, but my thoughtful little one sure liked it.

Red brick buildings - is there any other way to end this entry?

Gluten-free Christmas baking - Cardamom rolls with saffron

I am lousy at taking photos of my bakings, so I am sorry to tell you that this time around, again, there won´t be many photos to showcase. This is mainly because I am always trying out new things or making my own adjustments to the recipe and I am not sure if what I am trying to do will succeed at all, so I just concentrate on baking. :)

I have dreamed of having a nice, soft cardamom roll for as long as I have stopped eating gluten. I have tried many recipes and they work, somehow, but mostly, the result is either a soft but a flat, really flat, version or then a beautifully shaped, hard, rock-type of a ball.

In my childhood, cardamom rolls were the type of homey treat I guess cookies are in the States or scones in Britain. The usual version (originally a combo of milk, yeast, cardamom, sugar and wheat - give or take eggs and a dash of salt, sprinkled with sugar) were baked often and devoured as a snack or with tea.

In February, during Laskiainen, Shrove Tuesday, the same roll is filled with whipped cream and yam or marzipan. The marzipan version is a Swedish tradition and a tradition I followed as a child - and I still think that is the only proper "laskiaispulla".

During Christmas, the rolls were made more posh with saffron. The seasoning gave them a beautiful colour and a lovely taste, as well as a bit more luxury.


Yesterday, I dove head into the bun thing. Earlier on, I discovered this recipe:
http://keliakia.blogspot.fi/2011/02/nyt-se-onnistui-pulla.html

It seemed good, but I had some concerns.

See, before my gluten-free life began, I loved making bread. I dare to say I was really good at it. I enjoyed the feeling of creating gluten in the dough. It was a full-on process, chemistry. And it was good. And that is why it took me so long to realise that gluten-free baking is not such a vivid, fun process. Once I adapted and turned my thinking upside-down, baking bread, rolls and other (often yeast) bakes got a lot easier.

Here´s my list:
1. In a normal dough, you create gluten with your kneading. This, together with yeast, will make the bread/roll inflate with air and give you nice, soft results.

In a gluten-free dough, you need to whisk the dough (I know, sound silly) to create the air bubbles, because there is not gluten to help you out with it.

2. When making a normal dough, you will let it rise twice. In the middle, you will smash out the air bubbles and wake up the dough with a bit more kneading. Then you let the dough rise again.

In a gluten-free dough, you must not let it rise more than once. You can not knead the dough even once. After you have swelled the psyllium (if you are using any) and the flour (yes, that too, because gluten-free flour tends to be a lot drier than what flour) you have to gently form the dough into balls, or whatever is your desired shape, and then let them rise, rather quickly.


For me, these 2 thigs were the most important lessons to learn.


And ta-daa, on to the recipe, finally!


Cardamom rolls with saffron

Ingredients:
5 dl milk, at aroun 45 degrees Celsius
2 tsp Psyllium
1 small container of saffron (about 1-2 grams)
½ tsp salt
2 dl sugar
1 tbsp ground cardamom
2 eggs
7 dl flour (gluten-free mix)
2 dl of rice flour
2 bags of yeast


Method:
Heat the milk up to about 45 degrees Celsius. It needs to be hotter than your hand, because it will sit for a while until the yeast is added. Add the salt, sugar, cardamom, saffron and psyllium and whisk shortly with an electric mixer. Leave to sit (and swell) for about 2 minutes, whisk again and give it another 2 minutes.

In the meantime, mix together the rice flour, yeast and the gluten-free flour mix. (The original recipe suggest putting in only half of the flour mix at this point and the rest after the swelling time. You choose and tell me how it went)

To the milk, add the eggs. whisking well. Next, add the flour mix. Whisk well, for at least 3 minutes. Then, let the dough stand (and swell) for about 10 minutes. No more than 15, though, you do not want to kill the yeast.

Then, flour your hands and scoop out the dough. It will be a bit looser than a standard dough, but you should be able to manage it in your hands nonetheless. Gently roll them into balls in your hands, place them on a lined baking tray. You will probably need to flour your hands before each rolling session.

Cover the rolls/buns with a cloth and let them rise for about 30 minutes.
Before placing the rolls in the oven, gently brush them with a lightly mixed egg and sprinkle with sugar. (On a Christmas roll, raisins are typically used but they are not my cup of tea.)

Bake at 200 degrees Celsius, for about 10-12 minutes, until nice and golden brown.

This recipe will make about 15 rolls.

Let me know if it worked out for you!