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.

Super-simple and crunchy bread rolls, gluten free - too good to be true?

Once I started eating gluten free bread, it seemed like all hope of ever getting a crunchy crust in a bread was lost. Then, all of a sudden, it was not. It was actually about an hours labour away. If, by labour, you mean mixing up a couple of ingredients with a fork, letting the dough rest for about 30 minutes and baking them in the oven. I like to call it lovely labour, because it really is just that.


Please indulge yourselves with my

Simple and crunchy bread rolls

7,5 dl warm water (at about 40 degrees C)
1,5 tbsp psyllium
1,5 sachets of dry yeast
1,5 tbsp honey (sugar will do, too)
1,5 tsp salt
1,5 dl rolled oats (gluten free)
2 dl oat flour (gluten free - you can also use buckwheat)
approx. 3-4 dl gluten free flour

Method

Pour the warm water into a large bowl. Add the psyllium and stir well. Let the psyllium swell up for a couple of minutes, stir again and add the yest and the honey. Mix well. For the mixing, all the way through, use a (wooden) fork. No need to get your hands dirty with this dough! Also, using a fork will mean that the dough will be wet enough.

Add the rolled oats and the oat flour along with the salt. Mix well.

Gradually, about 1 dl at a time, add the rest of the flour until a somewhat loose dough is formed. Again, the dough must be wet enough for you to still be able to stir it with the fork!

Cover well (I have to admit, for this dough, I like to use a large Tupperware bowl which I can seal tight. Once the lid pops (if I have time for a second run, if not, I just scoop the dough out instantly), I re-set it and wait for another pop.) and leave to sit and rise for about 30 minutes.

 The dough after 30 minutes. 

Take out baking trays, cover them with baking sheets and ladle the dough directly onto the trays. The rolls will look weird at this stage, but do not worry. Once you get them into the oven, the will go lovely and round.
The dough should yield for about 12 rolls. Sprinkle with flour (or something else) and place them into a hot oven.

Bake at 230 degrees C for about 30-35 minutes. Make sure that the crust is hard before taking them out of the oven! Also, knock the rolls from below - you should get a hollow sound if they are ready to be taken out. The rolls might start getting quite dark and feel even too hard when you finally do take them out. But please bare with me; if you take them out too early, about 5 minutes later they will go flat. When they are properly baked, the inside will be chewy and you WILL have a great crunchy crust - even on the next day. And the rolls will be nice and round, not flat.

Hot from the oven.

Enjoy my dears!

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!

Gluten-free donuts

Gluten-free donuts

I swear, Finland is the mecca of donuts. Wherever you go, you can count on one thing - there will be donuts for sale. Really, every gas station at the outskirts of sheer existence sells donuts, or rather munkki as it is called in Finnish. 

The Finnish version usually is a round bun-like donut which is covered with sugar and sometimes filled with jam or custard cream. The garnish can also be pink or white sugar-water mixture, but then the munkki is called "Berliinin munkki" (Berlin donut) or "Piispan munkki" (bishop´s donut).

Growing up eating donuts, I sometimes miss the flavour so much. I remember being on maybe 3rd grade in school and how we had handicraft amongst us girls on Friday mornings for about 2 or 3 hours. Our teacher let us leave the school yard during the break to go to the nearby grocery store. Every Friday we would buy a Berliinin munkki and eat it before getting back to our needleworks. The store was called Vähänen, I think, and I doubt it exists anymore in its´s lovely, quirky appearance, at least.

Anyway, Yesterday I tried out the actual donut with the hole in the middle.

Ingredients:

5 dl milk

1 egg

1 dl sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cardamom

22 g dry yeast

about 9 dl of gluten-free flour mixture

75 g melted vegetable shortening

Coconut butter for frying.

Sugar for sprinkling and/or chocolate and sprinkles.

Heat the milk to about 40 degrees. Add the egg, sugar and cardamom. Mix.

Add the yeast to about 2 dl of the flour and add to the mixture.

With an electrical mixer, beat the ingredients until fully combined.

Add the salt and the remaining amount of flour. With the mixer, beat the mixture for a couple of minutes.

Add the melted shortening and mix well.

Let the dough rest for about 5 minutes before pouring it over gluten-free flour.

Roll the dough and cut it into about 18 pieces. With plenty of flour in hands, roll the pieces into balls and leave onto a baking sheet for about 20-30 minutes to rest. If you want to make donuts, make a hole in the middle and stretch it out carefully. Cover the donuts with a piece of cloth.

Place the coconut butter into a pan and heat it to 180 degrees.

Place the donuts into the hot oil and fry them on both sides.

If you want sugar-covered donuts, cover them with sugar immediately. Otherwise leave them to cool and cover as you like once room temperature.

Enjoy while still warm, crunchy and fresh!

Coconut butter heating up.

Frying.

 Frying the other side.

Gluten-free red currant - white chocolate cake

The perfect cake for autumn! This is such a fresh cake - and super easy to make.

Red currant – white chocolate cake

BASE (Traditional Finnish oatmeal cookie recipe.)

Ingredients:

50 g vegetable shortening or butter

1 dl sugar

2 dl rolled oats (gluten-free)

1 tbsp of gluten-free flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

Method:

Place the butter / shortening together with sugar in a pan. Heat the mixture until the butter melts. Add the rest of the ingredients and quickly mix them together.

Spread the mixture over a lined cake tin with loose edges. Bake for about 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees (Celsius) or until golden brown and set.

Note that the “cookie” is supposed to stay a bit chewy so do not overcook! Once baked, set aside to cool and continue with the white chocolate mixture.

CAKE

White chocolate filling:

200 g white chocolate

2 dl heavy cream

200 g quark (plain yoghurt is a good substitute)

0,5 dl sugar

4 gelatin leaves

1 tbsp boiling water

Red currant filling:

300 g red currants

1 dl sugar

2 dl heavy cream

200 grams of quark

5 gelatin leaves

First prepare the white chocolate filling.

Place the gelatin leaves in cold water.

Whip the cream. Add the sugar and qaurk.

Melt the white chocolate. (I always do the following: I boil water in a pan and place a steel bowl on top of it. Once boiling, I remove the pan from heat and only then place the white chocolate in the bowl. White chocolate liquefies already in about 40 degrees so you need to handle the chocolate gently to prevent it from turning grainy.)

Pour the melted chocolate into the cream-quark mixture. Mix well.

Dissolve the gelatin leaves into a small amount of boiling water and add to the mixture.

Pour the mousse into to cake tin and refrigerate for about 60 minutes. 

For the red currant filling, place the gelatin leaves in cold water. 

Bring the red currants and the sugar to boil in a pan. Sieve the berries and leave to cool.

While still somewhat warm, dissolve the gelatin leaves into the berries.

Whip the cream and mix with the quark and the cooled berries (should be about room temperature).

Pour the pink mousse over the white chocolate mousse and place back in the refrigerator. 

Let the cake set completely (at least 3 hours) before removing from the cake tin.

If you like, garnish the cake with whipped cream and/or red currants. Last time I made this, I did not use any garnish and I still think it looks great.

The cake is served here with white chocolate chip cookies. Recipe to follow!

Gluten-free churros - churros sin gluten con chocolate

I had never before baked churros, let alone eat any. 

But I have been drooling over the sugary, cinnamony smell of them in Cadiz (Spain) and sipped tea in a cafeteria, jealously watching the Spanish families gather over their morning coffees and a tray of warm, possibly crunchy (really, I don´t know) churros, dipping them in hot chocolate. 

(And what did I have - a cup of hot tea.)

Anyway, yesterday morning I finally had time, due to HOLIDAY. So me and my daughter, aged 5 ½, collaborated and baked churros. They were ridiculously simple to prepare and soooo yummy.

The recipe I used originated here:

http://glutenfreeonashoestring.com/gluten-free-churros-recipe/

But, as in Finland we do not have all of the ingredients, and since I never really follow a recipe to the full,  this is how they were done by us.

Ingredients

2,5 dl milk
4 tablespoons (56 g) salted butter
186 g gluten-free flour mix (I used one with wheat-starch, but a naturally gluten-free mix will do, too)
1 teaspoon of xantham gum
4 eggs

½ dl sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Coconut oil, for frying

Chocolate sauce
100 g dark chocolate
1 dl of heavy cream
1 teaspoon corn starch

Directions

• Cook the milk, butter and salt in a large saucepan until the butter is melted and the mixture begins to boil. Remove the pan from the heat, add the flour and stir vigorously. Return the pan to the heat and continue to stir vigorously for about 3 minutes, until the mixture begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and comes together in a ball. A thin film will form on the bottom of the pan. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool for about 3 minutes.
• Transfer the dough to a blender. Pour the eggs on top. Pulse and whisk until the mixture is smooth and uniformly well-blended. Can take a couple of minutes! Set the dough aside to cool. Mix the sugar and cinnamon together in a shallow baking dish, and set it aside. The mixture will be used to garnish the churros. 
• While the dough is cooling, chop about 150 grams of coconut oil to a heavy-bottom pot and heat the oil over medium heat until the temperature of the oil reaches about 160 C. The original recipe suggests piping the dough, but mine was way too thick for that. So, just use your hands to roll them into thin tubes.  Fry until golden brown and firm. (About 1-2 minutes.) Remove from the oil and toss in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. Repeat with the remaining pastry dough.
• Once the churros are ready, make the chocolate sauce. Place the chocolate and cream in a small, heavy-bottom saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted and the milk begins to simmer. While the chocolate is melting, in a separate small bowl, whisk the cornstarch into a small amount of cream (or milk) until smooth. Pour the cornstarch and cream mixture into the saucepan, and stir to combine until it simmers again. Pour into a small container for dipping.
•  This will create quite a heavy sauce. If you want it to be more liquid, add more cream or milk, or simply just temper some dark chocolate - that is what my Spanish friend told me to do next time. In the area he lives, that is the way to eat churros. That and less sugar than on my version. But well, if the sugar-coating is done by a 5 year old, what can you really expect?