I scream for ice cream

Our Swedish friends came over for dinner a while back and brought with them some yummy homemade ice cream.



We tried it to make it once before but it was not quite the same as their delicious offering. So we wanted to try something a little different, they made theirs with Sweden's favourite 'Daim' chocolate bars as the main flavour, but we decided to try it with toblerone as that is much easier for folk to get. Getting daim in Oz means a trip to IKEA (which if you are in Sydney means quite a trek to the burbs). We also made two batches at the same time just altering one ingredient. John was not too happy with the scientific procedure I used...ok there was more than one variable as I didn't have any vanilla when I started.

Yellow toblerone ice cream
4 egg yolks
100 mls of castor sugar
400 mls of thick cream
2 tbs of syrup (golden, maple or honey would be fine)
1 tbs vanilla essence
100g block of toblerone chopped finely
Whisk egg yolk and sugar until fluffy
Add cream and whisk
Stir through syrup, vanilla and toblerone
Place in freezer for at least four hours, stirring occasionally so all the choccie bits don't just sit on the bottom of the bowl

White toblerone ice cream
We thought there might be some translation problem with the yolk part of the recipe, and didn't have another use for the egg whites so we just replaced the yolks of the egg for the egg whites and used the same method.


Not suprisingly there is a bit of difference in the taste. The yellow ice-cream tastes more like an italian style creamy gelato, quite rich in flavour and may be nice with some more bitter choccie stirred through. The white ice-cream was lighter
and as we are experiencing our first flutter of summer here in scando went down a treat.

Kanel Bulle - Swedish Cinnamon buns

In the food stakes the Swedes are at quite a disadvantage to every other country we have spent a long time in. Just about all produce has to travel large distances to get here. The presence of good, tasty, plentiful vegies and herbs is limited, thus the main diet is (in my opinion) quite bland. Except in the summer when the berries are truly amazing.

But what these folk do well, very well, is 'fika'. Which basically means coffee and cake. So they bake well and often. The most traditional of these baked delights is the kanelbulle (literally cinnamon bun). There is even a national day dedicated to these little treats. This recipe came from the back of a flour packet here, with reference to another blog for the technique (I think it was called goodmoodfood.blogspot hosted by an Irish guy from Dublin). My translating skills are pretty good for all ingredients, but my verb knowledge of swedish is still pretty rudimentary.

Here goes.....

Dough
150 grams butter
150 mls full fat milk
50 grams yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
150 ml caster sugar
800 grams plain flour
2 tablespoons cardamon (kardemumma)

For the "cinnamon butter"
125 grams butter
150 ml caster sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

To paint the top of each bulle
1 whisked egg
Pearl sugar, or some other coarse sugar for sprinkling

Method
Dough
*Melt the butter in a saucepan, and add milk. Heat to lukewarm/finger warm.

*In a large bowl, crumble the yeast and add a little of the butter/milk liquid. Stir the yeast in until it becomes a smooth paste. Then add the rest of the liquid.

*Add the sugar and the salt.

*Add the flour and the cardamon the smell here is heavenly

*knead the dough lightly by hand a little (do not take it out of the bowl to do this). It's fine if the dough is sticky.

*Place a damp tea-towel over the bowl and leave the dough to rise, for about 45- 50 minutes.

Cinnamon butter
*Melt the butter and add the caster sugar and cinnamon. Leave to stand while you are waiting for the dough to rise (but NOT in the fridge!).

Putting it all together
*Once the dough has risen, place on a large table. If it's too sticky to handle at this point, sprinkle the table and the dough with a little extra flour. Knead the dough a little, very lightly.

* Divide the dough into two pieces. Roll each piece out into a large, thin rectangle and smear the cinnamon butter over the entire surface of each, right up to the edges.


Roll each rectangle up (as you would with a swiss roll) and cut each "log" into 2-3cm pieces.

*Place each piece on a large paper cup-cake case. Cover with a (dry) tea-towel and leave for 20-30 minutes.

*During this time pre-heat your oven to 210-220 degrees.

*After 20-30 mins, paint the tops of each bulle with egg and sprinkle with sugar.

*Bake in the oven for 7 to 9 minutes.

Make yourself a nice cuppa and have your own Swedish style fika.