Apples & bread

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Since we have candles in our Christmas tree I need apples to balance the candle — but I can't find the small red Cox's Orange Pippin any longer. So I picked out the smallest apples I could find and hope the branches can hold them.
I cut the tree today and will bring it in tomorrow evening.

I've been baking today — when the bread had been in the oven for a while I noticed that the pilot light wasn't on. A fuse had blown. It took quite a while before I got it all straightened out so it will be very interesting to see if the loaf still is doughy inside......

Everything is under control — I made a date loaf yesterday and will make lemon curd tomorrow.

A day in my life — part one

Before I went to bed yesterday I wrote a l o n g list of what to do today. Guess it was good I did, as today is the kind of day I rather would have stayed in bed for some more hours — and I wouldn’t know what to do without the list. The problem is that I don't do anything of it...... I started the day by checking my mail and after that I did nothing. I didn't even have the gumption to look at the list.
So we had breakfast and I decided making bread would be a suitable task, as it doesn't require a present brain.
The dough is rising now and I will reward myself with some tea before I tackle the list.
Yesterday was a beautiful if somewhat cold day, -13˚C (8,6˚F) the sun is hiding today and it is milder — a walk might be a good idea.


I'll let you know later if I manage anything of what I've planned.

Slow Saturday

For pottage and puddings and custards and pies,
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies.
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.
================Pilgrim verse, circa 1630

I've taken a break from the pumpkins today. Spent the morning by the fire with Gutenberg listening to music and only thinking about pumpkins when I planned the dinner. I have a beautiful cookbook by Troth Wells, "The World in Your Kitchen, vegetarian recipes from Africa, Asia and Latin America for Western kitchens with country information and food facts". There are several pumpkin recipes in it — today we tried "Colombo de giraumon" (spicy pumpkin) from Martinique. I'm sorry that I'm not able to share it with you because of the copyright.




But the bread I made yesterday is my own recipe. I like to use the stone ground flour that comes from a local mill, but use what you have.

1½ cups water
1 cup pumpkin
1 cup stone ground rye flour
3 cups stone ground wheat flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup cracked rye
1 tbsp sweetener
1 tsp salt
1½ tsp savory
1½ tsp yeast
½ cup lingon berries or cranberries

Saturday by the fire

It was -5◦C this morning — so I built a fire and made myself comfortable in my blue chair (you can see part of it to the left).

The most interesting find at Gutenberg was "The Cornwall Coast" from 1910 by Arthur L. Salmon. Since so many bloggers seem to live in the southwest corner of England I decided to take a look at the book.

Sennen Cove

I've never been to this part of England and I doubt that I would recognize the places from the book's photos. So tomorrow I'll get my England map out and see if I can find the places mentioned in the book.

Kim, I've mailed you several times but all mails bounce. As Deb and Lynne also asked about baking bread I thought I answer you all here although the questions differed a bit.
No, I don't make quick bread very often as I prefer yeast unsweetened bread. Usually when we talk about bread (bröd) here we mean yeast bread for making sandwiches. Coffee bread (kaffebröd) includes sweetened bread, usually made of wheat flour, cookies (småkakor) and what we call soft cakes (mjuka kakor) which includes bars, coffeecakes, pound cakes and that kind of bread. I seldom make coffee bread for many reasons, which I won’t become absorbed in here — just, let me say that I consider it unhealthy and unnecessary.
So back to the "real" bread — I make hard bread sometimes but not very often. It isn't difficult but it takes a lot of rolling and there are things I like better than spending an afternoon rolling out bread.
We eat more bread meals in Scandinavia than in many other countries. We set the table with bread, soft and hard, butter, cheese, marmalade, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and whatever you like to put on your sandwich (smörgås — which is an open sandwich). I'm a vegetarian so I stop there — non-vegetarians add different meats as well. Everybody makes his own sandwich, drink tea or coffee and solve all the worlds’ problems while having a good time.
Of course this differ from home to home — I write about it as Kim asked. I've had similar meals on the continent so I don't claim that Scandinavia have the sole right to this kind of meals.
I think that answer most of the questions — if not I'll continue another day.

Good night, I'll do as my darling now.

A handful of this and a pinch of that

Anne has asked me for some bread recipes. The truth is that I don't have any; I use the ingredients I happen to have at hand and experiment quite a lot. So far I haven't got anything inedible — if you don't like your bread you can soak it in water and use it next time you bake. (Not all of it one new loaf, of course!)

Start with a very simple recipe and change something every time until you get the hang of it.

• I like to use stone ground flour.
• Use about half wheat flour.
• You can use any liquid, tea, juice, potato water, stock or what you have at hand - I usually use water and never milk as it takes 1000 liter of water to produce one liter of milk!
• Try to add different spiced and herbs — I like to use savory beside the more common anise and fennel. Try whatever you like rosemary, basil, oregano.....
• Things to add:
• all kind of nuts and almonds
• fruit, dried or fresh, in chunks, mashed or grated
• flax seeds
• sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds
• cracked wheat, cracked rye
• buck wheat, cracked or whole
• wheat germs
• rolled oats, rye flakes

A basic bread recipe
For each loaf use:
1 cup liquid
1 tsp oil
1 scant tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar or honey
1tsp. dry yeast
3 cups flour

Mix all ingredients but hold back a bit on the flour as it depends on the flour and the weather if you should add it all — or add some more. When you have a soft dough that you can handle, knead it vigorously with both hands (or machine) 5 to 10 minutes. Let rise covered in a bowl (out of draft) to rise until double. Knead lightly and shape a loaf — or put in a 1½ l loaf pan and let rise again about 30 minutes. Bake 30 to 40 minutes in 175◦C

You find a conversion calculator here.

I'll try to remember what I put in my apple butter and hope to put it up tomorrow.