Dulché de Leché

Hello everyone

Today I'm going to share with you how to make Dulché de Leché. What is that, you may ask?

Well, it is this...




A delicious caramel that goes with almost anything! In many countries you can buy this caramel ready-made, but here in Sweden you can't. So if you want to taste this little piece of heaven, you have to make it yourself.

I use it often as a cake filling, on it's own or mixed together with some whipped cream. It goes especially well with chocolate and bananas...

So, how do you make it?

It's very simple...the only problem is that it takes quite some time...but, hey, good things come to those who wait...and this is definitely worth the wait ;-)

Buy 1 tin of condensed milk...



Put the closed can into a pot of water (yes, that's right...DO NOT open the can), put the lid on and let it boil for 3-4 hours, making sure that the pot doesn't boil dry. Top up with water when needed. The longer the caramel boils, the thicker it will get, so if you want a runny caramel (perfect as a sauce for ice-cream) only boil for about 2 hours. If, when you open the can, it is too firm and you would like the caramel a little more runny, all you have to do is mix in some milk or cream until you get the right consistency.




That's it...it's that easy!

Happy baking...and try not to eat all the caramel straight out of the can ;-)

Love,
Heidi

"Pork Wellington"

Hello everybody!

Hope you are all having a fantastic week!

At the moment I’m in a Gordon Ramsay craze. It feels almost like the whole of Sweden is in a Gordon Ramsay craze! It all started when I watched ”Christmas with Gordon” where he cooked some typical British Christmas food. With a gran that had an English background, I love my good old roast potatoes and cornish pasties, so his cooking made me feel right at home. The next program to air on Swedish TV starring Gordon was America’s Masterchef and finally a series about his adventurous, culinary travels to India.

Photo courtesy of TopNews.in

Gordon is extremely entertaining to watch! He is so passionate about food and so inspiring. The only thing that burns my ears is the swear words that flow from his mouth every second word or so.

During the Christmas shows he made a beef wellington that looked amazing and I have been longing to try it out since then. So I decided to make it…but budget style. Meat, especially a good beef fillet, is pricy here in the north so I used pork tenderloin instead. The pork is wrapped up in a duxelle (mixture of finely chopped mushrooms and marinated garlic cloves) then in some parma ham and finally in puff pastry. It came out delicious! The best thing with the wellington is that it can be prepared in advance and then baked in the oven just before serving. A perfect meal to impress your friends with! Serve it with a scrumptious potato bake and a delicious salad to make a perfect meal.

To see this recipe in Swedish click here.

Serves 6 people



1 pork tenderloin
80 g (about 20) marinated garlic cloves
10 large button mushrooms
1 onion
Some fresh thyme
1 tsp butter
100g parma ham
1 ready-made roll of puff pastry
1 egg


1. Sprinkle some black peppar on the tenderloin (Don’t add any extra salt to the meat as the parma ham already has a very salty flavour). Brown the meat all around and then let it cool off.

2. Duxelle: Chop the mushrooms, marinated garlic, onion and thyme very finely or mis it briefly in a blender. Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the mushroom mixture on medium heat so that the liquid from the mushrooms disappear but without the mixture getting any colour. It takes about 7 – 10 minutes. Once done, remove from the heat and cool completely.

3. Roll the pastry out until just larger than a A4 sheet of paper. Put the parma ham on the dough, covering as much of the dough as possible. Spread the duxelle over the parma ham.

4. Put the tenderloin in the centre and roll up as tightly as possible. Pinch the ends of the dough closed. If there is excess dough on the sides, cut it off and use it to decorate the roll. Store in fridge until 1 hour before serving.

5. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Place the roll on an oven tray. Brush some lightly beaten egg over the pastry. Bake for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy your day!

Love,
Heidi

It's a girl!

Good morning everyone!

Hope that you are all having a wonderful week-end!

Before you get to excited about the heading (no, I'm not pregnant ;-) ), some friends of ours just had the cutest little baby girl! We are so happy for them and warmly welcome their little princess into our big world.

To celebrate I made some cute little butterfly cupcakes. The recipe for the cupcakes is a normal vanilla cupcake recipe like this one:

(Makes 12 cupcakes)

3 1/2 dl (1 1/2 cups) flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
125 g butter (room temperature)
2 1/2 dl (1 cup) white sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence or vanilla sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 dl (3/4 cup) milk (room temperature)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Line a muffin tray with paper liners.
2. Mix together the flour, salt and baking powder.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla on medium speed until creamy (about 3 minutes).
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. On low speed, beat in the flour (about 3 additions) alternating with the milk. Start with the flour and end with the flour and beat until just blended. BEWARE of over-beating at this stage...you will knock the air out of your cupcakes and they won't rise properly.
6. Pour the batter into the cupcake liners, about 3/4 full. Bake until golden and until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. About 20 minutes.
7. Remove from the muffin tray and cool completely.

(From the book: Kids Parties by Lisa Atwood)





The frosting recipe is one that I have wanted to try for a long time...

One of my favourite blogs is written by a lady called Manuela over at Passion for baking. She always has such lovely posts and ideas. One of the frostings that she uses a lot is called "Angel feather icing". It tastes exactly as it looks...delicious and fluffy and sweet. It's basically like a meringue (or like the filling in those delicious chocolate covered Sweetie-pies).

Here's the recipe (or you can click here to see it on Manuela's site in Norwegian).

2 egg whites
170 g sugar
1 dl white corn syrup
2 tbsp water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I have a hard time getting a hold of this in Sweden, so I used the same amount of distilled vinegar(Ättiksprit)instead)
1 tsp vanilla
(A few drops of red food colouring...you can leave this out or colour it whichever way you want to)

1. Put all the ingredients, except the vanilla and colouring, in a glass bowl. Make sure that the bowl is free from any grease as this will prevent the egg whites from beating up properly.
2. Put the bowl over a pot with boiling water. While the water is boiling, beat with an electric mixer until the mixture becomes white and fluffy.
3. Take the bowl off the pot and continue mixing. The more you mix the stiffer the icing will get and the better it will hold it's shape.
4. When you reach your desired consistency, add the vanilla and colouring and you're ready to go!



I decorated these cupcakes with pastry bags and tips that I bought at Cervera. Then I sprinkled on some pink crystals with pink and purple hearts. Finally I made small little butterflies with fondant that I painted with pearl dust to give them a glimmer I bought the little butterfly cookie cutters at Åhléns.

Happy baking!

Love,
Heidi

Salmon and avocado tramezzini

A few days ago I was showing a friend of mine from varsity some pictures from home and it made me miss the sea and the sand and the sun. One of the things I love most about South Africa is going out to a lovely restaurant and eating a delicious light lunch...like, for example, a tramezzini. A tramezzini is kind of like a big pita bread, filled with many varieties of fillings and grilled until it is crispy. Here in Sweden, we don't get any tramezzinis, so I decided to experiment and make my own. I used a pita bread, filled it with smoked salmon and avocado and fried it in a pan until it was a delicious golden brown...it turned out great! The closest to home I've been for a while;-)



To see this recipe in Swedish click here.

Here's the recipe for 4 people:

4 pita breads
8 tbsp cream cheese
8 slices of smoked salmon
2 ripe avocados
½ red onion, finely chopped
½ lemon
Some fresh dill
Pepper and salt

1. Spread 1 tbsp cream cheese in each pita bread. Put one slice of salmon and a few slices avocado in each.
2. Fry on medium heat for about 5 minutes on each side, until the bread gets golden brown.
3. Put on a plate. Put some more cream cheese and salmon on top of the pita, together with some more avocado, some red onion, lemon and some dill. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!

Love,
Heidi

Shaun the sheep cake

Last week-end we went to a very special little girl's party. Elsa turned 2 and loves Shaun the Sheep...so I made her a Shaun the Sheep cake.

We are very grateful for Elsa and her lovely family! We met them when we had just lived in Jönköping a few weeks and they have been wonderful friends to us since then.

This cake is made with a vanilla sponge recipe that you can find here.
Inside, the cake layers were alternated with cream, strawberry puré and white chocolate! It tasted good and quite fresh as well...except the frosting. I always think that the frosting is too sweet, but to get a cake looking really nice, it usually has to have quite a bit of frosting on it. But I suppose if it is too sweet, you don't need to eat it all ;-).



Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Love,
Heidi

The world's best white chocolate chip cookies!

A few months ago I was at Subway with some friends. I love Subway because you get to choose whatever you want on your sub...delicous! But after that visit there is one more reason that I love Subway...their macadamia and white chocolate chip cookies. They are AMAZING! Perfectly chewy and yet crisp at the same time. Since I tasted them a while back, I have been wanting to try and make those perfect cookies at home.

After looking at different recipes and comparing ingredients I came up with a combination that gives the PERFECT cookies. The fantastic thing with these cookies is that you can make them into any flavour you want. White chocolate and macadamia nuts, dried cranberries, normal chocolate chip...the list goes on.

To see this recipe in Swedish click here.

White chocolate chip cookies Makes about 20



5 dl (2 cups) flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
180g butter, melted
2½ dl (1 cup) brown sugar
1 dl (100ml) white sugar
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla essence
2½ dl (1 cup) white chocolate chips (or a roughly chopped chocolate slab)

1. Preheat the oven to 165 degrees C
2. Mix the flour, bicarb and salt in a bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar and white sugar well.
4. Add the egg and the yolk to the sugar mixture and combine well.
5. Add the dry ingrediants and mix. Be careful not to over-mix...only mix until the flour is just combined in.
6. Finally stir in the white chocolate chips, or whichever flavour you choose.
7. Form the dough into small balls (about 4 cm wide) and press lightly down onto a baking sheet that is lined with wax paper. Leave enough room between the cookies for them to spread out while in the oven.



8. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the sides of the cookies are light brown but the inside is still soft.


A Tip:
Definately use butter if you can instead of margarine...you get a much creamier and fuller flavour.



Happy baking!

Love,
Heidi

Yummy appetisers

Puff pastry is one of my favourite pastries to work with. I love the crispy texture combined with the buttery flavour. It works so well with both savoury and sweet dishes, and if you buy it ready made and add a few simple ingredients, it can become one of the quickest snacks to offer your guests.

This recipe for small appetisers works perfectly for a buffé, as a starter for a meal or even as small eats for your guests to snack on when they arrive.

One of the best things with these snacks is that you can prepare lots of them in advance and then freeze them in. Then if you have surprise visitors some day and you need something quickly to serve them, all you have to do is take these little babies out of the freezer and pop them straight into the oven and…voíla! Delicious, home-made treats in just a few minutes.

To see this recipe in Swedish, click here.

Mozarella and cherry tomato squares:

Makes about 20



-1 sheet of puff pastry (about an A4 size)
-50 g parmesan cheese, grated
-125g fresh mozzarella, roughly chopped
-about 20 cherry tomatoes
-fresh basil to garnish

1. Put the oven on 225 degrees C.
2. Cut the pastry into squares (about 4x4 cm).
3. Baste the squares with a lightly beaten egg yolk (or milk will also work).
4. Put a little bit of parmesan and mozarella in the middle of every square.
5. Cut the tomatoes in half and put 2 halves on each square.
6. Season with salt and pepper.
7. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
8. Garnish with the basil leaves.

(Raw tomato doesn’t freeze well, so if you want to prepare these in advance, only freeze them in once they have been baked and then reheat in the oven before serving.)

Garlic and herb puffs:

Makes about 24



-1 sheet of puff pastry, cut in half (into 2 A5 sized rectangles)
-1 tsp dried oregano
-1/2 tsp dried thyme
-1 handful of fresh basil
-about 80g marinated garlic cloves
-4 tbsp creme fraiche or cream cheese

1. Put the oven on 225 degrees C.
2. Chop the garlic and basil finely (or mix in a blender on the pulse setting until roughly chopped).
3. Mix in the rest of the herbs.
4. Spread 2 tbsp of the creme fraiche on each piece of pastry. Then spread the garlic mixture over.
5. Roll up the dough (starting with the long side), brush the pastry with a lightly beaten egg yolk and cut each roll into about 10 pieces. (If making in advance, prepare until this point and freeze.)
6. Place the small rolls flat onto some wax paper, season with salt and pepper and bake for about 10-12 minutes.
7. Serve.