Bring Out Your Dead

« Kroppkakor, a.k.a. Smålandskroppkakor or body crop cakes, are pork-filled potato dumplings from Southern Sweden. »

Back when I was making spätzle, I wondered about the lack of dumplings in both traditional Finnish foods and even in the more modern array of products available at the local groceries. One person suggested that the absence of dumplings in the more traditional foods might be due to the expense of wheat and that potatoes didn't arrive until late and, even when they did, they weren't immediately popular, neither of which cast too much doubt on my hypothesis that dumplings simply must not be an appealing food for many Finns. It was also suggested that possibly Karelian pies and the Savonian kalakukko might be close enough for jazz in the dumpling category. The kalakukko is somewhat like a giant dumpling so if there were mini versions of it, then it might qualify as a dumpling, but the Karelian pies are open-face pasties filled with rice which, considering there are no rice paddies in eastern Finland, are likely not that traditional if one disqualifies various foods on the basis of cost and availability of ingredients over the past 300 years. Finns had rye, water and eggs to make dough and meat from which to make dumplings and yet, no (filled) dumplings**.

**Technically, there does appear to be one sort of dumpling soup called 'klimppisoppa' that consists of a thin broth served with dropped noodles much like spätzle, with raisins occasionally added to the dumplings for holiday flair. The recipe does not appear in Kotiruoka or any of the older Finnish cookbooks I could find and seems to be a dish limited to a small region. The few mentions of it that I could find with google seemed to indicate that it is not a very well loved dish, too. The plot thickens.

I looked to Sweden where so many of the foods considered traditional and old fashioned originated and I found kroppkakor, potato dumplings filled with pork and onions. I started poking around for them in Finnish cookbooks, especially a few that have been translated from Swedish into Finnish, and found no mention of them in spite of them being in almost every general Swedish cookbook. There were a few moments of comedy when I asked Jarkko what the literal translation to Finnish might be and he seemed confused since the 'kropp', though often translated as 'body'**, makes more sense in the 'corpse' connotation and wondered why I was interested in recycling dead bodies for dinner. Perhaps the Swedes engaged in cannibalism years ago and make these to remind themselves that people are, in fact, the other white meat. Still, even with literal and creative attempts at translation, these dumplings simply did not make the jump along with all the other Swedish foods such as lutefisk. Why lutefisk and not kroppkakor is a very curious bit of food history that no doubt has an interesting story behind it. Does this mean that Finns, and this would include the Swedish-speaking Finns (none of whom I know had ever heard of them), actually like the taste of smelly, gelatinous fish soaked in lye better than pork-filled potato dumplings? Say it isn't so.

**Kroppkakor are often translated as 'body cakes' using the literal modern meaning of the word 'kropp' which can mean either body or corpse. However, neither make much sense when applied to a boiled dumpling. With the help of a very kind Swedish speaker, it appears that the word 'kropp' has an older meaning that makes a lot more sense:

ETYMOLOGI:[till sv. dial. kropp (äv. i avledd form]
kroppa, kroppning), klimp i soppa, blodpalt, sannol. identiskt med KROPP, sbst.⁴; av mnt. krop, kroppe, ett slags bakvärk med fyllning av kött, sannol.urspr.: fylld kräva (i bildl. anv.)]

The etymology of 'kropp' appears to be related to the old German word 'kropf' and English word 'crop' where they refer to a part of a bird's anatomy that is a round pouch in the gullet which stores food for digestion. This seems to be a much more likely source for the name since the dumplings are round pouches filled with meat that are heavy and do take quite a long time to digest. It is no more appetizing than 'body' or 'corpse' but at least the name fits. :)

I figured I had to try making the dumplings to see if they tasted or looked like corpses and maybe find a reason as to why they failed to find a home in Finland. There are two main variants of the recipe; the original version, Ölandskroppkakor, uses shredded raw potatoes and the more modern version, Smålandskroppkakor, uses mashed potatoes. I opted for the mashed potato version since they're less work, produce a smoother dough (and thus a more attractive dumpling) and because we now have such wonders as plentiful chicken eggs, at least until bird flu arrives. There is a third variety that uses corn meal called pitepalt.

My first batch of dough was an utter disaster since I used a slightly dodgy recipe I found on the net. You remember only when you make a batch of potato paste that there is little difference between the nasty, gummy potato dough and wallpaper glue. I then swore off the recipes in English I found on the net and started hunting for recipes in Swedish which resulted in a few that were much, much more successful. Essentially the basic formula should be 1 pound/500g potatoes, 1 egg, and 1 cup/2.5 dl flour which doubles easily.

Like anything that is deceptively simple in appearances, there is more to boiling a potato than just dropping it into boiling water. Cooking the potato without it becoming soggy and/or gluey can easily become a fool's errand. I dislike peeling hot potatoes so I usually peel them first, put them into a pot with water, stick it on a burner and forget about it until it boils over or I begin to smell something burning. I can bake, but basic cooking stuff eludes me. After a couple of batches where the potatoes started to disintegrate in the pot I began to think that there really must be a secret to this task only marginally more complex than boiling water. I found that the potatoes disintegrate when you boil them at too high a boil which causes them to bump around vigorously and break apart. I suppose that this should have been obvious, but what is obvious if not elusive and often overlooked? The starch in the potatoes is a temperamental substance. Try taking a hand blender or a food processor to a boiled potato sometime if you'd like to see just how much fun you can have with starch that has been released from its cells.

Boiling the potatoes with their skins on is best as it will help keep them from becoming soggy which results in using more flour and gummy dough. You'll want to rice/mash them while they are still piping hot so that they can release a bit of moisture through the steam. I was already unnaturally fond of my potato ricer, but when I discovered that you can cut the unpeeled potato in half, drop it cut side down into the hopper and squeeze the potato out without the peel, I wondered where it had been all my life. I've been unable to find anything about the history of this gadget or even how it came to have the unlikely name of 'ricer', but wherever the inventor may be they have my enduring admiration for such an elegantly simple human-powered, multi-purpose kitchen tool. If you make real mashed potatoes with any frequency at all, buy one of these things tomorrow. Julia Child also gushed a bit about her German potato ricer with priceless audio of her extolling its virtues. I'm going say "ssshhoooommmm!" every time I rice a potato from now on. :) Another great masher is the OXO square masher which produces a less gluey texture than the usual squiggly masher.

Once you have the dough prepared, use immediately as it tends to get very gummy and unworkable if left to sit for any amount of time. There are many ways to get to the same meat-filled ball, but the easiest seemed to be the log of dough that is sliced into 12 parts, flattened, filled, sealed and formed into a ball. As for the filling, there are many different variations though allspice does appear to be very common and, frankly, is an often forgotten spice. I tried a few different combinations of fatty pork scraps, bacon and ham and found that using all or mostly ham had a much better colour and flavour than the others. Chopping the filling into a paste with a hand blender made filling and eating the dumplings much easier so I highly recommend it. I've also seen variations using salmon and vegetables that look pretty tempting as well. It might be fun to make a batch of them for halloween and decorate them to look like eyeballs, too. :)

The recipe makes 24 dumplings that will feed you for at least a few days since I'm not sure most mere mortals can consume more than 4-6 of them in one day.

Kroppkakor / Smålandskroppkakor / Body Crop Cakes / Pork-filled Potato Dumplings

Makes: about 24 golf ball-sized dumplings
Time: about 90 minutes
Special tools: potato ricer, big pot for boiling

Filling:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 200g or 7oz meaty or lean bacon
• 200g or 7oz good ham
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• black pepper
• white pepper
• allspice

Dough:

• 1kg or 2 pounds potatoes, boiled and riced/mashed
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 4.75 dl or 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. For the Filling: Place a bit of butter or olive oil in the bottom of a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft. Add ham and spices to taste. Turn down heat and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool, transfer to a deep bowl and chop finely to a paste with a hand blender. Set aside or refrigerate overnight for better flavour.
2. For the dumplings: Fill deep pot with cold water and potatoes. Add a generous amount of salt. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer potatoes for about 20-25 minutes. Drain, slice potatoes in half, and place each potato half, cut side down, into a potato ricer, removing the peel from the hopper after ricing each potato or peel with a knife and mash with a hand masher (Do not use hand blender) into a large bowl. Allow the potatoes to cool for 10-15 minutes. Beat eggs lightly and pour over potatoes. Add flour and knead by hand until the dough forms a smooth ball. Use dough immediately.
3. Divide the dough into two parts. On a smooth surface, shape each part of the dough into a long cylinder about 12-inches/30cm long. Slice dough into 12 pieces, each 1-inch/2.5cm wide . Flatten each piece into a circle about 10cm/4-in in diameter. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of filling into the center and proceed to seal the meat inside the dumpling by pulling the dough up in three places and pinching the three seams. Spackle any holes with small bits of extra dough. Gently shape the dumpling into a ball with your palms. Place finished dumpling on a lightly greased baking sheet and repeat until you have used all the dough. [ see illustration of the whole process of making the dumpling. ]
4. Boil water in a deep pot and gently lower a few dumplings into the water. They are ready when they float to the surface which takes about 5 minutes. Lift out of the water with a slotted spoon (there is a special wooden tool in Sweden just for this task called a kroppkakeslev which is a long-handled wooden spoon with five holes in the spoon to drain the dumplings) and place in a baking dish or serving platter. Keep them warm in the oven until ready to serve. Repeat with all the dumplings until all are cooked. Serve with melted/clarified butter and lingonberry or any other tart red berry jam. You can also refrigerate or freeze them and microwave or pan fry them to reheat. They make excellent leftovers.

permalink Ω 21 March 2006, Helsinki

As Good As It Gets

« A lovely almond cake topped with soft, caramelized apples, ice cream and golden caramel sauce. »

I've noticed lately that, as work gets more stressful, I've been baking nearly every night when I'm not so tired as to fall asleep on the sofa by 10pm. I'm not entirely sure why, but it keeps me out of the pubs and (mostly) out of trouble.

I was leafing through the hefty The Professional Pastry Chef after having so much success with the semlor/laskiaispulla and found a recipe for an apple and almond cake. I became suspicious of the author as I found a lot of almond-based recipes as I was browsing and wondered if he might be from somewhere around here since nobody loves the almond quite as much as the Nordics do. I've come to think that almonds and berry jams are foods worthy of their own food group in the Nordic region. There needs to be an annual almond festival and a monument erected to pay homage to the most revered nut. Apparently, "Chef Bo", (Whom I have affectionately dubbed "Chef Bo[rk Bork Bork]") is in fact Swedish. His cookbook is ace which is likely why he doesn't have a show on FoodTV and a line of his own merchandise as he's too busy actually working in the field to be a celebrity.

I have made this recipe four times in the last two weeks and not a single cake has made it into the office which might indicate how absolutely terrific this cake is. The soft, sweet apples partnered with the ice cream, caramel and light almond cake is a really amazing taste sensation. It looks pretty, too. I tried several different brown sugar variants and found the 'farina' sugar to be the best as it appears to be somewhere between light and dark brown sugar. The original recipe asks for dark brown sugar, but the molasses overwhelms the delicate flavour of the apple and the almond cake. If you don't have ramekins, you could probably use sturdy coffee mugs with straight sides.

One caveat is that you shouldn't allow the apples to cool too much before adding the filling since I discovered after taking Otava out for a long walk between baking stages that if they are too cool, the filling doesn't bake properly and you slice the cake only to find uncooked almond goo on the inside. I could ramble on about how good these are, how easy they are to make and that everyone should enjoy the wonders of a cake this good fresh from the oven at least once in their lifetime, but I'm working against a deadline this week and am too tired to be entertaining so you're left to your own devices on this one.

Caramelized Upside-Down Apple and Almond Cakes

Makes: 6-8 cakes depending on the size of your small ramekin
Special tools: ramekins, a.k.a. annosvuoka (small, round ceramic dishes), that have about 250ml/1 cup volume
Time: about 2 hours
Source: The Professional Pastry Chef

• 150g or 5oz light brown sugar or raw sugar
• 100g or 7 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• about 6 medium golden delicious or granny smith apples (about 1 apple per ramekin)
• vanilla-almond filling (see below)

1. Grease the inside of the ramekins with butter.
2. Cream the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg until smooth and lightened in colour. Divide the brown sugar mixture in half and spoon about a tablespoon into the bottom of the ramekins. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and set aside.
3. Peel the apples, trim off the ends, cut in half crosswise, remove seeds with a melon baller or the end of the peeler and proceed to slice apples crosswise into thin slices. Place one slice into the bottom, pressing it down over the brown sugar mixture. Layer more slices in the ramekins, filling them almost to the top and filling any holes where bits of core were removed. If any slices are too wide for your baking dish, gently pare away the excess with the peeler. Brush a bit of the brown sugar mixture over the top apple slice so it doesn't dry out.
4. Cover ramekins with a sheet of aluminum foil (to keep the splatter of the butter to a minimum) and bake at 190C/375F for about 30-40 minutes or until the apples have cooked down to about half of their original volume. Remove from oven and set aside to cool for at least 30 minutes to an hour. When cool, take a sharp knife and run it around the sides to remove any caramelized sugar. Brush a small amount of butter on the sides before adding the almond filling.
5. Place the vanilla-almond filling into a pastry bag with a large plain tip. Pipe the filling on top of the baked apples, dividing it evenly among the forms. (Use a ziplock bag with a corner cut off if you don't have a pastry bag as you want to disturb the apples as little as possible when placing the almond filling.)
6. Bake at 190C/375F for about 20 minutes or until the filling is just baked through and light golden brown on top; be careful not to overbake the cakes, which will cause them to become tough and dry. Let the apple cakes cool until you can pick the ramekins up with your bare hands.
7. Run a knife around the inside edge of a warm cake and unmold onto a plate. Serve with a scoop of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream and caramel sauce.

Vanilla-Almond Filling

• 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar or the seeds of 1 vanilla bean added to the granulated sugar
• 55g or 2oz granulated sugar (about 1/2dl)
• 80g or 3oz almond paste
• 80g or 5.5 tablespoons butter, room temperature
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 80g or 3oz bread flour (about 1.5dl)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1. Sift the flour with the baking powder. Set aside.
2. Place the vanilla sugar and granulated sugar in a mixer bowl with the almond paste. Beat together and add butter gradually to avoid getting lumps in the batter. Cream the mixture together for a few minutes until it is smooth and light in colour. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add flour mixture to the batter on low speed, mixing just until it is incorporated.

Fortified Caramel Sauce

Makes: about 2 cups/4 dl
Time: about 20 minutes

• 225g granulated sugar
• 40ml or 1/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 180ml or 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 25g or 1/4 stick butter

1. Place the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Brush down the sides of the pan with a clean brush dipped in water. Add the light corn syrup. Cook over medium heat until the syrup reaches a golden amber colour (about 5-10 minutes).
2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the heavy cream carefully. Stand back as you pour in the cream, a little at a time while stirring constantly, as the mixture will splatter. Stir to mix in the cream. If the sauce is not smooth, return the pan to the heat and cook, stirring constantly, to melt any lumps.
3. With the pan off the heat, add the butter. Keep stirring until the butter has melted and the sauce is smooth.

permalink Ω 15 March 2006, Helsinki

Killer Buns

« Lenten buns / Laskiaispulla / Semlor - a soft cardamom yeast bun filled with an almond paste infused pastry cream and a healthy swirl of whipped cream that is traditionally served on Fat Tuesday and subsequent Tuesdays during Lent. »

These buns have killed once and they'll kill again. What could be more thrilling than tempting fate by eating a filled bun that was thought to have been the cause of the Swedish King Adolf Fredrik's death in 1771. Of course it might have also been the enormous meal he consumed before snarfing down 14 of the buns served in bowls of warm milk. These buns are heavenly but, I don't know that eating more than one or two in one sitting is recommended.

The history of the traditional Fat Tuesday treat is rather interesting as it is detailed at length in a new book on the subject, Semlor [pa svenska]. It contains more than you ever wanted to know about semlor along with a variety of recipes for them at the end. I was raised Catholic, yet never really encountered these before having one in Finland so I was curious. The modern semla is descended from the German and Danish kumminkringlor, a pretzel-shaped bread with cumin, which came to southern Sweden during the 1600's when the area belonged to Denmark. The first citation of semlor being eaten in Stockholm dates back to 1689.

The name semla comes from the latin word simila, meaning wheat flour which was a luxury save for the wealthy class, and generally meant any sort of wheat bun or bread. The buns originally were filled with hot cream, butter and cinnamon. The almond paste filling didn't arrive until the 1800s when Swiss bakers came to Sweden who brought their knowledge of almonds with them and the whipped cream filling and cap on top didn't become common until much later in the 1930s. The oldest name for the buns, hetvägg, indicated that it was served in hot milk. Although most English recipes for the buns instruct the cook to serve in a bowl of hot milk, the tradition seems to be rarely observed anymore. Aside from making the bun rather difficult and messy to eat, a bowl of hot milk doesn't really add flavour or better texture to the bun. If made without the whipped cream, the hot milk would be more appealing.

Useless factoid - In 1996, the world's largest semla was baked in Alingsås, Sweden. The bun was 113cm/45-inches in diameter and weighed about 60kg/132lb by itself and 134kg/295lb with the almond and whipped cream fillings.

There also seems to be a semlor standard as well as a Semmelakademien (semlor academy) in Göteborg where one, presumeably, learns all there is to know about semlor. For the true semlor perfectionist, a recent article on semlor from an English paper in Sweden lays down the semlor rules:

In fact there are fiercely-contested "Best in Test" competitions pitting city cafés against each other in a kind of annual regional semla Oscars. Mattias Sundberg, a semla enthusiast, explains what it takes to be a winning semla:

"The bun itself should be a light golden brown and about 10cm or 4-in across. The 'lid' is preferably triangular and properly sprinkled with powdered sugar. It should sit squarely on its cream bed. The whipped cream shouldn't overspill the edges and should rise 2-3cm or 3/4-1.2in - just so your nose doesn't dip when eating."

But aesthetics will only take a semla so far; the proof is in the taste test. According to our expert, "The bread mustn't be too dense and should be lightly sweetened. The whipped cream ought to be hand-whipped and lightly sweetened as well." Traditionally the cream is unsweetened but our modern aficionados seem to have developed a sweet tooth.

Mattias Sundberg admits that there are differing opinions on how to judge the best semla. It is almond paste that seems to split the jury. Sundberg prefers a sticky paste while some of his fellow critics opt for a crumblier version. All sides agree on one thing:

"It's important that [the paste] of about 2 teaspoons is dead centre and is absolutely not bitter."

Sundberg and friends are hardly oddballs when it comes to their high standards for semlor. There's even a semla academy in Gothenburg. They have their own established minimum standards:

• The lid must be structured so it may be used for scooping;
• There must be cardamom in the dough;
• The almond paste must be authentic;
• The whipped cream must be fluffy;
• There must be powdered sugar sprinkled on the lid.

I'm all for authentic, but forget hand-whipping the cream in an age of electricity and arm saving appliances. I'm not going to go out back and milk my own cow for that matter, either. :) I'd love to visit the semlor academy and take a class. I wonder if they have a section on how to eat them without winding up with a face full of cream.

Last year I tried my hand at making these buns, but it had been a long time since I had made a yeast bread and wound up making weapons grade buns rather than soft, delicate buns. I vowed to try again this year and have finally gotten the hang of it after lots of trial, error and determination. So many recipes are either lacking in any descriptive guidance or fail to offer measurements in weight, as is often necessary when making bread since cups are not reliable measurements for flour, that I'd wager most people who think they can't bake pulla bread very well, will have much more success with the recipe here.

I think I managed to make just about every mistake possible while trying to attain the ideal soft bun. Too much yeast, over-proofing, under-proofing, too much flour and adding the butter too soon. I even tried a recipe that included hartshorn, a.k.a. baker's ammonia, which gave the dough a rank scent of ammonia and, in spite of the recipe claiming that it would burn off in the oven, a decidedly odd aftertaste.

I returned to an article on pulla dough in an issue of Ruoka & Viini for some insight to the secret of soft dough. Aside from many common sense tips such as warming the milk to the right temperature and having all your ingredients at room temperature, the only thing that was unusual was the recommendation to use 'erikois' flour instead of all-purpose or bread flour. I tried a batch with bread flour and I could have used the dough as a basketball it was so rubbery. The 'erikois' flour is different than the all-purpose flour in that it is slightly coarser and has a higher percentage of wheat germ which is lower in gluten and less absorbent. Using all-purpose flour works fine, but the erikois flour definitely seemed to give better results. The closest equivalent in the US would likely be the King Arthur All-Purpose Artisan Organic Flour with a lower percentage of gluten and made with hard spring and winter wheat.

I had a revelation at one point when searching for bread techniques with A9 as a book that I had gathering dust in my Amazon.com shopping cart kept popping up. I hadn't bought The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition since I am not a professional pastry chef but the book remained tempting. I searched through it and found a recipe for Swedish Lenten Buns that I read and discovered that, after all these years of thinking that it made no difference if the butter was added with the milk or after the dough had come together, it is important not to add the butter when dissolving the yeast in the milk as it prevents the yeast from expanding. The recipe not only used weight measurements, but it also featured a simple pastry cream mixed with the almond paste filling instead of plain milk which intrigued me so I decided to give it a try. What a difference moving the addition of the butter from the beginning to the end of the dough process made! Given a choice, I had always added the melted butter to the milk as, even though I enjoy kneading dough, the slimy feel kneading butter into the dough is not one of my favourite sensations but, given the dramatically improved results, I'll deal with it. I've tried a few more recipes from the book now and am sorry I didn't buy it sooner and cannot recommend it more highly to anyone who likes baking well with accurate recipes and techniques. The pastry cream recipe was almost a miracle given the crap recipes I've used and struggled with before now.

So now that bun nirvana had been achieved, it was time to focus on the fillings. In Finland there are two varieties of filling; strawberry jam and almond paste mixed with milk and bits from the buns. The strawberry jam is easy and fairly popular, but the almond filling is a bit bland so I was eager to try the pastry cream variation and it is absolutely terrific. I don't even like the regular almond-filled buns but the pastry cream adds just enough creamy sweetness to make it rather tasty. You can mix and match pastry cream, jam and almond cream fillings any way you like, too.

The crowning touch to the buns is taking a small cookie cutter to the lids to give them an attractive shape and to make the bun easier to eat since the lid often does little more than squish the whipped cream when you bite into it and makes a bit of a mess. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and they're almost too pretty to eat. Just try not to eat all of them in one sitting. :)

laskiaispulla / semlor / lenten buns / cream buns

Soft Pulla Dough

Makes: 16 buns
Time: about 90 minutes
Source: Based on recipe in The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition (note: recipe doubles well)

• 25g fresh compressed yeast
• 250ml warm whole milk (105-115F/40-46C)
• 3oz or 85g superfine granulated sugar
• 7,5g salt
• 1 tablespoon or 8g ground cardamom
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1lbs 5oz or 600g all-purpose or 'erikois' flour
• 7 tablespoons or 100g melted butter
• 1 egg white and a dash of milk (for egg wash)

Melt butter in the microwave. Set aside to cool. Weigh and measure out all ingredients and arrange near your workspace. Warm milk in a 2 cup measuring cup for about 1 minute in the microwave. Check the temperature with a thermometer and confirm that it is about 40C/105F. Crumble yeast into the warm milk and stir until it has fully dissolved. Stir in the sugar, salt, cardamom, eggs and a few tablespoons of flour. Stir until the mixture is smooth and the flour completely incorporated. Set aside for a couple minutes until it begins to bubble.

Pour the yeast mixture into a larger, room temperature, bowl and begin adding flour a few tablespoons at a time. Stir with a whisk or dough whisk until it begins to thicken. From this point on, knead the dough with your hands. Continue adding flour a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is soft but still slightly sticky. You may have a bit of flour remaining, but resist the temptation to add it all if the dough has the right feel. The amount of flour you need to use to reach the point of soft, yet slightly sticky, dough will vary depending on the type of flour, the age and moisture content of the flour and the humidity in the air.

Knead in the butter (it is important that the butter does not come in contact with the yeast before the yeast has had a chance to start expanding.) until it is fully incorporated. Again, resist the urge to add more flour in lieu of kneading the dough until the butter has been absorbed. Sprinkle a wee bit of flour over the dough if it is a bit too soft and tacky once the butter has soaked in, but be conservative. You want a soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead dough for a couple of minutes and place into a bowl that has been lightly greased with vegetable oil or butter, cover with a towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm spot for about 20 minutes to rest (Don't leave it for an hour thinking more is better since you don't want to over-proof the dough as this will make it tough). While the dough is resting,clean and prepare your workspace and baking sheets.

Turn the dough out of the bowl onto a silpat mat, countertop or other smooth surface. Do not flour your workspace or the dough. Knead dough lightly and divide dough into two parts. Roll each half into an 8-inch rope and cut into 8 1-inch pieces. Take each piece, place it on your workspace cupped in the palm of your hand and, with a reasonable amount of pressure, press down while moving your hand in a circular motion until the dough has formed a smooth, tight round ball. [see also diagram] If your dough isn't a little sticky or you are having trouble forming a smooth ball, rub your workspace with a wet (but not dripping) towel and try again. Arrange balls on baking sheet lined with baking paper leaving an inch or so between them. Lightly brush with egg wash (you can sprinkle the tops with pearl sugar or slivered almonds at this point, but personally I think that they don't complement the soft texture of the bun). Cover with a clean linen dishtowel or plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to rise for about 30 minutes or so.

Heat oven to 200C/390F. Bake buns for 10-12 minutes until they are a light golden brown. Place on cooling rack and allow to cool.

Filling(s):

Creamy Almond Filling:

• 2-4 tablespoons (50-100g) pastry cream (see below)
• 150g-200g almond paste, room temperature

Grate almond paste into bowl. Beat until smooth. Add pastry cream and beat until smooth, thick and creamy.

Pastry Cream

Makes: about 600g
Time: about 20 minutes
Source: The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry, 4th Edition (note: recipe doubles and halves well)

• 1 pint or 480ml whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ounce or 30g (about 1/2 dl) cornstarch
• 4 ounces or 115g granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 stick or 55g butter

In a bowl, whisk the cornstarch, sugar and salt together. Gradually whisk in the eggs and mix until smooth.

Place milk in a saucepan or double-boiler. Bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Slowly pour about 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking rapidly. Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the remaining milk.

Place saucepan on a medium heat and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Let it bubble for a few seconds and remove from the heat. Stir in the vanilla and butter until completely incorporated.

Pour pastry cream into a bowl and allow to cool a bit. When cool, use for filling or cover with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap directly onto the surface of the cream to avoid condensation and to keep it fresh. It will keep refrigerated for up to four days.

Traditional Almond Filling:

• 200g almond paste
• 1,5 dl or 3/4 cup milk
• bits of bun scooped out for filling

Grate almond paste into bowl. Beat until smooth. Blend in milk. Add pulla and beat until smooth.

Whipped Cream:

• 3-5dl whipping cream, cold
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

Pour cream and sugar into a completely dry, cold bowl and whip to stiff peaks. Place cream in a pastry bag fitted with a #7/14-mm star tip.

Assembling:

1. Slice top off of buns. Take the tops of the buns and cut into heart, star or other shapes if you like. For the strictly traditional, use a pair of scissors held at a 45-degree angle to make a triangular cut on top of the bun about 2cm or 3/4-in deep. Trim excess bread from the underside of the triangular divot.
2. Spread almond mixture (or strawberry jam and/or plain pastry cream if you don't like almonds) onto the buns or into the triangular hole.
3. Pipe whipped cream generously over the tops.
4. Place top of bun over the whipped cream.
5. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

permalink Ω 21 February 2006, Helsinki

Mush

« Spicy lamb meatballs, feta-olive cheese sauce and mashed potatoes. »

When you have a toothache, in spite of the dentist telling you twice that there is nothing there, that causes you to daydream about taking a dremel to the offending tooth or chugging down a bottle filled with 400mg ibuprofen to ease the headache, soft foods become really attractive. Brief flashes of fizzing dentures in a glass with efferdent and sucking your meals through a straw do tend to dampen the desire to have all of them removed without ceremony. In a world without teeth, the surest proof of a non-existent or a surly bastard of a malevolent god, one might even reconsider atheism.

In the interest of soft foods, I noticed a tasty and gum-tastic recipe for meatballs and a feta cheese and olive sauce that I had to try. The pureed tomatoes that are mixed with the bread crumbs really had such a nice flavour that it's worth adding to regular meatballs as well. I served them with nice, soft and fluffy mashed potatoes that were proof that the potato ricer is a gadget worthy of my affection. A bit of butter and milk warmed in the microwave then poured over the riced potatoes and mixed with a fork are amazingly smooth. Amusingly, there seems to be a great deal of heated debate online over whether the ricer or a food mill or the old-fashioned masher makes the best mashed potatoes. It's one of those things you'll just have to try for yourself. I'll never make lumpy mashed potatoes again.

Even for those without fantasies involving dentists with pliers, meatballs and mash are perfect winter food and these actually have some taste to them. Although the Finnish 'coffee pudding', made with rolled spelt wheat, milk and coffee, that I tried making the other night looked like vomit and smelled like popcorn so I'm not sure that all soft foods are as appealing as others. :) Now, what do I make for the mobility-challenged man who wrecked his ankle yesterday? Is there such a thing as self-delivering food? Perhaps I could work on strapping a food tray to Otava. :)

spicy lamb meatballs and feta-olive sauce

Makes: about 45 meatballs
Time: about an hour
Source: Ruoka & Viini

spicy lamb meatballs

• 2 dl or 2 cups pureed tomatoes
• 1 dl or 1 cup bread crumbs
• 1,5 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 egg
• 500g or 18oz ground lamb meat (ground beef could also work)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1,5 teaspoons ground cardamom
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup chopped pine nuts
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup chopped golden raisins
• ground black pepper

feta-olive sauce

• 150g or 5.5oz feta cheese
• 1 dl or 1 cup chopped green olives
• 250g or 9oz kermaviili/unflavoured yogurt
• zest of one lemon
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons freshly chopped mint
• ground black pepper

Heat oven to 200C/390F.

Puree tomatoes, mix with bread crumbs and let sit for a minute or two. Add salt, egg, and meat. Mix well. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing well. Form mixture into small meatballs. Place on a baking pan (place a lightly greased small wire cooling rack on top of the baking pan and bake the meatballs on it to allow the grease to drain away and the underside of the meatballs to brown) and bake for 15-25 minutes until brown.

In a bowl, crumble feta cheese with a fork. Blend in chopped olives and kermaviili/yogurt. Flavour mixture with lemon zest, lemon juice, mint and black pepper.

permalink Ω 17 February 2006, Helsinki

May the Cream Be With You

« A princess cake / prinsessakakku / prinsesstårta in a Yoda-green marzipan robe. »

I was working hard on my sofa coma on Friday evening by drinking a beer and scanning my newsfeeds when I saw that someone had made one of those funny green cakes from possibly the most pointlessly complex cake recipe I've ever seen. One of the reviewers of the cookbook the recipe was taken from, Birthday Cakes: Recipes and Memories from Celebrated Bakers concurred with my dim view of the recipe:

Finally, several of the recipes are ridiculously complicated for the home baker. "The Princess Cake," for example, requires following four lengthy pages of instructions!

Many of the other reviewers remark at how pretty the book is to look at which I had to laugh at since you know right there they are just in it for the picture porn, not the practicality of the recipes. The princess cake is, in spite of its looks, a simple cake: sponge cake layered with pastry cream and topped with a marzipan shell. Why on earth anyone would put themselves through such torture for something that should be rather simple? I was surprised the recipe didn't also encourage the baker to make their own raspberry jam from hand-picked organic berries or grind their own flour. It's a bad recipe if only for the silly rum 'moistening' solution for the cake since it boils off the alcohol in the rum and then adds more sugar to, perhaps they forget, distilled cane sugar. If the cake wasn't bone dry in the first place it wouldn't be necessary but not only that, rum is not a flavour associated with traditional cakes in the Nordic countries. If you want rum flavour, add a bit of extract to the cream or just brush some of the dark rum right onto the cake. If you've got a good bottle of Meyer's Dark Rum and feel the urge to boil it, please come to my house and don't forget to bring the bottle. :) The Finnish recipes occasionally mention using a wee bit of orange juice for the same purpose but it seems highly optional and up to the discretion of the baker.

So, I went hunting for a recipe since I see these cakes all the time but, aside from getting intense flashbacks to Hostess Snoballs, I've never actually tried one. It's also a cake I can share without regret since I'm not overly fond of marzipan. :) In the late 1920s, Jenny Åkerstr�m, who ran a cooking school for young ladies, published the Prinsessojen Kokbok which featured three cakes, one for each princess; Margaretha, M�rtha and Astrid [a copy of the recipes and illustrations from the 1951 printing in Finnish - 1.6mb pdf]. They were very elaborate cakes, not terribly suited to the home baker. Astrid's cake most closely resembles the princess cake in its current form and even features canned pineapple which was just becoming popular at the time. Annika Larsson, a baker at the Grillska Konditoriet in Stockholm, is credited with combining features from the three cakes and creating the princess cake [pdf, swedish] that has become a tradition. It appeared in Finland not long after it became popular in 1930s Sweden and has remained a traditional cake ever since, particularly for graduation and end of school year parties. The cake may also be known as the operat�rta.

Surprisingly, online there are more recipes for the cake in Finnish than there are in Swedish. And one of the MTV3 cooking shows featured a princess cake recently as well. None of my cookbooks at home had a recipe for it and I even went looking through the cookbooks at Akateeminen and found only two books that had a recipe and neither of them looked very good. I compared all the recipes I could find online and there was little difference save for the cream where there were two camps: pastry cream and plain whipped cream with one Swedish recipe mixing both together which is properly known as "diplomat cream". I turned to CI to compare both the sponge cake and pastry cream recipes and they featured the same ingredients only with far more detailed instructions and perfected technique so I used theirs instead. The sponge cake recipe is ace and, since such cakes are common components in Finnish desserts, I can't recommend it highly enough as it was tasty, moist and spongy just as a good cake of its kind should be.

There are also a few different styles of cake construction. Two layers or three layers, round or rectangular log, cream dome or sponge cake covering the dome as the top layer. It doesn't seem to matter as long as all of the key ingredients are there. The log looks interesting and easier to slice, but getting a sponge cake to bend like that without breaking or popping out of shape would require a few tricks I suspect.

The cream filling is where things get a bit dodgy in many of the recipes since the instructions are vague and don't mention the time needed. I tried the Swedish version of the pastry cream which featured gelatin as a thickener and, from a structural standpoint, I thought it might be the most successful at providing needed firmness to hold the shape of the cake. It eventually set, but the directions were limited and somewhat misleading. The pastry cream should be made the night before as it needs five hours or more to set. It's not difficult to make and it's good to have one less thing to juggle in the kitchen. Americans averse to dairy and/or cream could likely just use Cool Whip™ to replace the pastry cream and whipped cream thus making the cake even easier. We've got so many cream and dairy products that there must be a state embargo on non-dairy products like Cool Whip™.

It's all smooth sailing once you've got your cake layers, pastry cream, jam and marzipan all ready to go. Unless you've got some complex about using organic almonds, don't make the marzipan yourself as it's ready-made in all the usual colours for far less money than all the time and effort you would spend making it. The only drawback to using prepared marzipan is that it can be somewhat dry which makes manipulating it an exercise in patience. It also makes your life easier if you have 2 or preferably 3 round cake pans since this reduces the number of cakes you have to cut from a larger one. I like chocolate layer cakes so I've learned to make my life easier by making the layers at bake time since I suck at slicing cakes evenly or unevenly.

So that's all there is to it. Follow the recipes and make your own princess cake for a graduation party instead of paying 40 euro or so for one from a bakery in town. The 30 euro you save can buy a reasonable amount of beer instead. :)

Prinsesstårta / Prinsessakakku / Princess Cake

makes: 1 cake with 12 servings
special tools: good mixer for whipping, round cake pan[s], pizza cutter
time: about 2 hours total preparation time for cake, cream and marzipan

Preparation steps and approximate time

1. Prepare pastry cream (if using), make it the night before or before leaving for work in the morning. (30 mins)
2. Make sponge cake. (45 mins)
3. Make whipped cream and rahka cream (if using).(20 mins)
4. Assemble cake and chill. (10 mins)
5. Roll out marzipan. (15 mins)
6. Cover cake with marzipan. (15 mins)
7. Chill and serve. (1-2 hours)

Sponge Cake:

makes: two 8- or 9-inch cakes
time: about 45 minutes
source: CI

Sift together

• 1/2 cup or 1,25 dl cake flour
• 1/4 cup or 0,75 dl unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Heat together, cover and set aside

• 3 tablespoons whole milk
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla sugar

separate and mix

• 5 eggs room temperature
• 3/4 cup or 1,75 dl granulated sugar

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 350F/175C degrees. Generously grease and flour two or three round 8- or 9-inch cake pans and cover pan bottoms with a round of parchment paper. Whisk flours, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl (or sift onto waxed paper). Heat milk and butter in a small saucepan over low heat until butter melts. Remove from heat and add vanilla; cover and keep warm.
2. Separate three of the eggs, placing whites in bowl of standing mixer fitted with whisk attachment (or large mixing bowl if using hand mixer or whisk) and reserving the 3 yolks plus remaining 2 whole eggs in another mixing bowl. Beat the 3 whites on high speed (or whisk) until whites are foamy. Gradually add 6 tablespoons of the sugar; continue to beat whites to soft, moist peaks. (Do not overbeat.) If using a standing mixer, transfer egg whites to a large bowl and add yolk/whole egg mixture to mixing bowl.
3. Beat yolk/whole egg mixture with remaining 6 tablespoons sugar. Beat on medium-high speed (setting 8 on a KitchenAid) until eggs are very thick and a pale yellow color, about 5 minutes (or 12 minutes by hand). Add beaten eggs to whites.
4. Sprinkle flour mixture over beaten eggs and whites; fold very gently 12 times with a large rubber spatula. Make a well in one side of batter and pour milk mixture into bowl. Continue folding until batter shows no trace of flour, and whites and whole eggs are evenly mixed, about 8 additional strokes.
5. Immediately pour batter into prepared baking pan[s][makes 9-10dl of batter so ~3dl per cake layer]; bake until cake tops are light brown and feel firm and spring back when touched, about 16 minutes for 9-inch cake pans and 20 minutes for 8-inch cake pans.
6. Immediately run a knife around pan perimeter to loosen cake. Cover pan with large plate. Using a towel, invert pan and remove pan from cake. Peel off parchment. Re-invert cake from plate onto rack. Repeat with remaining cake[s]. Cover with clean cloth until ready to assemble cake to keep the cake moist. **If assembling the cake with the cake layer on top style, you may want to place a layer of cake over a bowl about the size of the cake while it is still warm to make it easier to fit over the cream later.

Pastry cream:

time: about 30 mins - Make at least 5 hours ahead or the night before!
source: CI

Heat until simmering/near boiling

• 2 cups or 2,25 dl half-and-half (half whole milk, half cream)
• 1/2 cup or 1,25dl granulated sugar
• pinch table salt

Whisk together until thick

• 5 large egg yolks, chalazae removed*
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot

Stir in last

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (cold), cut into 4 pieces
• 1,5 teaspoons vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar

1. Heat half&half, 6 tablespoons sugar, and salt in medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until simmering (near boiling), stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar.
2. Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in medium bowl until thoroughly combined. Whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and whisk until sugar has begun to dissolve and mixture is creamy, about 15 seconds. Whisk in cornstarch until combined and mixture is pale yellow and thick, about 30 seconds.
3. When half&half mixture reaches full simmer, gradually whisk simmering half-and-half into yolk mixture to temper. Return mixture to saucepan, scraping bowl with rubber spatula; return to simmer over medium heat, whisking constantly, until 3 or 4 bubbles burst on surface and mixture is thickened and glossy, about 30 seconds. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer mixture to medium bowl, press plastic wrap directly on surface, and refrigerate until cold and set, at least 3 hours or up to 48 hours.

*Chalazae are cordlike strands of egg white protein that are attached to the yolks--removing them with your fingers is easy and eliminates the need to strain the pastry cream after cooking.

rahka-Fra�che Cream:

• 250g plain lowfat rahka
• 250g vanilla fra�che 5%
• about 1-2 dl fine sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons cornstarch or arrowroot

1. whip together rahka and fra�che
2. add sugar to suit your taste
3. add cornstarch if a bit too moist
4. mix half of the rahka cream with the whipped cream
5. refrigerate

note: since neither of these products are likely available to people outside the Nordic region or the EU, they are basically thick sour milk products that might be substituted by using thick vanilla yogurt and lowfat sour cream.

Whipped Cream:

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 1/3 cup or 0,75 dl confectioners' sugar (use half of sugar if you prefer less sweetness)
• 3,5 dl or 1.5 cups heavy cream

1. Beat cold heavy cream at medium speed in an electric mixer until thickened. Add confectioners' sugar and vanilla and beat until thick.

Assembling (see also diagram):

• pastry cream or rahka cream
• whipped cream
• raspberry jam or low-sugar/just fruit jam for less sweetness

There are two methods of assembly: the cream dome on top method:

1. Slice cake to create 3 evenly sized layers unless you bake with 3 round pans in which case you already have three cakes ready to use.
2. Place the first layer on top of a sheet of baking paper and spread a thin layer of raspberry jam on top of the cake.
3. Spread a layer of pastry cream/rahka cream on top of the jam and place another cake layer on top and repeat jam and cream application.
4. Place the third cake layer on top and with a serrated knife, trim off edge to round off the top. Mound the whipped cream on top of the cake and smooth with a spatula. You can also mix part of the remaining pastry cream with the whipped cream if you like. Coat the sides of the cake if you have any cream leftover as well.
5. Lift cake onto a plate or baking tray and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the marzipan shell.

and the cake layer on top method:

1. Slice cake to create 3 evenly sized layers unless you bake with 3 round pans in which case you already have three cakes ready to use.
2. Spread a layer of pastry cream/rahka cream on top of the jam. Place the second cake layer over the cream and make a dome of the whipped cream/rahka-whipped cream mix leaving a thin margin around the edge for where the top layer will rest on the lower layers.
3. Remove the third cake layer from the bowl and spread a very thin layer of jam on top which will serve to anchor the marzipan to the cake. Place the cake layer on top over the cream and smooth into a rounded shape. Witha serrated knife, trim off edge to round off the top if necessary.
4. Lift cake onto a plate or baking tray and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the marzipan shell.

Marzipan shell:

• 350-400g or 14oz green (or pink or yellow) marzipan
• confectioners' sugar

1. Roll marzipan between 2 sheets of baking paper or plastic wrap so that it doesn't stick to your rolling pin. Mark center of the marzipan and remove it from the baking paper. Dust rolling pin with confectioners' sugar and roll part of the marzipan onto it to make it easier to maneuver the marzipan on top of the cake.
2. Cover the cake with the marzipan. At this point, the dome of the cake will be smoothly covered, but there will be folds or creases on the sides. To remove the folds and creases, smooth the marzipan gently with your hand from the top of the cake to the bottom. This requires some patience so don't try to rush it.
3. Work your way around the cake. Once all the folds are eliminated, rub the palm of your hand around the sides of the cake to further smooth it and eliminate air pockets.
4. With a rolling pizza cutter or small, sharp knife, carefully cut off the excess marzipan along the bottom edge. Reserve excess for making leaves.
5. Dust top with confectioners' sugar. You can make a stencil for the confectioners' sugar to decorate with a crown or add a single marzipan/real rose on top.
6. If you choose a rose as garnish, cut two or three elongated ovals out of the remaining marzipan to make leaf shapes. Lightly score the top of the leaves with a knife to create veins and place on top of the cake. Garnish with real pink rose or make your own marzipan rose.
7. Chill until serving.
8. Slice with a sharp knife with a slow, firm pressure.

permalink Ω 16 May 2005, Helsinki