There comes the sun and a greater joy with it - quark buns for Easter

I love quark. Who wouldn't? Ok maybe there are some people who don't, but I must declare that these quark buns (or pies, whatever you want to call them) are irresistable. It was truely a touching moment when we tasted them with my family, fresh from the oven...it brought us memories from those days when my grandmother used to bake this kind of buns. These tasted just as authentic, so soft, fluffy with a perfect texture.


And then the filling...the combination of lemon, raisins and quark is like a dream come true. The buns are made by a classic Finnish recipe and usually we bake them at Easter, even though it's possible to find them any time of the year in the bakeries. Still I think the best ones you get if you bake them yourself :)



I know this exalting description of buns might seem a bit too much, but for any food lover it's ordinary, every day analysis of the things you eat. Because when we eat, don't we quite logically want to have the best? At least I do. It's not selfish - we all have a permission to enjoy our lives and to take care of ourselves. Eating well and balanced brings us energy and joy, not to forget to enjoy some treats time to time. And, actually Easter is coming so it truely is a massive reason to celebrate! So. Go to your nearest grocery store, buy all the ingredients you need and start baking. You don't want to miss these.




Quark buns - "Rahkapulla" in Finnish

Dough

125g butter
1/2 tbsp cardamom
2 1/2 dl milk
25 g fresh yeast
1 dl brown sugar
1/2 tsp himalaya salt
1 egg
about 8 dl wheat flour (550g)

For buttering

1 egg and a pinch of salt

For the filling

250g quark
3/4 dl sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla sugar
1/2 dl cream (can be double cream)
1 egg
the peel and juice of one lemon
1/2 dl raisins

1. Melt the butter in a kettle (make sure it doesn't get too hot) and add the cardamom, so you get a lovely flavour from it. Add the milk and mix together, warm to the temperature of your hand.

2. Crumble the yeast in a big bowl and add the milk-butter mixture, mix well until the yeast has "disappeared".

3. Add sugar, salt and one egg mixing well. Add flour little by little mixing all the time. It's the best option to use a kneading machine with a kneading hook, it makes it a lot easier. You can also knead with your hands. Knead until the dough is "bouncy" and doesn't get stuck to the sides of the bowl anymore. But it's good not to make it too thick, so leave it a bit soft if possible.

4. Let the dough rise for half an hour so it doubles. When it has doubled, knead the air bubbles away.

The dough. Quite lovely indeed.


5. Make small buns from the dough, knead them well into round balls with an even surface. Let them rise on a baking sheet for half an hour.

6. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Wash the lemon well, grate the peel away and then press the juice out from the lemon. Mix all the ingredients of the filling together.

7. Warm the oven into 225°C degrees. Mix one egg with salt for the buttering. Press a dimple to the small buns using the bottom of a drinking glass.


8. Butter the buns and then fill the dimple with the quarkmixture. Bake the quark pies in the oven for about 10 minutes. Let them cool down and enjoy fresh...mmm lovely.

Blueberry & vanilla pie

I had a lot of trouble in figouring out what the name would be for these things I made this morning. I'm not sure if you can call them blondies, because there isn't any chocolate in the dough. So I decided they would be a pie, because it's quite neutral and it fits everything. The most important thing is that they tasted great!

We were out on a picnic today with my friends. The weather has been so nice last three days, and so warm! I love sitting in a park and wathcing to the ocean and listening to the screaming seagulls. That's truely summer! So I wanted to bake something delicious for us today and this idea of the pie came to me. I modified originally a kind of brownie recipe into this recipe - I had to remove the chocolate from it because one of my friends is allergic to it. So these came out - and I was very satisfied. Everyone praised these.

Ingredients:

For the batter:

2oog butter

3 eggs

3dl brown sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

5dl plain white flour

1 dl potato starch

2 tsp baking powder

3 dl blueberries

1 dl soymilk or ordinary milk

For the frosting:

50g butter

1 dl vanilla sauce

about 4 dl powdered sugar (to make frosting thick enough)

For the decoration nonpareils or coconut flakes

1. Heat the oven to 200°C. Melt the butter, let it cool down a bit. Beat the eggs with the sugar into a foam. Mix the flour, potato starch and baking powder together.

2. Add the flour mixture, milk, vanilla extract and the melted butter by turns to the sugar-egg mixture, carefully, add the blueberries. It's not so serious if the berries colour the batter a bit, you can't avoid it. I think it looked lovely, when the batter was all purple!

3. Spread the batter over a baking sheet, covered with parchment paper. Bake in the oven for 10-20 minutes, depending how thick is the batter. Remove, cool down well.

4. To make the frosting, melt the butter. Add vanilla sauce and powdered sugar, mix well.

5. Spread over the well cooled base, be careful - if it's still warm the frosting pours over the edges.

6. When the frosting is set, decorate! And then, cut to pieces and enjoy :)

Runeberg's tarts

Today, the 5th of February, we celebrate our national poet's, Johan Ludvig Runeberg's birthday. He was a Finnish Swedish-speaking poet, writer and a journalist, whose production was very patriotic. Her wife, Frederika Runeberg was a great writer too.

These tarts we bake and eat every year have a story. J.L. Runeberg had a sweet tooth, so he often asked his wife to bake him something. But they didn't have any special ingredients, and that's why Frederika decided to use those she could find in her cupborad: wheat flour, biscuit crumbs and almonds. The result was a delicious tart, which is named after Runeberg. The story tells that Runeberg loved to have these tarts when eating breakfast, and that he enjoyed these with punch.

I love Runeberg's tarts, and it's a must thing to bake these every year. So step inside to the history of Finland and enjoy one of these fabulous tarts!

Ingredients:

makes about 18

300g butter

4 dl dark muscovado sugar

4 eggs

5 dl wheat flour

1 dl minced almonds

16 crushed digestive cookies

3 tsp baking powder

2 dl cream

2 tsp cardamom

2 drops bitteralmond extract

For the decoration:

raspberry jam or marmalade

water

powdered sugar

1. Heat the oven to 200°C.

2. Beat the sugar with melted butter into a foam, add eggs individually.

3. Mix together the dry ingredients, add cream and combine with the sugar-egg-butter mixture. Add bitteralmond extratct, mix well.

4. Divide into about 18 muffin cups or use silicone moulds like I did. Fill 2/3 of the cups, so the dough doesn't rise over the edges.

5. Bake in the oven for about 15-18 minutes, try with a stick if the tarts are ready. Remove from the oven.

6. Let the tarts cool down, remove from the mould and turn over, put on a plate. Decorate the tarts with raspberry jam and icing made from powdered sugar and water. ENJOY!

Tarte aux amandes et au citron - Almond and lemon tart

We had a lot of guests at our house during the holidays, and this tart I decided to bake for the New Year's Day. I doubled the recipe because we had about fifteen people visiting. This is a classic French recipe, and I've always wanted to try it. Actually I added something to it, the turkish yogurt frosting. Somehow I'm in love with the turkish yogurt, I think it crowns the recipe and makes it perfect. And it worked very well, it gave a nice softness to this tart and made it look more beautiful. This tart was very refreshing, and perfect for those who love lemon. And for those who really don't love lemon it goes perfectly too. It's very good.

Ingredients for two tarts (one big, the other one a bit smaller)

For the crust:

400g wheat flour

200g soft butter

1 tsp cinnamon

a pinch of salt

For the filling:

5 lemons (you can add less if you don't like the strong lemon flavour)

160g soft butter

300g pulverized almonds

300g fine white sugar

8 eggs, separated

For the frosting:

grated zest of one lemon

5 dl turkish yogurt

juice of one lemon and the pulp also

5 dl powdered sugar

For the decoration carved zest of lemon

1. Pluck the ingredients of the dough with hands into big crumbs (in a bowl). Add about 3-6 tablespoons water, and knead until the dough froms a ball, which doesn't stick or crumble. Cover the bowl and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.

2. Meanwhile heat the oven to 200°C. Grate the zests of the lemons for the filling (without the white part) and then squeeze the juice of the lemons. Melt the butter in the microwave.

2. Mix together in a big bowl pulverized almonds, sugar, grated zest of lemon, lemonjuice and butter. Add the egg yolks and beat briskly.

3. Beat the egg whites into a foam, add to the lemonmixture.

4. Take the dough away from the fridge, knead it and warm it with your hands, deal it to two. Line the buttered and floured baking moulds with the dough, press the dough so that it becomes an even surface. Stick the dough with a fork.

5. Pour the filling into the mould and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until beautifully golden. Try with a fork or a knife, if the dough doesn't stick the tart is ready.

6. Let the tart cool down. Prepare the frosting meanwhile.

7. Put the turkish yogurt into a big bowl, add the grated zest of lemon and then the other ingredients. Mix until smooth. Put on top of the cooled tarts. Decorate the tarts with carved pieces of lemon zest.

Date cupcakes for Christmas

I wanted to bake cupcakes suitable for Christmas, the only problem was to find a good recipe, and a recipe that seemed to be interesting. When I couldn't find one, I decided to make it myself. I love dates and we had a lot of them in the kitchen cupboard, that's why I finally made these lovely, lovely and addicting date cupcakes with créme fraîche glazing. The outcome was excellent. For the cupcake dough I used an ancient datecake recipe, a bit modified. The glaze I made up myself, and I'm quite proud of the whole combination, it was so wonderful. You know I've always thought that only chocolate can "take you to heaven", but these date cupcakes verify the fact that date can do that as well. I wish you enjoyable moments with these cupcakes (like I very much had) and be careful, you might get addicted!

Ingredients:

makes about 25

For the cupcake dough:

400g dates (remove the seeds or use seedless)

240 ml water

240 ml white sugar (you could add less, because the dates are so sweet)

240 ml white flour

2 eggs

200g salted butter

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:

200g créme fraîche

1 dl dates, chopped into very tiny chunks

5 dl powdered sugar

1/2 dl milk

1 tbsp lemon juice

25g melted butter

For the decoration:

25 sliced seedless dates

To make the dough:

1. Chop the dates with scissors into very tiny chunks (the smaller the chunks are the better the dough will become). Put the chopped dates into a big kettle with water and sugar. Boil the mixture to soften the dates, about 5-10 minutes. Take away from the heat. 

2. Cool down the mixture a bit, add the butter and then the eggs (first break them in a cup). Be careful not to add the eggs into a too hot mixture, because the egg whites might congeal). Mix well.

3. Mix the dry ingredients with each other and add them into the date mixture, mix well. 

4. Deal the dough into about 25 cups (it depends on the size of the cup, I had quite small cups). Leave some space for them for the rising, fill about 3/4 of the cups. 

5. Bake in the 200°C oven for 10-15 minutes, or until ready. Cool down before adding the glaze on top. 

To make the glaze:

1. Mix the créme fraîche, tiny date chunks, milk, lemon juice, melted butter and powdered sugar together in a bowl, mix well to create a smooth glaze. With spoon, put about two spoonfuls on top of the cupcakes. 

2. Then decorate with sliced dates. Enjoy! And remember to store them in the fridge. 

When you desire chocolate...

I can only say that these cupcakes were perfect. I have never made cupcakes before, and was suspicious about them. But all my assumptions are now gone, and I think I might try some other cupcake recipes too...And these are excellent for those who love chocolate and need something sweet, but I have to say that the cupcakes were so sweet that two was the absolute maximum. But of course you can eat more, if you're on that mood...:)

Super moist and chocolaty cupcakes

Ingredients:

4 oz (114 g) Bittersweet dark Chocolate broken into small pieces

1 (240 ml) cup all-purpose flour

1/4 (60 ml) cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 (120 ml) cup soymilk

1/4 (60 ml) cup water

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil (olive oil)

3 large eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:

4 oz. Bittersweet dark Chocolate, broken into small pieces

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/3 (320 ml) cups powdered sugar

Directions:

FOR CUPCAKES:

1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Paper-line 20 (small, 14 big) muffin cups.

2. Melt the chocolate in a metal dish attached to a pot with boiling water. Stir until smooth. Cool to room temperature.

3. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Combine soymilk and water in small glass measure. Beat brown sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl on high for 2 minutes. Beat in melted chocolate. Beat flour mixture into creamed mixture alternately with soymilk mixture.

4. Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.

5. Bake for 18 to 23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove to wire rack to cool completely.

6. Frost with Bittersweet Chocolate Butter cream Frosting.

For Bittersweet Chocolate Butter cream Frosting:

1. Melt the chocolate the same way as before, stirring just until melted. Cool to room temperature.

2. Melt the butter in microwave, until it's liquid like. Mix the powdered sugar and vanilla extract, add the melted chocolate and butter. If icing is too thick, add milk, 1 teaspoon at at a time, to desired consistency. It should be light and fluffy. Makes one and half a cups.

For decoration you can grate some dark chocolate, or you can us your imagination and figure out some other decorations...