Happy Cinnamon Bun Day!

Today, 4 October, is Cinnamon Bun day in Sweden and cafes and shops will stock up with freshly baked wonderful cinnamon buns.

Cinnamon buns are easy to make at home. They taste best on the day of baking but can also be frozen and enjoyed later after a few minutes in the oven.

Below is one of my favourite recipes. You can also buy these lovely buns in places across the UK, here is list of a few cafes we know of. Where to Fika in the UK

Swedish cinnamon bunJakob Fridholm/imagebank.sweden.se

Swedish Cinnamon buns

Time: about 2 hours

Makes 25 cinnamon buns

Dough

• 25 grams yeast, fresh yeast seems to work best but if you can't find it I normally use one or two packets of dried yeast instead
• 75 grams butter
• 2 ½ deciliters milk
• ½ deciliters sugar
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 tea spoon of grounded cardamom
• around 7 deciliters flour

Filling:

• 50 grams butter
• ½ deciliter sugar
• 2 table spoons cinnamon

Glazing:

• one egg
• pearl sugar

With fresh yeast break it up in a bowl. Then melt the butter in a saucepan, pour in the milk and heat it up to 37C, you can test this by putting your finger in the saucepan, if it’s the same temperature as your finger it’s about 37C. With dry yeast follow the instructions on the package.

Stir in a tiny bit of the milk and butter mix in with the yeast. Then add the rest of the milk and butter. Add salt, sugar and cardamom while stirring.

Add the flour and work the dough into a smooth and elastic dough. You should work the dough for a least 7 or 8 minutes if you are doing it by hand.

Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let it rise for about 45 minutes.

Set the oven to 225C.

Use a rolling pin and roll out the dough to a rectangular flat cake, about 20 cm x 50 cm and 1cm thick.

Once rolled out you can use a cheese slicer and slice the butter (make sure the butter is cold if using a slicer) all over the dough. The sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon on top. If you would like more filling just add more of the butter, sugar and cinnamon. Make sure you cover the dough evenly with the filling.

Roll up the dough and cut it in slices that are around 1 ½ centimeters thick.

Put some grease proof paper on a baking tray. To get that lovely sticky bottom of the bun, put bits of butter and some sugar on top of the greaseproof paper. Then put the buns on the paper with enough space in between each bun so they can rise. Cover with a tea towel again and let the buns rise again for about 30 minutes

Whisk the egg and glaze each bun with a little of the egg mix. Sprinkle some pearl sugar on top.

Cook in the middle of the oven for 8 – 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

The Art of Being British: Afternoon tea samples from Fortnum and Mason

Just saw that Fortnum and Mason will be serving samples of afternoon tea at The Art of Being British: St James's At Your Service event this weekend in London. A good enough reason to venture into central London on Saturday I say! 

The event takes place on Saturday 10 September from 12noon until 5pm along the full length of Jermyn Street, near Piccadilly.

I'm excited to read that the event will be packed with eccentric Britishness along with some of the finest British fashion and lifestyle brands, brilliant!

And while you are there why not also pop across the road to Burlington arcade and try the latest green apple macaroons at Laduree.

Swedish Fika takes over Soho Square in London!

Swedish Fika pops up in Soho Square this week, 24 - 26 August. I'll be blogging via VisitSweden's UK blog from all three days.

Follow all the action here

VisitSweden UK

Spettekaka from Skåne

I have a very fond memories of going to my grandparents for family dinners when I was little. They lived in Helsingborg on the north western coast of Skåne (Scania) in a grand old fashioned apartment. My mum would dress me up in my red velvet dress with itchy white stockings and black little patent shoes and off we went. If there had been a particular occasion the dinner and coffee and cakes would then be followed by my grandmother bringing out a huge meringue looking cake decorated with pink and white icing sugar. For my five year old eyes this was the prettiest thing in the world!

The cake was a Spettekaka, a typcially Skåne cake and the crowning glory of any old fashioned birthday party or wedding celebration.

A Spettekaka (sometimes called Spettkaka or Spiddekaga in the local Skåne dialect) is made of eggs, sugar, potato flour and normal flour. It is slowly piped onto a rotating cone, attached to skewers (hence the name, 'spett' means skewer in Swedish) over an open fire and then left to dry before the next layer is added. As you can imagine this is a very time consuming way of baking.

After all the layers have been added and the cake has completely dried (this can take up to a day!) it is decorated with the icing. Usually it has pink and white icing but local varieties in colour exists and different areas will use different colour combinations.

Cutting a Spettekaka is quite tricky and requires a special tool. A knife with a very thin serrated blade is recommended and it takes a lot of practise to get the Spettekaka pieces to come out whole rather than just as a crumbly mess. You normally eat it plain with a cup of coffee but you can add anything, ice cream, clotted cream, berries etc etc.

I looked up the history of the Spettkaka and found that it is originally from Germany but became popular in Swedish court circles as early as in the 17th century. By the early 19th century the cake had become established as a celebration and wedding cake in Skåne. There are many theories of how the Spettekaka came to be so much associated with Skåne. One is that Skåne has always been a rich a fertile farming area, with eggs, sugar beets and potatoes in abundance, the perfect place to find the ingredients for a Spettekaka in other words!

The Spettkaka has been classed by the EU as a regional speciality and therefore a genuine spettkaka can now only be baked in Scania. There are 10 - 15 places in Skåne where Spettekaka is still made and generally these bakeries only use organic ingredients and traditional methods of baking.

Swedish Fika - the search for the perfect coffee and cake: Pop Up Fika Parlor and walk in Fika Picnic in Lond...

Swedish Fika - the search for the perfect coffee and cake: Pop Up Fika Parlor and walk in Fika Picnic in Lond...: "Come by to VisitSweden's free Pop Up Fika Parlor and walk in Fika Picnic! Where: Soho Square in London When: 24-26 August Time: 12.30..."

Pop Up Fika Parlor and walk in Fika Picnic in London!

Come by to VisitSweden's free Pop Up Fika Parlor and walk in Fika Picnic!

Where: Soho Square in London
When: 24-26 August
Time: 12.30pm-2.30pm  

A team from Skåne, led by world famous pastry chef Jan Hedh will be serving traditional Fika, the Swedish equivalent of high tea and sharing stories about the region.

Reserve a table by emailing reservations@fikasquare.co.uk or come by on the day.

Traditionally, 7 cookies are served as part of the Fika ritual, made from the finest natural ingredients, married with a fresh cup of coffee, it’s the perfect time to indulge and revitalizing. In the 19th century the ingredients for cookies were expensive and it was a sign of wealth be able to offer your guest several varieties of cookies. A competitiveness between hostesses developed and the custom for serving 7 varieties derived.

Find out more about Swedish Fika 

Is this the prettiest dessert in the world?

I recently flicked through the huge brick that is the Noma book, Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine (Phaidon, October 2010). The best restaurant in the world for the second year running has put together a beautiful photo and recipe book, celebrating Nordic food and all things natural and local in Scandinavia. As I flicked through page after page of artistically arranged dishes I suddenly saw it - the pretties dessert in the world!
And though I will most likely never try it or even attempt to make it at home, I still think this may be the best pudding I have ever seen:

Dessert of Flowers from Noma