creamy rhubarb strawberry pie
This is me cooking at my most typical: I wanted to make a strawberry rhubarb pie because those are the most “summery” fruits I can think of. For some reason I was dead set on making a filling with almond paste. So I walked down to the store to get the things I needed and returned with no almond paste. So what do I do? Go back and get some? No, I go: “Hmmm, I wonder what I could substitute for it?” And then I came up with an entirely new recipe that I had no idea if it would work or not, which is a risk considering that I was going to bring it to a party a few hours later
Anyhow, it worked, cos I’m a genius!
You need, for the dough:
100 g butter
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp water
And to make the filling you need:
150 g rhubarb
300 g strawberries
1 1/3 cup sourcream
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 vanilla pod
1/2 tsp cardamom
Here’s how to:
- Add the water and mix until it’s a smooth dough.
- Put the dough into a pie form and press it until it covers it and about an inch of the sides. Put in the fridge.
- Cut the rhubarb into slices.
- Slice the strawberries too.
- Put the fruit in the pie shell.
- Mix the sourcream with the sugar.
- Cut open the vanilla pod and scrape out the content usinf a teaspoon. Add it to the sourcream.
- Add the cardamom.
- Finally, whip an egg into the mix and beat it until thoroughly mixed.
- Pour the mix over the fruit.
- Bake in the oven for app 40 minutes at 350 °F/180°C.
Let cool. Serve at room temperature with whipped cream or plain as it is.
strawberry dream
So, today is Midsummer’s Eve here in Sweden and that makes it almost compulsory to eat strawberries in one form or the other. This dessert contains a lot of strawberries, is easy to make and tastes absolutely divine (but then, anything with strawberries and cream normally do).
You need (per person):
1 shortbread (I used Walker’s but if you’re up for making your own, more power to ya!)
app 4-5 strawberries (depending on size)
a little Cointreau
some vanilla sugar or sugar and vanilla essence
whipped cream
Here’s how to:
- Grab a glass
- Crush the shortbread
- Chop the strawberries and sprinkle a few drops of Cointreau on them and just a pinch of vanilla sugar.
- Mash the strawberries, making sure to make it really lumpy. There should still be whole pieces chopped strawberries in there!
- Put the crushed shortbread on the bottom of the glass.
- Put the strawberriies on top.
- Top with whipped cream.
- Feel like a domestic goddess and, since it’s Midsummer’s, reward yourself with a drink!
Crèpes Suèdoises
OK, so I could have called this Swedish pancakes but crèpes Suèdoises sounds a lot more elegant, plus “pancakes” is sort of misleading. Swedish pancakes have very little to do with American pancakes. They don’t contain baking powder and thus they’re not “fluffy” like American pancakes. But they’re pretty similar to French crèpes, which is something I love. Whenever I go to Paris I make sure to get myself over to the area around Gare Monparnasse where you’ll find some of the best crèperies in France. But then, the best crèpes I’ve had was in Reims, I think…
Sorry, got sidetracked! Back to Swedish pancakes.
Traditionally, you eat them with jam and maybe a little whipped cream on Thursdays after having pea soup. When I grew up I would put butter on the hot pancakes and then just spread sugar on top of them, but these days I love them with savoury toppings of all kinds too.
The recipe for pancakes is my mother’s and she has this annoying habit of giving it per person and then, at the end, adding: “and an extra egg” when I’ve already written it down (I keep losing this recipe so I keep calling her to get her to repeat it to me), but I’m giving what she considers suitable for two people (including the extra egg). I would have to be two very hungry people because it makes about 15 pancakes, but who am I to say how much you should eat?
You need:
3 eggs
4 dl milk (1 2/3 cup)
2 dl all-purpose flour (3/4 cup)
pinch of salt
1 tbsp melted butter + butter to fry
- Just whisk the eggs together and add the milk and finally the flour and salt.
- Whisk away any lumps and let it rest. I normally only give it about 15 minutes.
- Add the melted butter and you’re ready to go.
When you fry them, take care not to make them too thick. And since cold pancakes are no good, I always put a plate over a pot of simmering water and then put the pancakes on top of it. That way, they’ll stay warm and nice until they’re all done and it’s time too eat.
Now, like I said, savoury toppings are very nice – like, for example, poached spinach, Roquefort cheese and a little crème fraiche, bit this… This is beyond nice. Orange, chocolate and cream. It’s the perfect combination.
juice of 1 orange
2 tsp cointreau
whipped cream
chocolate sauce (recipe here)
- Mix the orange juice and the cointreau.
- Sprinkle it over the pancake (not all of it, just a tsp max).
- Put some whipped cream on it and coil a little chocolate sauce over it.
Enjoy it as dessert or with a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or other hot beverage of your choice.
Chocolate Sauce
To make your own fab chocolate sauce:
2/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
- Mix the sugar and cocoa, making sure to sift though any lumps.
- Add milk and butter and put it in a pot.
- Bring to boil and then allow to simmer for 5 -10 minutes. The longer it simmers the thicker it gets and personally I’m more of a 10 minute person, because I like it thick and creamy, but it’s a matter of taste.
Enjoy with anything that needs chocolate!
sweet cream pie
I have fallen in love with sweetened condensed milk. You can’t find it in most ordinary stores here, but in my constant quest for organic peanut butter, wonton pastry and togarashi I tend to go beyond the beaten track anyway. Some larger food stores do carry it and you can always find it in Asian food stores – and there it’ll most likely be a lot cheaper to.
I swear to God I could just spoon that stuff in by the can, but I try to contain myself. Instead, I try to come up with recipes where I can use it and at least get to lick the spoon. Yes, even as we speak (or rather as I write), I am attempting to make dulce de leche. I do hope it’ll turn out good…
The other day, however, was what we were supposed to be talking about (sorry, the thought of golden, sweet dulce de leche just made me lose focus for a while) and then I made a pie with a filling based on sweetened condensed milk. The crust wasn’t all that sweet, which was necessary to balance the filling which was creamy and sweet, like eggs and cream and toffee mixed…
My mother’s comment when I served her a piece was: ‘You have got to write this recipe down!’ So now I am.
For the pie crust:
130 g butter (at room temperature)
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 cup muscovado sugar (yes I’m crazy about that too)
1 egg
For the filling:
1 can (≈ 400 g) sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup cream
2 egg yolks
For serving:
roasted pine nuts
- Blend the butter and the sugar and add the egg. Stir well and add the flour (this works perfectly with a food processor, but of course you could use your hands too).
- Never mind rolling the pie crust, just put the dough in a pie form (the spring kind, with removable bottom) and press it until it covers the bottom and about an inch on the sides. Try to make sure it’s pretty evenly thick all around.
- Put it in the fridge for about 10 – 20 minutes (as long as it takes to make the filling basically).
- Now, for the filling: Open the can of condensed milk and pour it into a bowl. Follow up with the cream. Separate the yolks from the whites (you can keep the whites for meringues or if you have some sort of health freak in the family, they can use them for an egg white omelet) and add the yolks. Whisk it all until blended and slightly frothy.
- Take out the pie-crust and pour the filling into it.
- Put it in a pre-heated oven (why do we have to say this? Are there ANY recipes where you don’t pre-heat the oven? I never saw one anyway) at 200°C/400°F. After about 20 minutes, take out the form and put some aluminium foil over it (yes, it hurts my environmentalist heart) and put it back in for about 20 more minutes. The filling should be firm.
- Take out and let it cool. Serve sprinkled with pine nuts (or as is, well cooled).
Caramelized Orange w Cinnamon
A while back I was making a complicated dessert that just bombed. It didn’t turn out at all as it was supposed to, so here I was – with no time, no ingredients and no dessert. That’s when I (very) quickly improvised this.
You see, I had oranges. And I had this mix of 1/3 cinnamon and 2/3 sugar that I always keep around. And since I was panicking, my thoughts naturally went to my liquor stash.
You need:
1 orange per person, peeled and sliced
1-2 tsp of cointreau
1 tbsp of cinnamon/sugar
- Put the orange in an individual oven-proof dish.
- Pour the cointreau over it and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.
- Put in the oven at 220 °C (425 ° F) for about 15 minutes or until the sugar has melted has gotten a little color.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream.
And it was amazing. Or is that me?
