White Chocolate Coconut Lava Cake Recipe

White chocolate coconut lava cake

If you like white chocolate and coconut, there is no reason why you shouldn’t like this lava cake. Its quite delicious, there’s nothing more to say!

Toscatårta (Swedish Almond Cake) Recipe

Toscatårta

When I arrived in Sweden I started working for a company that had a very nice tradition. Every Wednesday afternoon we had a cake or something sweet. Mostly Swedish baked goods were offered and this gave me an opportunity to familiarize myself with what Sweden has to offer. Toscatårta or Swedish almond cake was one of my favourites. 

Toscatårta looks like a simple basic cake but don’t let the looks fool you. The cake is rich and moist, topped with crunchy buttery sweet almonds. It is divine.

Toscatårta is baked either in small oval baking forms for single servings or as a large cake. You can bake them in muffin trays if you want. 


When looking for recipes I noticed that, generally speaking, there were two versions. The version I selected has eggs in the cake base. The other version has no eggs, it is more like a tart. What we were served at work was the tart version but I decided to make the cake version because its slightly lighter. The texture is  a bit different but there are no compromises in taste.

Toscatårta

Brunede Kartofler (Danish Caramelized Potatoes) Recipe

Brunede Kartofler

Brunede Kartofler (aka Danish caramel potatoes, Danish caramelized potatoes) has an important place as a side dish on the Danish Christmas table. It is boiled potatoes covered in caramel, and it is not even a dessert. I know many people see the Christmas season as an opportunity to indulge in sugar, fat, alcohol and other goodies guilt free. And this is where brunede kartofler can really help you in your mission, it brings sugar and fat to your main dish even before you start with desserts.

Trust the Danes to do miracles with butter. Danish butter cookies and Lurpak butter is available in so many countries worldwide. It is no surprise that the Danes have come up with this dish, and I am surprised that it is not so widely known.

Caramelised potatoes may sound disgusting but it is actually delicious. When I first read about it I knew I had to try it, and after trying it, I know I will try it again. It is not sickly sweet even though its called caramelised potatoes. Three tablespoons of sugar for 2 pounds of potatoes is not so bad, is it? And don’t worry about the butter, mashed potatoes uses more butter. Brunede kartofler is low fat when compared with some mashed potatoes!

Coconut peanut butter recipe

Coconut peanut butter

My family always buys peanut butter, and we always buy peanuts to eat on its own. We have always had a food processor at home but we never made our own peanut butter. I guess we thought that making peanut butter is a complex process. And I suppose we think its complex after looking at the list of ingredients on the jar, some of which are unknown. If we don’t know it must be complicated? Wrong, making peanut butter is so simple, process peanuts and you have peanut butter. The only complex parts are decisions that need to be made and there are a few of them:

1. Do you want smooth or crunchy peanut butter? If you want crunchy add chopped nuts
2. How much salt? This requires thinking and tasting, and most of us are good at that
3. How smooth and creamy? If the peanut butter is not creamy enough, how much oil should you add
4. What kind of sweeteners and how much? Personally I don’t like sweet peanut butter. You can add sugar or honey, the amount depending on your taste.

I used to only like my peanut butter plain and simple, without chocolate, honey or other distractors. I changed my mind when I experimented with coconut peanut butter. Peanut butter with a toasted coconut flavor, I like it, a lot.

Swedish Pancake (Pannkakor) Recipe

Swedish pancake

Swedish pancake is quite similar to the French crêpes. It is usually eaten on Thursday following a meal of pea soup. The pancakes are often served with jam and whipped cream. Personally I also like it with savoury accompaniments. In the past I have eaten it with chicken, eggs, cheese, ham and sautéed lentils.  It was delicious everytime. The pancakes are very slightly sweet so it goes well with both sweet or savoury accompaniments.

The pancakes are almost always round but those in the photos don't look very round. I can assure you, they still taste delicious.

Swedish pancake

Recipe source: recepten.se

German Roast Pork Knuckle (Schweinshaxe) Recipe

Schweinshaxe

Chocolate Ginger Biscotti Recipe

Chocolate Ginger Biscotti

Sometime ago I made chocolate ginger brownies. Chocolate and ginger is not a very common combination but it worked so I decided to try the combination again with biscotti. And guess what, it worked again. 

This was my first attempt at making biscotti. When searching for recipes and reading reviews I noticed that generally speaking there are two contrasting opinions on biscotti. The majority seem to be fans while a minority think it is a teeth breaker. I must say I was a little concerned that I might fall in the teeth breaker category, but thankfully I did not. The texture of the biscotti was perfect and addictive. It was light and crispy. The chocolate ginger flavour combination worked harmoniously, ginger flavor was subtle and added just the right amount of heat to complement the chocolate. 

Biscotti’s can be made with or without butter/oil.  I went for the middle ground, using a small amount of oil. This worked perfectly for me. Since I used medium sized eggs instead of large eggs as recommended in the recipe, I substituted a tablespoon of oil for each egg.

Using polenta in biscotti's is uncommon, as a matter of fact I only found one recipe and that was created by Giada De Laurentiis. I like polenta in baked goods so I decided to go with it. Polenta added graininess or grittiness to the biscotti. I liked it. If you don’t like polenta I guess you can substitute with plain flour.

Beetroot Chocolate Fudge Cookies Recipe - Cookie Bloghop

Beetroot chocolate fudge cookies

Why aren’t there beetroot cookies when there are beetroot cakes, pumpkin cakes and pumpkin cookies? There is only one way to find out, to try it, and I am glad I did. In addition to the cookies having a visually appealing pinkish hue, they are crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and delicious all around. And you don't even need to use artificial coloring to get that color.

For those of you who don’t like beetroot, and I guess there is a fair few of you, these cookies don’t taste beety and earthy. There is a very subtle beetroot flavor. If you were not told that the cookies contain beetroot you probably will not even guess it.

To keep the beets company I added chocolate and fudge chunks. Using fudge was a mistake since the fudge melted away, leaving gaps in some cookies. If you want to use fudge its best to melt it and pour over the cookies. Or don’t use fudge at all.

I used a mixture of plain flour and semolina to avoid the cookies having a cake like texture. Semolina gives a crispier texture. You can skip the semolina and use only regular flour if you want.