Cinnamon Buns Recipe

This is a Swedish version of the recipe. It is difficult to say where cinnamon buns originated but it is so popular in Sweden that there is even a cinnamon bun day (kanelbullens dag) celebrated on October 4. I am not aware of any other country having a cinnamon bun day. So even if we cannot be certain where cinnamon buns originated lets just say cinnamon buns are more at home in Sweden than perhaps in any other country.

The Swedish and international recipes are similar except that the Swedish recipe did not use eggs. Thats the only difference I found.

When making these, I tried some variations by adding coconut flakes and raisins to part of the batch. They were both good but its not the original!

Be generous with the butter in the filling, if in doubt add more not less otherwise the buns will turn out dry and not so nice. Also watch very closely when baking as it can go from done to overdone in a minute or so.

The buns freeze very well, in case there are leftovers:)

Ingredients

Dough

• 25 g yeast
• 75 g butter or margarine
• 1 cup milk
• 50ml sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• About 2 ½ cups flour

 Filling

• 75 g butter or margarine
• 50 ml sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

 Glazing

• 1 egg

 Garnish

• Pearl sugar

 Instructions

• Warm milk and butter until lukewarm
• Add yeast and stir until dissolved
• Add salt, sugar and cardamom and mix
• Add flour and work the dough until soft and smooth
• Cover and let is rest in a warm place until double in size, about an hour
• Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape about 20cm x 50 cm
• Prepare the filling by mixing butter or margarine, sugar and cinnamon.
• Spread the filling evenly and roll up the dough
• Cut the rolled dough into 1.5cm slices and place on baking tray
• Let is rest covered for about 30 minutes
• Glaze the tops with beaten egg
• Sprinkle pearl sugar
• Bake for 8-10 minutes at 225 degrees (or 10-12 minutes at 200 degrees in a fan forced oven

Translated from recepten.se

Mac and Beans, with meatballs recipe

This one pot dish takes just 15-20 minutes to prepare. You can reduce the total preparation and cooking time to 10 minutes by skipping the first 4 steps in the recipe below. Just add everything to a pot and cook until done. 

Pasta that has been cooked in tomato sauce acquires an interesting texture. Its not al dente and its not mushy either, somewhere in between with a creamy coating.

The dish tastes a lot better than it looks in the photo. 

Ingredients

3-6 meatballs

½ cup cooked beans (I used chickpeas)

½ cup macaroni

2 tablespoons tomato puree

1 clove garlic

½ tablespoon cumin

1-2 tablespoons oil, or more

1 cup boiling water

Instructions:

1. Heat 1 tablespoon oil on a sauce pan over medium heat

2. Add meatballs, finely chopped garlic and cumin

3. Cook until browned

4. Add tomato paste and cook for 3 minutes

5. Add pasta, beans and water and low heat to medium low

6. Cook covered until pasta is done, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. You may need to add more water

7. When done, add the remaining oil and mix until well emulsified. The sauce will turn creamy.

Healthy Sugarfree and Butterfree Oat Fruit Cookies Recipe

These cookies are sugar free and butter free and very delicious. I decided to convert a regular oatmeal sultana cookie recipe into a sugar free version by simply increasing the fruit content. And I replaced the butter with vegetable oil. And it worked pretty well. The cookies have an excellent texture, crunchy on the outside and slightly soft and chewy on the inside.

I used raisins and bananas, which I find to be a really nice combination. The smell of baking banana's is quite pleasant. Banana's also made the cookies moist while the outside remained crispy.

I used pieces of frozen bananas, I found it easier to work with. However I don't think using fresh banana's would do any harm since the bananas become soft during baking anyway.

A nice caramelisation formed at the bottom of the cookie since the softened banana, melting butter and oil all found each other at the bottom of the cookie. Another recipe for a sugar free cookie is available here.

Ingredients

½ cup vegetable oil, softened coconut oil or softened butter

1 large egg

1½ cups rolled oats

¾ cup flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup fruits (I used raisins and frozen banana)

½ cup dessicated coconut (optional)

1 tablespoon dark syrup (optional)

Directions 

1. Heat the oven to 180°C/360°F
2. Mix oil or butter and syrup until creamy
3. Add egg and beat well until it turns pale
4. Add flour, oats, baking soda and salt and mix well
5. Stir in fruits
6. Drop tablespoons onto baking sheet, flatten and bake on a higher rack until light brown, about 15 minutes