In the last issue of K Ruoka there was this recipe on princess pastries. I showed my husband and said look what I’m going to make for Valentine’s Day. Hmm, he looked a bit suspicious. Well, I made them today. Not all of them look pretty. It was difficult to cut them into neat squares. But, they are good 🙂
On Thursday morning I made a gluten free cheese cake baked in oven. Everything looked fine until I noticed the recipe probably was a two page one and I had printed only one. I went back to read the recipe, Oh no, in the last sentence on page two it said cool the cake over night in the fridge to set. Over night ! ? ! Oh dear ! We have friends coming in less than four hours. What now ? The cake is steaming hot. OK, I had to figure out something. Quickly I put the cake on the terrace table to cool a bit. Then for about half an hour in the fridge. After that into the freezer for the rest of the time. My husband said what if it’s deep frozen when they arrive. I too was worried . But, it turned out to be delicious and almost set. Only a small part right in the middle was a bit too soft. I also made some egg rice pastries but they were not gluten free.
For some time already I have had on my mind to bake egg rice pastries. I actually bought a package of deep frozen puff pastry already a couple of days ago. Today is a rainy, bit chilly day. A perfect day for baking. It’s a long time since last time I made them. I cannot even remember when. Perhaps I should make them more often.
On Friday I made coconut cookies (in Swedish kokostoppar = coconut peaks) I was not happy with the way the chocolate looked. Too thick in my opinion. But yummy. Very much like Bounty coconut chocolate bars. Neither were the cookies peak like. The recipe also suggested grated lime or lemon peel of which I didn’t have at home. I decided to make new ones the next day. This time I made them look like peaks. I also added grated lemon peel. Yes, now I am happy. They look more like I think they should. And the taste of lemon is nice.
50 g butter
2 eggs
1 dl sugar (or 0,5 dl) I used one
200 g coconut flakes (unsweetened) I’m not sure mine were
grated lime or lemon peel
Melt the butter. Stir the eggs and the sugar. Add the coconut flakes, the grated peel and the butter. Use tablespoons to form peaks. Bake at 175 C for about 15 minutes.
Oh, by the way I just found a recipe on home-made Bounty Bars ! Hmmm, should I or should I not ? We’ll see 😉
I think it was yesterday or maybe it was the day before when “Pirkka” the K Group customer magazine came. There always are nice recipes. I like to read them. Quite often I think I’ll make this or that. After a while I forget. In this issue of the magazine there is a recipe for “Taateliraakamakeiset” / Date Balls. The balls look good in the picture. I immediately wrote the list of ingredients and put it in my purse to remind me about to buy them.
So simple, fast and easy. Pit the dates then put all the ingredients into the food processor. Form small balls. Then roll them in e.g. coconut flakes, almond flour or dark cocoa powder.
200 g fresh dates
1,5 dl (abt. 70 g) Pecan nuts
1 dl (abt. 50 g) cashew nuts
about 1/2 tsp cinnamon
about 1/2 tsp cardamom (which I don’t like so I didn’t use
Yesterday I was in Hämeenlinna with friends. Last year when we were Tampere we decided to next time visit Hämeenlinna. We went by the 9:19 am train from Helsinki and arrived Hämeenlinna at 10:36 am.
We walked to the center to have coffee at Cafe Laurell. The café/the bakery took part in the competition Finland’s Best Bakery. They were in the finals and became second. I had in mind to have coffee and a rye bread sandwich. But, as soon as I saw all slices of cakes, pies and cupcakes I changed my mind. Rye bread I can have at home. After the coffees and goodies it was time to continue to The Häme Castle.
The main attraction for our trip. The castle was built in the end of the 1200s and the beginning of the 1300s. At 1 pm there was a guided tour for about 45 minutes. It was very interesting. Today there are many events. E.g. In December the St. Thomas Christmas Market. In April Easter Market in August Häme Medieval Fair. You can rent facilities for dinners, weddings etc. After the guide left we still stayed there for a short while.
We had booked a table at restaurant Piparkakkutalo “The Gingerbread House” to 3 pm. There was still plenty of time, so we were walking, walking, walking, talking, talking, talking and didn’t notice we had walked too far. Oops, now we had to hurry and find the way back . The restaurant is very popular and there were so many people, I think there was not one empty seat/table left. I had Karitsa Wallenberg. Steak made of ground lamb, served with red wine sauce, roasted root vegetables, mashed potato with goat cheese. It was yummy. We shared a bottle of wine. For dessert I had coffee and strawberry ice cream with strawberry sauce.
A look at the clock. Almost 6 pm. Time to walk to the railway station and the 6:23 pm train. Back in Helsinki at 7:41 pm. As always my hubby and Canelo were there to pick me up.
Such a nice day despite the bit chilly wind and gray skies. Good thing, it was not raining.
My first cabbage pie, I think. At least as far as I can remember 😉 I complained to my husband it is ugly. He said, don’t worry, as long as it’s edible. And . . . yes, it was, actually good.
Sunday afternoon I was lying on the sofa reading a book. It still was a very warm day (and still is) so the door to the terrace was wide open. Suddenly I though I heard someone calling my name from outside. Then one more time. Yes, our neighbor calling my name. I hurried out. There she was on the other side of the fence, smiling saying sorry to disturb. I said no, no, it’s OK I was just reading and was so into the book it took me a while to really come out of it back to the reality. Well, she said, just came to tell you if you are interested and want some apples you are welcome to pick. Was I interested, yes, yes, thank you I said. We have one apple tree of our own but this year the apples are no good at all. The worms have destroyed them. I went over and picked about two kilograms.
The next day I washed and cleaned the apples thoroughly. Usually I peel and core but this time I didn’t as my husband says the jam is much tastier by leaving them. I searched the web for recipes. One, with the ingridients sugar, cinnamon, lemon and vanilla, caught my attention. The vanilla was new to me. Next time I’m making apple jam I will put some vanilla into it.
Once more, dear neighbor, thank you 🙂
My Little Place In The Universe Of Spaces. 