Xanté Pears w/mascarpone cream and crumble

If you put together pear and pear liqueur, what do you get? A really freaking tasty couple of pears I say!

Christmas is here soon and that means I have a million ideas for Christmas table already. This dessert is one of them.

I guess port wine poached pears is a pretty classic combination but I wanted to marry my pears with pear liqueur Xanté. It´s probably because I happened to have a bottle of it in my liqueur shelf but also, I really wanted the pears to maintain their fair color.

I colored the mascarpone cream with golden food color to make this dessert a bit more festive but the color I used didn´t work that well (it just made the cream look yellowy). But do try the coloring, it´s a nice little touch for this fine dessert.

We tried this with Jani today and I must say that this totally works for other occasions than Christmas, too.

For 4 persons: 
2 medium/big pears

a knob of butter

a good ol´splash of Xanté (maybe 1 dl ish)

2 dl apple juice

½ ts grated lemon zest

1-3 tbls sugar, depending on how sweet the pears and the apple juice are

1 cinnamon stick

2 cm piece of vanilla pod, halved

Peel the pears and cut them into quarters. Take off seeds if there´s any. Melt the butter in a pan and let it brown a bit. Add the pears and sugar. Flip the pears a few times in the pan before adding Xanté, apple juice, cinnamon stick, lemon zest and halfed vanilla pod. Let the pears poach for about 15-20 minutes. Flip at least once during poaching.

Take the pears out and let the liquid caramelize a while longer. It´s supposed to get syrupy. Add a few drops of lemon juice at the end.

Mascarpone cream: 
1 dl whipping cream

125 g mascarpone

2 ts caster sugar

touch of grated lemon zest

gold food color

Whip the cream and add mascarpone, lemon zest, food color and sugar and mix.

Put the mix into the fridge unless you put the dessert together immediately. You can do this mascarpone cream and the crumble before-hand and then put the dessert together when it´s time for it. So you won´t waste any time if you´re having dinner with others.

Crumble: 
1 dl almond chips (other nuts work just as well) 

40 g wheat flour
40 g caster sugar
30 g butter

Mix all the ingredients with your fingers until the mix resembles wet sand. Don´t over-work the dough otherwise it will start forming gluten and we don´t want this as the crumble is supposed to be.. well, crumbly. Pop in to the oven into 160 °C for 5 minutes or until the mix is golden brown.

  

Tip:

You can replace the crumble with toasted nuts. This will make the dessert gluten free, too

Put the dessert together:

Put the quartered pears to the bottom of a clear glass. Pour some syrup on top. Add the mascarpone cream on top and top it all up with the crumble. Decorate with a whole cinnamon stick.

Happy days!

Rakkaudella,

Paula

Blueberry Latte

Imagine having a chai latte but instead of tea you´d be sipping heart-warming blueberry milk.

When we were kids we used to go picking blueberries and wild strawberries in our summer cottage. When we´d get back to the cottage we´d put the berries into a mug and pour some milk on top of them. After drinking our berry milks we all had our mouths and teeth covered with blueberry. What a sweet and hilarious mess it was!

This, dear readers, is a taste of summer and memories for me.

End of the summer in our childhood summer cottage.

And this is the time I really want to re-live those moments.

Now it is probably the gloomiest time in Finland: it´s dark almost round the clock, the nature is colorless and we don´t have the snow on the ground yet (we did but it melted away).

So, there really is a call for a nice memory and warmth of summer right now.

This blueberry drink has it all: the taste of childhood, the sweetness of blueberry pie and the warmth of summer. All in one cup! When you´re having this cuppa I promise you, there will be a glimpse of summer light in your heart for a moment.

And that, at least for me, puts a wide blueberry smile on my face :)

Share it with your friends or enjoy it alone – as long as you brace the magic of tastes and memories you get whilst sipping away this blueberry dream.

Blueberry sypup:

5 dl blueberries

4 dl water

1 dl caster sugar

1 dl mucavado sugar

2 heap ts cardamo

 a half vanilla pod

one cinnamon stick

Cut the vanilla pod half and carve all the tasty vanilla seeds into a pan. Add all the other ingredients. Bring to boil. Boil in low temperature until there´s only about 2-3 dl liquid left (about one hour) and the texture is syrupy. Put through a sieve and preserve in clean jar or a bottle.

To make the latte:

Mix 4-8 cl (how ever sweet you like it) of blueberry syrup with 3 dl warm milk.

Tips:

-try oat milk for the latte, it tastes really nice, too

-make a tastier start for your day and mix syrup to your morning porridge or greek yoghurt

-you can also use the sypur for flavoring cakes and desserts

Enjoy!

Rakkaudella,

Paula

Beer and barley bread

This bread - simply awesome.

Everyone who knows me and has read my blog knows that I love bread and especially, the bread dough. There´s nothing more satisfying for me than sinking my fingers into a perfect bread dough, mmmm! Even the thought of it gives me goose bumps.

Not only do I love bread and dough but I also happen to love beer. A lot. So, I´ve just tried to invent as many things as possible I can use it for. Beer gives bread an amazing taste. I´ve used beer also for example in my oat- and malt breads (which I will translate for you soon) and they are oh-so-yummy, too.

I normally buy non-alcoholic beer for baking for two reasons: 1) it´s cheaper 2) this way I make sure I won´t drink it before I start baking things! :D The normal beer works just as well in baking as long as you´re willing to give up your refreshing beverage for a good cause. 

This bread is very easy to make. It takes a while for the dough to rest and develop gluten but do give it time! The more patience you have with bread (and bun) dough, the better the result will be. But the actual work part is basically just mixing things in a bowl with a lot of love - very easy.

I cooked a beer and potato soup to go with this bread but I think any kind of warm soup will go with this one. To be honest, I don´t think you´ll even need a soup. Just brush a nice layer of butter on top of warm bread and I promise there will be a one very satisfied smile on your face :))

One medium sized bread:

1 bottle/can (0,33 l) of lager

11 g dried yeast

1 tbls honey

2 dl wheat flour 

Mix the ingredients in a bowl. Pop a cloth on top and let the dough rest for 1-2 hrs.

Note: we only have normal wheat flour in Finland. This means we don´t have self-rising flour so, I always mean NON-self-rising flour when I talk about wheat. I use “half hard” flour in my baking. In bread-baking this means that the gluten forms pretty easily in the dough and the bread holds it´s form nicely.

Add:

3-4 dl wheat flour

2 dl barley flour

a knob of soft butter

15-20 g salt 

Add the ingredients into the (hopefully bubbling) dough. Put the dough into a food mixer that has a dough hook attached to it. If you don´t have a food mixed you´ll have to knead the dough by hand. If you make a lot of bread invest in food mixer, it´s a life-saver and totally worth every penny.

Knead the dough in the machine for approx. 10 minutes. If you work by hand double the time. The dough is ready when it forms a ball and it comes off the edges of the bowl. If this is not happening you´ll have to add some more flour to the dough and keep kneading. The amount of flour depends on many things, for example humidity can be a big factor so, never put the whole amount of flour into the dough. Work it first and then add it little by little if needed. When the dough is ready it´s supposed to look like this:

Let the bread rest about 20 minutes in the bowl and then knead it by hands against floured surface. Put the bread into a floured “rise-bowl”(see below). Cover the bread with a cloth and let it rise for 1-2 hrs.

Simsalabim! When you let the dough work it´s magic, this will happen:

Make the topping before baking the bread:

soft butter

honey

Mix the butter and honey together.

Also:

sunflower seeds

salt

Put some baking paper on baking tray and put the bread on the tray. Re-shape the bread if it looks like it´s loosing it´s bready form. Bake the bread for 15 minutes in 200°C. Take the bread out and brush it with the honey-butter mix. Sprinkle the seeds and salt on top and bake for another 15-20 minutes. You can check if the bread is ready by knocking the bottom of the bread. If you hear a hollow sound, the bread is ready to go.

Now it´s time to enjoy! :)

Have a beerful weekend everybody!

Rakkaudella,

Paula

Raw(ish) cake, the Christmas edition

This is my very first blogpost in English! Please let me know if this reaches people overseas or English speakers anywhere in general. It means I´ll keep on posting in English and you´ll start to learn awesome stuff about Scandinavian food :)

  Not only is this my first post in English but this is my first raw cake ever, too. I´m a raw virgin! :D Well, at least I was.. I guess after this one I´ll be making heaps more of these. I got totally hooked, it was so goooood! :)

 So, the raw cake. Or, at least this is an ALMOST raw cake. I haven´t really searched the Real Essence of The Raw Cake, yet but I do think this one is a pretty damn close one because it´s raw and it´s yummy. Wasn´t that the definition of a raw cake?

 I say it´s not maybe a real one because I used a wee bit of alcohol in it. I haven´t really gotten to the bottom of what ingredients Xanté liqueur has in it. All I know it´s good! That´s why this might give the ish to the raw.
But do try the liqueur flavoring, it totally gives the delicious to your cake! Also, if you haven´t ever tried to make a raw cake before, give it a go, too – it´s super-easy to make. My only difficulty was getting the filling smooth. I don´t have a food processor so I had to process the filling in my blender. It´s doable but it takes a while.

 Finland got heaps of snow yesterday and it made me feel all fuzzy and Christmassy. I wanted to have a taste of the Best Holiday time ever already so I gave this cake a good old Xmas flavouring. I guess no one will judge me - it is November already, after all and I think we all just gotta love Christmas, at least a little ;)

The cake doesn´t take too long to make but you do need some patience. The dried fruit should soak in the liqueur for at least a few hours, preferably overnight. Also, the cake needs to set for at least 12 hours.  For all of yous who have ants in your pants (in Finnish we´d say hätähousut), this may test your nerves but at least, you do get to lick the spoon quite a bit in the making.
So, don´t worry, you´ll get your sugar fix soon enough!

Without any further jabbing, here´s my very first raw cake. Please enjoy!

Cake for 18 cm cake pan.

Fruit mix:

2 dl dried fruit of your choice. I used apricots, raisins, dates and plums

0,5-1 dl Xanté liqueur (the fruit has to be covered with liquour)

1 ts cinnamon

½ ts ground ginger

½ ts ground clove

juice of ½ lemon

Cut the fruit in to small pieces. I like to use scissors for this operation. Put the fruit into a bowl and mix in spices, liquour and lemon juice. Mix well. Cover with clingfilm and rest in the fridge over night or at least a few hours. This gives the fruit time to absorb all the flavors of the liquour and the spices. After this tastebath your cake will become an amazingly balanced piece of heaven.

Base:

125 g dried dates

150 g nuts, I had a mix of hazelnuts, cashews, almonds, walnuts..

a pinch of salt
Mix the nuts almost smooth in a food processor. Add dates and mix until it has thick and sticky consistency. Press into the bottom of your cake pan. I like to cover the bottom of my cake pan with baking paper so I can move the cake to another tray if I like to. But it´s totally up to you if you want to use it or not!

Filling:

soaked fruit mix

2 heap tbls peanut butter

2 dl lingonberries

1 dl sunflower seeds

1 tbls honey

2 tbls coconut flour

pinch of cinnamon

juice of 2 mandarins

0,5-1 dl of water, if needed
Mix all the ingredients in a food processor (or blender) until smooth and silky. If the filling is so tight it won´t move in the processor, add a bit of water and mix. Pour the filling on top of the base and pop the cake into the fridge overnight.

To finish and to Finnish it up:

Heaps of (frozen) lingonberries on top

Finnish superfood - lingonberries. These ones I stored in my freezer for the winter.

Tips:
-if you don´t have lingonberries, replace with cranberries
-to add crunch to the filling add roughly chopped hazelnuts in to the smooth mixture
-you can replace Xanté with some other liqueur of your choice

Happy weekend everybody and to all the fathers in Finland, happy Fathers day!

 Rakkaudella,

Paula