My First Business

I started to make money of my baking skills as a shy, 15 year old school girl. Read about my first business here: http://discoveringranchlife.blogspot.com/2013/02/my-first-business.html

Carneros Spelt Loaves

Carneros Spelt Loaves 

As I'm writing this I'm eating a slice of the bread with sharp shedder cheese and a cup of coffee (since it's early in the day. It would be wonderful with a glass of red wine too.) The crust is a little crispy and the inside soft and chewy. The spelt flour gives the bread it's character. My picky husband also liked it, which is a good sign! I baked it with my dinner plans in mind. I'm going to make a salmon dish for dinner; with orange/lemon aioli, the bread is going to be a side dish, along with a green salad. I had to try the bread myself before serving guests of course…I've never baked this bread before, I made up the recipe as I mixed the dough. It is worth trying. I'm making it again, soon. It takes a total of 2hours and 15min to make it. It's a long time, but out of that time the dough is resting 2*40mins and the baking in the oven is 25min. The recipe is easy and not complicated at all. I exercised a horse during the first resting period and fed the baby/edited pictures during the second resting period. It's a low maintenance bread and you can do other stuff while the bread takes care of itself. 

The recipe is for 2 loaves of bread.

2 cups organic spelt flour

2,5 cups organic all purpose flour

3/4 oz active dry yeast

2tsp salt

Combine with a fork in a big bowl.

Add 1,5 cup cold water and 2 cups boiling water (then the mixture will have the right temperature.) Beat the dough in a machine for 3min or 5min by hand. Add 0,5 cup all purpose flour during the process, and mix until you have a smooth dough. Knead the dough by hand (take some flour on your hands,) on a table for a couple minutes. 

Cover the dough and let it rise for 40min (it almost double it's size in room temperature.)

..after 40min

Place the dough on a floured surface, cut into two pieces. Form the pieces into loaves. (Pat the dough to 12*6 rectangle and roll up tightly.)

Place your loaves on parchment paper and cover again. Let the dough rest there for another 40min.

(For extra stylish bread, use a sharp knife and make some diagonal slashes across the bread before baking.) If you want a crispy outside brush some water on the loaves before baking. I didn't do it, but they turned out pretty crispy anyway. 

Bake the bread in the lower part of your oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30min. 

Let the bread cool down covered, on the baking pan.

Enjoy!

Grandma' Agnes Fudge Cookies

I've admired my Grandma' Agnes as long as I can remember. She was a cool Lady, something extraordinary and I'm not saying that just because she was my Grandma. She traveled around the world until she was 80 years old, because she loved it. Of course she wasn't 80 years old if you asked her…she was 19 years old all her life. I have so many great memories having fun with her. One time I had to bribe a guy that rented out surf boards so that he wouldn't rent her any, she was 78 at the time. She didn't have any limits what so ever. Another time she slapped me in the face for not introducing her as my girl friend, when we met some new people on a cruising ship. We traveled all over Southern Europe, Hawaii, Alaska and many other states together. She was the one giving me my first camera when I was 5 years old. Agnes was, believe it or not, an incredible baker. 

Today I'm sharing her Fudge Cookies. That's one of my favorite recipe's, for many reasons. They taste absolutely wonderful, but they are so sweet that your tongue kind of curls and you only want one cookie. I like that too. I rather have one awesome cookie than ten cookies that are so and so. Grandma' Agnes Fudge Cookies are also very easy to make AND it only takes 20 mins (altogether, mixing and baking in the oven.) The perfect quick fix that you can't go wrong with. My son learned to bake them by himself at age four. So far I haven't met anyone that doesn't like them. They are easy to make, like with all cookies it's very important to not over bake them. I think that's the only thing that possibly could go wrong. They are suppose to be baked for EXACTLY 12 mins.

Grandma' Agnes Fudge Cookies

4oz Butter

1/2 Cup Sugar

2tbs Maple Syrup

Cut the cold butter into pieces

Cut the butter in pieces and mix the ingredients. I mix them by hand with a fork. 

Mix 1,5 Cup All Purpose Flour and 1/2 tbs Baking Powder separately.

Mix all the ingredients together. I usually put them all on a table and mix them with my hands. That's how Grandma' did. If you want to you can add some vanilla extract. It gives them a nice touch, but it's not necessarily. Mix the dough with your hands until it's smooth and there's no big chunks of butter left.

Divide the dough into two equal pieces.

Two equal pieces of dough, rolled into strings
 and placed on parchment paper. 

Roll them to long strings and place them on parchment paper. Use your hands and put a little pressure on the strings. 

Bake them in the lower part of your oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12 minutes.

When they are done they are still soft, but only for less than a minute. Cut them into desired pieces at once. Leave them on the baking sheet to cool down, for at least 10 minutes.

I prefer to have one cookie to my coffee, the Swedish way. What do you like to drink to your cookies? 

Quinoa and Flaxseed Scones

This morning when I was experimenting in my kitchen I wanted to make quick and healthy bread. I looked in my kitchen cabinets and found quinoa flour and flaxseed. I decided to make scones. It´s fast, and to my family scones is something we eat on Sundays and holidays. It´s really easy to make and anyone can do it but it has kind of a festive feeling about it. The possible variations you can make are only limited by your imagination. You can easily choose other kinds of flour, add raisins/cheese/bacon/honey/herbs or anything you like. I choose milk as liquid but water, yoghurt or even beer is great too. I will post other variations later on.

Flaxseed is packed with Omega-3 fatty acids. Using flaxseed in your bread is a great way to increase your daily fiber.

Quinoa is also full of fiber and contains all eight essential amino acids. I like using quinoa flour for the sweet, nutty flavor.

This is the scones I made today (for the first time).

 

Quinoa and Flaxseed Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup diced almonds

½ cup quinoa flour

½ cup flaxseed

½ tbsp. baking powder

½tbs salt

Mix with a fork in a big bowl.

Add 1 cup canola oil and 1½ cup milk, stir until mixed. Don't over stir! When using baking powder you shouldn´t mix/stir/work with the dough any more than barely mixing the ingredients. Don´t work it one second longer than necessary! (That´s a good rule to remember when using baking powder.)

The dough is very sticky, it´s supposed to be like that. If you add more flour the bread will be dry. Divide the dough in two pieces and place them on parchment paper. Use your hands and warm water (otherwise the dough will stick to your hands) to form the two pieces into round, flat breads.

Use a knife and made a cross on each bread, to make them easier to cut later.

Bake them at 440 degreese Fahrenheit for about 20 min (until golden).

Enjoy warm with butter, cheese, turkey, ham, tomatoes, avocados or jam. Tea and coffee are excellent choices to go with your scones.

If you try them please let me know. I would love to hear about it!

 

A Swedish Christmas Tradition; Lussekatter

Lussekatt, an important part of a traditional Swedish Christmas.
You start eating them on the day of St.Lucia, Dec13.

Dec 13 is an important day in Sweden. It´s the day of St.Lucia. Lucia means “the one who comes with the light”. She died as a martyr for her Christian faith. Her incredible faith is celebrated Dec 13. It´s an old Swedish tradition to drink glögg a warm, spicy wine and eat Lusse Katter which is a delicious pastry with saffron during Lucia. The saffron gives the pastry a yellow color, a symbol of light.

There´s many different stories about lussekatten. According to one story St. Nikolaus gave them as gifts to the children.

Several stories have to do with worshipping the sun, like the Vikings did. The pastries yellow color is here a symbol of the sun.

For most people it´s not at all about the origin. Lucia is an interesting celebration. A bright light in the winter darkness. The celebration takes place very early in the morning. According to some beliefs there are many dark forces in action on Dec 13 and you´re supposed to stay awake all night to watch out for them, in the morning you celebrate Lucia (the light).

Every year each town, school and most companies vote for their own Lucia. Most often this “competitions” turns in to beauty competitions and a blond, blue eyed girl wins. She wears a white nightgown and has burning candles in her hair leading a caravan of girls that also wear white gowns but without candles in their hair. The girls wear a red scarf around their waist as a symbol Lucia´s death as a martyr. There are boys among them too; they are dressed up like Santa´s helpers or gingerbreads! The whole caravan sings a special Lucia song and other Christmas Carroll’s.  They sing for elder people and people in need. Some go from house to house and sing for neighbors. Children often sing for parents.

 
Many organizations have their own Lucia caravan to sing for a good cause.

After the celebration everybody eats Lusse Katter Some people have parties, social gatherings in the evening were they drink glögg and eats Lusse Katter. It´s common to eat gingerbread as well.

My daughter Hayley and I baked Lussekatter yesterday on Lucia. According to the tradition you start eating them at Lucia (Dec 13) and eat them until Christmas. You can´t find them during the rest of the year. It´s a very popular pastry and many people are counting the days to Lucia so they finally can eat them.

 

 



This is what you need for 18 big Lussekatter:

A pinch of Saffron (if you like the taste of saffron use more)

6oz unsalted butter

2 cups milk or half and half

3/4 cup sugar

2+1 eggs

1½oz dry yeast (6 small pouches)

2½lbs white baking flour

Raisins

o   Mix 2lbs of the flour with the yeast and the sugar in a big bowl.

o   Melt the butter on the stove, add the milk. Heat the liquid until right before the first bubble (very hot!). Add saffron. Stir. Add two eggs.

o   Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients and mix the dough thoroughly until it´s very smooth and easy to work with. Add some more flour if needed.

o   Let the dough rest under a cover for 15 minutes.

o   Cut the dough in 18 pieces.

 

 

 

o   Form the pieces like in the pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

o   Put the pieces on baking sheets. Add two raisins in the middle of the buns. (Some people add extra raisins in the dough for a sweeter bun.)

 

 

o   Let them rest for 20 mins.

o   Paint them with the extra egg.

o   Bake them in the middle of the oven at 480 degrees Fahrenheit for 8 minutes, or until they have a beautiful golden color.

 

 

 

 

 

If you want to be really Swedish you enjoy them with warm wine, glögg, but they taste great with coffee or tea as well.

Maybe you want to add Lussekatter to your family´s Christmas traditions?

Tell me about the one pastry you can´t be without during this Holiday season! Feel free to share the recipe if you want too.

XO Maria

My Baking Addiction



Cinnamon bun  (Kanelbulle, Swedish)

When I was a little girl I dreamed about having a horse and living on a ranch. When I dreamed about work I didn´t dream about working with horses.

I wanted to be a baker. I was very sure of that. My mom baked a lot and she always took the time to let me have my own dough and to make my own bread (or pastries). She didn´t mind the mess and for that I´m forever grateful. I didn´t get to keep my mom for long, she died when I was 12 years old. Some of the best conversations we had were during our baking sessions. My favorite childhood memories surround those times with my mother baking in our tiny kitchen.

In 1995, three years after her death, I became a student at a baking school in Sweden. For three years I studied the art of baking at Palmcrantz Skolan. My studies included a lot of early mornings in the school bakery and in bakeries around the city of Östersund, Sweden (where the school is situated).

We also studied chemistry. Baking is actually a lot of chemistry! I will explain more about that later on and why knowledge about this makes baking easier, and not more complicated as some might think.

During my years in school I learned how to bake many different kinds of bread, pastries, cakes and cookies. Swedish bread and gourmet pastries are my specialties but not the only things I bake. I love experimenting and my opinion of a fun morning (when the rest of the family is still asleep) is making up new recipes.

My first boss used to say that we should practice "learning by doing." I like that! It´s something I still practice today.

Before the birth of my first child I stopped working professionally as a baker. The early morning work didn´t really match life with a baby. I loved working as a baker and I still love baking. I love everything about it; deciding what to bake, mixing the ingredients to exactly the right consistency, the feeling of the dough under my hands, the smell of the bread in the oven and the sight of perfect bread made by my own hands. It´s easy when you know how to do it, and I´m about to tell you just how easy it is!

This blog is only about baking. This is about baking from scratch. You won´t find any mixes in the recipes here.  I´m going to write about important things to think about while choosing ingredients, temperatures, fresh yeast v/s dry yeast, sourdough, baking with kids, and of course plenty of easy to follow recipes!

I´m more than happy to answer any questions you may have about baking.

Is there anything in particular you want me to write about? Just tell me!

I´m constantly asked when I´m going to start my baking blog and publish my first recipe book, now it´s finally happening. I´ve been very excited about writing a baker´s blog for a long time. However, a blog is only fun with interaction! Come on, join me and invite all your friends! The more the merrier. We´re going to have lots of fun together and I promise you that you will learn a lot about baking.

Looking forward to see you in my kitchen!

/Maria Northcutt

Ps. If you want to know more about me I also write a blog about my family´s ranch http://discoveringranchlife.blogspot.com.