I started this week (yesterday + today) with some traditional Advent/Christmas baking. I had prepared the gingerbread dough a couple of days in advance. The dough was easy enough to handle, nothing got burned, and the biscuits/cookies smelled wonderful (besides ginger, the recipe also includes cloves, cinnamon and cardamom), looked nice enough, and tasted pretty much as usual... However, something about the texture did not come out quite right. While they're not exactly 'soft', I'd still hesitate to call them 'ginger snaps' in English. (In Swedish, conveniently we can use the word 'kaka' about anything from a soft cake to a very snappy biscuit/cookie, though - so from linguistic point of view, never mind!) I didn't make a very big batch, and they'll no doubt get eaten (by me) anyway ;-) The only thing I did different from usual was that I used a stevia based sweetener instead of white sugar. As the recipe also has brown sugar and treacle in it, and I kept those, I didn't expect it would make much difference. But maybe it did. (I've used the sweetener in muffins/cupcakes before, but of course those are supposed to be soft anyway...)
While I still had my baking trays and things out, I followed up today with also baking some Swedish 'Lucia buns' (saffron buns). They came out all right.
The shape is traditional for buns baked for Lucia /St. Lucy's day. In Swedish we often call them lussekatt (pl. -katter), but the shape as well as the name can vary between different parts of the country. And also whether you use saffron in them or not. (My mum didn't use saffron in hers.)
I want to come over!!
ReplyDeleteGinny, you'd be welcome! :)
Deletemmm I can just smell your baking, love the shapes you made too
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy :)
DeleteNothing more "advently" than home-baking, filling the place with warmth and wonderful scents! Your kaka and lussekatter look great.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, "kaka" is baby-German for having a poo ;-D
This is weird: I'm sure I replied to this comment earlier, but evidently it didn't get published. Anyway - "kaka" ,(=cake/cookie) in Swedish is pronounced with the first 'a' long like in English "star"... (We have a variety of the German word too but then spelled with 'ck'.)
DeleteThey all look delicious, and what a wonderful scent of Christmas they conjure up! We can buy the Pepperkokker (spelling?) biscuits here.
ReplyDeleteWhenever my husband went to Sweden on business at this time of year, he would bring several packets of biscuits back with him, and some made nice little gifts - always well received. The rest we ate ourselves with coffee!
Thanks CG. "Pepparkakor" (plural) is the correct spelling :)
DeleteWow! I'm impressed at your baking for yourself most people who live alone don't bake. Can you freeze something like this and keep it for future use?
ReplyDeleteSandra, ginger biscuits don't normally need to be kept in the freezer, they can be kept for a long time in a tin in normal room temperature without going bad. This time, because they came out a bit 'softer' than usual, I did put some of them in the freezer, though. The saffron buns can be frozen just the same as any other soft buns or bread, and most of the ones I baked went straight into the freezer after cooling off. I used to bake a lot more in the past, both bread and cookies. Nowadays mostly muffins/cupcakes, as that's easy and quick. Ginger snaps and saffron bread, only this time of year - being part of the traditions connected to this season. One can buy them of course, and when I've not been able to bake I've done that. But that's never quite the same as baking them oneself, with the smell filling the whole flat that day... :)
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