Apple Bread and Butter Pudding

So it is March, we have all moved into our nice bungalow in the suburbs of Oulu and now we have to sort through the chaos that is our boxes.

However, March also means time to get back to blogging tasty recipes for you all. So this is my Apple Bread and Butter pudding. This is a traditional British dessert and really is the epiphany of British culinary style, it has a wholesome base taste rather than a palette of delicate flavours, is comforting for those dull, wet British summers winters. It has been a stable in British cuisine for centuries with the oldest recorded dish being from 1729, you can find it in many restaurants and pubs throughout the British Isles.

This one is my take upon the classic dish. I used grated apple to replace the more commonly used raisin and also added apple jam and cinnamon. 

To make enough for 4 people you will want:-

12 slices of bread, crusts cut off (you can use your older, stale bread)

50g butter, softened

50g apple jam

2 apples, grated (sprinkle some lemon juice on them to stop them going brown)

400ml full fat milk

4 eggs

2tbsp honey

2tsp cinnamon

1tsp nutmeg

Start by greasing up a 1 litre size square oven dish. Cut the crusts off your bread and spread the butter and jam on one side. Place the slices butter/jam side up in the bottom of the dish and then sprinkle some grated apple and cinnamon and repeat until you have used all you bread up. Make sure your top layer doesn't have any apple. In a bowl, mix together the eggs, milk, honey and nutmeg and the pour over the bread. Leave to stand for 30 minutes. While standing, preheat your oven to 175C. Cook for 30 minutes (or until the top is golden and the milk mixture has set).

It really is that simple.

Serve warm with some ice cream or vanilla sauce.

Billionaires' Shortbread

In the UK, Caramel Shortbread is a favoured confectionery. However not many people know that it actually originated in Australian in around the 70's. I love the stuff, have fond memories of getting a small square from the local bakery in my town of upbringing. Over the years I have experimented with the recipe and tweaked it.

About 12 months ago I told my wife about Millionaires' shortbread and she asked could I do it with white chocolate so she could take it to her workplace. I thought i'd give it a go. It went down a treat, the creamy white chocolate made this rich biscuit even richer. I decided to name these adaptations Billionaries' shortbread on account that White Gold is worth more than yellow gold.

So Tuesday just gone we had a Professor of the Philosophy of Religion come over to our house, accompanied by the missionary Sisters. I had met this learned guy before, he wasn't interested in joining the Church but wanted to know more about our Church and what made us different from other faiths. So for the snack I was originally going to make just some normal, boring biscuits until my wife asked could I do the white chocolate caramel shortbread. They went down a storm, so much so that I didn't have many left.

So to make a 33cm * 25cm tray you will need:-

2 cups of flour (225g)
175g butter (not marg)
75g/5 tbsp caster sugar

150g butter (not marg)
1 tin (379g) condensed milk
100ml golden syrup

260g white chocolate

First preheat your oven to 150oc and greaseproof your tray.

Put the flour, 175g butter and the sugar into a food processor and blitz until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. If no food processor then rub with your fingers. Put the mixture into your tray and even out and press flat using a spoon (you can use your hands too), then put in oven for 30 minutes (or until a light golden brown).

Pour your milk, butter and syrup into a pan and slowly heat until all the butter is melted. Then bring to boil. Make sure you stir frequently otherwise you will burn the caramel, I use a silicon spatula for this. Keep stirring until it gets thicker and turns a nice golden colour (about 15/25mins). Put aside and leave to cool for 10/15 mins. Do the same with your shortbread.

Once both have cooled a little pour the caramel on top and spread evenly. Leave to cool completely.

Then melt your white chocolate using a Ban Marie (a pan with boiling water over heat and another pan/bowl on top of it). Then pour over the caramel and smooth out. Then leave to cool and harden, then cut them to your desired shape.

ANZAC Biscuits

Today (April 25th) is known as ANZAC in Australia and New Zealand, as well as many areas of the British Commonwealth. It was originally the day of memorial for members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (more commonly known as ANZAC) who fought during the disastrous Gallipoli Campagin, which started on April 25th 1915 and ended in January 9th 1916 and saw over 35,000 of them dead or wounded. Today the day is for the memorial of servicemen of both countries "who died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served".

Tradition has it that the wives and daughters of ANZAC troops produced these tasty, simple and long lasting biscuits so their husbands and fathers could have something tasty and they would survive the long naval voyage that post had to go through back then.

I have a real like for these biscuits, they are super tasty and can be made up in large batches and then eaten at your leisure. I also remember having them at primary school on ANZAC day, as well as my Nana making them (some of our relatives are Australian).

So in honour of ANZAC day, here is my recipe for ANZAC biscuits. They have been tried and tested by a real life Aussie (Sister Francis) who was serving a Mission in Oulu last year at the time of ANZAC day and she gave them a pass.

This will be enough to make around 8:-

1cup/80g Rolled Oats (Porriage oats)
3/4 cups/ 55g dessicated coconut
1cup/ 125g plain flour
1cup/ 200g caster sugar
1/2 cup/ 155g butter
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp golden syrup
2 tbsp boiling water

To start preheat your oven to 175oC. Then get a large mixing bowl and mix together the oats, sugar and coconut. Then in a small pan on a low heat combined the syrup and butter, make sure the heat is low otherwise the syrup will burn. Once melted, add the bicarb of soda and water to the syrup/butter mix.
Now add the syrup/butter mix to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Then you want to put a tablespoon of the mixture onto a greaseproof papered baking tray, repeat until the tray is full, make sure you leave some room for expansion. Bake for 15-25 minutes. Take out when done and leave to cool down 10-15 minutes at least before tasting.

In Australia there is a big divide on whether they should be hard and crunchy or soft and chewy. You can decide on how you want them by the cooking time. 15 minutes is ideal for soft and chewy while 25 is the maximum for hard and crunchy.

Runeberg's Torte

Today (5th February), is the birthday of Johan Ludvig Runeberg who is the national poet of Finland. He was born in Pietarsaari which is a predominately Swedish speaking city (known as Jakobstad in Swedish) in 1804. His poems mainly focused upon the typical, tough, rural lifestyle of the common Finnish man. is most famous work is Fänrik Ståls sägner which is Swedish for The Tales of Ensign Stål. It was written between 1848 and 1860 and it is about the Finnish War which was a war between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire. The result was 'Finland' was surrendered to Russia, this was the start of the so called Grand Duchy of Finland. The first poem within the work Vårt Land (Maamme in Finnish, Our Land in English), has become the National Anthem of Finland by overall convention (as there is no law in Finland establishing it as the National Anthem).

On this day it is traditional to eat Runebergin Torttu (Runeberg's Torte). Legend has it Runeberg's wife, Fredrika, invented the pastry when her husband asked for something sweet but she had nothing in. So in typical good wife style she made up something using what she had, wheat flour, breadcrumbs, almonds, rum, apple jam and sugar. He loved it so much that he had one every morning for breakfast with Punsch (a traditional Swedish Liqueur) from that moment on. The recipe is found in her recipe book but it is now believed that it is a personal version of an earlier recipe created by confectioner Lars Astenius of Porvoo.

A 'traditional' commercially available Runebergin Torttu 

So there is a wee bit behind it, I thought i'd give it a try. The ones you buy from the store look like the above picture. However I have no idea how to make it like that and no home cookery book or website says to make it like that. My Wife told me that Finns make it in muffin trays and so that is exactly what I did. So for you to make you own culturally tasty treat you will need to have:-

250g Baking Margarine or Butter
200g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
100g Ground Almonds
100g Plain Flour
15 grammes of Gingernut biscuits
1 Thin Crisp (those crunchy flat cracker bread things that healthy people eat)
120g Breadcrumbs
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Rum essence

For the topping:-

Rasberry Jam (You can really use any kind of Jam)
200g icing suagr
1 tbsp water or juice

First turn your oven on to 200oc. In a bowl beat together the Marg and Sugar until fluffy. Then add the eggs, one at a time, mixing it in thoroughly.  In another bowl add the almonds, plain flour, breadcrumbs and baking powder, then crush the biscuits and thin crisp (you can use a food processor or beat it in a bag) and add to the bowl too. Then mix all together than pour into the Marg/Egg mix, combined thoroughly and add the rum.

Then put muffin cases into a muffin tray and put about a tablespoon of the mixture into each case. Place into the middle of the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Take out of oven and leave to cool down.

In a small bowl or cup mix the icing sugar and water together and form an icing. You can either spoon in on the top or pipe it on. In the middle put some Jam and then serve.

Amazing Rye Rolls

Here in Finland they love to eat Rye products. Don't know what rye is? Ever heard of Black Bread? Well that is Rye Bread. Rye is a grain that is ideally suited to colder climates and those areas with poorly soil types. It is also healthier for you than any wheat flour as it contains less gluten and good soluble fibre, recent research has also shown that Rye flour can help reduce cholesterol. Finland grows over 70,000 tonnes but consumes over 100,000 tonnes every year. The shortfall is imported from Germany and Poland (two of the biggest growers of Rye in the world).

Recently Finnish Rye bread has taken off in New York City thanks to an Ouluite. You can read the article about this here.

Bread has always been very important to the Finnish people, sometimes for the poorest it was the only meal. Traditional Rye Bread was made into a flattened disc with a hole through it. this was then mounted on a stick, in the ceiling, where it would stay for week, even months.

Traditional Ruisreikäleipä

So last week I had my mother in law round for a dinner of meatloaf and salad. I also thought to give a go at making some Rye Rolls (I have made 100% rye bread before). They came out really tasty and went down a treat with everyone present.

So here it is, you will need to have with you:-

500ml Milk
50g Fresh Yeast (or 14g dried yeast)
3 tbsp Golden Syrup
3 tsp Salt
75ml Oil (I used olive oil, but you can use any kind besides motor oil)
400g Rye Flour
300g Wheat Flour (with some extra just in case and for dusting)

First heat your milk up to around 30oC and stick into a bowl then add the yeast in. Leave for about 10 minutes. Then add the syrup, salt, oil and rye flour. Mix until it becomes some stodgy mess. Then start adding the wheat flour, keep adding a little at a time until it comes together in a smooth but slightly sticky dough (rye dough should never be as dry as normal bread dough). Then put into a fresh bowl and cover, stick in a warmest place. Most Finns put some warm water into the sink and put the bowl in there.

Leave to rise for 25-30 minutes and then dust some wheat flour onto a table and take dough out, knead for a short while, about 5 minutes and then break into pieces and roll into roll shape. Place onto a greaseproof papered baking tray and cover. Turn oven on to 225oC and wait to heat up. When it has reached that temp, about 10 minutes, add the rolls into the oven and cook for around 10 minutes.

Serve the traditional Finnish way with butter, freshly sliced cheese, ham and salad.

Not all healthier foods need to taste like cardboard as these will testify to your tastebuds.