For fancy breakfasts...

I have no idea where this one comes from... although I'm pretty sure it is a known receipe, with a fancy story of its own. For my part, I know it from my grandmother who used to make it for me when I visited. A nice change from my morning cereal!

To have:

• 1 yoghurt
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
• 2 tablespoons ground (or not) oak flakes
• 2-3 teaspoons honey
• fruits (e.g. apple, pear, banana, peach, or even strawberries...)
• walnuts

That's the full version as I know it, ofcourse, that only purists like myself stick to. If you don't have that much stuffs, it's no big deal.

To do:

Just add the ingredients in the right order:

• Empty the yoghurt into a bowl.
• Add the squeezed half-lemon, and stir.
• Then, oil ; then, honey. Stir well.
• Grind the flaxseeds and oak flakes, and add them too. Stir.
• You can now add fruits, cut to pieces, as many as you like, as much as you like. And...stir (no kidding!)
• Throw some walnuts on the whole thing before giving it your last spin!
• Look, unconvinced, at your preparation.
• Go ahead and try it (you'd hate to have done all this stirring for nothing)

Right, it may not *look* very good, but it tastes great and is, surely, very healthy!

Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients:

• A dough, pate feuillete or more simple, bought or home-made
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 L milk
• 200G grated cheese (emmenthal or any not too tasty but not too fade cheese)
• 2 table spoon of crême fraiche
• 200gs of cubes of bacon
• 1 big onion

extra :

• one leech, or some mushrooms...

Preparation:

1. In a pan, stir fry onion and bacon together
2. In a bowl, mix milk, eggs, cheese (+ extra)
3. add onion and bacon to the rest
4. Pour on the dough, that has previously been spread in a pie pan.
5. Bake 20-25 min+ (it really depends on the oven) at 180°c/ th. 6
   

Lussekatter

As the weather turns bad again, our thoughts are transposed back to...christmas, and Saint Lucy, and here a wonderful (in all seasons) traditional swedish pastry.



Ingredients :

First dough

• 50g butter
• 5 dL milk
• 50g yeast
• 1 tea spoon salt
• 1,5 L of flour
• 2 tea spoon of sugar

Second dough

• 25g of Safran
• 125g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 dL sugar

+ eggs and milk to brush the pastries before they are cooked (to make them golden)
+ raisins to decorate


Preparation:

first dough

1. Melt the butter in the milk, until it is around 37°c (more would kill the bacterias in the yeast, and the lyssekatter with it!)
2. Add the yeast
3. In a separate pot, put most of the flour (keep one cup aside, for when you mix the two doughs) with the sugar and salt. Mix with the butter and co.
4. cover with a cloth, and let rest for around an hour.

second dough

When the hour is almost up, prepare the second dough.

1. mix (with a hand mixer) butter and almost all sugar. Keep a little sugar to crush the safran if need be.
2. add the egg
3. add the crushed safran to the second dough

mixing the doughs (the fun part)

1. mix both doughs. Dont worry, it will be ugly, but you will succeed in the end. Incorporate the flour that you kept for that purpose.
2. form the lussekattar, in braids, snails, what ever you feel like. It will make a lot of it. Decorate with raisins.
3. brush them with egg and/or milk.
4. bake them on cooking paper, for 8 to 10 minutes, at 250°C regular oven, or 200 if rotating heat. You will need to do it in a few (3, 4, 5) times, as there is a lot of them...

Cookies !

I'm not so sure where this one comes from. But it was tried and approved in Scotland - dunno if this is enough to make it a Scottish recipe?

Ingredients :
225g (2 cups) flour
140g (5/8 cups) butter
100g (1/2 cup) white sugar
100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
1 packet (1 tablespoon, roughly) baking powder
1 egg
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch ground nutmeg
200g chocolate
and nuts, walnuts, pecan nuts, peanuts, raisins, or whatever you feel like having your cookies bursting with. (use your imagination)

Pre-heat oven at 180°C.
What you do is basically put all of this except for the chocolate in a big bowl, mix until you get a compact dough ball, and then add chocolate/nuts/raisins/etc, and mix again. (easy, eh?)
Then make smaller dough balls (around 3-4 cm) and line them on a baking pan.
Bake at 180°C for around 10 minutes ; don't wait until they're hard to take them out, they'll stiffen when cooling.

Challah

Here is another braided bread recipe... Straight from Canada (expect for a quick stop in Scotland).

This makes two loaves. And requires time, as it involves a lot of wait-for-the-dough-to-rise-ing.

Ingredients :

Yeast mixture :
• 2 packets yeast
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 teaspoon sugar
Alternatively, you may use instant yeast that you will directly add to the dough, and then add about one cup of warm water - this way, the bread may not really rise until in the oven, but it will not have that yeasty taste.

Dough :
• 4,5 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 3/8 cups sugar
• 1/8 cup honey
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg for brushing + poppy or sesame seeds if you feel like it.

Once all of this is gathered :

- Combine yeast mixture and set aside for 10 minutes (unless you're using instant yeast, in which case you just have to skip this part)
- Mix dough ingredients with yeast mixture (or, instant yeast + water). Add flour for consistency.
Mix by hand for 15-20 minutes - the more the better.
- Turn in greased bowl, and et rise for 1h-1h30 covered in saran wrap.
- Punch down, let rise for a further 45 minutes.
- Separate (half) and braid for two loaves. (To braid, separate in 5 bits, stretch them, then stick them together at one end, and it's basically over-under-over-under.)
- Let rise for 45 minutes, then brush with eggs and sprinkle with seeds.
- Bake at 185°C for 30-35 minutes.
- If it all went according to plan, this thing shall not last long. Which is all for the best, as it's better when straight outta the oven.

Swiss Bread: "Züpfe"

Ingredients for one (big) bread...

125g butter
5-6 dl milk
a lump of yeast (42-50g)
ca. 1 kg flour
1 teespoon of sugar
1 soup spoon of salt

1 egg yolk
a little extra milk

Preparation

melt the butter in a pan. mix salt, sugar and the yeast in bowl. stir until the yeast is liquid. add the milk to the butter and pour it into the bowl (make sure, that the butter and milk are not too hot, so the yeast-bacteries don't get destroyed...). add flour, stir, knead and add more flour until the dough doesn't stick to your fingers anymore (it will need about 1 kg of flour, the dough should still shine a little and not be completely dry!).

Then let it rest until it has about doubled in size.

Split the dough into two even parts. spread them until they form long (similar length) tubes.
Now, the braiding shall begin...

form the bread. put it on baking paper. mix the egg yolk and a little milk. brush the bread with it. put it in the cold oven (lower half of it) for about 40 minutes at 200°C. to check if the bread is ready, knock on it. if the sound is hollow, take it out and let it cool out (at least a little...) and enjoy!

Mousse au Chocolat et au Mascarpone / Chocolate and Mascarpone Mousse

One of my favourite Mousse recipee...


Ingredients...for 3 or 4
* 250G mascarpone
* 100G sugar
* 150G dark chocolate (60ish percent is good)
* 3 eggs
* if you want, you can add some orange flower water.

1. separate the 3 egg-yolks and egg-whites
2. Mix mascarpone and sugar with the egg-yolks
3. Beat the egg-whites into snow
4. Slowly incorporate the egg-whites into the mascarpone and co mix
5. Separate the mousse in two halfs. In one, add orange flower water (a little!)
6. Melt the chocolate with a little milk (bain-marie, microwave, as you like) and incorporate it in the second one.
7. In small bowls, alternate layer of white mousse and black mousse.
8. Keep refrigerated for 2 hours before eating, and try to eat the mousse before 48h