Ice Cream O'clock



Isvaffel med guf (Danish) or Ice cream cone with the softest marshmallow topping (Guf)

 

 

 

This is a very unhealthy post, so don’t read on if you are trying to reduce your waist measurement as part of your resolution for the New Year!

Summer holidays equals lots of ice creams! Crispy ice cream cones filled with one or two scoops of delicious, good quality ice cream - here at home we try to buy or make the good stuff, which is not made of milk powder, air and emulsifiers + worse … and now to the fun childish bit...”Guf” on top! Now what is “Guf” you might ask? It is a sweet, some would say sickly sweet topping made of whipped egg whites, sugar and berries, a sort of very soft marshmallowy foam. The berries are only for the slightest bit of colour and the weakest bit of taste and if the Guf is industry made it is highly likely that it has never seen a berry, but is coloured with chemicals. We used raspberries.

So what is so appealing about Guf? Firstly we grew up enjoying ice cream with Guf in Denmark during the brief Danish summers - it was part of summer life; secondly it is the cloud of sweetness on top of the creamy coolness of ice cream that is so enjoyable. And just on a note; Denmark, is mostly a very cool place, but still the people there love their ice cream and are amongst the top ice cream devours in Europe. Both bad and good ice cream. In recent years a lot of gourmet “real” ice cream companies have popped up and are successfully producing and selling good quality ice cream. Maybe I should open an ice creamery.. hmm?
I would become huge!

 xo Sarah

 Hansen Ice Cream

 

 

 Paradis Ice Cream

Ice Cream Cones with Guf

 

Ingredients:

6 tablespoons of sugar

80 g of either raspberries or strawberries

2 pasteurised egg whites

(Tip on using raw egg:  If you cannot get pasteurised, put the eggs in a sieve and scold the egg shells with boiling water before cracking and separating yolk and white. If any, the bad bacteria sit on the outside of the shell - always be careful with raw egg).

 

1.       Put the sugar and berries in a small saucepan. Heat up and simmer until the juice is flowing from the berries and the sugar is melted. Push through a sieve and discard the pulp.

2.       In a clean dry bowl, whip your egg white until they form soft peaks and you can turn the bowl upside down without them spilling out! Add the berry syrup and continue whipping for 15 minutes until it has a stiff shiny consistency.

3.       Add your favourite ice cream to the cones, top with Guf and e.g. sprinkles, nuts, chopped chocolate, fresh berries or other.

Mini Loaves with Pumpkin Seed and Cracked Wheat - Daily Bread #3



Mini loaves for school lunches

Here are some healthy mini loaves waiting to be baked. It is sour dough with pepita seed and cracked wheat. I made the dough last night and put them into a tin and in the fridge where they have been sitting overnight doing their thing. Got up at 5.30am, sun is up at 4.30am as it is summer and we have no daylight saving in Queensland... and I have a child that wakes as soon as the slightest light shines through the blackout curtains. So they were baked well in time for school.





Sour dough with pepita and cracked wheat - and the baked loaves



Pepita seed are a great source of zinc, magnesium and other trace minerals. I use them in lots of bread recipes to add a bit of health. I put a whole mini loaf in both boys’ lunch boxes amongst other things and they can gnaw off them during their breaks.

Food for humans and teddy bears

 

They are also really cute sliced and made into tiny little sandwiches for kids and teddies. Having a family tea party with teddies is lots of fun for kids and is occasionally a favourite activity here in this house.

 

 

 

 

Sour Dough Mini Loaves with Pumpkin Seed and Cracked Wheat

 

8-12 mini loaves, depending to the size of tin you use.

 

Ingredients

5 dl cold water

¼ tsp dried yeast or 10 g fresh

1 dl sourdough starter

150 g cracked wheat

100 g pumpkin seeds/pepita

150 g wholemeal flour

650 g wheat flour

15 g of sea salt

 

Day 1:

 

1.       Soak the cracked wheat in cold water overnight. Once soaked, drain water away.

 

2.      Pour the 5 dl cold water into a bowl, add yeast and sourdough and stir until dissolved. Add the salt and wholemeal flour and most of the wheat flour; just hold a little of the flour back while you mix until you are sure the dough can take more flour. Before you add the seeds - now is the time to take a bit of the dough and put into your jar of sour dough starter for next time. Add your soaked cracked wheat and the pumpkin seeds. Now you need to stir and knead until the dough does not stick to the sides of the bowl anymore. If you have a mixer this is easy – if you do it by hand it takes some kneading... but don’t fret, it is actually quite therapeutic… or at least it helps to think so. Keep going, your dough needs to be very elastic, which means when you pinch it and pull, you should be able to pull a fair bit; it thinning to almost see-through before it snaps. If not, knead 10 more minutes.

 

3.      Brush your tin lightly with oil and place you dough in it. Brush oil on a piece of cling film and cover your tin. Refrigerate for 12 hours.

 

Day 2:

1.       Take your tin out of the fridge and let it sit on the kitchen bench to “wake up” – prove a bit longer. I usually place mine in a sunny spot to help it along. This can be anything from maybe half an hour to say 6 hours depending on how strong your sour dough starter is. Once you are happy with the state of your risen dough, put the oven to 200 degrees. Place an empty baking tin in the bottom of the oven and when you put the breads in the oven, throw a cup of cold water in the hot tin. The steam gives the bread that crispy bubbly crust. Enjoy!

Sour Dough Bread with Zucchini - Daily Bread #1

 Sour Dough with Zucchini

I bake a lot. I love freshly baked goods especially with a bit of health thrown in and also knowing exactly what I am feeding my family. Most of the breads I make are of the very robust kind - sour dough, grain, seeds and wholemeal flours. But as I also do have a sweet tooth sometimes a cakes is in the mix. I use recipes, but I also often just add and mix to that particular dough what I feel like on the day. When I did the post for Bread with Buckwheat it took forever editing the pictures and organising the setup, so until I have a fantastic camera like Nora's I might just stick with simple pictures for these Daily Bread posts. They are meant for inspiration - and I will add recipes later.

 My mum makes this delicious Crab Apple Jelly - beside the taste the colour is so vibrant and beautiful.

 The Crab apples are grown in my parents garden in Denmark. When my brother came for a visit to Australia two weeks ago, his suitcase contained 7 jars of my mum's homemade jams - heaven! Thanks mum! 

 

Grated Zucchini was added to the dough. This makes the bread lovely and moist on the inside. 

 

 

Sour Dough Bread with Grated Zucchini

 

1 large loaf or 2 small ones:

Ingredients

500 ml of water

2 tbsp oil e.g. canola or vegetable

1 tbsp sea salt

1 tbsp of honey

100 ml sour dough starter (or if you do not have this then use 1 tsp dried yeast, or 20 g of fresh yeast)

1/4 tsp dried yeast, additional to your sour dough starter.

650 g of plain wheat flour

200 g of wholemeal spelt or other wholemeal flour (I used rye flour)

1 zucchini (approx. 250 g) coarsely grated

 

Day 1

Mix water, oil, salt, honey and sour dough starter in your bowl. Mix in both flours a little at a time. This dough is very soft, so there is no kneading here, just give it a really good stir/mix with your spoon. I use a machine, but using a wooden spoon is no problem.

Now if you like, before you add the zucchini take some of the dough and save for your next sour dough starter. Then add the zucchini.

Scrape the dough into you bread tins, one large one or two small ones depending on what size bread you want. Press down and even out the dough with a spatula (if you put cold water on the spatula it does not stick to the dough).

Spray or brush some oil on some cling film and cover your tins. The oil ensures that you can remove the film easily without the dough sticking to it. Leave to rise overnight in the fridge or if it is not too hot then on the kitchen bench.

Day 2

If you had the dough in the fridge, it might not have rise fully. Take it out and let it sit on the kitchen bench and “wake up” for a few hours before baking. No matter how you do it, the most important thing is that it has risen by about a third or more of its size. Recipes often state a time for the “proving” of the dough, but often I find that the dough needs much longer what the recipe says. It is better not to hurry this, wait another hour if your bread has not risen high enough.

Turn on your oven on high, 225 degrees, put an empty bread tin at the bottom of the oven to heat up. Once you put your loaves in the oven, throw ½ cup water into the empty tin and close the oven door quickly. The steam will give you that nice crispy bubbly crust on your bread. After about 10 minutes; turn down the heat to 200 degrees. Bake for approx. 30 min. for two small loaves or 45 min for one large one.

All ovens are different, so always check whether it looks nice and brown and done. Sometimes I remove the tins and give them 5 minutes more in the oven to crisp up. Tip: you will know if your bread is done by knocking on the bottom side of it - if it sounds hollow then it is done. Bon appetite!

xo Sarah

 

 PS. do not leave your loaves on the kitchen bench if it is a warm night! I should know better living in Australia, but the fridge was full and I was tired! When I went to bed all looked fine - when I got up in the morning... dough explosion!!