I would've liked my first baking post to start with faultless technique and end with perfection on a plate, but that just wouldn't be me. I have a natural affinity for baking.. just not the natural talents to back it up. No, what I have is a natural clumsiness. Just ask my husband - something always gets forgotten or spilled.
However, I push on and hope that at least 50% of what I make will be passable enough to serve. So now that you've been warned, let's have a look at my weekend baking effort -
Klippekrans.
First things first - ingredients. For me, there's one ingredient that makes things smell & taste like Norway...
Cardamom.
Norway in a bottle. I love the smell, and the taste, and the fact that it's used in just about all of the Norwegian bun recipes I've tried. Many of these recipes spring from one base dough with small variations. Today I'm bringing you Klippekrans, which translates to "cut wreath", assumedly because the presentation involves cutting and overlapping the dough to form a pretty wreath.
But I guess you need ALL the ingredients, hey.
Dough
100 g Butter
350 ml Milk
100 g Sugar
2 packets Dry Yeast (or 50 g Fresh)
1 ts cardamom (I like to heap mine)
600 g flour approx.
1 egg (for brushing over)
To be honest, I didn't really measure my filling.. I just sort of threw in what seemed right. Feel free to adjust it to your tastes. Here's my best guess of what I did... maybe my 1/3 cup was the only clean one or something, cos there's a lot of "80 g" going on here...*shrug*
Filling
80 g (1/3 cup) Margarine or Butter (I used margarine because it's easier to spread).
80 g (1/3 cup) Sugar (I used both white and brown).
80 g Chopped Almonds
1 Tbs Cinnamon
Topping
80 g (1/2 cup) Icing Sugar approx.
Milk, a teaspoon at a time until it reaches the right consistency.
Perlesukker (Don't think Oz grocery stores have this - I bought it from a Swedish shop on the Gold Coast).
Now before you read further, you should know something. I have a huge problem with indecision. The internet is full of conflicting opinions when it comes to cooking, so I'm never sure on how much, which order, how long, what temperature etc. so if it seems like my methods are strange... well don't ask me, cos I'm just as confused as you. I couldn't even decide which sugar to use!
When making dough some people like to slowly add the dry to the wet, others prefer to add the butter last, bit by bit; some say beaten eggs are better than unbeaten eggs. I'm not the kind of person who can taste these subtle differences, so I tend to do whatever I'm feeling on the day. It's just how I roll... or make rolls. Heh.
1. Keeping 1 cup of flour aside, chuck the dry dough ingredients in a bowl and combine. Just for you, I arranged mine all pretty-like.
2. In a jug, melt the butter and add milk, warming to lukewarm.
3. With dough hook attached, set the mixer on low and add the liquid to the dry ingredients.
4. Little by little add the rest of the flour while it kneads. When it stops sticking to the bowl, stop adding flour. After at least 10-15 mins of kneading, it should be smooth and elastic.
5. Sprinkle a little flour on top, cover and leave to rise for 30 mins.
Remember that indecision quirk of mine? Well I couldn't decide on covering the bowl with glad wrap, a tea towel, or a plate... so I did all three!
6. Combine all the filling ingredients, except for the nuts, in a bowl (if using butter, you might like to heat it to make it spreadable).
I decided to fiddle with my blog to pass the time while the dough was rising. An hour later I realised I'd gotten a little carried away.
Oops. Good to see it rose though!
7. Preheat oven on 200'c or 180'c fan forced. Plonk the dough on a sheet of baking paper, and roll it out to around the size of a baking tray.
8. Spread the filling mix all over, and sprinkle the chopped almonds on top.
9. Roll into a sausage, as you would for cinnamon rolls. Transfer to a lined baking tray, and shape into a circle. To attach the ends, open one up a little and fold it around the other end.
From this point my pictures are more of an indication of how it shouldn't look. But if yours does look like mine, never fear, it all turns out in the end!
Perhaps I had too much yeast, or left it sit too long again, but by now mine was so puffy that what should have been an arm-sized sausage, was looking more like a thigh.
I struggled to manouvre the ever-growing python into a circle. This didn't happen last time! ...Ah well.
Mmm. Appetizing.
I started rethinking this post right about now.
10. I couldn't take photos while doing this step, so I hope I can explain it well. Using kitchen scissors (you could use a knife) and without going all the way through to the tray, cut into the sausage twice, making a finger-width 'slice'. Pull gently towards the inside of the circle. A finger-width behind that, make a cut to form another slice. Pull this one towards the outside of the circle. It should make a little 'V' shape of spirally, gooey bits. Continue around the wreath in this manner, moving pieces left and right until the last 'V' rests on the first one.
11. Let it rise for another 20-30 mins. I skipped this step, because mine was so ridiculously puffy, the tray was struggling to contain it.
12. Brush over with egg, and bake for 20-30 mins. I let mine go an extra 5 minutes, as I didn't feel it was brown enough.
Done.
13. Now for the most frustrating part of cooking - "allow to cool". Pffft. I have no patience whatsoever, and consequently end up burning my mouth almost always.
14. When cooled, mix together the icing sugar and milk with a spoon until you like how it falls off the spoon, and go to town.
I drew big 'V' shapes back and forth over mine, followed by little 'v's inside them. Sprinkle with perlesukker and bob's your uncle... it's tucker time.
It didn't all go to plan, but I took it to morning tea with some friends and didn't bring any home. Success!
