ScandiKitchen: Fika and Hygge: Comforting Cakes and Bakes from Scandinavia with Love

110 Pages·2016·5.86 MB·English

by  Bronte Aurell

SCANDIKITCHEN
FIKA & HYGGE

SCANDIKITCHEN
FIKA & HYGGE
Comforting cakes and bakes from Scandinavia with love
BRONTË AURELL
Photography by Peter Cassidy
CONTENTS
Introduction
The Scandi Baking Pantry
Basic Recipes
Biscuits & Cookies
Feature: Seven Kinds of Biscuits
Traybakes & No Bakes
Feature: Feeling Hygge
Everyday Fika
Feature: How to Fika
Little Fancy Cakes
Feature: Fancy Fika
Celebration Cakes
Feature: Winter Celebrations
Breads & Batters
Feature: For the Love of Baking
Index
Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION
ScandiKitchen, our wonderful café and grocery shop in London’s
West End, was born out of pure homesickness and a need to find
a space where we could meet up with people for a fika – a cup of
coffee and a bite of something sweet to eat. A place where we
could meet with family and friends to just enjoy being together
and hygge a bit, escaping from the hustle and bustle of day-to-
day life. When we first had the idea of opening a Nordic-inspired
café almost ten years ago, it was near on impossible to find all
the food goodies we missed from home. So we decided to create
a place that reflected our love for the foods we missed.
Being Swedish and Danish, it always seemed natural that the
concepts of fika and hygge had to be at the heart of everything
we do at the café. One of the first things Jonas made sure was
on the menu was the wholesome cinnamon bun – and Brontë
even toyed with the idea of naming the café Hygge – reflecting
just how important this concept is to us. We decided hygge
might be tricky to pronounce for some, so settled for what we
are: a homely Scandinavian kitchen run by a friendly bunch of
people. To create a welcoming space was always a priority for
us, whether you are a homesick Nordic expat looking for your fix
of salty liquorice or anyone else just searching for a nice place
for a cup of coffee and a good piece of cake. Anyone can feel a
sense of hygge, a state of content cosiness with friends where
nothing else seems to matter.
Of course, not everybody has the opportunity to just pop by our
café to say hello. With this book, we wanted to share some of
our favourite autumn and winter treats – perfect for the short,
dark winter days. From buns, to cakes, to little pastries – a
selection of recipes to make your own traditional fika at home
and create cosy feelings of hygge with people you love. For
everybody to be able to bring a bit of Nordic loving to their lives
through the cakes we love to make and bake.
In the years since we opened our doors, much has changed
about the way Scandinavia is viewed from outside our home
countries. Back when we opened, nobody knew the word fika,
and hygge was just another unpronounceable Danish word.
Nowadays, books are being written on the concepts of fika and
hygge, and it truly feels as if the world is waking up to the
wonders of remembering to turn off the noise from our busy
everyday routines. While we’re sure they could have done this
without Scandinavia’s help, having the words to define what we
feel is important.
We hope you enjoy this selection of our favourite autumn and
winter treats from Scandinavia and that you enjoy creating
feelings of hygge and fika in your own homes.
Brontë & Jonas Aurell
THE SCANDI BAKING PANTRY
Scandinavia is a huge place, so what defines an ingredient as
‘local’ varies from hilly Norway to flat Denmark - there’s a
2,500 km/1,500 mile distance between them. However, we all
share a love of lots of similar products, so here is a brief guide
to some of the products you will need for Nordic baking. We’ve
put this together based on things we get asked for at the café,
and we often help people source specific ingredients or find
local replacements to use instead. You will find a more
comprehensive list at www.scandikitchen.co.uk.
Popular spices
Caraway/kommen/kummin/karve
In Scandinavia, caraway is known as kommen, which sounds
similar to ‘cumin’ so it is often translated incorrectly in recipes.
(Cumin is called spidskommen.) We use caraway seeds a lot in
breads as well as cheeses. In this book it is suggested as a
flavouring for crispbread (see page 167).
Cardamom/karemumme/kardemumma
It was actually the Vikings who first sampled this spice during
their raids on Constantinople. While we mostly use cardamom in
sweet baking and breads, it does occasionally sneak into savoury
food (a pinch is used in some regional meatball recipes). It is also
sometimes used as a flavouring in strong alcohols.
We use the ground variety, which you can buy in larger
supermarkets and Asian speciality shops. I favour using freshly
ground cardamom, though, because it is one of those spices that
lose potency very quickly when pre-ground. If you use freshly
ground, watch the quantity, as it is strong and if you are not used
to the punchy flavour, hold back a bit.
To make ground cardamom at home, either buy cardamom
seeds online and finely grind in a spice grinder or pestle and
mortar, or open the pods (Scandinavians prefer the green pods)
and scoop out the seeds to grind (remove the little woody bits
of husk inside the pod and only grind the seeds).
Cinnamon/kanel
Where would the Nordic people be without their beloved
cinnamon buns? We use cinnamon in a lot of our baking, from
biscuits to cakes and breads. There are different grades of
cinnamon – go for good-quality ground cinnamon.
Cloves/nelliker/kryddnejlika/nellik
We use both whole cloves and ground cloves in our baking,