Homemade Bread: Cheaper, Better (Recipe: Sunflower, Flax & Sesame homemade bread)

Picture courtesy of shanidar.net

While Laia and myself were in Iceland, we tasted some of the best breads we have eaten (not counting German breads, of course), and decided to get a bread machine at home. I eat a lot of bread for breakfast, either toasts with butter or with olive oil and cheese, and this may definitely mean some money saving.

A very gross estimate puts the cost of a 500g French bread from the machine at 2.2€, probably closer to 1.5€ (I have also counted costs of seeds for flavouring) or less. While a pre-made sandwich style bread costs around 2€ for 450g.

Home made bread has a disadvantage in my case: it lasts less than the bought one. Why? It tastes definitely better, and I end up eating a lot more.

Below I have a recipe my girlfriend uses to do me, and I love it. I love the taste of sesame seeds and sunflower seeds, and the flax seeds give the bread a very interesting flavour. Check it out! Beware, it is a recipe intended to be done with a bread machine!

• 300 gr strong flour (bread type)
• 200 gr standard flour
• 5 tablespoons sunflower seeds
• 4 tablespoons flax seeds
• 4 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 300 ml water
• 1 sack active dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• a generous pinch of salt

Some day we will try to remove a little olive oil and a little sesame paste (tahini), because I love the sesame taste in my dishes.

Enjoy the World Bread Day:

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Lemon Artichokes

Picture courtesy of Shanidar

This is a recipe from my girlfriend's blog (she writes in Catalan, you can check her post here). We love artichokes, and this recipe makes them very tasty. If you enjoy artichokes, give it a try now they are in season.

You will need the following ingredients

• 4 artichokes
• 1 garlic bulb
• 2 lemons
• 1 litre chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon thyme
• 2 bay leaves (thanks for the comment below!)
• 1/2 cup white wine (optional)
• salt, pepper, olive oil and butter

Slice your lemons in half and throw a little lemon juice in a cup, mix it with 4 tablespoons melted butter. Set aside. In a big pot, pour the broth, thyme, laurel, garlic, wine a shot of olive oil and 3 lemon halves. Let it cook very slowly.

Clean the artichokes and remove the leaves from the bottom. Cut the ends of the artichoke leaves and rub the remaining half lemon on them.

Give a taste to the lemon broth, add salt and pepper to suit your tastes. Put the artichokes upside down in the pot (with the base pointing up) and cook for around 30 minutes, with the pot closed. They will be ready when they are soft when pricked with a fork in the base.

Serve with a cup with the melted butter we separated before, to dip the artichoke leaves in. If you like, you can add a little cumin or cilantro to the butter mix.

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Homemade Pylsur Recipe

Back in June and July, we were on holidays in Iceland. A wonderful country, full of amazing landscapes and people. Also full of amazing food... Among it, the pylsur (or pylsa). It is a type of hot-dog, unique to Iceland and for me, it is the best hot-dog I have ever eaten.

Back at home I missed its taste, and (as the Wikipedia entry has the list of ingredients) tried to roll my own.

What you will need

• Hot dog buns
• Hot dog (preferably a boiled Scandinavian type)
• Dried onion
• Finely chopped fresh onion
• Ketchup
• Sweet mustard
• Mayonnaise (or remolaði/remoulade if you can find it)
  
• Powdered curry
• Tablespoon olive oil (optional)

I don't put quantities in this ingredients list, because you should already know it it one hot-dog for each bun and a little of everything in all of them.

The preparation is easy, as you may already guess. Mix three tablespoons mayonnaise with a teaspoon curry and the olive oil, mix well. This makes for a remolaði substitute (although the original is better, if you can find remolaði/remoulade go for it!). Heat your hot dogs and remove a little bread from the inside of the buns to make place for the chopped onion and dried onion. Add ketchup, sweet mustard to and mayonnaise with curry to taste.

This is not as good as a real pylsur from Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur but it is a very good appetizer. I hope you enjoy it, and remember to ask for "eina með öllu" (one with everything).

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Icelandic Waterfall and Rock Wallpaper

Road Trip Through Iceland
Eating in Iceland (if you are not an Icelander)

Things you should read about before travelling to Iceland
The 100 Most Common Words in Icelandic (more or less)

Lime Pie Recipe

Does not like like that, but tastes great!

• 2 ripe avocados
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla (or vanillated sugar)
• 3/4 cup agave syrup (or sugar syrup)
  
• 1/2 cup lime juice
  
• 1/8 tablespoon salt
• 3/4 cup coconut butter (or coconut oil)
  
• pie crust (below a recipe for it)

Mix all the ingredients (except the pie crust) in a blender.

• 180 gr plain cookies
• 200 gr butter

Melt the butter and crush finely the cookies. Mix and place in the bottom of a cake pan, also on the sides of it. Pour the blended mix and place in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.

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Gluten, Dairy, Egg-Free Dark Brown Cane Sugar Biscuit

Although this looks like a all-free / no taste cake, it is wonderful. And of course, at it is gluten, dairy and egg free, almost everyone can eat it. What you will need:

• 1 measure soy yoghurt
  
• 1 measure dark brown sugar (we used Tate & Lyle Dark Brown Sugar)
• 1 measure gluten-free flour
• 1/4 measure oil
• 1 teaspoon baking powder

Here measure depends on how much iogurt do you have. You can use the yoghurt cups to make all measurements. Mix well all ingredients, pour into a baking pan and put in the oven, 200ºC for 1 hour. Check very often... it is hard to tell when it is finished. It should be hard on the outside and soft on the inside, without leaving any trace on a toothpick. Enjoy!

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Iced coffee with Nutella: The nutcafecocktail

Or, as Fabian Kruse has named it: nutcafecocktail

The recipe is easy, as there is no really a recipe, just a list of ingredients. You can do it with real coffee, but Nescafe espresso is quite a good coffee to make iced coffee. You'll need

• Nescafe espresso
• Sugar
• Nutella
• Ice cubes
• Water

As for quantities, find your own levels. I like my iced coffee strong and long, thus I can add anything from 4 to 6 teaspoons of Nescafe for a whole cup of water. And I use a little more sugar than coffee (5 for 4, 8 for 6).

Put the coffee and sugar in your cocktail shaker, add the ice cubes and one tablespoon of Nutella, more or less. Add water to suit your coffee taste, close and shake for a while. Once everything is well mixed, pour in a nice glass and enjoy your caffeine and sugar high, you deserve it.

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Æblekage (Crispy Apple Pie)

A few days ago I found this recipe via StumbleUpon. I had two apples I would not eat, and decided to give it a go. But I didn't have oatmeal, so I improvised. This is my version, which I call Crispy Apple Pie.

If you have ever been to Denmark, they eat something named Æblekage. I ate it last November, and I loved it. This is very, very similar... with a little whipped cream it would be almost the same.

It is not a good-looking dessert, but it is the kind of dessert you can bake in a big plate for quite a few people... and when the party is over, there will be no Crispy Pie left. Guaranteed. Moreover, it does not take very long to do it (around 30 minutes only, plus 40 of baking time).

What you will (roughly) need:

• Two apples
• 200 gr creamy cheese (Philadelphia or similar)
• 2 eggs
• Crispy cookies (Graham crackers, galletas María...)
  
• Walnuts or some other nut (optional, more if you are allergic)
  
• Brown sugar (around 1'5 cups, but not all in one batch)
• Cinnamon, powdered ginger, vanillated sugar or vanilla extract
• Melted butter (around 7 tablespoons)
  

I know the measurements are wishy-washy. This kind of dessert allows for quite adding sugar, removing sugar, adding butter or removing it. So feel free to put whatever you want. This is just the blueprint, you are the architect.

The procedure is easy. Peel the apples and cut them like French fries Grease a pie plate liberally with butter, and place the apple sticks there. Add a quarter cup of brown sugar, a teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon ginger. Mix thoroughly (I used a fork for this).

Mix 200 gr of creamy cheese (Philadelphia, for instance) with two eggs, another quarter of cup of brown sugar and a teaspoon vanillated sugar or vanilla extract.

Once beaten, pour over the apples, extending evenly

Now crush some crispy type cookie (in Spain that would be Galletas María, in other parts of the world, Graham crackers... the kind of cookie you would use to make a cheesecake pie crust, crispy but not really sweet) to fill half a cup. Crush some walnuts (up to your taste), add 1/3 of cup of brown sugar, more cinnamon and 6 tablespoons melted butter. Mix thoroughly, all the cookie bits should be moist with butter.

Once you are done, spread it over the previous mix, as evenly as possible.

Bake for 40 minutes at 180ºC. It will be almost done when the sugar from the bottom starts to bubble at the top.

Let it cool down. When it is cold, the top will be crispy, the bottom soft and the taste amazing (if you like apple pies, of course).

Keep it in the freezer, it can last a few days... if you don't finish it before.

If you feel creative you can change the walnuts for pistachios or almonds, or the apples for peaches. The peach+almond combination is the next I'll try.

If you enjoyed this recipe and want to share it with more people, please consider thumbing it up in StumbleUpon or upvoting it in Reddit. If you don't use these, share with your friends!

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