Lussekatter ( Santa Lucia saffron buns)

On Friday in Sweden it was Santa Lucia’s day. Children get dressed as Lucia and everybody’s baking and eating lussekatter, saffron buns. They are very nice and fluffy with a nice saffron aroma and taste, very enjoyable with a glass of milk and reminding you that it is soon Christmas. 

Caramel Cookies (kolakakor)

Christmas is almost here and I am in a holiday baking fever. So, today let’s start with something very quick and easy to make but also delicious. It is a Swedish recipe or I think so, because I have only eaten them here in Sweden. I like the buttery taste of these cookies with the hint of caramel from the golden syrup and their texture. They are perfect with a nice hot cup of coffee and you only need about 15 minutes to make them, baking time included.

Banana Oat Bars

Sometimes, I feel the need to make something "healthier" or at least more nutritious and also, I love oat bars. They are perfect for breakfast or as a snack. These oat bars are soft and not too sweet, they are just as much as they need to be. The recipe is coming from my favorite Greek pastry chef and maybe the most famous one in Greece: Stelios Parliaros. He makes all kinds of things from easy to very difficult. I love making his recipes because they always have a perfect balance of everything and some flavor combinations I wouldn’t think about.

This recipe is a really easy one. The original was with mashed strawberries, but my ripe bananas needed to be used instead. They made a great couple with the chocolate chips and I bet they would be also great dipped in chocolate.

Almond paste, orange and chocolate buns & cinnamon buns (kanelbullar)

Here in Sweden, bullar (sweet buns) are the most usual company for coffee. It is a sweet yeast bread with usually, an intense cardamom aroma. There are a lot of different kinds of bullar. The classic one is kanelbulla, the cinnamon bun that you can find everywhere. Of course the homemade version is always the tastiest. This time,except the classic cinnamon buns I made a successful experiment with almond paste, orange and chocolate filling that it has now become one of my favorites. For the dough I used a recipe that I found behind a flour package.

Apple and cinnamon muffins

I love the combination of apple and cinnamon and when I saw this recipe in Nigella’s book, I had to try them. The result was these yummy, moist and great smelling muffins. I did overfill the paper liners though, but they are still delicious. Overflown but delicious.

Almond Biscotti

Sometimes simple things are the best and these biscotti prove that. Their aroma and flavor are amazing and they are perfect for your afternoon coffee or with a glass of wine. Another thing that I love about them is that they keep well for several weeks in an airtight container. The recipe comes from a very nice cookbook: Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich.

Chewy Flapjacks

When I first tried flapjacks I didn’t really care about them. But then I ate once more and once more and every time I liked it more and more. I had only tried the ones that you can find in the supermarket so, I decided to learn how to make them on my own. I read some recipes and I saw that the main idea was 1 part sugar, 1 part butter, 1 part syrup and 2 parts oats. So, I gave it a try with Lorraine Pascale’s recipe  and the result was these delicious, chewy bars. I like that they are sweet because they remind me a little of baklava that I miss here! I kept it simple for now because it was the first time I made them but I think I will experiment more with these treats because we absolutely love them! They are great to pair with a cup of  hot black coffee.