Truly Scrumptious

It's been a pleasant week.

It was a grey day today, but I'm writing here sitting on the thin mattress with my laptop perched on a box in front of me (best ergonomic solution) and our pink lamp and candles glowing and flickering in the dim light. Our main light wasn't properly fixed to the wall, and came out, and is too high up the wall for us to reach, even standing on the one chair we have. We've asked to borrow a ladder from the janitor, but no luck so far. But that's okay, because we have candles. I noticed as soon as I came here that there were candles everywhere, in every house, on every table in every restaurant (including the university cafetaria, which incidentally is also run by Eurest - but with much much much better food than at Vic! Swedes always have a hot lunch, so they offer an all you can eat salad buffet along with the hot meal of the day. However, it does cost about $15). I now know the reason behind the candles - to beat out the gloom, both meterological and emotional.

On Friday the sun was out and spring was in the air. People were thronging the streets and even sitting outdoors to sip their coffees. Axel took the afternoon off his intensive study schedule and we made kanelbullar (cinnamon buns) and listened to pop music while the sun streamed in our windows. The buns were quite simply divine. A bit like cinnamon pinwheels, but the cardamom-flavoured dough makes them a bit differrent. I'll put the recipe at the end of this post. Swedish baking is amazing. I developed an addiction to Araksbollar, truffles flavoured with cognac with a crispy chocolatey coating rolled in chocolate hail. But as I'm too poor I had to kick the habit and only buy the occasional one from the supermarket (where the cognac is just flavouring).

Also rating highly in the baking scene at the moment are semlor (or Fat Tuesday buns), in preparation for Fat Tuesday (fettisdagen) on the 24th of this month. Semlor are cardamom flavoured buns with the tops cut off and hollowed out and stuffed with mandelmass (a paste made from sugar and almonds) and festooned with whipped cream. Finally the top of the bun is perched jauntily back on top. Smaskens! (Swedish word for "yummy"). We had a very convivial afternoon a couple of weeks ago making vegan semlor as Oscar, one of our new friends, is a keen vegan. The supermarkets here cater amazingly for people with a conscience - almost everything is available in "ecological" variety (which means some kind of combinaiton of fair-trade and environmentally friendly), and you can even get a vegan version of the kind of whipped cream that comes in a spray-bottle!

(Side note - Oscar had heard about the vegan scene in NZ from internet forums, but had been led to believe that there was an unproportional number of vegansexuals in NZ. He'd also heard that the major social problems in New Zealand was drug abuse and incest. He'd met a girl who had been a door-to-door salesperson in New Zealand, who had reported that incest was not only very common in New Zealand, but that everyone was quite open about it and took it as just another fact of life. I don't know where this girl was working?!)

I've been paying the odd visit to cafes - attempting to make friends, or meeting with my study group from university (tutorials here don't involve a tutor. Instead you meet with your group in a cafe and discuss things). Thankfully Göteborg has a cafe culture similar to Wellington, and I've been having fun trying out new ones - some sunken below the footpath, identifiable only by the twinkling of candles and fairy-lights; one done up like a doll's house inside, with immaculate china, French pastries, wrought iron and boiled sweets; one vividly orange with geometric prints and vibrantly coloured couches and barstools; there's even one (on Esperanto street) which has a different language/languages for each day of the week so people can come and practice. And I found a supermarket which stocks Dilmah tea, so I think I can survive this country now.

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Kanelbullar Recipe

DOUGH
75g butter
1 cup milk
25g yeast (here they have yeast in a kind of cake, rather than dried. Not sure what to do with the dried stuff, but welcome any suggestions).
50mL sugar (1/5 cup)
1 tsp cardemom
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups flour (or more)

Heat butter on the stove until soft. Add milk, cardemom, and salt. Heat till it feels warm when you stick a finger in, but not hot. Put yeast and sugar in a mixing bowl, then add butter mixture. Stir until yeast and sugar are dissolved. Add flour slowly until dough has the right consistency, and knead a little with your hands or a wooden spoon (dough shouldn't be too dry, but should lift cleanly off the bottom of the bowl once kneaded). Leave to rise for 30 mins.

FILLING
50g butter (room temperature)
50mL sugar (1/5 cup)
1 tsp (or more) cinnamon
1 egg

Roll out the dough very thin and spread with the butter. Evenly sprinkle over the sugar and cinnamon. Roll into a log and slice width-wise into small buns. Put the buns spiral side up (and down) on a baking paper lined oven tray. Glaze with the egg and bake for 8-10 mins (or until browned) at 225 degrees in the middle of the oven.