Chez Larsson

First Macaron Attempt

As you know I’m in bake mode and I’ve been wanting to try making macarons.

 

I used a coin as a template to draw the round shapes on my baking paper which I then turned over so I wouldn’t get pencil on my macarons.

 

I mixed the ingredients of a basic macaron with a bit of lemon added to it and piped the mixture on to the circles. I know, not the prettiest sight, it was all kind of runny…

 

They did puff up nicely in the oven though but sunk slightly after I got them out. And they are browner than they’re supposed to be…

 

And some are double. Luckily I could pair those together with the lemon white chocolate lemon cream in between.

 

Not the prettiest and most even macarons you ever saw but Wille sure approved.

 

As a first attempt I give them 3 out of 5.

Golden Moment

Last week I was lucky to receive a golden moment by Wille’s and my favorite chocolate brand. Those little hazelnutty nuggets are just SO delicious. I always get them for Wille’s Christmas stocking but this box we just devoured right away. Yum!

Thank you, Ferrero Rocher!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy thanksgiving, guys!

 

 

My dinner club members and I celebrated ours early. Say hi to Sarah!

 

Us dinner club members, Kerstin, Jenny, Sarah and I rotate the club dinners at our houses and this time around we were at Kerstin’s place, three houses from mine. There were cosmos…

 

 

… while the last bits of preparations were done.

 

And then we sat down for traditional turkey…

 

 

… stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato mash and brussel sprouts…

 

… at the beautifully set Thanksgiving table.

 

For three quarters of us this was our first ever proper Thanksgiving dinner and of course we topped it off with a delicious pecan pie. I had it easy this time around and just supplied the drinks. That dessert wine was oh so good if I do say so myself! Thanks girls for a lovely evening!

Hope you have a great Thanksgiving! I know I have a lot to be thankful for.

Smörkola Fail

I was lucky to receive another box of magic a little while ago. You know the box from Svenskt Smör where they want me to create something magical.

 

I don’t know if you remember but I was complaining a little that the ingredients the last time around were for cooking but this time I was happy to get something to make something sweet with.

 

I wasn’t quite sure what to make out of what I got but in the end I went for smörkola, a buttery toffee which is traditionally eaten at Christmas over here and I figured I’d get a head start on something for the holiday dessert table.

 

I followed this Swedish recipe and really tried to follow all the steps but as you can see further down I must have done something wrong because my finished result looks nothing like the finished product there…

 

I also checked out some other recipes and realized I could add different flavors at the end so I constructed a little tray from foil with four compartments for four flavors.

 

I chose lime, cardamom, cocoa powder and licorice. At this point I was really excited. I figured I had my dessert table all figured out.

 

I even used the thermometer that came with my oven for the first time ever.

 

But uh, that hard dark brown stuff’s nothing like the soft tan in the instructions. Was it too hot? Cooked for too long? I even had a hard time (haha) cutting the finished product at the end. A hammer and chisel would have come in handy. Let me put it this way, it sure aint toffee. Caramel? Yeah, but not the best you’ve ever had.

 

Not sure the result is very magical but it was fun to try and they do look cute on that stand. Not sure we’ll be eating a whole lot of them though. Fail.

Ögon

Most Swedes will recognize these eyes. Aside from gracing the posters of many a Swedish design blogger they are actually the trademark of our most common cocoa powder Ögon kakao (ögon = eyes). Fazer sent me a box with samples of their new products and new design on existing products to try and since I’m currently in baking mode I jumped at the chance to try some new recipes.

 

I had my eyes (haha) on the fudge brownies with salt flakes from Roy Fares’ book. I usually bake a different chocolate cake but was keen to try something new.

 

Swedes can find the recipe here. I’ve translated it for the rest of you below.

 

Truffle

• 150 g/5.3 oz dark chocolate, 55 %
• 150 g/5.3 oz whipping cream (1 ½ dl)
• Salt flakes to sprinkle

Brownie

• 150 g/5.3 oz unsalted butter
• 250 g/8.8 oz caster sugar
• 70 g/2.5 oz cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla sugar
• 2 eggs
• 60 g/2.2 oz flour

For the truffle

Chop the chocolate and place in a bowl. Boil the cream, add that to the chocolate and let sit until the chocolate has melted. Stir into a smooth truffle. Cover with cling film.

For the Brownie

Set the oven to 160 C/320F. Grease the edges of an 20x20cm/8x8” baking dish with butter and cover the bottom with oven paper. (I used a rectangle one of the same volume but different shape.)

Melt the butter at low temperature in a pan. Add sugar, cocoa powder, salt and vanilla sugar and mix. Carefully mix in an egg at a time. Lastly fold in the flour and carefully mix into a smooth batter. Distribute evenly into the dish and bake for 20-22 minutes in the middle of the oven. Let cool.

Remove the brownie from the dish and remove the oven paper. Turn upside down and spread the truffle on top, sprinkle on salt flakes. Let the cake set in the fridge for about 45 minutes. Serve at room temperature.

 

 
OMG. SO good. You have got to try it!