Yule Mule (Cocktail)

Ever since I made this delicious Dutch Orange Bitters, I've been keeping an eye out for cocktails to use it in. This Yule Mule is (as you can tell by the name) a traditional Yuletime cocktail, but really is great any time of the year. It's incredibly refreshing on a hot Australian summer day, so bring it out at your family Xmas this year. You could even give gifts of little bottles of home made Orange Bitters to family with a copy of the recipe for this cocktail so they can replicate it at home.

How are you going for Xmas gift ideas? If you're a bit stumped, or are looking to add in some home made edible stocking fillers then Gormandize has definitely got you covered! Small edible gifts are also great for colleagues, teachers or neighbours who you want to give a gift to but don't know that well and don't want to spend too much on. All this month starting tomorrow, I'll be sharing Christmas Gift ideas on the Gormandize facebook page. Don't worry, they're not all just different types of biscuits in jars - they're very varied. Follow the page on facebook to get all these nifty ideas in one place. 

Yule Mule

Ingredients

1 1/2 measures of vodka

1/2 measure fresh lime juice

1/2 measure cranberry juice

Dash of orange bitters 

3 measures ginger beer

To Make

1. Combine vodka, lime juice, cranberry juice and orange bitter. Shake well and strain into a highball glass half filled with ice.

2. Top up with ginger beer and serve. 

Makes 1 drink - multiply by however many people you're making it for.

Chocolate Cranberry Cashew "Cookie Dough" Balls

A quick little recipe for you for this month's Sweet Adventures Blog Hop. The theme this month is "Cookie Monster", but I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment and I'm currently feeling really good about myself. So the last thing I want to eat is biscuits. I tried my hand at a healthy alternative though - healthy vegan cookie dough bites. Raw, vegan, no flour but with a bit of sugar (nobody's perfect). They make a lovely healthy sweet snack.

Use the links below my recipe to check out the other biscuit-y entries in this month's hop!

Chocolate Cranberry Cashew Cookie Dough Bites

Ingredients

2/3 cup raw cashew pieces

1 tbsp dried coconut

2 heaped tbsp rolled oats

2 tsbp cocoa powder

3 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp dried cranberry pieces (if you have whole dried cranberries, chop them up a bit) 

2 tbsp chopped dark chocolate pieces (about 20g)

To Make

1. Place the cashews, coconut and oats in a food processor and process until they form a flour consistency.

2. Add the cocoa, maply syrup and vanilla extract and pulse until the mixture all comes together.

3. Transfer to a bowl and stir through the cranberry and chocolate pieces.

4. Roll out into balls using your hands and chill for at least 10 minutes before eating.

Makes 10 balls.

Dutch Lazybones Buns (Luilakbollen)

Good morning all! I hope you will forgive my long stretch without posting, I have gotten into a rather bad habit lately of leaving all my posts 'til the end of the month and then being sick of writing posts by the end of the month and then taking the first week or two of the next month off the blog completely. Which, of course is a vicious cycle, because it means that all my posts get left until the end of the month again. Oh dear, what a convoluted mess. I'm going to try and break that habit next month!

So, as it happens I'm posting my first April post up today. Did you all enjoy March's Samoan food? I hope so! Unless of course you hate coconut in which case it probably wasn't your month! This month we're travelling pretty far away from Samoa, back into Europe. This month we're having.... drumroll.....

The Netherlands Month!

This month Dutch food will be happening big time at Gormandize! I hope you're ready for a really delicious month (silly sentence really, as you're obviously not hoping for a really disgusting food month).

Although a few Dutch dishes have made it big internationally (like Speculaas!), overall their cuisine is relatively unknown on the world stage and doesn't tend to get a lot of hype from foodies. Infact, the Netherlands seems to be mostly famous for drugs and it's red light district. Oh, as well as windmills and clogs. I visited the Netherlands with my family when I was about 10 years old and, needless to say, didn't experience any of it's (in)famous drug culture. I did, however, learn what a red light district was and have a ball at the windmills and clog shops.

Enough gibber-jabbering now though, it's time to talk about food! Dutch food is probably best known for it's spiced biscuits, cakes and breads and so that is exactly where we're starting. These are called Lazybones Buns, and the cute name isn't the only reason I picked them to try first out of all the Dutch recipes I googled. Having, just had Easter, I've been having a lot of delicious Hot Cross Buns. To me, Easter is all about Hot Cross Buns, and then suddenly (literally overnight), they're not available any more :( So, I sometimes have some withdrawal cravings.

These Lazybones Buns remind me quite a bit of hot cross buns (minus the cross on top of course), so they were perfect for my withdrawal. They're a bit like a cross between a hot cross bun and a fruit scone, either way they made a pretty sensational breakfast or afternoon tea snack. 

There is a lovely tradition behind these buns, and as I'm not Dutch I'm going to refer you to another source to explain it:

"Luilak these days is a very localized custom - Amsterdam and surroundings - on the Saturday morning before Pentecost. Children and teens rise very early to play pranks on those considered to be ‘lazybones,’ by ringing their doorbell and then run away. Before ringing the bell they tie the doorknob to another fixed object, and make all kinds of noises to awake people. In earlier times they would chant and parade noisily through the streets, bang on pots and pans, use rattles and sticks. The person in the family who slept in the longest that Saturday morning, by tradition was expected to treat with these buns" 

~Extract from www.godutch.com

Ok, we're almost there! I know I've been banging on a bit in this post, but I promise you there is a recipe coming soon! One more thing that I should mention is this: these buns are traditionally made with raisins and currants as the fruit. When I set out to make them I was sure there was a box of currants in my cupboard - but turns out I was wrong! So instead I've made mine with dried cranberries and raisins, and it was delicious so I recommend it :)

Luilakbollen Recipe

Adapted from the Hairy Bikers' Recipe 

Ingredients

50g vegan butter or margarine

1/2 cup non dairy milk (I used rice milk, but any will do fine)

2 tsp dried yeast

300g plain white flour

100g wholemeal flour

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground ginger

Zest of 1 lemon

75g raisins

50g dried cranberries (or currants)

To Make

1. Place the butter small saucepan and heat until the butter is melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the milk and then the dried yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes, a slight foam should form on the top (if it doesn't, check the expiry date on your yeast!).

2. In a large bowl combine all the remaining ingredients. Make a well in the centre and pour in the yeast.

3. Mix well until it forms a ball and then turn it out onto a floured surface. Knead for 5 minutes (set your oven timer otherwise you'll invariably do it for too short a time!).

4. Sprinkle some flour (or brush some oil) over the bowl and then return the ball of dough to the bowl and cover with a tea towel or some cling wrap. Leave in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours to rise. 

5. Turn it out onto your bench again and knead briefly, then divide into eight equal portions and roll them into balls. Place on a large baking tray lined with baking paper.

6. Cover and leave in the warm spot again for a further 45 minutes (while this is happening, heat up your oven to 180 degrees).

7. Bake the buns for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Remove and allow to cool slightly and then heat warm with a generous smear of vegan margarine or butter. 

Makes 8 buns.

This month I'm featuring lots of delicious food from The Netherlands.

Check out my other Dutch recipe posts:

Naked Babies in the Grass

Speculaas (Spice Biscuits)

Hollandse Stroopkoek (Syrup & Beer Cake)

Gevulde Speculaas

Vegan Lingonberry and Almond Cream Buns (Swedish Semla)

I recently had the pleasure of catching up with a good friend who I hadn't seen for years! Amy and I constantly miss each other because we are both travel fanatics, so it seems that one of us is always overseas. Luckily we managed to find a time to finally have lunch together, and not surprisingly, we talked most of the time about travel.

Amy, conveniently, had spent six months studying in Sweden - so I was able to pick her brain a bit about Swedish food - which was well timed because August is Swedish food month on Gormandize. It has thus far been a delicious exploration of dishes - see the links at the bottom of this post for other recipes. Most of my past recipes have focused on the savoury side of Swedish cuisine. However, not including some amazing desserts would be doing Sweden an injustice, as Amy reports that the Swedes "have an insane sweet tooth".

During our catchup Amy raved about Semla. Cream buns filled with almond paste which are eaten in Sweden only during certain times of the year. Reportedly (by wikipedia - so likely it's false) King Adolf Frederick of Sweden died in 1771 of indigestion after consuming a feast which included fourteen servings of semla!

This recipe is dedicated to Amy then, and to all Swedes! I hope I did it justice - however, I have made some slight changes from the traditional. Firstly, I don't actually like almond paste - so there was no way I was going to put it in my buns, so I did something very un-traditional and opted for chopped almonds instead. Another fabulous friend of mine who lives in Sweden told me that sometimes Semla can be filled with lingonberry jam. You might not find it that easy to find, though. I am told that the best substitute is cranberry sauce, as it is tart and traditionally used in savoury dishes (as is lingonberry jam). So I went with Almond and Lingonberry Semla filled with vegan whipped coconut cream.

For a more authentic dish, fill with marzipan. 

Ingredients

(Adapted from The Vegan Swedes)

75g Nuttelex (or other vegan margarine)

250ml almond milk

1 tbsp dried yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp ground cardamom

2 3/4 cups plain white flour

1/4 cup whole almonds

8 tsp lingonberry jam (can substitute cranberry sauce)

1 can coconut cream, chilled in the fridge overnight (minimum- a few days is optimum)

1 tablespoons soft confectioners sugar

To Make
1. Melt the nuttelex in a small saucepan and add the almond milk. Heat until just warm and then remove from the heat. Add the yeast and set aside for a few moments.
2. Add the salt, sugar, cardamom and mix though.
3. Add most of the flour and mix through. Add enough of the flour that the dough clings together and doesn't stick to the bowl (don't add too much).
4. Cover with a cloth and leave to rise for 45 minutes in a warm spot with no draught (not sure where this spot is or how to make it happen - read this post to get it right every time).
5. After 45 minutes it should have doubled in size (if not leave a little longer). Turn out onto a flour bench and gently knead it (add more flour if it is still sticking to your fingers).
6. Divide into 8 even round buns. Place on trays covered with baking paper, with plenty of space in between for them to rise again.
7. Cover over with a cloth and leave again in your nice warm spot for another 45 minutes, they should rise again to almost double their size.
8. Bake in an oven at 220 degrees C for 5 minutes, turning them halfway to ensure even cooking.
9. Remove and cool completely.
10. While they are cooling you can whip the cream -

Coconut Cream Topping:

1. When you open the tin you will notice that the top is a very solid thick cream. Scoop out all of the solid thick cream on top (you can reserve the rest of it to use in another meal – like a curry).

2. Put the thick cream into a bowl and mix well using a hand held electric mixer. Move the beaters up and down to try and get as much air into the cream as possible. Add the sugar and beat until it pretty much resembles thick cream.

11. Once the buns are completely cool, cut the tops off and scoop out the middle crumbs.
12. Chop up the almonds and mix them with some of the crumbs that you scooped out the middle.
13. Place a teaspoon of lingonberry jam in the cavity of each bun. Top this with as much of the almond and crumbs mix that you can cram on top.
14. Place big dollops of whipped cream on the top and place the top of the bun back on. Dust it with icing sugar and eat with joy!

Makes 8 Semla, best eaten on the day you make them.

This month I'm featuring lots of amazing recipes from Sweden!

Check out my other Swedish recipe posts:

Ärtsoppa (Split Pea & Mustard Soup)

Vegan Smörgåstårta (Swedish Sandwich Cake)

Chokladdarraksbolls (Chocolate & Aniseed Balls)

Vegan Swedish Meatballs

Jansson's Temptation (Creamy Potato Bake)

No-Knead Cardamom Braid 

Kladdkaka (Gooey Chocolate Cake!)

Garlicy Field Mushrooms with Rödkål