Cardamom flavored wheat bun filled with vanilla cream

One of my favorite pastries when I go to a confectionery is what we call in Sweden a "Pariserbulle". This delishous wheat bun is flavored with cardamom, filled with vanilla cream and sprinkled with sugar on top.
I don't know why but I have allways had the conviction that these buns are so difficult to bake, but today I really felt like trying anyway. It  went all well, that's both mine and my husband's opinion. I think we ate four buns each when they were freshly made and still a bit warm - mmm!
There are two ways you can do these buns:
1) Let the filling be totally wraped into the dough or 2) Make a crater in a bun and let the filling be shown. Both hese two ways are equally common here in Sweden. I decided to make alternative 1.

Cardamom wheat bun
50 grams fresh yeast for sweet dough
100 grams butter or margarine
3 deciliter milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 deciliter white sugar
2 teaspoon cardamom
9 deciliter flour

Filling 
Marsan cream or vanilla cream. Either you can use Marsan cream powder you buy in the grocery store
...or make it yourself:
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoon white sugar
2 tablespoon corn flour
3 deciliter coffee cream
eventually 1 tablespoon vanillin powder

Topping
25 grams butter or margarine
white sugar

How to...
Start with the marsan cream.If you use bought Marsan cream powder you just follow the instructions on the package. If you are not able to buy Marsan cream you can put two egg yolks, white sugar, corn flour and coffee cream into a sauce pan and let the mixture simmer while stirring. When the cream is thicken you take of the sauce pan from the stove and let it cool down. If you like to flavor it with vanilla you put 1 tablespoon vanillin powder into it when the marsan cream has cooled down.
Note: Make sure the consistency is firm, otherwise it will be difficult to keep the cream inside the dough.

1. Crumble the yeast with your fingers into a big bowl (or a baking machine).
2. Melt the butter/margarine in a sauce pan at low temperature and then pour the milk into it. Use a digital thermometer to check when the mixture is 37 Celcius. It is important that the temperature is not over 37 Celcius because otherwise you cannot be sure if the yeast will survive or die. If you don't have a digital thermometer you can use your finger. When you feel it neigher to be warmer or colder than your own finger it is probably good enough - they call it lukewarm.
3. So, pour the butter/milk over the yeast and use a spoon to solve the yeast.
4. Put salt, sugar, and cardamom into the mixture.
5. Measure up the flour correctly by using a digital scale or a liter measurement tool and just pour the flour from the package without shaking the measurement tool - you get too much flour if you shake the measurement tool to pack the flour.
6. Pour only 2/3 of the total amount of flour little by little into the mixture and let the baking machine work the dough about 5 minutes or until the dough let go of the bowl's edges. You can also work it by hand with a spoon.
7. Sprinkle some flour on top (to prevent a dry surface) and let the dough rest in 30 minutes under a towel - it should grow to twice it's size during that time.
8. Put the oven 250 Celsius.
9. Cover two baking sheets with baking paper.
10. Put the dough on a floured table and knead it into a nice big bun, use more flour if needed but be careful and don't use too much - divide the bun in two.
11. Roll out the dough, about 2-3 mm thick, and cut out circles (about 10 cm diameter) with a mug.
12. Add a dollop of marsan cream in the middle of each circle and use your fingers to pinch the edges of the circle like the picture shows. When it is firmly done, put the bun with the pinched side down on the baking sheet.
13. When a whole baking sheet is full, put a thin towel over them and let them grow for about 50 minutes.
14. Brush each bun with beaten egg and bake them in the middle of the oven for about 7 minutes. All ovens are different so instead of just trust the time, look at them often and put them out of the oven when they get a nice light golden brown color.
15. Let the buns rest on a grid with a thin towel over them. When they are cold, brush the ones you are planning to eat with melted butter on top and dip them in white sugar.
If you intend to freeze the buns, you should skip the butter/sugar topping until they will be served. 

Cotton Summer Dress

Last week Burda Style magazine came in through the mail slot and landed on my doormat. I had other things to do at the time but after laying there beside me on the table in about an hour I couldn't resist it's tempting shiny plastic cover ready to be torn open (no nice and neat opening with scissors here!). Oh, and then the smell... my my, the smell of new magazine filled my nose as I open the centerfold, buried my nose and inhaled. Haha I have ever since I can remember enjoyed the smell of new magazines, I guess it is the excitement of the content, all the shiny pictures and sense the smell of "new" - I think I will never get tired of it.

I had just ended a sewing project, the pink denim jacket I posted about two weeks ago, and I felt like starting something new for the summer vacation. I found a cute short halterneck dress in the magazine, but because I have the idea that I don't fit very good in halterneck since I have quite broad shoulders, I kept the skirt part and used the upper part from an other dress instead.

I immediately fell for the fabric, it gives a little sense of "baking cookies in a rural kitchen with the afternoon sun shining in through the curtains" which I like, and it gets complete with the large pockets at front and the flounce hem. I also like the heart shaped neck lining - it is romantic and flattering without being too deep showing everything ;)
The skirt part is lined with a white thin fabric to give it a little extra stiffness and thickness. The upper part is not lined. 

Crunchy Peach Pie

I usually use apples for this very simple pie, but since I had a whole bowl of almost overriped peaches I decided to make something useful (and tasteful) of them rather than just throw them away.

Crunchy Peach Pie


Shortcrust pastry
1 1/2 dl flour
1/2 dl oatmeal (I used oatmeal with extra fiber)
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
100 grams of butter or margarine

Filling
7 peaches
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Put your oven to 225 Celcius.
Quickly use your fingers and mix flour, oatmeal, granulated sugar and butter/margarine to a grainy dough.
Peal and slice the peaches into 1*1 cm pieces.
Grease a ovenproof dish and put all the peach pieces in it.
Powder brown sugar and cinnamon over the peaches and then distribute the dough on top.
Bake the pie in the oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the surface is golden brown.

Serve the pie lukewarm with custard.

Pink Denim Jacket

This week, the first week of my vacation, I decided to finish my denim jacket I started on about three months ago. Because of other projects, work and laziness I didn't finish it when it only was the lining left to make. I guess that's just the way it is with some projects, some fall between the chairs and you really need to make an extra effort making yourself finish it.
Anyway, it is finally finished and I am quite satisfied. I made one mistake though, by using a rather thick lining fabric. I think a thinner fabric would have made the final result a little less bubbly. Maybe one day when I have the inspiration I will change the lining fabric but right now it feels good. At first I thought this jacket to be a spring/summer jacket but now with the thicker lining I think it is more of a late summer/autumn jacket, which suits me fine :)

I really like the diagonal zip at front. The uneven lower edge at front is also very cool (which I made up by myself as I went - this area looks differend in the pattern). Small details like that makes an ordinary biker jacket a bit cooler and modern - even futuristic.  Here is also a very good example of showing how colors can make big difference. The denim fabric is dark pink on one side and lighter pink on the other side. Instead of making all the parts of the jacket in same dark pink color (the front side of the fabric) I choose some parts to be in a lighter pink color (the backside of the fabric). I think it really make the jacket come alive in a different way than it would have done if all parts were dark pink.

Strawberry Cupcakes

To celebrate my summer vacation I decided to make strawberry cupcakes this afternoon. I used the very talented Linda Lomelino's recipe but changed the blackberries to frozen strawberries. The buttercream frosting is also from the same post. You can find everything (both in Swedish and English) HERE. Because I didn't have vanilla bean I used vanilla sugar. It works okey but vanilla bean is a better option, it tastes much more.
To get more happy colored cupcakes I divided the buttercream in two bowls and put red and yellow food coloring into it. I got some strawberry leftovers. Since the buttercream is so sweet the mashed strawberries gives nice freshness :)