Nina's Pie Tops / Rhubarb pie

We had Fika at one of our friends house a few days ago and she made for us these fruit pies with wonderful cake like crust on top. I fell in love with the pie tops so she gave me her recipe. I don't know if there is a different terminology to this type of pie but I've called the dough style "pie tops" instead of pie crust. These pie tops are more fluffy, when cooked, than regular pie crust and the dough is spread over the fruits. Let me know if there's a different terminology to this style of pie. You can use any fruit as the fillings. Here is the recipe..

Nina's Pie Tops:
100 g. Butter
1 1/2 dl Sugar
2 dl Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 egg

Dough's cooking time is 40-45 minutes at 150 Celsius.

1. Melt the butter.
You can melt it on a pan or if you are lazy, in the microwave for about 40 sec.
2. Mix the flour and the baking powder together.

Then you beat the egg and the sugar together.
Next you add half the flour to the egg and sugar mixture. Mix well.

Then add the butter...mix. And finally add the rest of the flour.

The batter should be thick and sticky.

FILLINGS: (I'm making rhubarb for this example)

For the filling I went out and thinned my mother-in-law's rhubarb plants.

Slice up enough rhubarb to fill a 10 inch pie pan.

Add sugar to your taste I like mine to be a bit sweet so I added 1 dl of sugar.

Spread the topping mixture on top. Then bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes at 150 Celsius.

It should come out golden brown and a bit crispy on top.

It is best with some vanilla sauce. YUM!

DECILITER 1 dl= 100 ml ~ 1/2 cup
MATSKED 1 msk = 15 ml= 1 Tablespoon
TESKED 1 tsk = 5 ml = 1 teaspoon
CUP 1 cup = 240ml
1 Celsius = 33.8 Fahrenheit (150 C = 302 F)

Swedish Pancake

Have you ever taken an early morning trip to Ikea just for their breakfast? You know the inexpensive breakfast that they serve with thinly cooked Swedish pancakes and a dab of lingon berries to the side? Then one day when you got there, you where shocked by what had happened, things had changed. You suddenly don't get the free Swedish pancake anymore, now you have to pay an extra $0.99 for 2 pancakes. Well, maybe you don't remembered but I do and I remembered a few years back in the SF Bay Area how it used to be at Ikea. The good old days of Ikea breakfast is now- no more.

But not all is lost....at last I have found the perfect recipe for Swedish pancake courtesy of our good friends the Lindholms!!

So here is the secret to Swedish pancake. The ingredients are all dependant on how many eggs you use. Double the eggs double the recipe...Simple eh? For those who lives in a country that does not use metric I'll post the conversion at the end of the blog.

Swedish Pancake:
1 Eggs
Pinch salt
1 TBS Sugar
2 dl Milk
1 dl Flour (bread flours are best, if not all purpose flours will do)
Butter or Margerine for frying
Batter sitting time 25-30 min.

6 eggs...this is going to be GOOD. Combine all the ingredients together and whisk until there's no flour lumps. The batter should be very loose and not sticking to the whisk. Then let sit for 25-30 minutes before cooking.

Heat up a frying pan on Med-heat and melt some butter on it. Then pour a small amount of batter onto the pan and thinly coat the pan.

Flip the pancake over and cook for another minute. Ta-da! Done. You can serve it with a sprinkle of sugar or.....

If you've happen to be out in the forest and happened to have picked a bucket full of wild blueberries you can make blueberry Swedish pancake.

Hmmm...delicious!

DECILITER 1 dl= 100 ml ~ 1/2 cup
MATSKED 1 msk = 15 ml= 1 Tablespoon
TESKED 1 tsk = 5 ml = 1 teaspoon
CUP 1 cup = 240ml

Summer vacation in Sweden

We made it to Sweden!! Imagine traveling with 2 young boys, a husband, and an 8 month old puppy.

Our family is currently summer vacationing in Sweden and we will be here until September 6th. We are staying in the South of Sweden about 45 minutes away from Gothenburg in a small town called Alingsas.

Alingsas is a very cute (and growing) town with many coffee shops and is surrounded by many lakes. I totally enjoy relaxing here especially outside one of the city's many coffee shops during "Fika" time...around 2-3pm. Fika means to drink coffee~Wiki translation. I will post reviews of restraunts/coffee shops I go to, so that if you ever come visit this area you'll get an idea of what to expect. Also just remember that I am Frugal and will try to find the best place for the best price!

In the summer time, Sweden is very beautiful and lush with wild edibles! You know me always thinking about hunting and gathering foods. Today we went to visit our friends who lives around the next lake over. After lunch we all took a long walk into the forest to pick some wild blueberries! Yummm! And of course I kept my eyes opened for Chanterelle mushrooms....




In my next post the most common sense thing to do is post recipe for Swedish pancake!