Red Onion Scones ‒ Punasipuliteeleivät

I often have a hard time deciding how to translate dish names for this blog. Teeleipä, meaning tea bread in Finnish, is a small, savory and rather flat bread that doesn't need to be knead and is leavened with a baking powder. Sometimes they're said to be a form of Scottish scones, but after looking what they typically look like and contain I thought calling them scones would mislead a bit too much. Since they fit in the definition however, I eventually decided it would be wiser to use a familiar name and just explain that these are Finnish-type scones.

Scones are something most Finns have made in school during the home economics class and never touched since. But I think they're so simple to make I rather mix a batter than leave for a store just because the bread happened to run out. The beauty of them is that you can stuff them with nearly anything you'd like to get rid of ‒ meal remains, herbs about to die or those seeds you've had in the closet for a year now. One of my favourite fillings includes crated carrot, garlic and green olive slices, but this time I crowned them with red onion. Also, you can swap the flour types and other such dry ingredients to fit your closet, as long as there are about 4 dl of them altogether. As the name implies, they're a perfect evening snack with a cup of nice tea. On top they're supposed to be a little crunchy but soft inside.

- 2 dl oat meals
- 2 dl wheat flour
- 2 dl water (or oat milk)
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 0.5 tsp salt
- 1 red onion
-  black pepper
-  marjoram

Cut the onion in semicircles and sauté lightly. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl, then add the wet ones as well. Cover with a towel and let it swell for a while. Portion spoonfuls on a baking sheet leaving a lot of room between them to spread. Bake about 15 minutes in a 225°C oven. Serve fresh and hot with a good evening tea and some simple bread spread.

Nutritional values /  677 g:
energy 1030 kcal
fat 35 g
protein 32 g
carbohydrates 145 g
fiber 18 g

Yogurt ‒ Jukurtti

Soy yogurt is sold in every food store I use. It's a nicely multifunctional thing in cooking but sometimes you want some extra flavour. Luckily, making different yogurt varieties yourself couldn't get any easier.

All you need is some nuts, oatmeal or seeds. First soak them overnight and in the case of nuts and seeds, drain and rinse. You can even sprout the seeds a little. Then you just have to purée the ingredients with some water. (The idea is basically to get unfiltered vegetable milk or cream so it's more complicated process when making soy yogurt. Like this.) Pour the cream into a non-metal container and let it go sour on the kitchen table for couple of days (taste every now and then to decide the best length for you) and refrigerate if you're not using it right away. Don't bother to cover the bowl or glass unless you have pets or an insect problem. Just check there's enough water for the yogurt to swallow. Some people like to add some of their own bacteria starters (usually the remains of the previous yogurt) before the fermenting to get more health benefits or speed up the process.

I thought I'd compare different sorts of yogurts a bit which is why there are as many as four of them in the photo. The ingredients from left to right are rye flakes, oatmeal and sprouted buckwheat, pine nuts and finally hazel nuts. The structure depends on the initial amount of water but generally nuts make creamier yogurts than flakes since they contain more fat. For the same reason, you can clearly see how water separates from the nut cream during the process. Think the oat version has the most pleasing sourness of these. On the other hand, the hazel version has the most recognizable original flavour left.

Besides sauces and other cooking, these yogurts can of course be eaten on their own or crowned with berries and talkkuna.

Apple Goodness ‒ Omenahyve

My parents came for an Easter visit and since it's a couple of hours drive we decided we should prepare them a lunch. Of course they had eaten on their way here. Which was great since that way it didn't matter so much that I managed to bake a raw seitan roast. I kept it in the oven for 1.5 hours but apparently the frozen cranberries I stuffed it with barely managed to melt during that time. So we just ate potatoes and brown sauce with fried mushrooms and veggies.

Since I had exhausted all our baking powder and white flours the night before when trying to make a swiss roll (It came out a raw mush as well. Maybe there's just something wrong with our oven, not my cooking skills.) I made apple crumble for dessert. Luckily it came out perfect. Even my parents liked it though they usually make fun of everything I do. (Blame the oven!) Next time I think I'll try to add some rhubarb to bring more bitterness instead of the lemon juice.

- 5 large, bitter apples (or 10 small)
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- nutmeg
- cardamom
- 1 dl sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla sugar
- 2.5 dl rolled oats
- 100 g margarine (for example Keiju 70%)
- 1 dl talkkuna

Cut the apples in slices. Sprinkle them with the lemon juice, the cinnamon and dashes of nutmeg and cardamom. Lay them on an oiled casserole. Sprinkle the sugar on top. Rub the margarine together with the oats, the kama and the vanilla sugar by your fingertips. Cover the apples with the crumble. Put the goodness in a 225°C oven for 30 minutes or until the crumble on top looks golden brown.

Serve with ice cream or vanilla sauce.

Nutritional values / 1060 g:
energy 1756 kcal
fat 69 g
protein 21 g
carbohydrates 248 g
fiber 27 g

Good Morning Smoothie ‒ Hyvän aamun pirtelö

I'm not really sure if it's right to call this a recipe cause it's so simple anyone can make it up. Still, I thought I'd share with you one of my favourite treats from my teens.

I call it good morning smoothie since if I was the morning person I dream to be this would be my ideal breakfast after jogging. Actually I'm not so I rather enjoy this in the evening under a blanket with the company of a good book.

Must have:
- 200 g frozen berries (in my case typically a mix of black currant, strawberries and raspberries but bilberries are great too)
- 1 blender

Optional additions:
- 200 g silken tofu (If you use tofu but not milk this actually becomes more of a silken sorbet.)
- 1 dl soy yogurt or oat milk
- 2 tbsp hemp seeds or almonds
- 0.5 dl soy flour
- 0.5 oat meals
- 1 fruit, for example a banana or a kiwi
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar

If you're using hemp seeds or almonds blend them first with a small amount of water. Then pour everything else in too and blend until mostly smooth. Enjoy right away.

Hemp Milk ‒ Hamppumaito

Making vegetable milks involves no magic. The instructions nearly always follow the same pattern: rinse the seeds you're using and soak them, blend smooth with some water (how much depends on the structure you're looking for), filter and season if you like (for example with vanilla and syrup). If you're using something like oatmeals you don't need the blending. If you're using things like soy flour you don't even need the filtering. Soy beans are probably among the hardests ones as they also need simmering for about half an hour.

Whether you make your own milks or buy them, I strongly encourage you to experiment with various milks. The same ice cream can have a very different underlining mother taste depending on whether you use oat milk, coconut milk, rice milk, soy milk, hemp milk, almond milk, hazelnut milk, sesame milk, peanut milk, quinoa milk or yam milk. Also their structures vary a lot: coconut milk is very creamy and soy milk gives the nicest flavour to coffee. So even if I usually write "oat milk" (which is produced in Finland, sold in every food store and gives the pleasently round oat taste to most basic foods) in recipes you can substitute it with any one you want.

Here's for example the simplest recipe for hemp milk:

- 5 dl hemp seeds
- 1.5 l water

Let the seeds soak in water overnight. Next day, smash them. Keep adding water as you proceed. The smoother you make, the better the result. If you use a mortar or a grinder it's even possible to make fine powder you don't have to filter at all.

If this is not the case filter the milk through a cheesecloth. Be sure to use a dense enough textile. First time I tried this with a standard strainer and old stockings which of course resulted in a lot of hard black pieces in my milk and later in my hemp tofu or hefu. (Old t-shirt then again works better.) If the milk seems too dense add more water. Remember to shake before using. This isn't homogeni

The nutritional values depend on the hemp variety you're using (They vary surprisingly much. For example mine were especially rich in fat.), how well you've managed to grind them and how much water you used. Just to give a reference, here and here are the values of two commercially produced hemp milks.

Carrot Bread ‒ Porkkanaleipä

All the people I know to bake their own bread are relatively young, in their twenties or thirties. Older people seem to assossiate it with poorness and not being able to simply buy ready-made bread from the stores. The situation is probably similar to that of the 70's when all those beautiful, energy-saving fireplaces were torn down from the houses. "Look everyone: we can afford a central heating system!" Even my own home used to have them in the 20's, sadly no more.

But back to the beef: Thought I could follow the example of my friends at least occasionally, enough to see how hard a job baking your own bread really is. After all, it's cheaper, has no additives or other unwanted substances and most of all it tastes a million times better. The last part is actually the problem too. Fresh bread is so good it just vanishes though I'm not even hungry.

This was my opening receipe. Basically it contains what I happened to find home. That's the beauty.

- 5 dl water
- 30 g baker's yeast
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tbsp dark syrup
- 3 dl graham flour
- 3 dl oat flakes
- 6 dl dark wheat flour
- 3 dl grated carrot
- 2 dl sunflower seeds
- 3 tbsp rape oil
- 1,5 tsp salt

Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water. Add the other ingridients in the above order. The salt should be left last since it prevents the yeast from working. (Actually, I got better results by forgetting it altogether.) Knead the dough until it doesn't stick to the bowl anymore. Let it rise under a towel in a warm place for approximitely half an hour. Knead it again on the table (with more wheat flour if it still seems too loose) and shape the breads as you wish. (I made three baguettes) Cover with a towel and let them rise another half an hour. Moist the surfce with water and decorate with seeds if you wish. Bake in 225°C for half an hour. Try not to eat them all at once.

Nutritional values / 1 baguette / 370 g
energy 1205 kcal
fat 43 g
protein 41 g
carbohydrates 165 g
fiber 26 g