Fika: The Art of The Swedish Coffee Break, with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats (2 page)

That doesn’t mean that everyone only buys or bakes with the best ingredients all the time, but there is certainly a cultural respect for simplicity. After all, this is the land of dense bread thickly spread with butter. And while prebaked and store-bought goods are served for fika, particularly in the modern age of busy work schedules, homemade is still paramount.

The ideal of homemade is at the heart of this book. In fact, it is the essence of every single recipe. While we have modernized many of the recipes so that they’re easy for even the beginner baker, the book isn’t about speeding up the baking process and taking shortcuts. Some recipes are easy to whip up in 10 minutes, others you have to let sit for 24 hours. In our own kitchens, you will find organic sugar, real butter, and eggs from humanely raised chickens, because we believe that if you skimp on the ingredients and go for something of midrange quality, you can expect the same from your baked goods. Come into either one of our kitchens and you won’t find an assortment of electrical gadgets. We bake as minimally as possible, making use of what we have.

Many of these recipes aren’t complex, but they stand out because they are made with real ingredients. It might seem silly to crush your
cardamom in a mortar and pestle instead of buying the ground version, and you might tire of kneading your dough by hand, but these are the details that we love and that make our recipes truly “handmade.”

Just as much as fika is a reminder to take a moment to slow down and take a break, this book is a reminder to do things as basically and simply as possible. You don’t have to be an expert to use this book, just someone who finds joy in the simplicity of good food. Use whole ingredients, nothing processed. Mix and knead by hand. Put love into the food you’re making.

You will find that most fika recipes are renditions on a very standard baking combination of flour, sugar, butter, and eggs. There are spices here and there, and different ratios to be dealt with, but most of the time essential Swedish baking recipes boil down to those four ingredients.

This is good news for you the baker: although a lot of work has been put into the recipes in this book, and we have focused on creating new spins on old classics, the best part about these recipes is that you should play a little. You’ll find several recipes where we offer optional ingredients, and you are encouraged to try them out. Variations on classics are what will make these recipes, and in turn fika, your own.

But before we get there, let’s cover the basics of what you’ll find in most of the recipes on the following pages. First it’s important to note that we use organic ingredients whenever possible, and there are a few staples when it comes to those ingredients.

FLOUR
For the most part you’ll find that recipes in this book use all-purpose flour. A few of the recipes also call for rye flour, which is
commonly used in many Scandinavian breads. Whenever possible, use the highest-quality unbleached flour that you can afford.

SUGAR
When it comes to sugar, we stick to natural cane sugar. Some of the recipes also use brown sugar. It’s also good to keep a little turbinado or raw sugar on hand for sprinkling on top of baked goods.

BUTTER
Butter is at the core of practically every recipe in this book, as it has always been a Swedish pantry staple. Our recipes are made using unsalted butter, and because of this, we often add in a little salt to the recipes. Feel free to use salted butter, but be sure to decrease the amount of salt in the recipe as needed.

EGGS
There’s nothing better than watching as the golden yolk of a cracked egg spills into the bowl. Good eggs will get you a long way, which is why we prefer as local and well raised as possible. When whipping eggs into a meringue, it’s much easier when they are at room temperature, which is why this instruction is indicated in some of the recipes. For eggs stored in the refrigerator, just be sure to take them out a few hours in advance.

SPICES
Swedish baked goods are known for having a little kick to them, and spices are essential to the fika pantry. The most common are
cardamom and
cinnamon, and in our own kitchens, the policy is that you can never have enough cardamom. Other typical Swedish spices that you will find in this book are
caraway, anise, and ginger. As with any spice, the fresher the better, which is why we like to grind our own spices when possible instead of purchasing preground. In the case of
cardamom, that means buying whole seeds, or buying pods and removing the seeds. The recipes in this book are written with that in mind in order to achieve the best flavor, but feel free to use preground spices if that’s what works best for you; just be sure to adjust the amounts.

NUTS
Almonds and
hazelnuts are commonly used in Swedish baking. A few recipes in this book are completely devoted to either of these two nuts, and others incorporate just a hint. Buy raw nuts in bulk and store them in glass containers with lids so they won’t lose their flavor. If you aren’t going to use them right away, it’s best to store nuts in the refrigerator.

DRIED FRUIT
In a cold climate where for most of the year fresh produce is available in only limited quantities, it’s no surprise that dried fruits are a Swedish staple; a way of keeping the tastes of warmer months all year long. Figs, prunes, and raisins are typical Swedish ingredients and make their way into many of the recipes in this book.

CHOCOLATE
Both unsweetened cocoa powder and dark chocolate are prominent in Swedish baking, and they’re both items to keep on hand if you plan to do a lot of fika baking. As with all ingredients, be sure to buy good quality. After all, you can never bake too many chocolate cakes or cookies.

There are a few Swedish standards that are hard to come by outside of Scandinavian grocery stores. You have two options: go to a specialty store or online retailer (
see resources
) or get creative to replace them yourself.

PÄRLSOCKER (
PEARL
SUGAR)
Pearl sugar is a coarse, white sugar that does not melt at high temperatures, which means it is often used for garnish on things like
Cinnamon and Cardamom Buns
,
Märta’s Sliced Chocolate Cookies
, or
Finnish Sticks
. There is no real replacement for pärlsocker, but you can easily find it at specialty shops. In the recipes that call for pärlsocker, we have recommended alternative toppings such as turbinado sugar in the event that you can’t get your hands on any.

VANILJSOCKER (
VANILLA SUGAR)
The consistency of baking powder, vanilla sugar is a common ingredient in a lot of Swedish baking recipes. It’s hard to track down outside of Sweden and because of that, all of our recipes are adapted to use pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean, like in
Classic Vanilla Sauce
.

MANDELMASSA (ALMOND
PASTE)
Almond paste is an essential Swedish ingredient. In Sweden you can buy it in any grocery store, where it comes in a plastic tube, similar to premade cookie dough. You can sometimes find it in grocery stores outside of Sweden in the baking section, but because making almond paste is so easy, we have incorporated a homemade version into all of the recipes that call for it.

SIRAP (SYRUP)
Syrup is a common ingredient in the Swedish pantry, for cookies, cakes, and breads. There are two versions:
ljus sirap
, “golden syrup,” and
mörk sirap
, “dark syrup.” Ljus sirap can be equated to the American light corn syrup, although it is processed from sugar beets. Mörk sirap is similar to light molasses. We have altered our recipes not to use either of these syrups as they can be hard to get outside Sweden, but they are worth noting since they are staples of general Swedish
baking.

Baking has been a part of Swedish culture for a very long time, and as such, mastering fika specialties doesn’t require technologically advanced kitchen products; mostly everything in this book can be accomplished with a measuring cup, a bowl, a wooden spoon, a whisk, and some creativity. As a rule, we never mix dough and batters in a food processor or stand mixer, although both can be used. Aside from grinding nuts (for which a food processor is recommended) and whisking egg whites (which is easier with an electric mixer), most of the recipes can be done completely by hand. That being said, there are a few tools that can be very helpful.

ROLLING PIN
A rolling pin is an essential for rolled cookies like
Swedish Gingersnaps
, but you can get by without one if you have an empty wine bottle on hand. Not ideal, but it will do the trick.