Baka med Frida shares her favourite Christmas baking recipes for a Scandinavian Christmas

FRIDA’S CHRISTMAS BAKING RECIPES

1. BREAD WITH WALNUT & CRANBERRIES

Nothing screams Christmas more than the combination of walnuts and cranberries and this Christmas baking recipe is surprisingly simple. Baked in a Dutch oven this bread is a lot like a simple sourdough says Frida, best served with homemade butter or a good cheese she continues.

Ingredients (for 1 loaf):

• 25g of fresh yeast
• 300ml luke-warm water
• 315g flour
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 100g walnuts
• 1 cup dried cranberries

How to:

1. Start by dissolving the yeast in the water to activate it. Wait for around 5 – 10 minutes until the mixture is foamy and then add the flour, honey and salt. Combine to form a rough dough with a wooden spoon.
2. Add lightly crushed walnuts and cranberries and knead everything together.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise for two hours at room temperature.
4. Place your Dutch oven or cast-iron pot in the lower part of the oven and then set the oven to 225°c top/bottom heat.
5. Turn the dough onto a floured counter and shape it into a "ball" without kneading - be careful with the dough to keep the air in it.
6. Take the pot out of the oven and sprinkle some flour in the bottom, place the dough in the pot and put the lid on. Bake for 30 minutes and then remove the lid, bake for another 15 minutes without the lid - until the surface is nicely golden brown.
7. Remove and let cool on a wire rack before cutting into the bread.

2. CARROT CAKE WITH SAFFRON & VANILLA FROSTING

The carrot cake is a classic that works all year round but has Frida shared with us her Scandinavian Christmas version of this classic by adding a saffron to the batter and a vanilla frosting, the literal icing on the cake! It is traditional to bake with saffron at Christmas time here in Sweden and this spiced Christmas cake embodies everything we love about baking at Christmas time here in Scandinavia.

Ingredients:

Cake:

• 150g of butter
• 1g of saffron
• 4 eggs
• 340g caster sugar
• 315g flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 / 3 grated carrots

Frosting:

• 100g room temperature butter
• 200g cream cheese
• 100g icing sugar
• 1 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Zest of 1 lime

How to:

Cake:

1. Set the oven to 175°c top/bottom heat and line a tin (24 cm) with baking paper, set aside.
2. Melt the butter and mix with the saffron. Let stand.
3. Beat eggs and caster sugar until light and fluffy with an electric beater for approx. 3 minutes. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and carrots, stir to form a lump-free batter.
4. Pour the batter into a Ø24 cm cake tin and bake the cake in the middle of the oven for approx. 30 minutes. Use a cake skewer to check that the cake is ready – poke the skewer into the centre of the cake, it should come out clean with the cake is cooked. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting:

1. Beat all the ingredients to a firm fluff with an electric beater on high speed, beat for 4-5 minutes.
2. Spread the frosting on the cake and top with the zest of one lime.

3. CLASSIC VÖRTBRÖD (WORT BREAD)

Vörtbröd is very popular Christmas baking recipe here in Sweden. Similar to an English malt loaf, the bread gets its name from the brewer's wort that is used to give the bread its distinctive malty flour. Brewer’s wort is a liquid extracted from the mashing process during the brewing of beer.You will find vörtbröd on the Julbord (Christmas table), served with eggs, anchovies, pickled herring or Christmas ham. The bread is traditionally made with raisins, but you could also choose to mix in nuts or other dried fruit depending on your preference.

Ingredients (for 2 loaves):

• 50g fresh yeast
• 300ml dark ale
• 100ml lukewarm water
• 100ml syrup
• 50ml neutral cooking oil (e.g. Rapeseed)
• 75g malt extract
• 365g flour
• 210g rye flour
• 1.5 teaspoon salt

Glaze:

• 50ml dark syrup
• 100ml water

How to:

1. Crumble the yeast in a bowl and add the dark ale, water and syrup. Stir until the yeast dissolves.
2. Mix in the remaining ingredients and work into a smooth dough - it takes approx. 10 minutes of kneading.
3. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and divide the dough into two equal parts. Shape into two loaves and place in baking paper lined bread tins (1.5 litre each).
4. Leave to rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 1.5 hours.
5. Set the oven to 225c over/under heat.
6. Bake the bread in the middle of the oven. Reduce the temperature to 200c after 5 minutes. Bake for another 25 minutes or until the internal temperature of the bread is 98 degrees.
7. Brushing: Mix syrup and water in a mug. Brush the warm bread with the syrup.
8. Turn out onto a wire rack and let cool.