Granüsli.

good morning.

i’ve been in love with breakfast ever since i can remember. in my opinion it’s the best meal of the day. several cups of good earl grey and time to read a full news paper gives you peace. and the food. somehow i feel that breakfast food is in many ways comfort food. pancakes. cheese. butter. sweet fruits. waffles. warm porridge. flaky croissants. refreshing orange juice. peanut butter. scones. yoghurt. and granola.

when i was a kid the only thing i ate for breakfast was cheese sandwiches. preferably swedish “polarkakor” or anything my mum baked (usually some kind of rye bread). i used to microwave the sandwiches to let the cheese melt. oh the goodness of that. sometimes, when served, i would also go for semolina porridge, with way too much apple purée. i did not at all like swedish sour-cream and müsli (except once every summer during vacation when we would be allowed sweet, sweet granola or muesli with real pieces of chocolate. then i’d eat the sour-milk just to get the sweet bits). and so i kept myself to bread and cheese for a very long time. basically until i moved to japan and had to adapt to eating fish, rice and miso soup in the morning. which was, believe it or not, fantastic. then a couple of years ago i discovered turkish yoghurt and that threw my morning routine over again. the simplicity and freshness in thick, creamy yoghurt with fresh fruit and a few nuts and some honey on top is remarkable. and my long fight with the sharp, sour flavor and liquidity of most yoghurts was over. my next combat was the muesli.

i still love granola. but the amount of sugar in it kind of makes me back of. (legit reason?)
i still hate regular muesli. feels like eating pure oats and cornflakes (the fright!) that get all soft…
i want to eat stuff which is good for your body. and tastes great.
i don’t want to pay crazy amounts of money for something i can make myself. and i like knowing exactly what i put in my morning bowl. so i set out on a quest to make the prefect granola/muesli. granüsli?

this is one version.
i’ve made so many batches before this and there are many more to come. though i think i’m starting to get the hang of it; the other day this batch was claimed to be “the best muesli i’ve ever had”… and my sister tries to prohibit me from making it since she can’t resist. which says something. i presume these jars will be finished within a week. and i’ll most definitely be partly to blame.

       

one quite big batch.
the granola
1 banana
200-300 ml oats
200 ml spelt flakes
1 tbsp whole cardamom kernels, ground
2 tbsp maple syrup

the seeds and nuts
200 g walnuts
100 ml sunflower seeds
100 ml pumpkinseeds
100 ml ground flax seeds
4 tbsp psyllium seeds
2 tbsp chia seeds
2-3 tbsp maple syrup

the good stuff
50 ml cacao nibs
150 ml coconut chips
200-300 ml quinoa puffs
200 g dried cranberries
200 g dried goji berries

preheat the oven to 175°c.
to make the granola: mash the banana thoroughly and mix with the rest of the granola ingredients. squeeze into crumbs and put on a oven tray. the seeds and nuts: break the walnuts in halves and then mix together with the rest of the ingredients and the syrup. put on a oven tray. now bake the two trays in the oven for about 40 min, stir now and then and keep an close eye on the oven so that nothing burns. the nuts and seed should be a bit golden and the granola dry when ready. now mix it all with the good stuff and put in airtight jars. and feel free to exchange any nuts/seeds/berries to you liking.

All content by © Sofia Hellsten 2010-2013. All rights reserved.

Plum delights

it’s been a lack of updates recently. i’ve been preparing for and starting school again, that’s why. though i’ve had time to make use of those early autumn delights. these plums made two wonderful breakfasts.

Breakfast muffins with plums
– 2 big, or three small
1 egg
1/4 dl ground flax seeds
1/2 dl oats flour (made from ca 1 dl oats)
A little more than 1/2 dl almond flour
1/2 dl oat milk
1 tbsp agave syrup/honey
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cardamom, freshly ground
1 tbsp olive oil
a pinch of sea salt
one small plum

mix the dry ingredients and whisk up the egg. mix the two parts together with the olive oil, syrup and oat milk. pour the batter in to muffin forms and put a couple of slices of plum in each of them. bake off in the oven at  200°c for ca 15 min.

    

Plum pie crumble
you can see the recipe above but i’ll type it out aswell
3 plums, wedged
1 dl (100 ml) oats
3/4 dl (75 ml) almond flour
1/2 dl (50 ml) coconut sugar
30 g butter
ground cardamom

wedge the plums, put in a tray and sprinkle with cardamom. using your hands, mix together the rest of the ingredients into a crumble and cover the fruit. bake for ca 15 minutes at 175°c, or until golden. indulge with greek/turkish yoghurt on the side.

All content by © Sofia Hellsten 2010-2013. All rights reserved.

Perfect light and blueberries

during my week in the Hälsingland archipelago my friends A & D took me on a tour among the world heritage Hälsingegårdar (”decorated farmhouses of Hälsingland”) in the region. they’re old farm houses built between the 17th and 19th century, known for their exquisitely decorated festive rooms. the landscape surrounding them and the buildings really lived up to their world heritage appointment. i was especially amazed at the fantastic light within this house called the Erik-Anders farm. being located far from any other high buildings allowed for the light to flood in from every direction. i had a hard time leaving the house just because the light was so capturing. and the floors. broad raw wooden planks. those floors.

      

i want to wake up to that light, eating these pancakes every day for the rest of the summer.

Almond breakfast pancakes

1 ripe banana
2 small organic eggs
just over 1 dl (100 ml) almond meal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla sugar (or a drop of vanilla extract)
butter or flavorless oil for frying
small pinch of sea salt
blueberries (or other fruit/berries) and thick yoghurt for serving

mash the banana until smooth and whisk with the eggs. mix the dry ingredients and add to the bananas and egg. if the batter is too runny add some more almond meal. fry your pancakes and indulge. i’d say you don’t need any syrup actually, the banana and almond make the pancakes quite sweet. but if you feel like it id recommend agave or maple syrup.

All content by © Sofia Hellsten 2010-2013. All right reserved.

the perfect breakfast

people of Hanoi, Vietnam getting their morning baguette with various fillings.

when starting to edit the photos for this post i realised something. today i had basically the same thing for breakfast as i had for dessert in the evening. maybe that says something about how well the flavors match. or a lot about me…? anyways, i’ll start with sharing, maybe not a recipe, but a great summer breakfast combo.

  

i love yoghurt for breakfast. but i’m afraid i’m quite picky, it cannot be sweet and definitely not too sour. when i was a kid i almost never had yoghurt or sour cream for breakfast, always cheese sandwiches. i’m still a sucker for both cheese and bread but lately i’ve discovered that my body is not too pleased when i start of every day chewing down loads of wheat. even though i still indulge in bread and cheese breakfasts (couldn’t go without them!) my standard in the morning is yoghurt. funnily enough, it was when living in japan (the non-lacto country) that i started to like yoghurt. i believe it was because my host family used to buy this plain, very thick and not too sour yoghurt that i’d eat with apples and top it with a kinako, sesame and sugar powder (i’ll give you the recipe one of these days). coming back to sweden i discovered turkish yoghurt – the perfection. it’s like scooping out perfectly thawed ice-cream, thick and so smooth. we finish of two buckets a week.. anyways, now to one of the many perfect variations of toppings. when not having granola at hand i’d usually go for nuts, cinnamon and agave syrup. today i got my eyes on a carton of strawberries in the fridge, and this is what i ended upp with.

yoghurt of your liking (thick and not too sour –> turkish)
a couple of strawberries
date syrup

yoghurt, sliced strawberries on top and then drizzle with the syrup. the date flavor is perfect with the strawberries and doesn’t add too much sweetness (the strawberries speak for themselves in that aspect)

Winter oranges in Japan and juice on a summer morning

the past couple of weeks we’ve been making freshly squeezed juice for breakfast every morning. it’s such an easy everyday treat. this got me thinking about how much i miss all the different types of oranges and mandarins you can get hold during the winter season in Japan. summer orange, hassaku, miikan… i don’t even remember half of their names. but i can assure you they are truly wonderful in both flavor and texture, with that perfect combination of sweet and sour.

this winter i spent two weeks in japan again, meeting up with my former host family ( or well, more like japanese family) for christmas and new years. one morning i decided to go for a walk in the neighborhood of Kubota (久保田) where they live in the southern part of Osaka. the weather was crisp and clear without being cold. walking the tarmac among the houses i spotted this orange tree, lavished with oranges.

gingery orange-pink grapefruit juice (enough for one glass)
one orange of your liking
1/2 a grapefruit (i prefer pink)
2×2 cm knob of ginger (peeled)

squeeze the juice and grate the ginger on a fine grater. put in a glass and let sit while preparing the rest of you breakfast (it’s hard, i know, but well worth it as it gives the ginger time to flavor the juice). i assure you this is just as great on a summer day as it is a cold winters morning. all that vitamin C and ginger boosting the immune system… both japanese and korean people eat ginger (you know with the sushi?) or drink it as tea and they both live long, keep slim and have healthy skin. i’m just saying.