The new season is showing all the signs of starting. With
cold crisp mornings, the smell of wood smoke from chimneys of near by houses,
and the sun beginning to set sooner means winter is well on the way of settling in.
Over the weekend I attended the Simple Living Toowoomba
morning tea group.
In the kitchen we were shown how to bake a traditional
cultural cuisine from Finland and given a sampling of a Finnish drink called
Sima which is made from lemons, yeast, sugar and beer. The drink would be very suitable for summer.
The baked goods called Cardamon/Cinnamon rolls were very sugary and sweet.
To make: you will need to warm 2 cups of milk in a small saucepan and
remove from heat. Let it stand until lukewarm. Take the yeast and dissolve it
in warm water then stir in the lukewarm milk, mixing in 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1tsp cardamom,
3 eggs and enough plain flour ( about 9 cups) to make a batter. Beat the mixture until the dough
becomes smooth and elastic. Using 3 cups of flour beat into the mixture well
until the dough looks gloss. Stir in 1/2 cup of melted butter well and beat again until
the dough looks glossy. Add in remaining flour to make a stiff dough.
Let it rest for 15 minutes.
Knead the dough until smooth. Turn the dough into a mixing bowl and cover
with a clean dishtowel let it rise in a warm place until double in bulk (over
night is best). Turn it out of the mixing bowl onto flour surface when it has
rose and punch down. Return it to the mixing bowl and let it rise again until
almost double in size.
Turn out again on floured surface. Roll out into rectangle
shape, brush on melted butter, then sprinkle with sugar mixture of ground cardamom and cinnamon. Roll up the
rectangle shape and cut. Let the cut rolled shapes rise on a flat pan lined
with baking paper and brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.
Bake in a hot oven for 25 to 30 min.
Mostly everyone had a go at rolling up the sticky goodness into small rolls ready for baking.
When the rolls were done baking, they were a treat. These are the type of goodness which should be eaten warm, fresh, straight from the oven.
The group also does a swap on the same day too. For the swap I made
some potholders from my stash of items. If I were to do the potholders again I
would be careful about where I place the hangers and try not to over iron
which flattened the wadding too much. The potholders were easy to make and I finally found
a home for some little cross stitch motifs I had in my stash for ever. These
were simple ones I designed myself and stitched. Originally the motifs were for a
quilt that never was finished, so I pulled it apart and I re-used the same fabric squares to make four patch for the
potholders. I then cut the cross stitch squares into heart shapes and finally added some rustic buttonhole stitch to the hearts.
