This 2nd Advent has been a rush for me. No time at all and quite tired from a hectic working week at the school kitchen trying to avoid Corona all of us. I have very little time left for posting both in blog and Instagram. Sorry!

This gingerbread cookie recipe I leave you down here is from a very old and traditional Swedish cook-book called "Hemmets Stora Kokbok" by Elise Adelsköld, Sigrid Westfelt and Ingeborg Zethelius from 1926. You may see the cover of the book among others in my photo.

I love old cook-books!

200 g sugar

100 g melted butter

3 eggs

8 cl. whole cream

850 g flour

1 tablespoon grated pomerans peel (or orange peel)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp ground cloves

1 stroken tsp bicarbonate
Cook the syrup, spices and sugar in a saucepan. Pour the batter into a bowl and when lukewarm add the butter, eggs, cream and the bicarbonate mixed with very little water. Then add theflour and work the dough thoroughly. Let it rest until the following day.Bake in a very hot oven until done.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

The First Advent tells us to prepare for the coming christmas season: decorating home, baking pepparkakor and Lussekatter, hanging the advent star on the window, fixing the christmas tree and turning on the first candle. Those are the Swedish basics today. Though long ago the tradition was to slaughter a pig at the beginning of December -if you were lucky enough-, to brew beer, cleaning the house and baking -of course!

In the old Swedish peasant society , advent was called "julfasta", i.e. the time to prepare all those special christmas foods we love ... but at the same time you had to control yourself and "fasta" (fast). Oh! how difficult was not to be tempted with all those recipies while cooking! Being a catholic you had to restrain yourself from eating, specially meat and such other wonders. A souvenir from "julfasta" is the Swedish "lutfisk" -preserved cod in English- which traditionally was soaked on December 9.

Note: the advent candlestick posted here belongs to Birger Lundquist and was published on the book Johans Jul in 1947. The book was written by Eva von Zweigbergk. I found Johans Jul in a second-hand boutique in Uppsala and was delighted by Birger´s drawings. Aren´t they so comforting and up to date?

Swipe down and you shall see the book cover as well as an old recipe for baking a Soft Swedish Pepparkaka at home.

Soft Pepparkaka

(around 14 pieces)

100 g butter

3 dl flour

1 1/2 dl sugar

1 tea sp cinnamon

1 tea sp ground clove

1 tea sp ground ginger

1 tea sp bicarbonate

2 dl cream

1/2 dl light syrup

5 peppar cookies

Warm the oven to 175 C . Melt the butter and mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix butter, cream and syrup until a soft batter. Crush the peppar cookies in a mortel, paint a sponge cake mold with butter and sprinkle with the ground cookies. Pour the batter into the mold and bake 40-45 min. Let it cool in the mold and then sprinkle with icing sugar.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

If you never tasted a Swedish cinammon bun, you are missing a good part of life!. I am not particularly fond of sweet buns, pastries, cookies or cakes, but these buns I cannot avoid. I have tried many different cinnamon buns in Uppsala, though this one is the perfect one for me. And warm! just from the oven.

This photo is from 2016, my first close encounter with a really yummi "KANELBULLE". Where? At ERIKSHJÄLPEN´s Second-hand shop in Uppsala. It was love at first sight. These kanelbullar are baked non-stop on tuesdays, thursdays and saturdays at Erikshjälpen. Imagine how they smell ? I posted this photo because I am not so good at baking. My mother and grandmother were, yes ... and how I miss them!

The story about the origin of Cinnamon Day in Sweden starts in October 4, 1999 thanks to a woman called Kaeth Gardestedt, project responsible for the Hembakningsrådet of Sweden. You can google and you shall find lots of info about her.

KEEP IT SIMPLE