#recipe from ‘fika’ by Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall

[ikbak]

Kanelbullar, 6 March 2022

[annelarrycherry]

Recipe #15: Fikonrutor (Fig Squares)

Fika by Anna Brones & Johanna Kindvall

Baked on November 3, 2018

According to the subtitle of this cookbook, Fika is “the art of the Swedish coffee break”. Basically, Fika (pronounced FEE-ka) is a Swedish custom of taking a few minutes out of your day to have a cup of coffee with a small treat. I found this cookbook right before Mom and I flew to Sweden to visit Katarina in Malmö. Katarina was our Swedish foreign exchange student who lived with our family during my junior year of high school. 35 years later and we still feel like family despite living across the globe.

While we were in Sweden, we had a chance to see many desserts and sandwiches that were perfect for an afternoon coffee break. Here are a few from a bakery case near the glass factories of Kosta Boda and Orrefors:

And here are photos of Mom and I on a train between Copenhagen and Stockholm. Look! We are having Fika on the train!

I chose a recipe from this cookbook for my 2018 Cookbook Challenge (21 recipes from 21 cookbooks) called Fikonruter. I rarely bake, so any recipe that involves grinding raw almonds and requires a rolling pin is pretty intimidating. I decided to be a wuss and skip the step of making homemade fig filling (using port wine- who knew?) and bought jam instead (hey, the recipe said it would be okay). I found a fig and cocoa jam that sounded pretty amazing and most likely better than anything that I would make by steeping my own figs. I also found a sour cherry jam that sounded delicious and decided to make the recipe using the fig preserves on half and the sour cherry on the other half.

Yum...which flavor will be better? Fig Cocoa or Sour Cherry?

After grinding the raw almonds (which was EASY), cutting my unsalted butter into tiny little cubes, making the dough, and rolling it out, I spread each half with the two flavors of jam.

The dough was quite difficult to work with and confirmed that I will never be suited to being a pastry chef. At first the butter was too cold and wouldn’t mix, then the dough wouldn’t hold together when I was rolling it out. It also stuck to the table despite flouring it. The smile you see below is only due to my sense of satisfaction that somehow, despite it all, “I made a rectangle!” My confidence at this point was pretty low. Making a rectangular slab seemed to be quite a feat.

As you can imagine, if making a rectangle was a noteworthy accomplishment, making criss-cross lattice for the top was going to be quite the test. I had only a small amount of dough and had to keep putting it back into the refrigerator to chill so I could roll it out at all. The lattice kept breaking...Ugh! For someone who is normally very detail-oriented, it was hard to look at such pathetic results.

Eventually I finished the assembly, “embraced the imperfections”, and got it into the oven. It turned out pretty well. I really liked the almond cookie-flavored crust. By the way, I liked the sour cherry side the best.

Before I leave this blog entry, I wanted to share a photo of Katarina, Mats, and their daughter Agnes taken on our first morning in Sweden. We were treated to a traditional Swedish breakfast of hard cheese, crisp breads, tomatoes, meat, yoghurt, jam, and coffee. I may need to recreate that meal here in Kansas. But first, I have 6 more recipes to complete before the end of 2018!

[itunesjap5]

Fika - Anna Brones & Johanna Kindvall

An illustrated lifestyle cookbook on the Swedish tradition of fika --a twice-daily coffee break--including recipes for traditional baked goods, information and anecdotes about Swedish coffee culture, and the roots and modern incarnations of this cherished custom. Sweden is one of the world’s top coffee consuming nations, and the twice-daily social coffee break known as fika is a cherished custom. Fika can be had alone or in groups, indoors or outdoors, while traveling or at home. A time to take a rest from work and chat with friends or colleagues over a cup and a sweet treat, fika reflects the Swedish ideal of slowing down to appreciate life’s small joys. In this adorable illustrated cookbook, Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall share nearly fifty classic recipes from their motherland—from cinnamon buns and ginger snaps to rhubarb cordial and rye bread—allowing all of us to enjoy this charming tradition regardless of where we live. http://dlvr.it/R6SDpC