Skoleboller - Norwegian Sweet Custard Buns with Coconut

When one perfect batch of Norwegian Cardamom Sweet Buns is enough to jolt you out of the boring cinnamon buns world (okay, I may have exaggerated the cardamom buns a little, it may rival the potency of a good cinnamon buns but never replace it), a good baker, read obsessive compulsive, will strive to outdo herself.

What is more perfect than to make a variation of the famous Norwegian Hveteboller?

In come Skoleboller, loose translation reads as School buns. I believe they called it school buns because all children seems to enjoy it, and the school cafeterias serve them in droves. The children became adults and they continue to eat them. Next to the regular boller at the bakery and convenience stores in Oslo, you will find the Skoleboller, which, a true fan of these babies will tell you that it is the best sweet bun ever created.

What is not to like of these vanilla custard filled buns? A pudding center with the bun surface surrounding it smeared with icing sugar and topped with a good layer of coconuts. Perfection, I am telling you. I served these to my 3-year old niece, and she proclaimed it, "Yummy!" (Apparently, that is the highest honor you will get from a toddler)

Skoleboller (Norwegian School Buns)

Ingredients
For the Buns
One batch of basic cardamom bun recipe

For the Filling
I 3.4oz box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup of cold milk

For the Toppings
2 cups of icing sugar
enough milk to make a thick spreadable icing
1 cup of coconut flakes (I prefer sweetened)

Directions
1. Prepare cardamom buns dough following the recipe here. After you have divided the dough into 12 equal portions and let it rise for another 30 mins, this is when the skoleboller process begins.

2. Prepare the vanilla pudding. In a clean bowl, combine the instant vanilla pudding powder with 1 cup of cold milk. Whisk for a min or two till filling is set. Place in the refrigerator till you are ready to use them. You can opt to make homemade vanilla pudding for this recipe.

Please remember that the pudding has to be thick, hence the reduction in milk used to the instant pudding powder ratio above.

3. Preheat the oven to 375F. Using your thumb or the back of a soup spoon, make an indentation on the buns, deep enough to hold at least 1 tablespoon of custard filling. Make a bigger well if you really like vanilla custard with buns.

4. Spoon the vanilla custard into the indentation you have made.

5. Brush the surface of the buns with milk. Bake for 15-20 minutes till bread is golden brown but before the vanilla custard is browned. Remove from the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack.

6. In a bowl, combine icing sugar and milk to make a thick, spreadable sugar topping. Remember, you want it to look white and thick.

7. In a separate bowl or plate, place about 1 cup of coconut flakes. Dip the surface of the bun onto the coconut flakes and press down lightly to get a good coating of coconut on the bun.

8. Voila, you have just make the famous Norwegian Skoleboller. Some blog sites also note that Skoleboller happens to be one of the first Norwegian food that is commonly loved by expatriate in Norway.

Note: This is not the healthiest buns in the world but a little indulgence goes a long way. For this recipe, I used a mix of white whole wheat flour and all purpose flour to make the buns to somewhat satisfy my conscience. The buns came out just as good.

Hveteboller - Norwegian Cardamom Sweet Buns

Hi hi!

I have just returned from my sojourn to Norway for a month and boy, was I influenced by their bread culture. Yup, you heard me right, bread culture. Bread, apparently, to a Norge, is not the white, hearty, bland, off the shelf variant that we are so used to getting at the store.

Bread to Norwegians is literally, life giving sustenance. I will explain why I said that. Do you know that a typical Norwegian daily diet consist of at least 7 servings of bread, 2 for breakfast, 2 for lunch, 3 for snack, and 2 more for dinner. I said at least because, well, some people eat more bread than others. And yes, they can have bread for dessert too. Fastelavnsbolle or Shrove Tide Bun, traditionally filled with whipped cream and refrigerated. Of course, there are many variants to the sweet buns these days given their growing economy including Kringles, Cinnamon rolls, and etc.

But back to my favorite of them abundance variations of bread in Norway, Hveteboller, the tiny little cardamom-scented sweet buns where you can buy 3 boller with a small coffee for NOK29 (about US$5) at all coffee shops and convenience stores in the city. Yup, they are huge fans of coffee too, the beverage of choice which they consumed almost religiously from morning till night. My kinda paradise, if you ask.

The best way to have the cardamom-scented bun is toasted with jam and slices of brunost, the Norwegian's famous brown cheese, which is literally not a cheese but more a by-product of cooking whey from goat cheese production till the mix caramelized and then shaped into blocks. Think Kraft singles and you will have a fairly rough idea of brunost. Except brunost has a caramel sweet taste to it, it sticks to the roof of your mouth, and it is strangely addictive.

If you have a Whole Foods outlet near you, go and get your brunost fix. I heard that you can find the Tine's Ski Queen brand sold under the name of geitost, which essentially is the same as brunost. Geitost being the old Norsk word for it. I still have ample supply of brunost from my trip to Norway, so, I have yet to wander to a local Whole Foods on my hunt for this strangely satisfying dessert cheese almost dairy produce. Not quite sure how much it will cost for a 2lb block but mine didn't come cheap either.

Back to the buns, if you are like me, you love the citrus-vanilla taste of cardamom, then I dare you to bake these boller (Norwegian for buns: boller-plural, bolle-singular). You can filled them with different fillings and bake them to other variant of boller but for the basics, I thought we can start with the popular Norwegian snack food of choice, Hveteboller.

Norwegian Hveteboller - Cardamom-scented Sweet Buns
Makes 12
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup of bread flour
1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour plus 1/4 cup for adjustment
1/4 cup of butter
1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup of sugar
1 1/4 cup + 1/8 cup of lukewarm milk
1 packet of active dry yeast or 75g of fresh cake yeast if you can find them
1/4 tsp of salt
1 1/2 tsp of freshly ground cardamom (or use your meat tenderizer to pound those cardamom seeds)
Milk for brushing

Directions

1. Microwave milk in a microwave dish on high for about 1 1/2 min. Combine butter into milk and stir till it melts. Let mixture cools to lukewarm (or you don't feel like you are burning your fingers when dipped into the mixture.)

2. Add in 1/8 cup of sugar and yeast. Let yeast blooms. It should take about a min if you have the temperature right. Longer, if the mixture is too cold, and trust me, you will see no action if the mixture is too hot. If the latter happens, throw the mixture out and start over.

3. In a clean bowl, measure out the 3 cups of flour mix. Add in the salt and stir to combine.

4. On a board, split the cardamom pods to obtain the seeds. Pound with a meat tenderizer or use your coffee grinder to get about 1 1/2 tsp of ground cardamom.

5. In a large bowl, pour in the milk, butter, sugar, and yeast mix that has bloomed.

6. Add in the flour mix and cardamom. Stir with a wooden spoon to obtain a soft dough that will leave the side of the bowl easy. You will need to add in about an additional 1/4 cup of flour to obtain the desired consistency. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough.

7. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm dry place for about 15 mins. After 15 mins, place dough on a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 5 mins till you obtain a silky smooth bread dough that will not stick to your hands or work surface. Grease the bowl and the bread dough lightly. Cover with kitchen towel and let rise for another 45 mins or till dough has doubled in size.

8. Once dough has risen enough, divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Shape dough into rounds and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment (or you can just grease your baking sheet). Again, cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for another 30 mins till dough has risen.

9. Preheat the oven at 375F. Brush bread dough with milk. Bake in the oven for 18 mins till buns are golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack before serving, haha, or you can just slather these buns with butter as soon as it comes out of the oven and enjoy!

Hint: If you want to store these buns for later, let the buns cool completely on a wire rack. Place them in a ziploc bag. For longer storage, you can place the buns in the bag into the freezer. They almost keep indefinitely. Just warm them up in a toaster oven for 5 mins before serving, less if they are sliced. You can also microwave them for 50 seconds if they come right out of the freezer just before serving.

Beef Rendang - Rendang Daging Tok

What do you do to a perfect looking piece of beef brisket that you got cheap from the grocery store?

Nope, not into meat curing yet, so corned beef or pastrami is out. I was thinking of using the beef brisket to make a Cantonese style beef stew, which is always a favorite. However, my other half decided that winter is perfect for making beef rendang and yellow sticky rice.

Seriously? Where did he get that from?

To add to the problem, I have never used brisket to make beef rendang before. Usually, I will go to my standby of top or bottom round, and London broil. Brisket is a tough cut of meat, with connective tissues all over that the only way to tenderize them is long over of cooking. Then again, rendang or Malay style dry curry is essentially a stew. Why not give it a try?

I remember tasting the curry beef brisket when I was in Hong Kong, and they did get the meat to turn so melt in the mouth tender and the deep flavor of the brisket works really well with the play of spices in the curry paste they used.

The recipe that I use in making rendang was taught to me by a close friend's mum years ago. She was originally from the Perak state in Malaysia, hence, her recipe of making rendang is referred to as Rendang Tok. The spice paste featured a strong presence of turmeric, and unlike rendang of other variations, it is cooked till dry.

However, for my family, they love a little bit of gravy with their yellow sticky rice. Hence, I usually leave mine a little wet compared to the traditional ones. Feel free to cook the rendang till the gravy has all evaporated. You will be rewarded with one tasty pot of spicy, coconut, beef curry stew that will keep you nice and warm in the winter months.

Rendang Daging Tok

Ingredients
1.5lb to 2lb of beef (brisket, top round, bottom round, sirloin or London Broil)
10 large shallots or 20 small shallots
10 dried hot peppers, deseeded and soaked in hot water till soft (more if you like yours spicy)
6 cloves of garlic
4 inches of fresh or frozen turmeric
4 inches of ginger
2 inches of galangal
3 stalks of lemongrass, white part only (or 5 heaping tablespoon of frozen chopped lemongrass)
2 Tbsp of fennel
1 Tbsp of cumin
3 pieces of kaffir lime leaves, finely shredded
1 piece of turmeric leaf, torn roughly (Optional if you can't find it at your Asian grocery store)
1/2 cup of vegetable or canola oil
1/2 cup of water
2 cups of thick coconut milk
6 Tbsp of fried coconut flakes (kerisik)
salt and palm sugar (or brown sugar) to taste

Methods
1. In a food processor, combine shallots, rehydrated hot peppers, garlic, turmeric, ginger, and galangal. Add in lemongrass as well if you are using the frozen chopped variant. Process ingredients into a fine paste. Add a teaspoon of water if necessary to aid in the grinding process.
2. Cut beef brisket to about 1-inch pieces.

3. In a wok or heavy bottom pot, add in 1/2 cup of oil and turn the stove to medium low. Add in the ground spices. Let cook until aromatic and oil begins to separate from the ground spices. Stir occasionally as they burn easy.

4. Once the ground spices are cooked, add in the beef brisket. Stir in half a cup of water and turn heat up to medium high. Let cook until mixture comes up to a boil. Continue to let it simmer at medium low till water is reduced, about 30 mins. Stir occasionally.

5. Once water has evaporate to a quarter of its original level, add in the two cups of coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, fresh lemongrass stalks, and turmeric leaf, if using. Continue to let the stew cook for another hour or so till meat is tender and gravy has been reduced to very thick consistency. You are looking at about 1/3 of its original level. Stir every 20 mins. Season with salt and palm sugar.

6. Once gravy has thickened to the desired consistency, add in fried coconut flakes or kerisik. Cook for another 10 mins till all gravy has evaporated and your beef rendang looks dry.

7. Beef rendang is best served with steamed yellow sticky rice (recipe to come later).

Note: Traditionally, kerisk is made out of dry fried fresh coconut flakes and then pounded. If using substitution, heat up a wok on low and add in coconut flakes. Stir till coconut flakes turned golden brown. Pound coconut flakes in a mortar or pestle. You can also grind it in a food processor.

Malaysian-Style Roasted Hainanese Chicken Rice

If there is ever a national meat category voted by Malaysians, it is safe to say chicken will be the king of all in the tropical island of Malaysia. No one die hard Malaysia-born native can nor voluntarily will go through a day without having some form of chicken dish or eggs.

Why do we love chicken so much? Well, what's not to love about it? Living in a multi-racial country, where people have different cultural and religious views on everything, from food to clothing, politics and what's not, chicken is like our answer to unity. I dare you to name me one person in Malaysia who will publicly announce to the world that he/she detests chicken. None?

When it comes to the preparation of chicken in Malaysia, the dishes are as varied as the population that makes up the blend of people who all represents a different side of Malaysia. Predominantly a majority of Malay populated country, there are no less than a hundred different methods of preparing the poutine in all different types of spices and coconut milk blend, the recipes traditionally passed on from one generation to the next, and often, a closely guarded secret.

The Chinese and Indian populace in Malaysia will of course have their variation of how best to prepare chicken, mostly depending on the mood of the days, be it a spicy concoction that rivals the Korean potent gochujang and kochukaru mixed of paste or the more subtle Chinese herbs laced steamed variation of chicken dishes.

As diverse as the chicken dishes in Malaysia mimicking the different cultures of the population, everyone can agree it is the Chinese community's famous Hainanese Chicken Rice, a dish purportedly brought over by a group of immigrant from the Hainan Island, south of China, which reigned supreme among all the different poultry preparations in the country.

Now, some may disagree, stating rather matter of fact that Hainanese Chicken is a Singaporean dish. Well, the truth is, Singapore and the then-Malaya was united as one country by the British colonist at the time and it was not until 1965 when the little island officially separated itself from the mainland Malaya. So, to claim one dish as its own when the same preparation was being taught and very much celebrated by others just north of the border is a bit.......counter-productive, wouldn't you say it? If it is up to me, let's just call it a truly South-east Asian dish enjoyed by all the countries in the region.

Traditionally, Hainanese chicken is boiled in chicken stock or just plain water, and then submerged in ice cold water to keep the skin intact, retaining the skin's color, springiness without getting soft and soggy. The barometer of how a good Hainanese chicken rice dish is prepared can be a long list of criterion which is best left to the professionals in cooking competition to deal with. I kid you not, there is a Hainanese Chicken cooking competition, very much like Memphis in May or the Texan famous chili cookoff competitions down south.

An equally popular spin-off from the boiled Hainanese chicken is the roasted Hainanese chicken. In Kuala Lumpur, you will find thousands of roadside eateries, as well as, franchise-based restaurants or mall food court selling both the boiled and roasted version of the famous fowl. The younger generation tends to prefer the roasted version of the poultry while the older generation almost always choose the boiled version over the earlier. Maybe they know something that we don't?

Whichever way you prefer to cook the chicken, the best way to enjoy the this simple albeit controversial dish is to dunk the chicken in garlic chili sauce, a smear of ginger scallion paste, a drizzle of dark soy sauce if you like, with a mouthful of that greasy rice cooked with rendered chicken fat. Oh yeah, rendered chicken fat. Any restaurateurs offering you a healthier version of the dish is only jibbing you off the most heavenly good experience of what we proclaim a good Hainanese Chicken Rice!

Malaysian Style Roasted Hainanese Chicken Rice
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
-For The Chicken
6.5lb to 7lb whole chicken (roaster)
5 slices of ginger
2 stalks of green onions
2 Tbsp of honey
1 Tbsp of molasses (or Chinese maltose if you can find it)
1 tsp of 5 spice powder
2 Tbsp of soy sauce
1 Tbsp of cooking caramel (Substitute with other dark soy sauce if you can't find it)
1 tsp of sesame oil
1Tbsp of Chinese rice wine (Shaoxing works best, substitute with dry sherry)
A few dashes of ground white pepper

-For the rice
2 cups of long grain white rice (preferably jasmine rice)
2 slices of ginger
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 1/2 cup of chicken stock (homemade or store bought)
4 Tbsp or more liquid chicken fat (rendered from excess fat from the chicken)
salt to taste

-For the chili dipping sauce
2 Tbsp of chili garlic sauce (the one you find at the Asian grocery with the green cap, next to Sriracha)
3 Tbsp of sugar
3 Tbsp of cider vinegar
1 tsp of liquid chicken fat

-For the ginger dipping sauce
3-inches of ginger root, grated
3 stalk of scallion, finely chopped
3 Tbsp of canola or vegetable oil
1 tsp of liquid chicken fat
3/4 tsp of rice vinegar
salt to taste

Directions
For the Chicken

1) Prepare the whole chicken. Discard the pack of giblets in the cavity. Save it for chicken stock later.
2) Trim off excess fat. Dunk those fats in a stainless steel pot which you will use to cook the rice in later.
3) Pat the chicken dry, outside and the cavity as well. Fold the wing tips to the back of the wings so it will stay put.

4) In a small bowl, combine honey, molasses, soy sauce, rice wine, 5 spice powder, cooking caramel, sesame oil, and ground white pepper in a bowl. Mix well and set aside.

5) Place chicken in a pan layered with wire rack. Rub the seasoning mix all over the chicken, inside and out till all seasoning mix is used up. There will be a lot of dripping in the pan, discard later.

6) Place the sliced ginger and green onions into the cavity of the chicken.

7) Using a kitchen twine, tie the legs together so it covers the cavity. Discard all the seasoning drippings in the pan. Place chicken on a wire rack in the pan and leave to dry uncovered in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
8) 30 minutes prior to cooking, remove the chicken from the refrigerator. Set the pan with the chicken on the counter to come up to room temperature. Preheat oven to 425F.
9) With the backbone side up, place chicken in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 375F. After 30 minutes of roasting, or when skin turned golden and crispy on the upper side, turn chicken over breast side up.
10) Continue roasting for another 45 mins, till chicken is golden brown and internal temperature of the meat measured on the thighs reached 170F. Once the meat is cooked and if the skin has not crunched up, turn on the convection function in your oven and let it crunch up the skin for 10 mins. If you don't have the function at your disposal, just turn off the oven, then turn the broiler on high. Watch the bird the entire time to avoid burning the skin, your aim is a nice golden crunch.

11) Remove from oven and let stand for 20 mins before carving. longer if you can stave your family away from the crispy roasted chicken resting on the kitchen counter.

Note: The roaster which I used is about 6.5lbs. Based on my approximation of 18 minutes per 1lb of chicken at a 375F oven, it should take about 117 minutes, 3 minutes under the 2 hours mark. However, since I started off the chicken at the higher temperature of 425F for 20 minutes, it reduced the overall cooking time. Mine was done at approximately 1 hour and 15 mins.


For the Rice

1) Place pot with the excess chicken fat on the stove top and turn it on to medium. Fat will begin to render.
You will get about 1/4 cup of liquid chicken fat.

2)Save about 3 tsp for the ginger and chili dipping sauce while leaving behind the remainder liquid chicken fat in the pot.
3) To proceed with the rice, pour in the rice grains, chopped garlic, and ginger into the pot. Saute till you can smell the garlic and ginger permeating the air. Stir occasionally to avoid burning the garlic.
4) Add chicken stock and about 1/2 tsp of salt into the pot. Cover and turn heat up to high. As soon as it begins to boil, reduce heat to low and set timer for 25 mins. Once the timer goes off, remove pot to the cooler side of the stove. Let rest covered for 10 minutes before fluffing the rice with a fork.

For the Chili dipping sauce

1) This is the easy version of making the chili dipping sauce which taste equally as good as the ones that called for all the ingredients to be pounded into a paste using fresh chili peppers.
2) In a bowl, combine all the ingredients. Stir till sugar dissolved. Let rest at room temperature, covered to be served later.

For the Ginger Dipping Sauce

1) Grate the ginger in a bowl. Add the thinly sliced scallions into the bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Season with salt to taste. Let rest at room temperature to develop the flavor. You can make the ginger sauce ahead of time. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature. Serve on the side with chicken rice.

Checkerboard Cookies

I have always been fascinated by the checkerboard cookies. Well, at least when I was a child anyways. They look so geometrically correct, which, if you happened to be extremely interested in math and science as a child, you would really fall in love with the construction of something so symmetrically correct. Did I just lose you right there?

Anyhow, making checkerboard cookies have not crossed my mind in ages since I preferred the lazy ways of drop cookies. Hey, in an era where many do not cook, let alone bake, I consider myself pretty darn good for keeping the cooking and baking from scratch tradition alive. No apologies there.

For my first attempt, I started with a small batch, which was a HUGE mistake. Had I known then that the process is going to be so tedious, I would have made a bigger batch, just so I have a lot of dough to freeze. They will be my thaw and bake cookies for emergency purposes or Christmas.

Speaking of which, the urge to bake something new started with the dawn of the merry season. So many pre-Christmas parties to go to and I hate the fact to show up empty handed. Part of me would love to do that, would kill to be able to let myself to do that. Nope, not gonna happen this lifetime. So, off to baking we go.

Checkerboard Cookies Recipe
Makes about 3 dozens

Ingredients
1 cup of butter, softened
1/2 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
2 1/2 cup of flour
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp of Cocoa Powder or melted chocolate, depending on what you have in your pantry

Directions
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add in vanilla extract and continue to beat for another minute.

 2. Add in flour gradually, and mix till a dough is formed. Divide filling into two portions. Take out one portion and place it on a sheet of plastic wrap. Shape dough into a 8 by 12 rectangle. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator.

3. To the remaining dough in the mixer, add in the cocoa powder. Mix till it is well combined. Repeat the process to shape dough into a rectangle. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator till dough is firm, about 30 minutes.


4. Once dough has set, unwrap the two dough on a work counter layered with a fresh piece of plastic wrap. Place the white dough on the base. Top with the chocolate dough. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and press to ensure the two dough adhere to each other.

5. If dough softened at this time, place it back into the refrigerator for 30 minutes till it is firm again. You do not want to work with the dough if it has softened. The color will combined together and you will be left with a swirl cookie dough instead of checkerboard.

6. When dough is firm enough to work with, trim off the edges of the dough so you will have perfect square edges. We are vying for 90-degree angle at every corners.This is when all those years studying math comes in handy. Remember exponent? Well, even if you don't, trust me, math comes in handy at this point. Makes it easier for one to visualize what is going to happen next in order to get the checkerboard pattern. It is nothing more than a 3x3 or a 4x4 matrix that we are shooting for. I hope I have not lost you yet. Please bear with me, this system will make the checkerboard cookies making experience a whole lot easier compared to stacking the cookie dough strip-by-strip.

7. We start out by cutting the stacked cookie dough in half, lengthwise. The dough needs to be long. Stack the opposite color on top each other, preferably cut side to cut side, that gives you the perfect 90 degree angle, or close to it. Now you have a brown and white, brown and white stack. That is good.

8. Next, you will want to measure out the longer length of the dough. Divide the diameter of the strips equally. You need at least 12 or 16 strips altogether, again depending on the final measurements of your dough. I promise, this is easier in reality than trying to explain it in words.

9. Stack the strips in alternating colors. You can do either a block of 3 strips or 4 strips, depending on how many strips you manage to cut out from your dough.

10. Once you have stack them together, wrap the log in plastic wrap.  If you have leftover dough like I do, simply roll it out into a flat piece.

Wrap the log of dough with the leftover cookie dough. This is a good trick to salvage whichever strip of dough that threatens to fall apart on you.Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before baking.

11. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350F. Slice cookie dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Bake for 9-11 minutes till bottom is golden brown and cookie is set. Bake any longer, and the color will just combine and you will lose the checkerboard pattern which you have worked so hard to achieve. Let cool to room temperature on a wire rack before storing or you can eat one right away as soon as it sets.

Note:
a) This recipe can easily be doubled. I used my standard shortbread cookies recipe as I like the buttery light cookie dough. I did not use any egg wash or water to bind the stacks together.

b) As long as you press them together firmly before refrigeration, the stacks should stick together. If you feel more comfortable using egg wash to bind the layers together, feel free to do so.

c) Just remember, never ever ever work with the dough if it softens too much. Just wrap it in plastic, put it back in the refrigerator for 30 minutes till it firms up before working with the dough again.