Teaser

I bought my first pumpkin ever and had some fun with it before I made it into purée. I will post about my first attempts of cooking and eating pumpkin during Vegan Mofo starting on Monday!

Sockerskorpor

I had no idea what this was called in english. In Sweden it's called skorpa, a soft cookie that has been dried to crispiness. Wikipedia told me to translate it to "rusk". In that case, this is a post about sugar rusks. Somehow it sounds really weird, but maybe it's just me. Anyway, the other day I wanted to make something small and sweet that would last to keep for a while. You know, something small to eat when you can't hold that sugar craving any longer. I wanted it to be something a bit boring and dry, so that we wouldn't eat it all immediately as we always do. I decided that I wanted to make rusks/skorpor. I asked my mother for a recipe, because it seemed like  something she would know. She sent me a recipe straight away and I started baking. They are super easy to do, and makes a lot. They are very simple and only flavoured with cardamom, crisp and sweet.

They were all gone one and a half day later. So much for something boring to last, huh?

Sockerskorpor/Sugar rusks
 
200 g non-dairy margarine

1 dl granulated sugar

1 teaspoon grinded cardamom

8 dl all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 dl veg-milk (I used soy with vanilla flavour, any kind will do)

Use a hand mixer to make the margarine and sugar light and fluffy. Add the cardamom. Sift in the flour and baking powder and use a fork to incorporate it together with the milk. Mix until a dough comes together. It shouldn't be sticky but not really dry either. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough into 1 cm thick. Use something small and round, approximately 2,5 cm (1 inch), to cut out round parts of the dough. Put them on a baking sheet and bake in the 275 °C for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, and use a fork to divide them in halves. Do this by separating the bottom and the top with the fork. Put them back on the baking sheet in a single layer and bake them for about 10 minutes in 175 °C. They should turn crisp but don't brown much. 

There will be no explanation. This is just a blog about food. So now that we (didn't) talked about that, lets move on. Two week ago, we had a friends family over for dinner. It was her, and her two parents. Although my insight in their diet it pretty limited, I have a feeling that they eat almost only potatoes and meat/fish. I mean, pretty much everyone here does since it's the only things they could produce here. They have always been fishing, kept sheep and hunted the birds that nests here. And the only thing that can grow here is potatoes and rhubarb. Think about that for a while and you realize that even though the supermarkets are now filled with more international groceries, it's pretty natural that potatoes and meat/fish still dominates the Faroese cuisine. So, they were invited to our home, and offered a completely vegan meal. I was nervous and made my best to come up with something that would be tasty, filling and not intimidating. We served them lemony roasted potatoes (The Veganomicon), beetroot and lentil-patties, green peas and a sunflower seed purée as "sauce". The dessert was a chocolate-strawberry cake with chocolate frosting. Actually, they liked it.

Anyhow, where I was really trying to go by telling this long story was that they gave us a huge bag of frozen rhubarb. Yesterday I wanted to make something sweet for dessert, and I wanted it to include some of this lovely home grown rhubarb. I found a promising recipe at Veganmage, a Swedish blog, and decided to go for it. They turned out great. A soft muffin filled with rhubarb, topped with crumbles.

Rhubarb- and cinnamon muffins with a crumble
12 muffins

Muffin batter:
100 g vegetable margarine
2.5 dl non dairy milk 
1 dl granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 dl all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder

Melt the margarine and add the milk, sugar and vanilla. Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix to combine.

Rhubarb filling:
2 dl rhubarb
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

If you have fresh rhubarb, cut it in small pieces and mix it with the sugar and cinnamon. If frozen, reheat it with the sugar and cinnamon and let it cook for a few minutes.

Crumble topping:
75 g vegetable margarine
2 dl oats
1 dl all-purpose flour
1 dl granulated sugar

Mix all the ingredients, with a fork or your fingers, until crumbly.


To assamble:
Put a tablespoon of rhubarb filling in the bottom of the muffin tin/paper. Fill up 2/3 with the muffin batter. Top with the crumbles and bake for 12-15 minutes in 175° C.