Cozying Up to Fall and Winter
By Ruth Ann Smalley
I love fall. But when the days shorten and the clouds roll in, my mood starts to dip. I don’t hate winter, but sometimes it feels like an endurance test. So around this time of year, I start planning strategies for winter staying power—gathering materials for projects, pulling out seasonal recipes, stocking up on warm socks.
Do you also get the urge to create a cozy nest for winter? I suspect I’m not alone in starting to shift into seasonal comfort-seeking mode a little before Halloween, especially once there’s a chill in the air. I also suspect that given the current turbulence in the country and the world at large, many of us are probably in the mood for some practices that will allow us to make time for small pleasures.
I recently ran across a lovely cookbook that I hope will facilitate doing so, called Fika: The Art of the Swedish Coffee Break. It promises “recipes for pastries, breads, and other treats.” I’m already smitten by the easy cake recipe I’ve adapted below, and am eager to try others.
The Dutch immigrant community where I grew up boasted not one but two bakeries on the main street. Dutch letters, cream horns, puff pillows and other crispy, lighter-than-air pastries defined baked goods for me as a youngster in Pella, Iowa. When I moved away, I was a little shocked to discover that a lot of bakery fare in other places seemed heavy and ultrasweet.
Pella folks made a ritual of serving Dutch bakery treats with their “coffee time,” so when I first encountered the Swedish concept of “fika” it felt familiar. Authors Anna Brones and Johanna Kindvall explain that fika is both a noun and a verb. It refers to the intentional break for coffee (or tea) and a baked good. When someone asks, “should we fika?” “every Swede knows exactly what it means: ‘Let’s take a break, spend some time together, slow down’” (3).
Preparing homemade baked goods, based on many classic Swedish recipes, brings an additional element of slowing down to the practice. This cookbook rolls out a mouthwatering array of recipes for things like cardamom cake, hazelnut crisps, chocolate coffee squares, saffron buns, almond tart, toasted rye buns, Swedish scones, and flat bread. The authors cover the finer points of not just what, but how, to serve up a great fika experience. I especially like their description of the word “mysig.” It comes from “mysa” which “originally meant ‘to smile with contentedness’”(53). That feels like that extra layer of coziness that is created when some special thought has been folded into the effort.
I love this cake for its elegance and simplicity. And it is gluten free! Created when cooks needed easy replacements for flour, Kronans kaka uses a potato instead. The other ingredients offer enough flavor that I’ve adapted the recipe to cut the sugar in half. Here’s my low-sugar version.
Almond Potato Cake
Ingredients:
7 ounces of unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 cup ground almonds
7 ounces of boiled potato, mashed
1-2 tablespoons of lemon zest
¼ cup sugar
Instructions:
1. Cream together room temperature butter and sugar, and then mix in each egg slowly.
2. Stir in almonds and lemon zest, and then add mashed potatoes to your batter.
3. Pour into a greased 9 inch baking pan (I use a pie pan) and bake at 350 degrees.
In my toaster oven, the cake takes about 40 minutes to bake to a golden brown. Check on the cake at 30 minutes and cover with foil if it has started browning early. Allow to cool, and serve as is, or with fruit, jam, and a little whipped cream.
Add some coffee or tea, and a friend or two, and you’ve got the perfect fika!
View all the Coop Scoop Blog posts here.