What to make for breakfast on Valentine’s Day? These for me, myself and I! Delicious and oh so delicious warm out of the oven, just waiting to be devoured. These are supposed to look like hearts in a circle, and I suppose that they do, and have been making the rounds on social media in the lead up to Valentine’s Day. These could also be made with Cardamom instead of cinnamon, or even raspberry jam or chocolate.
It’s to be very cold here in the Northeast this weekend, starting like now-ish. Considerably below zero, with considerable wind and thus, bitter windchill. The weather people are advising not to hang out outside too long, and that translates to “stay in and bake” in my world, which is what I am firmly intending to do, starting with these Sudeg Kardemommesnurrer (Swedish Sourdough Cardamom Swirls): a sweet, brioche-style dough, filled with a brown sugar – cardamom filling, babka’ed by slicing open length-wise and then twisting, then swirling upon itself. Definitely smells amazing in my flat so while these cool for a few minutes, I will revel in that.
This is a trend that I’ve been seeing recently on some of the bread-baking sites that I follow: shaping a regular loaf of bread (a standard boule) into a pumpkin loaf. There is nothing pumpkin or pumpkin-spice flavored about this bread: it is just a regular loaf of my standard artisan sourdough bread. But to make it a little festive, you can imprint the loaf by loosely tying cooking twine around it before baking. I used a cinnamon stick as the “stem” just to complete the look. Makes a nice presentation for a harvest / autumn / Thanksgiving meal.
Alice in Wondoughland, my sourdough started, had gone into hiberation for a few weeks whilst I was in Germany, but she’s all thawed out and ready to rise again! First up: these super fluffy Honey Cinnamon Sourdough Brioche Sweet Rolls. Definitely something to have for breakfast, but not nearly as sweet or sugar-overload like a cinnamon bun (don’t get me wrong; I love those too, just in a different way. Great fresh out of the oven with a bit of butter.
Sourdough experiment for the week using a super seasonal ingredient: Strawberry Milleswirlie. Why Milleswirlie? Well, Millefiori is derived from “a thousand flowers” in Italian, so here we have a thousand swirls … Mille-swirlies! And the strawberries are just because it is strawberry season and I got them at the weekly farmer’s market yesterday and they were just begging to be made into something delicious. It’s as if strawberry shortcake and cinnamon rolls got together and had a love child. Dessert for breakfast, no regrets!