The recipe was really simple and I was surprised to find that I could make it with all my store cupboard essentials. It also required no equipment which was another reason I chose it as I don’t have any fancy food mixers/processors to hand. The prep work took around 30 minutes so was exactly as the recipe predicted. I had to substitute ‘soft wheat flour’ for plain flour so it’ll be interesting to see whether this has an effect on the final shortbread. I also swapped out ground ginger for cinnamon as a personal preference. Once the dough is made you simply roll them out into logs and pop them in the oven. A few recipes, including Johansson, Lemanski and the Triangle’s, recommend retarding the dough by leaving it to rise slowly in the fridge, rather than at room temperature, which, the Yorkshire bakery tells me: “will make the dough taste greeaaaat, and [is] easier for the final shape!”. With so much spice involved, I can’t really taste the difference, but I can attest it makes stretching and filling the dough an awful lot less faff, because the dough is firmer and so more amenable to being topped with butter. It also makes timing a bit easier, because you can, to a certain extent, choose when to bake it, as opposed to being at the mercy of your yeast. They also, in my experience, rise slightly better, but the difference is not significant. The filling p. 242 - 4 stars - Dry Porridge Made from Toasted Oat or Barley Flour - It sounded very much like mămăligă, only with oats, so I was sceptical about serving with "rendered fat on top", instead I just fried balls of it in the fat left after the pork. Then the balls were happily eaten and a second helping looked for. The Nordic version of French Toast sounds like the ideal recipe for a weekend breakfast. It consists of toasted slices of bread, soaked in freshly made wheat flour batter. Then fried in butter over a medium heat before coating with a cinnamon and sugar mix. No gluten Free Recipes

The ingredient amounts are in both metric (g, ml) and “imperial” (cups, tablespoons, etc.). But in a few places the provided metric weights seem inconsistent with the imperial measures. My rule of thumb has been when in doubt, go with the metric. This recipe comes from Gudrun Einarsdottir who helped me out with a lot of the Icelandic content for this book. It was originally her grandmother’s.Many recipes instruct you to heat milk / melt butter on the stovetop. I have a one word reply: microwave. There are as many conflicting ideas on how to eat this cake as there are recipes for it," he writes. "Some like it warm with ice cream, some like it at room temperature with nothing, and I like it as my wife will tell you to eat it: cold from the refrigerator with whipped cream on the side."

This was a very lovely read. This is my first introduction to Magnus Nilsson, and he did not disappoint. He has an enjoyable writing style that is informative. This book has just about every Nordic baking recipe you could imagine. In a twist from the usual cookbooks, Nilsson includes gorgeous pictures of various locations across Scandinavia. I looked at some of the recipes I'm familiar with making, and the recipe ingredients and amounts seemed consistent. Normally with cook books, you dive straight to the index to see what to bake first, but with this book, it's essential that you read ALL of the introductory chapters. These include; This] is just the tome for those who have serious ambitions for their butter and flour.' – New York Times An Icelandic classic that is eaten all year under the same name. Nilsson says the old-fashioned version only has raisins in it, but more recent recipes include both raisins and chocolate. Needless to say, I chose chocolate. It was very nice with morning coffee. I used a slightly smaller loaf pan (8.5 x 4.5″ vs 9×5) and had to bake it considerably longer that he stated, more than I’d have thought.Shape the dough into two logs a bit shorter than the width of your baking sheet. Place the logs on the prepared baking sheets and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden. The logs will spread out considerably during the cooking. This sounded more interesting than your average apple cake (well, I was sold at “cardamom”, frankly). There was no photo in the book against which to judge my effort, and to be honest I had no end of trouble with this one in my high-elevation kitchen. I found the batter to be very stiff and dry, and the first two attempts, despite some elevation adjustment, did the classic “let’s rise too fast and then collapse in the middle” thing. The third try finally came out more like I think it should. Sliced almonds on top are optional, but a nice touch, and I went a bit further and sprinkled granulated sugar on top once out of the oven.

Rúgbrauð means rye bread, hverabrauð refers specifically to bread baked next to hot springs and brumari, ‘thunder bread’, refers to the effects from eating any bread containing a lot of dietary fibres. Divide the chocolate mixture into 20 equal-sized portions and roll into balls with your hands. Let them drop directly into your desired coating and roll them around to coat evenly. There are, however, two issues with this book. While there are a lot of beautiful landscape photos, there are not nearly enough pictures of the actual baked goods. Some of the recipes are complicated, and it would have been nice to see some of the steps along the way, and in some cases, the completed product. Next to the word ‘comprehensive’ in the dictionary there should be a picture of the cover of The Nordic Baking Book by Swedish chef and food historian, Magnus Nilsson. The meticulous head chef at Fäviken Magasinet in the remote west of Sweden, and author of 2015’s encyclopaedic ‘The Nordic Cookbook’, has left few baking stones unturned, from Iceland to the Faroe Islands, in pursuit of recipes for buns, breads and broths. That porridges and soups should appear in a baking recipe book is a major talking point in Nilsson’s distinctly casual approach to completism. It’s a point he takes time to explain, right from the start. The acclaimed chef featured in the Emmy-Award winning US PBS series The Mind of a Chef and the Netflix docuseries Chef's Table explores the rich baking tradition of the Nordic region, with 450 tempting recipes for home bakersMix all the ingredients together in a bowl until fully combined, then transfer to the prepared vessel. No other book on Nordic baking is as comprehensive and informative. Nilsson travelled extensively throughout the Nordic region - Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden - collecting recipes and documenting the landscape. The 100 photographs in the book have been shot by Nilsson – now an established photographer, following his successful exhibitions in the US.

Nilsson makes a defining statement in early in the book that denies the importance of getting everything right, even following the recipes to the letter, rejecting the idea that baking is a science of ingredients. He is ready for other people’s mistakes and adjustments to create something new, potentially better. So, the pressure is off. It’s a book to enjoy, screw up and see what happens. If only we could all be so relaxed about what comes out of the oven. It’s hard to imagine buyers of such a beautiful and heavy book wanting anything other than perfection, exactly as Nilsson found it in that remote Lapland kitchen.

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Yes, some of the recipes in this book are complex, but there are actually many simple recipes too. If you are looking for the easiest starting points, I recommend: the porridge section (pp. 242-251), the muffins (pp. 366-370), most of the soft cakes section (pp. 399-435), coconut dreams and coconut pyramids (p. 324), chocolate oatmeal balls (p. 388). As for the bread recipes, I think the easiest ones are the small wheat buns (p. 115) and rundstykker (breakfast buns, p. 116). No other book on Nordic baking is as comprehensive and informative. Nilsson travelled extensively throughout the Nordic region - Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden - collecting recipes and documenting the landscape. The 100 photographs in the book have been shot by Nilsson - now an established photographer, following his successful exhibitions in the US.