Holidays in Sweden!

This post was hanging around as a draft for a few years until being published...since my thoughts are the same as they were 6 years ago, when writing this, I am publishing it now. 

So many thoughts, feelings and memories in my head these days. Sometimes I wonder if its good to do the things you have on your so called bucket list. The things I have had on my bucket list are far from what many of you would consider bucket list items. For me it was spending Christmas with my mom in Sweden. We have spent many Christmases together but not in Sweden since 1988! This year it happened and now I can cross it off my list. I kind of already miss having it on my list. It was a great Christmas, all the right food and the people I wanted to spend it with was there including 2 of 3 daughters- not bad!
You know when you have things on that list it is not over yet. You have it there to do in the future. You can look forward to it and wonder how it is going to be and dream. Now when its over it is over! I am not disappointed or not happy with how it turned out, I just miss having it on my list!
Enough wining!

Happy Thanksgiving and maybe a Swedish Cinnamon bun...

Hi everyone!
Just a really quick post in between arriving back home after an amazing trip "out west" and getting ready to go to Ottawa and celebrate Thanksgiving with some of my favourite people. We will throw in a rugby game between Queens University and St. Fx as well. Womens Rugby that is!

I just finished baking a batch Swedish Cinnamon Buns and I thought today is the day I will post the recipe for you all to enjoy. So, lets plan a contest! Start baking with family and friends over the weekend and post your pictures on my FB page!

Swedish Cinnamon Buns

This will make approximately 24 larger sized buns or 40 smaller 

Please note the extra comments indicated with a *

Ingredients

50g fresh Yeast* or 25g dried yeast

500 ml Milk (2%), heated to 36–37*C

130g White sugar 

4 tsp freshly Coarsely Ground Cardamom

2 tsp Salt

800-1000g Unbleached Bread Flour

150g Butter

Flour, to dust the work surface

For the filling- “suggested amounts”

80-100g Soft Butter

2 tablespoon Coarsely Ground Cinnamon 

120g Sugar

Brushing and Sugar Sprinkling

1-2 Eggs, Lightly mixed

Pearl Sugar, Coarse Sugar or White sugar

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Turn oven to 425*F, 6-12 min (250-275*C)

*If using fresh yeast, add the warmed milk to you’re mixing bowl and add the yeast; stir until dissolved, then continue with the other ingredients.

Method

Preheat oven to 425*F or 250*C

1*. Pour the warm milk into your mixing bowl, sprinkle in the yeast and whisk together. Cover with Clingfilm and leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes to become bubbly. Start the machine and add White Sugar, Cardamom, Salt and some of the Flour. Allow combining well. Add Butter and remaining Flour.

You may need to add more flour – you want the mixture to end up a bit sticky, but not so much that it sticks to your finger if you poke it. You want the dough to start releasing from the sides of mixing bowl. It is important not to add too much flour as this will result in dry buns. You can always add more later.

3. Once mixed, leave the dough in a bowl and cover with a dishtowel. Allow to rise for around 30 minutes or until it has doubled in size.

4. Dust the table top with flour and turn out the dough. Knead the dough with your hands and work in more flour if needed. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a 40 x 50 cm rectangle.

5. Spread soft butter on top of your rolled out dough, continue with sprinkling the sugar evenly and at last dust with a good amount of cinnammon. Carefully fold the dough in half. Use rolling pin to lightly roll and press together the two layers of dough.

6. Cut strips of dough, about 1.5cm wide. Carefully twist each strip of dough in opposite direction until the whole piece is twisted. Twirl the twisted dough strips around itself and end with sticking the end piece underneath. 

6. Place the swirls onto the baking sheets (not too close as they will rise further). Leave to rise under a dishtowel for 30 minutes.

7* Brush each bun lightly with egg and sprinkle your sugar of choice on top. Pop the buns into the preheated oven to bake for 10–12 minutes. Watch the buns as they bake!They can go dark very quickly and you may also need to turn the baking sheet around in the oven if they look unevenly baked.

8. When the buns are golden, remove from the oven. 

*This can also be done as the buns come out of the oven. If baking with kids it is easier to brush the buns before they are baked. If you are doing it and feel confident you can, brush them after they are baked and sprinkle the sugar on immediately. 

 

Photo credit: Michelle Quance

Good Luck with all your baking and 

SPREAD THE WORD TO THE WORLD ABOUT HOW FUN IT IS!

If you have any questions in regards to this recipe or something else you think of please don’t hesitate to connect! 

annatvinnereim@sympatico.ca

 A SWEDISH BAKESHOP AND THEN WHAT

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INSPIRE & GET INSPIRED

It is so great when you get a sign of what you have tried to do is working. I just had a few of those moments lately. Previous customers and friends from Beaches Bakeshop have been sending me pictures of them baking Swedish Cinnamon Buns at home after my recipe and instructions.

Baking is really a special thing. Baking and Cooking together is so great. It brings people together. Older, younger, strangers, old friends, men, women, different cultures and interests. We all need to eat and what could possibly interest us more than caring about what we put in our bodies. When you bake and cook from scratch you have total control. I remember Michael Pollan (an American journalist) once said "You can eat all the junk food you want, as long as you make it yourself". I think that is a great statement.
Of course, everything should be in moderation and a balanced lifestyle is always the best but no one is perfect and sometimes you just feel like something that's not the healthiest. Then it's great to know how to make that yourself because it will be way less unhealthy if you have cooked or baked it from scratch than it would have been if you bought it already made.

I have been teaching kids and adults to cook and bake for a long time. That's actually how I started Beaches Bakeshop. I did TASTE - BUDDIES after school cooking classes for kids 6 and up. Before starting Taste-Buddies I had been teaching Swedish Cooking to adults in Portland , OR while living there.

The satisfaction you get when a child tries something he or she has never tried before and says- Wow, that is yummy! At Taste-Buddies we used to call that "Waking Up Sleeping Tastebuds". You never know when those sleeping tastebuds will wake up. That's why you have to try new things and new flavours now and then. Even if you didn't like avocado as a kid, you might like it as a 21 year old! Your tastebuds mature without telling you....
Also, never call anyone a picky eater. I am certain, being named a picky eater will definitely make you one. Let everyone take part in the cooking. Plan it together, shop together and cook together. There is a task appropriate for everyone. Instead of telling the kids to leave the kitchen so you can cook dinner on your own, invite them in to the kitchen and cook together. I know, you want to do it fast and efficient and get dinner on the table quickly. If you get some healthy snack out and give everyone a task you are all together while getting dinner on the table! That way everyone will try what is put on the table as well. It is a win win thing!!

30 Years!

So, I woke up this morning and guess what,  today marks my 30th anniversary of living in North America! How did that even happen? August 19, 1988. I left Sweden and thought oh, this will be an exiting year spent abroad, better my english, meet new people, find out what NYC is really like. I was so curious about NYC. I arrived in the afternoon at JFK Airport in Queens. I had a note with the address and off I went. I hailed a taxi outside the terminal and jumped in the back, sat in the middle and held each hand on the front seats with my head peeking through. I told the driver I had just arrived, never been there before and traveled alone....all those things I today know not to do or say. The taxi driver turned out to be the nicest man. He assured me we would take the scenic route in to Manhattan. Over the bridge!!! I saw the skyline and totally fell in love! I got out of the taxi at my address. The Rivergate Building. 401 East 34th Street #26A+B. I had no clue what any of that meant then. 34th street is the street Empire State Building is on, number 26 meant that the apartment was on the 26th floor and that it was 2 apartments made in to one. I came in to my room and guess which way my bedroom faced, you got it! Straight up 34th street. Empire State Building was right there, almost reachable, right outside my window!
The reason for me staying in this apartment was that I was taking care of 2 little kids who's dad worked at the Swedish Mission to the UN. My job came with board and my duties was to get them ready for school, take them to school, clean up, pick up from school and entertain them until dad came home. In the evenings, as you can imagine, I had lots of fun. I had connected with a bunch of other Swedish girls that had also come over the way I did. Anne, was my closest friend. We knew each other from University. We loved walking around Manhattan in our spare time and just breath in the feeling of not wanting to be anywhere but right there where we were.
We felt it really was the epi centre of the universe.
I stayed with this family for one year. Towards the end of this year Anne and I tried to come up with ways to stay in NYC another year. We wanted to do something else but had only the diplomatic visas that allowed us to work for UN families. We heard that the chef at The Consulate General's residence was going back to Sweden. There was nothing else to do than to ask if we, 2 Home Economic Teachers with some experience of cooking, could get that job. A Saturday afternoon in may 1989 we walked up the few steps and knocked on the door to 600 Park Avenue where Consul General of Sweden, Arne Thoren and wife Eva lived. We introduced ourselves and Eva invited us in. We told her why we were there and assured her we knew we were not as experienced as Peter, the current chef, but we would split his salary and apartment and she would get 2 for 1! She thought about it for about 3 minutes and then said, lets do it. We left the residence as the happiest people in all of Manhattan! We could not believe it!! Eva would send us a ticket and take care of the VISA thing and we would see her in august when everyone was back in the city after summer vacations! This is really when it all started. During my time in New York I developed a new identity in a way.

We ended up cooking for all sorts of famous people, Prince Bertil of Sweden and his wife Lilian, Bianca Jagger, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Lasse Holmqvist, a Swedish TV personality and many more. Every year on December 10th Eva had a Nobel dinner. It was very a very formal affair and the dining room was filled with previous winners of the Nobel Prize. Every course was named after a prestigious winner. I ended up working in Eva's kitchen for 2 years. The second year without my side kick Anne. She went back to Sweden. During my 3 years on Manhattan I met lifelong friends, gained incredible experiences, ran a marathon while my mom, my aunt, my friends, Eva Thoren and my then new boyfriend who later became my husband and now is my ex stood along 1st avenue and cheered for me. What a feeling that was!

I became much more outgoing, self assured and way more positive than I had been before. In New York people were interested in who I was and where I came from. In Sweden I often felt that it was hard to break away from the path you had started because you had grown up in a certain area of town or which people you knew. Probably far from a cast society but still a bit of that. In New York I felt I could do anything. We went to Irish bars, took taxis everywhere, relaxed in Central Park, went to East village, which was very different then it is today and yes, worked in the kitchen at the consulate. 

As you can imagine the stories are many but just over a year ago this story got a restart when I decided to pay a visit to Eva Thoren, who I knew now lived in Sweden. Arne passed away a few years ago. I had no idea what Eva would say when she opened the door. I had of course not called her in advance to see if she was home or even wanted to see me. We drove up to a big house in the outskirts of a little town in southern Sweden. Knocked on the door and Eva opened. First she didn't recognize me, not that strange since she had not seen me in 25 years, but was still as gracious as ever. I said, it's Anna, who worked for you at the consulate on Park Avenue. She instantly raised her arms in the air and said Of course it is! I have read about you and your cafe in Toronto! She was very happy to see me. What a relief that was. She invited me in and I had to wave to Lasse, who was waiting in the car, to come on in. We ended up chatting with Eva for a few hours. She is still the amazing lady and story teller, I remembered from those years in the late 80's when I was 25. It was such a pleasure to reminiscence together and it left me with a feeling of treasuring that time long ago even more than I had done before this meeting with Eva! 

Who made Beaches Bakeshop what it was?

It has been just over 2 weeks since I closed the door a final time to Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe at 900 Kingston Road. How do I feel, people ask. It's a hard question to answer. I tell them that in one way it is like a 12 year long Birthday Party celebration has just ended. You know when you throw a party and you are responsible for your guests wellbeing, tasty food, the food to look good and be available. You are also in charge of having enough staff, ingredients, that the washrooms are clean, and you are the one that have to deal with the leak in the basement when that happens. All this while your main purpose is to make your birthday guests feel welcome, happy and fed! I loved to be that spider in the web that was responsible for all that! I loved being the one that got the thumbs up when everything went well. As much as I loved all that I don't miss it now. Owning Beaches Bakeshop has given me so much over these years,  self confidence and knowledge about things I didn't know. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to meet all the lovely customers over the years.

Rose, Caitlin, Victoria, 

It was far from only my doings at Beaches Bakeshop that made it the special place that it was. It was everyone who ever spent time in that space! For many years Rose was by my side and we complemented each other very well. She with her big smile while I was cooking away in the back. Then a new bakeshop era started when Lisa came onboard. I can't even start to list everyone we have had working in the kitchen from start till finish!

Tyrell

Mitzi

Courtney

Anna-Lis

Hannele

Lisa

Victoria #1, our in house politician, Victoria #2, who was convinced by her family she had to go to university even though baking was her passion, Caitlin, our dreamer and writer (who is having a baby later this year) Anna-Lis from Tallin, Estonia, Victoria #3 from Örebro, Sweden, Mariella, the hardworking baker from downtown Toronto, Mitzi with family from Finland and so exited to learn all the nordic styles of baking. Everyone remembers Hannele of course. She came in and did her magic. It was Pirakkas, Meatpies and Pulla! Sarah, our last Saturday helper is off to Ottawa and University studies. 

When I started the cafe my life looked very different than it does today. Married, 3 young kids and newly moved to Toronto. It was hectic times! But of course, as most people say when they look back on those years, so much fun! Every day was a race, school, lunches, activities, dinner & playdates. I thought it was a great idea to add a bakery to that mix. In hindsight it was a great idea but what was I thinking??
My passion for spreading the word of Swedish cooking started way before my time at Beaches Bakeshop. I decided early on that health and food was going to play a role in my life. As a graduated Home Economist & Teacher I arrived in NYC 1988. Countless are the meatballs I have rolled and the Swedish Cinnamon buns that have been baked!The latter one playing the biggest roll of all at Beaches Bakeshop & Cafe! I wonder how many people knew how to identify a Swedish Cinnamon Bun form a regular cinnamon bun before?