I was looking through my cookbooks, trying to find some inspiration for the weekend dinners. When I found pulled pork on hamburger buns, I knew I had found the perfect meal for the Saturday evening. It takes some time to cook pulled pork, but most of the time it takes care of itself. You just have to add some wood chips and checking the temperature now and then. The rest of the time you can just relax in a comfortable chair drinking a beer or whatever you prefer to do.
The recipe was written by Jonas Cramby, a popular food writer here in Sweden. He has no formal chef training, I think. But he has a genuine food knowledge that he writes about with a humorous twist.
The recipe for pulled pork in this post is almost a copy of the one in his book. I just decided to replace some of the chili powder with some smoked paprika in the BBQ sauce.
There was a recipe for hamburger buns in his book as well. I decided not to copy that recipe. It was nothing wrong with it. I’m sure it tastes great and fulfills its function, but it was baked with instant yeast.
And I am a typical sourdough guy. I know that you will always get bread with more taste if you bake it with a sourdough starter than if you use commercial yeast. Therefore, I always try to replace the yeast with a sourdough starter if possible.
You can find a lot of good recipes for sourdough buns, but I wanted to do something that was my own.
A good hamburger bread should be light, soft and airy. At the same time, it must be able to withstand some meat juices without getting soggy. I wanted a brioche type of bun. But not too much brioche, so I decided not to go overboard with the butter. Feel free to experiment with the amount of butter, but whatever you do, don’t use margarine. It’s a grisly invention. Remember what Anthony Bourdain said. Margarine is not food for humans.
Milk, on the other hand, is excellent food, and it is also the secret to get soft bread. Most of the times you don’t want a soft crust on your sourdough bread, but hamburger buns is an exception. So I used equal parts water and milk for this recipe.
Swedes have a special relationship with their crispbread. I’m talking about the traditional crispbread, baked on rye. You find it in 85% of all households in Sweden compared with 8% of French ones.
And that’s not so strange. After all, the crispbread originated from Sweden. It dates back to the 5th century. That is even before the Vikings began to go the rest of Europe on their nerves.
If you visit Sweden, you will encounter it everywhere. Hotel, lunch restaurants, and even in coffee shops sometimes. Swedes simply have trouble imagining a life without crispbread.
I remember when I was a kid and would visit Spain for the first time. The trip went to the Canary Islands off the African west coast. I had never been so far away. Neither had my parents. Therefore, they brought some packets of crispbread. They thought it would be impossible o buy something so typical Swedish so far away.
Imagine their surprise when they realized that it was possible to buy Swedish crispbread in most grocery stores where we were living. The Canary Islands had been a popular tourist destination for quite a while, and the Spaniards had learned what we Swedes are missing on our vacation.
But why is it so deeply entrenched in the Swedish food culture? It tastes good, but so does other food also. Like Swedish meatballs for example. Nevertheless, most Swedes do not have any need to bring meatballs on holiday (I say most because there are probably some).
Perhaps it’s because you can always rely on Crispbread. When the sourdough bread has begun to mold or become stale or dry, the crispbread will always be there for you as a dear old friend who won’t disappoint you. It’s very rare that crispbread mold, and it’s supposed to be dry. You can count on it.
Traditional Crispbread is baked on whole rye, but for this recipe, we will add some whole wheat to the dough, and spread seeds and flake salt on top to make it a little more exciting. I have used the following combinations:
Pumpkin kernels and flaxseeds.
Sesame seed and flake salt.
Polenta and flake salt.
Anise seeds and flake salt. (My favorite.)
Sometimes it’s tricky to get it crispy enough. Even if it has been in the oven long enough and starts to get a dark brown color, there can still be a hint of sogginess. Don’t worry. It doesn’t mean that you have failed. Just let the crispbread cool of completely. At least an hour. Is it still soggy? No problem. Just place the bread in the oven for a few more minutes. That will usually do the trick.
There are two other things to keep in mind.
When you roll out the dough, make sure to make it thin. It should not be thicker than 2 mm. (How much is that transformed to inches? 1/12 0r 0.08 perhaps. )
You can also reduce the air bubbles by pricking the dough with a fork before the final rise.
This recipe provides a crispbread with strong rye flavor despite the addition of wheat flour. Just like traditional crispbread should taste. You can serve it with all kind of food, or as snacks to the drink. Or why not with just a dollop of your homemade sour cream butter.
Swedish crispbread
Traditional crispbread baked on rye and whole wheat. Carefully flavored with seeds and flake salt. Eat it with all kind of food, or as snacks to the drink. Or why not with just a dollop of butter.
Mix all ingredients except toppings. Knead the dough for 5 minutes.
Divide the dough in two and wrap the pieces with cling film. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
Take out the dough from the refrigerator at least two hours before it's time to bake.
Flour your working surface and roll out the dough thinly, not thicker than 2 mm.
Prick the dough with a fork. About 1 inch/2.5 cm between each mark.
Brush lightly with water a spread with preferred seeds and flake salt.
Sprinkle some rye flour and cut into desired form and size. A pizza cutter works fine.
Place the pieces on baking plates and let them rise for 40 minutes.
Preheta your oven to 390ºF / 200ºC.
Bake for 10-15 minutes.
Let cool for at leats an hour.
Notes
This is a hybrid version of crisp bread, meaning I have used both fresh yeast and baking soda together with sourdough starter. If you want to use sourdough starter only, that works fine. Just add 50 gram starter and take it out from the refrigerator 3-4 hours before you roll it out.
NOTE! This recipe requires cream with a fat content of at least 37%
Butter is the chef’s best friend. At least in the western world. Try to imagine French cuisine without butter. Impossible. And I’m sure that even the Italian chefs use butter now and then even though they claim that they prefer olive oil.
Olive oil is also one of the most useful things you can have in a kitchen, but it can not always replace real butter. Think mushrooms fried with butter and parsley, Beurre Blanc, or fried herring with mashed potatoes and lingonberries.
The last dish is a classic Swedish course, so many of you may not know about it. But I can assure you that it is as impossible for a Swede to cook it in anything but butter as it would be for a Frenchman to use margarine in Bernaise sauce.
But the butter has also been questioned for a long time because it is considered to cause health problems. It contains saturated fat, and everybody knows that saturated fat is BAD. It’s not as dreadful as trans fat, but almost.
Photo from Pixabay
But lately, voices have been heard that claim the opposite. Maybe butter isn’t that bad after all. Maybe it can even be good for you. What is right and what is wrong? The truth is probably somewhere in between. I think butter is a natural food that contains a lot of nutrients that are good for the body. But I do not believe that one should exaggerate the consumption of it.
But it’s impossible to resist butter completely. Few ingredients can alone transform a dish from being mediocre to excellent. Butter is capable of doing that because it tastes so divinely. So now that you know that you have to use butter, at least sometimes, here are some useful tips.
You don’t have to store your butter in the refrigerator.
Butter is about 80% fat and has a low water content. That makes it less susceptible to bacterial growth. But it’s advisable to store only salted butter at room temperature as the salt adds protection. Store it in small batches, covered to protect it from light and air, not more than you use during a week. Because finally, it will go rancid. It’s not dangerous, but it tastes bad, and the only thing to do is to waste it. Wasting food is something that we must always try to avoid. Especially something so magical as butter. But what’s the benefit of storing butter at room temperature? It will be easier to spread it on your breakfast toast. Butter that is taken directly from the refrigerator is almost impossible to spread on soft bread. And sometimes some recipes require softened butter.
You can soften butter by grating it.
Maybe you are still suspicious about leaving the butter out on the counter. No problem. You can still bring it to room temperature quickly by grating it with the cheese grater. The thin slices will soften in no time.
It’s possible to fry in very high temperatures with butter.
But first, you have to clarify it. In addition to fat, butter also contains protein, sugar, and water, and it’s the protein and sugar that causes it to burn. Let the butter melt over low heat in a saucepan until you start to see white foam on the surface. Skim the foam off the surface. Now you have a layer of pure fat over a layer of white liquid in the bottom. Gently pour the fat into a suitable container, leaving behind the white liquid from the bottom of the pan. Now you have clarified butter that can handle high temperatures and can replace most oils for frying. It is also an excellent replacement for Ghee which is included in many Indian dishes. It is also almost lactose-free as most of the sugar was left behind in that white liquid, remember?
Use everything when you make brown butter.
You have probably heard that you shall strain the brown butter from the particles in the bottom of the saucepan. Don’t do that next time. These particles contribute with a minor taste explosion.
Reuse the wrappers.
Not to wrap new butter of course. But they are perfect for greasing sheets, pans, and casseroles.
When is it advisable to exchange butter for margarine?
Never. Margarine is the foods counterpart to Darth Vader.
I have also included an easy recipe for homemade butter. Some of you have maybe already made your own butter, but have you tried to do it with sour cream? Sour cream will give the butter just a hint of sourness. Spread it on a slice of bread and you don’t need any more toppings. Perhaps the way butter tasted when the Vikings introduced it to the rest of the northern Europe. At least my ancestors could do something right, and not only create a huge mess wherever the went. But the Frenchmen got their revenge for all plundering and misery. Today they sell their butter expensive in Swedish delicatessen stores.
Whisk the cream until the butter separates.This is how it should look like.
Sour cream butter
Give your butter an extra dimension by making it from sour cream. Spread it on a slice of bread and you have created a masterpiece.
2cupsour cream, 30% fat contentCreme Fraiche works fine as well
salt to taste optional
Instructions
Pour the cream in a big kitchen bowl, and whisk it with a hand mixer on medium speed. Continue to whisk until the butter starts to separate. It will take some time, so don't lose your patience.
Pour off the buttermilk. Rinse the butter by pouring ice water over it and pressing the remaining buttermilk out with a small spatula or a spoon. You can also knead it by hand if you can stand the cold water. When the water starts to go "milky" it's time to pour it off and add some new. Continue like this until the water is completely clear and all buttermilk is pressed out from the butter.
