Today is Waffle day in Sweden. I don’t know about other countries but in Sweden it’s very common to buy waffle mixes that you just add some water to before you make your waffles. For years I used the mix without even reflecting on it but nowadays I always make my own batter. It’s simple, delicious and contains no unnecessary additives. I often experiment with different types of flour and in a couple of days I’ll also post a recipe for savoury cheese waffles served with smetana, chopped red onion and caviar! But until then enjoy these waffles with kiwi, passionfruit and ice cream as seen on the photo or the traditional way with whipped cream and jam.

Dagmar’s Waffles
(makes 6-8)

100 gram butter
2 tsp baking powder
200 ml wheat flour
150 ml spelt flour
150 ml milk
250 ml sparkling water (makes the waffles crispier!)

Melt the butter. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix with an electric beater until smooth.
Heat your waffle iron.
Pour 75-100 ml of the batter onto the waffle iron and cook until crisp and golden. Serve right away together with whipped cream and jam, or fruit and vanilla ice cream.

NB: This recipe has only been tested with a Swedish waffle iron. Swedish waffle irons make thinner waffles than for example the ones used in Belgium.

The last two Sundays we’ve been enjoying these lovely pancakes. They are truly delicious with a scent of lemon (or orange, I’ve done both variants) and they melt in your mouth. The original recipe calls for Ricotta, but I used the Swedish quark “Kesella 10%” and the second time I used the Polish quark “Serek Smietankowy Delfiko”. Both turned out really nice. The pancakes are rather fragile so be careful when you fry them. Serve the pancakes with maple syrup or your favourite jam, myself I prefer them with a Polish Raspberry Syrup.

Lemon and Ricotta pancakes
(adapted from “Frukost och Brunch” by Jonas Borssén)

175 ml quark or Ricotta
50 g melted butter
3 large eggs, separated into whites and yolks
1 tsp vanilla scented sugar
50 ml plain flour
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon or orange zest

Combine the quark, melted butter, egg yolks and vanilla sugar and put aside. Combine flour, caster sugar and zest in a separate bowl. Combine the two previous mixtures. Whip the egg whites until they become stiff. Carefully combine one third of the egg whites with the pancake batter and blend carefully without loosing the volume from the egg whites. Then add the rest of the egg whites. The batter should be homogeneous and airy.
Fry small pancakes (about 8-12 ones) in butter.

Frying small pancakes on the kitchen table

Swedish plättar are basically pancakes, but small ones. We use a special pancake pan, called plättlagg. It looks just like the picture to the left (taken from Scandinavian South as I don’t have any of my own). But what I do have is an electric one, to be placed on the kitchen table so everyone can help out and have a fun time while frying plättar. I really dislike frying pancakes or plättar all by myself at the stove. With my “electric frying machine” (I have to admit that I don’t now what it’s called) it’s much more fun and the pancake frying becomes a social event.

Plättar (for 2 persons)

2 eggs
200 ml flour
400 ml milk
a pinch of salt
a pinch of sugar

Beat the eggs and add the flour and milk gradually along with the sugar and salt. Fill each indentation on the plättlagg or the electric one with batter. Cook until golden brown. Eat, fry, talk and be social if using the electric frying machine, otherwise stand alone at the stove and feel like a pancake slave… :-) Serve the plättar with jam.

Nalesniki z serem

Yesterday I visited my mother and she made me some delicious sweet Polish pancakes with quark-curd, Nalesniki z serem. The equivalent French name is much fancier, Crêpes au fromage blanc. But it really doesn’t matter as it tastes delicous anyway :-) It’s one of my favourite dishes and it reminds me of my childhood.

Quark-curd

Quark-curd is frequently used in the Polish kitchen and my boyfriend thinks that it’s the main ingredient in all Polish dishes :-) But of course that isn’t true, it just happens to be the main ingredient in my family’s favourite dishes: Sernik (cheesecake), Nalesniki z serem (pancakes with quark) and Ruskie pierogi (dough wrap filled with quark-curd and potatoes, see the photo below).

Ruskie Pierogi

I don’t have any exact recipe for the pancakes as I do them by heart. If someone wants an exact recipe please write me and I’ll do one batch of pancakes and make sure to write down the exact amount of all ingredients :-)

Nalesniki z serem
pancakes:
1 egg
1 decilitre of flour
2 decilitres of milk
butter
a pinch of sugar

quark-curd filling:
250 quark-curd (Swedes can use a package of “Kesella Gourmet”)
1 egg yolk
sugar
vanilla sugar
raisins (my mother always marinate them in rum for a couple of hours)

Make the filling by blending all ingredients. Make the pancake dough, fry the pancakes and set aside. Divide the filling between the pancakes, then fold every pancake in the middle and then fold them in the middle again. Sprinkle icing sugar over the pancakes and serve. Yummy!