Fika: The Art of The Swedish Coffee Break, with Recipes for Pastries, Breads, and Other Treats (20 page)

In a saucepan, melt the butter; then stir in the milk. Heat until warm to the touch (about 110°F/43°C). In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in a few tablespoons of the warm mixture. Stir and let sit for a few minutes until bubbles form on top of the yeast.

In a large bowl, mix together the flours, sugar, anise seeds, and salt. Stir in the remaining butter and milk followed by the yeast mixture. Work the dough together with your hands and knead it on a flat, floured surface until smooth and elastic. Return the
dough to the bowl, cover with a clean tea towel, and let rise in a warm, draft-free place for about an hour.

Divide the dough into 18 to 20 pieces (depending on the size of your frying pan). On a floured surface, roll each of the balls out to a flat round, about ⅛ inch (0.5 centimeter) thick. As you roll them out, stack them with some sprinkled flour in between each round.

Before baking, roll each round with a kruskavel or make a pattern by poking the dough with a fork. The pattern helps the bread stay flat when baking. If you want to skip this step entirely, just puncture the air bubbles that appear while baking the bread, so that the bread stays nice and flat.

Bake each round in a hot, dry frying pan (use a cast-iron or other thick-bottom pan) for about 1 minute per side. If you feel up to it, have 2 frying pans going at the same time to speed up the process. Note that using your cast-iron pan in this way will dry it out, so make sure to properly oil it when you are finished.

Stack flatbreads in a tea towel and cover them so that they retain their heat. Serve warm. Leftover flatbread should be frozen in an airtight container.

If you don’t want to bake the entire batch at the same time, you can store the dough, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator and roll it out the next day.

Preheat the oven to 480°F (250°C). Grease a baking sheet or line it with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Toast the caraway seeds and the sunflower seeds together in a frying pan over medium heat. When the seeds start to color and have a nice aroma, turn off the heat and remove them immediately from the pan. Place the seeds in a bowl and let them cool for a few minutes.

Sift the flour together with the baking powder and salt. Add the butter in small pieces and work together with your fingertips until the dough resembles a
coarse meal. Mix in the seeds; then stir in the milk and mix together quickly to get a semisticky dough. Don’t knead the dough.

Divide the dough into 2 equal parts and shape them into 6-inch (15-centimeter) rounds. Place the two rounds 2 inches apart on the baking sheet and, using a knife, score into quarters, cutting only part way through the dough. Poke a pattern into the top of the scones with a fork. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the scones are a light golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before breaking along the scored lines into quarters. Serve warm.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and half of the milk. Stir in the flour and salt and mix well. Pour in the rest of the milk and the slightly cooled butter and mix until you get a smooth, liquid batter.

You want to fry these pancakes fairly hot, so heat a cast-iron frying pan or nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Put in a teaspoon or two of butter. When the butter has melted, pour in ⅛ to ⅓ cup (30 to 80 milliliters) of batter, depending on how large you want your pancakes and the size of your frying pan. Keep in mind that Swedish pancakes are meant to be very thin, almost like crepes, so make sure the batter
spreads out evenly in the pan. You can also tilt the pan a bit in order to cover the whole surface with batter. Cook until the pancake has set and the sides begin to pull away from the pan, just a couple of minutes per side. To double-check that they are ready to flip, pull up a side of the pancake; it should be a very light golden brown.

Serve immediately with jam or a sprinkle of granulated sugar.

Store extras in an airtight container in the refrigerator.