Cook Book Club: January

When I saw Jo’s cookbook challenge for January – Scandinavian summer – my mind turned to Swedish midsummer, to strawberries piled high, to partying until the wee small hours. A good summer in Sweden is a glorious thing, showing off the country at its best. But what should I make and what book should I turn to?

In the end I decided on this curd or ostkaka, made in summer to serve with seasonal berries. This originally comes from Småland, the part of Sweden where my husband comes from. Apparently, traditionally Småländsk ostkaka is made with raw milk and cheese rennet, but the common substitute (and one easy to find) is cottage cheese. The ostkaka doesn’t have a biscuit base, and is a soft, very delicious dessert that you can pretend is slightly healthy. It is also easy to make – you can have the cake batter mixed up and in the oven in no time. And, if you like silly trivia, 14 November is ostkakans dag.

I used the recipe from Brontë Aurell’s ScandiKitchen Summer as it is in English so easy to share with everyone. It is such a simple thing to make and yet so delicious. Preheat the oven to 160C. Whisk together 75g sugar with 3 eggs until light and fluffy. Stir in 400g cottage cheese, 100ml cream, 50g ground almonds, 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste and a pinch of salt. You can add a little almond essence, but it isn’t something 1) I could find and 2) don’t like the artificial taste. Pour into a 20cm springform cake tin lined with baking paper. Sprinkle the top with flaked almonds and just a little cardamom.

Bake for around 30-40 minutes – I needed 50 minutes with this oven – first time I have made it with our current one, which, I am delighted to report, is now repaired (we had a small disaster on Christmas Eve when a wooden chopping board fell and broke the inner glass door…luckily everything was cooked).

The book suggests serving with a raspberry compote, but my husband said no fresh fruit was the way to go, so that was how we ate it.

This is such a good dessert or afternoon cake, with a good cup of coffee (or tea in my case). It is easy, tasty and a wonderful treat. Make again? Well I have done before and will probably do so again next year.

Next month’s cook book post is on 18 February “Let your next (or your most recent) holiday be your inspiration this month. Whether home or abroad, a short break or an other side of the world odyssey, we want to read about how it inspired (or is inspiring) your cooking”. Well….we are off to Germany, Sweden and Portugal this year so let’s see what inspires me.

PS I read this article on Substack on why we need cookbooks which I am sure those participating in this blog challenge will identify with.

Thistles and Kiwis is a Wellington, New Zealand based blog written by Barbara, who likes cats, summer, good food and pretends to garden.