After a short summer of cafe searching and food finding I have to admit that my favourite stops along the way is, sadly, not that local but in the very beautiful country of Norway. I stayed in a small cottage in the western fjords and found some very lovely people and places. One of these was our sweet landlady who left us a Norwegian delicacy; "Norwegian golden" berry which is found in the mountains of Norway and I have to confess is a little strange but extremely tasty. When she left us 200g of odd tasting berries, I, being a baker, seized that moment and took the chance bake with the amazing backdrop of mountains and fjords. On one of our walks we found them ourselves and ate them fresh and they tasted even better!
The recipe I chose was very simple but when you are using a tea cup as a pastry cutter you have to live with what you get. I used an easy sweet pastry recipe and concocted a jam/syrup from the "Norwegian golden" berries, which in a way is only a fancy jam tart but made with a very unusual and rare fruit. For this recipe I had left over pastry so used jams and marmalade to reduce waste, which is always a bonus, and made more to eat!
Ingredients~
Pastry
110g Plain Flour
55g Butter
40g Sugar
1 Small Egg
Filling
200g "Norwegian Gold" (or raspberries will work fine.)
200ml Water
Jams of your choice
Method~
1. Rub the butter into the flour until breadcrumbs.
2. Now stir in the sugar, it doesn't have to be perfect.
3. Add the egg and stir in/ need well.
4. Put the water and berries into a pan on a medium heat and leave to boil stirring occasionally.
5. Roll out the dough to 0.5mm thick and cut into circles large enough to place in the baking trays make sure you keep your eyes on the berries.
6. Once your mixture is done leave to cool for 5 minutes then spoon into the pastry and fill any remaining cases with jams of your choice. Place in the oven to cook for 8-15 minutes depending on your oven.
7. When they are done, leave to cool on the side as the jam will be piping hot and will scold, you so be patient. Trust me it's worth it!
8. Eat all of them in one go and enjoy!!!
I will never forget baking with such an amazing backdrop!
OliveeKid xx
