Win It! The Great Scandinavian Baking Book
It’s time to give away the last book in the Baking and Books holiday cookbook giveaway: 1 copy of The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, by Beatrice Ojakangas!
To enter to win a copy, simply answer the following prompt in the comments section of this page. I will randomly select a winner on Monday December 31st. Their name will be announced in a post, along with a recipe from this cookbook and a review. 
Thanks for participating in my holiday game! Good luck and don’t forget to comment in the main entries if you have a chance - I love it when you share your thoughts with me.
56 Comments.
My favorite thing to bake when I want to indulge at home is cranberry walnut bread. It is so easy to make, and it makes a great snack or breakfast.
I love to bake scones when I want indulge at home. I’ll bake any variety–blueberry, dried cranberry, cinnamon and walnut–but my favorite is a plain scone. For brunches my boyfriend and I have plain scones with raspberry jam and milk, just as I used to do with my family some years ago.
A chocolate dessert. Our favorite lately has been Molten Lava Cakes. So easy, so impressive, so decadent! Good enough for company, easy enough for everyday!
Cheesecake, topped with a sauce made from seasonal fruit (strawberries, peaches, apples…) or just chocolate sauce. My son even requests cheesecake for his birthday cake!
My favorite thing to bake when I want to indulge at home (or for guests) LATELY is fresh whole wheat pita or a Maple Pumpkin Cheesecake.
My new favorite special occasion dessert is Martha’s caramelized apple spice cake with brown sugar swiss buttercream meringue. The co-workers are currently hoping that I have another excuse to bake the cake because I bring them the leftovers.
Just for me, I’ve been making cultured butter lately and using the fresh buttermilk in everything from cornbread to biscuits. Also taken to baking yeast bread as a butter delivery device
my mother’s brownies, the recipe for which she got from some old cookbook called “the jewish mother cookbook.” lol.
Like a good norwegian, my favorite thing to “bake” at this time of year is lefse. It takes some practice, and a patient friend to help, but the payoff is all worth it. I even eat mine plain I think it’s so good.
If I want something easy, brownies. They’re so quick to make and can be varied infinitely.
Cookies of some sort! I’m making those all the time. I guess the best stand by recipe is my “sharpei chocolate chip cookie” recipe. It is one of those that EVERYONE wants the recipe for. You never come home with leftovers if you take these somewhere.
Mmmm…..banana bread:)
My favorite thing to bake are gooey caramel bars. Oh so rich!
When I have company staying the night, I like to make homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast. They’re actually more like very sweet cinnamon biscuits, but they’re sooo good fresh out of the oven with a little milk poured on top.
I’m really excited for your preview of this book, because my family is Norwegian, but a lot of the foods and recipes have been lost over the years, so I’m very interested in learning about Scandanavian cooking!
For guests, monkey bread! Because who doesn’t love pulling it to bits? For relaxing at home, though, just simple but tasty cookies, or a carrot cake.
My favorite quick and easy goody to make for company is my pumpkin chocolate chip cake.
When my family is coming over, I usually make tahini cookies, rugelach and baked rice pudding with cardamom and orange blossom water. I usually give the leftover baked goods as gifts to my guests at the end of the night. It’s a great way to spread the calories
actually when I have some guest, I bake everything from a to z : some kind of bread for the apéritif (such as foccacia, cheese naans etc ..) to go long with some dips. then a fresh dish , a salad or something like that. Recently I like to cook pasta bake, they are easy as a pie, full of possibility and they please almost everyone. Sometimes I opt for some saucisses de toulouse with twice baked potatoes …
some cheese (we just can’t skip this course) and I mostly bake a brownie or blondie or a aplle crisp, with a nice tasty vanilla ice cream ….
apple crisps or
I love to make flourless chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and unsweetened whipped cream.
For the holiday season nothing beats grandmas lemon mile-high merinque pie and greant aunts bourbon pecan pie (which i like to drizzle with chcolate). Christmas morning adds challah or stolen based bread pudding and grandmas norwegian coffee bread.
If we’re indulging at home it’s either triple chocolate brownies or a mocha chocolate cheesecake!
yikes- now i’m hungry and need to go bake!
I don’t have a favorite thing to bake for serving guests - I’m always trying something new. I do love making cookies or brownies just for myself and the hubby, though. Merry Christmas!
Chocolate Chiffon Cupcakes! My favourite quick and yummy bake
Apple Crumble (i think you call it apple crisp over here). Simple to make. Simply toss the apples in corn starch, vanilla essance, nutmeg and cinnamon. put into the fridge for 20mins while you heat the over and mix the dough. Toppingf is just flour butter sugar and a touch of vinegar. You can add some chopped walnuts or almonds to the dough if you want.
Simple fast and superb.
OOOH! This is a pretty tough question, since my foods keep on changing depending on the occasion, season or simply my mood.
My favorites on my mind now are:
Apple bundt cake
Pudding chip chocolate chip cookies
Dump cake if I want something quick, served with ice cream
Chocolate Chippers (Brownie cake w/ chcolate chip cookie on top)
Smores cake
That’s it that I can think of at the moment, but I know I have more, maybe I’ll add something later.
hmmm reading these comments is making me hungry! flourless chocolate cake with ganache, delish! Im thinking…if I simoly want to indulge at home, Im going to go with vanilla scones! Love them out of the oven with raspberry jam and devonshire cream!!!!!!
I make a simple, stress-free recipe such as Blondies from an old Betty Crocker recipe I have because it has a short and inexpensive ingredient list, can be prepared in a saucepan then poured into a buttered pan and baked quickly. Everyone loves them. Plus, I can add almost anything to to it: chips, up to two cups of walnuts (my favorite variation because the nuts dominate), dried cherries or whatever I have on hand.
If it’s the holidays I like to bake a Tourtiere (french meat pie with potatoes) It’s so yummy and very seasonal. The rest of the year I like to bake whatever dish would be considered seasonal.
So here are my favorite desserts that I like to serve when I get guest, or when I want to indulge, however only on special occasions, since some too elaborate just to indulge in. I hardly bake for myself only, only for my husband and kids.
Cheese snack - a cheese cupcake fileed with sour cream filling and topped with a marachino cherry. (this is very pretty and not to hard)
Peanut Butter Blossoms - peanut butter cookies baked in a cupcake pan and filled with a chocolate frosting
Peanut butter cup bars
Pecan tarts
Chocolate covered peanut butter candy
Then if it is for a special guest, or to finish a meal I like to serve:
Warm brownie with ice cream
Chocolate chip molten cake with a scoop of ice cream on top
purchased fruit filled sorber
apple pecan crunch
fruity Euro salad
Pretty and delicious fruit salad - In a trifle bowl I layer: Mangoe cubes, crushed pineapple, orange juice, kiwi, pomeganate, pineapple tidbits, can mandarins, frozen strawberries and craisins.
For lunch or dinner I would serve:
Wellington - chicken breast , (marinated in duck sauce and soy sauce) - pastrami placed in a flaky dough with mustard.
Individual Squash souffle
Mushroom shaped potatoes
Hash brown potatoes
Ritz meat pizza
Eggplant rollups - Breaded eggplant, filled with mashed potatoes and vegetable sauce.
Honey pecan crusted chicken
Chicken rollups - chicken breast filled with a delcious vegetabel mixture and cooked in a vegetables sauce.
As you could see I love to entertain, and invite people over a lot.
During the Christmas holiday if my mom’s family is coming over I make Julekake and Fattigman Bakkels and Butter Cookies. That’s what we’ve all grown up with so it’s nice to sit around and eat them. Any other time of the year I’ll make anything from cherry almond scones, blackberry cobbler, eclair cake, cinnamon rolls…anything they want, I’ll gladly whip up.
Small bites - brownies, cookies, squares and bars…yummy and easy things to pick up and eat!
I like to bake cookies. I know that isn’t original, but you would think its a heroing feat if you daw my oven! I serve with a non-profit charity in the former Soviet Union and my oven is a first-century relic. In the winter here, it’s a known fact people grow chubby and depressed (winter can last up to six months). I’ve found that cookies are the best way to keep my Ukrainian friends warm (extra weight serves as protection against the cold!) and brighten their spritis. When they walk into my humble little apartment and smell fresh baked cookies (simple chocolate chip and peeanut butter are among their favorite American-style imports), their smiles broaden and things seem a whole lot less dreary. Now before they come over, I get orders: make cookies!
I’m simple. Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I use the recipe from the Quaker’s oatmeal container, and add chocolate chips. Mmmmmm….
And if I have Friday off and the guests are coming for Shabbos, I’ll make challa. Oh yeah.
I had guest for dinner today, and served a delicious dessert. Thanks to this post, someone wrote that they indulge in blondies, so I decided to make some. I found a yummy recipe for blondies, my daughter was home from school today, so I asked her what she wanted to make, and luckily she said chocolate chip cake, so we had a great time baking together.
For dinner I wanted to make them extra special, so I made an easy chocolate suace, I melted chocolate chip, and added some whip cream.
I warmed the blondie spread chocolate sauce onto it, then put a generous scoop of ice cream on top of the suace, and put some more sauce onto the top, and topped it with a marachino cherry. YUMM! it was delicious.
Thank you all for sharing your favorites now I have a lot of new ideas!
I like to bake bread for myself, but pies are the go-to for company. I enjoy making crusts from scratch, and it’s so much easier to make a good crust than most people think!
Brownies! My husband raved about some brownies he had in some posh hotel he got to stay in once and I was determined to clone them from his description. I found the perfect recipe and have been known to use it to get items marked off his “to do” list of house chores.
Muffins and brownies! They are a favourite of everyone! =)
Salzburger Nockerln, a sweet, eggy, puffy souffle-popover from Austria with a dusting of powdered sugar and berries. Super-easy, dramatically impressive and yet comfort food. Like the German oven pancake in a black dress and pearls.
I think of shortbread, with candied minced ginger and lemon zest as a luxury item. I also make a pumpkin square that in my opinion is better than pumpkin pie, a recipe I adapted from a recipe I picked up at a Williams Sonama store. I often bring it as a hostess gift or for my co-workers at Dolphin Quest Hawaii. Also a carrot cake as such a comfort food with pureed steamed carrots, ginger, coconut, roasted pineapple and macadamia nuts. Pure love. Lindsey
Bread pudding is my new passion and I want to share it with everyone ! Amazingly it is both frugal and lavish at the same time. I can put this dish together quickly with few ingredients. And what is so cool is that it is different each time. Using what bread I have on hand and tinkering with the basics always turns up something fragrant and delicious. Hiding behind the humble name of ‘bread pudding’ is a rich and lushious dessert that my family and guests really look forward to. Some people turn up their noses and say they won’t like it but after a taste they smile and ask for more ! I like to use sweet little currents, cinnamon and also sprinkle sugar over the top before baking to make a bit of a crystally browned crust. I have many more ideas to try out ~ bread pudding and I will be together for a long time !!
When I have guests coming over, I love baking a fruit tart of some sort (apple, pear, etc), and serving it warm with homemade vanilla ice cream! But for just my boyfriend and I, homemade bread is the way to go (preferably a butter and egg one)!
Depends on the season, but French apple tart and fruit-filled crostata are my favorites to make.
If I’m indulging at home, I’d say it would be cookies. Cookies almost always satisfy!! If I am baking for others, I’d probably bake a tart, but it would depend on my mood and what looked good at the store that day!!
I make my famous carrot cake. It is decadent, and a good balance between “real” baking and so labor intensive that I regret having started. I make it on my dad’s birthday, my husband’s birthday and father’s day, and when we’re having guests and a light-ish dinner.
I love baking chocolate chip cookies- simple, soft and chewy. For any and all occasions, they offer something sweet for the taste buds and something warm for the soul. I’m a student, so I like that baking/eating them makes a great excuse to take a break from studying!
I love to make brownies for people - they never let you down! I have a few faves in rotation - cream cheese, rasperry or mocha ones, depending on whats on hand.
Not sure if it qualifies as baking, but to really indulge - my Super rich chocolate fudge!
My favorite thing is baking chiffon/souffle cheesecake. It’s very cloudy with hint of cheese cake.It’s like eat the combination of souffle and cheesecake. My friends really look forward to gathering in my place because I always have this chiffon / souflle cheesecake. Also, it’s quite easy to make.
I like to bake something simple…. like a decadent creme caramel for my guests to savour.
I like to bake apple pie ……………..
It’s so difficult to pick just one favorite thing. I love shortbread cookies, fudge, and biscotti.
I make myself chocolate chip pancakes on a Sunday afternoon and then freeze them, so I can indulge every morning!
My favorite thing to bake when I want to indulge at home is a batch of Mocha Truffle Cookies. They’re so easy to make and so rich! I’m quite the chocoholic, so whenever I feel the need for a chocolate fix, these are my go-to cookies. Just a bite will satisfy my chocolate craving.
When I have guests over and I need something more impressive than a platter of cookies, I whip up a batch of my Chocolate Mousse. It’s true that it doesn’t require “baking”, but that is one dessert I serve to guests most often. Very easy and versatile. The flavor possibilities are endless! [Chocolate, Grand Marnier and Amaretto are my favorite mousse flavors!]
My new favorite would be Outrageous Brownies–a lot of chocolate, which kind of taste like you’re eating a truffle brownie.
My Mom’s applesauce cake. It is yummy.
For guests, for me, for any occasion - my favorite thing to make is risotto. Sometimes it’s just plain Parmesan risotto, other times, fancier risotto with truffle oil. I just found a recipe for edamame risotto that I have to try out on my guests tonight.
I love to bake fruit tarts or any other scrumptious tart (sweet or savory) or pie. Breads, cakes, muffins, scones, biscuits and cookies are also amonst the favorite things I make for my guests…
Happy New Year!
Cheers,
Rosa