Tag archive for food photography

Some days I find myself stumped on what to share here. I love sharing stories and photos of what I’ve been up to. But I’ve got to come up with all of that good stuff first! Some days I don’t feel like I have good stories to tell and nothing seems to be coming together. Like this post – I’ve been waiting to share it for at least a couple of weeks while I try to come up with some story to share with you. But this recipe is too good to keep to myself, so here it is.

I don’t know much about fika, but browsing through the January issue of Saveur, a photo of a sweet bread stopped me in my tracks. Reading more, it appears that fika is the Swedish concept of an afternoon coffee break, with snacks. I’m in! As a regular Instagrammer, I’ve seen people posting about their afternoon fika, so the concept is not foreign. But I’m no expert on all of the real details. So imagine my delight to find not only a recipe, but the mention of an upcoming book devoted to fika recipes. I may have even pre-ordered it!

Without even really planning it, I’ve spent most of the winter so far with my own little interpretation of fika. As the early grey gathers on weekend afternoons, we’ll gather in the kitchen with candles and snacks arranged on the table. We spend some time chatting, browsing magazines or better still, drawing. And since finding this recipe, a few of our weekend gatherings have been accompanied by the sweet warm waftings of cinnamon and cardamom. I hope it will inspire some gatherings of your own.

Swedish Cinnamon and Cardamom Bread

This recipe appeared in the January 2015 issue of Saveur and is ever so slightly adapted here.

Serves 8 to 10

FOR THE DOUGH

7 tbsp. unsalted butter
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2 tsp. active dry yeast
4½ cups flour, plus more for dusting
¼ cup sugar
1½ tsp. cardamom seeds, lightly crushed
½ tsp. kosher salt 

FOR THE FILLING AND TOPPING:

½ cup granulated sugar
7 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
1½ tsp. cardamom seeds, finely crushed
1 egg, beaten
Pearl sugar, for sprinkling

Make the dough: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and let cool just slightly. Stir in milk and yeast; let sit until yeast is foamy, about 10 minutes. Whisk flour, sugar, cardamom and salt in a bowl. Stir in yeast mixture until dough forms. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 3 minutes. Return dough to bowl and cover with a clean dish towel. Let rest in a warm place until dough is doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Make the filling: Mix granulated sugar, butter, cinnamon and cardamom in a bowl until smooth.

Assemble the bread: On a lightly floured surface, roll dough into an 11″ x 17″ rectangle, about ¼″ thick. Spread filling over dough, leaving a ½″ border along edges. Working from one long end, roll dough into a tight cylinder. Transfer seam side down to a parchment paper-lined  rimmed baking sheet. Cover with dish towel; let sit in a warm place until dough has doubled in size again, about 45 minutes.

Bake the bread: Heat oven to 375°. Starting 1″ from one end of the dough, make crosswise slices with a serrated knife, spaced 1″ apart, three-quarters of the way through dough. Gently fan dough slices away from the center, alternating left to right. Brush dough with egg and sprinkle with pearl sugar; bake until golden brown, about 22 minutes. Let bread cool completely before serving, if you can hold yourself back that long! Best enjoyed the day it is baked, it will reheat perfectly for breakfast the next morning.

A week or so back, I attended a workshop on multidisciplinary storytelling in Seattle. I have been anticipating these sessions for awhile – a group of inspiring women, a city I love and time to focus on some creative skills. I could tell you about the amazing places to eat or exciting spice selections or even wandering the Pike Place market early in the morning. But honestly, the inspiration I left these sessions with was enough to fill two blog posts, so I’ll start there. The classes were held in Aran Goyoaga’s studio. You probably know her from her blog Canelle et Vanille.

 Aran’s studio is a light-filled space, with twinkling lights and white paper globes hanging from the beams. A clean light pours through the windows, even on this rainy morning. Tables are arranged together beneath those windows and a group of women from all over the place begins to gather. We’ve come from near and far to learn and connect. Everyone around the table speaks of their interest in telling food stories, making stronger connections between the imagery and words that inform each of our personal stories. 

Make notes on five things from today – they could be simple words or phrases or much bigger ideas. This idea came from Tara O’Brady, leading our workshop on multidisciplinary storytelling. I’ve been following Tara and her blog, Seven Spoons, for years now and I am very excited to hear her talk about her process. (She also has a cookbook coming out in the spring and you know how I am about cookbooks!) She shares the idea of gathering five takeaways as a challenge for herself, but we all join in.

So here they are, my five takeaways from this amazing workshop:

Be observant: Notice the details. What stands out to me will inform my work. It brings personality and viewpoint. This is an eye-opener to me because I am all about the details, those are the bits that get me into trouble! So making that connection and realizing that those details can be tapped to tell better stories, both visually and in writing, really makes me feel capable. 

Gather inspiration: Whatever it is that inspires me, gather it around. My inspiration tends to be very visual. I love Instagram and some favorite blogs for their beautiful imagery and the ideas they spark. Same goes for the cookbooks that make me want to cook and the friends who share ideas and encouragement. The little pinecone that makes me want to draw. These influences will keep my creative juices going. And in those moments where inspiration feels low, having this resources close at hand will help me get back on track.

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Practice intention: Thinking about the intent of my work is something that has stuck with me as I left Seattle and came back to my daily routines. It’s likely because this idea resonates with some of the bigger things I’m pondering in my life. But knowing the end goal that I’m striving for and the message I want to leave others with will help edit and refine my work. 

Live the details: Watching Aran and Tara plate their own lunch at the workshop reminds me that appreciating beauty in everyday life is part of this practice. When what I do comes from an authentic place, the details that fill my life serve as inspiration. So I’m embracing my fiddly garnishing habits and rearranging my prop dishes that I love to sit out amongst my everyday items!

Go buy some darn notebooks! I love paper products and I’ve got a stack of lovely sketchbooks to prove it. Tara shared her idea-gathering practice of taking notes in plain spiral bound school notebooks. No fancy notebooks need apply. We’re talking about a basic lined notebook where one can scribble down a taste or a word or the beginnings of blog post without a thought to how it looks. Since I’m the girl who revises recipes on the back of junk mail envelopes, this is a plan worth adopting.

So there you have it, the five ideas that I’m thinking after my workshop, along with some photos from the weekend. Do you have an tips on how you strive to bring creativity and inspiration into your daily life? I’d love to hear about it.