Smoothie Saturday/Sunday: The Bulle, Bulle

Next stop: Sweden.
I am celebrating my Swedish roots by making a Bulle Smoothie. Say what? A Bulle is a cardamom-spiked roll that is an absolute necessity to living a Swedish lifestyle. They look really sweet like our Cinnabons, but they are not very sweet at all. As an American child, I found it very odd at first, but I grew to embrace the lack of sickly-sweetness and now I feel that they are JUUUuuuuuuust sweet enough. Perfect.
I learned a long time ago that when my Grandma would say she wanted ‘a coffee’, it meant that she wanted a piece of cake or a bulle. Coffee was just the enabler.

If you are Swedish and you say that you ‘want coffee’, it’s a euphemism for wanting something pictured above.

The Swedish baking-bible that is a mainstay in my family is called Sju Sorters Kakor. Translation: Seven Kinds of Cakes. I have a couple of cookie recipes that I make on special occasions. You can see my hand-written favorite recipes (and the Atkins version in post-it notes- deep sigh). I love these recipes because they could not be simpler.

The Swedish Baking Bible- “7 kinds of cakes”

My Favorite Swedish recipes (obsessive modifications and caloric tabulations of diets past added for good measure)

The only thing that COULD be simpler is to take the ingredients, throw them in a blender with ice and press “start”. Instant Bulle-in-a-blender.
Here is the lineup (traditional Swedish horse present for the festivities):

• Water or almond breeze (1.5-2 cups)
• Ice (1+ cups)
• Protein Powder vanilla- 1 scoop 
• Cardamom (pods if you have them)
• Cinnamon
• Stevia or other sweetener to taste
• Almond Extract
• Butter Extract
• Pearl Sugar (for garnish- can find at Ikea)- totally not necessary, but fun.
• spinklings of Xanthan Gum and Guar Gum to desired consistency

This recipe yielded all of this goodness. The Pearl Sugar added just to look like the real deal.

I cannot tell you how much I love cardamom. Perhaps it is because it’s in my genes. Speaking of my genes, it turns out that I come to this smoothie-making “affliction” honestly. My cousin Kata tells me that she was the originator of the bulle smoothie. When she was a small child living in Sweden, she took three bullar (plural for bulle…you didn’t know THAT!?) and put them into a glass. She poured a juice-like drink called ‘saft’ over it and then mushed it with a fork. Then glug glug glug. Genius.

No good Swede would live a day without some hazelnuts (unless of course they suffer anaphylactic reactions, natch)

Q: Do you like cardamom or other spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger? What sorts of things do you throw them into? Did you ever have any childhood food creations worth sharing with the blog world?