The Great Scandinavian Baking Book

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Summary: The Great Scandinavian Baking Book
Review: Being from Duluth, Minnesota, hometown of Ms. Ojakangas, and a fan of baking, this book is one of my favorites. I believe that it captures true Minnesota and Scandinavian baking. Every recipe is wonderful and well written. I have had the opportunity to meet Ms. Ojakangas and to watch her bake and she is wonderfully inspiring.

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Summary: True Minnesota
Review: Being from Duluth, Minnesota, hometown of Ms. Ojakangas, and a fan of baking, this book is one of my favorites. I believe that it captures true Minnesota and Scandinavian baking. Every recipe is wonderful and well written. I have had the opportunity to meet Ms. Ojakangas and to watch her bake and she is wonderfully inspiring.

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Summary: Amazingly authentic!
Review: I am part Swedish and Norwegian and this book is absolutely an essential part of my holiday baking. She serves up the most authentic and traditional recipes available for Scandinavian baking. Her other books are great, too. My grandmother was impressed by my browned butter cookies and from another book, lefse. Highly recommended for all Scandinavians, or those who just love the food and culture!

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Summary: Amazingly authentic!
Review: I bought the older hardcover version of this cookbook that was issued in 1988 and there probably is not a lot of difference between the two versions. I highly recommend this cookbook for two reasons.

First of all, it is written by Beatrice Ojakangas who, in my opinion, is the queen of all recipe book writers:) I own a number of her cookbooks and she writes in a very clear, concise way. All of her recipes are accompanied by a cultural anecdote or an informative note or two about the recipe so that you feel that you own more than a cookbook - you gain an insight into the Scandinavian culture and way of life.

Secondly, and just as important, the recipes in this book are simply delicious. They run the gamut from breads and rolls to mouth watering pastries, both sweet and savoury. I had seen the many shapes that Danish pastry came in and they looked somewhat daunting to prepare but, in her book, Ms Ojakangas provides easy to follow diagrams that made them a breeze to shape. Being a chocoholic, I never thought that desserts could be tasty unless they were loaded down with the stuff. I stand corrected!:)

Again, I highly recommend this book. The recipes are delicious and it is an excellent book for anyone who has ever felt daunted by baking. Well done!

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Summary: the Bible of Nordic baking
Review: In my Norwegian-American family, baking well is considered a high art form. Christimas wouldn't be Christmas without the seven kinds of fresh-baked cookies, and the whole point of our Sankta Lucia celebration is the Lucia buns, fragrant with cardamon and saffron. And where would we be without home-baked rye bread?

Although most of these recipes came down through the family, I now always double-check with Ojakangas' book. She's accurate, clear, easy-to-understand, and everything we've ever baked from this book has turned out just as well, if not even better than when we use the family recipes.

I always measure the quality of my cookbooes by how grungy they get from spilled incredients, etc. Well, this one's a winner, with the pages automatically falling open to all our family favorites.

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Summary: The Great Scandinavian Baking Book
Review: This book is a fantastic compilation of recipes. It brought back heart-warming memories of my Great Grandmother in the kitchen. I absolutely recommend this to those who enjoy staying in touch with their ancestory, and those curious about scandinavian cooking.
Enjoy!