Low-Carb | LCHF Made in Sweden

Low Carb Coconut Patties

Keto, LCHF 22 November, 2015 Comments: 8

No-Bake Chocolate-Dipped Macaroons

These coconut cookies taste like fine candy; decorated with white chocolate, they deserve a place on your coffee table.

Makes 25 cookies

1 3/4 oz. (50 g) butter, room temperature
sweetener equivalent to 1 tablespoon of honey
a pinch real vanilla powder
1/3 cup + 1 1/2 tablespoons (100 ml) heavy cream
7 oz. (200 g) shredded coconut, unsweetened
3 1/2 oz. (100 g) dark chocolate with 70 percent cacao
4 squares sugar-free white chocolate

With a handheld electric mixer, beat butter, sweetener, and vanilla powder until light and airy.

Add the cream while continuing to mix. Add in the shredded coconut, and set the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up.

Roll into tablespoon-sized balls, place them on a platter, and flatten them a little. Chill the balls for 10 minutes before dipping them in chocolate.

In separate bowls, melt the dark and white chocolate over boiling water. Dip the cookies in the dark chocolate, and then set them on a wire rack.

You’ll have an easier time dipping the cookies by using two forks: Spear the cookie on one fork, and dunk it quickly in the chocolate. Tap the fork lightly against the edge of the bowl to remove the excess chocolate drips, and push the cookie on to the wire rack with the second fork.

Make a small piping bag out of wax paper, or use a plastic bag with a small hole cut into one corner. Fill the bag with white chocolate and pipe a spiral starting along the outer edge of each cookie. With a toothpick, draw lines towards the middle of the cookie to make a flower motif.

Place the cookies in the refrigerator to chill. Store them for up to a week in a tin in the refrigerator, or freeze and defrost them as needed (in the refrigerator). Bring the cookies to room temperature for a bit before serving them to let their flavor develop fully.

The recipe is taken from my cookbook Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging.

This book I wrote along with Annika Dahlqvist, MD, founder of the LCHF-movement in Sweden.

Maybe a holiday gift…?

If you like my books, please write a review on Amazon 🙂

Red Onion Butter

Keto, LCHF 5 September, 2015 Comments: 4

Different kinds of seasoned butter from LCHF and Paleo Slow Cooking Photo; Mikael Eriksson

Varietes of seasoned butter from LCHF and Paleo Slow Cooking
Photo: Mikael Eriksson

Cookbook recipe

Finally, my cookbooks have arrived from my publisher in New York, Skyhorse Publishing.

You can imagine what a fantastic moment it was to open the package and to see all my three books translated into English.

Today I’m sharing one of the seasoned butters I used to make when I was working as a restaurant chef. It goes well with both meat and fish.

I always have extra butter with my food, and it keeps me full and satiated for a long time. I hardly remember when I felt the need to eat a snack between meals.

Prepare a large batch of seasoned butter so you’ll always have some to go with your food. You’ll find many recipes for other kinds of seasoned butter in my cookbooks. You can order them here at Amazon or click on the picture.

If you have already ordered and like my books, please write a review at Amazon.

Red Onion Butter

1 red onion
3 1/3 fl. oz. (100 ml) dry red wine
about 1/4 teaspoon salt
chili flakes, to taste
1 1/4 lbs. (500 g) butter
1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Chop the red onion into fine dice, and place in a saucepan. Add red wine, salt and chili flakes. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the onion has absorbed all the wine. Let cool.

Whip the onion with the butter and season with Worcestershire sauce. Taste and adjust for more salt or chili if needed. Roll up the butter into the shape of a log, or fill some small individual bowls with the butter.

Store the butter in the refrigerator or freezer.

Herb Butter in Peppers from Low Carb High Fat Barbecue
Photo: Mikael Eriksson

Walnut Bread

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 27 August, 2015 Comments: 11

Walnut Bread Photo; Mikael Eriksson

This bread is rich in walnuts, which imparts it with both a lovely taste and chewy texture.

I mixed in apple cider vinegar to give the bread a slight tang, almost like a sourdough.

It’s delicious when toasted, too. Try topping a slice with a hearty smear of butter and some aged cheese.

Walnut Bread

• 5 ¼ oz. (150 g) walnuts
• 3 ½ oz. (100 g) coconut oil
• 2–3 tablespoons bread spices (ground
anise, cumin, fennel)
• 6 large eggs
• 8 ¾ oz. (250 g) coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 6 ¾ fl. oz. (200 ml) almond flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• about 1–1 ½ teaspoon salt
• ¹⁄3 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (100 ml) unflavored whole psyllium husk
• 3 ½ tablespoons (50 ml) flax seeds

Preheat the oven to 300ºF (150ºC). Grease a loaf tin (1 ½ quarts) thoroughly.

Crush the walnuts coarsely with a mortar and pestle, or chop them with a knife.

Warm the coconut oil together with the spices, and let it cool. In a bowl, mix the nuts with all the dry ingredients and start out with a small amount of salt.

With a handheld electric mixer, whisk the eggs until thick, and then mix in the coconut
milk, vinegar and coconut oil.

Add the dry ingredients in with the mixer on low speed. Mix well and taste for salt and spices.

Use a rubber spatula to pour the dough into the loaf pan, and press on the dough’s surface
to make it level. Wet your hand in cold water and smooth out the surface.

Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake in the lower part of the oven for 45 minutes.

Remove the foil and bake the dough for another 45 minutes. Let the bread cool a little in the pan, and then unmold it on to a rack. Let it cool on the rack without covering it so it stays crusty.

Slice the bread once it has cooled completely. Freeze the slices individually in order to enjoy them as needed; when defrosted in a toaster, the bread tastes freshly baked.

This is a recipe from Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking. You can find all my cookbooks at Amazon, both in hardcover and on Kindle.

Picnic at Lake Marvikarna in Södermanland…

Sunset at Lake Klämmingen, Södermanland…

LCHF Cookbook Release

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 1 August, 2015 Comments: 6

A great day for me

All my 3 cookbooks are now available in English. It’s so exciting to hear that some of you already have got your books from Amazon, the official releasedate is Aug 4.

I would like to extend my warm thanks to my editor Lindsey Breuer at Skyhorse Publishing who believed in my books and Gun Penhoat who translated the books and adjusted the recipes to fit the American market.

Gun has done a fantastic job of finding substitutes for those Swedish products that can be difficult to find in the US, so that everyone should be able to cook and enjoy my food.

Low Carb High Fat Barbecue at Amazon

Low Carb High Fat Barbecue was released in June and now it’s time for the other two to hit the market.

Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging was written together with Dr. Annika Dahlqvist, MD. She is the founder of the LCHF movement in Sweden.

Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking has a very interesting foreword about healthy fats, written by science journalist and author Dr. Ann Fernholm, PhD.

Dr. Fernholm’s first book, “My Sweet Heart: The health effects of a century-long love affair” will be available as an e-book in September.

I hope you’ll enjoy my books as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Here’s some words about LCHF Barbecue:

“I met the author on Jimmy Moore’s 2015 Low Carb Cruise. She is dedicated to creating and eating good, healthy food. The book has gorgeous pictures of the prepared recipes and the instructions are easy and concise-this book has been translated into english-all the temperatures and measurements are american too. I highly recommend this book. I have pre-ordered her other two books that are being translated into english.”

“I learned so much from this book. Birgitta Höglund is one of the original founders of LCHF and has dedicated her life to reinvent modern cooking. The barbecue book is not only about putting a piece of meat on the grill. Here we learn to serve whole healthy dinners without any harmful carbs. I have made half of her recipes and all have been a delight to make and eat.”

“Birgitta Höglund; I was afraid to order your book because I figured it had a lot of ingredients we have never heard of here in Southern Louisiana and/or climate differences would make it hard to follow. Then I noticed that all of the recipes posted were easy to follow and duplicate so I took the plunge. I ordered “Low Carb Barbecue” and preordered the other two. My Barbecue book came today and I’m so excited. I skimmed it I know with a wrinkled brow looking for thing negative AND FOUND NONE! You have done a fantastic job. I would never have thought of the zucchini in potato salad and it’s so refreshing I want to try new things. I just wanted you and the whole group to know how great I find this book and how I’m looking forward to the other two arriving. I’m telling everyone I know that it was written by my new Swedish friend. Thank you very much.”

Here about Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking:

“Birgitta is a delightful chef who lives what she shows in her books. These recipes are a new fresh outlook on dishes we have not experienced like this. All ingredients are available or explained by translation to apply ingredients we can easily locate. She has made my ketogenic lifestyle new and exciting again. Thanks Birgitta.”

About Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging:

“Wow! Fantastic recipes and photographs for new food choices for our healthy ketogenic lifestyle. Ingredients listed so anyone can reconstruct these beautiful dishes in our very own kitchens. The articles make you feel like we have sat with her in her own kitchen and cooked together. I love it and can’t wait for my imaginary visits into Swedish Keto homes with Birgitta again.”

Low Carb Ketchup

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 24 July, 2015 Leave a comment

Low Carb Ketchup

8.8 oz. (250 g) tomatoes

2 inches (5 cm) of a leek, the white part

1.8 oz. (50 g) butter or olive oil

6 3/4 fl. oz. (200 ml) water

3 1/3 fl. oz. (100 ml) tomato puree

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons chili flakes

1 teaspoon Worcestershiresauce

1 teaspoon honey or your choice of sweetener

1 sliced clove of garlic

1/4 organic vegetable stock cube

1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground caraway seeds

1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground cloves

Sea salt

Dice the tomatoes and slice the leek thinly. Fry the diced tomato and sliced leek with the tomato puree in a pan.

Add all other ingredients, bring to boil and let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Use a handheld mixer and mix the ketchup in the pan. Let simmer for another 15 minutes.

Taste the ketchup and decide if you need to increase the sourness, sweetness or saltiness.

Pour the finished ketchup into cleaned jars, put on the lid and let cool.

Store the ketchup in the fridge. It will stay fresh for a week. You can also store it in small jars in the freezer.

Organic grown vegetables from Ås Trädgård, Jämtland, Sweden

Guest blog on Strictly Paleoish

Keto, LCHF, Paleo 10 July, 2015 Leave a comment

Blog post about LCHF and Paleo

I’ve been asked to make a guest blog post at the interesting website Strictly Paleoish.

The past six years I have been living with a grain/gluten-free LCHF diet, the last few of them I have also removed most of the dairy products (except for butter) from my daily meals.

I’ve added some more root vegetables and fruit/berries, but I still keep the carbohydrates very low and the fat content high.

This lifestyle works well for me. It has further improved my fibromyalgia, I feel better than I did in my first years on LCHF and I have become both stronger and leaner.

Here’s a link to my blog post at Strictly Paleoish.

The blog post includes a couple of recipes from my newly released cookbook, Low Carb High Fat Barbecue.

Here’s a comment about my book:

“Birgitta Höglund. I was afraid to order your book because I figured it had a lot of ingredients we have never heard of here in Southern Louisiana and/or climate differences would make it hard to follow.

Then I noticed that all of the recipes posted were easy to follow and duplicate so I took the plunge. I ordered “Low Carb Barbecue” and preordered the other two.

My Barbecue book came today and I’m so excited. I skimmed it I know with a wrinkled brow looking for thing negative AND FOUND NONE! You have done a fantastic job. I would never have thought of the zucchini in potato salad and it’s so refreshing I want to try new things.

I just wanted you and the whole group to know how great I find this book and how I’m looking forward to the other two arriving. I’m telling everyone I know that it was written by my new Swedish friend. Thank you very much.”

Low Carb High Fat Barbecue at Amazon

Chocolate Drizzled Nut Cookies

LCHF 4 July, 2015 Leave a comment

Nut Cookies from Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging Photo: Mikael Eriksson

Coffee and cookies

A cookie can be delicious and nutritious at the same time.

Here you’ll find a happy mix of nuts, seeds, and dark chocolate alongside cinnamon and cardamom.

Nut Cookies Makes 20 cookies

2 large eggs
sweetener equivalent to 2 tablespoons of honey
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (200 ml) hazelnuts, finely chopped
1/3 cup + 1 1/2 tablespoons (100 ml) sunflower seeds, roasted
1 tablespoon whole unflavored psyllium husk
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon real vanilla powder
a pinch of salt
1 3/4 oz. (50 g) butter, melted
4 squares of dark chocolate, melted
10 hazelnuts, halved

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (200ºC). Place cookie molds on a baking sheet.

With a handheld electric mixer, beat eggs and sweetener until light and airy. Mix all dry ingredients in another bowl; add to the egg batter.

Finally, stir in the melted butter. Using two spoons, fill the small cookie molds with batter.

Bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.

Garnish each cookie with some drizzled chocolate and top with half a hazelnut.

The recipe is taken from my cookbook Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging.

This book I wrote along with Annika Dahlqvist, MD, founder of the LCHF-movement in Sweden.

Summer Night in Stockholm, Sweden…

The City Hall of Stockholm…

The Royal Palace…

Stockholm by Night in July…

Hot and Spicy Nuts – LCHF Snacks

LCHF 28 May, 2015 Comments: 2

Hot and Spicy Nuts Photo Mikael Eriksson

Hot and Spicy Nuts

10 oz. (300 ml) mixed nuts (Brazil nuts, walnuts, and cashews, for example)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) cayenne
2 teaspoons salt flakes

Roast the nuts in a dry skillet for a few minutes. Mix in coconut oil and spices, crush and sprinkle in the salt flakes. Stir-fry for one minute and mix well.

This recipe is taken from my cookbook Low Carb High Fat Barbecue.

Paragliding in Åre Mountains in the end of May

Boiled Eggs and Hot Smoked Pork Belly, perfect for a LCHF Picnic

Welcome to my blog LCHF Made in Sweden

LCHF 24 May, 2015 Leave a comment

Birgitta Höglund Photo Gunno Rask

Welcome to Sweden and my LCHF Blog

Hi! I’m Birgitta Höglund and I’m a retired restaurant chef living in Östersund, Jämtland, Sweden. It’s a mountainous county in the northern part of Sweden, close to the border with Norway. After eighteen years in many different restaurants I injured my back 15 years ago, which effectively ended my career and professional working life. After the back injury and a spinal fusion, I was also diagnosed with fibromyalgia.

I searched for something that would alleviate my problems and improve my health. I tried to remain as active as possible with daily physical therapy and long walks, but then a lecture by the physician Annika Dahlqvist, MD, made me change my eating habits completely (Dr Dahlqvist is the founder of the LCHF movement in Sweden). After a couple of years on this diet she was free from pain and fatigue brought on by fibromyalgia, and if she was able to cure herself, then perhaps I could too.

15 years ago

The day after the lecture I decided to exclude all unnecessary carbohydrates (such as sugar, starches and gluten-containing flours) from my daily meals. Instead, I began eating far more vegetables than I had ever done before, and they have proven themselves worthy complements to the varieties of fish, meat, shellfish and eggs that I now put on my plate. Instead of the carbohydrates I started to eat more fat, such as butter, coconut oil and olive oil. My food has become so much more natural and varied than it used to be, and tastes far better without all the various additives that are included in most commercially prepared foods.

I have now posted about 1,000 recipes on my Swedish blogs, Birgitta Höglund’s Food and Birgitta Höglund’s Paleo. I have so far written three cookbooks. The first one, Low Carb High Fat Cooking for Healthy Aging, I wrote together with Dr. Dahlqvist. Then followed Low Carb High Fat Barbecue and Low Carb High Fat and Paleo Slow Cooking. This summer all three will be published in English with Skyhorse Publishing, NY. You can find them here at Amazon.

Just in time for the release of LCHF Barbecue, I’m going to Florida in the last week of May to participate in the annual Low-Carb Cruise. It will be so exciting to meet so many others that share my interest in natural food. And of course to listen to the interesting lectures. Here’s the impressive list of speakers this year.

I’ll post a lot of pictures from the cruise in the Caribbean when I’m back home again. I will keep this blog very simple, just sharing my favorite recipes and many of my pictures from Sweden.

I also want to give my warm thanks to Gun Penhoat, Inger Swanberg and Maud Hedman all of whom have been very helpful with the translation and proofreading of my recipes.

Learn more about LCHF here: DietDoctor – LCHF for Beginners.

I hope you will enjoy my recipes and pictures. Eat, enjoy and feel good 🙂