The Nordic Baking Book is the perfect guide to holiday treats

Classic and contemporary Christmas treats from The Nordic Baking Book are perfect for the holidays

The Nordic Baking Book is extraordinary in both its magnitude and meticulousness. Along with its companion, The Nordic Cookbook (2015), it marks the end of a six-year project for renowned chef Magnus Nilsson of two-Michelin-starred Swedish restaurant Fäviken.

He describes the work, like its predecessor, as a documentary book. The more than 450 recipes are not his own, rather he researched, collected, developed (with considerable help from his wife, Tove), tested and compiled them according to one primary principle: “They were chosen to be as representative as possible for as many people as possible.”

Baking is engrained in Nordic food culture, and is a culinary tradition that’s very much alive and well today. In the book, Nilsson offers an overview of the four grains of the region – wheat, rye, barley and oats – historical and cultural essays, and recipes encompassing every dish habitually made with grains from flatbreads, pastries and rusks to grain soups, sweets and layer cakes.

Now that The Nordic Baking Book is out in the world, Nilsson says he’ll miss working on it more than any other he’s written. “I think it has to do with the fact that when I’m going to bake something, it’s a more pleasing feeling than when I cook something. Not at work necessarily, but at home. And I think that applies to almost anyone,” he adds. “We’re happier when we make a cake than an omelette… I think it’s the same as making a book, actually.”

Nilsson’s tome is also exceptional in its everydayness. In contrast to the exquisite fare served by the vanguard of New Nordic Cuisine (Nilsson included) and, at the other end of the spectrum, culinary stereotypes like herring and meatballs, it depicts what the people of the region actually bake. Of utmost importance, he says, was that it be usable rather than a historical relic too challenging for today’s home cooks to interpret.

“As a documentary project, it was a learning process for me as well and it’s also something that serves a purpose. Because the world can definitely do without another famous chef ’s home-cooking book but cultural knowledge like in (The Nordic Baking Book), it’s very important as a means of documentation. Especially with food culture because it changes so quickly,” says Nilsson.

“And it should change quickly; it shouldn’t be static. But if you’re of the mind that you should allow food culture to change, it’s also very important to document what’s happening — what it looks like — so it doesn’t get lost.”

The accompanying recipes are classic (Saint Lucy’s Day saffron buns; crullers) and contemporary (Rocky Road) holiday favourites from throughout the region: Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. As with all of the recipes Nilsson highlights in the book, they offer a true taste of Nordic baking culture at this moment in time.