This page is for recipes that are or were an integral part of life as a missionary in the Swedish mission. Make no mistake, these easy-to-make and less than healthy concoctions were never part of Swedish cuisine, and if members ever served them to us, they got the idea from earlier missionaries. Eaten in our apartments after a cold night of tracting, or offered to a visiting district or zone leader, they're part of the traditional consumption of the Swedish missionary.
Please send me any other such recipes you may have.
Sizzle
Gaggies
Death in the pan
Swedish pancakes: PDF (requires Adobe Acrobat)
Potato volcano, korv surprise and grease grenades
Gustav burgers
Sizzle
Also called a "sizzler", this unhealthy concoction started among missionaries in Sweden and was taken to Finland as well. One missionary reports making sizzlers in the mission office as early as 1983, but it seems to have taken many years to supplant gaggies (see below).
2.5 dl (1 cup) flour
2.5 dl (1 cup) sugar
2 eggs
125 g (4-5 oz) margarine
2 T cocoa powder
1 T vanilla sugar (or a dash of vanilla)
Preheat the oven to 200° C (375° F). Melt the margarine. Add the eggs and beat. Mix in the remaining ingredients. Pour the mixture into a pan and bake it in the oven for 20 minutes.
For this recipe to be called a sizzle, it must be served properly. Immediately after it comes out of the oven, cut a slice and put it in a bowl. Pour cold milk over it. The resulting sound gives the recipe its name.
Variations: cinnamon instead of or in addition to cocoa; Koolaid or peanut butter; Jell-O instead of sugar; buttermilk instead of milk
Photo: Jeff Pitcher in Eskilstuna 11/89
Thanks to Danny Campbell (served in Finland 3/94-6/96) for some of the variations. He also writes of starting a "sizzle king" tradition in Finland with his 3 kg and 6 kg sizzles.
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Gaggies
Gaggies were created in Eskilstuna in 1972 by Donald Einar Asp under the name Home on the Range Cookies. The recipe was later printed in the Missionary Kitchen Scriptures in May 1980 under the name 3-Minute No-Bake Cookies (except the cookbook shows twice as much sugar as is necessary so that you could make balls out of the mixture).
In order to properly "gag" you must eat them while they are warm with a little bit of milk or filmjölk. Some insist that real gaggies must be eaten straight from the pan. Gaggies were once served to President & Sister Olson, at a fireside held in Uppsala around February 1982.
2 1/2 dl (1C) sugar
1 1/4 dl (1/2C) milk
1 1/4 dl (1/2C) margarine
3 Tbsp cocoa
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp vanilla
9 dl (3 1/2 to 4C) oatmeal (havregryn)
Combine sugar, milk, margarine, cocoa, salt and vanilla in a saucepan and cook over low heat until bubbly. Boil for two minutes, fifteen seconds. Remove from heat. Add oatmeal. Stir well.
Variations: Adding peanuts, coconut, peanut butter, jam, banana or whatever else happens to be in the apartment.
Or put the warm gaggies over ice cream and pour vanilla sauce over everything.
Or the gaggie tårta: Make brownies. Remove from the pan after cooling. Slice in half to make two layers. Make Gaggies. Spread warm gaggies on top of the lower layer of brownies. Add a second layer of brownies, then "frost" with more gaggies.
Thanks to Michael Schooff and Donald Einar Asp for the recipe, and to Doug Bates, Mathew Bone, Dave Boss, Nathan R. Jones and Wayne R. Wylie for the additional description.
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Death in the pan
Brian Freestone suggests:
Put the following in a bowl and eat:
- Sizzle
- Gaggies
- Chocolate pudding
- Ice cream (preferably Rocky Road)
- Chocolate sauce
- Vanilla sauce
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Potato volcano, korv surprise and grease grenades
Clark Graham tells about other delectable delights from the late 1970s:
The potato volcano was mashed potatoes piled on a cookie sheet with cheese stuffed in the top. You stuck this in the oven and as the cheese melted it oozed down the mound like lava.
Korv surprise was sausage (korv) cut up and put on round hard bread with cheese and butter. When you melted the cheese in the oven the melted butter would soften the hard bread making a poor man's pizza. Grease grenades were meat rolled up in batter and baked.
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Erick Hartman shares with us:
Gustav burgers
Cut a loaf of french bread in half the long way (horizontally). Scoop out most of the white middle and fill both halves with a heated up concoction made of:
- ground hamburger (seasoned to taste)
- cream of mushroom (or chicken) soup
- canned veggies (corn is my favorite)
Top with cheese and bake until cheese is bubbly.
My companions and I could each eat an entire half at one sitting. Since I've been home (>23 yrs :() and have a family, we have tried it once in a while and my wife puts a layer of tomatoes under the cheese before baking. Mmmmmm good!
