And for Christmas I also made some... Chocolate dipped Hazelnuts Shortbreads

I wanted to make shortbread but not the ones I usually make during the year. I wanted the Wow factor and I found this recipe on the Food Network website: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/chocolate-dipped-hazelnut-shortbread-recipe/index.html.

Ingredients

• 1 cup husked hazelnuts
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, room temperature
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 ounces good-quality semisweet chocolate

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place hazelnuts on baking sheet. Bake until they're a shade darker and fragrant, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Lower oven to 325 degrees F.
Place hazelnuts in blender or food processor and pulse to coarse bits; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt to blend; set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together with a wooden spoon until smooth. Beat in egg. Gradually beat the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Add the chopped hazelnuts and mix until distributed evenly throughout.

Form into long cookies and place on greased cookie sheets. Bake until firm, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on racks.

In a saucepan over lowest heat or in a double boiler, melt chocolate. Dip 1 end of cooled cookies into melted chocolate. Place back on cookie sheet to harden.

I shaped mine in stars. I thought that was more Christmassy :) Although I realized as I didn't take any pics of the shortbreads once they were dipped... Well, will have to make them again.

Happy Baking :)

and for Christmas I made some: Christmas mince Pies

For those I turned to my Baking Bible aka: The Edmonds Cookery book... And they always turn out to be a crowd pleaser.
Here is the recipe for the pastry (if you do have the book, turn to page 86)
Sweet Shortcrust pastry:
1 cup of standard plain flour
75g of butter
1/4 cup of sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon of water
This recipe works if you double it too which makes it a lot easier.

Sift the flour. Cut in butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in sugar. Add the egg yolk and water. Mix to a stiff dough. Chill for 30 minutes before using. Use as required for sweet pies and tarts.

Christmas mincemeat:
2 medium apples, unpeeled, quartered of cored
275g packet vegetable shortening or melted butter
1 1/4 cups of currants
1 1/4 cups of sultanas
1 1/4 cups of raisins
1 1/4 cups of mixed peel
1/4 cup blanched almonds
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons brandy or whisky or lemon juice

This is where I put my own personal touch of cutting corners and I buy the already mixed mincemeat (the one that is already prepared in the red tubs) and for the liquid I used cranberry juice and port.

Mince and finely chop apples, suet, currants, sultanas, raisins, peel and almonds. Add the sugar, salt, nutmeg and liquid (depending on what you are using). Mix well. Spoon the mixture into clean jars and seal. If using fruit juice, refrigerate.
Makes 6 cups.

Christmas mince pies:
400g Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
1 cup of Christmas Mincemeat
1 egg, beaten
Icing sugar

On a lightly floured board roll out the pastry to 3mm thickness.
Cut out rounds using 7 cm cutter, and use to line about 16 patty tins (I use mini muffin tins).
Using a 6cm round biscuit cutter, cut out the tops from the remaining pastry. I actually used a star shaped one (just my preference).
Spoon a teaspoon of mincemeat into each base. Brush the edges of the bases with some of the egg. place tops over the filling, pressing slightly around the edges to seal the pies. Glaze with the remaining beaten egg. Bake at 180 Degree C for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. To serve, heat at 140 degree C for 15 minutes or until warm. Dust with sifted icing sugar.

Happy Baking :)

Banana custard cake

Gosh has the silly season been busy (despite a quite average weather to say the least!). Then I decided my house needed a good top to bottom clean which took me a whole week so I've been quite busy but it doesn't mean I was cooking and baking as well. Anyway, let's move on to the important part: the food!!!
My husband had an afternoon tea at work on the Friday before Christmas and his section needed to bring cakes. I thought "I don't want to do the predictable chocolate cake", I want to make something summery but naughty at the same time... After all it was 2 days before Christmas. So I came up with this recipe. The cake is still the moist yellow cake from Bakerella that I love making and this is very easy and delicious. You can find the recipe here: http://www.bakerella.com/finally-i-found-it/.
To this wonderfully moist cake I added some homemade banana custard (inspired from the custard tart recipe on page 214 of the iconic Edmonds cookbook) which goes like that: 
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
- 2 bananas cut in very small pieces

In a saucepan, whisk together eggs, milk and sugar. Cook, stirring often until almost boiling. Remove from the stove and add the banana pieces. Stir to mix the bananas. Pour into in bowl and cover with glad wrap touching the top of the custard to avoid a skin to form.

For the meringue I used a 7 minute frosting from a book called: cupcakes by Elinor Klivans. Here is the recipe:
- 1 1/4 cups of sugar
- 1/3 cup of water
- 3 large egg whites
- 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla exctract
- 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract ( I have not used this one)

Put the sugar, water, egg whites and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl or the top of a double boiler with at least a 2- quart capacity and beat with a handheld electric mixer on high speed until opaque, white and foamy, about 1 minute.

Put the bowl over, but not touching, a saucepan of barely simmering water. The top container should sit firmly over the pan of hot water; be sure to keep the cord of the electric mixer away from the burner. Beat on high speed until the frosting forms a soft peak that stands straight up if you stop the beaters and lift them up, about 7 minutes.
The frosting should register 160 Degree C on a thermometer.

Remove the container of frosting from the water, add the vanilla and almonds extracts, and continue beating for 2 minutes to further thicken the frosting.

Assembly:

Level your 3 yellow cakes to make sure you don't end up with the tower of Pisa and also to keep the custard between the cakes (otherwise you might have a landslide).

Select the more levelled cake to go on the top. I generally turn it around and put the bottom of one of the cakes as the top of the finished cake (the bottoms are always flat).

Put your first cake on the plate you are planning on serving the cake on (since it is quite a tall cake it can be tricky to move it). Pour half of the custard, spread stopping about 1/2 cm from the edge of the cake.

Place the second cake on top and repeat with custard.

Place the third cake over.

Pour 3/4 of the frosting over the cake and with a off set spatula spread to the side and smooth. Pour the rest of the frosting on top and decorate as you wish. I added some untoasted shredded coconut on the sides of mine and some banana chips at the top.

 

Happy baking everyone :)

Sweet fortune cookies

I had quite a few egg whites left from making some pie pastry and I didn't want to make only macaroons with them. I though: "I need to find something else to do with some of those that I have never made before"... and that's when I found a recipe for Fortune Cookies. How interesting I thought, let's give that a try. I wanted to decorate them but I didn't really have time (I squeeze those between 2 appointments) but I am pretty happy with how it turned out. They are very easy to make but you have to work fast and have very heat resistant fingers.

So here is where you can find the original recipe: http://cookiesforweddings.blogspot.com/2010/10/do-it-yourself-fortune-cookies-recipe.html or see below:

- 1 egg white
-1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup of unbleached all- purpose flour
- 1/4 white sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 F (about 200 Degree C). Butter a cookie sheet. Write fortune on strips of paper about 4 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. I tried with both a cookie sheet and parchment paper. I have found that the parchment paper worked better. I just oil sprayed them and spread my cookies.

Mix the egg white and vanilla until foamy but not stiff. Sift the flour, salt, and sugar and blend into the egg white mixture.

Place teaspoonfuls of the batter at least 4 inches apart on the prepared sheets. Tilt the sheet to move the batter into round shapes about 3 inches in diameter. At first I tried to spread it with the back of the spoon but because of all the oil on the parchment paper I ended just taking the dough for a ride around the paper. I then used a spatula and really spread that dough thin. My first one was way too thick ( but with the spatula it is much easier to thin it out. the tricky thing is to make it round but after a few tries you'll get the hang of it. 
Now that's the important bit: Do not make too many, because the cookie have to be really hot to form them and once they cool it is too late. Start with 2 or 3  to a sheet and see how many you can do. 

Bake for 5 minutes or until the cookie has turned a golden color 1/2 inch wide the outer edge of the circle. The center will remain pale. While the sheet is baking, prepare another one.

Remove from the oven quickly and quickly move the cookie with a wide spatula and place upside down on a wooden board. Quickly place the fortune on the cookie, close to the middle and fold the cookie in half. Place the folded edge across the rim of a measuring cup and pull the pointed edges down, one on the inside of the cup and one on the outside. Place the folded cookies into the cup of a muffin tin or egg carton to hold their shape until firm.

 

Christmas Pudding

Every year for Christmas I prepare 2 Christmas Puddings. One for my Mother- in law and one for one of our friends who actually likes this stuff. I just could not remember which recipe I used last year so I have done some research and found Nigella Lawson's Ultimate Christmas Pudding recipe. This looked pretty nice so I tried it. It was very easy to make. So here is the recipe (original recipe: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/ultimate-christmas-pudding) with my little arrangements:

Ingredients

• 150g currants
• 150g sultanas
• 150g prunes, scissored into pieces
• 175ml Pedro Ximénez sherry
• 100g plain flour
• 125g breadcrumbs
• 150g suet
• 150g dark muscovado sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon baking powder grated zest of 1 lemon
• 3 eggs
• 1 medium cooking apple, peeled and grated
• 2 x 15ml tablespoons honey
• sprig of holly to decorate
• 125ml vodka to flame
• 1 x 1.7 litre/3 pint heatproof plastic pudding basin with lid

Notes:   I used 400g already mixed fruit cake packet and did not use the prunes,and I substituted the Sherry for Port.

Method

Serves: 8-10

1. Put the dried fruit into a bowl with the alcohol used, swill the bowl a bit, then cover with clingfilm and leave to steep overnight or for up to 1 week. Mine steeped for a couple of days.
2. When the fruits have had their steeping time, put a large pan of water on to boil, put some boiling water in your slow cooker and set it on High, or heat some water in a conventional steamer (I actually have a steamer so I might try that next year), and butter your heatproof plastic pudding basin I used a normal basin that I cover with a piece of baking sheet secured with string and put a foil over it when cooking, remembering to grease the lid, too.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine all the remaining pudding ingredients, either in the traditional manner or just any old how; your chosen method of stirring,and who does it, probably won’t affect the outcome of your wishes or your Christmas.
4. Add the steeped fruits, scraping in every last drop of liquor with a rubber spatula, and mix to combine thoroughly, then fold in cola-cleaned coins or heirloom charms. If you are at all frightened about choking-induced fatalities at the table, do leave out the hardware. I did not add any hardware to mine.
5. Scrape and press the mixture into the prepared pudding basin, squish it down and put on the lid. Then wrap with a layer of foil (probably not necessary, but I do it as I once had a lid-popping and water-entering experience when steaming a pudding) so that the basin is watertight, then either put the basin in the pan of boiling water (to come halfway up the basin) or in the top of a lidded steamer (this size of basin happens to fit perfectly in the top of my all-purpose pot) and steam for 5 hours, checking every now and again that the water hasn’t bubbled away. It did take me about 5 hour to 6 hours to steam them and that was the beauty of the slow cooker, I could just leave it, go and do some shopping and come to a wonderfully steamed Christmas Pudding.
6. When it’s had its 5 hours, remove gingerly (you don’t want to burn yourself) and, when manageable, unwrap the foil, and put the pudding in its basin somewhere out of the way in the kitchen or, if you’re lucky enough, a larder, until Christmas Day.
7. On the big day, re- wrap the pudding (still in its basin) in foil and steam again, this time for 3 hours. Eight hours’ combined cooking time might seem a faff, but it’s not as if you need to do anything to it in that time.
8. To serve, remove from the pan or steamer, take off the lid, put a plate on top, turn it upside down and give the plastic basin a little squeeze to help unmould the pudding. Then remove the basin – and voilà, the Massively Matriarchal Mono Mammary is revealed. (Did I forget to mention the Freudian lure of the pudding beyond its pagan and Christian heritage?)
9. Put the sprig of holly on top of the dark, mutely gleaming pudding, then heat the vodka in a small pan (I use my diddy copper butter-melting pan) and the minute it’s hot, but before it boils – you don’t want the alcohol to burn off before you attempt to flambé it – turn off the heat, strike a match, stand back and light the pan of vodka, then pour the flaming vodka over the pudding and take it as fast as you safely can to your guests. If it feels less dangerous to you (I am a liability and you might well be wiser not to follow my devil-may-care instructions), pour the hot vodka over the pudding and then light the pudding. In either case, don’t worry if the holly catches alight; I have never known it to be anything but singed.
10. Serve with the Eggnog Cream, which you can easily make - it's the work of undemanding moments - while the pudding's steaming.

MAKE AHEAD TIP:
Make the Christmas pudding up to 6 weeks ahead. Keep in a cool, dark place, then proceed as recipe on Christmas Day.
FREEZE AHEAD TIP:
Make and freeze the Christmas pudding for up to 1 year ahead. Thaw overnight at room temperature and proceed as recipe on Christmas Day.

I decorated the first one with marzipan shaped holly and this one was colored sugars. Once they were decorated I re- wrapped them in they waxed paper and let "dry"again for another couple of days and then wrap them in their little Christmas "wrapping".

There are many more goodies recipes to come. I just can't post them now since I am preparing baskets filled with yummy homemade Christmas goodies and giving them away as gifts so shhhhhh, it's a surprise :)

Double chocolate, almonds and marshmallow fudge

I have found this recipe by chance and re- arranged it with a few different ingredients. You can find the basic recipe on: http://southernfood.about.com/od/fudgerecipes/r/r71221c.htm.

ngredients:

• 1 can sweetened condensed milk. I only had 3/4 of one and it worked fine. However I have to make some more so I will try with a full cup this time.
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup milk chocolate chips
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup of chopped almonds, marshmallow and dried cranberries. I thought that sounds like Christmas.

Preparation:

Lightly grease a 9-inch square pan; line with a piece of plastic wrap about 18 to 24 inches in length, leaving the ends out to cover the finished fudge. The ends will also serve as "handles" which will help you lift the fudge out of the pan. Heat the condensed milk, chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla in a double boiler over simmering water. Stir until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Stir in almonds, marshmallows and cranberries; pour into the prepared pan. Spread gently then cover lightly with the ends of the plastic wrap. Chill until firm. Lift out of the pan and cut into small squares.

Those pictures are of poor quality I know. I have to make some on the week end so I will post some better ones, but trust me this fudge is easy as pie and tastes divine. 

Mini vanilla macaroons with while chocolate, NZ Boysenberry Patisserie Filling and cream filling

I was recently selected to be a member of a review group for a new product called Barker's of Geraldine. The product is New Zealand Boysenberries Patisserie Filling. I absolutely loved it and I would recommend that anyone who likes baking but doesn't always have the time to to simply get it. It is conveniently packaged and delicious. I just mixed mine with some cream, a little icing sugar and melted white chocolate. It tastes divine and I'm not really a sweet tooth. 

For the macaroons I got the recipe from this site: http://www.jasonandshawnda.com/foodiebride/archives/1982. I was a bit worried because it is nothing like the recipe I generally use but the macaroons turned out very good. I had to play around with the cooking though since my big oven caught on fire last week end and I am left with a tiny convection oven. I baked my 2 first batches according to the recipe and the other 2 at 130 Degree C for 20 minutes. The last 2 batches are much better and crunchier. 

Here is what I did for the filling:

In a heatproof bowl prepare the white chocolate (if using bars, cut them into pieces; we are making a ganache). Bring 205ml (1 cup) of cream to a boil and pour over the white chocolate. Leave for 5 minutes or so and mix to make sure all the chocolate has melted and there are no bits left. Leave it to cool. Once cool, add the NZ boysenberry Patisserie Filling and mix well. 

Once your macaroons have cooled down fully, spread some of the prepared cream. Put them in the fridge so the cream will set thanks to the white chocolate and tada...