festive yummies » maameemoomoo

This was a surprise for the guests. :)

Because the food wasn’t at all Christmas-sy, i thought of adding something Ho Ho Ho related to put everyone into the mood, just a teeny weeny bit. After combing through most cook books and magazines, Stollen seemed like a perfect choice. Last year, i baked a very memorable Christmas Fruit Cake from Donna Hay’s recipe. Though i did bake that again this year (gonna make that a Christmas tradition!), twice, i was all on the go for something new so, Stollen it was!

Stollen –

“A Stollen is a fruit cake containing dried fruit,and covered with sugar, powdered sugar or icing sugar. The cake is usually made with chopped candied fruit and/or dried fruit, nuts and spices. Stollen is a traditional German cake, usually eaten during the Christmas season, when called Weihnachtsstollen or Christstollen.”

*Wikipedia

Stollen

makes 1 big loaf or 2 small loaves

Sponge

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
4-5 teaspoons (or 2 packets) instant or active dry yeast

Fruit

2 cups dried fruit (raisins, golden raisins, dried cherries, dried apricots, etc.)
1/2 cup Grand Marnier, brandy, rum, or schnapps
1 tablespoon orange or lemon extract and/or grated lemon or orange rind

Dough

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
4 tablespoons (1/2 a stick) butter, softened
1/4 to 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup almond slivers or marzipan

Topping

Butter or oil
powdered sugar

Method

1. Warm the milk to approximately 100 degrees. Mix the yeast into the milk and stir into the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and ferment for 1 hour until the sponge is very foamy.

2. While the sponge is fermenting, combine the dried fruit and the liqueur. (i just used one packet of Silver Bird Mixed Fruits & an alkie i am, i soaked them overnight. heheeeee!)

3. When the sponge is ready, combine the remaining flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in the sponge, egg, softened butter, and enough water to form a soft but not sticky dough. Stir in the dried fruit and knead in a mixer or by hand for 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic or a damp towel, and set aside to rise for 45 minutes to an hour.

5. On a floured surface, shape the dough into something like a rectangle, either by rolling it out or pressing it with your hands.

i used almond slivers

6. Place the marzipan or slivered almonds in the center of the loaf. Fold the dough closed and shape the loaf into something resembling a crescent.

7. Cover the loaf loosely with plastic and set it aside to rise for approximately an hour to an hour and a half. While it is rising, preheat the oven (and baking stone, if you use one) to 350 degrees.

8. Remove the stollen from the oven. While still hot, brush the top of the loaf with butter or vegetable oil and sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Note to self : make 2 small loaves.

(adapted from The Fresh Loaf)

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Verdict :

Super duper addictive!!!!

There’s no need for butter or cream cheese, just tear it, pop into mouth and you’ll rub your tum tum happiiiiiii. For me, i especially digged the almond slivers. Love the additional crunch in this pillow soft texture bread! :)

I know!

Last year, my Christmas Fruit Cake post was on January 15th and i almost wanted to hide. This year, good lawwddd, a Christmast post on February?!?!! Hahahaaaaaa! :P

I know what you are thinking!

Yup, the purple is back. Hahaha.. but fret not, you might, just might see this colour once this year, promise.. unless i’m feeling creative or craving for something purple. :)

I actually made this last year too but instead of using purple sweet potato, i used the usual orange hue ones. I have zero intention to bake any Chinese New Year goodies this year but since i had a few purple sweet potatoes sitting around in the fridge, i thought why not, especially when i had promised AromaCookery some of these since last year’s CNY. *facepalm*

Thankfully i could still squeeze out an hour or two to bake this despite the crazy schedule. What i did was, sacrifice one of my precious yoga sessions. ;)

Purple Sweet Potato Cookies with Sesame Seeds

165g flour
1/2 cup sweet potato puree
1 egg
120g butter
85g caster sugar
85g sesame seeds – i mixed both white and black
1 tsp vanilla

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and whisk well.
2. Add flour and puree. Mix well.
3. Mix in sesame seeds and rum. Shape it into a roll or log. Refrigerate for at least half hour.
4. Cut dough into 0.5cm thick. Place them on greased baking tray and bake at 180C for 15 minutes.

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Looking at the ingredients, one can tell that this cookie is somewhat pretty kind to the waistline eh? ;)

And quite nutritious too!

As I love sesame seeds like crazy, especially the black ones, i thought the addition of them into the cookies would go swimmingly well with the potatoes and it did. The seeds totally elevated the level of addiction to the cookies but at the same time, it sorta robbed away the sweet potato taste too unfortunately. What you can do is to cut down on the sesame seeds but personally, i won’t do that because i love the cookies as it is for now. ;)

Sharp eyes you might find the photos a little different this time round especially the lighting. That’s because i’ve got a new ‘workstation’!

After going through some of the photos, methinks the old ‘workstation’ is still better, plus, the old workstation puts me into styling mood better too. New workstation is a tad squeezy for me, i no like.

Last but not least…

Gong Hei Fatt Choi everyone!

FATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT ahhhh!!!!!!!

Story of Mooncake ~

During the Yuan Dynasty, China was ruled by the Mongolian. Leaders from the preceding Sung Dynasty were unhappy to live under foreign rule and sparked a rebellion. The rebellion leaders knew that the Mid Autumn Festival was drawing near and they decided to distribute a special cake to the populace. The cake contained hidden message of the attack and asking people to support and co-ordinate their uprising troops. On the night of the Mid Autumn Festival, the rebels successfully attacked and overthrew the government. Today, mooncakes are eaten to commemorate this legend. Over the years, with the modern innovation and creativity, trendy and delicate mooncakes are now sold and offered in different flavours which are popular as gift for loved ones or business entertainment.

From left, clockwise : Cognac & Coffee, Red Wine & Cranberry, Green Tea & Plum and White Lotus with Yolk

Traditional baked skin ones.

Snow skin ones.

Now, konnyaku and mousse mooncake? We sure are getting very creative aye? ;)

For me, my first love has always been the snow skin ones and still is!

When Crystal Jade sent a box of snow skin ones over, the first thing i did, well.. no prize for guessing what i did, was to plonk my fat arse down and start slicing them away. Together with the little ones, we started eating each and every one of them. Here’s our thoughts on them :

Boy1 :

love – cognac & coffee

dislike – green tea & plum

Boy2 :

love – green tea & plum

dislike -cognac & coffee

Beep :

love – white lotus with yolk

dislike – green tea & plum

Me :

i like everything! Hahahaaa! Well, perhaps the green tea & plum is my least favourite but that’s about it.

Mixed Nuts and Ham

Let’s just say, the boys had no qualms wolfing this down too. Yes, kids eat them too! Methinks it’s the ham, that tastes like bak gua which they love. ;)

For DBS/POSB Credit and Debit Cardmembers, there is an exclusive 15% discount for all traditional and western mooncake gift sets. Happy mooncake shopping!

Thank you Crystal Jade and linea Communications for the lovely mooncakes.

Oh no!

1 more month to go and i’ve not started training. With my current condition, i don’t think i can run or do any form of exercise at all without coughing my lungs out. And my throat hurts very much :(

Too many late nights, too little rest, too much heaty food.

CNY, what have you done?!?!

Anyway, without breaking the tradition, i always grab a photo with the boys on the first day of CNY and post it here. As of every year, we never quite manage to get a picture perfect photo because someone (the boys) is always acting funny or kena hidden or something. This year, boy2′s face is completely blocked! Grrr.

Apart from visiting friends and family, we had friends over for a mini CNY gathering. Instead of more visiting on the second day of CNY, i spent almost the whole afternoon baking away before the husband whisked me off to dinner and movie with friends.

Because i am a lazy bum, we had the friends over for tea instead of lunch. Less cooking to do! :P

The friends brought Yu Sheng (鱼生) over and so all i had to do was to provide snacks and desserts! I actually planned to bake and make a lot more desserts but how much can 10 adults and 10 children eat, i asked myself. In the end, i struck off many items on my list and ended up with just 3…

- matcha macaron with cream cheese filling

- kek or kueh lapis with cranberry (baked it again!)

- tiramisu

I’m quite pleased with my 4th attempt on macaron.

I finally had pretty feet!!!! :D

One thing about baking for friends is that u can never take proper photos! You know, too busy with all the preparations and baking till you just can’t take time off to click away leisurely.

tiramisu is just too messy to capture, unless it’s in a cup but i love messy tiramisu photo! somehow, it’s more appealing to me. hahaa!

It was Darcy who suggested tiramisu. But he also suggested freshly baked banana cake (bake only when the friends arrive) too which i didn’t bother. HAhahaa! Darcy must have missed my tiramisu quite a bit, probably because i’ve not made it for 2 years already!

Macaron was a hit. I must say i was pretty daring to attempt it after 3 very so-so attempts using a totally new recipe, on the very day itself in the morning. And i didn’t even have a back up plan!

Matcha Macaron

(adapted from here)

110g egg white
6g egg white powder
90g caster sugar
140g almond flour
160g icing sugar
3 – 4 teaspoon matcha powder
black sesame seeds (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 170 degrees Celsius.

2. Sift almond flour, matcha powder and icing sugar together in a bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites and egg white powder till soft peaks are formed. Whisk in caster sugar until stiff peaks form.

4. To the egg white mixture, fold in dry ingredients from Step 2 in 1/3 portions to combine. Fold in the mixture more vigorously. Test the consistency from time to time by lifting a generous dollop of macaron paste and dropping it into the mixing bowl. If the macaron paste does not settle smoothly after 30 seconds, continue folding the paste. If the macaron paste smooths out too quickly, you’ve gone too far.

5. Pipe out the shells onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and leave them to rest for 25 minutes before baking. Sprinkle some black sesame seeds on the shell.

6. When a crust is formed, turn temperature on oven down to 140 degrees Celsius and bake for 15 minutes, turning the tray halfway through baking.

7. Cool parchment of baked shells on cooling rack. Unmould when the shells are completely cool.

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Taste and texture wise, it’s pretty darn good especially after resting them overnight in the fridge. Some say, best to eat it after 2 whole days when the flavor is fully developed and the shells are well re-hydrated but errrr, i didn’t manage to find that out cos every morsel was gone by noon. ^_^

With 30 egg whites sitting pretty in the fridge and this awesome recipe, you can be very sure there will be many many many macaron posts this month ;)

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Edited to add this in upon requests :

Tiramisu

(adapted from MamaC)

* i use 7″ square ring pan

* as for lady’s finger, i like this brand starts with V that can be found in all Cold Storage, Singapore. the packaging is orange in colour.
Syrup:
90 ml water
90 ml milk
65 ml Bailey
25 ml rum
1 teaspoon vanilla
1.5 tablespoons melted chocolate or chocolate syrup

Cream:
500g mascarpone cheese (I use Philadelphia Cream Cheese)
450 g whipping cream
150 – 170g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
30 ml Bailey

Method
Roast the lady fingers in the oven at 160°C for about 5 minutes. (Optional) could be done without. Roasting the ladyfingers will give the cake a better flavor.

First make the cream and place in the refrigerator
Beat very well the whip cream + half amount of the above sugar until sugar is dissolved, make sure you don’t mix it too much (whip cream can turn to curds if over beaten), and then, beat very well the cheese + the last half amount of sugar until it is dissolved. Combine all. Add vanilla and Bailey. Mix well.

For the syrup:
Place all the ingredients into a measuring cup and warm 30 seconds in the microwave. It doesn’t need to be hot, just warm would do.

Assemble the cake:
Place a layer of lady fingers on the bottom of the baking pan, using exactly half the liquid sprinkle all over the lady fingers, make sure you don’t put too much in one side and less in other areas.

Take a tea strainer and powder with cocoa (about 1 full teaspoon-if needed more add as desire) all over the lady fingers.
Take 1/2 of the cream mixture and place it in the middle of the cake. This is a little tricky… cream tends to stick to the spoon and get loose because of the cocoa powder. What I do, is push the cream towards the sides of the pan, until it touches the walls. The cream must touch the walls all around, and make sure the cream is spread well and no holes are communicating with the lady fingers bellow. We don’t want any liquid to go to the layer bellow.

Place next layer of lady fingers over the cream, sprinkle the rest of the syrup, sprinkle with cocoa and place the rest of the cream on top of everything. Level well and sprinkle plenty with cocoa.
Refrigerate over night.

Note :

the remaining of the lady fingers that i trimmed to fit into the square pan is squashed to crumbs-like texture. i use these crumbs to fill the holes in between the lady fingers that have been arranged in the pan

Have fun making!