Cranberry Orange Cookies

Yummy! My hubby said these were so good. It was at Peabody's site that I first came to know of these cookies.

I like the refreshing taste of orange in this, with chewy cranberry bits that contrasts with the crisp cookie. The orange sugar coating adds some glitter to its outlook.

Cherry Almond Cake

Many years ago.... say around 2002, I bought a loaf of cake, studded with cherries. Normally I don't quite enjoy eating glace cherries...but in that cake, it was quite delectable.

I didn't know that it's actually a 'type of cake', I thought, it's just a pound cake with 'dump-in-any-thing-you-like-to-pretty-it-up' sort of thing. Last year while surfing for recipes.... I found that, it's actually a type of cake, that is popular in the UK. You can get many variations of the recipe, mostly from UK recipe sites.

Kashmiri Pulao - AFF Indian Rice Dishes #2

I tried this recipe more than a year ago... been wanting to redo it, because I used too much saffron! The recipe called for 1/2 tsp. I should've followed the recipe with 2 pinches. The whole thing turned out too yellow and the smell was strong! But alas.... it never realized.

So, just let it be....

Hamantaschen @ Haman's Hat with Apricot - Cookies #2

Hamantaschen means Haman's hat,  a traditional Jewish cookie that is eaten during Purim festival  to remember the defeat of their enemy named Haman. Read  story here.Haman wore a triangular hat, and so.. that was the reason for the shape of the cookie. In Israel, they are known as Oznei Haman, as in Haman's Ears.

Marmalade Bread Pudding - Eggy Bread # 3

Recipe created in July 2011

I always wonder.. how do other bloggers style the setting for photography.
This is my first attempt in doing so and hahaha... it's so difficult.
Which is why I usually do close ups. A lot easier.

I had to get this and that ready, seemed like a lot of work and a lot of keep later.
What more with peeking heads and prying hands of 2 kids?
But I had to try because of these beautiful flowers seemed to match my bread pudding :)
haha

Pepita and Cranberry Granola Bars - Bars Week # 3

Initially I wanted to submit this to Swee San's Red/Green event. But, it didn't turn out as green or as red as I hoped for. So, I scraped the idea.

Dried Berries Rocky Road with White Chocolate - Bars Week # 2

I made this for Lydia's Year End School (Kindergarden) Party. Being in a small town, it's something new for everybody, including me that has never eaten anything "rocky road". The teachers told me it was very good  (and special... and you may go nah) and every kid loved it. And the best time to try making such sweet stuff is when you have a large group of kids to feed. *evil grin*

Apricot and Raisin Bars - Bars Week #1

Recipe tried out in May 2011



Happy New Year! Err, a day late! Lyanne will start kindergarden this year and her first day will be on the 5th. I'm sure dear readers who are parents will be busy at this time of the year, especially those with new schoolers.

I'll start the ball rolling with Bars Week

Coconut Currant Butter Cookies

I love Danish cookies. Do you?

Which is your favourite? The pretzel shaped one? The rectangular? The ribbon like ‘C’ or the plain round cookie?
Mine is the one with coconut and currants. The coconut is pretty light, but I knew it was there. It’s in the list of ingredients, but you won’t taste it in other shapes.

So, today I tried to make something similar, hahaha. I melted the butter (so that the cookie will fall flat and spread), and I whacked the eggs to create aeration since the butter is melted (Don’t want to use too much baking powder). Weird method, right? But I think I’ll skip the cornstarch next time, as it tasted too fine or I’ll just use all purpose flour.

This is the actual size of the cookie

But overall, quite nice, not there, but quite near. That one has a better crunch rather than tasting “fine”, texture wise. But you can give it a try, nothing wrong. Those that comes in the blue tin is sweet, and these cookie's sweetness is about that, sweet but not too sweet. The currants give the cookie a nice fruity tang and it complements the sweetness. But then again, the sugar is needed to make the cookie go flat and spread.

If you prefer your cookie to have better stature, rather than falling flat, just use creaming method, Do not melt the butter and whack the eggs.

Coconut currant cookies
Recipe Source: Wendyywy

125gm butter
125m cake flour
25gm corn starch
25gm dessicated coconut
40gm icing sugar
½ tsp baking powder
40gm currants
1 egg
60gm sugar

Fall flat method (LOL : )
1. Preheat oven to 160(fan)/180C
2. Melt butter and let it cool down.
3. Mix cake flour, corn starch, coconut, icing sugar, and baking powder together. Then mix in currants.
4. Beat egg with sugar on high speed for 5 minutes.
5. Mix flour mixture with melted butter.
6. Pour in 1/3 of beaten egg into (5) and combine well.
7. Pour in another 1/3 and combine and lastly repeat with balance of eggs.
8. With 2 small spoon, take 1 tsp of the dough and form balls and put onto baking tray.
9. Bake for 14 minutes or until golden.
10. Cool on wire rack and keep air tight.

The typical cookie pose

Somehow I feel sick of taking cookie pictures, so I threw my temper at them and made them tumble over

*evil look*

Muahahahaha!!!

That's it! No more cookie posts from me for an indefinate period of time.

"6 days of Cookies" is officially over!

I am submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #3: My Favorite CNY Cookie (Jan 2011)

Grand Marnier Orange Fruit Cake

My mom loves fruit cakes. It's her favourite bake of the season. Well, actually she loves everything I bake, period.

Is it now that I'm preggers that I'm not baking a storm for Christmas? Frankly, I don't and never do. I practise giving gifts, as Christmas is about God's gift to us. I don't bake just because it's Christmas, but my bakes makes personal gifts that my friends look forward to. And I usually bake something that can't be bought. In 2007, I made lots of Moist Chocolate Cakes for Church friends, 2008 I made three Sarawak Layered Cakes, cut and divided for a selected few(was heavily pregnant with Lyanne at 36 weeks), 2009 I made Surprise Eggs for Church friends and alcohol free orange fruit cake for neighbours. Do my church friends give me bakes as gifts too? Nah, but they do try to give me edible gifts like chocolates, candies for my kids or cute teddy bear pastas. I'm the only one who give bakes as gifts.

One cake that is strongly related to Christmas is fruit cake. Somehow I do not understand, why make fruitcake during Christmas season? Is it due to it being colourful, like the ornaments on a Christmas tree? But then again, I think it must be due to winter where only dried fruits are available and hence, Mince Pies and Fruit Cakes were baked for the occasion. It's more like a Western thingy rather than something with religious meaning. But then, it's good excuse now to bake it.

I made 2 fruit cakes this year to clear lots of dried fruits from my fridge. That's the best excuse to make fruit cakes, clear fridge, LOL. One was with liquor, and one without. The one without liquor will be cut, wrapped and given to my left and right neighbours who are my regular customers and to a few church friends. Scroogy hoh? One cake, divided for so many people! It's just a festive gesture. Here, it's usual practice to give some (doesn't need to be a whole cake) away, just for taste. Unless it's a gift for a specific purpose, like housewarming, then it's nice to give a whole cake. But then again, one whole fruit cake is like so much. And if I really do give the whole fruit cake, I think the recipient will be like, "Woah, how to finish this????" Fruit cakes are unlike other cakes where it can be easily "cleaned up".

** Yow Lin, Chiew Yoong, Susan and the Lee family who might be reading, guess you oredi knew what I'm giving u guys this year, kekekeke**

The cake above is with liquor and the one below is without.

Finally, I'm being not too scroogy. Still am, but not as bad. Well, I used half liquor half juice for the liquor infused cake, hahaha. Not full liquor. I'm not that generous, even if it's for personal consumption.
But still, no nuts and no candied peels. I still prefer fresh orange zest and it to be all fruits.

And this time, I let Lydia use the knife for the first time. A dinner knife it was, and I watched over her all the time. She was happy that I let her help out. She still doesn't know how to put her finger in a safe position and how to use the pushing motion to cut, instead she was just forcing the knife down. Sometimes using both hands just to cut a cherry. Needs practice.

Grand Marnier Orange Fruit Cake
Recipe source: Wendyywy

150gm cherries (red and green), coarsely chopped
100gm currants
100gm golden raisins
100gm black raisins
100ml fresh orange juice
100ml Grand Marnier
Zest from the oranges that you juiced from

Combine everything except the cherries (I was worried that soaking in alcohol might release the colours) and cover. Let it soak overnight in the fridge. The next day, combine with coarsely chopped cherries while you soften the butter.

250gm butter
150gm sugar
4 eggs
225gm all purpose flour
100ml Grand Marnier

1. Preheat oven to 130/150C. Line a 8 inch square pan.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Put in eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.
4. Sift flour into the butter mixture and beat on low speed until no clumps are seen.
5. Fold soaked fruits and all the remaining liquid into the batter.
6. Pour batter into pan, level and bake for 1.5hours.
7. Remove cake from oven and immediately drizzle Grand Marnier over hot cake. Pull down the side liners. Let it the cake air and when cake has totally cooled, wrap and keep for a week before comsuming.
(I kept the cake wrapped at room temperature of 29-35C, I find chilled butter based cakes do not taste as nice after chilling, the cake looks very good with no mould and fungus due to the presence of liquor.)

Verdict: Compared to the non liquor version, of course this is nicer. And slightly sweeter too, due to the liquor. But less orangy that the non liquor version because it used less zest. It is soft and moist, unlike traditional Western fruitcakes which are a lot lot sweeter and a lot lot denser. Just imagine it being a butter cake, but with fruits.

I'm sure most of you have read about Swee San's Christmas giveaway. I'm submitting this for that event.
She asked to include this excerpt, so I better do it, since she said it's a "MUST".

"This is my entry for the Christmas Giveaway hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot"

And I'm submitting this to Aspiring Bakers Dec 2010 challenge

I still have another Christmas post coming up tomorrow.

Nantucket Blend Granola Bars

There's another 10 days to the closing date for Sponge Pancake giveaway contest. So far response has been very cold. With just 4 entries.

I was hoping to see lots of creativity flowing in from fellow readers, but so far I've only seen 4 versions... sigh..... Is it really that difficult?


How to enter:
1. Prepare sponge pancakes with creativity (but please abide by the rules). You can submit more than one entry. One variation per entry.
2. Blog about it, and send in the link via comments section here, or
3. If you don't own a blog, take pics, do a simple write up in Microsoft Word, especially on the recipe and email me at wendyinkk[@]yahoo.[com] (remove the brackets when you type the email address), I'll help you post them here in this post.
4. Open to readers with Malaysian or Singaporean address. If you are overseas, and will be back here for a trip, can enter with any suitable local address.

Rules, Just make sure
1. Your pancake is a version that I've never attempted before
2. Your pancake is not cut more than once (except for photography purposes to show the inside)
3. It is cooked over the stove, no baking, no steaming
4. Recipe goes by the ratio of 1 egg: 1 Tbsp sugar : 1 Tbsp flour, with additional ingredients for flavouring allowed


Prizes:
1. One Candy and Deep Frying thermometer for Most Creative entry (I'll be judging)
2. One Cake Leveler for a lucky entry (draw lots)


Closing date: 2 Dec 2010, 12pm GMT+8

******************************************************************************



Back to the post......

Ooh… I still have quite a lot of mixed fruit and nut from the Nantucket Blend that my MIL got me. What’s the next best way to finish them up other than making granola :p

Well, I still can’t finish it, I think I’ll do a cake with the balance, since I’ve done cookie and now breakfast bars…. Wait, gimme some time.


Nantucket Blend Granola Bars
Recipe adapted from 2 recipes: Anna Olsen and Ina Garten

2 cup rolled oats (I used quick cooking)
1 cup nuts and seeds, lightly toasted and chopped (any nuts or seeds that you like), this time I used almonds and pistachios
1 cup dried fruits (any fruit you like), a mix of cranberries and raisins
½ cup sweetened coconut flakes (angel flakes), lightly toasted
½ tsp salt

100gm soft brown sugar
50gm honey
80gm butter
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat the oven at 160/180C. fully line a 10 inch square pan (a 9 inch square will be fine too), with overlapping sides
2. Mix oats, chopped nuts, dried fruits, toasted coconut and salt together.
3. In a small saucepan, heat butter, honey, brown sugar and vanilla until melted.
4. Pour(3) into (2) and mix.
5. Mix in beaten egg.
6. Pour everything into prepared pan and level the surface. Press the surface (maybe with a flat bottom glass or a layer cake press)
7. Bake for 30 minutes, cool in pan for 20 minutes and put the whole thing into the fridge to chill for 2 hours.
8. After chilling, lift granola out from pan with the overlapping paper and cut into bars.

And I wrapped them up... so that one can just take a piece and eat, anytime :)

Chocolate Cherries Oatmeal Cookies

I have this large pack of mixed fruit and nuts that my MIL got me from US. There’s dried bing cherries, cranberries (they look brown cos no additive was added), raisins, pistachios and almonds. I didn’t know what to do with them, so, when I saw this recipe on Honey Bee Sweets, I was delighted!!!

I picked out the cherries and used some of the nuts, and voila, a yummy and chewy oatmeal cookie.
As Honey Bee says, this is supposed to be soft and chewy, and it’s not “Lau Foong 漏风", or masuk angin . It’s meant to be like that, and not crunchy. I did change the method though…. Using a method I learnt from doing a cranberry white chocolate cookie that never got photographed cos I was in my confinement when I did it.

Chocolate Cherries Oatmeal Cookies
Recipe adapted from Honey Bee Sweets

80gm dried bing cherries, chopped
1 egg, beaten
1.5tsp vanilla extract
Mix chopped cherries together with beaten egg and vanilla. Let it sit for at least half an hour until the eggs are absorbed by the cherries.

115gm butter, softened (I always use salted, and I skipped the salt)
100gm soft brown sugar
125gm rolled oats (I used quick cooking)
115gm all purpose flour, sifted with 1 tsp baking powder and 1 t/s tsp baking soda
100gm mixed nuts, chopped
75gm chocolate chips

1. Combine sifted flour with oats.
2. Cream the butter with brown sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Mix in half of (1), then the cherries and all that is in the bowl.
4. Mix in the balance of (1). Then mix in the nuts and choc chips.
5. Preheat oven to 170/180C. Prepare your cookie sheets and line them with non stick baking paper/parchment
6. Roll balls of dough and place them onto cookie sheet (I used a 1/2Tbsp measuring spoon to form half spheres)
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Place on rack to cool down before packing them in air tight jars.

My kids love these and kept on asking for more cookies : )

Eight Treasures Pumpkin Loaf 八宝南瓜包

I got this recipe from MeishiChina again. The original recipe is shaped into a wreath and the treasures all strewn on top. I put my treasures inside instead and rolled them up like a swiss roll.

You can use any 8 types nuts or seeds or dried fruit. I find that the fruits are a bit dry after baking, and maybe you can brush some water on the dough before you sprinkle the fruits on, this way, it'll hydrate the fruits better, rather than to have it drawing moisture from the bread.

The plain one that you see in the picture about is filled with only chopped raisins because my kids don't like nuts and seeds.

350gm bread flour
80gm sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1/3 tsp salt
1 large egg
180gm pumpkin puree
50gm butter
1 ½ cup mixed fruits and nuts (6 types: golden raisins, black raisins, bing cherries, cranberries, almonds, pistachios), coarsely chopped
½ cup mix seeds (2 types: pumpkin and sunflower), placed in a tray big enough for the loaves

1. Mix bread flour, sugar, yeast and salt together. Make a well in the center.

2. Combine pumpkin puree with egg. Pour pumpkin mitxure into the well. Combine and form a dough.

3. Knead until smooth, add in butter and knead until stretchy. (the whole kneading process by hand will take about 30 minutes or more)
4. Put dough covered (with a small opening) in a warm place (I just put the whole basin I knead my bread with into my cool oven) and let it proof for 1 hour until double in size.
5. Punch down and give it a good knead for another 2 minutes.
6. Divide dough into 2 loaves.
7. Take one piece of dough and roll it into a rectangle. Spread half the mixed fruit and nuts onto rolled out dough. Roll dough up (from the shorter side), and pinch the ends to seal.
8. Brush loaf with water and roll it in the seed mix.
9. Repeat with the other piece of dough.
10. Proof loaves for another 45 minutes.
11. Bake in a preheated oven at 170/180C for 20 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped at the bottom of tray (Put a small tray of boiling water at the lower rack of oven while you bake the bread)

Stone Fruit Tea Cake

No no… this cake is not hard like stone. Stone fruits are fruits that contain one hard seed in the middle and peaches, cherries, nectarines, plum, apricots are stone fruits. Mangoes and avocadoes, although seem to have only one seed in the middle are not stone fruits.

I had some blueberries from my MIL’s Japanese cotton cheesecake, and I don’t want to make muffins, nor pancakes. I am not thinking of crumbles because I do not have enough of it and buying another punnet is expensive, very expensive. Yeah, I’m a miser. RM15 for 1 cup of blueberries. I can have 3 lunches with RM15.

So I searched and searched online.. and this  looked interesting. Puddles of batter strewn over the cake, with fruits peeking from underneath. Unlike a crumble, unlike a cobbler, unlike a fruit pastry cake.. this looks interesting.

You can use any stone fruit that you like, but make sure that it’s not too ripe. One site I read, said she used peaches that were too ripe, and it caused the cake base to be damp. So, I guess canned peaches are out of the league, since those are ultra moist and wet. And another site also said no to strawberries as they are too juicy. I didn’t see any fresh peaches or apricots when I went shopping yesterday, so I reconstituted some dried apricots with orange juice. Changed the vanilla to orange zest.

The cake looked lovely when baked, and true enough, the plums added a pink purplish tone to the cake, the skin bled and make it look real nice. The reconstituted apricots were really sweet, literally. I think if fresh ones were used, the whole cake won’t be so sweet. Overall, I love this cake, and I’ll make this again when I see fresh peaches or apricots around, and I won’t be flavouring the dough with orange, but with vanilla, just like the original recipe states. I used orange this time because I reconstituted the apricots with orange juice, if you want to use vanilla, please just use water to reconstitute the dried apricots. I don’t mean that orange isn’t nice here, it’s nice, but I’d want to try the original version the next time.

Stone Fruits Tea Cake Recipe
1 Tbsp butter (for greasing pan)
150gm all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
100gm sugar (can be reduced to 80gm, I used dried apricots as filling and I found it the whole cake a bit sweeter than I’d prefer it)
80gm butter
1 + ½ egg
1 Tbsp orange zest
1 Tbsp brown sugar
75gm dried apricots (about 12) soaked overnight in 75ml orange juice
1 black plum, diced
70gm blueberries

1. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. With a mixer, cream the sugar and butter together on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition, then stir in the orange zest..
2. Add the flour in 2 or three shifts, mixing just until a smooth dough forms. It will be pretty soft still. Dollop it out onto two pieces of plastic wrap, making one mound of dough slightly larger than the other. Wrap the dough blobs in the plastic and form them into flat discs. Place on a baking sheet and stick them in the freezer for 30 minutes. While waiting, prepare and cut your fruits.
3. Preheat the oven to 160/180C. Butter a shallow, 8-inch baking dish or tart pan Take the slightly bigger parcel of dough and press it down onto the bottom of the pan. Scatter the fruit over the dough. Break the second disc of dough into tsp size balls and scatter them over the fruit. It will look charming no matter how even the blobs are, so don't worry too much about getting them perfect.
4. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes (I baked for 35), or until lightly golden and firm. Cool for 30 minutes before serving.

Wrapped in plastic wrap, this tea cake will keep at room temperature for up to 3 days. You can also freeze the unbaked dough; if wrapped well, it will keep for up to 3 months. You can freeze a whole, unbaked cake with fruit, wrapped well for 1 month.

Adapted from these two sites:
http://tastespace.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/stone-fruit-tea-cake-peach-tea-cake/
http://wildeyedbibliophile.blogspot.com/2009/08/apricot-blueberry-tea-cake.html
And here’s a gluten free version: http://makingromaroma.com/2009/09/10/rustic-tea-cake-gluten-free/

Alcohol-Free Orange Fruit Cake

I know I'm 3 days late to wish all my readers a Merry Merry Christmas!!
And Happy Birthday to my dear Saviour!
I've been busy busy busy.....

My first fruit cakes, made 4 mini loaves, 3 to give away, one to keep. I didn’t want to use Rum, as it’s so so expensive. Liquors are never cheap here. Due to Liquor tax and with our small small currency. And I decided to go with fresh zest rather than candied peels.

From what I read from the net, fruit cakes need to age to get the best flavour out of the fruits, but this fruit cake uses no liquor, so I dare not let it sit and sit for months. I just let it sit in the fridge, wrapped up for 5 days. And today I cut it up and ate it slowly, piece by piece. I like it, really like it. Maybe the zest makes it different, cos I don't really like candied peels. Try this if u love orange as much(or more) as I do :)

150gm glace cherries (mixed red and green, as u wish, coarsely chopped)
100 gm raisins + 100gm currants + 100gm sultanas (or whatever combination u prefer)
200ml orange juice
2 heaped Tbsp orange zest
250gm butter
150gm sugar
225 gm all purpose flour
4 large eggs

I did it shortcut way.. macerated the fruits in just 1 hour rather than overnight.
U may macerate the fruits overnight.

1. Macerate all the fruits and zest with orange juice, overnight preferably.
2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs, one by one, beating well after each addition.
4. Mix in flour until well combined.
5. Fold in macerated fruits and whatever juice that is remaining.
6. Place batter into 4 mini loaf pans (3X6)
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 140C(fan)/160C for 1 hour. (bigger pans will take much longer)










Another Christmas gift post coming up soon.. gimme so time to do it :)

Banana Cake--upgraded :)

This is my left neighbour's favourite cake. She orders quite often from me.
I'm worried she might get sick of this soon, so I always delay her orders, telling her I didn't get good bananas. Haha!!

This is an upgraded version of my banana cake, with added raisins and walnuts.

U can get the recipe here. But if u want to put in raisins, remember to coat them with some flour before u put them in to prevent the raisins from sinking. The walnuts are fine w/o flour dusting.