Christmas baking

Ensaimada is a must for the Christmas tablegoodies spread for Filipinos.  Ensaimada is a pastry product from Spain. It is a common cuisine eaten in most former Spanish territories in Latin America and the Philippines.
Ensaimada is a pastry, like brioche with lots of butter, sharp cheese and sugar. 

This is the unbaked ensaimada.

Once baked, while still hot, brush with melted butter, dip in sugar, brush with butter again and dip it in sharp cheese.  In the Philippines, "Queso de Bola" is used.  I used Romano cheese instead.

French Macaroons

I finally made the French macaroons I promised to bake.  Samantha, my niece, birthday was coming up and I thought this would be a good present for her. 

Muffins.. so yummy for breakfast or even for dessert.

Last night I was debating whether to bake muffins or try baking macarons again.  Muffins won over macarons since I only had 2 hours to spare before bedtime.  Macarons takes longer to make.  These muffins are so delicious; you can have them for breakfast, snack and even for dessert (with wine).

Blueberry Muffins with Crunchy Pecan Topping (from Esther Brody's book "The 250 Best Muffin Recipes")

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F (I set mine at 375 deg F). 
Line your muffin tin with paper liner (there are some nice ones at Michael's, but for everyday consumption, I just buy the supermarket brand).

 
For the topping:

 In a bowl, combine pecans, brown sugar, flour and cinnamon; mix well.

Add melted butter, stir and set aside.

For the muffin batter:

In a bowl cream the butter, around 1 minute, until creamy, add the sugar, cream until light and fluffy.  Add the vanilla, continue to beat.  Add eggs one at a time; beat well.

In another bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda.  Whisk them together.

Add one-third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture (butter, sugar, vanilla and eggs), mix well.  Add half of the sour cream; mix, then add the other one-third of the flour, mix well; add the remaining sour cream, mix and lastly, add the remaining flour.  Mix well.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin, filling half full.

Add blueberries; top with remaining batter.

Sprinkle with topping.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.  I baked it for 20 minutes.

This is how it looked when baked.  The topping is so yummy. 

Here's the recipe and enjoy!!

Topping

1/2 cup chopped pecan (chop the pecan into bigger pieces and add another 1/4 cup)

2/3 cup packed brown sugar (I used light brown sugar)

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter (I used 3 tbsp)

Muffin

1/2 cup butter (use unsalted)

1 cup granulated sugar  (use organic raw sugar)

( I usually process the raw sugar in the food processor so the granules are finer)

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1-1/4 cups sour cream (do not use non-fat)

2 cups frozen blueberries, thawed and patted dry.

  

  Macarons... not as I expected.

I did the macarons, but the macarons did not look like the Parisian macarons with the so called "feet".  I made it two weeks ago, on a hot and humid day.  I think I overbeat it.  I was so disappointed, but it still tasted good.  I filled some with ube and pandan buttercream, chocolate ganache and amaretto squash jam,  the rest, my husband ate them as meringue (very bad for his sugar count).


They looked nice, but it was flat.

I will do try my skills again and let you know what happens. 

Macaroons

This week my goal is do macaroons again.  I was very successful the last few times I did it.  I even did mango flavored ones.  This time I want to try ube (purple yam) and pandan (screwpine pandanus - is a type of plant that grows in tropical areas of Asia).  Will post pictures and recipe when my baking is successful.

Cookies

 Chocolate Capuccino Cookies.. so yummy, they taste like a chocolate bar, but they are cookies.

I made it!  150 cookies, 5 different flavors.  The cookies were for my daughter's mother in-law's 60th birthday.  They were "thank you" favors for her guests. I didn't think I could do it because I work full time during the day, but with a love for baking, my creative mind pumping, and a little assitance from my husband, I did it in 4 nights and 1 full day.  The yellow flower cookies are lemon, the lavender ones are Ube (Filipino purple yam), the neon pink hearts are strawberry, the green and yellow cookies are banana creme and the chocolate cookies are chocolate-capuccino (made with 72% cacao).  The cookie recipe is very simple.  Of course, I used organic sugar and unsalted butter.  Next time I will use organic flour and butter too.
I colored the cookie dough before chilling and rolling them out and used Wilton colored gel.  The Ube extract is already colored, but it came out grey, so I added some lavender coloring.

 This is a cookie bouquet made out of vanilla cookies.  The vase is a sour-cream pound cake with chocolate-caramel ganache.. yummy.  I think my blood sugar spiked, baking these cookies and icing them.  The cookie art drawing was done by my husband.  He is the artist in the family and has helped me with a lot of my baking decorations.

 These are the "Finally Sixty" Cookies done for Nette.  The yellow flower cookies are lemon, the lavander ones are Ube (Pilipino's purple yam), the neon pink heart are strawberry (strawberry essence from Charlie's Chocolate Factory in Port Coquitlam, BC), the green and yellow are banana creme and the chocolate are chocolate-capuccino(the chocolate is made with 72% cacao, those dark chocolate bars from Trader Joe's and the capuccino essence is from Charlie's).

Ube flavored... yummy.. soft.

Everything we offer!

Whether it be custom cookies, cupcakes or character themed cakes, we'll be sure to impress your guests the next time you order from us for your celebration!