My very first 'Christmas Stollen'

After the very lovely (and tiring) Christmas day, all day, the following morning I really enjoyed my peaceful morning. No rush, no wake up early. I even woke up late!
No need to worry about breakfast-lunch or even dinner for today, still plenty of food on the dining table and inside the fridge. Yesterday, we got plenty 'take away' food from my parents and parents in law's house, after Christmas get together.

I walked in our yard this morning, listening the small birds' tweet, heard my son greeted 'Merry Christmas' to our Labrador while my husband was feeding it, and enjoyed the flowers that coloring our yard. I grab my camera and took some pictures of them. I think this was the most relaxing morning for me this year.

With a cup of tea, I enjoyed the last slices of Stollen that I baked 2 days ago, a day before Christmas. That time, we enjoyed before attending the Christmas Eve Service.
This is my very first time baking Stollen, even I already planed a couple years ago to try baking this traditional German fruitcake during the Christmas season, and for many of reason I never made it. aahhh...

Actually, I'm not sure if this is a succesful stollen or not. It was long ago, the last time I ate stollen that I got from a good bakery here, in Jakarta.
The stollen that I baked has a solid texture, it's between cake and bread, and I can say that it is like a heavy cake, not kind of dry cake.

I ate it everyday for the last three days, and it still has the same delicious flavor and texture since the first time it came out from the oven. Whether it's the correct stollen or not, we like it so much. We enjoyed it at home, also on the road on the way to the parents' house.

Just to let you know, that I just put raisins and craisin (dried cranberries) for the dried fruit, without sultana and candied mix peel, no cherry and no cachous.

Christmas Stollen
This traditional German fruitcake is sure to become a Christmas favourite.
Source : from Taste.com.au-Delicious Magazine Dec 2008, recipe by Valli Little.

Ingredients (serves 8)
2 1/2 cups (375g) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
3/4 cup (90g) almond meal
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
100g chilled unsalted butter, chopped, plus extra melted butter to brush
125g cream cheese
1 egg, plus 1 extra yolk
1/2 cup (125ml) milk
2 tbs brandy
1/2 tsp each vanilla & almond extracts
1/2 cup (80g) sultanas
1/3 cup candied mixed peel
1 cup (160g) icing sugar, sifted
2 tbs chopped glace cherries
1 tbs silver cachous

Method
Briefly pulse flour, baking powder, caster sugar, meal, cardamom and 1/2 tsp salt in a processor to combine. Add butter and cheese and pulse until a sandy mixture. Add egg, yolk, milk, brandy, vanilla and almond extracts, and process to a dough, then turn out onto a floured bench. Scatter with sultanas and peel, then knead until incorporated and dough is smooth. Cover in plastic wrap. Chill for 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180°C and line a baking tray. On a floured surface, roll dough to a 24cm x 36cm rectangle. With 1 long side facing you, fold one third of the dough away from you into the centre, then fold over again to make a long rectangle (about 12cm x 36cm). Place fold-side down on tray, brush with melted butter, then bake for 45 minutes or until slightly risen and golden, and a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool on a rack.

Meanwhile, gradually mix icing sugar with 2-3 tbs water to make a soft icing. Drizzle over cooled stollen, then sprinkle with cherries and cachous.

From our home,
We wish you a Merry Christmas & a relaxing holiday.
May this season bring you joy, happiness, and some great photos.

We'll be out of the city for the next four days. I promise to share the story later. See you again.

Christmas Morning Muffins

Just four days before Christmas, my children started their school holiday and my husband took his vacation. We started it with PSTC (Parents Student Teacher Conference) at school in the morning, then followed by last Christmas shopping. Done!

The beautiful aroma of Chrismas holiday blew stronger around us, to every corner of our home. That's the most wonderful time of the year!

We had more time to enjoy our home during this 'most wanted' season, ...wrapped the Christmas presents, put the ribbon and the gift tags while enjoying Christmas songs, and ...baked another batch of gingerbread cookies (ha..ha.. ) and some quick bread. "This is the season to be baking, ... "

One beautiful morning, I decided to bake this kind of quick bread. Oooh, I have to thank to Nigella Lawson for her clever recipe. This delicious muffins, not only kick our hungger, but the harmony flavor of the cinnamon, dried cranberries, nutmeg, orange juice, and palm sugar give more festive aroma in our home and signifying Christmas.
"Thank you, Nigella".

Christmas-Morning Muffin
Source : Delicious Magazine Dec/Jan 2004 {Christmas Goddess, recipe by Nigella Lawson}.
Makes 8-12 muffins

1 1/3 cups (200gr) plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tswp bicarbonate of soda
75 gr demerara sugar (I substitute with palm sugar)
Good grating of fresh nutmeg
Juice of 1 small orange
About 50ml milk
60 gr unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
150 gr dried cranberries (craisins)

Topping
2 tsp demerara sugar (I substitute with palm sugar)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 200C (180C for my oven :)). Line 8 or 12 holes in a muffin pan with paper cases.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, sugar and nutmeg. Squeeze juice into a measuring jug, then pour in milk until reaches the 150ml mark. Add butter and egg, beat to combine. Pour liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir till they are more or less combined, remembering that a lumpy butter makes light muffins. Lightly fold in cranberries and fill muffin cases.

For topping, mix together the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over the top of the muffins. Place in oven and bake for 20 minutes. Enjoy them as they are, or broken open and spread heapingly with unsalted butter and marmalade.

For all of you, have a festive, happy, dan safe holiday!

The Gingerbread Men

Christmas Cookies Finale... the most favorite; The Gingerbread Men!

I think this is the last cookies from our kitchen for this festive season, and I will start to bake Christmas 'easy and quick' bread for my family. After many-many times hearing the same question,"Mom / Honey, can you make gingerbread men, pleaseee ?", then followed by the 'choir',"yes Mommy, please" and repeated all over again... Yup, I made it!

Just to share with you a bit more about me; now let me tell you my 'very little' secret *open your ears bigger*... pssst, "I'm a collector of December edition 'food' magazines". I do love to collect the Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Delicious, Donna Hay, or the other food magazines, especially December edition. That's all I want to tell for now :)

With full of joy, this time I tried Donna Hay's recipe, I got from 'my collection' Donna Hay Magazine issue 48, Dec/Jan 2010. Very easy and simple recipe, and I'm very satisfied with the result.

Put all the ingredients inside a food processor, let it mix them for me, and the dough is ready. Put inside the fridge, roll, cut, bake and continue decorating with the icing.

If you don't have 'big' sweet tooth, just put a little bit icing, like buttons or eyes and mouth. For me that's enough. But for my children, they prefer to have the full dressed of the gingerbread men.

Baking any christmas cookies always bring me the memory of the time when my mother used to bake christmas cookies for her children. Honestly, gingerbread cookies were not popular in my childhood. I grew up in a remote small town in South Sulawesi where there was no bakery and most of the lady had to bake their cookies by themselves, including my mom. For us, the popular cookies are kaastengel, nastar, snow white, sagu keju (cheese with sagoo flour cookie) and peanuts cookies. Last year, I posted the pictures of them in this posting.

Weeks before Christmas, the ladies started to bake some cookies, and kept in jars for Christmas. Hmmm, it doesn't work that way in my home. Whenever I bake cookies, it'll be gone for 1-2 days. That happened with this gingerbread men. Within 24 hours since it came out from the oven, 45 pieces of gingerbread men gone! So, now I'm not sure this will be my last baking cookies for this season :)

Gingerbread Mix :
1/2 cup (90gr) brown sugar
2 1/2 cups (375 gr) plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
2 teaspoon ground ginger, sifted
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of (baking) soda

Place the sugar, flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda in a bowl and mix to combinge. Spoon the mixture into an airtight jar and use to make gingerbread men (recipe, below).
Store in a cool dark place for up to 1 month. Makes 1 quantity.

Gingerbread Men
1 quantity gingerbread mix, (see recipe, above)
125 gr butter, chopped
2/3 cup (230 gr) golden syrup

Icing
1/2 cup (80 gr) icing (confectioner's) sugar sifted
2 teaspoons hot water

Preheat oven to 180C (355F). place the gingerbread mix, butter and golden syrup in the bowl of a food processor and process until a snooth dough forms.

Divided the dough into two pieces and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm. Roll dough out between two sheets of non stick baking paper to 4 mm thick.

Use gingerbread man cookie cutters to cut shapes from the dough. Place on baking trays lined with non-stick baking paper and bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on trays.

To make the icing, combine the sugar and hot water and stir until smooth. Place in a piping bag with a small nozzle and use to pipe buttons on the front of the gingerbread men.

Make 12 large and 20 small.
Recipe Source : Donna Hay Magazine issue 48, Dec/Jan 2010

Tips :
*for easy release, dip cookie cutters in flour before cutting.
*once the dough is prepared, chill it in the refrigerator until firm and ready for rolling.
Have a good Thursday night.

Almond Crisps

Nine days until Christmas...
We're still in the middle of daily normal activities. No school holiday yet neither office break.
Jakarta's traffic is still super crowded during this rainy weather.

Weeks ago, I imagined to have a calm and peaceful week before Christmas. Hhm, I was wrong. Almost everyday we arrive home late than "normal" days. Too many children activities in school and heavy traffic make us having to 'enjoy' our time on roads.

I try not to lose this beautiful moment of the year; we play & enjoy the Christmas songs in the car, non stop chit-chat with the children while driving, with lots of joy listening to their amazing conversation, and enjoy the cookies, bread, and milk while we wait for each other. Lovely.

Other than the festive season, I'm happy that the children understand more and more about the meaning of Christmas, not only about Santa, presents, colorful lights, and the festival...

Last week, my daughter had an opportunity to celebrate Christmas with disable children, and tomorrow, both of them will have Christmas celebration in Church, together with their Sunday School friends.
I'm so grateful to see their faith grow stronger.

Back to the cookies...
This is another cookies recipe that I tried from the Australian Women's Weekly recipe book, Cupcakes and Cookies.
Easy to prepare, and... actually it's delicious cookies, but for me (personally) it's a bit too buttery, until the almonds flavor lose their strength.

Almond Crisps
Source : The Australia Women's Weekly, Cupcakes & Cookies.

Ingredients :
125 gr butter, chopped
1/4 cup (55gr) caster sugar
1 cup (150gr) self-raising flour
1/4 cup (30gr) almond meal
2 tbsp flaked almonds

1. Preheat oven to 200 C/180 C fan-forced. Grease oven trays.
2. Beat butter and sugar in small bowl with electric mixer until smooth. Stir in flour and almond meal.
3. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls; place onto trays 5 cm apart. Flatten slightly with floured fork to 1 cm thick; sprinkle with flake almonds.
4. Bake crisps about 10 minutes. Stand on tray 5 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool.

Enjoy the Season, Friends...
and... Have a wonderful weekend!

Gingernuts Cookies

After my trip to Solo and Yogyakarta at the end of October 2011, I had promised myself not to travel for the next two months, until the Christmas time. For me, it's the perfect time to celebrate the season. *but honestly, at the first week of December, all of sudden I really miss travelling!

At the end of November, we started to decorate our christmas trees, put some lights on the windows, decorated the house and began to bake some christmas cookies while enjoying Michael Buble sings the beautiful christmas songs.

Opening boxes that loaded with plenty of christmas ornaments, hanging one by one on the christmas tree brought me lots of beautiful memory of the Christmas in the past years. I still remember where exactly the ornaments we bought from or if we received it from someone.

Oh yes, this is the season to be jolly!

The Christmas Season always brings lots of joy...
Entering November, I was showered by new magazines and very good recipe books from my husband after he got back from overseas bussiness trips. You can imagine how heavy his luggage was that full of heavy books and magazines. hhm...I feel so blessed.

The first one that I chose to try is a cookie recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly; the Gingernuts Cookie. As the smell of spices is always related with this season, since the beginning... I imagine how my family would like this cookies.

No require a mixer, only a sauce pan, a mixing bowl, and some baking sheets; you can produce this delicious cookies. Easy peasy!

With just a 'little' effort, later on it put a big smile in my face every time I heard someone opened and closed the cookie jar repeatedly. My son is a big fan of this cookie.

That's the beauty of Christmas baking!

Gingernuts
Source : The Australian Women's Weekly, Cupcakes & Cookies.

90 gr butter
1/3 cup (75 gr) firmly packed brown sugar
1/3 cup (115 gr) golden syrup (I used honey)
1 1/3 cups (200 gr) plain flour
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbsp ground ginger (I used only 1 tsp)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1 1/2 tsp)
1/4 tsp ground clove

1. Preheat oven to 180 C (I prefer 160-170C, for the small cookies). Grase oven trays.
2. Stir butter, sugar and syrup in medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove pan from heat; stir in sifted dry ingredients. Cool 10 minutes.
3. Roll rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls. Place about 3 cm apart on tray; flatten slightly.
4. Bake about 10 minutes; cool on trays.

Happy Christmas Baking!

Mango Pudding

I love December!
I enjoy the Christmas spirit, the rain and the lovely color of nature.

As the rainy weather coming to accompany Christmas season, and the sun still shines timidly, this time we decided to put more color in our yard. Other than overhauling the lawns with fresh grass, we planted some flowers and trees; from frangipani, morning glory to vines. Day by day, I fall in love more and more to our home.

This month, we don't only enjoy the blooming flowers but also lots of exotic tropical fruits are easy to find in markets. From the famous hairy fruit, Rambutan to the sweet jackfruit. From the heavy and sweet mangosteen to the delicious mango. Fresh tropical fruits become our delicious ready to eat snack for now.

Having lots of mango in the kitchen, I decided to prepare this mango pudding. This was my first time using gelatin for the pudding instead of agar-agar powder. I got different texture compare with pudding made from agar-agar powder. At the end, I serve it with chopped mangos and sprinkled with crumbs. It turned so delicious, more than what I expected.

I got the idea to put crumbs from the other recipe in Delicious Magazine (Australia). Finally, we always add more crumbs while enjoying the pudding. What a clever combination.

For sure, I'll make it again...

To learn more about gelatin, please check this link:
http://homecooking.about.com/od/specificfood/a/gelatintips.htm

Puding Mangga
adapted from : Femina (Indonesia) Magazine

Bahan / Ingredients :
45 gr gelatin sapi bubuk / 45 gr gelatin powder
300 ml air panas / 300 ml hot water
600 gr mangga harumanis, kupas, cuci bersih, potong-potong / 600 gr mango, peel, wash, cut.
100 gr gula pasir / 100 gr sugar
300 ml susu / 300 ml milk

Cara Membuat :
1. Tim gelatin bubuk bersama air panas, aduk rata hingga gelatin larut dan bening.
2. Masukkan potongan mangga ke dalam blender, haluskan
3. Tuang mangga halus ke dalam panci. Tambahkan gula pasir dan susu cair, aduk hingga tercampur rata. masak hingga gula larut, angkat, sisihkan.
4. Tuang gelatin ke dalam adonan mangga, aduk rata.
5. Tuang adonan puding ke dalam cetakan yang sudah dibasahi air dingin, ratakan. Dinginkan hingga puding mengeras. Sajikan.

Mango Pudding
How to Make:
1. Sprinkle gelatin into a small bowl or cup, mix with hot water, stir constantly, then place the bowl into a container of boiling water and stir constantly until completely dissolved and look transparent.
2. Insert pieces of mango into a blender, puree.
3. Put the mango puree into the pan. Add sugar and milk, stir until well blended, cook until sugar has dissolved. Remove and set aside.
4. Pour gelatin into the mango mixture and stir well.
5. Pour pudding mixture into a mold that has been moistened with cool water, smooth. Refrigerate until pudding are set/hard. Serve.

To prepare the crumbs :
Source : Delicious Magazine Dec 2010/Jan 2011 from the recipe of Yoghurt Panna Cotta with Mango (p.162)
Preheat oven to 160C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place 2 tsp brown sugar, 60 gr rice flour and 20 gr chilled unsalted butter (chopped) in a bowl. Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour to form coarse crumbs.
Spread over the tray and bake for 25 minutes until golden. Cool, then break any large clumbs into rough crumbs.