Fruity Cake Tarts

How was your Christmas celebration? I hope all of you get all you wanted from Santa. I must be really good this year as I got what I wish for and very happy with all my gifts. I got Canon Macro EF 100mm lens , a GSP (for me to zoom around with it when I am in SF), Nordic Heritage Bundt Pan ,Emile Henry Tarte Tatin Pan and etc…Life is good!! I can’t wait to use all of them.

Ok let’s end the year posting with something pretty and sweet. 1 made these pretty little cake tarts for our Christmas dinner dessert. Instead of the usual tart with pastry I made one with sponge cake. I didn’t bake the cake as I already put away all my baking pans so I just used the store bought plain sponge cake and top it with nutella and fruits. If you like to make this you can always bake your sponge cake in a muffin pan, once it is done hollow out the center and top it with nutella and fruits.

Merry Christmas!!

To my family, friends and blog readers,

May lovely and happy times decorate your holiday season,

May warm, special memories brighten up your New Year,

May the wonder of Christmas be with you forever.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Have A Happy Blessed New Year Everyone!!

Flaky Buttermilk, Parsley and Bacon Biscuits

I made these a while ago and am only just getting around posting it here. I made these flaky biscuits to go with the Corn and Potato Chowder . They are decadent, flaky and pretty to look at too especially with the green parsley and bacon flecks in it. There’s really nothing hard about making biscuits. The secret to making great and flaky biscuits is not to overwork the dough.

Vanilla Beans Giveaway Results

6 more days before Christmas!! Are you done with your baking and shopping yet? For us, it will be a very lay back Christmas. We won’t be doing anything elaborate in the mid of moving. The house is in a mess with boxes and things everywhere. Moreover I am not well since I got back from SF. Still having cough and stuffy nose and with the blasting cold winter it didn’t help much. So I am not in the mood for anything. Not even shopping. I just can’t deal with the crazy traffic and crowd everywhere. I end up buying some of the gifts online this year.

Enough of rambling as I am sure you all are eager to know the results. Here it goes.

The first winner is comment No: 38 - Edith

The second winner is comment No: 70 - Chloe

The third winner is comment No: 44 - Esz

Congratulations to the winners and I will email you soon for your address and Beanilla will mail you the gifts. Thank you everyone for participating and Beanilla Trading Company for providing us with the wonderful gifts.

Chocolate Chips and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

If you have not entered the Vanilla Bean Giveaway, you can do so here .

I baked this batch of cookies to mail it to Carlos. They are just regular chocolate chips cookies but to make it extra special I top it with a mini Reese’s Peanut Butter cup since it is Carlos favorite. They turn out pretty darn good and you can’t stop by eating one or two. They are so addictive! If you like chocolate and peanut butter –these cookies are for you.

Vanilla Beans Giveaway (Closed)

It the holiday season again and I am sure all of you are getting ready for Christmas and Chinese New Year baking. During this period I used lot of vanilla extract. Pure vanilla extract is expensive so I like making it myself. As you can see I don’t skim on my vanilla. I will put at least 6-7 beans to make a bottle of extracts that is why I used a lot of them. I’ve ordered vanilla beans from an online store before but I was not too happy with their beans and also their customer service until I found Beanilla Trading Company . I love their fat plum vanilla beans and they come all vacuum pack to retain its freshness and their customer service responds all your queries promptly. I am so glad that I found their online store.

Since it is the holiday season I wrote to them asking if they want to sponsor this year giveaway? Brent of Beanilla responded right away and generously sponsors all the gifts here.

The Beanilla Trading Company specializes in providing the best quality vanilla products to chefs, breweries, restaurants and at-home enthusiasts around the world. They take great pride in the quality of every product we offer.

Beanilla will be giving away their products to 3 lucky readers of My Kitchen Snippets. Each winner will received 5 Madagascar vanilla beans, 5 Mexican vanilla beans and a 2 oz package of vanilla fleur de sel.

Madagascar vanilla is incredibly smooth, rich and creamy. This is the most traditional type of vanilla and it goes well with any type of baking.

Mexican vanilla is bolder with tones of smoke. Mexican vanilla is often regarded as the best in the world. This variety pairs well with chocolates and other rich desserts.

Vanilla Fleur de Sel is a blend of premium sea salt, imported from the coast of Brittany, France. We blend this with our premium Tahitian vanilla beans. The result is incredible. Fleur de Sel is perfect for topping caramels, brownies or anything with peanut butter! This is potent stuff, so just a pinch will go a long way.

1. To Enter: Post your comment here and tell me what you want to do with the vanilla beans or the Vanilla Fleur de Sel.

2. For additional entries: Post about this giveaway at your blog, linking back to this post. Come back and leave me a comment with the link to your post.

This giveaway is open to anyone anywhere in the world. Remember to leave your email address in your comment so that I have some way of contacting you if you win. I will pick 3 lucky winner (s) by random drawings and Beanilla will send the gifts directly to you. Dateline for the Giveaway will be on 19th December 2011 at 9.00am (Eastern Time) Good Luck!!

My Kitchen Snippets Full Disclosure: Beanilla provides their products for the giveaway. I only promote things that stay true to my taste and interests. The opinions expressed here are my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you Beanilla for sharing your wonderful products with us.

Cranberry Maple Almond Slices

How times fly. We are now into the second week of December. With the holiday season just around the corner I am sure all of you are busy with Christmas baking. I won’t be baking too much this season as I already packed up most of my baking tools. Sam of Oh!Nut so kindly sent me some their products like Almond slices and  dried strawberries for my holiday baking. Do go and check out their website as they supply a wide range of nuts and dried fruits for your holiday baking.

I love cranberry especially cranberry juice. I bought some gorgeous fresh cranberries before I left for S.F and I have to make something out of it before it gets mushy and all dries up. As you know fresh cranberries only make their appearance this time of the year and I always take advantage of it and use them in my baking. I made these slices with it and it turn out really good. I just love the tartness and slightly bitter taste of it and it compliment so well with the crunchy almond topping. What so great about these slices is you can use your leftover cranberry sauce (make sure is freshly made one and not from the can) or any type of fruit jam for the filling.

Sur La Table – San Francisco

It has been a while since I visit this favorite store of mine. I used to go there when we were living at Southern CA but not since we moved to PA. When I am in here I am like a kid in a candy store. I just want to grab everything in sight and run out of the store. Carlos said he will go broke real fast if I come here often. We went to the Pier at San Francisco Bay area over the weekend. The weather was perfect to walk around. It was sunny, windy and cooling at the same time. I dread to go back to the cold PA winter. Oh well, I still have a few days here and then back to PA again until our final move in mid January.

Here are a few pictures I took from the store at the Pier. Don’t you just love all the kitchen stuffs they sold here? There are a few things I (WANT) on my Christmas wish list and I hope Santa grant it to me ha ha...Can you guest which one it is?

Bok Choy Gyoza/Bok Choy Dumplings

I like making dumplings and I will normally make a big batch and freeze them up and we can have it whenever we want to. They are not difficult to make as now you can get the ready made gyoza/dumpling wrappers from the Asian Supermarket. Over the years I made lots of it and each time I will try using different type of meat and vegetables. You can basically put any type of fillings you like in it. Instead the usual napa cabbage I replace it with baby bok choy for this batch of dumplings.