My dear family, friends and blog readers, May God bless you with a festive, loving and peaceful celebration this Christmas and all throughout the year of 2017.

Panettone (Italian Christmas Bread)

This bread is a must in our household during Christmas season. I will usually buy them but I did attempt making them once a few years ago. I followed the recipe from a book but it turns out as hard as a rock and never try baking them again until this year. This time I used the recipe from the internet. I found there are so many of them out there but most of them requires a lot of work and days of proofing. Those who knew me will know I will not attempt recipes like that as I don’t have the patience for it. So I end up using the recipe from Laura in the Kitchen which is a very straight forward method just like making regular bread but it does require longer proofing time than regular bread.

This recipe makes beautiful, soft, supple dough that is much like a brioche. This bread is a true show-stopper. It’s stunning, and the flavor lives up to its looks. The bread is soft and sweet, and just loaded with flavor thanks to the vanilla extract,dried fruits, orange and lemon zest.

French Vanilla Pistachio Sables

I am hit by the lazy bugs and I don’t really feel like doing much nowadays. I usually get depressed during this time of the year as I will be thinking of home and family. With everyone posting their CNY gatherings with family and friends on FB make it worst. I wish I can be home with my family. Well, I guess this is what we have to sacrifice being away from home. Well, enough of my depressing feelings and let’s talk about this cookie. I don’t use pistachio much in my baking but I bought it to make Macaroons last year and I still have ¾ packets of the pistachio meal and shelled nuts sitting in my fridge. I decided to make some ‘sable’ out of it. The first time I heard about this cookie was from a French Pastry Chef whom I took bread lesson from. Sables, also known as a French Butter Cookie or Breton Biscuit, are a classic French cookie originating in Normandy France. The name 'Sables' is French for "sand", which refers to the sandy texture of this delicate and crumbly shortbread-like cookie.

 

Lemon Polenta Cookies

These are crunchy, lemony, and buttery cookies. The polenta in these cookies puts them on the crunchy side rather than soft and chewy. Normally I will just shape these rounds but this time I did something different using piping bag. The polenta absorbed the moisture from the mixture pretty fast and toward the end I find it a little bit difficult to pipe. If this happens just add a bit of milk to soften up the mixture up again.

Dried Cherry Shortbread Cookies

We love shortbread but I hardly make any because of the high fat content in it. It is so addictive and you can’t stop just having one or two so the best is not to make any of it but I did make some to be given away for Christmas. This way there won’t be much left for our own consumption so we feel less guilty ha ha.. Anyway instead of making plain shortbread I added some dried cherries to it this time. All my friends love these cookies and some of them even asked for the recipe. So here it is.

 

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

I know it is a bit late to post Christmas cookies this but I am trying to make it on time for Aspiring Baker’s event. I have wanted to make this cookie for many years but just never get to do it until this year. I will normally bake simple cookies for Christmas with requires minimal work but because of the Aspiring Baker’s Christmas Motif Bakes I decided to attempt to bake something a bit more challenging. One of them was the Snowflake Sugar Cookies with requires decorating it with royal icing and this one.

First I thought it might be difficult to make but they’re not. Basically it’s a sugar cookie recipe with a little bit extra in it. The dough freezes well too so you can make it earlier and bake it whenever you want. Don’t they look festive? If you are looking for a unique and delicious addition to your traditional Christmas cookies this might be the one.

 

Pistachio Linzer Cookies with Strawberry Filling

I love making linzer cookies as I think they are the most beautiful I ever made. Beside the look, I just love the taste of this light shortbread combined with a tiny dollop of jam in the middle. They are just perfect with a cup of coffee and tea. They might look delicate but they are quite easy to put together. It just involves a few extra steps compare to the regular cookies but the end results are all worth it. I made quite a few of these to give it out to my friends and neighbors.

To my dearest family, friends and blog readers,

May peace, happiness and goodwill be with you not only on Christmas, but throughout the year and beyond. Wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Snowflake Sugar Cookies

I know I’ve been posting a few sugar cookies here but this time I tried out Alton Brown of Food Network recipe. I think I like this recipe better than the previous one. Since I will be submitting these cookies for the Aspiring Baker # 26 Creative Christmas Motif Bakes hosted by Alan of Travelling Foodies I decided to use snowflakes cookie cutter and decorates it with royal icing. I am not a fan of decorating cakes or cookies but after doing it a few times I got the hang of it. I kind of enjoy doing it now :)

Nutella Swirl Thumbprint Cookies

Christmas is just around the corner and I am sure many of you are busy baking cookies now. I won’t be baking much this year. I asked Diana what cookies she wants me to bake for Christmas and as usual she wanted Chocolate Chips cookies and this Thumbprint Cookies. These cookies are one of the classic cookies that I made every Christmas. I think we like it a lot because of the combination of buttery cookies and sweet jam.

Making these cookies is a bit more work if you are doing it alone as it took me a couple of hours just to roll them and filled them up with jams. Feel free to get your family or friends involved if you are making this. I add some Nutella to the dough to make it look a bit more attractive. I just mailed them to Diana and another friend of mine in PA and I hope they like it.

Osmanthus Cookies

CNY is just around the corner and I see a lot of cookies popping up from fellow blogger’s blogs. It is making me very nervous as I’ve just started to bake mine. This is the very first cookie that I made for CNY using dried Osmanthus flowers. I only used the Osmanthus once to cook this chicken dish and I still have a big jar of it. I think the Osmanthus gives a really nice fragrant to the cookies and it is just the perfect fit for CNY celebration. If you’re looking for something different to bake for the CNY I hope you will try this out. I am submitting this cookie to Aspiring-Bakers # 3 My Favourite CNY Cookies hosted by j3ss kitch3n .

Ingredients:

180 gram unsalted butter – room temperature
140 gram icing sugar
1 egg yolk
260 gram flour
40 gram cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp dried Osmanthus flowers
1 egg – for egg wash

Cranberry Orange Walnut Cake

There is abundance of fresh cranberries in the market now and I just bought a big packet without knowing what to do with it. It has been sitting in the fridge for nearly two weeks until I finally used it to bake some cakes to be given away as Christmas gift with the cookies. The orange juice and the zest in the cake compliment the cranberries very nicely. The fresh cranberries are tart and refreshing, while the cake is sweet. This loaf will be great for breakfast, afternoon tea especially during the holiday season.

Sugar Cookies/Christmas Wishes

I baked these sugar cookies at the very last minutes for my nephew Eu-Xin in Malaysia. My friend is going back end of this month and she is taking these back for me. Thank you so much Choy and I am sure my nephew will be very grateful. I am not good at frosting it and in fact this is the first time I am doing sugar cookies. I hope I will do a better job the next time when I have more time to decorate it.

Coconut Cookies

It has been a long busy week for me. I have been baking non-stop for the past 5 days. There were dozens and dozens of cookies being baked and tons of butter, sugar, flour and eggs used. I am so glad that I am finally done with it and it is going to some happy recipients before Christmas. The cookies I baked are mostly repeats like Walnut Cookies/Hup Toh Sow, Macadamia Chocolate Chips, Festive Meringue Kisses and this Coconut Cookies. Do come back for the Macadamia Chocoloate Chips cookies recipe later.

Festive Meringue Kisses

Christmas is just around the corner and it is time to do some baking. Like usual I will have to bake 3-4 types of cookies to be given away to friends, neighbors, mailman and a few others. This is the first time I am baking meringue kisses because I am not a fan of it as I find it to be a bit too sweet for my taste. This cookie is not difficult to make but it took a long time to bake so you have to be very patience. Baking it low and slow is the key to a perfect crispy and light kisses. It took me over 3 hours to bake these whole lots cookies.

Savory Christmas/Holiday Pie

Have no clue what to make for your New Year Party? How about making this pie? I love making savory pie and this is an easy, quiche-like pie that I prepared for our Christmas. The colorful peppers and spring onions make this pie look really festive and Christmassy. This pie can also be made into bite size appetizer using mini-tart pan. Don’t worries about making it look perfect as this pie is supposed to be rustic looking ;)

Ingredients:

Shortcrust pastry – refer to the recipe here (you can use the store bought pastry)
3 links fresh chicken sausages
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
¼ grated parmesan cheese
3 eggs
¾ cup milk
2 leeks – wash and thinly sliced
¼ chopped red pepper
¼ chopped yellow pepper
2 spring onions - cut small
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Removed sausages from it casing. Heat up a frying pan and cook the sausages until lightly brown. Add in the leeks. Continue to cook until the leeks are lightly brown. Dish out and set aside.
2. Roll out the pastry and place it on a pie dish or small tart pans. Set it aside. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F.
3. Combined eggs, milk together. Beat well and add in the two cheeses, salt and pepper. (go easy on the salt as the cheeses might be salty) Mix well.
4. Place the sausage and leeks into the tart shell. Pour the egg mixture into the tart shell. Top it with yellow, red peppers and spring onions.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Serve warm.

Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year! A year full with peace, joy, health and wealth.

Christmas Brunch

Just like every year I prepared very simple brunch for Christmas. It is normally some light finger food. This way I don't have to spend too much time slogging in the kitchen doing cooking, baking and then washing up. After lunch we can just sit back and relax next to the fireplace and watching TV or just being together. Here are some of the foods I prepared for the family and share some with our good neighbor Nancy.


Seafood Tarts

Spinach Rolls

Meat Puffs

Light Japanese Fruitcake

Chocolate Cake