Monthly Archives: October 2010

by | October 31, 2010

Best Persimmon Cookies with Orange blossom icing

Soft cookies





Pre heat oven to 350 degrees



Persimmon Cookies

1/2 cup canola oil or butter
1/2 white cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup persimmon pulp
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon cinnamon*
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup chopped walnuts
or use pumpkin spice
1 cup golden raisins  or currents raisins

Prepare baking pan with parchment paper.
In a large bowl,  mix together ( dry ingredients )  flour, soda, salt and spices;
In another  bowl, cream  canola oil  with the sugar ,  add one egg then mix in persimmon pulp.

2 large persimmons makes a cup of pulp

 

Combine  flour mixture and the sugar/ egg mixture.
Add in nuts and raisins. Use a tablespoon to drop the cookie dough.
About 1/2 inch apart.
 Bake for  12-15 minutes.
 cool on baking pans  for a few  minutes and then transfer  to a wire rack .
: about 30 cookies ( more or less )

 

Persimmon Icing ( optional )

1 cup white powder sugar
2 Tablespoon milk or  1/2 & 1/2 cream
2 tablespoon persimmon pulp
zest of an orange
a few drops of Orange flower water ( optional )
If icing is too thin  add  1/2 teaspoon of corn syrup
Add icing after the cookies are completely cool.

Orange Blossom Icing

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by | October 28, 2010

Halloween Chocolate cupcakes with peeps

Pumpkin peeps cupcakes.


Cupcake Ingredients:
3 1/3 flour
1 1/3 cup cocoa powder
3 cups sugar
1 Tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
12 oz butter or margarine
1 cup buttermilk*  if no buttermilk * (add 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice mix with milk to equal one cup of milk and let it sit for 5 minutes than add to mixture)
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 egg
Cupcake Directions:

Pre-heat oven at 350
Line cupcake pan with paper liners.
Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and mix with an electric mixer for 3 minutes. Scraping down sides of the bowl.  Pour mixture into the lined cupcake pan.
Bake cupcakes for about 20-25 minute.
Cool the cupcakes before frosting or glazing. If you do not want cupcakes make a cake.
Chocolate Glaze:
2 cups heavy cream
8 oz bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
2 tablespoons corn syrup
a few drop of black food coloring (optional)
 1/3 cup of powder sugar
Heat all ingredients at a low temperature .
Mix all ingredients well.
If glaze starts to get cold return to heat at a low temperature for a minutes or two, Mix well. Do NOT over heat it.
~ HAPPY HALLOWEEN~

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by | October 28, 2010

Halloween sugar cookies cutters & Icing

Ingredients for sugar cookies cutters

2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups of soft butter
1 tsp. vanilla, lemon, or almond flavoring
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp. baking soda
5 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
dash nutmeg

 

Cream sugar, egg, and butter.  Stir in vanilla.  Dissolve soda in milk and add to creamed mixture.  Mix flour, salt, and nutmeg together, stir into creamed mixture.  Cover and chill about 2 hours or overnight.
Roll out dough on a flour surface.  Place cookies about an inch apart.  Use your favorite  Holiday cookie cutters.
Candy corn cookies

 

 Note:  Icing or frosting should be added after baking,  toppings  such as sugar, sprinkles can be added while icing is still soft.

Yield 30 cookies.


 Easy Sugar Cookie Icing~ 

ingredients

  • 1 cup confectioners’ sugar (  white powder sugar )
  • 2 teaspoons milk ( any milk )
  • 2 teaspoons light corn syrup ( clear )
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract*
  •  mix  assortment  of Holiday food coloring

If you like lemon use a lemon extract flavoring,*


Directions

  1. In a small bowl, stir together confectioners’ sugar and milk until smooth.  Mix in corn syrup and almond extract until icing is smooth and glossy.
  2.  If icing is too thick, add more corn syrup or a little milk
  3.  Separate bowls,  and add the food colorings to each bowl for the colors using for cookies.
  4. Dip cookies, or paint them with a brush.
  5. If more icing is need, it is easy to make it again by adding the ingredents in the same bowl.
Ghost eyes are black dried currants
bat eyes are white pearl “nonpareils:
candy corn tray with corn sugar cookies
~HAPPY HALLOWEEN~

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by | October 25, 2010

Braided Bread with Poppy seeds and Honey

Beautiful Golden color

Ingredients:
  • 4 1/4 cups white all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  •  6 3/4 teaspoons yeast  or  3 packets of  Rapid Rise Highly Active Yeast
  • 1 1/2 cups of whole milk
  •  5 tablespoons  unsalted sweet cream butter, softened 
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 egg yolks to glazing the bread

Poppy seeds or sesame seeds (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
Mix the yeast with warm milk, (not hot) let it sit for a few minutes.

  • Mix the dry ingredients and butter.
  • Pour the milk & yeast  mixture into the flour mixture and mix the dry ingredients.
  •  If the bread dough seems a bit too wet,  add a little more flour.
  • Roll  the dough it into a smooth ball, put the dough in a bowl, move the bowl to a warm location  and cover it with a damp towel.
  • Let it sit untouched for 1 hour. The dough will double in size.
  • Use flour on the surface when rolling if the bread dough is sticky use more flour,

 

You can decide if you want a big loaf of bread or 2 small loaf.
(photo is of 2 small loaf).

  • Start  Braiding the bread dough.  When done and let it sit for 30 more minutes.

 

 

  • After 30 minutes, start mixing 2 egg yolk with one teaspoon of water.

 

 

  • Use a brush or a paper towel to brush the yolk on the bread. Try to brush the yolk on the top of the bread only to keep it crispy. (Yolk will create a crispy top)
  • Add poppy seeds or sesame seeds on the painted yolk,  (optional).
  •  Make sure the oven is hot before putting the bread in the oven.
  • Bake the  bread at 350 degrees for 40 minutes if one large loaf,   if two smaller loaf bake 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top.

    Great with Honey and butter,

 

 

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by | October 24, 2010

Japanese sweet rice snack Dangos a sweet rice dumpling

Round dumplings are generally called dango, and kushi dango means skewered sweet dumplings. These kushi dango coated with sweet soy sauce based sauce are called mitarashi.

Directions for Dangos

1 cup glutinous rice flour
3/4 to 1/2 cup boiling water

1 tsp. sugar

Soak Bamboo skewers in water before adding the dumplings. Tip: as dumpling is grilling the skewers will not burn.
Add rice flour in a bowl than add warm water.
Knead the mixture well.
Make small round dumplings balls. Place the
dumplings balls in a steamer and steam them on
high heat for about 10 min.
Cool  dumplings balls and skewer them in bamboo sticks. (4 dumplings on each stick).
*Soak the Bamboo skewers in water before adding dumplings.
*Tip: as  dumpling is grilling the skewers will not burn when soaked in water. .
Mitarashi sweet sauce for dangos
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbsp. potato starch  mix with 1  1/2 Tbsp water
2 tbsp Mirin (Japanese rice vinegar optional)
For  Mitarashi sauce;
Mix Miri, sugar,  soy sauce  and water in a sauce pan at medium heat.
Mix the 1/2 tsp water and starch in a cup and set aside.
When  sauce starts to boil,  add  starch mixture and mix very quickly.  If it is not too sweet add more sugar according to taste.
Grill  skewered dumplings and brush  sauce over them (optional for grilling) .
You can also add black sesame seeds to the sauce,  give the sauce  a nice flavor, add as much sauce as you like for dipping.
 Enjoy.

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by | October 22, 2010

Japanese Zenzai sweet Red bean dessert Hot mochi added

Sweet Red Beans is a very popular dessert in Japan.  Azuki red beans can be used as a paste for mochi style desserts. Made into yokan, a jelly that is thick and slice,  eaten with green tea.  Red bean paste is sometimes stuff into sweet breads. During summer red beans can be served over shaved ice. There are many usage for red beans in Japan and China.
This Japanese dessert is a favorite snack during cold winter days.

 Ingredients :
2 cups Japanese red beans azuki beans are smaller than kidney beans 
1/2 brown sugar
1/2 white sugar 
 2  Tbsp  light soy sauce
mochi  garnish 
chestnuts

Preparation:
Check the beans remove any small rocks.
 Rinse beans in cold water several times and then soak overnight in plenty of cold water to soften. Soak beans overnight so that cooking the beans can take less time .
Add  soaked beans in a pot of fresh water bring to a boil than discard water and start over by adding more fresh water.  Repeat boiling,  and discard the water.   Bring beans and water to  boil and skim off any foam that forms on the surface. 
Boil gently until beans are cooked through, being careful not to over cook them (usually about 1 1/2  hour).

When the beans are ready pour off excess cooking water leaving just enough to cover beans.  Add both white and dark brown sugar and soy sauce.  Bring to boil,  stirring so that sugar is mixed in well.  Reduce heat and simmer for another 15 minutes. 

 If more sugar is needed it can be added at this point (according to taste). If adding sugar then continue to simmer until sugar is dissolved.

 After beans are cooked you can eat at once or wait until the next day for a tastier flavor(refrigerate)
 If you have mochi,  grill the mochi and place on top of red bean, serve piping hot.
For Mochi recipe check my recipes: Cooked chestnuts can be added instead of mochi. 

Japan’s best-known traditional sweet dishes.


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by | October 22, 2010

Chinese Sweet peanut soup dessert


For Mindi~


This Chinese peanut soup usually is given at the end of dinner by the restaurant. It can also be served at a Chinese weddings. Peanuts: Symbolism of  Peanuts (花生; huāshēng) – health, long life, birth of prosperity, continuous growth, multiplication in wealth and good fortune, stability.


This soup is often found as street food in Taiwan & China.  Keeps you warm in Winter with lots of energy.
In summer it can be eaten cold.

Ingredients:
3 cups Raw peanuts skin-less (soaked overnight)
2/3 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup dried Chinese red dates, (optional)
3-4 cups of water (add more water if needed)
3 Tbsp cornstarch





Directions: 
Soak  raw peanuts overnight. 
Heat water in a pot add raw peanuts and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and cook until tender, (a few hours  if the peanuts were soaked overnight).  

After an hour cooking,
Add brown sugar .
Mix  cornstarch with cold water than add to pot stirring the mixture into the peanuts 
Add more water if needed. Sugar according to taste. 
Add  Chinese red dates 30 minutes before the peanuts are done, Soak the dates in hot water before adding to pot.  Check to see if the peanuts are soft, it is done.


Fresh ginger  cut very thin can be added as a garnish.
In other Asian countries evaporated milk or coconut milk is added using less water. 
















Hot peanut soup. A warm dessert for cold winter days.

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