Jam filled cream cheese cookies

I personally think that it is really hard to resist cookies.  I borrowed the recipe from doing a search in the Internet, "Raspberry filled cream cheese cookies".  Let me tell you, they are delicious.  The kids love them the most.  The only drawback, aside the calorie, is that the dough is extremely sticky--- Need to stick it in the fridge to harden slightly before rolling and cutting into shape.  This is not a one hour prior guest's visit type cookies.  It is more like, prepare dough in the morning and bake it in the afternoon type cookies.  I even made the jam to fill.  This time I used blueberries.  So, three steps for me: 1. Prepare jam in the morning  2. Prepare dough late morning  3. Roll out cookies.  Or you can spread out in a few days, I guess.

This is definitely not a good midnight snack.  It had 1 cup of butter and 8 oz cream cheese packed in those scrumptious cookies.  But life is too short to worry about that...so, I'll eat and worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.  Hahaha!!!

Yesterday's dinner, today's lunch

I tried a new dish yesterday, peppered pork braised in yoghurt.  It is a recipe I found from home (Malaysia that is).  However, as usual I altered the recipe due to many reasons, mainly lack of certain ingredients.  Anyway, the actual recipe calls for mutton, in which lamb would be a better substitute, but all I had was pork.  Pork in the US has a STRONG smell, unlike the ones in Japan or Malaysia.  I am not sure why, perhaps it is the process of butchering the pig...hahaha!!!

This recipe uses a a few different spices such as cumin, cloves, cardamon and of course black pepper.  I figure with such spices, I will surely get rid of that smell from the pork.  And since I ran out of cardamon, I had nothing to substitute, instead I altered the taste by using coriander powder instead.  I set to work and got all the ingredients together and marinade the pork in the fragrant spice mix and yoghurt right before I had to pick up the kids from school.

Anyway, I braised the meat together with the yoghurt and a little chicken stock (for extra flavor), and then pan fry them with some butter.  This dish turned out alright, though I think mutton/lamb would have tasted great.  Nevertheless, the kids ate it just fine, which is a good indicator.  Haruka was hesitant in the beginning because she doesn't like hot-spicy food.  But this dish is spicy but not hot.  Yuta loves spicy food, so I knew he'll be OK with this dish.

But of course, I usually make more than 4 servings so that I'll have something for lunch (talk about lazy!)  Since my husband is a stickler on not having the same thing twice in a row, I transformed it in to a fried rice....hahaha!!!  Actually, I think the fried rice tasted pretty good.  For dinner, I had paired the peppered pork with saffron pilaf with raisins.  That was good too.  But like many other spicy food, the second day usually tastes much better.  I think it is because the spices and meat had a chance to marry!

All these because I was inspired after reading a manga title Chef of Nobunaga.  It is a good food manga. Lots of good food and substitutions used in the manga (no peppered pork braised in yoghurt).  Of course, the manga is fiction but some of the food prepared are definitely mouth watering.

Almond cookies with chocolate custard

Both my husband and I had this as our late night snack.  I know, I know, it is probably not a good idea to eat this right before bed.  Hahaha...but the kids were asleep and we were just craving for some sweets.

Actually, the almond cookies were really derived from macaroon recipe from America's Test Kitchen.  I made small alterations, but essentially the recipe is the same.  Plus, I didn't have the proper tip to pump dough out, so, I decided to make it into a spiral cookie (basically a flat macaroon--see picture).  Usually, the we just eat the "cookies" by itself.  The crispiness and nuttiness makes this cookie a perfect pairing with afternoon tea.  But this time, I added chocolate custard just because I had some leftover in the fridge (from previous day eclairs).  I forgotten to take picture of the eclairs because everyone was too excited to eat...hahaha!

Now, the best part of this cookie aka macaroon is that it is relatively low fat.  There are three main ingredients which are almond meal, sugar (of course I cut down the sugar!), and egg white.  And almond is good for those who have high cholesterol (in appropriate quantity please).  Ssshhh...this is also why I allow my husband to have it as late night snack, though he really ought to be watching his weight!

Double Starch

Hahaha....made sweet potato bread just the other day...turned out pretty good.  I called it double starched bread....just because it contained two forms of starch.

Usually the bread dough gets really sticky when making sweet potato based bread.  This is due to the high moisture in sweet potato. So, I normally bake my sweet potatoes before mashing them.

I made two loaves of bread using two medium size sweet potatoes.  Quantity wise---probably 11/2 cups of mashed sweet potatoes is rather on the heavier side.  Most recipe asked for 1 cup only.  But I really want to max out the flavor of sweet potatoes in the bread.  For this reason, this particular bread was very sticky.  Thank god for Kitchen Aid mixer...hahaha!!!  Machinery makes a messy job containable.  Though, I personally like to play with bread dough.  I kind of like the feeling of kneading soft dough.  Hahaha!!!

Anyway, I used about 6 cups of flour for this recipe, 1 tablespoon of yeast, 1/3 cups of butter (though I sometimes substitute with vegetable oil), 2 tablespoon of honey (also can be substituted with sugar), 1 tablespoon of salt, and about 11/2 to 13/4 cups of liquid.  The key to this bread is the moisture since the sweet potatoes may contain more moisture sometimes, then adjustments must be made.  Of course, if substitution of oil instead or water or honey with sugar took place then the water level needed to be adjusted as well.

Anyway, after getting my sticky dough kneaded into a smooth dough, I took it out of the mixer and plopped it into an oil bowl.  When the dough rose to wise its size, punched down and divide it into two.  Shaped them into logs and leave them in the 9" loaf pans for second rise.  Once they are ready, baked in preheated over at 400 C for 15 min and then at 350 C for 25 min.

Here is the result.....

Super Delicious Monster Buns

The kids and I had a chance to make something interesting just the other day.  A good project to have, might I add.  Anyway, they love eating chinese steam buns.  Actually, the ones without anything inside.  So, one of my friend had recommended sweet potatoes steam buns, so, I decided to give it a try.

The process is quite easy.  First, the main ingredient---sweet potatoes.  I decided to bake them instead of steaming or boiling them to reduce the water content.  In addition, baking may increase the concentration of the taste.  After the potatoes are cooked, it was time for smashing.  At this point, the kids try to help, but it is always easier to do it myself since it is quite critical to get it smash while still hot.

Then, mix the smashed potatoes into the floor with yeast, sugar and water (also any juice left over from the potatoes).  Once the dough is formed, knead a few times until smooth and let rise.  When the dough has risen twice its size, punch down and divide it into small portions.

This is where the fun begins for the kids.  I let their creativity run wild here....

Then let it rise for 10 to 15 minutes before steaming which usually takes about 10 to 12 minutes.

Fuchan | WritersCafe.org

Fuchan | WritersCafe.org

Christmas and New Year!

I welcomed the new year with a cold....

Since Christmas, I had been busy with cleaning and cooking, getting ready for Shogatsu (New Year Celebration).  Of course, before that, I got a little busy with Christmas celebration.  Although, we don't really make that a big celebration, we still managed to bake a cake and roast ducks. :p

The preparation for the cake was rather tedious...since I decided to make Mont Blanc.  A chestnut cream cake which I absolutely love while staying in Kobe, Japan.  I had been craving for this cake for a while no.  Where I am at now, there is no way for me to even buy Mont Blanc.  That is what I get for staying in a small town....hahaha!!!

Anyway, I finally made my husband to look up the recipe for maron cream so that I can make it myself.  I attempted making it before Christmas, just so, I can experiment with it a little.  The cream didn't turn out the way I like, or I should say it didn't turn out the way it was sold in cake shops in Kobe.  Hahaha.....

But for the second try, which was the one I made for Christmas, it actually turned out quite well.  I wouldn't go as far as saying that it was like the ones I had in Kobe, but it was close enough to satisfy my cravings for a while....hehehe!!!

With maron cream at hand, I baked genoise (sponge cake), whipped up some cream and sweetened a few chestnuts, and I was ready to dress my cake.

Here is the end result: