Joyeux Noel, Feliz Navidad, Bo Nada …or Merry Christmas! I’m beginning to get notorious with temptation. Things that draw me a point of no return are colour, texture, visual appeal … all magical in my eyes! Of course I’m talking food porn and all these beautiful food blogs are awash with sensational stuff these days. One such post I saw a short while ago was this Strawberry & Vanilla Macaron Trifle at Trissilicious, the very talented and sweet food blogger from Down Under. One look and I was sold. The dessert had me hypnotized. I HAD TO MAKE IT!
It had MAGIC in it, a combination of some of my favourite things. Tell me dear readers, does this happen to you too?
I knew this was going to be constructed in my kitchen within the next few days, so great was the temptation. Strawberries √, Macarons – find feet {had to}, Vanilla bean √, Cranberry juice √. Intriguingly enough, winter in North India spells season 2 of strawberries in the year. We get a bounty in the summer months, and then again come January, we see fresh juicy red strawberries entering the market again. Lucky? YOU BET!!
This time we are luckier and they’ve entered the market a little early, in December, a bit steep yet, but firmly there. Red, ripe, juice and full of taste. So there was no question in my mind and I was thanking Triss for the wonderful idea. It’s a Donna Hay recipe, and is visually delightful and full of charm like all her recipes. I love the fresh look she introduces to cuisine, seasonal variations and great platings etc.
You can make this in one large bowl like Donna Haydid, or in single servings as Triss did. I am a sucker for single servings, where I love to dress up the dessert individually and pass it around, so everyone can take in the whole picture. For me that in itself offers quintessential charm, the dream of a dessert which lingers on for long.
Made this as Christmas dessert after the BBQ we had last night. In India, Christmas day is referred to as Bada Din {Big Day} by the natives, a legacy left behind by the British Raj. It’s our adopted favourite festival too. Each year we have a BBQ on Christmas eve for the family & extended family, and the hub takes over the BBQ. This year was no different and we had chicken tikkas, paneer/cottage cheese tikkas in 2 variants, lamb curry, biryani, garlic butter naan … and then these little red, green and white delights to wrap it up.
Dinner was delicious. Nothing like hot tandoori food straight off the grill, cooked to perfection, smoked flavours enticing the palette. Dinner may have been Indian cuisine, but my dessert had been planned forever! It had to be in red, white & green, the spirit of Christmas and the holiday season served in some style.MACARON TRIFLE! I was unsure about whether I could pull it off. So I made the cranberry jelly a day in advance, and the macarons 3 days in advance. My jelly didn’t set in 2-3 hours as the recipe said, and needed some more gelatin too. It was a simple dessert to make.
The macaron Gods seem to be shining goodwill on me these days. I found feet yet again; but never underestimate these fiddly creatures. Of the 3 trays I baked, only 1 gave perfect feet! Why? Ask ’em Gods! Who knows, but I was glad to get 15 perfect feet, and I used 1 crackled top for the 16th! I also had success a few days ago with my savoury macaron experiment for MacTweets, but I have to admit that I love the sweet ones…savoury, alas, are not for me!
That recipe post follows soon…We were really STUFFED, yet once dessert was served, there was magic in the air. The goblets looked like ‘Santa was stuffed into each glass‘ in Mr PABs words. So befitting for the Big Day, and such an absolute delight! The colours, the flavours, the textures…all in perfect harmony. The cranberry jelly and suspended strawberries beautifully balancing the macaron and the lightly sweetened vanilla cream. Light yet ever-so-satisfying dessert!
Donna Hay’s Strawberry and Vanilla Macaron Trifle Adapted minimally from Donna Hay’s Recipe The trifle can be served individually or in a large trifle bowl. Serves 6–8. 16 pieces plain macarons 1 vanilla bean, scraped 300 ml low fat cream 2 tbsps powdered sugar 200 grams strawberries, halved
For the Jelly 3 1/2 teaspoons gelatine powder {original recipe uses 2 1/2} 750 ml cranberry juice 110 grams caster sugar 200 grams strawberries, quartered Method: Jelly To make the strawberry jelly, place the gelatine and ½ cup {125ml} cranberry juice in a bowl and stir to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes or until the gelatine is absorbed. Place the remaining cranberry juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat, add the gelatine and stir to combine. Set aside to cool for 20 minutes. Vanilla Cream Whip cream, scraped vanilla bean and sugar to soft peaks. To assemble Arrange the strawberries in the base of the serving glasses/bowls and pour over the jelly mixture. Refrigerate for 2–3 hours until set. {Mine took almost overnight to set}. Set a macaron each in the glass/bowl on the jelly. Layer the cream over the macarons. Top with strawberries to serve.
“The Sky is the daily bread of the imagination.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hello there. It’s time for the Daring Bakers to strut their bakes! {Before you panic that I’m posting the challenge early, because of the holidays you can post any time between December 23 through December 27, 2010}. This is the most exciting Daring Bakers month of the year, amonth where I eagerly await a Christmas bake. My first year with the DB’s had a Yule Log hosted by the talented duo – Hilda of Saffron & BlueBerry and Marion of Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. That was quite the mother of all challenges. I still have a picture in my mind of the beautiful logHilda presented that year. Gorgeous! Last year was Gingerbread Houses … and I loved it so. Such a canvas for creativity and so many special houses. This year has been wonderful too …
The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book………and Martha Stewart’s demonstration.
I stole the stollen and made pudding! This time around, we were enticed by the sweet Penny from Sweet Sadie’s Baking to make Christmas Stollen. Stollen is a bread-like fruitcake made with yeast, water and flour, and usually with zest added to the dough. Candied orange peel and candied citrus is often also added. Over the centuries, the cake changed from being a simple, fairly tasteless “bread” to a sweeter cake with richer ingredients.The recipe is a combination of recipes put together by Penny, and includes a bit of a recipe from her German friend who bakes Stollen every year, from a Peter Reinhart recipe, and the wreath concept from Martha Stewart. I was tempted to bake my Christmas Stollen {Dresden Stollen} that I made last year. It had quark as an ingredient, and was certainly the best Christmas bread we’ve had to date. I hope to make it once again this winter, hopefully in January. In a last minute daring change of mind and spirit, I decided to go with Daring Bakers recipe. Am I glad I did! It’s always a challenge and an adventure to try a new recipe, something that holds intrigue and a surprise in the end. That said, once baked, the stollen was H U G E. It was like a football field … don’t know why I said that, but that was precisely the thought racing through my head. Whatever would I do with so much stollen? Should have listened to my head, not my heart, and made half the recipe! Then again, we had a few slices of warm stollen each.Mmmm…wonderful warm straight from the oven.The crumb was soft and well risen, quite delicious. Next morning, I sliced up some more. Toasted it for breakfast. Slathered with slightly salted butter, it was luxury in every bite. For once too much was too good, and the morning seemed very delicious. I still had a lot to mull over though. Still so much stollen left… after all 770gms makes a lot. I had to put it to more creative use. Contemplated freezing some, but then had a better idea. Bread pudding! STOLLEN PUDDING! Yes, that was a good idea. If brioche could make a fab bread pudding, then stollen couldn’t be far behind. I began with adding a scraped vanilla bean to 2 cups of milk, simmered it, and then thought some low fat cream might make it better. So in went cream, simmered again. Left it awhile for the vanilla flavours to mingle…mmm … this was beginning to feel like fun.Pastry creams, custards, pot de cremes … all need eggs to set, and my pud was going to be no different. Milk, cream, sugar, eggs…and of course, vanilla bean! The sugar and the eggs, yolks & are all whisked immediately; if you don’t then the yolk gets stringy and lumpy…beware! The recipe is much like a pastry cream. Warm simmered vanilla milk poured over the yolk mixture, whisked and then strained over the sliced bread, dressed with dried tart cherries {I do love those}, and slivered almonds. Into the oven it went, in a bain marie. The aromas were enticing. I was like an expectant father, pacing the ground outside my oven to see if it would work, and my pud would set!Get set it did! YAY! If you daring kinda folk, like me, made a HUGE stollen, then you MUST try this pudding. WE LOVED IT!! The dried tart cherries, the now roasted slivered almonds, the wonderful vanilla flavours … a sifting of sugar later. It was ever so good, just perfect for a cold winter day. Another great satisfying dessert, another favourite added to my list. I still have a hunk of stollen saved up, and I have an idea for that too. Though I still do prefer the stollen I had made last year with quark as a slice and eat Christmas bread, I do love the versatility of this one. Will make this again, even if it’s just for a bread pudding, well half of it anyway!
Stollen Wreath Makes one large wreath or two traditional shaped Stollen loaves. Serves 10-12 people
¼ cup lukewarm water
28gms fresh yeast {or 14 grams active dry yeast}
1 cup milk
140gm unsalted butter
5½ cups {770 grams} all-purpose flour , plus extra for dusting
½ cup{130gm} vanilla sugar {I added an extra 15gm in error}
¾ teaspoon salt {if using salted butter there is no need to alter this salt measurement}
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
Grated zest of 2 oranges
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, scraped
1 teaspoon orange extract
1/2 cup currants
1 cup firmly packed raisins
3 tablespoons rum
12 red glacé cherries {roughly chopped} for the color and the taste.
1 cup almonds, chopped
Melted unsalted butter for coating the wreath
Powdered sugar for dusting wreath Note:If you don’t want to use alcohol, double the lemon or orange extract or you could use the juice from the zested orange. Method:
In a small bowl, soak the raisins and currants in the rum {or in the orange juice from the zested orange} and set aside.
Whisk together the eggs, vanilla and orange extract, and scraped vanilla bean. Reserve.
Melt the milk and butter gently in a pan. Stand until lukewarm. {I warmed the milk and poured it over the butter, and gently stirred it over low heat to hasten the process}
Pour ¼ cup warm water into a small bowl, add fresh yeast and let stand 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast completely.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, orange zest.
Then stir in {or mix on low speed with the dough hooks} the yeast/water mixture, eggs and the lukewarm milk/butter mixture. This should take about 2 minutes. It should be a soft, but not sticky ball. When the dough comes together, cover the bowl with either plastic or a tea cloth and let rest for 10 minutes.
Add in the soaked fruit and almonds and mix with your hands or on low speed to incorporate. Here is where you can add the cherries if you would like. Be delicate with the cherries or all your dough will turn red!
Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading {or mixing with the dough hook} to distribute the fruit evenly, adding additional flour if needed. The dough should be soft and satiny, tacky but not sticky. Knead for approximately 8 minutes. The full six minutes of kneading is needed to distribute the dried fruit and other ingredients and to make the dough have a reasonable bread-dough consistency. You can tell when the dough is kneaded enough – a few raisins will start to fall off the dough onto the counter because at the beginning of the kneading process the dough is very sticky and the raisins will be held into the dough but when the dough is done it is tacky which isn’t enough to bind the outside raisins onto the dough ball.
Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling around to coat it with the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Put it in the fridge overnight. The dough becomes very firm in the fridge {since the butter goes firm} but it does rise slowly… the raw dough can be kept in the refrigerator up to a week and then baked on the day you want.Shaping the Dough
Let the dough rest for 2 hours after taking out of the fridge in order to warm slightly.
Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
Preheat oven to moderate 180°C with the oven rack on the middle shelf.
Punch dough down, roll into a rectangle about 16 x 24 inches (40 x 61 cms) and ¼ inch (6 mm) thick. Forming and Baking the Wreath
Starting with a long side, roll up tightly, forming a long, thin cylinder.
Transfer the cylinder roll to the sheet pan. Join the ends together, trying to overlap the layers to make the seam stronger and pinch with your fingers to make it stick, forming a large circle. You can form it around a bowl to keep the shape.
Using kitchen scissors, make cuts along outside of circle, in 2-inch (5 cm) intervals, cutting 2/3 of the way through the dough.
Twist each segment outward, forming a wreath shape. Mist the dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
Proof for approximately 2 hours at room temperature, or until about 1½ times its original size.
Bake the stollen for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan 180 degrees for even baking and continue to bake for 20 to 30 minutes. The bread will bake to a dark mahogany color, should register 190°F/88°C in the center of the loaf, and should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.
Transfer to a cooling rack and brush the top with melted butter while still hot.
Immediately tap a layer of powdered sugar over the top through a sieve or sifter.
Wait for 1 minute, then tap another layer over the first.
The bread should be coated generously with the powdered sugar.
Let cool at least an hour before serving. Coat the stollen in butter and icing sugar three times, since this many coatings helps keeps the stollen fresh – especially if you intend on sending it in the mail as Christmas presents! When completely cool, store in a plastic bag. Or leave it out uncovered overnight to dry out slightly, German style.
Stollen Pudding
350gms Stollen, sliced
200ml milk
200ml low fat cream
1 vanilla bean, scraped
2 yolks
1 egg
1/2 cup vanilla sugar {or plain sugar}
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup dried tart cherries, snipped
Powdered sugar for sifting Method:
Preheat oven to 180C.
Place sliced bread in 9″ baking dish, slightly overlapping each slice as in pictures.
Put milk, cream and scraped vanilla bean in a saucepan and simmer till bubbles appear around edges. Take off heat and let the flavours seep for 20-30 minutes.
Place egg, yolks and vanilla sugar in a largish bowl, and whisk immediately to mix.
Bring the milk mixture back to a simmering boil, take off heat, and slowly pour over egg mixture whisking all the time to prevent lumps getting formed.
Strain this over the bread slices in baking dish, sprinkle over dried cherries and almonds. Bake in a bain marie for 30-40 minutes/ until the edges of the custard appear to be firm and set If the top browns too soon, loosely place a sheet of foil over it.
Remove from oven, and then from bain marie as soon as it’s warm enough to handle. Sift with powdered sugar. Allow to stand for 20-30 minutes. Serve hot or warm.
♥ Thank you for stopping by ♥
“I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.”
Harlan Miller
I love this season, and agree with the quote above. Christmas is not our main festival, but certainly is an adopted one, one we have learnt to love. Christmas & New Year also mean FRUIT-CAKE season to us. My mother set the trend years ago, when she baked a fruit cake every winter without fail. Would you believe I never imagined that there could be people who dislike fruit cake? Crawled out from under a rock last year when I saw tweets being exchanged, and I discovered that there were 2 very definite sides to the fruit cake coin – LIKE vs HATE … no in betweens.Thankfully, we are a family who LOVE our fruit cake to bits. I have to hide the loaves from the daughter who loves a good fruit cake nibble.I heard her rummaging through the fridge and cupboards yesterday and I knew just what she was looking for! My precious cake has been wrapped and is maturing {in hiding}. We’ve had the ‘tasting ceremony‘ a few days ago, and the cake is darned good. Now to wait a few more days, and we shall savour it bit by bit. I am pretty miserly about it because I make it from scratch. Peels, chopping, caramel syrup, butter, weighing, zesting … I heave a sigh of relief when the fruit is finally soaked because the rest of the cake-making seems a cakewalk.
The fruit cake season was kicked off a couple of months ago with this traditional cake mixing ceremony at the Hilton Garden Inn. That was a fabulous experience, and I still hold those huge bowls of peels and dried fruit in my eyes! At the time, I was hit by infectious enthusiasm and the drive back home saw me mixing my fruit the next day… well, in my thoughts!How very ambitious! Back home and life returned to the fast track in the week to follow … mundanities like laundry, driving the hapless kids in circles, laying out winter flower beds, baking, pulling out winter clothes & putting away light summer mulmuls happened. The ‘traditional fruit mixing left on the back burner’, yet not forgotten.Each time I reached out for a baking ingredient I would see the fruit and promise myself, tomorrow! Tomorrow never comes! That ‘tomorrow’ came last week. I knew I was desperately late, and it was a now or never. Twitter was buzzing with fruit cake activity, Meeta had posted her gorgeous cake, and frugal Monsieur Lebovitz had his list of fave Holiday Recipes out. Shameful that my fruit was still sitting pretty in bags!I eventually emptied the fridge and larder out. It was like an end of year clearance, literally. I used all the left-over nuts and peels, making up the remaining weight with candied cherries and almonds. In went the bag of raisins from Madhulika in Nasik, currants and black raisins from Old Delhi, dried apricots which had seen better days {but were in for a sweet soaking}, leftover crystallized ginger and orange peels from a Lebovitz recipe … an entertaining connect of people, places, feelings as I mixed fruit! Instead of Christmas spice in the cake, I took my favoured route of garam masala.Have you ever added garam masala to your fruit cake? You really should try it. It doesn’t add curry flavours to your cake, I promise. It adds deep warm winter flavours that mingle with the fruit ever so deliciously, you’ll wonder what kept you away so long. Besides, making your own garam masala fills the house with wonderful warm aromas. I make a largish portion now and freeze it.The fruit was soaked for 3 days, but overnight is good too. If you want to go the non alcohol way, just substitute the alcohol with fresh orange juice, but then store the soaked fruit in the fridge for a day or so. Alcohol preserves the fruit so they keep out in a cool place for long. I also added zest from the oranges, and on day 3 I had this fabulous plump shiny sweet smelling mincemeat of sorts. Not the traditional kind as that has suet and grated apple maybe, but my own sweet kind. I was delighted to find a similar link on David Lebovitz for a Quick Mincemeat.Once the fruit is mature, the rest of the cake is a virtual breeze. I follow a basic recipe that my mother learnt from a baking course almost 40years ago. The soaked fruit are tossed in the flour mix, coating each fruit well. This way the fruit doesn’t sink to the bottom. The cake gets a rich dark colour thanks to a caramel to which coffee is added. The rest is normal cake procedure. Butter & sugar beaten, eggs added, floured fruit folded in … and off it goes to bake.
Twitter got me great ideas from Barbara the Vino Luci gal {oh, she is sweet}, and Colleen aka Colly Wolly, the adorable Brown-Eyed Baker from South Africa. Barbaras Last Minute Fruit Cake, and CW was sweet enough to send me hers. I eventually made my own, but have to thank these 2 great gals for the inspiration. The world is certainly better with folk like you, and I can thank twitter for making 2010 such a wonderful year!
Mincemeat or fruit mix, sans suet
{made from 1 kg of fruit/nut/peel combination}
300gms raisins, chopped if desired
200 currants
200gms black grapes, chopped
100gms crystallized ginger & orange peel {David Lebovitz recipe}, chopped
100gms almonds, chopped
50gm dried apricots, chopped
50gms candied cherries, chopped
1/4 cup Cherry liquor/brandy
1/2 cup rum {or brandy}
3/4 cup fresh orange juice {from 3 keenus/oranges}
Juice of 1/2 lemon {or 4 limes}
Zest of 2 keenus/oranges
4 tbsp garam masala Method:
Mix all of the above nicely and soak overnight in a cool place, or for 3-4 days. The longer you soak the fruit, the more mature the flavour. I soaked mine for 4 days as I didn’t have time to bake. {You can substitute the alcohol with an equal amount of orange juice too}
Garam Masala Fruit Cake
1 kg mixed fruit,nuts,peel mincemeat {mincemeat recipe above}
3 cups plain flour
300gms unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/4 cup sugar
5 eggs
3/4 cup caramel syrup {Made with 1 cup of sugar caramelised. Add some water and heat gently to liquefy. Measure and top up with water to make 3/4 cup liquid. Cool}
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt {skip if using salted butter}
2 tsp pure vanilla extract Method:
Toss the soaked mixed fruit in the 3 cups flour well in a large bowl {I used a huge wok} so that the fruit is completely coated. Reserve.
Stir coffee into caramel syrup. Reserve.
Beat the butter and sugar till fluffy, 2 minutes, add the eggs and beat well again.
Now add the caramel syrup and vanilla extract and beat again for a minute till well incorporated. The mixture may appear curdled but that’s fine. Add baking powder and whisk again.
Turn this batter out over the mincemeat and stir well with spatula to blend uniformly.
Turn into lined loaf pans/baking tins and bake at 140C until the top appears done when you touch it, about 1 hour for the loaf pans, and almost 2-2 1/4 hours for my 15 X 11 tin. {Do keep an eye on the top of the cake. My ovens ‘bake’ setting is just the lower level so the top doesn’t brown too quick. If you find the top browning too soon, please slip a foil loosely over the top about an hour and a half into baking.}
Cool in tin, turn out and wrap in cling-film when cold. Allow to stand and mature in a cool dark place for a day or two, at least overnight. The longer it stands the better the flavours, but we never get that far in my fruit-cake loving household.
Note: You can poke holes on top and pour over some more rum/brandy if you like. In this case, first wrap it in cheesecloth, and then in clingwrap and store in a cool pace.
“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.”
Robert Fulghum
Just another manic day like many others! One of ‘those days’ when you have enough on your plate. Then by some cruel twist of fate, you land up at Tastespotting … and immediately wish you hadn’t. That was me that day. I couldn’t take my eyes off those beautiful cookies. There was something about them, and then the name “Pecan Linzer Cookies with Cherry Filling“. They held me captivated! I was soon breaking into The Parsley Thief’s beautiful blog to get my virtual fill of them!The cookies had to be made! I had them on my mind all morning despite a PILE of work. I made sweet butter, did the laundry, chopped a kilo fruit & nuts for fruit cake –BIG achievement. Non-traditional mincemeat sans suet made, matured briefly & baked into fruit cake. To be posted soon!}. That morning, I also tried my hand at savoury macarons for MacTweets and failed {Attempted a second time recently, with success! That post is coming too}. My feet were begging for freedom, but the heart wasn’t willing and soon I had the walnuts toasting. Time to take it slow,I decided to toast the walnuts that day, make the dough the next day & roll the cookies out whenever … but one thing led to another!
…and the holiday baking spirit isn’t that easy to shrug off. Once the walnuts cooled, I was tempted to grind them, intrigued by the procedure. Now just a step away from dough, so I proceeded to make that too. Dough to be rested in the fridge OVERNIGHT said the head, but soon the heart was rolling out cookies. Such was the temptation, and so good was the dough. It rolled well though could have been better if I had let it rest for 2 hours, but I couldn’t wait. Baked the cookies with a song in my heart! Yes, they were that attractive at The Parsley Thief’s place!
December is whirring by, now unstoppable. It’s halfway past the month, and it’s fun to see the baking frenzy that has hit the world. Twitter is abuzzatweet with who’s baking what, food blogs are bursting with fabulous holiday baking ideas. Did you see these cute Swiss Roll Christmas Cottages at Not Quite Nigella? Missed a heartbeat when I saw them! I wish I had most of December left as there are so many delicious ideas, but I’m GLAD I made these cookies at least!They were l♥ved by the kids, prized apart, jam duly licked off, sugar too, and then the cookies enjoyed … gobbled up in seconds. I saved some to give to friends as they were disappearing too soon. I think the basic cookie is a great one too sans the jam filling, quite like a nutty crisp shortbread on its own. My not-so-sweet tooth preferred it that way. A dusting of sugar seemed good enough. The box now lies empty as the daughter had her sweet-toothed friend over for the day yesterday, and they finished them off, down to the last crumb! Make them, enjoy them … and gift them! They are actually my first ever sandwich cookies; pretty darned good ones. Toasted Walnut Linzer Cookies – we ♥ you! Of course there’s a platter tucked away for Santa, and that’s where these are going!
Toasted Walnut Linzer Cookies with Strawberry Filling Adapted fromThe Parsley Thief Adapted fromMartha Stewart Living, February 2007 Makes about 20 sandwich cookies
2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cups walnut halves
2 tablespoons powdered sugar {plus, more for decorating}
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter {slightly softened}
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1/2 cup homemade strawberry vanilla bean conserve , melted with 1/2 tsp water {or any preserve of choice}
Method:
Begin by toasting the walnut halves, either in a dry skillet over medium heat, or in a 180C. Toast for about 5 minutes. Be careful, nuts burn quickly! Set aside to cool completely before proceeding with the recipe.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour & baking powder, until combined. Set aside.
Add the toasted walnuts, powdered sugar, salt & cinnamon to the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the nuts are finely ground. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment. Cut the butter into small pieces & add to the bowl, along with the sugar. Blend until light & fluffy. Add the vanilla extract & egg, blend until incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl, as necessary. Turn the mixer to low & slowly add the flour mixture, beating until just incorporated.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface & shape into a ball. Cut the dough in half & shape each half into a disc. Wrap the discs in plastic wrap & refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 190C. Roll out the dough, one disc at a time, to an 1/8″ thickness. Cut the cookies out using a 2″ scalloped edge cookie cutter & arrange them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Using mini cookie cutters, cut shapes out of the centers of half the cookies. These will be the tops. Bake for 10 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the cooking time. Let the cookies cool slightly before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
When cool, add some powdered sugar to a small sieve & tap a dusting of sugar over all the cookie tops. Spread a layer of strawberry preserves over the cookie bottoms & place the tops on.
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
“Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!”
Hamilton Wright Mabie
Time flies and how. Seems like the year is on a gallop. I missed the walk, the trot and the canter completely. Every day is whizzing by; it’s October already! That winter is almost here struck me when some of my girlfriends like Barbara began the ’12 weeks to Christmas Cookies’ countdown.Then a few days ago I got an invite to a ‘traditional cake mixing ceremony‘, and I was like “Whoa? Is it the time of the year already?“
Traditional Cake Mixing Ceremony
The age old ceremony of cake mixing starts a few months before Christmas and the winter festivities and is considered to be an usher for good tidings and happiness. Executive Chef of Hilton Garden Inn, Rajat Tuli will be present. This will be followed by High Tea of select guests and food bloggers and critics at India Grill.
The ceremony was hosted by the Hilton Garden Inn, the first of this brand of hotels to open in the Asia-Pacific region. The warm, friendly hostess Monisha Dewan, the General Manager of the hotel, led everyone to the ceremony. As she said, it is a tradition at the hotel to welcome the holiday season with a fruit soaking ceremony ahead of Christmas. There were massive steel basins with candied ginger strips lining the bottom, and huge trays filled with fruit – raisins, black currants, candied peel, candied cherries, tutti frutti etc. And of course the all important ‘spirit of the season‘ in bottles – wine, rum and whiskey etc to soak the fruit with.
To set the ceremony off, we were each handed gloves, aprons and chefs hats. We set to work with handfuls of fruit ceremoniously dumped into the steel basins, the menfolk mixing the fruit. Once all the fruit was in, and well mixed, the bottle were emptied in one by one, with warnings on ‘no swigs allowed‘. That done, Chef Deepak got his merry band of men in to complete the mixing as it was now all down to muscle power! A load of fun and a load of work, all amidst great cheer and fervour. The holiday season was rung in under the watchful eye of Executive Chef Rajat Tuli, who was summoned in by the GM each time before any culinary move was made!
The fruit is now going to placed in a secure place to soak in all liquid and mature beautifully in time for Christmas, and will then be used by the in-house bakery to make plum cakes, puddings etc. I loved the tradition and thought it was a novel way to ring in the festive season. The great thing was the camaraderie all around, and the whole-hearted manner in which the GM involved everyone in the ceremony, including her chefs. We had a lobby full of guests at the hotel from across the world and each one was invited to join in, which they did happily! There was lots of cheer, loads of mixing and loads of cameras clicking!!
The ceremony was followed by High Tea which has recently been launched by the hotel, again a novel concept. The Hilton Garden Inn is located in the heart of a commercial district in Delhi, and is attached to a popular mall,’The Select City Mall’. Visitors from the mall can walk in and enjoy the luxury of a beautiful array of teas from India and across the globe … Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Jasmine amongst pots of others. You can choose the one you want, and sit and enjoy a spread of delectable finger foods. {I had a wonderful Cafe Latte as I am much the coffee person.}The menu for High Tea that evening included Mushroom and Asparagus Vol-au-vent, Smoked Salmon Vol-au-vent, Ginger & Raisin Scone with Chantilly Cream, Mocha & Cinnamon with Quark Cheese {that certainly caught my attention}, Grilled Chicken and Prune Open Sandwich, Roasted Pepper and Feta Open Sandwich, Bitter Chocolate Chunk Soft Bake Cookie, Raspberry Cream Cake, Passion Fruit Cupcake, Blueberry and White Oat Brittle Cookie, Fruit and Nut Cake, Chocolate & Banana Torte, Cucumber & Tuna, Melon and Apricot Canape. Quite a spread, and beautifully presented along a charming framework of wood, the evening sunlight lighting the place up. It was warm and inviting, an atmosphere so relaxed, an ambiance that was perfect to soak in.The Executive Chef and the General Manager made the place very homey. They were wonderful to talk to. The banter went on endlessly – bread, macarons, quark, cheesemaking, menus, baking, kids, food … all discussed in absolutely no hurry, till the cows came home. We then shifted back to the tables where the gracious GM asked for thin crust pizzas as she was very proud of the ones they make in-house. We were served Spinach and Four Cheese Pizza, followed by Pepperoni. I had the former, the Spinach and Four Cheese one, and it was the best I’ve had in a long long time. Perfect crust, and a great balance of flavours.
It was a wonderful evening! Do check out the High Tea at the Hilton Garden Inn Saket, New Delhi if you happen to be on that side of town.
{A4 DLF Place Saket District Centre, New Delhi, India 110017 .
Tel: 91-11-39191919 Fax: 91-11-39191920} Thank you Rajat and Monisha for hosting us.
Thank you Baani & Tinky from the Perfect Relations Digital Team for making this happen!
