Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...


Gingerbread house

Gingerbread Houses- One of my favourite things for Christmas. The smell of gingerbread is wonderful; the smell of ground ginger and strong cinnamon.
Recipe was taken from Martha Stewart and is a Swedish gingerbread house.


Building the house:
1.Cut and bake dough-
   Cut out the components of the house according to the templates.
   There are 2 side walls, 2 roof tops, 1 front wall with door, 1 back wall and 
   cutouts for the chimney too.
   Bake the dough and leave them to cool completely.

2 side walls

Front with door and back walls

2 pieces of roofs

 2.Assembly-
    Before assembly, outline and decorate the edges of the windows 
    and doors with icing.
    My daughter did all the piping decorations to the house.
    She added dots in addition to the lines.

To assemble, first, apply royal icing to each adjoining side of the walls to be held together and hold together for a few seconds. The icing will harden holding the pieces together.
Assemble the 2 side walls with the back and front walls.
Once all 4 walls are held together, attach the roof by applying some icing on the V-shape and attach the roof pieces.

After assembly, the house is left to dry overnight.

Adding the Finishing Touches.....

Chocolate pretzels were first glued on both roofs and decorated with icing.
Colourful candies lined the edge of the roof.

Assemble the chimney together and attach to the front  roof of the house.

Side walls of house decorated with more coloured candies.

Front walls decked with colourful lights of jelly beans.
                      

                          
Candy canes for front gate post and icing as snow.

Candy canes also formed fence around house.

Decorated front door and chocolate waffle mat.
Icicles formed on edge of roof.
                      


Completed Gingerbread house....

And not forgetting the figurines........
Snowman is placed at the front porch.

Santa is climbing down the chimney while his reindeer with sleigh is waiting on the roof top.

 

Nicely embellished and ready for Christmas. Merry Christmas.

Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...


Panettone with choc chips


                           

Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...


Traditional Panettone

Panettone is a type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan.

It was baked for Christmas and New Year in Italy and other parts of Europe. 

This specialty loaf is loaded with raisins,sultanas and candied fruits.

Stages of my preparation:

First proofing in a oiled bowl-

Doubled the size; complete proofing-

Second proofing in the panettone mold-

Done proofing: Ready for baking-

When the panettone comes out of the oven, it tends to cave in on itself .So I hang it upside-down for several hours to prevents this.

Before dusting of icing sugar....

Iced and ready to go....

Time for a slice....

Panettone wants to cave in on itself when it comes out of the oven. Hanging it upside-down for several hours prevents this. Some recipes tell you to pass bamboo skewers through the loaf (mold and all) after bakin - See more at: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/12/07/panettone/#sthash.TN2WyNgK.dpuf

Panettone wants to cave in on itself when it comes out of the oven. Hanging it upside-down for several hours prevents this. Some recipes tell you to pass bamboo skewers through the loaf (mold and all) after bakin - See more at: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/12/07/panettone/#sthash.TN2WyNgK.dpuf

Panettone wants to cave in on

Panettone wants to cave in on itself when it comes out of the oven. Hanging it upside-down for several hours prevents this. Some recipes tell you to pass bamboo skewers through the loaf (mold and all) after bakin - See more at: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/12/07/panettone/#sthash.TN2WyNgK.dpuf

Panettone wants to cave in on itself when it comes out of the oven. Hanging it upside-down for several hours prevents this. Some recipes tell you to pass bamboo skewers through the loaf (mold and all) after baking, from which you suspend the - See more at: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/12/07/panettone/#sthash.TN2WyNgK.dpuf

Panettone wants to cave in on itself when it comes out of the oven. Hanging it upside-down for several hours prevents this. Some recipes tell you to pass bamboo skewers through the loaf (mold and all) after bakin - See more at: http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/12/07/panettone/#sthash.TN2WyNgK.dpuf

Count down to Christmas.....with a list of things to bake...

Christmas Tiramisu

Tiramisu starts with a shortbread crust flavoured with Tia Maria liqueur as the base...
Next layer-  cream cheese and mascarpone cheese combo with touch of rum and vanilla..
Sandwiched between is my soft brownie cake crumbs..
Next another layer of cheese combo..
Then finally dust of chocolate powder.

December  Birthdays

December- That Christmas calender month that is filled with the most birthdays in the family; that is such a wonderful thing! Thus this calender birthday cake is baked to mark and celebrate every individual special day. Happy Birthday.

It is a brownie cake covered with fondant.

Meyer Lemon with basil Sorbet

Meyer lemons-It is a cross between a lemon and either a mandarin or common orange and it has a very sweet, fragrant smell. I decided to make another sorbet again using my KitchenAid-Ice Cream Maker.

Ingredients are simple but the resulting sorbet is very sweet and refreshing.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup of basil leaves (Steep basil in hot syrup for 1/2 hour)
• 1 cup juice from 3-4 meyer lemons
• 2 tablespoons of lemon zest

Passion fruit cheesecake

For this cheesecake, I am using a shortbread biscuit crust.
The recipe is adapted from Martha Stewart and it has a combination of two layers:
A layer of vanilla cheesecake and a layer of passion fruit custard.

Final baking of the second layer.

Melon Sorbet

Using a recipe from Garrett McCord of Vanilla Garlic, I made my first Melon sorbet using the KitchenAid-Ice Cream Maker.
I chose Brazil Galia melons because they are sweet and very aromatic. It combines so well with green limes, syrup and lemon juice to make a refreshing sorbet.

Sorbet churning with the KitchenAid-Ice Cream Maker attachment.

La Religieuse

La Religieuse is a French pastry made up of two choux puffs, with one on top of the other and are filled with Crème Pâtissière.The coffee crème pâtissière from Dan is simply delicious.
(Adapted from Dan Lepard's recipe)

Classic French Croissants

Croissant dough is the second laminated dough I am working on now.
The first was puff pastry dough which I made mille feuille with.
Next I will be trying out danish dough.
These three types of laminated dough are slightly different from each other; croissants and danish dough are yeasted while puff dough is not.
Nevertheless, the technique to incorporate the butter into the dough is quite similar for all three recipes.
I used the classic French Croissant Recipe from Jeffrey Hamelman.

Must work fast with the dough to avoid butter melting and spoiling the layers.

Perfect rolling should get 3 rolls, and 7 little steps, and the tip underneath.

More croissants out from oven.

Remaining dough can be cut into rectangular shapes and rolled into petits pains au chocolat

A closer look at the croissant......

Front view

Side view

Cross sectioned views