In Which a Breakfast Bun is Infused with Coffee and Eaten in a Most Decadent Fashion…

The embodiment of pure, glorious gluttony…

My favorite author Nigella Lawson came under flak last year for dishing up a seriously calorific recipe involving ice cream scooped into a split brioche.  To which, I had only this to say: BOLLOCKS TO THE SCRAWNY LOT OF ‘EM!  The problem with people today is that, in their quest to eat “healthily”, they have had a tendency to shun even the simplest pleasures that life has to offer – with food being first and foremost among them.

I find scrawny women a pain in my obviously ample, well-padded, and magnificently curvaceous backside.  They’re not comfortable with their bodies.  It’s like they HATE being female; they won’t celebrate their gorgeous curves – and, as a result, they make fun of women who are comfortable in their curviness and get really mean about our eating habits.  As we would say in this part of the world: walang basagan ng trip – no raining on anyone’s parade, you skinny, malnourished Nellies.

But enough of those fashionable scarecrows.  I recently decided to pay tribute to the fabulous Lady Lawson by taking a cue from her: by serving ice cream in homemade buns.  In this particular case, I added a tablespoon of instant coffee into my basic brioche recipe and baked it as 24 mini brioches.  They were utterly heavenly as I also added vanilla bean and some cinnamon to evoke the flavors of a morning cappuccino.  Best of all, they were utterly magnificent when sandwiched with a scoop of vanilla ice cream: pure magic on a late summer evening.

Cappucino Brioches

• 500 grams all-purpose flour
• 100 grams sugar
• 1 sachet fast-acting / rapid-rising yeast
  
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee
• 1 vanilla bean; seeds scraped and pod reserved for another use
• scant 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
• 150mL milk + extra for brushing
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup salted butter (that’s about 1/2 of a block of butter) + more for greasing the muffin tins
• vanilla ice cream to serve

In a large metal bowl, combine flour, sugar, coffee, vanilla bean, cinnamon, and yeast. In another bowl, pour in the milk and add the butter; microwave on HIGH for two minutes. Whisk the eggs into the butter-milk mixture until it resembles a thin custard. Pour this custard into the dry ingredients. Stir everything together until it all clings together and becomes something of a shaggy mess.

Flour your hands and start kneading the dough in the bowl. Use all the force you can muster: punch the dough, massage it, flip it around, smack it around – clobber it, by all means! (Now you understand why I specifically asked that you use a metal bowl!) Knead the dough for about ten minutes. After ten minutes, form the dough into a ball and set in the middle of the bowl; cover with a clean dishtowel and place in a warm place to rise for about an hour or till doubled in bulk.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees/Gas Mark 4.  Grease the cups of 2 regular (12-hole) muffin tins.

When the dough has risen in bulk, punch it down and divide into 24 balls.  Place a dough ball into each of the cups.  Cover with a dishtowel and let rest for 20 minutes and let it get nice and puffy.  Brush the tops of the buns with the extra milk before baking.

Bake the buns for 20 – 25 minutes until they’re nicely brown and crisp in parts. Serve them split with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Makes 24 brioches.

In Which the Cookies Were Overloaded with Chocolate and Other Good Things…

Each one is packed with flavors and interesting textures

Just a quick recipe from me for today.  If you seriously love chocolate – as in truly, madly, deeply love chocolate – this cookie is for you.

Demolition Derbies, so named because they’re pretty much a train wreck’s worth of ingredients in every batch, are chock-filled with four kinds of chocolate (cocoa powder, grated white choc, dark chips, and coarse chunks of milk chocolate), nuts, soft almond nougat, oatmeal, and cereal.  You get cookies that are absolutely crunchy on the outside, chewy within, loaded with chocolate goodness, and are utterly addictive.  I daresay their name also fits them because you and your friends and family will be demolishing loads of these goodies in no time flat.

These go down so well with a cold glass of milk, but grown-ups will find these a perfect match for a cappuccino, a mocha, or maybe a dirty chai latte.

Demolition Derbies

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1-1/2 cups rolled oats
• 1 tablspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup whole-wheat flakes or cornflakes
• 1/2 cup roasted almonds, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped milk chocolate chunks
• 1/2 cup soft almond nougat, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup salted butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup granulated white sugar 
  
• 2 eggs
• 1 packed cup dark brown sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees / Gas Mark 4.  Line standard-sized cookie sheets with either waxed paper or baking parchment; barring that, you could also use Silpat liners.

Cream together the butter and sugars till light and fluffy.  Whisk in the cocoa, eggs, vanilla, and baking soda.  Add the flour and the oats and mix well until a soft dough is formed.  Mix in the chocolates and the other ingredients until well-combined.

Scoop level tablespoons of the dough onto the prepared cookie sheets and chill in the fridge for 10 – 15 minutes.

Bake the cookies for 18 to 20 minutes, just to crisp up the outsides.  Remove from oven and leave to cool for about ten seconds on the sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes approximately 72 (6 dozen) cookies.

In Which the Blogger Turns Strawberries Into a Tempting Dessert…

Mid-season strawberries

Happy Easter, y’all!  I hope everyone had a restful, meaningful (if a tad sweltering) week.

The season for locally-grown strawberries here in the Philippines runs from November to May, so little plastic trays of these beautiful scarlet gems can be found in both supermarkets and in the flat baskets of sidewalk hawkers in many parts of the metropolis.  Due to the somewhat acidic nature of the soil in the northern provinces where the fruit is grown, Filipino strawberries tend to err on the tart side but make for good eating when sprinkled with a bit of sugar – just enough to balance the acidity.

For the most part, however, local strawberries are cooked and sold as jam or preserves.  Recently, though, home cooks and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have been toying with recipes featuring these berries: strawberry biscuit bars, taho (doufu hua – soft, silken tofu in syrup) in strawberry syrup with whole berries, shortcakes, and ice creams. For me, though, the best way to work with these seasonal treats is to use them in various ways for a single dish.

DIY strawberry coulis

I actually got the idea from my mother who said that I needed to use up the cream cheese I had left over from two previous cheesecakes, so why not make another one for Easter?  Plus, the biscuit bins in the dining room needed clearing up, so a cheesecake would give me the opportunity to put the leftover Rich Tea fingers and a lonesome pack of fruit creme sandwiches to good use.  Add a tray of berries from the supermarket and I was good to go.

This particular cheesecake recipe is definitely for strawberry addicts as it features the fruit in several forms in all of its parts: there are strawberry cream sandwich cookies in the crust, the filling is partly flavored with strawberry extract and features Hacienda Macalauan‘s low-fat strawberry yogurt in lieu of sour cream, and the top is drenched and marbled with a fresh strawberry coulis.  If that isn’t strawberry-filled enough for you, I don’t know what is.

Finished product

The end result was a mildly sweet, pleasantly tart and fruity cheesecake with a scrumptious, come-hither fragrance.  The crust was beautifully buttery, malty, and just the right balance of crisp yet crumbly at the same time.  The cream cheese filling was deliciously rich and creamy – so much, in fact, that no one would believe it only had half the fat of my regular recipe due to the fact that the yogurt I used was 98% fat free.

Cheesecake for breakfast?! Yes; yes, PLEASE!

Not only does this make a lovely dessert after a good dinner, but it also doubles as a lovely summer’s morning breakfast when paired with an iced cappucino.  ;)  (Though a cup of English Breakfast, Earl Gray, or even black tea with jasmine would also be lovely.)

Summer Strawberry Cheesecake

• 500 grams cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup strawberry yogurt (best if you use one with fruit mixed into the yogurt)
• 1 cup sugar
• 100 grams Rich Tea biscuits
• approximately 30 grams strawberry creme sandwich cookies (I used Dewberry Strawberries and Cream here)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted + more for greasing the tin
• 300 grams fresh strawberries, hulled
• additional 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon strawberry flavoring
• 2 eggs

Preheat oven to 325 degrees / Gas Mark 3.  Grease a standard-sized cake tin or pie dish; line the bottom with waxed paper.

In a food processor or pulse-matic blender, crush the biscuits and sandwich cookies into fine crumbs.  Mix in the butter until well-incorporated and press the mixture evenly onto the bottom of the prepared tin.  Chill in the refrigerator for 15 – 30 minutes.

Clean out your processor or blender and puree the berries together with 1/4 cup sugar; set aside.

Cream together the cream cheese and 1 cup sugar until fluffy.  Add the vanilla and strawberry flavoring; mix well.  Mix in the strawberry yogurt and eggs until smooth and well-incorporated.  Pour mixture onto the chilled crust, spreading it evenly.  Drizzle over the strawberry puree and run a wooden skewer or butter knife through to give the top a marbled appearance.

Bake for 1 hour.  Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake inside for an additional 30 – 45 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely at room temperature.  Chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or, better yet, overnight.

Serves 12.

In Which One Bakes a Birthday Cake Full of Blessings…

Best eaten warm, slathered with lashings of butter and orange marmalade…

I’m having a bit of a problem beginning this particular blog post in light of the fact that several people have dropped off from my personal Facebook page for the basic reason that I have spoken out and quite frankly declared that I am a Roman Catholic, I take comfort in my faith, and I bridle up against anyone who slurs it.  It’s sad, but it’s issues like these that let me know who my real friends are, the ones who will stand by me no matter what happens.

My parents are among them. My mother in whom I confide my fondest dreams and my most cherished hopes and my father who is there to give me hugs whenever I need them, who reminds me to pray, to be strong despite the raging tide of insults I have had to deal with for most of my life.  I am actually crying as I type out this particular blog entry because I take comfort in the fact that there are still people who care about me and how I feel regardless of how badly I see myself and how wickedly I am maligned by others.

Since it’s Dad’s birthday today, I wasn’t quite sure as to what to get him for this year.  As a result, I decided to do a bit of baking earlier today to clear my mind and do something a little different.  The end result was this fragrant Mediterranean-style pastry-cake that smells scrumptiously of cinnamon and orange.

Fanouropita, is a Greek dessert that is normally baked in honor of St. Fanourios, the Eastern Orthodox patron of lost things, causes, and unmarried women seeking good husbands.  Like I said in the previous paragraph, it is a cross between cake and pastry (in fact, it bakes up into something which is a cross between a Yankee biscuit and Irish soda bread) made with orange juice and olive oil.  I’ve decided to rename my tweaked-up version Torta di San Antonio de Padua in honor of the Roman Catholic patron of lost things and who also happens to be the patron saint of my brother’s current parish.  I couldn’t really name it after St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus and patron of good husbands (his feast day was yesterday) because he already has the doughnut-like sfinghe made in his honor.

I said my morning prayers as I pressed the dough for this cake into the pan I’d prepared, asking for blessings for my dad on his birthday, to thank God for the blessing of family and friends who continue to care no matter how flawed I am, and to ask for someone to love me and accept me in his life – flaws and all.

Torta di San Antonio de Padua

• 3-3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon rock salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice or bottled pulpy orange juice
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Confectioners sugar

Preheat oven to 350°/Gas Mark 4.  Grease and flour a medium-sized cake tin; set aside. with olive oil and dust with flour, knocking out any excess.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, and sugar.  Add olive oil, orange juice, and vanilla and stir to combine.  Work the batter into a dough, kneading it with your hands.  Press into your prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes in the oven.  Turn out onto a serving plate and dust with powdered sugar.  Serve with butter, jam, or honey.

Serves 12.

Incidentally…  Any leftovers may be sliced thinly and re-baked in a 325°/Gas Mark 3 oven for 15 minutes to become a biscotti-style cookie I call tavolette di San Antonio. 

In Which a Mixture of Chocolate and Nougat Yields Some Tempting Treats…

Brown sugar, chocolate, nougat…

One of my mother’s friends, a sweet elderly lady who ranks high among the women I aspire to be like, sends a box of turrón over to our house every Christmas.  Quite obviously, this sort of turrón is not the same as turon, those banana and jackfruit-stuffed rice paper rolls that are deep-fried with plenty of brown sugar and served as an afternoon snack.  No, by turrón, I mean those rectangular slabs of almond nougat that are a specialty of Spain’s Valencia Region.  The turrón she sends over is usually the soft kind – the famed turrón de Jijona,

Turrón de Jijona takes its name from Xixona, the town in Valencia where it is made because of all the almonds they grow over there.  The dessert is actually a throwback to the Moorish Occupation of Spain because it is similar in nature to halva, a sweetmeat made with nuts crushed into a coarse-textured butter and pressed into molds similar to those for bricks.  Unlike Italian torrone and the variant known as turrón alicante – both of which feature a crunchy, meringue-style nougat base studded with whole roasted almonds and are wrapped in edible rice paper - turrón de Jijona is softer, crumblier, and actually tastes like a chewy almond toffee.  For this reason, I imagined it would be an excellent choice for adding to cookies and cakes – and about bloody time, too; my dad was asking us to eat up the turrón in the fridge.

This particular recipe is actually a spin on my regular chocolate-chunk cookie recipe, but involves pressing the dough into a jelly-roll tin instead of dropping it by tablespoonsful onto a cookie sheet.  The end result: moist, slightly crumbly, sweet bars with hunks of melty dark chocolate whose bittersweet taste is balanced by the rich, nutty caramel flavor of the nougat.  Since picnic season is rolling around, these would be perfect to tote along for a summer afternoon outdoors.

Incidentally, because of the amount of chocolate and nougat I threw in here, I just had to give it the name Dos Tesoros - two treasures.  The wealth of goodies in each bar makes it a rather appropriate name.  :)  Oh, and in case you can’t find turrón de Jijona, you can swap it for turrón alicante or Italian nougat; they won’t melt, though, but will soften into unctuous chewiness.

Dos Tesoros

• 3/4 cup salted butter, softened
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon almond flavoring
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 200 grams dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
• 150 grams turrón de Jijona or almond/hazelnut nougat, coarsely chopped

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees / Gas Mark 4.  Lavishly grease a standard-sized jelly roll tin or a lipped cookie sheet.

Beat together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the flavorings, baking powder, and egg; mix until well combined.  Add the flour and mix until a soft dough is formed.  Fold in the chopped chocolate and nougat, making sure that these are evenly distributed in the dough.

Get your hands wet and press the dough evenly int the prepared baking tin.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Turn off the oven and leave the tin in there for an additional 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and cut into bars.  Transfer to a serving plate and leave to cool completely.

Makes approximately 32 bars.