[[Of Xmas baking]]

Somehow, I associate white chocolate and cranberries(think fruit cakes) to christmas, together with ginger(think gingerbread man/ginger cookies). So my sis and I decided to bake two items this year. Both containing white chocolate.

The first is White chocolate pistachio cookies. The second is cranberry white chocolate cupcakes. Most of which were gobbled out during the christmas dinner.

The cookies turned out soft and crumbly. The white chocolate makes it a delight to eat while the pistachios gave it a slightly bitter after taste(I'm still figuring out why is that so.)

The cranberry cupcakes were a bigger hit-simply because who can refuse little cupcakes sitting on pretty checkered red papers? grins.


White chocolate Pistachio cookies
(How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawsons)

Makes about 40

scant 1/2 cup soft unsalted butter
7 tsp sugar
scant 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
scant 1/2 cup ground pistachios
4 ounces whole pistachios
4 ounces white chocolate, chopped
2 baking sheets lined

1. Preheat oven to 175 deg C
2. Cream together the butter and sugars until soft and almost mousse-like. Add the vanilla and egg, then the flour, and baking soda.
2. When you've got a smooth thick dough, add the nuts and chocolate and mix to combine.
3. Pinch off pieces of dough and roll them into walnut sized balls in your hands. Place these, generously spaced onto the baking sheets and put in the oven for 10-12 minutes.
4. The cookies should be of a pale gold with a darker gold around the edges.
5. Leave to set for a couple of minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool.


Cranberry white chocolate cupcakes (adapted from Gourmet Magazine Dec 2006)

Makes 1 dozen

1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 stick (6 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup dried cranberries, finely chopped
white chocolate, chopped roughly

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 175 deg c. Put in liners in muffin cups
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Beat together butter and sugar with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.
4. Add in flour mixture and milk, alternately in batches, begining and ending with flour mixture and mixing just until incoporated. Fold in cranberries and white chocolate.
5. Divide the batter among muffin cups. Bake until pale golden and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.
6. Turn cupcakes out onto a rack and cool 15 minutes.

Cranberry white chocolate cupcakes

Appetiser: toufu salad and potato salad



Ladies set lunch


Udon


[[ Lovely evening]]


Da Paolo, The Pizza Bar (Chip Bee gardens)

Went to The Pizza bar with my intern friends.
They are such a great bunch! And it has been too long since we met. Even though I wasnt feeling too good, I enjoyed the evening immensely. We indulge ourselves with pizza(really like the pizza here) and later desserts. And not forgetting the usual jokes carried forward from the workplace. Really brought back fond memories of the internship days..though S & N couldnt join us in the end. Hopefully, we'll meet up again soon..

A side note: I love the wine storage area at the restaurant. grins.


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Watched on the news that they have sichuan flavoured, hainanese styled turkey. How weird! I would rather have the traditional turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce.

***

Pancakes (Makes 22 pancakes in a 3 inch pan)
Adapted from "Nigella Lawson- How to Eat: The pleasures and principles of good food"

1 cup all-purpose flour
pinch salt
1 egg
1 ¼ cups milks
2-4 tbsp melted and cooled butter
vegetable oil, for the pan.
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder


1) Make a mound of the flour in a bowl, add the salt, then make a dip in the top. Crack open the egg and let it slip into this hole at the top of the hiall and, with a wooden spoon, beat well, gradually incorporating the flour from the sides and beating in the milk to make a smooth batter.

2) Stop when the batter’s creamy, change to a whisk and then whisk in the melted butter. Leave the batter to stand for at least half an hour: overnight wouldn’t matter. The batter might thicken in the meantime, in which case, add milk to get the batter to the right thickish light-cream consistency.

3) The trick to pancakes is not so much the batter as in the frying: use little oil and very little batter. The pan must be hot and what I do is to heat oil in it, then empty the oil down the sink before putting in the batter. Use less batter than you would imagine you need- you just want to line the pan. When bubbles come to the surface, the crepe is ready to flip.

* use well-seasoned frying pan. Non stick pans are hopeless, as the crepes they make and blond, pallid and rubbery; the batter seems steamed rather than seared.

***

Pan-seared goose liver with apricot chutney

Chicken Pot Pie

Traditional breakfast of toast, sausages, scrambled eggs and mushrooms

The Chef at work


The set that my sis ordered: sashimi unajyo set


My sushi bento set!

[[Vegetables and baking]]

Baked Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting in the afternoon. I wanted to try this recipe for awhile and this is the perfect occasion for it. It sounds interesting because of the spices used, the combination of white chocolate and pumpkins and of course, the cream cheese frosting.

It's a tedious cupcake to make: because first of all, I have to grate 4 c ups of pumpkin!! And I have to bake them batch by batch which takes a uber long time. Thankfully, I had my sis and mum to help me grate and J to help me do the cream cheese frosting.

I wished that I had a piping bag so that I can do up the cream cheese frosting more nicely. Next time then.

I found the cupcake a little too sweet. However, J and my sis thinks that it's just fine. Hmm..oh well..

Anyway, I'm off to brunch with Grace.

My Pumpkin cupcakes