On the third day of Christmas...

On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me... Traditions! 

Every country has its Christmas traditions  and one of the good things of living abroad is getting to know people from all over the world and what these traditions are. I've learned a lot with all my friends... And one thing I've learnt is that these traditions also vary within each household. 

My Christmas traditions are different from my best friend's and we only live a few minutes away from each other. 

For example, most portuguese families celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas day, my family is the other way round. 

We go all out on Christmas day with roast turkey with sides slightly diferent to what you are used to... Rice, broccoli dressed in a delicious mustard sauce, 'farofa'(toasted mandioc mixture), potato crisps, turkey stuffing and gravy. 

And don't get me started on the desserts... My favourite part of the meal! 

In Portugal most of our traditional bakes and sweets involve egg yolks, sugar and almonds. And at Christmas that is no different! We rely heavily on a sugar and cinnamon syrup to finish off our desserts, giving them that extra sweetness and making then even more appetising.

Then again this all varies within the household. In my family we can always count on a portuguese creme brulee(resembles more of a british custard), rice pudding, 'aletria'(just like rice pudding but made with angel hair pasta) and rabanadas(resembles french toast). One of the desserts that is required to be present in our Christmas is 'mexidos', my mum's speciality, a calorie bomb filled with bread, butter, eggs and dried fruit. Christmas isn't Christmas without 'mexidos'! 

We also have a portuguese version of the fruit cake. It's called 'bolo Rei' (king cake) , it's a light dough cake filled with dried fruit and crystalized fruit.

    (Source:www.caestamosnos.org)

These are my Christmas traditions and what are yours?  

Have a merry bake!! 

On the second day of Christmas...

On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me... Greetings from Germany!! 

When you think of Christmas what's the first thing that comes to your mind? 

To me... Is the smell... The Christmas smell... Cinnamon and spices! 

And what concentrates all these aromas?! A german cookie called Lebkuchen! 

Lebkuchen, also called Pfefferkuchen, is German gingerbread. It's a traditional German soft cookie which has as its base molasses and honey and their aroma is a beautiful blend of spices, such as, nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon. You will find many regional variations, but the most well-known is the Nürnberger Lebkuchen.(www.germanfoodguide.com)

From my research, the original recipe is made with honey and molasses but I found some made with butter. 

And here is how you make it:

Yield: 18 cookies

 

prep time: 15 minutes (active) 2 hours (inactive)

 

cook time: 10-12 minutes

 

total time: 2 hours 45 minutes

For the Cookies:
3 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for kneading
1¼ teaspoons ground nutmeg
1¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground allspice
1 egg
¾ cup light brown sugar
½ cup honey
½ cup molasses

For the Glaze:
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Set aside.

3. Beat the egg and sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the bowl.

4. Beat in the honey and molasses until thoroughly combined.

5. On low speed, stir in the flour mixture until just combined.

6. Turn the dough out from the bowl onto a well-floured surface. Knead the dough, adding more flour as kneaded, until a stiff dough is formed.

7. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.

8. On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough into a 9x12-inch rectangle. Cut the dough into 18 3x2-inch rectangles. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

9. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and let cool. Whisk together the confectioner's sugar, water and lemon juice and brush or spread on top of the cookies.

10. Allow the glaze to firm, and then store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

(Source:www.browneyedbaker.com)

This is how mine turned out. I used Betty Crocker's recipe and made a slight change... I don't have allspice so I added a little bit of ginger to the mix and I also removed the chopped nuts, as I thought it didn't add much to the cookies. The icing of these cookies vary... The recipe above gives you a glazed icing.I prefer a chocolate icing, which is also a delicious option. Just melt dark chocolate and glaze to taste(you can also add a sugar syrup to the chocolate to thin it out). 

Also give Martha Stewart's Lebkuchen a go. 

Give it a try! Have a merry bake! 

On the first day of Christmas...

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me... Peppermint candycanes!! 

And so she did. One of my closest friends, lets call her Miss.SuperEfficientGiffney, has mailed me an immense amount of candycanes! Which I am thrilled about! 

They are just a delicious candy on its own but you can also make many amazing treats with it. You can really put candycanes into everything. 

Say for example... Peppermint chocolate bark

Extremely delicious and easy to make! Nothing but chocolate(I used dark chocolate and white chocolate to give it some contrast) and crushed peppermint candycanes. The peppermint in the chocolate makes it so refreshing. 

I also found out through my experiments that peppermint meringues dipped in dark chocolate are delicious! 

    Source: www.bhg.com 

Get your favourite recipe for meringues (make sure you beat the mix well as it makes them stiffer) and switch its flavouring for peppermint candycanes. I crushed the candycanes roughly, you don't have to turn them into powder but you don't want very big pieces of it either. 

Bake them on parchemant paper or wax paper, they won't stick as much and it will be easier to remove them from the tray. I also like to undercook them, this makes them chewy but that is up to you and how you like your meringues. 

Last but not least, I dip them in dark chocolate. This process requires some patience as the meringues are very delicate and break easily. 

There are so many possibilities! 

Not in the mood for baking but feel like having something yummy and delicious? Try a nice hot chocolate and to make it that bit more delicious stir it with a peppermint cane :) 

Have a merry bake! 

Pumpkin madness series

I never knew there were so many sweet things I could make with pumpkin! 

I'm glad there are so many pumpkin lovers out there:) 

This time round I went for a recipe I had never seen... Pumpkin and chocolate chip bars. Pumpkin and chocolate?! Are you sure?! Lets see what Niki Segnit has to say about this flavour combination in her 'The flavour Thesaurus' (it's my bible)... Nothing. A flavour combination the book doesn't cover! Only one way to find out... Bake it! 

The veredict? I loved it!!! The pumpkin gives the bars a wonderful moister just like a carrot cake. And the chocolate? Delicious with pumpkin! 

I took some bars to work, my colleagues never say no to cake:p and it was a hit! Everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot. At home opinions were devided.. My dad loved it, my mum? Not much. But I became a fan and this recipe is a keeper. 

I took it from twopeasandtheirpod.com website. 

Here is the recipe: 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars 

Ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour 

1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice 

1 teaspoon baking soda 

3/4 teaspoon salt 

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature 

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 large egg 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract 

1 cup canned pumpkin puree(not pumpkin pie filling) 

1 package(12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180C). Grease a 9-by-13 inch baking pan and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, and salt: set aside. 

2. With a stand or electric mixer, cream butter, and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Add pumpkin puree and mix well. The mixture will look somewhat curdled. Reduce speed to low, and miz dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. 

3. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake bars for 35-40 min or until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moiat crumbs attached. 

4. Cool bars completely in pan. Cut into squares and serve. 

I always use salted butter so I never put in the salt. I also use my homemade vanilla extract(check out my 'vanilla vanilla vanilla' post on how to make it). 

Give it a try!! Bake away...   

Pumpkin mad series

As soon as I got my big chunk of pumpkin, I couldn't wait to get to work and start experimenting with recipes! 

And I am one lucky gal... I seem to have magical baking helpers because  when I left the house in the morning the pumpkin still needed to be chopped and peeled, when I got back it was ready to be cooked! Amazing :) 

This time round I followed my aunt's advice and steam cooked my pumpkin. The pumpkin already has so much water so if you steam cook it helps it not retain anymore water. However you still have to leave it overnight to drain the excess water. 

For my first recipe I decided to go for a classic that I love, pumpkin pie. To me Autumn only starts when I've had a slice of this good ole pie! 

My sister is also a big fan of pumpkin pie and I remember once my aunt wanted to make it for us (she knows how much we love it) and was all excited with this new recipe she had found(also a big fan of trying out new recipes) because it didn't use sugar! Well she could see it on our faces that it was a typo error because the pie definitely needed sugar!!  

So for my pumpkin pie I tried the Good Houskeeping cookbook 'Pilgrim pumpkin pie'. 

I enjoyed this recipe, although I think it lacks in flavour, partially because of the pumpkin I used. It wasn't very flavoursome but I think the pie could do with more spices. 

Well I'll let you have a go at it and see what you think! 

For the pie crust: 

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 

1/4 teaspoon salt 

4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces 

2 tablespoons vegetable shortening 

3 to 5 tablespoons ice water 

1. In large bowl, with wire whisk, stir flour and salt. With pastry blender or two knives used scissor-fashion, cut in butter and shortening (I don't have shortening so I just added the same amount of butter) until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. 

2. Sprinkle ice water, 1 tbsp at a time, mixing lightly with fork after each addition, until dough is just moist enough to hold together. 

3. Shape dough into disk; wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 30 min or up to overnight. (If chilled overnight, let stand 30 min at room temperature before rolling.) 

4. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll dough into 12 inch round. Ease into a 9-inch pie plate, gently pressing dough against side of plate. 

5. Make decorative edge as desired. Refrigerate or freeze until firm, 10 to 15min. 

6. Preheat oven to 425 F (220 C). Line pie shell with foil; fill with pie weights or dry beans. Bake for 15min. Remove foil with weights; bake until golden, 5 to 10 min longer. If shell puffs up during baking, gently press it down with back of spoon. Turn oven to 375 F ( 190 C). 

Pie filling: 

1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin (not pumpkin-pie mix) or 2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin 

1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk

3/4 cup packed brown sugar 

2 large eggs 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg 

1. In large bowl, with wire whisk, mix pumpkin, evaporated milk, brown sugar, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and nutmeg until well combined. 

2. Place piecrust- lined pie plate on oven rack, carefully pour in pumpkin filling. 

3. Bake until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean, about 50min. Cool on wire rack at least 1hour or up to 6hrs. Makes 10 servings 

Eh voilá!! Enjoy! 

Going pumpkin MAD!!!!

I am embarrassed... I am sorry!!!! I have left you hanging, waiting for another post and nothing!!!!! there is no excuse.... but... I am back!!!!!!

And back with a bang! It's Autumn! which means... an overload of pumpkin, chestnuts, apples and my favourite Cinnamon!

I have been eagerly awaiting for my aunt to share some of her pumpkins with me so I can go crazy and try all these different pumpkin recipes. However this year, due to weather conditions, her pumpkins didn't grow and only a small amount grew:(

But do not loose hope! the advantages of living in the countryside and having a farm is that you will most certainly have neighbours and friends with farms of their own. So My aunt received two huge pumpkins and gave a massive chunk of one of them to me:D Thank you auntie for your kindness!

Look at this beauty...

Now what to do with it? so many ideas!!! where to start... pumpkin pie?

Let's bake!!!

Busy Busy Bee

Wow I have been a busy bee!!! I have been making so many cakes it's amazing :D

Cake design is on demand! I have been making so many cakes it's crazy!!! Oh and I do love making them... my skill for cake decorating came as a surprise to me because when I started baking I had no intentions of going into the decorating side of things. Plus that was my mum's thing, she always made us amazing cakes for our birthday (so amazing I never let anyone destroy the cake:P). And since I had no training I didn't think I could do it.

Well one day I decided my sister needed a special cake for her 21st birthday and what better design than her (our) favourite animated film 'The nightmare before Christmas'. So I pictured in my head the cake and came up with a simple but super cute cake! And it turned out I actually had picked up the hang of it just from watching my mum all those years.

And here is what I have been up to since my last post... busy bee :) 

Made this mini cooper was for my cousin's 18th Birthday.