Daring Bakers - November 2012

This month's challenge was ..... Cookies, Biscuits, Treats!!!!!

Twelve Days of Cookies....

Totally my kind of challenge! It was hosted by Peta from Peta Eats.

I decided to make recipe No 5: foaming cookies, using maple syrup. For the second recipe (we were asked to make one from Peta's and one of ours) I made sugar cookies... what else!

Maple Foaming Cookies

340 gm sugar
100 ml maple syrup
560 gm all-purpose flour
225 gm butter
1 teaspoon bi-carbonate soda
30 ml  hot water


Preheat oven to 180°C. Rub the butter into flour until it looks like fine breadcrumbs or blitz together in a food processor. Melt the sugar and maple syrup together. Dissolve the bi-carbonate soda into the hot water. Add to the sugar/maple syrup mixture and mix quickly into the flour/butter until well combined.
The mixture will be rather runny and shiny.
When the dough has cooled a bit, make balls with your hands, put them on a baking tray and flatten them a little. The tray should be lined with baking paper. I always do that!
Bake for 10 – 15 minutes or until golden. Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the tray and then move to cooling rack.

There are many variations to this recipe. It is really versatile and you can use anything you want! Peta suggests, i.e. to add 2 tablespoons golden syrup or treacle, 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cloves and 1 teaspoon mixed spice for ginger cookies and even substitutions, i.e. gluten free flour or almond flour for plain flour, dairy substitutes for butter, water, juice or milk substitute for milk, etc..
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Maple and sugar, yum!

Flour and butter...

Adding the bicarb. soda is really foaming...

This dough is shiny, tasty (!) and really easy to handle...

I like the end result. It is both tasty and pretty. Love the cracks on the surface!

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I really wished I had more time to make more cookies and try new recipes. Also I wish I had the metabolism for it...

I am definitely making more. Peta provided 12 recipes of mouth watering cookies!

I didn't take any pictures of the sugar cookies, but you can have an idea here and here.
Thank you Peta!

Present presentation!!

When I make a present, I want it to be special (of course), but in a way that is personal to me and to the recipient.
I try to figure out what is best for the person in question a few days ahead and try to match it to their personality.
My personal touch on the matter is usually the wrapping / packaging. It has to be pretty and cute and strange and have a wow-factor about it.

When it was my sister's birthday, I got her a kaftan. It was gift wrapped at the shop in a bag, but I wanted something diferent. So....
I bought a tube of Pringles (and washed it thoroughly)....

I have my wrapping paper ready, my scissors, double-sided tape and I begin...

I used the tape to cover the tube with wrapping paper. I left the lid as it was. (You can see the kaftan at the right top corner, blue, teal, olive green, beige, a hint of yellow... Love these colours!)

I used the tape to secure the yellow ribbon to the sides of the tube, put the kaftan in and then closed with the lid...

I added a Birthday Wish tag...

I tied a nice bow...

And there you have it!

She liked both the kaftan and the packaging!!!

Office Outfit of the week!

 

This type of jacket, the cape, is the one I wear mostly.
Practically through the winter, except o the very cold days of
course.

I also realised that I wear my ballerinas very often. I am not very
comfortable wearing heels all day! (Even though I love them!!!)

Office Outfit of the week!

 

I know, it looks rather casual, but I have incorporated some
luxury details!
Also it is an outfit "fit" to help me tackle a day that is promising
to be difficult ...

Office Outfit of the week!

 

I like the colour combination! 
A denim vest is a classic piece.

On the other hand the weather is crazy, chilly in the morning, 
hot at noon.
You just don't know what to wear!

Daring Bakers - October 2012

I am two days late, I know.
Actually I was out of town for the weekend, so I am posting today...

This month's challenge was hosted by Suz from Serenely Full .
 We had to make our own puff pastry and a mille-feuille or napoleon.

Well, that was a first for me! Never made puff pastry before and I can't say that I want to make it again... Sorry, my fellow Bakers, but I wasn't very happy with the end result of my puff pastry, even though my Napoleon was very tasty.
The pastry cream, on the other hand, was so good, I ended up licking the bowl!

I made a Napoleon for G's birthday celebration and our friends really liked it. The taste is very ellegant!

What I would change is this:
- I will buy fresh ready made puff pastry
- I will not use chocolate for the topping.

Let me explain what I mean by that...
I melted bitter chocolate alone and decorated the top of my dessert. When I tried to cut slices, the chocolate was hard (naturally), pressuring the Napoleon, making the cutting difficult and resulting in not so pretty slices. Next time, I will add some butter or cream in the chocolate, so that it is soft!

Making the pastry cream...

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I covered it with cling film, so that there will be no crust on top.

I think I rolled the puff pastry very thin...

The pastry cream was very easy to handle and spread.

My RI is rather runny....

This is the end result!

Thank you Suz!

Office Outfit of the week!

 

Olive green and military jackets are one of my favourite colours!