Soft Pretzels

Yes, it a recipe!!! I know, I know. I have posted a recipe in seems like ages.I blame it on work. But I was determined on this particular day to bake up a little something. I had been craving pretzels for quite a while. I love pretzels. Especially those soft thick ones you find in the mall. I'd always buy either a lightly salted or a cinnamon sugar. Those were my two picks. But since I'm on a tight budget right now, I couldn't really go out and buy few of them from my local mall. The county fairs are a bit far from me, so that was out of the question.

So I searched the interweb to various recipes. What I found is that it's very similar to making bread. Which in reality it is bread, just with a little extra steps and toppings. So I mixed and matched and formulated something into my own and still reminded me of the ones found at the local malls. The result is what you see here. Slightly crunchy crust with a delicious chewy inside. I like to baste the pretzels with melted butter a second time after baking to make it mice and butter. Yum!!! Though, I need to work on my pretzel twisting skills though. I tried to do it the lift and twirl in the air move to no avail. but I did manage to make them look decent after a couple tries.

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Makes 8 pretzels

Soft Pretzels

1 packet active dry yeast
1 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 c warm water 110˚F
3 c All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil

2 c water (110˚F)
2 Tbsp baking soda
1 Tbsp melted unsalted butter
Coarse Kosher Salt

 before baking

In a bowl dissolve the yeast in in the 1 cup warm water and add the 1 Tbsp sugar. Stir lightly to activate yeast. Then add the 1 tsp salt and slowly mix in the flour.

Once the mixture has combine in to a dough ball, liberally flour a flat surface and knead the dough for roughly 8 minutes.

In another clean bowl add the olive oil and coat bowl and the dough ball. Cover the bowl with a towel and leave it in a quiet slightly dimmed area to let the dough rise. Roughly 1 hour.

After an hour, remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 8 pieces. Roll out each piece into a 1/2-inch thick, 18-inch rope and form it into the pretzel shape. and place them into a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Let the pretzels rise a second time for roughly 15- minutes.

Preheat your oven to 450˚F

In a wide enough dish combine the 2 cups water with baking soda. Mix to dissolve. Once the pretzels have risen a second time, dip each pretzel in the baking soda solution for a few seconds and place it back on the baking sheet.

Baste each pretzel with the melted butter and sprinkle some of the coarse kosker salt on top.

Bake for 10-15 minutes.

To make cinnamon pretzels: do not add salt before baking. After baking baste the pretzels once more with melted butter and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon sugar.

Shortbread Cookies

Today's post will be short and sweet. Summer is making me lazy and I need to keep myself busy busy busy. Then work begins to get hectic, so I like to do two thinks to keep me sane and calm. One being taking a nice walk and second is baking. In this case, I baked some delicious shortbread cookies. I had enough ingredients to make a few batches. Lately, when I bake, I make more than I intend to. Haha... Has that ever happened to you? I gave several batches to a friend and they were a hit with her son.

So when things seem hectic and run me ragged, I turn to stepping into the kitchen and baking up some delicious yummies. Cookies are good. The only thing missing is a nice cold glass of milk and all is right in my world again.

Makes roughly 4 dozen cookies.

Shortbread Cookies

1 c unsalted butter (room temp)
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c cake flour
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350˚F

In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add the salt and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour half cup at a time. Mix thoroughly until the flour is fully incorporated. You can roll out the dough into a sheet and cut out shapes using cookie cutters or form the dough into golf ball-sized balls and gently flatten them into 1/8-inch thick flat disc (slightly larger than a quarter)

(note: you can mold the dough into a log and keep it in the fridge until ready to bake and cut out discs)

Place on a silpat or parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Spaced 2-3 inches apart.

Bake for 8 minutes and cool before consuming.

Brown Sugar Cookies

I had every intention of baking sugar cookies this week, but when I somehow took one glance at a jarful of light brown sugar those intentions went out the window. I haven't really baked much lately and I've been craving to get my hands dusted in flours once again. Luckily, my landlord had my conventional oven fixed, so now I can get back to business. There's only so much I could make with using a small toaster oven.

I remember I had bookmarked a cookie recipe from Furey and the Feast and felt that this would be a perfect time to try it out. I had just enough ingredients to make a batch. 2 dozen cookies.The original recipe called for dark brown sugar. I use light brown sugar, which was the only thing that I had. I wasn't in the mood to go to the market and buy one item. (I blame the summer weather for my slight laziness). So I bake it up and make around two dozen cookies. With a nice chewy center and crisp crust. You can't go wrong with that. Just make sure you let them cool first before taking a big a bite out of one of them. Yeah... I was eager. My poor tastebuds. hahaha... This is perfect with an evening cup of tea or a nice cold glass of milk.

Makes 24 cookies.

Brown Sugar Cookies
slightly adapted from Furey and the Feast

3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, room temperature
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Or you can use a silpat, too.

In a bowl, cream the butter and both sugars. Add egg, vegetable oil an vanilla, and mix until until fully incorporated.

In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Then add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture and mix until all ingredients just come together (If you have a mixer, you may use it to make the dough).

Divide the dough into 24 golf ball-sized rounds, flatten the dough balls and place on the cookie sheet about 2 1/2 inches to 3 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes for a chewy center with crisp edges. Remove from oven and remove from the baking sheet onto a cooling rack.

Parmesan Mozzarella Popovers

I was watching the show The Best Thing I Ever Ate last week and in one of the episodes one of the chosen eats was popovers. I made them once before last year. I figured it's time to make them again. Yesterday, I had tweeted that I had some baking in the oven while I did some work. Gotta love multi-tasking, right? They are really simple to and it takes only a few ingredients. Now I don't have one of those popover pans. It would be cool to have one, though not really necessary. So I went for the next best thing. A 12-cup muffin pan. Still works out great.  I've been having issues with the conventional oven in my place lately and I don't have have of those 6-cup muffin pans to fit into my little toaster oven.

So after spending a good hour just to trying to start up my old clunker, I set about making the batter. I modified my previous recipe a bit and I find this version to be way better. And they even popped over a bit more, too. They are delicious by themselves, with butter, jam, or for any kind of dip really. I really need to make these more often.


Makes 12-14 muffin popovers

 

Parmesan Mozzarella Popovers

1 Tbsp unsalted butter - melted and cooled
 2 c all purpose flour
1/3 tsp salt
4 eggs
2 c whole milk (room temperature)
1/3 c shredded parmesan
1/3 c shredded mozzarella

Preheat your oven to 400˚F.

Combine both cheeses in a small bowl and set aside.

In another small bowl, beat the eggs, then whisk in the milk to combine. Set aside. In another bowl, sift together the flour and salt. Slowly pour the milk mixture and whisk together until smooth.Then add the butter.

Grease a muffin pan with the a little bit of butter (or cooking spray) including the top surface.

Pour a scoop of batter into the muffin molds 1/3 full. Then top each with a good teaspoon of the cheese mix. Bake in the middle rack for 40-50 minutes. Halfway though give the pan a turn. Remove the popovers to a cooling rack and pierce the top with a knife to let out any steam.

Serve warm.

Pineapple Almond Bars

I loved those coconut lemon bars so much that I wanted to make more. But the second time around, I decided to change it up a bit. I had opened one of the large cans of pineapple tidbits when the idea hit me on the head. I didn't want to throw away all the delicious juice it came with. Sometimes I prefer the juice to the actual fruit. So pineapple bars it was!It's basically the same procedure as making the lemon bars. For the base I added some almond slices into the mix. Pineapple and almond do go well together.

Once baked, I put a tiny chunk of pineapple evenly space. It's best to do that part before the top layer of crust settles. One of the neat things is that after you sprinkle the powdered sugar on top. It melts into the little pineapple chunk, so it sort of looks like a tiny crater.

Makes 12 to 24 bars.

Pineapple Almond Bars

crust:
vegetable oil or cooking spray
3/4 c unsalted butter - 1 1/2 sticks - cold cubed
2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c brown sugar - packed
1/4 c confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar) - plus extra for dusting
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c almond slices

filling:
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 c granulated sugar
1/3 c all purpose flour
1 c pineapple tidbits
1 c pineapple juice

Preheat your oven to 350˚F

Grease a 9x13 - inch pan with the vegetable oil or cooking spray. Then line the pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides. Grease the foil as well.

In a food process, pulse the butter, flour, sugars and salt until it feels of a dough texture.  About a minute. If you don't have a food processor, mix and mash together with your hands until you get a doughy consistency. Pour the flour mixture into a bowl and add the almonds.

Place the dough in the pan and press evenly, making sure there are no cracks. Place in the oven and bake until the crust is golden brown, roughly 25 minutes.

While the crust bakes, make the filling. Whisk together, the eggs, yolks, sugar and flour until a smooth consistency. Add the pineapple juice.

When the crust is finished, remove from oven. Turn the oven down to 300˚F. Pour the filling onto the warm crust and return the pan into the oven. Baked for another 30-35 minutes or until the filling has set.

Let the bars cool in the pan on a rack, garnish with the pineapple tidbits evenly spaced. Then put in the fridge until it firms up -- 2 hours. When the filling has set, remove from the pan and slice. Dust with some additional powdered sugar.

Coconut Lemon Bars

The original recipe was from one of the issues of Food Network Magazine. It was for a classic lemon bar. I think I tabbed off nearly half of the recipe in that issue. I still had all that lemon juiceleeft from all those lemons I had received. So when I saw this in the magazine, I knew I had to make it. I prepared my ingredients. The only thing I didn't have was lemon zest. I had juiced all those lemons a while back and I threw out all the rinds. Had I known I needed some zest, I would have zested a few of a couple before throwing them out. So in place of the zest I added come coconut flakes into the filling instead. Give it another level of flavor. These are delicious tart treats.

Mmmm...coconut lemon flavor.

Makes 12-24 bar depending on how big you slice them.

Coconut Lemon Bars

crust:
vegetable oil or cooking spray
3/4 c unsalted butter - 1 1/2 sticks - cold cubed
2 c all purpose flour
1/4 c brown sugar - packed
1/4 c confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar) - plus extra for dusting
1/4 tsp salt

filling:
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 c granulated sugar
1/3 c all purpose flour
1 c coconut flakes
1 c fresh lemon juice

Preheat your oven to 350˚F

Grease a 9x13 - inch pan with the vegetable oil or cooking spray. Then line the pan with foil, leaving a 2-inch overhang on all sides. Grease the foil as well.

In a food process, pulse the butter, flour, sugars and salt until it feels of a dough texture.  About a minute. If you don't have a food processor, mix and mash together with your hands until you get a doughy consistency.

Place the dough in the pan and press evenly, making sure there are no cracks. Place in the oven and bake until the crust is golden brown, roughly 25 minutes.

While the crust bakes, make the filling. Whisk together, the eggs, yolks, sugar and flour until a smooth consistency. Add the lemon juice and coconut flakes.

When the crust is finished, remove from oven. Turn the oven down to 300˚F. Pour the filling onto the warm crust and return the pan into the oven. Baked for another 30-35 minutes or until the filling has set.

Let the bars cool in the pan on a rack, then put in the fridge until it firms up -- 2 hours. When the filling has set, remove from the pan and slice. Dust with some additional powdered sugar.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

Who knew tortillas would be so easy to make? I was boggled when I googled recipes on the net and found that it consisted of so few ingredients. A lot of them however had shortening or lard. Now I'm not much of a fan of shortening. I have no problem with people using them, it's just a personal preference. Then I found this recipe. Light bulb!!! 

Now I don't have a tortilla press, but it would be nice to invest in one, now that I'll be making them from now on. After turning the dough into small balls I smashed them between the bottoms of two round cake pans then rolled it out using a rolling pin. It's a little more work, but it's definitely worth having fresh made tortillas. Store bought can kick the dust as homemade is in! So what the first thing I made with these delicious tortillas? You'll just have to find out tomorrow. ;) Next on the agenda is to make the corn version.

Makes 6 tortillas

Homemade Flour Tortillas
adapted from cooking mexican recipe


1 c all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 c warm water

In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt. In another small bowl, combine the water and oil.

Slowly mix the water mixture into the flour mixture. Combine well until it forms into a dough ball.

On a light floured clean and flat surface, knead the dough for 4-5 minutes. If the dough begins to stick to the board scrape up the dough and lightly flour the surface again.

Form the dough into a ball and let it rest for 20 minutes covered by a damp towel or paper towel.

Then divide in the 6 equal pieces and form into small balls and let rest for another 10 minutes.

Heat up wide enough pan or cast iron skillet. No oil or butter needed.

If you have a tortilla press, use it to flatten each dough ball. If not, roll out the each dough ball in the thin circular sheet like you would a pizza dough. Use a rolling pin or your hands.

Carefully, place the flatten dough on the heated skillet and cook each side for roughly 3-5 minutes. When it slightly begins to bubble is the signal to flip. You just want it to barely start browning.

Keep the tortilla warm by placing it in a tortilla warmer wrapped in foil.

Best if eaten fresh, but it can be kept in the fridge or freezer for later use.

Wheat Cinnamon Rolls

Who doesn't love a good cinnamon roll? I remember going into Cinnabon and buy one of their large rolls with extra frosting. Of course that was way back when. See with the rain comes endless amounts of time spent in the office or at home. In my case, on this particular day, it was spent in my home office. The rain pouring and I'm trying to do some writing for a new script, but with no success. So into the kitchen I go.  I was originally going to make my usually loaf of bread, but then I got the sudden urge to make cinnamon rolls.

I've always had the regualr white bread versions of them and I thought why not have a wheat version. It's still bread, right? I make the dough and waiting for it to proof. I get all my other ingredients ready.

Once ready, I roll it out into a large rectangle. Spread some butter, sugar and cinnamon and "massage" into the dough. Then I roll it up and cut it into 12 pieces and bake. Now I couldn't leave it with just that. You need to have frosting to go with cinnamon rolls. It's like the quintessential ingredient that makes it so good to eat. I go for a cream cheese frosting on this one. Luckily, I still had some cream cheese left in the fridge.  I patiently wait for the rolls to bake. you can smell the cinnamon wafting through the air. Who need an airfreshener when you have the sweet smell of cinnamon inhabiting the room?

Once bake, I spread the frosting and dig in. Really good. A cinnamon roll is a cinnamon roll with a tiny twist. I think I'll go have another one right now.

Makes roughly 12 rolls.

Wheat Cinnamon Rolls

Dough
2 c All-Purpose Flour or bread flour
2 c wheat flour
1 package of rapid rise yeast
6 Tbsp olive oil
2 c lukewarm water (120˚F-130˚F)
6 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt


Cinnamon filling
1 1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter - plus extra
1/3 c sugar
1/4 c cinnamon
1 c chopped walnuts


Frosting (optional)
4 Tbsp cream cheese
4 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract


Combine the yeast and water in a small bowl. Add a teaspoon of sugar and stir once. Let it sit for 5 min.

Combine the flour, remaining sugar, butter or olive oil and salt in a large bowl and add the yeast. Mix it all together until it form into a dough blob.

Remove from the bowl and on a well-floured flat surface, knead the dough for a good 8 min until it feels elastic.

Lightly oil another bowl, place the dough in it and cover with plastic wrap and a towel and place away from light. Roughly 1 1/2 to 2 hrs or until the dough doubles in size.When the dough has doubled, punch down the dough to let the gases out and knead it again for a couple of minutes.

Preheat oven to 375˚F

On a lightly floured surface, rolls out the dough into a rectangle 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick. Spread the butter evenly over the surface, then sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon. With your hands or spatula mix all three over the surface. Sprinkle the walnuts o top and carefully the dough into a log. Cut them into 12 pieces and place them on a lightly grease a baking sheet or pan. Before placing them in the oven baste the tops of each rolls with a little bit of butter.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

To add frosting: combine all cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until well blended and spread a generous helping on each cinnamon rolls.

Serve warm.

Cheese Popovers

I remember seeing popovers from an episode of Good Eats a few years ago. I've been wanting to try and make it from. The little printout paper cutout cards squished into a small 3x5 index card box along with a catalogue of other recipes waiting to be tried. Finally the other for some unimaginative reason these little baked goodies pop into my mind. I wasn't in the mood to bake some bread. I wanted something relatively easy. Then in came Alton Brown to the rescue. (In my mind that is) I adapted these little beauties and added some good ol' cheddar into the batter. Who doesn't love cheese in baked goods? Now I don't have a popover pan, I would like one, but I don't think it's necessary. So I used a regular sized muffin pan. I have one that bakes a dozen muffins at a time. The batter is relatively easy to mix together.  I had to adjust the timing as muffin sizes are smaller that the regular popover size. But it's deliciously addicting.

Makes 12 muffin popovers

Cheese Popovers
adapted from good eats

1 Tbsp unsalted butter - melted and cooled
1 c all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 c whole milk
1/2 c shredded or chopped cheddar

Preheat your oven to 400˚F.

Grease a muffin pan with the a little bit of butter.

Combine all ingredients and mix well. Pour a scoop of batter into the mold 1/2 full. Bake in the middle rack for 15-20 minutes. Remove the popovers to a cooling rack and pierce the top with a knife to let out any steam.

Serve warm.

Mini Pecan Pie Tarts

This was a recipe I had originally planned to make for my Thanksgiving meal. But things didn't go as planned and I had to derail this cute little pie tart for another time. Fast forward to new year's and voila. One of my favorite pies in the whole wide world is the old fashioned pecan pie. I'd eat up the whole pie before anyone could get their forks into it. Okay maybe not, but I could eat a slice or two or three in one sitting. Sad isn't it?

Traditional recipes call for corn syrup.  I'm not much a fan of the stuff, but I know it's found in a lot of the things I've eaten. So I scoured the interweb and found a recipe on All Recipes. It's contains ingredients conveniently found in your pantry and without the corn syrup. It still tastes like a pecan pie. Woohoo... It was a good way to cap off a good New Year's night meal. I simply made the filling and baked them in some keebler mini graham cracker crusts. You can make your own if you have some extra time. But the recipe below just takes a bit of a shortcut using the premade stuff.

Serve this warm or cooled along with a side of vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm... It may be some time  before I make this again, so I enjoyed it as much as I could while it lasted. I guess there's no need for me to go to Marie Calendar's for pie.

Make 12 mini pie tarts or 1 9-inch pie

Mini Pecan Pie Tarts
adapted from All Recipes

12 keebler mini graham cracker tart cups
1 c brown sugar
1/4 c sugar
1/3 c melted unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp milk
2-3 c whole pecans

Preheat your oven to 350˚F

Cream together the butter and sugars. Mix in the melted butter. Then beat in each egg. Mix in the flour, egg, vanilla, milk. Once combine mix in the pecans

Evenly distribute the mixture among the 12 tart cups. Bake for 25 minutes. Let it cool before serving.

 

Cini-Mini Wheels

I had one last puff pastry sheet in the freezer and I wanted to make a sweet treat. (insert sympathetic fake teardrop here). That means I must restock. Anyway...I've been having cravings for cinnamon rolls lately. Who doesn't love a nice warn cinnamon roll with ooey gooey frosting slathered on top. I decided to make use of that last sheet and make myself some swirlies.

The only thing inside the dough is brown sugar and cinnamon. I rolled it up and divided it into ten mini wheels. I flattened it a bit to give it a pinwheel shape. When they came out I lightly basted the top with some honey and powdered sugar. As if it couldn't get any sweeter. Mwhahahaha!!! This is devilishly good. You can't have one. I had 5!!!

Makes 10 mini wheels

Cini-Wheels Wheels

1 puff pastry sheet - defrosted
1/3 c brown sugar
3 Tbsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
honey
powdered sugar

Preheat your oven to 400˚F

Lay the puff pastry on a flat surface the fold lines facing parallel to you. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon over. Then tightly roll the dough. Cut into 10 wheels.

Take each when and flatten the on the side, swirl facing up. Place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Sprinkle some of the granulated sugar on top.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. Baste them slightly with a bit of honey.

Persimmon Pouch

I had gotten a couple of persimmons from a family friend. This was actually my first time trying out these tasty fruit. I've also been seeing quite a bit of persimmon recipes around the blogosphere, so looking around it gave me a few ideas on what I could make with them.

So the first thing that came to mind was to make a kind of tart with them. Here comes Mr. Puff Pastry to the rescue. I sliced up the persimmons and simmered them with some brown sugar and cinnamon. Almost making a compote out of them. Then baked it in a puff pastry that I wrapped up like a bundle. I saved the brown sugar syrup that was left and drizzled it over the puff pouch.

Serves 3

Persimmon Pouch

2 ripe persimmon
4 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 sheet puff pastry - defrosted
1 Tbsp unsalted butter - melted


Bring a small pot of water to a boil and poach the persimmons for 30 to 60 seconds to help losen the skin. Let it cool for a bit before removing the skin. Slice the persimmons into thin wedges and place in a sauce pan. Add the brown sugar and cinnamon to the sauce pan and cook on medium heat until persimmons are slightly tender and the sugar has dissolved.


Preheat your oven to 400˚F

Lightly roll out the puff pastry and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. When the persimmons are ready spoon the fruit onto the center of the dough. Reserve the brown sugar syrup for garnish.

Fold the dough by bring the corners to the center.

Baked for 20-25 minutes.

Drizzle the reserved brown sugar syrup on top.

Kabocha Biscuits

Alrighty get ready for this series of post Thanksgiving recipes. Dish #1. Biscuits. Oh, Mr. Kabocha has a way of sneaking into the Thanksgiving meal, too. Sneaky one you are! It's still a pumpkin. Sounds good to me. I'll take it.

The recipe for this follows the same as my buttermilk biscuits. Just add the pumpkin puree to the batter and baked. Really good. I didn't have any buttermilk, plus the recipe only require a small bit. So a trick to make buttermilk is to spike 1 cup of regular milk with 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Let it stand for at least 10 minutes and you've got yourself instant buttermilk. Plus, it helps save from having a barely used carton of buttermilk from going bad in the fridge.

The biscuits came out as a slightly yellowish-orange in color, which I found pretty cool. I didn't mix the pumpkin puree as thorough to give then a sort of marbled look. Super tasty warm with a nice spread of butter or dollop of cranberry sauce with a slice of turkey or in my case roast duck. 

Makes 9-12 biscuits.

Kabocha Biscuits
3/4 c kabocha or pumpkin puree
2 c flour (plus extra for dusting)
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Sugar
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
2/3 c Buttermilk
1/3 unsalted butter

--
To puree fresh pumpkin: heat the pumpkin in the microwave for 5 minutes and scoop out the flesh. Puree with a blender, food processor or masher.

If you want to buy a whole carton of buttermilk, simply add 1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar to 1 c milk and let it stand for a least 10min.
--

Peel and cut the sweet potato into cubes and place them in to some boiling water. Cook them until tender. Cool them off in some cold running water, then mash. Set aside 2/3 c for the sweet potato.

Preheat your oven to 425˚F

Combine flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in the butter until it resembles crumbs. Add in the mashed sweet potato and the buttermilk. Mix it all together until it forms a dough ball.

Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead a few time. Roll out the dough to 1/2-thick. And cut into 9 or 10 round biscuits.

Place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for roughly 10-13 min.

Nutella Wafers

Another nutella recipe? Yes, it is! I say you can never have enough nutella, right? I was in a baking mood when I make those nutella rolls several days ago, so I went ahead and made some cookie wafers. For this, I just basically adjusted my Vanilla Almond Wafer recipe and added a couple heaping tablespoons nutella. What I got was some chocolate, vanilla, almond, hazelnut, sesame flavors in a delicious wafer cookie. Had myself a glass of milk and ate a few for a little afternoon snack. Besides who doesn't like a good cookie? Yummy! You just can't have one or two.

Makes roughly 2 dozen. 

Nutella Wafers

2 egg whites (beaten)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
8 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
8 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp water
2 Tbsp Nutella
1/4 salt
sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 350˚F

In a bowl combine the flou, sugar, salt, cornstarch and mix in the water.

In a separate bowl, combine egg whites, vanila extract, almond extract, and vegetable oil. mix together until the mixture is frothy, then add into the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

On a parchment lined baking sheet, spoon the batter into your desired size and sprinkle on the sesame seeds.

Baked for 10-15 minutes.

Kabocha Cookies

Kabocha is a Japanese squash. More commonly a pumpkin. This summer has been great for the squash familia. I think I've got my fill of them by the looks of the recipes I've posted these past few month. I was thinking about making some tempura with them, but then I thought of making some sort of baked cookie with them. It's been a while since I've made cookies. Why not? I did make sweet potato biscuits. Why not kabocha cookies, right?

I recently received a jar of some Red Ape Cinnamon, which is pure organic ground Cassia cinnamon from Sumatra. I haven't, at the time, even opened the jar and the smell was so wonderful. Twist the cap open and the aroma fill the air. I love cinnamon. Just the smell of cinnamon and I'm in love. Check out their site to see what other products they offer. It tastes quite lovely to be honest. There's just something about cinnamon that makes it irresistable.

I found a neat trick by mircowaving the kabocha for roughly 5 minutes to get the flesh soft, cooked and easy to handle. It sort of steams them in a way. Make sure you cut them into chunks first. This helps in scooping them out from the skins without have to boil a big pot water.

It's got a little consisteny of a muffin top. I guess I should call these kabocha muffin tops, but I like the sound of cookies better. These are really tasty and with a slight sweetness. A perfect afternoon snack.

Makes 12 large cookies or 18 medium cookies.

Kabocha Cookies

1 small kabocha (2 c)
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
8 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
1 1/3 c flour
1 tsp baking soda


Preheat oven to 375˚F

Heat the kabocha in the microwave for 5 minutes. Then slice in half. Heat for another five minutes to cook until tender. Let it cool for several minutes before handling. Scoop out the flesh and into the food processor or blender. blend until smooth. You may also mash them, if you don't have either.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Then in another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in egg yolks and the kabocha. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.

Place on a baking sheet lines with parchment paper and bake for 15-20 minutes.