Tag Archives: baking

Christmas baking, hamper goodies

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In the last couple of days, I have had the opportunity to take it a little easy…..and in my usual style, that does not mean, I did nothing :-).  I decided to catch-up on Christmas baking for the family + hamper gifts (gift baskets) for our two neighbors.

First, was my Pineapple Fruit Cake (my version of Christmas Fruit Cake, since I am not a fan).
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Second, Orange Lightening Cake (as muffins).
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Thirdly, Star Wars Sugar Cookies, with green and red sugar sprinkles for a Christmas flare. The forms, we purchased at Williams and Sonoma, while they were on special for $4.95. For these, I used this recipe, but found I had to add 1 additional egg, and 1/2 stick of additional butter as it was very dry.
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Lastly, something for my husband to remind him of home, German Christmas Cookies (made with almond meal)….recipe below. IMG_9069

German Christmas Cookies

Ingredients
1 egg (separate egg yolk and white)
60 g (1/2 cup)  Almond meal
180 g (1 1/2 cups) All purpose flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
pinch salt
80 g + 40 g (1 cup) icing sugar (confectionary sugar)
80 g (3/4 stick) butter (softened)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Tbsp milk
1 Tbsp water

Mix the yolk, almond meal, flour, baking powder, salt, 80g icing sugar, butter, vanilla and milk in a large bowl. NOTE: I start mixing with a fork and then use my hands as the dough starts to form). Form the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F (200 degrees C). Once dough has chilled, place it between two layers of plastic wrap and roll out the dough. Cut out your cookies using your forms and place on a tray that is covered with baking paper (cookie sheets).

Mix the rest of the icing sugar (40g), egg white and water in a bowl and whisk to dissolve the icing sugar. With a brush thinly coat the top of the cookies with the glaze-mixture. Bake cookies for ~12 minutes or until golden.

Remove from the oven, leave on tray to cool for 5-10 minutes. Place on cooling rack thereafter until completely cooled.

What have you been baking for Christmas? I would love to hear.

Baking with Citrus: Orange Lightening Muffins + Lemon Buttermilk Pound Cake

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This weekend,  I took two recipes I previously posted and made a couple of modifications. These modifications were so well received the boys have almost eaten it all in 24 hours.

Modification one was using the Orange lightening cake recipe and making Orange Lightening Muffins. I made the recipe exactly the same but instead of putting it in the cake tin, I placed it in a muffin tin. I baked them at the same temperature – 325 degrees F, for 30 minutes.

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The second modification was to the Vanilla buttermilk pound cake, making it a Lemon buttermilk pound cake. I switched out the vanilla essence using one lemon.

  • grated zest of 1 lemon
  • heat lemon for 10 seconds in the microwave and add to the mixture the juice from the squeezed lemon.

Everything else was the same including the Lemon icing.

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Double chocolate banana bread

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I have been seeing a lot of banana bread and nutella recipes. I decided to modify my banana bread recipe so it included chocolate chip and nutella. Boy, it was amazing – very rich though, one slice was enough 🙂

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Modifications to the Original Recipe:

Additional Ingredients

  • 1 cup semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
  • 3/4 cup Nutella

Additional Directions

Follow the directions in the Original recipe but add the 1 cup of chocolate chips to the banana mix before adding the dry ingredients. Pour batter into tin as described.

Melt Nutella for 20 seconds on high in the Microwave. Pour the nutella on top of the batter. Use a knife to mix in the nutella slightly into the top of the loaf. Bake as stated in the original directions.

Serving suggestions: Serve warm with whip cream and a coffee