Merry Christmas Egg Nog Biscuits

This Bud's Egg Nog Biscuits turned out deliciously fluffy and tasty, and I am glad that I was brave enough to have tried it.

 Anyway you look at it, they were light and fluffy.  Full of vanilla flavor.

Ingredients:
2 Cups AP Flour + 1/2 C more for counter
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp salt
6 TBsp of butter cold, cut into big chunks
1/3 C Bud's Egg Nog

Shift flour, baking powder, and salt together, including the extra 1/2 C more flour into a large bowl.   Set 1/2 Cup aside on the counter top.
Add cold butter chunks.  Using fingers and mash flour and butter chunks between fingers.  Leaving pea size butter here and there.  Add Bud's Egg Nog.   Mix.
Dump the sticky dough onto the counter.
Gently knead to form a very "soft" ball.
Roll it out - Let dough rest for 10 minutes.   
Preheat oven to 425'F.
Roll dough out to 1/2 inch thick.  And cut with biscuit cutter.
Place closely to each other if you like soft side biscuits.  Let them rest for 3 to 5 minutes.
Bake until golden on the top.
Serve with crispy bacon, etc, etc.
 

TAKOYAKI

TAKOYAKI is one of my favorite childhood snack after going to the bathhouse.   It's easy, and fun to make them.
Special Tools - TAKOYAKI Fry Pan/Griddle, frying "pick", and oil brush

Ingredients:
1 C flour
1 beaten egg
1 C water
pinch of salt

Vegetable oil 

Cut Octopus tentacles into 1 inch long strips -or chopped -  set aside.

Optional:  chopped vegetables  - cabbage, carrots, onions, chopped shrimps, etc.

Sprinkles:
Red pickled Ginger
Katsuo - Shaved Bonita  or Powder form
Green seaweed powder
TAKOYAKI sauce or TONKATSU (Thick Japanese Worcestershire sauce)

Mix flour and beaten egg a bit, then add 1/8 C of water.  Mix.  Then, add another 1/8 C of water.  Mix, then, add 1/4 C of water, MIX.  and repeat.    Until the batter is thin, but not watery, nor thick.

Heat the pre-seasoned TAKOYAKI fry pan/griddle.  If this is the first time ever using it, oil it well  with the dedicated oil brush.

Tester:   If this is the first time the TAKOYAKI griddle is being used - be aware of the Murphy's law.  The first batch will most likely get stuck to the grill.  Be ready to experiment and throw away the first batch or enjoy it just the same.

 This is my first tester - not filled all the way was a mistake.  It has been a long time since I made them last, so I forgot.  And since I added all the goodies in the, I enjoyed the flops, too

Add the batter full in each section of the TAKOYAKI fry pan.  Add ingredients to the center of each section.   Cook until the side of each section appear translucent.  Use the Pick to flip the ball over.  Tuck all the dough under.   Cook for 1:30 min to 2 min, depending on your stove's heat power.  Take one out and check for doneness.

 Serve with all the sprinkles.
Your flipping skills will improve after the tenth flip, and they will turn out just great.

Much better.

 

Polly's Sufganiyot - Hanukka Jelly Filled Donuts Adventure

Do you ever come across a recipe that haunts you?  the recipe that you want to master?  or wonder why it turns out this or that way, and you want to find the correct ingredient portions to make the food turn out perfectly?  You search and you ask and you listen, and you try... and here is a winner recipe I found for making Sufganiyot.   I've tried one that was listed in the Sunset magazine before.  I am not sure because I used my commercial mixer to knead the dough that added to the difference in the result or it is a result of right combination of ingredients, but the Sufganiyot turned out very good for me.  I acquired this recipe while doing the search for the PONCHIK recipe.  Yep, I already have a very good recipe from the mypersiankitchen.com blogger's site that I am keeping, but there got to be some other perfect PONCHIK recipes out there in the Internet, right?  This time, I used the different wordings in the search engine, I tried "International Ponchik" recipes.   Wow! what a difference an additional word made.  It gave me several links to the PONCHIK recipes.  Of all the ones I found, I still think the recipe from mypersiankitchen.com gave the best result, however.   Before I start trying each new Ponchik recipe found, I decided to try the recipe for the Sufganiyot.  I couldn't do it on the Thanksgiving Day, nor do I want to miss the excitement or wait another 700 years for the Thanksgivings Day and Hanukkah falling on the same day, I made it on the week after I returned from the holiday.  It turned out great.

It only took the commercial mixer to knead the dough to a perfect texture in 8 min.

 

 Use biscuit cutter to cut into disc shape.

Try a few different sizes.   Cover and rest for about 30 min.

 Heat vegetable oil to 385'F

 Don't forget to Wobble the dough in the frying oil with spoon to help expand.
40 sec each side.

 

Cool on rack.
Fill with Jelly and or sprinkle with powder sugar.

 Yum!!  great texture and taste.

This wonderful Sufganiyot's recipe was found at

http://leitesculinaria.com/60367/recipes-hanukkah-jelly-doughnuts-sufganiyot.html

Please stop by there to obtain the recipe.
Thanks.