Holiday Biscotti

What a fun month is December.  All the shopping fun and cooking and gathering with families over dinner, desserts, and all the wonderful holiday snacks.  Over the weekend, I made Challah with Raisin, Croissants, and Holiday Biscotti.  This time, I managed to obtain unsalted Pistachio at local farm market that it gave me a chance to make this tasty Holiday Biscotti again.
It contains chopped roasted (raw unsalted) pistachio, dry apricots, raisins.  Some are dipped in semi-sweet chocolate and roasted almond slices.

 

 

Melekimaka!

Ingredients

• 2 cups AP Flour 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs 
• 3/4 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped--shell it yourself
• 2/3 cup dried cranberries and cherries; drained and dried overnight Maraschino cherries, chopped
• 12 ounces good-quality semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
• Almond slivers   and sprinkles that you might like

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
 
Line a half sheet baking pan (18x13") with silipad or parchment paper.   Shift the flour and baking powder in a medium bowl.   Beat sugar butter and lemon zest, salt, in mixer with paddle attachment until the butter is fluffy and pale in color;  Add 1 egg at a time and after well mixing in the first ones.  Stop and mix in pistachios and other goodies of your choice.  Use the spatula to incorporate them well.
 
Form the dough into a 13-inch long, 3-inch wide log on the prepared baking sheet. Bake until light golden - *depending on your oven-- about 40 minutes.  Cool for 30 minutes.
                   ** You are not done, yet.
Place the log on the cutting board. Using a sharp serrated knife, cut the log on a diagonal into 1/2 to 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange the biscotti, cut side down, on the baking sheet. Bake the biscotti until they are pale golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer the biscotti to a rack and cool completely.
 
Stir the chocolate in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water (bain marie) until the chocolate melts. (Or microwave it in a plastic or stainless bowl for 1 minute at a time - when you see the sign of "softness", take out and stir it crazy.  It is ready for use.)
Dip half of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Gently shake off the excess chocolate. Place the biscotti on the cooling rack set over a parchment or wax paper to catch the excess chocolate for the chocolate to set  (you can reuse the chocolate after it becomes solid again). Roll in almond sliver before the chocolate solidifies or sprinkle with sprinkles or sugar crystals. Let it set until the chocolate is firm, about 35 minutes.

Wrap them up individually or in a holiday-ish container and share with friends and family.

Challah with Raisins

This is the follow up of the Challah with Raisins.
The Challah turned out as flavorful as the first Challah with Cranberries and Raisins.  The dough developed very well, and it is very tasty.  This is definitely a winning formula.
The original recipe is from:
http://bakingbites.com/2010/09/challah-with-raisins
Qty - 2 Medium size
Or Qty - 1 Large
Instead of making on large Challah, I divided the dough into two.  One for my sister and one for me.

My Ingredients:
1 tsp sugar
1 cup warm (110F) water
1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup Avocado oil
1 tbsp honey
 3 large eggs
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour (and up to 1/4 cup extra for kneading)
2/3 cup raisins
TangZong: 35 g Flour + 125 ml water.  Mix well and heat to 65'C.  Strain.
Eggwash:  1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tsp water
Knead with Paddle first.  Then after adding all ingredients, change to dough hook to knead. The dough is quite wet the first 8 minutes.  Knead until the smooth dough forms.  Approx.   25 min. to 40 min. depending on your mixer power.

Brush dough with egg wash and Bake.

Stir Fried Asparagus with Shrimps

This is my adventure with Asparagus.  The dish turned out quite appetizing to eat GENZIMAI 'brown rice' with.  But the rice vinegar flavor is a bit overpowering.  Will improve on the sauce the next time.  In fact, tonight, I made creamy mushroom sauce with shallots with Provence spice for the Asparagus spears sauted in clarified butter. 

 

 It was heat through for 1 minutes and found out that it was 30 sec too much for the beautiful green asparagus.  It got overcooked. 

Shrimp Pearl-Balls

Glutinous sweet rice taste wonderful steamed.  Normally, the ground pork is used to make this dish, but I ran out of it, so I tested with shrimps.  Taste??? well, it's missing something, I am not sure what.  I will have to improve on it.  Maybe a dab of fat pork would do?

Form the grounded shrimps into a ball and roll it in glutinous sweet rice.  *The sweet rice is wash thoroughly till the water is clear and soaked in water for 30 min, then, strained well before use. (but not dry).

 Get the steamer ready.  These pearl balls are set in 'steamer' pan on top of the electric rice cooker.  I have never used it to steam anything.  Since it is not mine, it has been sitting in far corner of the kitchen cabinet for many years.  I filled the 'rice' cooking pot section with cold water - half of the pot.  Cover with lid and turn the rice cooker on.  Steam for an hour.  *Never open the lid of the rice cooking pot - well, there is no such thing as 'never'.  But I think if you are raised with rice as staple food, you and I have been told many a times - don't open the lid to check until it is ready

 After an hour, turn off the rice cooker.  Wait 10 min.  Then, open the lid carefully not to let the steam rain down on the pearl-balls.  Set the lid on the lid rester.  The sweet rice should look all translucent.  If your rice cooker has a glass lid, then, just check for translucent rice all around.   I rather cook it long enough to make sure the rice is cooked and internal meat is cooked through.  Uncooked rice is challenging to recook once the heat is turned off; and it usually require additional water, and there is a consequence of rice turning 'mushy'.

 The next day, they turned into my BENTO in mini-cupcake cups.

Challah with Raisins and Cranberries

When I visited Baking Bites' blog site, I noticed this beautiful picture of Challah with Raisins.  I love bread, and it seems to be calling me, so I went right to work.  For Challah with Raisins recipe that I made mine from, please visit http://bakingbites.com/2010/09/challah-with-raisins. Since, I did not know what Challah meant, I consulted the Internet and found it to be quite in time for this holiday season.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challah, and I am glad I made it.  My Challah is three rope braid.  And not knowing the tradition, I added chopped cranberries. It tastes very good with raisins. I would like to try making the sufganiyot, like PONCHIK, the next time.

My Challah has some modification to the recipe I got from the Baking Bites' site. I added Tangzong - Flour ROUX to give extended moisture and softness as a test.
Tangzong - Flour ROUX is not my recipe either. I learned it from some of the Malaysian and Singaporean food bloggers. They reference Yvonne Chen, the bread doctor. For example, you can visit Pei-Lin's blog site. http://dodol-mochi.blogspot.com/2009/10/tangzhong-or-water-roux-method.html.
For Tangzong:  Mix 25 g of flour with 125 ml of water in a saucepan.  Have a thermometer ready.  Mix well and cook over medium heat.  While stirring continuously , measure the temperature often to make sure that it does not exceed 65'C (centigrade).  Remove from heat to cool before use.
Since my kitchen is either too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter, to make sure all my mixtures for the dough is at desirable proofing temp, I added my Tanzong roux while at 90'F (Farenheit) into the flour mixture.

Bread dough Ingredients:
Dissolve 1 tsp sugar + 1/2 C warm 110'F water + 1 Tbsp active dry yeast for 10 min. until bubbles form on top.
Manual Mixing (since I kind of gave up using my Kitchen Aid dough mixing function):
Total of flour used in my variation:  'approx.' 3-3/4 C + roughly 1/2 C for kneading
When it's about 8 minutes into the yeast fermentation, start adding 1/2 C oil, 1 Tbsp honey, 1/4 C sugar and 2 C flour and 1/2 C warm 110'F water in a large mixing bowl.
Mix all well together, and add yeast mixture.  Add Tangzong.  And mix all well together.
In the beginning, I was using a spoon to incorporate everything.  You can use spatula or hand, but I know the mixture is very wet, and I was not yet ready to get my hands all occupied, so, you will see the spoon in the photo.  Once the dough mixture is well mixed.  I let it set for 5 minutes.
Bring two eggs to room temperature under warm water and chop 2/3 C of raisins and cranberries in the mean time.
Add 1 C flour, raisins and cranberries in.  Pass two eggs through the mini-strainer to separate Albumen, chalazae, etc. and it's mashed evenly when done in the bowl.
Mix all well again with the spoon or with your hand.
The mixture is really wet.  Transfer the mixture out to floured work surface.
Start pulling and pushing down the mixture.  Adding handful more of flour up to 1 more Cup.
Repeat pulling and pushing down the mixture, scraping and rolling until the gluten is formed.
After an hour of manually 'kneading' the dough this way, the dough's gluten is well developed for me to round it to form a ball.  Ready for the proofing.
Cover with plastic and a cover and place in a warm place to proof until double in size.
*I heated the oven to 350'F and turned it off.  Waited 15 min and measured the interior temp.  85--87'F.  I placed the bowl inside with lamp on.  It took three hours for the dough to rise.
As I removed the plastic cover, the dough deflated on its own.   I did not pound down any further because I want to keep as much air bubble as possible.
Transfer the dough to lightly floured work surface.  Divided it into three equal parts.
Prepare a baking sheet covered with parchment paper.  Set aside.
The dough is soft and pliable.  Gently pull and elongate the dough.  I rolled the dough into a log shape, then, rolled on the surface gently to form into a long rope.  Repeat with the other two.
Braid the ropes and tuck the ends under.
Transfer to the baking sheet pan line with parchment paper.
Beat 1 egg whites with 1 tsp water - egg wash the formed dough.
Spray the plastic wrap with vegalene and lightly cover the dough for the 2nd rise.
I covered my dough with the inverted rectangular plastic container.  Then, placed the sheet pan
back in the oven with light turned on.  Proof until double in size.
Remove from the oven.  Preheat the oven to 375'F.
I  egg washed it again.  Bake until deep golden brown.  Interior temperature read 200'F.
Cool completely.  **The crust of the bread will become tender as it cools.
You can view video of how I managed to knead the wet dough by visiting YouTube - How to Knead Wet Challah Dough - Step 1 of 4
(click on the photo to view larger image and other details)

I can't wait to make some more this!
FYI - After 8 days, a slice of toasted Challah or microwaved for 5 sec or just as is still tastes very good. & as for the Challah with Raisin, it turned out fantastic.  

Butternut Squash Soup

My friend gave me this beautiful butternut squash from his garden before the cold frost hit his garden, and I was not quite sure what kind of dish to make it into.  There is always the easy butter roasted squash.  Then, I remembered the wonderful butternut squash bisque served at The Kitchen restaurant I went.  Even though I did not have the other three varieties of squash, I thoughtfully created my Butternut Squash Bisque Soup - as there is no shellfish stock involved.
Tools:  Blender, knife, large spoon, strainer, saucepan, bowls, large spoon/ladle, heatproof spatula, peeler, cutting board, aluminum foil, quarter size baking sheet for the counter-top electric oven.
Serves: 2
Ingredients:
1 1lb+ butternut squash
4 pearl onions, peeled and chopped
1/2 C carrots, peeled and chopped
1 C Chicken Stock   *Should use vegetable stock.  Chicken stock was overpowering.
3 Tb Butter

Homemade vegetable stock:  Bring 2 C of water to boil.  Add 3 stalks of chopped celery,  1 Cucumber, roughly cut, 1 shallot or quarter of a small onion, roughly cut.  Salt to taste.  Boil for 15 min.  Strain to a bowl.  Store unused portion or add a dab of Miso and have a cup of Miso soup for a break.

Preheat oven to 425'F.
Cut the head of the butternut squash off.
Cut the butternut squash into halves.
Using a large spoon, scoop the fiber and seeds out.
Put 1-1/2 Tb butter in each butternut 'cup'.
Place on top of quarter size baking sheet covered with aluminum foil.  Cover the butternut squash with another piece of aluminum foil.  Roast it in the oven for an hour.
Take it out, peel the skin off and cut into chunks.
Add all into the blender and Puree.
Strain the pureed mixture into a small saucepan.
Add 1 C 'vegetable stock' and heat through.  Remove from heat
Serve in soup bowl.  Top with a tablespoon of heavy cream.  Shredded Mozarella and Parmesan cheese.  Sprinkle of freshly grounded black pepper.
(Click on image to view details)