Gingerbread Men

“What’s that Mami?”, the little one asked.

She was pointing to a page on a book I just purchased the day before.

“It’s gingerbread men. They are cookies.”, i told her.

“Cookies? one, mau (want), one” she said. She was telling me she wanted a cookie.

“You want a gingerbread cookie?”

“Mau! (“want” in Indonesian), she said affirmatively.

Seeing that we absolutely had nothing planned for the day. I led her to the kitchen.

We started mixing the dough. It was a foolproof dough, where no chilling was necessary.

I gave her a piece of dough to work with. She rolled it out.

And started stamping.

It really didn’t take any time at all.

When the gingerbread men were all baked, we went back to her book.

“Same!!!” she exclaimed gleefully, placing the cookies right on the spot on the page where the gingerbreads are.

“Yes, they are the same”, i told her.

“Gingerbread Men”, i prompted her.

“Men!”, she repeated after me, smiling as she took a bite.

Very forgiving Gingerbread Men Cookie

• 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
• Directions: Beat together the coconut oil and coconut sugar. Mix in the eggs and vanilla.

1. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, and ginger.
2. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. On a floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8-inch thickness, and then cut with gingerbread men cookie cutters.
5. Place the cookies on a parchment/silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-9 minutes.
6. Allow to cool completely

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Wontons!

It’s always nice to have company when you are doing something so long and labourious.

Such is the case, when i made these wonton skins from scratch today.

All i did was just give her some scraps of dough.

And she was happy imitating what i did.

It made the whole cooking process so much lighter, instead of being a chore 🙂

And two hours later, lunch was served. We had chicken and shrimp wontons 🙂

Wonton skin

1/3 cup water

1 egg

2 cups of flour

1/2 tsp salt.

whisk the egg with the water. in another bowl, sift the flour with the salt. Make a well in the centre and pour the egg mixture in. Mix and knead till the dough turns elastic and smooth. Set aside, and leave to rest for 15 minutes

For the filling

150 grams ground chicken,

100 grams ground shrimp

2 tablespoon sago flour

1 egg

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

2 tablespoon soy sauce

5 shallots, chopped and lightly stir fried

1 tsp sesame oil

20 pieces of wonton wrappers

mix the all ingredients together. Place one tsp of the mixture on top of the wrapper, and wrap it up. Continue to do so, until you have finished using up your wrappers. make sure to dust the surface that you will be laying your wontons to prevent it from sticking. Bring a pot of water to boil, drop in the filled wontons, and cook till they float. Fish wontons out of the water and serve.

2015 Blueberry Cheesecake

When your child is as obsessed about blowing candles as mine, you find every reason to bake a cake and place candles on it.

And when she gives you a pleading face like that,

You cave in and allow her to stick her fingers into the cake.

Happy 2015 to all of you ! I wish you the happiest New Year ahead!

Vanilla bean cheesecake with blueberry jam

For the crust:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tbs corn starch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup sygar
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F, generously butter the bottom and sides of a 9 inch springfom pan. Wrap the outside with aluminium foil, covering the bottom and extending all the way up the sides.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer on high until creamy. Add the egg yolks and vanilla. Beat until blended. Reduce the speen to low and mix in the flour mixture just until it disappears and a dough forms. Work the dough with your hands until it comes together in a ball. Chhill for about 30 minutes.
Flour your hands and place the dough in the centre of your pan and begin pressing with the heels of your hands from the centre outward toward the edges, working in circular motion around the pan, and up the sides. Keep pressing until the crust is flat on the bottom. Prick the crust in several places with a fork. Bake the crust just until it’s set and golden (about 15 minutes).

For the cheesecake
1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean (about 7 inches long), scrapped
900 gram cream cheese
1/4 cup corn starch
1 tbs pure vanilla extract
2 extra large eggs
3/4 cup heavy cream

For the blueberry jam
250 gram blueberries
1/2 – 1 cup sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
Make and bake the cake crust, and leave it in the pan. Keep the oven on.

Put one 225 grams of the cream cheese, 1/3 cup of the granulated sugar, cornstarch and the scraped vanilla beanin a large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on low until creamy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl several times. increase the mixer speed to mendium and beat in the remaining 1 1/3 cup of sugar. Blend in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after adding each one. Beat in the cream just until completely blended, be careful not to overmix. Gently spoon batter on top of the crust.

Place the cake in a large shallow pan containing hot water that comes about 1 inch up the sides of the springform. Bake until the edges are light golden brown and the top is slightly golden tan (about 75 minutes). Remove the cake from the water bath. transfer to a wire rack and let the cake cool for 2 hours (just walk away!)

LEave the cake in the pan, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until completely cold, preferably overnight or at least 4 hours

Wash and drain blueberries. Over low heat, cook blueberries, with sugar and lemon juice until thick and syrupy.

Spoon over the cheesecake and chill.