Christmas Cookie Series

If life is a cookie, friends are the chocolate chips.
- Unknown Proverb

While we wait for the holiday season, we counted down the days in cookies. From roll cookies, bar cookies, delicate cookies and sandwich cookies, we baked our way through twelve days of christmas cookies. As a special last post of the year before our winter break, I'll leave you pictures of our christmas creations:

 

Simon's Snowflake Cookies, each of them unique and alluring.

 

 

My Peanut Butter Nanaimo Bars in the division.

 

Individually delicious, with chocolate, peanut butter, and coconut, chopped almonds.

 

 

Joon's Christmas Macaroons, colouring our kitchen.

 

 

Row upon row of potential.

 

 

Wendy's Strawberry Chocolate Stackers, resting on a tray.

 

 

Strawberry icing sandwiched between chocolate cookies.

Eggnog Bundt Cake

All the world's a birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.
- George Harrison

Food is a medium that can carry the tidings of a holiday, particularly of christmas season. Thus, we welcomed the holidays with festive eats like these:

 

Eggnog Bundt Cake in the pan moulds, prepared with grease and flour.

 

 

The bundt cake on a plate, with orange glaze for the festive days.

The Tale of the Gingerbread Lane

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is a progress; working together is a success.
- Henry Ford

Even in food, there is an art in its creation, and it is ever so evident in gingerbread. Every year, our foods class participates in the Hyatt Hotel's gingerbread contest, where gingerbread creations are displayed in the halls for three weeks. Our unit was in charge of plotting and creating the milieu of our gingerbread village.

With the gingerbread houses of the Foods Art class and the commitment of our unit's duty, we completed the village and carefully brought it to the hotel, where it is now on display.

Here is our tale in pictures:

 

The intital planning stages of the village with the centerpiece idea.

 

 

With the idea of the 'magical' theme, Wendy created these blue trees from ice cream cones and icing.

 

 

The plotting stage of the village, the addition of the oreo road and the magic tree centerpiece.

 

 

A village taking shape, with magical trees.

 

 

Simon and Wendy creating snow and blue lamp posts.

 

 

The completed village, with magic all around.



Pork Wellington with Grainy Mustard Sauce

Not eating meat is a decision, eating meat is an instinct.
- Denis Leary

Meat is one of the richest parts of our diet, and tender meat is a luxury. In this dish, we create a simple-to-make, but elegant dish of pork tenderloin wrapped in puff pastry.

Rather than explain through a recipe, I'll show the process through pictures:

 

The tools of our trade.

From left to right: pork tenderloin, puff pastry, tongs, meat thermometer, assorted herbs, grainy mustard. and shalots.

 

 

Ms. Moon's wrapped Wellington, with a leaf decoration.

 

 

Our baked Wellingtons out of the oven, each with their own decoration.

Clockwise from top left: Wendy's heart, Ms. Moon's leaf, My braided bread, Joon's lattice, and Simon's band.

 

 

Me watching over the sauce, reducing the liquid for a rich flavor.

 

 

The plated Wellington, easily the best meat dish I've ever made.

Halloween Series - Four Recipes, Two Weeks

The Halloween season brings along its own batch of scary treats. The four of us researched and created our own stream of Halloween eats. Over the course of two weeks, we sculped, baked and set our own unique creations.

In the pictures:

 

Joon's Bloody Witch Fingers, (with strawberry gel for blood).

 

 

The Fingers in the oven. Thankfully, they're only shortbread.

 

 

My Pumpkin Bunt Cakes, with a layer of brown sugar syrup.

 

 

Simon really liked the syrup, then again, he really likes everything we make.

 

 

The Pumpkin Cakes out of the oven, already a few taken off the sheet.

 

 

The innocent start of Simon's Bloody Cupcakes.

 

 

The massacre begins.

 

 

Not for the easily squemish.

 

 

Wendy`s Pumpkin Fudge.

 

 

This was probably the sweetest creation of all the recipes we made here.

Power to the Pilaf

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.
- Chinese Proverb

A universal grain that's grown on 6 different continents, there is deep significance to be found in the grains of rice. To bring this significance to our table, we created a rice pilaf, with a unique twist.

Here's the recipe:

Cheese Pilaf

 

Ingredients:

30ml Margarine

250ml Long Grain Rice

3mL Salt

15ml Canola Oil

400ml Chicken Stock

2 Cloves Garlic

60ml Parmesan Cheese

50ml Cheddar

5ml Saffron
 

METHOD:

1)       Preheat oven to 350° F (180° C)

2)       Heat Margarine and Oil in saucepan, and add in crushed Garlic, Rice, and Salt.

3)       Pour into casserole dish and add in the chicken stock.

4)       Cover and cook for 25 ~ 30 minutes or until liquid is absorbed

5)       Remove from the oven, let sit for 15 minutes.

6)       Add cheese, and stir until cheese has melted.

Our pilaf in pictures:

 

Our pilaf in the casserole, its royal seat to good eats.

 

 

Saffron sitting on our pilaf, gracing it with goodness.

 

 

That's

 

 

How

 

 

The Cheese

 

 

Melts

Battle Biscuit

The cook who attains biscuithood receives the keys to quick bread city.
- Alton Brown

Indeed, mastery of the soft, southern biscuit opens the doors to culinary goods such as scones, soda bread and shortcake. The secret lies in the method, biscuit-style. Again, we faced off, but this time, with the same recipe to see who can execute the better biscuit.

Here's the battleplan:

Southern Biscuits

Ingredients:

500ml Flour

10ml Cream of tartar

5ml Baking soda

3ml Salt

45ml Butter

45ml Shortening

250ml Buttermilk

METHOD:

1)    Preheat oven to 450° F or 230° C

2)   In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Using your fingers, rub butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks like crumbs.  

3)   Make a well in the center and pour in buttermilk. Stir just until the dough comes together. It will be very sticky.

4)   Turn dough onto floured surface, dust top of dough with flour and gently pat out until 1 inch thick. Cut out biscuits with 2-inch cutter or glass with same diameter.

5)   Place biscuits so they are just barely touching on cookie sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes until biscuits are tall and golden brown.

The showdown continues:

 

Simon and Joon's biscuits, structurally sound.

 

 

My and Wendy's biscuits, flavourly favoured.

 

 

The presiding jams of the jury, home-made, home-packed, home-sealed.

 

 

The verdict awaits.

Battle Muffin

Do you know the Muffin Man,
Who lives in Drury Lane?
- Traditional Nursery Rhyme

A mobile vehicle that welcomes nearly any culinary accompaniment, there is infinite versatility to be found in the muffin. Today, we had a culinary battle to see who could utilize the muffin method and produce the better creation.
Here is my and Wendy's recipe: 

Hawaiian (Pineapple Coconut) Muffins 

Ingredients:

125mL sweetened flaked coconut

500mL all-purpose flour
125mL sugar
125mL margarine (melted)
125mL buttermilk ( 5mL vinegar 120mL milk)
60mL pineapple juice
10mL baking powder
5mL salt
5mL vanilla extract
2 eggs
125mL crushed pineapple, drained 

Topping:

80mL light brown sugar
60mL all-purpose flour
60mL coconut ( powder or dehydrated)
45mL cold margarine (cut up)

METHOD:

      1) Heat oven to 350 °F/ 180°C .

      2) Sprinkle the 125mL coconut on a baking sheet and toast for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Alternately, you can do this in a pan over medium high heat, stir constantly or you’ll burn it or you may skip this but toasting the coconut makes it more flavorful.

      3) In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

      4) In a small bowl, combine melted margarine, milk, pineapple juice, eggs, and vanilla. Stir into flour mixture just until moistened; do not over mix. Fold in the toasted coconut and pineapple.

      5) For topping, mix together brown sugar, flour and 60mL coconut. Rub in small pieces of margarine with fingers until coarse crumbs have formed.

      6) Fill 12 non-stick muffin pans two-thirds full. Sprinkle coarse crumb topping over coconut- pineapple muffin batter.

      7) Bake for 25-30 minutes or until tops are lightly browned and firm. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Behold, the battle:

Our pineapple coconut muffins, with coconut crumb toppings.

Simon and Joon`s Chocolate vanilla muffins.

Show

Down

Of The

Muffins

Spice Cookies

Variety is the spice of life. That gives it all its flavour.

- William Cowper

Spice is to a chef as a colour palette is to an artist.

This are the tools available to us for delivering that special flavor in a particular dish.

We experimented the unique characteristics of certain spices with this simple cookie recipe: 

Cookies with Spice

125 mL Sugar

125mL Margarine

½ Egg

15mL Corn Syrup

2mL Baking Soda

5mL Salt

325mL Flour

METHOD:

1) Cream together the sugar and margarine in a large bowl, add the egg and the corn syrup.

2) In a second bowl, mix together the flour, salt and baking soda and add it gradually to the liquid ingredients, mixing well until it forms into a ball.

3) Chill the dough for about 10 minutes in the freezer or 1 hour in the refrigerator.

4) Roll out the dough in between two pieces of wax paper and cut into shapes.

5) Bake in the oven at 180° C or 350° F for 5-10 minutes depending on size until golden brown.

Here is our journey:

Our spices assembled, tested and characterized.

We added a pinch of each spice to a select cookie for our testing.

That's how we (or mostly Simon) roll.

Plenty of fun for the sharing.

Flan Ventured

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
- Unknown

Here is our flan in the making, baking and plating:

 

Our flan in the oven, its 45-minute trip to deliciousness.

 

 

Clean toothpick, and we're good to go.

 

 

Our flan in full, golden brown on a plate.

 

 

That's just our slice of life.