Reposting photos of cupcakes as i test this new laptop. Warning to those who want to start browsing over those mp3 download sites, just stick to itunes or imesh, Amazon or any reputable sites, i tried to listen to a site, www.easymusicdownload.com and it loaded my computer with all sorts of plug ins. Me, the novice internet user clicked and clicked, and although i have an anti-virus installed in my laptop, it still did not prevent these trojan horses from attacking my laptop.

I had to buy another one because i cannot access my internet anymore, it was a wake up call. Imagine my first time to try downloading something and i got bit. Do not click any warnings from a different source that tells you your computer will crash if you do not click it, mine has Mcaffee and that should have been enough. This *#!+ got in and i let him in myself by clicking it. Upside, i have a bigger laptop, so i guess i will have to squint less.

These pretzels made me gain 10 lbs in just a week. Couldn’t get over them, i felt addicted the moment i took the first bite and i was hooked since then. Two weeks of remorse because i noticed that my belly is starting to protrude a bit and my jeans are not reaching the top ( where it should be) so i have to resist the temptation of making them again.

No encore for these lovely breads which i happen to accidentally watch over at NBC’s Undercover Boss. Day after, i had to make them. Now back to reality, back to size 2 and for someone with a huge hips (i heard people with Spanish descent have bigger hips ) hmmm, one piece of this Pretzel will take a month’s worth of aerobics and dieting. Goodbye Pretzels.

The trick to making these nice soft and chewy bread is to boil them in a mixture of baking soda and brown sugar, glaze with pure beaten egg and bake right away. DO NOT LET THEM PROOF,  or it will be soggy and flat.

Winnie the Pooh must be delighted with this one.

Nobody wants to eat the Instant Brown Sugar Oatmeal, so i made them into cookies.

I skip the salt when i make cookies because i use margarine (no transfat).

Apple Pie in New York.

7 Granny Smiths. Cornstarch as thickener. Cake flour not all purpose. Rest the dough. Double crust. Bake Blind bottom. Thicken the sauce. Fill. Cover. Eggwash. 325 F 45 minutes.

Gone in 60 minutes. Abbreviated version of the recipe. As short as the pie’s life span.

As promised, Day 11 of the Liberty Apples (2 of them) and a Braeburn with the leaves showing up. No amount of shopping has ever made this girl here happier than the day i saw the leaves coming out, peeking through our kitchen window, it was the most amazing sight ever. Seriously.

The Liberty has grown more leaves than the Braeburn but it’s understandable because they came in with more roots and is about a foot taller. Still, i am happy as a clam. Something to look forward to every year i visit New York, the annoying Airport hassle, the long airplane ride with boring movies, disgusting food that give me cramps and endless hours of waiting for the plane to just be there on your destination. Sigh. It’s like getting a root canal.

These apple trees will make me come back to New York just to see how they are doing, for the first time since i got here, i will not whine anymore. I promise.

Anyway, shown here are two kinds of molds used for Mamon and Cinnamon Roll (the one that look like a tartlet mold). The flower shaped, fluted mold is for Ensaimadas but this time, i used them for making the Mamon because clean up, getting bits of the cake off the mold just takes time. For Marc, n’est pas moi. Before my darling nephew develop a phobic reaction to these molds i decided to finally just use the Ensaimada mold to make the Mamons, reducing clean up time to more than half the time.

They come off easily which is a huge relief because some cake gets stuck in the mold unless you bathe them with lots of butter. Fine if i was the one doing all the greasing, but sometimes not all corners are greased and that’s when un-molding becomes a horrible kitchen experience. If the cake gets ruined during un-molding, half of it goes into my mouth and I DO NOT WANT TO GET FAT, eating off rejects.

To Tintin Carpio, maybe you should try this too next time you make your Mamon.

Cupcakes and Apple Trees

Chocolate Cupcake, Merengue Cashew and Chocolate Ganache.

May 12 is the day i mark as the day i planted two Liberty Apples and a Braeburn, with Aconia Berry. I made a mistake in ordering two Liberty, i read that i should at least have 3 varieties because Apple trees are not keen on incestuous relationships and so having more than two varieties will ensure pollination as Mother Nature dictates.

Well, my mother’s first attempt 5 years ago was a failure and so i thought why not try again. It is a sort of grounding up, my way of saying okay, maybe i need to make a symbolic gesture to New York that i was here around this time, that i planted these trees and hopefully my small way of making this place a much nicer abode to live in despite the odds.

I will make an update on how these trees fare, come Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall. Count on me (i hope i am not jinxing this) to post a photo of the first fruits when they arrive, hopefully in 3 years time.

Top 3 go to books, Wayne Gisslen, Rose Levy Beranbaum, Robin Hood’s Baking book and for inspirational photos, FoodARts.

REading is fun. Eating what you cook is heaven. People liking your food is divine.

30 books and counting…..

Oh dear, lesson number one. Consistency. Not gonna work if you start making your presence known to your product 2 weeks after you introduce them. So my sister all of a sudden decided to ADD MORE and i say more sugar to the top of the Mamons BECAUSE SHE WANTS THEM SWEETER.

You need just a half a pinch of sugar on top, right after you brush them with melted butter. That’s it, no more. But no, after i was done doing so, she decided to give it another round of sugar, her style.

She gives the Mamons to her office mates, just a piece per person but if someone wants to have more like a dozen, she charges them for it. She learned it the hard way which is what i always tell my students. BE consistent. Make that a standardized recipe and then you open the bakery, restaurant, coffee shop etc., Your clients should not test the recipes for you while you make them pay. Nah ah.

So why then i did not say anything? I thought she would eat them all, i did not know some of the Mamons were intended for someone else, so not my fault. Hey, if she wants more sugar, what can i say?

Anyway, she is getting addicted to it that she wants them every week. Hmm. Diabetes runs in our family, mother, two brothers, and several Aunts and Uncles. I warned her, every two weeks perhaps, but every week? Scary.

I don’t want to jinx it, knock on wood. My latest executive check up has all normal levels of blood sugar, no high blood, low cholesterol etc., I do aerobics regularly these days, i cannot afford to gain a lot of weight and i usually over eat when it is cold. My students ask me why i am slim when i am surrounded by baked goodies all the time. It’s not that i tape my mouth after i bake, i have managed to exercise some control over sugar and pastries that i normally would gobble up. It was not also because i am a cancer survivor (sugar feeds cancer cells so be stingy on sugar if you have cancer), but it was a way of thinking for me, i don’t have to eat what i bake all the time. That’s it.

This Mamon, i probably had two the previous baking times, this last one, i did not eat at all. Lots of people love it because it is billowy soft like a marshmallow, eggy and creamy with the touch of butter on top. I do like it, but i don’t really crave for it the way my sister does. All the time.

www.breadmakinglessons.com

Ube Pound Cake. My nephew John said he preferred the Ube, hmmm. Maybe so, but i am not using this Ferna food color again because it smells bad unlike the one i previously used. I am too biased against flavocols, food coloring with the flavor in itself, honestly i thought Mama opened a jar of fish bagoong “fermented fish” when i was dropping this flavocol into a small bowl. I only found out it was this food coloring when i lifted the bowl to pour into the cake batter. Nevertheless, the flavor was subdued and mellow, and John liked it.

It scares me though to think that something i put in my cake can smell that bad. I think i will just use this to color the fondant instead. Eeeew!

Anyway, second solution is to just make Ube Jam, and stir it into the Pound Cake batter. My next problem is with this 0 Trans fat Margarines, there is just too much water in it that i cannot use it to grease the baking pans or molds. If you are dieting, this is perfect as in the case of this Pound Cake which i made for my mother. But if you are looking for a more tender, fluffier cake texture, just use shortening and half butter instead of this one. You may also want to reduce the liquid in the recipe, maybe starting at 2 tablespoons then up to 1/4 cup if 0 trans fat is your game.

From the outside you don’t think it is cholesterol free, i only wished i added maybe 1 eggwhite more to the batter for volume. Hey, it is still a cake. Oh by the way, Country Crock is not even a margarine, it is a vegetable spread, 0 cholesterol, 0 trans fat. Got away with it only because i substituted about a quarter of the recipe with shortening.

The French Silicon loaf pan is not non stick, John laughed when i said “this non stick pan sticks!” you mean “stinks?”, yeah, maybe that was the right word. Why the cake got stuck somehow, even if i greased the pan  ( i knew i was psychic because i knew it would stick), and despite them being a Silicon Non Stick Pan, worth about $25 Canadian is not funny. The only good thing about it is that it is light and will not rust. Oh and also it does not make a noise when you drop it.

Regarding the better Ube flavoring, my friend gave me a bottle she got from Divisoria, it was not branded, sold in white colored plastic containers. Not sure if they still sell them or where, but it is worth looking. I am not sure if McCormick has Ube, but i like, (not love) their Pandan flavoring. For a real Pandan kick, just boil the leaves to death, puree’ the leaves, strain it with the boiling water, eh voila! You have an instant Pandan flavoring, Au Naturelle! Store them in glass bottles inside the refrigerator and use within 2 days, or freeze indefinitely.

Time to make lunch for the boys….I am thinking of Jambalaya.