For The Love Of Baking

Bake. For the love of baking.

 

An entry for idfb challenge #1: Food By It’s Country of Indonesian Foodblogger group

The Turkish delight! The one that keeps me craving night, after night, after night! After night!

This is a middle eastern sweet nibble that comes not only in large variety of fillings, but also the country where it claims to be the origin of. I saw this dessert many times on television shows, fell in love with everything about it. One day my good friend brought me one, and it was the sweet joyful wonderfully crunchy yet beautifully moist thing I put in my mouth. I crave for it ever since.

If you searched on the net, as I mentioned earlier, you’ll come up with lots of nuts variety for the filling. Pistachio, almond, walnut, hazelnut, cashew, macadamia, peanut, along with unlimited combination of them. Use whatever you fancy of, or whatever you have easier access to, don’t worry, you can’t go wrong with all these delicious nuts. For me, almond is the cheapest around, it is now even cheaper than Kenari. It’s funny, because Kenari is of Indonesian origin. I wanted pistachio and walnut, but the they are unbelievably expensive in Jakarta, I might as well wait for anyone coming from middle east to bring me some pistachios. Anyone?

I tweaked some recipes into one that suits my preference. First attempt was too sweet, I suffered sugar high all night. The second attempt was p-e-r-f-e-c-t, it was gone in a minute I couldn’t even have a chance to take any photos. This was the third and it got better everytime. What so great about this recipe is that, not only it uses minimum amount of sugar and is dead easy to make, but also, unlike most baklavas, it has just the right strength of sweetness because I didn’t pour all the syrup at once. I drizzled only a couple tablespoons over the hot baklava, just enough to let it drip onto the sides of every squares and wet the bottom layer. This ensures your baklava will be sweet enough, moist enough without losing its crispiness, but not heavily immersed in syrup that would make it too sweet. You can always serve the rest of the syrup alongside the baklava for additional sweetness.

Gotta speak about the syrup here. It was soooo gorgeously magical! Apparently, the concoction of honey, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel creates a magical potion you can’t resist. Seriously, I’m under spell now. My friend said it was, “Slurping good!”
 

 
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We were in Yogyakarta end of January this year, me and my NCC fellows. We got to do a cake decorating demo promoting our books in Solo, then took the advantage of time and place by taking further trip to Yogyakarta. It was our last day, we drove to Alun-alun and spent the whole afternoon having Wedang Ronde, cycling around, giggling unstoppably along the process

Wedang Ronde is a Javanese dessert, one of the pride of Yogyakarta: glutinous rice balls stuffed with sweet peanut paste, floating in a hot and sweet ginger tea. Wedang means hot. But this dessert can be enjoyed cold too, although uncommon.

Classic, refreshing, nostalgic.
Damn good.

Here is the recipe taken from the upcoming book of Fatmah Bahalwan & NCC Team, which is the 4th installment of 60 Foolproof Recipes series: Drinks & Dessert. So this is kinda a sneak preview.
 

Food styling by Citra Anggraini Kusuma & Nadrah Shahab
 
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I have been knowing this dessert for quite long and loving it for its simplicity and complexity at the same time. Simple in your hand, complex on your tastebud. Almost everybody will frown the first time: balsamic vinegar with strawberries? Ya-ha! Not me though. The first time I read about this, it tingled me so hard I ran to the store and got the vinegar i never had any clue before. And it turned out so beautiful i loved it at once. Yada yada yada, it was another love at first bite.
 
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The end of the year like this is the perfect time to slow things down a bit. Looking back to what we have done, instead of looking forward to what we want to do. Be grateful for how far we have gone, instead of worrying of how far more we can go. Grab a cup of hot chocolate and cuddle up on the sofa. With a good book, favorite TV program, the loved ones, maybe a simple sweet nibble, life couldn’t be more satisfying.

The other day I kept left over apple filling from the last private baking class I taught. It was a cold and windy day and I needed something to balance the grey cloudy afternoon. I was exhausted from the last two weeks of nonstop this and that and the fatigue seemed like coming to stay. I opened my freezer and found a stack of filo pastry from.. last year, I guess? Haha. So I took them altogether, the filo and the apple filling, let them come into room temperature and assembled them in a small dish. It turned out to be one hell of an apple pie. And by hell, I mean wonderfully delish.

When you use filo pastry for apple pie, usually an apple strudel will come into your mind. This is just the same, except that it is not *yea, i’m crazy like that*. I didn’t roll the filling inside the filo, I layered them like baklava. That makes them.. what? Layered apple strudle? Apple baklava? No-rolling apple strudle? No-nuts baklava? This is killing me. I’m going back to: apple pie.

What’s best to go with it? I say nothing beats vanilla custard! Yup, homemade vanilla custard you made from scratch, which.. *wait for it*.. I happened to have on hand from the same private class. You can make it thick as cream or a little bit flowing as sauce. It will be just as good. A dollop for a square and you got yourself a world class dessert.

Onto the recipe. Actually this is dead simple it is hardly a recipe. You just layer the filo, brushing with melted butter in betweens, mix the filling and pour, layer the rest of filo, brush the top with yolks, bake. Simple. Right?… No? Ok, here is the recipe.

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Rain, rain everyday. Been like 5 days in a row now. How amazing that in the end of this Ramadhan, when I thought I wouldn’t be interested in doing anything other than listening to the sound of the pouring water, I ended up with these beautiful things. Two jars, one filled with candied lemon peel, another one with lemon jelly. All homemade. Easy breezy to make, I didn’t even realize making it.
 

 
Funny thing, I’m actually in the middle of writing a post about how taking food photos is now no longer fun for me anymore. How I miss my old times doing simple personal food photo session and how I might not be able to do it anymore for the next, what, 4 books? Yet, here I am. Doing just what I fear the most I wouldn’t be able to do. Isn’t human’s mind a mystery? *now the writing can wait*
 
Back to the citrus. I always have at least a big bag of lemons in my fridge. I have a glass of lemon water every morning, it constantly breaks my heart to throw away peel after peel after peel, every morning. So, one cloudy day, I started collecting them up in a container. I had no clue as to when I would have the time and energy to make something out of it. Today turned out to be one of those days of rarity. When there is no planning, no thinking. Happy day.
 

 
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“Something whose form is reminiscent of a ring-shaped cake.”
(Definition by Answers.com)
 
Well, that will do.
 
So my brownie can be a donut, too, as long it is ring-shaped. Yay.
 
 
 
PennyLane’s Brownies
(Published in the book of “18 Cakes & Cookies” by NCC)
 
Ingredients:
4 eggs
400 g castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla
60 g cocoa powder
210 g plain flour
225 g vegetable oil
85 g chocolate chips
120 g any roasted nuts to your liking
 
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Lori! Ow yeah, she’s my favorite foodie girl. Her cheesecake, awesome. And surprisingly, the easiest cheesecake recipe I’ve ever made. If au bain marie is not your cup of tea, this recipe is.
 
A definite keeper. A champion one.
 
Ow, before I forgot, mine was without crust and chocolate. I baked it in muffin pan, perfect as a cheesecake-to-go. Plain cheesecake, damn good.
 

 
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In the midst of doing this and that, you know, the usual; translations, web project (this time something I really had no clue about: programming, which I thank God that it’s over), I’ve been busy testing some recipes and taking their photos for one company’s website that soon to be launched. Finally somebody took my food photos seriously
 
I was so damn tired and bored, when an angel came my way and said these magic words, “Riana, do you need anything from SG?” Ow My God, yes! Yes, I need something I’ve been craving for almost 3 years now!
 
When I visited Singapore in 2005, I came across this heavenly bites called Bakin’ Boys. I remember I even kept the box and brought it home, just for the sake of remembrance of this God’s gift to the world. I craved for it ever since.
 
Now, the angel, had asked me if I need anything from the land of the lion. My answer was definite as the sun will rise tomorrow morning. I need some bites of The Beatles of the cookies realm: Bakin’ Boys.
 
So right here, right now, when I’m breathing the air, living the life intended for me, I’m waiting for the magic package to arrive safely at my door. Pray for me, will you?
 
Ok. Back to the title of this post.
Remember Lemon Meringue Pie? I did mention I also baked Chocolate Meringue Pie, didn’t I? Well, here is the recipe. And the photo. And it was so good.
 
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Ow, yeah, baby.
 
The photos speak more than the words could even describe, I hope. The sinful treats. The skeleton in our closets. The deep dark secret we keep, in which each one of us indulges ourselves to the core from time to time. Better than sex, better than p**n
 
The french macaroons were in pistachio, blueberry, strawberry, rose and cappucino flavors. Yes, they’re sweet. Even too sweet for some people. But the meringue must have that much amount of sugar to hold its pretty round shape. And they had lots of ground almond, which made them a divine delight melting in your mouth good. Got them from Bakerzin, the desserts paradise, one of my happiest places ever exist.
 

 
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I‘ve been wanting to try this recipe for so long! Am I so glad I finally did it!
 


 

 
Lemon Meringue Pie. Classic indeed. The first time I heard about this dessert, I have to admit, I –a liiiitle bit– underestimated it. Ok, it has a crust, then lemon cream, then meringue. It is surely sweet and nice, but heck, no surprises. Little did I know I was gonna get one spoonful of surprises in my mouth.
 
It was oooooh so good! Remember the first time you tried a Pavlova? You thought the combination was just okay, but then, wow! Anna Pavlova had to be a very very wonderful person to have her name immortalized by this wonderful dessert. This is a similar case. You wouldn’t guess what the combination of this three classic regular layers will do to your day. Color it happy, baby. So happy indeed.
 

 
The cream was smooth and tangy, the buttery crust was nicely crumbles, the topping was crunchy on the outside, soft and cottony on the inside. Sweet, comforting, surprising. How can a surprise be comforting? Hm. Another paradox.
 

 
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