Kristygourmet Cook Book

Oh dear... oh dear.... Christmas is just 3 days away !!! Are you getting excited ??? Guess, still most of you out there looking for Christmas presents for your love ones. Don't worry, you'll find what you're looking for soon. Just take a break and take a  kolaczki  ! >o<   haha....  No  KitKat  here, so you have no choice. Take the  kolaczki  instead. LOL.  Kolaczki  is one of the famous Eastern European X'mas cookies and often made during special occasion especially around new year. However, you can now easily seen them selling all year round.  Kolaczki  is actually made with a very special European pastry dough, which no milk is added in. The most common ingredients used in the pastry is either cream cheese or sour cream in mixing the dough. But I used yogurt ! Well, it works, isn't it ???  hehe....  Somehow pastry preparation can make easy in some way but in the opposite, it could be a disaster at the same ...

I know this is not something new to most blogger. However, its my first attempt and I'm glad I'm learning more & more Jewish baking this year. Its fun to join the year end baking storm. I'm really in the mood right now cause the Chinese New Year is just about one month away. I'm not sure I'm going to prepare anything for the coming celebration. Somehow, its a coincidence that my girl came home for her one week Uni break, so I'm planning to spend more time in baking this week.  Hamantaschen  is a very popular triangular shape pastry or cookies in the middle east and its the tradition to have it during festive season.  Hamantaschen  is usually filled with fruit paste or jam or ground seed paste and cheese filling which is getting much popular this days. However, I've chosen the jam. Ingredients for  pastry dough  : (A) 3 cups  all purpose flour 220gm  cold butter, chopped (B) 2 TB  sugar 1 cup  sour cream (I used yogurt) ...

The  braided Challah  bread is also one of the famous Jewish festive bread which is eaten during special occasions. I always thought that  Challah bread  is too big for the family, so I delayed the project again & again untill finally after making the  miniature panettone , I think I should have done the mini  challah bread  too .  And I did ! Somehow, I like it really sweet and festive. So, added in some raisins and vanilla for double flavouring. And here's what I did. Ingredients : (A) 2-1/2 tspn  instant yeast 1/2 cup  warm milk 2 TB  sugar (B) 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour 1 cup  bread flour / high protein flour 1 egg 1 egg yolk 1 tspn  salt 115gm  cold butter, chopped 1 tspn  vanilla essence 1/2 cup  raisins Method : (1) combine ingredients (A) then set aside to rest for 10 minutes. (2) add ingredients (B) into mixing bowl and stir in mixture (A) till a soft...

Oh dear, Christmas is getting near ! I can feel the mood is in the air and the weather is getting chill over here too. Last year, I made a fruit cake during this time of the year. However, I wanna tried making the   panettone   this year,  the Italian dessert. I remember the last time I made one, it was about 4-5 years ago but it wasn't tasted as good as this one here. I think the difference is I'm using half bread flour and half all purpose flour, which causing the texture isn't breaking apart so easily. Plus, this is the first time making sweet bread by mixing flour with butter to crumbly form before further process. The out come is overwhelming ! I found this wonderful recipe from  Martha Stewart site . Ingredients : (A) 1 TB  instant yeast 100ml  warm milk 1/3 cup  all purpose flour (B) 1 egg yolk 2 eggs 1 tspn  vanilla essence 1-1/2 cup dried mix fruits, soaked with 4 TB brandy overnight (cranberries, raisins, candie...

First of all, I would like to wish all my Jewish friends HAPPY HANUKKAH !  Hanukkah  is also known as the festive of light, something like Diwali Festival. And during the celebration, they usually served donuts filled with sweet jam & Latkes. And  Dewi @ Elra's Baking  has tempted me make these magnificent donuts when she posted the sweet jam filled donuts on her FB the other day.  Happy Hanukkah to you & your family, Kak Dewi !   As she mentioned it, she used overnight brioche dough to make her donuts. So, I'm going to try mine with some overnight brioche dough as well. The out come is overwhelming. Love the soft eggy dough so much and it smells great too ! Ingredients : 2-1/2 cup  all purpose flour 2 tspn  instant yeast 2-1/2 TB  sugar a pinch of salt 2 eggs 1 tspn   vanilla essence 80ml  milk 60gm   cold butter, chopped *  one jar homemade pumpkin coconut jam filling Method : (1) comb...