Mexican Wedding Cookies (or Russian Tea Cake)

This is the only cookie I know that has so many names. It is also known as Russian tea cake, snowball, butterball, polvorones in Mexico, mantecados in Spain, snow white (putri salju) in Indonesia. There are just too many variations of it. 

Russian tea cakes appeared in Russia in the 18th century as a confection used in a tea-sharing ceremony. By the 20th century, they were a part of wedding and Christmas traditions in the U.S. 

The first russian tea cakes that I tried was air flown from United States. My uncle, who lives in US, got married during Christmas time, two years ago. Since the cookie is a wedding and Christmas tradition, it was served in the wedding two years ago. My mother attended the wedding and she liked the cookies so much that she asked my uncle for some cookies to "tapao" a few pieces for me and my brothers. I only got to eat one piece, yes, only one precious piece. So the following year, I booked 4 tickets to US and stuff myself silly with the russian tea cakes and other goodies. 

I cannot keep on going to US just to eat russian tea cakes, right. The air tickets are just too costly for 4 of us and the jetlag that we have to suffer was unbearable for me. The two cakelettes woke up at 2 am for the first one week and I was extremely exhausted. I tried to stay awake during day time and could only sleep for 2-3 hours daily.

I wished I could just order in Amazon and get them posted here via Vpost. I wished that too for Laduree and Pierre Herme goodies. Since I could not buy one here, I can always try to make them. So the search for the best russian tea cakes was on. After scrutinising more than 10 recipes and tried some of them, I found a nice recipe that gives that melt in the mouth feeling when the cookie was inside my mouth. The search is over and the result is here.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com  Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Langue de chat

Langue de chat (pronounced as lagh de shah) is one of my favorite cookie. Back in Jakarta, I grew up eating this cookie, especially during chinese new year. It is called lidah kucing or katetong which means cat tongue.


Few years back I tried the japanese version produced by Ishiya in Hokkaido. It is more popularly called shiroi koibito. Smooth hokkaido white chocolate sandwich in between two pieces of langue de chat cookies. It was love at first bite. Two years ago I even visited their factory in Sapporo. It's pretty amazing that such simple cookies could be so popular. All food and souvenir shops in Sapporo sell this cookie. Once upon a time, the cookies could be bought only in Hokkaido, then they start selling in Narita and Haneda airports in Tokyo. Occasionally they are sold in Takashimaya or Isetan Singapore when there is a Hokkaido fair, but the price is so expensive. It is such a precious cookie.

I was pretty lucky though, I worked in Japanese bank. Whenever a Japanese colleage went back to Japan, he or she will bring a few boxes back.

Now this is my creation of the langue de chat dipped in Valrhona dark chocolate.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com  Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Farm theme cupcakes

I was so excited when Wenxin ordered the Pig farm theme cupcakes for her hubby 30 yo birthday.

She also requested a pig and a rabbit figurines matching their chinese zodiacs. In addition she wanted a bunny and two birds since she has these pets.

The cupcakes are chocolate genoise cake topped with dark chocolate ganache.

Some of the cupcakes have a bit chocolate stains since pigs like to play in the mud!! Yeah right, the fact is that I am quite clumsy when handling chocolate ganache. Tried hard to be as clean as possible, but still there are some stains...

The important thing is that the gal and birthday boy are happy with the cupcakes. Even the pet bunny likes them, she almost ate the bunny figurine tail.

 

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Homemade Fortune Cookies

It is possible to make fortune cookies at home. It is not that difficult, but your hands must be super fast.

I tried a couple of recipes and compared them. The best recipe I found is from Martha Stewart's website. 

The original recipe is very sweet to my taste. So I half the sugar. This recipe is very similar to Tuile (pronounced as tweel) and the taste is very good. Much much much better than those store bought fortune cookies.

Ingredients

• 37.5 gram unsalted butter
• 2 large egg whites (about 60 gr)
• 0.5 cup superfine sugar (I use 1/2 cup only) 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
• Pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

1. Write your message on a long strip of paper, around 10 cm long. 
2. Heat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Spray a cookie sheet liberally with cooking spray or use non stick pan. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat; set aside.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine egg whites and sugar, and beat on medium speed, about 30 seconds. Add flour and salt, and beat until combined. Add butter, heavy cream, and almond extract, and beat until combined, about 30 seconds.
4. Pour 1 tablespoon of batter onto half of the baking sheet, and spread with the back of a spoon into a thin 10-12 cm circle; repeat on the other half of the sheet. Bake until the edges of the cookies turn golden brown, about 8 minutes.
5. Transfer baking sheet to a heat-resistant surface. Working as quickly as possible, slide a spatula (an offset spatula, available at specialty kitchen shops, works best) under one of the cookies. Lift it up, and place it on a clean kitchen towel. Using your fingers (using gloves is advisable) fold the cookie in half, pinching the top together to form a loose semicircle. Press the cookies to the edge of a cup to form the shape of fortune cookies. This whole process should take about 10 seconds. Once the cookie hardens, which begins to happen almost immediately, you cannot fold it. Place the fortune cookie on a muffin pan to cool, and shape the second cookie. Repeat until all the batter is used up. To speed up the process, bake four cookies at a time, staggering two cookie sheets by 4 minutes to give you time to shape. To avoid wasting batter, practice folding with a circle of paper first.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Chinese New Year Goodies - Ant's Nest

Happy Chinese New Year. This is a late post due to hectic baking schedule.. back to back Chinese New Year and Valentine's day baking.

My dear cakelette, aka Hebe, loves ant nest so much. She could eat 10 at one time. If I dont stop her, she probably could finish the whole container. This is a 50 years old recipe that was handed down to me from my late mother in law. She used to bake this; my hubby and in laws love this so much.  So though the process of making it is pretty tedious, I bake it every year. It is very heartwarming to see that everyone loves it and in fact my nephews and nieces fought for it, literally.

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/

Happy Valentine's Day

What is more lovely for Valentine's day other than macarons? answer: Heart Shape macarons! Now love is in the mouth too.

After a few attempts, I managed to shape the macarons into Heart Shape, and the result is pretty amazing. Imagine putting that little thing into the mouth. 

The special flavour for this valentine's day 

Rose macarons, Lemongrass and ginger macarons, Japanese Green Tea macarons, and Apple Cinnamon Macarons. 

By Annabella Sonwelly
sales@ABpatisserie.com Tel: +65 6591 8808

For Corporate Order: Please visit: http://www.ABpatisserie.com

For Product Catalgoue: Please visit: http://pinterest.com/ABPatisserie/product-catalogue/