German Christmas Stollen

Christmas Is Round the conner, and this is my long over due post.

Ingredients

Mixture A

Bread Flour   312g

Dry Yeast  16g

Fresh milk   275ml

Mixture B

Bread flour  343g

Soft Butter   218g

Brown Sugar  75g

Marzipan  63g

Salt   6g

Mixture C

Mixed fruit  800g (pre soked in Rum/whiskey)

(or use Orange juice for halal version)

Spice powder 12g

Almond Flakes  125g

Marzipan   300g

Method

Mix Mixture A in the mixer for about 5 minutes, then add in Mixture B. mix well on the kneading cycle for another 10 minutes. Lastly add in Mixture C and mix for a minute or till the fruits have mixed thru the mixture. ** do not over mix as you do not want the fruits to break up.

Place the dough on to a floured bench and portion in to 6 portion roughly around 250g per portion and prove.

Then portion the Marzipan in to 6 portion which is about 50g per portion

As this is a very soft dough just press with your hands to form a flat oval shape as the picture below, roll the marzipan to the length of the dough(see picture below) and fold over leaving a 1.5-2 cm lip or gap on the bottom half of the dough. Let dough prove under a damp towel.

Bake at 170-180C for about 10-15 minutes, lower temperature to 160-150C and continue baking for another 20-30 minutes. once it is ready take it out of the oven and while it is still hot sift icing sugar over the Christmas stollen. And there you have it your own Home made Christmas stollen!

Have a Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year! 

Quick Icecream Shake

This is an idea for those of you that are on the path of eating healthy, but still like to eat your favourite food such as ICECREAM!! As it says quick, but before hand you will have to ether freeze the ice-cream bowl maker(as per manufactures instructions) or if your using one that has a compressor then your ready to go. Suitable for Vegans. 

 Ingredients

2 packets of your choice of shake(My choice, Juice Plus complete Vanilla)

400mls of milk of your choice (Almond milk)

Method 

Pour the contents of the 2 packets of shake mix in to a bowl and mix well while adding the milk

Be sure to get all the lumps out, unless you love to have lumps of powder sensation after its made.

Let it sit for 20-30 minutes for the contents to rehydrate.

Set up your Ice cream maker, get the machine going and pour it in a steady stream. 

let the machine run on a low to medium speed if its a mixer, till it is the right consistency, round about 10-15 minutes. Transfer it out to a container or you could eat it straight from the bowl if you like. 

You can keep it in the freezer for later but must be consumed with in the hour. It is kind of soft serve ice-cream. If not consumed with in that hr, it would come out flaky but still as yummy.

ITS GREAT TREAT FOR A HOT SUMMERS DAY OR NIGHT!! 

And best of all Guilt Free!!

If you like You can serve it with your favourite muesli bar, I Love the Juice plus Complete wholesome Grains +Cranberries bar. Break it up to resemble crumbs to add texture to the yummy ice-cream treat. 

**Juice Plus Complete shake comes in two flavours Vanilla and Dutch chocolate.
**Juice Plus Complete Bar Comes in two flavours Spiced Apple and Raisin, Wholesome Grains and Cranberries

Chicken Rice

Hello Everybody Its been two years since my last post!! How time flies when we are so caught up with everything life.

Ok lets get in to it shell we?

Coriander Salsa 

Coriander  1 bunch

Garlic 1/2  bulb

Vegetable Oil 4-5 tbsp

salt to taste

Wash Coriander to get rid of the sand or soil, cut off the root and reserve for the stock. slice as fine as you can and transfer it in to a bowl. With the garlic peel and slice. 

Then heat a pan or wok, add the oil in the pan. Add in the sliced garlic and pan fry on a mid to low heat. (be sure that the oil is not too hot we don't want burnt garlic) when its turned brown or golden brown, tip the garlic and the oil in to the sliced coriander. Add salt and give it a good mix. set a side too cool.

Chicken and Soup/Broth Component

basically you can put what ever Vegetable in the soup to enhance the flavours

here I have added

Onions 2

Celery 2-3sticks

Carrots 3

Ginger 2

stalks from the lemon grass

roots of the coriander

Garlic 1 bulb

Salt to taste

Water enough to cover the chicken

Size 9 chicken 2 

(reserve the fat of the chicken near the cavity of the chook for the rice)

Would have loved to add winter melon but I could not find any.

Put everything except the Chicken in to a pot. and bring to boil. turn the heat down to medium to low setting, then lower the chicken in to the stock and simmer for 40-45 minutes, turning the chicken at the 20 minute mark.

After that, Yes I understand the Chicken is cooked but the rice is not cooked. Take the pot off the stove and leave the chicken in the pot to keep warm till the rice is cooked.

There are many ways to cut up the chicken so below is just one of the ways to do it.

Oh nearly forgot, there is a soy sauce part to the chicken. Mix about 5-6 tbsp of chicken stock to 3-4 tbsp of soy sauce, then add a tbsp of sesame oil, mix and pour over the cut chicken.

The Rice Component

Chicken Fat - what ever Fat you can get from the cavity of the chook

Vegetable oil 1 tbsp

Lemon Grass 1 stick

Ginger 1size of thumb

Onion 1

Garlic 8-10 pips

Rice 2 1/2 Chinese bowls

Chicken stock 5 Chinese bowls

Wash the lemon grass, cut off the stocky part and save it for the stock. Now with the bottom part of the lemon grass slice it thin. onions peeled and finely diced, ginger finely diced, garlic crushed or roughly chopped.

Heat a pan on high flame, add in oil and chicken fat, render the fat till the pieces of fat turns brown, take the pieces out and discard. Add in the chopped and sliced ingredients and fry till soft with out browning. add in rice and fold thru.

There are two ways you could cook the rice on the stove or in a rice cooker. in this case i am using a rice cooker. Pour the rice in to the rice cooker and add the chicken stock.

Season to taste, and press the button and wait till the button pops back up, oh don't for get to turn the power on ;P while that's going

Chilli Component

Chilli 7-8 medium size

Garlic 1/2 bulb

Ginger 2 thumbs worth

salt

Chicken stock 4-5 tbsp

Cut and peel the garlic and ginger, roughly cut the chilli and place all of the ingredients in a jug or a container and blend with a stick blender. Or if your using a food processor just put it in, don't need to bother to cut it smaller. Then after thats done pour it in to a pot and bring to boil, turn off and set a side to cool.

Sliced Cucumber

Right, its all done now. Enjoy and I wish you all the best in trying this out. 

3 Egg and chicken Congee(Rice porridge)

1-2 small Onion, slice thin

1-2 tsp Garlic, crush

1-2 tsp Ginger, crush

1 Chicken Breast, dice

1 Century Egg, shelled and diced

1 Salted duck egg, shelled and diced

1 Chicken egg

200g Rice

800-1000 ml Water/chicken stock

Sesame oil

Salt and pepper

Method

wash rice and strain. Heat up a pot with a little oil, fry off ginger garlic and onion till fragrant. add in chicken and seal off. then add in rice mix, add in the water, century egg and duck egg. bring up to boil then simmer till the rice splits roughly 1-1.5 hrs. season to taste. then lighly beat the chicken egg and stir it in to the congee add sesame oil.

Now dig in :)

Enjoy:)

Ideas To decorate or use Gingerbread

Gingerbread house

Royal Icing

Ginger bread, rolled and baked as per the above picture

Candies/lolies/sweets/chocolates

Method

Cut the gingerbread in to desired shape(use a template if not sure if the design of the house would fit), using the the royal icing glue the ginger bread together as the following pictures. oh don't forget to cut out a door and window for the house after all it won't be a house with out a door and window.

you can put candies in to the house if you like or your gift

then decorate as you like

Sample 1

Sample 2

oh i decorated the gingerbread man gave it eyes and mouth, buttons and boots

Royal icing

1 egg white

250g icing sugar

1tsp vinegar/lemon juice

Method

pour in everything in to the mixing bowl, mix on low for 2-3 min then on high for 3-4 min or till white as snow:) scoop it out in to a piping bag :)

uses

Gingerbread house

Gingerbread man

(will add more as i go along)

Gingerbread

Ingredients

1L Honey

0.5kg Sugar

0.33L Fresh Milk(UHT milk can be used)

4 nos Eggs

10g Ginger Powder

13g Cinnamon Powder

20g Baking Powder

20g Baking Soda

2kg Cake Flour(plain flour)

Method

Bring sugar and milk to boil then add the honey and take off the heat. Mix well and set a side to cool. Sift all the dry ingredients together.

When honey mixture has cooled pour in to a mixing bowl(if using a mixer use a dough hook), add the eggs mix well.

scoop in the sifted dry ingredients on a low speed setting till it is all combined,( the mixture was too much for the mixture so i transfered it to another bowl to finish the mixing process by hand) Do not over mix the mixture.

When all is combined, set a side for at least 2 hrs resting time or you can continue the next step the next day.

On a floured bench take out a chunk of the dough, roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Then dock it with a fork or a docker(Dock=to make small holes on a pastry)

And use a cutter of your choice to cut the dough( in this case its a Gingerbread man). Place the gingerbread man on to a lined baking tray, brush egg wash over the gingerbread man and bake in a pre-heated oven of 160-170C(every oven is different i set mine at 150C) for 6-7 min then take it out of the oven and brush egg wash over the gingerbread man, back in to the oven for another 6-7 min or till golden brown.

Now you will have left over Scrap dough. What to do with it? well you still can use it, but remember you must not over mix it. So no kneading the dough, just pile the dough together and just press the dough together to form a square or round, and roll it out again like before.

Always try to get as much portions from the first roll.

This yields a lot of gingerbread man. I estimated about 60-70 nos of this size of gingerbread man.

Have fun:)