Macapuno Soft Candy Balls

Hello, hello, hello! How are you? I hope everybody’s doing fine while I was away:). Yeah! you heard it right I was on a holiday for just a couple of weeks last June . I know it’s August now but the jet lag still lingering on me that I was too lazy to  write :(  until my very dear friend Jhuls of  thenotsocreativecook invited me to write   a guest post for her blog and that motivated me to start blogging again :) This is also my first time to write a guest post and I’m a truly honored to do that. Thank you Jhuls for your sweet invitation:)

Anyway, let me tell you first about my recent holiday.  It was just a quick vacation actually but I do enjoyed it spending time with my family and ate all the foods that I missed in the Philippines. :) My dearest friends  have traveled for how many hours just to see me and that made me feel loved  so I’m taking this opportunity to say thank you to my lovely friends Rya & Julie. Your presence made my holiday extra special♥♥♥.

Yes! A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation; doesn’t always need togetherness. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends will never part and that’s how I feel towards Jhuls too . I’ve known her  since our primary years and became best of friends  but parted ways when we were in high school but the friendship we had will always be cherished and treasured by me.♥

And now let me share to you  this simple recipe I have found. The main ingredient is  coconut sport (known as MACAPUNO in the Philippines where it is primarily produced). I had this macapuno sitting on my pantry for a while. I normally add this to my cassava cake or ube cake but I don’t feel like baking  and   it’s nearly out of date so I need to use it before it will be futile. While searching for a recipe that will use macapuno Google brought  me here on “Nette Cooking.

Ingredients:
1 bottle of sweetened macapuno preserves
1 can of condensed milk
1/2 cup cornstarch (disolved in 1/2 cup of water)

                                           coconut fine flakes(desiccated coconut)

                                           colored cellophane

For the complete procedure please watch the video here on YouTube.  These candy balls are perfect for Christmas treats to your friends and family. Hope you will try it.

Enjoy! :)

DUCK EGGS FLAN

Yes! you read it right my leche flan is made with duck egg yolks. Only recently that I have known that the traditional leche flan uses duck egg yolks and carabao’s (water buffalo) milk because they produce a smoother and silkier texture. At first I was so skeptic in trying it out as I don’t know how it would taste since I’m used with leche flan made with chicken egg yolks. So I then search for recipes and surprisingly they all said that leche flan made with duck eggs is more creamier and has brilliant richness and it’s true!:)

INGREDIENTS:

8 large duck egg yolks

1 can evaporated milk

1 can condensed milk

1/2 tsp zest of lemon

 

1 cup sugar and just enough water to give the sugar the consistency of wet sand for the caramel.

 

PROCEDURE:

Caramelized the sugar on a heavy-bottomed stainless pan. Once you’ve got the sugar caramelized to a nice golden amber,coat the bottom of your pans or llaneras with caramel.

In a medium bowl, combine egg yolks, evaporated milk and condensed milk and lemon zest. Gently stir in a circular motion until blended. With a cheesecloth, strain egg-milk mixture. Pour strained mixture into prepared llaneras.

Cover llaneras or pans with foil and place in a steamer . Steam for 45-60 minutes or less for smaller pans . When it’s done allow to cool and refrigerate to set. To serve, turn flan over on a serving plate, ending with caramel on top.

 

 

 

 

Wonder what did I do with duck egg whites? I used it to make this leche puto but apparently it’s not that successful. Duck egg whites is  thick and not good for pastries. Anyway, my main purpose  is to  try making leche puto just to see if how it would look like on the actual. It uses chicken egg whites on the original recipe  but I  just tried experimenting it with the duck egg whites. I can’t find a single recipe  of a leche puto on the web  so I am really trying my best to recreate it by experimenting until today I  check  my favorite blogger page and I am very delighted to see that  finally she  posted the leche puto recipe. Heart of Mary is really genius in experimenting thanks to her I  will not experiment on perfecting this recipe anymore as I am definitely sure that Corinne has perfected it through her many attempts just to come out with creamy flan and fluffy puto.I  hope you could visit her page too :) For the meantime let me share with you the photos of my not successful leche puto. And of course very soon I will try Corinne’s  recipe.:)

Enjoy! :)

♥♥♥

 

 

 

 

 

 

The perfect Breaky to start the day! ( Tapsilog)

Tapsilog is the perfect breakfast for me. I love ♥ the fried cured beef strips( tapa), fried rice(sinangag) and fried egg(itlog)  combination ☺. Tapsilog is also popular in my country Philippines and I must say one of the staple food of all Filipinos. The tapa is usually made by marinating the beef in a special sauce or mixture and then drying it out in the sun. This process gives it that sweet, savory flavor and slightly chewy texture. Of course I skip the drying process since it is not that sunny here but I assure you that it still like the tapa that you’ve craved.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb beef sirloin, cut into very thin strips then tendered
• 1 head garlic,  minced
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 4 Tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp black pepper

 For Sinangag or Garlic Fried Rice:

• 4 cups cooked rice
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• Salt to taste

For Fried Egg or Pritong Itlog:

• 4  eggs
• Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Put the soy sauce, vinegar, minced garlic, sugar, salt and pepper in a bowl or in a freezer bag. Mix it well.

2. Add meat. Let it marinate overnight, or at least 1 hr.

3. When done marinating, drain then fry the meat in a pan, with 2 Tbsp cooking oil, over medium low heat just until cooked through (or if you want, until crispy). Put 5-6 strips per plate. Set aside.

4. Make garlic fried rice in the same pan. Saute the garlic until golden brown. Add the rice. Break it down and mix it well, so the oil gets on all the rice. Add salt to suit your taste. Fill a cup  with rice. Put cup upside down on the plate beside the beef strips then lift.

5. Serve with fried egg and enjoy!♥

Recipe from Pinay In Texas Cooking Corner

 

For my Love ( Toblerone Cheesecake)

This post is for the one I love. My husband would always ask me why I am blogging? and if there is something I get or what benefits I get from doing it? I just answered him with a smile and would tell him that blogging is my way of expressing myself. My blog is my online recipe diary where I explore and showcase dishes .  Anyway, as for the benefits I guess blogging makes me happy and keeps me sane harhar. Before my only purpose was just to document and post all the recipes that I’ve tried but suddenly there were fellow bloggers and followers recognized or appreciated what I’m doing and that motivates me to never stop blogging and just keep my journey in discovering new recipes that I can share with you all :)

The title post says for my love it’s because this recipe is  for my husband who loves eating toblerone.  At first he tried to stop me to touch his chocolates but I insisted because my cream cheese would be out of date soon and just promised him that I will just transform his Toblerone into something delectable .:) He loves it of course!

 

Ingredients

• 150 g digestive biscuit crumbs
• 50 g butter
• 300 g Philadelphia  cream cheese
• 175 g Toblerone Milk, melted
• 200 ml whipping cream, lightly whipped
• 25 g Toblerone Milk, for shavings

Instructions

Combine the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter and press into the base of a lightly greased  springform tin. Chill

Beat the Philadelphia until smooth, quickly fold in the lightly whipped cream and melted Toblerone until well combined.

Pour onto the prepared crumb base and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight. Serve topped with Toblerone shavings.

Recipe from Philadelphia.co.uk

Macapuno Espasol

Honestly, the first time I tried eating espasol I could say that I don’t like it. I don’t know, am I weird? as most of the Filipinos in the gathering really loves it and my husband is  a big fan of it too. I began to think  I’m really weird as I’ve read that espasol is one of the favorite kakanin of many Filipinos. Then I thought that maybe there’s something special in espasol that I need to discover. Then I searched for recipes and have read that adding  macapuno, pinipig, jack fruit or any flavorings  you want  really makes the espasol special and delicious.  I have a jar of macapuno so I tried adding it to the recipe and I am happy to tell you that I fell in love with the espasol (:. I can say that I am now a fan of espasol :) It’s really delicious.

Ingredients:

• 2 ½ cups glutinous rice flour
• 1 14-oz. can coconut cream
• 1/4 cup sugar or less (depending on your taste preference)
• 1 cup macapuno
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ tsp salt

Procedure:

1. In a pan, toast the glutinous rice flour over medium heat for about 25 minutes or until light brown. Set aside.

2. In a saucepan over medium heat, mix coconut cream and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

3. Add the macapuno, salt, and vanilla extract and bring to a gentle boil.

4. Gradually add 2 cups toasted glutinous rice flour  while stirring. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly,  for 30 minutes or until you get a soft dough-like consistency.

5. Remove from heat and let cool for a while.

6. You can divide it into balls and roll each ball into a mini log  and dredged it in the remaining toasted flour.

Luscious lemon squares…

I am always on the search for a new dessert or dish that I can try on. Luckily, as I browse the page of one of my favorite blogger she got a new post which really captures my heart. The way she describe her lemon bars is just really enticing that after reading it I want to bake it at that very moment. And so I search for more recipes and know more about this famous lemon bars. I admit I don’t know lemon bars and had never tried it.  I also found this..

A proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism and a can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune.

So yeah, when life will give me lemons I would definitely make it into luscious lemon bars :). I would say this recipe is just perfect for me not that tangy and it  melts in the mouth and it’s heavenly as Heart of Mary describe it in her post.

LEMON SQUARES

Ingredients:
Note: I did some substitution on  some ingredients as it  is not available in my pantry.
For the pastry:
1 cup salted butter, cut into cubes ( I used unsalted butter and just added pinch of salt)
½ cup powdered/icing sugar
2 cups plain flour

For the filling:
½ cup plus 2 tbsp plain flour
1 ¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp Salt
5 large eggs
1 ½ cup plus 2 tbsp granulated white sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice (about 2 large lemons)
1 tsp lemon extract( I used 1 tsp lemon zest )

zest of one lemon (optional, if you prefer it to be more tangy) I didn’t put mine more zest as I don’t like very tangy.
powdered/icing sugar for dusting

Procedure:

1.  Preheat oven to 180 deg C (350F)  Line a 9×13 baking pan with baking paper. (I use a rectangular springform pan which makes it so easy to remove the lemon squares.)
2.  In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the pastry until it forms a dough.  Gather dough into a ball.
3.  Press the dough onto your baking pan. Spread it as evenly as possible.

4.  Chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes then bake in the oven for 25 minutes.  After the pastry is baked, take it out but leave the oven on.
5.  While the pastry is baking, prepare your filling.  In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.
6.  In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until foamy, starting from a low speed gradually increasing to high.
7.  Slowly add in the sugar.  Beat the mixture until it is very light yellow in colour and it has quadrupled in volume.
8.  With mixer on lowest speed, add in the lemon juice, lemon extract and zest, if using.  Lastly, add in the flour.  Mix only until everything is combined.
9.  Pour the filling on top of the warm, baked pastry.  Place pan back in the oven, lower the temperature to 160 deg C (325F) and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the top springs back when lightly touched.  Baked filling should be very light golden brown.
10.  Move pan to a wire rack.  Let cool completely before slicing into squares.  Dust top generously with icing sugar.

Velvet cupcakes

Yes! I just call mine velvet cupcakes instead of the popular red velvet cake and why? simply because it is not that red to be called red velvet cupcakes :) kidding aside. Anyway, it is still the red velvet cupcake but I opted not to add more red food coloring.  Sometimes , if I have this recipe to try on I have this attitude not to follow what the recipe is asking for. So with this recipe I did not put the required amount of food coloring. I was not after the red color after all but of course the outcome and  taste of this velvet cupcakes :) .I was not disappointed the cupcakes and cream cheese frosting has just the exact amount of sweetness:)

Velvet Cupcakes

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour*
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 oz. red food coloring (two bottles)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda

Procedure :

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.

2. Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.  In a small bowl, mix food coloring and cocoa powder to form a thin paste without lumps; set aside.

3. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, about three minutes.  Beat in eggs, one at a time, then beat in vanilla and the red cocoa paste, scraping down the bowl with a spatula as you go.  Add one third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beat well, then beat in half of the buttermilk. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then second half of buttermilk. End with the last third of the flour mixture, beat until well combined, making sure to scrape down the bowl with a spatula.

4. In a small bowl, mix vinegar and baking soda.  Yes, it will fizz!  Add vinegar mixture to the cake batter and stir well to combine. Using an ice cream scoop, fill cupcake cups with cake batter (they should be 2/3 – 3/4 full).  You may not fill all the cups, I ended up with 20 cupcakes.  Place muffin tins on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven.  Bake for approximately 20-22 minutes, rotating pans halfway through. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

5. Cool the cupcakes in their tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely before frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
(Will frost about 20 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
1 bar (250g) cream cheese, cold, cut up into small cubes
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered/icing sugar, sifted

Procedure:

In a medium bowl, beat the butter for a few seconds.  Add in the cubed cream cheese and vanilla extract.Beat until combined.

Add powdered sugar in 3 additions.  Beat only until the mixture is smooth.  Over beating will make the frosting go soft.

Frost the cupcakes and decorate the way you want it :)

 

The recipe is from  Pinch My Salt.

The frosting is from Heart of Mary.