Christmas Cake preparations - and Milestones

I have been tardy this year in soaking the dry fruits for the cake I make for Christmas every year. I usually try to do it mid-November, or atleast by the 25th, but this year we seemed to have a million things to do on the weekends this month.

Started with our Diwali celebration at the beginning of November, in Mumbai with family, then there was a breakfast picnic like this one, outdoor parties before it becomes too cold, dance and musical performances -The Manganiyar Seduction (an international act of Rajasthani folk musicians performing in 36 boxes stacked one on top of the other in 4 rows) was particularly spectacular!  - a children's literature festival called Bookaroo which has managed to reach its third year with much support from enthusiastic parents and children and the driving force of Swati Roy and Sanjay Roy who own Eureka - the children's bookstore.

In December, the 3-day Jazz Utsav was this weekend - we went on Friday, which was the opening day, and were treated to some scintillating performances - especially the one by Ranjit Barot and Talvin Singhs' bands.
The Delhi International Arts Festival (DIAF) also began this weekend - it has a smorgasbord of events happening till the 12th December including some excellent classical dance performances and theatre. The first ever exhibition of Anish Kapoor in India - (Anish Kapoor is a celebrated contemporary sculptor), opened this week at the newly refurbished National Gallery of Modern Art - and while I don't pretend to understand contemporary art and installations, I am definitely not going to miss an opportunity to broaden my horizons. As I tell my daughter - its OK to not like something after you have tried it, but you should atleast try everything once.
Then there is the Old World Theatre Festival at Habitat Centre, Christmas fairs organised by the various embassies, the Christmas decorations inside hotels and malls to gawk at....November to February is such a nice time to do things in Delhi - its what makes the rest of the year bearable!

These are some of the pics from the German Christmas Fair yesterday - my daughter and I had a nice time picking through the stalls and looking at the christmas stuff all over. There was a stall by the Swiss German Bakery where I picked up some wonderful baguette and sour dough bread as well as the aromatic Lebkuchen - a traditional Christmas cookie/cake which is quite strongly spiced with cinnamon and cloves. The reason I call it cookie/cake, it though it is a cake, it is not soft, melt-in-the-mouth, but quite crumbly in texture with a nice crust. I was happy with my glass of German beer, a quiche and some bratwurst (which was quite pungent I must say) while K devoured a lovely chocolate croissant. 

Anyway, suffice to say that I have enough excuses to have postponed the soaking this long. But I got up early this morning and managed to soak all the dry fruits and nuts. They will sit there for the next two weeks till I bake the cake on the 22nd or 23rd December - the cake tastes better later, as the flavours have time to meld.

'Tis the season to be jolly and all that - well, Peppermill has turned 3 - yes, can't believe it, but my first post was in November 2007. Thank you everyone who reads this blog, for all your encouragement and support and for reaching out to me - I have received much more than I can give, and for that I am thankful.

 

Don't need an excuse to celebrate though, so if you have always thought of baking a fruit cake, now's the time to start! Its a small list of ingredients and all readily available. For those who don't want to steep the fruits in alcohol, just use orange juice. Also, there are a lot of recipes which recommend "feeding" the cake with alcohol, after its baked (some days before Christmas) till its finally eaten. I don't - I also don't cover it with marzipan icing which is another traditional thing to do. I like my cake slices just as they are - filled with fruit, soft and dense and with that lovely dark colour and rich smell.

These are the ingredients I soak

Mixed Dry Fruit chopped - 350 gms (choose from currants,sultanas,raisins, dates, fig, apricot)

I use equal quantities of currants,raisins, dates,apricots and plums (dried)

The dry fruits are soaked 3-4 weeks in advance in about 1/4 cup of dark rum (brandy can also be used)

For the complete recipe and the earlier post- look here

Or you can also try Chocolate Gingerbread Men or White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

Christmas Cake

Fruit cake jokes are a dime a dozen around this time in the syndicated cartoon strips and growing up I didn't really get the humour, since I loved fruit cakes and the home baked ones I did get to have were delicious!

When I started making them though, the "hard as rock" and "don't drop it on your foot" jokes really scared me - what if mine turned out like that!

I needn't have worried; I discovered that baking fruit cakes is easier than the usual cakes since they are heavier and are not expected to rise as much. So no "gently folding in the flour into the beaten eggs" and "no beating the eggs for eternity"......the ingredients are mostly brought together and combined with a light hand.

The only thing to take care of is that, since this is a dense cake, it is better to bake it a lower temperature for a longer time.

And as for the dried fruits - well, that's the best part - you can pretty much use your favourites and leave out what you don't like! It's even better if you can manage to soak the fruits in some good alcohol about 3-4 weeks in advance, and the cake tends to moisten up because of the fruits in it and tastes really good the more time it is kept.

This recipe was given to me by a dear friend of mine in England - we have never met but our online correspondence over the past 6 years has brought us closer than we would have ever imagined. She is a wise warm and caring woman and I hope to meet her some day.

The first time I made this was for a close friend - Christmas was always at her place but that year she was in her last trimester of pregnancy and I thought she could do with some Christmas cheer.

This year I made it for her again - we land up at her place on Christmas Day next week and will be staying with them for a bit. So as they celebrate their first Christmas with their baby, this cake will bring with it our best wishes for their wee one and a great year ahead.

This is the adapted recipe, the original contained sherry, black treacle and a few other ingredients which I have changed to my taste and availability.

It is a lovely moist cake and the flavours of the dried fruits as well as the cinnamon lingers on and makes this a beautiful way to end a lovely festive meal.

Christmas Cake

Ingredients:

Eggs - 3 plus 1 white

Unsalted Butter - 125 gms

Flour - 125 gms

Soft brown sugar - 125 gms

Mixed Dry Fruit chopped - 350 gms (choose from currants,sultanas,raisins, dates, fig, apricot)

I used equal quantities of currants,raisins, dates,apricots and plums

The dry fruits were soaked 3-4 weeks in advance in about 1/4 cup of dark rum (brandy can also be used)

Rind of half of a lemon or orange -I used orange peel.

Chopped cherries - 30gm

Ground almonds - 30gm (Toasted in the microwave for about 90 seconds and then ground)

Whisky or brandy - 1 tbsp

Golden syrup - 1 tbsp

Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp

1. Grease an 8" tin and lightly sprinkle flour on top.Preheat the oven to 180C or 350F.

2. Cream the butter and sugar. Beat the eggs and white and add to the creamed butter and sugar.

3. Sift the flour and cinnamon powder together and add slowly to the egg mixture and combine with a light hand.

4. Add the whisky and golden syrup to the mixture and then all the dried fruit,orange peel and almond powder. Mix well; the cake batter will be quite thick.

5.Turn the batter into the prepared cake tin and make a small hollow in the centre.

6. Bake at 180 C for about 45-55 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

This cake goes to :

A Fruit a Month - Dry Fruits, hosted by Latha and Lakshmi over at The ‘Yum’ Blog

and to

dear Sunita @ Sunita's World for this month's edition of Think Spice - Cinnamon.

Milk Chocolate Macadamia Biscotti for Christmas

 Biscotti is a crisp (some would say hard) biscuit of Italian origin,traditionally enjoyed  (in Italy) with a wine or orange juice and in places outside Italy with a steaming cup of coffee. The word Biscotti describes its preparation - it is derived from the Latin word biscoctus which means "twice cooked/ baked". It describes foods which were cooked / baked twice so that they lasted longer and could be used to feed soldiers or travellers on long journeys and during wars. Their origin being the town of Prato, they are known as Biscotti di Prato; but they are also commonly called "cantuccini" in Tuscany and Sicily.

The traditional recipe only uses flour, sugar, almonds and eggs while not incorporating butter or yeast. The dough is baked in slabs and when fresh and warm cut into slices and baked once again till crisp. Recent recipes have started incorporating other nuts like hazelnuts, pistachios, pine nuts; baking powder and butter have also been included along with flavourings in the form of almond or vanilla extract and some spices like anise and cinnamon.

I love my cookies a bit crisp and crunchy and don't much prefer the soft ones, so I have always wanted to bake Biscotti. Never got around to doing it though until now. The thought of baking them twice and the fear of them crumbling while cutting them into slices after the first round of baking made it a little daunting, but it was actually all very smooth when I did get around to baking it.

I used milk chocolate (I had a large Cadbury Dairy Milk Fruit and Nut slab a friend had gifted my daughter and she - like me- doesn't always prefer "things" coming in between her chocolate. So I decided to cut it up into chips and use it in the biscotti. I also had some macadamia nuts lying from my trip to Australia and decided to use those as well. I adapted this recipe from Canadian Living.

I had my daughter's best friends over when I was making this so the tiny hands all wanted to shape the logs and they did a good job! My oven couldn't accomodate 14" logs, so I just divided the dough into 3 parts and made three smaller logs. The kids couldn't wait for the logs to be baked and then cool a bit so we could cut slices and I had a tough time restricting how much of the freshly baked logs they could consume - LOL! The slices cut quite easily with a serrated knife - you have to take care to use firm strokes to cut and not linger too much. The middle part of one of the logs was crumbling a bit, but there were a lot of takers for the crumbs, so I didn't have a problem with that :)

The Biscotti came out beautifully flavoured, not too sweet and with just the right amount of crunch from the nuts. They were crisp and made for a lovely snack with just the right amount of hardness. This is definitely a recipe to repeat since it has become a favourite in our house - none of my other cookies have won such all round approval satisfying the picky husband (when it comes to sweets) and the savoury liking daughter.

I have also baked my Christmas Cake with the kids - the one which I have been doing for many years and it is luscious with all the dried fruit inside - I sliced one portion and am dousing the other round cake with small spoons of orange juice till it is ready to be eaten on Christmas. I have another batch of dried fruit soaking with which I am going bake another Christmas cake when my niece arrives and we will have that one for New Year with friends and family. This is a different recipe I'm going to be using for the first time, lets see how it turns out. Have you baked your Christmas Cake - try this recipe here, its easy and you will love the flavour! If you haven't soaked dried fruit, ust steam the fruit for about 7-8 minutes gently in orange juice or rum and rest for 30 minutes, before proceeding with the recipe. Recipe here

Now back to the Biscotti.

 Milk Chocolate Macadamia Biscotti

 Ingredients:

Butter - 1/2 cup, softened
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Eggs - 2
Flour - 2 cups
Baking powder - 1.5 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Almond Essence - 1 tsp
Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp
Macadamia Nuts - 1/2 cup, chopped (can replace with almonds)
Milk Chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate bar chopped up into small pieces) - 2/3 cup

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl, beat till smooth and shiny.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well.
3. Mix in the almond essence and vanilla extract into the egg mixture
4. In another bow, sieve the flour and baking powder together. Add to the egg mixture and combine with a light hand till it comes together into a soft dough.
5. Add the chopped nuts and the milk chocolate pieces and mix into the dough.
6. With your hands, divide the dough into 2 or 3 parts, depending on the size of your oven/baking tray.
7. Shape each part into a log about 10-12" long and place on a greased baking tray, then flatten slightly while still leaving the edges rounded, making each long about 3-4" wide. Use flour while shaping the logs in case they are sticking to your hands.
8. Pre heat the oven to 180C and bake for 25-20 minutes, till the tops are just turning golden and the logs are firm. Cool for 10 minutes
9. Cut the logs with a serrated knife diagonally in a firm, swift motion into 1/2" slices each.
10. Stand the slices upright in a baking tray and bake at 180C for 20 minutes, till dry and crisp and base is slightly browned.

White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

I have been baking a Christmas cake for the past two years and it has become nice way to bring in the holiday spirit - right from marinating the fruit to baking it on Christmas Eve. This was the first time in the last eight years we weren't at the our friend's house in Chennai for Christmas - but the cake still managed to please new friends. And the special part of baking it this year was that a couple of months back I got to meet my friend in London who had given me this recipe some years back. We have only been emailing each other for almost 8 years now so it was wonderful to actually get to meet her!



This year, I also baked some cookies - adapted this recipe which was itself adapted from this one
from Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated. I love crispy cookies much more than the chewy ones so I loved the idea of these. They are actually not so much crispy rather than this kind of absolutely gorgeous vehicle to transport some rich chocolate and oatey goodness into your mouth!! I did away with the sea salt and reduced the oatmeal, threw in some dried cherries and Voila! - absolutely delicious cookies. I had to stop myself from eating the dough while waiting for the first batch to cook :)

Sending these cookies to Neivedyam's Cookie Baking Event which is being hosted by Sharmi.

White Chocolate, Cherry and Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

Flour - 2 cups
Oats - 1 cup (I used quick cooking oats)
Baking powder - 3/4 tsp
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 200gms
White chocolate(chopped) - 170 gms
Egg -1
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Dried cherries - 50gms
Sugar - 1 cup

Method:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl till smooth.
2. Put the chopped chocolate into a glass bowl and place it inside a bowl of heated water and microwave in 30 second intervals till melted and smooth.
3. Beat the egg and add to the creamed butter and sugar mixing lightly till combined.
4. Sift the flour with the baking powder and baking soda and then add gradually to the egg mixture.
5. Add the vanilla essence and the melted chocolate to the bowl and combine with a wooden spatula.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for about half an hour so that it can be shaped into balls - do not skip this step!
7. Pre heat the oven to 180C (350F), cut butter paper to size and spread on a baking tray.
8. Shape the cookie dough into balls, flatten slightly and place on the baking tray atleast 2 inches apart (they will spread and flatten as they bake). Don't handle the cookie dough for too long since the chocolate and butter will start melting.
9. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the butter paper with the cookies on it and set aside to cool. They are very fragile before they cool so don't try to remove them from the butter paper when hot.
10. Bake more batches in the same way till the dough is used up.

Divine Chocolate Cake

A dear friend in Chennai, used to make this absolutely divine chocolate cake - a bit fudgy at the centres and the lovely rich taste of chocolate in very bite. We loved having it at every celebration - birthday, Christmas and other special occasions. I had taken the recipe from her but never really bothered making it - why mess with perfection! But I missed it a lot after moving here two years back and finally decided to make it myself.

The intense richness of this cake, I believe, comes from pouring the boiling water over the cocoa and coffee powders. You know the perfect chocolate cake recipe you were looking for? - well this is it! I will be experimenting with a whole wheat & low fat version, but I think we should all be a little decadent sometimes and indulge ourselves :)
I am sending the first picture to Click - Bi colour this month - the popular photography event hosted by Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi.

Divine Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:
Refined flour (maida) - 1 1/4 cups
Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
1/2 cup cocoa powder, (I used Cadbury's)
1 cup boiling water
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp
Butter at room temperature - 1.25 cups
Castor sugar - 1 cup
Eggs - 2
Method:
1. Take a largish bowl and beat the butter in it with an electric mixed on medium for about half a minute.
2. Add the sugar gradually and cream together till shiny and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time and beat the first well before adding the second one.
3. Meanwhile, heat the water till it is boiling and then pour over the cocoa powder in a bowl. Mix well till dissolved. Cool and then mix in the vanilla essence.
4. Sieve the flour, baking soda and baking powder together. Add the flour mix a little at a time to the butter sugar egg mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, beating continuously with the mixer on medium continuously. When it is combined well, beat on low for another half a minute.
5. Pour the cake batter into 2 pans (I used a 8" round pan and a smaller rectangular pan) which have been lined with parchment paper on the bottom and greased and floured on the sides. If not using parchment paper on the bottom, I would recommend heavily greasing and flouring the bottom instead. The cake turned out really soft and broke a bit when I tried to turn it out onto a plate.
6. Pre heat the oven to 190C and bake for about 25 minutes - a toothpick inserted should come out moist but not uncooked. Cool completely before attempting to take it out.
7. Warm slightly before serving.

Chocolate Gingerbread Men

"'Tis the season to be jolly' - indeed! This year the cold has been slow in coming - or maybe its just that I have got more accustomed to it over the last two years. By this time last year, we had the room heaters on; this year I haven't even broken out the thermals! Anyhow, I have been enjoying the weather and of course my cooking is reflecting the festive spirit.

The fruits for my Christmas Cake are all marinated, there have been some great soups (sorry no pictures and so no posts!), a first attempt at Butter Chicken (turned out great - but how Da-lhi is that!), fiery kozhambus, soothing masiyals (mashed spinach with lentils finished with a simple tempering) and comforting French toast. There have been visits from dear friends and simple meals shared (not to mention a disaster of a simple casserole!), a delicious meal at Karims, the perfect wedding anniversary celebration and a beautiful evening at the Garden of Five Senses.

This weekend, after visiting the Christmas Carnival at my daughter's old playschool (was it just a year back we were going through the nerve wracking admission process for her?!) I finally got down to baking cookies with her - she has been asking for the Gingerbread Man for the whole of last month, since we have been reading the story. I didn't have molasses, which is what all the recipes seemed to call for. So I decided to replace it with dark chocolate to get the right colour and a different flavour.
They were perfect - the spices beautifully complimenting the chocolate and I even managed icing - I guess my daughter seems to know how difficult I find it, because she kept egging me on "Its great, Amma - you are doing good!" LOL :) Its not the actual work involved, but putting all the sugar in which makes me think twice! Well worth the effort though - the shining eyes and cheery smile as she devoured a gingerbread woman, was priceless!

I did other shapes which my daughter could cut out with the cookie cutters - the gingerbread people I did with stencils since I didn't have the cookie cutter shapes for them. I also made some plain gingersnap cookies (without the chocolate and with more ginger in them) for the adults in the house. The lack of molasses/ chocolate shows in the pale colour, but the taste was great and they were thin and crispy - just the way I like my cookies!

Chocolate Gingerbread Men

Refined flour (maida) - 150gms
Whole wheat flour (atta) - 100 gms
1/2 tbsp dry ginger powder (soonth)
1/2 tbsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp powdered star anise
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp baking soda

Unsalted butter - 100gm
Brown sugar - 40gm
1 egg
1/2 cup melted dark chocolate

Tiny black raisins for decorating

Royal Icing: (Some tips here)

White of 1 1/2 small eggs
1/2 tsp lemon juice
2 cups icing sugar

1. Cream the butter (softened on its own if possible) in a bowl till smooth, add the brown sugar and mix again till shiny. Then the egg goes in and mixed for about 3 minutes till light and finally add the melted chocolate (Melt at 10 second intervals in a microwave or in a bowl over barely simmering water on the stove top)
2. Meanwhile, measure out the flour, baking soda, salt and spices and mix together.
3. Add one third of the flour mixture to the creamed butter/egg mixture and mix till just combined, add the other two thirds the same way, taking care not to over mix.
4. Use your hands at the end if needed, divide into two portions, cover with clingfilm and chill in the refrigerator for atleast one hour.
5. Pre heat the oven to 180C. Remove one portion and try to roll out on a floured surface - a rectangle 1/8th of an inch is sufficient. If it is too dry, add some milk a tsp at a time till you can roll out without sticking. If handled too much the dough may need to be chilled again since the chocolate might make it sticky.
6. While rolling out, make sure you keep trying to lift the rolled out dough off the work surface to check whether it is sticking, else you wont be able to peel of the cut out shapes.
7. Cut out the shapes with cookie cutters or stencils (search for Gingerbread men shapes on the internet, print, cut out and place on the cookie dough and cut with a sharp knife), put in small raisins for the eyes and buttons, transfer to butter paper (parchment paper) and bake for 15 minutes - check at 12 minutes and remove if it is done.
8. Cool on a rack - meanwhile, whip the egg white and lemon juice together while adding the icing sugar gradually till the mixture forms peaks when you lift the blender out of the bowl. A little less than 2 cups of sugar usually suffices. Transfer to an icing cone and decorate the cookies when cooled. Leave aside to dry completely.

The Gingersnap cookies

• 

Celebrating100 posts!

My creation
Originally uploaded by rajishanker

And what a delightful journey it has been since that first post in November, last year. Since then, I have found an amazing food blogging community, participated in blogging events, met one fellow food blogger, been part of a secret ingredient food chain, had baking days at home with kids, tried out new recipes and new ingredients like Goda masala and Rosematta rice, started baking bread and most importantly - broadened my horizons about cooking and eating healthy.







My favourite picks from the past 100 posts:

A soul satisfying Thai Noodle Soup

One of my first attempts at baking bread - Poee (Goan Pav) with Chicken Xacuti

A beautiful Shallot,Garlic, Olives and Sesame Focaccia

My daughter's third birthday spread

My version of fusion cooking - Lemon Coriander Chicken with a Coconut Mango sauce

A nutritious and delicious Eggless Pumpkin Walnut Bread

A Lebanese meal - Chickpeas, Raw mango and Apricot Tagine with Couscous

Traditional Christmas Cake

Home cooking posts - Kozhambu, Avial, Urulai Roast, Kozhukattai (Modak), Poriyal

Posts on regional dishes - Kadhi, Sindhi Sai Bhaji, Vankaya Poornam, Amti, Kadala Curry, Shaak


I have learnt so much along the way and an enjoying being a part of this vibrant and enthusiastic community (how do y'all do it!). Thank you so much for being part of this wonderful journey and your comments. Special thanks to my husband for encouraging my passion in his own way(what can I say, we can't eat sometimes till the photo has been clicked!) and to my dear neighbour A for cheering me on and being a willing guinea pig!