It is never to early...

...to eat Christmas cookies.

In the past I usually baked them at the end of November. Since I wanted to have a special present for a good friend, I started last week. All of a sudden, we had this "Christmas smell" in our house, accompanied by Christmas music (thanks to the internet radio station).
I have to mention that if I have to go without snow, I want at least the Christmas music.

five different kinds

 

cinnamon stars

coconut macaroons

 

vanilla crescents

butter cookies with marzipan and walnut,
covered with dark chocolate

butter cookies

Artisan Rye Baguette

Special about this baguette is the long preparation time of the dough.
As a base I use wheat sour dough and add rye flour. The consistency of the dough is very runny but through a special technique of handling the dough it will get a solid surface.
After baking it's smooth in the inside and crispy on the outside.

I added some caraway seeds and coarse salt on top.

The big holes in the crumb is characteristic for this kind of bread.

tricky in the Tropics

To work with gelatin and real whipping cream (I'm not talking about the industrial, over sweetened chemical stuff called "cool whip") can be really difficult in the Tropics.

Best is to work during the night time when the temperature is cooling down. You have to be very fast... and you need space in the fridge to store the prepared ingredients. I think it's understandable that I'm not very keen on doing this.

But if you have the chance to get fresh strawberries and REAL whipping cream (you have to drive several miles to get this) it's a must to bake a strawberry-biscuit roll.

Bon appetit :)

 

Impatience, thy name is woman!

Exactly 24 hours I could stand it, not to use the new machine. Then I could not hold back any longer and decided to bake my husbands favorite pastry.

 Yeast bun with raisins

 
To challange the machine at least a little bit, I've prepared twice the amount of dough.
It's amazing how easily the large kneader can knead the heavy dough.

 

my new and my old kneader

 
And because I had so much fun with my new gadget, I baked some more breads. ;)

Farmers Bread

Warm Apple Strudel

To be honest - I don't really have a sweet tooth. When I bake cakes or cookies, they are for my customers or most of the time for my husband.
But there is one I'll definitely break down to. It's a warm apple strudel I can't withstand. And if it comes with vanilla gelato (made with real vanilla beans from Belize) my husband has to be very fast to get a piece.

Surprise... surprise...

Shopping at the market is always a little surprising. You never know what kind of exotic fruits (I'm talking about strawberries, grapes, peaches or plums) they sell. Today I got ahold of some peaches.

What do pineapple, peach and starfruit have in common?

 

They end as jam in a jar. 

And tomorrow morning we'll have fresh French Baguette and this jam.

One dough - different faces

The dough I'm talking about is a special yeast-dough. The specific thing about is the time, the dough has to be kneaded.

By kneading the dough for a long time, the texture is getting smoother and warmer again.

The baked result is a very fluffy and tastful cake.

 

Brioche-Muffin XL
with soft-centered vanilla cream
and lemon icing

 

"Chinois"

 

Brioche