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

When green mango meets red plum..

... and on their way together they come across a little bit of cinnamon... this will defenitely end as a jam on french baguette.

At least when this happens at Vanilla Hills.

Welcome the new member of our "Bread Family"

Maxi Grain Bread

The new bread is definitely something for bread lovers, who set a great value upon good nutrition. The bread includes 7 different kind of seeds and grains.
Rye flour and freshly ground whole grains, whole wheat grains (freshly ground), spelt flour, sesame and flax seeds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. It contains home made breadspices with caraway, anise and fennel.

Needless to say that only my new "fancy" kitchen gadget (the mill), made it possible to get the freshly ground rye and wheat.

the right equipment

To bake good bread with fresh ingredients, you need the right equipment.

Yesterday I got a seed grinder in Spanish Lookout. (By the way... this thing looks like from the Middle Ages).

Now I can grind my rye and wheat grains and use the shredded grains for a very healthy bread.

Fougasse

I saw this bread several years ago and it was always in my mind to bake it. Last week we had some visitors at Vanilla Hills and they brought me a baking book with only bread recipes.
And the first recipe I came across was "Fougasse"

So - here we go.

Banana Gelato with Chocolate Flakes

Today I had a reason to celebrate... and I did it with my homemade banana gelato.


I'm so glad that a friend brought me the chocolate from Germany. The little flakes are that certain indefinable something in the gelato.




The reason was... I finally got the 3-digit likes on my facebook page. :)



Thanks to the "fans" of Vanilla-Hills Soulfood.

Quiche

Since I was very busy in the last few days, I was not able to try out new dishes and feed the blog at least with content.

Today I have taken the time to fulfill the desire of two dear friends and made quiche. I decided for a vegetable filling. Carrots, zucchini and squash, fresh from the market. I added cream, cheese and some spices... here we go.


Last month I had ordered 6 small quiche molds in the States - just the right size for one serving.

Food should be also a feast for the eyes!

Food is not only for satisfying hunger. It's more!

It's something social. It makes more fun to eat with friends than sitting alone in front of a plate.
And it's something for many sences.
At first you see the plate and hopyfully it looks nice. Than you smell the food and you're getting exited about eating and tasting it at the end should be the highlight.
But all three steps are (in my opinion) important and they belong together.

Since I love the first step quit a lot, I try to come up with something special every now and then.
This time I chose a special shape for my new pasta.

Sacchettini Quattro Formaggi

cheese... cheese... cheese...

This is the 3rd batch of cheese I made in Belize.

It's always a surprise how the cheese tastes after the ripening time of 14 -18 days. Since the "brie" is ripening from the outside to the inside, it can happen, that the cheese is almost "liquid" on the outside and still a little crumbly on the inside.

Any way - I had to stop the ripening because the taste is strong enough. Next time I will raise the temperature in my cheese fridge a little.

This time a made plain Brie, Brie with pistachios and Brie with bacon.

Pasta - 2nd batch

This time I made the pasta dough half and half.
I mixed flour and semolina 50:50. I added eggs and olive oil.

The stuffing was a spinach-cheese mix.


Thanks to my little helper - I have always the perfect thickness for the Tortellini.

Piña Colada Gelato

When I'm thinking of a tropical fruit, pineapple comes first to my mind. Especially here in Belize they taste so delicious. So it is obvious that I have to make a gelato with this savory fruit.
I decided to spice it up with coconut cream and a little - okay two little - dashes of coconut rum.

homemade pasta

It took me several months to make my favourit dish again.

Tortellini with Gorgonzola Sauce.

To get Tortellini, Ravioli or other fresh stuffed pasta in a supermarket in Belize is impossible. So I had to do it myself. You can make the pasta dough with flour, eggs and olive oil or you can make it with semolina, olive oil and water.

This time I choose the variation with flour and eggs.



I decided to make a hearty ground steak stuffing for the Tortellini and Ravioli. Next time I'll maybe prepare a shrimp - lemmon gras or a spinach - ricotta stuffing.

After more than 50 little handmade Tortellini I decided to do some Tagliatelle - this is much easier and not so time-consuming ;)



And with the leftover of the ground steak. We'll have "Pasta Bolgonese" for tomorrow's lunch.