For many years, vanilla has given me comfort. When I used to work in Dubai, I’d bake a batch of simple, un-iced vanilla cupcakes on Sunday mornings (the week there begins on Sunday), then take them to an office that pretty much devours me the entire day and leaves me for dead. But as soon as I return home, I could still smell the vanilla that had been trapped in my kitchen since my departure that morning. That alone wipes away the stresses of my day. When I’m not baking, I light vanilla candles. I normally don’t run out of them.

It was only early this year that I decided to pick up something new to go with my usual vanilla tealights from Ikea. They were bigger, heavier votives in glass, dark chocolate in color and gave off the sweetest scent of apples that had been cloaked in cinnamon.

I have since moved back to Manila. No Ikea candles here. The closest I can get to replicating that wonderful perfume is by cranking up that oven and making some good ol’ apple pies. Remembering that I seriously dislike doing the dishes, I’m making them strictly hand-held.

So with the apples, brown sugar and cinnamon bubbling away inside the oven, as expected I caught a waft of something decidedly familiar. Oh the memories resurrecting! Cliche as it may sound, I am wrapped in some serious fuzz right now.

xxx

Karima

Apple Empanadas

Makes 8 pies
Pie Crust recipe adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

Pie Crust

Pie Filling

Method:

Pie Crust

Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut cold butter and shortening into the flour mixture. If you don’t have a pastry cutter, use the tips of your fingers and working quickly, rub butter and shortening into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle ice water evenly over mixture, a tablespoon at a time. Using a fork, toss until the flour is evenly moistened and the dough begins to clean the sides of the bowl. Turn out dough onto a lightly floured board and with floured hands, shape dough into 2 small disks and wrap each in cling wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or overnight.

Assembly

On a lightly floured work surface, roll 1 disk of dough to 1/8 inch thick. With a biscuit cutter, cut dough into 5-inch rounds. Whisk the egg and water lightly and with a pastry brush, sweep egg wash on one side of the dough.

Peel and core apples. Dice into 1/2-inch pieces. Toss together with lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and flour in a large bowl. Spoon filling into the center of each dough round, leaving about half an inch border all around. Fold into a half-moon and using a pie crimper (or a fork), seal the edges of the pie. Poke a few holes on top with the tines of a fork for steam to escape during baking. Brush a final sweep of egg wash. This will give the pies a glossy finish. Refrigerate empanadas while the oven is preheating.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Line baking sheets with foil to catch any juices. Bake empanadas until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling. Let cool completely on a wire rack.

Gen-Z’s. The Digital Natives. As expected, most of them are surgically attached to their electronics. iPhone, iTouch, PSP. With these portable friends, they can surf the net, play games, listen to music, take photos, communicate with each other.

You, who were born during the era of black, rotary dial telephones and television sets that came with their own cupboards, cannot comprehend this new breed. You complain that the kids these days don’t anymore go out and enjoy the sun. That they don’t anymore know how to be creative and build things from scratch.

Truth is, you’re old-fashioned and haven’t caught on with technology. And more importantly, you just want to spend a few moments with your children without letting them feel that you’re robbing them of their precious ‘me’ time.

Enter baker’s play dough. What do you know? The idea alone managed to peel my 12-year old off of his Nintendo DS. Mentioned that I invited his fave cousin to join us, he switched from ‘ok, I’ll help you’ to ‘what time are we going to start?.’

It only took us 4 hours from start to finish but in between, it was an uber-fun (albeit messy) affair. The kids kneaded their own dough, cut them into pieces and rolled them into balls. Then came the greasy construction interspersed with the occasional flicks of bacon fat and semi-molten chocolate at each other.

After clearing the table of butter drips and two kids’ faces of meaty slicks and chocolate smears, we admire the towers of bubble rising inside the oven. And noticing their eyes beaming with absolute pride, who says kids these days can’t build anything from scratch? We may have arrived at the age of the Avatar but I’m confident these digital natives will do just fine. Especially with a little help from imaginative Gen-X’ers!

xxx

Karima

Monkey Bread

Makes 6 4-inch breads
Adapted from Chocolatier Magazine, June 1996 Issue

Ingredients:

Dough

Assembly

Bacon and Cheddar

3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
100 gms bacon bits, pan-fried
1/2 cup grated white cheddar
1/2 cup grated red cheddar

Italian Herbs and Garlic

3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
4 tbs dried Italian herb blend
2 tbs chopped fresh garlic

Chocolate Chip

3 tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 oz mini semisweet chocolate chips
2 oz mini white chocolate chips

Method:

Combine yeast and 1/2 tsp sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in the warm water. Heat the milk, butter and 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan until the butter melts. Remove from heat and transfer to a large mixing bowl. Let stand until just warm. Whisk in the eggs one at a time into the milk mixture then add the yeast mixture.

Combine 3 cups flour and salt in a separate mixing bowl. Pour over the yeast-egg-milk mixture and stir to form a thick batter. Add the remaining flour, half a cup at a time, to form a soft dough.

Turn out onto a well-floured board and knead until smooth and supple, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle additional flour as necessary to prevent it from sticking to the board.

Transfer to a well-buttered bowl, swiping the dough to get an even slick of butter all over. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and let stand in a warm place for about an hour and a half.

When the dough has doubled in size, coat the inside of tube pans with softened butter. Gently punch down the dough and turn out to a lightly floured board. Divide dough into portions equal to the number of pans you are using (in my case, 6 4-inch mini bundt pans). Then further divide each into smaller pieces and roll into balls.

Assembly:

Dunk the balls in melted butter then roll into the desired flavoring. Drop the dough balls into the pans, making sure they’re evenly distributed. Doesn’t have to be perfect. Just cover spaces as much as possible. It is a good idea though to keep the top surface balanced so that they brown evenly.

You may choose to coat each dough ball in butter, arrange a layer at the bottom of the pan then sprinkle with desired flavor blend. Repeat layers until dough balls fill three quarters of the pan.

Cover the top with cling wrap and let rise for the second time until doubled in volume. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit 15 minutes before baking.

Bake the breads on the middle rack of the oven for about 20 mins. Halfway through the baking time, lay a sheet of aluminum foil on top of the pans, to completely set the top of the bread and prevent it from over browning. You may check doneness by sticking a wooden toothpick into the center of the bread. It should come out dry.

Let cool on a wire rack then carefully remove bread from pans to cool completely. Enjoy right away or leave some for breakfast the following day, if they’re not gone by then!

Lately I have been missing my friends and reminiscing about the many mornings we spent at Le Pain Quotidien, our favorite hangout in Jumeirah Beach Residence. Those were times when we just wanted to take it easy, wash down our worries with gigantic bowls of cafe au lait while looking nonchalantly fabulous under the Arabian sun. Truly, undeniably veritable belles du jour.

Snapping myself back to the present, I thought I’d recreate those LPQ moments by spending a good amount of time in the kitchen and baking myself a Belgian treat. I’m leaning towards something sugary these days so I scoured the web and bumped into craquelin. It is basically a brioche that caters to your sweet tooth.

Happy with my choice of bakery, I hastily got down to business. That was last night. This morning, with the dough rising inside the oven, butter softening in the kitchen counter, coffee brewing in the French press… I grabbed a few minutes to put on a sundress and slap on some lippy. I haven’t forgotten to look fab for my petit dejeuner!

xxx

Karima

Craquelin

Makes about 10 individual breads
(Recipe adapted from the brioche entry in Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich)

Ingredients:

Method:

Place the flour inside the fridge for a good 15 minutes before use so that it’s nice and cold when mixed with the butter.

Cut the butter into small pieces and put in a mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat with the paddle attachment until the butter is smooth. Do not cream the butter as we do not want it to be soft . Transfer the butter in a bowl and store in the refrigerator.

Place the yeast, water and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a clean mixer bowl and stir until the yeast dissolves. Add remaining sugar, 5 eggs, sour cream, salt and flour. Mix until all the ingredients are combined.

Knead the dough for about 5 minutes until it forms into a ball and begins to pull away from the bowl. Add the cold butter a few pieces at a time, incorporating them into the dough before adding more.

Scrape the dough into an oiled bowl and cover. Refrigerate overnight or for up to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake the craquelin, butter individual mini panettone tins or in my case, small bundt pans.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and roll out to a floured board. Divide into the number of tins that you are using and roll each into a ball. Position inside the tins, cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm place. Let the dough rise until doubled or until craquelin has risen to the top of the cups, about 2 hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Beat the remaining egg with about a teaspoon of water to make an egg wash. Brush the tops of the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Bake for about 12-15 minutes, until the tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.