Chocolate Candies, Filipino Style

fondant with chopped candied langka (jackfruit)

mango paste

yema (egg yolk candy)

pinipig (pounded young glutinous rice) crunch bars

enrobed in bittersweet chocolate

A Filipino blog talking about a store (in the Philippines) selling chocolate candies with Filipino flavors and fillings piqued my interest and I immediately borrowed the idea. I was not expecting that dark chocolate and sweet jackfruit will go nicely together but surprisingly they do. It's the same with yema and my favorite, mango paste, which I made by boiling mango puree until very thick, the same process in making fruit leather. They are all delicious as chocolate candy fillings with their familiar Filipino flavors. I have a small bag of puffed pinipig which I will be using later for Guinomis and made bittersweet chocolate Pinipig Crunch, an homage to a childhood favorite, Nestle Crunch. Yummy yum yum!

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge: Bagels

toppings: sesame seeds, poppy seeds, salt

It's the third week of The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge and bagels are in the spotlight. I made bagels twice before, the first one about 5 years ago was a total disaster, and recently as a recipe tester for Peter Reinhart's which went great.

Although they are not as shiny as store-bought, I am very happy with the BBA bagels because they came out chewy, dense, and heavy just the way I like them. Delicious!

I made half a recipe, added 1 tablespoon of vital wheat gluten to the bread flour, and I also used barley malt syrup both in the dough and poaching water. I should have increased the amount of baking soda for shinier bagels. The dough yield was seven 4-ounce pieces which are too big IMHO. I might reduce each ball of dough to 3.5 ounces next time. For the topping I used black and white sesame seeds, black and white poppy seeds, and salt. It is worth making these bagels, they taste superior to store-bought.

this gram/ounce weighing scale with tare is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets

shaping the bagel

ready for an overnight stay in the refrigerator

the seven bagels +

toasted and slathered with honey-nut cream cheese

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 3.5 (shaping is not so easy)
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 27.5
Average: 4.58

The BBA Challenge is hosted by Nicole of Pinch My Salt

LaPiS: Fluffy Egg-White Omelet

egg-white omelet filled with artichokes, mushrooms, and kesong puti

When I hear or see the word fluffy either candy floss comes to mind

the candyman spinning candy floss at a birthday party

or a furry cat like this one

image http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Cats/Fluffy.htm t

Since Lasang Pinoy Sundays is all about food photography and not fur balls, I prepared something super fluffy but easy to make, an egg white omelet filled with artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and kesong puti. The omelet is very light and the absence of yolks did not matter because it is delicious and healthy too.

LaPis, a weekly gallery of food photography is hosted by SpiCes and guest posting this week is Gizelle of Kitchenmaus. Check out her puto recipe and click on the yellow button for more yummy fluffy stuff, Pinoy style.

BBA Challenge: Artos

Artos, or Greek celebration bread, is the second in the BBA Challenge series. It takes 1 or 2 days to make depending on the starter; wild yeast starter takes one day and poolish 2 days. I used poolish for this bread. The dough looked a bit large and so I halved it leaving one half plain and the other half I made into Christopsomos adding golden raisins, a combination of dried cranberries, Rainier cherries, and calimyrna figs, and almonds (I couldn't find my large bag of walnuts). I didn't bother to make the decorative strips on top of the bread, perhaps come Christmastime I will. As usual I mixed and kneaded the dough in the Kitchen Aid mixer which always does a better job of mixing in the fruits and nuts. It's a very easy dough to handle and of course shape. I don't know about those thingies on top, they might be difficult to do.

Both grew nice and tall in the oven, the plain one slightly taller (but a tad lopsided) and with the glaze and sesame seeds it looks like a giant burger roll. Both have tight soft crumb although the plain one has small holes in them which I don't mind really. The flavor of the slightly more moist Christopsomos reminds me of German stollen, a favorite in my house during the Christmas season for the last 20 years or so. I will make Christopsomos again with wild yeast starter and will definitely add it to our Christmas goodies later this year.

You can view the recipe here.

christopsomos

teensy bit lopsided plain Greek celebration bread (or maybe giant burger roll)

soft crumb, very good toasted

My Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 4
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 29
Average: 4.83