Lasang Pinoy Sundays: Chocolate

champorado with dark and white chocolate

Champorado, a Filipino breakfast food, is a sweet chocolate sticky rice porridge. The rice is boiled in water with cocoa powder and sugar, then served with milk just like cereals. After a day in the refrigerator the leftover champorado becomes thick and pudding-like but still very yummy.

The photo is ancient, taken in 2006. I chose this photo from my "chocolate" archives because it's perfect for this edition of LaPis: Chocolate. I made 2 separate champorado, one with dark and another with white chocolate, and served them both in one bowl. There is no need to add milk to enjoy this all-time Filipino favorite and you get to savor two kinds of chocolate all at once in one spoonful.

Lasang Pinoy Sundays is a gallery of food photography, Filipino style, is hosted by SpiCes and FeistyCook.

Stollen: BBAC #36

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge #36: Stollen. This bread (or is it cake?) has been one of our Christmas treats for the past 20 years. I do not bake them, we buy the German-made loaves which appear at the grocery stores around November up until the first week of January. They are not expensive so I never bother to make them myself until this challenge.

There were two things I didn't follow in the recipe. One, I omitted the cinnamon powder because I have never eaten stollen with cinnamon flavor. I love cinnamon but not in stollen. Second, I shaped them using different methods.

Immediately after baking, the loaves were brushed generously with melted butter, sprinkled with a little granulated sugar, then covered with vanilla-infused powdered sugar. I wrapped the loaves in plastic film then placed them in the pantry. After 5 days they were ready to eat and the slices were moist and delicious. I love it.

an easier way of shaping stollen: form the dough into tallish loaves then cut a slit on top less than ½ inch deep just before baking

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5

Palitaw

palitaw ribbons

Palitaw is a Filipino glutinous rice cake similar to mochi, the difference is the method of cooking. The pieces of palitaw dough are boiled in water until they rise to the surface. LITAW is the Philippine word for surface, hence palitaw. The photo of palitaw in the Filipino guidebook KULINARYA caught my eye because they don't look like the palitaw I grew up eating. The cooked palitaw are stretched into long and thin ribbons before rolling in a mixture of sugar, chopped roasted peanuts, and toasted sesame seeds. I have never eaten palitaw shaped into ribbons and with this combination before which is interesting and also yummy but I still prefer my palitaw dredged in grated coconut, sugar, and toasted sesame seeds.

Palitaw
adapted from KULINARYA guidebook

2 cups glutinous rice flour
¾ - 1 cup warm water
freshly grated coconut
tasted sesame seeds
chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
sugar

• Place the rice flour in a medium bowl then slowly add the warm water. Stir to combine thoroughly.
• Roll about 2 tablespoons of dough into 1-inch balls and using the palms of your hands, flatten each ball until ½-inch thick. With your thumb make a dent by pressing the center of each cake. Arrange flattened cakes side by side on a baking tray.
• Fill a medium pan with water and bring to a boil. Drop the cakes in, one at a time, in batches. When they rise to the surface, the palitaw is cooked. Transfer them to a large bowl of water to prevent them from sticking together.
• Just before serving, take each cake and stretch into ribbon-like pieces. Dredge in sugar-sesame seeds-peanut mixture (or coconut-sugar-sesame seeds mixture). Coil the pieces and arrange on a platter. Sprinkle with grated coconut.

with toasted black and white sesame seeds

Poilâne-style Miche : BBAC#33

flavorful dense and chewy but surprisingly moist crumb

The Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge #33: Poilâne-style Miche. This bread is supposed to be very large at more than 4 pounds. I didn't think I would be able to handle that much dough and it will also take forever to eat it so I halved the recipe. The procedure is not very complicated. The dough has whole wheat flour (sifted) and doesn't use commercial yeast. I actually used half sifted and half finely ground organic whole wheat flour. For the final rise I put the dough on a linen-lined 10-inch skillet. I was not brave enough to score my initial on the top thinking I might ruin it so I stenciled the O which in my opinion is way too small for the size of the bread (12 inches wide and 3 inches tall).

The bread came out perfect. It's dense and chewy, slightly sour and nutty, and moist which surprised me. The best thing about this bread is it got better and more sour as it aged, so yummy on the third day. I haven't tasted the original pain Poilâne and have no idea if the flavor and texture of this bread come close to the real thing but I am happy with it and I think it is a keeper.

I love the slices simply drizzled with buckwheat honey and sprinkled with flaked sea salt

Rating:
flavor 5
texture 5
visual appeal 5
ease of preparation 5
performance 5
worth 5
Total: 30
Average: 5