Homemade Rice Wine

I was trying to make Manapla-style puto which I was told years ago has wild yeast or rice yeast as leavening agent. I looked online for white rice yeast, found this website about Philippine rice wine called tapuy and several other blogs on how to make rice wine at home, then quickly abandoned the puto. White rice yeast from the Philippines is impossible to get here in the US but I was able to buy from our local Asian store a packet of Chinese red rice wine yeast. I used this yeast and a cup of black glutinous rice and followed the recipe from the Filipino website. 

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Champagne Mini Cakes

Here's a nice idea for New Year's Eve celebration: cute mini cakes baked with champagne or non-alcoholic sparkling wine. I got the idea from here but used a different recipe for the cakes, frosting, fruit, and chocolate garnish.

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Bimuelos for Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah to all my readers!

Searching for fried food to make for the Jewish festival of lights holiday, Hanukkah, which began December 8 and will end on the 16th, I was surprised to find that the sweet snack called bimuelos which are very similar to the Filipino buñuelos are actually related. Although the recipes are different, they are both deep fried and served with syrup or honey or simply dusted with sugar. The tiny snacks are really really delicious drizzled with honey. It's also good with caramelized condensed milk but I prefer them with honey. I had for lunch all the bimuelos in the picture after photographing them. I couldn't resist the crispy crust and light as feather puffy honeycombed crumb.

these bimuelos have a light puffy 

honey-combed crumb and crispy crust

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Red Velvet Doughnuts

I'm seeing red food items everywhere, it's the season after all. One of the baked items I wanted to make since I saw them in one of the blogs I visit are those cute red velvet cake donuts. I never liked cake donuts so baked them with yeast and topped with slightly sweet maple flavored whipped cream. You can also dip them in cream cheese glaze, if preferred. Yummy with either topping.  

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