Various stuff

[vilakins]

I haven't been very good at posting lately. Firstly I feel like a cup of tea and a nice sit down with a book when I get home from work (even though I enjoy it) and secondly I have this huge backlog of photos I have to download and then deal with. OK, I've done the first part, which is harder than it used to be because my old download program no longer works with my new PC so I have to manually create a library for each day. And I had photos going back to December.

Anyway, one thing at a time. I made Hamantaschen last week, using a new recipe, and I was very pleased with how they turned out this time (though the kitchen still looked like a flour bomb had hit it; rolling dough out isn't one of my top skills). I took some in to work since it's something people do there: cakes for birthdays or just because people have made something nice they want to share, and they all disappeared very quickly.



The fillings were traditional prune and lemon, raspberry jam, orange marmalade, and Nutella. My favourite was the marmalade as it was very tart. I will make more of those next year.

Next up (well, maybe tomorrow): the Pasifika festival we went to yesterday. :-)

Comments

[gwendraith]

I wondered where you had got to. Real life gets in the way sometimes.

The little pastry tarty things look delish :)

[vilakins]

I also don't have an interesting life like you since I can't easily go many places from the arsehole of the world here.

They were! I put the recipe and instructions in a comment on LJ. :-)

[kerravonsen]

My mouth is watering.

[vilakins]

If you'd like to try them, I put the recipe and instructions in a comment on LJ. :-)

[kerravonsen]

No, I'd rather someone else made them for me. (grin)
It's just as well that my oven doesn't work properly, or I would be baking stuff and then eating it, and then where would my diet be?

[vilakins]

And this would be why I only bake a few times a year. :-)

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Ooh, those look nice. I want one! :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Sorry, we ate the last ones last night! :-)

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Alas! :)

[van.livejournal.com]

Ooh, fantastic! Any chance of sharing the recipe? It's hard to find Hamantaschen locally, so I wouldn't mind trying my hand at making them.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Sure!

Ingredients
- 1 cup of sugar
- 2/3 cup oil (I used rice bran oil)
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- heaped teaspoon baking powder
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 cups of flour

In a mixing bowl, put in oil and sugar and combine. One at a time, add orange juice, vanilla, and eggs. (I also added lemon zest.) Add flour and baking powder.

Preheat the oven to 190C (375F).

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough and cut out circles (I used a glass).

Use about 1/2 teaspoon of filling for each circle. Turn in sides in three flaps, like this (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__IP6S4qrDTw/Sa1pTCg2okI/AAAAAAAAB_M/q30qQRiKsug/s1600/hamantaschen+montage.jpg).

Bake on a baking sheet for 10-12 minutes (10 was good for my oven).

[van.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I am excited to try. NUTELLA FILLING WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Nutella would be my favourite filling if the marmalade hadn't turned out so good!

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

They look yum! :D

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I just posted the recipe in the comment above. :-)

And let me tell you, the Nutella ones were pretty good!

[imhilien.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that. :)

[ultrapsychobrat.livejournal.com]

Yummy! What's Nutella?

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Nutella=Hazelnut-chocolate spread. It's the top brand so has a decent amount of hazelnut.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Those look yummy. I confess that I'd never heard of Hamantaschen before so, as well as being entertaining, your journal is educational as well. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you! :-D

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Oh yum yum, I do know you always bake these delicacies but be sure I am drooling here!
And thank you for the recipe, It will be a nice surprise for my mum:-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm sure she'll enjoy them--they're very nice and not at all rich--and you're a good baker.

[thisbluespirit]

They look v good! And preferring to sit down with a cup of tea and a book sounds perfectly reasonable to me. :-)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

They were so good I'm tempted to make more despite the hassle of rolling them out and making them up. But next year!

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Glad work is still enjoyable, even though tiring.

Those look good, I might give them a go. How many ml to your cup?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

250ml. I use a proper measuring one. The recipe came from the US but it worked just fine with 250ml.

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

Thanks, there's no arguing over the size of ml, I wasn't sure if it would be a 10oz or an 8oz cup and that's a 60ml difference. And that would cause problems with matching to the spoons if I picked the wrong one.

[threeoutside.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Those DO look good! And I'm sitting here not having had breakfast yet.

Are these traditional goodies in New Zealand? And may I ask, what national holiday do you folks celebrate, in which month? The reason I ask is because I've been trying to send my granddaughter a present of cookies each month, and I'm thinking these would be a lovely change of pace. I'd send them in your national holiday month (like our Independence Day is July 4th, so I'd send something traditional American in July. If I could figure out which one thing to narrow it down to...have to think about that.)

Edited to add: Whoops! As usual, I typed before looking things up. Hamantaschen! (http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/hamantaschen.htm)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yep, you answered your own question! We do have some NZ (and Australian) specialities here but I don't bake much. I'll make my favourite chocolate cake in April (for my birthday) and that's dead easy.

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

They look scrummy, unfortunately I'm terrible with pastry things. While those aren't pastry, anything that ends up needing rolling out tends to fail the same way.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I'm not crazy about rolling dough out either and I was getting quite frustrated at the start till I got into my stride (we ate the misshapen ones). I'll make my favourite chocolate cake in April (for my birthday) and that's dead easy: just whack all the ingredients in a bowl together, mix, and bake. :-)