Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies

I've been craving for Chocolate Thumbprint cookies since last Eid ul Fitr, when my mom went crazy and bought almost all cookies from Harvest, our local bakery. Chocolate Thumbprint is my favorite, thou Harvest's called them White Button. why, they are as cute as a button indeed! it was really easy and fun to make, despite the part where you bake the cookies for 10 minutes, dipped ur thumb to the half cooked so freaking hot cookie dough, then put it back in the oven.

My red sore thumb is all worth it when I bite into these cute botton cookies, feel the vanilla cookies crumble into rough sand and blend gently with the silken dark chocolate. Oh, Heaven!

Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies
makes 4 1/2 dozen

1 cup plus 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
6 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped
2 tsp corns syrup ( i used honey instead-it works too)

preheat the oven to 350 F. line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 


In the bowl of an electric mixed fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 cup butter, the confectioners' sugar, salt and vanilla on medium speed until smooth about 2 minutes, beat in flour, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium until combined

Form balls using 2 teaspoons of dough for each, place balls 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets. 

Bake 10 minutes, remove from the oven, and press thumb into cookies to make deep, wide indentations, rotate the pan, and return to the oven; bake until light brown on the edges, 7 to 9 minutes more. ( if the indentations begin to lose definition, remove cookies from oven and press again.) 

Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Combine the chocolate, the remaining 6 tablespoons butter and the corn syrup in a small heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water; stir occasionally until melted and smooth. 

Allow to cool a bit until slightly thickened. fill thumbprint with the chocolate mixture, and set aside to firm up. cookies can be stored in a single layers in airtight containers at room temperature up to 3 days.

How-To-Create-Buttermilk

Man. It's so hard to find buttermilk here in Jakarta. I'm saying that with regret because there are a lot of great recipes out there that required buttermilk and i just had to skip them because I had no idea where to get one.

But then i found this :

Thank you so much Kay from Kayotic Kitchen! She stated in her blog how to make buttermilk. Geez, I never knew that we could make buttermilk. Kay also blogs about how to make your own butter! Butter!! I am amazed.

I do think her blogs are one of those great blog out there that are worth to see. She mostly cook than baked, but her recipes are easy, yummy and not to mention she is also an amazing food photographer!   :)

Magnolia Famous Banana Pudding

When my best-friend went to NY and screamed to me how yummy magnolia banana pudding is, (She said it's even better than the cupcake) i just can't wait to make them! I'm not a big fan of banana, but my parents are. Dad can eat 3 bananas after dinner and mom usually chew on that fruit with anything she can find on the fridge, nutella, cheese, peanut butter, chocolate, anything!

Lucky me, I happen to have magnolia bakery cookbook in handy. what I like about everything in magnolia cookbook that it is so well describe. honestly, it's.so.easy. i usually need to do trial-and-error-and-messed-up-the-kitchen like 2 - 3 times before i can get any recipe right. but with magnolia bakery? snap-snap delicious!

I am lucky to have my cousin-in-law ( what do u call someone who is married to ur cousin?) to take pictures of my pudding. these pictures below are his. hope you enjoy it as much as i do!

PS : I personally think that this pudding is too sweet. next time I'm gonna reduce the amount of the condensed milk

PSS: I just realized that i baked 2 times in a row using magnolia cookbook. hmm. Got to do more variety!

Magnolia Famous Banana Pudding
taken from More From Magnolia by Allysa Torey

one 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/2 cup ice cold water
one 3.4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups heavy cream
one 12-once wafers(the book said to use Nabisco Nilla Wafers but I can't find it in Jakarta so i substitute them with Loackers)
4 cups sliced ripe bananas

In a small bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and water until well combined, about 1 minute. Add the pudding mix and beat well, about 2 minutes more. Cover and refrigate for 3-4 hours or overnight, before continuing. it is very important to allow the proper amount of time for the pudding mixture to set.


in a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until stiff peak form. gently fold the pudding mixture into the whipped cream until well blended and no streaks of pudding remain.


to assamble the dessert, select a large, wide bowl (preferably glass) with a 4-5 quart capacity. arrange one third of the wafer to cover the bottom of the bowl, overlapping if necessary, then one-third of the bananas and one-third of the pudding. repeat the layering twice more, garnishing with additional wafers or wafer crumbs on the top layers of the pudding. cover tightly with plastic wrap and allow to chill in the refrigerator for 4 hours-or up to 8 hours, but no longer!- before serving.

Ied ul-Fitr!

Hi guys, first of all i just want to say happy Ied ul-Fitr, Minal Aidzin wal Faidzin :)
I did bake some sweet stuff this week, but i guess I want to put this special day on highlight.

At this day we who celebrate Ied ul Fitr all gather with our families and asked for each of forgiveness for our mistakes in this year. and eat. obviously. every Ied ul Fitr I eat a lot. like, a lot. I just keep on eating and talking to my family.

I'm telling you there were a lot of great food there! it's full of coconut gravy and sambal, all things that make you love indonesian food. my Uncle were like, " Why do you take pics of the food and not us?" Oopps. Sorry Unca!

first thing i ate was Somay. it's lot like chinese shu mai, but we eat it with our special peanut sauce.
it's so good i ate 3 bowl of them. blurp.

Next is the super-ied-ul-Fitr food, the most famous of all, Ketupat!!
ketupat is actually steam rice shaped into the shape of diamond. (wajik, tupat) indonesian reader, please correct me if i make a mistake explaning our glorious food.

Ketupat are best eaten fesh and it's best companion is Opor Ayam.

oh, glory. oh lord. i cannot feel my hips. realy. i think it's gone. opor ayam is chicken (ayam = chicken) bathed in coconut gravy. all the best indonesian foods somehow have sambals and coconut gravy in them ;)

this is gulai ayam, my mom made this. i'm so proouudd! my mom rarely cook, or well, maybe the right term is never cook. so when she does, i'm just proud. Gulai ayam is our version of Curry.

This is sambal goreng ati. oh i don't know how to explain it in english. let's just say it's veeery good.

I... forgot what this dish called. oh, sorry! oh wait. it's pumpkin curry. wait... what?

this one is Semur. semur is chicken, tofu, and potato bathed in sweet soy sauce broth. it's well known as javanese traditional dish. 

This is Duck in green chili sauce. OH MY, the HEAT. my lips, throat and tounge wee basicly burning. i had to chuck 3 glass of cold water to calm myself down. but sooo worth it! 

 

this is the rice. if you don't feel like eating ketupat, you can always eat rice, my aunt wrapped them in banana leaves to make it pretty. 

oh i'm so full! aren't you?

 Hope you enjoy the pictures! 

love, Ardna and Ardna's Grandpa

Strawberry Icebox Pie

Oh, there are days when i just can't think of what to write. which confuse me, because i talk a lot. like, a lot. i can spend like 5 hours straight talking. no kidding. why can't i write? i guess talking and writing is a totally different things.

it helps to look back at the title. Right. Strawberry Icebox Pie!

When I first read the recipes, the word 'icebox' confused me. what the heck is that supposed to mean? icebox? but then i realized after further reading that this recipe requires a lot of freezing and refrigerati-ing ( is that even a word?)

And it requires no flour! YAY! i'm allergic, you see. To dust. And small particles of flour flying around my nose when i bake equals to dust. When my immune systems are down, shifting flour can send me to a series of nonstop coughing and sneezing. Ppfftt.

The crust is made of wafer crumb and melted butter. i used loacker wafer because i love the milky flavor. i whack the wafer out with the back of a wooden spoon. i love wackhing. it felt gooood. 

The filling was made out of strawberry-like-preserved. i totally love them. it's so easy and u only need like 15 minutes max to make them. And it also smells amazing. my fingers smell like strawberries all day long :D

 

I love the idea of making the bite-size of this icebox pie, so i made them! i used mini muffin pan and mini muffin liners, and i need to emphasize this that u kinda need the muffin liners or the crust won't stick to the pan. took me half and hour racking my brain to figured that out.
  

Strawberry Icebox Pie

from At Home with Magnolia by Alyssa Torey

makes one 9-inch pie

  

crust :

1/2 cup unsalted butter,melted

2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs

filling :

5 cups fresh strawberries, sliced in halves

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 tsp vanilla extract

to make the crust : in a medium-size bowl, combine the butter and vanilla wafer crumbs. press firmly into a lighted buttered 9-inch pie dish. cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 1 hour. 

to make the filling : mash 2 cups of the strawberries and place in a medium-size saucepan. add the sugar and cornstarch, and stir constantly over medium heat, until the mixture is the consistency of fruit preserves 10 - 15 minutes. 

reduce the heat to low, and continue cooking for 2 more minutes until the mixture thickens slightly. remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. transfer to glass measuring cup and allow to cool to room temperature about 15 minutes. stir in the remaining berries and spread the filling evenly in the prepared crust. cover with plastic wrap and chill the pie in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours and up to 8 hours