Christmas 2013 visuals

By 12:13 AM



Tis the season for gifting~ <3
And my first box of cupcakes from Baking in the Woods :) Pretty yummy! 4 out of 5 stars from me!

The cutest macaroon!

My first attempt at rear sync flash photography.



Thank you for the Christmas presents everyone! :)
Secret santa gift exchange! :D
Check out our presents that looks like a Christmas tree! :p
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And here's what i did on Christmas day! :D

DIY Cookie House Set from Muji
Recipe as per the recipe given in the DIY pack :) 
Apart from the English instructions provided, there is a recipe card in Japanese with step by step pictures provided.
 Cookie Mix + Powder Sugar + Sugar Made Santa Doll + Cocoa Powder + Pattern Paper + Pastry Bag + Recipe Card

Other ingredients to buy/prepare: Sugar 140g + Non salted butter 60g + Milk 90ml + 1 Egg + 1 small spoon of water + Lemon juice 1-2 drops

Equipment to prep: Whisker + large bowl + Silicon spatula + Cling wrap + brush for glazing cookies + Baking paper + Cooling rack + Rolling pin

Preparation:

1. Pre-measure all the ingredients for cooking
2. Take the pattern paper out and cut along the lines or frame with a scissors

 3. Leave milk in room temperature
4. Divide the egg white and egg yolk.
5. Put 60g of butter in a heat proof container, cover it with a cling wrap and melt butter in the microwave oven (about 1 min in a 500W oven)
6.Get ready the baking paper cut into the size of the oven tray.


Preparing the cookie dough
1. Put melted butter in a large bowl and add in 140g of sugar (*do note that it is not the icing sugar provided in the diy set!)
Use a whisker to mix it (abut 10-15times)

2. Add in cookie mix and 80ml of milk into the mixture above. Use a silicon spatula to mix the dough. Then, knead with hands until the dough texture is even. (Plain dough).

3. Use 1/4 of the dough prepared for the (Cocoa dough). Wrap the remaining 3/4 of the dough with a cling wrap and leave it aside.

4. Place the 1/4 dough into another bowl and add cocoa powder + 10ml of milk (2 small table spoons). Use a silicon spatula to mix. Then, knead with hands until the dough texture is even. (Cooca Dough)
Here's B hard at work kneading the dough :)

5. Sheath the cling wrap over the respective doughs and use a rolling pin to roll the dough out. Roll out 2 pieces of 23cm plain dough and 1 piece of 19cm cocoa dough. Cool each piece in a freezer or refrigerator for 15mins.

Prepare the cookies
1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.

2. Cut the dough along the pattern papers for the number of pieces needed. I've used a butter knife to cut the required pieces :) *Be careful not to cut your fingers while doing this!
(if the dough is soft and difficult to cut, let it cool in the fridge for a while)

3.Grease the baking paper with butter and arrange the cut pieces with a 1cm gap apart. 

4. Add 1 teaspoon of water into egg yolk. Use spoon to mix it. Glaze the cookies.
(For glazing the cookies before we send them into the oven to bake :)) 

5. Bake the cookies for 12-25mins in 170 degrees celsius pre-heated oven.  

*Baking time varies depending on the thickness of the cookie dough and oven used. Mine took only 6mins or so as the thickness of my cookie dough was very thin.

Let the cookies cool before assembling them with the icing.

Preparing the icing

1. Break egg white into a bowl and use a whisker to whisk it up.

2. Take 1 tablespoon of the whisked egg white and put into a large bowl.

3. Scoop out 1 teaspoon of the fine sugar included in the D-I-Y set and put aside. Take the remaining fine sugar and put into the large bowl with the 1 tablespoon of whisked egg white.  Use a whisker to whisk the mixture.

*Caution: The egg white from 1 egg will be too much for the icing. Be careful not to add too much of egg white or else the icing will turn out to be too soft.

*Do note that the assembly of cookies will be difficult if the icing is soft.

If the icing is too hard, add 1/2 teaspoon of egg white bit by bit. If the icing is abit soft, add in the fine sugar that was put aside bit by bit.

4. Drip 1-2 drops of lemon juice and use a whisker to whisk it roughly to a hardness where the icing will drip slowly when scooped up with the whisker (refer to pictures in the japanese recipe card)

5. Use a silicon spatula to fill the icing into the pastry bag and keep aside in the fridge.


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Homemade soup + Spaghetti by B's Bro & wife :) YUMMY! Coupled with the chili crabs B's mum went to buy, simply delicious hehe~

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And our final masterpiece after piecing them together with the handmade sugar icing that saved the day! I think we did a great job with the icing hehe.. It was the saving factor for our cookie house! :)

*if a baked cookie has cracked, pipe icing along the crack line to join it!

As you can see, our front door has crack lines all over lol.. Super fail.. but thank goodness the sugar icing saved the day! :D


Thank goodness our cookie house could stand upright :p

Back view :)

erm.. still has some similarity i hope? :p I would rate my cookie house 2.5 out of 5 stars hehe.. We tried our best!

Hope you like the recipe that I've shared from the DIY Cookie set from Muji :D
And last but not least, my favourite Christmas present of all.. Handmade with love from B <3

Hohoho~ Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! 
Happy 2014 to everyone! Thanks to all my loyal readers for everything in 2013! Hope that you will continue to support my blog and may the new year bring everyone joy and many good tidings! Huat ah~ Cheers to a fantastic year ahead! hehe..
XXOO

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