Iedul Fitri/Lebaran Cookies

It's a tradition in Indonesia when we celebrate Lebaran or Iedul Fitri we serve lebaran cookies to treat and honor our visitors. The cookies are homemades, usually made by the mother and helped by the daughters and sometimes the neighbours come to help too. While we're making the cookies, we're gossiping, talking about other people or getting some new informations about other stuffs or sometimes we get some new tricks about new recipes. It's the best time in my life where people are socializing and getting contacts with others just by making cookies for Lebaran.

The cookies themselves are variable. You can find some of Lebaran cookies in my blog that I made myself such as Nastar (pineapple cookies), Kue sagu keju (Tapioca cheese cookies), Kue kacang (peanut butter cookies) and Kue kelapa keju (Coconut cheese cookies). There are another variable of lebaran cookies such as kue bawang, cheesestick, kacang bawang and some other things that I haven't had the time yet to make it. When the time permitted I'll post them here.

It's really a tradition that Lebaran cookies must be there during Iedul Fitri. There is no exception, even for some people who have to work and don't have time to make the cookies themselves, then they usually order somewhere else or just buy them from the store.

Sweet Spices Beef

When the first time I made this dish, it turned out that this dish becoming one of me & my hubby favorite dishes. I just love the sweetness combined with the mild spices taste in the meat. So yummieee.... If it's too spicy, you can always reduce the chilli paste.

Ingredients:
300 gr beef
3 red onions
3 garlics
2 cm fresh ginger/jahe
2 cm fresh curcuma/kunyit (or 2 tsps curcuma powder)
3 kemiri nuts
1 eatsp chilli paste/sambal ulek
1/2 tsp cumin/jinten
1/2 tsp pepper
a pinch of salt
2 esps tamarind water
2 esps coconut sugar/palm sugar/gula jawa
2 esps dessicated coconut
3-4 esps kecap manis/sweet soy sauce
300 ml coconut milk/santan


Directions:
1. Cook the meat with water until the meat tender. Cut into thin slices. If necessary stamp the meat flat to make it more tender.
2. Using a blender, blend the red onions, garlics, ginger, curcuma, kemiri, chilli, cumin, pepper, salt and palm sugar until smooth and turning as a paste.
3. Heat the wok with a bit oil, then fry the spices paste in it until you smell the spices flavour.
4. Add with tamarind water, dessicated coconut and kecap manis. Stir in together.
5. Put the meat in the mixture, stir well.
6. Last one, add with coconut milk. Leave it simmer until the sauce becoming thick. Stir well. Ready to serve.

Cappuccino Brownies

I have the recipe for this brownies quite a while, but too many recipes to be tried out and not a chance to try this yet. And yyaaiiii, finally I got a chance to try it. Hmm so yummie, especially if you add vanilla ice cream on top of the brownies... it's just perfect!!


Ingredients:
150 gr butter
125 gr pure chocolate
3 eggs
375 gr sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
125 gr flour, sifted
50 gr cacao powder (I use 25 gr..)
2 eatsps instant coffee

Directions:
1. Pre-heat the oven at 180°C. Grease the 28x28 baking pan and cover with baking paper including the sides.
2. Put the butter and chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and place above a saucepan half-filled with hot water until melted. Put them aside to cool down.
3. Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence in a large bowl. Pour the melted chocolate butter in the mixture.
4. Add with sifted flour, cacao powder and instant coffee. Don't whisk to hard.
5. Pour the mixture in the baking pan and bake for about 40 minutes.
6. Leave the cake in the pan to cool down.
7. If you like, serve the brownies with ice cream, fresh fruits and sprinkle with cacaopowder.

Pineapple Cookies / Nastar

Idul Fitri cookies are not complete without these pineapple cookies. It got to be there, available on every table of every people houses. When I was little, I used to help my mother to make these cookies. It was hard labour because my mother always made thecookies so much, more than you could imagine. Not for selling, but for people who would visit us and also for ourself (my mother has five children, and we all loved cookies...). I still miss that moment sometimes, especially since I become a mother myself... My children are not so interested to help me in the kitchen. My son is 12 years-old, a boy who prefers to live in his own world now and my daughter, she's just 3,5 years-old, still too small to help. But they're lovely kids, they help me by tasting the cookies and if it's good, they'll appove it. And I love it!!!

Well, these are my final cookies I make within 2 weeks period. Tiring? Yes.. but I'm happy it's done. So until next year, to the next Ramadhan.. then I'll make these cookies again..:D


Ingredients:
120 gr butter/margarine
120 gr icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
225 gr flour, sifted
2 egg yolks

Pineapple jam:
400 gr pineapple, blended
50 gr castor sugar

Directions:
1. Make first the pineapple jam:
Put the blended pineapple in a sauce pan with sugar. Cook and stir occasionally the pineapple until thick and the liquid gone. Leave to cool.
2. In a big bowl beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and egg until soft and light.
3. Add flour and then mix it with spatula.
4. Take a bit dough, make it flat. Fill it with pineapple jam, then make a shape of a small ball. Do the same with the rest of the dough until finished.
5. Bake them in the oven at temperature of 150°C for about 35 minutes.

Coconut Cheese Cookies/Kue Keju Kelapa

Yes, it's about cookies again. Well, Ramadhan is almost finished, means we're going to celebrate wih a big feast. It will be lots of people visiting, food, drinks and all kinds of sweets including cookies.

For these cookies, it's the first time I'm baking it. They look almost the same as Cheese Cookies, only added with dried grated-coconuts. I found this recipe from Sedap Pemula.

Ingredients:
150 gr margarine
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp icing sugar
1 egg yolk
75 gr grated cheese
25 gr dried grated-coconuts
150 gr flour
dried grated-coconut

Directions:
1. Beat margarine, salt and sugar until light and soft.
2. Add egg yolk, beat thoroughly.
3. Put in the cheese and coconuts, mix well.
4. Sift the flour on top of the mixture, mix all together until the mixture easy to knead.
5. Make figures or shapes you like, roll over the coconut grated, bake in the oven at temperature 140°C for about 40 minutes.

Tapioca Cheese Cookies/Kue Kering Sagu Keju

It's a little bit strange to name these cookies in English. We always call it Sagu Keju. It's made from tapioca or sago powder and added with grated cheese.

These are another kinds of cookies where you can easily find at every houses in Indonesia during the end of Ramadhan feast. I can say that these are my favorite cookies. I just love it when I take a bite of these cookies.... the crunch, the softness and the sweetness, the cheese taste... all these tastes are melted in the tongue. It's difficult to describe it in words, you just have to experience it yourself.

This is also my entry for Jugalbandi Click Event which this month theme is Crust.

Ingredients:
120 gr margarine
100 gr butter
125 gr icing sugar
3 egg yolks
150 gr edam cheese, grated
300 gr sago/tapioka powder, sifted
50 gr maizena, sifted
50 gr flour, sifted


Directions:
1. Whisk margarine, butter and sugar until soft.
2. Add egg yolks, stir well.
3. Put tapioca, maizena and flour terigu in the butter mixture. Stir well.
4. Make figures or shapes using decorating tubes.
5. Bake in the oven at 150°C for about 30 minutes.

Peanut Butter Cookies / Kue Kering Kacang

Kue Kering Kacang or peanut butter cookies, is one kind of cookies especially made for celebrating end of Ramadhan. There are many ways to make these kind of cookies, but they are all tasty and delicious. Sometimes they're added with chopped peanuts, cashew nuts or almonds.

This is my version adapted from book "Kreasi Kue Nastar":


Ingredients:
100 gr butter / margarine
50 gr icing sugar
30 gr peanut butter
1 egg yolk
125 gr flour, sifted

Directions:
1. Beat the butter and sugar until soft.
2. Add the egg yolk, keep beating, then add the peanut butter. Beat well.
3. Add the flour and mix it well with spatula.
4. Make figures as you like it using cookies cutters or decorating tubes.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes on 150°c.

Sticky Dates Cake

My husband loves dates. Don't take it wrong, it's not dates having a romance or so, but dates, a sweet, oblong fruits of date palm. Dates are healthy sweet snack which contain approx. 120 calories per 5-6 pieces. They contain no fat or cholesterol but a good souce of fiber and reduce the risk of heart disease or cancer.

In the month of Ramadhan, dates are also served for breaking fast. Fasting people need calories to give more energy and vitality to survive fully Ramadhan month. One of sweet sources is to find in dates.

This dates cake is one kind of recipes using dates. Like my other recipes, this cake is easy to make and sticky delicious. In fact my family loves it too.


Ingredients:
200 gr dates, remove the stones, then rouhgly chopped
2,5 dl water
1 tsp baking soda
100 gr butter
170 gr sugar
2 eggs
1 pack vanilla sugar
185 gr selfraising flour


Directions:
1. Pre-heat the oven on 180°c. Grease the 20x20 cake pan and cover with baking paper.
2. Heat dates and water in a pan until boiled. Remove from fire, then add natriumcarbonat. Stir well and put aside to cool.
3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs gradually and keep beating. Add vanilla sugar in and whisk well.
4. Spoon the flour with metal spoon into the dates mixture and stir carefully.
5. Then add dates flour mixture into butter mixture.
6. Pour the mixture into the cake pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
7. Leave the cake 10 minutes in the cake pan before removed.

Chocolate Steamed Puddings With Vanilla Custard

Most of puddings are made with agar-agar powder or gelatine. Sometimes you don't have it in your kitchen storage when it's needed. But not to worry without agar-agar or gelatine, we will still be able to make puddings. These chocolate steamed puddings are loved by children which can be served with custard. They are easy to make and don't take much time to prepare them.

Ingredients:
75 gr chocolate
150 ml milk
150 gr sponge lady finger, crumbed
50 gr butter
50 gr caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
Vanilla essence or vanilla sugar

Directions:
1. Grease small pudding moulds, put aside.
2. Put the chocolate into a saucepan with the milk and heat gently until melted. Stir to blend and then bring to boil. Pour over the cake crumbs and leave to stand for 25 minutes.
3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, put aside.
4. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until ligh and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks and then add the cake crumb mixture and vanilla essence/sugar.
5. Fold thewhisked egg whites into the mixture.
6. Divide between the moulds and place in the steamer. Cover with a piece of greased greaseproof paper and cook for 15-20 minutes or until set.


For the vanilla custard, usually I use ready to eat custard from the store. But you can also make it from the packages and follow the instructions mentioned. If you like your custard more fluid, you just add more milk when you are cooking it. But if you still want to make fresh vanilla custard yourself, you can use vanilla custard recipe as followed:

1/2 ltr milk
1 eatsp maizena powder
100 gr sugar
vanilla sugar
2 egg yolks, whisk with a bit milk
few drops rhum as needed

- Put the milk, sugar and maizena powder in a saucepan and heat gently until boiled.
- Put in egg yolks and stir to blend and then bring to boil.
- Remove from fire, put aside to cool down, then add the rhum in (if you like).

Mung Beans & Sticky Black Rice Porridge

In indonesian we call this dish "Bubur Ketan Hitam & Kacang Hijau". This delicious dish usually consumed by night when the weather is a little bit cold, when it's raining outside or when you're still hungry in the late evening and we consume this as snack.
Mung beans themselves are very healthy. They contain iron and vitamines. They're very good for children, but too bad my children never want to taste this dish. Well maybe they just don't know it yet how it tastes. Maybe when they're a bit bigger when their curiousity about food developed they would taste this dish and perhaps will like it too. Finger-crossed..!

I usually cook this according to my feeling. But this recipe from my friend Ema is close to my version.

Mung beans porridge:
2 cups mung beans, rinse and soak
6 cm ginger, cut in slices
2 eatsps brown sugar (or gula jawa)
700 ml water

Sticky black rice porridge:
11/2 cups sticky black rice, rinse and soak
2 eatsps brown sugar (or gula jawa)
2 pandan leafs
800 ml water

Coconut sauce:
400 cc coconut milk
a pinch of salt
1 tsp maizena dissolve in a bit water

Directions:
Mung beans porridge:
1. Boil mung beans, water and ginger until cooked or until the beans are soft.
2. Add brown sugar (fix the sweetness as needed).
3. Put aside.

Sticky black rice porridge:
1. Boil the rice, water and pandan leafs until the rice cooked and thick.
2. Add the sugar (fix the sweetness as needed).
3. Put aside.

Coconut sauce:
1. Boil coconut milk and salt.
2. Add dissolve maizena in. Stir well. Ready to be poured over the porridge.

Indonesian Baking Club Birthday

KBB (= Indonesian Baking Club) becomes 1 year old. There are contests being held to celebrate its birthday. There are 3 categories of contests i.e. baking, cooking and food photography. Myself is just a new comer in this club but I'm sure this club is as fun as other club too.

After taking many pictures including baking some things, my final decision goes to this picture. Why? I love the natural color of the fruits themselves and I like to see the contrast between the background and the table mat. Well this is just my opinion, I'm sure other people would have another opinions. No matter, what important is the fun to participate and helping friends to promote their site to go global.

This is my entry to participate food photography contest of KBB with a theme "catchy color".


Another trials in order to get the right compositions are as samples followed:

Smoked Salmon Croissant

Nothing is wonderful having brunch on Sunday morning accompanied by fresh baked bread and croissants and a cup of coffee. This is what we normally do on Sunday morning. But because now is Ramadhan which is a fully month fasting so I can't do this for a while. But I still can have croissant for my morning eat during Ramadhan.

This time I make my croissants filled in with smoked salmon. I'm not such a person who would do the effort to make the dough by myself and especially if it's easily to find in the local grocery, so I just bought a ready-made croissant dough and fill it with smoked salmon and bake it in the oven... voilà ready, fresh and still warm straight from the oven. Perhaps the taste would slightly different than if you make the dough by yourself. But for now lets give a try for simple and easy made croissant filled with smoked salmon...;)

Manggo Yogurt With Nectarine For Breaking Fasting

Ramadhan this year is quite different that the past years. The time to break the fast is starting at around 8.30 pm. I have to keep my conditions healthy otherwise I would break-down before the Ramadhan finished. That's why I try to make healthy food and healthy dessert too. No frying stuffs and not too many sweet things too. My breaking menu is usually rice, stir-fry vegetables and a piece of fish or chicken. For dessert I choose to eat yogurt and a bit fruit. Usually after this breaking it's almost time to bed. If my stomach too ful, I can't sleep and I'll have difficulty to get up early. Ramadhan month is tiring but no matter what I'm happy to do it. It comes only once a year and I always look forward for Ramadhan.

This is one of my desserts look a like for breaking fasting during Ramadhan... Manggo yogurt with nectarine. It's delicious and healthy too.

Black Forest For My Rendo

2nd September is my son's "Rendo" birthday. He becomes 12 years old. He's not a little boy anymore, he's becoming a teenager. The ages that most people say as every parents's nightmares. To be honest actually I'm quite excited with this lifetime. I'm curious and excited to experience the moments when my "little" boy is having his first pimples, first love, first broken-heart..("hopefully not")... everything with his first life experiences... and this makes me almost in tears. In my heart I just hope he'll be fine passing through teenager life and I hope with all my heart in the future he'll become a good, care and wise person.

Special for his birthday I baked his favorite tart, black forest. I didn't get a chance to take the picture of the whole cake so here it is a piece of my black forest tart.

The recipe will be added soon...