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Done with Baking... for now.

On Tuesday, I delivered my last orders before Christmas, and it felt so good! I had a really busy and good holiday season in terms of business. It definitely exceeded my baking expectations.
After making and baking:
  • Over 220 empanadas

  • 650 (give or take) cookies 


  • And over 350 cake pops
I packaged, shipped, delivered and sold all my baked goods...




So it was finally time for me to bake (again) for pleasure! It's not that I stopped enjoying it... but it's nice to bake different things here and there. So I figured i could make some good stuff for Christmas morning. I made these mini pistachio poppy seed muffins and some good old banana bread. The pistachio poppy recipe, I got from my friend Victoria (baker and founder of Sweetie Pies Brooklyn). It's really simple and delicious...


 There are three ways of making things taste delicious (choose wisely):
  1. Put hot sauce 
  2. Or - Add poppy seeds
  3. Enjoy it with people you love (yes, cheesy but true)
--

I also want to thank everyone who reads this... last Saturday at the Greenpoint Food market, a bunch of people came to say hi, and told me they read my blog. I have to admit that it felt a little weird that they knew  me, but it was awesome! It made me really happy to know there are readers out there. Thank you (really, thank you)!
Happy Holidays everyone everywhere!!




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    Baby, It's cold outside...

    Que frio que hace... y es diciembre!! I still can't get used to associating cold weather with the end of the year. I do associate it with the holiday season, just not with the end and beggining of a new year. I know it sounds odd, but the holiday season is such an American thing for me. I grew up celebrating Christmas and New Year's by the pool and watching fire works, so that is the end of the year to me. The holiday season is English Christmas songs, cold weather and crazy shopping season... but this year is a bit different, there is a LOT of baking going on.

    This Friday is the Biblioball so I've been getting ready for it. Today I worked on the fillings for the empanadas and tomorrow I'm baking cookies all day. I already worked on the cake pops, since they are time consuming but once made, they last up to two weeks in the fridge. I made three kinds:

    • Vanilla

    Also known as my Christmas tree farm...

    • Red Velvet as Santa Hats

    • Reindeer Chocolate Cake Pops



    They are so cute, I kept giggling while making them  :)
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    Post Thanksgiving - Pre Christmas Craziness.

    After last week's Thanksgiving orders, I really needed a break from the kitchen. I love the actual baking, I'm just not used to being up on my feet all day long and with all the cleaning up, labeling and packaging I was ready to spend some time outside my tiny kitchen. Thanksgiving  was exactly what i needed. I had a great meal, a bonfire, fresh Connecticut air, great turkey and amazing spicy sausage stuffing. mmmm...


    Another great thing about my Thanksgiving? I got orders for Christmas! Woohoo!! This time they will be shipped to different locations and as - wait for it.... -  corporate gift packages instead of my usual cookie bags, so today I went on a mission to find cute, sturdy, green and price conscious packaging... ehh... my feet hurt and came back with random baking supplies... How did that happen? I'm not sure. I realized it was too much to ask for. If it was cute, it was too small... if it was green, it was ugly and if it was sturdy, it wasn't green and more expensive than what was gonna be inside of them. Boo to packaging! It's so wasteful yet so necessary. How about a cookie postcard?



    You don't need to write anything in it, when you get this in your mailbox, you can just assume someone feels you deserve a treat. Peel the stamp, and enjoy! And- how cute are the Simpsons stamps?

    I will be very busy starting next week getting ready for the Biblioball 2009. I will selling baked goods at the fundraiser which is hosted by The Desk Set and the proceeds go to literacy for incarcerated kids. Check out their website for tickets! They expect between 300 and 450 people at the event so that's a lot (a LOT) to prepare for. Wish me luck!


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    Come out, come out...

    Tomorrow, Saturday November 21st the Greenpoint Food market returns...



    I'll be selling:
    -Spicy Beef Empanadas
    -Spinach & Mushroom Empanadas
    -Chocolate Cake Pops
    -Red Velvet Cake Pops
    -Chocolate Peanut Butter Cake Pops
    -Hazelnut Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies
    -Double Chocolate Mint Cookies
    -Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies

    I'm really sorry for the short notice, I was busy baking all that good stuff... Hope to see you there!

    Also- I finally created a Facebook page for La Tia Faby, so check it out!
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    Turkey day is around the corner...

    In case you were wondering why I haven't been posting anything... This is why:



    I made these pops using a friend's Raspberry Jello Shot Chocolate Cake (longest cake name ever) recipe, they have vodka and creme of cacao. I covered the tip of some candy corns with chocolate and used them as the feathers, and chocolate covered sun flower seeds for the beaks... aren't they adorable?

    I will be selling baked goods at a fundraiser on december 11th, and since it's a winter ball, why not winter- themed baked goods?

    So I baked some delicious Double Chocolate Mint cookies... unfortunately, being busy baking... I forgot to take pictures of them... and now they are gone.. oops! I have to do some minor changes to the recipe so once I bake them for the fundraiser, I'll make sure to document every single crumb.

    I also made more cupcake pops (of course). These were vanilla ones with sprinkles and covered them in white and dark chocolate..



    Yuuumm...






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    Soooo Cheesy...

    Crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside... Also known as Chipa, these little pao de queijo are addictive. It took me quite a while to finally come up with the right recipe. These little cheese puffs are so delicious... and they are gluten free!

    Pao de queijo are inexpensive snacks usually sold by street vendors in heated containers in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia. They are made with Tapioca Flour which is used a lot in South America but a little hard to find here in the US (but wholefoods has it, of course).

    Believe me, if you like cheese, you'll love these. I baked these on a quiet afternoon during the past fourth of July weekend we spent with a group of friends up in this amazing house we rented in Maine. They are super easy to make, and they are to die for when you eat them right out of the oven and paired with a nice glass of wine.

    Ingredients:



    • 1 cup of soy milk
    • 1 teaspoon of salt
    • 1/2 cup of butter
    • 1/2 teaspoon of chopped garlic
    • 2 cups of Tapioca flour
    • 1 1/2 cups of grated Parmesan cheese
    • 2 eggs

    Directions:
    1. Preheat the oven at 400 degrees F (200 degrees C)
    2. In a sauce pan, bring the milk, salt and butter to a quick boil (cut the butter in smaller pieces, so it melts faster).
    3. Once it comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and add the Tapioca Flour and garlic. Don't worry, the Tapioca flour didn't go bad... it just smells odd.
    4.  Mix it until its all combined and let it cool for 10 minutes.
    5. Add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition.
    6. Finally add the cheese. 
    7. Make little balls (size of a walnut) and place them 1" apart from each other on a baking sheet.





    8. Bake for 20 minutes. They should be golden brown, they might look a little oily in the oven just because the cheese is melting,  but they won't be oily once you remove them from the oven.
    9. Enjoy!!







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    A picture is worth a thousand words...

    My sister-in-law has an amazing camera, so I had to take some pictures of my creations... Here is my cookie runway!


    Hazelnut Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Cookies



    Peanut Butter & Chocolate Chunk Cookies


     Almond Biscotti


    The packaging.

     
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    Boo!!!

    This past week after making the Alfajores de Maicena, I worked (very hard) on a Halloween/ birthday cake and tons (tooons) of ghost cake pops. I made the chocolate ones again, and also made some red velvet cake pops for an order my boyfriend got for me from some of his coworkers.

    The cake was a black forest: rich chocolate cake, whipped cream, cherries and covered with an awesome chocolate ganache. This is the cake filling... you can already guess my fourth of july cake for next year.



    I stressed out when it comes to decorating the cake; I feel confident when it comes to the taste, but not so much when it comes to looks. I think that's another reason why I love covering cakes in a nice rich chocolate ganache, it's very hard to mess that up, and it always looks so pretty and shinny...



    I'm totally scared to work with fondant, and I don't really like the taste of it, but i'll use it one of these days, and tell you how it goes.

    The ghost pops I made were a rich chocolate covered with white chocolate melt, and drawn with an edible pen, not sharpie. Here is a picture of my little ghost army that i had to post because it's too cute.


     For Halloween this year I had a very low cost costume; I was little red riding hood; I reused a red cape i got as a gift when i celebrated my birthday at medieval times a couple of years ago and wore red tights i bought for Santacon. The best part of my costume was the white basket i got from goodwill and filled it with pops to carry around and give away.




    Boo! Happy late Halloween!


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    Hoy - Castellano.

    (Scroll all the way down for English)

    Si... hoy la hago en castellano. Viviendo aca, me di cuenta que hace mil que no escribo en castellano... no tengo enie, se me complica poner las tildes, y bueno, van a tener que leerlo como puedan.

    Primero y principal, gracias a los que me comentaron en castellano... hace mi blog mas especial! Teniendo cara de coreana, cada vez que estoy vendiendo en el market cada persona que habla espaniol me pregunta: "Who is La tia?" Obviamente, no se esperan que sea yo y se preguntan porque una coreana anda vendiendo empanadas.

    Hoy me desperte con ganas de hacer alfajores de maizena; los hice una vez hace mil en Buenos Aires, y me acuerdo que tuve alfajores como por casi 3 semanas... hasta que mi vieja los tiro porque nadie se los comio. (si... me salieron un  poco para el culo) Bueno, ahora siento que tengo mas experiencia baking (si.... como se dice baking en castellano sin sonar bien nionio?) y voy a intertar de vuelta.

    Lamentablemente, no pude encontrar dulce de leche repostero, asi que les puse nutella. Y en vez de coco rallado, les puse un poco de avellanas cortadas.

    Aca va la receta:
    Ingredientes



    • 1/2 taza de manteca (100 gramos) a temperatura ambiente
    • 3/4 taza de azucar
    • 2 yemas
    • 1 cucharadita de whiskey
    • 1 cucharadita de esencia de vainilla
    • 1 cucharadita de ralladura de limon
    • pizca de sal
    • 1 2/3 tazas de harina comun
    • 2 1/2 tazas de maicena
    • 1/2 cucharadita de bicarbonato de soda
    • 2 cucharaditas de polvo para hornear
     Paso a paso:
    1. En un bol, tamizar los ingredientes secos (harina, maicena, bicarbonato de soda y el polvo para hornear)
    2. En otro bol separado, batir la manteca hasta que este palida y agregar el azucar. (batir mas o menos 5 minutos)
    3. Una vez que esten  la masa bien incorporada, agregar las yemas de a uno incorporandolas separadamente.
    4. Agregar el whiskey, la esencia de vainilla, la ralladura de limon y la pizca de sal y batir hasta incorporar todos los ingredientes
    5. Hacer un hueco en el bol con los ingredientes secos y agregar la mezcla de la manteca y mezclar con una cuchara de madera o con los dedos hasta crear una masa.
    6. Cubrir la masa, y ponerla en la heladera por 1 hora.
    7. Precalentar el horno por 10 minutos a temperatura media
    8. Polvoreando la mesa, estirar la masa con un palo de amasar hasta llegar a 1cm de grosor.
    9. Cortar discos de mas o menos 4 cm de diametro
    10. Se colocan los discos en una placa enmantecada y hornear por 10- 15 minutos. Tienen que formar piso, pero no dejes que se doren por los bordes.
    11. Una vez fuera del horno, dejarlas enfriar









    12. Una vez frias, untarlas con nutella (a la nutella le puse un poco de harina para hacerla mas espesa) y pasarlas por avellanas cortadas en trocitos
    13. Disfrutar!



    -------------

    ENGLISH

    Yes, today I’m writing it in Spanish. Living here, I realized that I don’t write in Spanish anymore, there is no “enie”, it’s hard to add the tildes; so you’ll have to read it as you can.

    First of all, thank you for those of you who commented in Spanish… makes my blog more special! Having a Korean face, every time I’m at the market Spanish speakers approach me and ask me “who is la tia?” obviously they don’t expect it’s me and wonder why a Korean chick is selling empanadas.

    This morning I woke up wanting to make alfajores de maicena: I made them once long time ago in Buenos Aires and I remember they lasted for 3 weeks until my mom got rid of them because nobody ate them (yea, they didn’t come out as well). But now I feel I have a little more baking experience so I’m giving it another shot.

    Unfortunately I couldn’t find baking Dulce de leche, so I went for nutella. And instead of dried shredded coconut I used some chopped hazelnuts.

    So here is the recipe:

    Ingredients
    • 1/2 cup of softened butter
    • 3/4 cup of sugar
    • 2 egg yolks
    • 1 teaspoon whiskey
    • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
    • 1 teaspoon of lemon zest
    • Pinch of salt
    • 1 2/3 cups of all purpose flour
    • 2 1/2 cups of corn starch
    • 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
    • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
    • ½ cup of nutella
    • ¼ cup of chopped hazelnuts

    Step by step:

    1. In a bowl, sift the dry ingredients (flour, corn starch, baking soda and baking powder)
    2. In a separate bowl, beat the butter until pale and slowly add the sugar
    3. Once butter mixture is fluffy, add the egg yolks one by one beating after each addition
    4. Add the whiskey, vanilla extract, the lemon zest and the salt and mix until all the ingredients all well incorporated.
    5. Make a dwell in the middle of the dry ingredients bowl and add the butter mixture and mix with a wooden spoon or with your fingers until you get a uniform dough
    6. Cover the dough and chill for an hour
    7. Preheat the oven at 350 for at least 10 minutes
    8. Little flour the surface and roll out the dough until its ¼” thick.
    9. Using a cookie medium size cookie cutter, cut the dough and repeat until you use all the dough
    10. Place the cookies in greased cookie sheet and bake for 10- 15 minutes. They shouldn’t golden too much on the edges
    11. Quickly move them to a cooling rack to stop them from browning
    12. Once cool, spread the nutella and spread them with the chopped hazelnuts
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    Pops & Pics

    I think i have a problem... I can't stop making cake pops. I'm open to cake pop ideas and suggestions, so comment away!




    Cookies are homemade, empanadas are homemade, and now... the business cards are homemade as well.


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    Cupcakes, cupcakes, and some more cupcakes!

    Halloween: it's not about being scared anymore; it's about being cute. You don't see anyone in scary outfits... so why would halloween inspired foods look scary? I wanna eat things that look too cute to be eaten! So... here are my gravestone cupcakes!


    And to make it even cuter... here are some cupcakes on a stick. 



    Yea, these are not even Halloween inspired... but aren't they adorable?
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    No tricks... only treats!

    I'm sorry I haven't been uploading lately... I've been busy baking.
    Last Saturday I was at the market selling less cookies and more empanadas; I was a bit worried about the turn out at the market since it was supposed to be really nasty out, but luckily, the weather hold off, and i sold out my empanadas... Again!

    These are my spinach & mushroom empanadas... little butts!


    The market won't be open for the next month or so, so I'm trying to bake different things. Two days ago I got a confirmation email for my first cake order! I made sure they knew I am all about taste, and not so great when it comes to looks. This is the filling of the cake:  peaches and cream.



    And this is the final product.



    To even the cake out, I cut the top, and was wondering what i could use it for.. The cake was really moist and it would be a shame to dry it out to make crumbs, so i decided to prepare for halloween and made these


    ---
    I know- they are adorable!! And they taste pretty damn good too!




    i caught the ghosts!
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    Rainy Saturday = Great Indoors Market!



    Tomorrow I'll be back at the Greenpoint Food Market. Here's my starting line-up.
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    Saturday at the Greenpoint Market

    This Saturday, i will start selling my goodies at the Greenpoint Food Market. Please stop by and enjoy some cookies, empanadas and amazing pies by my friend Victoria.
    The market its located on 129 Russell Street between Nassau and Driggs Ave. Its inside the Church of Messiah.



    I will have:
    Spicy Beef Empanadas
    Spinach and Mushroom Empanadas
    Pao de Queijo (cheese bread)
    Hazelnut Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk cookies
    Orange Chocolate cookies
    Chocoholic cookies
    Oatmeal Raisin cookies
    Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk cookies
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    Apple Kuchen

    This week I'm practice baking for the Oktoberfest event at the Greenpoint Food Market, so last night I made my first Apple Kuchen. DELISH!
    This was also my first time using Vanilla Sugar, which I found at Whole Foods.



    The soft cake in the bottom is definitely a nice complement to the crumb top.


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    Pecan Tassies



    Pecan tassies with a cream cheese dough.
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    Spicy Beef Empanadas



    Empanaditas calientes para las viejas sin dientes.
    Straight out from the oven
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