Okara Cookies

Okara Cookies Following the okara quiche experiment posted above, I tried out a few "okara sweets" such as cookies and pound cakes. And there were good ones like "okara and azuki cake" and "okara and fruit pound cake" (both in Japanese). They have favorable reviews and I did like the taste of those cakes. At the first bite, I agreed with some of the reviews that said "I like the texture of okara cake better than that of regular cakes made with flour. It's moister and fluffier." However, after chewing several times, I went, "Wait a minute..." When it was about time for regular cake to melt and disappear, I felt plenty of fiber still filling up my mouth and I had to make conscious effort to swallow it. It wasn't terribly unpleasant, but I wasn't too crazy about that. Then I found some cookie recipes that called for powdered okara instead of fresh okara. These days "okara powder" is available as a baking ingredients in Japan, and actually you can make something very close at home. Fresh okara Homemade Okara powder (Instruction here in Japanese) To make this, you spread okara on lined baking sheet and bake it in the oven and then mill it in a food processor. The recipe says that this okara powder can be frozen and keeps for about a month. I thought that with this powder, I would have less problem of the fiber remaining in the mouth, and I was right. This okara cookie recipe (Japanese) is my current favorite, with a texture somewhat similar to coarse shortbread. But I'm still working on it to make it lighter and crunchier. (I'm thinking about using maple syrup so that the dough would come together more easily and adding just a little baking powder to make it lighter.) Okara Cookies with Black Sesame Seeds The original recipe didn't use black sesame seeds, but I like it this way. AHHHHHHHHHHHH I shouldn't be doing this. I've got to pack, and clean! :O Categories: Sweets

Tea Break

Black Sesame Seed Cookies with Green Tea The fact that I'm posting this at this time of the day means that I'm not at work this morning. Yep, I only need to work at night today, and as you can probably figure out from these photos, it's a nice, sunny day. I finished doing my laundry and now I'm going to spend the rest of the morning and early afternoon posting this and responding to the comments to my blog. And these cookies are the munchies to accompany the green tea while I'm sitting in front of my laptop. These are supposed to be healthy, guilt-free, low-cal cookies with no eggs or dairy products used. The recipe is here (Japanese) if you're interested, and all the ingredients are just flour, sugar, black sesame seeds, salt and canola oil. Healthy, isn't it? But when I first tried out this recipe, I thought these cookies were a little too crumbly. And though I liked the simple taste of sugar and sesame seeds with the salt as an accent, I couldn't help feeling that I'd rather add one more ingredient -- something to harmonize the sweetness, saltiness and sesame flavor. So what I chose as a relatively healthy solution was adding a little soy milk. I think it was not a bad idea, though not the best. Next time I might add less amount of soy milk and substitute the sugar with maple syrup. Oh, BTW, this mat in these photos is the one I made myself at the weaving workshop years ago. (Actually, 2005.) Categories: Sweets

Merry Christmas!!

Obachan's Christmas Wreath 2008 (With Cookies) I wish you had a wonderful Christmas time. :) It's Dec. 27th today and I'm adding some photos to this belated Christmas post @ an Internet Cafe, AGAIN. (No, not the one I posted about the other day.) Looks like Heaven thought that I haven't suffered enough in 2008 -- My ADSL connection got upset a couple of days ago, and went dead right after I posted this entry with only two photos yesterday. So I had to come here to email the technical support of my ISP anyway, and I decided to upload these photos as well, because I really think these are better than the two dinner photos I posted yesterday. Obachan's Christmas Tree 2008 I felt like a small tree this year and it was a right choice, I guess. The tree was again one of those Daiso 100yen stuff. The cookies were home-baked and not a great success. Well, you can't expect much when baking cookies in a cheap toaster oven without temperature control, you know. I was worried that it might take hours to make this wreath without a glue gun, but it didn't take too long. :) And here comes my light fruitcake. It was not as soft as I wanted, to tell you the truth, and that was my fault. This year, I wanted to tie the cake with ribbon with no wrapping -- as in the photos above -- and I didn't want the cake to be too wet because it would mess up the ribbon. So, though the recipe told me to make syrup and brush the cake with it until it is used up, I didn't follow the instruction; I only brushed my cake with rum a couple of times. What I got as a result was a rather chewy cake which wasn't sweet enough. I think I'm going to mature it some more, this time following the recipe's instruction. Carrot Cake (Baked in my Electric Rice Cooker) with Cream Cheese Frosting Yes. It worked. I mean, theoretically it should be possible to bake cakes in an electric rice cooker. It cooks rice by heating its inner pot. Then the batter in the heated inner pot should be "done," too, eventually. Some Japanese websites even dare to say that for baking certain types of cakes, electric rice cooker may be more suitable than oven because inner pressure and temperature are controlled more precisely. I doubt it, though. Anyway, for me, using a rice cooker for baking a cake was not as care-free as using an oven, and the texture of the cake was more like steamed cake than oven-baked ones. But I should say that the result was quite satisfactory. This is how the carrot cake looked when it came out of the rice cooker. And with cream frosting and decoration ... See inside? Oh, I got the carrot cake recipe here, if you're interested. ----- * Let me add a little warning if you're interested in baking cakes with electric rice cooker. I did have a satisfactory result, but I don't necessarily recommend this unorthodox use of the rice cooker, unless it "officially" has a baking function. To make this cake, I poured batter into the inner pot and pressed the start button. When the rice cooker beeped for the first time, the cake was not done yet, as expected. I switched on the rice cooker again right away to let it cook some more. (Be careful. Some "smart" rice cookers take it as abnormal heating and give you an error message.) The cake was still not done yet at the second beep. I pressed the start button again to let it cook for 10 to 15 more minutes and manually stopped the cooker. So it's a bother, isn't it? Besides, many websites warn that baking cakes somewhat damages the teflon coating of the inner pot. I assume that recent electric rice cookers with a baking function must have special program to keep certain temperature for longer (than regular rice-cooking) until batter will be done, and also have heavy-duty teflon coating on the inner pot. ----- And my cookies. Only two kinds this year: gingerbread cookies and shortbread cookies. And my creations looked like this altogether... (Maybe I could make a postcard out of this?) And the dinner photos... Obachan's Christmas Dinner 2008 Yes, I managed to make this Christmas dinner, after all. Despite some challenges, I didn't give up and enjoyed a Christmas dinner. After the dinner, I kept nibbling on desserts for hours, enjoying the sparkling wine, wishing the moment to last forever... Dear readers, Thank you so much for your support, especially for the past couple of weeks when it looked like things were going worse and worse. I'm so lucky to have you as my friends. *** Merry Christmas *** - obachan -

BOO!!

Obachan's Halloween Cookies 2008 Anyone worried about me not posting much lately? You thought that I lost interest in cooking and/or baking? Oh, don't you ever worry about that. As I wrote before, for Halloween of 2008, I was determined to make cut-out cookies using cute Halloween cookie cutters. And I wanted two colors -- pumpkin yellow and chocolate. So I made the pumpkin cookie dough using the same recipe as last year and rolled it out and cut it out into these pumpkins and ghosts. But unfortunately, these flat ones did not taste as good as the ball-like ones; They were bland, and the texture was not very impressive (at least to me) when they were thin. And the taste of these chocolate cookies was a bit disappointing, too. So I decided not to bring these cut-out cookies to Halloween party at the language school I work for. Then I made the same pumpkin cookies as I made last year. These turned out fine, but I didn't bring them to the party, either. Instead, I made and brought these... Mini-pumpkin muffins ... mini-pumpkin muffins to the Halloween party. Oh I loved them so much. Again, the recipe is from a Japanese recipe site, and it was one of those light-tasting, not-too-sweet muffin recipes that Japanese people love, so I couldn't help giving it a twist or two; I added some almond powder, cinnamon and a small amount of vegetable whipping cream. The muffins turned out great with this lovely bright orangish-yellow color ! I'm not quite sure if those who came to the party really loved my muffins, because those Japanese people (I mean, moms who came with the kids) could force themselves to eat something they don't like just to be polite to the school staff (me). Anyway, anyhow, my muffins were all gone at the end of the party and I would never find out if it was politeness or real fondness. Well, at least no one was brought to the hospital after eating them, and that is enough for me. ;) There was nothing really special about my Halloween 2008... I didn't even go to the late-night costume party which I attended almost every year until 2006. But looking at these cookie photos makes me feel happy and warm inside, so I guess it was worth making them. :) Categories: Sweets

Preparation, Again...

Kabocha Pumpkin & Cookie Cutters Maybe some of you readers remember that I was trying out a pumpkin cookie recipe in mid October last year to prepare for a Halloween party ? Yep, it's time again. Like I did last year, I'm going to -- well, at least hoping to be able to -- bake some pumpkin cookies for the party at the language school I work for. This year, I'm going to use the same recipe but make cut-out cookies. Let's see how my attempt turns out in about 10 days. :) Categories: Sweets

Getting Ready - 2 -

See? The baking fairy in me is whipping me to work hard. I know. I have no creativity. I just stole the decoration ideas from the photos on photostock and allrecipes. But wait! I do make (crazy?) inventions sometimes. The photo below is amaretto-rum fruitcake I baked yesterday. There was no such recipe on the net, so I picked this recipe and replaced the brandy with rum. I have no idea how it worked... :P At least, the cake smelled heavenly while in the oven and turned out... ... pretty OK, I think? Now the cake is "aging" in my fridge. For the Christmas of 2007, I don't think I can prepare a big dinner like I did in previous years. The reason is: No time and no money. I'm going to help dad with picking oranges on the 23rd and 24th, so there is no way I can fix a special meal in my apartment on the Christmas eve or Christmas day. Instead, my Christmas project this year will consist of a) a homemade(?) Christmas tree decorated with gingerbread people, b) a fruitcake with tons of icing, and c) a tiny homemade wreath. It would be wonderful if these would be accompanied by a bottle of decent sparkling wine and a good-looking candle. ;) Categories: Sweets

Looks Like They Loved My Cookies

The last piece of my pumpkin cookies ... Yep, I baked the pumpkin cookies for the Halloween event yesterday. Actually, so many unexpected things happened during the week before the party and I got so extremely terribly busy -- to the point that it was almost killing me, honestly. But I couldn't give up on the idea of baking the cute cookies, and I did bake them. I'm so happy to tell you that at the party, my cookies disappeared relatively quickly and I even got positive comments from a couple of moms. :D Oh, the twists added to the original recipe? To give the cookies more flavor, I replaced apx. 1/5 of the amount of flour with almond powder and about 1/5 of the white sugar with brown sugar. I also added good amount of vanilla extract and a little cinnamon, too. It worked well... I think. The only thing was that the cookies turned out flatter this time, so they looked more like flowers than tiny pumpkins... But they were moister and tastier than before, which I liked very much. And it was amazing how great I felt to see kids eating what I baked. Believe it or not, this was my first time since I started this blog that I saw any kid eating what I baked. Gosh, it felt sooooooooooooooo good! Kids munching on my cookies! Now I'm so very much tempted to persuade the boss to let us do a gingerbread-house making project for the Christmas event. I don't mind baking gingerbread slabs at home and donating them. And, yeah, how about letting kids decorate pre-baked gingerbread people? (But maybe cleaning-up would be a nightmare ... ?? I'd better be careful because I will be the one to do the cleaning.) Categories: Sweets

No, I didn't Go to Canada

Maple Cream Cookies from Canada I wish I were the one who went to Canada, but no, unfortunately not. One of the students of the language school I work for gave these to me as a souvenir yesterday. Yum! :D It must be beautiful in Canada now... with maple leaves turning colors... Categories: Sweets

Preparation...

Pumpkin Cookies ("experimental batch") The language school I work for at night is going to have a Halloween party in two weeks, and I'm thinking about bringing in some home-made sweets. If you are a long-term reader of this blog, you probably know how I have been cooking/baking to celebrate Western -- or I should say, American -- customs for years WITHOUT anyone to share the food and fun. Man, this school event must be a rare chance to make others eat what I bake for my own nostalgic reason. Why miss it? So I've been looking for some "Japanised" recipes (to stay on the safe side) for Halloween goodies, and today I tried out a pumpkin cookie recipe that I bookmarked the other day. The cookies are very cute, easy to make, and more importantly, pretty cost-effective! ;) But to be perfectly honest, I'm a bit worried that they might taste a little too light or bland when eaten with other store-bought munchies at the party, thus I'm going to give the recipe a twist or two ... Good thing that I still have some time to experiment. Categories: Sweets

Teatime with Healthy Cookies

Oatmeal Maple Cookies These are what I would call "guilt-free cookies" because the recipe (in Japanese) does not call for sugar, egg or butter. Yep, using maple syrup and vegetable oil (I used canola) is the key. These cookies are pretty crunchy and the maple syrup gives them very nice, rich sweetness enhanced by a pinch of salt. To make it easier to handle, I reduced the amount of oatmeal and flour just a little. To add an extra crunchiness, I replaced 10% of the amount of the flour with corn starch. Now I’m wondering how it would turn out if I used rice flour in place of the corn starch. These cookies didn’t knock me out at the first bite, but when I finished eating one whole piece, the pleasant aftertaste of maple syrup made me want another piece, and one more … and ... Oh, come on-- No butter, no egg, and maple syrup instead of sugar. Why would I stop? LOL Categories: Sweets

Tuiles

Black Sesame Tuiles My first time making tuile cookies at home. Almond Tuiles I have to make a confession. Shaping was successful with two pieces per batch only; the third one broke when I pushed it against a rolling pin. So I gave up and left the rest flat. They all tasted good, though. Next time I want to try them with ice cream ;) Categories: Sweets

Warm Wishes from Obachan

Place mouse on the photo to open the box. Click photo to enlarge. ;) Thank you, dear readers, for visiting my site and taking a look at my humble creations. Though I don’t say this often, being related to you like this through blogging means so much to me. To express my appreciation, I made a cookie gift box for you again. Enjoy, and Have a Very Merry Christmas! Obachan Categories: Sweets

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookies I had this sudden craving for chocolate chip cookies yesterday and baked some. Here’s the recipe. Now I’m a big fan of this allrecipes site because you can scale the recipe up or down and convert it into metric!! I wonder if there is a blogger hack that does this… Categories: Sweets

Burnt Jam

Thumbprint Cookies with Burnt Jam in the Center... OK. I finished all the posts I wanted to upload before the end of May, and now I can finally write about my last weekend. Yes, I stayed at my parents’ house, as I mentioned in my previous post, but my mom and I did not go to the beach. The weather wasn't good. If it was just the rain, we wouldn’t have minded. But it was almost like a storm, with strong winds and waves as high as typhoon waves. So, no abalone picking. No way. Instead, we (dad, mom and I) went to the orchard and picked konatsu oranges. At the dinner table at night, I was busy eating the dishes both mom and dad offered to me. Yep. Dad often cooks, too. It's not that he is into cooking; he is into health food. He loves growing “highly nutritious” veggies introduced in health magazines and trying out salads and veg. juice recipes he finds there. Mom offered me the pickles and simmered food she likes. Obviously, they are harvesting and cooking more than enough for just two of them. It’s not only vegetables that they need to consume. Dad grows many kinds of oranges -- maybe 6 to 7 kinds -- and even after dad sold them to several shops in town, plenty of not-good-enough-for-sale oranges are usually left on the trees or in the storage. So, what should we do with them? Juice? Jelly? Jam? Marmalade? Use them for baking? Mom and I always feel the pressure of having to do something about those leftover oranges. Mom is into making jam and sugared orange peels(?) these days. Last weekend, when I first went into the kitchen with mom, she looked at me with a big grin on her face and said, “Oh, here’s something for you.” Orange Jam – burnt. She said that she burnt a big potful (the biggest pot in house!) of orange jam about a week ago. I forgot what kind of oranges she said she used, but at least they were not konatsu. She insisted that the taste of the jam was not totally intolerable and I should be able to eat it with yoghurt. Another suggestion she made was using it for thumbprint cookies. So I came back to my apartment with this jar full of brown orange jam, and these are the thumbprint cookies I made today. Yeah, mom, they are OK. The jam tastes only slightly bitter, but it’s not too terrible. But…I can’t help wishing that the jam on top of these cookies was store-bought cherry jam or raspberry jam … Am I a cold-hearted daughter? ;P Categories: Sweets