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New Year, same old (and mutating) virus

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How is 2022 treating you so far?

Until now, it has been kind to us.

We have returned to normal life this past week after 3 weeks of holidays in Germany with my in-laws. Normal being my husband works from home, Becca goes to school and Sarah, for the most part, stays home with me aside from going to daycare once a week.

Unfortunately, because of Omicron, Becca is now required to wear a mask in school. While it is good to have an additional layer of security, they are kids and I have noticed that for a lot of them the masks are not on correctly, they still touch their faces a lot, and once they are out of the school building, the masks are pulled down under their chin. So yeah…

But thankfully, Becca is trained to wash her hands as soon as she gets home or enters another house. Sarah, is another story, but at least she enjoys cleaning her hands with hand sanitizer.

Becca will have another school holiday in the middle of February. It is called the Sportferien (Sport Holiday) which is unique to Switzerland. The Sportferien is to enable the Swiss to go skiing.

But for us, this means another visit to Oma and Opa in Germany.

And while there, I always look forward to meeting up with my friends.

Becca with her school provided mask; middle, chocolate crinkles with coffee; right, stack of chocolate crinkles*

A short backstory, before we moved to Switzerland, I worked as an auditor and then as a consolidation controller in Luxembourg for 6 years. I had moved from the Philippines to Europe together with friends from SGV, so I had a built-in support system.

It was in Luxembourg that I started baking a lot and began selling cakes and other baked goodies too.

Therefore, whenever we are in the area, my friends still request that I bake for them.

The most requested dessert last Christmas was mango bravo. If you’ve never had one, think of sans rival wafers, chocolate mousse, whipped cream and mango cubes layered into a very tall frozen cake.

I have tried to replicate the famous Conti’s mango bravo, and based on the number of times I have made it since, I would say that I have been quite successful. It is not as tall as the original, but I had to adjust to the size of my freezer.

I even shared the recipe on my blog (look for it at ayellowbowl.com if you want to have a go at home!) It is unfortunately too long and quite involved to share here.

However, here is a quick cookie recipe that, while we associate with Christmas, is a treat to make the whole year round.

Chocolate Crinkles

1 cup/200g granulated sugar

¼ cup/55 g vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp instant coffee, optional, but highly recommended

1 cup/120g all-purpose flour

½ cup/50 g cocoa powder

1 tsp/5 g baking powder

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup powdered sugar, for coating the cookies before baking

  1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix the sugar and oil together using a spatula or wooden spoon.
  2. Add the eggs one a time, beating well after each addition.
  3. Mix in the vanilla extract and instant coffee, if using.
  4. Set a strainer over the bowl and place the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Sift into the bowl then mix well.
  5. Cover bowl with a plastic wrap or transfer into a storage container with cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. I usually make the dough the day before and have kept dough in the fridge for a few days.
  6. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F.
  7. Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl and scoop out a tablespoonful of dough. If you want to be OC, like me, weigh out the dough. I usually make 25g cookie balls. I drop the cookie dough from the spoon directly into the powdered sugar and use another spoon to coat it with powdered sugar. I then pick it up and roll it into a ball with my palms. I have discovered that when I do it this way (as compared to making cookie dough balls with my hands first then dipping in the sugar) it is cleaner.

Place at least 2 inches apart on a baking pan lined with parchment paper as they spread. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes and let cool on the baking pan.*

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