This Halloween we decided to eat some sleeping swaddled Babies

Yeah the ghoulish spirits entered our house this year and we ate these babies up with some butter and honey.

This is before baking them……notice the colored little fingers

This month Gretchen of Canela & Comino baked up Tanta Wawas (Peruvian Bread Babies). Now the name itself sounds so much fun and she has made such beautiful loaves (just looking at them will tell you that they were fun to make). She has a lot about Tanta Wawas on her blog. I just remembered ” On November 2nd, these bread babies are taken to the cemeteries in town so they can be left as offerings to those that have passed away and then are broken apart and eaten among the visitors. It is unknown when this Andean tradition began but it is known that from long ago, special breads were made and eaten in this manner.” I knew I’d be making it on Halloween.

As you can see from the picture above, we had a great time making these. The kids colored their hands well (yeah, there was more color on their hands than on the dough). And since they are a little sweet, they were liked by all.

Look at those hands……project totally worth it

The Recipe:

Tanta Wawa (Peruvian Bread Babies)

Makes 4 small loaves

• sponge:
  1 egg
  1/2 cup of all purpose flour
  1 tablespoon of sugar
  1/4 teaspoon of yeast
• dough:
  1/2 cup of all purpose flour
  1 cup of whole wheat flour
  2 cups of bread flour
  1/2 cup of white sugar
  1/4 cup of brown sugar (I used turbinado sugar)
  1 tablespoon of dry yeast
  1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
  1/8 teaspoon of ground cloves
  1/2 teaspoon of sesame seeds
  2 teaspoons of salt
  1/2 cup of milk
  1/4 cup of water
  1/4 cup of butter (I used smart balance)
  2 eggs (at room temperature)
  1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
  1 egg yolk (for painting)

1. In a bowl create the sponge by combining 1/2 cup of flour, 1 egg, 2 tablespoons of water, a pinch of instant yeast and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Stir together, cover and let rest for a few hours. …..(Mine was 6-7 hours as it was the day before Halloween)

2. In a bowl, mix the flours, sugar, yeast, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and sesame seeds. Sprinkle over the sponge. Don’t stir. Cover and let rest for a few hours. (Mine rested overnight)

3. Add the 2 eggs and vanilla to the flour mixture. Measure the milk, water and butter in a measuring cup. Heat for 30 seconds in the microwave, pour into the flour mixture. Mix well, then turn out and knead for 10-15 minutes, using additional flour if necessary. Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Form them into ovals. Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.

4. Stretch each dough ball into the form of a “fat baby” and place them on baking sheets. Cover with plastic and let the dough babies rise for 2 hours (there won’t be too much rise at this point).

5. Preheat the oven to 180C. Brush the egg yolks evenly over the dough babies. Bake bread at 180C for 30 minutes.

I am sending these swaddled sleeping Tanta Wawa, or Peruvian Bread Babies, to YeastSpotting .

 

So, the oven baked up triplets for us :-))

The husband asked why did you not paint them after baking and I wondered why too.

Thanks a lot Gretchen for a real fun challenge. All the Bread Baking Babes have baked up beautiful babies, a must see.

No new expenses for this one ;-). I had everything at home.

Marbled Tea Eggs

Stained by Addiction: Marbled Tea Eggs

I am a big fan of Martin Yan, the celebrated chef of Chinese cuisine with his famous Yan Can Cook show on television. He taught me how to mince garlic and ginger in seconds. Anybody who visits me gets a performance by me:) . Yeah, yeah, I know I like to show off…….:). I used to love his show and I watched him so much that I actually learnt from him…..now that says a lot. A few days back I came across his book : Martin Yan Quick & Easy at the library. This book is a companion volume to his public television series. I couldn’t help but bring it home.

One recipe that I tried and liked a lot was marbled tea eggs. I had heard of tea eggs from my husband when he had an authentic Chinese meal at a friend’s place so I wanted to try it too.

In Taiwan, tea eggs are a fixture of convenience stores. Through 7-Eleven chains alone, an average of 40 million tea eggs are sold per year………….source Wikipedia

The best thing is that these hard boiled eggs keep well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. It was great for breakfast when we were out of home. These are interesting addition to a salad or soup too or just as a snack.

Here’s the recipe adapted from Martin Yan’s Quick & Easy:

• Eggs 4
• Spring Onion coarsely chopped
• Ginger 1″ piece. minced
• Soya sauce 1/4 cup
• Regular Black Tea 2 bags
• Dark brown sugar 1 Tbsp.
• Ground cinnamon a pinch
• Ground star anise a pinch
• Ground cloves a pinch
• Ground fennel a pinch
• Pepper a pinch
• Cinnamon Stick 1

Chinese five spice powder can be used in the recipe instead of the ground spices if available. It can be purchased ready made from an Chinese grocery store. Since I did not have it, I used the ground spices.

Place the eggs with cold water in a saucepan. Cover and bring to simmer over medium heat. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

Drain the eggs and rinse them with cold water. When cool enough to handle, gently tap each egg all over with a spoon until hairline cracks cover the entire shell.

Return the eggs to the pan. Add all the rest of the ingredients and some water to cover the eggs completely. Place over low heat, cover and simmer for at least 15 minutes or for up to 1 hour for a more intense color. I like to simmer only for 30 minutes, otherwise the eggs tend to get too tough for my taste.

Remove from heat, let eggs cool in the liquid and then refrigerate, still in the liquid, at least overnight or for up to a week.

Peel them just before eating. I like them best with some mayonnaise mixed with soya sauce and balsamic vinegar. Another interesting recipe for tea eggs is here.

All Cracked Up for CLICK…photography event hosted by Jugalbandi

These marbled eggs are also on their way to Happy Love Strawberry’s 18th Birthday Party and the theme is Welcome to Wonderland. Have fun, everyone!!

Masala Coffee Cake

Masala Coffee Cake

Flour, Eggs, Sugar and Spice……….a tasty cake that’s low on cholesterol too………..isn’t that nice.

Ok, lame attempt at rhyming. I baked a cake that can be called as my recipe for the first time. I have baked several cakes following other recipes ( and following them to a ‘T’) but this time, I tried to bake a cake as I please……………and succeeded:).   Hurray  !! Ok, let me not brag too much………..I admit the idea was my Mom’s but …………..Mummy had baked a cake with strong clove flavor which was in turn inspired by masala coffee. To me, Mummy’s masala coffee was a revelation too :))

I made a smaller cake (I was experimenting;), not sure, it would turn out this good! )

The recipe: Ideal for 9″ round pan or even a 9″x 5″ loaf pan

• cloves ground 1 Tbsp/ 10 cloves of cloves ground fine
• nutmeg  ground 1/2 Tbsp.
• ginger ground 1 tsp./fresh grated ginger 1/2 tsp.
• instant coffee 2 Tbsp.
• sugar 6 Tbsp.
• milk 1 Tbsp.
• water 1 Tbsp.
• egg whites 4
• margarine/ butter 1/3 cup
• sugar 2/3 cup
• vanilla extract 1/2 tsp.
• all purpose flour 2/3 cup
• whole wheat flour 1/3 cup
• baking powder 1 Tbsp.
• baking soda 1/2 tsp.
• cashews, raisins and chocolate chips for garnish

Instant coffee, ground nutmeg, ground ginger and cloves ready to be ground in my shining mortar and pestle

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare the pan by greasing the pan and coating it with flour.

Mix the cloves, nutmeg and ginger with water and heat in the microwave. Add milk, sugar and coffee to the hot spices. I whipped the coffee really well to make it quite foamy. It changed its color from very dark brown to very pale brown. I even earned myself a blister in trying too hard:).

Spice mix with water and coffee

Coffee well beaten up!!

Beat the egg whites till soft peaks form. Set it aside. Beat margarine and sugar well. Add vanilla extract and beat again. In a large bowl, mix the flours, baking powder and baking soda. To the flour mixture, add the beaten margarine, sugar mix. Next, fold in the egg whites and the beaten coffee. Pour into prepared pan and bake for 22-25 minutes.One could add the dry fruits in this batter as well, but I added the garnish after the cake was kept in the oven for 20 minutes.

Here’s my cake batter………..

And, voila……….spicy masala coffee cake is ready!!

…………And here’s my delicious masala coffee cake……….Enjoy!!

This is my entry to Sunita’s Think spice…Think cloves event hosted by  Canela & Comino ……….author of wonderful Peruvian food blog.