experimental christmas tree...

There is one more thing I experimented yesterday. 
Inspired by my very recent gadget aebleskiver pan, I tried to make Christmasy croquembouche. This is very easy to make and quick, not so glamourous but so much fun! 
Aebleskiver pan is a tool to make Danish pasty balls. I got it from a shop recently opened on Kingsland road: objects for use (the website under construction like mine...) It is a shop with interesting selections, please talk to the shop owner Momoko as she would tell stories of her objects.


Ingredients for filling: 1tbsp unsalted butter, 1 apple & 1 pear peeled and diced into 1.5cm cube-ish, 1 tbsp sugar, 50g walnut pieces, 1 tsp cinnamon, 5-6 tbsp mincemeat.
Ingredients for batter: 2 eggs, 1 tbsp icing sugar, 1 cup butter milk (or milk), 1 cup desiccated coconut, 1 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder and a bit of salt and vanilla beans.
For topping: brandy cream, icing sugar, caramelised fresh cranberries (I used dry ones in the picture).
For flavouring: cardamon powder, kaljeera, clove powder or anything you like to try with.


You start from making filling first. In a warmed flying pan you put butter, fruits, sugar and cinnamon and stir it with medium heat for about 15mins. Turn the heat off and mix it with mincemeat.
Warm up an aebleskiver pan while mixing batter. whisk eggs and sugar until it gets a bit whiter. Combine other ingredients and mix well but not too much.
When the pan is warm enough, turn the heat down and grease it with butter and pour the batter halfway. Put the filling in the middle and cover it with more batter. (Also add tiny amount of spices into each ball when you put filling to make a variation of flavour. Please try any spices you think that would go together!) When it starts browning you turn it upside down using a knife or thin stick if you have one and make it round.
When all the balls are ready (I made about 20 balls until using up the batter, when you need to make more, please multiply the ingredients above.), pile them up using brandy cream as glue. Scatter icing sugar on top. It would be nice if you put caramelised cranberries for Christmasy topping.


Mind you, this is a recipe for me, my Japanese palette. So you might think this is not sweet enough. In that case put some more sugar into the filling not to the batter as it easily gets burnt if you put too much sugar in it... 


Happy cooking!


この週末、思わず、友人のお店でたこ焼きデモンストレーションを手伝うことになりました。そこでは、aebleskiverというデンマークのお菓子を作る鋳物のパンで、お菓子はもちろん、たこ焼きやいろんなものを作れるよーという提案をしていたのです。
そこで次の日、crochemboucheというフランスの小型シュークリームを積み上げたお菓子みたく、クリスマスツリーっぽく作ってみたら、どうなるかしら、、、と思って、試してみました。
こちらにはmincepieという、中にmincemeatが詰まった小さな甘いパイがあります。挽肉と思って想像すると気持ち悪いのですが、mincemeatとはドライフルーツをスパイスで甘く煮詰めたもので、クリスマスのお菓子によく使われます。ところが、minceは甘党の私にさえも甘くくどく感じられるので、もっと食べやすいものはないのかしら、、、と思っていました。フルーツと合わせる事で味を和らげ、生地は、aebleskiverと私のパンケーキのアイデアを組み合わせてみました。
家で楽しむ分には簡単でおいしいとは思いますが、クリスマスのスペシャルな感じがないです。鈴カステラの要素も取り入れたらもっといいかも！と思っています。