Cooking | Mind Speaks – creative blog

Pan Dulce Marranitos Recipe

Pan Dulce Marranitos Recipe

Hi Guys! If you’ve been on our blog before or visiting us for the first time after our live webinar with HISD ROSES – welcome! I am posting today to share a recipe on how to make some Mexican gingerbread sweets called marranitos!
These are a staple in Mexican cuisine, and we grew up eating these all the time. Here is the recipe I use for these amazing sweets!

Ingredients

Tools

  • Cookie Cutter (Doesn’t have to be a pig one!)
  • A baking cookie sheet with parchment paper
  • A mixer or spatula
  • A large mixing bowl
  • A rolling pin

Instructions

1. Set your oven at 350°F. Take your bowl, add sugar and room temperature butter together. Mix using either a mixer or a spatula, until it looks white and creamy.

2. Next, scrap the sides of the bowl and add your egg, milk, molasses and vanilla.

3. Then, add your all purpose flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda till the dough starts to form. You may need to add milk if the dough feels dry.

4. Take half of the dough and roll with your rolling pin until it is 1/2 inch thick. Use your favorite cookie cutter and cut out your shapes! Place on the cookie sheet.

5. Cover each cut out with an egg wash. Break an egg and take a spoon or pastry brush and lightly coat the cut out. This is how the you achieve that golden shine!

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Depending on your cookie cutter size you may need more time. Make sure the middle of the treat is firm.

 

You can download the recipe PDF here.

marranitos-recipe.pdf (518 downloads)

Also, my portfolio site is located here.

This post was written by:

katKAT VERA - (view all posts by Kat)
Kat is a lead pastry chef. When she isn’t in the kitchen she’s traveling space and time with Doctor Who and solving mysteries with Sherlock. Email her at kat@mind-speaks.com

Japanese Cheese Cake Recipe

Japanese Cheese Cake Recipe

I tend to spend way too much time on Instagram before bed,I look at tons of different cakes and treats which tend to trigger night time cravings…not good. There is a particular treat that has been catching my eye – I’ve been wondering how this treat would taste like. The Japanese cheesecake! If you haven’t seen these adorable and bouncy cakes, it looks like this:
bouncy-cheesecakes-03142016

*Photo credit from Nerdist.com*
These cakes are so popular that even Nerdist updated about it. I’ve only imagined how delicious these cakes would be and finally I had time to make it. I ended up making it for Kim’s birthday. Which is why I don’t have a naked picture of the cake cause I was in too much of a hurry  to get it party-ready.  So I got this recipe from rasamalaysia.

Ingredients:

  • 5oz sugar
  • 6 egg whites
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 1/4 t cream of tartar
  • 9oz cream cheese
  • 2oz butter
  • 3oz milk
  • 1T lemon juice
  • 2oz cake flour
  • 1oz corn starch
  • 1/4 t salt
Ingredients
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, salt, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

2. Make the meringue by whisking egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. You can beat with a stand mixer or handheld mixer. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks.

3. Take 1/3 meringue and fold into the cheese mixture, then fold in another 1/3 of meringue. After incorporated, pour the batter back to the remaining 1/3 meringue and fold. FOLD GENTLY. Pour the mixture into a 8-inch round cake pan (lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with grease-proof baking paper or parchment paper)

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).

After the caked cooled I cut it twice so I could put three layers of whipped cream icing and diced strawberries.

And it’s done! I really liked this cake, it reminds me of Sara Lee pound cake once you refrigerated it. Next time I want to add more cream cheese for a more custard texture but overall definitely going to be part of my cookbook.

Japanese cake

Japanese Cake

This post was written by:

katKAT VERA - (view all posts by Kat)
Kat is a lead pastry chef. When she isn’t in the kitchen she’s traveling space and time with Doctor Who and solving mysteries with Sherlock. Email her at kat@mind-speaks.com

Summer Idea – sweet treat

Summer Idea - sweet treat

Summer is officially over but fresh tasting desserts never go out of season. This recipe has been my go-to crowd pleaser and as a plus, it looks pretty fancy. This quick and easy recipe is very hands on so it’s nice to do this with kids or a group of friends. So you’re wondering, “Kat, what is this amazing recipe you are talking about?” I’ll cut to the chase.

I found this recipe during Fourth of July and quickly fell in love with it. When it comes to cake I prefer light and delicate compare to typical buttercream iced cakes. The first thing that comes to mind is trifle! This recipe calls for pound cake but I paired it with angel food cake instead, to give it more texture. So enough talking, here is the recipe!

~Mixed Berry Trifle~

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 cup cold milk
  • one 3.4 oz package of vanilla pudding mix
  • one Box mix of angel food cake (you can be fancy and more your own cake by scratch)
  • Mixed berries (Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, ect)

Here are your ingredients.
kk

In a stand mixer, whip the cream until stiffed peaks form, then set aside. In a large bowl, beat the sour cream, milk and pudding until it thickens. Fold in the whipped cream and set aside.

Here is the fun part… the assembling! I used glass trifle cups but any container will work out but seeing the layer is a nice presentation. Cut cake into cubes, place first layer of cake then place berries over cake then add pudding mixture – repeat till you fill your container.

Refrigerate for 2 hours then you are all set! This is an amazingly easy way to make a fancy looking item on the cheap!

Pretty and refreshing

Yum!

This post was written by:

katKAT VERA - (view all posts by Kat)
Kat is a lead pastry chef. When she isn’t in the kitchen she’s traveling space and time with Doctor Who and solving mysteries with Sherlock. Email her at kat@mind-speaks.com