Lembas

What's lembas? Well, in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings there is an Elvish food called lembas. It is somehow cookie-like and some LotR-fans have created their own recipes. I read through some of those and mixed some of them, leaving out one ingredient, and adding another. So, that's what I came up with:

All you need is:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp. baking powder (yes, one tablespoon)

1 pinch salt

1 stick butter

1/3 cup sugar

2/3 cup buttermillk

5 tbsp. maple syrup

5 drops lemon extract

First, mix all the dry ingredients. Then, rub in the butter. Finally, add all the wet ingredients and mix until blended. The dough you get is very sticky, so use lots of flour when rolling it out to about 5 mm thick. I cut it out into squares of about 5 cm.

Then, bake on 220°C for 10-12 minutes, until just through.

24th of December

Finally, the last winter tea :)

 

This one is simply called Weihnachtstee (Christmas tea), containing back teas from India, Ceylon and China, orange peel, cinnamon, almonds, cloves and vanilla. Again quite a lot, but really good. Wintery, spice, but not overpowering, as some winter teas are. Definitely a 'buy again'.

23rd of December

This is Adventsfrüchtetee. A tea, containing hibiscus blossoms, rose hips, apple, currants, elderberries, almonds, cinnamon, pineapple, cloves, orange peel, mango, papaya, blueberries, black currants. Quite a lot, huh? But very fruity and wintery. Loved it.

22nd of December

Ok, I think in March it is more then time to finish the advent calendar thing...
This one is called Sencha Claus... Yummie!!

Honey Cake Pops

Since I have not made any cake pops in quite some time, I decided it was time for them again. This time, I took simple sugar cookies and honey cream cheese.

 

But simple cake pops, coated with vanilla glaze only? No, that was too simple. So, I rolled out a small amount of pinkish fondant and cut out tiny flowers.




Then, I pressed the end of a tooth pick slightly onto each petal.














And then, I slightly crushed some aluminium foil and put the flowers on it do dry, since I wanted the flowers not to be completely flat, but a bit more natural.

 

 

And here the final results...

 



Sushi Dinner

This does not only contain sushi, but shredded carrot and a honey melon and coconut dessert as well. Except for the ham served separately, it is vegetarian.

Here, you can see the carrot onigiri and the cream cheese & mixed pickle onigiri. The first ones are filled with finely shredded carrot only. Well, not actually filled, but the rice is mixed with it and then formed into onigiri. The triangular onigiri are made of rice, mixed with herb cream cheese and filled with one mixed pickle item, e. g. one carrot slice, one onion,...

A closer look at the bento decoration...

Ham, cut out into... rabbits mainly...

This is cubed honey melon and homemade coconut curd. Basically, make vanilla curd, using coconut milk instead of milk.

Rice mixed with scrambled eggs and a bit of horseradish cream cheese.

As you can see in the down left part of the following picture, there were little cups of the remaining shredded carrot, as well as soy sauce. To complete the meal. All this was actually too much for three people. Well... rice... I know. Nevertheless, I am always astonished about how small everything looks and how few you can eat of it :)

Oh, no!

Oh, no! It's going to be a month of not-posting soon. That's why this post appears. Actually, I have baked quite often and even made pictures. Furthermore, the December postings are not all finished. Why? Actually, I have to admit that I do not know. Lazyness probably. Maybe even preparing our wedding (civil last year, church this year).

So this is just for telling you that all is well and that I am still alive :)

What is coming up next?

Among others:

- the last few advent's calendar posts

- an orange and cheese dessert

- a few more cookies

- bread

- rose water experiments
- sushi experiments

Oh, and by the way... Friends asked me to bake their wedding cake. The wedding will be at the end of June and I have already lots of ideas. I'm sooo exited :D I'll keep you posted on that for sure.