Gingerbread House

There is a reason why gingerbread house is not a popular craft in Malaysia. First of all the gingerbread cannot withstand the humidity  and get soggy quickly. Secondly, ants are our common enemy where sugar is present. Nevertheless, it was a success and a wonderful experience for my first project. Thanks to the above recipe from Easetereuropean website, also included the template for print out, the gingerbread recipe was hardy enough to last for more than a week until Christmas party! The kids are delighted! Not to mention my daughter already eaten half the candy 'decor' before the house was completed! 

I modified the recipe as follow:
(source recipe:http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/crossculturaldesserts/r/gingerbread.htm)

Pattern Print out

Ingredients:

• 2 cups light corn syrup (I used liquid glucose)
• 1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar (reduced to 1 cup)
• 1 1/4 cups oil (cooking oil, cheaper!)
• 1kg  all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

- Divide the ingredient into 4 parts

- Add 1 part into thermomix and blend for 10second at Speed6, then knead 2min. Do the same for other 3 parts.

- Roll them into 0.5cm thick and cut into shapes. Make sure that the thickness is even, I used 2 coasters to support the 2 ends of my rolling pin.

- Bake at 170C for about 20min or till harden.

Royal Icing Glue:

3 large egg white
500-600g icing sugar
Lemon juice 1/2tsp

- put all into TM bowl and mix for 2min at speed 6.

See above link for detail steps to assembly the house. have fun!

All Fruits Popsicles

Not only the color feast the eyes, they are perfect treat for a hot day, infact everyday is a good day for a chill like this in tropical island here.

These all are REAL FRUITS without coloring or added refined white sugar. All you need is a BPA free popsicle mould and make a trip to the fruit store!

By the color here you can tell I have strawberry, blueberry, red globe grapes, kiwi, mangosteen and mango. I used blended strawberry, mango and mangosteen (separately) as a base and other as cut fruits or whole blueberry to make the designs! Absolutely no sugar needed for mango or mangosteen as they are ripe and sweet, but I do add a few drops of stevia liquid to strawberry.  My favorite? Mangosteen with blueberries and touch of mint leaves, YES! mint leaves is the secret ingredient here, refreshing! Give it a try!