Christmas Tree Scone Appetizer

Our Annual Neighbourhood Christmas Party was last night and our side of the street was assigned to bring a savoury Appetizer.  Since my husband makes awesome scones, he made bite size scones and we arranged the scones in the shape of a Christmas Tree to bake.

The scones even though I did push them together did not stick together.  Perhaps moistening the edges may help.

The tree was covered with a cream cheese icing

Cream Cheese Icing:
8 oz Cream Cheese
1/2 c Sour Cream
dill weed
1 garlic clove, minced

Top the tree with 3 cups of chopped vegetables of your choice.

I grated one carrot, chopped broccoli and 1/4 c onion, thinly sliced red peppers for the garland, chopped tiny broccoli florets for ornaments and shaped a star out of the bell pepper

This appetizer was very festive, made a grand entrance to the party and disappeared quickly!

Pampushky, doughnuts by any other name!

As I continue to work on the checklist for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, today I made Pampushky with the help of my husband. Working together on some of these recipes brings back memories of Christmas past and the joy we had and still do preparing these Christmas dishes.  The recipe for these deep fried doughnuts has been written in this blog.

The yeast proofing in warm water and sugar

Adding 1 cup of flour to proofed yeast

Vanilla my son brought from Mexico

Adding Lime juice and rind

Lastly adding flour

Kneading the dough until all flour incorporated 

Heating the oil 

Cheese and Dill Bread

Cheese and Dill Bread

I am fascinated by the bread art in the European Blogs!  My mom used to make Cheese and Dill Rolls which were so delicious. The cottage cheese came from her cows that she milked herself.  I remember when she no longer made her own cheese and the disappointment she felt in making pyrohy, nalisknky or cheese buns.  She felt that the taste of cottage cheese she bought did not match up to her homemade cottage cheese.  How many of us can differentiate this taste? 

My Mom would make her cheese buns and place them into pan, then pull them apart and heat them in a rich cream sauce before serving!  Check out these Cheese Buns that are beautifully made and photographed by a Winnipeg Blogger. 

I had some sweet dough left over from making the mini stuffed doughnuts or Pampushky and decided to make one of the bread designs I have seen in the Bulgarian blogs.  Recently 
I have written out the recipes on recipe cards as I find running off the recipes seemed wasteful!  Most of the European blogs do translate into English, but the only problem was that I could not find the recipe by using the English translation! So I winged the design from memory. 

Cottage Cheese filing with fresh Dill 

Using fresh dill from my garden that had been frozen

Twisting the cut portions 

I was not sure about this twisting part!
And certainly learned that you need to assemble this on the baking sheet, I should have taken a picture of all the twisted parts on top of one another as I transferred them on the baking sheet.

Ready for the oven after resting for 20 minutes

And here is the final result!  Ready for Christmas brunch!

Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache for Christmas

So this morning started out like any regular morning, sipping on Cappuccino with milk that had been heated and a thick layer of frothy milk in each cup!  Delicious. Things were peaceful until I tried to find the recipe for the Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake which I believed was from the Guinness Storehouse and had not copied it down! It was not there!

Guinness Chocolate Bundt Cake

In trying to remember the ingredients used for this cake, my husband reminded me that he had burned the 4 ounces of chocolate squares when he tried to melt it in the microwave.  How could I forget the smell from that incident, but I also remember that there was cocoa and chocolate squares used in the batter.  I remember the discussion we had about using cocoa in place of squares as to me it is much easier and eliminates the above problem of burnt chocolate but most of all less clean up.   Although my husband did end up using cocoa and oil to substitute for the chocolate squares, I was accused of always meddling in his recipes.  I did write to the Guinness store and got this reply

I have spoken with our head chef and unfortunately he does not have the recipe for the bundt cake, however he has given me the recipe for Guinness Chocolate Cake.

I hope this is ok.  

So the hunt was on!

I finally found what I think is the recipe

My husband used White Chocolate and Irish mist in place of the dark chocolate and Guinness in the Ganache recipe.

The cake was a hit but very rich and dense. We served the cake for Christmas Day dinner with a hot Carmel Sauce.  We ended up taking it with us in our cooler for our winter vacation to Manitoba. The cake ended up in my brother staff room and everyone that tasted it gave rave reviews.  

We will be making it again this year!

The substitution for Chocolate squares:

3 level tablespoons unsweetened cocoa and 1 tablespoon butter, margarine or shortening for every 1-ounce unsweetened baking chocolate. I prefer to do this as much easier than melting the chocolate sguares

Guinness Fudge Bundt Cake with Guinness Ganache 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

50 mins

A moist chocolate cake that gets its deep flavor from two types of chocolate and a splash of Guinness. Then the cooled cake is slathered in a silky Guinness ganache

Serves: 12-16 servings

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, melted
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Hershey’s Extra Dark Cocoa
• 1¼ teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup buttermilk
• ¾ cup Guinness Extra Stout or a double dark ale

Guinness Ganache

• 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
• ½ cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons Guinness Extra Stout

Instructions

Cake

1. Preheat oven to 325F
2. Butter and flour a bundt pan. If you use cocoa to flour the pan your cake will not have white streaks.
3. Beat butter and slowly add sugar.
4. Beat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Add vanilla and cooled chocolate.
7. Beat until evenly mixed.
8. In a large bowl mix flour, cocoa, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
9. In a 3 cup measuring cup or large bowl mix the buttermilk and the Guinness.
10. Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with the buttermilk mixture.
11. Spoon into a 3 quart bundt pan.
12. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
13. Let cool completely.
14. Loosen with knife and turn out from pan, carefully.

Ganache

1. Heat the cream up until bubbles form around the edges and the cream begins to steam.
2. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate until smooth
3. Heat the Guinness in the microwave until it is just warm. Pour it into the ganache.
4. Mix until smooth and then spoon over cake.