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    5 Recipes You Should Be Baking to Celebrate the Lunar New Year

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    February 10 kicks off the Lunar New Year, a 15-day-long celebration of the beginning of the new year in the traditional Chinese calendar. For those who celebrate, the very light takes on a bright red hue. For these 15 days in China and all other countries that celebrate the Lunar New Year, the cheery glow of red lanterns illuminate the roads, with red paper pasted over windowpanes and doorways for good measure. At night, fireworks shout across the horizon in rapid succession and burst in dazzling, rhythmic fashion—an unsurpassed spectacle considering the Chinese invented fireworks. At the close, thousands of lanterns are lit and sent to the sky, with hopes and dreams scrolled on the paper that will soon be consumed by the growing internal flame. 
    But perhaps the quietest tradition is the most important: the reunion dinner, held on Lunar New Year’s Eve. The entire extended family gathers around the dinner table to dine on an multicourse meal made up of dumplings, rice cakes, and more. Food plays an integral part in welcoming the new year, and there is much to feast on. Start this new year, the Year of the Dragon, in sweet fashion with our five home baker-friendly recipes featured in our January/February 2020 issue. 

    Walnut Cookies (hup toh soh)
    A common treat found in pastry shops in China year-round, during Chinese New Year, home bakers often make hup toh soh as a crunchy treat to welcome visitors and family to their home. Supposedly, the original walnut cookies contained no walnuts in the dough. The “walnut” in the name might have been used to refer to the cookie’s crunchy texture, or its wrinkly, golden appearance. 

    Pineapple Buns (bolo bao)
    Instantly recognizable with its crosshatch design on top, pineapple buns are a treasure to have come out of Hong Kong bakeries in the 20th century. Contrary to what its name would have you think, no pineapple is used in making these buns. Instead, the title refers to its similarity in appearance between the crispy top and a pineapple’s bumpy exterior. The base bun is made of a milk bread dough—sweet and fantastically fluffy.

    Coconut Almond Rice Cake (nian gao)
    For Chinese New Year, a number of rituals ensure luck and fortune: wearing red, not cleaning, burning fake money and coins, and, most deliciously, eating nian gao. This traditionally steamed sticky rice cake is almost 2,000 years old, first coming to prominence around AD 200. The cake’s potential luck is due to being a homonym, with nian gao sounding similar to the Chinese characters for “higher year,” meaning you’ll have a bountiful year by eating a slice of this iconic rice cake. Of course, consuming cake is always lucky in our book. Click here for our recipe!

    Sweet Egg Tarts (dan tan)
    Hailing from the city of Guangzhou in the 1920s, the Chinese variation of the egg tart features a crisp, crumbly shortcrust made with lard and a luminous, egg-rich custard. Once the dish came to Hong Kong, it transformed again, getting a tender cookie-like pâte sucrée crust but keeping the reflective custard. Though a relatively new addition to the Lunar New Year feasting, the egg tart is one more sweet way to celebrate the new year. 

    Barbecue Pork Buns (char siu bao)
    A Cantonese and dim sum classic, this bao is special because it is steamed rather than baked, making it both fluffy and sturdy. Once steamed, the dough will form a chewy skin while staying snowy white and gently heating a tender filling of barbecue-style pork (or char siu). Pork is symbolic during the Chinese New Year, standing for strength, wealth, and blessings. Click here for our version of this dum sum classic. LEGGI TUTTO

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      Tomato Irish Soda Bread Dinner Rolls with Fried Shallot Butter

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      Recipe development by Kylie Mazon-Chambers
      Kylie Mazon-Chambers of the blog Cooking with Cocktail Rings came up with these delicious Irish soda bread dinner rolls after our trip to Ireland earlier this year. They’re studded with chopped sun-dried tomato pieces and just enough ground red pepper for a bit of a kick and, finally, topped with Irish Cheddar. Fine more Irish recipes in our July/August 2020 issue!
      Follow Kylie: cookingwithcocktailrings.com | @cookingwithcocktailrings

      Tomato Irish Soda Bread Dinner Rolls with Fried Shallot Butter

      3½ cups (438 grams) all-purpose flour
      1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda
      1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
      1 teaspoon (2 grams) paprika
      ½ teaspoon ground red pepper
      1½ cups (360 grams) whole buttermilk
      ¼ cup (40 grams) diced oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes
      ½ cup (52 grams) shredded sharp Irish Cheddar cheese
      Vegetable oil, for frying
      2 medium shallots (75 grams), thinly sliced
      10 tablespoons (140 grams) unsalted butter, softened
      1 teaspoon (3 grams) flaked sea salt

      Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
      In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, kosher salt, paprika, and red pepper until combined. Make a well in center.
      In a medium bowl, stir together buttermilk and tomatoes. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture. Using one hand like a claw, slowly fold flour mixture from sides of bowl into buttermilk mixture until dough is soft but not too wet.
      Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
      Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface, and shape into an 8-inch square (1-inch thickness). Sprinkle with cheese. Using a sharp knife, cut into 9 squares, and place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheet.
      Bake until golden brown, about 18 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool on a wire rack.
      In a 10-inch cast-iron skillet, pour oil to a depth of ½ inch, and heat over medium heat until an instant-read thermometer registers 350°F (180°C).
      Fry shallots, in batches if necessary, stirring frequently, until deep golden brown and crispy, 8 to 10 minutes, adjusting heat as needed. Remove shallots using tongs, and let drain on a paper towel-lined plate for 5 minutes.
      In the work bowl of a food processor, place shallots, butter, and sea salt; pulse just until combined, and transfer to a small bowl. Serve at room temperature with warm rolls.

      If you don’t have crème fraîche, the same amount of mascarpone cheese or sour cream can be substituted. Coffee liqueur, such as Kahlúa, can be substituted for whiskey.

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    • in Recipes

      Irish Cheddar White Soda Bread

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      The grand symbol of Ireland’s baking, Irish soda bread is defined not by the baking soda but by the soft white wheat that grows in Ireland. Low in gluten and protein, the soft Irish wheat receives a boost from baking soda, invented in the 1800s and an immediate game changer for Irish baking. Slashed with a cross and pricked to release heat—or fairies?—our traditional soda bread is enhanced with strong Irish Cheddar, fresh dill, and ground black pepper.

      Irish Cheddar White Soda Bread

      3⅔ cups (458 grams) all-purpose flour
      1½ teaspoons (4.5 grams) kosher salt
      ½ teaspoon (2.5 grams) baking soda
      1 cup (113 grams) course grated Irish aged white Cheddar cheese, divided
      1 tablespoon (2 grams) chopped fresh dill
      ½ teaspoon (1 gram) ground black pepper
      2 cups (480 grams) whole buttermilk

      Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C).
      In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda until well combined. Stir in ⅔ cup (75 grams) cheese, dill, and pepper. Make a well in center, and add buttermilk. Using your hand like a claw, mix buttermilk into dry ingredients, working from center to outside of bowl, just until combined and a ball of dough forms. (Dough should be sticky and slightly clumpy.)
      Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface. Using floured hands, gently shape into a round. Turn dough over, and tuck and rotate dough until edges are rounded and even. Transfer to a sheet of parchment paper, and pat into a 1½-inch-thick disk. Using a knife dipped in flour, cut a 1-inch-deep “X” across top of dough. Using tip of knife, prick a hole into each of the four sections of dough. Sprinkle remaining ⅓ cup (38 grams) cheese on top. Transfer on parchment paper to a baking sheet.
      Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400°F (200°C), and bake until golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted in a section of bread registers 200°F (93°C), 15 to 20 minutes more. (If you tap bottom of loaf, it should sound hollow.) Remove from pan, and place on a wire rack. Let cool enough to handle, about 30 minutes. Best served warm.

      Hollow Note: Perfectly baked soda bread doesn’t just have a golden look and tender texture—it makes a lovely hollow sound when knocked with a knuckle. Give the bottom a tap to hear the echo of a well-baked loaf.Our soda bread dough can be a little sticky to work with, so we used floured hands to help shape it. As you tuck and rotate the dough, keep in mind that it should be a rustic round—not perfect. If you try to make it pristine, you risk overhandling the dough, making it tough.Use a floured knife to keep the sticky dough from tearing while you make your incision. Though you may think of it as mere decoration, make sure your cross is 1 inch deep, as this deep scoring allows the hot steam to be released from the bread while baking.As an added bonus to the good luck from the cross-scoring on top, this pricking in the four corners of the dough allows both fairies and heat to escape from the bread. This helps the bread rise and cook evenly. LEGGI TUTTO