The Last Hazelnut Roll

January 2nd, 2010 was a memorable day. The last Hazelnut roll has been eaten. We were lucky enough to have bought a box (the last box) from a friend who's dad owns a deli, now they're all gone and the last one has been consumed. I couldn't keep it any longer because the ice was starting to frost the inside of the icecream. Nonetheless, it has been my favourite icecream of all time.

For those that haven't heard of them or want to relive the taste of them. Remember the soft melty chocolate coating on the outside. A light vanilla icecream in the inside surrounding a hazelnut flavoured icecream which sort of tastes a bit like nutella but not as sweet. 

Remember those chocolate bits falling off all over the place. I remember when I was a kid, my mouth wasn't big enough to bit the whole roll bit by bit. So it was so hard with all the chocolate bits falling everywhere, so I developed a technique to eat it. Now I still do it and did so for the last time. I would wrap the wrapper around the hazelnut roll so that the foil would catch any fray chocolate bits. Gross as it may sound, any bits that fall on the foil will be subjected to my licking after I finish. Ah, not one wasted bit.

Why did you discontinue them!! Nestle!!

Scones for Christmas Breakfast

Today we had freshly baked scones for breakfast, served with cream and jam. I got this recipe from ABC (Melissa's best ever scones). The recipe was very simple and easy to follow. 

The recipe suggests using half and half (half milk and half cream) will make a denser scone with richer flavour. 

I changed parts of the recipe like the oven temperature (mine is a fan forced oven) and the thickness of the scone dough rounds - so here are the exact bits and pieces I used:

Ingredients

  - 2 Cups Self Raising Flour

  - Pinch of Caster Sugar

  - 30g butter (cut to small cubes, straight from the fridge)

  - 180mL of Half and Half (half milk and half cream)

Method

  1. Sift flour

  2. Rub butter into flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs

  3. Add a pinch of caster sugar

  4. Add milk or half and half until the dough is soft and not sticky

  5. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead/pat until its smooth

  6. Use a rolling pin (start from the centre and roll outwards) 

  7. Roll dough until it us about 1 inch thick and cut into 5cm rounds

  8. Place into oven tray (lined with baking paper)

  9. Glaze top of scones with milk and bake at 200°C for 12 to 15 minutes.

I baked it in the over for just over 15 minutes. Some came out just on the mark and some needed an extra minute or two. The outside was crunchy and the inside was soft and flaky. The texture of the scone was wonderful (quote from Mr. K). I reckon it was pretty good myself, good enough to be cafe worthy. Will definitely use this recipe again. Only I might warm up the oven tray (have it pre-heated) and try it with milk only....

Christmas Cookie Spirit

Just a short post this time for some cookie time.

Our nice friend has made us some cookies to celebrate this Christmas! The cookies were just so nicely tied up that I couldn't help but turn paparazzi on them. These homemade shortbread m&m's cookies were just so perfect for camera :)

While I was on food paparazzi mode, I dug out another of my good friends givings. Ah, the goodness of cookies. These I think are called 'gem biscuits', some of us with a Hong Kong background call them "to chi beng" meaning belly button biscuit. Don't ask me how this name came about. These biscuits are have icing sugar on top of a plain biscuit on the bottom (tastes just like a marie/milk arrowroot) but it was one of my all time favourites in the 80's. They're quite hard to come by these days and brings back many childhood biscuit memories.

Thank you and Wishing all my friends a Merry Christmas and a great new year. May we all have happy cookie times !