Cook and Brew.

Just got a news that my sister’s homecoming from Qatar on April is now confirmed. We’re so excited because it’s her baby daughter’s first time to visit our native land and so we’re anxious to meet and kiss her personally for the first time. They have confirmed their ticket bookings and so it’s all systems go. Now here comes one of my pre-arrival favorite parts. That is, it’s listing down time of homecoming gifts (pasalubong). The last time my sister and her husband had a vacation, we’ve got so many confectioneries and the one I liked the most are these Quality Street chocolates. She gave me one tin and I’ve almost consumed the varied chocolates in just one sitting. I like how they are not so “sinfully sweet”. I hope they fill their Samsonite luggage with these chocolates.

Quality Street is manufactured in Halifax, in the United Kingdom by Nestlé. A box or a tin of this usually consists of indiviadually wrapped sweets in 12 flavours, all of which are either chocolate or toffee based:

* Milk Chocolate Hazelnut with caramel (the ‘Purple One’)
* Chocolate Noisette Pate (the ‘green triangle’)
* Chocolate Toffee Finger (gold wrapped stick)
* Toffee Penny (gold wrapper)
* Vanilla Fudge (pink wrapper)
* Strawberry Delight (red circular wrapper)
* Coconut Eclair (blue wrapper)
* Caramel Swirl (yellow frustum)
* Milk Choc Block (green wrapper)
* Orange Crunch (hexagonal orange wrapper)
* Orange Creme (orange circular wrapper)
* Toffee Deluxe (Brown wrapper)

Going to Baguio City this Holiday season? Don’t forget to drop by Teahouse along Session Road or their SM Baguio branch and snag this delectable treat for your own feasting or as a pasalubong to your loved ones here in Manila:

Here’s what I have previously blogged about this sweet treat:

Ever since we tasted this heavenly cake dessert, we make it a point that this is the number one in the list of pasalubongs to take home from Baguio. This refrigerator cake called Chona’s Delight is named after the brilliant Aling Chona, the owner of Tea House Restaurant and Bakeshop located along Session Road.  This establishment is one of the oldest chow place for locals and tourists craving for noodle snacks, coffee, bread and sinfully delicious cakes such as the above pictured Chona’s Delight. Tea House now also has a branch at nearby SM Baguio where we bought 5 small tubs of Chona’s Delight for take home during our annual Christmas vacation in the city of Pines last year. Three of the five small tubs were exclusively devoured by me..yes, that’s how delectable and addicting this cake is.  It consists of layers of rich chocolate cake frosting and fillings of creamy custard and whipped cream. Don’t be fooled with the rich, dark chocolatey look but this doesn’t taste tooth-cringing sweet at all. In fact, you can really even consume all by yourself in one sitting the small tub which they sell at Php 105/container.

Tea House Restaurant and Bakeshop
87 Session Road, Baguio City
Branch:
SM Baguio, Upper Session Road, Baguio City

Polvoron has become one of the most loved sweet Filipino delicacies over the years. It is an easy to prepare powdered milk candy, made of flour, sugar, melted butter and powdered milk toasted all together. They are shaped and pressed into round or oval-shaped special molds that can be bought from the grocery or supermarket. Several polvoron variations and flavors exist now: the choco flavour, pinipig, nuts and the latest one is called, chocovron: polvoron coated with dark or white chocolate. Chocovron from Collette’s is my personal favorite. In fact, it was one of my sweet cravings when I was pregnant with my son.

Polvoron has also been a favourite “pasalubong” gifts to overseas friends and family.

Here’s a simple recipe that my sisters and I usually follow whenever we make our own polvoron during our childhood years.

Digiscrapped by yours truly.
Credits:
All A Flutter Paper by Eve Recinella
Posh petals tab element by Eve Recinella
Heart element by Amber Clegg
Bent photo template by Nancy Comelab
Alpha by sharonk
Photo Corner by Corina Nielsen
Idea from Katie the Scrapbook Lady’s February Amazing Months of Memories Class (Feb as Snack Food Month)

Sweet treats such as chocolates have been popular birthday giveaways lately. But for my son’s birthday, I veered away from the traditional chocolate packaging. Check out the words and facts I used in “Nutritional Facts” style to spice up my son’s giveaway. It definitely makes the treat sweeter.

One of the tables that got stormed by my son’s 1st birthday party guests was the Chocolate Fountain table. A dear friend who happens to be my son’s godmother volunteered that she lends her chocolate fountain and likewise, offered her services to set it up and make the necessary dippers. Check out her Chocolate Coated Apples, the recipe of which she got from Foodnetwork.com:

Ingredients
* Medium sweet-tart apples, such as Fuji or Gala
* Barbecue or popsicle sticks
* 1 pound semisweet chocolate, cut into chunks
* 1 cup M & M’s and candy sprinkles. Optional ingredients are chopped pistachios, shredded coconut, toffee pieces, or crushed Oreos

Directions:
Twist off the stems from the apples and push a stick down into the core. Put the apples in the fridge while preparing the chocolate; they’ll coat better if they’re cold.

Slowly melt the chocolate in a double boiler over hot water or in a microwave set on high for 2 minutes, stirring halfway through the heating time to smooth it out. Remove from the heat and stir until completely melted and warm, not hot. Dunk each apple into the chocolate, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Roll the apples around in the chocolate, turning with the stick, so it’s coated all the way up to the top. Use a spoon to baste any hard to get spots.

Put the desired coating in a separate bowl and roll the dipped apple around so it is completely covered. Set the chocolate dipped apples on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Refrigerate until the chocolate is set.

***

I was so busy entertaining the party guests that’s why I wasn’t able to taste it. But I heard great raves about it from the guests.