Knick-Knacks

Finally!    I get to post again… it’s been a loooong while.  I have been busy the past few weeks, a lot going on in my ever-so-hectic life, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it.    But before that, let’s talk about Yema Balls and its recipe that I said will be posted “shortly”. 

Yema is one of my favorite childhood candies.  Though it looks easy to make, I didn’t get to eat them very often back home.  My mom didn’t make them.  My eldest sister did, but seldom – only when she felt like experimenting on stuff (kind of like me, LOL).  These candies are usually packaged in colorful cellophane wraps and triangular in shape.  To give you an idea, here’s the old-school Yema candies:

Sticky, ooey, gooey candies.  Love how it melts in your mouth.  It could be very addicting - especially if you get the right sweetness and the perfect texture. 

I’m not saying that my recipe is “the one”.  But I’m pretty much satisfied with the outcome.  Aside from the “yumminess” factor, it also calls for the easiest ingredients known to man.  So simple to make, you can make it any time your sweet tooth asks for it.     Here’s my Yema Balls recipe:

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter
1 can condensed milk
2 eggyolks
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup white sugar (for coating)

Directions: 

1. In low heat, melt butter in a pan.
2. Once melted, pour in the condensed milk. Stir.
3. Mix in the eggyolks one at a time, carefully stir, until well blended.
4. Pour in vanilla. Stir again.
5. Then mix in the cornstach.

Stir everything carefully until thick, making sure that it doesn’t burn at the bottom.

In my experience, I couldn’t avoid some parts to brown, but just keep mixing it until the mixture is slightly pulling away from the pan. You don’t want it to be completely solid, I prefer to take it out of the pan as soon as I notice it pulling away and starting to become solid.

Pour the mixture in a bowl and let it cool. Do not cover. After a while, when the bowl is not too hot anymore, put it in the fridge and chill until firm enough to handle. I’d say in about 1-2 hours.

Roll into balls, make sure your hands are slightly moist (not wet) to avoid it from sticking to your fingers and palm. After shaping into desired size, roll it in sugar to coat.

Place yema balls on wax paper or small paper cups. Put them in the fridge to firm up some more.  That’s because for me, they’re best served when chilled.

Variations include:  adding chopped nuts, jackfruit, or add a hint of lemon rind or lemon extract, some even dip them in chocolate thereby making an instant custard truffle!  Haven’t tried the latter but sounds yummy-er! 

Now, to make up for my delayed posting of this recipe, thought I’d share with you yet another recipe of another favorite candy of yours truly:  Pastillas de Leche! 

Pastillas de Leche is milk candy in español.  Kind of like Yema balls too, but firmer.  To achieve the right texture, replace cornstarch with 1 cup of powdered skim milk to the recipe above.  You can add more powdered milk until desired consistency is achieved.  No photo, sorry!  Imagine the same thing, but instead of rolling into balls, I shaped them into oblongs.    ♥

One day, out of nowhere, my son asked me to make brownies for his classmates. And out of nowhere, I said, “OK!”.  No questions asked, no ifs and buts! 

I won’t lie though… I used brownie mix!    So that’s why it was so easy for me to say YES to my son!  LOL.  But to add a twist to the rather boring brownie mix in a box, I thought of making “one-bite” brownies.  I could have easily used the mini cupcake pans I have, but instead, I used this baking pan I bought a while back intended for making little cheesecakes (there’s your clue for my next project!).  They’re smaller than the mini-cupcake pans and has little holes at the bottom with little round covers.  The idea is, when the cheesecake is ready, you can push the bottom part of the pan and off the cheesecakes go!  Too bad I didn’t take a photo of it, but for those of you who know your kitchen utensils well, you know what I’m talkin’ about.

I didn’t put anything else on the brownies.  I could have put nuts, mini m&m’s, chocolate chips, what-have-you… But since we’re not sure if his classmates have allergies of some sort, we better play it safe.

So there you go… One-Bite (it is, really!) Fudge Brownies for the preschool kiddos packaged in small plastic lollipop bags with colorful twist-ties.  ♥

I know, I know.. In my previous post, I mentioned about featuring some of my “mini” creations.  Been a while since I said that, I was kinda lazy these past few weeks (months?) – not lazy to make something out of my tiny kitchen, more of….. lazy to post… there, I said it!  

BUT… I’m baaaccckkk!!  Back with a vengeance as I post not 1…. not 2… but 4 of the mini desserts that I made while I was gone and hibernating from blogging.    What triggered me to spring back to my blogging, you might ask.  Well, just last week, I received an email from Starbucks – after my co-worker told me, about their Starbucks Petites!  And guess what?!  They have cakefriggin’pops!  Cakepops!  and Mini Peanut Butter Cups… and Mini Red Velvet Whoopie Pies, etc…. and people are going crazy for it!  I’m excited to see that there’s a huge trend in mini desserts nowadays – thinking that I’m one of the many disciples in creating bite-size desserts for a number of good reasons. 

So… without further ado.. here’s what I made:

Rainbow Cupcakes - not mini-cupcakes, but come to think of it – cupcakes are small cakes!  So this one’s included.

Single-Serving Size Broken Glass Jelly

One-bite Fudge Brownies

Yema Balls (Milk Candy) (to be posted shortly  Posted!)

Enjooy!