Japanese Snack! - Marie Cookies?

I have a fun new snack to review.  This time its a bit of a snack cake/cookie.  I picked it as it had a picture of brie on the box . . . that just seems weird. All I know is that the box say Marie and shows wheat and brie. The wrapper calls it a cake . . .

The box containing 6 cookies.

Individual servings.

Smallish cookie.

The cookie is soft - like a soft sugar cookie.  It has a hint of a lemon taste.  I couldn't taste the brie in the cookie, but it was a bit of a rich creamy filling.  It tasted pretty much like a fatty sugary substance.  Overall, the flavor of the cookie was simply sweet.  So, it is a sweet cookie with a hint of lemon.  This was actually not to bad, just kind of mild.  A nice tea cookie I would think.

Cooking Korean: Japchae (stirfried noodles)

I decided to make something new from Maangchi's site today: Japchae or stirfried noodles and vegetables.  It just looked so good . . . I like to stirfry things . . . woks  are fun.  The recipe also looks like it will heat up well so I can many meals out of it.  That is how I like to cook.  Complicated recipes that will last me for a bit . . . but not too hard, I don't like failure. As always I recommend starting with the video to get an idea of the recipe.

As often happens I changed the recipe up a bit based on ingredients I have/could get.  It is beautiful spring here in Edmonton (finally), so I walked to the nearby grocery store rather than going somewhere fancy.  I couldn't find the starch noodles, so I used regular rice noodles . . . okay brown rice noodles . . . they seemed the most fun of my options.  I also used ground beef that I had to use like now rather than slicing up some beef I would have had to purchase today.  Overall, I think the soul of the recipe is intact.

bowl of ingredients!

Its a ninja trap . . .

The result? Fantastic!  And super easy.  I would make this again.  I changed up the recipe a bit and cooked more of my veggies together at each step . . . but I don't think it hurt the quality . . . I was very hungry at the time.

Bake Sale! Daifuku and Cookies

I needed to do some baking for a Valentine's Day Bake Sale. I decided I would make some Peanut butter and coconut daifuku.  I knew a double batch of the recipe I like to use would give me 12 of each type.  I also remembered a jar of sauerkraut in the fridge and vaguely recalled eating sauerkraut cooking when I was a kid . . . so I googled it.  I did find a recipe for Don't Ask, Don't Tell cookies at Jennie's Recipes.  I followed the recipe exactly and ended up with some nice cookies.

The cookies taste a lot like muffin tops, which is good in my opinion.  You really can't taste the sauerkraut and the cookies only have a little bit of zip.  I think I would use just a bit more sauerkraut next time.  Also, I did a half batch and got a ton of cookies.

Raw . . .

and cooked!

I also perfected my daifuku recipe and diafuku making skills.  First, lets go through the fillings!  For the peanut butter daifuku put teaspoon sized balls on a cookie try or a mini muffin pan and freeze it.  For coconut filling take 1 cup of coconut, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1 tbs flour, and 1/2 cup of water in a sauce pan and mixing it over medium heat until thick (it is important that it isn't runny at all).  Freeze in balls like the peanut butter.  Make sure to freeze for at least an hour.

coconut ready to be frozen

Peanut butter ready to be frozen!

Make the daifuku!  I find the microwave mochi makes the best daifuku.  Take 1 cup mochiko flour, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 cup water and mix in microwave safe bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Microwave 2 minutes.  Stir. Microwave 1 minute.  If it puffs up and then settles its done.  If not microwave 1 more minute.  No more than 4 minutes.  It will make 12 daifuku.  Let the mochi cool a bit . . . just enough so you can stand it.  Spray hands with PAM . . . or flour hands with cornstarch.  Pinch a small glob off and spread it out on a plastic/silicone cutting board.  Make it into a small round and put one frozen filling in the middle.  Pinch the the mochi shut.  Roll the sticky surface in cornstarch or a fun topping.  I used coconut for the coconut ones and sesame seeds for the peanut butter.  Just put some in a bowl and roll it around.  Drop them into a cupcake wrapper. 

squished out round

frozen filling in the middle

Coconut in cups

Peanut butter in cups

This is mine made up of extra bits (so both peanut butte and coconut). Yummy!

I sampled everything and it all turned out really really well!