It's has taken me a while to fully embrace the holiday season - but there is nothing like a busy day of cooking christmas treats to get into the spirit. For this month's Kulinarya theme - we were asked to share a recipe for something you could give as a present or include in the "Noche Buena" tradition. This is the Christmas tradition that many Filipinos, including my family participate in. It involves stuffing yourself silly until 12 mindnight on Christmas eve - need I say more?
I made a sweet dessert that is not very well known, but super delicious - Macadamia Sylvanas. It is pretty much buttercream with Macadamia nuts, sandwiched in between 2 super chewy meringue discs made with crushed macadamias and egg whites. It's a macadamia overload. Traditionally, they are made with cashews but of course I had to change it up. These sandwiches are frozen and served very very cold.
The sides are then rolled in more toasted crushed macadamia pieces, but you can't really tell with the photos. I think the macadamias give it a but of contrast from the sugary biscuit and buttercream filling. I used a cookie cutter to get the disks and froze the sylvanas as they are best served rock solid. I have included the reicpe I used at the end of the post.
This weekend, we also had to endure a marathon cooking session for Sunday Christmas brunch. It is the last weekend before Christmas, and since Demos and I are going on holidays on Christmas night - it was nice to spend some time with family and friends. Yes, the excitement is kicking in - this time next week we will be eating our way around Hong Kong, and then travelling to Manila - my first time back since I moved to Australia nearly 12 years ago. So lucky for us the weather turned out beautifully, here is a photoroll of our boozy sunday brunch:
