With Thanksgiving around the corner, we wanted to share our favorite multicultural sweet treats to give your holiday a global twist! The holiday season is without a doubt a favorite time of year for the Kua Body Team. We love coming together with our clients and celebrating the idea of gratitude, something we all mean to do every day, but seem to lose sight of at times. While each team member is from a different cultural background, one of our unifying threads is that we are all foodies and love to eat.

We compiled our favorite crowd-pleasing dessert recipes from each of our different cultural backgrounds. Food is much more than nourishment; it is the vehicle through which we communicate sentiments, express our creativity and create memories. And it is in the sharing of these recipes below that keeps us connected to you!

ANNETTE’S GERMAN CHOCOLATE DIPPED ORANGE COOKIES

JENNIFER’S MEXICAN HOT CHOCOLATE

Ingredients
Use 1 bar of chocolate for every 1/2 gallon of milk.
1 teaspoon dried chipotle chile
1 teaspoon dried guajullo chile
1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Combine spices and chiles in a bowl and grind with mortar and pestle or spice grinder.  Pour milk into pot and simmer while stirring. Place chocolate bar into milk and bring to a boil – continue stirring while chocolate melts. Turn heat to low until chocolate completely melted.   Serve in front of a fire with friends and family – with fresh whipped cream as an added treat!

Salud!

UPUIA’S SAMOAN PAIFALA – PINEAPPLE HALF MOON PIE

Directions:
Make the filling ahead and give it ample time to cool to room temperature. Simply mix the pineapple, sugar and milk in a saucepan and heat until simmering. Dilute the cornstarch with the pineapple juice and add this to the pineapple mixture. Stir it over low heat for 1-2 minutes until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and cool.

For the piecrust, throw everything in a bowl and mix. When it starts to come together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and press it together. Don’t knead this dough or it’ll be chewy and tough.

Cut your dough into 5 equal pieces. Roll each piece out into an 8” (20cm) circle. Put some of your cooled pineapple filling into the centre. But pay attention to how much you put in – too much and the pie will burst in the oven, too little and people will complain. The recipe above makes just enough for five pies.

Lightly wet the edges of the pie crust with water, and then fold one half of the pie over the other. Press the edges together with your fingers or, if you wanna be fancy, with a fork. Pierce the top of the pie several times then bake until light golden. Remove from the oven and cool.

Fa’afetai Lava! — Thank you very much!

LUCY’S KENYAN CHAI

Directions:
In a pot, add 2 cups of water and 1 cup of milk. Set on stove on high heat and bring to boil. Add 1 Tbsp of loose black tea leaves.  Return your pot on the burner on low and let the milk mixture boil with the tea leaves for about a minute. The longer it boils, the stronger the tea, so make it to your liking.  I prefer a strong cup of tea so I tend to let it boil for about 2 minutes. When your tea is to your liking take it off the stove. Put a fine strainer on your tea-pot and strain the tea. Serve with or without sugar.

May your teapot always pour too many cups!

ASHA’S DIWALI RASMALAI

For Paneer
5 cups full fat milk
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, add as required
½ teaspoon Cardamom powder (Elaichi powder)

Step 1. First pour milk in a pan and allow it to get to a boil. Meanwhile you can lineup a cotton kitchen towel or muslin cloth in a strainer. Stir the milk occasionally so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom.

Once milk comes to a boil, turn the heat to minimum lowest or switch off the gas because we don’t want chena to become hard. Then add 1 tbsp lemon juice in the centre and stir, repeat this for 1 time more.

Step 2. Now milk must have curdled, if not, you may repeat the same for 1 time more. Once milk has curdled properly, pour the separated cheese and milk into the lined strainer.

Step 3: Wrap the curd in a cheesecloth, rinse under cold water, and squeeze well. This process takes out the sourness from the lemon.

Step 4: To take out the excess water squeeze the cloth, or press the wrapped paneer under a heavy pan for about one hour. Taking the right amount of water out of the paneer is the most important part of this recipe.

Step 5: Once the paneer is drained, place on a dry, clean surface and knead the paneer for 3-4 minutes until it is almost rolls into a smooth soft dough.

Step 6: Knead the paneer by dragging the palm of your hand hard on the paneer. Keep scooping it back to together and knead more. Divide the dough into 12 equal parts and roll them into smooth balls. To make the balls apply some pressure at first and then release when forming the balls, lightly press to make an about 3/4″ patty shape.

For boiling sugar syrup
1 cup sugar
5 cups water

Step 1: Mix the sugar and water in a pot and bring to a boil.
Step 2: Add the paneer balls, turn heat down to medium and cook for about seven minutes.  Paneer balls should double in size during this process.
Step 3: Take out the patties from the syrup and squeeze them lightly, and keep aside.

Add the paneer patties to the thickened milk mixture.  Served chilled (I love it hot too!)

JULIANA’S BULGARIAN CREME CARAMEL

Directions:
Beat the eggs, not less than 7-8 of them, with the sugar in a large bowl with a mixer, until they are foaming.

Pour in the cooled milk, previously pasteurized if using natural milk, the vanilla sugar and a pinch of cinnamon and beat again with the mixer until smooth.

Take small aluminum or steel cups that you will use as flan molds. Put 1 tbsp of sugar at the bottom of each cup and heat the cups quickly and carefully on the stovetop or in the oven, until the sugar melts into a brown caramel.

Then pour into each cup some egg mixture to fill it up, over the caramel .

Place together all the metal cups, or flan molds, in a deep baking dish. Add some water into the baking dish so to soak the cups all the way to 1 finger from the tops. This water bath, or bain-marie, is what will serve to cook your cremes in the oven.

Heat the oven to a low heat of about 150°C (300°F). Place the baking dish with the bain-marie around the cups in the oven and bake for about 2 hours. The water shouldn’t be boiling too strongly, as it will create bubbles in your cremes.

After about 2 hours, the tops of the flan cups should be golden brown. Remove the baking dish from the oven and immediately take out the metal cups from the water of the bain-marie. Let them cool aside or in the fridge before serving.