Cooking Memos

Nami Nami Egg White Cake (Munavalgekook)

2011-12-22T19:06:00.001+08:00

I am still very intrigued by the other name for this cake i.e. Munavalgekook. This is one of the hard words to pronounce, much like the "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" word from Mary Poppins' song. Ok, now I'm showing my age. Yeah, I used to read books about her.

However, that's not the reason why I chose this cake. I simply wanted to make a cake out of my 3 egg whites that I had in the fridge.

Result was surprisingly good and fragrant for a egg white only cake. I changed and adapted quite a bit, adding ground cinnamon, used and reduced the amount of brown sugar and whisk till stiff peak stage for the egg whites.

It was a chore whisking by hand as my mixer has been stored in boxes ever since I moved back to my mum's place nearly 9 months ago. I still miss having my own place where I can call the shots with regards to how I would like my kitchen to be and where all the stuff are kept. Nevertheless, I am glad to be baking finally and meddling around in the kitchen. Although I must say, for the fear of being constantly nagged (that's a mother's job), I made sure I cleared the kitchen of any mess once anything is popped into the oven.

Ok enough of my ranting. Here goes the recipe. I used too big a cake tin, i.e. 8 inch round tin, for this. I would have preferred it in a loaf pan or a small tiny square tin.

Nami Nami Egg White Cake (Munavalgekook)
Serves 4-5

Ingredients
3 large egg whites
125g caster sugar (I used 100g of brown sugar)
80g plain floor
1/2 tbsp potato starch / cornflour, heaped tbsp
1/2 tsp baking powder
50g melted butter, slightly cooled

Optional
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

Whisk/beat egg whites with 1 tbsp sugar till stiff peak stage
Mix rest of sugar with flour, potato starch & baking powder (and ground cinnamon if using)
Sift into egg mixture and fold in gently
Fold in melted butter
Pour batter into prepared butter bundt or cake tin & bake for 20mins or till a toothpick comes out clean when poked into cake
Cool slightly before turning out of cake tin.

Myth Busted

2011-12-21T00:27:00.004+08:00

My mum recently made a comment that preggies can't get bread to rise and the reason for my recent scone & wholemeal bread attempt failures. Now that just re-ignited the rebellious streak in me. And I chose a supposedly foolproof recipe from my reliable blogger baker HHB - Cinnamon Rolls. Ok, my son loves raisins so I added them as well.

Why it's foolproof? Cos there is no need for any kneading or reaching the elastic state which is way too tiring for my hands. Why no kneading required? Simple, as baking soda is used. This agent rises the bread and make it "holey", thus the fluffiness of the bread.

Hence, I went. Prepared the mixture and proved it for a while before I chucked the pot into the fridge for safekeeping. This morning, I rolled it, baked it and viola! They were good! Especially when the butter overflowed and melted the base of the rolls, they felt like fried bread rolls. Very nice, crispy & soft! And yes, myth busted!

Oh, since I had little faith when I just began, I halved the recipe. It was just enough for my small family for breakfast. Also, my rolls were too flat and had too little twirls in them. Next time I'll do the entire recipe and make sure my rolls are BIG BIG.

The ends for my son.

Enjoying the fruit of his labor. He added the raisins. :)

Cinnamon Raisin Rolls (No Knead)

Makes 12-15 rolls

Ingredients:

Main bread dough
250ml (1 cup) milk
50g (1/4 cup) sugar (I used brown sugar)
62.5ml (1/4 cup) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Instant yeast
250g (2 cups) + 30g (1/4 cup) plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon (scant) baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

For the filling:
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
50g (1/4 cup) sugar (I used brown sugar)
50g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted

Method:

Mix milk, sugar and vegetable oil in a pan. Scald (heat until just before boiling) the mixture. Leave to cool for 45mins ~ 1 hour.
Place 250g plain flour and Instant yeast to the pan. Stir with a spatula until the mixture comes together to form a thick batter. Cover and let the batter sit for at least 1 hour.
Add in the remaining 30g flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until the mixture comes together. Either go ahead to make the rolls or cover and leave to chill in fridge for 1-2 days until needed. If left to chill, check the dough and punch it down by folding with a spatula if the dough rises almost to the rim of the pan. (Note: dough will be more firm and easier to work with if left to chill in fridge).
Dust the work surface freely with flour. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape. Then roll out as thin as possible. Make sure your hands are floured too.
Brush the rolled out dough with melted butter, cinnamon and sugar evenly over the surface in that order.
Start from the opposite end of the dough, roll the dough neatly in a line towards you. Roll as tightly as possible. Dust fingers with flour if the dough feels sticky. Pinch the seams to seal.
Cut into 1 inch thick slices and arrange on baking pan lined with parchment paper. Place the rolls close together so that they are almost touching.
Cover and leave to rise for 30mins (1 hour if dough was left to chill over night) or until the rolls double in size. (Note: the rolls can be left to chill in the fridge over night and bake them the next morning. If rolls have doubled in size, bake them right away. Otherwise leave to sit on counter until double in size before baking.)
Bake in preheated oven at 180degC for 20mins until golden brown

Brownie in a Microwaveable Mug

2011-12-18T23:24:00.001+08:00

This had to be the easiest cake recipe that I ever encountered.

This is the only recipe that I have read, tried and tasted in less than 10 minutes in total...so far.
This is the only recipe that I have read, tried, tasted and blogged immediately.
This is a good recipe for a good cake or chocolate fix.

Ok, the pics don't look that pretty but I assure you that the cake is good enough for a 5 minute effort. Way worth it! With nuts, it will be excellent.

Brownie in a Microwaveable Mug
Recipe from here
(Makes 1 half mug brownie)

Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp water
Few drops vanilla extract
A dash salt
3 tbsp granulated sugar (I reduced to only 1 1/2 tbsp and it was sweet enough)
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp all purpose flour

A pinch instant coffee powder (optional)
Nuts (optional)

Method

In a microwaveable coffee mug, mix water, oil, salt, vanilla (and coffee, if using). Whisk well.
Add cocoa powder, whisk well.
Add sugar, whisk well.
Add flour, whisk well. (Add nuts if using)
Microwave for 60 seconds
Enjoy with a spoon and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Careful, brownie will be hot.

Breakfast Buddies

2010-12-25T22:27:00.003+08:00

I have to wake up early every morning even when I am on long period of leaves. Can't help it. My son wakes up at 7am and mummy has to follow suit or else he will have to go hungry and his cot will be wet with leakages from his very very well filled diaper. Then of course, cleaning up his mess isn't entirely a holiday treat I give myself.

So we both wake up early just for our boy. And when both of us are up, only 1 of us need to attend to him. Since breakfast is supposedly a key element in every nutritionist's recommendations, recently I have volunteered myself to make breakfast for the both of us. Armed with Nigella Lawson's book and many inspirational blogs, I am more than ready.

I found this nice easy little bread recipe in Ju's The Little Teochew blog - Pão de Queijo. What a cool name isn't it? Or you can simply call it Brazilian Cheese Bread.

It was really easy to make and the batter can be kept in the fridge for up to a week. Taste wise it reminded me a lot of French Toast (no kidding!) but this texture is slightly more chewy.

What a good way to start Christmas Day! Merry Christmas!

Brazilian Cheese Bread
Recipe from here
(Makes about 20 mini muffin sized bread)

Ingredients
1 egg (at room temperature)
1/3 cup olive oil
2/3 cup milk
Scant 1 1/2 cups (170 grams) tapioca flour
1/2 cup (packed, about 66 grams) grated cheese of your choice (I used grated mozzarella for this. Simply because it is found readily in my fridge)1 tsp salt (or more to taste)

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C.
Grease a mini-muffin tin.
Put all of the ingredients into a blender and pulse until smooth. (I like to leave the cheese bits intact so I did not pulse until puree stage). At this point you can store the batter in the refrigerator for up to a week.
Pour into the mini muffin pan. (I sprinkled some sugar on top for half of it as I preferred a slightly sweeter version. Think French Toast with sugar and you'll get the idea)
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until all puffy and just lightly browned.
Remove from oven and let cool on a rack for a few minutes. Eat while warm or save to reheat later (Best to eat them fresh out of the oven).

Key Lime Pie

2010-12-21T16:45:00.001+08:00

I first tried this sinful pie at PS Cafe. Friend and I decided to give ourselves a good lunch break and drove all the way there to have a good meal to enjoy ourselves before delving into the stressful work again... even on a Friday.

The place was crowded with chic young and dressed up tai-tais. As we lament about the life that we have vs theirs, we reckoned that we NEED to have desserts and we chose Key Lime Pie and others (yah, more than one).

Their Key Lime Pie looked pretentiously odd in lime green color (later I realized it's due to coloring being added) but instantly wowed me at the first bite. It was smooth, full of citrus tang and absolutely creamy. Hmmm... I think I am going back there again.

So when I was home, I went about searching for recipes and found it on Jamie Oliver's site. It is really easy to make.

The result is a slightly dense pie, not as smooth and soft as the one in PS Cafe and not enough zing to it. Nevertheless it was close enough. I would definitely up the amount of lime juice, reduce slightly on the condensed milk the next time I make this again.

Key Lime Pie
From Jamie Oliver's site but contributed by Andy Harris

Ingredients
• 4 egg yolks
• 400ml condensed milk
• 6 tbsp fresh lime juice
• 200ml double cream
• Lime zest (optional), to serve

Crust
• 12 digestive biscuits
• 45g caster sugar
• 135g melted unsalted butter

Method

Preheat oven to 175C.
For the pie crust, lightly grease a 22cm (across the top) metal or glass pie dish with a little of the melted butter.
Blend digestive biscuits, caster sugar and remaining melted butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Transfer to pie dish and spread over the bottom and up the sides, firmly pressing the mixture down.
Bake for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven and place dish on a wire rack to cool.
For the filling, whisk the egg yolks in a bowl. Gradually whisk in condensed milk until smooth. Mix in lime juice, then pour filling into pie crust and level over with the back of a spoon.
Return to the oven for 15 minutes then place on a wire rack to cool. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.
To serve, whip cream until it just holds stiff peaks. Add dollops of cream to the top of the pie, and grate over some lime zest, for extra zing. (I added the lime zest into the filling itself)

Molten Chocolate Cakes (Lava Cakes)

2010-12-17T16:32:00.000+08:00

After trying a few recipes on Molten Chocolate Cakes aka Warm Chocolate Cakes aka Chocolate Lava Cakes, this recipe from Nigella yields the best results for me so far. So good that I think I can start entertaining guests with this without shame or fear. Or bringing them to my longtime friends' potluck gatherings.

On the latter, I have been bringing my failed experiments to them. Somehow they are now fearful of what I'll bring every time and yet are so sweet not to discourage me from bringing my bakes. Guess at the next gathering, I will try to do them some justice.

Molten Chocolate Babycakes
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess

(Makes 4 ramekins)

Ingredients

50g unsalted butter + extra for greasing ramekins350g dark chocolate150g caster sugar (I used only half)4 large eggs1 tsp vanilla extract
50g plain flour (I used self-raising flour)pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Line base of ramekins with baking paper. Grease the sides.

Melt chocolate in a double boiler or over a pot of simmering water and let it cool slightly.

In another bowl, beat or cream the butter.

Slowly beat in the eggs, salt and vanilla extract till well-combined.

Add flour to the mixture and beat till smooth.

Scrape in the cooled chocolate and beat till smooth.

Pour into ramekins.

Bake for 10mins.

As soon as the cake is baked, tip them onto serving plates.

Pancakes - Wendy's Style

2010-12-12T12:30:00.000+08:00

I kind of owe Wendy this one. I wanted to make this and join her giveaway contest. To be honest, I even discussed with Hubby ideas on how various creative ways could be done to the pancake to win one of the coveted prizes. Then... it was endless days and nights at work, I lost track of time and missed the deadline. Argh.

But a promise is a promise and I had to make this pancake at least once. So here it is, THE Pancake - Wendy's Style.

Wendy's Pancake
(Recipe adapted from her post)

Ingredients
2 eggs
2 tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
A bit of butter for frying

Method

Separate the eggs and beat egg whites until frothy and add in sugar and beat until medium stiff peaks.
Add in egg yolks and mix.
Sift in flour and fold into the egg mixture.
Heat a 9 inch pan on medium heat and put in 1/2 tsp butter. Swirl it around to coat and pour the excess into batter.
Lightly fold the batter to incorporate the melted butter.
Turn heat to low and pour in all the batter. Put fruit toppings if desired.
Cook until sides look golden, and center of pancake is cooked (doesn't stick to fingers).
Flip into half or just flip onto plate.

Personally, I found this pancake too eggy for my liking. Still miss Rider's Cafe Blueberry Pancakes. It's odd that it's their best selling item for years and they decided to stop it just like that. Maybe the chefs got bored cooking it.

Domestic Goddess

2010-12-11T23:50:00.001+08:00

I hate to drive to the library alone even though it's only a 5minutes drive from where I stay. Somehow I just dislike it. I like to do things t-o-g-e-t-h-e-r. You know, "together forever" type of concept? Hmmm.. which is why when my boy is ultra sticky especially to mummy, I actually feel a tinge of happiness and enjoys sticking to him too much to the dismay of Hubby.

Anyway, back to the library business, I was driven to the library and with the kid in the car, I was given only 10 minutes to return my overdue library books and borrow a few more. Hence, I can only rush to my favorite cookery section and grab what I find when I find them. This is one of them - Nigella Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.

After going through the recipes, I realized why she is so popular. Her recipes are of the no-fuss category and looked effortlessly casual. It's like how Japanese office ladies are everyday. They looked so casually made up without looking like they tried too hard. Well, Nigella's recipes are like that.

This is the first one that I tried - Chocolate Mousse Cake. As I only had 2 eggs left in the fridge, I quartered the recipe yet used a 6 inch tin for this. Slightly overbaked I think. Nevertheless, easy and good. As usual, this is a keeper and I will try again.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Adapted from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess

(Makes a 25cm round cake)

Ingredients
300g best dark chocolate
50g best milk chocolate
175g unsalted butter
8 large eggs, separated
100g light muscovado sugar (can use less sugar)
100g caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C and put the kettle on to boil.

Line the tin with foil to prevent water from seaping in.

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler or microwave, let it cool.

In another bowl beat the egg yolks and sugars until pale, thick and creamy like mayonnaise or ribbon stage.

Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until soft peaks form then fold gently into the chocolate mixture in batches (about 3).

Pour the cake batter into tin.

Place tin in a large roasting tin and add hot water from the kettle to come about half way up the sides of the tin.

Place in oven and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour. The inside of the cake will be damp and mousse-like but the top should look cooked and dry.

Let it cool completely on a cooling rack before removing it from the tin.

You can simply chill the entire cake after step 6 if you want a non-bake mousse cake. Very flexible recipe.

Scary Brownies

2010-11-26T23:13:00.002+08:00

I went for a function and they had these brownies with HP logo on them.
They looked really scary to me.
Taste wise, actually quite good. Not as bad as they looked.

Fruity Upside Down Cake

2010-11-14T23:39:00.007+08:00

The thing about me is that I love to buy fruits. They looked so inviting and screaming "buy me buy me" each time I visit the supermarket (which is very often). Being nice and soft hearted, I'll heed to their cries and buy big packs of this and that.

The problem is I don't like to cut fruits and only eat them when they are peeled, cut and served to me in a nice platter with cute forks by the side. Yeah, diva diva.

The good thing is that my dear Hubby loves to eat fruits. However, he is very strict about his selection and would not bother to touch them if they are suspiciously from China or not his usuals.

So I bought a bunch of nectarines and it has been staying in the fridge for weeks as they do not match my Hubby's stringent selection process. They have been sitting there for so long that I have practically ignored their presence whenever I am reaching for this or that from the fridge.

Until one day.... Hubby took them out to be thrown away since no one is touching them.

I felt guilty and searched high and low for a recipe to use them.

Here it is... a David Lebovitz recipe... an Upside Down Cake.

Ok, I admit, I don't do the cake justice with the pics. I just don't really know how to cut and position the fruit pieces nicely. Needs practice. Well, we'll have to wait till the next batch of fruits call for my attention again.

Upside Down Cake
From David Lebovitz Blog
(Makes 1 10-inch cake)

Ingredients

Fruit layer
3 tablespoons butter (45g), salted or unsalted
3/4 cup packed (135g) light brown sugar
fruit: 8 quartered plums or apricots, 3-4 thickly-sliced pears or nectarines, or 2 cups cranberries; add a handful of huckleberries, cherries, raspberries, or another bushberry

Cake layer
8 tablespoons (115g) unsalted butter
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (210g) flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, preferably aluminum-free
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (125ml) whole milk, at room temperature

Method

Melt the 3 tablespoons (45g) of butter in a cast iron skillet, or cake pan (see Note). Add the brown sugar and cook while stirring, until the sugar is melted and begins to bubble. Remove from heat and let cool.
Once cool, arrange the fruit in a pinwheel design, added berries if desired. Set aside.
To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350F. (190C)
Beat the 8 tablespoons (115g) of butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, until smooth.
Whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
Stir in half of the flour mixture, then the milk, then the remaining dry ingredients. Do not overmix: stir just until the flour is barely incorporated into the batter.
Spread the batter over the fruit, then bake for 45 minutes to one hour (depending on the size of the pan, and the thickness of the batter.) The cake is ready when it begins to pull away from the sides of the pan and the center feels just set.
Remove from oven, let cool about 20 minutes, then place a cake plate on top, and wearing oven mitts, flip the cake out on to the plate, taking care, as there may be some hot caramel that might escape.
Serving: Upside Down Cake is best served warm, perhaps with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. It can be made in advance, left in the pan, and rewarmed in the cake pan or skillet right before serving. It’s also very good rewarmed in a microwave, and served immediately.

Steamed Layer Tofu

2010-10-03T23:31:00.000+08:00

I was so inspired by Wendy's Steamed Layer Stuffed Tofu that I went to buy myself a pack to try.

And of course, somehow her pics looked so much more appetizing than mine. I added some veggies by the side to be steamed together as I was so lazy to cook another dish that we had this only for our dinner with rice. Hence, I got to somehow make it a balanced dish. *wink*

Nevertheless, we had a good time with this and best compliment ever is when Hubby ate most of it, for someone who doesn't like tofu at all.

Recipe can be found in Wendy's post.

Sticky Date Pudding

2010-10-02T17:11:00.001+08:00

Ever since I read about Sticky Date Pudding, I had a great desire to try it. Hungrygowhere had users raved about it at Marmalade Pantry. Not once but at least twice. And twice I was disappointed.

Then I saw it in the menu at Prive at Keppel which had a few cakes that I was fond of. Unfortunately, it was again disappointing.

All the puddings were too cakey. Definitely doesn't taste pudding like nor was it moist enough. You can taste the baking soda in some. No kidding.

One day I chanced up Ju's blog at The Little Teochew and had to try making it myself.

Slightly cracked top

The result was the BEST ever sticky date pudding I ever had. It was moist, not so sweet as I reduced the sugar drastically, warm and freshly nice. This recipe is a sure keeper!

Sticky Date Pudding
Adapted from The Little Teochew who got it from Exclusively Food
(Makes 1 6" round cake)

Ingredients
Pudding
135g deseeded dried dates
156ml water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
30g butter, roughly chopped
1 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
94g self-raising flour
75g brown sugar (I used only 40g)

Butterscotch sauce
92ml whipping cream
82g firmly packed brown sugar (I used only 55g)
75g butter, chopped
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Method
Pudding

Place dates and water in a small saucepan over high heat. When the mixture starts to boil, add bicarbonate of soda and 30g butter, and remove from the heat. Stir and then set aside for 25 minutes (the butter will melt during this time).
Preheat oven to 180°C
Grease a 6" diameter cake tin and line the base and side with baking paper.
Place cooled date mixture in a food processor. Pulse mixture a few times to form a chunky paste. (You can simply mash it with a fork if you wish to have chunkier dates in your cake)
Add eggs and vanilla to date mixture and pulse a couple of times until just combined.
Stir flour and brown sugar together in a medium bowl. Use the back of the spoon to break up any lumps of brown sugar. Add date mixture to the flour mixture and gently fold the ingredients together until just combined.
Pour batter into prepared tin. If, when baking, the pudding starts to overbrown, loosely cover it with greaseproof paper.
Bake the pudding for about 50-60 minutes or until it springs back when lightly pressed in the center. A thin-bladed knife or wooden skewer inserted into the center of the pudding should come out without any batter attached.
Leave to cool for 10minutes on a rack

Butterscotch sauce

Melt all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly until mixture thickens. Make sure the sugar does not burn.
Leave to cool slightly.

Assemble

Using a skewer, pierce several deep holes in the pudding. Pour about half of the hot butterscotch sauce over the pudding. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.
Serve the pudding with additional butterscotch sauce and ice cream. :D

Egg White Usage 4 - Amaretti

2010-09-12T23:56:00.004+08:00

I have been making quite a far bit of ice creams recently and not surprisingly, I am left with a lot of egg whites each time I make a tub of cream. Donna Hay's book helped a lot as it seemed to have a lot of usage for egg whites! Here's number uno for you - Amaretti.

What is amaretti? Here's an excerpt from Joy of Baking :

Amaretti (pronounced "am-ah-REHT-tee") is the Italian name for macaroons, which means little bitter things. These small, domed-shaped cookies that are crisp and crunchy on the outside and soft inside, originated in Venice Italy during the Renaissance period. Amaretti cookies are made from either ground almonds or almond paste, along with sugar and egg whites and can be flavored with chocolate or liqueurs. Oftentimes, two baked cookies are sandwiched together with ganache, buttercream or jam. Traditionally these cookies were served with a sweet dessert wine or liqueur, but they are also a wonderful accompaniment to a bowl of ice cream, sherbets, or mousses. Another favorite way to use these cookies is to finely grind them and then add them to desserts (such as trifles) for added texture and flavor.

Frankly, I find this so so only. The almond is nice but somehow I think I am still more into intense rich and buttery cookies.

Amaretti

Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classic2
Ingredients
200g almond meal (I just used ground almond)
1 cup sugar1/4 cup plain flour
2 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method

Preheat oven 180°C
Process almond, sugar, flour, egg whites & vanilla extract in a food process till combined
Roll tablespoonful of mixture into balls, place on baking sheet and press to flatten them slightly
Bake for 13mins or till light golden. Cool & serve best with coffee.

Apple Tarte Tartin

2010-09-08T23:07:00.000+08:00

Nearly every blog I read had tried a apple pie recipe of some sort. I am still shying away from doing a pastry dough. It seemed... tedious. And you need to get your hands dirty with butter and flour in your nails. Fine, I am diva even when it comes to the kitchen. But that doesn't stop me from making an Apple Tarte Tartin from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book.

It seemed simple enough. Peel, core and cut apples. Cook apples with syrup & butter. Place a ready-prepared puff pastry over the apples and wait for it to bake. No sticky hands. No flour in fingernails. My kind of recipe!

In the end, I found it a tad too sweet for us. Especially when the apple is sweet enough. And... I wasn't patient enough and underbaked it slightly.

Hmmm... will have to try again. Maybe you'll like it.

Apple Tarte Tartin
Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classic2

Ingredients
60g butter3/4 cup superfine sugar
2 tbsp water
4 Granny Smith apples or any green apples (around 600g), peeled, cored & quartered

375g ready-prepared puff pastry
Method

Preheat oven 200°C
Place 18cm frying pan over medium heat.
Add butter to melt. Add sugar & water. Cook & stir for 2 minutes or until sugar is dissolved.
Continue to cook for 5 mins or till golden & syrupy.
Add apples to the pan to cook for 5 mins. Allow bubbles to subside then arrange apple pieces in a circular pattern, core side up over the base of the pan. (I am really bad at this step)
Roll out pastry on lightly floured surface till 3mm thick.
Cut 24cm diameter circle and place the pastry over the apples. Tuck the edges in.
Bake 18-20mins till pastry is puffed and golden.
Cool slightly (for the syrupy to crystallize. Cool too long and it will hard to invert onto plate). To serve, invert tart onto a plate & serve with ice cream.

Egg White Usage 3 - Coconut Macaroons

2010-09-05T23:52:00.000+08:00

Macaroons are different from macarons. The latter is the "in" thing now but the former has all been forgotten. Macarons are difficult to make but macaroons are so much easier. Macarons are French and macaroons are....it seemed that they are all French. Funny how French rule the world with their bakes.

Yet again, I don't like this. I think I don't like all things non-fatty and no yolk in sight. Ha!

Coconut Macaroons
Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classic2
(Makes 28)

Ingredients
2 cups dessicated coconut
1/2 cup sugar
2 egg whites

Method

Preheat oven 180°C
Mix all ingredients till combined
Roll 2 teaspoonful of mixture into balls. Place on baking sheet & press to flatten slightly.
Bake 10mins or till golden brown

Egg White Usage 2 - Friands

2010-09-05T23:40:00.000+08:00

I searched quite a bit to find out what is a friand. It took a while since Google comes out with "friend" more than "friand". Trusted wikipedia provided the explanation:
The friand pastry, which has become popular in Australia and New Zealand appears to have been based on the French financier; however, Australian and New Zealand friands typically have additional flavorings such as coconut, chocolate, fruit, and nuts. Australian / New Zealand friands are also baked in oval shapes.

Hmmmm... so it's basically a financier just that they come with additional toppings and are rounder in shape.

Personally I do not like this cake at all. Not sinful enough perhaps. Hubby lapped them up though.

Here's my green seedless grape, prunes and dates version. ☺

Friands
Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classic2
(Makes 10)

Ingredients
125g butter, melted
110g almond meal
200g icing sugar, sifted
100g plain flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 egg whites

Optional: 1 cup fresh blueberries, strawberries or any fruit to your liking

Method

Preheat oven 180°C
Combine almond meal, icing sugar, flour & baking powder
Add egg whites and combine
Add butter and combine
Grease 10 x 1/2cup muffin tins
Spoon mixture into tins and sprinkle with fruits or berries on top
Bake 15-20mins or till golden in color and springy to touch but moist in the center.

Rum & Raisin Ice Cream

2010-09-05T22:56:00.000+08:00

I falling in love again.
With David.
With David Lebovitz.
With David Lebovitz & his ice cream recipes.
With David Lebovitz & his super yummy absolutely delicious adult alcoholic ice cream recipes.

And this is an example of my love for him - Rum & raisin ice cream.
And the result is so good that I forgot to copy down the recipe!!!

Argh! I'll find it again and definitely going to buy that book - The Perfect Scoop!

Egg White Usage 1 - Tuilles

2010-09-04T23:18:00.001+08:00

What is a Tuille? Here's what I found from WiseGeek:
A tuile is a type of very lightweight, dry, crisp cookie. These cookies come in a dizzying array of shapes, sizes, and flavors, but every style tends to be delectable. Tuiles are also incredibly versatile, and they can be used for everything from ice cream garnishes to crusts for tiny, delicate tarts.

I think I whisked my egg whites too much. Hence, it was a bit "fluffy" for a biscuit center when it's supposed to be flat and crispy. The recipe should be changed from "whisk" to "lightly beat" or "mix" for the egg whites! Well... I changed it in this post.

Also I didn't like the fact that only the edges are browned so I waited a little longer and errm... it was a bit too brown. Hmmm.. this is easy I can do this again.

Tuilles
Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classic2
(Makes 16 8-10cm tuilles)

Ingredients
2 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup plain flour
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind/zest (can substitute with orange)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
50g butter (melted)

Method

Preheat oven 190°C
Mix all ingredients together till well combined
Place 1 tsp of mixture onto baking tray lined with baking paper
Spread out the mixture to a 8-10cm diameter circle
Bake 5-6 minutes till golden around the edges
Remove from tray while hot and use a rolling pin to curl over the edges
Serve with dessert

Ooh I did it again

2010-09-04T23:14:00.000+08:00

Yeah... I simply love this ice cream. This version has much more Guiness, 1/3 of the sugar and Hubby adores me now.☺

Con Chicken

2010-09-01T22:53:00.000+08:00

Hubby came out with a wonderful fried chicken wing dish. I was so impressed as they tasted very good. Then it turned out that his "secret recipe" was a prepared instant pack sauce. Chey!

Nicely Poached

2010-08-21T21:56:00.001+08:00

Hubby and I have been spending loads of money every weekend on brunches. After a while, I realized that I am paying too much for just 2 eggs and some toasts. So one fine day, I took it upon myself to prepare a nice brunch for the 2 of us at one tenth of the costs.

The problem is... presentation. And it has to do a lot with the eggs. After a quick search on the internet from a few sites which I cannot find anymore, I managed to poached the nicest eggs in my life straight out of my own kitchen. Mann... I have indeed come a long way.

Easy peasy way to poach an egg

Ingredients/Tools
Eggs
Oil
Cling foil/wrap (microwaveable or able to withstand high heat)
Small bowl/container/ramekin
Pot

Method

Place cling wrap over bowl.
Lightly oil the cling wrap.
Crack the egg onto the cling wrap.
Tie the cling wrap
Boil water. Drop egg into boiling water and poach for about 4-5 minutes.
Once done, all you have to do is to cut the cling wrap and slide the cooked egg on the plate. Ta dah!

Guinness Rocks

2010-08-20T22:44:00.002+08:00

What do you think of Guinness Stout?

Somehow friends from my generation associated it with older men. Men who are "uncles". Men who have gone through a hard day's work and needed a big chill out at a local coffee shop a.k.a. kopitiam found near their homes with equally uncle-ly friends. Somehow, that's the image that has been jarred into my mind till now. Effects of marketing. Maybe the choice of artiste George Lam 林子祥 in the past as its ambassador deepens the image.

Oddly, Hubby loved this drink and he is no uncle. Every time I'm back from a trip, without fail, I will get him 3 cans of this uncle-ly drink. I was doing so even when we were courting! See how far back he started this uncle-ly vice.

When I found this ice cream recipe in David Lebovitz The Perfect Scoop, I think Hubby will love it. With the stock-up pile of Guinness in my fridge, I embarked on this project immediately. It was easy to make and was so creamy and nice that half a tub was gone in one sitting. I loved it to bits!

Then after, the taste of Guinness just became so different now. With each sip of the drink (not the ice cream), I remembered the ice cream, felt the soothing comfort and oaky foam swishing in my mouth. I now called Guinness a thing to be enjoyed by all....uncles or not.

Guinness Milk Chocolate Ice Cream
Adapted from David Lebovitz The Perfect Scoop
(Makes half liter)

Ingredients
100g milk chocolate, finely chopped
125ml whole milk
50g sugar
pinch of salt2 large egg yolks
125ml heavy cream
90ml Guinness Stout (I used 125ml by mistake but it still wasn't strong enough for us)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Put chocolate pieces in a bowl with a strainer over the top
Warm milk, sugar and salt in a saucepan over low fire. Set aside.
Whisk egg yolks in a separate medium bowl.
With one hand (use right hand if you are right handed) whisking constantly, pour the contents from the saucepan into the medium bowl gradually (or else the yolk will be cooked and curdle)
Return the saucepan to the fire. Heat till mixture thickens and you are able to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Remove from heat and pour through the strainer over the chocolate. Stir till chocolate is melted.
Once mixture is smooth, whisk in the cream, then Guinness and vanilla.
Freeze and done. It was so smooth that no whisking or re-freezing needed.

Little Angel

2010-08-20T22:17:00.002+08:00

Whenever I had extra egg whites, there are only 2 items in my mind to make - macarons or meringues. For the latter, my oven is simply too unstable to hold a 100°C temperature for a long time or rather, not even a good 15 minutes. As for the former, I have succeeded twice but failed the third time and I had come to the conclusion that I don't like that sweet cookie that much to try it so many times. Back to Donna Hay's book and I went for the classic Angel Food Cake instead.

The recipe required 12 egg whites, I only had 2. So I reduced the recipe by 6 times and felt really odd making it. It's like playing masak masak, as my friend once put it since I tend to use such small amounts when it comes to baking.

I followed the recipe to a T and glazed it with chocolate as well. Ok, not very my style but I admit, I had spare pouring cream in the fridge that I needed to get rid of. The book served it with nice cute red raspberries as well and I thought I will use what I have in the fridge - big black cherries.

How did it go? Guess a picture tells a thousand words. As always, Hubby liked it. Just like.. not loved since he has a dense personality and does not take to a chiffon or for that matter, an angel food cake. Fortunately, he loved the chocolate glaze and we had it with cherries after, a mini-fondue.

Angel Food Cake
Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classics2
(Makes a tiny little cake using a 6" chiffon tin)

Ingredients
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3 tbsp sugar
few drops of vanilla extract
2+3/4 tbsp plain flour

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C
Beat egg whites with cream of tartar till soft peaks form.
Add sugar to the egg whites, one tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat till firm peaks form and mixture is glossy.
Add vanilla and beat slightly.
Sift the flour twice and sift a third time over the egg mixture. Fold gently.
Spoon mixture into an ungreased angel food cake tin (or chiffon tin), levelling it with a spatula.
Bake for 20-30 minutes until cooked when tested with a skewer.
Remove from oven, invert the tin and allow the cake to cool completely before unmoulding.
Serve with cooled chocolate glaze (see below) and raspberries or whatever fruits you like. (Strawberries and blueberries now sound like a good idea)

Chocolate Glaze
My own version. Steps adapted from Donna Hay.

Ingredients
50g chopped chocolate
50g cream

Method

Place chocolate and cream into a saucepan and heat over low fire. Stir until melted and smooth.
Set aside for 10 minutes till mixture thickens.
Ready for use on cake or can be stored in fridge.

A Tale of 3 Ice Creams

2010-08-10T15:26:00.003+08:00

I simply cannot remember what got over me. It had to be the patriotic pride in me running amok on a non-eventful National Day. Or just the fact that I failed in my Lemon Cookie experiment and decided that I'll stay of baking for a while.... and start on ICE CREAM!

It was so easy the previous time when I had my maiden attempt at this sweet creamery stuff. I searched slightly and found Quinn's Perfect Scoop! I copied down one maple syrup ice cream recipe. Then off to Pook's blog and found another coffee gelato. Lastly I remembered reading Evan's matcha ice cream and copied that down as well.

So ta-dah! 3 ice creams. All done without a ice-cream maker. In the end I adjusted the recipes here and there to my likings and they all turned out well. That's the beauty of ice creams I guess. Easy peasy. On average, I took less than 20minutes in preparation and cooking for each flavor. I should have started this earlier.

Taste wise, they were so good that Hubby kept eating them for desserts every day and refused to share them when there are visitors. He simply gave some excuses and walked away when I asked if I should offer to guests. He is simply fond of the matcha one. As for me, I selfishly took the maple syrup one to myself since I love the cinnamon that I have added in there.

Don't be fooled by my lousy photo taking skills. I don't seem to know how to take ice-creams. They were all all good. :D

Maple Syrup, Cinnamon & Vanilla Ice Cream
(Makes 1/2 liter)

Ingredients
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup maple syrup (try using less e.g. 3/8 cup if you do not like it too sweet)1/2 cup milk
few drops of vanilla extract
1 tbsp cinnamon powder (use less if you do not like cinnamon)

Method

Whisk everything with a electric beater and freeze
When the edges have frozen with a soft center, take it out and break the ice with a fork or whisk. Freeze and repeat for 1-2 more times.
Done.

Kahlua Gelato
(Makes 1/2 liter)

Ingredients
125ml milk
125ml cream
40g sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp coffee powder
30ml coffee liqueur e.g. Kahlua (can omit)

Method

In a saucepan, heat milk & cream till bubbles form around the edges of the pan.
Sprinkle coffee powder into the saucepan and stir. Set aside.
In another medium bowl, whisk egg yolk and sugar till thick, smooth and pale in color.
With one hand (use right hand if you are right handed) whisking constantly, pour the contents from the saucepan into the medium bowl gradually (or else the yolk will be cooked and curdled)
Return the saucepan to the fire. Heat till mixture thickens and you are able to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Remove from heat and stir over ice bath to bring it to room temperature. (I simply stir and let it cool till room temperature, stir and freeze).
When the edges have frozen with a soft center, take it out and break the ice with a fork or whisk. Freeze and repeat for 1-2 more times. Done.

Matcha Ice Cream
(Makes slightly above 1/2 liter)

Ingredients
1/2 cup full cream milk
1-2 tbsp matcha powder (I used 1.5 tbsp)
1/3 cup vanilla sugar (I simply used brown sugar)
Few drops of vanilla extract
300ml cream

Method

Whip cream till soft firm peaks are formed
Using a blender, blend milk, matcha powder, sugar and vanilla extract.
Pour the blended mixture over cream and fold
Freeze and done. (Mine doesn't require any whisking later. It was very creamy)

Getting to know Donna

2010-08-09T21:50:00.001+08:00

Everybody who bakes seemed to know Donna Hay - an Australian-based food stylist and author of many cookbooks and food magazines. I have not read any of her stuff till I chanced upon her book in the library. As I only had 5 minutes to get my stuff and go (shan't go into details here), I picked it up (since the pictures were so pretty) and went.

I was glad I did as there was this recipe for Tiramisu that is simple and most importantly, no raw eggs needed! Just the thing I need since I absolutely would want a recipe to get into Hubby's good books quickly whenever the-you-know happens. He has a terrible weakness for tiramisu and orders it without fail if he spots it in the menu...unless the waiter strongly recommends something else.

After scouring many many recipes online, most of them either require raw eggs to be added so that the filling is light or went for the lower quality version of tiramisu where cream cheese is used instead. Without a doubt, this was the first recipe I tried in the book.

Results? Hubby couldn't get enough of it and gave praises over and over again as I reduced the sugar to suit his not-so-sweet tooth and added slightly more liqueur in it. Definitely a keeper. Glad to know you Donna!

Tiramisu
Adapted from Donna Hay's Modern Classic2
(Makes 2-3 glasses)

Ingredients
Sponge base
60ml strong espresso coffee (I used 40ml of coffee and 80ml of liqueur. ;>)
60ml coffee liqueur e.g. Kahlua
8 sponge finger biscuits, halved widthwise
cocoa powder for dusting

Filling
150g mascarpone cheese
180ml cream
1 1/2 tbsp icing sugar (I used only 1 tbsp)

Method

Beat mascarpone cheese, cream and icing until light and creamy. Set aside.
Mix the coffee and liqueur in a bowl.
Dip both sides of the 4 sponge biscuits into the coffee mixtures and place into glasses as sponge cake base.
Top the glasses (with the cake base) with half the filling.
Repeat step 3 and 4.
Dust with sifted cocoa powder and refrigerate until required. (I refrigerate first and dust when about to serve)

My 1st Lucky Draw Gift from Blogging

2010-08-03T22:27:00.002+08:00

Thanks to Wendy, I received my first lucky draw gift from the blogosphere!

Such a sweet little bowl and spoon. My mum immediately "choped" (Singlish) or rather zoomed in and said it's perfect for my baby. Hmmm...guess she likes it too and wants the better things for her grand-kid than having me use it for my other lofty ambitions.

Come to think of it, this year, I have managed to join quite a few contests and won! Most of them movie tickets to this and that. Good good year. :D

Creme Brulee

2010-08-01T23:01:00.003+08:00

Pook's blog is one of those that I frequently visit as she detailed out the steps with pics. Needless to say, it gave me lots of courage to try the recipes she listed.

In my recent 2nd visit to Phoon Huat, I chanced upon this cheap $10 torch and the first thing that came to mind was Creme Brulee which my hubby and I love. Pook has it in her site too. So off I went a-making.
Just when I was about to torch the surface, I realized this cheapo torch does not come with gas! The gullible me had assumed it would. Thankfully I found a gas filler the next day at some China export looking provisional shop in Bukit Timah Plaza.

The small torch is easy to use but definitely not easy to torch. It took me a whole 2 minutes to get the surface browned. Maybe I used too little sugar.

So back to this Creme Brulee, I found it too sweet for my liking even though the recipe initially missed out where to place the additional 20g of sugar. Hence I omitted it. It could be due to the Marigold milk that I used as it was already sweet to begin with. Guess I will try making it again since I now have THE torch but will reduce the sugar in future... and perhaps get a better carton of milk.

Creme Brulee
(Makes 3 3.5" small ramekins... no kidding)(Adapted version)

Ingredients
45g milk
15g sugar (I used brown sugar)
200g heavy cream
45g egg yolks (about 3 egg yolks)
A few drops of vanilla extract

30g sugar for caramelized top

Method

Preheat oven to 130°C.
Place the milk, sugar and 50g of cream into a saucepan set over medium-high heat and bring it to a boil.
Remove from the heat, pour the remaining cream and vanilla extract into the saucepan (to lower the temperature) and whisk to combine.
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks until well blended and lightened in color. Add the cream a little at a time, stirring continually. Pour the liquid into 3 ramekins or containers.
Place the ramekins into a large cake pan. Pour enough hot water into the pan to come halfway up the sides of the ramekins.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Lower the temperature to 120°C and bake for another 30 minutes.
Remove the ramekins and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (or up to 3 days).
When ready to serve, remove the crème brûlée from the fridge. Divide the 30g sugar equally and spread it evenly on top of the 3 ramekins.
Put the crème brûlée under the hot grill (or use a torch) to melt the sugar and form a crispy top. Done.

Storytelling

2010-07-22T23:30:00.001+08:00

Sitting in front of my laptop, trying to start this post, I stared blankly at it for a while. I knew what I had planned to post, a recipe on my previous not so fantastic attempt at swiss roll with cream and fresh fruits but I simply hate to start the post with "I had my fridge and after some research, decided to make ". It had turned out to be so predictable!

I needed a story. A story as cliche as Sumiko Tan getting hitched and married. A story that will put Mr Brown and his Yazuka Baby to shame. A story that will throw me into the new career in perhaps *gasp* column writing.

Alas, I am not there yet. So this post will have to be about the going to be rotten strawberries and mangoes in my fridge. And after some research, I decided that it was too late in the evening and I could do with a simple Swiss Roll with Strawberries and Mangoes from Pook's blog.

As mentioned, this was quite a failed attempt. I was too lazy to roll the cake first and let it cool before un-rolling it, fill it with cream and fruits and re-roll it again. So I just did the shortcut method i.e. once the cake is out of the oven, spread it with cream and fruits then roll.

It was a bad bad choice. I did not want the cake to cool first as that will make the rolling difficult later but the cream melted once it touched the warm cake surface. Coupled with the fact that I had way too much fruit leftovers, I filled the entire cake with thick chunks of fruits. Naturally, rolling was difficult and all my melted cream got squashed out of the cake as I roll it, together with the fruits.

Being the quick witted damsel in distress, I quickly cling wrapped it, scooped up all the cream and fruits and squeezed them back into whatever openings I can find in the cake and dump the end product in the fridge.

Few hours later, as with all food blog posts go, the cake was ugly but absolutely delicious. I was comforted only after I saw more similar swiss roll pics with rolls much uglier than mine. (I dare not put any references here for fear of the need to moderate comments from now on).

There, I realized I have been sucked into the typical Singapore style food blog posting of this century. I promise I will learn to write better.... when I managed to write better in future.... with a story.

Swiss Roll with Strawberries and Mangoes

Ingredients
(I used only 2/3 of the ingredients. I'm a 2-egg baker)

Sponge cake:
3 eggs separated
70g sugar
40g cake flour (I used plain flour)
25g unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
200ml whipping cream
20g sugar
Cut fruits of your choice

Method

Sponge cake:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius
Line baking tray with baking paper
Beat egg whites. Add sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks are reached
Add egg yolk to the whites and beat at low speed for about 1 minute
Sift flour into the beaten eggs and fold gently
Pour in the melted butter and fold gently
Pour into the lined baking tray and bake 9-10minutes or till the sponge cake shines with a nice light golden color.
When the cake is out of the oven, turn it over onto a damp cloth. Peel off the baking paper and do a quick roll of the cake with the cloth. Cool on a rack.

Filling and assembly:

Whip the cream with sugar till soft peaks are reached.
Un-roll the cake and spread the whipped cream on the cake. Lined cut fruits on top of the cream.
Re-roll the cake. Done.

Mango Yogurt Ice Cream

2010-07-21T23:00:00.002+08:00

I had a big imported mango that Hubby bought from NTUC Finest at an exorbitant price. What made it worse was that it did not ripe evenly and only one side was ripe while the other parts were still "green". Hubby took one slice and decided that this mango is not sweet and therefore doomed for the thrash bin.

Coming from a background where things should not go to waste especially food, I salvaged the mango in time and kept it in the fridge for my mango experiments.

One of it was this - Mango Yogurt Ice Cream. No raw eggs required and no ice cream maker necessary.

I halved the recipe and managed to fill a nice Island Creamery tub with that portion. Leaving some mango cubes in there for the extra oomph factor. I did not have mango flavored yogurt but made do with the plain one in my fridge and omitted mango essence. It worked well. Will definitely try this recipe with other leftover fruits or if I am up to experimenting - teh tarik, coffee or some homemade caramel next time.

Mango Yogurt Ice Cream
(Makes 1 litre)

Ingredients
300g fresh mangoes
100g sugar
100g plain yogurt
200g whipping cream

Method

Blend mangoes and sugar till it becomes a puree
Mix yogurt with puree
Whisk whipping cream till stiff
Fold mango mixture to whipped cream
Pour into a container and freeze it overnight till firm. (I suggest freezing it till the sides are firm and center is still soft. Then whisk it to incorporate more air. Then redo this again for 2 more times before freezing till firm to have a more creamy effect)

Mango & Coffee Panna Cotta

2010-07-17T11:46:00.000+08:00

On a visit to Bistro One Zero Three, I fell in love with this unassuming dessert - coffee panna cotta. Since then, I decided that this will be in my to-do list.

One fine day, plowing through this recipe book "花样食尚:小小米桶的60道贴心创意美食" that I bought long time ago while I was in Shanghai, I found a recipe for Mango Panna Cotta. I wonder why I did not realized it was Panna Cotta all along. Maybe I was fooled by it's Chinese name "芒果鲜奶酪 which literally translates to Mango Fresh Cream Curd.

Now I just have to find the coffee layer on the top to obtain the same thing that I had at Bistro One Zero Three and I found it in Chubby Hubby's Espress Gelee. After careful assembly, I'm done!... though not as pretty as I'd like them to be.

I should have used another milk instead of the Marigold HL milk that I have in the fridge as the strong artificial vanilla taste of the milk kind of turn me off slightly. Also I think there's more water content in the milk than fats which explains why there's a thin layer of "water" at the bottom of the panna cottas.

Nevertheless, they were really good, both the mango and coffee versions but especially the coffee one.

Panna Cotta
Makes 6 small glasses
(Adapted recipe)

Ingredients
300ml milk
500ml fresh cream (I used whipping cream)
80g sugar
1.5 tbsp gelatin powder

Optional : mango puree and some mango cubes

Method

Pour milk, fresh cream and sugar into a saucepan. Stir well to try dissolve some of the sugar.
Sprinkle gelatin powder evenly into the saucepan. Rest for 5minutes
Over low fire, heat the mixture slightly, stirring to dissolve the sugar and gelatin powder. Off the fire, when the milk mixture feels hot when touched but not scalding. Do not bring the milk mixture to boil or else the gelatin will lose it's coagulation purpose.
Pour the milk mixture into glasses and chill to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
Optional: for mango panna cotta, just puree some mangoes and put them on top of the chilled panna cotta when ready. Do cut some mango cubes and place them on the puree for decoration.

Espresso Gelee
(Adapted version)

Ingredients

1 cup espresso (cold filtered)
1 teaspoon flavourless powdered gelatin
3 tablespoons sugar

Method

Place espresso and sugar in a small saucepan. Stir to dissolve some of the sugar.
Sprinkle the gelatin evenly over it. Let the mixture rest for 5 minutes, until the gelatin softens.
Over a low fire, heat the espresso mixture and stir until all the sugar and gelatin powder are dissolved. Do not let the mixture come to a simmer.
Strain through a fine sieve. Let the espresso mixture cool to room temperature.
Gently pour it over each portion of panna cotta. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until set, about 1 hour.

Maple Syrup Souffle

2010-07-16T23:07:00.002+08:00

I have been baking souffle without much success. I tried one recipe for Chocolate Souffle to death and it still failed me. After another search for chocolate souffle recipes and tips, I tried again and again, it just doesn't work. Once they were out of the oven, IMMEDIATELY, they collapsed right back into the ramekins. Taste wise, they were not as moist as I would like them to be.

Probably it's my souffle making skills and while searching again for the simplest souffle recipe e.g. vanilla souffle whereby I don't have to keep wasting my precious chocolates and cocoa powder, I stumbled upon this ultimately simple 2 ingredient souffle - just maple syrup and egg. No kidding!

Frankly, I was a bit skeptical. But then again, I have nothing to lose and I can keep trying till I get it since I have a bottle of maple syrup in the fridge that doesn't seemed to see the light of day. I am sure it is pleased that finally it gets to come out of the fridge once in a while.

The result? Fantastic! It was simple and really easy to make. I managed to churn it out in just 15mins flat - 5mins for combining the ingredients and 10mins for baking in the oven. It was fluffy and did not collapse on me till at least 5mins later, which is a ok time for a souffle. Even when it slightly collapse, it still maintained its tall standing state for quite a while. It was moist and not too sweet with a strong hint of eggs. Maybe I should have used my beater to combine the egg yolk and maple syrup as the souffle was kind of dense at the bottom.

Nevertheless, it is definitely a good recipe to try if you are starting out on souffle making. Now... I will start customizing and see if I can get a chocolate souffle with equal standing... literally.

Maple Syrup Souffle
Makes 2 3.5" ramekins

Ingredients
1 egg, separated
2.5 tbsp maple syrup

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Whisk together the egg yolk and maple syrup till creamy.
Beat egg white till stiff peaks form.
Fold maple syrup mixture into the whipped egg white.
Pour into ramekins and put them in the oven to bake
Once the ramekins are in, immediately turn temperature to 190 degrees Celsius. Bake for 10 minutes, or until puffed up. Do not open the oven in between.

Lemon Cheesecake

2010-07-15T00:38:00.000+08:00

I love reading the Lifestyle section of Sunday Times every week. In fact, I kind of look forward to it. It's trash to Hubby but to me it's interesting and magazine like. Other than the 3 pages full of comic strips, there's a page on Taste and it often comes with a nice easy recipe to be tried at home aptly named "Make it yourself".

That said, I only read them and seldom venture far enough to try them. I did once with a chocolate crinkle recipe and it was a huge success. My in-laws loved it and so does my Hubby. Recently, Hubby left a cut out yellowed page on the table and commented "I'd like to have a lemon cheesecake and I bought some lemons for this". That's that.

After careful examination, the page is from 4 October 2009! He has kept the page till now! Guess he wasn't confident that I was capable of performing this feat till now. With a request like this, how could I refuse? So 1 week later i.e. today, we went Carrefour to get the rest of the ingredients which he missed like cream cheese and sour cream. And off I went.

Since I had only 50g of digestive biscuits left in the fridge, I quartered the recipe and used muffin cups for the cake. It was like playing "masak masak" (children play pretend).

I simply zoomed in to the recipe section and did not read the article fully till later. Little did I know that all the key pointers were listed in the article! As it turned out, my cake cracked (oven temperature too high or could be due to overmixing since I took quite some time to mix the cream cheese and sour cream).

Here are the tips from the article again, for my future reference:

Avoid overmixing

Adds too much air to filling and can lead to deep cracks on top of the finished cake

Avoid lumps in filling. Make sure it's creamy.

Ensure sour cream and cream cheese are at room temperature before mixing

Cook it slowly

Oven temperate too high will create cracks as well.
Allowing the cake too cool too fast will do similarly.

The result is a cracked cake with a slightly sunken center. But hey, the pic in the papers had a slightly sunken center too! I think I will be fine.

For the taste test, Hubby gave it a thumbs up. Yeah! He preferred it when it was straight out of the oven even though the recipe called for chilling a few hours before eating. Hmmm....

Lemon Cheesecake
(20cm round cake tin)
Adapted version

Ingredients
200g plain biscuits e.g. digestive
100g butter
4 eggs
175g caster sugar
500g cream cheese
200g sour cream
rind of one lemon, finely grated
juice of half lemon

Method

Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius
Line the springform cake tin with baking paper
Crush biscuits and add melted butter. Mix well and press to base of tin to form cake base. Chill in fridge till ready to use
Beat sugar & eggs till creamy
Mix cream cheese and sour cream till smooth and not lumpy. Do not overmix.
Stir in lemon juice and rind to cheese mixture.
Combine egg mixture to cheese mixture.
Remove crust from fridge and pour in the filling from Step 7.
Bake for 40-45mins till the center of cake is not wobbly or the surface has turned from shiny to dull.
Turn off heat and allow it to cool in the oven with the door slightly ajar.
Refrigerate for a few hours before serving.
Have it plain or decorate the top with the fruit of your choice such as blueberries, strawberries or kiwis.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake

2010-07-12T22:45:00.001+08:00

It is not everyday that I make a layered cake. Fine, this is my first time. And I was glad that I stumbled upon Pook's blog for this maiden attempt. Her instructions were clear and every post was peppered with lots of pics on the process.

Hubby likes to buy Strawberry Shortcake each time he visits a "famous" bakery as he feels that a baker's skills are tested in this simple cake. So far, his cakes from some of these "famous" bakeries (especially the Japanese ones) were disappointing, lest to say expensive.

The reason why I did not embark on a layered cake earlier was really simple. There are too many parts to it and I have to use up a lot of bowls and cooking utensils. That would mean lots of washing up later. However, I took it upon myself to perfect a cake such as this, even though the steps look tedious, so as to get a little badge of approval from him on my baking skills.

I have learned to line my cake tin well enough. Again, another first for me.

The recipe calls for a genoise to be made. After some internet search, a genoise is simply a rich and delicate Italian sponge cake. Just when I had everything prepared and measured, I realized that I ran out of eggs which is a key ingredient to a genoise. Thankfully Hubby was so delighted about my decision in making him a strawberry shortcake that he abandon his lunch mid-way just to get me eggs from the market. I was so afraid that his efforts will not be paid off!

The decorating part was quite trying on my part. Since I did not own a palette knife, I simply used a normal knife from my cutlery set for this. It was really difficult! I wonder how others did it so beautifully.

Due to the lack of a serrated knife, it was tough slicing the cake into 3 layers. Hence, the not so pretty and not so even layering.

In the end, Hubby LOVED IT! Surprisingly, me too! It was sweet, not saccharin sweet but sweet enough to consider this a cake and pair it with a nice cup of tea. It had a delightful mild fragrance to it, probably due to the vanilla extract. And the cake was soft and moist, coupled with the freshness of the strawberries.

We had a small piece each for breakfast (yeah, sinful!) and it was gone when we had it for desserts after lunch. Simply deliciously wonderful.

Japanese Strawberry Shortcake
Adapted from Pook
Makes 1 (18cm round cake tin)

Ingredients
(I used only 2/3 of the ingredients for my 14cm round cake tin)

Genoise
3	Eggs
90g	Sugar
90g	Cake flour (sifted) (I used plain flour)
20g	Unsalted butter (melted)
20ml	Milk

Syrup
80g	Sugar
100ml	Water
10ml	Liqueur or few drops of Vanilla Extract

Whipped Cream
400ml	Whipping cream
40g	Icing sugar

10 or more	Strawberries

Method

Syrup

Put sugar and water in saucepan. Stir to dissolve the sugar and bring it to a boil. Off heat.
Cool to room temperature and add in liqueur or the vanilla extract. Stir slightly.

Genoise

Preheat oven to 180 deg Celsius
Line baking cake tin with baking paper. You can use a baking tray for this if you are using a cutter or mold to assemble the cake.
Beat eggs till pale in color with a electric beater.
Add sugar gradually and beat till ribbon stage is reached i.e. when it flows smoothly in a ribbon-like form when you lift the beater or you can make a figure of 8 on the surface of the cake and it doesn't go away.
Put 1/3 of the egg mixture into a separate bowl and mix in the melted butter
Sift flour into the rest of the 2/3 egg mixture and fold gently.
Pour the mixture from step 5 into step 6 and fold gently
Add milk into the mixture and fold gently.
Pour mixture into baking tin or pan and bake for 25-30 minutes for 18cm cake, or 15-18 minutes for the 27cm baking tray.
Remove from oven and cool to room temperature
Slice the genoise or sponge cake into 3 parts if you are using a round cake tin or cut cake with cutter if you are using the baking tray

Whipped cream

Pour cream and icing sugar into a bowl
Beat till medium stiff peaks are formed

Assembly

Wash and cut strawberries
Place the first cake layer back into the cake tin or cake mold if using
Brush the sponge cake layer with syrup. This will ensure cake will be moist after refrigeration and give it a nice sweet smelling fragrance.
Place strawberries on top of the cake layer and pour whipped cream over the berries to cover them
Repeat steps 3 & 4 and then step 3 again.
Chill the cake till it's set. (I left it in the freezer for 15mins! Remember to put the remaining whipped cream in the refrigerator as well)
Cover the chilled cake with cream all over. Decorate as desired.

What If...

2010-07-04T23:56:00.001+08:00

Hmmm... I think I have been hit by the ginger milk curd bug. I went to sleep last night thinking what if this and what if that, wondering what will happen if I change this or that for the ginger milk curd recipe.

So this morning, armed with a new big pack of milk (Hubby was kind enough to change brand for me, I like HL milk), I tried again. Since I have a opened pack of Dumex All-In-One milk formula, I tested that as well.

Here are the results:
1. Dumex All-In-One

Thanks to all the goodie bags I received when I was pregnant, I had lots of these stashed in my cabinet. I opened them one by one for my baking experiments since I don't really like milk and these are not age appropriate for my baby.

Fat 3.1g/100ml and protein 2.8g/100ml

Amazingly, it worked!

2. HL Milk

I only drink HL or Daisy Hi-Lo milk if I am forced to drink them as I dislike tremendously the creamy milky smell and taste. Being slightly lactose intolerant, all the more I avoid such products. Looking at the label, probably that explains why this milk is bearable for me as the fat content of this milk is low.

Fat 1g/100ml and protein 5g/100ml

Not sure if it's the milk or the fact that I used less ginger or my milk was too hot when I poured it in, no curd was formed. Hmmm....

Ok I guess I have enough of ginger milk curd experiments. Better venture onto something else... and I am thinking panna cotta now. *drool*

Ginger Milk Curd 姜汁撞奶

2010-07-03T23:57:00.004+08:00

Yes! I finally did it! Ok, maybe if I had non-homogenized milk the results will be better but nonetheless, it was good enough for me.

Here's what happened. Wendy gave a challenge and I took it. This is my 2nd attempt with 2 tries. Both successful. The last attempt I did it 5 times. All failed.

For both attempts, I used the same brand of milk. Pasteurized and homogenized. Milk content includes Fat 3.6g/100ml and Protein 3.1g/100ml.

So, what changed?

This time round, I used old ginger. Yup, I used young ginger previously and have indeed proven that it simply couldn't work. The older the better as the juice is more concentrated and yellowish.

This time round, I ensured that there's HIGH impact between the milk and the ginger juice. I poured the milk from a height of at least 10cm, splattering some parts onto the table top. On a side note, there was a Beijing TV clip on this pouring "impact", joking that though it's called 姜汁撞奶 (Ginger Juice Hit/Bump Milk), in actual fact, only 奶撞姜汁 (Milk Hit/Bump Ginger Juice) will work. How corny.

And not sure if this helped too but this time round, I measured accurately the amount of ginger juice I used with a weighing scale instead of going by the spoon since I need to pour the milk at one go. Again, I can't use too much milk in this little experiment of mine or else dear Hubby will not have enough milk for his breakfast and I will feel really bad if that happens. So, I stuck to the ratio of 1 portion of ginger juice vs 8 portions of milk and used only 5ml of ginger juice to 40ml of milk with a very small amount of sugar (personal taste).

Now, I can officially claimed that I can make ginger milk curd! *beam beam*
Incidentally, Germany was successful too tonight and scored a glorious 4 goals vs Argentina. ;)

The floating spoon

The curd!

Ginger Milk Curd
(makes one small 3.5inch ramekin)

Ingredients
80ml full cream fresh milk
10ml old ginger juice
sugar to taste (I used only 1/3 tsp. We are not sweet eaters.)

Note: As long as the ratio of ginger juice vs milk is 1:8, any amount should be fine. But do make sure the ingredients are measured first so that you can pour the milk in one swift go.

Method

Set aside ginger juice in the ramekin or any serving container.
Bring milk to boil and add sugar. Stirring constantly to prevent a skin from forming and milk from burning.
Off heat and stir for 10 seconds to cool milk slightly.
Pour milk at one go from a height of at least 10cm above the ramekin.
The curd should set about 10-15mins and we are done!

All Roads Lead to Rome

2010-07-02T11:12:00.017+08:00

I tried to do a Chocolate Chip Walnut Wholemeal Bread yesterday. I failed badly as I decided to do the 2nd proofing by leaving the dough in the fridge overnight. Today a hard dough greeted me and even after thawing for 4 hours, the dough did not rise. I tried baking it, hoping that it will rise but it did not. In the end, I was laughed at badly by my visiting mum. :S

Not someone to be beaten so easily, I embarked on a search for a simple wholemeal bread again. I particularly ensured that I searched for a recipe posted by a Singaporean or Malaysian as I found the sugar content in other sites tend to be much much more than what I can bear. And guess what, after a quick search on 3 sites, they all point me to HHB! Wow! HHB is becoming the queen of blog recipes in Singapore!

Without hesitation, since I have been a avid follower of HHB, I copied out the recipe and started measuring my ingredients at 7:30pm. To which, Hubby and Mum exclaimed in unison "You making bread AGAIN?" very encouragingly.

This recipe uses the sponge dough method. Basically a sponge dough is formed first and allowed to ferment for a good 90 minutes in our weather. Then it is added to the rest of ingredients and bread is made as per normal familiar steps thereafter. According to Wikipedia, sponge doughs were used before bread improvers were invented so I am sure it would result in soft soft bread.

It took me a good 4.5 hours for the entire process. For the final proof, I couldn't hold my sleep monster any more. Since my hubby is still up, I pop the pan in the oven covered by aluminum foil at the top to prevent burning, turned on the timer for 45mins and instructed him to wait for 10 minutes before turning on the oven before he goes to bed.

Thankfully, he was obedient in this round and the bread was a success. I was greeted with a nice soft sweet smelling wholemeal bread in the morning after a quick heat up in the oven. The crust was crisp and crumbles easily. The interior is soft and fluffy. Better than those store-bought ones.

I shouldn't have halved the recipe as my non-bread-appreciating hubby ate up more than his allotted portion for breakfast and I am left with only 1/5 of the bread now for my tea later. It was THAT good.

Indeed, HHB is THE place for nice recipes. Thanks again!

Goes nicely with my butter, ham and baby lettuce. It went nicely with salmon cream cheese that I had as well. Very very nice and fresh.

Simple Wholemeal Bread
(I halved the recipe for this bake and changed it to knead in mixer vs breadmachine)

Ingredients

(A)
120g wholemeal flour
85g bread flour
4g instant yeast
130g water

(B)
85g bread flour
15g caster sugar
1 tsp salt
10g milk powder
50g water

(C)
15g unsalted butter, softened

Method

Mix all ingredients in (A) in a mixing bowl to form a soft dough. Place dough in a mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it rise or proof for 90mins.
Place the ingredients in (B) into the mixing bowl. Knead to form a soft and smooth dough.
Add in (C) and knead till dough pass the elastic membrane test.
Cover bowl with cling wrap and let it rise for 1 hour or till it doubles in size.
Remove dough and give a few light kneading on a lightly floured work surface. Divide into 3 equal portions and shape into balls. Cover with cling wrap, let the doughs rest for 15mins.
Flatten and roll out each dough into an oval shape (20cm by 10cm). Roll up swiss-roll style and pinch the seams in place. Place in a pullman tin (size, 7.5"x4"x4", well greased), seams side down. Cover the lid and let dough proof for 60mins or until the dough rise up to 90% of the height of the tin.
Bake at preheated oven at 190 degC for about 30mins.
Remove from oven and unmold immediately. Let cool completely before slicing.

5 x 10mins of Waiting Time

2010-06-30T00:47:00.004+08:00

I have so many backlog posts to upload. However, spurred by Wendy's little challenge, I decided to go for this instead first. With just 3 ingredients - milk, ginger and sugar, how tough can a ginger milk curd be?

Sometimes it's the simple stuff that is hardest to make. I was deeply humbled. I knew it was going to be tough since Wendy is a way way experienced chef than moi but I didn't know it was going to be THAT tough. After 5 tries, my ginger milk only mildly curdle.

I have read quite a bit of tips online before I started. Tips include: full cream milk, pouring milk onto ginger, using cold ginger i.e. from fridge, obtaining the right temperature, ratio of ginger juice to milk etc. All didn't helped me much.

	Millk Temp (ºC)	Ginger Juice to Milk Ratio		Result	Milk pouring
Test 1	85	1	9	Failed. No curd at all	Spoon by spoon. To count ratio
Test 2	80	1	8	Failed. No curd at all	Spoon by spoon
Test 3	70	1	10	Failed. No curd at all	Spoon by spoon
Test 4	Boil & rest for 10 sec	1	9	Failed. Mild curd. VERY VERY mild	Spoon by spoon
Test 5	Boil & rest till 75	1	10	Failed. No curd at all	Pour in one flow

Milk used as shown below. I even use my baby's food warmer to ensure I got the RIGHT temperature. Hehe. For the record, milk content is Fat 3.6g/100ml and Protein 3.1g/100ml.

Test results as shown below. Notice my portion gets smaller and smaller? Well, apparently Hubby didn't really like the ginger milk taste. So I have to reduce the portions to ensure he has enough milk for his breakfast.

Anyway, like what one blogger Nasi Lemak Lover said, I'll say it too - Dear Wendy, I've tried. If my Hubby is willing to spare me more of his breakfast milk, I will try again. Till then...

Hmmm... maybe using old ginger will do the trick?

Banana Chiffon Cake 2

2010-06-27T22:28:00.000+08:00

My mum likes to buy bananas to feed my baby. She thinks that having some babies will aid in bowel movement. Hmmm... so far she has been proven right for the few times that my baby did not had a go in the morning as expected.

Problem is, she likes to buy a bunch of bananas and my boy only eats the most 2 out of the bunch in a week. At the end of the week, I will be left with quite a bunch to work with.

I decided to try banana chiffon cake again since my new chiffon cake tin seemed un-utilized in the cabinet. The recipe is the same as the previous post.

I followed the same recipe to a T and yet somehow the taste was "flour-ry" i.e flour taste is quite apparent.

The cake is fluffy and soft but somehow the taste isn't right. I think I will try another recipe next time. Or maybe it's due to the over-riped bananas losing their taste.

Happy Feet

2010-06-13T23:18:00.000+08:00

Ahem...

Ahem ahem...

Did you see what I saw????

Yes! Happy feet!

That's what happened when you have aged egg whites. Yeeks.

This time round, I added some matcha powder. Matcha with almonds, absolutely wonderful combination. As I did not make any fillings for them, I scooped some chocolate ice cream for the picture above.

That said, I don't think I'm 100% there yet. These feet were not frilly or high enough. They were pretty high when I caught them growing in the oven. But after I took them out, they shy-ed away.

Maybe it has to do with the "macaronage". I will research more and try again...

Till then, happy feet and happy me!

True Meringue

2010-06-13T21:25:00.000+08:00

Back in Apr. 24 Apr to be exact. My hubby decided to give me a little treat i.e. bring me to Phoon Huat to buy a nice chiffon cake tin and a *gasp* oven thermometer!

We passed by Gastronomia and went in for a look. I found this blob of "thing" sitting there and it just said "Coffee Meringue" at the label. $3.50 for one. I bought it. Tasted it and it was good!

This is how meringues are supposed to be like. Sweet soft and melts in your mouth. All the girls I offered this to loved it. The guys... are not in the meringue league.

After some research, it's just made up of whipped egg whites and sugar! Dirt cheap to make at home vs $3.50 at the stores. Tried replicating it myself many many times and failed many many times. The problem is that my oven is too small and incapable of having a temperature below 130 degrees Celsius. So... I guess I have to give up the meringue making dream for now until I get a nice new oven.

Follower

2010-06-13T00:15:00.001+08:00

I have a major problem with following instructions - I don't quite follow them.

It goes for my baking. Though I am a novice, I still love the feel of "aga-ra-tion" which literally meant "estimation" in Singlish.

Even though I have read quite a few blogs, especially the one from a blogger by the name as mine at Kitchen Musings, on the dos and don'ts of making macarons, I followed everything in the recipe.... except one step i.e. age the egg whites. I reckoned that some professionals didn't have to do it so I should be quite fine.

While I waited for the macarons to bake, counting the minutes and staring at the little circles. The little feet came out at the 4th minute! I was right! No need to age the eggs!

Then I followed the instructions and opened the oven door to rotate the tray as I knew my oven was slightly hotter right at the back. After I rotated the tray, I stared and stared. And stared those little feet into disappearance. Argh.

Many folks failed in their first attempts. I was prepared for the worst by using only tiny fractions of the ingredients for my first trial. So... I am going to try again in 1-2 days' time with the rest of the fractions.

Since the "macarons" weren't as pretty and considered a success, I decided not to make any fillings for them. That said, the failed cuties were absolutely wonderful surprisingly. It had a good crust and was chewy and soft in the middle. It was easy to peel off the parchment paper. They were a tad too sweet for my hubby but really good for me.

Let's see how it goes with the aged egg whites in a few days' time.

Basic Almond Macaron

This is already a reduced recipe and I only used 40% of this recipe for my 1st attempt

Ingredients
60g egg whites
75g almond flour (I used ground almonds. Had to sift like crazy.)
135g icing sugar
15g sugar
pinch of cream of tartar

Method

Sift almond flour and icing sugar twice
Add cream of tartar to egg whites. Beat till foamy and white. Add sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks form.
Gradually add dry ingredients i.e. from step 1 to egg whites in 4-5 additions
Pipe into rounds onto parchment paper and rest for at least 30 minutes till the macarons are smooth and shiny on top.
Bake in a preheated oven of 150 degrees for 11 minutes. Rotate the tray at half time.

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake

2010-06-01T23:54:00.000+08:00

1 June is Children's Day in China. On this day, all the kids will get a day off. The mothers in my company will receive a little goodies bag just for their kids. Most of the mothers (in fact, nearly 98%) have only one kid due to China's strict policy on family planning.

This year, I am not in China and I have a kid. I miss Shanghai. So a cake is baked. :D

I got the recipe from Small Small Baker again who got it from Leisure Cat.

Since this is meant mainly for Hubby and my consumption, I thought that a nice sweet lovey dovey decor would be nice and did a few cut outs with the baking paper before placing them on the cake during the last 5mins. Unfortunately, my dense Hubby didn't get it at all and was commenting what funny "W" or bird-like shapes I created on the cake! So much for effort.

The water bath method worked well for me this time round. Previously water seeped in and making the cake very marshy at the bottom. This time round, to save washing, I simply stuffed baking paper into the tin. The cake baked well but cracked slightly again. Maybe my oven is really too hot.

The cake was smooth, soft and moist. As cottony as its namesake. Again, we finished it in just one afternoon. Happy. :D

Japanese Cotton Cheesecake
(6-inch round tin with removable base)

Ingredients
100g cream cheese
64g milk
22g unsalted butter
13g plain flour
7g corn flour
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
43g sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method

Preheat oven to 170 deg Celsius
Line cake in with parchment paper or grease tin.
Cut cream cheese into small cubes and soak the cubes in milk for 30mins.
Melt butter in a metal plate over a hot water bath (saucepan filled with simmering water) and set aside.
Put the cream cheese and milk mixture over a hot water bath. Stir until there are no visible lumps.
Add the melted butter into the cream cheese mixture. Combine and remove from heat.
Sift flour and corn flour into the mixture.
Add egg yolks and combine till smooth.
Beat egg whites till foamy. Add cream of tartar. Beat and add sugar gradually till soft peaks are formed (I beat them till medium stiff peaks)
Pour into lined or greased tin.
Knock tin slightly on table tap to remove large bubbles.
Bake in water bath for 15-20mins till cake surface has a slight color change. Then set temperature at 150 deg Celsius and bake for another 40mins. For the last 10-15mins, cover cake with a piece of aluminum foil when the desired browning has been reached on cake surface.

Thankful Banana Chiffon Cake

2010-04-20T01:08:00.001+08:00

Lots of mishaps today. First, I realized after a new office re-configuration, I am way way way off from the madding crowd. Me alone, far off in a corner. Then I had a not working keyboard tray. Thankfully this was fixed later.

Second, while trying to take a shortcut to a lot by reversing in a multi-storey car park, I scratched the front of a car. As my boy was really hungry, I rushed home first to feed him and decided to leave a note later on the car's windshield. I assumed that to have the car there at that hour meant most probably that it should be there after an hour. Thankfully before I took off with my car after lunch, I left a note for the owner. When I got into my car and was about to drive off, a traffic policewoman came by as a passerby thought I did a hit-and-run and reported me. Since the note was there as a proof that I did not plan for a hit-and-run, she took my particulars. Then the owner somehow turned up with his wife. The wife seemed pretty cool about this incident and requested the husband not to pursue the matter. So sweet! Maybe it helped that my hubby was there as well with me, carrying the baby. Nevertheless, I gave my particulars and hopefully he doesn't call. ;)

The day just drifted after that and I remembered that there were one or two small stuff that upset me but I couldn't recall them now. Reminding myself to be thankful in all circumstances.

So, I reasoned that I had to bake something to de-stress slightly and hopefully the success will end the day nicer for me. I had some overriped bananas which I decided that they were not good for my baby even if I puree them, so I chose to bake a Banana Chiffon Cake (another recipe that requires egg white beating).

Small Small Baker have just the right recipe size that I like. Or rather, recipe size that fits the only cake tin I have i.e. 6 inch round tin. I used it and adapted it slightly.

Have I mentioned before the importance of pre-heating your oven? Yeah, I used to think that this step can be removed as I have tried many times with muffins or simple cakes and they turned out beautiful. However, I've read that this is a no-no for sensitive cakes like chiffon. Please please pre-heat the oven.

The batter this time round came up to 2/3 of the tin. This is worrying as when it rise during the baking process, it went slightly over the brim of my tin. I suspect it's due to the bicarbonate of soda / baking soda. Next time round I might use self-raising flour instead.

From my previous post, I mentioned that I read from a book which states that after the cake has been baked, dropping the cake tin from a height of about 30cm will help the cake hold its structure better as the air bubbles will now change their forms. This time round, I did likewise and dropped it at a height of around 30cm. I think I dropped it too hard as the cake looked kind of squashed in the center.

I only baked it for 25 mins but should have kept it there longer as the base was still slightly dense.

In the end, the cake did not turned out as ideal as I would like it to be with the slightly dense base and squashed look. Thankfully it tasted nice and not too sweet. Hubby actually preferred it to the coffee chiffon cake and promised to finish it tomorrow.

Yeah, must be thankful.... be thankful.

Banana Chiffon Cake

Ingredients (6-inch round tin with removable base)
2 egg yolks
1/8 tsp salt
15g caster sugar (I used only 10g)
20ml cooking oil
60g banana mash (1 medium banana)
35g plain flour (On hindsight, I should have used self-raising flour and omitted the bicarbonate of soda)
1/8 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
30g caster sugar

3g corn flour

Method

Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
Whisk egg yolks, salt and sugar till pale and runny.
Add the banana mash and oil into the egg yolk batter. Whisk to combine.
Sift flour into batter and whisk.
Beat egg whites till bubbly. Add cream of tartar and beat till foamy reaching soft peak stage. Gradually add in sugar in 3-4 batches and beat until stiff peaks form. Add cornflour and beat slightly. (Egg whites should not move when bowl is tilted or inverted)
Fold 1/3 beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter until blended i.e. no white streaks. Add the rest of egg whites into batter until blended.
Pour batter into ungreased 6-inch round tin. Have a few quick knocks with the tin against a table to level the batter and break surface bubbles.
Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 30 mins.
Remove from oven and invert cake immediately until it is completely cool.

Lemon Meringue Pie

2010-04-18T17:29:00.004+08:00

After the previous Coffee Chiffon Cake, I just wanted ride on the success of my egg beating attempt and ensure I practise, practise and practise.... enough to keep the success rates of my cake high.

So scoring through my refrigerator to find leftover ingredients to use, I found a lemon... literally. Lots of ideas flooded through my mind then... lemon pound cake, lemon souffle, lemonade (no kidding), lemon chiffon cake (again!) and then it struck, lemon meringue pie!

Looking through tons of recipes online, I have discovered that it is not as easy a process as I had envisioned. There are three parts involved - the pie crust, the filling and the meringue. I decided that I can do away with one difficult part by "cheating" with a digestive biscuit crust instead of making one from scratch. In the end, taste-wise it passed but it was too crumbly as I used too little butter to "gel" the crumbs together. Would need to increase the butter "glue" next time.

I am also very happy that HHB had a meringue tart/pie in her recipe index too. She's always so detailed in her baking process and from her research links, I usually gain a lot. In this case, I learned about how not to make lemon meringue pie "weep"! Apparently, "weeping" = the meringue sliding off the filling. To ensure it doesn't do that, one of the key ways is to make sure the meringue is topped onto a hot filling so that they will gel together vs having water vapor forming on top of the filling when cooled and causing the meringue to slip off later.

So, I left the filling in the saucepan on the stove top and when I was about done with my meringue, I asked Hubby to heat it slightly and then pour the filling into the "cheat" pie crust. It worked!

I couldn't find a recipe that suited my liking (a.k.a. moderately easy and little effort) so in the end I mixed and matched from HHB's and other sites to create my own. I think the meringue should be much sweeter than what I have put here but since Hubby and I don't have a super sweet tooth, so I followed the baking911 site and added about 1 and a half tablespoon of sugar for every egg white.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients (6-inch round tin with removable base)

"Cheater" Pie Crust:
110g digestive biscuits, crushed into crumbs
60g unsalted butter, melted (I used only 40g this time round, definitely not enough. Would recommend at least 60g)

Filling:
2 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
170ml milk
17g cornstarch
20g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
zest of 1 medium sized lemon
juice of 1 medium sized lemon, approximately 60ml

Meringue:
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
30g caster sugar (I used an estimate of 3 tablespoons. This is not very sweet as Hubby and I dislike too sweet stuff. Add more if you have a sweeter tooth).

Method

"Cheater" Pie Crust:

Line the tin with baking paper, if necessary.
Mix biscuit crumbs & melted butter together and press firmly onto the base and sides of tin.
Chill for at least 1-2 hours in the fridge.

Filling:

Whisk egg yolks manually with a little bit of the milk. Add in sugar and corn flour, mix well.
In a saucepan, bring the remaining milk to a simmer. Remove from heat and add the hot milk gradually to the yolk mixture, whisk to combine.
Pour the mixture over a sieve and return it to the saucepan.
Bring it to boil on low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent the mixture from turning lumpy or burnt at the bottom of the pan. When it boils, continue to stir constantly for another 1 minute.
Remove mixture from heat and whisk in the butter, lemon zest and lemon juice.
Pour the filling into the "cheater" pastry crust and smooth the top.

Meringue:

Preheat oven to 230 deg C.
Using the electric beater, whisk the egg whites till foamy and add in cream of tartar.
Continue beating till soft peaks are formed, add in sugar in 3 batches and beat till stiff peaks are formed and the mixture is glossy.
Pile onto the filled pastry crust to form a dome shape, pressing down to remove pockets of air trapped in between.
Using the back of a spoon, "poke" the surface slightly to form peaks.
Bake in the oven for 2-3 minutes or until the surface is nicely browned.
Remove from the oven and leave it to cool. Chill in the fridge when pie is cooled.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

2010-04-15T01:22:00.002+08:00

I did it! I did it!! I did it!!!

Yeah, I finally made it. I have succeeded in making my very own chiffon cake! This, without having to half any recipe and without using a chiffon tin!

God knows how many eggs I have wasted in this little experiment of mine. I was successful once following the instructions found in Wendy's blog but I halved the recipe and used a 8" angel cake tin, so it kind of looked flat and since it was my first successful try then, I am not sure if I did it correctly.

Then I tried it again and failed. I tried another recipe and failed. Then I gave up. I think my egg white beating was to blame. If not, it must be my folding technique as I am not known to be gentle.

I was so disappointed in myself that Hubby borrowed an interesting book called "The Science of Cooking" and got me to read. It was a boring book... very technical and it couldn't tell me when is considered stiff peak form. However, it taught me a few things to note... my oven could be too hot. The air bubbles formed when beating egg whites should be small in order to be stable i.e. do it at low speed. Air bubbles if coated with something e.g flour will strengthen its structure and hold better. Oddly, the book also said that after it has been baked, dropping the cake tin from a height of about 30cm will help the cake hold its structure as the air bubbles will now change their forms. It did not mention about inverting the cake.

So this time round, I searched and found a smaller portion recipe from Small Small Baker which I tried to half once and didn't do so well the previous time. But I remembered the coffee flavor had me hooked and thinking about it for
a long time. And this time round, with the help of science, I did it!!!

As this is the very first time I am un-moulding from the tin and I had no serrated knife, I just used the normal cutlery that we have. Not fantastic and didn't do the cake justice as I kind of flatten it while cutting but good enough for me. Hee... I am so into chiffon cakes now.

Coffee Chiffon Cake

Ingredients (6-inch round tin with removable base)
2 egg yolks
20g caster sugar (I used only 10g)
1 tbsp instant coffee powder
20ml milk
20ml cooking oil
40g self-raising flour

2 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g caster sugar (I used only 35g)
3g corn flour *my own addition with tips from Kitchen Corner's blog

Method

Preheat oven to 170 deg C.
Whisk egg yolks and sugar till pale and runny.
Stir instant coffee powder with milk until the coffee powder dissolves.
Add the coffee mixture and oil into the egg yolk batter.
Sift flour into batter and whisk.
Beat egg whites till bubbly. Add cream of tartar and beat till foamy and soft peak stage.Gradually add in sugar and beat until stiff peaks form. Add cornflour and beat slightly. (Egg whites should not move when bowl is tilted or inverted)
Fold 1/3 beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter until blended i.e. no white streaks. Add the rest of egg whites into batter until blended.
Pour batter into ungreased 6-inch round tin. Have a few quick knocks with the tin against a table to level the batter and break surface bubbles.
Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 30 mins. (I baked mine at 170 deg C for the 1st 10 minutes, then 160 deg C for 10 mins and 150 deg C for the next 5 mins as my oven is hotter than normal. The first 20mins I placed an aluminum foil over the cake and only remove it at the last 5 mins to brown it nicely.)
Remove from oven and invert cake immediately until it is completely cool. (I removed it and dropped it at a height of around 30cm. The top kind of flattened and leveled off but did not shrink. Then I invert it to cool.)

Raisin Cinnamon Wholemeal Bread

2010-03-16T23:20:00.003+08:00

I baked this bread many months ago on 21 Dec 2009. I was about to share this recipe with a friend by pointing to Florence's "Do What I Like" site for the recipe and then I realized that now her blog is opened to invitees only. If I only know it now, it goes to show that I am not part of the invited group.

Thankfully, before my iPhone arrived, I had a habit writing the recipe down in brief on a post-it note and sticking it to my fridge so that I can refer to it as much as I can during the baking process. Glad I did that or else I would have lost this wonderful recipe!

I am not even sure if I have halved the recipe or not. Nevertheless, it made one small cute loaf as shown below. Hopefully blogspot won't fail me or else I will lose all the brilliant recipes again.

Raisin Cinnamon Wholemeal Bread

Ingredients:
Main bread dough
165g bread flour
75g wholewheat flour
1 lightly beaten egg
1 tsp instant yeast (about 5g)
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp salt
30g brown sugar (can use caster sugar)
20g caster sugar
15g melted butter
80-100g raisins

For the filling:
20g melted butter
20g caster sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (more if you are a cinnamon fan like me)

Method:

Preheat oven to 190C
Line a loaf pan with parchment or baking paper
Knead all the ingredients together except butter & raisins to make a dough. When the dough becomes smooth, add in butter and continue kneading. (I used a standing mixer with a dough hook)
Knead in the raisins once the dough is smooth again.
Continue kneading till the dough passes the elastic pane test. (Stretch some parts of the dough and open it up like a window pane. It should be elastic like chewing gum. Then the kneading is complete).
Cover the container with a cling wrap or a damp cloth and let it prove for 60mins or till it doubles its size.
Once the proofing is down, punch the dough to let out air and let it prove again for about 10 mins
Take the dough and on a lightly floured surface, rolled it into a rectangular sheet.
Brush the dough sheet with the melted butter and rest of the fillings.
Roll it up like a swiss roll and put it in the loaf pan
Prove for another 60mins
Bake at 190C for 30-35mins or till golden brown.

Milk Pudding 鲜奶酪

2010-03-13T22:50:00.000+08:00

My hubby loved the milk pudding which we stumbled upon while touring in Hong Kong back in Jan 2008. I am not a milk fan at all and hence didn't appreciate anything linked to it e.g. milk pudding. But he was crazy about it! We visited various branches of the shop at least 3-5 times a day just to satisfy his cravings for it. Now he still have fond memories of the wonderful puddings he had.

So recently, I thought... perhaps I should surprise him with a homemade pudding.

Hence, after a few searches and comparisons, I decided to settle on this recipe and made a few slight adjustments.

Unfortunately, there's something wrong with my cream as I used whipping cream instead and I accidentally poured too much gelatin powder! So it turned out to be a very stiff pudding. Hopefully you have better luck than me with this.

Milk Pudding 鲜奶酪
Make 2 small ramekins pudding

Ingredients:
200g fresh milk (husband preferred FULL CREAM so I used that)
133g fresh cream (I used whipping cream instead)
25g castor sugar (he prefers it less sweet so I used only 20g)
5g gelatin powder

Method:

Lightly heat fresh milk, cream and sugar in a pan until the sugar has dissolved. Make sure you keep stirring and DO NOT bring it to a boil.
Scoop a some of the milk into a small bowl and dissolve the gelatin powder in it
Once the gelatin powder has dissolved, pour the content back into the pan with the rest of the milk
Mix till well combined.
Pour into ramekins (suggest you pour through a sieve so that no ugly bubbles will form. I'm too lazy to wash one more item so....) and chill in the fridge till set (about 2 hours)

p/s: Just read somewhere that I could have done without the cream! Argh.... next try then.

Chocolate Raisin Walnut Muffins

2010-03-12T00:20:00.022+08:00

Hubby went for a badminton game today. Usually I will eat out, get some simple takeaway or order McDonald's online whenever he does that. Today I decided to bake myself some salmon. However, it wasn't enough. By 11pm I was hungry again.

Hubby went for a simple dinner after his game and the portion was too small. Similarly he was hungry at 11pm.

So I decided to make something quick and muffins sounded good to both of us tonight.

I made 6 small muffins using the cake cups I had. We only ate two since we are conscious of late night binge eating. The next day, the muffins turned out even better when I had one for breakfast. It was moist and not too sweet for me as I reduced the sugar. When I came back during lunch time and wanted to bring the rest of 3 muffins left to office for tea, they were mysteriously gone. Yeah, Hubby gobbled them down, yet he refused to admit that they were good. ;)

Chocolate Raisin Walnut Muffins
Adapted from Kitchen Corner
Makes 6 cups

50g Unsalted butter (I used salted and omitted the pinch of salt)
Pinch of salt
60g Caster sugar
1 Egg
85g Self raising flour, sifted
15g Cocoa powder, sifted
60g Milk

Optional:
Walnut, chopped (50-60g or more if you prefer)
Raisins (30-40g or more if you prefer

Method:

Beat the butter with sugar until light and pale in color.
Add in the egg then pinch of salt, beat until well combined.
Add milk, flour and cocoa powder. Using a hand whisk mix until well combined.
Add in walnuts and raisins. Mix well.
Fill the muffins cups and bake at 170'C in a preheated oven for 30 minutes.

Magic Coconut Pie

2010-03-07T22:53:00.002+08:00

I saw this recipe at the back of the packet of dessicated coconut which I bought for another recipe (Apricot Walnut Slice... another backlog blog). Usually I would need a picture or two to convince me to try a recipe so that I have a visual idea of how it should look like. Somehow it has been a while since I last baked, I need to finish off the packet and the recipe seemed so super easy (it is!), so I just braved it.

As I was just going to put the pie in the oven to bake, Hubby decided that we should have a outing with the kid. So I had to put the mixture into the fridge to chill and plan to bake it the next day for breakfast.

In the end, I think I under-baked it slightly as I did not wait for it to reach room temperature before baking it. Yah, I woke up late and was so hungry that I simply took it out of the fridge and into the oven. Thankfully my hubby looooooovvvveeeed it. Yes, will try it again with my next purchase of dessicated coconut.

Magic Coconut Pie
Makes 1 shallow 20cm pie (since I halved everything so that the leftovers will be enough)

Ingredients:
55g dessicated coconut
85g caster sugar (I used 75g only)
35g plain flour
25g unsalted butter (I used salted butter and omitted the pinch of salt)
2 eggs
210ml milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180ºC
Whisk all the ingredients together until thoroughly combined.
Pour into a greased deep 20 cm/8 inch pie dish.
Cook for about 45 minutes -1 hour.
Serve warm or cold from the dish

Three Cup Pork 三杯肉

2010-02-03T23:17:00.002+08:00

Long time ago when I visited Taipei for the first time on a business trip, I was brought to a restaurant and they ordered 三杯鸡 Three Cup Chicken. It was a fancy dish in that restaurant as the chicken came in a claypot and there were literally three cup of ingredients by the side for us to pour into the claypot. The three cups contained sesame oil, cooking wine and soy sauce and hence its name. As a tourist, I liked the fancy idea and loved the dish as well.

My hubby is no lover of chicken so I re-created this dish with pork instead and it turned out wonderful.

Three Cup Pork 三杯肉

Ingredients:
300g pork, sliced
8-10 slices ginger (I like ginger so used more)
6 cloves garlic, with skin removed and flattened with knife
1 small red chilli, sliced
Some basil leaves, rinsed (I used curry leaves as that was available in my fridge. Basil will be much much nicer)

3 tbsp sesame oil (the tablespoon used here is the Chinese metal spoon traditionally found in Singaporean homes. I believed it is also known as the dessert spoon in America)
3 tbsp cooking wine
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp caster sugar

Method:

In a pan on low fire, add sesame oil, ginger, garlic and red chilli. Fry till fragrant (just 2-3 minutes will do)
Add sliced pork and stir fry till pork is cooked.
Add in the rest of the ingredients i.e. cooking wine, soy sauce and sugar. Continue to stir fry.
When all the sauce is about to dry up, add in the basil leaves, stir fry slightly and we are done.

Hubby's Creations

2010-02-03T13:30:00.001+08:00

Hubby has been working from home for a while and taking care of the baby in the meantime. This is really quite a good option for us at this moment. Somehow this is more assuring than having our young baby enrolled into infant care or cared for by a nanny. With my workplace so near to my current rented location, I get to come home during lunch time and back early to see and play with my kid.

One fine day, Hubby decided that he will be cooking lunch for both of us from then on as I think he got sick of the lousy takeaways from the two small hawker centers near our place. Even though he is new to cooking, he has been searching the web for fancy recipes instead of regular ones and below are some of his more successful creations. I will not comment further... *wink*

Cereal Prawns 麦片虾
26 January 2010

Butter Spare Ribs 奶油排骨
2 March 2010

Black Black Chick

2010-02-02T22:36:00.002+08:00

28 Nov 2009

My mum was so sweet. Made this herbal black chicken tonic soup to ensure I get enough nutrients to start work in a few days' time after a long maternity break.

For the first time, it didn't occur to me in the past...that the chicken bones are black as well!

Chinese Peanut Cookies

2010-02-02T22:23:00.001+08:00

On my baby's 100th day (2 months ago), I decided to make the day slightly special by baking something. To ensure I do not disappoint myself, I used a fool-proof recipe. This yields a super fine textured melt-in-your-mouth type of cookies. Very easy to make and very suitable for Chinese New Year.

Thankfully they actually looked and tasted better than the first time I did this! Happy!

Chinese Peanut Cookies

Ingredients:
200g ground peanut powder
200g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
100g - 150g coarsely chopped peanut bits (You can omit this if you want a smooth cookie)
100g peanut oil or more/corn oil

Egg wash:
1 beaten egg

Method:

Mix flour, baking powder, ground peanut powder, icing sugar and salt in a big mixing bowl till well combined.
Toss in the chopped peanut bits and mix well. (Can omit)
Add in 100g peanut oil bit by bit. You can stop when a piable dough is formed or add a bit more.
(For me, I added around 130g)
Shape as you wish.
Apply egg wash on cookie top.
Bake on a lined tray at 165C for 20 minutes or till golden brown.
(My oven is hot so I took only 10mins at 150C on top rack to prevent charring on the bottom of the cookies)

Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies

2010-01-27T22:56:00.000+08:00

Ok I realized I haven't been baking or cooking ever since I have gone back to work from my maternity leaves. And I realized that some of my cooking posts from last year have not been uploaded to my original life blog as well. So... I'll cheat. I'll post some of my unposted bakes from last year here instead. :P

First up...2009 Nov 23. I decided to try a simple cookie recipe from HHB's site. It looked easy enough and was supposed to be the fundamental cookie thing. The real basic one.

In the end, my cookies didn't turned out as wonderful as I would liked it to be. I believed my butter melted too fast and chilling it in the fridge did not helped much. Nevertheless, they were addictive...or I was simply greedy.

Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adatped from HHB's Drop Cookies

Ingredients
115g butter, softened
115g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
175g plain flour
175g plain or semisweet chocolate chips
50g raisins

Method

Preheat oven to 180degC. Line baking trays with parchment paper.
With a wooden spoon or electric mixer, cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until the mixture turns pale and fluffy.
Beat in the egg gradually. Mix well after each addition. Add in vanilla extract, mix well.
Sift the flour over the mixture, fold in with wooden spoon or a spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips.
If you think that your butter has melted too fast, chill the mixture in the fridge for at least an hour.
Drop tablespoonfuls of the cookie dough onto the prepared baking tray. Leave some space between the cookies to allow for spreading. Flatten each cookie dough slightly with the back of a fork, keeping the shape as even as possible.
Bake for 10 mins or until golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

I've Got An Award

2010-01-26T23:45:00.003+08:00

Yeps! Just 2 posts and I've received a blog award! Here you go.. TADAH!

Ok, it's nothing to boast about since I really didn't do much. Only posted some comments on Wendy's blog (Table for 2.... or more). She's the one who taught me how to bake a chiffon cake after my two failed attempts. Her pics were so wonderful that I actually succeeded after reading her post. Since then, I have tried a few recipes there and they were good! She can even CREATE her own recipe. Cool! She's so kind to pass this award to me as well. Hehee...

Come to think of it, now I am stressed. Like her, I realized I didn't have a lot of friends who blog. Or that many blogs that I frequent or post my comments to. But now that I have received this award, I shall now also reveal the few food blogs and of course some friends' blogs that I frequent but seldom leave a comment.

Of course, there is the pressure in me not to break the award "chain" (yeah it feels like a chain letter. :P) but I think more importantly for me, it's to thank these bloggers for being such an inspiration to my life. Thanks again bloggers!

Here goes the award procedures:

Having the picture of the award posted onto your blog, one should

Share the 10 things in life that make you happy with your readers
Pass on the award to 10 other bloggers who brighten up your day
Share the links to the 10 bloggers', as mentioned above, on your blog
Get the 10 bloggers informed about the award
Ask the 10 award recipients to relink their blogs to yours.

10 things in life that make me happy

My baby boy! Especially when I am greeted with a big smile or giggles from my baby the instance he saw me. Oh.. so sweeet.
When I receive sincere compliments.. hehe.. downright shallow. Actually insincere ones also works for me sometimes.. hahaha. waaaay downright shallow.
Holidays with my hubby... this is before the kid appear. Not sure how holidays will be with the kid in toll in future.
Shopping... only when I found good inexpensive stuff that I can buy in bulk (> 5 in quantity). E.g. my recent trip to Zara. 6 pieces at a go.
Drinks with buddies. Yeah I am a alcoholic anonymous. I just love to drink.
Dining in cushy poshy lux-feeling environment. The atahs feeling. Best if the bill is being picked up by someone else.
When people lap up my food. So far my record's not very good for this. Best supporter has to go to my hubby for now.
Reading an interesting book (e.g. Freakonomics, Outliers, Road Less Travelled etc) with jazz or loungy music playing in the background.
Chit chatting with my hubby... especially about our boy.
Last but not least, hanging out with like-minded friends. :D

I'd like to pass this award to

Hugbear from Baking Mum
- I started reading her blog and got interested in baking. No joke.
HHB from Happy Home Baking
- She showed me that baking can be easy. She's so hardworking, often checking out and reading on details before she embarks on a new recipe. Her tips were wonderful!
Evan from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings
- I got the No-bake Oreo Cheesecake recipe from her. She also opened me to a world of macarons. Check out the pics on her blog!
Florence from Do What I Like
- My Tangzhong master. I succeeded first try thanks to her clear instructions.
Small Small Baker
- Just started reading her blog. Tried the Coffee Chiffon. Unfortunately my eggs weren't stiff enough. Failed twice. I will try again!
Aunty Yochana
- She's another amazing baker. Sadly, not all recipes are available. Her cakes are pretty.
Angie of Angie's Recipe
- The way she lined up the pictures is very good. I will decode and learn to do it one of these days.
Let's Get Wokking
- Her Chinese dishes are simply restaurant-like. Envy her family. My aspiration.
- She's so talented that she has a craft blog, a sewing blog etc.
These are non-food blogs:
A Husband's Voice
- My regular read into a man's mind!
Shups
- A cool friend who started her Project 365. I am following her everyday. Stalker!

Raisin & Chocolate Chips Muffins

2010-01-16T20:15:00.004+08:00

This has to be the first item I baked this year if I recall correctly. The opening item of the year was supposed to be a chiffon cake but I simply did not have the courage to beat the eggs to the right "stiffness" when I woke up this morning. After much deliberation and hunger, I chose a supposedly easy recipe from HHB's site - Raisins & Chocolate Chips Muffins.

It seemed easy enough, just whipped everything in a saucepan, into the paper cups and out of my easily overheated oven in 20 minutes. Since I do not have muffin cups or tins at the moment, with only cupcake paper cups, I ended up with cupcake looking muffins instead.

No lunch for me in the end after woofing down 2 muffins (Hubby had 2 in the morning as well) and 2 more for me at tea break. In the end, Hubby was happy, I was happy. :D

As a note to self, the next time I'm doing this, I'm going to add a bit more butter to give them more moisture and definitely less sugar as I can't take sweet stuff too well.

Oh, this recipe goes very very well with a nice cup of English tea on a cool afternoon.

Recipe: (makes 6 cupcake sized muffins)

Adapted from HHB. I halved everything.

125g plain flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup raisins (I used 1/2 cup raisins instead)
1/2 egg, beaten (I followed HHB and omitted this. Haha.)

30g unsalted butter, melted

80ml milk

60g sugar

Method (The Lazy Method):

Pre-heat oven to 180degC.
Melt butter in a saucepan, over low heat, set aside to cool.
Place egg, melted butter, milk and sugar in another bowl.
Mix until thoroughly combined. (I did it in the saucepan)
Sieve together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.
Add chocolate chips, raisins and mix with a spatula. Make a well in the centre.
(I sieved the ingredients and added the choco chips & raisins in the saucepan again, see step 3)
Pour the liquid mixture into the flour. With the spatula, gently fold all the ingredients to form a wet batter. Just mix until the flour are incorporate into the batter. DO NOT over mix.
Spoon batter into paper muffin cups. Bake for 15~20mins (mine took almost 25mins) until muffins turn golden brown or a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Let them cool on a wire rack.

New Idea

2010-01-14T00:41:00.000+08:00

As always, when the new year begins, I have a new idea.
In fact, I have many many odd ideas all through the year as reminded by my husband.

This year, my new idea is to create a cooking blog.

Ever since my maternity leave, I have been baking, cooking and re-creating recipes after recipes from all the blogs I've read. Thanks to them, I have now enjoyed cooking and baking so much more. So, why not start one of my own and share the many recipes I have found, tried and tested with everyone as well?

I could have simply tap on to my current motherhood-blog and simply add the cooking stuff in there. However, I realized that this doesn't quite promote a good sharing of recipes without reading through all my life moments. When you want to cook or bake something, you kind of want to just get down to it instead of scrolling through pages of life details isn't it?

So here it is... a memo of all my cooking adventures.
A toast. To a new year of more home-cooked food and new ideas to come. :D