Baking Delights

Oreo Cheesecake

2011-06-08T16:41:00.003+09:30

Oreo Cheesecake

Sadly, this is the one and only picture I have of the cheesecake I baked during the week last week. I had made this for Mom's friends who came over from China for tea last weekend. It was also because the only satisfying cheesecake I've ever made was my own Blackforest Cheesecake, a recipe from my aunt when she lived in Brussels years back.

Since then I've made a few other cheesecakes to try. Some were too cheesy, others too creamy that you don't taste the cheese at all. Rather disappointing.

Now this Oreo cheesecake was adapted from here and it surely is a cheesecake - and oreo. Not mixed. I thought twice about posting this cake purely because I had wanted to try mixing the cream of the Oreo cookie with the cream cheese. And lessen the sugar. I am certain it'll work. Leaving the guilt feeling of throwing those cream filling away free. I guess we shall just leave it for another day :)

Oreo Cheesecake
Adaptation from http://dailydelicious.blogspot.com/2010/12/oreo-cheesecakeoreo-again-i-never-have.html

Ingredients
18 Oreos
60g butter, melted
200g cream cheese
100g sour cream
120g caster sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
6g gelatine
300 mls cream
4 Oreo

How to make
Line and grease a 9in springform tin

Remove the filling of 18 Oreos. Pulse in a food processor or bash with a rolling pin those Oreo biscuits. Put in a bowl and pour in the melted butter. Combine well and press down on the base of your tin. You can do the sides as well and pressing down with a tall glass. Refrigerate while attending to other ingredients.

Cream the cream cheese till creamy (don't you just love the sound of this), soft and smooth. Add sour cream to the mix and blend well. Add the remaining ingredients - sugar, lemon juice, gelatine - mix well. In another bowl, whip cream till soft peaks and fold into the cream cheese mix.

Pour only half into the tin. Remove the cream filling of remaining 4 Oreo biscuits. Top onto your cream cheese mixture in the tin encircling the cake, leaving about 1/2 inches side. Top with remaining cream cheese mixture. Smooth the top with a spatula as best you can.

Leave refrigerated until set. It can take up to 12 hours. I left mine overnight.
Can be served straight from the fridge, cold. Or room temperature.
Enjoy! :)

Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

2011-05-31T11:15:00.004+09:30

It is still May so it still means that I have every reason in the marriage book to comply to bake a cake to celebrate. Not that I need a reason to bake but it seems more special and meaningful to celebrate occasions with a homemade cake :)

So here's to a short and loving 3 years of marriage filled with ups and downs, tears and laughter, rich and poor, big and small, sickness and health, successes and failures, hugs and kisses :)

Blueberry Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

Ingredients

150g flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
120g butter
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
100g sour cream
3 tsp milk
110g fresh or frozen blueberries

How to make:
Preheat oven to 180c
Grease and dust an 18cm ring mould

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together in a separate bowl. Cream butter and sugar together til light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition.

Add the sifted flour and mix till well incorporated. Then pour in sour cream and milk in the mixture. Blend well. With a spatula, mix blueberries carefully as to not break them to pieces.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins.
Mine took 20 mins.
Cake should spring to the touch and golden in color.

*This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled if you want a bigger cake. I only have a 18cm ring mould and it didn't even come up halfway through. If you want to make a round or square cake, I suggest inserting a small knife or chopsticks in the middle to check if the cake is done. There should be no cake sticking to you knife or chopsticks.

As for the cream cheese frosting, I just used leftovers from Mia's birthday cake. I put them in a bowl and freeze them. Thaw them nicely and whip it up again. Lovely ~ You may use your favourite cream cheese frosting because hey - everything tastes good with cream cheese, nothing can go wrong :)

~ Blue Bayou ~

If you're looking for that fudgy-dense pound-cake like dessert, stick this into the fridge and eat cold. This can also survive frozen. Not that I've had the chance to try.

Easy Apple Crumble

2011-05-30T11:57:00.000+09:30

Easy-peasy yummy apple crumble!

This weekend we managed to spend it rather usefully and mostly at home. Although we did some celebrating at Concorde for their scrumptious buffet dinner on Friday night commemorating our 3 year wedding anniversary :) I had happily smothered my face with countless amount of salmon belly and fresh oysters.

So on a beautiful Sunday morning I set myself up in the kitchen, peeling, coring and slicing apples to make this super easy apple crumble.

Ingredients
4 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored, cut into small chunks
1/2c brown sugar (take 2 tbsp out)
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp water

3/4c flour
60g butter - cold, diced
semi crushed toasted peanuts

How to make:
Preheat oven to 180c
Toss apple chunks with cornflour, 2 tbsp brown sugar and cinnamon. Mix well.
Layer apples on a baking dish.
Combine lemon juice and water. Sprinkle over apples
Put remaining sugar together with flour and butter in a separate bowl. Rub them together with your fingertips till you get fine crumbs. Toss peanuts in mixture and top them on apples.

Cover with foil and bake for 30 mins.
Uncover, bake another 30 mins.
Serve warm with ice-cream or spoon cold from fridge :)

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Maple Butter

2011-05-18T14:09:00.000+09:30

This one I suppose can also be called scones. Don't really know why the Southeners call them biscuits but who cares really when it is this easy to make with the exception of time consuming. Only because it take an hour to bake the sweet potato. I woke up in the morning and the first thing I did was head to the kitchen, get some foil, slap my sweet potato on it and drizzle some olive oil. Wrap it up and chuck it into the oven. Only then my morning rituals starts :)

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Maple Butter

Sweet Potato Biscuits with Maple Butter
taken from http://www.thekitchn.com

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into cubes
1 cup cooked and mashed sweet potato, cooled
1/2 cup buttermilk, plus additional as needed

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 tablespoons real maple syrup

How to make:
Preheat oven to 190C
Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add the butter cubes and lightly mix with the tips of your fingers til you get fine crumbs.

Combine mashed sweet potato with buttermilk in and mix well.
Fold sweet potato mixture to your crumbled flour mix. You will get a well round dough that pulls from the side of your bowl. Adjust by adding a tablespoon at a time milk or flour to get a doughy consistency but still a bit on the sticky side.

You can fridge the dough for 30 minutes, but it's early in the morning and it's a public holiday. I also have a little toddler waiting for her mid morning snack so I skipped this step.

Place the slightly sticky dough on a well floured surface. Pat it out to about an inch thick with your hands. As with making scones, never roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Stamp out rounds (i used a scone stamp) and place on a baking sheet. Bake 15 mins.

This biscuits (or scones) shall not be eaten without its companion. The Maple Butter! Let cool completely and make the maple butter. Combine both butter and maple syrup in a bowl and mix. YUM!

Chocolate Banana Cake

2011-05-16T16:42:00.000+09:30

On Sunday morning we had spent half the day at the paeditrician. Our lil bugaroo had to use the nebulizer and she hated it (as any little 2 year old toddler would).

So to cheer the household a little I decided to bake! Yummy ho!
Dear hubby had been pestering for this for days. He found this recipe by Dorie Greenspan of the best flavour combo ever. Chocolates and bananas!

Now we all know banana cake. That soft but slightly dense with an intoxicating smell cake. And we all know chocolate cake. Rich, heavy dark cocoa. And we also know chocolate chip cookies! The crunch and the suddenly gooey choc chip in every bite. So imagine a cake with all three components put together. sigh..

Chocolate Banana Cake

Ingredients
2 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Sea Salt
¼ tsp Baking Soda
1 Stick (8 Tbsp) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
¾ Cup Sugar
½ Cup (packed) Light Brown Sugar
2 Large Eggs
2 Ripe Bananas, mashed (just tear the bananas with my fingers)
¾ Cup Buttermilk
3 oz Bittersweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped, or ½ cup store-bought chocolate chips

How to make
Preheat oven to 180c

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and baking soda.

Cream butter on medium speed then add the sugars. Add eggs one at a time. The mixture will look creamy and has a ribbon-like effect when lift with a spatula. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the mashed bananas.

Add the flour mix in 3 addition. Ensure flour is well mixed from each addition. Add buttermilk and mix. Lastly add chocolate chips and mix til well combined.

Pour batter into a 9"x5' loaf pan that has been greased and lined.
Bake for 30 minutes. Cover loosely with foil then bake again for 40-45 minutes to prevent top from getting too dark. Insert a small knife or a stick through the middle of the cake to check if it is cooked through. I take mine out when some cake still sticks to my stick/knife. Leave cake to cool before inverting it onto a wired rack. Slice up and serve rich cake warm with dollops of whipped cream. Yum!

Slightly crumbly, moist and gooey where the chocolate chips had melted. Soft yet dense cake at the same time. Then the aroma of bananas and chocolate. Heaven :)

Creme Brulee French Toast with Caramelized Bananas

2011-05-14T12:14:00.047+09:30

Ahh.. yes.
Some time in hand and photos.

You see there isn't a lot of bakeries produce good quality breads and loaves here. Whenever I enter a bakery, it is mostly filled with colorful slices of cakes, savoury or sweet buns and pastries or the usual white or wholemeal bread loaf. There will be the occasional French loaf or baguette but that's it. I'm after a variety of bread types. More of like ciabatta, baguette, brioche or maybe focaccia.

Soon after delivering our precious lil girl, my beloved father and a proud, proud grandfather now asked what I'd like as a gift. It was a tough choice between a KitchenAid and a bread maker but to cut a long story short, we went home with a bread maker in hand.

So now that lil gadget sat on my kitchen bench on a Thursday night working its way into making a beautiful French cakey-bread famously known as brioche. I took half the loaf and turned them into Creme Brulee French Toasts for a weekend indulgence :)

Brioches soaked overnight

Creme Brulee French Toast with Caramelized Bananas

Ingredients

1 small loaf of brioche (you can use any type of bread)

4 eggs

1 1/3 cups milk

2/3 cups cream

1/3 cups sugar

1/4 tsp salt

a swipe or two orange zest

a glug of vanila extract or one vanilla bean

How to make

Slice your brioche or bread into thick, thick slices. Perhaps an inch to inch and a half.

Combine all ingredients in a wide bowl. Soak in the fridge overnight - no need to turn. You can also soak 30 minutes each side of bread.

Preheat oven to 180c

Line baking sheet with foil or baking sheet. Bake for 30 - 35 mins turning once if you wish - I couldn't be bothered :)

Now, for the crunchy top.

3 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp water

Combine and put on medium heat. Do not let you eyes off it and do not use any utensil to stir. Just watch. Swirl the mixture once or twice. Soon the sugary mix will bubble aways and turn into dark amber. Take pan off the heat and toss in a few sliced bananas.

Creme Brulee French Toast with Caramelized Bananas

Top french toast with caramelized bananas. Serve warm.

Note: What to do with those extra custard? Make more french toasts using those plastic white bread. Yummers! Extra brioches or bread can keep well in the freezer for those times when you're rushing to work and no time for breakfast just grab a piece. It'll thaw nicely on your way to work and tastes great eaten cold! :)

Valentine's cuppies!

2011-02-14T20:12:00.000+10:30

Love is in the air once again!

These are lovely mini cuppies from fairy cakes with dark chocolate ganache frosting and yellow wafer flower. I must say, the cake is so moist and soft topped with thick bitter-sweet choc ganache. Heaven!

This is the first baking session for 2011. I've made two decorations out of these for the office. They're having Valentine's dedications and selling heart shaped balloons, roses and cards. I've completely forgotten that I've promised them these cuppies to sell until Sunday morning! From 2 batches of cake I managed to get 36 mini cuppies. By mid-day half of these cuppies were gone. If I were to make them again, I'd go with regular sized cupcakes for the cake were just divine. And easy to make too! I'll post up the recipe soon! :)

Bugaroo Boo!

2010-12-28T12:02:00.005+10:30

Oh dear..

I have left this blog abandoned for far too long!
The last blog entry was created 3 days before I popped! Our little girl is now 20 months old and we've moved houses twice since.

Here's the lil one right after she was born.
April 21st, 2009
4:30pm Burnside Hospital, Adelaide

Mia Dahlia

And this is a very recent picture of her taken at our current home. She now goes to daycare 5 days a week learning to socialize, make friends, music and dance classes, art class, sandplay and outdoor gym.

She can now say 20 more or less words, walks, runs, jumps, climbing up and down the stairs (most times with an adult), looking very independent and copies most things adults do.

Apart from adjusting and trying to keep our little family (and minds!) sane, I have also gone back to work and changed jobs. Cooking and baking has reduced considerably now that on some days I no longer have the luxury of even shampooing my hair (no we do not have a maid or helper with us) - but I still do make an effort to cook at least 2-3 times per week. All of our lil bugaroo's meals are prepared by me. I make a point for her to have homecooked meals everyday when she's in daycare or spending holidays with her grandparents. So our fridge and freezer are stocked with baby/pureed food since she turned 6 months. I pack her breakfast, lunch and snack to daycare everyday.

Her usual meals are 2-3 combinations of fresh fruits, yoghurt, cereals, milk, bread/soft buns for breakfast. Lunch she'll have rice porridge (or congee) cooked with the basics (garlic, onions and ginger), together with at least 2-3 types of veggies (carrots, broccoli, celery, peas, spring onions, spinach, tomatoes) and a type of meat (beef, chicken or fish) to make stock for the rice - all together in one pot. Served with a bottle of milk. Sometimes I'd make pastas or lasagne. Snacks can vary from biscuits to fruits, small piece of cake, diluted juice, breads/buns. Dinner can be just about anything we have. Roasts, rice with side-dishes, noodles, soups. Of course when she was younger I pureed all her food and gradually thicken them according to her age. Long has gone those pureed food days :)

I've not tried new recipes as of late. But I have tried making a gingerbread house for a Christmas even we held at my office. Pictures will be posted up soon. Also the rest my long lost absence to make up for everything.

Til then, be prepared for some new food updates! :)

Raspberry Moussecake

2009-04-18T11:21:00.005+09:30

Yesterday I made these.
Was so intrigued by the colors and thought this would taste delicious!
Indeed they were!

It sure takes a while to set but they were beautiful pink. I can imagine these being served on V-Day. However, I'd make a few changes next time. Use a little bit of pink/red coloring to enhance it. The plus to this is that I've all ingredients in my pantry =)

This recipe has been cut in half. To make a full cake, simply double the recipe!

Raspberry Moussecake

Ingredients
25 g flour
10 g cocoa powder
2 yolks
35 g sugar
1 tbsp oil
25 mls water
2 egg whites

To make the bottom chiffon cake
Preheat oven 180C
Line baking paper in pan.
Sift flour and cocoa powder together. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and add half the sugar. Whisk til creamy. Gradually add oil and water. Tip in the flour mix and combine. Whisk egg whites with remaining sugar til soft peaks form. Fold into chocolate mixture.

Bake 15 - 20 minutes til toothprick inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool.

Cut your chiffon cakes into round moulds. Put 10 g of caster and 25 mls water in a small bowl and microwave til bubbly. Brush the mixture on top of cakes. Leave the cakes in the fridge while you continue to make the mousse.

Tips: I used a small-ish loaf pan to bake my bake. And as for the moulds, I used small sized plastic trifle cups which got me 3 wonderful round cakes. The rest of the chiffon cakes I just dumped them into 2 other trifle cups and swirl the mix around.

Raspberry Mousse
Ingredients
150 g raspberry puree - I pureed my berries with a fork so I get some berry chunks in my mousse =)
45 g caster
3 g gelatine - I'd reduce this tad next time for a less gelatine-like mousse
150 g cream

How to make
Put 1 tbsp warm water into a small bowl and dissolve the gelatine in. Heat 1/2 of the puree with sugar in the microwave wil hot. Combine gelatine mixture into hot puree and whisk til well combined. Add the remaining puree and leave to cool a little. Whisk cream til soft peaks form and fold into puree mixture.

Top cakes with mousse mix. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Tips: The mousse mixture I topped with 5 tablespoons each onto each cake moulds. They fit perfectly.

Verdict: It's definitely for a sweet-sour tooth type of person. I don't particularly like the chiffon cake but after spending an overnight in the fridge, I don't quite mind it at all. The sweet chocolatey taste and sweet-sour taste from the mousse blended so well together.

Definitely a keeper =)

Mascarpone Marbled Cheesecake

2009-04-16T20:39:00.004+09:30

We had few friends over for dinner so I made these for dessert!

After filling up all my mini cups pan, there are more chocolate batter than whites so I topped chocolate batter on whites instead into a muffin pan. I must say, the chocolate cheesecake is SO SO gooood!! Much better than the cheesecake itself!

Here's the recipe

Mascarpone Marbled Cheesecake

(A)
50 g Oreo cookies, crushed and fillings removed

(B)
100 g bittersweet/dark chocolates - use good quality chocolates
40 ml (2tbsp) water
300 g cream cheese
120 g sugar
2 eggs
140 g mascarpone cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract

How to make
Preheat oven to 160C.
Spray moulds with olive oil or butter.
Cover bottom pan with foil.
Sprinkle A into bottom of the moulds, pressing lightly.
Combine chocolates with water and melt together.
Beat cream cheese til smooth. Add sugar.
Add eggs one at a time, beating smoothly.
Mix mascarpone cheese and vanilla extract together.
Add to cheese mixture and mix til smooth.
Take out 1/3 cup of mixture and mix it into chocolate mix.
Alternate cheese mixture and chocolate mixture into moulds filling up to top. Start with cheese mix, then chocolate mix, ending with cheese mix til mixture comes up to the brim. Using a toothpick, swirl mixture in moulds carefully not to overmix.

Put kettle on. Place moulds into large roasting pan. Pour hot boiling water into roasting pan til it comes up to half mould bottom level.

Congratulations you've mastered the water-bath baking method :)
Depending on the size of your mould, I baked 15 mins. If using muffin pans, bake up to 30 mins. The centre should come out slightly wobbly in the centre.
Cool cheesecake on rack and put them into the fridge to set for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Verdict: The taste is absolutely yummy though the crust didn't turn out crumbly. In fact it blended well into the cheesecake. I LOVE the chocolate mix, next time I'd make it all chocolate instead of marbling them =p

38 weeks!

YUMMO!

Almond and Chocolate Pound Cake with Lemon Curd filling

2009-04-08T08:49:00.008+09:30

Hello.

Okay, I know now that at 37 weeks along, I'm supposed to be relaxing at home, put my feet up and lay sprawled on the couch in front of the TV with a tub of chocolate brownie ice-cream..

But!
Unfortunately that is too uncomfortable to do at this stage and I don't think I'm capable of handling that kind of lifestyle for long. So up I went to make myself a little useful and head off to the supermarket. Bought ingredients and did some retail 'baking gadgets' therapy =)

And here's what I turn up with!

Recipe for the pound cake can be found here!
I decided to give the original pound cake a try and used almond essence instead.
Verdict: Don't quite like the taste. I think 5mls of almond essence is too much. Try reducing it to half next time. OR better yet, switch to vanilla altogether.

I melted some choc chips, took out some of the batter and mix. I find the chocolate part is yummy with less almond-y taste. Luckily I made some lemon curd for the filling and these cuppies turned out DELICIOUS!

Not that these little cuppies needed the moist centre, but the lemony tang twist in the middle takes these little ones up another level =) *yum*

Here's the recipe:

Lemon Curd (original recipe from here)

Ingredients (- indicates halved)
3 large eggs - 2 small eggs
2-3 lemons, juiced out to make up to (80mls) fresh lemon juice - 2 tbsp + 2 tsp juice
150 g sugar - 75 g
56 g unsalted butter, room temp, cut to small pieces - 28 g
1 tbsp lemon zest - 1 tsp

How to make
Whisk constantly eggs, lemon juice and sugar on a double boiler til a consistency of sour cream or hollandaise sauce is reached. Check temperature so it comes up to 71C. Remove from heat and put through a fine sieve if lumps appear. Drop butter pieces one at a time whisking through with each addition til butter melts in the mixture. Add lemon zest.

Lay a piece of cling wrap on top of lemon curd surface to prevent skin forming and place it in the fridge to cool. Mixture will thicken more while cooling.

Note: I have halved the recipe and it made up close to half a cup of lemon curd. Just enough for me to fill 12 standard size cuppies!

SMBC (Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting)

Ingredients
2 egg whites
1/2 c sugar
113 g butter (divided to 1 tbsp each or 14 g segments)
1 tsp vanilla extract
yellow coloring

How to make:
Whisk egg whites and sugar on a double boiler to reach a safe temperature of 160C, whisking constantly.
Remove and place in mixing bowl and whisk away on high speed til stiff peaks form but not dry.
Switch to paddle attachment.
Add 1 tbsp (14g) butter one at a time, whisking til well combined.
Increase to medium-high speed til you get a fluffy consistency.
Lower speed and add vanilla extract and yellow coloring.

Can you decide which design you'd like?

Sorry but can't resists!
Here's our little beast Koda.
Just moments before the flower vase toppled over her!

Cheesecake Cuppies

2009-03-26T06:28:00.004+10:30

Just realized I've not create an entry on my cheesecake cuppies. They were part of those thank-you gifts at the baby shower.

before baking..

Cheesecake Cuppies

Ingredients
(A)
60g digestive biscuits, crumbs
30g butter, melted

(B)
170g cream cheese
75g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract - i used paste
1/4 tsp lemon zest
tiny pinch of salt
1 large egg
1 egg yolk
60g sour cream

(C)
canned strawberries
1 tsp gelatine

How to make
Preheat oven 170C.
Combine A. Press them down with fingers or back of a chopstick into small cuppies paper. Bake 5 mins. Remove and let cool.

Cream cream cheese and gradually add sugar. Cream til smooth. Add vanilla, lemon zest and salt. Beat well. Add eggs one at a time. Ensure each addition is well incorporated. Add sour cream and mix well making sure there's no lumps in the batter and batter is silky smooth.

Pour batter into cuppies lined with biscuit crumbs. Fill to leaving tiny space on top of paper for topping later. Bake 15 mins til tops crack a little and leave to cool. Cheesecake tops will sink slightly when cooled.

Drain (C) keeping both juice and strawberries separate. Place juice in saucepan on medium heat and let it come to boil. Place 3 tbsp of hot juice in a small bowl and sprinkle 1 tsp gelatine. Whisk til completely dissolved. Add mixture back into saucepan and leave til juices slightly thickened. Remove from heat and let cool.

Carefully spoon juice on top of cheesecake cuppies. Place a strawberry on top and place cheesecake cuppies in fridge for an hour or more til topping sets.

Enjoy!

Cheesecake Pops

2009-03-21T06:14:00.001+10:30

Baby shower thank-you gifts!

I am unsure how my cheesecake turned out firm and "scoop-able". They didn't stick my hands and were just perfect to round into balls.

I took out my cheesecake after 40 mins and it was browned on top. The middle even cracked slightly, but just a little. I thought to myself, "..uh-oh, doomed!" So with crossed fingers I cooled it and place it carefully inside the fridge overnight.

The next morning, I scraped the top of my cheesecake and the bottom layer. The bottom softens a little to make them perfectly scoop-able and no mess! I am not sure how or why most end up with gooey, mess with theirs but I suppose I missed that soft, gooey cheesecake with these!

Perhaps it's my measurements? I halved the recipe accordingly but not entirely. And used a hand mixer. Maybe I overmixed them. Or maybe it's the square tin pan I used instead? Anyway, here's my version.

Cheesecake Pops

Ingredients:
600g cream cheese
180g caster sugar
17g flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 large egg + 2 small eggs (42g)
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla paste
30mls whipped cream

30-40 (4 inches) lollipop sticks or skewers
some semi-sweet or dark chocolates and shortening
other types of topping (crushed cereals, graham crackers etc)
How to make:

Preheat oven at 170C.
Cream together cream cheese, sugar, flour and salt.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well.
Add vanilla paste and cream.

Grease a square tin pan and pour batter in. Set kettle on. Place tin pan in a large roasting dish and pour boiling water in roasting dish til water comes up halfway tin pan. Place roasting dish inside preheated oven. Congratulations, you've set yourself baking in bain-marie style =)

Bake 35 to 45 mins.

Tips: I'd check after 30 minutes. Mine took 40 mins and it was all browned on top.

Remove tin pan from its water bath. Let cool to room temperature, place plastic wrap on it then place it in the fridge overnight. Or at least 3 hours for cheesecake to firm up.

Scoop cheesecake into small balls (25g each) and roll them with your clean hands. I weighed each balls and got exactly 35 balls. Place them on a tray layered with baking sheets. Stick your lollipop or skewer stick into each ball. Freeze 1-2 hours til very hard.

Melt shortening and chocolate in microwave for few seconds stirring each time. Dip frozen cheesecakes into chocolate mix and place them back in the fridge for at least 24 hours. They may also be frozen.

Hints: You may use milk chocolate but I find them too sweet. I used 1/4 milk and 3/4 dark chocolate for mine. I also thinned out the chocolates with warm milk. My first try was milk chocolate and hubby said the chocolate was too empowering and too thick. Hence, the variation.

I must admit, I was very reluctant to make these pops looking at the amount of cream cheese required in the original recipe. 5 blocks!! But seeing it's a special occassion and I do want to make personalized thank-you gifts, I thought I'd halve the recipe and make just enough for the guests.

Love eating these frozen. Some may melt at room temperature while others don't. Am not quite sure why. I suppose the ones dipped with melted chocolate and warm milk would.

Carrot Cake Cuppies

2009-03-20T10:00:00.003+10:30

2 cuppies in 2 days?

If you're wondering, no I'm not craving madly over cuppies in this late pregnancy. These (and yesterday's) cuppies are exclusively to feed approximately 20 ppl at our baby shower tomorrow! I've also a chocolate mousse cake setting in the fridge and cheesecake pops in the freezer. Mini quiches in the oven and cheesecake cuppies to make later in the day as thank-you gifts.

I haven't tried any of these cuppies or the cake. But my husband has! And I shall trust his taste-buds when it comes to food.

This carrot cake is supposedly served as one round cake or loaf cake. I think cuppies are cuter for the occasion. Minis should go very well with babies =)

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
(A)
2 small egg yolks
3/4 c vegetable oil - i used cooking oil
65 g caster sugar
65 g brown sugar
1 c grated carrots - 1 medium sized carrot
50 g chopped walnuts

(B)
125 g cake flour
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp soda bicarb

(C)
2 small eggwhites

How to make:
Whisk egg yolks, oil and sugar.
Combine remaining ingredients (A).

Mix and sift ingredients (B).
Add to ingredients (A) and stir with spatula.

Preheat oven to 180C.
Beat ingredients (C) til stiff peaks form.
Fold lightly into combined mixture (A) and (B).

Bake 10 mins as mini cuppies.
*If you've doubled the recipe to make one whole cake, bake 30-45 mins.

Tips: This recipe is halved to make 30-35 mini cuppies. It can easily be doubled to make muffins or one whole cake!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
40 g butter
80 g cream cheese
40 g icing sugar

How to make:
Beat everything together.

Tips: I had quartered the original recipe to suit my mini cuppies (which I truly regret, it's such a yummy frosting!). It made just the right amount to frost 35 mini cuppies.

Two-toned Cupcakes

2009-03-19T23:29:00.005+10:30

The last time I made little cuppies was er.. very long time ago. Could be a decade. Mind you, I started showing off my baking skills at the age of 3! Of course it was on the kitchen floor playing with eggs, milk and flour on the carpet =p

Anyway, this was meant to be a cherry and chocolate cuppies with pistachio swiss meringue buttercream. But mine decided to have a mind of its own and turned out to be a vanilla and chocolate cuppies with pink swiss meringue buttercream instead!

Spumoni Cupcakes
(makes 48 mini cuppies)

Ingredients:
57 g butter
1/4 c + 2 tbsp sugar
3/4 c + 2 tbsp flour (for chocolate version: reduce amount to 1/2c and add 1/4c or about 32g of cocoa powder)
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/4 tsp cherry extract (for chocolate version: substitute with 1/2tsp vanilla extract)
1/4 c milk
1/8 c chopped cherries (omit for chocolate version)

How to make:
Beat butter and sugar til light and fluffy.
Add egg. Beat.
Add cherry extract. Mix.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt together.
Mix by hand half flour mixture to butter mix and mix til well combined.
Add milk. Mix well.
Add remaining flour mixture til just well incorporated.

Fill mini cuppies liners with half cherry mixture and half chocolate mixture to make 3/4 full. Bake 10 mins.

Tips: if your cherry cupcakes lack color, I'd suggest adding bit of red coloring. But if you're happy with it, like mine, just leave it looking like vanilla cuppies =p

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/2c sugar
113g butter (divided to 1 tbsp or 14g segments)
1 tsp vanilla extract
rose pink color

How to make:
Whisk egg whites and sugar on a double boiler to reach a safe temperature of 160C, whisking constantly.
Remove and place in mixing bowl and whisk away on high speed til stiff peaks form but not dry.
Switch to paddle attachment.
Add 1 tbsp (14g) butter one at a time, whisking til well combined.
Increase to medium-high speed til you get a fluffy consistency.
Lower speed and add vanilla extract and rose pink color.

Tips: the buttercream is a bit tricky to make. With lots of confidence and patience. I did not however encounter the problem of it turning soupy like many did. But mine curdled a little halfway through butter addition. But keep whisking away (with fingers crossed tightly!) and it will come together in the end.

Valentine's Breakfast

2009-02-14T14:20:00.001+10:30

Rise and Shine!

Blueberry Pie

2009-02-03T08:53:00.000+10:30

I honestly do not remember where I got this recipe from =( I've searched high and low for it and hate to paste a recipe without knowing its source. Feels like "plagiarism" to me =P

But it was a good pie. As usual I cut down the recipe and cut down the sugar to half. It's rather sweet if you read the recipe and used frozen blueberries instead. I remember baking this the day before my family arrives from Malaysia!

Blueberry Pie
Ingredients:
(A)
435 g fresh blueberries
1 pie crust
200 g white sugar - used brown sugar and lessen the amount
40 g flour
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten
115 g sour cream - added a little extra
I also added 1 tsp of vanilla extract
(B)
100 g white sugar - used brown sugar and lessen the amount
60 g flour
55 g butter
I added few dashes of cinnamon powder

How to make:
Combine dry (sugar, flour and salt ) and wet (eggs and sour cream) in ingredients (A) together. The mix wet to dry ingredients.
Put your blueberries in the pie crust and pour the mixture over.

Combine ingerdients (B) to resemble course grainy breadcrumbs-like texture and sprinkle over the pie mixture in shell.

Bake 180c for 50-55 minutes or til golden and browned.

Shortbread Cookies and Pound Cake

2009-02-02T08:34:00.000+10:30

Yep! Shortbread Cookies this time. Few weeks back we ran out of cookies in the house and hubby loves shortbread cookies so he actually google-ed around for the basic recipe. I got my tools and oven ready, and.. a way we go!

Recipe can be found here

I wouldn't bother putting the recipe here since I didn't make any changes to the recipe and they're very basic cookies. I bet if you tweaked the recipe a bit here and there or simply by substituting white sugar to brown sugar, they'll taste brilliant =)

before going into the oven =)

into the cookie jar, quick!!

Though they're plain cookies, for a shortbread cookies lover, they sure are irresistible

Few days later I felt like having pound cake. Remember Sara Lee's Marbled Pound cake? They were my favourite! Frozen! I used to absolutely love eating them frozen. Yep, you read that right =p I know, my tastebuds are crazy like that!

So after scouting around for a basic pound cake recipe, I found one here

Of course I've made some changes and cut the recipe in half =P
Here's my version.

Ingredients:
100 g shortening - i used all butter
225 g butter
500 g white sugar
5 eggs
10 ml almond extract - used vanilla bean paste
235 ml milk
2 g baking powder
430 g cake flour - plain flour

How to make:
Preheat oven at 150c
Grease your cake pan. I sprayed mine with olive oil spray.
Cream butter and sugar til they turn pale and creamy. May take a bit of time. I used a normal hand mixer.
Add your eggs, one at a time. Ensure each addition is well incorporated.
Add the almond (or vanilla) extract.
Mix well.
In another bowl, combine the baking powder and flour.
Alternate flour and milk into the egg mixture, by starting and ending with flour.
Mix well on each addition.

The luscious batter

Pour batter into your cake pan and bake for 45 mins to an hour. Or until top turn golden and appears dry. You may insert a toothpick to check if middle is cooked.

Tips: My only tip to this recipe is to make sure the butter and sugar is well-creamed. And each addition to the mixture is well incorporated. Pound cake is a very traditional cake and can be delicate too. Ensure everything is well mixed and you'll have a very moist, dense cake in your home =)

This cake suits any occassion. Make some icing and ice them for a great birthday cake. Or layer it for that special someone. This cake can also be kept for days covered in the fridge or frozen in the freezer. We kept our cake in the fridge for more than 3 days and it still remains dense, soft and moist. Delicious! =D

Honey Oat Bread

2009-02-01T14:25:00.003+10:30

I have lots of leftover oats from crumbing our fish fillets the other night. Somehow eating oats by itself for breakfast doesn't seem very appealing to me. So there sit my oats in the cupboard for few days untouched.

With many success baking sweet and savoury buns and rolls, believe it or not I always fail making a normal loaf bread. It somehow rose too much or burnt on top or decide to just collapse on me. Very frustrating.

So tonight I decided to give it another try. Rather nervous, I'd try with oats in them. To make it my own, I tweaked the recipe by substituting the sugar with honey. Here's the original recipe and my version of it.

Light Oat Bread

Ingredients:
295 ml water
25 g margarine - olive oil
6 g salt
375 g bread flour
40 g rolled oats
25 g brown sugar - blue gum honey
6 g active dry yeast
few dashes of cinnamon powder

How to make:
Preheat oven 175C/350F
Combine dry ingredients.
Make a well in the centre.
Combine yeast, suger (or honey), butter and warm water in a separate bowl. Leave for few minutes til frothy and creamy. Add yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and mix.
Knead 10-15 mins. Proove for an hour or til doubled in size.
Punch dough with your fist. Shape and place dough into prepared loaf pan.
Leave to rise again for 30-45 mins.

Bake 30 mins.

Tips: The recipe calls for bread maker but I don't have one so I knead the bread by hand about 8-10 mins. The dough was a bit sticky so while kneading I kept adding flour (up to 1/4c more, maybe?) to my workbench and hands til I get a smooth dough. The oats didn't completely disappear, it was still there only I think the amount of oats are not enough to show in the bread too much, which is great for hubby (whom would freak out if he sees them!) and for fussy little eaters. The entire house smelled of bread and honey when it was in the oven. Beautiful!

Savoury Crepes (Dadar Berlauk) and Sausage Buns

2009-02-01T08:13:00.000+10:30

Made these few days ago. I miss my mom's version of dadar berlauk. I know some may call these differently but this is what she calls them. I remember she used to make them for breaking fast during the holy month of Ramadhan.

I'm not entirely sure of her recipe but this one tastes quite the same. She added sesame oil and spring onions to the batter. A Chinese friend taught her to make them. She doesn't fry them, just roll them up and ready to eat.

This recipe I got from a website and it's pretty much the same how you'd make a crepe batter. Only add splashes of sesame oil and finely chopped spring onions. For the filling, any type of filling suits those delicate, soft crepes :D

I'll put the recipe up here anyway.

Ingredients:
For fillings: - there are many variations to fillings. I made a curry based for this one.
Onions
Garlic
Minced meat (beef/chicken/lamb)
Curry powder
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Celeries
Mixed veges
Salt and pepper

How to make:
Saute onions and garlic. Add mince and curry powder. Add potatoes, tomatoes, celeries and mixed veges. Fry til dry, season to taste. Let cool.

Meanwhile, you can work on your crepes.

Ingredients:
For crepes:
1 cup flour
1 1/2 cups water
1 egg
1 tbsp oil
salt
splash of sesame oil
spring onions, thin strips

How to make:
Blend all ingredients in your food processor or whisk vigorously. Batter works better when left for 30 minutes before use. Wipe oil on your pan with a kitchen towel. Spoon batter onto pan and swirl to make thin crepes. Once top dries and cooks, remove from pan.

To assemble, pile a tablespoon of filling onto a crepe and roll it up as you would making spring rolls.

If you want to try the fried version, prepare:
1 egg, beaten
breadcrumbs

Dip the rolled crepes into egg mixture and roll onto breadcrumbs. Leave on a rack to sit and continue with the rest of the batter. I find resting the crumbed crepes before frying makes them set properly.
Tips: Ensure the spring onions are thinly sliced as possible. Crepes are very delicate. Be extra careful when handling or it may tear. And I mean, extra careful ;)

Then, I made these!
It was a long weekend with Australia Day last Monday so the shops were having massive sale on barbecued meats (steaks, sausages, patties, etc). We bought a 2kg rack of thin sausages for 6 dollars! :-D
So after dropping by the supermarket and bought some yeast, I started this project. Sausage buns! YUM!

The buns are pretty much a simple, basic bread bun recipe.
Ingredients:
400g bread flour
1 1/2 tsp instant dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
250ml warm water
3 tbsp butter/oil

Mix dry ingredients together. Add wet ingredients and mix til well combined. Knead by hand 10-15 minutes til smooth. Roll up to a ball. Brush bowl with a little olive oil, tip ball of dough into bowl so all ball surface covered thinly with oil. Cover bowl with cling wrap and place bowl at a warm, dry spot til doubled in size. I usually wait 45-60 minutes to prove it.

Punch dough with fist to let air out. Tip dough onto your working bench - floured. Knead for 1 minute til dough returns to its original size and shape your dough as you like. Once shaped, place them onto your greased baking tray and prove again til it doubles in size. Approximately 30-45 minutes.

Place your lovely looking buns into a pre-heated oven of 200c and bake for 20 minutes or buns browned and bottom sounds hollow when tapped.

Variations: Some dough I had rolled them with curry powder and breadcrumbs. I've also spread some chilli sauce and mayo into others before enveloping the dough with my sausages. If you like, you can turn them into pizza wheels, adding you favourite pizza sauces or mix cubed cheeses into the dough to make yummy sausage and cheese buns. Options and variations are endless :D :D

Pizza Pinwheels

2009-01-31T08:08:00.000+10:30

My husband loves these. He prefers his pizzas this way rather than the traditional triangle slices. I made my own pizza dough following Ainsley Harriet's recipe from one of my recipe books. I love his pizza base. It's the softest, easiest, most wonderful pizza base to my humble taste =)

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

(A)
350g bread flour
7g instant yeast
1 tsp salt

(B)
2 tbsp olive oil
225ml warm water

(C)
2 tsp polenta (also known as cornmeal)

How to make:
Mix (A) in your food processor. Combine (B) and add into (A). Process til dough forms. Knead 10 mins. Prove for 1 hour.

Punch and cut dough in half. Flatten one of them into rectangular shape, spread dough with long-side towards you with your favourite pizza base sauce. Top with your favourite toppings. For this one I had put in according to whatever there is in my pantry. Olives, jalapenos, leftover minced meat, mushrooms, bbq sauce, mozarella cheese, mayonaise and chilli sauce. You may add anything you like, choices are endless. Main ingredient is pizza sauce and mozarella cheese. The simplest and delicious toppings I had was tomatoes and fresh basil ;-) ;-)

Roll up your rectangular shaped dough to a long log. Then carefully slice up the rolls into even sizes. Dust your pizza pan with the polenta (cornmeal) and spray with olive oil. Place your roll-ups onto the pan. Bake in a 200c preheated oven until golden and tops browned. YUM!

For my all-time-favourite homemade special pizza base sauce:
Olive oil
Chopped tomatoes
Tomato puree
Fresh thyme
Garlic - chopped
Salt and pepper
Let be thickened in a pot. Leave to cool and spread on your pizza dough

I don't quite remember when I made this but it has to be somewhere mid 08. When the weather's cold and too lazy to go out for a meal. Yeah, this pizza's the way to go for a quick, satisfying homemade meal =)

Spiced Lamb Shank with Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2009-01-30T07:49:00.000+10:30

April 08 must've been cooling down on us. I remember I made this stew out of the extra lamb shanks we had. It's from Jamie Oliver and I've taken the recipe from Kitty's website.

As usual I had made few changes to the recipe unfortunately I don't quite remember how much I had altered. I cut the recipe into half to feed the two of us and served it on a bed of mashed sweet potatoes. Anyway, this dish is definitely worth trying!

Spiced Slow-Cooked Lamb Shanks

Ingredients:
4 lamb shanks
(A)
Salt and pepper
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 dried red chilli - I used 2 dried chillies
1 tbsp fresh rosemary - chopped
1 tsp dried marjoram or oregano - I used fresh oregano
(B)
1 tablespoon flour
(C)
1 tablespoon olive oil
(D)
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 large carrot, quartered & finely sliced
6 sticks of celery, quartered & finely sliced
2 medium onions, quartered & finely chopped
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
170ml dry white wine - replaced with beef stock
6 anchovy fillets
2 x 400g tins of plum tomatoes
1 handful of fresh basil, marjoram or flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped - I used fresh parsley and coriander

How to make:
Combine (A) in mortar and pestle and rub onto your lamb. Then dust the shanks with (B). Brown the shanks on all sides with (C), remove.

Saute garlic, carrots, celeries, onions and salt. Add balsamic vinegar and beef stock and simmer. Then the anchovies and tinned tomatoes. Place lamb in the sauce, bring to boil.

Put on a lid on your casserole dish and place it in a preheated 175c oven for 1 1/2 hours. Remove lid & cook for a further half an hour. Stir in your freshly chopped herbs.

For the mashed sweet potatoes
Place peeled potatoes in a salted boiling water and boil til a fork pierced easily through. Mash with milk and butter. Add a splash of balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.

Enjoy! :)

Basic Crepes, Blintzes with Blueberries and Ice Cream

2009-01-29T07:34:00.000+10:30

Made these some time ago. If the dates on my camera are correct, it would've been in July 08 :)

The recipe was from Delicious. 5 of the best by Valli Little. It's a compilation 5 of the best pastas, soups, rice, meat, cold desserts, puddings, etc etc. I think Mama bought this one for me when I was back in Malaysia for holidays last year.

Originally this recipe is called Blintzes with Sour Cream and Cherries. And of course I had changed the recipe a bit not only to suit my taste but also to what's available in my kitchen hee! :D I made half the recipe for the two of us.

Here's the recipe
Ingredients:
(A)
175g cottage cheese
100g cream cheese
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 heaped tbsp caster sugar
1/2 lemon, zest only

(B)
20g unsalted butter, melted - I used olive oil spray
12 crepes - I made my own, see recipe below. I find store bought aren't as thin as I like them to be
sour cream to serve - replaced with vanilla ice cream

(C)
1 x 425g can of pitted cherries in syrup - replaced with fresh blueberries
75g caster sugar
2-3 tbsp Kirsch (cherry brandy) - omitted
1 tsp arrowroot - used cornflour

How to make:
Place ingredients (C) except arrowroot in pan. Stir til sugar dissolves and add in Kirsch (if use). Mix arrowroot (or cornflour) with 20ml water til smooth. Add to warm syrup and stir til thickened. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 180c and brush baking dish with butter or spray with olive oil. Place ingredients (A) in a food processer or whisk vigorously by hand til smooth.

Place about a tablespoon of cheese mixture onto crepe and fold to make parcel. Gently put your parcels (folded-side down) onto your baking dish. Brush tops with melted butter or spray with olive oil. From here you may cover them and place in the fridge til you're ready to bake for 15 minutes.

Serve with sour cream (or ice cream) and pour cherry sauce (or blueberry sauce on top)!

Now for the homemade crepes
Ingredients:
150g plain flour
1 tsp caster sugar
240ml milk
2 eggs
pinch of salt

Blend all in a food processor or whisk vigorously. Set aside for 30 minutes. Grease pan thinly with oil/butter, tip and swirl mixture thinly onto pan and cook til the top looks cooked and dry. Tip over. Repeat til all batter is used.

These Blintzes are rather similar but with much more texture than Crepes Suzette. And also Crepes Suzette has burnt-tangy taste than these sweet-sour-cheesy number. I love this version much better :D

Prawns Pineapple Rice

2009-01-28T07:22:00.000+10:30

There were many recipes tried in the past few months. Some I've taken the the extra step snapping pictures of, some not. However, today we experienced a scorching and sweltering maximum of 43C (hottest in 5 years!!) So, lots of cool cut fresh fruits, water and looks like this preggie lady ain't goin anywhere today!

I made this today after scouting around for some new recipes. Taken from here but I've changed the recipe quite a bit to suit my taste :P

Here's my version
Ingredients:
(A)
2 tbsp butter (or olive oil)
1 tsp ground chillies (cili boh or sambal oelek)
1 tsp tomyam paste (or tomyam cube)
1 onion - thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic - minced
1 celery stalk - sliced
1 stalk lemongrass - sliced or bruise the bulb end
2 kaffir lime leaves - sliced
a splash of fish sauce
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
a quarter of pineapple - diced (you may use the tinned version)
3 cups rice
4 cups water

(B)
200gm peeled prawns
1 diced tomato
2 tbsp fresh chopped coriander
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
sliced chillies - if you like it spicy

How to make:
Saute ground chillies, tomyam paste, onions and garlic til fragrant. Add celery slices, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. The smell shall fill your kitchen by now :) Splash in some fish sauce, turmeric powder, salt and pineapples. Tip in your rice and ensure they are well incorporated and coated.

Transfer rice into your rice cooker and add 4 cups water (or as you normally would in your rice cooker). Keep an eye on it, as soon your rice has absorbed most of the liquid, stir in ingredients B and keep the lid on til ready to serve ;)

Enjoy!

Pistachio Souffles

2009-01-24T23:33:00.000+10:30

I've entered into third trimester today hence a little 'celebration'

Pistachio Souffles
20g plain flour
150ml milk
60g caster sugar
4 egg yolks
30g soft unsalted butter
100g ground pistachios - I grind my own with mortar and pestle. I like mine to have some crunch to it, not completely ground
2 drops almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract - I used vanilla bean paste
1/2 tsp orange-flower water
5 egg whites
pinch of salt
10g dark chocolate squares - I used 2 small blocks of Cadbury chocolates

Preheat oven to 200C
Grease 4 ramekins or souffle cups with butter and dust with sugar.

Place the flour in a saucepan with a little of the 150mls milk just enough to blend. Whisk til no lumps appear. Add in the rest of the milk and the 60g sugar. Whisk over medium heat til almost to a boiling point. Take off from heat and keep whisking which will then make it thick and glossy. Let it cool a little, otherwise when you add in the egg yolks, it may just scramble. Add in 4 egg yolks one at a time, whisking on each addition. Then whisk in the 30g butter.

Now watch that mixture in your hands turn custardy-yellow. Yum.

Add your ground pistachios, almond, orange-flower water and vanilla extract and mix them all in well. Watch it now turn pistachio-green and smells intoxicatingly good.

Here's how mine look like.

With a hand mixer, beat your 5 egg whites in a clean, dry, glass bowl with a pinch of salt til soft peaks form. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of caster sugar and beat again til thick and glossy.

Take 1/4 of your eggwhite mixture and lighten your pistachio mix. Fold the rest in.

Place mixture into your ramekins half full. Top with your chocolate squares.

Cover with the rest of your mixture.

Now we have a hidden chocolate secret :)
Place your souffles into the preheated oven, turning it down to 180C and bake for 12-15 minutes.

Ta-dahhh!!

Revealing our little dark secret

Serve immediately.

I must admit mine took longer than 15 mins. Once it has risen above the ramekin brims and golden on top, it's done. I made half this recipe coz well, there's only the two of us here. This recipe was taken from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess" book. Thank you Kak Long for this book which has now covered with flour, pen marks, splattered with butter and if you look closely, you might be lucky to find cake crumbs in between the pages. Koda's hobby.

So I may know how to make a yummy souffle. But if you ask me to cook ikan singgang (a very simple Malay dish), I'd have absolutely no idea. If Mak Cha or Mama finds out, I'd be hearing a round of sing-a-long nag thousands of miles away.

Help!

Garlic Fan Bread

2009-01-23T18:51:00.001+10:30

Found this fancy bread on Zack's few month back and felt intrigued to try them out. I halved the recipe to suit both of us and I must admit mine turned out a little burnt. But yummy nevertheless! =)

Garlic Fan Bread

Ingredients:
225ml warm milk
15g fresh yeast - 5g instant yeast
2 tsp caster sugar
450g bread flour
2 tsp salt
30g shortening - butter
1 egg, beaten

55g butter, salted
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
How to make:
Combine milk, yeast and caster sugar til frothy.
Sift flour and salt together. Rub shortening (or butter) into flour mix.
Make a well in the centre of flour mix and pour in yeast mixture and egg.
Combine and knead 8-10 minutes by hand til smooth.
Place dough in a bowl covered with thin olive oil, turning it over so oil covers entire dough ball.
Cover bowl with plastic wrap and leave to prove til double in size.

Mix the 55g butter, garlic and chopped parsley.
Preheat oven 190C.
Spray muffin tins with olive oil spray or butter.
Punch dough and knead 2 minutes. Roll out into rectangular size to 80cm x 30cm.
Spread butter, garlic and parsley mixture.
Cut lengthways to 6 strips.
Layer each strip on top of one another and cut into 16 pieces.
Place each piece in prepared muffin tins and leave to prove for 30 mins.

Bake 20 mins til golden.

This recipe takes time and effort to make. And keep a close eye when its baking in the oven. An alternative to the traditional garlic bread =) You can vary them and make them into sweet, soft cinnamon fan bread. Anything to your fancy. Enjoy!

Beef Wonton

2008-11-25T09:15:00.000+10:30

Filling:
Minced beef
Soy Sauce
Spring onions
Mushrooms
Sesame oil
Pepper
Lemongrass paste
Coriander

How to make:
Combine all ingredients in a bowl and marinate for 1/2 to 1 hour.
Spoon 1/2 tbsp of mixture onto wonton/gow gee wrappers.
Seal edges with water and squeeze tops.

May be steamed, fried or boiled with soup.
May also be stored in freezer before cooking.

Molten Chocolate Pudding

2008-08-17T09:01:00.000+09:30

Bill Grainger's Molten Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients:
Cocoa powder + some butter to grease ramekins
50g good quality chocolate
50g butter
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
1tsp plain flour

How to make:
Preheat oven at 220c
Grease and dust 2 ramekins, shake excess out.
Melt chocolate and butter.
Beat egg, egg yolk and caster sugar til light and fluffy.
Pour melted chocolate into the mixture.
Sift in plain flour and gently, gently fold in mixture.
Spoon mixture into ramekins
Bake 10 mins.
Serves 2.

English Muffins

2007-06-01T18:37:00.000+09:30

Early this morning (approx. 2 or 3 am) while everyone was occupied with their work, I snucked out and into the kitchen to make these..

Took the recipe from Zack, made half the recipe and got 6 of them. Just nice =)
So after some sleep, we had these with sausages I shaped flat and eggs to fit in the between the muffins which I cut into half and toast them in the toaster and layer a piece of cheese. YUM!

Spiral CurryPuffs

2007-05-28T10:46:00.000+09:30

I remember helping my aunt twisting the sides of curry puffs till my thumb hurts so bad for 2 days =( More reason to skip school!
She made hundreds of them and she'd call me to help her on school holidays. I was probably 9 when she taught me to do this the traditional way.

I suppose that's the last time I ever touched an uncooked curry puff waiting to be 'twisted' =p

Today my beloved fiance mentioned about making them. Not that he knows how to but the way he talks about them, intrigued me to making them again (good strategy, huh)

And here they are.

finished version waiting to be deep fried

I've never tried making curry puffs from scratch. I only know how to twist them. So my first attempt turned out horrendous! The oil was too hot, later I learned. As if the basic is not a disaster enough for me, I tried my hands on making the spiral types. And it turned just right!

Many, many thanks to people whom put step by step pictures online =) =) I've searched too many websites to include them all in here (and to remember, actually) =P Sorryy..

time to tuck in!

To Mamafami, actually my beloved Khairul did the fillings for these puffs. (Yep, unfortunately he has good hands in cooking! =D ) Here's how he did the filling his way:

250g minced meat
1 potato, cubed small pieces
1 small carrot, cubed small pieces
1 tsp cIli boh, to saute (omit if you can't handle heat, or just put a small amount, as the curry paste is already hot)
1 onion, cubed
2 garlic cloves, diced
1 curry leaf
1 tbsp curry powder
sugar to taste
salt and pepper to taste
bit of water if the potato and carrot takes a while to cook

Marinate the mince with curry powder while preparing other ingredients.
Saute the cili boh with oil, add onions til soft, then add garlic.
Throw in curry leaves and mince til half brown, add in potatoes and carrots and bit of water enough to cook the carrot and potato.
Leave filling to dry on medium heat but keep an eye on it. Add bit of sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

*I personally love Worcesterchire sauce, so I may add some to the marinade but it won't taste traditional, eh =)

Mashed Potatoes with Parsley

2007-05-27T07:55:00.000+09:30

One of the simpliest dish I've learned to make since living on my own.

Mashed potatoes.

Simple ingredients:
Potatoes, cubed and boiled soft with salt
Milk
Butter
Salt and Pepper

I added parsley to give it a different look and taste. Leftovers? Can be used to make Shepherd's Pie or potato bread. OR even better, cover leftovers bowl with cling wrap and microwave it the next day! =)

Homemade Pita Bread

2007-05-13T11:17:00.000+09:30

There's some gravy from the fish head curry we had last night. It was honestly too good to throw them away. So I purposely woke up early to make these and eat with the leftovers.

Red Beans filled Donuts/Buns

2007-05-09T11:08:00.000+09:30

Phew!

At last, the second attempt at making these sweet filling donuts turned to success!
Following Zack's advise, these sweet "pau goreng" as my fiance and my friends here calls them are very very filling. I barely could finish my dinner after having few of these late afternoon =)

So here's how mine turned out to be =D

From the success of last night's red beans filling (the one fiance altered) we ended up having extra red beans mash so I gathered my confidence to try again on Zack's recipe and wallah!! As mom always say, never give up =D I up-ed the liquid amount little by little to almost 200mls, and man, was I so worried the dough would end up in the bin. But as advised, I continued kneading (though the dough started to stick everywhere on our kitchen counter) and kneading and in the end, I got myself an almost soft dough. It wasn't as soft as other bread doughs I tried making before but enough to shape them and fill them well =) So as usual, the filling was not enough so I filled the remaining 4 balls with sugar, and the other remaining 3 dough with honey (fiance loves the honey they produce here) Well the honey filled actually leaked out after the second proofing =p As for the rest of the balls, here they are..

filled with red beans!! Yum! Thanks Zack!!

Blueberry Jam Steamed Buns

2007-05-07T18:58:00.000+09:30

Oh me oh my.. my bomb-sized steamed buns! =)

I got the recipe from Mamafami, while they were nice, round and honestly, I thought my paper cutting as the base were too large, but once they get into the steamer, they rose so much that my first batch almost burst out and as if the steamer basket were not big enough!! Well let alone the paper, they almost couldn't be seen anymore =D !

These are what homemade baking are all about, I've always only eaten pau bought from stalls or bakery shops back in Msia but today, was definitely an eye-opener =)

There were red kidney beans leftovers from making chilli corn carne the other day and I was running out of ideas what to make, I've not gathered enough confidence yet for a second attempt to Zack's red beans filled donuts so darling fiance suggested "steamed buns"! Searched for a simple recipe and found it! So I gathered all the ingredients and started combining and kneading and filling, only to find halfway through, my filling was not enough oops!! There are some dried red beans so I quickly boil them accordingly and in the midst of everything, the beans were still hard and couldn't be prepared! Annoyed, I searched the fridge in the hope of finding some "kaya" (hell, there's no kaya available in Aust but crossed my fingers anyway) and what do you know? I found some blueberry jam which has not been so famous lately.

And here they are.. blueberry jam filled pau!

Yummy eh?

Nutty Coffee Scrolls

2007-05-07T08:09:00.000+09:30

I have to say, I should have taken a picture of them before they were baked to show you all how hillariously funny my scrolls turned out! They were cute and petite, nicely cut into scrolls just to fit the muffin cups, then once they went into the oven, they huffed and puffed and turned HUGE !!

Anyway, the best part is their taste. Not too sweet with a coffee-ish twist to them and crunch of nuts on top. Took this recipe from Zack's webpage (which also has no name to it, so I creatively create a name for your creation, Zack hope you don't mind) So here's how mine went!

Yummy!

Thank you dear Zack for the lovely recipe =)

Thai Beef Dumplings Soup

2007-05-03T07:35:00.000+09:30

Jacket Potatoes with Chilli Corn Carne

2007-05-02T07:42:00.000+09:30

This is what we had for dinner tonight. Jacket potatoes with chilli corn carne. I've been meaning to try this out and had actually saved some chuck steak for the chilli corn carne so since my fiance didn't go to work today, I tried my hands on making these.

It was actually pretty easy. Just takes a bit of time to roast the potatoes and make the corn carne.

Complete Homemade Burger

2007-05-01T11:20:00.000+09:30

Found a burger bun recipe but my buns didn't turn out as I hoped for *grunts* Oh well, but that didn't stop me from making burgers for dinner =)

I made everything from scratch from the buns to the burger to the mushroom sauce. Here's how I did it.

Minced meat
Onions, finely diced
Worcestershire sauce
Breadcrumbs
Fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Almost all recipes I looked for calls for an egg in the mixture but I omitted it and added a bit extra breadcrumbs. The shape held just fine =)

As for the mushroom sauce, just garlic and thick cream. Then rocket leaves and a piece of cheese! Because my buns were small so I made mini burgers and it reminded me of Son of Mac (a smaller version of Big Mac they are offering at MacDonalds here) =D

Cheese and Herbs Buns

2007-04-27T18:55:00.000+09:30

Cheese and Herbs buns anyone..?

..baking in the oven!

done!

Cinnamon Rolls with Cream Cheese topping

2007-04-25T18:43:00.000+09:30

I have been meaning to try this a looooong time ago and this I must say, is the shortest table life-span in this house, ever! Aida came over to get some recipes and proof read her lab report. It's been ages since I last touched or read a lab report and it was not fun but I remember how difficult it was so proof-reading it for her was nothing compared to actually doing it.

It's Anzac day so I made coconut rice (nasi lemak) with sambal kerang and some vegetables for lunch.

And then comes..

..yummylicious!

They were warm from the oven hence beautiful to have :cloud9: Frankly, it's not difficult to make. Just needs a little bit of patience and time. Oh and good quality fresh ingredients. I thought of having these for snack tomorrow night after my session but seeing how fast it disappeared from the table, was even more delightful!

So it's the end of holidays and tonnes of assignments and work awaits! Time to wake up now =)

Thai Beef Salad

2007-04-25T07:27:00.000+09:30

Tried a dough recipe from Zack's fotopage. Didn't turn out well. Second time, still not as well. Tired from figuring what I did wrong with the dough, I made a simple beef salad dinner for us. I've saved a piece of rump steak to make this salad from one of my food mag.

The ingredients:
chinese cabbage (wombok)
carrots
tomatoes
1 chilli
lemongrass
red onion and garlic

And that's it! =) Simple eh? As for the dressing, some fish sauce, sugar and one lime (juiced). Season the steak (salt, pepper, olive oil) and throw it on your grill till medium then rest 5 mins and slice it up. Toss everything around and there you have a nice refreshing salad ;-)

Sweet Sour Fish and Tangy Squid Salad

2007-04-24T07:45:00.000+09:30

These days we were always onto chicken or beef. So today we went to the market (again..!) and got ourselves a whole fish and some squids. I had browsed through some Asian recipes and decided to give ikan tiga rasa (sweet sour fish) and kerabu sotong (squid salad) a try.

..and wallah!

We bought perch fish, and the recipe is very very very easy. Fiance said it tastes better than the sweet sour fish we had in M'sia. Well, that means this recipe is a winner and for keep then! Thanks Kak Liza!

As for the kerabu sotong, is another very simple dish. When a recipe is easy and simple, trust the words from us students =)

Garlic, Feta and Herbs Pull-apart

2007-04-22T11:24:00.000+09:30

please excuse the burnt top!

soft and pillowy..

Today I made this lovely pull-apart bread. Curious to know how it looks (the mag only has one small lousy pic of it =p ) and taste like, I decided to give it a try. And here's how it turned out!

I must admit, it does take a while to make this bread. The fiance almost gave up waiting but the end result was YUM!

..warm and buttery..

Well, for me it's definitely satisfying to see the end product doesn't end up in the trash bin nor take days to finish it. Sometimes it's not enough for some people, eh? =)

Chicken Tonight!

2007-04-17T07:38:00.000+09:30

We bought haloumi cheese to give it a try tonight. People here almost always have grilled haloumi on the side of their barbequed dishes. It is rubbery when cut but once grilled, the outside stayed crisp and inside goo-ey and cheesy. Yum.

I found these 2 chicken recipes a while ago. I like this Rosemary and Lemon chicken..

while my fiance prefers this Balsamic and Herbs number (mind the burn) :P

Both were delightful. A rich and tangy taste from his while a mild and light version from mine. While the griller is hot and nice, I grilled some leftovers carrots, capsicums and cherry tomatoes from the bbq night and added some basil leaves to my salad dressing (olive oil, lemon and parsley). Then the grilled haloumi and roast potatoes. Perfect =)

Focaccia Bread

2007-04-15T18:30:00.000+09:30

Boredom filled in. So here's Focaccia Bread my first try at making bread =) which then I made into several sandwiches including scrambled egg sandwich and cherry tomatoes with melted mozarella cheese. Frankly, this bread suits savoury fillings. I tried with cream cheese and decided I prefer savoury fillings. Next time, I'll roll out and rest the dough a bit longer to get a thicker and softer bread. Yum!

Kung Pao Chicken

2007-04-15T07:58:00.000+09:30

Okay, honestly.. in the midst of excitement to see how this dish turns out, we forgot to take picture of the final product =p but here are pictures of it in the making =)

rice cooking, dip chicken in batter (cornflour n seasoning), fry!

the fried pieces of chicken

dried chillies, garlic and onions

sauce in the making!

Beef Skewers ans Strawberry Jalousie

2007-04-14T10:40:00.000+09:30

We arranged for the BBQ set to be available for us Friday night. So friday night comes and here's what we made!

Dear finace marinated the chunk beef and made beef skewers with capsicums, onions and cherry tomatoes. I wanted to add haloumi but we couldn't find any good ones today at the market. Those cherry tomatoes were so juicy and sweet!

I on the other hand made a dessert. It's called Strawberry Jalousie. I've never heard of it either but it turned out delish! One was not enough so I made it twice yet still people had to fight over the last piece! It was crispy on the outside and the strawberries oozed out when cut. Yummy!

Vanilla Custard and Strawberry Scroll

2007-04-11T18:41:00.000+09:30

As the fiance decided not to go work today, I woke up and made these scrolls! The recipe called for passionfruits but since we couldn't find a fresh one at the market yesterday, plus with the overflowing strawberries in the fridge, I made a change to strawberry scrolls instead. And here's how it turned out!

Frankly, I should have added sugar to the dough but I figured at the time that the custard and strawberry icing would have made it super sweet. My bad. Nevertheless, they were all gone by midnight =P

Chicken Soup and Strawberry Pudding

2007-04-09T18:51:00.000+09:30

I realize we both enjoy cooking together on weekends when we have nothing to do. So today since it's a public holiday and most shops/groceries are closed, we decided to make something for dinner. He made chicken soup, which I had mine with some udon noodles that were on sale today, and he had his by its own. We ended swapping and he finished mine instead =p

With lots of strawberries in the fridge from handpicking them at the farm the other day, I decided to try french pudding. It turned out allright but although the recipe calls for brown sugar, I think using castor sugar would have made the strawberries looked nicer =) Nevertheless, the pudding didn't even last 5 hours on the table. All gone!

Fettucine Meatballs with Tomatoes and Herbs pasta

2007-03-26T08:07:00.000+09:30

This is a new creation by me which perhaps have been created by some Italians long time ago hehe but nevertheless, I have no idea what I'm doing until it turned up to be this!

But it was tasteful and colorful. I added my own kitchen herb grown basil and tomatoes to it and it was scrumptious! Of course, the fiance absolutely loves it too!