614: berry blissed
Baked a birthday cake for my lil cousin’s 4th birthday today! It’s gonna be my present for her.
Oreo base, lemon-zest vanilla beans cheesecake with hidden blueberries, sour cream layer and raspberries/blueberries toppings! I’m really pleased with how it turned out to be.
464: Dried Apricots and Currants Scones
As promised, I baked some dried apricots and currants scones, using the recipe adapted from a blog, Treats. The scones are so tall and pretty! These are one of the tallest and prettiest scones I’ve baked! OMG I cannot wait to eat them for breakfast tomorrow! Imagine them warm or hot with strawberry or raspbery jam spread in between the scone layers! These are going to be breakfast for the next few days! Yay so happy because I’m so productive today.
Okay! Now it’s time for some episodes of The Big Bang Theory before I call it a day! (:
The recipe from Treats. I pretty much just had dried apricots and currants in 1:1 ratio to make up 3/4 cups for the scones. Otherwise, I followed really closely to the recipe.
463: A Typical Saturday!
Just a typical Saturday today! It’s October already!
Woke up early today, headed to work early as always! I’m always an hour early for work! Hadn’t realised that it’s Saturday today and traffic was ultra good. So I had more time to bum around before work. For some reason, I love the hospital on a Saturday morning. Everyone feels not-quite-awake yet. It’s probably cause’ everyone’s in a weekend mode.
Work on a Saturday was good. I had time to do my stuff, catch up on some work and do some readings. Dilly-dallied, fiddled with my documents in my laptop, did some random food surfing, fiddled with my notes and casenotes before leaving the hospital at around 2 plus! Decided to head down to town to roam around alone for a teeny tiny while. I couldn’t resist the beautiful display of macarons at TWG Tea Salon at the basement food hall of Takashimaya. They were so beauuuuutifuuuul! So exquisite looking! And I read from many food blogs that the macarons at TWG were pretty good. So I got a box of six! I’m spending money unnecessarily on food again. Anyway, this box of 6 macarons will last me for a week or two. It’s too pricey and exquisite to gulp them down all at one shot. Got to savour them slowly! The last time my box of Canele macaroons lasted me two weeks!
Anyway, I got two earl grey with chocolate (the brown ones), napoleon black tea with caramel (the black one), 1837 black tea with blackcurrant (dark pink), moroccan mint tea (white) and bain de rose tea (light pink). I should have gotten another different flavour to try instead of getting two earl grey ones! Oh wells, I wasn’t thinking right then! Never mind, another time.
I want to get down to baking macarons/macaroons soon! Mark my words! (:
And after the little town adventure, I headed home before heading out right away for a run! I’ve been craving for a run soooo badly. So I had to make sure I run! I feel good. Oh yeah! (: I’m going running again tomorrow!
Didn’t feel like going out with the parents and the uncle and aunties for dinner so I decided to stay home with sis. She cooked her usual hiyashi chukka ramen with her same old favourite flowy egg and edamame. So boring! I decided to cook myself some good old homemade pumpkin soup. Hot homemade soup warms my soul (:
Digged out some leftover pumpkin and baby carrots from the fridge. Boiled the pumpkin and carrots until soft before blending them in the blender with some good chicken stock. Added extra virgin olive oil to the pan and caramelised some onions and garlic. Throw in the onions and garlic into the blender and blend until slightly viscous and homogeneous. Transfer the blended mixture into a pot and stir until it bubbles and boils. Meanwhile, add in herbs and spices as you wish. I added in some black pepper, oregano flakes and rosemary leaves. Once it bubbles and boils, it’s ready to be served. Add a dash of dried basil on the soup and tah-dah! It’s good to eat! (:
Warms my soul and makes me a happy girl (: This crazy girl is off to bake some tall dried apricots scones (for breakfasts for the next few days) now before retiring off with some episodes of The Big Bang Theory and perhaps, some work. Alright, maybe no work. Saturday will be a R&R day and I’m NOT doing any work today! The work shall wait. Tomorrow it shall be (:
Tata (:
438: Walnut Moontarts
Having runner’s high after the run in the evening! So therapeutic! I felt really really good and happy! It must be the endorphins! I ran alone so it’s just me myself and some really good music! It is so important to have the right kind of music when running to get you through the run! Me thinks some light rock/rock music helps! Haha I’ve been listening to Neon Tree’s Animal on repeat while running (Love the Glee Warblers version too) ! I love the guitar in the background! It’s been a while since I’ve ran (oh my gosh, way more than 12 weeks ago, before pre-reg actually started)! Felt soooooooo unhealthy! I’m sooooooooo going to do more running from now onwards and it starts today! Yeah!:)
Anyway, my walnut moontarts were successful! LEAPS OF JOY! Haha the recipe yielded about 40 moontarts and basically 24 (3 boxes of 8) will go to the grandparents, Aunt Jenny and family and Uncle Peter and family. I hope they’ll like it! I did everything all by myself, right from sourcing the recipe to physically making the pastry dough etc. I thought my Mum would be helping me but she was soooo evil. She happily left everything for me to do while she happily watched her Hong Kong dramas! Daddy did help me weigh out the white lotus paste and placed the walnuts on the tarts! Anyway, they look so pretty! I’m so proud of these little babies but I’m so biased. So please ignore me. 😦
Recipe is from Baking Mum.
Anyway, I love this acoustic live version of Neon Tree’s Animal.
And also, the version from the Warblers!
383: Paper Sponge Cake
I’m thankful that the angioedema due to my allergic response to aspirin subsided pretty quickly. When I woke up this morning, the swelling in the right lower eyelid was gone. Thankfully! It was pretty uncomfortable having this tiny bump under my right eye. No more puffy goldfish. As for now, the next time someone asks if I’ve any drug allergy, it’ll be Aspirin. Daddy is allergic to Aspirin and NSAIDS too. At least, I’m putting what I’ve learnt in school to good use now. Haha! (:
Anyway, with just 1 and a half weeks left before work officially starts, I have to play to my heart’s content. The irritating thing is that I’ve to attend a 3 full day First Aid course next week so that means with 3 days gone, I’ve only 1 week left to the start of work (and yes, downhill from then on).
I’ve decided to bake paper sponge cake today, using the recipe from Happy Flour.
The sponge cake was lovely, it was really light and fluffy within. And cheap thrill! I love the top browned crust, that’s a little crispy. This is a very light cake! If not for my personal self-restraint, I believe anyone can devour a few at a go. It’s healthy too, since there’s no use of butter at all.
Head over to Happy Flour for the recipe!
379: Cheesecake Cocoa Brownies
I saw these cheesecake brownies on The Way It Crumbles and was instantly drawn to it! They were so beautiful and so fudgey! It’s actually my first attempt at this recipe and also, a cocoa brownies (no chocolates involved). The cocoa brownies recipe was from the Best Cocoa Brownies recipe, adapted from Alice Mendrich’s Bittersweet. It’s the famous recipe that many bloggers online stand by! It’s really really awesome! I tried one tiny slice and oh my god, it’s so sticky, chewy, fudgey, rich and chocolatey! It’s my definition of the perfect brownie texture! Who knows that even without chocolates, you can have such rich chocolatey goodness! I was a little afraid that the amount of sugar used would be crazily too much but I guess you need some of those sweetness to counter the bitter cocoa powder. The brownie wasn’t overly sweet and the sweetness was just perfect. The cheesecake layer was adequately ‘tart’ and my tastebuds think the sweetness was just nice as well. This is definitely the recipe to keep! Alright, it’s currently my favourite brownie recipe because it’s so yummy plus I have all the ingredients ever ready in my kitchen so it’s really convenient to just bake them!
So head over to The Way It Crumbles for the full recipe of the cheesecake brownies and admire those beautiful pictures! I was in a rush so I merely took some photos with the iPhone and I think they’re presentable enough (?). Haha! I actually baked the brownies a tad longer because even after 20-25 minutes (as stipulated by the recipe), my brownies weren’t set yet. So I actually baked the brownies for 35 minutes and left them in the oven (with door ajar) for about 10 minutes. So the baking time will depend on the oven! My oven’s getting a little cranky with age! I will love to own one of those Borsch conventional ovens with those beautiful stainless steel rims, clear shiny extra large glass window and those cool electronic display! Haha but that’s a distant dream because one of those would costs a few thousands.
Anyway, I’m going to bring them for the chalet later! (: Hope the friends will like them! ARGHHH the weather is so so so so so hot, the sun is just awful and terrible and I really don’t wish to leave the house in such a weather. But I have to. ARGHHH!
Edit: The friends really liked the brownies a lot! I am so so glad! They finished quite a lot! And I brought some for the cousins and the aunt too. The cute little one ate it so well and even told me that it’s really nice! The aunt even praised that the brownies were really nice! I’m so happy! Lalalalaaa~ Haha!
369: French Apple Tart (Tarte Aux Pommes)
French apple tart has been on my to-bake list for the longest time. Ever since I got the metal tart mould from Daiso, I haven’t baked any tarts with it (except for using it to bake my scottish shortbread cookies). Anyway, I bought a bunch of Granny Smith green apples just last week just for this attempt of the french apple tart.
And I must say that the french apple tart is really good! I’m really amazed as well. I had a really good apple tart slice years ago someplace which I can’t seem to remember and I’ve been wanting to bake something similar!
The french apple tart is really really simple and it’s worth giving it a try! I adapted the recipe from Baking Library. The pastry was really as described, buttery flaky and crumbly. The perfect tart pastry, in my opinion. The apple slices were crisp at the edges but juicy and mildly firm. I love that there was a slightly tartness to the Granny Smith green apples and the slight sweetness of the cinammon-sugar mixture and the apple syrup glaze complements the tartness.
BEFORE BAKING
AFTER BAKING
I’m lazy to type out the recipe but head over to Baking Library for the step-by-step tutorial for making the pastry (Pâte Brisée) for the apple tart. My little improvisation was that after laying out the apple slices on the tart, I melted 2 tbsp of butter and spread the melted butter thinly over the apple slices and also a little on the crust sides. Then instead of just using 2 tbsp of sugar, I mixed in 1/4 tsp of cinammon powder with the sugar to form the cinammon-sugar mixture. I then sprinkled the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the apple slices to coat them.
As for the glaze, I didn’t exactly use the apricot jam glaze in the recipe as I was lazy to head down to the supermarket near my place just to get a jar of apricot jam (I have only blueberry jam at home). So I made an apple syrup glaze. It’s pretty simple and you can make full use of the entire apple! Basically, I throw in 1/2 cup of castor sugar and all the peels and cores from the 4 apples that I have into a medium saucepan. I then fill it with water (not too much) until it covers the mixture and allow it to simmer over low-medium heat for about 25 minutes. I then strain the peels and the cores and you should get a slight-viscous apple syrup glaze!
So after baking the tart and allowing it to cool for at least 15 minutes, you can brush on the apple syrup glaze thinly (or generously) to coat each apple slice!
Then you get your delicious french apple tart! (: My tart mould was pretty small so I actually used 2 to 2 1/2 apples for the large tart. As for the leftover tart dough and apples, I used them to make 12 mini apple tarts!
367: Tea Time!
I had this for tea today! Nice cup of Twining’s Earl Grey Tea and a lovely vanilla wafer (Bahlsen Hannover Waffeln from Germany)!
363: Shopping Haul at Fairprice Finest Bukit Timah
After baking the scones, I decided I wanted to ‘get out’ of the house. Although the weather out there was terribly hot, I decided to brave the hot scorching sun to do some ‘marketing’ at Fairprice Finest Bukit Timah.
Here’s what I got!
(From left, clockwise): Carman’s Dark Chocolate Cranberry and Almond Muesli bars, Carman’s Yoghurt Apricot and Almond muesli bars, Taiwanese Kyoho grapes, fresh Arugula (wild rocket) from Australia, fresh chicken thigh meat
I’ve decided that lunch tomorrow will be grilled teriyaki chicken thigh on a bed of fresh Arugula! I’m trying to attempt the Mcdonald’s Chicken McGrill salad! I haven’t tried that before but the pictures on the adverts look super good. And yes, Kyoho grapes! They’re in season so I had to get one of these boxes. Love the sweet wine taste of the grapes (plus they taste like japanese gummies). And I had NO IDEA Carman’s have two new versions of their muesli bars. I used to have a Carman’s muesli bar in my bag when I go for classes in uni. So when I’m hungry, I can just unwrap the bar and pop them into my tummy. The Yoghurt and Dark Chocolate versions look so good only because yoghurt and dark chocolates are just two of my favourites! So I got them!
Hehe! Washed Kyoho grapes for tea! 🙂 Yummy yummy!
362: More Scones Love (Perfect Scones!)
I did it! I just met my Mr (Scones) Right! Okay, that’s apparently not funny! But I made some fine scones this afternoon! They were tall, split right across the centre, lovely browned and so fluffy! It’s like meeting my perfect match, after many rounds of match-making. After so many rounds of experimentation, I found you! (:
Don’t feel like blogging so much about this batch of scones because I think the pictures speak a thousand words. I am so in love.
Golden Cranberry Scones Recipe
(Makes about 8 round 2.5″ diameter scones)
225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g butter (soft, at room tempature)
25g brown sugar
1 tbsp of honey
1 egg, beaten (made up to 150mL with cold fresh milk)
Cranberries (about 40-50g) –> Raisins or chocolate chips are good too!
Preheat oven to 220 degree Celsius. Mix the self-raising flour and baking powder in a bowl, add butter and rub it in with your fingertips untill the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
In a measure, crack egg and lightly beat it. Makeup to 150ml volume with fresh milk. Add in the brown sugar and honey and then mix until well-blended.
Stir in the egg-milk mixture into the dry ingredients (you can add in the cranberries in two additions here too) until a soft dough is formed (At this stage, the dough may be very sticky and moist). Turn the dough onto a lightly floured table, knead lightly and then roll out to 2cm thickness.
Refrigerate the dough until slightly firm, for at least an hour.
Cut into rounds with a cutter. Place them, spaced apart, onto a large baking sheet.
Brush the tops with a little fresh milk and bake for about 10 minutes or till golden brown.
Serve warm with jam! (or butter, or clotted cream with jam)
350: Wasabi Kit Kat
The aunty gave us each a pack of Wasabi Kit Kat her colleague got from Japan! I’ve always been awed and intrigued by the R&D departments of japanese food and beverage industry. I mean, their food engineers are always so innovative! Always thinking of new novel innovative ideas to integrate into their snacks and food!
I’ve heard of Soya Sauce Kit Kat and I’ve read that reviews were pretty good. Some described it as a salted caramel kit kat. Sounds very interesting? But I was a little apprehensive about this all-green Wasabi Kit Kat. For one, I do not like Wasabi. I don’t like the pungent taste that Wasabi lingers in my oral cavity. But I’m still pretty alright if the sushi chef decides to put a little into my sushi. I wouldn’t throw out the sushi entirely. And I do eat a few pieces of Wasabi coated/flavoured nuts occasionally. I guess Wasabi is pretty tolerable.
Kit Kat has outdone itself with another new flavour of Kit Kat. I was really surprised by how alike the Kit Kat finger tastes like Wasabi (erm yes, what else?). The first taste that hits is the sweet white chocolate. And then, your tastebuds are greeted by the taste of Wasabi. It has that familiar Wasabi taste. But the sweetness of the white chocolate softens the pungent taste of Wasabi. The taste lingers a little in my mouth and then disappears as the Kit Kat finger slides down into my esophagus. It’s quite awesome a product, I must say, although I ain’t a fan of Wasabi nor Kit Kat.
347: Craisin Scones
I’m scones crazy! My attempts at baking the scones the past year(s) or so haven’t been really successful. Haven’t attempted many recipes but they all fall short of my ‘ideal’ scone. So I resorted to satisfying my scones cravings with store bought scones from the local bakeries (like Oishii Bakery or Four Leaves) and Cedele. I’ve thrown out flat scones, scones that taste disgustingly flour-y/dough-y and just weird scones.
I decided to try this recipe by Gregoire Michaud because the scones are so beautifully tall and they look just like my ‘ideal’ scone. I’m so glad I haven’t given up on my search for the perfect scones recipe or in trying to perfect my scones making/baking skills. I’ll just need to perfect the way I cut out the scones to get those perfect round scones!
My scones were not as beautifully tall (with those lovely caps!) or pretty or perfectly round just like those featured in the blog of Gregoire Michaud but they smell and taste absolutely wonderful! I’m not kidding! The scones still smell so lovely 7 hours after baking them, in the container I’ve stored them in. I can’t help just lifting off the lid to take in a few whiffs of the lovely fragrances of the scones while studying.
Scones Recipe from Gregoire Michaud
Ingredients
- 500g flour
- 95g sugar
- 25g baking powder
- 125g butter
- 2 eggs
- 100ml milk (or cream if you dare!) —> I added cream because I’m brave! Haha! (:
- 60g sultanas (optional) –> I added a mixture of cranberries and sultanas/raisins!
Method
- Mix the flour, sugar and baking powder together with the butter until it resembles a crumble mixture
- Add the eggs and milk (and the sultanas last if required and mix in quickly)
- Leave the dough to rest for 10 minutes, then roll out to about 15mm high
- Cut into rounds and brush egg over the tops
- Bake at 200°C for approximately 20 minutes, until nicely golden brown
And NOW, I cannot wait for my breakfast tomorow. It’s scones for breakfast on Wednesday (and possibly, Thursday and Friday too)! Warm scones with orange preserve! I love 🙂
346: Another Scone for Breakfast
After the really delicious orange blueberry scone from Cedele, here’s another scone from my favourite local bakery, Four Leaves. It’s their cranberry scone! It looks really dry but I tell you, the microwave oven does magic to this one! Pop it in the microwave oven for 30 seconds and you get the soft crumbly cake-like scone!
And as usual, I had this scone with my orange marmalade (or simply any jam/preserve), warm. This scone wasn’t too bad, it was slightly drier than Cedele’s or my usual Oishii Bakery’s. But it was not bad. Oh yes, I heard that TCC (The Conoisseur Concerto)’s scones from their tea set are pretty good, would love to try them someday.
And yes, to continue with the scones craze! I baked some craisin (yes, cranberries and raisin) scones this afternoon! They were OMG delicious! They don’t look that pretty or tall (I’ll roll them out thicker the next time round) but they taste quite delicious unexpectedly. I haven’t had many successes with scones and this will be my best attempt thus far. Will blog in the next entry (:
342: Cedele (Rail Mall)
Cedele, is by far my favourite dining place! I’m so in love with the food at Cedele! Fell crazily in love with Cedele from the very first mouth I bit into my Beetroot Avocado burger. The other good reason is that there’s a branch that’s only a 5 minutes’ walk from my place.
Met up with a few of my friends just last Friday for Cedele. The friends are all Cedele converts too! We ordered a few dishes to share. We had the grilled vegetables chutney sandwich on a rustic white with sesame bread and a mushroom overload burger on golden pumpkin bread. We had pumpkin soup and boston clam chowder to share, along with free flow of bread. And something sweet to end off, we had the famed Cedele carrot walnut cake.
Didn’t take much pictures because we are all too hungry and filling our tummies was the primary objective!
I wanted to try the other vegetarian alternative sandwich, which is the grilled vegetables chutney sandwich. I have ALWAYS (yes, every single visit!) been ordering my good old boring Beetroot Avocado sandwich only because it’s so delicious and just SO SO SO good. Decided to try the grilled vegetables chutney sandwich and it was good. The grilled vegetables were so sweet, love the red capsicum and the pumpkin! Think what’s so special about Cedele is the spices they use in their food, the chutney used in the sandwich made the entire do-up very unique. But well, this was a good vegetarian alternative! But give me my Beetroot Avocado sandwich ANYTIME!
And we had the yummy carrot walnut cake. It was as usual, good. There were so many beautiful cakes in the little cake refrigerator. I was particularly extracted to the Pink Beet Cake for the most obvious reason. BEET, BEETROOT! (: It’s adorably pink with beet strips, I think. I read some reviews online and realised that it’s kind of like the red beet/beetroot version of carrot cake. How adorable! I’m going to try that the next time round. And yes, the chocolate pistachio cake was tempting too, I read that the layers are flourless. I love flourless cakes (think fluffed up egg whites and spongey layers, woohoo).
And how could I resist the breads and pastries? Bought 3 home! And I had this for breakfast on Saturday morning. I just popped the Orange Cranberry Hot Cross Bun into the microwave for 30 seconds and tah-dah, delicious breakfast. It was not too bad, Easter’s near so hot cross buns are popping out like Easter bunnies.
And yes, I love my scones. I love scones. I LOVE SCONES. Need I say enough? I tried the cranberry scone the last time, I think. Decided to get the Orange Blueberry scone and this was breakfast for Sunday (which is today). Again, I just popped the scone in the microwave for 40 seconds and tah-tah, moist soft fluffy scone for breakfast. And that’s not it yet. I spread a layer of orange marmalade between the scone and the warm scone will heat up the preserve and the fusion is just divine! The warm scone and the orange marmalade were terrific together! So good (:
I bought a small roll of my favourite organic wholewheat raisin walnut bread. I need to find an opportunity to eat it too. Breakfast for Monday?
341: Portuguese Egg Tarts
The portuguese egg tarts which I baked with the recipe online were not to my expectations. They look quite pretty but they were just not there yet. There’s probably something wrong with this store bought frozen puff pastry. I thought I would give this puff pastry a second chance. The first time I tried to make some peanut butter chocolate puffs with them, the pastry did puff up and brown on the top but the base still had the floury doughy taste which I didn’t like. This time round, after maxing out the baking time, the base of the egg tart was still pale and floury and doughy.
I don’t know what went wrong with the puff pastry.
But the texture of the egg custard was pretty close, but just way TOO sweet. The recipe called for too much sugar! I used less sugar already but it was still too sweet.
Oh wells, the experiment with portuguese egg tarts shall remain as it is for now. I’ll be holidaying in Macau after the exams, during my break before work commences and I think I would definitely want to satisfy those portuguese egg tarts cravings of mine then! They serve much better (or is the best?) portuguese egg tarts there since Macau’s famous for them!
339: Good Old Pound Cake
I’m currently in a pound cake baking frenzy! After the really good, delicious and popular condensed milk pound cake (which I discovered to my disappointment that they disappeared from the cake box on Monday! I’ve pound cake thieves at home!), I told myself that I needed to bake another to satisfy those pound cake cravings of mine!
I was lazy to leave home today (under the super hot sun, please!) just to get a can of condensed milk. And yes, condensed milk is ultra sinful as well. So I’ve decided to just experiment with a simple pound cake. Just some flour, milk, eggs and most importantly, butter and my precious bottle of pure vanilla extract.
I’m using the recipe from Joy Of Baking. The recipe is adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cake Bible. I did a simple google search on Rose Levy Beranbaum’s pound cake and the reviews were pretty good. There were people who mentioned that the pound cake was moist and dense. And most importantly, what’s so different about this recipe is that it does not use the usual creaming method.
I’m quoting from Joy Of Baking.
Instead of the more common ‘creaming’ method where the butter and sugar are creamed together first and then the eggs, followed by the the flour and milk are added, this recipe was what we call the ‘one bowl’ or ‘quick method’. This means all the dry ingredients are first put into a mixing bowl and then room temperature butter, together with the liquid ingredients are beaten into the batter. This method reduces the gluten formation in the flour and produces a cake that literally seems to melt-in-your-mouth and it has a very moist, dense and velvety texture.
Sounds so interesting right? But make sure all ingredients are at room temperature and that you follow the exact instructions (especially the time and speed of the mixing)! You do not want to overmix the batter!
True enough, this recipe yielded a really gorgeous pound cake! Really cottony and moist! It’s super light and fluffy too! I feel like I’m describing the clouds in the sky. But hey no, I’m loving this recipe too. But It’ll have to be placed #2 in my heart for now until I found something else to displace the #1 in my heart (which is the condensed milk pound cake). I’m thinking that the key to my heart is the condensed milk. Haha oh gosh, fat and sugary and all things unhealthy!
Recipe from Joy Of Baking
Ingredients
3 large eggs, room temperature
3 tablespoons milk, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (150 grams) sifted cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
13 tablespoons (185 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven. Butter or spray with a non stick vegetable spray, a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter the paper.
In a medium bowl lightly combine the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar) and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds or until blended. Add the butter and half of the egg mixture. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about one minute to aerate and develop the cake’s structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Gradually add the remaining egg mixture, in 2 additions, beating about 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the egg and strengthen the cake’s structure.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula or the back of a spoon. Bake for about 55 to 65 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you find the cake browning too much as it bakes, cover with a piece of lightly buttered aluminum foil after about 30 minutes.
Remove the cake from the oven and place on a wire rack.
336: Condensed Milk Pound Cake
Foodgawker is a terribly evil site but I love it. I introduced a friend to that site on msn one day and she told me that her expression went from -_- to O_O when the site loaded on her web browser. When I’m bored and have nothing to do online, Foodgawker is the site to visit.
I had the leftovers of the can of sweetened condensed milk from making the teh tarik ice-cream and this recipe came in handy. Condensed milk pound cake! The pictures of the blogger’s pound cake were really gorgeous and I was already sold when I saw the pictures. I told myself then that I had to make the pound cake and bookmarked the recipe. And this was the perfect time to do so since I have leftover condensed milk!
I have absolutely NO regrets making this pound cake because this is the BEST pound cake I’ve ever BAKED. The texture of the cake is unbelievably soft and moist and fluffy! The combination of the condensed milk, vanilla extract and butter is a lethal combination! I love this cake!
I adapted the recipe from the blog, Honest Vanilla. I was a little uncomfortable adding my eggs last to the batter so I added in the eggs right after beating the butter and sugar. I’m not sure what the difference it makes. It could probably be to prevent overbeating of the eggs since overbeating will result in a tough cake (that is not as light and fluffy). Perhaps I’ll try the right ‘documented’ way the next time round I bake this pound cake.
Condensed Milk Pound Cake
Adapted from: The Sweet Spot: Asian-Inspired Desserts by Pichet Ong and Genevieve Ko
Ingredients
- 1⅓ cup plain flour
- 226 grams of unsalted butter
- ¾ cup condensed milk
- ½ cup sugar
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Directions
- Preheat oven to 160°C and generously butter the loaf pan.
- Sift flour and baking powder and set aside.
- Whisk sugar, pure vanilla extract, butter and salt until light and fluffy.
- Pour in condensed milk and mix until well combined
- Add eggs (beaten) slowly, preferably in 3-4 additions into the mixture and mix well.
- Add sifted flour and baking powder bit by bit while continue whisking until completely incorporated. Scrap down the sides if necessary
- Pour batter to the loaf pan and bake for 1 hour.
- Cake is ready when the top is dark golden brown and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the middle of the cake.
Sliced thinly and packed away neatly in a tupperware! Possibly breakfast for the coming week, the occasional afternoon tea with Earl Gray and maybe a few slices as gifts for the cousin/aunt.
334: Teh Tarik Ice Cream
At the request of the sister, I made her teh tarik ice-cream. Got inspired from the recipe from Almost Bourdain.
Adapted the recipe and this is my version of teh tarik ice-cream! The ice-cream is REALLY good and creamy. The exact same taste and flavour as Island Creamery’s and I’m not kidding or praising my own ice cream. Used a 2:1 cream/milk ratio as this has worked perfectly well for me the past many times with David Lebovitz’s ice-cream recipes! Sorry for the ugly blobs/lumps on the ice-cream. I’m not too particular about the surface being ultra smooth as all I wanted to do at the moment was to FREEZE the ice-cream!
Teh Tarik Ice Cream
Makes 1 quart
Ingredients
500 ml cream
250 ml milk
9 Lipton tea bags (or any red/black tea)
5 egg yolks
6 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
Method
- Add cream, milk and tea bags in a saucepan and gently heat until just below boiling point.
- Remove from heat and let tea leaves infused for 30 minutes.
- Beat egg and sweetened condensed milk with an electric mixer until color turned pale.
- Add the milk mixture and whisk until combined.
- Pour the mixture into a double boiler and simmer slowly under the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon.
- Cool the custard mixture and churn in ice cream maker.
Maybe the next time round, I’ll infuse the tea for a longer period and add in just 1 more tea bag!
332: Gong Cha (Plaza Singapura)
I have succumbed to the recent Taiwanese bubble tea craze in Singapore. Yes, the bubble tea craze is back in Singapore after many many years. Sis has been raving about the famed Koi bubble tea ever since her return from Taiwan 2 years back. And yes, the queue for Koi is ever so long and crazy. I haven’t tried Koi yet because I don’t have the patience to queue 45 minutes for a cup of bubble tea. And yes, I think Koi’s famous for their pearls but I don’t like pearls in general. They are starchy and just weird. I heard the pearls in one cup of tea is worth the calories of a meal.
But I like Gong Cha. It’s another Taiwanese bubble tea chain that recently came to our shores. I’ve only tried one type of drink thus far and have been really faithful. My friends like the Taro milk tea, Earl Grey milk tea with 3Js and many others. But I’ve always been drinking the Alisan Milk Tea with no pearls and a sugar level of 30%. It’s just the perfect combination for me. The 30% sweetness is just perfect because you’re able to taste the lovely tea taste. And yes, it’s really unique. There’s a layer of foamy milk on the top of the tea, which you are supposed to mix in with the tea. The layer of milk is really unique because it tastes a little sour! But when mixed with the tea, it becomes really awesome!
Didn’t capture the before picture of the tea. But this is the tea after mixing in the milk.
YUM!
326: Madeleines (Delifrance)
It’s been ages since I’ve tried Delifrance’s madeleines so i bought a box of madeleines today! I wanted to see how they compare to those I’ve made at home and I must say they are pretty similar. Madeleines are best with a cup of hot Earl Grey tea.
Delifrance’s madeleines have those lovely lumps! The humps are more pronounced than those I’ve baked so far. It must be my impatience! I couldn’t resist letting them sit in the refrigerator before baking! I’m going to try another madeleines recipe soon and they mentioned that the madeleines are best left in the refrigerator for 3 hours to 2 days (!!!) before baking. Oh wells. And I only realised today that the vanilla smell of Delifrance’s madeleines is really strong! I love vanilla. And sitting in the fridge are two bottles of pure vanilla extract – my loves! There’s the famed Nielsen-Massey Madagascar pure vanilla extract and another unopened bottle of organic pure vanilla extract Mummy bought from a health site (health store). YAYS to lovely vanilla smell and fragrance and taste in my baked goods and NAYS to artificial vanilla essence!
Haha I’m motivated now! I want to bake some madeleines with my new metal madeleine moulds! SOON, I PROMISE!
326: Orange Butter Almond Muffins
I’m finally going to blog about my orange butter almond muffins sitting in those pretty pink polka-dotted muffin/souffle cups! OH gosh, I am so in love with those cute dainty pink polka dots! Was quite exasperated trying to upload images on WordPress that I gave up in the end. So here I am, back again!
These muffins were lovely! All I wish for in a muffin. I like my muffins dense, with a lovely orange taste (from the rinds) and a ‘hard’ lovingly browned crispy exterior (top hat!).
I gave half of what I baked to my aunt and cousins and as for the rest, I brought to school to share with friends! Baking is all about sharing. I like to give away (often the bulk!) of what I baked to people I care about. I hope they feel the ‘love’ while they’re tucking into those delectable goodies!
Got the recipe from one of my favourite local baking blogs here. I adapted the recipe by including the rinds from 2 oranges and some almond slivers to grace the top of the muffin. By the way, it’s actually a recipe for “orange butter cupcakes” but I thought it wasn’t as light as a cupcake should be. Typically I thought cupcakes need more eggs in their recipes to fluff the batter up! It was more a muffin to me.
Ingredients (makes 12) :
175g butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 cup plain flour
3 eggs
2 tsps baking powder
finely grated rind of 2 orange
2 tsps orange juice
directions :
1) place butter, caster sugar and grated orange rind in a mixing bowl and whisk mixture until light and fluffy.
2) add in eggs, one at a time and whisk until well combined between each addition.
3) sift together flour and baking powder over the butter mixture then fold in lightly using a metal spoon. add in orange juice and mix well.
4) spoon mixture into muffin cases until about 3/4 full and bake in a preheated oven of 160 deg c for 25 mins until skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
5) let cool completely before frosting or storing.
319: Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream
Once you get the hang of making ice-cream, everything is a breeze. If you grasp the basics of making the custard, everything is a breeze. The problem comes in when you are trying to modify the flavour or the taste of the ice cream. You need to ensure that the heaviness of the cream and the milk does not overpower the flavour of the ice-cream.
I think making ice cream is all about experimentation. The recipe book can tell you this amount but you need to modify the ice cream to your own taste and liking. More often, I find the trusty recipes from my ice-cream recipe books too sweet for my liking so I would bravely half (or even 1/3) the amount of sugar used. And as for the “flavours”, they may specify a specific weight or amount of ingredients needed (e.g. 1 vanilla pod, 2 tbsp of matcha powder, 2 tbsp of pure vanilla extract, 5 Earl Grey tea bags) but often, I find myself needing more than the specified amounts. There are obviously variations in the quality of ingredients used and I would prefer my ice cream with a deeper and more intense flavour, hence I would often increase the amount needed.
I love earl grey tea, for its citrusy bergamot flavours. I love bringing a mini thermo flask of hot earl grey tea to school on cold days or when I have lessons in extremely wintery (and humanely impossible to endure lectures in it without a trusty cardigan) lecture halls. And so I decided to embark on making the earl grey tea ice cream at the request of the younger sister and the mum. (That reminds me that I haven’t tried the Earl Grey and Fig ice cream from Cedele!)
This is the beautiful cocoa coloured Earl Grey Tea ice cream after churning and freezing in the freezer compartment for about an hour. It’s a little messy because I just plunked the freshly churned ice cream into the container without attempting to smoothen the top. But well, in my opinion, it looks messily beautiful.
The ice cream was really good, the earl grey tea taste was there. And there was a lovely citrusy aftertaste that lingered on in my mouth even after tasting the ice cream.
This time round, I modifed the Earl Grey Tea ice cream recipe I found online from here. I increased the number of tea bags used and decreased the amount of sugar. In addition, I threw in a handful of chopped toasted almonds since the family loves nuts. And I decided to make a small batch to yield about 500ml of ice cream.
Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream
makes about 500ml
2/3 cup whole milk
1 and 1/3 cup of heavy cream (or whipping cream)
1/4 cup sugar
7 Earl Grey tea bags
3 egg yolks
- Warm the milk, half and half, and sugar in a saucepan. Remove from heat, place tea bags in the pan, cover and steep at room temperature for an hour. Remove tea bags.
- Rewarm tea-infused milk. Whisk egg yolks together in a separate bowl. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the bowl with egg yolks, whisking constantly.
- Return the milk and egg mixture to the saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring and scrapping the bottom of the pan constantly until the mixture thickens to a custard and coats the spatula.
- Cool the mixture, and freeze in your ice cream maker (NOTE: I added a handful of chopped baked/toasted almonds into the ice cream maker while it was churning too.)
316: Vanilla Beans Madeleines
After many months (or a year or so) of hiatus, I decided to bake some madeleines! And this time round, I have the prized vanilla pod lying in the refrigerator. So off I went baking this batch of vanilla beans madeleines.
I must say it’s almost there. The taste is almost there. I haven’t tasted many madeleines in my whole lifetime and it would be so lovely to fly to France one day to try their famed madeleines. But well that can wait. So the best I’ve tried so far are the ones from Delifrance. And this batch of madeleines has the lovely fragrance of the vanilla beans! It’s buttery and oh-so-lovely with a cup of Earl Grey tea.
Not forgetting the lovely lovely hump of the madeleine.
I got this recipe from here, who in turn got the recipe from one of my favourite local baking blogs. Replaced the 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste with the beans from 1 vanilla pod (sliced lengthwise).
French Madeleines
(Recipe from Bossacafez, matcha powder omitted)
Ingredients
- 160g butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
120g cake flour
130g caster sugar
4.5g (about 1 heaped tbs) double acting baking powder
3 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
icing sugar, for dusting (optional)
Preheat oven to 200d Celsius.
Grease madeleine mold with butter, dust with flour and tap out the excess. Freeze the madeleine mold before baking.
Sift together cake flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together sugar and eggs until pale and fluffy. Add vanilla. Mix well.
Fold flour mixture into egg mixture followed by melted butter. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure that the butter is mixed in, leaving no oily residue on the sides.
Cover bowl with cling film and refrigerate it for at least 3 hours or overnight.
When ready, pour batter into mold using a pouring cup/jug. You may also use a spoon to fill the mold although a jug is a little less fussy. Fill the mold to fill 2/3 or 3/4 of the shell-shaped fill. Do not spread the batter out in the molds once poured in.
Bake in preheated oven for 10-13 mins, until puffed and golden around the edges.
P.S.: Meanwhile, I’ll continue searching for the metal madeleine pan/mould I desire. I don’t like that the silicon moulds doesn’t brown the bottom of the madeleine.
306: NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies Experimentation I
After reading the many food blogs on the legendary New York Times Chocolate Chip cookies that people have sworn by, I got tempted to bake the NYT cookies as well. Try googling “NYT chocolate chip cookie” and you can read the many blogs of people who attempted the recipe! People have been baking this cookie for years since it was first published in NYT in 2008. I’m 3 years late but never too late huh!
The key differences between the NYT recipe and typical chocolate chip cookies recipe are that:
1) It uses a mix of bread and cake flour. It’s so rare to see bread flour being used in cookie recipes. Bread flour is a high gluten flour whereas cake flour is a low gluten flour. I guess the mixture of both, makes a medium gluten flour (just like how some bloggers still use all purpose flour to replace the mix of bread and cake flour).
2) It requires refrigeration of the cookie dough for at least 36 hours (max 72 hours). The time the cookie dough spends in the fridge is supposed to allow the dry ingredients to absorb the wet ingredients and to bring out the full flavours of the cookie. A lot of people have commented that this is the crucial part of this cookie recipe!
3) A sprinkle of good sea salt at the end before baking! Many have declared that the addition of the sea salt to the sweet chocolatey cookie does add dimensions to this simple chocolate chip cookie.
4) LARGE cookies have to be sent into the oven for baking. 3 1/2 ounce (generous golf ball size) dough is required (around 99grams). Apparently, it brings texture to the cookie. It will be crisp on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. Kind of like Subway cookies, no?
After reading all the lovely reviews online, I had to bake them! And since, Valentine’s Day is a week away, I wanted to bake some for my friends in school. And since, we’re graduating this June, this will probably be the last Valentine’s Day we’ll spend together as a clique or class. In Singapore (especially in our school days), Valentine’s Day is a day when we give lovely treats or gifts to people we care about (i.e. our friends in school etc). It’s not just a day for couples in love to spend their money on expensive flower bouquets or chocolates or overpriced food at restaurants. The past few years, I’ve been giving my friends chocolates but somehow, everyone’s giving each other chocolates. It gets kind of boring. So I decided to put my baking skills to use and bake some lovely treats for the friends this year! I was deciding between marble muffins or chocolate chip cookies. But I’ve decided that chocolate chip cookies it shall be!
And shall I bought a bag of good semi-sweet chocolate chips (couldn’t find any good chocolate discs) and a bottle of Le Saunier de Camargue Sel Fin de Camargue (aka Fine sea salt from the Camargue area in France). Couldn’t find the Le Saunier de Camargue Fleur de Sel so I had to settle with the fine sea salt! And together with my newly acquired Nielsen-Massey pure vanilla extract! It’s just completely wonderful.
I couldn’t resist baking one to try so I baked just one cookie after merely two hours of refrigeration. I wanted to see how big the cookie would ‘grow’ in the oven and to estimate the baking time in my oven, so that when I do bake all the dough this Friday for my Valentine’s Day gifts, they would turn out fine. And it could serve as an experimentation as to how refrigeration changes or modifies the cookie dough!
So this was after 2 hours of refrigeration! Not that pretty as I expected it to be. It wasn’t as flat as I hoped it would be. It was kind of fat in the centre. But the texture was not bad! It was crisp at the edges and the outside and soft on the inside. I’m hoping that after many many hours of refrigeration, the cookie would be prettier and better tasting! The refrigeration HAS TO do something to the cookie, right?
Anyway, this was impatient (not too large) chocolate chip cookie! With lovely french sea salt sprinkled on top. The salt DOES wonders to the cookie! Never skip the sea salt!:)
ALRIGHT! Till the NEXT TIME I blog about the NYT chocolate chip cookies EXPERIMENTATION 2, after at least 36 hours of refrigeration. Possibly this Friday, I hope.
The recipe is from New York Times and adapted from a renowned French pastry chef, Jacque Torres.
NYT Chocolate Chip Cookies
// // Adapted from Jacques Torres
Time: 45 minutes (for 1 6-cookie batch), plus at least 24 hours’ chilling
2 cups minus 2 tablespoons
(8 1/2 ounces) cake flour
1 2/3 cups (8 1/2 ounces) bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) light brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (8 ounces) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds bittersweet chocolate disks or fèves, at least 60 percent cacao content (see note)
Sea salt.
1. Sift flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Set aside.
2. Using a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugars together until very light, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla. Reduce speed to low, add dry ingredients and mix until just combined, 5 to 10 seconds. Drop chocolate pieces in and incorporate them without breaking them. Press plastic wrap against dough and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours. Dough may be used in batches, and can be refrigerated for up to 72 hours.
3. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat. Set aside.
4. Scoop 6 3 1/2-ounce mounds of dough (the size of generous golf balls) onto baking sheet, making sure to turn horizontally any chocolate pieces that are poking up; it will make for a more attractive cookie. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt and bake until golden brown but still soft, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack for 10 minutes, then slip cookies onto another rack to cool a bit more. Repeat with remaining dough, or reserve dough, refrigerated, for baking remaining batches the next day. Eat warm, with a big napkin.
Yield: 1 1/2 dozen 5-inch cookies.
Rina's Silly Musings 