Classic pound cake with Pumpkin Seeds

Recipe

Dinner

- Boiled veg & set aside
- Stir fry fried scallots, garlic, chili
- Add stock, oyster sauce, mushroom
- Pour over veg

Chai Por with egg.

Onion, radish, carrot, tomato, potato, ginger & pork soup.

Steam fish with tomato, ginger, chili, oil, light soy sauce.

Chocolate pound cake.

Dinner

Stir fry long beans with garlic and chili paste.

Pan fried fish.

Marinate chicken at least an hour with:
- dark & light soy sauce
- sesame oil
- white wine
- honey

Classic Pound Cake.

Oh, So Sinful

Chocolate fondant!

I used lesser amount of ingredients and the following are the rough measurements:
- 66g (½ cup) chocoloate
- 33g (¼ cup) flour
- 33g (about ¼ cup) sugar
- 66g (about ¼ cup) butter
- 2 eggs

Baking @ 180°C.

Served with vanilla ice-cream.

Chocolate ozzing out...

Classic Pound Cake

It’s fluffy, soft, & crunchy and tasted great!

No salt was added cos I’m using salted butter and I’ve used only half the amount of sugar stated in the recipe.

Also, vanilla powder was used instead of pure vanilla extract and I’ve added almond flakes for that nutty crunch.

Ingredients
- 1½ cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 large eggs
- Confectioners' sugar, for dusting (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (177 °C). Butter a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan; set aside.
2. Whisk flour and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Put butter, granulated sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined after each addition.
5. Reduce speed to low; mix in flour mixture until just combined.
6. Spoon batter into prepared pan, and smooth with an offset spatula.
7. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until cake is golden and a cake tester inserted into center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes.
8. Let cool on a wire rack 10 to 15 minutes. Turn out onto rack, and let cool completely.
9. Before serving, dust cake with confectioners' sugar, if desired.
10. Cake can be stored at room temperature, wrapped well in plastic, up to 3 days.





Before baking.

Chocolate Fondant

I'm going to make chocolate fondant this Thursday!

Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 100 g dark chocolate
- 50 g plain flour
- 100 g sugar
- 100 g butter
- Some cocoa powder

Method
1. Preheat the oven at 180°C
2. Brush the insides of the aluminium pudding tins with soft butter, then spoon in some cocoa powder. Turn the tin in a circular motion and tap until the inside surface is fully covered with the cocoa powder. This will prevent anything sticking later.
3. Place the chocolate and butter in the heat-proof bowl, and place it over a pan of boiling water. Leave it to melt.
4. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Slowly incorporate sugar. Mix until airy and fluffy.
5. Sieve the flour into the melted butter-chocolate mixture. Mix until no flour crumbles are seen.
6. Add the egg mixture into the chocolate-butter mixture so they are both in the same bowl.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared aluminium dishes. Place into the oven for 6 minutes.
8. Serve with ice cream. Garnish with a sprig of mint and a sprinkle cocoa powder.


VideoJug: How To Make Chocolate Fondant

Macaron Festival

October was Canele's Macaron Festival.

I really don’t understand why these little colored cream puffs are so atas and why so many people are crazy over them.

James bought a 6 piece pack Macarons (without knowing what the hack it was) from HDB Hub canteen for $2 and he was already commenting why so damn expensive.

They are like normal 鸡蛋糕 with cream.














~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chef Pang Kok Keong’s Macaron Caramel Fleur de Sel

For the macaron cookie
- 500g ground almond
- 900g icing sugar
- 440g egg white
- 120g sugar

Sieve ground almond and icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Make sure the mixture is lump-free.
Beat the egg whites using an electrical mixer with a whisk attachment at high speed until you can see a line made by the whisk going round. Then add in the sugar while the mixer is at medium speed. Make a stiff meringue. Fold the meringue into the dry sieved ingredients until you get a homogeneous mix, taking care not to overfold it, as normal meringue are very delicate.

Pipe the mixture onto a silpat with a no. 5 plain tube into 3cm balls (The cookies will spread to approximately 5cm). If the mixture is too thick, you’ll see a tip sticking up from the balls (from where you piped them) even after you finish piping the last row. If this happens, give the tray a little tap so that you’ll get a nice smooth surface.

Leave the piped macaron cookies out to form a skin before baking them at 160 degrees Celsius in a fan oven for approximately 14-16 minutes. When totally cooled, sandwich two cookies together with either buttercream, firm mamarlade, or a caramel filling.

Caramel fleur de sel
- 200g sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
- 200g cream
- 3.75g fleur de sel
- 140g butter, chilled

In a 1 litre heavy based pot, cook the sugar, stirring all the time to get an even caramel. Then add in the vanilla pod, scraped. Add in the warm cream a bit at a time as it will bubble up and splatter. Then add in the fleur de sel. Stir to make sure all the caramel has dissolved. Cool the mixture to approximately 40 degrees Celsius. Add in the well chilled butter, cut into cubes. Using an immersion blender, blend in the butter till you achieve a smooth glossy paste. Line the surface of the caramel with plastic wrap or greaseproof paper to prevent a skin from forming and chill in the fridge until needed.

Another recipe...

Kneadless bread

I followed the recipe to this Kneadless bread and it turned out fantastic despite the 12+ hour (overall) process of making it.

The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work

Kneadless bread in The New York Times.

- 3 cups bread flour, and more for dusting
- 2 tsp fine salt
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 1½ cups water, at room temperature
- ½ cup coarse wheat bran*

1. Combine the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl.
2. Pour in the water and with your fingers or a spoon, mix for about 30 seconds until a rough wet dough forms and all the flour has been absorbed.
3. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for about 18 hours. (You can leave it for longer or shorter, up to just 8 hours. The longer the rise, the better the texture of the bread. But past 24 hours, the dough will begin to collapse, which is not what you want).
4. Heavily flour your work surface. Invert the bowl over the surface. It will spread like a formless blob.
5. Dust the dough with flour and stretch it into a rough square, about 25cm per side.
6. Fold the square into thirds to make a puffy strip about 10 cm wide and 25 cm long.
7. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes
8. Meanwhile, spread the dish towel on a flat surface. Rub a generous amount of flour into one half of the towel, and sprinkle a few tablespoons of bran over the flour. This prevents the dough from sticking to the towel.
9. Fold the dough in thirds again, beginning at one of the short ends of the strip. You should have a dough that’s shaped like a rough cube.
10. Gently lift the dough with both hands onto the floured half of the dish cloth that you prepared earlier.
11. Sprinkle the top of the dough with a little flour and bran. Cover with the other half of the towel or with plastic wrap. Let rise for 2 hours.
12. When an hour has passed, place your casserole and its cover in the oven. Set the temperature to its highest setting, probably about 220 degrees to 240 degrees.
13. When another hour has passed, open the oven and remove the casserole cover. Bring the loaf to the casserole and up-end it into the casserole. Shake the casserole sideways if the loaf needs to be neatened.
14. Cover the casserole and bake for 30 minutes.
15. Uncover the casserole and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes until the loaf is a lovely golden to dark brown. Remove and let it cool on a rack until barely warm to the touch.
16. This bread is best eaten when it has almost cooled completely.

*Wheat bran or bran flakes can be purchased at organic or health food stores like Nature’s Farm.

Traditional Irish Soda Bread

I couldn’t find any buttermilk around the neighborhood so I replaced it with skim milk.

My traditional Irish soda bread has a rough surface cos I didn’t knead the dough and smoothen it with flour.

It’s a little too heavy but overall does taste like bread and its goes very well with kaya and butter.

Ingredients
- 2½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 - 1¼ cups buttermilk

Preparation
- Preheat oven to 350F (177°C).
- In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients and stir together.
- Make a well in the center and add 1 cup of the buttermilk, reserving ½ cup.
- Combine dry ingredients and buttermilk with a fork.
- Gradually add more of the remaining liquid until a soft dough is formed.

- Knead the dough lightly on a floured surface for 1 minute.
- Form into a slightly flattened circle.
- Place on a parchment lined (or silicone baking mat) cookie sheet.
- Mark a large ½-inch deep X with a sharp knife and bake soda bread for 40-45 minutes.
- The bread is ready when it is golden and sounds hollow when tapped

Profiteroles (Cream Puffs)

Cheddar Cheese Pepper Bread

Ingredients
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 to 1½ teaspoons black pepper
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
- 1 container (8 ounces) plain yogurt
- ½ cup (1 stick) butter melted
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten

Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- Combine flour, baking powder, pepper, baking soda and salt.
- Stir in cheese.
- Stir together yogurt, melted butter and eggs.
- Add to flour mixture; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.
- Spoon into buttered and floured 9" x 5" loaf pan.
- Bake about 35 minutes or until golden and wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes.
- Remove bread from pan.
- Serve warm or toasted, if desired.


Picture from the web.

Taste better to toast before serving.

Ms Piggy

Pig chose to come over to bake, make sushi, custard cream puff, hang out, or do nothing instead of shopping at Expo Metro sale.

We called Dog, trying our luck to see if she is free to meet us. It’s our lucky day… she happens to be at Hougang Mall with her hubby! We went to Kopitiam for a drink and catch up before they had to rush off to buy lunch for the rest of the family at home.

Pig and I proceed to get the ingredients we need for baking. We tapao fried hokkien prawn mee from downstairs for lunch. Yum yum… delicious! This hokkien prawn mee is comparable to the one near kovan mrt @ Nam Heng Restaurant.

We chit-chatted most of the time and only managed to bake banana walnut bread.

At around 10pm, we went to town centre for dinner. The kway chap we had was ok except that it doesn’t have pig skin and the overall was a bit too salty.

James called shortly after midnight from KL. His cutover lasted for 12 hours…

Hokkien Prawn Mee @ $3.

Banana Walnut Bread.

My Neighborhood Park - celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Kway chap (粿汁) stall.

Kway chap.

Choco-low fat muffin

Today I baked choco-low fat muffin again cos it’s quick, easy and requires no special ingredient. Added chocolate chips & almond nut on it.

Cheddar Cheese Muffins

I baked some cheddar cheese muffin yesterday morning. It was surprisingly not bad. The first bite of the muffin tasted ordinary as though it was made from plain flour but the cheese flavor fills my mouth after the second bite.

Aunty Tang, you are a great supporter! Hope your kids loved it too!

Cheddar Cheese muffin recipe
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 cup plain yogurt
¼ cup melted butter
2 eggs, beaten

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Stir in cheese gradually and make a well in the centre.
- Whisk together yogurt, butter and egg with dry ingredients.
- Fill muffin cups ⅔ full with batter.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center.
- Remove muffin from cup while hot.

I bought the Handweaved Bamboo Food Cover from Bali many blue moons ago. It comes in 3 different sizes – Diamtr .25cm, 30cm and 35 cm. I’m not even sure if I bought it during that trip with Pig to Sydney/Bali in 2004 or earlier.

Pig, remember our trip? I still have the brochures and itinerary! Too bad I didn’t have a digital cam back than but I shall scan the photos when I’m damn free.

This package was a special promotion by Garuda Indonesia and we booked the trip without much consideration… of cos after failing to book tours to other places like Korea.

Sydney was amazing… I loved the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Opera House, the Blue Mountains…

Ok, digressed too much already.

Choco 'not so low fat' Muffin

I wanted to bake banana walnut bread but the bunch of banana that my mum harvested from her mini plantation has not fully ripe yet.

So I ransacked my recipe collection and decided to bake this choco low fat muffin except that it’s not exactly low fat cos I didn’t have yogurt so I substituted with some unsalted butter and I added an egg.

It turns out pretty good. Not too sweet, a toothsome muffin. I shall add some chocolate chip the next time.

Choco-low fat muffin recipe
Ingredients:
1½ cup all purpose flour
¾ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
⅔ cup low fat vanilla yogurt
⅔ cup skim milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Powdered super (optional)

Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees; line muffin cups with paper baking cups.
- Stir together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Stir in yogurt, milk and vanilla extract until combined. Do not beat.
- Fill muffin cups ⅔ full with batter.
- Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in center.
- Cool muffins and remove from the pan.
- Sprinkle powdered sugar over the tops of muffins, if desired.
- Store at room temperature, or freeze in airtight container for longer storage.

Coconut Macaroons

Baked these Coconut Macaroons using Matha Stewart's receipe.

Dinner

Oatmeal prawn.












Recipe (forgot where I got it):
- Deep fry prawns till golden brown (abt 1 min) & put aside
- Fry 3 tablespoon butter & 3 egg yolk till fragrant
- Add 1 tablespoon chopped garlic, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, curry leaves, chopped chilli, salt, pepper and continue to stir fry
- Add prawns and fry till aromatic
- Add 5 tablespoon oatmeal & fry till dry


Chicken soup with button mushroom and veg.

Raisin walnut muffin.