OOOH!cake

Banana and Chocolate Chip Bread

2008-10-02T04:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging I know, but that doesn't mean I've been losing track of all the happenings going on! =) So I thought I'd make a comeback with a delicioso superdooper moist banana bread studded with chips of happiness, CHOCOLATE! =)

Melissa over at bakingasweetlife has come up with her second edition of Let It Grain and this edition's grain is millet. Understated and hardly used (by me) I thought it'd be timely to include millet flour in my banana bread. Also, the best part of this flour is that it's GLUTENFREE! whooopdeedoo.

Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available and it is a warming grain so will help to heat the body in cold or rainy seasons and climates.

Millet is tasty, with a mildly sweet, nut-like flavor and contains a myriad of beneficial nutrients. It is nearly 15% protein, contains high amounts of fiber, B-complex vitamins including niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, the essential amino acid methionine, lecithin, and some vitamin E. It is particularly high in the minerals iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium.

Sounds good to me. =)

I adapted a recipe from my latest darling, Carole Bloom's The Essential Baker. It's meant to be a Banana Loaf Cake with Walnuts and Dried Apricots but I'm sick so I couldn't bring myself to go to the store and getting apricots and walnuts. And I didn't feel like nuts. I just wanted chocolate. The funny thing though, because I've been sneezing and coughing my brains out, I forgot to put the starch into the glutenfree flour mix. But I didn't realize it until now...but it didn't seem to affect it much. Fred and I both agreed it tasted really good, moist, soft, sweet, chocolatey and prettydarnyummy

So here goes...

1/4 cup brown sugar + 2 tbsp white sugar
2tbsp canola oil
2tbsp unsweetened applesauce
1tbsp honey
1 large (x-Large) egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1) Whisk all together until creamy and thick

1 egg white

2) Whisk in a clean grease-free bowl until stiff peaks form

1/2 cup rice flour
1/4 cup millet flour
2 tbsp coconut flour
2 tbsp almond meal
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda

3) Mix this flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture.

2 medium mashed bananas (VERYVERY ripe)
1 tsp cinnamon powder
3/4 cup dairy-free chocolate chips

4) Stir bananas, choc and cinnamon into flour mixture.

5) Fold whisked egg whites into cake mixture.

6) Bake in a loaf tin at 180 degrees for 30-40 minutes (I didn't really keep track of the time)

7) Wait for it to cool completely before cutting and serving.

NOTES: I had the cake the day after and it was AMAZING. =) I had 3 slices... so I think you should give it a shot!

Strawberries in July

2008-06-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

I find it strange, very peculiar indeed, to find strawberries in July. Beautiful, long-stemmed, crimson red, glossy skinned, plump and most definitely, sweet. You see, I wouldn't have a problem with this phenomenon if I were in any other part of the world. But I am in Australia. IT'S MEANT TO BE WINTER!!!

Well, I guess it was announced that the June just past was the warmest it has been for a long time, averaging 16 degrees celcius. Is that why? It's not a good thing I bet since it's obviously a big smack in the face for us about global warming, or as they like to say it here in Australia... "climate change". Such is a euphemism for something so devastatingly horrid. I promise I will turn off the humidifier when I leave the house next time. =)

But in any case, I did succumb to the $2.50 a punnet strawberries and bought myself 3! And all I wanted was to have them in my big bowl of granola in the morning and of course, a tart. A buttery and sweet tart crust lined with my beautiful strawberries topped with a raspberry jam glaze. No curds, custards or cremes. HAPPYHAPPY!

Seeing that this tart would fit in snugly with Joelen's FRUIT FRENZY theme over at her blog, I will join her in her cooking adventure! Head over to her blog to check out future events and the roundup! =)

Tart Crust adapted from Sharing Sweet Secrets by Pamela Moriarty
8 tbsp white rice flour
2 tbsp almond meal
2 tbsp coconut flour (may replace with rice flour)
1 tbsp tapioca starch
1 tbsp potato starch
1/4 cup cornflour
2 tbsp glutinous rice flour
1 tbsp gf custard powder (optional)
2 tbsp caster sugar
50g coconut oil (it will be hard, straight from the fridge)
30ml grapeseed oil
1 egg

1) Place flours, custard powder and sugar into a food processor and whizz.
2) Add in coconut oil (hardened) and oil and whizz again (10-15 seconds)
3) crack egg into the food processor bowl and pulse until combined. It may look wet but keep whizzing. Add 1 tbsp coconut flour if too wet.
4) Add 1-2 drops of water IF NECESSARY
5) Remove pastry from food processor and press* into prepared tin. (20 or 22 cm tin)
6) Freeze in tin for 10-15 minutes before baking at 190 degrees celcius for 18-22 minutes or until cooked through.
7) Cool before filling with strawberries.
* My pastry was too wet from the oil to be rolled out.

To Assemble:
1-250g punnet of large strawberries
3 tbsp raspberry jam, warmed.

1) Remove stems of berries and halve. Arrange on top of baked tart shell and glaze with raspberry jam. Serve chilled or warm. =)

CRRRUNCH.

2008-06-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

I'm back! =) I've been missing because my camera's been dead so I haven't been able to take ANY photos. But since my mom so kindly bought me a brand-spankin'-new one, I'm here to celebrate! Yippee!

I had 4 egg whites leftover from a dairy-free vanilla creme anglaise I made for to go with my new-found love, sticky date pudding, and because I NEVER have egg whites lying around, I was desperate to find the RIGHT recipe since such a chance is so rare. I wanted to make this meringue pie crust, or baby meringues to crush with fresh strawberries and the vanilla creme anglaise but I reallllyy wanted to make these cookies I had a few days back. I'll describe them to you... they were flat-ish, and filled with almond silvers and chunks and chocolate bits scattered throughout it's chewy interior, all enrobed with a crunchy exterior. BUT I CAN'T FIND A RECIPE FOR IT.. I don't even know what it's called. Does anyone have any idea for a recipe? I asked the chef what was in it and she said eggwhites, almonds and sugar. Sounds simple but it's hurting my brain trying to figure it out... I settled for this recipe in the end. Both Fanny and Mary have used the recipe, each with their own interpretations... =) I followed Fanny's recipe, with the addition of chocolate slivers and chopped toasted nuts (I used toasted walnuts).

Something funny happened though. The first batch of my cookies I baked in the lowest shelf of my oven had their bottoms perfectly browned while the ones I baked in the middle shelf was still kinda..wet when I tried to peel them off the baking paper. Still yummy no doubt but... do you know why that happened??? Now those from the second shelf look like they have hollow bottoms! Maybe I should just fill the holes with chocolate icecream and be done with that! yum.

ENJOYYYY...

Celebrate with me

2008-06-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

As I keep repeating to myself that I must be happy, I have something to shareeee! I'm inviting you to my 'END.OF.ESSAYS' party. =) It's pretty lonely to celebrate it alone so I made a cake to celebrate with me. =) It's more fun feeling lonely with cake than sans cake. Besides, it kept me really occupied-so much so that I forgot to each lunch. I KNOW! I NEVER forget to eat. Oh, could also be due to the fact that I ate allllllll the scraps of fluffy cake with the leftover lemoncurd filling, all smooshed in a little ramekin, topped with the leftover icing. I know I know. Could it been any more nutritious?

I WANT TO CUT THE CAKE NOW!

But then it'll mean what I look forward to the most will be gone: FRED'S EXPRESSION!

must.must.i must...resist. Oh well, there are still blocks of un-iced, un-filled cake. I'll have that while I wait.

Here's what I used:
1.5 x Vegan vanilla sponge from here
1 x lemon curd recipe from here
1 x Sugar Dough recipe (below)
1 x Sugar Icing recipe (below)
1 x Piped Sugar Icing (below)

Sugar Dough (Recipe from Australian Gourmet Traveller August 2006)

3/4 tbsp powdered gelatine
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
250gm icing sugar, extra 15g icing sugar for firming
65 gm cornflour, plus extra for dusting
tiny drop pink food coloring

1) Combine 55ml warm water, gelatine and cream of tartar in a bowl, stand for 5 minutes then stir until it dissolves. (I put mine in the microwave for a minute coz it didn't dissolve)
2) Combine the 250gm icing sugar with the 65gm cornflour with an electric mixer with paddle attachment, add gelatine mixture and 1 drop of food coloring and beat until dough forms. (I had to add a few tbsp more icing sugar). Tip of onto a floured bench and knead for a minute until smooth. Return to bowl, cover with a damp towel and rest for an hour. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate overnight. Makes 300gm.

THE NEXT DAY:
Process 100gm of sugar dough with 15gm of icing sugar in a food processor until its malleable. It comes together when you use a spoon to stir. Rest dough for 2-3 minutes then put on a bench dusted with icing sugar. Roll out with rolling pin until 2mm thick. Use heart shaped cutters to cut out. Place onto baking paper to dry. =)

Sugar Icing (from Australian Gourmet Traveller August 2006)

Beat 200gm pure icing sugar with 1 tbsp liquid glucose and 2 tbsp margarine (butter) until combined. Add in 1 tbsp boiling water and beat with electric mixer for 6 minutes until smooth and shiny. Add food coloring if desired. Spread icing immediately on cake and scatter with sugar hearts. Stand for one hour for icing to set before serving. =)

Heart Of The Matter: Herbal Essence

2008-05-29T01:13:00.000-07:00

I think I've only participated once in HotM. And as much as I always try to get my entries up before then and be super organized and email all the relevant people with the relevant information, I usually fail. Either that or I just miss the event altogether. This month's HotM is all about the glory of herbs hosted by the lovely Michelle at Accidental Scientist.

I have always associated herbs with medicine. I suppose being Chinese, the only time i heard the word herb was when it had to do with some form of medicine or another. Then came along the cooking shows and all these Western chefs had their fancy "a pinch of dried parsley" and "roughly torn basil leaves" and they were all "fresh from my [their] backyard". Now, I lived in an apartment all my life so who had a backyard? and basil... who? But things have changed now and while I still don't have a backyard, I've become accustomed to using herbs in my cooking. The question that remains is...how often (since I rarely have a bunch of basil leaves lying around)?

In April 08's Delicious magazine, Rick Stein did an awesome feature for the magazine by introducing some new breakfast dishes. I am a breakfast freak. I wake up with only one thing on my mind-WHATS FOR BREAKFAST?! If it's going to be a dread, I'd rather stay in bed thanks. But if there's a bag of cherries lying in the fridge with a tall glass of cold soy milk-I'm out of bed before you can say sunshine. My weird obsession aside, I made Rick Stein's "Hugo's Breakfast Fishcakes" and if you ask me, Hugo made darn good fishcakes. =) The recipe called for ONE bay leaf. But I decided that I had no use for the rest of the bay leaves, so I buy it. Instead, I added lots of coriander and chives and "a pinch of dried basil". heh. And made it gluten free-obviously.

Hugo's Breakfast Fishcakes (makes 4, serves 2)
200g floury potato, cut into small cubes (should equate to one BIG potato)
150g skinless, boneless white fish fillet, cut into 2 cm cubes*
1/2 cup milk (use soy milk with a good pinch of salt)
pinch of dried basil
1 strip pared lemon rind, plus 1 tbsp juice and wedges to serve
1/2 onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped coriander
1 tbsp chopped chives
2 tbsp rice flour
1 large egg, beaten
2 slices of gluten-free bread, made into fresh breadcrumbs**
snipped chives and sour cream to serve

1) Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until tender. Drain and mash.
2) Place fish, soy milk, lemon rind and dried basil in a pot. Cover, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 1-2 mins, until fish is cooked. Drain and reserve poaching liquid. Discard lemon rind. Set fish aside to cool.
3) Add 1 tbsp of olive oil to a pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook until soft but not browned. Add in potato, fish, coriander, chives, good pinch of salt and lemon juice. Mix well, adding 1-2 tbsp of poaching liquid until mix holds together but isn't too sticky or wet*. Let cool.
4) Place flour, egg and breadcrumbs in separate shallow dishes. Using damp hand, form the fish mixture into 4 patties. Dip each patty into the flour then egg then breadcrumbs and set on a lined baking tray. Chill for at least an hour or better still, overnight.
5) Splash a good bit of olive oil over the patties and bake at 200 degrees celcius for about 10 minutes, or until golden.

*I used blue grenadier and while skinning it, the fish began to flake, but I proceeded as per the recipe instructed, came out perfect.
** I took 2 slices of stale gluten free bread and chopped it into very tiny crumbly bits. Since GF bread is naturally drier, it didn't pose as a problem to chop it instead of using a food processor.
***The photo I used is from the April 2008 issue of Delicious. I gobbled up the fishcakes before I could take a photo of them. =(

Gluten Free Hazelnut Blondies

2008-05-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

There has always been a fascination between me and Nutella. My mom was not one to buy it for breakfast, I don't know why though. While peanut butter was a staple, Nutella was a treat I bought for 30cents at the corner shop in one of those individual pull-open packaging. But I suppose if we did have it at home, I would've eaten way too much. So now that I am older and wiser, I am capable of practicing self control which therefore renders me worthy of having a jar of choc-hazelnut spread at home (I bought a bio-dynamic one, not Nutella). And so in the event that such a recipe catches my eye, I have all the ingredients on hand. And because it's just ONE and a half heaping tablespoon spread throughout the entire batch of blondies, I suppose I am practicing self restraint when I have half the batch for lunch (maybe with a smidgen more choc-hazelnut spread on top). I mean it though, I really did have half the batch. shhh, Fred doesn't need to know.

Gluten Free Hazelnut Blondies adapted from here
It looks like alot of different flours but feel free to just substitute the flours as you deem fit. I'm sure 2 cups of G.F. all-purpose flour will work just fine.

4 tbsp grapeseed oil
1 cup white rice flour*
2 tbsp tapioca starch*
2 tbs potato starch*
4 tbsp corn starch*
2 tbsp buckwheat flour*
4 tbsp almond meal*
2 tbsp sweet rice flour*
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1.25 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup chopped hazelnuts (either skin on or off, I left mine on)
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 heaping tbsp choc-hazelnut spread, like Nutella

1) Preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius. Grease an 8 x 11 inch pan, line with parchment and grease again
2) Whisk flours, baking owder and salt
3) Mix sugar and oil until well moistened. Beat eggs and vanilla in. Add flour mix and stir (batter will be stiff at first, but it will come together). Add in chopped nuts and Nutella.
4) Bake for 25 minutes, or until few crumbs stick onto skewer inserted. Rest for 15 minutes and cut into squares. Serve with a dollop of Nutella. Or really, just eat it from the pan, who wants extra dishes anyway?
* Flour mix adds up to 2 cups.
Photo is from marthastewart.com. I had to borrow it since I can't find my camera cable. I DID take photos though!

White wine, olive oil and polenta cake

2008-05-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

This recipe was the one I was talking about yesterday. It comes from June 2008's issue of Delicious, written by Rick Stein.

It's very Italian to me, or at least Mediterranean. The taste of the olive oil is very prominent and I thought that maybe if I left it for a day, the olive oil taste might be a little more mellow. Turned out, I was wrong, I tried it this morning and it's still there. I did reduce the amount of oil called for and added a tbsp and a half of lemon juice. The lemon taste is beautiful bolstered by the white wine. Rick called for a sauvignon blanc or riesling, but I had an opened bottle of chardonnay so I used that instead. The aromas weaving through my little apartment was so promising, so I was a little disappointed by the strong olive oil taste. It made me feel like I was eating oily cake which isn't appetizing...not very anyway. The lemon and wine made things a heap better, or perhaps I'm just not used to it. Fred liked it though but it wasn't our favourite.

Also something went funny when I tried mixing the flour into the liquid batter. It got clumpy and scary so I did something bad...I just used my hand mixer to whisk in the flour until it was homogenous. I know, I shouldn't have, especially when the eggs had been ribboned prior. But better than eating bits of flour I suppose. Do try out the recipe since it's so simple and let me know what I did wrong. It's simple enough to try again.

White Wine, Olive Oil and Polenta Cake (serves 8)
2 eggs
250g caster sugar (I used 175g)
150 ml white wine (such as sauvignon blanc or riesling)
150 ml olive oil (i used 125ml + 1 tbsp lemon juice)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
175g plain flour (I used 1 cup rice and 1/4 tapioca and potato starch each + 1 tbsp almondmeal)
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 instant polenta ( I used 1/4 cup polenta and almond meal each)
Icing sugar, to dust.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Grease and line the base and sides of a 24 cm springform cake pan.
Place eggs and sugar in a large bowl and whisk using an electric hand whisk. Whisk for 10 minutes or until thick enough to form ribbons when you trail it on the surface.
Gently beat in the white wine, olive oil, vanilla and lemon zest and juice. Sift over the flour and baking powder.
Gently fold it with a metal spoon until just conbined, then fold in the polenta and almond meal. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

*oh, I just realized, I didn't sift the flour over the liquids, I merely tipped it in... oops.

cold

2008-05-22T04:33:00.000-07:00

I am going to apologize for being bad and not blogging for over a month. But it's been a busybusy time for me. For starters, I had to move out of my old apartment to my current one. So that was a really big deal and the amount of clothes and shoes (ahem) I had, made it a... bigger deal. Plus, I was bed ridden for a week, down with that dreadful thing called a flu. I never knew that you lose all sense of taste when you're out sick. The only thing I could taste amidst all the sniffling was peanut butter and apples. Luckily they go together so that was all I ate for about 3 days. Evil, I know but a girl's got to eat! =) Well it's not that I stopped baking or eating, I just momentarily stopped blogging.

The word cold has so many meanings. It describes the weather here right about now. Cold, very icy cold. Sometimes it's a good thing especially when you're wearing new heels and the cold numbs your feet so you can't feel the pain. Sometimes it's a hindrance, especially when you have 9am classes and your jeans have been sitting on the sofa all night exposed to the cold. And as you pull them on, they bit your legs with the cold. And sometimes it's how I feel, inside. A lonely kind of cold. I realized this when I listened to an entire album by Taylor Swift and the only song I could relate to was 'Cold as You'. Hmmm... oh and I might watch Wicked alone (the Broadway musical about what went on behind the Wizard of Oz-kinda like the untold story). It might be something new for me. I've grown accustomed to shopping alone, exploring alone and eating alone.

Okay, now that I've bared my soul and wallowed in self-pity, I've got a cake baking in the oven (I love my oven) for this month's SHF. It's from June 08 Delicious, a recipe by Rick Stein. A lemon, olive oil and white wine cake. Since it's still baking I can't really say how it turned out. I will update this post though. So stay tuned!

Swiss Roll Recipe

2008-04-02T05:14:00.000-07:00

This is a reader request. The recipe for the swiss roll from the previous entry. Here goes!

Swiss Roll (adapted from Nick Malgieri's Perfect Light Desserts)
4 large eggs, seperated
3/4 cup sugar divided (I would cut it down to 1/2 maybe)
2 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
1 cup (less 1 tbsp) rice flour
1 tbsp corn flour (from corn)
1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup all-fruit spread, warmed
icing sugar, for dusting

1) Heat oven to 170 degrees celcius
2) Whisk the yolks with half the sugar and vanilla. Whisk for about 1 minute or more until mixture is pale and aerated (ribbon stage)
3) Combine the egg whites and salt in another bowl and whip until they are white, opaque and just beginning to hold their shape. Add remaining sugar in a stream, while whipping, until they hold a firm peak.
4) Fold the yolk mixture into the egg whites
5) Stir the flours and baking powder together and sift 1/3 over the egg mixtures, carefully folding in. Repeat with each remaining third of the flour mixture.
6) Scrape batter into prepared pan (I used the baking tray that comes with the oven, sprayed with cooking spray and lined with sprayed foil/parchment). Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until wellrisen
7) Turn cake layer out on a clean tea towel, sprinkled with icing sugar. Carefully roll up loosely and let it semi-cool in that shape. Slowly unroll and let cool completely, before spreading the warmed jam and slowly rolling it back. =)
8) Sprinkle with icing sugar and eat!
9) happyhappy in your tummy!

Jam and Rolls

2008-03-26T05:19:00.000-07:00

You know why I love Borders? Because every once in awhile they do something great...like give out 40% off one full-price book vouchers. And as long as you keep printing them, you keep getting them. HOW WONDERFUL!

But seeing that I had bought 2 books 2 weeks ago, I only had reason to buy one-really. And with the looming shift to the new house approaching, I really didn't want to pack an extra book. Trust me, if you had this much stuff, you'd understand too. =) So I bought Nick Malgieri's Perfect Light Desserts and ohboy ohboy am I excited!!! I felt like something jam filled. So duh, Jam Swissroll? I used the swissroll recipe from the book, but made it gluten free by using 1 cup rice flour + 1 tbsp cornstarch as a substitute. Worked like a charm though the rolling bit was a little tough. Yummy nonetheless! A little too sugary for me, so I might cut down on the sugar in the sponge. However this time I just made a tangy sour lemon icing (juice of 1/2 lemon + 3 tbsp icing sugar) to cut the sweetness. And just because it's pretty, I HAD to sprinkle that icing sugar on top. WHOOPEE! =) I would really love to type the recipe here but I'm killing myself thinking about a deadline. So off I go... sorry guys! =)

All toasty inside

2008-03-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

I love bread. I love bread with sugar and a generous sprinkling of raw sugar crystals. I love bread with jams boasting giant sized fruit pieces. I love bread with nutella and peanut butter together. I love bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I love bread smothered with baked beans and a sunny side up, with the yolk still runny. YUP! I love all of it. ALL OF IT.

But then I became gluten free (mostly) and bye-bye bread. No more bread basket, no more buns filled with custard, no more no more no more.

BUT THEN! A whole plethora of creative people became gluten free too. So they solved this major problem. and HELLO BREAD!!!

I tried out this recipe from recipezaar, apparently it was taken from Roben Ryberg. Somehow it didn't work out for me. I didn't have the potato starch so I substituted it with sweet rice flour and tapioca starch. My mixture looked like pancake batter, goopy. So I figured why not, and I added a whole other bunch of things like cornmeal (polenta) and besan flour. Mix mix mix. Then I forgot the xantham gum. And I was kinda in a i really don't care kinda mood so I shoved it into the oven to bake and WHOAAAA it rose and rose. haha, it was pretty funny. Like the batter was creeping out of the muffin holes and kissing each other. heh. They stopped short of the edge of the pan and that's all I ask for, really.

And it was yummy. Oh boy oh boy oh boy. YUMMY. =) I had them fresh yesterday with tuna and avocado. But as with all/most gluten free baked stuff, they taste better warmed up the day. So I cut one into half, toasted it and had it with my fig & vanilla jam on one half. And tuna on the other. I think I might've had one bite with both jam and tuna but you didn't need to know that. =)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1 packet dry yeast
1/2 cup water
1/4 c sweet rice flour
1/4c tapioca flour
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
dash of salt
3/4 tsp apple cider vinegar (any will do)
1/4 cup besan flour
1/4 cup cornmeal (polenta)

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees fanforced
2) Mix all ingredients together.
3) Pour into well-oiled muffin tin (1/2 full) and bake for 10 minutes, check if cooked, if not bake further. Sorry I wasn't paying too close attention to the time. =)

They look kinda like crumpets once you slice them open. yummers.

Bad Day

2008-03-11T03:59:00.000-07:00

You know those days, you wake up and you instantly know you're just not quite ready to meet the world. Yeah, kinda like today. Looking for apartments to rent is killing my brain and everytime I make that phone call to enquire, I'm pretty sure the property's already been leased or it's a 12 month lease only (just when I needed 6). So what do you do? You thank god that at least the muffins turned out right. And you fool yourself by saying that they're packed chock full of fibre and other good stuff. And that they're actually not too bad. So now I can admit, I've had 8 of these things since 12noon.

I know. Don't judge me, I've had a bad day. Ending with a mighty headache.

Morning Glory Muffins (makes 13-15) adapted from here
(Gluten Free and Vegan)
Whisk Together:
1 tub (reg. serving) vanilla soy yoghurt
2 tbsp soy milk
2 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed in 1/4 cup water
1/2 cup veg oil
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/3 cup sugar

Add In:
3/4 quinoa flour
1/4 cup almond meal
1 generous tbsp rice flour
1/2 cup corn flour
1/2 cup potato starch
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon

Finally, Mix In:
1 cup grated carrot
1 1/3 cup grated courgette
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/4 cup sun dried muscatels/raisins
1/4 cup crushed pecans/walnuts

Stir until well blended and spoon into muffin tins. Bake for 15 minutes then check for doneness. I can't remember how long mine took so check at 15 mins and estimate from there. Frost after they have cooled.

To Frost, Mix:
1/4 cup vanilla soy yoghurt
1 tbsp honey

Bad day = lazy = no photos. Sorry guys. But trust me on this, I love these muffins. I'm off to get my eighth.

(Almost) Raw Chocolate Tartlet

2008-03-04T04:52:00.000-08:00

I've been been fascinated with the different types of diets people adopt. There's the vegetarian diet, vegan diet and now, the raw diet. It's not something new and it basically revolves around the idea that food heated above 116 degrees Fahrenheit destroys the beneficial enzymes present in our food. The diet is vegan but brought to the next level. I know I'd probably never be able to live on raw food (despite it's yumminess) because I really do love my grandma's cooking, none of which, are raw. But nonetheless, it doesn't stop me from trying recipes from the wondrous pool of raw recipes out there. I was rummaging through Heidi's 101cookbooks and decided to use her raw peaches and cream pie recipe, with a slight change.

I followed the pie crust recipe but had trouble with it turning as wet as I would've liked it to so I added 1.5 tbsp of water just to help reach the desired consistency. I left half of the nuts out of the food processor, while processing the rest with the water, then I added the rest in and just mixed it with a spoon so it wouldn't be too wet and still remain chunky.

For the filling, I decided I really needed a chocolate hit and my peaches weren't in the best condition so I did this:

In a food processor, place 1 cup cashews (soaked in water for 30 mins and drained), 1.5 tbsp honey, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of salt, 2.5 tbsp cocoa powder, juice of 1/4 lemon. Process for 2-3 mins. Add 1 teaspoonful of water and process again, continuing the adding of water until you get a paste like, spreadable consistency. My tartlet is ALMOST raw because I added choc soy milk instead. Use chocolate spread to fill tartlet shell/s.

And because I'm a greedy giant, I placed my tartlet in the freezer for 10 minutes before transferring it to the fridge. It held VERY well, much better than some of my gluten free tarts and was incredibly yummy although I would use a milder tasting honey or maybe maple syrup instead. I halved the recipe and got 2 bountiful tartlets. It serves about 4. =)

Diners, Pancakes & Lisa Loeb

2008-02-26T16:08:00.000-08:00

Now she sits in a booth in a diner,
Waiting for someone to take her order,
Waiting for someone to come and sit down.
She rubs the smudge off the photograph, puts it back into her purse.
The grey sky was romatic cause he was holding her hand,
He was her man.

I'm so bummed, I typed out this gorgeously long entry only to foolishly delete it. FUMBLING FINGERS! And, word from the street is that my boyfriend is out having dinner so he can't rush here in time to have icecream with me (it's NOT dairy-free but I promise I'll be ok). It is better to always have your own cuppa icecream but in this case, it's just too big a task for me to do and my tummy will agree (so will the thighs and hips and...) SO ANYWAY, let's talk about something good.

Apart from the new job (hiphipHIPHOORAY!), I made pancakes for breakfast this morning. Somehow, when I spend my last few thoughts before i go to bed thinking really hard about something (in this case, PANCAKES), I wake up craving it. AND I MUST HAVE IT! So I did. =)

I used GlutenFree Girl's recipe for Blueberry-Polenta Pancakes but I didn't have any blueberries so mine shall just be called Polenta Pancakes. They were yummy but I didn't realize that they would actually border on the salty side. Not that I minded it much since I was having a savoury treat craving and the awesome maple syrup & fresh cherries balanced it out. But for those who'd prefer a sweeter pancake, just follow her instructions and use 2 tbsp of sugar (I only used 1 tsp). Also, I was unsure whether the gluten free flour called for in the recipe was for a mix or just any flour so, I made up a quick mix. =)

Also, because pancakes remind me of diners and jukeboxes, waitresses in pink striped uniforms and plump chefs with greasy sausages, I thought of the song Falling In Love by Lisa Loeb, that's where the lyrics from the top of the entry came from (fear not, I am not heartbroken) sooo I think I'll enter this entry into Eat to the Beat! hosted by Elly Says Opa!. All entries have to feature a dish that is inspired by a song/artiste/album. So here's my contribution. Pancakes & Diners

Polenta Pancakes
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp potato starch flour
1 tbsp cornflour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp flax meal
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup soy milk + 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar to sour, let sit for 10 minutes
1 tbsp veg oil

1) Mix all dry ingredients together
2) Whisk soured milk & oil into eggs
3) Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix to just combine
4) Oil a skillet and drop batter by 1/3 cupfuls, cook until bubbles appear on the surface or until desired brown-ness
5) Serve with real maple syrup and whatever else that floats your boat (ICECREAM!!!)

like, OH WOW!

2008-02-25T03:40:00.000-08:00

HELLO! I have finally returned. I have a thousand excuses as to why I've been missing but I think I'll pick the best few I could come up with.
1) I've been busy travelling to Singapore, Hong Kong and Dubai
2) I've been too busy eating and since my mouth works so fast, the food gets devoured before I can take photos of them
3) I have been quite lazy.

Yeah, I think I'll settle for that. Laziness, the disease many of us suffer from. Fortunately though, the other wonderful bloggers have no such illness so the rest of us are lucky, because we'll always have something yummy to read about. =)

But I am back. And i will blog often, or at least make a big effort to. =) So how has everyone been? Today I officially baked the first sweet treat since my return to Melbourne. Gluten free sugar cookies. I got the original recipe from here but I had no shortening or baking powder or gluten free flour mix. And i was too lazy to pre-mix the flour blend so I changed the recipe almost entirely. and I'm glad to report that this is probably the first gluten free sugar cookie that I actually like. I used expeller pressed coconut oil and normal veg oil to substitute the shortening. Replaced sugar with half icing sugar and half raw vanilla sugar (for crunch and coz I had no other sugar). I also added 1/2 tsp of xantham gum and 1 tsp lemon juice for added 'flair'.

I don't know how it'll settle tomorrow since alot of cookies are so promising when they first step out of the oven but then loses all their sparkle after sitting around for abit. I used my new cookie cutter that I got from the Harvest Picnic at Hanging Rock yesterday. It was really eye opening, bought some gluten free plum pudding (since Easter is coming) and this amazingamazingamazing peach and vanilla chutney thing. Ohgosh it's absolutely stunning, with notes of apple and thick luscious syrup just dripping off the edges of the chunks of peach.

Here's Spot trying to get friendly with the cookie! Spot fits snugly in the middle of my palm, so you can pretty much imagine how darn big the cookie is. I realized we didn't have a container big enough for the cookie so I had to snap it in two before packing it away. Least I got a photo of it.

Needin' some Puddin'

2007-10-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

I could re-tell the story for the...tenth time, about the horrible start of the day but it's allright. I think the previous nine times sufficed. 'Nuff with the whining, on with the pudding.

I'm a religious reader of Delicious. I read it every month without fail and will proudly announce that it is the best food magazine I've come across. *YAY!*. This month just made their status skyrocket when they rocked up to the newsagent's shelves with a gluten-free special (and the awesome Shaun wrote me a note just in case I missed it). So I flip through it every other morning over breakfast, dog-earring the pages holding recipes I just have to try. I usually don't end up trying them because when I have a craving I forget...forget to look through my stash of mags. Luckily this time I remembered! CHOCOLATE SELF-SAUCING PUDDING. Exactly what a girl needs when shes down with somesort of sickness, feeling slightly ghostly and neck high in assignments. oh and plus, she doesn't know what to dress up as for Halloween.

Pirate, anyone?

Chocolate Self-saucing Pudding by Sue Shepard from October 2007 Delicious Magazine
(This is the half the recipe) serves, 3-4

45g fine rice flour (from Asian Grocers)
1.5 tbsp soy flour
1.5 tbsp g.f.cornflour
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1 tsp g.f. baking powder
1/2 tsp xantham gum (optional)
70g caster sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder

1) Triple sift the ingredients in a bowl

95ml soy milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 tbsp olive oil

1) Mix all together in a bowl and pour into the flour mixture
2) Pour mixture into a 3 cup capacity baking dish
3) If it is too shallow it might overflow

215 ml hot water
70g brown sugar
2 tbsp cocoa powder

1) Mix altogether
2)Pour over the chocolate cake mixture, do not mix!
3)Bake at 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a crisp spongy top develops (I baked mine until the fudge sauce started bubbling over the edge of the pan...think I overfilled)

Waiter There's Something In My...Lemon Curd Cake (Glutenfree & DairyFree)

2007-10-12T00:53:00.000-07:00

I like lemons. My first lemon meringue pie experience was at Darling Harbor in Sydney. I was there on a trip with the mother, the father and the sisters. I don't remember quite how old I was, but I think I had fully developed my set of sweet teeth and greedy eyes. The greedy eyes saw the many beautiful cakes all lined up neatly in the glass window. Never seen cakes quite that tall before, I stood there, absolutely still, hoping the parents would get the message. Me Want Cake. I don't think I had even seen meringue before, I probably e made didn't even know how to pronounce it really. FUNNY.

So I asked for that one, I pointed and insisted. And I got it. You'd think I'd sink into glorious heaven and announce that I had found a replacement for chocolate. Nah. The crust was really thick and the meringue was just, too much of a good thing. Couldn't they have made the crust a little thinner, a little more delicate and the meringue just enough to allow the lemon curd to shine through just a little bit more? Overload-in a bad way. But hey, for what it's worth, it was a pretty cool first lemon meringue pie to have, it was THAT tall!

So back to me loving lemons, I went completely nuts at the market the other day and bought 10 lemons for 2bucks. So you know, I had to use them up, soon. So when 'Waiter, there's something in my ... layered cake' was announced, I thought I might do something lemony. I've been feeling all sorts of fruity lately. I was adament on using my new gluten-free cookbook 'Gluten-Free Baking' by Rebecca Reilly so I decided on a simple sponge cake and a lemon curd recipe I scrounged from Cooking Light. I'm fussy, I don't like recipes with fat or too many eggs or this or that. So this combination was light AND tasted rich and beautiful, like a lighter lemon cheesecake. But oh so good. I'm not being biased-REALLY!!! It's not a fancy schmancy cake, guess you could always dress it up with strawberries and kiwi. Maybe you could add some matcha powder into the sifted flour for a green tea sponge and layer it with a dark chocolate + ginger ganache. That was my second plan if I didn't have enough eggs. Luckily I had 5, so I halved the lemon curd recipe. It was just right.

Sponge Cake from Gluten-free Baking by Rebecca Reilly (pg 106)

4 eggs, seperated
1 cup sugar (I think 3/4 cup will suffice)
1.5 tsp g.f. vanilla
2 tbsp plus 1/4 tsp lemon juice
pinch of salt
1 cup rice flour

Preheat the oven to 325degrees (160 C). Lightly grease 2 8-inch cake pans or jelly roll pan

Ribbon the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow (it will look kinda grainy-ish, just ribbon until a thick uniform thread forms on the surface of the mixture, when whisk is lifted). Add the vanilla and 2 tbsp of lemon juice.

Whip the egg whites with the salt and 1/4 tsp lemon juice until soft peaks form. Gently fold in 1/4 of egg whites into the ribboned base. Slide the remaining egg whites on top and sift the flour over. Fold in until homogenous.

Gently spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Tap the bottom of the pans once to remove any air pockets. Bake the cake layers for 20-25 minutes, 12-15 for the jelly roll.

If making the cake layers, invert onto a cooling rack. If making jelly roll, invert onto a tea towel dusted with icing sugar, trim edges and roll up lengthwise. When completely cooled, unroll, fill and decorate.

Lemon Curd recipe from here.
I made half the recipe, yummers! I could've just eaten it with a spoon. =)

Sometimes you just need butter

2007-10-09T21:10:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the previous terribly sad post. I promise I'm all sparkly again. Dedicating one day a week at least to baking sometimes I want to eat, I've decided that this week's should be the cashew recipe that I saw on CookieMadness a while back. It's been on my mind for awhile-I mean anything that combines sweet and salty is a winner by me. It's sad how there isn't sweet popcorn here in Melbourne. The people here are definitely missing out, there's nothing better than ordering a bucket of popcorn and having it half sweet and half salty. The best part is rummaging through the layer of sweet to get to a salty popcorn cluster which gets you started on that sweet sugar trip all over again. CAN YOU SAY YUMMY? Too bad, they know not of such pleasures in life. =)

BACK TO COOKIE...
It was from the Betty Crocker round up and while I don't have photos to show because mine are so unfortunately UGLY, you can head over here to take a look. I halved the recipe and made it gluten free and omitted a whole lot of things because I'm such a freak when it comes to 'fat'. I suck the fun out of cookie eating don't I? I wish Anna would send some over so I could try it in all it's glorious yumminess. I like my version, don't really miss the chocolate or the pretzels I left out to make it G.F. I'm not sure but I think I shouldn't have added the baking soda, or maybe halved the already-halved amount because it became too light for me. It is definitely also due to the gluten free flour used. Sometimes I miss normal baking. And I didn't use butter either in an attempt to cut out diary. OHWELLS. here's my version.

1.5 cups raw/dry roasted cashews
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp egg white
2 tsp salt
>The method is all on Anna's blog.

1 cup white rice flour
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 potato starch
2 tbsp almond meal
1 tsp baking soda (I might try 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum

>Sift all together, set aside

4 tbsp expeller pressed virgin coconut oil, softened
4 tbsp natural peanut butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1.5 eggs

75g dark chocolate, chopped

>Cream the coconut oil, peanut butter and sugar together, until veryvery well combined
>Add in the eggs and vanilla
>Mix in the dry ingredients with a very sturdy spoon, drop by rounded tbsp on a cookie sheet. This part is VERY tricky, because the batter is VERY STICKY. But it puffs up well, and doesn't spread much.

2007-10-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

it matters, only when
you think too much
too little about what you have
too much about what you don't
otherwise, it doesn't.

because it doesn't bother them
and you're all alone if
you do. So it doesn't
and then i'll never be alone.

besides. I have everyone else.

I might bake later on, because right now I suddenly lost all inspiration. Silly me.

Sugar High Friday: Drunken Apples

2007-10-05T17:46:00.000-07:00

I hardly drink alcohol and what I've got lying around does not directly belong to me. Let's see...I've got Kahlua but it's my sisters (yet I use it) and I've got Vodka, the remnants from a girls night in some 4 months ago? And it's still sitting there, in all it's half-drunk glory, untouched since then. So when this SHF rolled around, I was practically spoilt for choice. Vodka or Kahlua? =P And I wasn't about o go out and buy more alcohol only to use 1/2 cup at most and leave the rest of it sitting on top of the fridge. There's a war going on there-and right now the cereal boxes are winning. 4:1.

So I typed in 'vodka + apples' and did a little google search for possible inspirations. All I got was apple flavoured vodka, not much luck there. Sat around and thought about buying some other form of alcohol, cointreau maybe, or maybe a little wine but decided against it when I chanced upon Smitten Kitchen's Boozy Baked French Toast. I could work with that!

I went to the market after uni and got me some apples and craisins. Got home, took my gluten free bread out of the freezer and warmed it up on the jaffle maker. Ever notice how bread never turns crispy in there, only the edges, while keeping the middles moist and squidgy? Might be because of the steam created by the icy bits on the frozen bread, which is a good thing for this sorta 'lazy-i-just-cant-be-bothered-leaving-my-bread-to-thaw-slowly' things. So I decided to halve the recipe, used 2 eggs instead of said 1.5 and hid apple slices & craisins between the bread layers. Left it in the fridge overnight and this morning I had a no-effort-sweet-as brekkie. YUMS! I don't know if I'm drunk yet, but I think you could definitely add more Kahlua (3 tbsps maybe?)

The french toast bordered on the line of bread-and-butter pudding but a lot alot ALOT less fat and alot less sweet, which is why I suggest maple syrup or maybe a kahlua syrup? I tried but failed, luckily I didn't need it too sweet. I reckon gluten free bread soaks up alot more liquid so if you were using normal bread I suggest you stick to Smitten Kitchen's quantity of ingredients. Otherwise, It's really yummy. =)

Baked Drunken Apple French Toast (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:
6 slices gluten free bread
2 eggs
2 small apples, sliced thinly (I used Sundowner, just because.)
handful of Craisins
1 tsp cinnamon
1.5 cups fat-free soy milk (that's all I had on hand)
2 tbsp raw sugar + 3 tbsp extra
3 tbsp Kahlua

Pyrex Loaf pan

1) Whisk the eggs, sugar, milk, kahlua and cinnamon together
2) Line 2 slices of bread in the pan, and slice another up to fill in the gaps
3) Place the sliced apples onto the bread and sprinkle with craisins, top with one tbsp of sugar
4) Top with remaining bread and pour egg/milk mixture over
5) Let sit for 3 hours or overnight in the fridge. Sprinkle remaining sugar over the top before baking
6) Bake at 190 degrees for 25 minutes and drizzle with maple syrup if desired. YUMMERS!

Fresh Strawberry Tart

2007-10-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

I did it, after whining all week about how I missed baking non-fat-reduced treats and delicious traybakes and whatnots, I decided-I love baking too much to care. Seriously, all this no fat this and less fat that and I will get fat things are sucking the fun out of EVERYTHING! And nothing makes me happier really, except a good shopping spree oh and going home.

On another happyhappy note, I got my birthday present (albeit 2 months late) from the girls! 'Breakfast, Lunch, Tea- Rose Bakery' by Rose Carrarini. The book is a striking green with the title in bold right down the middle. No extra fancy schmancy photo or 'melted chocolate dripping down the side of the jar' shot. Just green and black. =) I love the book so much I hugged it to sleep in lecture (SHHH...the video was boring). I was ever so inclined towards this book because it was all about my three favourite meals-breakfast, lunch and tea! No dinner for me, dinner is my least favourite meal-I have issues with it, don't get me started. =) It just goes along the lines of the fact that I really dislike going to bed with a full stomach, makes me feel...heavy.

Back to the tart, I was inspired by the many blogs I have been drooling over and decided that I should bake one myself. I used to have problems with pastry and what's more, this was gluten-free, which made it alot more daunting. Ariana Bundy's book made it simple though and I felt composed and confident which probably helped. Most things go wrong when you're running around the kitchen for ingredients like a headless chicken.

I adapted the recipe a little and instead of using 1/3 cup of margarine, I used 2 tablespoons of Melrose spread, left in the freezer for 10 minutes to harden a little, and 3 tablespoons of expeller pressed coconut oil (from the fridge so it was hard) and blended all the ingredients in a food processor. The flour mix I used was 1 cup white rice flour, 1/8 cup tapioca starch and 1/8 cup potato starch.

The strawberries I got were from Driscolis and being the end of the strawberry season, the strawberries weren't very strawberry-y or sweet but they were big and so I just added a little more glaze to sweeten it up. The crust was pretty good, obviously lacking that rich buttery taste but I'm sure it can be fixed with a butter flavouring (?). It was flaky which could possibly be due to how I rolled it. I rolled it out then folded it in and re-rolled. It was pretty sturdy and didn't crumble too much. OVERALL I say, I'm glad I changed my mind about baking. Else I would be a sad little person. =) Also, I'll be submitting this to Sweetnick's ARF/ 5-a-day roundup so head there to check it out on Tuesday!

ITCHYITCHY

2007-09-30T23:54:00.000-07:00

My sister got me my icecream maker for my birthday 2 months ago, and I made one batch of coconut icecream and left it packed on top of the refrigerator since. I feel terribly guilty. Problem is, I find using 5 egg yolks in my icecream slightly excessive and to be honest, a little scary. Needless to say I had been rummaging through countless vegan blogs hoping to find something dairy free and egg free. Might have been me being fussy but I didn't want a sorbet and other recipes I found asked for soy cream and fancy soy milk powders but I didn't know where to get them. Frustrated I declared- I GIVE UP!

But you know there is a cookbook about practically everything out there now. A book all about fish, a book all about chocolate (no, make that MANY books all about chocolate) and whatnot and Vice Cream is probably the IT book I needed. =) Decided to just close my eyes and pick out a recipe, I ended up making a 'raw' strawberry ice cream and mmmmmmm, it's pretty darn good. Different from what I expected since there was no sugar that was used instead, pureed dates stood in as a sweetener. Needless to say the icecream tasted like dates and strawberries which somehow made the flavour deeper. The texture was somewhere in between an icecream and a sorbet. Next on my list is peanut butter with chocolate. Gotta be good huh.

Here's the recipe (modified) from Jeff Rogers' Vice Cream, short sweet and simple.

1 vanilla bean
1.5 cups almond milk (I used fat-free soy milk)
1 cup organic pitted dates
1.5 cup packed hulled organic strawberries

1) Place the dates in boiling water to cover and let sit overnight (I chucked mine in the microwave for 4 minutes since I'm not fussed about being 'raw')
2) Remove the skins off the dates if you mind the specks in the final product, else leave it.
3) Blend the dates with the milk and the strawberries and vanilla seeds until silky smooth
4) Chill well before preparing according to ice-cream machine manufacturer's instructions.
5) Serve immediately or freeze and thaw 10 minutes before serving.

stickydate weird pudding

2007-09-25T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today's the sort of day that you want to stay indoors- no going out for lunch, no going to get some groceries and definitely no going to the Melbourne Show. Luckily I've already done that on Monday so there, no dreadful 'i-wasted-a-good-day' feeling. =)

I spent the better part of yesterday tossing ideas in my head. I had a baking itch and since I haven't baked for a week or more (I was in Sydney on a girls trip!), I felt slightly guilty I had been neglecting the oven. So was it going to be coconut macaroons or stickydate pudding (more like a cake if you ask me) and I went with the stickydate, just because I had been wanting to bake it for a while now and if you ask me, I much like baking things that take a wee bit more effort. Makes you feel all sorts of happy and contented, none of that 'whip it up in 10 minutes' for me. Besides, my theory is that if you wanna bake, do it properly. So i used this gluten free recipe from Women's Day and was hoping for the best. I was attracted to it because it used such a wide variety of flours and I really wanted to try out the soy flour I had gotten awhile back.

So after I got back from dinner (INDIAN!), I decided to do the first bit which was to cook the dates and water for 5 minutes then add the bicarb soda and let sit for 20. After i did that, I went to get DVDs (Tuesday night special at videoezy) and came home to do the rest. It looked good in the mixing bowl, looked good rising in the oven but taste wise, it was really off.

I might blame it on the fact that I used Melrose instead of butter (I'm trying to be dairy free) or that I added cinnamon instead of nutmeg. Whatever it was, the texture was good, soft and sticky and today it remained moist even though I just left it sitting on the counter top. I don't know about this one...I suppose a large part of the problem MIGHT be that I didn't make the butterscotch toffee sauce to drench it in but hey, shouldn't a cake taste good on it's on without the added fancy schmancies? =( BUGGER. Now I feel like my baking itch hasn't been well satisfied. Oh well, I've got a few more days til school starts so til then, I'll think of something new to bake. =)

Holy...

2007-09-04T23:56:00.000-07:00

Holy! It's been a full month since I've blogged. I have good reason for missing out on the world-uni! Oh wells, I haven't stopped baking, if that's what you're wondering. I have just been everywhere at once, just not here =)

Siew and I have embarked on our multimedia project for uni and we had huge plans for it. Started with using Director to make me a cake catalogue, then decided that we should do an aesthetic piece about food and friendship and we ended up with a interactive photo collage thingy. Don't ask. I'm confused myself. Good thing though, I got some nice photos out of it! =) Here's some...

and more...

Allrighty, now it's back to working on my presentation! I promise I'll have more brownie photos up soon! =)

A cookie that tastes like a cookie

2007-08-06T17:34:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been updating much, much less talk about the liver detox which, by the way, I'm still trying to follow (whenever possible). Well I threw the detox to the wind last week seeing that it was my LAST *teen which calls for much mourning and therefore, the overload of sweets and salties and ahem, more sweets. The previous post has already addressed the first of my birthday collection of sweets: brownies! And with regards to the birthday cake, it's been made and devoured, and I couldn't find the time to take a photo. Too busy scarfing the lovely moist orange almond cake.

Orange almond cake seems to be th favourite choice for flourless or gluten-free cakes. Everytime I see a gluten-free cake at a cafe or restaurant chances are it's an orange almond cake. Don't get me wrong, i LOVE orange and almond, put them together and you've got me hooked and so when I baked this orange almond cake from Sweet Alternative by Ariana Bundy, I half expected it to be the same dense, dense cake, similiar to the one I had at Cafe Trevi on Lygon street. Somehow it was a whole heap lighter and I'm guessing the Cafe Trevi one, as with the other flourless orange almond cakes around town, are made by creaming butter and sugar, while mine had no butter or oil but tasted more like heaven than anything else really. Reminds me of the orange cake made at The Raffles Hotel which was sensational (coz i got to pick at some while working there) and the method was the same. Immerse an orange in boiling water and simmer for 2 hours, puree and use. =) MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM. But let's move onto cookies now.

Baked my birthday cookies yesterday, added a whole ton of chocolate chunks and chips and walnuts and I'm all smiles. Recipe was adapted from here because I needed a cookie that didn't use butter (because I have none and butter makes me feel guilty). I thought to myself that if I didn't use butter, I could add more chocolate and feel less bad. =) The cookies were good, but somehow they puffed up too much, despite me flattening them before baking so I had to flatten them once more while they were in the oven and it created a cool marbled effect from the melted chocolate chunks I added in, but somehow they were still a little too light for my liking. I think I'll add in 1/4 cup almond meal next time and remove the baking powder from the mixture. The recipe isn't vegan anymore because I had to add an egg to bind the ingredients as gluten-free mixtures are usually stickier than wheat flour ones. But I loved the taste and they're a whole heap better than many gluten free cookies I've had so here's the recipe that I used, with my adaptations.

chocolate chunka heaven cookies

1 very generous cup rice flour
3 tbsp tapioca starch flour
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 egg
3 tbsp water (or so)
1 tsp vanilla extract
75 g walnuts, chopped
150g dairy-free dark chocolate (or any you prefer), chopped

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius
2) Sift flours, xantham gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar together
3) Whisk egg, oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract together in a seperate bowl
4) Add liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir to combine, adding 1-2 tbsp of water
if mixture is too sticky
5) Stir in nuts and chocolate until well mixed, again, adding 1 tbsp water is needed
6) Drop by huge tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet and flatten
7) Bake for 8 minutes or until puffy, then using the back of a spoon, flatten the cookies a little
8) Bake until brown (5 more minutes)
9) Cool completely or eat it while it's warm
10) Makes 20 kinda giant chocolate chunka heaven cookies

it's my party!

2007-07-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

There's this weird thing about birthdays, makes you feel that its right that you have brownies for breakfast (lunch and dinner). Makes you feel it's okay to down a fishbowl margarita with 7 of your close mates. Makes you feel pretty darn justified that you should have awesome dinners everyday of the week. Scratch that, make that a fortnight. And really, it makes you feel that desserts should be ordered by the 'menu-ful' meaning: order 3/4 of the desserts available at the restaurant you happen to be at. YEAP, birthdays do that. I don't know about you but they certainly do that to me.

Because I still care about gluten and dairy and all that, I decided to bake myself my own birthday cake, birthday brownies, birthday tart and birthday cookies. So far I've only accomplished birthday brownies but that being said, because I have officially declared that birthdays oughta last for a MONTH, I still have a month to bake the rest. heh heh heh. The recipe for the brownies are from my Sweet Alternative book, which I am absolutely smitten with and needless to say, the brownies turned out fantastic, seriously un-gluten-free tasting and honestly, they tasted better than 'normal' brownies. When I took them out of the oven, I immediately plunged them into a cold water bath just to stop the cooking so it'd remain moist and fudgey. Gluten free baking can be tricky especially with KEEPING the product in it's 'original' condition (moist, fudgey etc.). Surprisingly, when I so easily and guiltlessly helped myself to the brownies this morning (duh! birthday breakfast!!!), they were still insanely moist and fudgey.

The brownies aren't dense, and certainly slightly more cake-like in texture compared to my favourite brownie recipe however, it was actually a nice change. It's got a lighter crumb but because of the ounces and ounces of chocolate and walnuts that I stirred in, it ups the chunky, dense and chocolate factor which if you don't know by now, absolutely fine with me. So right now, I'm relishing every bit of what's left. I might bake myself another batch veryVERY soon but then again, I've got that cake, tart and cookie to keep my birthdayself happy. Until then, I'm going to think of a way to FUDGE and DENSE this brownie up and hopefully come up with an exact replica of said favourite brownie.

Amaretti

2007-07-25T00:56:00.000-07:00

Finally I got round to bake Amaretti and I had no problem deciding on using Cream Puff's treasured recipe because it looked so promising and seriously, no one can say no to a family secret recipe. Her recipe is designed to yield 50-70 cookies and rightly so since they are absolutely delicious morsels of delight but seeing that I'm about the only one who's gonna be eating them, I cut the recipe in 4 and ended up with 25! =) I suppose I made them a little smaller than intended.

Here's the recipe in 1/4
170g ground almonds
1/2 cup granulated sugar (I used raw sugar)
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
raw whole almonds
extra 1/2 cup raw sugar

1) Mix ground almonds, cocoa and sugar together
2) Add in egg and almond extract, mix well
3) My mixture looked a little crumbly but held together when I rolled them into little balls
4) Roll the balls in the 1/2 cup of extra sugar
4) Line them up on parchment paper and press an almond into each cookie
5) Bake at the bottom rack of the oven at 180 degrees celcius for 10 minutes, then move to middle rack and bake for further 5 minutes. Let cool and serve! =)

One birthday cake down, one to go...

2007-07-23T17:23:00.000-07:00

I think a common trait that all people who cook share is that they are opportunists. Whenever anyone has a birthday or a gathering or a night in, they offer to take care of the food (HAH! I know you're guilty). And being as gluten-free and dairy-free as I can tolerate lately, I quite missed the feeling of baking with butter and wheat flour, what can I say, they do make cakes pretty darn good. So on Fred's birthday I appointed myself official birthday cake maker and decided I wanted to go all out, with the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, cream, chocolate, layers, frostings... and here's what I ended up with.

Burnt sugar cake with layers of milk and dark chocolate ganache and kahlua spiked cream topped with a rich buttery caramel frosting.

Notes for the cake:
I had to make the burnt sugar syrup 3 times because the first time I overlooked the part where I had to add in HOT water, and added in tepid water which make the caramel harden. Second time I cooked it for a tad too long and it became bitter. Third time lucky. =). I notices my syrup wasn't VERY dark brown but more like a rich hazel color.

Notes for the ganache:
I used this simple recipe of 1/4 cup cream: 125g chocolate. The top layer is a milk chocolate ganache while the bottom is a dark chocolate ganache. I did that because I ran out of dark choc. =P no other reason.

Notes for soaking syrup for cake:
Mix 1/2 cup water with 2 tbsp of instant coffee powder and 1/3 cup kahlua. Brush cooled cake layers with syrup after assembling. i.e. place the cake layer in place on top of the cake board and brush first layer, and then top with ganache and place second layer on top before brushing with syrup. Repeat.

Notes for kahlua spiked cream:
Simply whip 200ml of thickened cream until soft peaks form, add in 1/2 of icing sugar and 3 tbsp of kahlua, whip a little more until stiff, chill before spreading on 2nd layer.

Notes for the caramel frosting:
I followed recipe exactly except I reduced the icing sugar and used 2 tbsp of cream at the end to thin it out. It set pretty quickly.

2007-07-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

HEEEEEEEEY everyone. I promise I'm not dead. I've just been swamped with learning how to drive, cooking un-photogenic food and working. Oh yes and who can forget-SHOPPING. My ultimate guilty pleasure. hehe! Uni starts soon which means I will probably get back into the frequent updating since I feel like there's more of a routine that way. Holidays are just bad for me, I go all sorts of topsy turvy with posts and all that. What can I say, I love losing track of life. =)

Right now I'm working my way through a few birthday cake options for myself. Seeing that it's gotta be gluten free and dairy free, I'm kinda in a rut. Suggestions anyone? =) I want something a little fancier which means bountiful swirls of icing and all that jazz but DAIRY FREE is killing me! Bugger.

me, myself and saturday

2007-07-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

I realized that when you start working more often, you really and I mean REALLY treasure the free time you get off work. I don't remember a Saturday afternoon where I haven't had to go to work or at the very least, haven't had to think about work. And honestly, I like it very much. Lucky me it was sunny this morning so I woke up all bright and cheery, ready to go to the market. The market is good when it's sunny, actually the market is good whenever. As long as I don't have to rush around. It was good today, Fred came along and carried half the groceries I bought which means I could buy more. simple maths.

The past few days has seen me struggle with being good, avoiding the Haighs chocolate coated scorched almonds. I failed, gave in and ate 3. Just THREE. And I knew for sure that the next time the bout of chocolate want hits me, it'd be worse. So i decided to bake me something better, a chocolate tart of sorts. I don't know how it turned out because I didn't have much expectations. I just needed something that tasted like chocolate. I couldn't find a pie crust recipe to follow, so I made up my own. It turned out odd. Not in a bad terrible inedible way, just, maybe I should've blind baked it first. It's edible nonetheless, definitely would be good to improve upon, we've all got to start somewhere anyway.

It's not the most appetizing photo but it was the best I could get since I just really wanted to sink my teeth in. The crust is odd (like I said) so I won't be posting the recipe I used. Just use your favourite pie crust. The filling was taken from here, and maybe I should've baked it for a longer time (I left it baking for 45 minutes in a water bath) but it set up quite nicely, mousse-like and all. stable yet not hard. =) I'd say it's definitely good for a chocolate fix and most importantly, the guilt factor hardly creeped in at all!

And for my first entry for Presto Pasta Night, I decided that this little baby oughta do the trick!

Gluten-free Pasta with Avocado and Mushrooms

2 serves gluten-free pasta, cooked as per instructions on the box
5 big white button mushrooms (or however much you like, really)
3 big shiitake mushrooms (just 'coz they were on sale)
1/2 brown onion, sliced thinly
1 large clove garlic, bashed and diced
1.5 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
salt, pepper
1 avocado, diced and slightly bashed

1) heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a pan, add in garlic and onion and saute
2) when onion softens and browns, add in mushrooms and a splash of water and salt, cook until tender
3) Add in balsamic vinegar and pepper and continue cooking until desired softness
4) Place pasta in a bowl, top with avocado and pour the hot mushrooms on top, serve!=)

I solemnly swear I am up to no good

2007-07-02T23:33:00.000-07:00

I love the apartment that I live in. It's one of those new ones, all swanky and chic with a cool lobby. You know it's gonna be good when you walk into a lobby filled with mirrors and yellow lights with gold decorations and one of them swanky little moon shaped couches for your guests to wait. I've only ever had one real complaint: there was no supermarket nearby. I mean, what am I supposed to do when I need an apple? or butter? or worse, chocolate. Thankgod the people around the area decided that a Coles (supermarket chain) was needed to TA-DAH! I am now the happiest girl. =)

So yesterday while doing my usual daily walk around in Coles, I decided to buy the 'reduced to clear' organic apples for $0.99 to try making natural applesauce, the 'reduced to clear' organic bananas for $1.99 and the reduced to clear kent pumpkin for $0.45 to make PUMPKIN MUFFINS! I've been meaning to try a recipe from my 'Sweet Alternative' cookbook filled with glorious gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free recipes and a pumpkin spice muffin might do the trick. This whole gluten-free thing has gotten me finding interest in using vegetable purees and mashed fruits in my baking.

The pumpkin muffins were gorgeous, they rose sky high like normal muffins and were very fluffy with a very tender crumb. Fred had them for breakfast this morning without warming them up and he said they were yummy. Da-jie had them too and she liked them, which means alot coming from someone who finds the idea of pumpkin muffins quite revolting. I personally adored them, but then again I'm partial to my own cooking. HAHA!

Pumpkin Spice Muffin from Sweet Alternative by Ariana Bundy

1 ½ cup GF all-purpose flour ( 1 cup white rice flour + scant ¼ cup buckwheat flour + packed ¼ cup potato starch)

1 ½ tsp baking soda

1 tsp xantham gum

2 tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp ginger powder (optional)

3 ½ tsp pumpkin spice/ all spice

2 free range eggs

½ cup maple syrup + 2 tbsp raw sugar

¾ unsweetened mashed pumpkin (boil until very soft and mash to make ¾ cup)

¼ cup sunflower oil

½ cup chopped walnuts

1 tsp apple cider vinegar

Sift dry ingredients together and set aside

whisk the eggs with the maple syrup and add the vinegar, mix to combine
blend it into the flour mixture and add in pumpkin puree
stir in walnuts and spoon in 10 cupcake liners and bake at 175 degrees celcius for 18-20 minutes.

and because I DID solemnly swore that I was up to no good, here's some awesome peanut butter cookies, gluten-free of course.

Natural Peanut Butter Cookies (yields 2 1/2 - 3 dozen)

3/4 cup natural chunky peanut butter (the 100% peanut kind)
2 tbsp butter, unsalted or salted
2 tbsp natural almond butter (the 100% almond kind, I made my own)
3/4 cup light brown sugar (I would reduce this)

3/4 cup white rice flour, finest grind you can find
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
1/4 potato starch
1 tsp xantham gum
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2-4 tbsp water

1) Cream first 4 ingredients together
2) Sift the dry ingredients
3) Add the eggs and vanilla and beat to combine
4) Add in the flour mixture and mix using a wooden spoon, adding water if mixture is too dry
5) *this is optional* Stir in come chopped up dark chocolate or if using milk choc, reduce sugar in creaming step.
6) Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls and bake at 180 degrees for 15 minutes if a chewy cookie is desired or flatten the cookie before baking and bake for 18 minutes for a crunchy crisp cookie.

Little rewards

2007-06-26T04:18:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows I'm an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie kinda girl. No, let's not jump to specifics. I'm an oatmeal cookie kinda girl-forget the chocolate chip, peanut butter's just as good. But the whole Liver Detox and Low Allergy thing has some downsides, especially when it comes to cookies. Baking cakes with substitutes or muffins even, is not too big a deal, I might even find it better to eat. I feel better eating it and I have heaps of fun baking it. But the few attempts of low-fat cookie baking hasn't reeaaalllyyy worked out for me. Maybe til this one...it's not low fat or anything but definitely better for you, because the fat in it might have some benefits. I was inspired by Cooking Well's tahini chocolate chip cookies and Baking Bite's entry on baking chewy cookies and decided that I deserved some oatmeal chewychocochuck cookies but I really didn't want to feel bad so I came up with this!...

wheat-free chewychocochuck with tahini (makes 24-27)
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup rice flour
1 heaping tablespoon potato flour (starch)
1/2 tsp xantham gum
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp tahini
5 tbsp almond butter (storebought or home-made)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp raw sugar*
1 egg
water*
75g dark chocolate
1/3 cup chopped up dried dates
1 1/2 cup wholegrain rolled oats

1) combine first 5 ingredients together in a bowl, set aside
2) In another bowl, whisk butter, oil, tahini and almond butter together until smooth.
3) Add in egg and vanilla extract and whisk to comebine
4) Mix in the flours (mixture will be veryvery sticky)
5) Add in the oats and stir to combine, add 1-2 tbsp of water if too sticky
6) Add in chocolate and dates and mix well, adding 1-2 tbsp water to assist in mixing.
7) Bake at 175 degrees celcius for 12 minutes or longer if a crispier cookie is desired.
>The longer you bake it (16-17 min), the more chewy the dates will be, a little like raisins.

*I didn't add sugar when I baked mine and the bits without dates or chocolate were a little bland therefore I suggest adding a few tablespoons of raw sugar
**The cookies can even be gluten-free if GF rolled oats are used!
***I added peanut butter to half a batch but there wasn't much difference in the final texture so..save your calories!=)

Just in time

2007-06-24T03:41:00.000-07:00

I was lucky yesterday to get some blueberries for $2.95 a punnet at Coles and while the Driscolis strawberries next to it looked absolutely stunning, all big, red and juicy, I much preferred the cheaper alternative: blueberries. And, I really really NEEDED to bake some blueberry muffins, it was a craving and went hand in hand with this month's Sugar High Friday-sweetsweet cravings.

Blueberry muffins have always struck me as quite American. Don't know why, don't know how I got that notion but the American kids on TV always had blueberry muffins for breakfast or for tea and their moms always seemed to have a fresh bucket of blueberries on hand, ready to whip up those gorgeous little gems. So I asked my mom when I was a kid, to get the Betty Crocker blueberry muffin mix and I was hooked. Then I outgrew Betty Crocker, the kick wasn't there and moved onto making my own blueberry muffins from scratch and they were amongst my first baking successes, then I had Candida and then I grew up and decided that copious amounts of sour cream and oil in my muffin mix just didn't cut it. Then I fell back in love when I made them healthier for me meaning: gluten-free and dairy-free.

Now, I'm happy. =)

Vic's Gluten-free, dairy-free Blueberry Muffins (makes 12)
(A)
1 cup rice flour (use the finest grind you can find, I get mine from Asian supermarkets)
1/3 amaranth flour (If unavailable, use rice flour instead)
2/3 cup potato flour
2 tsp baking powder (gluten-free)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp xantham gum

*Sift all together

(B)
1/3 cup safflower/canola/sunflower oil
1/2 cup raw sugar
2 eggs
1 cup vanilla flavoured soy yoghurt
250g blueberries
2 tbsp soy/rice milk
3 tbsp raspberry jam, warmed

*Whisk eggs in a bowl until fluffy, slowly add in sugar and oil and whisk madly until fluffy
*Add (A) into egg mixture alternately with soy yoghurt and milk
*Fold blueberries and raspberry jam through and spoon into prepared muffin tin
*Bake at 170 degrees celcius for 18-20 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.

Gluten free and lovin' it!

2007-06-19T03:18:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, just thought I'd give you guys a heads up and let you know that I am attempting to cook more 'proper' food. Like you know, the main meals and that kinda stuff and I'll be blogging about those adventures too. I still believe that dessert is the whole point of the meal (DUH!) so don't worry, the sweets will keep on coming. =)

Trying to be gluten-free has increased my curiosity in other food and other alternatives so here's what I had for lunch today.

Warm Quinoa (keen-wah) for lunch

1/4 cup quinoa
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup soy milk*
1/4 large packham pear, diced
1/2 tbsp linseed meal
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp raw sugar
2 tbsp granola/muesli (optional)
fruits of choice (I used strawberries)**

1) Mix all ingredients except for the last two in a small saucepan and simmer for 15 minutes or until all liquid is absorbed. To check that quinoa is cooked, the quinoa grain should be transparent with a tiny white center. Remove from heat

2) Add in 3 tbsp soy milk and stir in granolo/muesli if using and fruit.

*I use the sugar-free asian type of soy milk because it's made from water and milled soya beans whereas the kind that is sold by vitasoy and all has weird ingredients like safflower oil and malt extract.

**I want to try adding bananas, blueberries, mangoes and coconut. =) Should be yummy. Omit the muesli if you are gluten intolerant

DINNER! I was itching to get home from work to try these little babies out! Again, taken from my trusty Stoneage Fusion by Lisa Elks and adapted to what I had on hand...

Broccoli, Purple Sweet Potato and Carrot fritters (makes 4)

1 cup finely chopped broccoli, lightly steamed
1/3 cup grated carrot, heated in the microwave for 50 seconds on high
1/2 cup mashed purple sweet potato (ordinary is fine but not as sweet)
2 big tbsp rice flour
2 big tbsp buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 cup soy milk
2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

1) Mix flours and baking powder together, add in egg and milk and whisk to combine
2) Add in mashed sweet potato and mix well, add in broccoli, carrot, parsley, salt and pepper
3) Heat a skillet sprayed with olive oil spray and place 2 1/2 heaping tablespoonfuls for eat fritter, fry until browned then turn over and cook further. Serve with vinaigrette*

*Mix 2 tsp olive oil, 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, dash of salt and juice of half a lime.

Walnut Chocolate Roughs

2007-06-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

I'm awful when it comes to resisting chocolate, it almost makes me feel incomplete without it really. But I know I'll feel terribly awful if I did eat dairy much worse, chocolate, so I decided to make Walnut Chocolates but substitute the chocolate with this amazing dark gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate. Lo n' Behold, the chocolates didn't work out. Here's why...

I was supposed to roll teaspoonfuls of a walnut paste (made from processing 100g walnuts, 1/2 cup icing sugar and 2 tsp egg whites) into balls and then dip them into the dark chocolate but the walnut paste mixture seemed too dry and kept falling apart when I tried rolling it over and over again. But I had already melted the chocolate and I couldn't waste a perfectly fragrant walnut mixture so I dumped all of the walnut paste mixture, 3/4 cups of wholegrain rolled oats and 1/3 cups sweetened shredded coconut into the chocolate and mixed them all together, dropped them by rounded tablespoonfuls on a baking sheet and let it sit til it set. YUMMMYYY...

Walnut Chocolate Roughs

1 portion walnut paste (recipe below)*
3/4 cup wholegrain rolled oats
1/3 cup sweetened shredded coconut (I use McKenzies)
100g dark soy chocolate
chopped apricots, pawpaw, orange peel, crushed almonds**

1) Mix all together and drop by rounded 1/2 tablespoonfuls onto a baking sheet and place in fridge to set.

*Walnut Paste:
100g walnuts
1/3 cup icing sugar
3 tsp egg whites

1) Process walnuts until finely ground
2) Add in icing sugar and egg whites and process until a moist paste like mixture forms, chill in the fridge for 15 minutes

**These ingredients are optional, they're just additions I thought I might add if I had them on hand...I'm especiall inclined towards the orange peel. =) JAFFAS!

Have fun guys!

Good food makes me happy...

2007-06-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

So far my liver detox has been going good, well I claim it's a liver detox but I'm not really following any hard and fast rules. What I've been doing is avoiding all red meat (which is easy), avoiding things I'm allergic to (wheat, dairy, gluten) and trying to not eat when I'm really not hungry. So far I'm going...pretty well. Stocked up my fridge with fruits (CUSTARD APPLES and HONEYDEW!) and soy milk and soy icecream. I'm a happy girl!

My sister has this 'Stoneage Fusion' recipe book/file by Lisa Elks and it's been my diary for the past few weeks- I absolutely adoreADOREadore it. Everything in there sounds delicious and superdooper healthy, with tons of helpful substitutions and zillions of low-fat, low-allergy recipes that a girl like me needs! Which is very encouraging as well since i loveLOVE food and cooking. =) So, I've made her banana muffins a while back and this time I decided to try something NEW! the best thing about her collection of recipes is that all the ingredients are very easily available in ANY health food store.=) Here's an adaptation to her 'Beautiful Rice and Amaranth Muffins'

1 cup rice flour
1 cup amaranth flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xantham gum (or guar gum)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup oil
1 tsp bicarb soda
4 tbsp soy milk
1 large jar of baby food 'pear and banana' or 'pears' (Heinz has it)
1 cup stewed pears*
1 banana, mashed
2 tbsp honey
2 tsp raw sugar

1)Whisk eggs, honey, sugar and oil together until light and fluffy
2)Add in baby food, stewed pears and mashed banana
3)In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients (rice flour, amaranth flour, baking powder and xantham gum)
4)Combine bicarb soda and soy milk together, set aside
5)Add 1/2 or dry ingredients into oil mixture, followed by soy milk and finish with the remaining dry ingredients
6)Spoon into muffin tin and bake at 200 degrees celcius (fanforced: 190) for 10 minutes then lower to 180 (fanforced: 170) for an extra 15-18 minutes.

*Stewed pears:
-You can use pear halves in natural, unsweetened syrup instead
-to make your own: Dice one large peeled packham pear and place in a pot of simmering water with a little lemon juice and cinnamon. Cook until soft and tender. Drain and use as directed.

Apologies for the lack of photos but they aren't the most photogenic muffins, they keep well and taste awesome when warmed. =)

Liver Detox

2007-06-10T04:49:00.000-07:00

My previous post has emphasized on the point that I am now way past my orginal weight and health because I've been gorging myself on wheat (I am wheat-intolerent) and dairy (I am slightly lactose intolerent) and all other things that are going to clog up my arteries. So, while my mom is now reading up on heaps of material about Magnesium and its health benefits, I have started on my new 'phase'. Okay, phase makes it sounds bad, I was meaning to say 'interest'. THE LIVER! I've decided to do a detox to ease the stress I am feeling due to the recent binge and I really do want to feel 'cleaner' hahahahhaa, so yes! I'm trying to do a semi liver detox, a full blown on is too straining and I underestimate my determination to follow through. So I'll start on a smaller hill and see how it goes. =)

Mommy left for home today, so now I'm all alone. Never imagined I'd feel THIS homesick since I've been looking forward to all the stuff I can accomplish this holiday but nonetheless, spent the entire day crying and wishing my mom was still here. I'd drag her on a walk right about now then binge on soy icecream after. But walking along just didn't feel nice today so I did something else that makes me feel happy- being in the kitchen!

Whipped up a luscious thick smoothie for dinner and watched snippets of Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy and BB07. I feel slightly better now, and sleeepy. Here's a rough idea of how the smoothie went! Try it out when you need something luxurious feeling but not too evil on your health.

Tofu Smoothie (serves you, and you only: don't share!)
1/4 pack of silken tofu
6-8 strawberries
1 1/2 bananas*
1/2 apple juice*

1) Mix all in a blender and BLENDDD!
2) Sit in front of the teevee, accompany smoothie with a large handful of dry roasted, unsalted cashews. =)

* I used 1 fresh banana and 1/2 frozen so I didn't add ice, you might want to add crushed ice
* I only had this apple, lemon & lime juice in my fridge, so try it with whatever juice you want to, and you may add more juice if it's too thick coz I didn't really measure the juice.

This is what happens when...

2007-06-06T04:47:00.000-07:00

SORRY GUYS, I WILL BLOG 'FOOD STUFF' SOON! Just thought I'd drop a note to say I'm not dead.=)

This is what happens when...
my mom visits me
both of us have an insane love for food
we have sweet teeth (i obviously inherited mine from her)
it's getting coolllldddd
we love all sorts of cuisine
we live to eat

YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS? you get FAT.

yeap, No recipes today, no photos today, just an update! I'm getting fat!

Sugar Sugar how you get so fly

2007-06-01T03:30:00.000-07:00

You all know I've got an addiction problem. I normally don't talk about it much but observe me and you'll notice it straight away. Geez, I'm soooo transparent. I went for lunch at the Conservatory at Crown today and omg, I made a bee-line for the dessert spread. So there were a substantial number of cakes and desserts, a deconstructed lamington (sponge cake covered in chocolate topped with dessicated coconut layered with whipped cream and jam), blood orange mousse cake (the blood orange flavour wasn't strong, just tasted like orange to me), lime custard (I liked this one, a layer of lime jellylike thing atop a creamy rich custard), dome shaped tiramisu and some others. Oh yes, bread and butter pudding but veryvery disappointing. The pudding wasn't warm to begin with and the custard had no vanilla beans or brandy or anything whatsoever. But I had one thing I looked forward to the entire time...

Ohwell, what can I say. When I'm in control of the sprinkles and all, it's just toooo hard to resist. Sorry I haven't been posting any recipes and that but I've been busy shopping and eating my heart out. I promise I'll get back into action soon so keep reading!=)

And, Mom and I decided to get somethin decadent from Laurent (a swanky looking joint with heaps of layer-upon-layer of sublime little cakes) so I got me a chocolate thing and I know, it's so dumb to forget what it's called but I'll try describing it. It had a Gianduja chocolate layer centered with a light whipped chocolate mousse-like layer and a sponge and...I'm not doing a very good job. Maybe because I was slightly disappointed with the cake because it tasted really...normal. Good quality for sure but still normal. I don't remember much of it... Maybe we made a bad choice. It was gorgeous though! The best part I must say would be the Pistachio Macaroon I got on the side, now that I remember. Chewy and crunchy and sticky, just like how a good french macaroon should be, but better- I heart pistachio. =)

2007 semester One party!

2007-05-26T23:24:00.000-07:00

All day at work yesterday I kept checking the clock. Time seemed to pass slower that way, with every minute under my close scrutiny and I eventually gave up, started talking to Jess and Alex and spent the rest of my time chatting with the customers (some were really awesome), clipping the clothes up and running mental debates on what I should buy at the store to reward myself. You see, SEMESTER ONE IS OVER-OFFICIALLY. =)

And that spelt for CELEBRATION, well it was a good enough an excuse as any other so Vee, Fred, Sling and Liz rocked up at my house bearing all sorts of amazing yummies and alcohol and what was supposed to end by maybe...4am ended up lasting a whole lot longer. By a whole lot longer I mean 8.30am. That was when I exclaimed that I have not had had any sleep for 24 hours and counting. But hey, with the amount of fun we had, I'm not complaining. What say we do it AGAIN guys?!=)

Decided it was also a good a time as any other to cook dessert and by that I mean creme brulee, two-layered deep chocolate cake and almond jelly (like my SHF entry). Decided to cook some tumeric curry chicken and sweet potato mash. But I haven't any photos of all of them except the chocolate cake. My proudest moment was when I cut into the cake and for the first time ever, I didn't have to exert strength to make it through two hard layers of chocolate sponge. I knew it was gonna be good. =)

The cake recipe was closely followed, I didn't feel like making any changes and I didn't feel like going through the exhausting rollercoaster ride where I worry endlessly that it might turn out bad, I don't know about you but most of my layer cakes have turned out promising when first taken from the oven but just ends up being a hard to swallow, hard to chew, not really tasty kinda cake, and that bugs me. This time, I took the cake out of the fridge as soon as people started arriving, giving it aout 4 hours to settle to room temperature and THANKGOD the weather in Australia allows me to do so. It was a smart move!=)

I made a creamy vanilla frosting to go with the cake but I used slightly salted butter and that wasn't good plus, I was meant to use half shortening and half butter, which I'm assuming is because 1) color (shortening won't produce a yellow frosting) and 2) flavour (I think a mixture of shortening and butter produces frostings with less pronounced butter-like taste which can be icky) so therefore, faced with both color and flavour problems oh-and plus the issue of the salt, I decided to whisk in 2 heaping tablespoons of cocoa and 1 tablespoon of icing sugar and TADA! Creamy chocolate frosting instead-still a little salty but a hell lot better. Frosted the cake, topped the entire cake with a basic icing made of milk, icing sugar and cocoa, and I was goooood.

Here's a link for a good creamy vanilla frosting, I've never made it but the recipe I used is similar. Sorry guys, I'm so tired from only 3 hours of sleep (I slept for 3 hrs after my friends left) I won't be typing the exact recipe I used because that means I have to walk to the kitchen. TRES FAR. And as for the basic chocolate icing, here's how it really went down.

Ingredients:

Milk

Cocoa

Icing sugar

1) start with 5 tablespoons of milk, 1 1/2 tbsp of cocoa and 6 tbsp icing sugar. Stir madly until smooth, add more milk, 1/2 tbsp cocoa and 2 or 3 tbsp icing sugar. Stir insanely again. Adding more milk if too sticky, icing sugar if too wet or cocoa if too sweet, keep stirring and stirring and adding and adding until you're happy or it's off a consistency that drips from your spoon in globs. Then pour of the top of your cake and using the back of a spooon, spread it out lightly. It should get stiffer with time and if you need more icing, repeat that whole stirring, adding process.

YEAP! That's how you REALLY do it-coz I can't remember exact measurements. *grin!

Brownie Babe of the Month #2

2007-05-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

My fudgey Neopolitan

For as long as I can remember, I've always associated passionfruit with my elder sister. Funny thing, I don't even know if she still loves it. It happened when we were kids and on a trip to the Gold Coast for the first time. She'd been there before with school, but it was my first time. And the most poignant memory of that trip was the Churros she insisted we ate, which I instantaneously developed a taste for and passionfruit icecream. Every single day, we had churros and icecream. I'd stick to vanilla or the rainbow colored ones and she would without fail have passionfruit. So there, my little story about how my sister became a passionfruit.
So today I went to the market to get more stuff for the get together on Saturday. And despite only have 50 dollars left in my back account, i just HAD to buy some passionfruits. 8 for $2. I thought i had a bargain...but the store down the aisle had them going for 10 for $2. Oh well, So I came home, de-pulped all of them and decided to use them in my entry for Brownie Babe of the Month 2!

I couldn't decide on whether I'd overcome my bad experience with blondies and try one or bake brownies... So I guess I baked browndies...? That sounds bad, like brown undies. I don't know, you guys can help me think of a name. I decided to make a pink cream cheese frosting just because I wanted them to look like neopolitan icecream! GEEENIUS. hehe. My original intention to follow this recipe didn't out because I measured the butter all wrong so I just changed the entire recipe and dare I say, it wasn't bad at all, not half bad at all...

You do want to eat the brownie at room temperature, as with most cakes actually, somehow it makes flavours stand out more. I like the fact that it feels dense and rich and you can really feel the tinge of bitterness of the cocoa on your tongue but the sweet and tangy cream cheese quickly cuts it before it can turn you off and I personally find the crunch of the passionfruit seeds veryvery interesting, adds a different dimension and texture to the otherwise chewy brownie. =) I might actually melt some of the dark chocolate into the batter next time to oomph up the chewy factor and use passionfruit pulp in the cream cheese instead of strawberry just coz I love passionfruit. And this brownie is probably the story of how I turned into a passionfruit too.
Recipe (Part One):
1 and scant 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
heaping 3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1) Mix the melted butter and brown sugar together until smooth, add in vanilla and eggs, whisk!
2) Add in flour and baking powder and mix, batter will be very thick
3) Split batter into 2 bowls

Part 2:
3 and half tbsp passionfruit pulp
1/2 cup chopped white chocolate chunks
1 tbsp milk

1) Mix 3 ingredients into one part of the batter

Part 3:
1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate chunks
2 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp milk

1) Mix all together

TO BAKE:

Take a square pan (8 x8 I think) and place blobs of the two mixtures togetherand then slowly marble, Might be a little difficult because the batter IS very sticky but they'll eventually even out in the oven. Bake at 175 degrees celcius for about..25 minutes? I'm not sure I was washing the dishes. Until a skewwer comes out clean.=)

Frosting:
3/4 block Light Philly Cream Cheese
2 drops of strawberry food flavouring
2 tsp strawberry jam
2 tsp lemon juice
about 1/3 cup icing sugar*
2 tiny drops of pink food coloring

1) Whisk all in a bowl until smooth
2) Spread on the cooled blondie/brownie
* Add more if it's too watery or a little more lemon juice if too sticky

Going to Huiwen's tonight for dinner, we're cooking again! I'll definitely show you our aweeeeeesome creations and how FAT i'm getting coz of all these pent up baking frustrations. HOLYCOW and my mom's coming in like, 3 DAYS!!! goodbye gym, helloooooo couch potato!=)

If at first you don't succeed...

2007-05-23T01:35:00.000-07:00

So remember the whole hoo-haa about my bread baking disasters? Well, I told you i'd give it another shot and I did, turned out better, meaning: edible. Was a little tough, but like I said, edible and it provided a little more encouragement. I won't be posting the recipe up because I made it taste yucky but feel free to look for 'soft white dinner rolls' by Nigella Lawson in her cookbook or june 2005's Delicious.

On a brighter note, I've finished my essays! Well, it's not perfect but by finish I mean, the bulk of it is done, what's left is the editing and referencing and all the bits and pieces which I'm losing concentration with... So today I took a day off, baked to my heart's content and shopped til I dropped. =) And I'm all good, albeit sleeeeeeepy.

Here's what I baked today...

Bloomin' Banana Muffins, they're for Daphne's birthday. I'm gonna top them with a swirl of chocolate ganache.

Gluten-free, dairy-free banana muffins, not as bloomin' beautiful but OMG I cannot have enough of them. I've had two...I'm working on reducing the oil although it's reasonably little already and TERRIBLY DELICIOUS. TRUST ME. (i know, gluten-free, dairy-free has the worst connotations sometimes...) BEST THING! there are no funny ingredients!

Ingredients:
1 cup rice flour
1/4 cup almond meal
3 mashed bananas (I used 3 medium ones)
3 tbsp rice/soy milk
1 tsp glutenfree baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 oil (I'd use a little less)
dash of cinnamon
2 eggs

1) Whisk eggs and oil together, add in mashed bananas, honey, sugar, cinnamon and almond meal
2) Place the baking soda and rice/soy milk together and let stand for 5 minutes
3) Mix the baking powder and rice flour together and add into banana mixture, alternating with milk (i started and ended with the flour)
4) Pour into prepared muffin cups
5) Bake at 175 degree celcius for 12-15 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean (careful not to overbake)
6) ENJOY! =) Betcha can't stop at oneeeee!

Gula Melaka Steamed Sponge, not as light as the really awesome ones I've had but heres the recipe, pretty good but I'll definitely work on it. I was a little crushed actually...maybe it's my fault for steaming at such high heat...do you think it'll make a difference in texture? Suggestions? It was too dense.

Sorry guys, I know the photos aren't drool worthy, but today I was more concerned with scoffing myself silly with food. You understand right? =) and HIPHIP HOORAY, SCHOOL'S OUT (almost)!!!!!!

Low-er fat Chewychocochuck Oatmeal Cookies

2007-05-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

Everyone's got a favourite cookie. Some like the melt-in-your-mouth type of shortbread or like a huge flat crispy chocolate speckled cookie while others may like a beautifully colored buttery sugar cookie. I'm more of a chewy cookie kinda girl. Chewy and oaty. Something about oatmeal cookies make me wanna just eat more. Might be the fact that some of the un-softened oats provide a great workout for your tongue and you try to fish them out from the back of your mouth or maybe it's just that it lasts a little longer because you've gotta chew. Don't know and honestly, don't care. hahaha! I just know that when I crave cookies, it's usually this cookie and it's bad, because it'll clog my arteries and one day I won't be able to move or bake them ever again. So, I made them low fat. hahahhaha and they're not half bad.

But seriously, because I know they're lower in fat, I just wanna eat more. But judging by the fact that the entire batch of 30 over cookies has less butter than 12 of their fattier counterparts, I feel a whole lot lighter, no I meant, better =)

3 tbsp butter (use margarine if you want)
5 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 cup applesauce, I used sweetened (if using unsweetened, add more sugar)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp caster sugar
3/4 a.p flour*
3/4 almond meal*
1 tsp baking soda
1 egg (or 2 egg whites)
2 tbsp fat-free milk (I used fat-free soy milk)
1.5 tsp vanilla
3 cups wholegrain oats
1 cup addition of choice: chocolate chunks/ raisins/ white choc/ apricots/ nuts

1) Cream butter, p.b and sugars together
2) Add in applesauce, milk, egg and vanilla, mix well
3) Add in flour, almond meal and baking soda
4) Add in oats and your addition of choice (Mine's chopped up chocolate)
5) Drop by tbspfuls onto baking sheet and bake at 175 degrees celcius for 10 minutes or so
6) EAT alot of them and be happy. =)

*You can replace all of the almond meal with flour. I just prefer using almond meal

I obviously added in more peanut butter because I am a PB FREAK and next time, I'm adding in raisins and cinnamon and white choc chunks instead of dark&milk choc. So there, lower fat-not really. heh!

*UPDATE: I just ate these when they've cooled and they're alot tougher so it's not good but I suppose you could always toast them for a cookie thats crunchy and filled with melty chocolate bits. =)

A little sad...

2007-05-20T04:58:00.000-07:00

Just thought i'd post an update on my second attempt at the chocolate loaf. Didn't work out. I think me and the recipe just aren't good. So, anyone who wants to try and has better luck please teach me how to do it. Right now though, I just had a maccas burger and I feel slightly better. I know, i should be avoiding wheat but I'm sad, and I've been wanting a burger for AGES. Anyway, I'm going to try Nigella Lawson's recipe for dinner rolls tomorrow, maybe i'll have more luck yes?

On the bright side, I got to eat up all the icing off the loaves. Now I feel a teensy bit bad, but icing is goooooooood. =)

UPDATE:
After reading a million and one sites on bread making and all things related I realized a huge possibility as to why my bread SUCKED was because I didn't knead it enough. I was worried that I might 'overwork' the mixture. Too much cake baking, the paranoia of over working a mixer is there. Tomorrow I will be more vicious and work it baby! heh, I'm totally psyched out now. I know I should be using spelt flour but I think I'll start with oragnic white flour first. I know, bad for me, but it's not THAT bad. I wanna succeed more than anything. =) WISH ME LUCK!

Chocolate Bread

2007-05-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to go to work today but being labelled as 'casual', it meant that I didn't really have a 'permanent' shift, so since it wasn't busy today, work called up and said I needn't go. Which was good in a way, I had this teensy tiny niggling feeling that I really didn't feel like working today, I had other plans.

Being inspired and motivated of all sorts, I decided I could handle the task of baking bread. My first ever experience with YEAST. That word sounds so dirty, I honestly don't have much feeling for it but nonetheless, I decided to thread on icy grounds. I had mixed feelings about the recipe I was about to use, firstly because I think I'm a recipe snob of some sorts and I usually tend to steer towards recipes from 'known' sources. Might be the fact that I'm a uni student and wikipedia doesn't count as a proper reference, I usually go to the usual (meaning: allrecipe or epicurious or verybestbaking) but due to the fact that I don't have a bread machine and heaps of recipes from those sites require one, I decided to use this one . I don't know. I might have done something wrong, or maybe it was just the fact that I used half spelt flour and half all purpose flour, but the bread turned out, like a bread but a little crumbly like a cake. Moist but tough, but it was cooked I think, coz I just scoffed 3 slices just coz I was sad and thinking about the bread...

Maybe I will try another recipe since I've got a couple sachets of yeast sitting in my fridge. I'm a little sad, and a little bruised. =( But still, it's not too bad, pretty yummy when you eat it slathered with chocolate icing and peanut butter. You know what they say...EVERYTHING tastes better with peanut butter.

*UPDATE: I JUST REALIZED WHY, I missed the step that called for the second rising. I ought to be shot. I'll try this recipe again tomorrow. =) Or maybe tonight. Wish me luck!

Icing:

2 tbsp water

1/2 tbsp cocoa

4-5 tbsp icing sugar*

1) Mix all together and if mixture is too stiff, add water by the drop

2) Pour all over the loaf and indulge

How to eat it:

1) Cut a thick slice (I might wanna toast it...), slather with peanut butter and drizzle with more icing.

I'm thinking of making it into a chocolate bread and butter pudding, what do you think? I'm in need of some cheering up. I might bake more chewychocochuck cookies just because...

SugarHighFriday! on a Saturday

2007-05-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

Finally, I am on time with participating in SHF #31. I always seem to miss it or find out right after the due date for submissions. So this month's theme is Neutral Territory. So, naturally, I think of white chocolate, panna cotta, white angel food cake, bombe alaska? OKAY, so I was thinking they were things that were kinda 'been there, kinda done that'. I needed something that I have been been to try out, something that I was craving. I was really tempted to bake a lemon cupcake topped with a rich thick white chocolate frosting but I changed my mind.

So here's where I am with this whole 'white' thing. Almond Jelly. It's a Chinese thing (oooh it's one of those 'i wanna go home' days) and my mom likes serving it in thick cubes, swirling through some canned lychees and ice cubes, easy! Oh and it doesn't stop people from coming back for more. Normally ours comes from a packet-just add water. Most people's come from packets, it just seems alot easier.

Oh and I just remembered something funny. My sister loves all things under 'Chinese dessert' and so she bought heaps of the instant almond jelly and one day she decided that letting them sit in the fridge to set was wayyy too much torture to bear. she wanted to eat it NOW so she put it in the freezer. Not smart, we ended up with a block of almond ice sitting in the sink, slowly thawing.

OHWELL, Here's my sugar high! =)

2 cups cold water
1/3 cups caster sugar*
2/3 cup evaporated milk
1/2 tsp almond essence*
2 tsp agar-agar powder*

1) Place cold water and caster sugar in small saucepan
2) Sprinkle the agar agar powder over it and bring to a boil then simmer for 1 minute
3) Take off heat and add in the evaporated milk and almond essence
4) Pour into prepared container* and chill for at least 1 hour

*I used normal white sugar and because I only had 2 tbspoons under 1/4 of sugar in my ENTIRE HOUSE, I had to half the recipe
*I found that the almond essence wasn't enough so I added double the amount, well, I added enough to make sure that I could smell the almond more than the evaporated milk
*Agar-agar powder is from seaweed (i think) and it can be found in most asian groceries. I had no trouble finding mine!=)
*I poured it into those plastic take away containers just coz my mom always does that. It depends on how thick you want the jelly to be, I just mine substantially thick so I can sink my teeth in. YUMMMY!

I'm finally going for Vietnamese tonight. YAY! Damn these food cravings. I think I might bake me some Ciabatta tomorrow. Im a little skeptical about my baking skills...

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

2007-05-17T18:02:00.000-07:00

Say 'chewy chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies' reallly quickly and it ends up sounds like chewychocochuck oatmeal cookies. Yeah, sounds pretty darn good still! Well, I was being all excited yesterday and decided to bake a batch of apple pie muffins for MuffinMonday03 so I used my new cookbook, the one I got for $2.95 on my way to uni. It's one of those small little books that doesn't have the face of a superchef celebrity or overly glossy photos that you could eat out of the page but it still held promise for me. Like it might contain some little secret this lady never told anyone and I got to find it out. Okay so maybe it's unfair to blame it on the author but the muffins tasted like CARDBOARD. I know it probably is alot due to my own fault, i DID substitute half the butter for applesauce, and i forgot to put the eggs in and did it right at the end. Okay, fine, I admit, it's my fault. The apple slices I placed on top and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar tasted really good though. So, thanking god i only baked a batch of 6 muffins (half the recipe), I picked all the apple slices off and threw the rest out. I'm not in an apple-y mood anymore. I might try Orange Poppy Seed muffins or Chocolate Cinnamon muffins instead. OOOH! I'm getting all inspired now. =)

So, faced with the disappointment and a stomach hungry for something buttery and bad for me, I decided I have had enough of wanting to eat chewy oatmeal cookies and decided to BAKE them. Oh and Cookie Madness doesn't really help and since I read the blog 10 times a day over and over again (god, I'm like a freaking stalker), I just needed and i mean, NEEDED to bake my favourite chewychocochuck oatmeal cookies. Funny, I tried baking them for Chinese New Year this year as gifts for people but they turned out less than perfect. Might be Australia or the fact that my modified recipe was here, but the cookies are just more Aussie inclined. I have had 12 of these cookies in the last 12 hours. thats 200 calories times 12. oh, I think I've exceeded my daily calorie intake. Might as well have one more...

My Favourite ChewyChocoChuck Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 cups quick-cooking oats*
couverture dark chocolate (chopped into chunks, i heart chunks)*
milk chocolate (chopped into chunks)*
2 tbsp creamy peanut butter*

1)Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2)Add in eggs one at a time, mix well, then add in extracts, mix well again
3)Add in baking soda, spelt flour and almond meal, mix well
4)Add in the chunks of chocolate and the quick cooking oats and mix until your arm falls off (kidding)
5)Finally, add in the peanut butter and swirl it around!
6)Bake at 180 for 12 minutes? I can't remember, until the edges brown and it cooks more on cooling. Don't wait until it's completely brown then you'll have a really hard cookie.
7) STORE IN AN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER. I love tupperware. I'm turning into my mom.=)

*You can use normal rolled oats, just not instant. Apparently, the difference between rolled oats and quick cooking is just the thickness of the oats. I can't find quick-cooking oats in Singapore, maybe thats why they weren't as yummy when I baked them there.
*You decide how much chocolate you wanna dump in, you can use white chocolate and almonds or add in some cocoa powder or raisins or cinnamon...you get the picture.
*Peanut butter is optional but everyone loves peanut butter...=)

I am Chunky

2007-05-16T04:01:00.000-07:00

There's always that question, are you chunky or smooth? Well, I thought I was smooth that's why I opened the smooth jar first. I've been pinching off that jar, dipping spoon after spoon in it, opening and closing the refridgerator door, then popping my head back in there again. And there it sits, in all it's smooth glory, right at the front of the second top shelf. Then today I decided I wasn't a smooth. After 3 months of peek-a-boo with smooth, I realize I am chunky. And that was what I had for dinner, on a warm thick fresh slice of wholemeal kamut bread. yeap, guys! I'M CHUNKY!=) and if I continue peek-a-boo-ing with chunky, I will be definitely chunky-in the other my-pants-are-becoming-too-snug sense.

and here's a very unflattering photo of my Plum Clafoutis. Trust me, it tastes alot better than it looks. Now I'm sad the photo doesn't do it justice and while I'm at it, Let me whine. I've been meaning to say this in a self-pity, slightly angry sort of way. I don't even know why I'm angry but here goes. WHATS THE POINT OF BAKING AND SELF-PROCLAIMING THE STUFF I BAKE TASTES GOOD WHEN, NO ONE EATS IT. mostly anyway. Okay, there I said it. Now I shall wallow in self-pity and eat more clafoutis. I'm not gonna ask anyone to eat it anymore, it's not a chore eating it anyway-is it?

*grumble grumble*

I will blog more about my clafoutis when I feel better. Today's not a good food day. I need more chunky.

a case of the munchies

2007-05-14T00:01:00.000-07:00

I've been suffering from a seriously case of the munchies lately. Think: snacks. I know it's one of those 'but if you cut out on snacks you'll lose weight' things, but I NEED to tell you this. I LOVE SNACKING. Truth be told, I'd rather snack than eat a big full blown meal. But this plan backfired when Liz decided that we should all have dinner at this fusion Thai place for her birthday. That meal was not huge, it was huge. I think my skin stretched as far as it could bear yesterday and any further and I might have torn it. haha, i sound so morbid now. MOVING ALONG, the Thai food was fantastic, big claps to the soft shell crab with basil, the deep fried barramundi all the thai essentials (basil, peanuts, chili, mint), the roasted duck salad, the COCONUT rice (out of this world) and the coconut icecream. well, MY POINT OF THE STORY IS... after a Yum Cha buffet today, a huge-ass big fat dinner plus 3 course dessert and alcohol fest yesterday, I think I'm sticking to snacking for a while, my tummy really, can only hold that much food. oh and the waistline.. don't forget, the waistline.

Rice Krispie Treats, pictured above (recipe from here), only difference was that I used raspberry and vanilla marshmallows and I added in swirls of peanut butter and cocoa powder.

Balsamic Strawberries with Honey Yoghurt

Yoghurt:
1/2 cup plain, low fat yoghurt
swirls of honey

Balsamic Strawberries:
Handful of strawberries, washed and tops chopped off
tsp of balsamic vinegar
sprinkle of brown sugar
pinch of salt

1) Mix all together and leave to macerate for 10 minutes.
2) Mix it into the yoghurt and enjoy, sounds strange but the balsamic vinegar does this strangely wonderful thing to the strawberries. =)

Coffee and Chocolate Walnut Cake

2007-05-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is probably one of those cakes I find hard to get sick of. Well, okay so I suppose it's unfair to say that since it's the first time I've baked it. But judging by the fact that between me and erm, me, we've almost finished half the cake. So I suppose it's a fair judgement to pass.

Originally called an Italian espresso walnut cake by the creator in Gourmet Traveller, I obviously did not have a cup of espresso lying around (someone tell me whats the difference between normal instant coffee and espresso?) so, I just used one heaping tablespoon of coffee dissolved in water equivalent to the amount I should've had of espresso. Also, figured mixing half the batter with melted chocolate wouldn't hurt so I did just that. Bought me some fresh yummy walnuts from the market and a good bag of organic Spelt flour (because wheat flour is the devil) and TA-DAH!

Let me describe the god-lyness of the cake pretty please...Okay! So the cake baked up beautifully, no lumps or sunken middles. I marbled the cake, so each slice would have ooey-gooey goodness of the chocolate and the lovely depth of walnuts and the scent of coffee. This was unexpected but the chocolate bits turns out chewy and moist, just like a fudge brownie, while the coffee parts were slightly crumb-like, moist still because of the oils from the walnuts but not fudgey. Perfect contrast since too much of either would've made it boring to eat. The top of the cake was brushed with honey so that made the edges of the cake crunchy and chewy, like...BROWNIES! Beautiful rhythmn of flavour, filled with the complementing flavours topped with fresh walnuts and a tint of honey to tease your senses and a slight, ever so slight hint of bitterness to remind you of the fresh walnuts you ground all by yourself. I reckon it'd be purrfect with coffee but you know what, I reckon it'd be perfect with just about anything.

ice cream scones

2007-05-05T20:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the title might be a little misleading since no, I didn't bake scones with icecream and no, there's nothing about icecream here. heh, But I thought it sounded...CUTE! Which, in my opinion, is a good enough reason to put it as my entry's title. =) whoopdeedoo!

I did, however, bake SCONES! I've never really had an urge to do so I just needed to use up the double cream that Vee and I bought for chocolate fondue and since I resolved to try my best to not waste ingredients, I decided I'd bake scones using whatever double cream I had left and make up the rest with full cream milk. Not too shabby I say!

My initial intention was to use the double cream during the EATING part of the scone, but then I realized that I could easily incorporate it into the PRODUCTION part of it. Besides, I got really excited knowing that I was trying something that I don't normally do. and MY MOM LOVES SCONES. So I guess that was good enough reason to bake me some scones=)

Took a recipe from Cuisine July 2005 (which is probably the most used recipe magazine I own, I baked their Irish Soda Bread the other day..MMMMMMM) and adapted it. Might be (and probably is) a mistake on my part because the scones didn't bake up quite as high as I hoped they would. My fault because I did roll them kinda thinly and I have no idea if using heart-shaped cutter might have affected it but yeap. Those which I did cut quite thickly did rise and looked more scone-like. and they were in the shape of HEARTS. HOW CUTE! =) The heart-shaped thing was purely out of laziness- I was too lazy to go buy a round cookie cutter. heh.

I did have a little trouble with the recipe, not because it was complicated but because I couldn't mix the flour mixture and milk/cream mixture to form a dough, seemed a tad too dry, so I just kept adding tablespoonfuls of milk until it stuck together. ALL GOOD! and the dough didn't stick to the table surface I was rolling it out on, which is why I KNOW I'm definitely baking scones again. They're clean to bake.=)

ANYWAY! here's the recipe:

Scones (by Julie Le Clerc)
3 cups self-raising flour
1 tablespoon caster sugar
large pinch salt
35g butter, cubed
1 1/4 cups milk (I used half double/thickened cream and half full-cream milk)
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
extra flour for dusting
butter or jam and clotted or lightly whipped cream to serve

1)Preheat oven to 220degrees celcius
2)Sift the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl
3)Rub in the butter to form fine breadcrumbs
4)Make a well in the centre and pour milk/cream in, using a dinner knife, mix quickly and lightly to just combine.
5)Turn mixture to lightly floured surface and knead to combine
6)Dust again with flour, and roll out to about 3 cm thick and cut into rounds with a 6cm pastry cutter (i used a heart-shaped cookie cutter, worked okay for me)
7)Gather any pastry scraps to make more scones.
8)Bake for 10-15 minutes or until puffed and golden
9)Cut in half and fill with butter, jam and/or cream. Makes 12

*The use of double cream makes for a richer scone. You could try using thin cream or whipping cream. For flavour variations you could omit the raisins and use chocolate chips or poppy seed and orange zest. I think this is a really good basic scone recipe and so forgiving, so feel free to add whatever you wanna!=) Maybe feta cheese and sundried tomatoes.

On another note! Fred and I cooked meatballs the other day. heh, It was fun and yummy and so easy. =)

OHWELLS! I'll update soon, when I get round to baking my Italian coffee and Walnut cake. CAN'T WAIT!=)

A taste of yellow (and honey and yoghurt...)

2007-04-30T01:00:00.000-07:00

LIVESTRONG Day 2007 is coming, a day dedicated to unify and help people with cancer. To celeberate LIVESTRONG Day 2007, I have decided to participate in A Taste of Yellow, whereby I baked a cake that had something yellow in it! =) I wanted to go all out and use yellow butter, yellow polenta/semolina, yellow honey...but I reeeaaalllyyy had an insane craving for YOGHURT and so, I baked the following cake...Lemon Banana Yoghurt Cake with Honey Lemon syrup.

The cake itself was yummy, the lemon, banana and honey flavours could definitely be felt and I particularly loved the fact that it had rivers of moist-ness throughout the cake due to the syrup I poured on the cake. The cake baked up nice and high, crusty and golden. You can taste the range of flavours throughout the cake, with the base having a strong banana flavour because of the bananas that I lined the base of the baking tin with and the middle of the cake slightly sour as the syrup had not reached it, and the top sweet and sticky from the honey. It's a good base recipe for a yoghurt cake, you could substitute lemon for orange or maybe add some blueberries or raisins in.

One big fat problem I faced was getting the banana to not stick to the bottom of the pan, so maybe Next time I will either have it lined with greaseproof paper or make sugary syrup for the base so that it will be self-saucing type of cake..maybe.

Lemon banana cake:

1 large banana, sliced not-too-thinly
2 1/2 cups spelt flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon (I would add more)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 melted butter
zest of two lemons
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1 tsp vanilla extract
200ml plain low-fat yoghurt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius, butter a 9inch round cake tin
Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon)
Beat eggs and sugar together until thick and foamy
Add in the butter, juice, zest and extracts
Add in half the flour, mix well, followed by half the yoghurt
Add in 1/4 of flour and remaining yoghurt,mix well and finally add in remaining flour
Bake for 45 minutes or until golden (I can't rememeber how long mine took)
Let cool in tin

Honey Lemon syrup:

Mix the juice of 1 lemon, 4 tbsp of honey, 1 tbsp of water together

To finish:
Prick holes in the warm cake and pour in half the syrup, let sit for 10 minutes. Then pour in remaining syrup or if you want your cake to be less sweet, then don't bother with the other half. just half the syrup will do. =)

sundays and the teevee

2007-04-22T04:30:00.000-07:00

Been a big weekend and I'm glad to say I'm back here, writing about food again, in front of my TEEVEE. oh YAYY!=) We're bonding.

anywhos, It was Maria's birthday this weekend but I didn't make it to her party so here's a birthday cupcake for you doll!

happy birthday babe!=) History class wouldn't be the same without you!

MOOOving onto stuff I've baked this week...fat-free cookies. That's what it's called because it has no butter or oil, egg yolk-less so it's pretty healthy. The sugar content is low but it uses Karo (golden syrup) which has very high GI so, I tried to reduce the amount of golden syrup and replace it with a little raw sugar and some sweetened applesauce because reviewwers of the recipe all agree that the batter was very sticky so I was hoping the applesauce would ease with the stickiness...Unfortinately, the batter was STILL sticky, maybe because I used 1 egg and 1 egg white instead of 3 egg whites...

Anyway, the flavour was veryvery good, and it baked up crispy on the egdes and cakey on the inside, chewy a little, and i added CHOCOLATE CHIPS...i couldn't help it. HAD TO ADD SOME FAT IN. heehee. =) FUN! here's how it goes...

1 1/2 cup flour (I used Spelt)
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Vanhouten)
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1/2 cup - 2 tbsp golden syrup
3 tbsp sweetened applesauce
1/4 cup chocolate chips
3 egg whites (I used 1 egg and 1 egg white)

Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius
Mix flour, baking soda, cocoa, sugar and salt together.
Stir in the golden syrup, applesauce, egg and chocolate chips.
Batter will be veryVERY sticky
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of batter and bake for 7-8 minutes, cookies will be soft.
They will harden on cooling.
*I baked bigger cookies and baked for 10 minutes. I heart big fat coookies. COOOOKIEEE.=)

YAY TO ALMOST FAT FREE!=)

Next time, using this as a base recipe, I will try adding oats, raisins, peanut butter, chocolate chunks, and fiddle with it for other cookie variations. =)

Muffin Monday on a Tuesday

2007-04-17T02:58:00.000-07:00

Muffin Monday is here, yay yay yay...and it's not really monday today. So here's how my muffin came about... My cousin and I were just having our usual chitterchatter about food and how hungry we were. Then if I recall correctly, we started talking about cheesecake because I mentioned my tofu cheesecake experiment (I'm too crushed to talk about it). So being our usual hungry selves, Adrian and I started listing all these ideas for cakes, cheesecakes...peanut butter cheesecakees. you get the picture. OHWELL! It got to the topic of Jammie Dodgers, oooh yummy ole jammie dodgers. Too bad there isn't any here, but my jammie dodger muffin sprouted! and TADAH! today after uni, I went to Safeway to find the closest thing I could to a Jammie dodger, and ended up with Arnott's Raspberry Shortcake, which wasn't that fantastic if I may say, but good enough. All the vital flvaours were present- the sticky jam and buttery crunchy cookie. I took the basic recipe from here and fiddled with it, substituting milk for buttermilk (because I love the moistness buttermilk gives to baked goods) and reduced the sugar because the shortcake was sweet already, added in huge swirls of strawberry jam and crushed up cookies. there you go, my Jam Shortcake Muffin =)

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kirsch extract (or a little more, I couldn't taste much in mine)
1/2 tsp vanilla
250g Raspberry shortcake cookies, crushed
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup veg oil
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut, for topping
3/4 cup jam of choice (eg: raspberry, blueberry, strawberry etc), warmed

Preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius
Sift the flour, baking soda and baking powder together, and mix the sugar in
In another bowl, whisk the kirsch extract, vanilla, buttermilk, vegetable oil and eggs together until it is a homogenous mixture
Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the liquids, stire to combine. Mixture will be thick
Add in 3/4 of the crushed cookies, reserving the rest to sprinkle over the top
Fill each muffin hole 1/2 full and add in 1/2 a tablespoon of jam.
Cover the jam with until muffin hole is 3/4 full
Sprinkle the crushed cookies over the top before baking, just like streusel
Bake for 12-15 minutes, checking regularly.
When muffins are done, place a heaping handful of the sweetened coconut flakes on top and serve. =)

YAYYY! I liked them alot, the cookies were like streusel and the jam enhanced the berry-ness of the whole cupcake. and finally, because it's so simple to make. =)

I miss home...

2007-04-16T00:23:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to cooking something that I've been wanting to since...awhile ago. haha. Pulut Hitam. For those who are unfamiliar, it's a malay dessert that's quite similiar to a soup. It's creamy because of the black glutionous rice that is used and it's usually served with swirls of coconut milk.

Okay, so I'm not the usual fan of Pulut Hitam but all the same, I missed home and this was one of the easier (and more interesting) desserts. GAH, I'm having trouble typing because my arm hurts from carrying the microwave. I know, i love carrying microwaves around for fun, makes me feel so...manly. hah! kidding, ours died, apparently it's 10 years old. So it just failed on us one day and I have to say, living without a microwave is worse than living with a tv. AND I'VE SURVIVED WITHOUT BOTH. I deserve icecream for that. oh! and I still don't have my tv, but TOMORROW-it's coming. can you say heyyy...hoh YIPPEE AYE YO! nownow, don't judge me. =P

Okay, back to the pulut hitam. I burnt it, well, i thought i did, but in the end i realized that it was just a case of the rice being STUCK at the bottom of the pot, but luckily, i transferred whatever that wasn't stuck into a smaller pot and continued letting it simmer while I so painstakingly scrubbed the stuck rice off the big pot. ohwell. =) I should have ended up with MORE of the pulut hitam but because well, 1/2 of the rice got stuck and some of the 'soupy' bit got erm, bubbled out of the pot sooo, I ended up with about 5 serves. lovely. It was good though, albeit a little too much pandan (screwpine) leaves so I will use less next time. ALL IN ALL! It was a good first try, and my sister loved it. =)

By the way, I'll be submitting this to The Heart of the Matter since it's low in fat compared to other desserts and has no butter/oil or eggs and dairy in it. =) check the round up out!!!

the icing sugar, gula melaka and pandan leaves, about to be stirred in

Pulut Hitam (Black Glutionous rice pudding from Malaysianfood.net)
280g Black Glutinous Rice
4700ml water
55g icing sugar
55g gula melaka [coconut palm sugar]
2 pandan[screwpine] leaves [substitue with pandan essence/coconut essence]
2 tbsp corn flour [i left it out, forgot]
3 tbsp water [left it out, again]
1 can coconut milk [for topping]

Wash glutinous rice until the water runs clear. Leave rice to soak in water for 2-3 hrs or best overnight in the refrigerator
Put rice and water in a deep pot and cook over med heat until the rice is soft and creamy
When reached the desired creamy consistency, add gula Melaka [Malaccan sugar], pandan leaves [optional] and icing sugar
Simmer for another 10-15 mins
In a small bowl mix the cornstarch flour and water
Add the cornstarch slurry into the rice, keep stirring
As soon as a boil is reached, remove from heat
Ladle into dessert bowls, swirl 2 to 3 tbsp of the coconut milk on top, serve warm

Just Because...

2007-04-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

Just because...I've been inconsistent in updates, I shall do one thats filled with pictures today!=) The cookies above are the Alfajores I baked Vee...quite a while ago. I forgot that Adrian had already passed me the photos and only just discovered them. THEREFORE, here are the long overdue photos. Obviously a ton nicer than my usual ones because Adrian's a star and he so kindly took professional shots for me. =) goooodie!

Next! here's some photos of the baking process of my Muddy Chocolate Cake, taken from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2. It's very much a moist dense chocolate cake, with a flavour that isn't took sweet. Perhaps I might even use darker chocolate next time. I used the Nestle Plaistowe Couverture chocolate but the flavour wasn't as deep and dark as I'd like it to be. Or maybe I might substitute a couple tablespoons of flour with cocoa instead. you reckon?

Muddy Chocolate Cake from Donna Hay's Modern Classics 2
300g dark couverture chocolate, chopped
250g butter
5 eggs, seperated
1/3 caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup plain all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 130degrees celcius (260 fahrenheit)
Melt butter and chocolate over a low heat and stir until smooth, set aside
Place egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until thick and pale
Place the eggwhites in a seperate bowl and beat until stiff peaks form
Fold chocolate mixture into egg yolk mixture
Sift over the flour and baking powder and gently fold through
Carefully fold egg whites through as well
Pour into a 20cm (8in) round cake tin lined with nonstick paper and bake for 1 hr 15 mins
Cool in tin and spread cooled cake with a chocolate ganache
*serve this cake at room temperature

Egg whites ready to be folded into chocolate/egg yolk mixture

Next on the agenda is the fruit crumble that I baked to bring to Adelle's house for our little potluck. Happy to report that it was well and it was devoured! I am beaming with pride and guess what! I didn't follow a recipe! hahaahahah! *giggles* I'll try remembering roughly what i put in...

Fruit Crumble, mostly apple.
3 granny smiths, sliced thinly (each quarter into 4/5 pieces)
275g pears from a tub (the fresh pears were insanely ugly so i had no choice), syrup drained and pears slices (not too thinly) and rinsed
handful of blueberries just because I had them in the fridge
handful of raisins just because they were on the counter top

about 1 3/4 cups plain flour
3/4 butter, cold and chopped into tiny cubes
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar (mixture of brown and white is fine)

FOR THE FRUIT:
Mix apples in 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup white sugar and big splashes of cinnamon, stir in 1/2 tsp of cornflour and sautee in a pan until apples are tender

because the pears are soft, just mix in some cinnamon and the raisins and blueberries, set aside while apples are cooling

CRUMBLE:
Rub the flour into the cold butter pieces or process in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. Not ALL have to look fine, some of mine were big splodges. Then, mix in cinnamon and sugar.

PUT IT TOGETHER:
mix the all the fruit toether and place in preferred pan, I used a regular square pan. Sprinkle liberally with the crumble and put into a 180degreecelcius oven for 15 mnutes and check if the crumble is brown. Bake until crumble is golden brown (the blueberries will bubble a bit through the sides but it looks pretty anyway. rustic even! hehe.

ENJOYYYY with heeeeeeeeeaps of vanilla icecream or vanilla custard. yums!

Apparently, we don't all love chocolate

2007-04-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

In the midst of trying to find out how M's essay was going and what we were going to do for her birthday, we found out the TRUTH about chocolate and erm, pringles.

vicky: omg i want chocolate
M says: oh god i'm SO over chocolate
vicky: NO that's evil
M: yeah i don't like it but i do LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEE pringles omg! they are the snacks of the gods
vicky: i thought chocolate was! maybe chocolate was the dessert of the gods
M: haha exactly but salty stuff is way cooler

HAHA! SO-NOT-THE-CASE! Actually, I like my food salty and sweet. Salty, buttery pie crust with diabetically-sweet pecans. YUM! Now I just startedmy craving of the moment. PECAN PIE! Tell me, what do YOU crave... and we'll crave together!=)

superwoman kinda day

2007-04-09T07:04:00.000-07:00

Today I felt like I did alot. By alot, I mean cooking everyone buttermilk pancakes for brekkie and making myself lunch and a snackpack at the same time AND packing my bag for uni. I feel brilliant. haha, one of those better days I'd say.

The problem i always have with ingredients is that I buy an entire carton/pack of something and never get to really finish it which results in me having to chuck it out, feeling a little guilty since there are kids in Africa starving. This time, it was buttermilk. Well, I've had to thow out a couple of cartons of buttermilk and yes, I do feel insanely guilty. Therefore I now feel better that I made use of my third carton. Initially I had to buy the carton of buttermilk for my avocado cupcake experiment which then led to me cooking everyone pancakes today! Found this amazingamazing recipe from cdkitchen.com and the promise of extremely fluffy pancakes were fulfilled, down to the tiny little ones i made for myself and sprinkled a couple of blueberries on (oh shoot, now I've got the blueberries to finish...any ideas?) Guys being, well, guys, fred wanted his with NO berries but chocolate chips seemed to work fine. I suppose it's a very basic recipe that makes use of buttermilk and other flavours you could try out might be adding 2/3 tbsp of dessicated coconut and serving with palm sugar sauce. Or maybe adding 3 tbsp of cocoa powder and making a marshmallow chocolate sauce. Possibilities are endless I might say.

And today, Vee's dad brought us out for dinner and then Max Brenners after. FINALLY had a hot chocolate. I know it sounds silly but i've never had a hot chocolate from Max before, it's usually the crossiant with chocolate sauce and WATER. I had the magic hot chocolate or something along those lines. It was AUD$6 and terribly yummy. It's a milk chocolate hot chocolate so it bordered on the sweeter side and it supposedly had 'chocolate covered waffle balls' which promised MUCH but, it turned out more like the chocolate valrhona ball things that I used to serve at work. Like, rice crackle covered with good quality chocolate. HMMMM... ohwell, go try it out and let me know what you reckon!

Til next time...support racial chocolate equality!!!

Easter Cake Bake!

2007-04-06T05:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Good Friday! (is it counted as Easter yet?)

A Slice of Cherry Pie is hosting the Easter cake bake and I've decided to enter this 'Avocado Cupcake with double chocolate and gula melaka coconut topping' in. EXCITING STUFF!

After Pharmacy last night, nono, this morning, I rolled into bed at 7am with every intention of putting off my baking experiment. Who knew sleeping til 4 pm could be so difficult, I eventually got up at 2pm and decided to get cracking! I was inspired by the pack of Gula Melaka that I got at the asian grocers and was dying to just do something, anything with it! Gula Melaka is basically a coconut palm sugar, very fragrant and it's a dark rich brown. The form I got it in was a rod form, wasn't difficult to cut through, just had to hack at it like I was a woodcutter. Fun I say!!!

First off, I baked the avocado cupcakes. I initially wanted to just substitute the weight of carrot in a carrot cake for the mashed up avocado but I backed out, feeling a little scared. Found this avocado cake recipe from avocado.org and decided to stop worrying about failure and do it! Made quite a few changes mainly because the recipe originally used alot of spices and nuts and raisins whereas I wanted my cupcake plain so the gorgeous coconut topping would be the showcase. The recipe below is the editted form.

I got slightly angsty and irritated while baking the cupcakes and if you are superstitious like me, you think 'this is soo gonna fail because I wasn't in the right state of mind'. HEH! prove me wrong, the cupcakes were pretty splendid, weird I might say because well, its avocado. hahaha! But hey, I love the texture of the cupcakes and the subtle flavour really does go very well with the coconut and chocolate. One huge problem I encountered was that the mixture appeared curdled at 2 stages. First was during the creaming, I personally have this silly fear of the creaming method simply because I have the tendency to make it curdle. It's just me-I swear. But I decided to brave on anyhow. Then when I added in the buttermilk mixture, the curdling just got WORSE. You should've seen my heart sink to the sole of my feet-not good. So I prepared myself for failure. HOWEVER! Once the flour was added in and whisked, it looked luscious or sorts and like it was never curdled at all. *whooopie!!*

Avocado Cupcakes
¾ Cup Sugar
½ Cup Butter
2 Eggs
1 Cup Mashed avocado
½ Cup Buttermilk
1 tsp Baking soda
1 ½ Cups All-purpose flour
½ tsp Cinnamon

Cream sugar and butter, add the 2 eggs and avocado and mix well.
Add the baking soda to the buttermilk and add to the batter, it will appear curdled, well mine did.
Add cinnamon to flour and add to the batter all at once and mix well.
Pour into cupcake liners and bake for 15 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean
Makes 10 big cupcakes

Next came the coconut topping. At this point, I still couldn't decide how I wanted to assemble the cupcakes. Should I put the topping as a fillng instead? Oh well, used the recipe for a broiled coconut topping from King Arthur's Flour and modified it again. Looked a little watery for my liking so I added in more flaked coconut. It was originally just 1 cup. The original recipe called for the topping to be placed on top of the cake and placed under the broiler until it bubbles, and I figured that wouldn't work for me. Instead I let it bubble and reduce a little in the saucepan and let it cool. It got stickier on cooling, which was fantastic.

Coconut Filling
1/4 cup (1/2 stick, 2 ounces) unsalted butter
120g palm sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 ¼ cup flaked coconut

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the palm sugar, milk and coconut, stirring to combine until it’s golden brown and bubbling. Let it bubble for 3 minutes or until slightly thickened and not watery.

Finally, I settled on a typical chocolate ganache to accompany the whole spectrum of flavours. Seeing that I forgot to by normal dark eating chocolate from Safeway, I decided to part with my 63% Nestle Couverture Plaistowe chocolate, praying hard that it would be worth it. Turns out, Fred and I found it way too bitter and he suggested using milk chocolate instead. But being the 'cheffy' one, I had to have input and say I'd make a milk chocolate ganache but mix it with the dark chocolate one so it would still retain the rich gorgeous cocoa taste. Besides, the gula melaka coconut was sweet as it is, so it was a good decision.

Chocolate Ganache (adapted from epicurious.com)

90 ml coconut milk*
90 ml skinny milk*
100g 63% cocoa (I used Nestle Plaistowe)
125g milk chocolate

1. In a heavy saucepan, boil milks. Turn off the heat. Add chopped chocolate pieces and let it rest until melted. Use a rubber spatula to stir the mixture until all the pieces are melted.
*180ml of full-fat milk can be used instead. I didn't taste a huge difference in using the coconut milk.

To Assemble:
1)Fill the cooled cupcake with the 'sauce' of the coconut topping and a full teaspoon of the chocolate ganache
2) Lightly cover the top of cupcake with a little of the ganache (for chocolate goodness and aesthetics purposes)
3) Place 3/4 tablespoon of coconut topping in a heaped manner. TADAH!!!=)

OHWELL! heh, I'm a luckylucky girl. I got an Easter bunny and Easter egg. *evil chuckle* Guess what I'll be eating after this...=)

catch the easter disease

2007-04-05T05:03:00.000-07:00

It might be Easter, or it might just be one of my moments, but today chocolate was highly wanted on my menu. So i shuttled between Safeway and BigW, not being able to make my mind up. It's all about the concept of wasting your preciousprecious calories on food that's worth it. So I stared at Lindt chocolates, Mars bars, Twix, picked up a Boost double bar pack and put it back, Heaven bar, Kinder Bueno, Baci, godknowshowmanyothers and finalllllyyyy picked this one up.

Realizing that this was one that I had been eyeing a while back, and it fit my criteria of being a not-too-big block, dark chocolate, 'healthy' and QUALITY chocolate, I decided to get it. Poor Fred waited for me while my mind flitted about the choices. Do you ever realize that sometimes you know what the 'thing' you want is and it just annoys you when you don't find it? heh, LUCKILY I found IT today. (oh, and I got these new ferrero chocolates-disappointing)

The chocolate bar was absolutely yummy. Very un-diary-free like, very smooth, very intense, not bitter and just all round, a really good chocolate bar. I'm happy!=) I'm sure there are other way to describe the chocolate bar, but it really is unnecessary. I mean, if you want me to compare it, it tastes of a slightly stronger soy taste than ordinary dark chocolate, but just as smooth, I think the cocoa percentage is 50%. On the other hand, comparing it to soy chocolate, definitely alot better in terms of satisfying those INSANE WHACKO chocolate cravings, probably also because it's dark chocolate, but it leaves you feeling like you've had REAL good 'ol chocolate so therefore I say, GO FOR IT! =)

OOOOOH.Easter bunny's got me happy.

you look so fine and i really wanna make you MINE!

2007-04-03T00:13:00.000-07:00

So today I was sitting on the tram on the way home after uni and guess what I saw. Two men, no less, carrying big Haigh's bags. oh yes, they were and believe me when I tell you I was jealous. *whines

ALLRIGHTY, everyone knows Easter is coming so I suppose those brown Haigh's paper bags contained something delectable and brown, and rich and sinful and all that kinda thing that makes my mouth just water. It has reduced me to forgetting words and I'm just busily swallowing my saliva. oh darn those two men. I want a chocolate bunny. Most kids wish for the real one, the furry kind, that supposedly hops around with big floppy ears and wiggle their noses. I JUST WANT THE CHOCOLATE TYPE.

Shan't whine anymore. I'm sure this is a big enough hint that I want a chocolate Easter bunny (oh there, I said it again). Baked some Alfajores during the weekend for Vee's birthday, turned out, I had too much batter so I just added some chocolcate chips to some and made some into jam thumbprints. oooh gooey jam. I'll post the recipe once I clean up the drool on my table. Right now my fingers are trembling from the cold, or maybe just from chocolate cravings...

bag of chocolate chips in my fridge, HERE I COME!=)

I'll stop the world and melt with you

2007-03-24T03:36:00.000-07:00

So here I am, armed with nothing more than a cuppa organic green tea and some John Mayer, my laptop snugly resting on my lap (no pun intended) and my swanky little Olympus camera uploading photos of my latest baking adventure and it's a saturday night. I rather enjoy the feeling of sitting homealone and baking, then slowly cleaning up and doing nothing really. The excuse for sitting back and doing nothing is that I've completed part one of my essay so yes, here's a break for me! =) Back in the race tomorrow.

Anyway, like I said before, I'm sick of cupcakes. I want something small-er and crunchy, simple and home-y and wickedly buttery and melty...yeah you get my drift. So amidst my research on the Cold War (don't ask...), I decided to search for recipes that used limes. I'm going through this thing called a lime-phase as my sister so aptly puts it. So today I had Lime marinated chicken for lunch and now I am proud to say that I have just baked Lime Meltaways courtesy of Darby Field Inn and Restaurant in Albany, New Hampshire.

The cookie batter was relatively easy to work with, meaning it wasn't too difficult to stir it about though it bordered on the 'alittletoosticky' side, but nothing a little oil on your hands wouldn't fix! The recipe calls to chill for an hour, I got lazy to wait and I was hungry so i chucked it in the fridge for 10 minutes and took it out to slice. Obviously leaving it in there for the stated amount of time would result in evenly shaped cookies but hey, mine weren't all that ugly, just had to use my fingers to flatten them abit. heh, hey! YOUR HANDS ARE USEFUL! =)

Oh yes, yesterday Fred and I happened to chance upon this Indian supermarket so I decided to look around while he decided on which mint he wanted.. peppermint or spearmint? I FOUND ROSE WATER! Figuring I'll never stumble on this place again I decided to get it! So, I took half of the cookie batter and mixed it with 3/4 tsp of rose water to try it out. The rose taste and smell was light, so maybe I might increase it the next time, but they did taste so pretty when i dipped with cookies in icing sugar. Like turkish delight and cookies all beautifully laced in one. OOOH. and I tinted the batter a light pink, talk about being girly. =)

Lime Meltaways
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
1 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour (I used Spelt flour)
2 tbsp cornstarch
zest of 2 limes
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 pinch of salt

1)Cream butter and 1/3 cup icing sugar until fluffy (it wont be as fluffy as a typical creamed butter&sugar mixture, remember you're using icing sugar)
2)Add lime, zest and vanilla and beat until fluffy
3)In another bowl, sift flours and salt
4)Add the flour mixture into the creamed butter and mix well
5)Between 2 8 by 12 inch baking paper, roll dough into 2 1/4 inch diameter log and chill for one hour
6)Heat oven to 170degree celciusm slice logs into 1/8 inch thick rounds and bake for 12-15 mins (barely golden)
7)cool the cookies (abt 10 mins) and put them in the remaining icing sugar and coat
*Read on for easy way outs!

OKAY! being the lazy bum that I am, I didn't bother measuring what the diameter of the logs were, I just rolled them to a size that I would like (about 2 mouthfuls) and sliced them to a thickness that I found easy to handle. I mean, I flattened them with my fingers after lining them on the baking sheet so I suppose it doesn't really matter. Unless you're a perfectionist. In which case, I'm not.=) heh. So yeah, It's about the FEELING. lol, gut-feeling. I found the cookies UN-lime-y enough so i made a glaze.

Lime Glaze
5 tbsp lime juice
Icing sugar (1-1 1/2 cups)

1) Mix well until the consistency that you like, adding more sugar if a thicker consistency is desired. Oh yes, and dont dip the cookies into the icing sugar if you decide to glaze them. I personally like 'em glazed better. SUGAR-SWEETGLAAAAZE. =)

Grasshoppers and White chocolate!

2007-03-21T00:21:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's the update on how my Grasshopper attempt went. I took the chocolate cupcakes I had made previously and filled them with the Mint Pastry Cream via the Cone Method. heh, I didn;t know if I was meant to cut the bottom of the 'cone' off so that the filling wouldn't overflow so I tried it both ways. I liked cutting the bottom off better, alotalot neater and I got to eat the remnants! TEEHEE. okay, enough.

Next, after much searching, I found the perfect White Chocolate Buttercream frosting from Epicurious. It's sweet, naturally, since white chocolate is anything but NOT sweet...The frosting was luscious, very thick and creamy and retained the white chocolate taste. I know it's always best to use couverture chocolate, even more so in frosting but being a student on a tigghhtt budget, I decided to buy the Nestle Plaistowe Cooking Chocolate and I must say, it's pretty darn good. So if you're like me, then the Nestle chocolate isn't a bad option

White Chocolate Buttercream from Epicurious
283.75g white chocolate
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar, sifted

1.Melt white chocolate and let cool to room temperature
2.beat butter until fluffy, add in white chocolate and extract and continue beating
3.scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in icing sugar, beat
4.let it cool in the refrigerator until spreading consistency (45 mins), icing will be very soft

yippppeeedoodah!=) enjoy!

Good Ol' Chocolate Cupcakes...seduce me!

2007-03-19T03:30:00.000-07:00

I think the new title of my blog (OOOH!Cake) is alot more me than vanillapod. Vanillapod sounds calm, collected and stable. OOOH!cake has different connotations. Something more upbeat, excited and passionate-definitely more me! ANYWAY! let's move on to choccccaaalllaaaatteeeeeeeeee...

The chocolate cupcake recipe was taken from Jennifer Appel's Buttercup Bakes at Home. I highly recommend that everyone get this book! The recipe title is 'Our favourite chocolate cake' and it certainly is a veryvery giving recipe. I did one and a half batches of it, since I wanted to try making a Grasshopper Cupcake after being inspired by one of the foodie blogs. I forgot which one, but if anyone knows, please let me know so I can give due credit.

In the picture, I frosted it with a simple chocolate buttercream which bordered on the verge of a chocolate fudge. I have yet to try out the Grasshopper idea but this was my plan. Fill the chocolate cupcakes with a mint pastry cream and top with a white chocolate buttercream/ganache. I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, here's the recipe for the pastry cream.

(Mint) Pastry Cream from Raffles Hotel
100ml milk
2 yolks
15g sugar
1/2tsp mint essence
7g cornflour
10g butter

1) Bring milk to a boil
2) Whisk eggs, sugar and mint essence together
3) Whisk in cornflour
4) Add egg mixture to the boiling milk and stir continously, taking it off the heat
5) Whisk in a bowl and add in butter once it cools

The pastry cream might be ALOT nicer if you probably triple or quadruple the recipe and add in a vanilla bean instead of mint essence. I was just trying out how a mint creme pastisserie would taste like. Apparently too eggy for a cool mint taste. So I whipped some cream and folded it in to lighten the taste. Hope it goes down well with the cupcakes when I frost them tomorrow!!!

I apologize for not being able to put the recipe for the chocolate frosting. Problem is, I did the frosting purely by tasting it. I know it includes melted dark chocolate, cocoa, icing sugar, milk and butter but I'm unsure about the proportions! I'll remember to write it down next time and then i'll post it up here! In the meantime! WISH ME LUCK FOR THE GRASHOPPERS!=)

Teh Tarik Cupcake with Caramel Glaze and Coffee Kahlua Buttercream

2007-03-14T18:06:00.000-07:00

My wonderful detailed post on my cupcake journey just got deleted, I know feel weird typing it again, like a broken record machine. *sigh!*

well, Here it is! My cupcake of the week. heh, My baking success of the week! Having been heavily inspired by Chockylit and Daisy Cakes, I decided to try my hand at something I could be proud to call MY OWN! heh. and BOY AM I PROUD!

I fiddled with a basic cupcake recipe, adding in sachet after sachet of my sister's instant teh tarik mix to get the fragrant aroma of it to waft in my kitchen (just to know the flavour won't die out while baking) but to no avail. So I added in some instant coffee and cocoa, to accentuate the taste perhaps, it was all in name of TRIAL AND ERROR! Turned out bloody brilliant (if i may say so myself)

I couldn't resist, mornings and coffee go so well together

side note: I just realized Teh Tarik is...tea. TEA! i've been working with COFFEE all morning. I feel so, cheated. anyway, moving on...

Made a caramel glaze, and as I stirred it, I prepared myself for failure. Chockylit said she had a few bad experiments with caramel so, I didn't expect much. As it sputtered and threatened to burn me, I watched over it like a hawk, hoping not to burn it. Maybe I should have left it to simmer for longer coz it wasn't sticky enough, but I got too nervous so I took it off the heat. Turned out pretty ok, it was an easy caramel recipe, nowhere near as complicated as the more authentic ones, but the focus of the cuppacaker was the buttercream and the cupcake, not so much the caramel. So I cheated! hehh

ARE YOU SOLD YET!? heeehee

Then came the buttercream. Simple, basic recipe, added Kahlua, just coz I found it in the fridge. heh, IT WAS GOOD! heh, i feel slightly...high. So here's the finished product! I meant to swirl heaping mountains of it over the top of each cupcake but it might've been too much of a good thing and, I realized even after doubling the recipe, I wouldn't have enough so, I settled on heaping rosettes on each caramel mountain. MMMM...

SAY AMEN! =)

Cupcake explosion

2007-03-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

My brain's fizzled, from reading too much about the history of the Soviet Union and all the media problems and whatnot. So maybe it explains why I've been googling random ingredients (think...caramel, coffee...) and looking for inspiration. I've been thinking of my insane craving for a peanutbutter + banana smoothie from a certain AWESOME place in Singapore that Josh brought me to. Then I thought, I should make that into a cupcake, so watch out for THAT. AND, I'm attempting Teh Tarik Cupcakes over the weekend. Maybe as a reward for getting started on my essays. HEH.

anyway! tomorrow's the day I deliver Clara's Oreo Cheesecake to her! I'll let you know how it goes, just for...positive feedback's sake.

HMMM...

2007-03-09T23:39:00.000-08:00

What Fine Crumb This Is. (Carrot Cake, unfrosted)

Okay! Here's what I've been pondering about the past few hours, as much as i LOVE the cupcake recipe I'm using now, and everyone lloves it, I still feel like it's not true-love. well, I mean, I don't really truly love it. SO! I'm switching my recipe, to something i find a little lighter in texture. and I'm adding a new flavour to the cupcakes! how does a caramel mud cake cupcake sound? thought so, it sounds bloody good. (note: I will add this to the post that lists the flavours available, don't worry, i won't let you forget about it...)

on another note, but the same cupcake note, I'm pretty sad. I feel so, cupcake-inapt. I see people with all these marvellous creations brimming with caramel filling and flaked with a generous handful of chocolate shavings and I think to myself, "I'm never going to be able to do that". What bad publicity for myself, I'm suppose to be confident and say 'THESE ARE THE BEST CUPCAKES YOU'LL EVER TASTE!!!' yeahyeah, maybe it's just a low-day. ohwell, GET CALLING PEOPLE! i'm ITCHING to take your orders and BAKE FOR YOU!

COMING SOON..

2007-03-07T04:18:00.000-08:00

Hello, here's a quickie!

Liz (my very first customer) has suggested that I try my hand at selling birthday cakes too. Her reason was really simple. EVERYONE needs a birthday cake sometime... SO THERE! I'm going to introduce 3 cakes into my repetoire for now. (no chocolate cake though...)

1) Fudgey-wudgey-ain't-no-fudgier Brownie
2) American Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
3) Blueberry/Marble/Lemon/Oreo Cheesecake

DETAILS COMING SOON... pinkypromise! =D

Order Details

2007-03-05T02:57:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys!
So, just to make things clearer, here's how you place an order.

1) Decide on which type of cake you would like
2) Call me, with the following details
-Name of cake you would like to order
-Quantity
-When you would like to arrange a pick up date and time ( because i do not have a car, meeting in the city would be easiest, sorry!)

Since I'm doing this business mainly as a form of practice, although i put in my best effort, sometimes things may not be as perfect as cakes/cupcakes sold in stores, so thank you for the support and for the faith and for being understanding!=)

here's your deal

2007-03-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, right now, I have no idea how the readership of this is going, but hey, I'll get down to business!

CUPCAKES!
here's the deal. You guys KNOW i need practice (lord, everyone knows!) so hey! if it's someone's birthday, or a anniversary, or perhaps just because you adoreee the person so much, get them some CUPCAKES! I can write whatever you want me to, designs are limited but i'll design it as per your special occasion! or, just request what you'd like (eg, something girly, something sporty...chocolate overload perhaps...now we're talking!)

price: $3.50 each (give and take, if they're plain buttercupcakes or they're large orders, they might cost less, chocolatechocolate ones might cost a tad more)

Flavours:
Chocolate (with Chocolate Chunks or Plain)
Vanilla (with Jam or Plain)

Minimum order 10

Muffins

These are decadent and seriously sinful. Topped with Streusel or Cream Cheese Frosting, I bet you, they are to die for.

Flavours:
Moist Carrot Muffin with Cream Cheese Frosting
Blueberry Crumb Muffin with Crunchy Streusel

Price: Available on Request
Minimum order 10

dessert's the whole point of the meal, really.

2007-02-28T05:46:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!
So, after much debating and persuasion, I finally decided to take a stab at this food blogging thing and see how it goes! For those who already know (because i declare my love ever so often), i ADORE baking and all that comes with it (including the reward of a job well done). BECAUSE i adore baking, I would like to continue baking and extending my repetoire of cakes, so, that's where YOU, my dear readers, come in. Let me know the gritty details that go on in your kitchen, fill me in on the weird combinations of food that tickle your palate, or simply, what your favourite cake is. The cakes I bake are ALL for sale, not asking for much, just enough to cover the cost of the ingredients (meaning some cakes are definitely gonna cost you that teensy bit more, but I promise I give my best shot) and maybe a little more, to get something new for my baking pantry. and here's what my friends already know... because I say it soooo often. The whole point of the meal is for that little pot of gold right at the end of the rainbow- DESSERT! so don't tell me you don't like dessert, even if you don't, keep it to yourself.

LOVE!
vic.