(Almost) Raw Chocolate Tartlet

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. =)

Needin' some Puddin'

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)

A cookie that tastes like a cookie

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!

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.

One birthday cake down, one to go...

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.

me, myself and saturday

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!=)

Walnut Chocolate Roughs

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!

2007 semester One party!

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

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!=)

Low-er fat Chewychocochuck Oatmeal Cookies

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. =)

Chocolate Bread

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...

Chewy Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies

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...=)

Coffee and Chocolate Walnut Cake

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.

Just Because...

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!

Easter Cake Bake!

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...=)

Good Ol' Chocolate Cupcakes...seduce me!

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!=)