Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Pandan Melting Moments

I saw this recipe in the June 2011 Good Food Magazine. I love this magazine. The photos in it are so beautiful and well-taken. The recipes will make me want to jump out of my bed and start cooking. Hee hee. This is one of the recipes that I have tried. This cookie is actually accompanied with a coconut cream. Since I am not a fan of cream and these cookies are meant to last for at least a week, filling them with cream is not a wise option. 

This is a relatively simple recipe to put together. I used a zip top bag instead of a piping bag. Not a good choice. The zip top bag spilt along the seam after I piped half of the cookies and I was in a big mess when it split. To save myself from more agony, I just used a teaspoon and drop the remaining dough on the sheet pan and baked them. The rosettes held their shapes well after baking and the dropped cookies looked like the Danish butter cookies, just that they are in green. 


No one can detect the pandan flavour in my cookies. I think I need to put in more pandan paste. Nonetheless it has beautiful butter flavour. My husband and I renamed them as Green Butter Cookies. :p But my parents feel that it is too sweet. They still prefer my Chocolate Chips and Almond Cookies. Opps. I have not blog that yet. Hee hee.

Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter, softened
100g icing sugar ( I will reduced to 80g the next time)
4 tbsp pandan juice ( I replaced with 1 tsp pandan paste and top up with water till i get 4 tbsp)
225g plain flour
4 tbsp cornflour

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius.
2. Beat the butter, icing sugar and pandan juice until light and fluffy.
3. Sift in the plain flour and corn flour, and mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are well combined.
4. Place the dough in pipping bag fixed with a star nozzle and pipe the mixture into 1.5 cm rosettes or 3 cm
    long fingers.
5. Bake for 10-12 min until the cookies are firm and lightly golden. Set aside to cool on a wire tray.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Pineapple Cream Cheese Cake

This is an overdue post. As usual. Haha.

Happy Birthday Daddy.

My whole family doesn't fancy the whipping cream on cakes. We will scrape away the cream and eat the sponge cake and the fruits, if there is any. Unless... the cake is extremely expensive or it is coated with chocolate ganache (my favourite), then we will send it down to our esophagus. That's the main reason why I have yet to make any layer cake. Maybe I should step out of my comfort zone soon. Mother's Day? My own birthday? Mummy's birthday? Hubby's birthday? ;)

Staying in my comfort zone, I chose the Pineapple Cream Cheese Cake from Dailydelicious, a site that I trusted. I accomplished this task quite easily (phew), if not, I would have to rush out to get a cake from the bakery. Everyone loves the cake, especially the birthday boy, I mean old boy. Haha. 


Baked in a Bundt Pan. Uneven browning. :( I planned to sprinkle some icing sugar on it but my hubby said then it proves that it is made by me. -_-"


Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Mini Meatloaf

This recipe is obtained from the March 2011 edition of Good Food Magazine. The ingredients are easy to find and easy to prepare, just chopping onion and carrot and processing some bread cubes to get homemade breadcrumbs.

The result is good. I am not really a big fan of meat. I survive mainly on vegetables but I like this meat loaf. This recipe did change my impression of meatloaf as a heavy and filling block of compressed meat. This meatloaf is moist and not over clogging. The addition of onion and carrot not only add sweetness to the meatloaf, it also made it less oily and meaty (I know it sounds funny ;p) I served it with s bed of romaine lettuces in a simple lemon vinaigrette. A well-balanced meal.


Sunday, March 25, 2012

Cream Cheese Pound Cake and Black Bottom Cupcakes.


The block of cream cheese in my fridge is expiring soon. I bought it to make the Strawberry Jelly Hearts but somehow I just don't have the mood to make it this weekend. Craving for some cakes, I began to go through my to-do list and look for cakes that uses cream cheese. I stumbled upon the Cream Cheese Pound Cake on Little Teochew's Blog. It looks so appetizing. I decided to bake this. However, it uses only 140 g of cream cheese. What am I going to do with the rest? I searched in her blog and saw the Black Bottom Cupcakes. I halved the recipe to use up the
remaining 110 g of my cream cheese. Hee hee. I managed to bake both cakes before lunch.


At about tea time, my parents came over to get my bakes and bought me 4 egg tarts from Tong Heng (my fav). So sweet of them.

I guess I am an inconfident baker. I only have the courage to offer my bakes to my parents, my brother and my husband. It is not that I cannot accept criticism, in fact I want them to comments on my bakes so that I can improve in those areas but normally they don't. Only my parents, brother and husband do. I am worried that if I gave the
m and they don't enjoy it, it will be a torture to them and I will be very upset to know that. I really enjoy cooking and baking for others and see them enjoying or giving me feedback on my food. That's the way to learn.

8 inch Cream Cheese Pound Cake

A peek at the texture
This cake smells and tastes fantastic. Soft and moist. This recipe is very forgiving and suitable for novice baker like me.

Black Bottom Cupcakes
I prefer to have more cheesy taste to it. Nonetheless, the texture is great and not too sweet.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Mummy's Chicken Stew


This is one of my favorite dishes when I was young. Whenever my mum cooks this, she would serve it on a cartoon plate and drench my rice with the gravy. I love the carrots in particular. They are so sweet. I would have extra serving of rice when my mum cook this. This dish tastes even better the next day. I tried to replicate this dish in my own kitchen. Even with my mum on the other side of the line guiding me how to cook it, I still cannot get the same taste as my mum's one. Maybe that's what they call 妈妈的味道. :)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Lemony Cupcakes with Tangy Lemon Curd

I was mesmerized by the photos in Daily Delicious but I know that with my skills, I doubt I can recreate most of her bakes. When I saw this, I was delighted because it looks basic enough for my standard. So here I go into my kitchen, armed with the ingredients, I managed to bake these cupcakes within 3 hours (I know I am slow, it runs in the family), including filling it with the lemon curd that I made a day before. I omitted the mascapone frosting and replaced it with a wedge of strawberry. I love the taste. Well balanced. My mum loves them and she finished a jar of lemon curd by spreading it on crackers and toast. I feel satisfied whenever she enjoy my creation. :)