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Archive for Recipes: Baking
January 25, 2008 at 3:19 am · Filed under Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Baking
How do you like your pizza? Thick or thin crust? Lots of cheese? Or just full of toppings? I definitely like mine with thin crust, lots of cheese with moderate toppings. As much as I like to try making a pizza base myself, I didn’t had the courage to do it, for fear of failing and wasting the cheese and toppings. From my understanding, to achieve a thin crust, you need a very high heat like a stone oven to toast the pizza fast and yet the toppings gets cooked with cheese melting at the same time. Nevertheless, it will still be in my to-make list. It’s just a matter of when I can strike this item off the list.
A promise’s a promise. The long awaited school holidays were here again. We baked chocolate chip cookies last National Day. The intention for this session was to make rolled cookies. I even got the cookie cutters ready. But I gave them 2 choices. So it’s gonna be pizzas or cookies? Pizza sounds delicious and fun to have, and so they decided on making pizzas instead.
Store-bought frozen pizza crust isn’t that bad. In fact, it’s quite decent and affordable. And you can have free-play to use whatever toppings and cheese you like. You can spread a layer of tomato sauce or puree on the base of the pizza. As I had a jar of tomato-based pasta sauce in my pantry, I used that instead. Next, is to grate a layer of mozzarella cheese on the tomato sauce, followed by the toppings you’ve prepared. I used ham and fresh button mushrooms. Lastly, grate another layer of mozzarella and sprinkle some dried parsley on top. And they were ready to go into the toaster! It’s that easy!!
The 2 girls had fun preparing for the pizza, mainly cutting up the ham and mushrooms. These pizza crusts are of personal pan size and takes only 12 to 15 mins to toast. I love to watch the cheese melts and turn brown. Gosh, I am drooling at the of thought that while typing this post.
These pizzas are really not bad tasting! I am quite pleased with the results. My niece said it looked ‘real’. What she meant was the photo of the pizza looks pretty professional. Haha… I thought pizzas are not filling enough for them. So I made some wild mushroom soup for them to go with the pizzas. What a nice auntie I am. Hehe… But my effort was not wasted. They LOVE the soup and gave me both thumbs up!
Sorry for not posting this entire month. I didn’t had the mood to blog as work keeps piling up. I have so many things to blog about!!
December 31, 2007 at 6:26 pm · Filed under Bread, Recipes: Baking
“Bagel, bagel, yum yum bagel, yum yum pumpernickel, pumpernickel bread! I have a bagel and it’s delicious. Would you like a bite?” I came to know of this song from the popular kid’s show, Barney. Although I have no kids, but I am quite familiar with the songs in the show, singing along and dancing around with my nieces.
Mini bagels is what I made some time back. My first try handling dough and yeast. These bagels are really small, only 5cm in diameter. I made them plain as I forgot to buy seasame seeds for the toppings. The first time I saw these cute little bagels at Evan’s blog, I thought they were donuts. Haha..
Bagels are know to be hard, dense and chewy. It is a popular choice of bread in the US. You can add various types of toppings such as poppy seeds, seasame seeds, onions, cheese, garlic, etc. When making bagels, you need to bathe them in boiling water. Depending on how hard or soft you want your bagels to be, the time they spent bathing in the water is varied. Want them harder, longer in the boiling water. Prefer them softer, reduce the water bath duration.
As the bagels I made are really small, they were very chewy even though I followed the recipe. The next time I make them, I will either reduce the time further, or make bigger bagels! Plain bagels are so versatile, eat them with cream cheese, cheese, or the blt way. I had mine with ham, cucumber and tomatoes for breakfast. 3 of them and I’m stuffed!
I am somewhat satisfied with my first experience handling dough although there were some hiccups during the process. My dough didn’t seemed to doubled in size and I kept peeping. Haha.. I realized that I should make them during the day where temperature is higher and warm, as the dough needs to be in a warm area to be able to rise nicely. But it’s nice to have fresh homemade bagels for breakfast the next day.
This is the last day of year. I hope 2007 was a good one for you. Let’s look forward to 2008 together! See you soon and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
December 8, 2007 at 5:52 pm · Filed under Recipes: Dessert, Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Baking
How often does one consume fresh blueberries in Singapore? Not very often, I would say, at least for me. These berries don’t come cheap here in Singapore. One small punnet sets you back by $6.50. The organic ones cost about $10.50 per punnet. By the way, this post is way overdue. About half a year back, the cost of fresh blueberries was reduced to almost half their usual price, $3.20 per punnet! I was an elated woman when I saw the price tag. My initial thought was, my hamsters were in for a treat. They love these mildly sweet blueberries! Lucky little rodents. Without further hesitation, I quickly grabbed 2 punnets home.
Since I can’t keep these berries for long and my hamsters won’t be able to eat much, I surfed around looking for some nice recipes where I could make use of them. What a coincidence when I went to Cherly’s food blog, her latest post was on Blueberry Muffins! Woooh, the way she described how the blueberries burst in the muffin, the thought of it made me drooled. Alright then, the remaining berries would all go into my blueberry muffins.
As I wanted these muffins bursting with the flavour of blueberries, I reduced the amount of sugar slightly. The word ‘streusel’ for this muffin simply means toppings that form a crumbly top on the muffin. Muffins are one of the easiest to make but make sure that you don’t overmix the batter, else you won’t get the dense texture a muffin should be. Prepare the toppings after you’ve prepared the batter. I made a mistake preparing the toppings first and the butter had already melted a abit, resulting in the not so crumbly, but lumpy look. When preparing the toppings using the rubbing-in method, you have to really do it quickly using only your fingertips(heat from the palm will melt the butter).
The aroma in the kitchen when the muffins were baking in the oven was wonderful. Eat them fresh on it’s own, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a glass of milk. Perfect for breakfast or tea.
Blueberries are low in calories and packed with anti-oxidants. They are a very good source of vitamin C, manganese, and both soluble and insoluble fiber like pectin. Blueberries are also a good source of vitamin E.
How to Select and Store
Choose blueberries that are firm and have a lively, uniform hue coloured with a whitish bloom. Avoid berries that look dull in color or are soft and watery in texture. They should be free from moisture since the presence of water will cause the berries to decay. Ripe blueberries should be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator where they will keep for about a week. They will be freshest if consumed within a few days. Always check berries before storing and remove any damaged berries to prevent the spread of mold. But don’t wash berries until right before eating as washing will remove the bloom that protects the berries’ skins from degradation. If kept out at room temperature for more than a day, the berries may spoil.
Tips on preparing blueberries
Fresh berries are very fragile and should be washed briefly and carefully and then gently patted dry if they are not organic. Wash berries just prior to use to not prematurely remove the protective bloom that resides on the skin’s surface.
There are many ways to enjoy blueberries other than eating on it’s own. Add them to your breakfast cereals. Use them in your cheesecake, pies, tarts and muffins. Or you can make blueberry pancakes and waffles.
I wonder if the price of fresh blueberries will drop again. Hee.
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Recipe from Williams-Sonoma Muffins
Makes 12 muffins.
For the muffins:
7 tablespoons (3½ oz/ 105g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup (6oz/185g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2¼ cups (11½ oz/ 360g) all-purpose (plain)flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 fl oz/ 250ml) milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract (essence)
1½ cups (6 oz/ 185g) fresh blueberries or frozen unsweetened blueberries, unthawed.
For the topping:
¼ cup (1½ oz/ 45g) all-purpose (plain) flour
2 tablespoons each granulated sugar and firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.
Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit (190 degree celcius). Grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavoured nonstick cooking spray.
To make the topping, stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut or rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until coarse crumbs form. Alternatively, combine the dry ingredients and the butter in a food processor and pulse just until coarse crumbs form.
To make the muffins, in a bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each edition until blended into the butter mixture.
In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 2 increments, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold in the blueberries just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Take care not to break up the fruit. Do not overmix.
Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rim of the cup. Sprinkle each muffin with some topping.
Bake until golden, dry, and springy to the touch, 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature.
October 20, 2007 at 3:24 am · Filed under Recipes: Baking, Family
Chocolate is another love of mine, especially dark bitter chocolate. I like the initial bitterness, ending with a slightly sweet note. Absolutely divine. As mentioned in my earlier posts, chocolates are perfect companions with fruits like strawberries, orange, bananas and even durians. They go well with peppermint and various sorts of nuts like hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, etc. I like to try out different types of desserts, unique flavors, like spiced cakes. But ultimately, when there’s a choice, I still want my comfort food. Chocolate-flavoured desserts.
Two months back, on National Day, I promised the girls to having a baking session at my house. They love chocolate too and so I went in search of a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found this recipe at Kitchen Capers Forum. The reviews from the members are that they tasted quite like Famous Amos cookies. The most important factor is that it’s a fairly easy recipe for the girls to handle.
The 2 girls were fussing over how they want to get involved. In a situation where one niece is older, you tend to let her do more, while the younger one watched. Then the young one complained that why she didn’t get to pour the flour and crack the eggs. But I am glad that she’s an understanding little girl as I assured her that the fun time was in shaping the cookies. Both of them sure had a great time singing while shaping the cookies. This recipe is different from the previous ones we made at AC’s house. It’s consists of a drier batter, thus the need to shape the cookies. They did a fantastic job preparing the cookies for baking.
Their patience did paid off. They were so proud of themselves, exclaiming that the cookies were crunchy and super duper delicious. It was a great bonding session with them. Missed the great times with them before I moved out. I’ve promised them another session in the coming school holidays.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe by Connie from Kitchen Capers Forum
Yields about 40 small cookies
125g Butter
70g Castor sugar
70g Brown sugar
½ tsp Vanilla essence
1 Egg
260g Self-raising flour
130g Chocolate chips (Add more if you like more choc chips)
- Pre-heat oven to 180C.
- Sift the flour, set aside.
- Beat butter, essence and sugars using mixer until smooth.
- Add egg and beat until well combined.
- Stir in sifted flour and the remaining ingredients.
- Take rounded teaspoons of mixture and roll into balls.
- Place balls about 4cm apart on slightly greased oven trays or line with baking sheet.
- Bake in pre heated oven for 15 minutes or until browned.
- Cool in trays for short while and transfer to wire rack for cooling.
Cooking and baking is something I want to do with my own children in time to come, apart from the other standard children activities. I want them not to only eat, but to enjoy cooking the food they eat. It’s fun and you can train them to be independent at the same time. And they learn about measurement, judgment and patience. Patience will yield good results. I want my children to be able to whip up simple dishes like fried rice or noodles, fried eggs, salads or sandwiches. Really hope that I can achieve that in the future.
September 14, 2007 at 12:50 pm · Filed under Recipes: Baking
Wow, you did your first soufflé?
Yes. I did.
So did you succeed?
No, I failed badly.
Why?
It did rise beautifully in the oven. Read some tips that I should never open the oven while it’s still baking. But it’s way past the amount of time it’s supposed to be baked and it’s still not golden brown on top. And there are some who said, I can check if it’s done when the toothpick/skewer came out clean. So, I OPENED the oven. And, the soufflé starts to sink. And it sank all the way down.
A soufflé (soo-flay) is a light, fluffy dish baked with egg yolks and beaten egg whites with other ingredients. It can be served as a savory dish or as a sweet dessert. Made from 2 basic components, a base that gives the flavor and beaten egg whites to introduce air into the soufflé so that it will rise. In French, soufflé means “to blow up” or loosely “puff up”.
The common ingredients used for a dessert soufflé are chocolate, lemon, Grand Marnier and a lot more if you are creative enough to come up with your own flavors. Mos Burger fans might notice that Mos Burger previous promotions on Green Tea Soufflé with red beans compote which I thought was pretty unique. Green tea flavored desserts pairs up so perfectly with red beans. There’s another flavor, which I can’t remember.
The savory soufflés are usually made up of cheese, spinach, bacon, onions.. etc. I’ve yet to taste one. But it will be perfect for a morning brekkie, in another form instead of the usual bacon and scramble eggs. And you probably needs a big bowl of this, because it will be so light that you hardly feel full if you were to eat just a small serving.
Traditionally, soufflés are baked in ramekins (the bowl I used in the photo) which has flat bottoms for the soufflé to rise properly. You can also use cups, but make sure they are ovenproof.
I’ve heard so much about how intimidating it is to get a soufflé to rise nicely. And also how the egg whites have to be whipped to the right consistency to get it work. The commonly tested flavor is the chocolate soufflé, which is rich and at the same time light and fluffy. I tasted my first soufflé at Bakerzin served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and I really like it. So when I come across the lemon soufflé recipe in Donna Hay magazine, I gave it a try.
Sorry to tempt you to looking forward (if you are) to this post which is actually a flop. I just want to note down the experience. But fret not, I will attempt to succeed in making the chocolate ones or maybe even the savory ones. Somehow, the base for this lemon soufflé recipe seems too little to be mixed with the egg whites. It’s supposed to yield 8 servings and all I could get was just 2 servings. And it didn’t call for egg yolks for the base. And it’s a little too sweet, you might want to reduce the amt of sugar but I don’t know if it will affect the end result. Will any experienced baker help me try out this recipe and let me know the outcome?
It’s a pity that I didn’t take a photo of them rising in the oven. All I get was 2 ‘deflated’ bowls of unappetizing soufflés. Haha…
Lemon soufflé
Donna Hay Magazine Issue 32
Makes 8 servings
Unsalted butter, melted for greasing
Caster (superfine) sugar for dusting
1 tbsp cornflour (cornstarch)
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/3 cup (72⅔g / 2½oz) caster (superfine) sugar
2 egg whites
2 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar, extra
icing (confectioner’s) sugar to serve
- Lightly grease 8 x ½ cup (4 fl oz) capacity ceramic cups with butter and dust with sugar. Place the cups on a baking tray.
- Combine the cornflour with the water, mix to a smooth paste and set aside. Place the lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, add the cornflour mixture and cook, stirring continuously, for 1 minutes or until thickened. Set aside to cool completely.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (355ºF). Place the eggwhites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add the extra sugar and beat until glossy. Place the lemon mixture in a large bowl and gently fold through the eggwhite mixture. Spoon into the cups and bake for 5 – 7 minutes or until risen and golden. Dust with icing sugar and serve immediately.
August 18, 2007 at 3:10 am · Filed under Recipes: Baking
My first experience in baking a real dessert was a banana cake. What I meant by real was because I tested out my oven using Betty Cocker’s chocolate cake and blueberry muffin premix. It’s still real baking, just that a premix definitely tastes good. And baking a cake from scratch is more experimental. Joanne from Kitchen Capers contributed this recipe. It seemed to get good raves from the many members who have tried the recipe, and foolproof was one of the words they use. Ah…. foolproof sounds good to me. This is the one cake that I’ve baked many times for the past year.
This is really one easy cake to bake. Simple and straightforward. You need ripe bananas to get a really fragrant banana cake. Ripe bananas are sweeter, thus you can reduce the amount of sugar as stated in the recipe by a quarter. Don’t get Del Monte bananas or any other similar ones. Use local bananas or what they call ‘pang jio’.
Result is a very moist and fluffy cake. The strong banana fragrance, its scent fills your whole home with a wonderful aroma. Banana Bliss!
Need some energy before you go for your workout? Suffers a diarrhea? Eat some bananas then. It’s low in calories, fat, sodium and is a good source of vitamin B6 and potassium. It’s easily a tropical fruit loved by many. My nieces love them to bits. They can’t see bananas hanging in the kitchen, they gotta eat it. LOL.
Banana Cake
Recipe adapted from Joanne in Kitchen Capers
1oz = 30grams
6oz butter
6 oz caster sugar
2 eggs, large
3 tbsp milk
3 large banana (riped, mashed)
8 oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate soda
Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 8 x 8 inch square tin. Beat butter & sugar together using a mixer until creamy and smooth. Add eggs, one at a time until it’s well corporated. Add milk and banana, mix well. Sift flour, baking powder & bicarbonate soda and add to mixture. Pour batter into the tin and bake for 1 hour.
The oven duration really depends on the oven. My oven took only about 40 minutes, faster if I were to use fan-assisted mode. So set your timer earlier and test the cake by inserting a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out clean or with a bit of crumbs, it’s done. Else bake a while longer, but do keep track of the time. And if you use individual cupcake cases like me, the time needed is even shorter. Perhaps, 20 to 30 minutes.
For a variation, mix in a handful of chocolate chips into the cake batter before baking it in the oven. If you intend to add in chocolate chips, remember to reduce the amount of sugar before you cream with butter, cos you don’t want your cake too sweet. Yummy… chocolate and bananas goes hand in hand. Try it and let me know how it goes, yah?
