Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Double Choc Chip Muffin


I bake these muffins a few weeks back, but only got around to blog it today, since I'm on medical leave for the week. I love muffins and I love chocolate. Combined the two together, and I'm in bliss :)
This recipe was adapted from Nigella Lawson's choc chip recipe here


Double Choc Muffin
Difficulty level: Easy 
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 25 minutes

Yields: 18 pieces of medium muffins

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cocoa powder
3/4 cup caster sugar
3/4 cup chocolate chips
1 cup milk
90 ml vegetable oil
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence

Steps:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients together (Flour+baking powder+baking soda+cocoa powder+choc chip)





2. Mix all the wet ingredients together (Oil+milk+egg+vanilla essence)


3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry mixture and stir until combine. DO NOT over-mixed the batter as it will make the muffin dry.

4. Pour into muffin cases and decorate the top with extra chocolate chips and bake for 25 minutes at 160C.


5. Tadaaaa!


Taste: Yummy, but I think, next time, I'll substitute the oil with melted butter. I think everything is nicer with butter. hihihihi :D

p/s: I froze my muffins for a week, and it still taste the same. Thaw it out first, then bake for 10 minutes.

Happy trying!

Love,
el

Thursday, July 14, 2011

My First Macarons :)

I'm smiling while I'm updating this blog. Beginner's luck :)

I have been trying to make these little monsters for months now, and failing miserably every time. I didn't give up though. I look up different sites and blogs that teach how to do it properly. I tried searching for macarons classes but where I'm at, there is none nearby :(

I bought a digital scale yesterday, and determine to try again. I used this one egg white macarons recipe courtesy to the Macarons Genius, Kak Yani of Kitchen Guardian. Her blog is addictive!! Thank you so much Kak Yani :)

One egg white macarons

Difficulty level: Moderate *depending on your level of patience :P
Preparations time: 15 minutes
Baking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:
30g egg whites *I aged them overnight in the fridge
20g caster sugar
36g ground almond
54g icing sugar *I ground the almond and the icing together, and sifted them twice. 
1/2 tsp powdered pink food coloring

Steps: 
1. In a very clean bowl *I used my new IKEA stainless steel bowl, whisk the egg white until frothy


2. Slowly add in the caster sugar *I add my coloring with the sugar, while whisking the egg white until stiff peaks form. *Obviously, I couldn't take any picture during this step since both of my hands are occupied
caster sugar + pink food coloring
Soft peak

Stiff peak
3. Fold in the almond-icing mixture in three parts, incorporate it well with the egg white. After that, press the batter to the wall of the bowl, to free trapped air until the batter is ribbon-like and glossy. 
almond-icing mixture



4. Pour the batter in a piping bag, and pipe small circle onto the baking tray that has been lined with baking sheet. Try to make the circles the same. I failed at this. hihihihi

5, Tap the baking tray gently on the counter to remove trapped air and leave it to dry. Mine took around 30 minutes
6. Bake for 20 minutes at 150C. The macarons shell should have skirts/feet around 5 minutes of baking. I've waited in front of the oven and jumped around my kitchen when the skirts/feet appear. :D
skirts/feet :)
7. Let it cool on the rack, and peel slowly from the sheet.
8. To assemble the macarons, sandwich two shells with the lemon curd fillings i made a few days ealier.
9. Makan!!

Taste: Crunchy outer and chewy inner, and very sweet. Have to try to make less sweet fillings next time. :)

p/s: My shells are senget-benget and have cracks on some. I think the oven might be a bit too hot. :P

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Lemon Curd

I've bought a few lemons too many in my recent groceries shopping trip, it was on sale, like RM1 per piece and before the lemon are spoiled, I did this simple lemon curd. I'm thinking of doing some macs, but for now, i just prepared the filling first. This recipe is adapted from Alton Brown's recipe (I halved the recipes since I only have 2 lemons)

Difficulty level: Easy
Preparation time: 20 minutes

Lemon Curd

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/6 cup lemon juice
1/2 tbsp lemon zest
50 gm butter, chilled

Steps:
1. Whisk the yolks and sugar till combine.

2. Add the lemon juice and zest

3. Over a double boiler, whisk the yolk mixture until it thickens, around 10 minutes

4. Take the mixture of the heat, and add in butter bits by bits, making sure that the butter melts evenly.

5. Store the curd in a container, and cover the top of the surface with cling film.

6. This lemon curd can be refrigerated for up to 2 weeks :)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Red Velvet Cake

I've tried a few different recipes of red velvet cake from the internet. Some turn out to be moist, some are dense and one was very uneatable. :(
However, I never did give up. Keep on searching for recipes, until I came across this recipe from Kak Edi's blog. I've ordered my engagement cupcakes from her and it was delish :). She does beautiful cupcakes and I really do recommend her. Anyway, I've tried this recipe twice, and I think I have found it. I love the texture of this cake. It's moist, and it's not too sweet. However, I modified the recipe for the cream cheese frosting, since I don't have whipping cream in stock. Here it goes.

Difficulty level: Moderate
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 35 minutes

Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp red coloring
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup buttermilk (I added 1/2 tsp lemon juice to 1/2 cup full cream milk)
1/2 vinegar
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate

Steps:
1. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt. Put aside.
2. Mix cocoa powder and red coloring to form a paste.
3. In a clean bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add egg, vanilla essence and cocoa mixture. Mix well

4. Add in flour and buttermilk alternately, ending with the flour mixture. Mix well between each addition.




5. Now. this is the last part, and it is very important that it is done quickly. I don't even have time to take a photo, sorry. In a small bowl, combine vinegar and soda bicarbonate and fold into the cake batter quickly.

6.Pour the batter into a baking tin (I used a 7" tin) and bake for 35 minutes at 170C.




Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:
125 gm cream cheese, softened
50 gm butter, softened
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp lemon juice (put in more if you like a more 'tart' frosting)


Steps:
1. Beat the cream cheese until smooth and light.

2. Add in the softened butter. Beat well.

3. Add in icing sugar, vanilla essence and lemon juice. Mix everything well.



4. Chilled the frosting while the cake is cooling down.


Assembling the cake:


1. Cut the cake into 2 or 3 parts. Do it as evenly as possible.


2. Spread the frosting onto the first layer, even it out with a spatula

3. Put the second layer of cake, and repeat the process.
4. Lastly, put the top layer, and frost the whole cake. Decorate the cake with the crumbles that falls of when you cut the cake. :)
5. Voila!!