Daring Bakers: Mallows and Milan Cookies

The July Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Nicole at Sweet Tooth. She chose Chocolate Covered Marshmallow Cookies and Milan Cookies from pastry chef Gale Gand of the Food Network.

As I looked at the recipe earlier on the month. I was feeling pretty comfortable, especially knowing we are allowed to bake both goodies or to choose one of the two. Have made Milan cookies in the past, so sort of thought I am pretty okay on that front. Never occurred to my mind to make homemade marshmallow; was a little bit reluctant to do so in all honesty. The only time I'll buy marshmallow is when we go camping. Should I really go through the trouble in making homemade version?!! Is it worth it? Sure it does. When else will I be tempted to make my own marshmallow if not now? Though I told myself, will do this challenge a week before deadline. Just in case.

That is until I stared at the calendar on Sunday morning and realized, holymarshmallow!! How could it be end of month already? My simple reasoning, weekend goes by so fast during summer. Especially summer in Toronto, I think. We just don't get enough of warm weather, so when we get them, we won't be wasting it one bit. Salsa fesival, jazz festival, Caribana, oh..all the activities!

So anyway, I decided only to make marshmallow cookies, just to take up the marshmallow challenge.


The marshmallow did not turn out as great as I hoped for and not at all as gorgeous as other Daring Bakers'!! Theirs seem to have a nice stiff peak on it. Mine, it flopped within minutes. Okay, so maybe my fault for not whipping it long enough. I was disappointed. Taste was pretty good, but ugh - the flat top!!! The end result however was quite delicious. Not exactly my type of sweets, but I could totally see the appeal of it. Just like opening Christmas gift! Marshmallow and Chocolate. Maybe something I'll make for holiday season for gifts.


With failed marshmallow episode, I was pumped to whip up second recipe. Pffftttt...Milan cookies, made it dozen times. As I mixed and whipped, it dawned to me that I have never really made it all by myself. It's my mom's cookies - it's her specialties kind of cookies. But yours truly posses a streak of arrogance in her, what my mom can do, I can do better. Yeah!!


I remember how fast my mom could pipe these babies. So, let me take it up a notch by piping them in stripes!! Yeepee! If only I piped it slower, it would have been fine and uniform. I was embarrassed, to say the least. All the crooked zig-zagged cookies!!! Well, this challenge surely keep my feet on the ground. :)

In short, appearance wise for this time around of Daring Bakers Challenge, I am not so proud of myself. In brighter note, Vik voted this Milano cookies as his favorite cookies!!

Extra Notes: Posting few days after the deadline. And this morning, Vik already asked for 2nd batch of Milan Cookies!! So I just baked another half recipe!

Thanks Nicole for this month's challenge!!

Daring Bakers: Bakewell Tart..err..Pudding

While loading photos to this entry, I can't help but wishing these tarts could just magically appear in front of me!! Either from my oven or materializing themselves from photos. Just my perfect kind of sweet thing.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

And I LOVE IT! As described in the recipe, the frangipane in this tart..mmh.. simply out of this world.

I have decided far in advance that whatever June's challenge will be, I am going to make it for Vik's birthday. Whether sweet or savory, it'd be on the menu. Less one item to worry about, right?


One of the challenges in making DB's challenges has always been the fact that there are only two of us and it's nice not to have leftover of anything sitting in the fridge. Hence, I've always tried to time my whipping up the challenge in such a way that we have some friends to share it with. No difference with this challenge - a dinner party for Vik's birthday. And may I say, nothing left! Except for the two I purposely saved up. The intention was so I'd use it the next day for photo taking purpose - of the filling/inside of these tarts. Well, obviously that did not happen. I completely forgot about it and we had the last two tarts with our morning coffee the next morning. Whoops!



For the jam part, I made simple pineapple jam; grated pineapple, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves. Cook 'em to somewhat thick consistency. I was pleasantly surprised on how easy everything came together. Great texture, right level of sweetness and the perfect size (mini tart that is) of indulgence.

Great pick of recipe! Thanks to Jasmine and AnneMarie!!

Daring Bakers Challenge: Apple Strudel

This gotta be a joke! The exact reaction I had over this month's challenge. Suddenly all other challenges I have done in the past sounded so easy. Pftt..what tossing pizza dough compared to stretching and rolling paper thin strudel dough?! I was about to sit this month's challenge out. As I diligently read the forum and gazing dreaming-ly to such beautiful results from fellow DBs - I was so tempted. And on very positive notes, seems like almost everybody was so surprised on how easy the dough come around. Maybe it's not at all too bad then.

The fact that this challenge does not cost much at all helped tremendously - in case I mess it up big time. Every single thing in recipe is pretty much a staple. I simply could not any excuse of having to buy extra fancy stuff to get this strudel going.

In short, oh wow...the result itself was slightly above average, the apples' one was bit too tart - hence I decided to glaze it with Canadian Maple syrup infused with orange peel, cloves and cinnamon. The cabbage one though was pretty good. However, what wow-ed me was the dough!! LOVE IT! It was super easy to work with and the feel of it - ahh...clay vs gum combo I think. I could just play with it for hours!! I was mesmerized by its elasticity and how transparent it could get without having to put too much effort in rolling. Just simply pull and stretch.




At first, I was just going to make apple strudel, with 1/2 recipe of the dough. However, after all that fun stretching, I couldn't resist to use the other half of the dough. Quick rummaging through the fridge, 1/4 head of cabbage. So, yeap..I was too lazy to come up with fancier filling. I also wanted to whip it up quickly while the other half of dough sitting on countertop for over 2 hours already. I sprinkled chopped up green onions when rolling out this savory dough. Quickly chopped up the cabbage, panfried it - with touch of sugar and pepper. Mmmh....not too shabby, if I may say.


The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Daring Bakers: Abbey's Famous Cheesecake

Such dilemma when I saw this month's challenge. The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge. Cheesecake is one of very few desserts I can truly say that I enjoy. Almost savory dessert, see? The tag of the challenge though 'Be Creative with flavors, toppings, etc.' - oh, I think of myself as quite creative person. That's besides the point. Point is, I am cheesecake type of gal. Rarely go with something flavored or fancy toppings. One, the whole idea of cheesecake is the cheese, no? Second, cheesecake on its own is sinful enough.

However, if I were to make a batch of ole' plain cheesecake - how would I face fellow Daring Bakers? Hence, I decided to make cheesecake tartlets, couple plain ones and few assorted kind.

Figuring out the type of assorted flavor was a challenge on its own. I tried to remember the last time I had a not-plain cheesecake. Mid 2005! Cheesecake factory just came to the town I used to live at. Not a big fan of franchise and food in the Factory is mediocre, in my opinion. However, my parents were visiting and my dad was baffled on something called 'Cake Factory.'

Long story short - I took them there. Dad picked one with chocolate on it. He has never been a fan of cheese, but he'd eat bugs dipped in chocolate - just for the sake of chocolate. Mom decided on Tiramisu one. My dad ended up polishing his entire Chocolate Cheesecake and half of my mom's!


Hence, the Chocolate topping cheesecake and Tiramisu (swirled ones). Like usual, I tend to make sure there will be some other people (family or friends or strangers), other than us, who will help polishing off any dessert I bake. Girlfriend's birthday gathering happened to be on that weekend. Pretty sure that they'd go for chocolate/tiramisu kind, but just to complete the cheesecake scene - I did some simple fruit glaze: passion fruit and mixed berry.

Glad I only made 2 plain ones. If I were to make all plain ones, I'd just stand right in front of the fridge and ate them all!!

Daring Bakers : For the Love of Chocolate. Flourless Chocolate Cake with Coffee-Cardamom Ice Cream

I am not at all adventurous when it comes to chocolate. Only eat those candy bars type. I don't even do hot chocolate or chocolate ice cream or fudge. Boring, I know. However, I joined Daring Bakers for reasons. To challenge myself with baking adventures. No excuse about like or dislike over chocolate. Plus, I have never made flourless cake. And at that, home-made ice cream?!!

The cake is quite good. It's very rich and dense, not exactly my cuppa tea, but I have a feeling that it must be a huge hit for chocolate lover. Say if I were to make this for my grandma and my dad, both of them will fight off each other for the last crumb. Oh! It would be perfect for fancy dinner party.

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
1 lbs semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
1 stickplus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry).
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C.
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Bit timid about ice cream part. I told my mom about it and felt like hitting my head afterward because I just knew it!! She says 'But it shouldn't be that hard. Your grandpa used to make it..ya da yadayada..' I find it amusing that my grandpa and his brother used to make ice cream at home. My mom said it was to entertain the kids (read: my mom and her 6 siblings and dozen of cousins) and put them to some useful work - cranking the ice cream drum. Though no one in family made any home-made ice cream once my grandpa passed.

So armed with hand blender - I buzzzzzeeddd and mixed my way through. Oh WOW! Did I really just make home-made ice cream?!

Dharm's Ice Cream Recipe
Classic Vanilla Ice Cream
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Recipe comes from the Ice Cream Book by Joanna Farrow and Sara Lewis (tested modifications and notes in parentheses by Dharm)

Ingredients
1 Vanilla Pod (or substitute with vanilla extract)
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Semi Skimmed Milk – in the U.S. this is 2% fat (or use fresh full fat milk that is pasteurised and homogenised {as opposed to canned or powdered}). Dharm used whole milk.
4 large egg yolks
75g / 3oz / 6 tbsp caster sugar {superfine sugar can be achieved in a food processor or use regular granulated sugar}
5ml / 1 tsp corn flour {cornstarch}
300ml / ½ pint / 1 ¼ cups Double Cream (48% butter fat) {in the U.S. heavy cream is 37% fat)
{you can easily increase your cream's fat content by heating 1/4 cup of heavy cream with 3 Tbs of butter until melted - cool to room temperature and add to the heavy cream as soon as whisk marks appear in the cream, in a slow steady stream, with the mixer on low speed. Raise speed and continue whipping the cream) or use heavy cream the difference will be in the creaminess of the ice cream.

1. Using a small knife slit the vanilla pod lengthways. Pour the milk into a heavy based saucepan, add the vanilla pod and bring to the boil. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to infuse
Lift the vanilla pod up. Holding it over the pan, scrape the black seeds out of the pod with a small knife so that they fall back into the milk. SET the vanilla pod aside and bring the milk back to the boil.
2. Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and corn-flour in a bowl until the mixture is thick and foamy. 3. Gradually pour in the hot milk, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle hear, stirring all the time
4. When the custard thickens and is smooth, pour it back into the bowl. Cool it then chill.
5. By Hand: Whip the cream until it has thickened but still falls from a spoon. Fold it into the custard and pour into a plastic tub or similar freeze-proof container. Freeze for 6 hours or until firm enough to scoop, beating it twice (during the freezing process – to get smoother ice cream or else the ice cream will be icy and coarse)
By Using and Ice Cream Maker: Stir the cream into the custard and churn the mixture until thick (follow instructions on your ice cream maker)

Wendy's Ice Cream Recipe
Vanilla Philadelphia Style Recipe
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
2 cups (473 ml) of half and half (1 cup of heavy cream and 1 cup of whole, full fat milk)
1 cup (237 ml) heavy cream
2/3 (128 grams) cup sugar
Dash of salt
1 (12 grams) tablespoon of vanilla

Mix all ingredients together (we do this in a plastic pitcher and mix with an emulsifier hand blender-whisking works too).
Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer
Mix in your ice cream maker as directed.




Vik was absolutely in love with the ice cream. Scraping off the bowl of his second serving, while subtly giving hints of what flavors next home-made ice cream should be. Huh. Did not remember telling him I'd be making it again.

However, truth to be told, I was blown away by the ice-cream and can't wait to experiment with different flavors. What about green tea for St.Patrick's Day party?! I sorta whipped it (perhaps) way too many times than necessary, simply just so I could lick the leftover off the whisk.

I decided to make coffee and cardamom ice cream cause, well...it sounded good. Have always loved cardamom as spices: it gives such a special aroma and hint of warmth and 'mmhhh' factor to dessert. Then of course, coffee and cake pairing just sounds right.

Made only half recipe of the cake, plenty for the two of us and still enough to give as a 'thank you' token for a client. Boxed it up, drizzled with some glaze - a quick whip of coconut juice and confectioner sugar. To prevent the cake from moving around, I tossed in some home-made candied citrus peel.



The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE's blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
We have chosen a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan

Daring Baker's Challenge 3: French Yule Log

A late posting of December DB's Challenge, due to our trip and for forgetting to download photos to the right laptop, one that we took with us while traveling!! Anyways..

For this month's challenge, I secretly hoping it'd be something fairly easy (I guess it's called Daring Bakers not for nothing, eh?). I meant, easy as in, something that does not involve six layers of different things, like this French Yule Log!! :) When I read, or scrolled up and down the post announcing the challenge, I seriously thought I experienced a severe migraine - and I don't have any history of migraine! Only a little over a week before our vacation and with all the baking...no way!

I told Vik that I may skip this month's challenge, then my beloved husband read the recipe with me. Ain't he sweet? That's until he says 'But aren't you making mousse and creme bruleé anyway for our Christmas dinner next week? 'Just' another 4 things to do, no? And you'd have the ganache for one of your cookies too, right?' Oh so much I want to whip him with spatula. He does not even cook! But I got to admit, I was panicking scrolling down 17 pages, totally oblivious to the fact that three aspects from this log would be done, regardless yule log or no yule log.

However, I know it gotta be miniature log, used butter dish as mold!! Just so I can proudly say 'I have made French Yule Log' Heee...This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

This challenge makes me grin with sense of achievement! I think it's perfect for chocolate-addict, like my dad and grandma. I enjoy chocolate but have always preferred it in solid form - piece of chocolate or er..the entire bar, but not so much as in cakes, cookies or ice-cream. That said, I will be so making it next time I spend Christmas with my family - my grandma, at the age of 82, probably stock up more chocolate in her pantry than any other family with kids.


Since I was serving mocha mousse and cardamom creme bruleé as our dessert for our early-Christmas dinner , I just made a little bit more of that and use it for this yule log. I think it worked out very well with the chocolate ganache, icing and the pralines crisps. Not chocolate overload. The praline crisps, is more of hazelnuts crisps, sorta hate to go and buy me praline paste just for this one time use, especially for such a small log. So I grind up some hazelnuts from pantry and make into a paste. I mixed some coconut into one batch of crisps, thus, 2 layers of crisps.

Also 2 layers of the dacquois biscuit, top one is vanilla and the bottom one is coffee. Yeah, at the time...I was just so much in baking trance that I managed to make two kinds!! Then slept the entire 8 hours to London. ;)

Can't say that this is my best baking adventure, aesthetic wise. Did not turn out smooth at all as I completely run out of time and energy to decorate. Our flight was at 6 pm and I took the log out for photo taking and cutting at 1 pm! However, appearance aside, the taste made your eyes rolled!! It was fancy, delicate and fun - all in one.

Bonne annee!! Happy New Year!! Hope everyone has a superb holidays. I am working on my India trip food post and can't wait to share it with fellow bloggers.

Daring Bakers Challenge 2: Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter Frosting

Right away after I saw this month challenge - Caramel Cake with Caramelized Butter frosting by Shuna Fish Lydon (http://eggbeater.typepad.com/) - I knew I'd make it for holiday brunch. Then as days passed, as I kept reading others DBs posts, I started to quiver. Mostly about the sweetness of this cake. Many DBs commented on how super extra ultra sweet this cake turns out to be - it's yummily delicious, but sorta very sweet too. And neither of us eat sweet things much. However, attempts of cutting back sugar seem to work very well to many DBs. So..I am all hope and eager to whip up this cake.

Everybody loved it!! 7 people, 12 triangles and I have no leftover. I totally fall in love with the frosting, and I am one of those people who usually scrape off frosting from cakes. But how could I not - when it's made with browned butter?!! This is the very first time I have made frosting with browned butter, actually first time of knowing there is such thing. Heehee..I am so going to use this frosting recipe on other cakes from now on.


Vik ate all the crumbs from the cake, kinda rare event on its own. As I sliced off the top and sides to make the cake all even, he picked on them and next thing I know all those bits were gone. It's quite of work, making the caramel syrup and then browned butter, but so well worth it!!

This cake's recipe can be found in Bay Area Bites (http://blogs.kqed.org/bayareabites/).

Thank you so much for Dolores of http://culinarycuriosity.blogspot.com/, the host this month's challenge and co-hosts Alex of Brownie of the Blondie and Brownie duo: http://blondieandbrownie.blogspot.com/ and Jenny of Foray into Food http://forayintofood.blogspot.com/

October Daring Bakers: Pizza

My first challenge as Daring Bakers. Am I out of my mind?!! I have said million times that I just don't bake (much). Cause I am scared. Too many unknown factors. However, I love challenges. What's better way of challenging my baking skills (or lack off) by joining Daring Bakers? And of all things I fear most to bake, yeap...bread type of baking and surely, my first challenge just has to be pizza!

That said, I do make pizza dough quite often; my aunt's recipe and I have been sticking with that very one recipe for years. So I was both excited and nervous when I see this month's Daring Bakers task. For this challenge, we are using a recipe by Peter Reinhart, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread.

The first step of kneading went great. Did not use mixer - cause I don't think my hand held mixer can take the abuse. I was bit worried when my dough did not seem to be sticky (supposedly, the dough in this recipe would be somewhat sticky) but it seems completely fine, based on my minimal knowledge of 'bread' dough. Next day though, woohoo..it smells heavenly, a tad of yeast smell. The dough looks delicate and just right (whatever 'right' is)

Problem arises when I was hoping that Vik would take picture of me tossing the pizza - it was somewhat of a rule in this challenge: toss the pizza and take a photo of flying pizza. He called from office and said he'd be running late. And he has a soccer match to catch within 1.5 hour. Factor in: getting ready, eat, catch up for a bit - I just couldn't wait for him. I tempted using the recording button - but yeah..it might end up recording just the ceiling or my feet or something.

Anyway, so move on to the last few steps. Now the dough becomes kinda super soft, softer than what I accustomed to. Did some knuckle stretching, rotating, flip about 1/8" to the air. Actually I did send it to the air and guess what, somewhere in midair, it decided to fold itself together. Take a deeeeeppp breath. Okay, so..that's the reason I took out 3 parts of dough from the fridge, knowing that some trial and errors may occurred. It turned out okay though, I 'repaired' it - by stretching and patting it back together.


Hence, I had 2 pretty good round shape pizza and one splattered looking oval. Did not use any rolling pin!! Usually I used rolling pin for pizza. I have decided on topping early on. First one is inspired by our favorite pizza from Terroni (it's one of our favorite places) - Polentona. Tomatoes, speck (smoked prosciutto), fontina, mozzarella and pine nuts. I used smoked mozzarella and holysmokeee..it was so smokey, so sweet. The sauce is just a simple tomato paste with chopped up garlic and basil, the whole idea of this pizza is to showcase the rich smokey salty flavor of prosciutto.


Second one, I have always loved mushrooms in my pizza. So I went ahead and do vegetarian pizza of creminis, capers, artichokes, olives with goat cheese and basil pesto as sauce. Then I did the last one, half and half for Vik's lunch the next day.

I have another 2 doughs in freezer and so tempted to whip up sweet one this weekend, after seeing so many great inspiration on other DB posts.

The verdict: This pizza sure worth the effort!! The process is slightly more complex than the other recipe I got, but the result is super rewarding. Vik ate 3/4 of the prosciutto pizza and about 1/4 of mushrooms one. When he got back from soccer, he did second round dinner.

Thank you Rosa for hosting this month Daring Bakers!

Pumpkin Choco Chips Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Cinnamon Frosting

Work was normal last week and I was planning to blog more often. Obviously, it simply did not go as planned. Practically, I have been sorting through my work 'zone' - if I may say, I am quite organized person (on the verge of obsessive) however there are days that my desk is covered from one corner to another. As well as floor space...and sometimes, wall. So I had to do some shuffling. Then closet swap - winter/fall clothing out from the box, summer goes in. With tiny closet, there is no other way of doing it.

All that and enjoying fall colors - I run better during fall and winter. I know it's different for everybody, but I have always thought there is something magical about fall and winter, hence I have upped my miles and at that, sore factor. Meeting up with girl friends for catching up. Enough excuses. A week late, but this is what I whipped up as dessert for our Thanksgiving dinner. I did not get to take photos of everything, trying not to make it into habit for asking our friends to sit on the table and wait around until I am done taking photos.

Vik came up with the idea of cupcakes. No extra dessert plates to wash, see? Though I thought, cupcakes for Thanksgiving dessert?? It does not fit the bill - Thanksgiving! Not bake-sale. Then of course, as I give it some thoughts. I know I wanted to do something with pumpkin. Know I don't want to roll out pie dough, so pumpkin pie is out. Something I can make ahead. When I saw a block of cream cheese in my fridge. Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting sounds just about right.

Do I have a recipe on my own though for pumpkin cupcakes? Of course not. I google-d around and found few different ones. However this one was actually from my pilates instructor. Well..she got it from Canadian Living magazine and changed some of the ingredients. How do I get a recipe from an instructor, long story short - I took her session for a while then switched to another instructor, we bumped to one another, she asked and I explained. Two months ago she started new class and as promised, I went in to check it out and I have been diligently going to her class since then. And couple weeks ago, we established another working relationship, she becomes my client. Gotta make back all the money I paid for membership!! The cream cheese frosting is finger licking good! It's what my host family used to whip up for their carrot cake and red velvet cake.

Cupcakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I don't have any, so I just mix in nutmeg, ground cloves and cinnamon)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk (original recipe: buttermilk)
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (original recipe: vegetable oil)
few tbsp of chocolate chips (I added this simply because I have some in my pantry)

Frosting:
6 oz cream cheese
2/3 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

How:
- For cupcakes: Mix all dry ingredients together with fork. In another bowl, whisk all wet ingredients together. Pour wet ingredients to dry and mix just until moistened. Fill muffin cups to the top. (Surprise surprise, I don't have muffin baking cups/pan, but I do have assorted brioche molds I got from Indonesia, so I used that instead)
- Bake in 375° oven for about 20-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- For frosting: Cream together butter, cream cheese, salt and confectioners sugar until smooth. Add in cinnamon and vanilla.
- In my dream, I'd have pipe the frosting to make it all nice. But in reality, I just spread it with spatula. It yields 11 cupcakes and all of them have different frosting design. Not because I have excessive talent in cupcake decorating, but simply couldn't decide which one could win 'the laziest effort of frosting' event. ;) So there was swirly kind, spikey, zagged, et cetera.

Fenugreek Crisps / Methi Methia

My previous entry talks about 100th posts anniversary and so on, and I did not think much about it, except replying to all the nice comments, of course. However, Vik checked it out later this afternoon, called me up and says 'What did you mean by 100th posts? The blog archive only shows 89' - Oh so much for my passionate entry about our courtship!! ;) Shouldn't he be oohhing?! EEEEeck. But of course to my own horror, OMG!! So why did I think it was 100th posts? I ran to my desk and ..huh..the 'Dashboard' section does show 100! Oh silly me, it counts those entries that has not yet being posted, isnt it?! There are times that I just load the photos and put a title, so I can work on my posts during breaks.

Thus in case any of you DO check on my sidebar, I was not making up about 100 posts in trying to lure and trick you guys in reading a little bit of my story!! :D

Anywaayyy, this was going to be my submission for Think Spice Think Fenugreek food event at Kittie's blog, I knew instantly that I'd love to participate. Just to quickly note though, I did not get to submit it - I was way behind the deadline and just couldn't type the entry soon enough.

At the time, I was thinking of making Oondhiyu, very hearty vegetables stew with morsels of methi dough. But did not get a chance to hit up Indian grocery store to get all the ingredients. However, methi methia in this dish is perfect as snacks as it is part of Oondhiyu. Seriously, it's like a thick crisps/chips bursting with exotic flavors. Serve with masala chai or just plain hot jasmine tea, yumm..for afternoon snack outside the balcony in this rainy weather.

For Oondhiyu, the making of methi methia is super easy, just mixing of fenugreek leaves with besan/ chickpeas flour and several other spices. As snacks, I have always added some extra this and that to jazz it up, whatever looks good at the time in my pantry. Still fairy easy thing to do.

What:
- 1 cup of gram flour/besan flour
- 2 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 jalapenos, coarsely chopped
- 3-4 red chillies, coarsely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 1" ginger, grated
- pinch of turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- few tbsp of water

How:
- Mix everything thoroughly with fork (except oil and water).
- Add in oil. Mix. Add water by tablespoon, just until it forms into soft dough.
- Knead for couple minutes. Shape into thin rounds or logs. Dust hand with some flour (any kind of flour is fine) while shaping if dough is a little bit sticky.
- Arrange on baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400°F oven for about 20 minutes until it's golden brown.

Mixing it with some chopped up cilantro and ajwain seeds give this snacks another dimension of flavor. Or even some coarsely chopped almonds. But I thought since the fenugreek should be the main spice, I try not to mix too many other strong flavor herbs/spices to it.

Like mentioned, I did not get to send this entry for the event. One, procrastinating in making this until last minute. Two, with my cold last week, there were only couple entries I managed to post. Next time. In mean while, chomp chomp chomp.

Savory Asian Rolls

Having a work-session at our place this weekend. Depressing enough that we needed to work on weekend, on top of that, the weather was not the best - gloomy, humid, semi-raining, semi-sunshine! So everybody decided to bring some snacks to keep going and motivated (to keep eating). I decided to make some rolls - bread rolls and spring rolls!

I have been thinking a lot about baking rolls/bread, especially after religiously checking out Elra's blog! Something about bread baking has always been somewhat intimidating. Which is rather silly due to the fact that I grew up watching a lot of dough kneading and some involved slapping dough to air and counter top - still not quite sure whether it was some anger management session taking place or that type of high level slapping was truly needed?!! Ooh, we don't do any fancy breads, just simple basic savory/sweet filled buns and rolls - I loveee coconut buns!!! And occasionally, some Chinese steamed buns. In short, I should feel okay with the bread ordeal, yeah? But I am just not.

However, enough whining, so I leafed through family's recipe and realized that there is another reason why I feel reluctant!! High protein vs low protein flour?!! Most of these recipes combine both. And I suddenly remember that in Indonesia - they kinda use the brand name to identify it, isn't it? Or that's just my silly judgment? Cakra as high protein (typically used for bread making) and Segitiga as......low protein? Or is it just all purpose flour? It's for everything kind of flour, yes? Can I just use bread flour then? King Arthur? One day I will figure this out and my oven will be spitting out toasty delicious rolls and buns like no tomorrow! :)

Then I came across another stash of recipes that I kept from random sources and this one sounds good. The picture in magazine looks like what I have in my head, savory filled buns. Big plus it only calls for all purpose flour. Bigger plus, it does not seem too demanding - effort and time.

Savory Asian Rolls
adapted from Korean Spiced Beef and Cabbage Rolls, Cooking Light, January 2008.

Filling:
- 1/2 cup chopped green onions
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 tsp fresh ginger
- 1/4 tsp minced garlic
- 1/8 tsp ground red pepper
- 1/2 lbs ground chicken

Dough:
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tbsp baking pwder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/3 cups water
- 1/4 cup honey
- 2 tbsp canola oil

Eggwash:
- 1 tbsp water
- 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

How:
- Heat a little oil in pan. Toss all filling ingredients together. Cook until chicken is done. Remove from heat and cool completely.
- Combine dry mixture in one bowl: flour, baking powder, and salt, stir with a whisk. Combine 1 1/3 cup water, honey and canola oil, whisk. Add water mixture to flour mixture, stir until a soft dough forms.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic about 5 minutes. Cover and let stand for another 5 minutes. (This is where I jumped into making this recipe, 10 minutes in a making just sounds extremely doable, isnt it?!)
- The recipe calls for rolling the dough into a 16 x 12 rectangle, 1/4" thick, on lightly floured surface. Cut dough to 12 squares. But with limited counter space, I just eyeball and portion out 15 dough-balls. Rolling each ball to a 1/4" disk.
- Cover dough with damp cloth. Work with 1 square/disk at the time, spoon about 1/4 cup filling into the center of dough. Moisten edges with water and bring corners to center. Pinch to seal.
- Place rolls, seam side down on baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Mix lightly beaten egg with water. Brush top of dough. The recipe suggests sprinkling sesame seeds on top of dough. But..I don't have any, so plain top it is.
- Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until rolls are lightly browned.

Well, the outcome is not too bad. Not exactly great either. The dough part is somewhat bland and has crusty/crispy top as opposed to pillow soft like. Not quite what I wished it would turn out to. But maybe if I want these rolls to be the type that I want them to, I should have used the recipe that is meant for it, right?! :) To say the least, for such little time it took to make these mini rolls, I feel quite happy with the result. Plus, there was no leftover, so I really can't complain much.

Now that I am blogging this, it just occurred to me that I did not take any photos of the fillings!!! It was the best part of these small buns. Geez!

Banana Chocolate Chips Cookies

Working from home today and just had to sneak into the kitchen halfway through work. Not gonna cook, because we are to meet couple friends for dinner. That leaves baking. Have a very scary looking banana on our fruit bowls. Banana bread? But I'll need more than 1 banana.

There is cooking science and baking science, yes? Let's just say if both are school subjects, I'd fail miserably in baking science. Give me any cooking ingredients and I will figure my way out - it won't be Iron Chef quality, but it'll be decent. Baking ingredients though, I just have no clue of where to start. Just can't comprehend the right ratio of things. Too many unknown entities for me. Low protein, high protein flour. Hard and soft wheat. When to use both baking powder and soda. Which make it so challenging and...can be fun.

That said, I don't know what I can do with beyond over ripe single banana. On top of that, a package of instant oatmeal that just happen to sit in our cereal bars container!! Also have little bit of brown sugar. Google can't even handle such odd search. :D Went through some of my cookies recipe archive. Diligently paying close attention to ratio of flour:sugar:butter:the adds on.

Therefore, the quest begins. Whoa..I saw a small ziploc bag of wheat flour. I bought some a while ago from those bulk stores - was going to use it for something, can't remember what but must be something healthy - whole wheat flour. Butter. Salted or unsalted? Unsalted should be better, maybe? Yet it costs me more per stick than salted, and without knowing how it'll turn out, I think I should save the unsalted ones for better use.

What:
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- a little bit less than 1/2 cup brown sugar (I only have that much, maybe about 3/8 cup)
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 packet instant oatmeal (from Quaker, and happen to be cinnamon flavored one)
- 1 banana, mashed
- a dash of vanilla essence
- 1/4 cup chocolate chips
How:
- Beat sugar and butter until creamy. Add eggs and essence. Beat until mix thoroughly.
- With spatula, mix in mashed bananas.
- Mix together flour, baking soda, instant oatmeal and salt. Pour into sugar mixture. Mix with spatula.
- Fold in chocolate chips. Mix until just combined.
- Drop a full tablespoon of dough to baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes in 350 oven, until bottom is golden brown.


Hmm..the verdict...it was not bad!!! At first, I was about to toss it out when I see the bottom starts getting all nice and golden but with very spongy soft almost mushy top. Chewy cookies are fine, but soft mushy? No. Then I thought about how some cookies should be left to cool and will harden up on its own. Maybe this is one of those. One thing for sure though, our place was filled with such lovely smell. Took it out from oven and leave it to cool. I could not help but keep touching and poking it. Still soft!! Oh my goodness! Hm..is it thoroughly baked?! I am absolutely not an expert baker, but I am pretty sure it's thoroughly done. Just to be sure, I inserted toothpick and it comes out super clean.

Ten minute later, the top harden up and I carefully break a piece. Still soft/cake- like inside, but look quite okay to eat. :) I took a bite and almost did a cha-cha slide. Nawh. Not to that extreme!! But really, it was pretty yummy. Instead of cookies, I may have to think of it more of miniature banana bread with crusty outer layers. Most importantly, I got to use up the overripe banana and that one packet of cinnamon oatmeal and that small amount of brown sugar leftover.

Oh, this will be perfect cookies for young children, no? Not too hard in texture, loaded with good stuff - oatmeal, banana and whole wheat flour!!

Cheddar Chives Scones

There is this one TV commercial about iced cappuccino. Two people happen to bump into each other, one of them has a cappuccino on his hand and the other person was just so mesmerized by it. Something along that line happened to me earlier today. As I got out from a building, an older lady almost bumped into me, some 'sorry/pardon/excuse me' being exchanged but all I care at that time was this huge scone in her hand. Hmm!! I am not sure whether the familiar baked goods smell from the bakery nearby or the visual image of the scone that just made me think of scones all the way coming home!!

I knew I'd making a small batch of it as soon as I got home. First I was thinking about sweet kind of scones. A quick look to the pantry - hm..nothing exciting for sweet scones in there. I ended up doing what I usually do, looking at the back of fridge, the drawers, whether any small bits I can use. Few strands of chives. Some cheddar. Very basic cheddar and chives scones then!

I prefer my scones almost biscuit like. Hard crust outside but still has some flakiness inside. From all things I bake, scones rank pretty high up in easy and fast category. It's really quick and effortless. Perfect for quick breakfast. Or, in our case today, afternoon snack. I have always loved herbs flavored scones, it works beautifully with cheeses. Even plain herb scones works wonder with a smear of butter on it.

What:
- 1 cup of flour
- 1/2 tbsp baking powder
- 5 tbsp of unsalted butter, cold, cubed
- 1/2 cup shredded old cheddar
- 1 tsp chives, finely chopped
- 1/3 tsp minced garlic (optional)
- 1/3 cup light cream
- pinch of salt and pepper

How:
- Mix flour, baking powder, salt and pepper in a bowl. Add butter and using pastry blender to make a coarse butter-flour crumbs. Using fingers to rub butter into flour just work as good.
- Add cheese, chives, and garlic to mixture. Toss gently just until combine.
- Pour cream on top and stir slowly to make a loose dough.
- Dump dough onto floured surface and gently knead for a minute just until it does not crumble. Gather into a ball. Pat to 1" thick disc. Cut to wedges or cut to rounds using cookie cutters. I just cut mine to 4 big wedges. Easy work. :D
- Bake in preheated 400°F oven for about 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Eat it as is, warm from oven. Or with some spread. Or for sandwich. Or with soup! The options are endless. What I like about this type of scones (hard crust outside and still has some flakiness inside) is that it keeps better than the harder version.

Mini Cheese Puff

After some thoughts, I think I should rephrase myself when I say 'I don't bake as much as I cook.' Because I sort of bake quite often. I just don't enjoy baking the way I enjoy cooking. There. That sounds just about right.

That said, I have enough baking molds/cups/tins to open a tiny bakery. When I travel, I usually would bring back about 1/2 a suitcase of baking stuff. Yeah. If any suitcase rattles going through conveyor belt, most likely that's mine. Not in excessive manner though. Not yet, at least. I am pretty realistic person. Kitchen with only very few cabinets, there is only so much I can store. I got them not necessarily because I know how to use all of them, but I LOVE LOVE their quirky design. Okay so, yeah I do sometimes buy them, believing that I will eventually use them one day. But mostly because I know they'll be great for something else too. For example, steam cake mold thing I got, I use it as candle holders on our balcony. So on.

Out my sets of pie molds/cups. Oval, round, and something resembling a boat. I wanted to use the mini ones but ya know how it is so often that anything mini requires too much of work and take only a second to eat! So, it has to be something quick and simple.

I thought about this one cheese puff recipe I read not long ago in Cooking Light, using mini muffin cup. Have couple different cheeses in fridge that I need to use. Perfect! Quickly checked out the recipe, only to find out that I don't even have half of the ingredients. But..once I put my mind to it, I will prevail! So, here goes pulling things out from fridge.

What:
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/4 cup old cheddar, finely grated
- 1/4 cup mozarella, finely grated
- 1/4 cup asiago, finely grated
- 4 tbsp parmesan, finely grated
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 tsp sweet paprika
- 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
- pinch of baking powder
- 1 tsp flour for dusting the tin

How:
- Whip everything with a whisk.
- Grease molds/cups, dust tin with flour.
- Fill cups all the way to the rim. It will rise and deflated.
- Bake in preheated 350 oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
- It yields just about 18 minis. Gone in oh..20 minutes. No, we did not eat them all!! :D It was four of us.Considering the time it takes to make this - about 8 minutes (from taking things out from fridge to grating cheese, whisking it), it turns out to be seriously good!! Not too cheesy (though I will not complain if it is), a little crisp outside with soft pillowy melt to your mouth inside.

Kastangel/ Kue Keju/ Cheese Cookies

I made these two weekend ago for a friend, gave her most of whatever comes out from it, and keep a small jar for us. My hope was to redo the 'photo session' - I have this pretty image in my head of how it should look like, see? But who am I kidding?!! It's all gone by the third day.

I don't make these sort of cookies much. See that little suckers?!! Take forever! Besides, I had enough share of making/helping to make these growing up. Aunt and mom owned a bakery many years ago. Talking about illegal child labor! In busy seasons, Christmas, Chinese New Year, Idul Fitri/Eid - they were always short of help. And I swear, every person (neighbor included) coming through the kitchen, would be handed a brush for egg wash or metal spatula to transfer cookies to cool.

Batches and batches of these. Most dreadful one was helping to shape pineapple filling for pineapple tarts. It was a complete torture. Sticky and so not rewarding, since it'd be INSIDE the tarts anyway. Still dislike the task, and will only make a batch after serious bribing. Though I secretly enjoyed the end part of it when all tins, boxes being tied up with pretty ribbons. Labeling them (I am a queen of labels - I label every single thing!) and crossing down a list of customers.

Anyhow, the most two common shape of this cookie (at least, that's what we made in those days) is somewhat resembling pinky finger. Cylinder with slightly flat top, topped with finely shredded cheese. Or, rolled dough cut with spikey edges rectangular cookie cutter. But I have seen petal shaped ones, round with criss cross hatch ones. Anything goes. Of course, if there is any cookie press around, it'll be much easier. Used to have one, that is until we moved up here and somehow I packed all the small disks, except the press tube. Won't do me no good, will it?

Commonly used cheese for this recipe is a Kraft 'Cheddar' block wrapped in tin foil, in a blue box. Have not seen it around here - both US and Canada. Not that I have tried extra hard in finding it - I tend to be very lenient when it comes to certain recipes that I feel its ingredient is versatile and can be substitute, if it comes to it. The closest match so far is Edam cheese. Second is old cheddar. Use either just one type, or mix of both.

What:
- 600 gr butter (I like to use at least 300 gr of it as unsalted butter.)
- 250 gr old cheddar/ edam, finely grated (reserve few tablespoon for sprinkle, which I forgot to do)
- 750 gr flour
- 3 egg yolk (2 for dough and 1 for egg wash)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar

How:
- Beat butter until pale in color. Add in flour. Mix until incorporated.
- Fold in cheese, sugar and salt with spatula, mix.
- Add in eggs and mix thoroughly with spatula.
- Gently gather dough, pack with hands to form a ball.
- Take a handful of dough, roll to very slender log of 1/2" diameter.
- Cut 1 1/2" length of dough with knife.
- Cover the rest of dough with damp towel to prevent drying.
- If using cookie cutter, just roll dough out with rollingpin and cut with cookie cutter.
- Brush with eggwash and sprinkle some grated cheese on top.
- Bake in 350 preheated oven until golden yellow about 20 min. Rotate pan halfway baking.

In general, this is a ultra easy cookie to make. Just a little bit pain if there is no cookie press or some cutter. The only complaint I usually hear is how they can get very brittle crumbly or very dry. The only idea I can come up is that once it has some tint of beautiful golden yellow, take it out from oven. Because these cookies bake very quickly and any extra minute of overbaking will dry it out. Unless of course, some people may enjoy it crispy and brittle. :)

Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake with Blueberry Butter

I have 3 pint of blueberries that I was hoping to make into smoothies and a batch of muffin. So as I grabbed yogurt out from fridge, I saw sour cream tub next to it. Did not even remember I have it, so I checked to make sure it's indeed sour cream inside. I re-use these tubs for random things. Lo behold, almost 1 cup of sour cream in it, with expiration date of Sept 3rd! Gotta use it!!

The only thing that come to my mind is this Ol' Pound Cake Recipe. Just a plain pound cake with sour cream, but thought it'd be mighty good with blueberries and lemon zest! However, it's not going to need 3 pints of blueberries, so..thinking thinking thinking..and fruit butter sounds just right, huh? Blueberries butter/ jelly/ preserve - I still can't exactly figure out the difference. Jelly is smoother and jell like, made with pectin? Preserve is more chunkier? Butter is basically a whipped jelly/ preserve? I should know, because the family I lived with in high school LOVED to make all sort of preserve and jelly. However, I was quickly defeated and no longer paid any attention came the tedious work of canning.

Anyway..blueberry butter slather on top of slice of pound cake - that sounds good, doesnt it?!

Blueberry butter:
- 2 pint of blueberries
- 3 tbsp of sugar (more if you like it sweeter, but neither of us have sweet tooth)
- 2 cloves
- 1 lemon peel
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 cup of water

How:
- Dump everything in a pot. Let it simmer until it thicken up - about 1 hour. Stir occasionally.
- I use hand-blender and blend/ whip it until all smooth and nice.

The only similar thing to this that I ever made was pineapple filling for cookies. Therefore, I was not sure whether it'd turn out as expected. But, to my own amazement, it's super easy and yummmmeyy!! I have always liked tart jam so I ate about two spoonful just like that, with the excuse of 'trying to see if it tastes right.' It only yields about 1 cup, that said, it'll be gone in couple days.

Blueberry Lemon Pound Cake:
- 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
- 1/2 tbsp of baking soda
- 1 1/4 cup of sugar
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 3 eggs
- zest from 1 lemon
- juice from 1 lemon
- 1/2 cup blueberries

How:
- Sift flour and baking soda together and put aside.
- Beat sugar and butter until they mix thoroughly. Add in sour cream, beat until creamy.
- Add flour mixture in stages. Taking turn with eggs. Flour - egg - flour - egg - flour - egg. Beat until all are incorporated.
- Fold in zest and juice of lemon and blueberries.
- Pour into a 4x8 loaf pan and bake in preheated 325° oven for about 1 hour and 20 minutes. Insert toothpick in the center to check on done-ness.

Is not overly sweet, moist with nice crust on top and just perfect with the butter! Sort of wish I put an effort in taking down bigger loaf pan instead of using a medium size pan I happen to store 'within reach.' Kitchen this size, some rarely use stuff just have to be stored somewhere - in this case, the corner top shelf of wall cabinet. The batter overflowed a little over the rim. But oh well...Vik wolfed down two thick slices with huge dollop of butter. Came my running partner, took 2 slices home. Packed few slices for Vik's cousin along with some butter. The overflow part is nowhere to be seen anymore!