Chocolate Chips Rock Buns

28 November 2007


I made my first rock buns during the Home economics class when I was in lower secondary. I remembered we were taught to make rock buns to demonstrate the rub-in method. We also had to make rock buns as a class test too. However, I hardly remember its taste now and I have thrown away the recipe of course. I have tried to search the recipe in the new home economics books but I can't find it. So I search the internet for a few recipes and modify here and there and this is how I make it.

Recipe for Rock Buns (makes 14)

Ingredients
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
100g butter, softened
100g soft brown sugar (I reduce to 75g)
Handful of chocolate chips (you can add sultanas/raisins instead)
1 small egg
1-2 tbsp milk

Method
1. Sift flour, baking powder and salt together into a mixing bowl. Rub in the butter lightly with the fingers until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and chocolate chips.
2. Whisk the egg and 1 tablespoon milk together. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour the egg/milk mixture in. Stir until the dough comes together into a ball.
3. Line baking tray with greaseproof paper. Scoop a tablespoon of the dough and push it onto the tray with another spoon.
4. Bake at 190C for 15 minutes until the top is light golden brown. Leave to cool.

More tips:
1. Use brown sugar instead of white sugar for a better taste.
2. Use moist dried fruit like sultanas or raisins if you prefer a more fruity rock bun.
3. If the mixture is too dry to make into a ball because the eggs were smaller than needed, moisten the mix with a little more milk.
4. They will dry out if they bake for too long and become very hard. So do not overbake them.


These rock buns are quite hard and crunchy and my house is filled with nice buttery fragrance. And they are easy to make too without a lot of washing up after baking.

Don't know how to classify it so I will place this under cookies since they taste more like cookies to me.

Orange Almond Cupcakes

22 November 2007

This recipe is taken from one of Alex Goh's book. The original recipe fills the mixture into greased cupcake moulds and it looks like that.


And this is how my cake looks like.


Erm... very far from the book right? I don't know why my cupcakes and muffins always rise until like a volcano that is going to explode and the top will always crack. Look at how flat and nice top the original one has.

I tried 2 versions of this recipe. After mixing A and B and adding orange juice and zest, I divided the batter into 2 portions. One half I added the butter as in the recipe, the other half I added vegetable oil. I just want to know if it will affect the taste as I thought it will be healthier to replace butter with vegetable oil. Result is quite obvious lah. The one with the butter definitely taste better, but I think the oil version just lose out by 0.5 points. Both are great!

Recipe for Orange Almond Cupcakes (I make 10 small ones with half the recipe)

Ingredients
(A)
4 eggs
2 eggs yolks
175g sugar
(B)
190g plain flour
50g ground almonds
1½ tsp baking powder
(C)
40g orange juice
1 orange zest, grated
200g butter, melted
(Garnish)
Flaked almonds

Method
1. Whip (A) until sugar dissolves and it turns thick. (Note: overwhipping (A) will cause the cake to collapse).
2. Fold in (B) and mix until well blended.
3. Stir in (C) and mix until well incorporated.
4. Spoon it into cupcake cases and sprinkle some flaked almonds on top.
5. Bake at 190C for 20 minutes. Remove and cool.

Mocha Light Cheesecake

18 November 2007


Bake this Mocha Light Cheesecake on an early Sunday morning. I got this recipe from a Chinese Cheesecake book, can't remember the title. This is quite similar to the Japanese Cheesecake that I had made before. The top of the cake crack quite badly this time. Hm... any idea why? Is it because the temperature is too high or too little water in the water bath? I notice that it is almost dry up when I finish baking. Another story about egg whites. Again! It's easier to beat the egg whites this time after I clean the mixer thoroughly. So it must be because of the grease.


This Mocha Light Cheesecake is for 2 of my best friends. This is the first time they try my bake. I hope it's up to standard. 3 of us finish the whole cake. So I guess should be not too bad lah. :)

Recipe for Mocha Light Cheesecake (7 inch round)
Ingredients
Ingredients A:
70g softened cream cheese
20g softened butter
25g fresh milk

Ingredients B:
2 egg yolks
50g cake flour
1 tsp instant coffee powder
½ tsp coffee paste (I don't have this)

Ingredients C:
3 egg whites
50g caster sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar

Method
1. Double-boil A until melted. Remove from heat, add egg yolks one at a time and mix well. Add in cake flour, instant coffee, coffee paste and mix well.
2. Put C into a clean mixing bowl and beat until white and stiff.
3. Mix 1/3 of egg white mixture with cream cheese mixture until well combined. Add in the remaining egg white mixture and mix well.
4. Wrap bottom of a 7 inch/17.5cm ring pan with greaseproof paper and place onto a baking tray filled with water to prevent cake from drying out.
5. Pour batter onto the pan and bake at 170C for 25 minutes.
6. Remove cake from ring pan immediately and leave to cool on rack.

Cornflakes Muffins

17 November 2007


It was a gloomy afternoon and I decided to bake some cornflakes muffins from Baking Fiend. I specially bought a box of cornflakes to make this and perhaps to try bake to some cornflake cookies in the near future. Another simple recipe that requires just mixing the wet and dry ingredients. Very creative to use cornflakes to make muffins right? :)


And I finally found the other set of star shape cookie cutters at Daiso and quickly grab a set. :)

Orange Chiffon Cake

13 November 2007

I'm so disappointed when I turn the cake out of the tube pan. It is far too bad from the precious 2 chiffon cakes that I had made. I think it's probably due to the egg whites. It took unusually long to beat the egg whites to stiff peak. I did not reach the stiff peak stage eventually and I decided to fold into the egg yolk mixture. And that was how the result came out. I suspect that maybe the bowl was not cleaned properly the last time. I couldn't think of other reasons yet.

Other than the shape of the cake, I still like this cake very much as it's very soft and orangy.


Recipe from "Chiffon Cake is Done" by Kevin Chai

Ingredients (I reduce portion to using 2 eggs for 6 inch tin)
7 egg yolks (I use 2)
50g caster sugar (I use 15g)
1/4 tsp salt (I omit)
4 tbsp cooking oil (I use 20ml)
2 tbsp grated orange rind (I grate 1 orange)
60ml orange juice (I use 20ml)
few drops orange colouring (I omit)
110g self raising flour (I use 35g)

7 egg whites (I use 2)
1/2 tsp cream of tartar (I use 1/4 tsp)
130g caster sugar (I use 40g)

Method
1. Combine egg yolks, salt, sugar and beat until pale in colour. Add cooking oil, grated orange rind, orange juice and colouring and mix well.
2. Fold in flour until batter forms.
3. Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy. Add in sugar gradually in 3 portions until stiff peaks form.
4. Gently fold in egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture, 1/3 at a time.
5. Pour mixture into ungreased 9 inch tube pan and bake at 170C for 30-40 mins.
6. Remove from oven and quickly turn the chiffon cake upside down on a wire rack.
7. Wait for the cake to cool completely before removing it from the tin.

Almond & Green Tea Tuiles

4 November 2007

I don't know how to pronounce this. I think "tuiles" sounds like "twills". Tuile is French for tile. It's a thin and crispy French cookie that got its name because it copies the shape of roofing tiles once used in France.

I got the recipe from Do What I Like. It's almost similar to the almond crisps that I had tried (unsuccessfully) before. The only difference is adding some melted butter for this tuile recipe. I left out the green tea powder initially as I wanted to make 2 different flavours. Then halfway during baking, I added some green tea powder to the remaining batter to make green tea tuiles. After the bad experience from the last time I baked the almond crisps, I use Glad baking paper this time and the cookies really do not stick to the baking paper, even without greasing.


The tuile is done by spreading a thin circle of batter on the baking paper using the back of the spoon. When baking is done, you have to remove it from the tray quickly and place it over a rolling pin and press gently to make the curved shape.

Here are some of the things that happened during baking:
1. It is important to spread the batter very thinly, about the thickness of the almond. Or else the tuiles will not be crispy enough. Make sure to spread evenly too. Some of the first few tuiles that I made, break when I try to curve them on the rolling pin cos I did not spread evenly.

2. Bake 4 tuiles at a time. Cos you need to place them on the rolling pin quickly. They will become too crispy to roll when they cool down.

3. I'm not sure if my oven temperature is too high. I set at 170C but it browned quite fast and I took about 5 minutes only instead of 7-8 minutes.

The tuiles don't stay crispy for very long. It's best eaten immediately after baking. And remind you, it's so nice that you can easily finish everything at one go. I quite like the green tea flavour. Very refreshing taste. Hm... maybe can try adding cocoa powder the next time to make chocolate tuiles. :)