Milo Chocolate Chip Muffins

At times, when you don't feel like baking anything complicated or trying something new or attempting a recipe that you have already failed several times, making muffins is the best choice.

I try out the Milo Chocolate Chip Muffin by Cooking Crave. I can't help adding this to my to-do list cos they look so yummy from the photos. She has modified HHB's recipe by reducing the sugar and chocolate chips.


It is only after trying out these delicious muffins then I realize the taste seems to be a bit familiar. No wonder! I had baked these muffins before, back in 2007 when I had just started baking (see picture below). It was my first batch of muffins! How forgetful I am, falling for the same recipe twice, unintentionally. Proves that this recipe is too good to be missed! And you notice how different the two batches of muffins looks, even though they were done by the same person. It looks like the muffins have just gone through a "makeover"! ^_^

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me,
Happy Birthday to Me,
Happy Birthday to Me...
Happy Birthday to Me!


Here's my birthday cake from Crystal Jade Bakery. It's a Mango Cake, one of my favourite!

Polo Buns

My earlier experiments with breadmaking last year wasn't really successful. I had problems of sticky dough which led to frustrations. (I have this "weird" dislike of sticky and greasy hands!) That stopped me from making breads for quite a while. Due to an urgent need to clear the packet of expiring-soon bread flour, I'm back to breadmaking again.


The sticky problem is gone! It's either that the recipes are good or the cold method works (or both!), which makes these Polo Buns and Creamy Braided Bread extremely easy to handle.

What is Cold Method? (when using the breadmachine)
Cold Method simply means use cold ingredients. Instead of putting everything into the breadmachine at room temperature, take the extra effort. Measure the water, milk, eggs, butter, cream or any other liquid ingredients, then put them in the fridge for at least 15 minutes. Then put the cold liquid ingredients, followed by the dry ingredients, and lastly the yeast into the breadmachine and start using the DOUGH function. Leave the lid OPEN (a tip from Happy Homebaker). Let it knead for about 10 minutes, then add the cold butter. Restart the machine and knead the dough for another 20 minutes. Then I got the nice, smooth, non-sticky and stretchable dough ready for proofing.


Here's the Polo Buns that I made, another good recipe from Grace Kitchen Corner. The extremely soft interior and buttery pastry on top makes it so good to eat. There's a link in her post that teaches how to push the dough into the pastry easily, which really helps. Try this!

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

This Cookies & Cream Ice Cream has been tempting me for too long! I keep reminding everyone in the house not to touch that packet of oreo cookies cos I'm going to use it to make something delicous. Haha!


This ice cream is absolutely delicious! Instead of using milk, dairy cream is added to make it more rich and creamy. We finish it within 3 days! This recipe is taken from an ice-cream making book in Chinese called 冷冻甜品. Do take a look at the bookstore. I have tried the Toblerone Ice Cream which tastes great too! For this Cookies & Cream Ice Cream recipe, you can find it here.

* If you find the cream taste is too heavy (my mum finds its 奶油味太重), I suggest using half cream and half milk, or replacing all the cream with milk. The book suggests substituting every 150g dairy whipping cream with 100g fresh milk.

Creamy Braided Bread

Gosh! When was the last time I baked a bread? It was so long ago that I felt a bit guilty of under-using my bread machine. That's the first reason. Second reason, the pack of bread flour is expiring soon. Third and most important, I'm so addicted to Grace Kitchen Corner's blog these days. I admit that I have been reading this blog for quite long but got addicted to it only recently, hehe! I'm so impressed by her breads and chiffon cakes especially as they look professionally good! Have been reading through her previous posts and found more reasons to bake some fresh breads. ;)


So here's the Creamy Braided Bread. This bread dough is extremely easy to handle. No sticking to my hands at all and very easy to plait them. But I'm not sure if it's the high fat content in the whipping cream or due to the hot weather that cause the dough to be a bit greasy. It was like "sweating with oil" during proofing!

But I hope it does not stop you from baking this. It's really soft and buttery and taste wonderful. The crumble topping is excellent, except a little sweet for me. I also have extra crumble topping left as I'm only able to use up half to cover up the bread. I will reduce the crumble topping ingredients if I try it next time.