Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies

Looking back at 2008, even though there was a slight slack towards the end of the year, I was glad that I did quite a few good bakes and new attempts. I found my 6 Favourite Foods that I have done last year.

1. I made my favourite Cashew Nuts Cookies and will definitely bake it again this year. I have already bought the cashew nuts and ready to go! :)

2. I was caught up in the bread making frenzy and bought a new breadmachine. I remembered the clumsy moments when shaping the Plaited Loaf. It came up to be my prettiest bread among all.

3. I bought my first tart pan and made the delicious Apple Crumble Pie, but have never used the pan again after that!

4. I made a disastrous attempt at the Easy Peach Cheesecake without a proper tin with a removable base. I have already bought one loose-base tin. :)

5. I made my first homemade ice creams and this was good!

6. I found the Devil's Food Cake recipe and made them into Devil's Cupcakes. Best of the Bests!

Here's my first bake in 2009.



Marbled Cream Cheese Brownies
(Recipe was copied down and I forgot to take down the title of the book)

Ingredients (8 inch square tin, makes 16 squares)
Brownie layer:
125g lightly salted butter
45g cocoa powder
2 eggs
250g caster sugar (I reduce to 160g, still quite sweet)
60g self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream cheese layer:
180g cream cheese
90g caster sugar (I reduce to 70g)
1 egg
30g self-raising flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method
1. Gently melt the butter in a small, heavy-based saucepan, then stir in the cocoa until blended and set aside.
2. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy. Gradually add the sugar and stir in the chocolate mixture. Sift the flour and fold into the mixture. Add in the vanilla extract.
3. Whisk together the cream cheese, sugar and egg. Sift self-raising flour over this mixture and fold in. Add in the vanilla extract.
4. Pour 3/4 of the brownie mixture into the base-lined tin and spread the cream cheese mixture over it. Drop spoonfuls of the remaining brownie mixture on top, making swirls in it with a skewer for a marbled effect. Bake at 180C for 35-40 minutes, or until the top is springy to the touch.
5. Cool the baked cake in the tin. Turn it out and cut into squares.

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Looking for pineapple tarts recipe 2

It's 2009! Hope it will be a great year for everyone and a better year for Singapore!

Continued from my post Looking for pineapple tarts recipe, I did a little research by searching for various blogs that posted recipes of the Pineapple Tarts. Never too early to start baking for CNY. It's only less than a month away and many people have already started baking cookies and testing for their perfect recipes. I'm only focusing on Pineapple Tarts (open type). There are just too many recipes around and I don't want to be too carried away. Hope you will find this useful! ;)

Here are a few selected ones that interests me.

Florence's Pineapple Tarts - she baked the tart shell and top up the filling later to prevent the jam from becoming too hard and dry. I might want to try this.

Delicious Asian Food Pineapple Tart Pastry - from mother-in-law’s recipe and have a nice buttery smell pastry which melts in the mouth. I might want to try this.

Aunty Yochana's Lattice Pineapple Tarts - she prefers this recipe than the other one.
Aunty Yochana's Pineapple Tart Milk Cookies - pastry doesn't use any eggs at all.

Fresh from the Oven Pineapple Rolls/Tarts - two types of pineapple fillings here. One is by grating the pineapple from scratch, the other uses canned crushed pineapple.

Little Corner of Mine Pineapple Tarts - uses cornflour/cornstarch to make the pastry melt-in-the-mouth.

Lily's Pineapple Tarts - used canned pineapples

My Kitchen Snippets Pineapple Tarts
Jthorge's Kitchen Pineapple tarts
Peng's Kitchen Pineapple Tarts
Thelazychef Pineapple Tarts
Wokkingmum's Pineapple Tarts
My Baking & Cooking Passion Pineapple Tarts

And more recipes from Kitchen Capers.

If you need videos, check Oi Lin's blog who authors 3 cookbooks. She has many great tips for making the pineapple tarts.

For suggestions from my readers, check out the comments in my previous post:
Looking for pineapple tarts recipe

Other tips:
1. Store-bought pineapple jam - Sun Lik in Seah St or Bake King brand (Phoon Huat not recommended)

2. Use SCS, Lurpak unsalted butter or canned Golden Churn, if you can afford it.

3. Open tarts pastry will not melt in the mouth so much as those wrapped pineapple tarts. Rub-in method helps to achieve the melt in the mouth effect.

4. Place the tray in the middle rack.

If you have tried any of the above recipes, feel free to leave a comment here to let us know the results. :)

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas!

This is the delicious Mango Log Cake that I have for this year's Christmas. Ordered from Polar Puffs & Cakes. Didn't take a photo of it so I borrowed this picture from their website.

Photo from Polar Puffs & Cakes

Wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Meat Patties with Tomato and Chilli Sauce

Meat Patties with Tomato and Chilli Sauce

Trying to replicate one of the dishes my mum cooked. This is my second try with a slight improvement. Not bad.

My method of making: Mix minced meat with 1 egg -> marinate with salt and pepper -> drop tablespoons of the mixture in a non-stick pan -> pan-fry both sides till golden brown -> mix tomato sauce, chilli sauce with a little water -> add to the cooked patties and mix till the patties are well-coated with the sauce. DONE!

Monday, December 08, 2008

Steamed Chicken with Red Dates

Steamed Chicken with Red Dates

Another favourite of mine. Steamed chicken. Quick and easy. Recipe from Food For Tots. Very sweet with the red dates but I run out of wolfberries!

Friday, December 05, 2008

Ang Koo Kueh

I have some green bean filling left after making the Tau Sar Piah. Don't know what to do with it and it will be a waste to throw them away. My mother suggests making Ang Koo Kueh with it. She told me she has the Ang Koo Kueh mould at home. Wah... didn't know that. I don't even remember her making Ang Koo Kuehs before!

Amanda has made Ang Koo Kueh using her mooncake moulds. What a brilliant idea! You can take a look at her pretty Ang Koo Kuehs here. I used the same recipe as her taken from Florence’s blog.


My not-so-pretty Ang Koo Kuehs. I didn't add any red colouring so it's the natural colouring of the orange sweet potatoes. Haha! Finally have the chance to use the mould after keeping it for so many years! Actually, we have also found the Png Kueh mould too! :)

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Looking for pineapple tarts recipe

I'm looking for a good pineapple tarts recipe. It must be tested and proven to be really really good. Can be your own recipe if you are willing to share it in my blog. Or let me know the link if it comes from a website or a blog. :)

I'm also looking for a good pineapple paste cos I don't think I want to make the paste myself. ;P Anyone knows where or which shop sells the best pineapple paste?

Hehe... thanks!