Sweet Buns

16 December 2007

Have been quite long since I started baking and all that I have baked are cakes, muffins and cookies. I feel like baking something new and after seeing sweet tooth's first attempt to bake buns, I decided to try it myself.

I also followed Happy Homebaker's Sweet Buns recipe. I took a really long time to knead but still had not been able to knead until it can be stretched into a thin layer without tearing. Then I gave up and left to to proof. Due to the rainy and cold weather these few days, I left it to proof for nearly 2 hours. I also had problems shaping the buns well and they all turned out looking out of shape. :)


The bread is soft but not very soft and fluffy. Probably because I did not knead well. It turned hard on the next day. I wonder how the bread we buy from the bakery remains soft for a few days.


If you have noticed that I have not been updating my blog, it's because my pc crashed due to virus and removed everything in my pc. Now I have to reinstall everything again. :(

Nutella Muffins

9 December 2007


Nutella has always been my favourite since I was young. It's my favourite spread on my bread for breakfast. So I decided to try this Nutella muffins from Precious moments. The swirls I did are not very obvious. Overall the taste is not too bad. The nutella taste is not very strong though. Perhaps because it is only spread on the top. I prefer something very nutella. :)


This is a lemon chiffon cake that I have tried last week. It's the second time my chiffon cake sink again. I guess it has to do with beating the egg whites. Shall try again next time.

The Little Garden

This is the little garden along our corridor. They are all managed by my mother who is quite a gardening enthusiast. I know nothing much about gardening and can't recognize most of her plants actually. Here are some of the plants we have. Sorry if I don't know the names of some of the plants. :P

Long beans:



Peppermint:

Lady's Finger (no lady's fingers yet):

Pandan leaves:

Sweet potato leaf:

Chillies:

A type of herb. I check with my mother. It's called 红田乌 in Chinese (Hong Tian Wu). It's good for diabetes and high blood pressure. Just boil it with water and drink.

A type of herb called 马尾草, also good for diabetes and high blood pressure.

Pomegranate (石榴):

Aloe vera:


Orchid:

Other flowers:

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. :)