Take 2!

There are many times when I have tried out a recipe and failed (yes! it's true!) or it doesn't turn out quite as expected. There are always room for improvements and so this blog entry is dedicated to my second attempts and 2 particular recipes: the cantonese egg tart and banana bread. If you recall from my previous blog about egg tarts, I didn't have the proper egg tart tins so they didn't turn out so well. The pastry was quite thick and the tarts didn't look very presentable.. BUT thanks to K who bought the egg tart tins for me from Hong Kong~~ we were able to bake them again =)

You can find the recipe for cantonese egg tarts here.

Baking in the oven~~

Ta da~~ done ^_^ they could have been a bit more brown...

but they tasted delicious :D

My first attempt at banana bread did go quite well but it didn't look that great. So when I tried again I decided to decorate the top with sliced bananas and a few oats! Much better :) You can find the recipe for banana bread here.

Cooling in the tin~~

Mmm.. I can smell the banana ~~

sliced up! you can see the chunks of banana goodness ^^

So when you think u have failed.. just try again :) I mean.. that's what baking is about yeh? Experimenting.. trying out new recipes... and improving them!

Baking with weetbix ~

I think I have been in a loaf/bread phase because apart from macarons, that's what I have been baking ^_^ They are very simple to make because there is no "creaming" method involved. Just throw all ingredients in a bowl.. mix mix mix.. pop it into the oven and hope it turns out alright =p

Looks so healthy right?

I guess you are thinking HUH!? You can bake with Weetbix!?? well apparently you can ^^" I found this recipe on the side of a weetbix box. Actually it was a Coles brand whole wheat biscuit cereal. My mum who usually eats Weetbix for breakfast said that the Coles brand tasted different so I thought.. hm.. maybe if no one is going to eat it I can use it to BAKE ^__^

So here is the recipe! The original recipe was for banana and date loaf but i didn't have any dates so substituted with cranberries =) I think any dried fruit would be good :)

Banana and cranberry loaf

Ingredients
5 whole wheat biscuits, crushed
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
3/4 cup dried cranberries
2 ripe bananas, mashed + 1/2 banana sliced for decoration
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup milk
1 large egg lightly beaten

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line loaf tin.
2. Combine wheat biscuits, flour, sugar, cranberries, banana and cinnamon in large bowl. Mix in milk and egg until well combined.
3. Spoon into lined loaf tin and decorate sliced banana on top. Sprinkle a few crushed wheat biscuits on top and bake for 45-50 minutes or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Decorated with bananas ^^

sliced up and ready to eat =D

Surprisingly a tasty loaf and healthy too! You wouldn't even realise there were weetbix in there! (my colleagues couldn't either ^^)

Pop Pop Pop!

Poppy seeds are a great baking ingredient! Whether they are in cakes or muffins or sprinkled on top of bread buns, they give a great texture of crunch and POP! =D One of the items on my "invisible-in-my-head" to bake list was an orange and poppy seed cake. I had been looking up a few recipes but none that I really liked (most of them used heaps of butter). Then one day a friend of mine posted a pic of some orange and poppy seed muffins she had baked! they looked perfect and she told me they didn't use butter but oil! the recipe looked quite simple so I decided to give it a go =D

Orange and poppy seed muffins
Recipe adapted from Cooking for One

Finished product =D

Ingredients
2 cups plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup oil (I used canola oil but I'm sure vegetable or any other oil is fine)
1 cup milk
1 whole orange
1 tbs poppy seeds
1.  Preheat oven to 200oC. Lightly grease 12 hole muffin tin.
2. Place orange in pot of boiling water and boil for 15 minutes. Take orange out of water and place in another pot of boiling water for another 15 minutes. Take out orange and allow to cool down.
3. Place flour in a bowl. Stir in baking powder, poppy seeds and sugar.
4. Whisk oil, egg and milk gently in separate jug. 
5. Chop cooked orange into small pieces and use stick blender to blend orange. If you don't own a stick blender you can manually chop orange into smaller pieces (I was lazy so I did this =p)
6.Stir oil and milk mixture into dry mixture and add chopped orange. Do not overbeat or muffins will be tough.
7. Pour muffin mix into muffin pan. Bake for ~25 minutes or until skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Mmmm tastes best straight out of the oven ^_^

You can serve with cream cheese icing but they do taste quite nice just the way they are. If you don't have that big a sweet tooth, these muffins are just for you! not too sweet but lovely crunch of poppy seeds and orange flavour =)

cooling in muffin tin~

I am still looking for a good orange and poppy seed cake recipe so if you know any that you would like me to try out, just leave a comment ^__^ I'm happy to take any requests!!

The wonderful world of MACARONS!!

I'm not sure how my love of macarons started... I remember eating my first macaron in Sydney at Lindt cafe a couple of years ago. They were called "delices" so I didn't know I was eating a macaron but I loved the texture.. how they were crispy on the outside but chewy and soft on the inside. Then masterchef came about and the whole macaron craze started because of the Macaron tower created by Adriano Zumbo!! I had friends over for dinner one night and that's when we decided we would try to bake the infamous MACARONS! I remember following the recipe to the TEE! sifting the almond meal and icing sugar 10 times to make sure there were no lumps .. xD they semi-worked.. I think we undercooked them because they were a bit hard to take off the baking paper. After that.. I didn't try them again until I found a recipe in a macaron book and again with friends (you need the support you see :P) we tried to make chocolate macarons.. and THEY WORKED! we were so happy! That's when the idea of a macaron business started... and who knew it would end up where it is now? (ok so it's not a big business as such.. but i do sell to friends ^^)

pyramid of macarons ^^

anyways after much experimenting and optimising with oven temperatures, egg white textures, flavours.. I thought I had the perfect macaron recipe. Until I met a friend at work who also baked macarons! Hers were so lovely and perfect!! so of course I asked her for the recipe ^_^ and she kindly gave it to me... they were FAIL PROOF (well nearly...) and I've stuck with the same recipe since! The thing I love is that these are "lazy baker's" macarons ^^ and the recipe is really easy to remember!

When I saw that this month's Aspiring Baker's challenge was for Macarons I was so HAPPY =D and good timing too because I had to complete a BIG ORDER of 120 macarons last week~ for a friend's luncheon event at uni.. pretty exciting :D I made 5 batches: chocolate, mocha, green tea, vanilla and strawberry. So now I will share with you all the "not-so-secret" macaron recipe! special thanks to Steph for sharing it wiith me :) :)

So here is my entry for Aspiring Bakers #17: March Macaron Madness 2012 hosted by Alan of Travellingfoodies.

Macarons for ASA luncheon event

Macaron Recipe (makes ~ 50 macaron shells)

Ingredients
125g almond meal
125g pure icing sugar
125g caster sugar
3 egg whites
Flavouring of choice

1. Sift almond meal and icing sugar into a large bowl.
2. Add half the caster sugar to the egg whites and beat with electric beater till thick and white (~3-5 min).
3. Gradually add the rest of the sugar while beating. The mixture should be glossy and thick but not stiff peaks. When you lift the whisk it should leave a ribbon trail.

*EGG WHITE TEXTURE is IMPORTANT* 

• If egg whites are too thick - macarons are grainy and not smooth
• If egg whites are too thin - macarons are flat and do not rise much

4. Fold in the almond meal/icing sugar mixture into the egg whites using a spatula. 5. Add any flavourings you like.. e.g. cocoa powder... green tea powder.
5. Pipe or spoon 4cm circles of mixture onto lined baking trays. Leave to rest for 30min-1 hour (you should be able to touch the macaron shells and they shouldn't be sticky).
6. Pre-heat oven to 170oC for 5 min then turn down to 140-150oC. Bake one tray at a time on the middle shelf for 12-14min.
7. watch the macarons RISE!!!! take out of oven and allow to cool before trying to lift them off the tray.

so HAPPY to see them RISE =D

8. make filling: dark chocolate ganache - place 100g of dark chocolate and 80g of thickened cream into a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Melt and allow to cool in fridge before use. (white chocolate ganache: 100g white chocolate + 50g cream)
9. Sandwich 2 macaron shells with filling and serve. (Macarons actually taste better the next day so you may have to be patient and wait to taste these lovely morsels =p)

piping the chocolate ganache~

Once I got the hang of making macarons, I decided to get a little more creative and made different shaped ones ^^ So far I have Hello kittyrons, Pandarons and Fishyrons~

*meow* hello kittyrons ^^

Pandaron!!.. <3-shaped nose =p

brown bearon :)

pandarons!!!

hellokittyron and pandaron version 2

Happy macaron baking =) I would love to hear more suggestions on what other shapes or flavours I can make :)

Phan not "Pham" rice paper rolls =p

Ok before I start, just a warning to readers from Vietnam, these are not true vietnamese rice paper rolls so please don't get offended ><" hehe.. these are our version of rice paper rolls and therefore not authentic!

Back when I was in uni, many people would comment or ask if I was Vietnamese! I'm not sure if it was because of my last name... or apparently my eyes? o.0 but no, I'm Malaysian.. but I do love Vietnamese food ^_^ So the other day when my dad asked what to have for dinner on such a hot day.. I suggested Rice paper rolls =D We hadn't made them in a while and it's a nice cold, simple dish and fun to make!


If you were having a lunch or dinner party, these would be a great idea because everyone can get involved :)


So although there is no baking involved.. and it's not sweet~ I still wanted to blog about it ^^ We cheated a little and bought already roasted BBQ chicken but you can basically add what you want! For example prawn, roast pork, roast duck... the list goes on~~~


The rolling up step proved the most difficult! Here's how I did it~

How to roll up a rice paper roll
1. Dip the rice paper into a large bowl of warm-hot water and after 10 seconds quickly remove and place on plate.

ingredients ready to go~~~

2. Place ingredients into the bottom centre of the rice paper.

3. Roll up the bottom (Closest side to you)

4. Roll up the sides.. left and right

5. Finally, starting from the bottom, roll up the rice paper making sure to get all the filling IN the rice paper ^^ and TA DA~~ you are done!

Note: It can be quite sticky but I realised if you dip the paper just until it goes soft, it's much easier to work with =)


I think practice makes perfect xD

rice paper rolls with dipping sauce ^^

Mmmm =) dip in!!

Mango PLUS banana EQUALS Delicious cake :)

Mango and banana in a cake may seem like an odd combination.. Actually I think it sounds pretty yummy! There's mango and banana smoothies and I'm sure muffins as well.. so ok! not unusual at ALL =pSo I had some ripe mangoes and bananas at home and looked up recipes combining the two fruit and found one that seemed quite simple but looked yum! So I will share it with you all!

Mango and Banana Bread (adapted from Lite Bite)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 medium mango
1 small banana
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup yoghurt (I used cream)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 190oC and line a square or rectangle loaf tin.
2. Peel mango and banana, dice finely and place in large bowl. Grind fruit into puree and keep aside.
3. In another bowl, add puree, olive oil and sugar and whisk until sugar is dissolved.
4. Sift in flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon and combine using spatula.
5. Pour batter into tin and bake for ~30 minutes or until done.
6. Allow to cool before taking out of tin and slicing.

Have fun with other fruity combinations =D

sliced up and ready to eat =D

close up of inside the bread loaf

Banana bread - from the cafe??

One of my friends at work loves to buy banana bread from a cafe down the road. I agree, it does look quite tasty and so it was one of my goals to try and make some banana bread too!
This is my first attempt.... I may need to try other recipes or try my own ^^" But it did get my friends' approval! *THUMBS UP* Although it did not rise as high and the texture was not as "bready"... it had nice chunks of banana and walnut =) and it's the taste that counts right? ;P

Banana bread
(from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/17901/banana+bread)

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2/3 firmly packed cup dark brown sugar
• 100g chopped walnuts
• 3 large over-ripe bananas
• 2 large eggs, lightly whisked
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g unsalted butter, melted, cooled

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Lightly grease an 11cm x 22cm loaf pan and line base and 2 long sides with a sheet of baking paper, leaving 2cm overhanging.


2. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking powder, soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a bowl with the brown sugar, then add the nuts.


3. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork or potato masher, then stir in the eggs, vanilla extract and cooled melted butter. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until they're just combined - don't overmix. 


4. Scrape cake batter into prepared pan. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool the loaf in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Cut into 8-10 slices

Bread cooling in loaf tin ^^

Slicing up bread~~ can you see the banana and walnut chunks? ^^

Close up of banana bread slice

So if you see it in a cafe.... you can make it too =D Suggestions for less chunky bread would be to process banana until puree and process walnuts till crumb like.