Dark Chocolate Fudge brownies

Half of this recipe is from a two-tone fudge brownies one published in the Australian women's weekly mini cookbook, Biscuits, brownies and biscotti. For this bake, I've only made the dark chocolate part of the brownies and bake them in mini loaf pans. 

These brownies are very fudgy and delicious...and I'm using them to make chocolate brownies ice cream. Stay tune for my next post.

Look how fudgy the brownies is...

Here's the recipe from Australian women's weekly mini cookbook, Biscuits, brownies and biscotti.

Make 6 mini loaves of brownies
125g butter, chopped
200g dark eating chocolate, chopped
330g caster sugar reduce to 300g
3 eggs
3/4 cup (110g) plain flour
1/3 cup (50g) self raising flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease and line 6 x mini loaf pans with baking paper.

Melt butter and chocolate until mixture is smooth. Cool until just warm.

Stir in sugar, egg and combined sifted flours and cocoa until just combined.

Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for 35-40 min. Cool in pan.

Happy Baking.

Honey Almond Slices

"Please bake this again..." This was what I was told immediately when the last piece of these slices went into a happily-munching mouth.

These slices are so easy to make and very delicious. I was surprised that these slices are so yummy because this recipe is a very plain and simple one which is from the back of a packet of flaked almonds.

  

Love the layers of crunchy honey almonds...

Here's the recipe from Freshlife (with my modification in blue)

Base

65g butter, melted
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2/3 cup plain flour
1/2 cup almond meal

Almond topping

80g butter
2 tbsp honey
1 cup flaked almonds

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line a 25cm slice pan (I use 20 cm sq pan).

In a large bowl, combine all base ingredients. Press into slice pan and bake for 12 minutes until light brown. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the almond topping by combining the butter and honey in a small saucepan and gently simmer for 3 minutes. Stir through flaked almonds and spread the warm topping evenly over the base.

Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool, slice into squares and serve.

Happy Baking

My Reduced Fat Version of Magnolia Bakery’s Raspberry Cream Cheese Buns

Raspberry Cream Cheese Buns are the most popular breakfast item sold in the famous New York Magnolia Bakery. For this reason, these buns are instinctively in my must-bake list.

I'm curious too thinking..."Can these yummy buns be still yummy being fat-reduced? For this bake and my curiosity, I have replaced the cream cheese with extra light ones, the butter with Alfa one rice bran spread (with less saturated fat) and the normal raspberry jam with the low sugar weight-watchers one.

Surprise! Surprise! These reduced fat buns are still very tasty. They are moist and creamy with a good balance of nice cheesy taste. If I'm not the baker, I wouldn't know that these buns have been fat-reduced...

 

Here's the recipe from the complete Magnolia Bakery cookbook (with my modification in blue)

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (I replace this with baking powder)
1/4 tsp salt
8 ounce cream cheese, softened (I replace this with 160g extra light cream cheese)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (I replace this with 125g Alfa one rice bran spread)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (plus a tiny drip of vanilla paste - I could resist adding this)
1/2 cup raspberry preserves (I replace this with the weight watchers one)
Confectioners’ sugar (if desired)

Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Grease and lightly flour 9 bun pans or large muffin cups. (I use cupcake liners to line 12 standard muffin cups)

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
On the medium speed of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, butter, and sugar until smooth in a large bowl, about 3 minutes.

Add the eggs and beat well. Add the dry ingredients in two parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about two-thirds full. Drop 3 small dollops (about a teaspoonful each) of raspberry preserves onto the top of each bun and, using the tip of a sharp knife, swirl the preserves into the batter, forming a decorative pattern. Bake for 25–30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the bun comes out clean. (I bake mine at 170°C fan forced for 15 min)

Allow the buns to cool for about 30 minutes before dusting with confectioners’ sugar and serving.

Happy Baking

Butterscotch and Hazelnut pudding

To me, butterscotch and hazelnut are indeed a superb combination, especially for our current chilly season.

In the autumn issue of Donna Hay magazine, there is a concise "How to cook" section on steamed puddings. The featured puddings are stunning and I was very keen to bake these delicious goodies. And so, I suggested a pudding bake-along. I'm happy that both Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen Wings have both agreed to my suggestion.

Instead of make a large pudding, I have baked the pudding in my mini ramekins. They turned out not looking as saucy as the large version made by Donna as shown in the magazine. I'm guessing if I might have "over-baked" or "over-cream" my mini puddings...and I don't know why.

When I took my first scope of pudding, I was asking myself... "where are the sauce?" Then, I could see that most of the sauce has been well-absorbed into the pudding mixture. As for the taste...every mouthful has been extremely comforting with the butterscotch sauce all-soaked up by the pudding base. Yum!

 

Not as saucy as shown in the magazine but it is very yummy...

Here's the recipe from Donna Hay Magazine, Apr/May 2011 issue (with my modification in blue)

Serve 6

Butterscotch sauce
1 cup (175g) brown sugar
60g butter
1 cup 250ml single (pouring) cream

Pudding mixture
150g butter, softened
2/3 cup (115g) brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup (225g) plain flour
1/2 cup (50g) hazelnut meal
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup (250ml) milk

1. Preheat oven 170°C. To make butterscotch sauce, place sugar, butter and cream in a saucepan over low heat and stir until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally, for 5-7 min or until thickened. Pour into 1.75L capacity baking dish and refrigerate.

Note: I divided the sauce between ramekins. I didn't refrigerate the sauce because it was cold on the day that I made this and sauce was cooled enough when the pudding mixture is ready.

2.Place butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour, hazelnut meal, baking powder and milk in the bowl of electric mixer and beat until combined. Pour into the baking dish.

Note: I divided the mixture between ramekins. Due to the cold weather, I might have "over-creamed" the mixture because the butter took a longer time to incorporate into the mixture.

3. Place puddings in a water bath. To make a water bath, place the puddings into a deep-sided baking dish and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish or ramekins. This will ensure the puddings are cooked evenly.

4. Cover tightly with 2 sheets aluminum foil and bake for 1 hr 5 min to 1 he 10 min or until puddings are springy to the touch. (I did mine for just 25-30 min for my mini ramekins). Remove puddings from water bath. Dust with icing sugar to serve (I didn't do this).

I made 3 mini ramekins with 1/4 of this recipe as this portion is just right for our small family.

Happy Baking.

Japanese Cream Buns with Mexico topping

In my pursuit of baking soft and fluffy breads, I've came across a lot of Asian food bloggers that mentioned this recipe from the book, Magic bread by Alex Goh is simply wonderful.

These are bloggers who have used this recipe to make their super-yummy breads:

Lena from Frozen Wings
Reese Kitchen
Sotong Cooks
Vivian Pang Kitchen

Now, after this bake, I'm totally convinced! These bread are extremely delicious!

For the event, aspiring bakers #8, Bread Seduction organized by Jasmine from The Sweetylicious, I've spice-up these breads by adding vanilla seeds into the Mexico toppings. Being the second most expensive spice after saffron, the vanilla seeds has indeed spiced-up the breads into an exquisite creation and I'm proud to say that these breads are only available if they are home-baked. LOL.

 

Here's the recipe from the book, Magic Bread by Alex Goh

Ingredients:

Make 12 buns

A
120g bread flour
85g boiling water

B
380g bread flour
70g sugar
1/4tsp salt
8g instant yeast

C
120g cold milk
100g whipping cream
1 egg

D
40g butter

Mexico topping:

60g butter
50g sugar
1 egg 
1 vanilla pod (my "special" addition using the seeds that scraped from the pod)
65g flour
1/4 tsp baking powder

For Mexico topping:

Cream Butter and sugar until well-blended. While creaming, add in egg and vanilla seeds, and cream until smooth. Add the flour and baking powder and mix until well-combined.

For Bread:

Add boiling water from A into flour, mix until well-blended to form a dough. Cover and set aside to cool. Keep into refrigerator for at least 12 hours.

Mix B until well blended. Add in C and knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead mix.
Add in D and knead to form an elastic dough.

Let proof for 40 min (I did mine for 1 hour), divide the dough into 12 portions. (about 80g each) and mould it round. Let it rest for another 10 min.

Flatten it and roll it into a oblong shape. Place the bread dough into loaf tin and let it proof for 50 min. Pipe Mexico topping on top. Bake at 180°C for 20-25 minutes. (I bake mine at 180°C fan forced for 15 min)

Happy Baking

Fish Floss Bread

I'm a big fan of pork floss. I love to eat them with plain bread, congee, sometimes plain rice and even yummy on its own. Sad to say that the pork floss in Melbourne is different from the ones in Singapore. The Singapore ones are so light and fluffy and the Melbourne ones are much denser and oilier.

From my recent trip back to Singapore, I've brought several packets of fish floss back to Melbourne. You must be thinking...Why is she not bringing back her traditional favourite, pork floss? Why fish floss?

Due to Australian quarantine rules, we are not allowed to bring in any food items that are made from pork and chicken as these products can be potential risk to their farming industries. Apart from this, anything with fish is surprisingly allowed!

Using the sweet bread dough that I have used previously, I've wrapped these soft yummy bread with my "precious" fish floss. Yum!

I'm submitting this post to the event, Aspiring bakers #8, Bread Seduction organized by Jasmine from The Sweetylicious and I hope that this bread is delicious-looking enough to "seduce" you. LOL.

 

 

Here's the recipe for the basic sweet bread dough (gelatinisation method) like the same one that I did before.

This is originally from the book, Magic Bread by Alex Goh.

(with my modification in blue)

Ingredients A
100g bread flour
70g boiling water

Ingredients B
300g bread flour
100g plain flour
80g sugar
6g salt
20g milk powder
9g instant yeast
175g cold water
60g cold eggs
60g butter

Method:

1.Add the boiling water from A into flour, mix until well blended to form dough. Cover and set aside to cool and refrigerate it for at least 12 hours.

2.Mix B until well blended. Add in the cold water and eggs and knead to form rough dough. Add in A and knead until well blended

3.Add in butter till form elastic dough.

4. Let it proof for 40 mins (I did mine for 1hr)

5.Divide the dough into 60g each and mould it round. (I divided mine into 8 pieces.) Let it rest for 10 mins and flatten it (to a long flat shape).

I've made 2 variations of these bread. One is to place fish floss in a row and then roll up the dough so the floss will be in the center of the bread. Another is to scatter the floss on the flatten dough and roll up the dough like a Swiss roll.

6. Place onto a greased pan and proof for 45 mins (I did mine for another 1 hr). Brush with milk or egg wash. Drizzle with Kewpie mayonnaise and sprinkle a small amount of sesame seeds and bake at 180°C (fan forced) for 20-25 mins or until golden in colour.

Happy Baking.

Chocolate Hazelnut Crunchy Meringue Cake

This cake was made for my husband and his birthday... Here, I am proudly presenting my super Choco-licious Chocolate Hazelnut Crunchy Meringue Cake...

For him, I've customised and changed the original version of this cake all accordingly to what he likes.

The original one has a chocolate soft meringue and I've made a crunchy version for him, and we were all very happy feasting this delicious cake!

 

 

Here's the recipe from Woolworth Good Taste magazine, Apr 2011 issue
(The all chocolate issue...) (with my modification in blue)

Chocolate hazelnut cake
125g butter, chopped
100g dark cooking chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 eggs, lightly whisked
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
75g (1/2 cup) self raising flour
55g (1/2 cup) hazelnut meal
2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted

Hazelnut sauce
125ml (1/2 cup) thickened cream
100g (1/3 cup) chocolate hazelnut spread

Chocolate meringue (*my crunchy meringue)
3 egg whites (same)
155g (3/4 cup) caster sugar (same)
100g dark chocolate, melted (omit)

1. Preheat oven 160°C. Brush a 22cm springform pan with melted butter. Line the base and side with non-stick baking paper.

2. Place the butter and chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Use metal spoon to stir until chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

3. Whisk the eggs into the chocolate mixture. Add sugar, flour, hazelnut meal and cocoa powder and stir until well combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 35 min or until skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

4. Meanwhile to make the chocolate meringue. Use an electric beater to beat egg whites until firm peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture is thick and glossy. Increase oven temperature to 200°C. Divide the meringue into half. Fold half the melted chocolate through half the meringue to create a swirled effect. Spoon on top of cake and bake 8-10 minor until meringue is firm. * I replace this step with my crunchy meringue preparation.

For my crunchy meringue. Beat egg whites until firm peaks form. Gradually add sugar, beating constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture is thick and glossy. Spread meringue with about 1 cm thickness on a silicon baking mat and bake at 120°C fan forced for 40-50 min. Stand on tray for 5 min. Remove from baking mat. Cool completely on wire rack and break them into pieces when they are ready to be piled on the cake.

5. For the sauce, stir cream and chocolate hazelnut spread over low heat for 2-3 min or until smooth. Set aside to cool and thicken slightly. Drizzle over cake (with meringue on the top).

Note: I've made a 14cm cake pan using half of the cake recipe and bake the cake at 150°C fan forced for 20 min. I have used 2/3 of the meringue recipe for my crunchy meringue as I wanted a tall meringue for this cake.

Happy Baking

Gâteau Breton

I remember... more than 15 years back, I've tasted this famous Brittany butter cake, Gâteau Breton. This cake has a wonderful hybrid texture of shortbread and a butter cake. At that time, my husband and I were still dating and he bought me this cake all way from Brittany for me and my family.

Since then, I have not been thinking of making this cake until 2 of my baking friends, Lena from Frozen Wings and Joyce from Kitchen Flavours suggested baking this cake for our bake-along.

From my memory of this cake, I prefer this cake to have a moist crumby texture rather than a biscuit-y one and so I've added more water accordingly to Rose's minor instructions and the cake is indeed very lovely.

 

 

Here's the recipe from Rose’s Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum
(with my minor modifications in blue)


(serves 10 – 12)
42g (1/2 cup) blanched sliced almonds (I use almond meal)
150g (3/4 cup) superfine sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
255g (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter *see my notes
74g (from about 4 large eggs) egg yolks, at room temperature
15g (1 tablespoon) kirsch, dark rum, or water
1 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
250g plain flour
1 whole egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Bake almonds for 7 minutes or until pale gold. Cool completely then place in a food processor and process the almonds with 1/4 cup of the sugar until fairly fine but not powder fine.
(By using almond meal, I skipped this step of processing almond and replaced this amount of sugar with icing sugar. I mixed the toasted almond meal and icing sugar thoroughly when the toasted almond meal was completely cooled.)

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with flat beater, mix the remaining sugar, salt and the butter on medium speed for about 1 minute until smooth and creamy.

Beat in the yolks, 1 at a time, beating for about 20 seconds between each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the almond mixture, water, and vanilla and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Raise the speed to medium and beat for about 20 seconds until evenly incorporated. Add the flour in four parts, beating on the lowest speed for about 15 seconds and turning off the mixer between additions.

Use a spatula to finish mixing in any flour that remains unincorporated. (Instead of using the mixer, I prefer to fold the flour using the spatula to avoid over-mixing.)

Scrape the batter into a greased and lightly floured fluted tart pan with removable bottom (size: 9 1/2 inch by 1 3/8 inch).

With the beaten egg, brush the top of the cake well, using a little less than 1 tablespoon.
Use the tines of a fork to make a crosshatch pattern on top. The fork lines help prevent the batter from puffing up unevenly.

Bake the cake for 35 – 45 minutes, or until a deep golden brown and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the center.

Let the cake cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate. Cool completely

* My notes: 

The butter that I used (Lurpak) has a 82% fat content.

Accordingly to book, butter that is 80% fat contains 2 tbsp more water than 86% fat butter which result in slightly moister crumb. For this reason, I've added 6 tsp water for the 82% fat butter used in order to achieve a moist version of this cake.

Instead 9 1/2 inch suggested by Rose, I've used 19 cm by 2 cm tart pan and made the tart with 60% of the ingredients in this recipe.

Happy Baking

Rosy Apricot and Pistachio Biscotti

I made these biscotti for a farewell afternoon tea, for a colleague who is going away for a year for her new baby arrival. 

This is my first time baking biscotti because I was afraid that biscotti can be too hard to bite and munch. After seeing this recipe, it was hard to resist baking this beautiful creation. This biscotti has a lovely blend of green from the pistachios and orange from the apricot. With rosewater, they are so elegant for such a sweet occasion.

I had to seek some advice from two of my colleagues, both with Italian background. One said that 30 min of the second bake is too long and can be reduced to 10 min for a less firmer texture, but the other felt that this texture is truly how an Italian biscotti can be. Now that I know the texture of this biscotti can be customized according to individual's preference by varying the duration of the second bake.

 

Here's the recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly 'Macarons & Biscuits' book
(with my modification in blue)

Make 40 (I made 34 with this recipe, I might have sliced them slightly thicker.)

220g caster sugar
2 eggs
200g plain flour
50g self raising flour
55g finely chopped dried apricots
45g unsalted roasted pistachios
4 tsp rosewater

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced). Line and grease oven tray.

Whisk sugar and eggs in a bowl until combined.

Stir in sifted flours, then dried apricots, nuts and rosewater.

Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. (Dough is sticky. I tried to avoid adding more flour to this mixture but I've added about 2 tbsp of flour to get dough to have a smooth surface.)

Divide dough into 2 and shape each portion into 20 cm log. Bake for 30 minutes. 

Cool on tray for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 150°C (130°C fan forced).

Using a serrated knife, cut logs diagonally into 5mm slices. Place slices on lined oven trays and bake biscotti for 30 minutes or until dry and crisp, turning halfway through baking.

Cool on wire racks.

Happy Baking