Best Buttermilk Pancakes

Honestly, I'm not a pancake fan. We don't usually eat pancakes for our breakfasts but after my son watched Peppa pig's pancake episode on ABC Kids, he has been hassling me to cook pancakes for him. And so, I searched for the "best pancake" at Google and these are the few hits I got...

As the location of my search is based at Melbourne, Australia, I had a few popular pancake recipes were from Taste.com and there is one very interesting recipe which is originated from Cook Illustrated Cookbook recommended by Brown Eyed Baker. True enough, these pancakes are indeed very delicious with a slightly tangy taste and this recipe is actually named as "Best Buttermilk Pancakes" in this book. To compliment these pancakes, I'm also cooking maple-glazed apples being part of a ricotta pancake recipe from Taste.com.

In order to serve my family the best quality ingredients with real flavours, I have been using 100% real maple syrup (not maple-flavoured ones) for all my maple syrup related-baking. Ironically and strangely, my son simply refused to eat any of these super delicious maple-glazed apples and requested me to slice the plain apple for him. I told him that his pancakes will be plain without any maple syrup and being a typical sweet tooth kid, he said that he would rather eat to his pancakes plain or with a good squeeze of golden syrup. *sign* What can I say?

For a second thought, I started asking myself... So, is there any nutritional difference between maple syrup and golden syrup? Interestingly, my two bottles of syrups tell me that both of them have quite similar amount of calories and sugar content in every 100g of syrup. The only significant difference is actually their sodium content. Being nice and naturally-flavorsome, maple syrup has only 6 mg of sodium per 100g while the golden syrup has 80 mg sodium per 100g which is 13 times more sodium than maple syrup! So, this is the reason why my son prefer to eat golden syrup and it's all because it is sweet and more SALTY!

Buttermilk pancakes with maple-glazed apples

Cooking the maple-glazed apples

Cooking the pancakes

A closer look of the maple-glazed apples... Yum!

My son's pancakes served with drizzles of golden syrup...

Here are the recipes.

(with my modification in blue)

Best Buttermilk Pancakes from the book, Cooks Illustrated Cookbook

Make 16 4-inch pancakes
(I reckon this amount can serve 3 to 4)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda (replaced with baking powder)

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups and 2 tbsp buttermilk

1/4 cup sour cream

2 eggs

3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 to 2 tsp vegetable oil, for greasing the pan (replaced with butter)

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. In a second medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, sour cream, eggs and melted butter. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients; gently stir until just combined (batter should remain lumpy with a few streaks of flour). Do not overmix. Allow the batter to sit for 10 min before cooking.

Heat 1 tsp of the vegetable oil (or butter) in a non-stick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Using a paper towel, carefully wipe out oil, leaving a thin film of oil on the bottom of the pan. Using 1/4 cup measure, portion batter into pan in 4 places. Cook until edges are set, first side is golden brown, and bubbles on surface are just beginning to break, 2 to 3 min. Using a thin, wide spatula, flip pancakes and continue to cook until second side is golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Serve pancakes immediately (with maple syrup or golden syrup and extra butter). Repeat with remaining batter, using remaining oil (or butter) is needed.

Maple-glazed apples from Taste.com

20g butter

2 fuji or royal gala apples, thinly sliced

1/2 cup (125ml) maple syrup

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat until foaming. Add one-quarter of the apples and cook, turning, for 1 min or until golden brown. Transfer to a plate. Repeat in 3 more batches with remaining apple. Return the apple to the pan, drizzle with maple syrup and turn to coat. Remove from heat and set aside.

Note: I reckon the above amount of maple-glazed apples is sufficient enough to compliment the above 16 small-sized pancakes

Happy Cooking

Strawberry Country Cake (Barefoot Contessa)

Happy 1st Birthday to our Bake-Along! I can't believe Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen wings and I have been baking-along for 1 year!

At the same time last year when we first started, it was just the three of us baking along at the beginning of this event. Soon after we started blog hopping, we have now 17 entries for our last 4-ingredient bake-along. Through this event, I am happy to know lots of baking friends and they are:

Angeline from Angeline's Side of Story 

Abby from Abbygail's Kitchen

Alice from I Love. I Cook. I Bake.

Anuja from Simple Baking 

Doreen from My Favourite DIY 
Eileen from Hundred Eighty Degrees 

Emily from Emily's Cooking Foray 

Jeannie from Baking Diary 

Jasline from Food is My Life

Mimi from MiMi Bakery House

Riceball from Riceball Eats 
Peng from Peng's Kitchen 

Vivian from Vivian Pang Kitchen
Yan from Blog with Yan 
Yvonne from Taiping with Love 

I really enjoy baking along with all my friends and love the fact that we have learned lots of baking skills and techniques together. Ultimately, our best thing of all is to be able to enjoy all our yummy bakes with our families :D

Today, I'm presenting this very-simple down-to-earth layer cake that I baked for our Bake-Along first anniversary. I took this opportunity to bake this Barefoot Contessa cake so that I can link this post to the blog hop event, Cook like a Star, organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids.

This cake composes of a basic sour cream cake base that was sliced into halves, sandwiched and topped whipped cream and strawberries! That's all. I was trying to defy the "fat factor" by replacing the heavy whipped with a lighter version... and not surprising, the cream did hold itself for a while but not for long... Bottom line is we still need "fat" for some good reasons. LOL! See my photos and you will see what I mean :p

Happy 1st Birthday Bake-Along

Baking the cake

Assembling the cake

And a self-narrated birthday song for our Bake-Along...

Ops! The lighter cream is beginning to melt... LOL!

Here's the recipe from Food Network

(with my modification in blue)

12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup sour cream, at room temperature

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp grated orange zest (replaced with lemon zest)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (replaced with vanilla seeds from vanilla pod)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda (replaced with baking powder)

For the filling for each cake:

1 cup (1/2 pint) heavy cream, chilled (replaced with light whipping cream)

3 tbsp sugar (I didn't add this)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Butter the bottom of two 8-inch cake pans. Then line them with parchment paper and butter and flour the lined pans.

Cream the butter and sugar on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, then the sour cream, zests, and vanilla, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix well. Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda. On low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine just until smooth.

Pour the batter evenly into the pans, smooth the tops, and bake in the center of the oven for 40 to 45 min, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 30 min, then remove to wire racks and let cool to room temperature. If using 1 cake, wrap the second well and freeze.

To make the filling for one cake, whip the cream, sugar, and vanilla in a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until firm. Slice one of the cakes in half with a long, sharp knife. Place the bottom slice of the cake on a serving platter, spread with 1/2 the whipped cream and scatter with sliced strawberries. Cover with the top slice of the cake and spread with the remaining cream. Decorate with strawberries.

Note: 

Using 1/4 of recipe, I baked this cake in 12 cm round cake tin at 160°C fan forced for 40 min. 

As cakes with whipped cream have to be stored in the fridge instead of room temperature, we tried to finish eating this cake within the day that it was baked but it was too much for us to finish and so I had to store a quarter of it in the fridge. 

Sadly, the texture of the refrigerated cake had changed on the next day as it was not as good as it was served at room temperature.

Happy Baking

For our next bake-along, we are baking Pear and Maple Crumble (recipe from Bon Appetit book by Barbara Fairchild, Pg 409 or here) which is to be posted on 12 June 2012. Please join us and link your post with us on 12 June 2012 or within the next 7 days.

 

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their celebration cake.

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 29 May to 5 June 2012. 

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

REAL Meatballs (Barefoot Contessa)

When I first saw the name of this recipe, I wonder how FAKE can meatballs be... LOL! 

I am always a veggie person and wish to be a vegetarian one day. However, living with my meat-lover husband and son make my "vegetarian wish" kind of impossible. I tried to cook meatless meals sometimes but my husband and son will pose to look weak if they see no meat on our dining table. LOL! 

For my family and curiosity, I am here cooking this to see how REAL these meatballs can be. 

Being a veggie person like me, I wonder if I'm critical and appreciative enough to differentiate how real these meatballs are. Although, I might not the best person to judge these meatballs, I can tell that my husband and son looked REAL-ly satisfied happy enjoying these meatballs without saying much. To my surprise too, even a "non-meatball" eater like me think these meatballs are actually REAL-ly good! 

These meatballs have a nice and juicy texture and didn't have an over-powering "meaty" taste. With this red wine tomato sauce, these meatballs are indeed REAL-ly REAL-ly REAL-ly yummy.

Making the meatballs

Cooking the red wine tomato sauce

Take a bite of the meatball... Delicious!

Here's recipe from Food Network

(with my modification in blue)

For the meatballs:

1/2 pound ground veal (replaced with ground pork) 

1/2 pound ground pork

1 pound ground beef

1 cup fresh white bread crumbs (4 slices, crusts removed)

1/4 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
(both bread crumbs replaced with the fresh one bought from a local bakery)

2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 extra-large egg, beaten
Vegetable oil

Olive oil

For the sauce:

The red wine that I used

1 tbsp good olive oil

1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti  
(I used Cabernet Sauvignon which is a great substitute for Chianti)
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped (I used the crushed tomatoes)

1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Place the ground meats, both bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs (I made 55 bite-sized meatball with this recipe!).

Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 min for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 min. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more min. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 min. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 min (I did mine for 25 min), until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and pass the grated Parmesan.

Note: The meatballs and sauce were well-simmered for 25 min and I reckon most of the alcohol content of the wine used would have vaporised off with this long cooking time. I think this dish should be fine for little children consumptions.

Happy Cooking

This post is linked to the blog hop event, Cook like a Star, organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids. To join, simply cook or bake a Contessa Barefoot recipe and blog hop with us. For more details, please see this. 

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

Four Cheese Focaccia

I am very keen to bake this cheesy focaccia knowing that I can learn and taste several types of cheese with this bake.

This focaccia has 4 different types of cheese as part of its ingredients and they are Parmesan, mozzarella, Gorgonzola and Fontina. I am quite familiar with the use and taste of Parmesan and mozzarella but have not tried cooking or tasting Gorgonzola and Fontina before.

Both Gorgonzola and Fontina and Italian cheeses. Gorgonzola is a veined blue cheese, made from un-skimmed milk. It has a crumbly and semi-soft texture and taste quite salty with interesting flavour from its blue veins. The original Fontina cheese from Italy is fairly pungent and has quite an intense flavour but I wasn't sure how to distinguish its originality at first and bought the Dutch version of Fontina which is milder in taste for this bake.

This cheesy bread is as yummy as it looks and smells and it is gone very quickly...

This post is linked to the event, Breaking Bread organised by Lora from Cake Duchess. For the love of bread, Marnely of Cooking with Books, Shulie from Food Wanderings and Lora have started The Breaking Bread Society and the current theme of this event is Focaccia.

Note:
- If you wish to blog hop or link your post with the event, Cook like a Star, please go to this.

Here's the recipe from Epicurious

(with my modification in blue)

2 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

1/2 tsp sugar

1 cup lukewarm water

3 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 tsp table salt

5 tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup grated Parmesan

1 cup grated whole-milk mozzarella

1/2 cup finely crumbled Gorgonzola

1 cup grated Fontina

1 small onion, sliced thinly

1 tsp coarse salt, or to taste

Note: Using 1/3 of the recipe, I bake my focaccia in a 15 cm x 26 cm loaf pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment proof the yeast with the sugar in the water for 5 min, or until the mixture is foamy, add the flour, the salt, 3 tbsp of the oil (1 tbsp for 1/3 of recipe), and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan (about 2-3 tbsp for 1/3 recipe), and combine the dough well (I have added an extra one tbsp of water for 1/3 recipe because the dough is too dry). With the dough hook knead the dough for 2 min, or until it is soft and slightly sticky.

Form the dough into a ball, transfer it to an oiled bowl, and turn it to coat it with the oil. Let the dough rise, covered with plastic wrap, in a warm place for 1 1/2 hrs, or until it is double in bulk. The dough may be made up to this point, punched down, and kept, covered and chilled, overnight. Let the dough return to room temperature before proceeding with the recipe. Press the dough evenly into a oiled jelly-roll pan, 15 1/2 by 10 1/2 by 1 inches, and let it rise, covered loosely, in a warm place for 1 hour, or until it is almost double in bulk

In a bowl stir together the remaining Parmesan, the mozzarella, the Gorgonzola, the Fontina, the onion, and pepper to taste and sprinkle the mixture evenly over the dough. (I didn't grate the mozzarella and Fontina but just broke them up coarsely and combine with the rest of ingredients together). Drizzle the remaining 2 tbsp oil (2/3 tbsp for 1/3 recipe) over the cheese mixture and sprinkle the focaccia with the coarse salt. Bake the focaccia in the bottom third of a preheated 400°F oven for 35 to 45 min, or until it is golden brown, let it cool in the pan on a rack, and serve it warm or at room temperature.

Happy Baking

Simple and Delicious Lemon Yogurt Cake (Barefoot Contessa)

My family and I are not a big fan of mix-and-bake "yogurt cakes" because some that I had baked before can be quite dense and too "doughy" to eat. 

To be honest, I baked this lemon yogurt cake purely out of curiosity... When I first saw this recipe, I was surprised that the recipe has lots of positive feedback and wanted if know the winning factors of this mix-and-bake "yogurt cake" recipe. 

Like most of the mix-and-bake "yogurt cakes", this cake did has a dense and non-fluffy texture but was surprising very moist and delicious to eat. Every slice of this cake is fully infused with lemon flavours. Although its texture is not fluffy, it is not doughy to eat. Now, I can see the reasons why this Barefoot Contessa recipe is a true winner.
 

Baking this super-easy lemon cake

Pouring the lemon syrup for a finishing touch

Here's the recipe from Food Network

(with my modification in blue)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

1 1/3 cups sugar, divided

(reduced to a total of 220g -1 cup, divided to 170g and 50g)

3 extra-large eggs

2 tsp grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the glaze:

1 cup confectioners' sugar

2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

(I didn't make this glaze for my cake)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2-inch (10 cm x 20 cm) loaf pan. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Grease and flour the pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into 1 bowl. In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup sugar (170g) , the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter, making sure it's all incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 50 min, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Meanwhile, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar (50g) in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear. Set aside.

When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 min. Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in. Cool.

For the glaze, combine the confectioners' sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.(I didn't make this glaze for my cake)

Note: I baked this cake at 150°C fan forced for 60 min.

Happy Baking

This post is linked to the blog hop event, Cook like a Star, organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids. To join, simply cook or bake a Contessa Barefoot recipe and blog hop with us. For more details, please see this. 

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

Cookies Pops - 4-Ingredients Bakes

Inspired by the book series, 4 Ingredients, created by Kim Mccosker, I am suggesting 4 ingredients as the theme for our bake-along with Lena, from Frozen wings and Joyce from Kitchen Flavours all for a simple reason to bake something nice and simple using just 4 ingredients.

Even the most simple and basic ingredients such as baking powder or salt is considered as one ingredients and so I reckon this can be quite an interesting baking challenge. To my surprise, I can actually find quite a lot of baking recipes with four ingredients but are these recipes really good? Honestly, I felt a little insecure baking with just 4 ingredients. Worst of all is I don't seem to be able to get rid of this magic number 4 off my head and so I went a little crazy associating with everything with the number 4! Here's how my 4-ingredients baking story goes...

I'm always a big fan of the Australian Country Women's Association (CWA). As what their books claimed, their recipes are "Traditional, Tempting, Tried and True". Naturally, with no doubt, I'm keen to bake four selected CWA recipes and I had baked all four recipes at once! These four easy bakes, each has four ingredients. No electrical mixer or food processor was required for these bakes and all were surprisingly made and baked within than an hour. Even I am amazed. LOL!

The four CWA recipes that I had baked are (1) Beatie slice, (2) Five dozen biscuits, (3) Prune slice (original name is Quick and Easy Biscuits) and (4) Jam slice (original name is Quick and Easy Slice). Amongst all, I reckon the recipe named "Five dozen biscuits" is the best. Then, I went a little crazy again transforming these "Five dozen biscuits" to cookies pops using this idea of four "ingredients" and four easy steps ...
 

This is what I did!

And, this is how I bake these very delicious cookies... So easy!.

Here are the recipes.  
(with my notes and modification in blue)

Five dozen biscuits from the book, Biscuits and Slices by Country Women's Association

These biscuits are called five dozen biscuits because the recipe can really bake up of five dozen (60) of these biscuit. I reckon that this recipe can make up to 200 biscuits in the size that I have made! They are extremely delicious because they literally melt in our mouths when we eat them.

500g butter or cooking margarine (I used butter)

12 tbsp sugar

1 x 395g condensed milk

4-5 cup self raising flour 

(I used 4 cup but add bit by bit of flour to form a workable dough and I didn't need 5 cup in total)

Preheat the oven to 190°C (or 160°C fan forced). Grease baking trays.

Mix all ingredients together, adding enough sifted flour to give a nice workable dough. Roll spoonfuls of dough into balls, placed on prepared trays and flatten with back of a fork

Alternatively, you can roll the mixture into a sausage 2.5-3cm in diameter, the cut into slices 5-10 mm thick. Bake for 15-20 min until crisp (I shaped my biscuits using this method).

Note: Using 1/5 of the recipe, I've baked 40 of these biscuits!

How I transform these cookie to cookie pops:

Things required:  

1. Cookies
2. Lollipop sticks
3. Royal icing (Recipe can be found in my previous Gingerbread House post)
4. Sanding sugars

Step 1: 
Bake some cookies - *giggles*

Step 2: 
Make royal icing and tint it with your food colouring. 

Step 3: 
Pipe lollipop swirl on each cookie and sprinkle sanding sugars on the swirl. 
Wait for icing to set.

Step 4: 
Pipe some icing at the back of the cookie and stick a lollipop stick on it. 

Cookie pop is ready to serve when the icing is set.

Here are the rest of the 4-ingredients recipes that I had baked: 

Beatie slice from the book, Biscuits and Slices by Country Women's Association

This oaty-nutty slice has a nice chewy texture. Out of my four bakes, I would think this one is the least fantastic. My only regret with this bake is that I've replaced the silvered with almond flakes and the almond flakes are not holding themselves very well to the slice compared to the silvered almonds. Other than this, I would say this simple innocent-looking slice is actually quite good.

3 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup silvered almond (replaced by almond flakes)

150g butter, melted.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced). Grease a slice tin.

Mix oat, sugar and almond in a bowl. Pour the melted butter and mix well

Place mixture into the prepared slice tin and bake for 15 min.

Note:Using 1/3 of this recipe, I've baked this slice in 10 cm x 20 cm loaf pan.

Prune Slice (original name is Quick and Easy Biscuits) from the book, Biscuits and Slices by Country Women's Association



With no doubts, I think this fruity slice is a great lunch box filer. Its slight toffee-taste and chewy fruit texture makes it really nice to snack in between meals.  

2 cup self raising flour

1 cup soft brown sugar

2 cup dried fruits (dates, raisin, etc) (I used prune)

230g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced). Line a scone tray with baking paper.

Mix sifted flour with sugar and fruit. Pour melted butter slowly over the dry ingredients, stirring continually. Spread mixture over prepared tray and cook for 20 min. Cut into squares while hot, the allow to cool on the tray. Store in an airtight container once cold.

Note:Using 1/4 of this recipe, I've baked this slice in 10 cm x 20 cm loaf pan. 

Jam Slice (original name is Quick and Easy Slice) from the book, Biscuits and Slices by Country Women's Association

I just love this quickest and easiest way to make a jam slice. Nothing more to say!

230g butter

3 tbsp jam (any flavour) 

(I used the low sugar - 50% reduced blackberry jam and plus extra as toppings)

3 cup self raising flour

1 cup sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan forced) Grease a lamington tin.

Melt butter and jam together in a small saucepan. Sift flour and sugar into a bowl and mix in the butter and jam. Place mixture in prepared tin and bake for 25 min.

Ice with plain icing when cooled (optional - I didn't do that).

Note: Using 1/4 of this recipe, I've baked this slice in 10 cm x 20 cm loaf pan. When the slice is baked, I spread 2-3 tbsp of jam evenly on the surface of the baked slice and bake it again for another 5 min.

Here's the picture showing all of my four 4-ingredients bakes.

Happy Baking

For our next bake-along, we are baking a layered cake for our first Bake-Along anniversary which is to be posted on 29 May 2012. Please join us and link your post with us on 29 May 2012 or within the next 7 days.

 

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their 4-ingredients baking.

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 14 to 20 May 2012.  

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

Lots-of-Raspberry Coffee Cake Muffins (Barefoot Contessa)

It is difficult to classify these cakes. They look like muffins but don't really taste like muffins. They do have a coffee cake-like texture but they don't look like a coffee cake. I reckon this must be the reason why Ina Garten called them "Coffee Cake Muffins". 

Originally, this recipe uses fresh blueberries but I replaced them with frozen raspberries and topped the batter with extra raspberries to give every single bite of these muffins lots of raspberries. The muffins are very moist and delicious with a nice balance in its taste and sweetness. I would love making the fresh blueberries version when the down-under blueberry season is back in January next year.

Happy Mother's Day to all hardworking mothers including me! I think that I deserve to sit back, relax and enjoy this special day with these delicious "very-pink" muffin cakes.

 

 

There is lots of raspberries in every single bite of these muffins!

Here's the recipe from Barefoot Contessa

(with my modification in blue)

Yield 16 muffins

12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

8 ounces (about 1 cup) sour cream

1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 half-pints fresh blueberries, picked through for stems (replaced with frozen raspberries)

Preheat the oven to 350°F (or 160°C fan forced). Place 16 paper liners in muffin pans.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 min. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla, sour cream, and milk. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer on low speed add the flour mixture to the batter and beat until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries (or raspberries) with a spatula and be sure the batter is completely mixed. (I was gentle with the mixing to avoid the raspberries making the batter too pink)

Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin pans, filling each cup just over the top (I added 3-4 extra raspberries onto each muffin for the lots-of-raspberry look and taste in these muffins), and bake for 25 to 30 min, until the muffins are lightly browned on top and a cake tester comes out clean.

Note: Using 1/3 of the recipe, I have baked 8 standard-size muffins for 30 min at 160°C fan forced. I have saved a few in the freezer for me to enjoy them on the coming Mother's Day.

Happy Baking

This post is linked to the blog hop event, Cook like a Star, organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids. To join, simply cook or bake a Contessa Barefoot recipe and blog hop with us. For more details, please see this. 

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

Honey White Bread (Barefoot Contessa)

I'm speechless when I had my first bite of this bread. 

This basic but slightly brioche-like bread is very soft and delicious. I've tried my best to bake like a "star" and have followed Ina's instructions (Barefoot Contessa) as closely as I could. And, I was extremely impressed with the result!

Ina Garten, you are my super-star! This is truly a 5-stars rating recipe!

Love love love this loaf of bread!

Trying to bake like Ina Garten...

The freshly baked loaf...

Wow!  I'm 100% impressed with this bread!

Here's the recipe from book, Barefoot Contessa at home or Barefoot Contessa website.

(with my modification in blue)

1/2 cup warm water (110 °F)
2 packages dry yeast (I assume each package is 7g)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 cups warm whole milk (110 °F)
6 tsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
(I prefer to use soften butter so that dough will not be too wet to handle)
1 1 /2 tbsp honey
2 extra-large egg yolks
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour (I used bread flour)
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 egg white, lightly beaten

Note: I used half amount of the above recipe to bake only one loaf of bread.

Place the water in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment. (I was using a breadmaker with manual setting to mix and knead the dough in the order of Ina's instructions). If the bowl is cold, be sure the water temperature doesn’t drop below 110 °F. Add the yeast and sugar; stir and allow them to dissolve for 5 min.

Add the milk, butter, and honey. Mix on medium speed until blended. Add the egg yolks, 3 cups of the flour (1 1/2 cup for one loaf), and the salt. Mix on low speed for about 5 min. With the mixer still on low speed, add 2 more cups of flour (1 cup for one loaf). Raise the speed to medium and slowly add just enough of the remaining flour so the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl. Add the flour slowly; you can always add more but you can’t take it out (I tried not to add too much flour and added only 1 tbsp extra - for one loaf). Knead on medium speed for about 8 min, adding flour as necessary. (I realised that dough will be smooth after this kneading step.)

Dump the dough out onto a floured surface and knead by hand for a min, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Grease a bowl with butter, put the dough in the bowl, then turn it over so the top is lightly buttered. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and allow it to rise for one hour, until doubled in volume.

Grease two 9 x 5-inch loaf pans with butter (I used one 10 cm x 20 cm loaf pan). Divide the dough in half, roll each half into a loaf shape and place each in a prepared pan. Cover again with the damp towel, and allow to rise again for an hour, until doubled in volume.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350°F (or 160°C fan forced). When the dough is ready, brush the tops with the egg white and bake the breads for 40 to 45 min (I baked mine for 40 min), until they sound hollow when tapped. Turn them out of the pans and cool completely on a wire rack before slicing. 

This is not the end of this post yet...

Got some leftover bread? Got 15 min to cook? This gourmet-style Bill Granger's Ham and Gruyère French Toast recipe might be the one for you...

These French toasts seems to be very basic but they are really very good! I know that I sounds like a  DASH-perate housewife recommending this recipe but I actually feel good sharing such an efficient recipe with everyone.

Here's the recipe from the book, Best of Bill by Bill Granger
(with my modification in blue)

Serve 4

4 eggs
185ml milk
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
4 slices white bread, 3 cm thick (I used the above honey white bread)
2 tsp dijon mustard
4 slices leg ham, trimmed to fit bread
4 slices Gruyère cheese, trimmed to fit bread
1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the eggs, milk, salt and pepper into a large bowl. Whisk to combine.

With a sharp, thin-bladed knife, carefully slit open one side of each slice of bread to form a pocket, leaving 1 cm around the edges. Spread the mustard on one side of the pocket and place a slice of ham and cheese inside. Put the pockets into a shallow dish. Pour over the egg mixture and leave for 5 min (I did mine for less than a min for each side) turning once.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium to high heat, add half the olive oil and swirl to coat the base of the pan. Add two bread pockets, cook on one side for about 2 min until golden brown, turn and cook for another min. Remove from the pan and place on a baking tray. Repeat with the remaining oil and bread pockets. Place the baking tray in the oven and cook for 10 min or until hot and the cheese has melted.

Note: Using half the amount of eggs and milk, I can make 3 french toasts with 3 slices of ham, cheese (2 slices of Gruyère and 1 slice of Fontina) and bread.

Happy Baking
 
This post is linked to the blog hop event, Cook like a Star, organised by me, Bake for Happy Kids. To join, simply cook or bake a Contessa Barefoot recipe and blog hop with us. For more details, please see this. 

 

Here are my blogging friends that have joined me cooking for this event. Please visit their blogs for more of their 5-stars cooking.

To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code

Honey Walnut Cakes

"Honey burns more quickly than sugar!" - as Lauren Chattman describes this recipe in her book. To counter this, I have chosen to bake this cake in its miniature form and know that I wouldn't have this problem as the inside of smaller cakes will be "cooked" quickly without having their surfaces burnt.

These honey walnut cakes are very moist and delicious! They are actually very versatile to eat and great even on their own. For extra finishes, I have dressed them with 1) icing sugar 2) drizzle of honey 3) home-roasted honey walnuts or 4) both honey and home-roasted honey walnuts and they are all very delicious!

My family love eating freshly roasted nuts and I have been roasting the nuts according to this nice and simple recipe from Australian GoodFood magazine. Believe me... whenever I honey-roast any macadamia or walnuts at home, they are gone very quickly. When I honey-roasted a small batch of walnuts for this bake, the walnuts were gone before the cakes were finished!

For our next bake-along, we are baking anything with 4 ingredients which is to be posted on 14 May 2012. This bake-along can be fun and challenging because even the simplest ingredients like baking powder or salt is considered as one and only 4 ingredients are allowed in your bake. Please join us! Just bake any of your favourite 4 ingredients recipe and blog hop with us on this day or within the next 7 days.

Note:
- If you wish to blog hop or link your post with the event, Cook like a Star, please go to this. 

- This post is also linked to The AlphaBakes Challenge organised by to The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes.

I had lots of fun making the cakes...

And dressing them...

Here are the recipes. (with my modification in blue)

Honey Walnut Cake from the book, Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman



1 1/2 cup walnut pieces

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

6 tbsp honey

3 large eggs

1 tsp grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F (or 160°C fan forced). Grease a 9-inch round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a circle of parchment paper. Grease the parchment. Dust the pan sides and parchment with flour.

(Instead of a 9-inch round cake pan, I've lined the bottom of 24-hole standard - 30ml capacity muffin pan with a circle of baking paper and used rice bran oil spray to grease the baking paper and sides of each muffin holes.)

Spread walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and toast until fragrant, 8-10 min. Let it cool completely.

Combine the cooled walnuts and 1 tbsp of sugar in the bowl of a food processor and process until the nuts are finely ground. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and pulse until combine.

Add the butter, honey and remaining sugar to the large mixing bowl and beat on medium high speed until smooth, about 2 min, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Beat in the zest and vanilla. Add the nut and flour mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix until just incorporated.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth with a spatula. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out dry 35 to 40 min. If the cake starts to brown too much around the edges, loosely tent it with foil after 25 min. (I baked my mini cakes for 13-15 min and didn't need to cover the cakes with any foil.)

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 min, invert it onto a wire rack, and then turn it right side up again to cool completely. Dust heavily with confectioner's sugar before cutting into wedges (I didn't have to do this because mine are mini cakes) and serving.

Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 3 days.

Note: Using 1/3 of the recipe, I've made 11 of these bite-sized cakes.

Honey Roasted Nuts from Australian GoodFood magazine, June 2011 issue 



Combine 2 tbsp honey (+ 2 tbsp raw sugar), 2 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp salt. Add 400g whole macadamias (or walnuts). Toss to coat. Spread over a greased, lined baking tray. Bake in a 180°C or 160°C fan forced oven for 15 min until golden. Cool and serve.

To finish, assemble the cakes all according to the way you like...

Happy Baking

Here are our baking friends that have joined us for this bake-along. Please visit their blogs for more of their Honey Walnut Cake baking.

 

Please submit your details if you wish to link your post with this bake-along. This linking tool is open from 4 May to 10 May 2012.
 
To blog hop with us, simply copy and paste this linky HTML code into your blog post where you want the blog hop list to appear. Make sure you are in HTML view/mode when you paste in the code. get the InLinkz code