Cream Puffs

Made my first ever choux pastry creation - cream puffs, and it turned out to be amazing!

I've got raving comments on it, and it just gives me so much more motivation to make second (or possibly third) batch of puffs!

Recipe adopted from Joy of Baking.

Cream Puffs

Lemon Bars

Joy of Baking is one of my favorite site for great baking inspiration.  I've tried a couple of her recipes, and I'd say they all tasted really good!

And of course, you probably guessed it - this recipe is from her as well. 

This is my first trial on the lemon bars (for Stephanie's recipe, please click here), and it's not too shabby for a first bake.  My only setback was my shortbread is a little crumbly when I tried to move it from the wire rack to a serving plate, then again that's probably cause I did not let it sit and cool properly. 

Other than that, this recipe is a must try! 

p/s: I sub the white granulated sugar for the lemon filling with brown sugar. 

Lemon Bars

Mini Croissants

Bake of the week:  mini croissants.  

My first croissant baking experience.  It definitely is a lot easier than I thought, but very, very time consuming.  Even more so than the puff pastry. 

It took me literally half a day to wait, chill and knead these babies. But the result, well worth the effort! 

I maybe posting the recipes up in another post. So for now, just enjoy the photo ;) 

Mini Croissants

Vegetable Samosa

I've been bitten by the samosa bug and have been craving for it lately.

I remember how I used to get it from the farmers market in the lovely city of Fredericton, and how I spent my first summer holidays working in a samosa kitchen wrapping the pastry goodies.

Well that being said, it doesn't necessarily mean that I own the samosa recipes. But I do have a rough idea of what's going on in the dough mixer and the saucepan.

Anyways, since time ain't exactly all that I have, I've decided to curb my cravings by doing a cheat version.

Nope, I did not make my own pastry. Rather, I bought the Chinese spring roll pastry. That's the only part you can cheat. The fillings? Sorry, you've still gotta cook you potatoes and frozen vegetables.

And opting for a healthier option, I chose to bake the samosas rather than deep frying them. So it look rather pale.

And the verdict for this quickie samosa? Nothing beats the original deep fried samosa. This spring roll version is doable, if you aren't picky. But really... Baked spring roll samosa? I guess good old fashion deep fried goodies always taste better.

Oh well.. I will find a day to make the samosa dough from scratch, and share the recipes then.

For now, pardon my humble little "Chinese" samosa.

Vegetable Samosas

Peach Upside Down Cake

With my pops just back from China, he brought with him some fresh peaches that we can rarely get our hands on in this part of the Equator.

Back in the days when I was rocking up North, I remember peaches being one of my favorite summer fruits.  The sweet fragrance of the fruit and its fuzzy flesh somehow makes it a wonderful fruit. But of course, I had been eating it as it is - a piece of fruit, and had never tried it in any culinary attempts.

Now that I had my hands on two large fuzzy peaches which undoubtably will be a challenge to finish it all on my own, I thought to myself: what better opportunity to try some sweets with peaches than now?

So I began my search on some cake recipes that called for peaches, and finally decided to adapt the cranberry upside down cake recipe from Joy of Baking.

So, here's my rendition (and first trial) of my Peach Upside Down Cake:

Peach Upside Down Cake

Peach Upside Down Cake

Before we begin with either the toppings or the cake batter, first preheat your oven to 177 degrees Celcius. Then, grease a 9-inch (23 cm) round cake pan. 

I. Toppings 

Ingredients: 

2 large peaches, wedged
140 gm light brown sugar
70 gm unsalted butter  

1.  Heat the butter and the sugar in a saucepan on medium heat until butter melted and sugar starts to caramelized (or, until sugar turns lightly brown)
2.  Remove from heat and pour onto cake tray.
3.  Lay the wedged peaches in circles  

II. Cake Batter 

Ingredients: 

195 all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
113 gm unsalted butter
200 gm granulated white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs, separated
120 ml milk
1/4 tsp cream of tartar 

1.  In a large bowl, sift together the all purpose flour, baking powder and salt.
2.  Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat in the vanilla extract, cream until evenly.
4.  Then beat in the egg yolks, one at a time.  Make sure the yolks are well beat before adding in the next yolk.
5.   Add in the flour mixture, alternating with the milk in the following order: flour - milk - flour - milk - flour. Be sure to end with dry ingredients.
6.  In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites with cream of tartar until the egg white forms a firm peak.
7.  Fold in the egg white into the cake batter in two additions.
8.  Pour the cake batter into the cake pan, smoothing the top.
9.  Bake in preheated oven for approximately 40 minutes, or until cake is browned and a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
10.  Remove from oven, place on a wire rack and cool for about 15 minute.
11.  Run a sharp knife round the edge of the pan, invert the cake onto a serving plate, and serve.

Here are some tips/reminders:

• If you do not have any cream of tartar on hand, you can replace the 1/4 teaspoon of cream of tartar with 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice.  I used the replacement for my cake, and it turned out fine.
• Remember to always whisk your egg whites in a clean bowl. Egg whites are always very sensitive, so you need to make sure that the bowl and the whisk / mixer that you use is clean and free from oil. 
• If you are using frozen fruits (I freeze my peaches overnight), do not thaw your fruits. But bear in mind that frozen fruits takes longer to cook. Of course, the cooking time depends highly on your individual ovens, too. 

Pretzel Pops

I love pretzels. Tell me you love 'em too!

So in the spirit for the love of pretzels, I've decided to do a trial run on some home made pretzels. And believe me, nothing beats home made pretzels.

Pretzel Pops

Here's the link to the recipe that I used: Buttery Soft Pretzels Recipe from allrecipes.com

As you can probably tell from the photo, I'm not one gift in crafting anything - pretzels included. So after a few "failed" knotted doughs, I've decided to just cut it into bite size pieces and call them pops instead!  But trust me, the taste is still gorgeous.

Oh, and if you love butter as much as I do, here's an extra step that I did:

• Melt approximately 2 tablespoons of butter
• Dip the fresh-out-of-oven pretzels into melted butter for about 10 secs each - this will let the pretzels soak up all the buttery goodness! 

Horlick - Milo Layer Cake

So I've been on a baking frenzy.  And this round, I'm attempting my first ever layer cake.

Again, lots of recipes out there for grabs, but I'll share the one that I used and tweaked a little for this cake. But behold, you will need lots of patience for this creation. Yes, I'm talking bout 3 hour bake time and counting! But it is definitely well worth the grueling process

Horlick Milo Layer Cake

Horlick Milo Layer Cake 

Ingredients: 

7 eggs
250 gm butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
250 gm condensed milk
1/2 cup Horlick
1/2 cup Milo 

1. Preheat oven on grill setting to 200 degrees Celcius. 
2. Line bottom of a square tin and grease its sides. Pre-heat the pan in the oven.
3. Sift flour together with baking soda. 
4. Beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
5. Add in eggs, one by one. Beating well after each addition. 
6. Mix in condensed milk.
7. Fold flour into the batter.
8. Split batter into two bowls. Add Horlick to one, and Milo to the other bowl. Fold well. 
9. Spread Horlick (or you may use the Milo batter as base) batter evenly onto the pre-heated pan. Tilt the pan left and right to make sure the batter is evenly spread and leveled. 
10. Grill the batter for approximately 7 minutes or until it turns golden. Note: when the batter turns brown, it is too cooked and the next layer of batter will have problem sticking to it (this will cause your layer cake to fall apart). 
11. Remove the pan from the oven. Press the cake layer with something flat to remove excess air. Then spread another ladle of batter, this round a different batter, over the cooked batter and grill it for another 7 minutes or till golden.
12. Repeat step 11 until all batter is used up.

I've managed to make 8 layers, and will definitely aim for thinner, finer layers the next time I make another layer cake. 

Lemon Cranberry Pound Cake

I've had a bag of craisins (or dried cranberries) stashed away in the fridge and what better time to put it into some good use than now?

So flipping through one of my favorite baking recipes website, I found this neat recipe for lemon cranberry pound cake. Just the perfect recipe I need to put my stored craisins into good use. 

Click here for recipe

Lemon Cranberry Pound Cake

I know, drastic aesthetic improvement urgently needed.  But appearance aside, I rather succeed with this cake on the taste part of the test. 

However, I did make some very slight changes to the original recipe:

1.  I used 4 lemons instead of 3. I am one in love with anything lemony and sour, so the punch is just right for me. However, if you're not that fond of the sourness of lemons, I'd recommend 2 lemons will do just fine.

2.  Since I'm a fan of brown sugar (now you know my preference), it's undoubting that I replace the granulated white sugar with brown.

3.  From where I live, brandy doesn't come by cheap. So I swapped it with rum essence. Worked out fine for me.

4.  Stating the obvious:  I used a normal square pan instead of a bundt. 

This cake is light but yet flavorful at the same time. I love the punch that lemons gave to the cake, and the lemon-cranberry sauce was just pure genius.  This cake is great for an afternoon tea party served with apple sauce, ice cream or just a great cup of steaming Earl Grey tea.