Chocolate Chips Cookies

i think the kids are probably tired of seeing cakes/muffins/cupcakes appearing from the oven. It is no longer exciting even for myself.  There are so many things that I would like to give it a try but god knows what’s making me procrastinate. I have no idea why I am so terrified of certain bakes, e.g. Cheese Cake, Breads and Cream Cakes.  Maybe, I just wanna try to perfect whatever that was deemed “hey, quite nice leh” and I really wanna have consistency in each bake, than to have different taste and feel for the same recipe.

Becos the NSG is happening this week for the teenager, and I wanna show my moral support, besides going jogging with him, (secretly, I feel super shiok that the 15yo jio-ed me along), I decided to bake one of his favorites- Chocolate Chips Cookies to show my love and auppprt.  Scrolling through so many recipes, I decided on this and it turned it quite well!

Ingredients:

part A -  Wet Ingredients:

- 165g melted butter

- 70g granulated sugar

- 70g brown sugar 

- 2 egg yolks

- 2 tsp vanilla extract 

* recipe calls for 80g each but becos we do not like overly sweet cookies, hence i reduced to 70g each. 

Part B - Dry Ingredients:

- 300g Plain or All Purpose Flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 to 1 1/2 cup of chocolate chips



Steps:
1. Pre-heat oven at 190degrees.  Prepare 2 trays lined with parchment papers.

2. Melt the butter under small heat and once melted, bring away and stir slowly and let it slowly cool and solidify.

3. Add in both granulated and brown sugar and stir until well-combined.

4. Add in egg yolks and stir again till well-combined, then add in 2 tsp of vanilla extract.  Mix well.

5. Mix all the dry ingredients together, leaving out the chocolate chips.

6. Sieve into the sugar-egg-butter mixtures in 3 portions.  Using a spatula, ensure its well mixed before adding the 2nd.  Using a spatula again, mixed well before adding the last and 3rd portion.  This time, use hand to rub and mix well.

7. Add in chocolate chips and continue to mix using hands.

8. Pinch the mixture and roll into balls, estimated 25-30g of weight.  Line them on the parchment papers.  Gently press down the balls to form a circle shape.  You may like to add in more chocolate chips on top of the balls.

9. Send into the oven for 12 minutes.  Rotate the tray and continue baking for another 8-9 mins.

10. When done, leave the cookies to cool for 5 mins before transferring to a cooling rack to let the cookies cool down totally.

Happy mum

Chocolate Chips Banana Cake

The recent banana cake I did a few days ago caved in!  How could that happened and I was devastated beyond words.  Upsetting and feeling very adamant that I MUST make it happen the right way I want the cake to be.  Hahahahahaha!!!! Okie, I am being very frivolous with my words here, all becos I am in a super duper good mood this morning.  Well, the cake rose to the occasion last night as I attempted a new recipe.  You got it, I went to bed feeling sweet, loved and whatever.  It was definitely a good good day yesterday.

So, it was some trial and error on the new recipe that I researched and followed from a YouTube tutorial and for once, I decided to be hardworking to bring out my handheld mixer to do some serious works.  Ya lah, I am a funny person.  I am so lazy to bring out my mixer and rather be hardworking to manually beat and mix my flour/and ingredients and yes.... all these time.  I figure I must be serious this time and so guai guai brought out the handheld.


Ingredients:

Mixture A:
125g butter (room temperature)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla Essence

Mixture B:
2 cups of Cake Flour
2.5 tsp Baking Powder
0.5 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk x 2 cups

Mixture C:
3 bananas (2 mashed bananas and 1 banana roughly mashed into chunks)
Choc Chips
Choc rice


Step 1:
Preheat the oven for 15mins at 170 degrees.  Lightly grease the baking tin.

Step 2:
Mixture A- Using the handheld mixer, mix the butter and sugar into cream (light and fluffy).  Add in vanilla essence and one egg and continue to mix (on gentle speed) until creamy again.  Add in the 2nd egg and continue to beat until well mixed and creamy.

Step 3:
Mixture B - Sieve 2 cups of flour and baking powder and salt over Mixture A.  Mix gently and add in the first 1/4 cup of milk and continue to mix on medium speed.  Add in the 2nd 1/4 cup of milk and mix on medium speed.  It should end up creamy and smooth.

Step 4:
Mixture C - Add in the mashed bananas and go on gentle mixing.  When the bananas are well mixed, add in choc chip and choc rice (leave some aside for decoratives) and using a spatula, fold everything in gently.  Take note not to overmix.

Step 5:
Pour the mixture into the greased tin.  Bring the tin to about 2 inch high and gently "drop" on the workstation to get rid of the air pockets.  You can also gently knock all 4 walls of the tin for the same purpose.

Step 5:
Send the tin into the oven to bake at 170 degrees for 35-40mins.  When baking is done, use a skewer or a toothpick to test the done-ness.  If the stick come out clean, the cake is done.  If its still wet and gluey, fret not.  Extend bake time by another 15-20 mins but reduce the temperature to 150 degrees.  Do avoid frequently opening the oven to check no matter how tempted you are.  The loss of heat may result in caving in, something we will hate to see.

Step 6:
Using the skewer again, check for done-ness one more time.  If all parts are firm when poking in and comes out clean, the cake is done!

Dun say bojio! I jio you to start baking now.  lol!!!


Happy mum

年糕煎堆

Gong Hei Fatt Choy folks!

Every CNY, I'll look forward to making this becos of the following reasons:

1. Symbolic - its such an auspicious dish symbolizing: 团团圆圆，圆圆满满，步步高升，甜甜蜜蜜，金银财宝堆积成山.  Need I say more how auspicious this dish is? :P
   
2. Prevent food wastage: how else to settle the 年糕 right?
   
3. To better each previous year.... for every year without fail, I will be pretty much scalded by hot oil "exploding" from the pot of boiling oil.  I love challenges, I really do.. and each year's challenge, is to prevent myself from being scalded.  And this year, I DID IT!!!!! Change out the recipe a little this year and it works pretty well.

Ok, here goes the ingredients:

Set A:

- 1 and 1/2 Glutinous Rice Flour

- 2 and 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder

Directions: Mixed well and set aside in a large bowl

Set B:

- 2/3 cup of hot water

- 4 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoon oil

Directions: Dissolve the sugar into the hot water and add in the oil.  Set aside.

Set C:

- Cube the 年糕 (Sticky Rice Cake) about 1cm cube or just slightly bigger.

- Roasted White Sesame and Black Sesame Seeds in the ratio of 10:1 (added black sesame seeds so that it looks nicer.  

- Pot of oil, you can use one whole small bottle (do not heat up until about to cook as if the oil is too hot, the exterior will be cooked and burnt whilst the contents remain uncooked.)

Step 1:

Using a large bowl, mixed the flour and powder well (Set A) and pour half of Set B mixture into the bowl and start to mix well using a spatula or spoon.  Don't worry if it remains crumbly or too dry.  Slowly add in a little more of Set B and continue to mix until Set A is damp.  Then using your fist, knead the dough by folding in and kneading using your knuckles.  This process takes about 5-8 mins or until you see the dough has formed nicely.  The end product should not be crumbly or runny.  Set aside for 10 mins while working the the rest.

Note: you may not use up all of Set B.  In fact, I have about 20% of Set B remaining.

Step 2:

While the dough is resting, you can proceed to cube the  年糕.  The best way to do so, is to pour hot water over the blade of your knife before you cut/cube the 年糕 . This will ensure your blade to be free from stickness.

Step 3:

Remove your dough, roll into long form and using a knife/spatula, cut into about 20 portions.  Or, what lazy me did, was instead of rolling, I pinch some dough and started rolling into a ball about the size of a half fishball.  After forming into a ball, using your thumb, make a dent and shape into a bowl and put one cube of the 年糕 into the bowl and start pinching to form back into a ball.  Ensure that you check that the sharp corners of the 年糕 do not protrude out of the ball.

Step 4:

Gently roll your filled ball over the plate of mixed sesame seeds and ensure even coating.  Set again and continue with the rest till the dough has all been used up.

Step 5:

Only at this point, then turn on small to medium fire for the point of oil. When you see small bubbles, add in the balls one by one.  Do not be impatient to add everything as the dough will be stuck to the base of the pot.  What I did was to drop one ball, using a pair of chopsticks, I kept turning the ball till the surface is totally cooked (so that it will not stick to the pot's base) before I add another ball and continue flipping.  I think the max should be 4 balls and you keep rotating the balls in the pot to create movement and to prevent sticking.  Using the chopsticks, gently press on the surface of each ball.  The more you press, the bigger the balls will inflate.  Dish out onto a kitchen tissue about 3-4 mins later or when the colour turns golden brown.  Do not turn up the fire as the sesame seed and exterior may be burnt very quickly.

Some recipes call for the wetting of the balls before rolling over sesame seeds.  That was what I did in previous years and got scalded very badly.  If your dough is sticky enough, the sesame seeds will be coated nicely and will not loosen.  Also, when moving the balls in the hot pot, do so gently to prevent the sesame seeds from dropping out. 

Have fun trying! 

Happy mum

Banana Cake

Bananas... the kids' favourite but usually, they either end up eating too many in a day, or waste them by forgetting to eat and letting them "rot" before throwing.  Just nice, I have a pack of Cake Flour that has just expired by 1 month and a bunch of bananas that are too ripe and hence, decided to make a maiden attempt of the Banana Cake.  The end result - the hubby loves it for its "originality".  Don't ask me in what ways, becos I do not dare to eat banana cakes and hence cannot make any comparison to those sold outside.  In his words, the cake has a very nice banana aroma and the top of the cake is a little crusty while the inside is moist, soft but doesn't crumble easily.  Whatever, cos I still don't dare to touch bananas.  But happy that he loves it!

Ingredients:
Mixture A:
- 2 cups Cake Flour
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder

Mixture B:
- 125g salted butter (room temperature)
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 teaspoons milk

Whisk butter and sugar into cream and add one egg at a time into the mixture.  Add the milk last.  Set aside.

Mixture C:
- 3 bananas mashed (roughly instead of fine if you prefer to have chunks in the cake)


Step 1: Preheat the oven at 180 degrees and prepare the mixtures as above

Step 2: Grease the baking tray/tin with butter

Step 3: Add Mixture C (mashed banana) into Mixture A (Butter/Sugar/Eggs).

Step 4: Slowly add in Mixture B by folding the batter thoroughly.

Step 5: Pour into baking tray/tin.  Gently knock the tray to allow air to escape and for the batter to settle down nicely

Step 6: Send into the oven to bake at 180 degrees for 55 mins.

Tadah, the completed product!

Happy going-bananas!  Enjoy!


Happy mum

Curry Chicken

Well, as usual, am on a "self-imposed" budget challenge, hence need to find ways to make our meals as economical as possible.  So, I bought a try of whole chopped chicken and I used half of it for stew.  Decided to use the other half for curry chicken since I have the other ingredients (curry leaves, lemon grass etc) in the fridge.  And becos I super love using thermal pot (wah, cuts down the cooking time by half!), so this round, instead of totally relying on stove, I used the thermal pot to help.


Ingredients:
- half chicken, chopped into pieces (can replace with frozen wings too)
- potatoes (skinned, chopped into halves)
- one stalk of lemon grass (chopped diagonally into 2inches long)
- curry leaves (2 sprigs, use leaves only)
- curry chicken paste* (see below)
- coconut milk
- pinch of salt
- oil (for frying potatoes and for the curry afterwards)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- half pot hot water

* This is the paste that I always use:

Steps:
1. Heat up the oil in wok on medium fire.

2. Add in the chopped potatoes and fry till golden brown.  Dish and set aside.  (I like to do it this way to prevent the potatoes from "disintegrating" lol!!)

3. Leave about 3 tablespoons of oil in the wok.  Add in the curry paste and stir fry continuously till all mixed and fragrance is out.  Throw in the lemongrass and curry leaves, continue to stir fry till you seen the chilli oil coming out.

4. Add in the chicken and give a good fry.  Ensure all chicken parts are coated with the curry paste. Fry for about 5-10 mins.

5. Toss in the potatoes and continue to fry.  By this time, the wok should be pretty dry.  Add in one cup of water.  Continue to fry again.

6. Add in the sugar, and a bit of salt.

7. Pour about half pot of hot water into the wok of curry and fry continuously.

8. Add in the pack of coconut milk and stir well.  Let the curry boil.  By now, the chicken should be at least 80% cooked.  At this stage, you can either:

a. continue to boil the curry till chicken are all well-cooked OR
b. dish into the thermal pot and let it self cook for 30mins or longer (if you want it to be more tender).

Happy Eating!

Happy mum

Home-cooked Mee Hoon Kuey

Little Lass and me love mee hoon kuey a lot!  Ok, Little Lass loves it a lot more than me cos she is still unaware of the repercussion of having it on a regular basis (its flour leh!).  LOL!  So, I was running out of idea what to prepare for her lunch when I happened to look back my past food album and saw MHK!  So, we all had that for lunch today.

Ingredients:
For the dough: - good for 3-4 pax
- 2.5 cups of plain flour
- 1 cup of water
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon salt

For the soup:
- handful of ikan bilis (or ikan bilis Knorr's cube)
- half cup of soya beans (黄豆)
- Pot of water

For 配料:
- sliced mushrooms
- minced pork marinated with light soy sauce, corn flour,  sesame oil, pinch of salt and white pepper
- vegs (I used spinach as I cant find mani-cai)
- prawns/fish slice (optional)
- ikan bilis (to be pan-fried)


Step 1:
Prepare the dough by mixing everything together and kneading into a non-sticky texture (takes about 10 mins).  Cover dough with a damp cloth and set aside for 30-60mins.

Step 2:
Boil the broth by adding the soya beans and ikan bilis / knorrs' cube.  Once the broth comes to a boil, set aside or keep in the thermal pot (recommended).

Step 3:
While broth is boiling or while the dough is resting, you can also work on the other ingredients.  Heat a small pan with oil and fry the mushrooms till fragrant and dish up to set aside.  Pan fried ikan bilis and set aside.  These are to be added when the dish is ready.

Step 4:
After dough has rested, separate the dough into 3 portions (3 pax). 

Step 5:
Scoop about 5-6 big ladle of soup into a small pot and set to boil.

Step 6:
Working on one of the dough, you can use a roller pin to roll till flat and tear away or you can use ur hands to flatten and pull the dough into small flat irregular pieces.  Throw the pulled dough into the small pot of boiling broth and cook for about 3-4 mins.

Step 7:
Spoon the minced meat into the small pot of boiling soup + kueys.  Give a good stir.

Step 8:
Throw in the fish slices or prawns and cook for 1 more min before adding in the vegetables.  Stir well.

Step 9:
Crack an egg into the bowl.

Step 10:
Pour out the contents in the small pot into the bowl.

Step 11:
Garnish with the fried ikan bilis and mushrooms.

Step 12:
Add a dash of sesame oil and pepper and serve.

Happy Lunching!

Happy mum

Salted Egg Cereal Chicken

ever since the youngest baby tried Cereal Prawns, he loved it for the crispy curry leaves and cereals and I decided to create the same dish but switch out the prawns with chicken.  And becos the auntie in me wanted to get the free Pyrex baking try ($15 worth of Knorrs products), I bought the Salted Egg powder.  Hence, for dinner, I decided to do up Salted Egg Cereal Chicken.

Ingredients:
- one pack of chicken fillet cut into 3cm cubes (but I would suggest chicken thigh meat will be nice!)
- 5 tablespoon Salted Egg Powder
- 5 tablespoon Cereal
- 1 to 2 chilli padi (chopped)
- 20 curry leaves
- pinch of salt & pepper
-1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 tablespoon corn flour (for extra cripsyness, add some sweet potato flour)
- 1 tablespoon of butter/margarine


Steps:

1. Marinate the chicken cubes with salt and pepper and corn flour.  Set aside to marinate for 25 mins.

2. Heat up pan with oil on medium fire to pan fry the chicken.  While oil is heating up, add in the beaten egg mixture to the chicken cubes and mix well.

3. Add in the chicken into the pan to fry till golden brown.  Dish up onto a kitchen towel to absorb the oil.

4. Leave a little oil + add in the butter on low fire, add in the salted egg powder and give a good stir.  When the mixture starts to bubble, add in the cereal, sugar, curry leaves and chilli and give a good stir to mix well.  Take care to loosen the clumps.

5. Add in the chicken cubes when the salted egg cereal mixture becomes aromatic.  Continue to stir fry.

6. Dish and plate.

Happy Eating!

Happy Mum