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