Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chocolate. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Food As Sweet As Love

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It's nice to be able to serve up a plate of desserts on a Saturday-church-lunch-fellowship-love-meal. Everyone brings a plate of home cooked food to share with others and you can bring whatever your heart desires as long as you are willing and able to do so. At church, during meal times, everybody takes the food and eats it with delight despite the different cuisines, preferences, quantity or quality-it's a love meal, meaning the food is made with love, shared with love, and eaten with love.
I took the opportunity this week to try baking something chocolate-y. And not just any chocolate. It had to use white chocolate, contain no nuts, and be easy to make so I could make a larger quantity without spending too long in the kitchen. I subconsciously kept these requirements in mind because when you make things for a group of people, it has to be practical, appropriate, and pleasing too.
I remember serving up a plate of slightly burnt custard puffs. My conscience pricked me. I felt bad. I took a step back from baking anything more for a while. But the eventual lesson learnt: "let failure be your teacher, not your executioner". At times we may experience failures in different aspects of life but we shouldn't let that stop us from pursuing our goals or dreams. 
I once made a resolution that I would like to make the people around me happy. Today I have took one step further to make that resolve true.

Mini White Choc Muffins
Makes 48

Ingredients:
cups plain flour
tablespoon baking powder (I used two teaspoon)
½ teaspoon salt (I used just a pinch)
12 ounces white chocolate , finely chopped (I used 12 oz. white chocolate chips which is about a packet of 375 grams of Nestles' white choc buttons)
tablespoons butter, at room temperature
large egg, at room temperature
¾ cup caster sugar (I use 1/2 cup)
¾ cup milk (do not use nonfat)
teaspoon vanilla extract (I used vanilla essence)

Directions:
1. In a mixing bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until uniform; set aside.
2. Add 4 ounces (about a 110 grams) white chocolate and all the butter in the top of a bowl set over a pot of simmering water.
3. Stir constantly until half the chocolate and butter is melted.
4. Remove the bowl, continue stirring, away from the heat, until the mixture is smooth; let cool for 10 minutes.
5. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg and sugar until thick and pale yellow (takes about 2 minutes).
6. Whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture until smooth; whisk in the milk and vanilla.
7. Use a wooden spoon and stir in the remaining chopped white chocolate.
8. Stir in flour mixture just until moistened.
9. Fill muffin tins that have been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, 3/4 full.
10. Bake in a 180°F oven for 14 minutes OR until muffins are browned with sightly rounded tops OR pick comes out clean when poked into muffin.
11. Set pan on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes.
12. Turn muffins out of pan; cool on wire rack for 5 minutes.
13. If storing or freezing muffins, cool completely before sealing in airtight container or in freezer-safe plastic bags, or else enjoy muffin warm or cool (:

Sunday, 25 December 2011

Midnight Bake with Betty Crocker

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When time is of the essence use Betty Crocker's packet mixes, and bake together with some friends. This bake was Betty Crocker's brownie mix which proved successful as we saw none of its remnants the next morning at breakfast. It was one long last night in a place I like to think of as my second home (:


Image credit to K. Thanks for the sweet memories!

Thursday, 24 November 2011

Can't Get Enough Of Cookies On Sticks

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My aunty gave me a recipe for soft chewing chocolate chocolate cookie which I just had to try. I hope I did justice to the recipe.
I ended up making double the batter because of two farewell occasions. Some for work colleagues and some for the children in the school that I am volunteering in. So I made some pretty and decorated, and some classic homestyle-looking cookies. 
These cookies just make you speechless after the first bite. It's so soft and slightly chewy, and it just crumbles    then melts in your mouth. Delightful and delicious.



Soft Chew Chocolate Cookies

Makes 36-40


Ingredients:

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 tablespoon coco power
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
  •    Or semisweet white chocolate chips
  •    Or 1 cup each of semisweet chocolate chip and semisweet white chocolate chips
  •    Or 2/3 cup each of both chocolates with 2/3 cup mini size marshmallow .


Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
  2. Sift together the flour, baking soda ,coco power and salt set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted dry ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches ( 7 cm ) apart.
  4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.


My Aunty's baking tips on this recipe :)

1. I will set alarm of baking time to 13 minutes, and check on back of the cookie if light brown yet and also cookie edges if lightly toast or burn . So, you have chance not to over bake it. If edges of cookie is burn, better take it out.  Cookie always taste good even under cook, but when it over bake and burn then that sucks. 

2. Don't press cookie flat this time , because due to the baking, it will go flat itself and keep moisture inside them.

Happy baking my dear!!! Chocolate cookie always go well with cold milk in summer!!!

Monday, 14 November 2011

Decadent Chocolate Cheesecake

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When my cousin sister requested something "chocolate-y" and "cheesecake-y", I just had to put this decadent chocolate cheesecake together. I've never tried piping and decorating a cake before (I usually spoon a spoonful of cream or something and then use a toothpick to make swirls), so I was really playing with the elements I had before placing them on the cake.
It kind of looks like the macarons around the cake are half sunk into the cake, doesn't it? 
Anyways the cheesecake was a hit; creamy chocolate cheese filling, a little chocolate hit from the chocolate button, chewy chocolate macaron, and crunchy with the chocolate biscuit base . Note: best not eaten after a heavy meal (e.g. KFC or any other fast food for that matter...because we did and everyone didn't look so good afterwards). 

Decadent Chocolate Cheesecake
Serves 8-10

Ingredients:
base
125 grams of chocolate biscuits (I made my own the previous day creaming together a 1/2 cup of butter softened with 1/4 cup brown sugar, then added 1 cup all purpose flour and mixed. I spooned the mix onto baking paper into about 12 proportions and baked it for 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Celius)
60 grams of melted butter


filling
250 grams of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 egg yolks (I think this can be omitted)
1 cup cream, whipped
125 grams milk chocolate

Directions:

  1. Prepare the base first by mixing the biscuit crumbs (crush the biscuits beforehand) with the butter and then press this into a 20cm diameter spring form cake pan (or prepare a cake tin by lining with baking paper). Refrigerate this.
  2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water.
  3. Beat cream cheese until smooth then beat in the brown sugar. Add lightly beaten egg yolks and melted chocolate and mix well. Then gently fold in whipped cream.
  4. Pour over the biscuit base now in the cake pan. Then smooth the surface. Add any decorations or other elements as desired. Chill for at least 4 hours before serving. 

Friday, 28 October 2011

Choc Chip Cookies Craze

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When I came across this recipe on Happy Home Baking I just felt so attached to the cookies on sticks that I had to bake some to behold for myself. So one sunny afternoon we got down to some serious baking, me and my little cousin, and turns out she's a better baker than I am hahs...smiles on choc chip cookies and smiles at them too (: 

Somehow the cookies seemed somewhat different from the ones featured in Happy Home Baking, however they were still a sweet treat. I even had some jumbo pop sticks to attach to them and ribbon too. 




So colorful!
 Cookie monsters sneaking up on them...


Next time, I'd probably add a little less chocolate and sugar because my little cousin and I got a little sugar-high-craze after a bite or two.
 

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