onion focaccia

Da and I enjoy eating focaccia. The smell of the herbs when the bread is warmed up in the oven is simply heavenly.

In the old days, I used to spread my home-made garlic spread onto french loaf when I made garlic bread. Nowadays, I prefer to use focaccia. When I am pressed for time, I will buy Gardenia focaccia. If I have the luxury of time, I will make my own focaccia. Some time ago, I watched an episode of "Chef at Home" on the Asian Food Channel. In that episode, Chef Michael Smith made olive focaccia. It looked heavenly! I am amazed at how easy he makes cooking / baking look. It is indeed a source of encouragement for me.

The Asian Food Channel website contains some of the recipes from some of the programmes. I could not find the recipe for olive focaccia by Michael Smith in the website. However, I found Jaime Oliver's recipe for focaccia with rosemary and olive oil topping. Jamie Oliver is one of my favourite chefs. Like Michael Smith, Jamie Oliver makes cooking / baking easy and that is the way it should be. If Pebbles can cook, so can you! (sorry for the little pun.... *grin*)

Onion focaccia can be eaten on its own or with a creamy based soup (such as clam chowder soup). All you need to do is to warm it up in the oven and it is ready to be eaten. You can, of course, eat it without warming it up. However, it tastes better when eaten warm.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups plain flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp dry yeast

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 tbsp dried rosemary leaves

2 tsp dried thyme leaves

2 tsp dried parsley flakes

2 tbsp olive oil

1 cup warm water

1 medium red onion (about 80g) (finely sliced)

1 tbsp grated sea salt

1 tbsp olive oil (for drizzling)

METHOD

1. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

2. Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl.

3. Add the yeast, cheese and herbs to the flour mixture. Mix well.

4. Pour in the oil and water gradually to the flour mixture and mix to a soft dough.

5. Turn the dough onto a floured surface. Dust your hands with flour and knead the dough about 5 times or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

6. Place the dough on the lined baking tray and press into a rectangular shape.

7. Cover the dough with a cling wrap and place the baking tray in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

8. Remove the cling wrap. Sprinkle the dough with the onion slices and grated sea salt. Drizzle with 1 tbsp of olive oil.

9. Bake in an oven preheated to 220 degrees celsius for 25 minutes.

mocca almond brownies

There are two types of brownies that one can bake: fudge-like brownies and cake-like brownies.

Fudge-like brownies are sometimes a bit of a challenge to make because if you are not successful, the baked brownies are too moist and you can even mould them with your hands like play-doh.

Cake-like brownies are easier to make but one has to be careful not to over-bake the brownies else they would end up very dry. The mocca almond brownie recipe in this post would give you cake-like brownies.

Ingredients

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

80g cocoa powder

85g plain flour

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

60g semi-sweet chocolate chips

100g almonds

175g butter (softened)

180g castor sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3 tsp 3-in-1 instant coffee

3 tbsp warm water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease a 9" x 9" square cake tin and line with baking paper.

3. Sift the baking powder, cocoa powder, plain flour and ground cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.

4. Using an electric chopper, roughly chop up the chocolate chips and the almonds. Set aside.

5. Cream the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time.

6. Add the chocolate chips and almonds to the butter mixture. Add the vanilla essence. Mix well.

7. Dissolve the instant coffee in the warm water and mix with the butter mixture.

8. Fold in the flour mixture and mix well. The batter will be wet.

9. Spoon the brownie batter into the prepared cake tin and level out the top with a spatula.

10. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

11. Let the brownie cool before slicing the brownie.

Tips

1. Do not overbake. When you insert a toothpick into the brownie, it may not come out clean (but it should not come out wet).

2. For the 3-in-1 instant coffee, I prefer to use white coffee. If available, I will use flavoured white coffee such as white coffee with hazelnut flavour.

Japanese pizza

I made a Japanese-style pizza for a Valentine's Day dinner that Da and I hosted at our home this year.

What makes this pizza different from other savoury pizzas is the sauce that you spread on the pizza base. I used tonkatsu sauce, which I managed to buy from the Japanese food section in NTUC Supermarket.

Ingredients

1 pizza base

2 pieces of chicken fillet (sliced)

1/3 red capsicum (sliced)

1/2 stick celery (sliced)2 crab sticks (sliced)

1/3 carrot (sliced)

1 cup mushroom (I use a mixture of dried Chinese mushroom and fresh mushroom) (sliced)

2 cups miso soup

tonkatsu sauce

mayonnaise

grated mozarella cheese

seasoned seaweed (sliced)

bacon bits

Method

1. Cook the sliced ingredients in boiling miso soup. Strain and set aside.

2. Spread tonkatsu sauce on the pizza base.

3. Arrange the cooked ingredients on top of the pizza base.

4. Using a spoon, liberally scoop mayonnaise onto the pizza base.

5. Cover the pizza with grated mozarella cheese and seasoned seaweed and bacon bits.

6. Place the pizza onto a baking tray lined with aluminium foil. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.

Tips

1. If you do not have miso soup on hand, you can marinate the ingredients with some worcestershire sauce, dash of pepper and dash of salt and cook the ingredients in boiling water. Remember to strain the cooked ingredients before you arrange the ingredients onto the pizza base.

2. Be innovative and experiment with other ingredients of your choice.

3. You can either buy a ready-made pizza base (I prefer Mediterranean pizza base to the normal pizza base) or you can use a home-made pizza base.

light fruit cake with kiwifruit slices and vanilla frosting

I was browsing the shelves in a supermarket when I came across a tub of vanilla frosting. It looked tempting, so I decided to buy it.

Having bought the frosting, I was debating what to do with it and I decided to bake a light fruit cake and add the vanilla frosting (in place of whipped cream). The frosting is very thick and hence, it is not very easy to spread onto the cake. However, be patient when spreading the frosting and you will be rewarded with big smiles from your guests.

Ingredients

1/2 cup dried mixed fruits (bloomed)
1 1/4 cups self-raising flour
250g butter (softened)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground almond
2 eggs
1/3 cup cooking oil
vanilla frosting
kiwifruit (sliced)
chocolate rice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease a 9" square cake pan and line with baking paper.

3. Soak the dried mixed fruits in some room temperature water. When the dried fruits have expanded, drain off the water. Set aside.

4. Sift the self-raising flour. Set aside.

5. Cream the butter, sugar and milk until light and fluffy.

6. Add the vanilla essence, ground cinnamon and ground almond. Mix well.

7. Stir in the bloomed dried mixed fruits.

8. Add the eggs, 1 at a time.

9. Fold in the flour until well blended.

10. Pour the batter into the greased and lined cake pan.

11. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

12. When the cake has cooled, slice the cake cross-section. Spread vanilla frosting on each of the 2 inner sides of the cake. Place a layer of sliced kiwifruit on top of the bottom layer of the cake and sandwich with the top layer of the cake.

13. Spread the vanilla frosting throughout the external part of the cake before sprinkling the cake liberally with chocolate rice.

14. Refrigerate the cake until it is time to be served.

15. For easy slicing, use a hot knife to slice the cake.

Tips

1. If you would prefer that the cake be a chocolate fruit cake, you can sift 2 tbsp cocoa powder and 2 tbsp Milo together with the self-raising flour.

2. The vanilla frosting is rather sweet, so if you do not have a very sweet tooth, you may want to substitute it with whipped cream instead.

ham bun

When MIL gave Da and me a few slices of ham, I decided to use three slices to make ham bun while keeping the rest of the slices. I have not decided yet what to do with the rest of the slices. Nowadays, if I make a sandwich, I prefer to eat the sandwich with turkey breast instead of ham as I find that turkey breast is not as salty.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup low-fat milk

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

6 tbsp olive oil

4 tbsp castor sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 slices ham (cut into small pieces)

3 cups bread flour

2 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast

1 egg yolk (for glazing)

1 1/2 tsp evaporated milk (for glazing)

METHOD

1. Add the milk, eggs, olive oil, sugar and salt into the bucket of the breadmaker machine. Add the sliced ham.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that the flour covers the liquid entirely.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle.

5. When the cycle has been completed, divide the dough and shape into buns.

6. Place the shaped dough onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Do not place the buns too close to each other as the dough will continue to rise.

7. Cover the dough with a moist cloth and leave to rise for 1 hour.

8. Bake the buns in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 15 minutes.

9. Beat the the egg yolk and evaporated milk thoroughly in a small bowl. Set aside.

10. As soon as the buns have been removed from the oven, brush the buns with the glaze.

11. Cool the buns on a wire rack.

kiwifruit frozen yoghurt

Using kiwifruit as a base for your frozen yoghurt and adding lemon juice to the mixture gives it a lovely tangy taste.

You can either use an ice cream maker or do it the traditional way, that is, freeze the mixture for one hour, remove it from the freezer, whisk it again and place it back in the freezer. Either way, this is a wonderful dessert to eat on a hot day.

Our friend, YC told us that eating ice cream / frozen yoghurt on a cold day is absolutely divine. We were skeptical when we first heard it but when we ate ice cream at her home in Perth, Australia on a very cold night, we were hooked. Yummy, yummy, yummy!

INGREDIENTS

200g kiwifruit
100ml plain yoghurt
100ml whipping cream
100g icing sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice

METHOD

1. Peel the kiwifruit and cube them.

2. Blend the kiwifruit in a blender together with the plain yoghurt, lemon juice and icing sugar.

3. Whip the whipping cream in a bowl until stiff.

4. Add the contents of the blender to the whipping cream and mix well.

5. Place the mixture in the freezer for 1 hour, then remove it, whisk it again to break up ice crystals and put it back in the freezer for at least 8 hours or overnight. Alternatively, place the mixture in the ice cream maker and mix for 30 minutes before pouring the mixture into a container and freezing the mixture for at least 8 hours or overnight.

walnut cookies

Ever since Da and I bought a walnut crusher, I have been having fun using it. Crushed walnuts are very versatile, for example, they can be used as toppings on a cake or as ingredients in a cookie.

Recently, I tried to use the walnut crusher to crush some almond nips but I found it difficult to do so because the almond nips are harder than the walnut meat. As such, for the moment, my walnut crusher is used solely to crush walnuts, which is such a waste of a kitchen tool. I shall have to look for other uses for the walnut crusher.

In the meantime, here is my recipe for walnut cookies. If you do not have a walnut crusher, no worries. Simply place the walnut meat in a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to hit the walnut. Or you can use a knife. If you intend to use the rolling pin method, it helps if you lightly toast the walnut meat in the oven first.

INGREDIENTS

675g top flour
50g custard powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp cocoa powder
350g butter (softened)
3 eggs
340g icing sugar
200g walnuts (chopped / crushed)

METHOD

1. Sift the top flour, custard powder and bicarbonate soda in a bowl. Mix the sifted ingredients together and separate into two bowls. In one of the bowls, add 3 tbsp of sifted cocoa powder and mix well. You will therefore have two bowls - the "plain flour mixture" and the "cocoa flour mixture".

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk the butter, eggs and icing sugar at low speed for 2 minutes.

3. Add the walnuts and mix for 1 minute.

4. Separate the dough into two bowls. In one of the bowls, fold in the plain flour mixture and mix well ("plain dough"). In the other bowl, fold in the cocoa flour mixture and mix well ("cocoa dough").

5. Press the plain dough and the cocoa dough alternately onto a 9" x 12" x 1" baking tray (see photograph below). The entire dough should fill up the whole baking tray.

6. Cover the entire dough with cling wrap and place the baking tray in the freezer until the dough is firm.

7. When the dough has firmed up, remove the dough from the baking tray and cut into small pieces of desired size.

8. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 18 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

9. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing them in an air-tight container.

slow cooker beef stew

Slow cookers are a wonderful invention. They are perfect for cooking stews as the long cooking time ensures that the potatoes, carrots and other hard vegetables (such as celery) are soft while the meat remains tender.

The last time that I cooked a stew, I "slaved over the stove top" and constantly stirred the stew while the stew was simmering. If the stew is the only dish that I am cooking, it is not an issue (other than aching feet when I am done cooking). However, if Da and I are hosting a party at our home, I do not have the time to constantly stir the stew. This is where a slow cooker comes in very handy.

When I cooked beef stew using a slow cooker, one can of chicken broth was sufficient for two soup bowls of stew and I did not have to add any more water. If you are cooking for more people, do increase the proportion accordingly.

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 can chicken broth
200g beef cubes (marinated in some Worcestershire sauce and/or Guinness stout, freshly ground black peppercorn and 1/2 tbsp corn flour)
1 carrot
1 medium potato
8 cherry tomatoes
8 pcs cut young corn
8 button mushrooms
1 stick celery
1/2 cup peas
1/2 yellow onion
1/2 tbsp corn flour mixed with 1/2 cup water (to thicken the stew)

Method

1. Cut the carrot, potato, button mushrooms, celery and onion into chunks.

2. Add the chicken broth and all the other ingredients (except the beef cubes and the corn flour mixture). Cook on HIGH.

3. When the chicken broth has heated up, add the beef cubes. Stir well and switch to AUTO.

4. When the hard ingredients (such as carrot and potato) have softened, add the corn flour mixture and stir thoroughly. Let the stew cook for another 15 minutes before serving.

very chocolatey chocolate chip cookies

I have named the recipe in this post "very chocolatey chocolate chip cookies" because the cookies are full of chocolatey taste.

Family and friends who have sampled my chocolate chip cookies have commented that the cookies smell and taste like a certain famous brand of chocolate chip cookies, which is certainly a wonderful compliment.

The cookies are very easy to make. The only thing is that you would need a fair amount of patience as you place the cookie dough onto the baking tray using two teaspoons. It is not difficult to do this but it can be tedious as you would end up baking quite a number of cookies and it does take a bit of time. However, it is all worth it when you smell the delicious aroma of chocolate while the cookies are baking in the oven. When you bite into a warm cookie when it is fresh from the oven, it is simply awesome.

As I use a tabletop oven, I can only make 20 cookies on each baking tray. The oven is not very large and can fit at most a 9" square baking pan. As such, when I bake cookies, I do tend to take several hours each time.

When Da and I moved into our current apartment a few ago, I was elated to discover that the apartment came with a built-in oven beneath the hob. However, when I tried to use this oven to bake cookies and cakes, I found that the cakes tend to be quite dry and the cookies tend to burn. I would probably have to modify my recipes if I wish to use this oven to bake my cakes and cookies. Until such time that I modify the recipes, I am happy to continue using my tabletop oven.

Ingredients

2 cups plain flour
1/4 cup corn flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup Milo powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter (softened)
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 cup ground peanuts
1 cup chopped nuts
2 cups chocolate chips

Method

1. Heat oven to 190 degrees celsius.

2. Sift together the plain flour, corn flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, Milo powder and salt. Set aside.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, beat butter, castor sugar, brown sugar, vanilla essence and ground cinnamon with an electric mixer until creamy.

4. Add the eggs, ground peanuts and chopped nuts and mix well using the electric mixer.

5. Using a spatula, stir the chocolate chips into the batter and mix well.

6. Gradually add the flour mixture using a spatula, mixing well.

7. Using two teaspoons, drop by rounded teaspoons onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

8. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

9. Cool slightly; remove from baking tray and place on a wire rack to cool completely.

10. Store in an air-tight container.

durian ice cream

If you like to eat durian, you may want to try making your own durian ice cream. You do not need to buy the expensive D24 durian. I bought several boxes of durians that were sold at S$2 each. In the end, I only needed two to three boxes of durians. Hmm... what shall I do with the rest of the durians? Durian bread? Durian muffins? Let me place some thought as to the recipe. Do watch this space for more updates!

When you are making ice cream without the use of an ice cream maker, you have two options:-

(a) take the trouble to stir the ice cream when it has been placed in the freezer for 1 hour (and repeat this process a few times); or

(b) eat it as it is (that is, without the constant stirring).

For so long as you use a main ingredient that is creamy (eg. banana, durian, avocado, etc), you do not actually have to adopt option (a) above. I have so far made banana raisin ice cream and durian ice cream using option (b) above and whilst the ice cream would, of course, have been more creamy had I used an ice cream maker or had I stirred the ice cream every hour or so, Da and I do not have complaints about the texture of the ice cream.

INGREDIENTS

400g durian flesh (puree)
80g castor sugar (or to taste)
160g plain yoghurt
1 tsp durian essence
200g whipping cream

METHOD

1. Remove the seeds from the durian flesh.

2. Place the durian flesh, sugar, yoghurt and durian essence in a blender and blend until smooth. Taste a bit of the puree - add more castor sugar if the puree is not sweet enough and add more durian essence if the durian flavour is not strong enough.

3. Whisk the whipping cream using a hand whisk until stiff.

4. Pour the durian puree into the whipped cream and stir until evenly mixed.

5. Place the mixture in a container and freeze overnight.

TIP

1. Depending on the type of durian that you have bought, you may need to adjust the amount of sugar and durian essence accordingly. For example:-

(a) the cheaper durians (such as those sold for S$2 per box) tend to be less sweet and flavourful, so you may need to add more sugar and/or durian essence;

(b) Thai durians tend to be fleshy and sweet, so you may need to cut down on the amount of sugar;

(c) D24 durians tend to be bitter-sweet, so you may need to add more sugar.

2. It is important to do a "taste test" when you have pureed the durian mixture before you add it to the whipped cream so that you can add more sugar and/or durian essence to suit your tastebuds.

anchovies cookies

Well, what can I say? This post is dedicated to my good friend, GP. She very thoughtfully offered to obtain a recipe for anchovies cookies from one of her acquaintances for me to try. However, when I received the recipe, I read it and realised that the recipe would yield chewy cookies. As my family and I prefer crunchy cookies, I decided to shelve the recipe that she gave me for the moment.

Having said this, my mind has been on anchovies cookies for the past week ever since GP told me about them. I have never eaten anchovies cookies before and the idea of baking them enthralled me. My curiosity was further piqued when Da told me that one of his colleagues bought some "laksa cookies". Laksa-flavoured cookies? Gosh...

It so happened that we have some balance fried anchovies which we bought from our favourite coffee shop at Jalan Tua Kong about two weeks ago. I decided to do some trial and error on 18 July 2009 and bake some crunchy anchovies cookies.

The outcome? When Da sampled one of the cookies before it had thoroughly cooled down, he gave me the "thumbs up" and told me that the cookies had a balance of sweet and savoury. Excited, I ate one of the cookies as well. It was delicious.

Hi XQ, I know that you like to try out cookies recipes. Do give this recipe a try and let me have your feedback.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
125g butter (softened)
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 cup fried anchovies (pounded)
1 tbsp (about 6g) crispy seasoned seaweed (cut into small pieces)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Sift the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and ground cinnamon in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Cream the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time and mix well.

4. Add the pounded anchovies and seaweed and mix until well blended.

5. Fold in the flour mixture using a wooden spatula.

6. Using two teaspoons, drop 1 teaspoonful of the batter onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

8. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing them in an air-tight container.

TIP

I use a pestle and mortar to pound the fried anchovies. You can use an electric chopper but using a pestle and mortar enables you to control how finely pounded you want the anchovies to be. I would recommend that you do not pound the anchovies until they become powder. Leave some small crunchy bits for that extra "oomph" when you bite into the cookies.

yaki udon

Yaki udon is essentially udon noodles fried with ingredients. The beauty of this dish is that once the ingredients have cooked, all you need to do is to add the udon noodles and mix thoroughly with the ingredients and the dish is ready for consumption.

I have not included the proportion of the ingredients in the recipe below because the amount of ingredients is up to personal preference. For me, I usually keep handy in my freezer some Mediterranean pizza base so that in case I happen to prepare too many ingredients for the yaki udon, I portion out some of the ingredients and use them to make a Japanese pizza. If you have sufficient food for the meal, you can always freeze the pizza and heat it up another day.

Ingredients

oil (for frying)

garlic (chopped)

large red onion (chopped)

chicken fillet (sliced)

celery (sliced)

red capsicum (sliced)

green capsicum (sliced)

yellow capsicum (sliced)

enoki mushroom

dried Chinese mushroom (sliced)

assorted fresh mushroom (sliced)

button mushroom (sliced)

green peas

young corn (sliced)

carrot (sliced)

snow peas (sliced)

cabbage (sliced)

baby butthead lettuce (sliced)

spring onion (sliced)

seasoned seaweed (sliced) - set aside some for the garnishing

egg

udon noodles

Method

1. Rinse the udon noodles in water and drain away the water. Set aside.

2. Fry the garlic and onion until fragrant. Add the chicken and fry until half cooked.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the egg) and fry until all the ingredients have softened.

4. Crack an egg and mix with the ingredients.

5. Add the udon noodles and mix thoroughly. Continue to fry for a short while until the udon noodles have softened.

6. Garnish with some sliced seasoned seaweed.

Tip

When frying the ingredients, I usually separate the ingredients that take longer to cook (eg. celery, capsicum, etc) and fry these first before I add the remaining ingredients that cook faster (eg. mushrooms).

Nestum and oat cookies

The buzz word nowadays is "healthy". Everyone seems to be trying to eat more healthily, live more healthily and think more healthily (that is, as in think happy thoughts). On the last point, I believe that if we all learn to "let go" of the unimportant things in life (for example, the neighbour who does not bother to hold the lift door for us when he can clearly see that we are running for the lift, the driver on the road who refuses to let us move into his lane despite our having signalled, the colleague who "tai-chi" his/her work to us, the loud-mouthed old lady who forces her way and cuts queue without any apologies, etc), we would all be much happier and be more at peace with ourselves.

What could be more healthy than oats? It is believed that oats are not fattening and they aid in reducing one's cholesterol level. My mother is able to eat a bowl of instant oats mixed with hot water "neat" (that is, without adding any sugar, syrup, fruits, etc) - gosh....

I created my Nestum (a brand of cereal drink) and oat cookies inadvertently. Oh, I had every intention of baking such cookies. However, I was adventurous (or more likely foolhardy) enough to try and adapt a recipe that was actually meant for a type of cookie that would melt in one's mouth. Needless to say, halfway through the mixing of the cookie dough, I realised the folly of my ways. Improvising on the spot, I made some changes to the recipe and voila! My own Nestum and oat cookies!

Ingredients

200g plain flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup butter (softened)

100g brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

100g peanut oil

2 eggs

1 tsp ground cinnamon

200g Nestum cereal

50g ground peanut

159g chopped peanuts

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Sift the plain flour and baking powder. Set aside.

3. Cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

4. Add the salt and peanut oil to the butter and brown sugar. Mix well.

5. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well.

6. Add the Nestum cereal, ground cinnamon, ground peanuts and chopped peanuts and stir thoroughly.

7. Fold in the flour and mix well.

8. Shape the cookie into a round ball and flatten with the palm of your hand.

9. Place the cookies on a lined baking tray.

10. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

11. Cool thoroughly before storing in an air-tight container.

Tips

1. Instead of lining the baking tray with aluminium foil, I prefer to line the baking tray with baking paper. I use Glad Bake & Cooking Paper.

2. When you are shaping the cookie, you may find that the dough is crumbly. Be patient. I have found that it helps if I take a portion of the dough and squeeze it in the palm of one hand into a round ball. I then transfer the dough to the other palm and squeeze the dough again into a round ball. By this time, the dough would be more firm and you can then flatten the cookie with the palm of your hand before you place the cookie on the baking tray.

peanut butter rolls

I was surfing the internet recently and I came across Angie's recipe for peanut butter bread rolls. I was hooked. As my family and friends will tell you, I absolutely love crunchy peanut butter. Even though it may turn off some people, I will spread peanut butter on my bread even though I have already spread jam, butter or kaya (that is, coconut egg jam) on the bread. Yummy.....

I have to date not baked this type of bread rolls before. Even though I like to eat cinnamon rolls, I have so far hesitated to bake them because I was not very sure about the preparation process. However, since my mother has given me a very large bottle of crunchy peanut butter, I decided to plunge into unknown territories and give Angie's recipe a try.

I have made some modifications to Angie's recipe. Here is my version of peanut butter rolls. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

130ml warm water
1 1/2 tbsp castor sugar
1/2 egg (lightly beaten)
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter (softened)
2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
crunchy peanut butter

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast and peanut butter) in the bucket of the breadmaker machine.

2. Add the bread flour, making sure that the wet ingredients are totally covered.

3. Add the yeast.

4. Place the bucket in the breadmaker machine and set to "dough" cycle. Start the cycle.

5. When the cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board.

6. Lightly flour your hands and the rolling pin, and roll out the dough into a rectangle of approximately 16" x 12". As you are rolling out the dough, push out the air bubbles that appear.

7. Spread desired amount of peanut butter (in my case, it was a very generous amount... I could not resist the temptation!) over two-thirds of the rectangle. Note: do not spread the peanut butter all the way to the edges of the dough rectangle - leave 1/2" unbuttered all the way around.

8. Fold the buttered part of the rectangle over till it reaches half of the unbuttered third of the rectangle. Fold the remaining unbuttered third of the rectangle top down to cover it.

9. Give the dough a 90 degree turn to the left. Gently roll out the dough into a long strip of approximately 16" x 8" and fold the two shorter ends to meet each other in the middle.

10. Rotate the dough 90 degrees to the left again and roll it out into a rectangle of approximately 16" x 8".

11. Roll up the rectangle along the long edge. Moisten the tail end with water and press to close.

12. Cut the roll into 9 thick sections. Place them with the cross-section side up into a 9" x 9" cake pan that has been lined with baking paper.

13. Cover the cake pan with a damp cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

14. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes.

melting moments

One of the goodies that I brought to Muar, Malaysia for Chinese New Year this year is "Melting Moments". No, it is not ice-cream. It is a type of cookie that is supposed to melt in your mouth.

The beauty of this cookie is that it does not contain eggs. As such, if you generally avoid eating cookies because they tend to contain butter and eggs, you may want to try making this cookie. If you do not like the taste of butter, you can substitute with margarine or vegetable shortening although cookie lovers will tell you that mouth-watering cookies are made using butter. To each his own....

Ingredients

glace cherries

300g self-raising flour

300g butter (softened)

150g icing sugar

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp ground almond

1 pkt dessicated coconut

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Cut the glace cherries into small pieces.

3. Sift the self-raising flour. Set aside.

4. Cream the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.

5. Add the vanilla essence and ground almond to the butter and sugar. Mix well.

6. Fold in the flour using a wooden spatula and stir until the flour is evenly mixed.

7. Scoop a teaspoonful of cookie dough and roll into a ball. Toss each ball into dessicated coconut.

8. Flatten each cookie slightly using your palm and place the cookie onto a baking tray lined with baking paper.

9. Place a piece of cherry on top of each cookie.

10. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

11. Let the cookies cool thoroughly before storing in an air-tight container.

Tips

1. You can substitute icing sugar with castor sugar.

2. You can substitute ground almond with ground peanuts.

wholemeal banana cake

Often, I find myself hungry in the evening after work. I invariably end up eating some crackers just to tide over the hunger until dinner-time. However, not only are the crackers not healthy, they are dry and as such, make me more susceptible to sore throat. In any event, the hunger is kept at bay for only a short while.

I am not a big fan of bananas. I have always had the belief that bananas are fattening. FIL insists that they are not fattening and in fact, they are energy-giving. As such, Da and I have been thinking of eating a banana each in the evening before dinner. Not only would it help to tide over the hunger, we would probably end up eating less for dinner (hopefully!).

There is a shop near Da's office selling various types of fruit. When he came home with a bunch of Dole baby bananas, I was fascinated by the bananas. They are so tiny and too cute to be eaten!

All fruit in the house are meant to be eaten otherwise they will go to waste. As such, I decided to make a wholemeal banana cake. If you are not fond of the nutty texture that tends to accompany wholemeal bread and wholemeal cake, you can substitute with plain flour totally. However, I would urge you to give this recipe a try. Not only was the cake soft and moist when cut on the same day that it was baked, it continued to remain so the whole of the next day, when left on the table without refrigeration. I do not know whether the cake would have lasted longer than two days without refrigeration because we did not have the opportunity to find out. All the slices were finished faster than a speeding bullet!

For the topping, I decided to use a mixture of chocolate rice and cinnamon sugar as Da and I had guests over at our home on the day that I baked the cake and there were little ones present at the dinner party. Wait a minute... who am I kidding? The overgrown babies also had a sweet tooth and enjoyed the topping.

If chocolate rice does not suit your palate, you can substitute the topping with a walnut topping (that is, crushed walnuts mixed with castor sugar) or any other topping of your liking.

Ingredients

100g wholemeal flour
100g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g butter (softened)
50g brown sugar
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup ground peanuts
200g mashed banana
1 tsp banana essence
chocolate rice
cinnamon sugar

Method

1. Grease a 3" x 7" loaf pan and line the pan with baking paper.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

3. Sift the wholemeal flour, plain flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

4. Whisk the butter and brown sugar at low speed till the mixture turns pale and fluffy.

5. Add half the beaten egg and whisk at low speed. Add the remaining beaten egg and whisk at low speed.

6. Add the ground cinnamon and ground peanuts and whisk till evenly mixed.

7. Stir in the mashed banana and banana essence and mix well using a spatula.

8. Fold in the flour mixture and mix using the spatula until evenly mixed.

9. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.

10. Mix the chocolate rice and cinnamon sugar in a separate bowl and sprinkle the mixture over the top of the batter until top is entirely covered by the topping.

11. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

12. Cool thoroughly before slicing.

Tips

1. For the baking paper, I use Glad Bake.

2. It is advisable to sift the flour before using it so that the cake will rise better. Also, you can get rid of any hardened pieces of flour.

3. If you do not like the nutty texture of wholemeal flour, you can substitute with plain flour entirely.

egg rolls (love letters)

Over the years, I have always looked forward to visiting my grandmother. Up till the last few years of her life, she was the queen of her kitchen, personally doing the marketing and the cooking. Each time her grandchildren visited her, she would always find the time to make snacks and allow us to assist her. To my regret, I did not obtain more recipes from her.

One of my grandmother's recipes that I have managed to record is that of egg rolls (popularly known as "love letters"). My grandmother used to make the egg rolls using a mould and a charcoal stove. Nowadays, you can buy an egg roll maker (which looks similar to a sandwich maker). Egg roll lovers will, of course, tell you that egg rolls made over a charcoal stove taste better. But I guess if you do not wish to slave over a charcoal stove, an egg roll maker is the next best thing.

INGREDIENTS

600g plain flour
600g fine sugar
13 eggs
3 coconuts

METHOD

1. Squeeze out the milk from the coconut.

2. Beat the sugar and eggs until the mixture turns light.

3. Add the flour slowly using a metal spoon and stir until the mixture is properly mixed.

4. Pour in the coconut milk bit by bit and stir. Stop adding any more milk when the mixture is of medium thickness.

5. Pour one tablespoonful of the mixture into the mould and place the mould over a charcoal stove. Alternatively, pour a thin layer of the mixture into an egg roll maker. Check from time to time to see whether the egg roll is ready.

6. Bake until the egg roll is golden brown.

7. Take the egg roll out of the mould / egg roll maker and roll or fold it.

8. Store in an airtight container.

TIPS

If you intend to fold the egg roll, you may like to consider mixing some chopped peanuts with sugar and adding half a tablespoonful of the peanut mixture to the centre of the egg roll before you fold it.

banana raisin ice cream

I have been having fun lately making ice-cream... without the use of an ice-cream maker. Having said this, though, in March 2009 I came across an ice-cream maker being sold at a shop at Seah Street (near LSD's office). I did not enquire as to the price of the ice-cream maker then as I was not planning to buy it. However, the more I think about it, the more interested I am in making this acquisition. Hi LSD, when are you free for lunch? Perhaps I can meet up with you for lunch and thereafter pop by the shop to check out the ice-cream maker. *grin*

The recipe in this post is a modification of a recipe for strawberry yoghurt ice cream that I came across in Aunty Yochana's blog.

INGREDIENTS

300g overripe bananas

60g castor sugar

1 tsp banana essence

130g plain non-fat yoghurt

200g whipping cream

1 cup raisins

METHOD

1. Place the bananas, castor sugar, banana essence and plain yoghurt in a blender and mix until well blended.

2. Using a hand whisk, whisk the whipping cream in a bowl until stiff.

3. Stir the raisins and banana mixture into the whipped cream and mix thoroughly.

4. Place the mixture in a container and freeze overnight.