coffee nut cookies

Whenever I bake coffee cookies, I would simply add 3-in-1 instant coffee powder. This time, I decided to be adventurous and I added 1 tsp of coffee emulco as I happened to have it in our refrigerator.

The inclusion of the coffee emulco greatly enhanced the flavour of the coffee cookies. If you have never added coffee emulco to your coffee cookies dough, do give it a try.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup corn flour

1/2 tbsp 3-in-1 coffee powder (I use Old Town Ipoh White Coffee, hazelnut flavour)

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

125g butter (softened)

1 1/2 cups fine brown sugar

1 tsp coffee emulco
2 eggs

1/2 cup ground peanuts

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

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

3. Cream the butter and fine brown sugar using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the coffee emulco and mix well.

4. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well with each addition.

5. Add the ground peanuts and chopped peanuts and mix well.

6. Fold in the flour mixture using a wooden spatula and stir until combined.

7. Drop by teaspoonful onto a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

8. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

9. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack before storing them in an air-tight container.

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curry tuna buns

The next time that you have leftover curry tuna at home, why not use the leftovers to bake curry tuna buns?

Alternatively, curry tuna is sold in cans at the local supermarket. When it comes to canned tuna, I prefer to buy Ayam brand.

When I shaped these buns, I used the teeth of the fork to press into the edges of the bun. The intention was two-fold:-

(a) to press down on the edges; and

(b) to shape the edges.

I achieved (a) but not (b). As the dough continued to rise after shaping them, the edges of the dough lost the design of the teeth marks. Despite this, I was very pleased with the end result because the dough continued to rise tremendously after shaping them.

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup castor sugar
1 cup warm milk
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups bread flour
2 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
curry tuna
egg wash (comprising 1 egg mixed with a little water)

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast, curry tuna and egg wash) 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. Using floured hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes.

6. Separate the dough into 12 portions and shape each portion into a ball.

7. Roll out each portion and spread some curry tuna filling. Fold the dough into half and use the teeth of the fork to press down on the edges of the dough.

8. Place each portion on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

9. Cover the baking tray with a dry cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

10. Bake in an oven preheated to 190 degrees celsius for 20 minutes.

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almond marmalade bread

I have one word for this bread - yummy!

The texture of the bread is soft and there is a hint of taste of orange marmalade. The bread is delicious eaten on its own or with peanut butter spread on it.

To add a little crunch to the bread, I included almond flakes during the preparation process.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tbsp butter (softened)

2 1/2 tbsp instant potato flakes

1 1/2 tbsp castor sugar

1/2 cup orange marmalade

3 cups bread flour

2 tsp instant dry yeast

1/4 cup almond flakes

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast and almond flakes) 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. Five minutes into the dough cycle, open the lid of the breadmaker machine and add the almond flakes without stopping the cycle. Replace the lid and let the cycle continue.

6. When the cycle has been done, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough 5 times.

7. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper. Spread out the dough such that the dough touches the sides of the loaf pan.

8. Cover the loaf pan with a dry cloth and leave for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

9. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.

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baked chicken breast with Thai marinade

There are numerous ways to marinate chicken breasts for purposes of baking. You could marinate it the "traditional Asian way", which would be to use salt, pepper, light sauce, dark sauce, etc.

When I marinated the chicken breasts that you see in this post, I decided to marinate them Thai-style. As I do not eat chilli, I omitted chilli paste in the marinade but if you prefer, you can add about 1 tsp of chilli paste to the marinade if you prefer the chicken breasts to be spicy.

To give the marinade enough time to "seep into the meat", I would advise that you leave the chicken to marinate overnight. When you do this, the flavours from the marinade would go into the chicken breasts.

Chicken breasts tend to be dry and tasteless and as such, when they absorb the flavours from the marinade, the meat becomes very tender and delicious.

INGREDIENTS

3 large chicken breasts

2 tbsp chopped garlic

juice from 4 small limes

2 tbsp ground coriander

1/4 cup fish sauce

1 tsp light soya sauce

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 tsp freshly ground sea salt

1/2 tsp freshly ground mixed peppercorn

METHOD

1. Mix the marinade together.

2. Marinate the chicken breasts in the marinade overnight.

3. Bake at 230 degrees celsius for 15 minutes on each side.

TIPS

If you like, you can add the following to the marinade:-

(a) 1 tsp chilli paste

(b) 2 springs of lemongrass (quartered and lightly pounded in a pestle and mortar to release the flavour)

steamed chocolate cake

When our Moulinex oven went into retirement, I surfed the internet for recipes that did not require the use of an oven. The internet is an amazing research tool but one has to be careful not to abuse it. As such, it saddens me to read about young girls who cheapen themselves and post nude photographs of themselves on the internet. Your life has more value than that, my dear girl. The Lord loves you.

If you were to google key words such as "no bake cake", you will find endless recipes on the internet. I came across a recipe for a chocolate cake that is steamed instead of baked. I cannot recall off-hand which site I found the recipe. However, I have made some modifications to the recipe and I am sharing with you the modified recipe in this post today.

INGREDIENTS (cake)

2 cups plain flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground almond
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup brown sugar 1 can evaporated milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
250g butter
125g groundnut oil
4 eggs (beaten)


INGREDIENTS (glazing)

1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 can condensed milk
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence

METHOD (cake)

1. Grease and line a 9" x 9" square baking pan (or two 9" sandwich pans) with baking paper.

2. Sift the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ground cinnamon and ground almond in a large bowl. Set aside.

3. Combine the castor sugar, brown sugar, milk, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until the sugar has dissolved and the butter has melted. Remove from the heat.

4. Add the beaten eggs into the saucepan and mix well.

5. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and place the pan in the steamer.

7. Cover the top of the pan loosely with aluminium foil.

8. Steam over medium heat for 1 1/2 hours.

9. Let the cake cook before adding the glazing.

METHOD (glazing)

1. Sift the cocoa powder and ground nutmeg into a saucepan.

2. Add the milk and oil and stir over low heat till the mixture has thickened.

3. Add the salt and vanilla essence and mix well.

4. Spread the glaze on top of the cake and leave to set.

pork floss roll

The last loaf of bread that I baked using pork floss was one where I added the pork floss to the dough during the kneading process. As a result, the pork floss blended into the dough and the taste of the pork floss was not very distinctive when the bread was baked.

This time, I decided to try something different. I rolled out the dough and sprinkled liberal amounts of pork floss on the dough. I then rolled up the dough and baked the bread like a log. The taste of the pork floss was very distinctive and I got thumbs up from the people who sampled the bread.

If you do not like pork floss, you can substitute with other types of floss, eg. chicken floss. Choose the type of floss that is a little crispy so that there is some crunch when you bite into the bread.

The pork floss that I used was given to me by SC. It also contains seaweed and white sesame seeds. She bought it from Bee Cheng Hiang.

INGREDIENTS

1 egg (lightly beaten)

1 1/4 cups warm milk

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp butter (softened)

3/4 tsp salt

3 3/4 cups bread flour

2 tsp instant dry yeast

pork floss (or any other type of floss of your choice)

butter / margarine (for brushing)

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast and pork floss) 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. Roll out the dough into a rectangle.

7. Brush the dough with butter / margarine.

8. Sprinkle generous amounts of pork floss on the rolled out dough.

9. Roll up the dough into a log.

10. Place the dough on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

11. Cover the baking tray with a dry cloth and leave for 1 hour.

12. Bake in an oven preheated to 185 degrees for 30 minutes.

TIP

As an alternative, you can spread the rolled out dough with mayonnaise instead of butter/margarine.

banana and nutella bread

This bread was inspired by an episode of "The Naked Chef" that I watched on the Asian Food Channel. In that episode, Jaime Oliver was at a beach resort with some of his staff. Naturally, he did all the cooking/baking.

In the episode, Jaime Oliver rolled out the dough, spread it with what looked to me like Nutella, sprinkled liberal amounts of sliced bananas and chopped peanuts, rolled up the dough and formed a ring.

In my case, I rolled up the dough to form a log. The dough continued to rise tremendously after I rolled it up and this may have caused the pockets of empty space that you see in the photograph below. I wonder whether the problem would be solved if I had formed a ring (like the way Jaime Oliver did) after I rolled up the dough? I shall have to give this a try.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups warm milk
1 egg (lightly beaten)
2 tbsp butter (softened)
1/4 cup honey
3/4 tsp salt
3 3/4 cups bread flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast
Nutella hazelnut spread
2 bananas (sliced)
chopped peanuts

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast, Nutella hazelnut spread, banana and chopped peanuts) 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. Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape.

6. Spread the Nutella hazelnut spread onto the rolled out dough. Place the slices of the bananas onto the dough and sprinkle liberal amounts of chopped peanuts.

7. Roll up the dough to form a log.

8. Place the dough on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

9. Cover the baking tray with a dry cloth and leave for 1 hour.

10. Bake in an oven preheated to 185 degrees celsius for 30 minutes.

baked creamy snapper fillet with mediterranean-style marinade

Da and I bought a large piece of creamy snapper fillet. I intended to marinate it for baking.

The last time that I marinated some fish for barbequing, I prepared a simple marinate of salt, pepper, freshly squeezed lemon juice and fresh rosemary leaves.

This time, I decided to prepare the marinate in a mediterranean-style. If you have leftover marinade, you can refrigerate it for future use.

INGREDIENTS

500g creamy snapper fillet (cut into large pieces)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup cooking red wine
1/2 tsp freshly ground sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground mixed peppercorn
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1 cup olive oil
1 stalk of fresh rosemary leaves (remove the stalk)

METHOD

1. Mix the marinade together.

2. Marinate the fillet overnight.

3. Bake with one side facing up at 230 degrees celsius for 10 minutes. Turn the fillet over and bake for another 10 minutes.

yoghurt muffins

Whenever Da and I buy yoghurt, we would buy non-fat mixed berries yoghurt. When we came across non-fat peach and mango yoghurt, we decided to buy it to give it a try. We liked it very much because we could taste chunky pieces of peach and mango in the yoghurt. It was very satisfying.

I have discovered that adding yoghurt to the bread dough, cake batter and muffin batter improves the texture of the bread, cake and muffin. As such, I was eager to experiment with yoghurt muffins.

The muffins were indeed moist and they remained so even on the next day. Some muffins tend to harden by the next day.

All you need is 1 cup of yoghurt. As such, if you have leftover yoghurt in your refrigerator, do give this recipe a try.

INGREDIENTS

210g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
50g castor sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp mango essence
60g butter (softened)
1 cup peach and mango yoghurt
1/4 cup milk

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celsius.

2. Line the muffin pans with paper muffin cups.

3. Sift the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl. Add the castor sugar and mix well.

4. Mix the egg and mango essence in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer or hand whisk. Add the butter, yoghurt and milk and mix well.

5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Do not overstir.

6. Fill the muffin cups with the batter until 3/4 full.

7. Bake at 190 degrees for 10 minutes and then at 180 degrees for a further 10 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.

TIP

If you are using some other flavour of yoghurt that would not complement mango essence, you can substitute the mango essence with vanilla essence.

jam tarts

I had originally planned to bake pineapple tarts based on a recipe that I came across in Kitchen Corner's blog. However, I forgot to buy pineapples when Da and I went grocery shopping. As such, I decided to improvise and bake jam tarts instead.

I used homemade mango jam but you can use any store-bought jam of your choice.

What I like about the tarts is that the pastry melts in your mouth. Yummy!

INGREDIENTS

360g plain flour
2 tbsp custard powder
250g butter
30g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
jam

METHOD

1. Sift the plain flour and custard powder in a bowl. Set aside.

2. Cream the butter, icing sugar and egg yolk in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy.

3. Fold in the flour mixture using a wooden spatula and mix until a dough forms.

4. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

5. Place the dough in a cookie press and pipe out the dough (in the shape of a flower) on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

6. Fill the centre portion of the dough with some jam.

7. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 15 to 18 minutes or until the jam tarts are golden brown.

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

carrot and pistachio nut bread

Unlike some other types of bread, this bread is quite hearty and is not light and fluffy. As such, it makes a good meal, especially when you make a sandwich using this bread.

Da and I used the bread to make ham and cheese sandwich and we found the sandwich very satisfying.

The inclusion of the grated carrots gives the bread a slightly orangey colour.

Instead of walnuts (which are usually added to carrots to bake bread, cakes, muffins, etc), I added roughly chopped pistachio nuts instead.

INGREDIENTS

3/4 cup water
1 tbsp dry milk
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 large carrot (grated)
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup pistachio nuts (chopped)
3 1/4 cup bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour and yeast) 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. Using floured hands, knead the dough for 5 minutes.

6. Place the dough in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper.

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

8. Bake in an oven preheated to 190 degrees celsius for 35 minutes.

carrot and chocolate muffins

Lately, I have been having fun posting in my facebook photographs of goodies that I have baked / cooked.

When I posted in my facebook the photograph above, Da's and my friend, WC left a comment in my facebook:-

"Stop torturing us with photos like this...My keyboard keeps getting flooded. Tell us what is the collection time and at which location."

When I baked these muffins, I grated some hazelnut chocolate that my mother's eldest sister had bought from Melbourne, Australia and given to me (thank you, Tuayi, for the chocolates!). As the chocolate was grated, the muffins had a hint of chocolate taste.

If, like me, you prefer the hearty taste of chocolate, I would recommend that you roughly chop the hazelnut chocolate instead of grating it.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

4 eggs

1 cup sunflower oil

3/4 cup castor sugar

3 medium carrots (grated)

1 cup hazelnut chocolate (chopped)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees celsius.

2. Line the muffin pans with paper muffin cups. Set aside.

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

4. Whisk the eggs, sunflower oil and castor sugar in a mixing bowl using a hand whisk. Add the flour mixture and stir using a wooden spatula until just combined. Do not over-stir.

5. Fold in the grated carrots and chopped chocolate.

6. Fill the muffin cups with the batter till about 3/4 full.

7. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.