macadamia nut brownies

Whenever Da and I visit Perth (Australia), we would patronise a souvenir cum snack shop located at "E" Shed in Fremantle Market and place a special order of unsalted macadamia nuts. This item is not sold at their shop but they will, at our request, make special arrangements with the supplier of nougat to pack for us 1 kg packets of unsalted macadamia nuts.

Unsalted macadamia nuts are very versatile. Not only can you eat them on their own, they are delicious when added to your breakfast cereal and also when used in your baking. When I was a child, my family visited Hawaii (United States of America) several times. Each time we visited Hawaii, we would (without fail) buy boxes of macadamia nut chocolate from Hawaii. Yummy....

INGREDIENTS

1 1/3 cup plain flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 1/4 cup brown sugar
4 eggs (lightly beaten)
200g butter (softened)
1/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsalted macadamia nuts

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.

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

3. Sift the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and ground cinnamon in the mixing bowl.

4. Add the brown sugar, eggs and butter and whisk using an electric mixer until well mixed.

5. Stir in the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts.

6. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes. When you insert a skewer into the middle of the brownie, the skewer should not come out wet. It may have bits and pieces of brownie attached to it but the brownie is done when the skewer is not wet. Do not overbake.

tomato sausage bread

When I last used cherry tomato to bake bread, I cut the tomatoes and wrapped them in the bread dough before rolling up the bread dough. The use of cherry tomatoes made the bread rolls very delicious.

This time, I decided to bake a whole loaf of bread using cherry tomatoes. Da and I had some vienna sausages left in our freezer and I added the sausages to the dough as well. However, on hindsight, I should not have cut the tomatoes and sausages into such small pieces - these ingredients practically disappeared into the bread dough during the kneading process by the breadmaker machine. The next time that I bake this bread, I shall cut the tomatoes and sausages into larger pieces.

INGREDIENTS


1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup butter (softened)
1/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes (sliced)
1/2 cup sausages (sliced)

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast, cherry tomatoes and sausages) 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. After 5 minutes of mixing, add the cherry tomatoes and sausages.

6. After another 5 minutes of mixing, check the dough and add 2 tbsp of bread flour if the dough is a little sticky.

7. When the cycle has been completed, turn the dough onto a floured board. Using floured hands, knead the dough about 5 times to deflate any air bubbles.

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

9. Cover the loaf pan with a damp 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 35 minutes.

carrot oat cookies

This post is dedicated to the mother of my friend, GP.

When GP informed me that her mother likes oats in her cookies, I decided to come up with carrot oat cookies for Auntie to try.

Some people find that adding oats to cookies tends to make the cookies more chewy than crunchy. To counter this, I substituted some of the plain flour with corn flour. I also added ground peanuts and chopped peanuts for added crunch.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup corn flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

125g butter (softened)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

1/2 cup ground peanuts

1 cup instant oats

1 medium carrot (grated)

1 cup chopped peanuts

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

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

3. Cream the butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla essence.

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

5. Add the ground peanuts, oats and carrot and chopped peanuts and mix well.

6. Fold in the flour mixture using a wooden spatula and mix until the flour disappears into the dough.

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

8. Bake for 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

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

kiddy loaf

I baked this loaf of bread for the three handsome boys who live opposite Da and I in our apartment block. They are very sweet children, with the eldest only in kindergarten and the youngest around 4 years of age.

To tempt their tastebuds, I added chocolate rice and rainbow rice to what was otherwise a simple loaf of carrot bread.

I was so tempted by the colourful slices (when I sliced the loaf of bread) that I could not help eating a slice of the bread myself!

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup water
2 tsp dry milk
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup carrots (grated)
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 tbsp molasses
2 cups bread flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast
chocolate rice
rainbow rice

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast, chocolate rice and rainbow rice) 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 and sprinkle liberal amounts of chocolate rice and rainbow rice. Roll up the dough and place it in a loaf pan that has been greased and lined with baking paper. Slightly flatten the dough (in the loaf pan) to spread out the dough.

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

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

pistachio cheese ice cream

It has been a while since I last made ice cream. As such, I used the last remaining bar of Philadelphia cream cheese (250g) in our refrigerator to make pistachio cheese ice cream instead of baking a cheesecake using the cream cheese.

I must admit that I was so enthusiastic about making the ice cream that I went overboard and made the ice cream rather tangy in taste. In what way was the taste "tangy"? Well, I added sour cream, freshly squeezed lemon juice and mango essence. The end result was yummy ice cream that tastes like cheesecake.

If you prefer your ice cream to be less "tangy" in taste, you can omit the freshly squeezed lemon juice.

INGREDIENTS

250g Philadelphia cream cheese (softened)
3/4 cup icing sugar
300ml heavy cream
200ml sour cream
3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1/4 tsp mango essence
1/2 cup pistachio nuts (roughly chopped)

METHOD

1. Whisk the cream cheese in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer until smooth.

2. Add the icing sugar and mix well.

3. Mix in the sour cream.

4. Add the heavy cream and mix well.

5. Add the lemon juice and mango essence and mix until thick and smooth.

6. Cover the mixing bowl with a cling wrap and place the bowl in the refrigerator to chill for 1 hour.

7. Transfer the chilled mixture into a blender and blend until creamy. Stir in the pistachio nuts.

8. Pour the mixture into a container and freeze for 1 hour.

9. Remove the container from the freezer and whisk the mixture using an electric mixer to break up the ice crystals.

10. Pour the whisked mixture back into the container and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.

TIP

If you have an ice cream maker, you can omit steps 8 and 9 above. Instead, pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and mix for 30 minutes before you transfer the mixture into a container and freeze for 8 hours or overnight.

oreo cheesecake

This is an easy recipe for oreo cheese. Do give it a try and let me have your feedback!

Ingredients (base)

1 ¼ cup digestive biscuits (crushed)

4 tbsp butter (melted)

Method (base)

1. Crush the digestive biscuits.

2. Melt the butter by placing the butter in a bowl and microwaving for 20 seconds.

3. Add the melted butter to the digestive biscuits and mix well.

4. Press the mixture into a 9 inch square baking pan.

5. Place the pan in the freezer while preparing the filling.

Ingredients (filling)

1 ½ cup whipping cream

8 oz (about 700g) cream cheese

1 cup sugar

24 oreo cookies

dash of cinnamon

Method (filling)

1. Whip the whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Place in refrigerator.

2. Whip the cream cheese until smooth.

3. Add sugar to the cream cheese and blend.

4. Sprinkle a dash of cinnamon.

5. Coarsely chop 24 Oreo cookies and fold into cream cheese mixture.

6. Fold in the whipped cream.

7. Turn the filling into the crust and spread evenly.

8. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

9. Loosen the cheesecake by running a knife around edges to release sides from the pan.

pine nut sweet loaf

When I first came across recipes for quick bread, I was puzzled why it was named "bread" when the ingredients did not include yeast.

Subsequently, I learned that quick bread is a type of bread which uses leaveners such as cream of tartar, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.

Cakes, muffins, pancakes, cornbread, etc are considered quick breads.

I came across a recipe for olive oil sweet bread in the 20 August 2009 edition of the Today newspaper. I decided to use sunflower oil instead of olive oil as I did not have extra virgin olive oil at home and I did not want to use the regular olive oil (which is denser).

Other than the substitution in terms of the type of oil used, I also made some variations to the recipe.

According to the newspaper article, the recipe would yield a fragrant sweet bread. My verdict? The loaf that came out from my oven was indeed sweet and fragrant. This is the first time that I have used pine nuts to bake cake/bread. I have so far only added pine nuts to pasta sauce that I have cooked. I am inspired to create other goodies using the pine nuts, such as cookies.

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup castor sugar

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sunflower oil

1/4 cup raisins

grated zest of 1 lemon

1/4 cup pine nuts

extra pine nuts (for topping)

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Grease and line a loaf pan with baking paper. Set aside.

3. Sift the plain flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

4. Beat the the sugar, eggs, milk and oil and whisk using an electric mixer or a hand whisk.

5. Stir in the raisins, lemon zest and pine nuts.

6. Fold in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon and stir until the batter is well mixed.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface. Sprinkle the top with some pine nuts.

8. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean.

jam pinwheels

When I was younger, my father used to take my family to Changi Village for a drive after dinner. In the old days, Changi Village was a rustic little suburb where one could still find houses with colonial design and life seemed to be slower than the metropolitan parts of Singapore. I remember that we would always make a detour to the 7-Eleven at Changi Village where we would buy Mr Softee (which is soft frozen ice-cream) and Chinese pinwheels (a type of two-toned crunchy biscuit that looks like what you see in the photographs in this post but do not contain any filling) or "ear biscuits" (I am not sure what the actual name of the "ear biscuits" is but my brothers and I called them as such because they were shaped in like one's ears). The Chinese pinwheels or "ear biscuits" were dipped into the Mr Softee before we ate them. Delicious!

I was inspired by the Chinese pinwheels when I baked the jam pinwheels. However, unlike Chinese pinwheels which are crunchy in texture, I decided to give the jam pinwheels a "melt in the mouth" texture. If you prefer that the pinwheels be more crunchy in texture, you can substitute the icing sugar with castor sugar.

This is quite an easy recipe to follow. The main thing that you need to take note of is to be gentle and slow when you roll up the dough, otherwise the dough may tear and you would end up with jam on your fingers.

INGREDIENTS

180g plain flour
1 tbsp custard powder
125g butter (softened)
15g icing sugar
1/2 egg yolk
jam

METHOD

1. Sift the plain flour and custard powder.

2. Mix the butter, icing sugar and egg yolk in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer.

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 to firm up the dough.

5. Roll out the dough into a rectangle. Spread the jam on the rolled out dough and roll up the dough. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough into cross-sections.

6. Place the dough (cross-section facing upwards) on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

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

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

rosemary and pine nuts cookies

The last time that I used dried rosemary in my baking, I baked a cake. As it turned out, the addition of the dried rosemary made the cake very aromatic.

Inspired, I decided to bake cookies using dried rosemary. To add a little variety to the cookies, I added pine nuts (instead of the usual walnuts, almonds, peanuts, etc). The dried rosemary complemented the pine nuts. The cookies were so addictive that we could not stop at one.

INGREDIENTS

90g plain flour
30g corn flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
50g butter (softened)
30g castor sugar
1 tbsp low fat milk
2 tbsp pine nuts
1 tsp dried rosemary

METHOD

1. Sift the plain flour, corn flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

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

3. Stir in the dried rosemary and pine nuts.

4. Fold in the flour mixture and mix until a dough forms.

5. Place the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up.

6. Roll out the dough on a floured board using a rolling pin into 5 mm thickness.

7. Cut out the cookies with a 3 cm round cookie cutter.

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

9. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 degrees celsius for 15 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown.

10. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack.

11. Store the cookies in an air-tight container.

jam balls

I had a lot of fun baking these jam balls. When I bit into one of them, I could taste enough jam to complement the pastry without the jam overpowering the taste of the pastry.

In order to ensure that the jam balls melt in your mouth, you would need to use icing sugar instead of castor sugar.

I added some custard powder as well and as such, the pastry had a hint of yellow colour.

I used homemade mango jam in this case but you can use any store-bought jam if you prefer. The taste of the jam balls is affected by the type of jam that you use and as such, if you have more than one type of jam at home, you can have fun making different varieties of jam balls.

INGREDIENTS

360g plain flour
2 1/2 tbsp custard powder
250g butter (softened)
35g 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 bowl using an electric mixer until well mixed.

3. Fold in the flour mixture and mix to form a dough.

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

5. Scoop out dough of desired amount (I used a half-moon shaped measuring spoon that was 1 tsp in quantity) and spread out slightly on the palm of your hand. Using your fingers, depress the centre of the dough and place a little jam in the centre. Roll up the dough into the shape of a ball. As you do so, you will realise that some of the jam gets blended into the dough.

6. Place the balls on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

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


TIP

When you make these jam balls, be prepared to get your hands sticky. As you are rolling the dough (with jam) into a ball, some of the jam may ooze out and get blended into the dough (thereby causing your hands to become sticky). This results in the dough having jam flavour in them. What I do is to have a paper napkin nearby so that I can wipe my hands when they become sticky.

sausage and tomato bread buns

This bread is inspired by an episode of "Chef at Home" that I watched on the Asian Food Channel. In that episode, Michael Smith separated a bread dough into 8 portions. He shaped each portion into a ball and placed the balls side by side in a bundt pan before he baked the bread.

Michael Smith coated each ball with cinnamon sugar before he placed them in the bundt pan. As we would prefer something more savoury, I decided to add sliced sausages and sliced cherry tomatoes to each portion before I shaped them into balls.

This bread is a little savoury on its own and hence, it complements the sausages and tomatoes. It is also very soft and remains soft even after two to three days. I do not know whether it will continue to remain soft after two to three days because the bread is always finished by then.

INGREDIENTS

2 eggs
2 tbsp sunflower oil
170g water
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp castor sugar
2 tbsp dry milk
2 tbsp instant potato mix
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast
2 sausages (sliced) - I used vienna sausages
8 cherry tomatoes (sliced)

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast, sausages and cherry tomatoes) 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. Separate the dough into 8 portions.

7. Roll out each portion and place some sliced sausages and sliced cherry tomatoes on the rolled out dough. Roll up the dough and shape into a ball.

8. Arrange the 8 balls in a bundt pan that has been greased and floured.

9. Cover the bundt pan 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 30 minutes.

ham and cheese bread

This is one of those loaves of bread that I baked "for fun". The empty spaces that you see in the slices of bread are due to the fact that the dough continued to rise tremendously after I let the dough rest. Goodness me....

Having said this, the bread was yummylicious, despite the "holes" in the slices. This is the first time that I have used an entire slice of ham and an entire slice of cheese in the bread. In the past, I cut up the ham and cheese and added them to during the kneading cycle. In this case, I rolled out the dough before I placed slices of ham and cheese on the rolled out dough.

Our friends, WC and SC were at our home when I baked this bread. They were tickled pink to see the empty spaces in the sliced bread but they enjoyed the bread nonetheless.

WC commented that the crust of the bread had the taste of french loaf.

INGREDIENTS

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
170g water
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp castor sugar
2 tbsp dry milk
2 tbsp instant potato mix
3 cups bread flour
2 tsp instant dry yeast
slices of ham
slices of cheese

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients (except the bread flour, yeast, ham and cheese) 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.

6. Place slices of ham on the rolled out dough. Place slices of cheese on top of the ham.

7. Roll up the dough to form a log.

8. Place the dough in 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.