good old' muffins.

can't wait to share one of the muffin recipes i got from a le cordon bleu baking book!

Plain Muffins

1200g Pastry (Cake) Flour
600g Sugar
72g Baking Powder
15g Salt
360g Eggs, Beaten
840g Milk
30g Vanilla Extract
480g Butter

1. Sift together all the dry ingredients.
2. Combine all liquids to the dry ingredients and mix just until all the flour is moistened. Batter will look lumpy. Be careful not to overmix.
3. Pan and bake immediately. Dry and liquid mixtures may be prepared in advance, but once combined, bake without delay or loss of volume may result.
4. Grease and flour muffin tins. Fill tins half to two-thirds full. Bake for 200 degrees celsius for 20-30 mins.

Variation - Blueberry Muffins
480g Blueberries, well drained
Fold blueberries into finished batter.

Variation - Wholewheat Muffins
840g Pastry (Cake) Flour
360g Wholewheat Flour
50g Baking Powder
10g Baking Soda
120g Molasses
Adjust flour and leavening as listed above. Add molasses to liquid ingredients.


Gonna try them asap!

choux pastry part 2.

Right after dinner tonight, I got down to the second part of making my cream puffs. So I took out my saucepan of custard out from the fridge. Whipped my whipping cream and folded into the custard to get what's below! Ta-da! This is the cream you get in cream puffs. Looks kinda unsightly though but it's good stuff k! So I got mum to help me pipe the cream into the puffs. This was abit tricky cos we had no idea how to fill up the entire puff. Half of the puffs had medium to large holes on their bottoms cos they got stuck to the greaseproof paper while baking. So we just piped the cream in from there. Was quite a messy scene but eventually we managed to do it.

Too much cream left. So I guess we have to make more puffs tmr! :D

ecstatic over choux pastry.

i'm totally over the moon. and this is what has gotten me in the mood.





Mind you, i didn't rip this off some baking website. This is what I've been busy over the whole afternoon! Must say I'd made the right decision to bake today instead of just nuah-ing around at home. Choux pastry is the new craze now! At least right here in my house.


Choux Pastry Puffs
from "Joy of Cooking - All About Party Foods & Drinks"


1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
Half cup water
Half cup whole milk
113g unsalted butter
Half teaspoon salt
4 large eggs


1. Bring the water, milk, butter and salt to a boil over medium heat.
2. Add the flour all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan.
3. Continue to cook and stir the mixture for about 1 minute, to eliminate excess moisture.
4. Let cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each egg.
6. Make sure paste is smooth before adding each egg.
7. Beat the dough till smooth and shiny.
8. Choux paste can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 hours.
9. When it is cold, you do not need to bring the paste to room temperature before baking.
10. Pipe paste onto pan according to desired size.
11. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 10-15 mins.

Above: What it looks like after step 3.

Above: While adding eggs

The End Result!

Many many puffs! Okay, maybe not many many. I think I only made like 15? Cos I used only 1/3 of the ingredients from the recipe...for fear of it turning out like crap. But I've resolved to making more puffs this week! And of course, no cream puffs will be complete without some cream! So I sourced for some custard cream recipe from here .


Pastry Cream
3 cups (750 ml) milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup (175 ml) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (50 ml) all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. (15 ml) cornstarch
2 tbsp. butter (25 ml)
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla (7 ml)
2 cups (500 ml) whipping cream

1. In heavy saucepan, heat milk until steaming.


2. Meanwhile, in bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch; gradually pour in milk in thin stream, whisking constantly.


3. Return to clean pan. Cook over medium heat, whisking, for 5 minutes or just until boiling; cook, whisking, for 2 minutes longer or until thickened.


4. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla.
   Pour into bowl; place waxed paper directly on surface to prevent skin from forming.


5. Refrigerate until cool, at least 4 hours. Whip cream, gently fold into pastry cream with spatula just until combined.
   Note: Pastry cream can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Am still in the process of making cream. Typing this post as I wait for the custard to cool and be refrigerated before adding in the whipping cream.

Here's what the custard looks like for now! I know I know...it doesn't look very appetising for now. Let's just cross our fingers and see how it'll turn out. Stay tuned!

the garden slug.

I've decided to turn this into a flog as well after realising that baking posts alone won't be able to keep this place alive, considering that I don't bake as often as I eat. Well, I've got a good place to recommend for this virgin food entry!

Introducing our friendly neighbourhood slug residing in a quaint little building called Bright Centre in Telok Kurau, which is somewhere in JooChiat/Katong if you're wondering. I was brought here for my advance (very advanced) birthday dinner by the boyfriend. We've been wanting to visit this place since eons but never did it because of the arduous long journey (we're not East people). But I guess just once in a while, it's worthwhile to venture out of your comfort zone for a good dining experience!

Ripped the photos of their place from their website - I must say they did a wonderful job of photography cos the photos, unfortunately, looked better than the real place. Nevertheless, one can understand why the owners chose this place for the slug to reside. Seems to me they were trying to mimic the scene of a little roadside cafe in a quiet town. Gotta give them credit for that!

And so after about an hour of travelling by bus and foot, we finally got to the place, all hoping that the long journey was worth it. The decor, though simple, was tastefully done up, giving it a nice and comfortable ambience that was not at all intimidating. You know how sometimes those posh restaurants give a very uneasy intimidating feeling. Well anyway, our server came over and asked if I would like to know about the menu for the night (which has already been preplanned :D). I declined the offer just for the fun of getting surprised!

First up was our drinks - free flow of Lemongrass Tea - one of their 3 Asian exotic iced teas. Sorry no pics for that - but it kinda looks like Iced Lemon Tea - except that instead of lemon wedges floating around, there were lemongrass shoots sticking out. Surprisingly I really liked the tea! Wasn't too sweet and was refreshing and cooling. The lemongrass scent was just right without being too overpowering.

Next up was our bowl of hearty soup of the day. Don't know exactly what it's called or what it is. But it tasted like really good minestrone without the artificial flavourings intended to make the taste sour and salty. You can almost picture them laboriously brewing the soup from 342 kinds of herbs and vegetables for like 10 hours, stirring the humongous aluminium pot resembling a witch's brew. And who can resist the slabs of crusty bread?!

Appetiser was a delightful plate of hand-crafted hors d'oeuvres. Reminded me of canapes that we saw at Raffles City. This is the sort of thing I would never order from the menu. But it was a pretty interesting experience devouring these little cute bite-sized thingies. There were the grilled tomato halves, grape and feta combi, prawns and avocado and some tasty beef strips. Looks almost too pretty to be eaten!

Then we had the Yukon Mash! Potato food is always boyfriend food. Not to mention a huge serving of it, topped with yummilicious brown gravy and flavoured with Danish butter. My only complaint was it was a tad too buttery for me. Pity we didnt have to digestive capacity to finish it all!

By the time main course was served, we were already kinda full ): I think this was something custom-made cos even after reading the menu a zillion times, I couldn't seem to match the dish to any description on the menu. So i figured it had to be a combination of The Steak(Juicy Ribeye grilled to your desired doneness, with a light brown sauce) and some seafood pasta. The steak was a hit with the boyfriend (who's a sucker for beef). Apparently, it's so well seasoned and done so nicely you can taste the sweetness of the meet! Well, guess I can't contradict that statement in any way. Pasta was tossed with olive oil and butter, topped with cherry tomatoes and a whole load of seafood!

Here comes the best part of dinner - dessert! And by far this was my favourite dish of the night. I actually got a heart-shaped tiramisu cake made just for me! Yay! I mean, it not only looks pretty, it tasted pretty damn good as well! Certainly one of the best tiramisus I've had :)

I've already thought of what I'm gonna order the next time I'm there. Wasuga Wings and Bangers&Mash!

brownie monday.

That's it. I've caught the baking cum blogging-about-it wave. I just couldn't resist it! So I was trying to keep myself occupied today and for the next few days before school officially starts in less than 2 weeks. Early noon, I hopped down to PhoonHuat at AMK after much recceing on http://www.streetdirectory.com/. It wasn't difficult to find the place since it's just a couple of blocks away from AMK mrt.

So i picked up my basket and began scavenging for baking supplies. Somehow ridiculously I got the similar euphoric feeling shopping there as compared to walking down Wisma or Vivo. Eventually my total bill came up to $24.95 and was pleased to know that there was a 1.5% rebate for cash payment. Speaking of cheap thrill.

After lunch I got down to baking brownies! Think it's the first time i'm baking them - they look pretty easy to deal with for a start. Got the recipe from Cheryl of SheBakes&SheCooks (just for the record, her blog/flog rocks).

Deep Dark Chocolate Brownies

adapted from Martha Stewart's Double Chocolate Brownie recipe

6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter

7 and a half ounces (200 grams) good-quality semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup brown sugar (packed firm)

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degree celcius. Butter an 8-inch square baking pan and line with parchment paper.

2. Put butter, chocolate, and cocoa powder in a medium heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until completely melted. Let cool slightly.

3. Mix your flour, baking powder, and salt well and aside.

4. Using an electric mixer (or a handwhisk if you prefer), mix sugar, egg, and vanilla well until pale, about 4 mintues. Add chocolate mixture; mix until combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until well combined.

5. Pour brownie batter into prepared pan and spread evenly with a spatula. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a skewer, when inserted in the brownie, comes out clean.

6. Let cool in pan for about 15 minutes then lift out to cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into squares.

Well I made a few variations to the recipe of course. Didnt have a 8inch square pan on hand so had to make do with my 8inch round pan. And for the chocolates, I used 70g of chocolate nuggets and 130g of dark chocolate couvertures, in an attempt not to make overly sweet brownies. Lastly, i added some slivered almonds to the batter for some crunch and to win the favour of my non-chocolate-fans in my family.

The result?

I think it looks pretty good! Although you can probably tell that I should have let it baked a little longer than 30 mins to get an even colour throughout the brownie. Also, it didnt rise as high as I expected. Was probably around 4 to 5cm high at most? Wonder if it's supposed to be like that or I should have added more baking powder.

Verdict from grandma, dad and mum was very encouraging. So much so that it has motivated me to bake tmr!