But now, there is a perfect opportunity for me to return to the kitchen for baking –  a niece was recently hospitalised for an ailment, and what better way to give her cheer than via a box of chocolate cookies?  I mean, all children love chocolate cookies, right?  Incidentally, the PH Pastries book that I ordered online several weeks ago finally arrived on the day I decided to bake something.  What luck!

Recipe: PH’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 120g pecan/macadamia nuts
• 225g all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 240g Valrhona Guanaja chocolate
• 150g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tsp fleur de sel de Guérande
• 240g soft brown sugar
• 75g egg (about 1.5 egg)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
2. Line 2 baking sheets with baking paper or silpat and set aside.
3. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.
4. Using a rolling pin, coarsely break the pecan or macadamia nuts into pieces. Chop the chocolate into pieces.
5. Cut the butter into pieces and process it until creamy.
6. Add in the fleur de sel and soft brown sugar. Cream until smooth.
7. Incorporate the eggs and cream for about 3 minutes.
8. Add in the sifted dry ingredients, coarsely choppted nuts and chocolate pieces. Beat for about 2 minutes.
9. Divide dough into about 30g each. Shape the mounds of dough and arrange them on the baking sheets, leaving generous spaces between them. Bake for about 12 minutes.
10. Remove baking sheet from oven. Transfer to a wire rack to cool before storing in an airtight container.

Yield: 30 5-cm diameter cookies
[credits: Pierre Hermé PASTRIES]

This chocolate cookie recipe is rather unlike other chocolate cookie recipes I’d come across, or even baked.  First of all, no cocoa powder was used at all.  And then it uses soft brown sugar instead of the usual caster or granulated sugar.  I’ve read several reviews on this particular recipe, and all were good.  Hence, in spite of the fact that I am no fan of both chocolates and cookies, I decided to try baking some of these.

The cookies smelled great even before they were sent into the oven, I kid you not.  Even the raw dough smelled different from the others I’ve baked.  And while the first batch was happily baking away in the oven, my two furkids were going absolutely bersek in the living room just by inhaling the aroma.

I love Pierre Hermé first and foremost for his ethereal macarons, especially the Ispahan.  But this chocolate cookie of his, is simply in a class of its own.  I doubt I will bake chocolate cookies using any other recipe ever again.

I predict there may be questions on the ingredients used, so I shall address them here first.  I used macadamia nuts, and followed the recipe closely because I happened to have all the ingredients at hand.  You could use any other fine sea salt other than fleur de sel de Guérande, and any types of chocolates you could find at your local supermarket.  The cookies will still turn out decent, but they will be different from what PH intended them to be.  Just so you know.

If there are any changes I would like to make to the recipe, it’s the Guanaja used.  Since Guanaja uses 70% of cocoa content, it is a little bitter to most people.  I might tweak it a little and use Caraïbe (66%) instead.

This site is up and running again! Give it some time to accumulate posts since I’m starting from scratch, will ya?  I know I’ve been missing in action, but I will try to update this blog more often.

In the meantime, please check back often!

This favourite number of mine – Lovely Day a capella version by Super Junior – is dedicated to Sugar Asterope, my beloved golden retriever who recently passed on.  You’ll be forever loved, and forever missed.

A formal family celebration aside, this day cannot go by without a lesser form of acknowledgement (or my rather sensitive dad might feel under-appreciated).  I started planning to bake several miniature cakes earlier this week, and consulted mum and little sis for ideas.  Unfortunately, my family have very boring palate – we finally settled for the very safe choice of a chocolate cake.  Well yes, the non-chocolate fancier has to bake yet another chocolate cake.

So there you have it, a two-layer chocolate fudge cake cut into miniatures with creamy chocolate fudge frosting slapped in between layers and at the top.  And because this is for the dad who is the antithesis of ‘loud’, I placed some Varlhona crunchy pearls as the simple final touches.  No elaborate creaming, no loud colours.  Not the prettiest of cakes, but that’s not an issue since the dad eats almost anything.  I most resemble him in this respect, apart from our inane need to tidy all wire/cable bundles.

A friend jokingly posted a status update on his Facebook account, exclaiming that today is a day to celebrate the failure of all fathers.  I wondered why he feels so but this friend of ours has always been known to be a little wacky.  And I somewhat disagree with him.  I can’t speak for all dads, but my dad was ahead of his peers even when he was a brand new father.  He believed that the responsbility of bringing up children falls on the shoulders of both parents, not just the mum.  Needless to say, the dad was very involved during our growing up years.  Thank you daddy.

Happy Father’s Day!

My trusty 4-year old KitchenAid has served me very well.  This is the single most expensive big-ticket item I’ve invested in.  At least for my baking escapades, it is.  Readers who followed me since the old blog would know that my KA is not in white, I chose the pink one because part of the proceeds were donated towards the fight against breast cancer.  A noble cause it is.

Once in a while, I do dream of owning a white KA instead.  The thing with KA is that, it is so hardy I might not find the need to replace this current one in my lifetime.  Oh well… I could always consider painting it white.  Or leaving it alone.

And this second item – iPad2 – also does not require any introduction.  Thanks to a good friend, I manage to land my hands on a 64GB wifi-version of the white iPad2 on 29 Apr 2011, the very first day it was launched in Singapore.  While sharing in my joy, you must be wondering how an iPad could become my assistant in the kitchen.  You see, I’ve started saving all my recipes as PDF files so effectively, my iPad has become my portable recipe book!  Not only that, it has also become my portable piano and violin book since I do buy some scores over the internet.  And I must say flipping the pages while playing on the piano and violin has never been easier!

Most importantly, I help save some trees!

Let me know if you have some creative ways of utilising your iPad ya?

This is with the exception of the chocolate cupcakes, which recipe is posted below.  The cupcakes are moist and soft, with a hint of milky-chocolate flavour in them.  I never get sick of eating them.  And they really taste the best fresh out of the oven, after a cooling time of about 10 minutes.  That texture and heavenly taste… I’m at a loss for words to describe.

Recipe: Chocolate Cupcakes with Marshmallows

Ingredients

• 160g caster sugar
• 70g all-purpose flour
• 50g cocoa powder
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 100g milk
• 50g vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g boiling water
• some nutella (for frosting)
• some mini marshmallows (for dressing)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Prepare 12 cupcake liners on 1 baking sheet.
3. Sift together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a large bowl.  Mix these together until evenly combined.  Set aside.
4. In a separate large bowl or jug, whisk together the egg, milk, oil, and vanilla.
5. Add the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and whisk by hand, taking care to scrape down the sides of the bowl until well-mixed.  Add boiling water and whisk well to combine.
6. Fill each cupcake liner 2/3 full with cake batter.  As the consistency of the batter is very thin like thick liquid, it might be easier to pour the batter into the cupcake liners.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
8. Let cupcakes cool completely on a wire rack before storing or frosting.

Yield: 12 regular-sized cupcakes
[credits: Tessa @ Handle the Heat]

In light of the recent spate of consecutive losses my family was faced with, the little sis requested to have a quiet birthday with no fanfare.  Well… not that my family likes having elaborate birthday celebrations, but I got what she meant.  So, no birthday cake for her.  Just some pretty cupcakes to commemorate the occasion.  Happy birthday, little sis!

I admit I’m as lazy as a home baker could get.  Visually it might have been a lot more pleasant to the eyes if I had used a white-coloured frosting or icing before placing the marshmallows on but I’m too lazy for that.  Conveniently I have a half-finished jar of nutella lying around in the kitchen, and there you have it, the fastest way to dress up a cupcake.  The fininshing touches of the mini marshmallows and ribbon, I have to give credit to another home baker (whose cupcakes were featured in the local newspapers some time ago) for the inspiration.

The little sis was very happy when she received her birthday cupcakes.  I hope she like them even better after tasting them!

I was first introduced to shortbread cookies through my mum, who has a sweet tooth (yours truly inherited that trait from her, amongst other things).  When I was younger, she loved to procure her favourite All Butter Shortbread Fingers from Marks and Spencer from time to time, and these cookies were reserved as a very special treat or reward whenever I pleased her i.e. did well in school.  Nowadays, she is consciously cutting down on sweet stuff in her diet as age catches up.  But I know she will never reject shortbread when offered, especially if they are hand-baked by me.

Recipe: Very Short Shortbread

Ingredients

• 255g all-purpose flour
• 75g corn flour
• 255g unsalted butter, cubed and softened
• ½ tsp fine salt
• 110g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 150°C.
2. Prepare a 9×9 inch pan by greasing with softened unsalted butter.
3. Sift the flours into a medium bowl.  Set aside.
4. Cream the cubed unsalted butter in a large mixing bowl.  Add the salt and cream at medium speed for about 1 minute.
5. Add the icing sugar and cream for another 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the vanilla extract.  Beat the mixture until well combined.
7. Gradually add in the sifted flours until combined.
8. Press the dough firmly into the pan (I use a flat-bottomed glass to help complete the deed).  Prick the surface of the dough lightly with a fork at regular 1-inch intervals.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes on a rack in the lower half of the oven, until lightly browned.
10. Let cool in the pan set on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Invert onto a cutting board and cut into squares or fingers whilst still warm.  Cool completely on the wire rack before storing.

Yield: 27 1×3 inch fingers
[credits: Joycleyn Shu @ KUIDAORE]

This recipe was generously shared by Joycelyn on her online blog.  She rightfully pointed out that the secret behind sensational shortbread lies in 2 main ingredients – the butter and corn flour – so it pays to use premium butter.  I like Lurpak and Elle & Vire butters over the more commonly available SCS butter.

One additional tip if you like your shortbread fingers to cut more neatly after baking: score the dough lightly before putting it into the oven.  In fact, I would perform this before pricking the surface with a fork.  Makes the task of cutting it easier although it means that you would have to ‘double-invert’ the baked dough to get the right side up.  But if you find the dough a little too soft to manage, just stick it in the freezer for a couple of minutes before scoring and pricking.

Mum loved it, as did the whole family.  This simple recipe is a gem and a definite keeper!

Recipe: Cinnamon Hazelnut Biscotti

Ingredients

• 165 g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 tsp fine salt
• 80g butter, melted and cooled
• 100g white sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 60g hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Instructions

1. Sift together the flour, ground cinnamon and baking powder in a medium bowl.  Mix well and set aside.
2. Whisk the eggs and salt together in a large mixing bowl with a handheld whisk until well-mixed.
3. Whisk in the sugar and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.  Whisk in the melted and cooled butter.
4. Fold in the dry ingredients with a spatula and mix until smooth.
5. Fold in the hazelnuts and stir with a spatula until well distributed.
6. Using a plastic bag (cut open save for one length), shape the dough on a tray or baking sheet into a rectangular strip to any desirous dimension.  Place the tray or baking sheet to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 175°C.
8. Remove the plastic bag from the chilled dough and place the dough in the centre of a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or baking paper.
9. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the center is firm.  Remove baking sheet from oven to cool on a wire rack.  When loaf is cool enough to handle, use a serrated knife to slice the loaves diagonally into 1/2 inch thick slices.  Return the slices to the baking sheet.
10. Bake for an additional 10 minutes, turning over once.  Cool completely, and store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Yield : 18-20 slices

I have not been making time for baking in quite a while, and a group of friends who had once tasted my biscotti lamented about how they missed them.  I took the opportunity to prepare several batches in advance and froze them till the day I needed to bake them.  We had a dinner appointment but it was cancelled at the 11th hour because of a family emergency.  Nevertheless I was able to present them each with a box of biscotti to bring home to enjoy.

Just a word of caution: don’t indulge too much in the biscotti.  After all, they are baked twice and are thus what Chinese would term as ‘heaty’.  Eating too much of them at one sitting would most likely result in a sore throat or a heaty constitution.  Well, perhaps dunking them in some hot beverage isn’t half that bad an idea after all.  And in any case, the biscotti keep for at least a week in an air-tight container at room temperature.

Below is yet another excerpt…

“ …when one day in winter, on my return home, my mother, seeing that I was cold, offered me some tea, a thing I did not ordinarily take.  I declined at first, and then, for no particular reason, changed my mind.  She sent for one of those squat, plump little cakes called petites madeleines, which look as though they had been molded in the fluted valve of a scallop shell.  And soon, mechanically, dispirited after a dreay day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake.  No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my palate than a shiver ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary thing that was happening to me.  An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no suggestion of its origin…”

-  Marcel Proust, Remembrance of Things Past

The more I read excerpts available on the internet, the more curious I get about this book.   I really should remember to pick up this book the next time I visit Kinokuniya, my favourite bookstore.

Recipe: Traditional Madeleines

Ingredients

• 55g all-purpose flour
• 1g baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 65g caster sugar
• some lemon zest (optional)
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Prepare a madeleine pan by buttering the pan, dust the insides with flour and tapping out the excess. No preparation is required for silicone moulds.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
4. Rub the lemon zest into the sugar in a medium bowl until well distributed.
5. Add the egg into the sugar and beat on medium speed until mixture is thick and light.
6. Add in the vanilla.
7. Gently fold in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatular until well-mixed.
8. Gently fold in the cooled melted butter until well-mixed.
9. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. (If you want your madeleines to turn out with a more pronounced hump characteristic of madeleines, you can cover the batter-filled pan with cellophane wrap and refrigerate overnight).
10. Transfer the madeleines to cool on wire rack before storing them in an air-tight container, although madeleines taste best when eaten fresh out of the oven.

Yield : 12 petite madeleines

Madeleines are not tedious or require much elbow grease to prepare or bake, but somehow I don’t come across many online bakers who bake them.  Perhaps they too, like me,  have very little patience.  For one, it’s just not in my nature to let something sit in the chiller overnight just to ensure that the madeleines achieve a more pronounced hump, but I did.  Several times to boot!

Ah well, the lengths I would go in the name of a responsible baker.

After circling the plethora of counters and shops all selling Japanese sweets and cakes, we gave up and made a beeline for the information counter.  Better to ask for help than to lose precious time searching for the outlet ourselves.

It was easy enough to locate the outlet after we obtained directions from the information counter.  And so, I stepped into the outlet with much fervour.  Two things struck me the moment I walked in – the pastries were expensive, and the display counter looked… empty.  It must be no later than 4pm, but the eclairs were sold out, and they were left only with 1 salted caramel tart.  I was inconsolable.

It was decided that a return, at an earlier time, was in order.  Or better still, we should visit the main outlet.  Although that meant having to brave Yurakucho, Tokyo’s business district which we are rather unfamiliar with.  Because our schedule was quite full the next few days, we only had the opportunity to go a looking for Sadaharu’s pâtisserie in Yurakucho a week later.  And boy, were we lost.

Fearing a long queue and potentially a sell-out of the eclairs again, we looked exactly our part – 2 casually-dressed tourists running amok amidst well-dressed-in-business-suits Japanese.  Or perhaps I should correct that: the hubby was running around frantically looking for the pâtisserie fearing my disappointment again while I strolled on, stopping ever so often to take shots of anything which caught my eye.

With some difficulty, we finally located the pâtisserie.  And the hubby shot me a murderous look as if saying ‘I thought you say there is going to be a long queue?  Who are you kidding?!’

I shrugged and stuck out my tongue.

Because we just made a trip to Tsukiji Fish Market prior and had a delectable sushi breakfast, we really hadn’t the appetite for much sweets.  And so, we ordered a chocolate eclair, matcha eclair and salted caramel tart.  The yuzu eclair apparently, if my limited grasp of Japanese didn’t fail me, has been removed from their line of regular pastries.

We took our time, and thoroughly enjoyed the pastries.  And the much celebrated matcha eclairs are… to die for.  I would have gone for seconds if I weren’t already full with my sushi breakfast.  A real pity, that was.  There were so many things I wanted to try but I wasn’t ready to stuff myself to surfeited collapse.

We bought some of their BonBon Chocolat as souvenirs for good friends because they were decidedly the only items that have expiry dates beyond Dec 2010.  And below is a parting shot of the pâtisserie.  For sure, I would revisit the next time we swing by Tokyo again.  I have not had my fill yet.

As for the special trip made to Sugino’s Patisserie, I’d just decided it deserves a separate post of its own.

Recipe: Raspberry Swirl Cheese Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 10 whole Oreo cookies, crushed
• 40g unsalted butter, melted
• 360g cream cheese, room temperature
• 200g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1/4 cup raspberry purée

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 170°C.
2. Prepare 8 cupcake cases (each of 1/2 cup size) and lay them on top of a small cookie tray.
3. Mix the melted butter and oreo cookies in a mixing bowl till bonded. Divide the mixture evenly among the 8 cupcake cases (about 17g each).
4. Wrap a glass with a plastic sheet, and make use of the base to compact the crust.
5. Bake the crust for 5 minutes, then remove it to cool completely.
6. In one large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
7. Add in the sugar in a slow, steady stream and beat until just combined.
8. Add the eggs into the mixture one at a time, making sure that each addition is well-incorporated before adding another. Add in the vanilla essence.
9. Pour the batter onto the baked crust till about 7/8 cup full.
10. Add 1 tsp of raspberry pureé on top of each cupcake and use a wooden skewer to swirl carefully through the cheese batter.
11. Bake for 10-15 minutes until just set.
12. Switch off the oven, leave the door slightly ajar, and let the cupcakes cool completely in the oven before removing.

Yield : 8 large cupcakes

The cupcake cases I used were about the size of 1/2 cup.  If you are using the smaller cases which fit snugly into those 12-hole muffin pans, then you probably can make about 12 cupcakes.  Just remember to adjust the amount of raspberry purée required, downwards. Also, take special note that the baked cupcakes should be kept away from the cool outside air as much as possible while cooling, otherwise it would sink in the centre.  Also, avoid putting too much pureé in the centre lest the same happens.

The cheese layer was a still a little soft and jiggly after cooling down; I think I could have baked it a little longer.  But honestly, I quite liked this texture – soft and smooth like puddings, and best eaten straight out of the cupcake case with a dessert spoon!

Feel free to go ahead and make changes to the base of the cupcakes or even the raspberry purée.  You might just create a flavour which you can truly call your own.