Playing with the same recipe

No one to be blame but myself. I have not been able to stay up late lately. Used to the early rest routine. Not able to motivate myself to try new recipes too, with lack of time I dare not buy new ingredients while trying to finish the old expiring ones. PC has been collecting dust when all I did was to post what I baked and cooked and made to Facebook using the phone.

Today deliberately drank another cup of coffee so that I can stay up to transfer my scribblings (the experiences I had on my bakes) on the pieces of papers stucked on my strong room door to the blog. It really helps when I can just come into my blog on my phone and refer to the recipes that I have tried before. I even told myself that I should do "last out (from oven), first in (to blog)" but now that I am staring at the scribblings, some just did not make sense. I still have to try my best.

I am still busy as ever with "do not know what", but has to use up the expiring ingredients and to provide variety of snack choices for kids to bring for recess, so I did a few rounds of muffins with oat, and chocolate. I had combined the recipe 1 from the banana muffin trial with Nigella's chocolate chocolate-chip muffin (NOTE : this link brings you to Small Small Baker's blog since I refer to the recipe from her site). My "recipe" goes something like this since I half the portions :-

125 g SR flour
37.5 instant oatmeal (Quaker brand - red packaging)
92g sugar
30g butter, melted
92g milk
1 egg
1 tbsp cocoa powder
75g chocolate chips (save 1/4 for topping)

I did worry if the lack of banana and addition of the cocoa powder will make the muffin dry. I cannot remember what is the outcome as this batch is baked in Aug 15th. I vaguely remember it is rather hard and they could be overbaked. However, they were still tasty as the kids protested when my mother took quite a few pieces.

The 2nd time I used the same recipe is on Aug 24th. I had the time, so i tried out fan mode with two trays of mini ones (minis are easier for them to bring to school). I remembered I read that using fan mode, one must turn down the temperature roughly by 20 dC, so I used 190dC this time for 15 minutes. I had a hard time deciding if the muffins were cooked because I was not sure the stick (testing doneness) turns out chocolately due to it being uncooked or that I had poked into a chocolate chip, so I added 3 more minutes. The top tray had hard crust while the bottom try was fine. It is school holiday week now, so let me see if I still have the chance to try this recipe again. This time I must make sure I update the blog asap.

Initially I thought that things will not get burn in fan mode as there is no direct heat, but I was wrong. Some of the chips in the top tray got burnt but the rest are all just nice. The chips inside the muffins are still darker in colour (towards the colour of being burnt) rather than the nice brown on the outside of the cupcake. I still have not solve the mystery of "inside darker colour chololate chip". Haiz.

I am dozing off (at 4am!) so will leave the other items till the next time (hopefully tomorrow night). I hope I talked sense at 4am.

Here's a picture to share that depicts all my "complaints".

The burnt chips on top and those inside

hobby vs "job"

It has been (almost) another month since I last wrote. I missed the Aspiring Baker Challenge on Swiss Roll! It is really fun to have an aim to work towards but pity, baking is just one of my hobby and my job is housewife. So, I got to manage the kids, the house as well as cook meals (but I love cooking too!). It is not helping that I have to sleep early most of the time since I got to wake up at 6am (tonight not counted as I really want to write something before stuff I want to record down get lost).

For the past few weeks, NLB has this DEAR program where one can borrow up to 12 books! So I spent most of my evening infront of the TV, ears with the Chinese news and eyes over food magazines. Nowadays I use my phone to snap down pictures of recipes that I want to try and of tips that are useful to me. I need to "record" the tips here so that I can easily refer to them when I needed them. I do have alot (of recipes) stored in the harddisk but the "find file" function sometimes is not as trustworthy as the search engine here.

This is one which I find quite interesting. There was a time where steel soap is an in-thing that can remove odor. This tip highlights to us that we had that "soap" all along!

 Isn't this interesting?

So I said I have to cook meals right and trying out different/new recipes is really one of my favourite too.  I was reading HHB's blog and noticed her crispy skin roasted chicken.  I knew I had to try it but I have to do it with wings/drum sticks/ chicken legs. After I have bought required ingredients, and has read her blog in details umpteen times before I set on cooking, I realised that I borrowed that very same magazine home too! Anyway I still refer to her steps since it is tested by someone I knew and can be trusted. I really ended up with crispy skin chicken wings. HHB advised that I try the whole chicken, so that the meat will be more moist but I think to cater for my kids, drumsticks/wings are still the way to go. Here is the proof of the crispy skin.

I also tried my hands on garlic bread, with homemade garlic spread on the free hotdog buns that came with the Gardenia white bread every weekend and were very well received by my family members. Just a few days ago, I made pancake for breakfast too and had a go with making mickey mouse and mickey's hand shape pancake. Not a success thou. I used the stainless cookie cutter dipped in butter but the batter still stuck to the cutters. So I had to remove the whole cutter thing and push out the half cooked pancakes and return them to pan. Due to this trouble, I only made one each, haha.

 

It is 1am now. Got to wrap up. I need to write my experience on baking HHB's banana walnut streusel pound cake another day.

Here's sharing this investment strategy that I find interesting, also from a food magazine.

Good night.

Something new from Down Under

It has been a month since I last post. I thought I will have more time to bake during the school holiday and perhaps also to engage the kids in baking, but no, I was wrong. The holiday flew pass.

The first weekend was spent on board Royal Carribean and there are housework to be done when we came back. After that, I have to go searching for cheap winter wear for the kids in preparation for the Perth trip on the last week of the school holiday. Top that with alot of last minute research, planning, booking and finally flew off.

We came back right before school starts, so besides kicking in the routine, I have housework and this is the first time I touch the PC at night as I did not stay past 12 midnight previously.

I have no bake to share, but I knew Aspiring bakers are on swiss roll this month .. I hope I can have time to  join.

This post will then be dedicated to new fruits that I got to know during the Perth Trip.

This is called Tamarillo. I found this in the farm we stayed. The owner say this is a delicacy. The market there sells one for around AUZ70cents. The owner of the farm has warned me that he did not like the taste and it is like passionfruit and has also advised me to sprinkle sugar on top before I eat it.
I finally got a chance to try it on the next night after we are back. The inside does look like passionfruit with little seeds. The taste is a little sour and a little mild sweet but I can take it. No one else in my family wants it. Here are the pictures of the insides.

Besides the above fruit of the size of an egg, I got to taste another fruit from the "wild". We are touring the Caversham Wildlife Park when I see the Park's staff picking up fruits from the ground and the tree into a basket. More daring overseas, so I went over to KPO. The staff told me (of course upon me asking), those are called Irish Strawberries. She is collecting them for feeds to the birds in the park. I asked if they can be consume by human (silly question?) and she said yes, but not those on the floor. So I pluck one out from the short tree (or should I say shrub) and I munched it. It was sweet. Let me show you how it looked.

The berry

With this, I leave you to goggle more about the fruits I talked about if you are interested.

Two recipes of Banana muffin

Purposely bought a bigger bunch of banana so that I can try out these two recipes in the library books. However,  I am busy with "not sure what" that I have to fridge my spotty banana in the fridge till the skin turn black. That forces me to find a time to do it.

This was done before I went away for a weekend cruise. I have no time to update then so I cannot remember much about the experience, or any hiccups (Haiz, so old already) but the only thing that I remember was, the muffins are not oily, both types. After I eat them, I do not even need to wash hands with soap!

The kids helped with the mixing and scooping. They are as excited as me because these are done with the new oven. As the muffins are of the ever popular flavour, there was no problem of "excess stocks". I have to type down these two tried recipes before the books are to be returned to the library. Wish I will be able to find them again, because there are still quite a few recipes I would like to try out.


Recipe 1, taken from Great Tastes Little Cakes published by Bay Books

Banana Muffins (Makes 12) 
250 g (9 oz / 2 cups) self-raising flour
75 g (2 1/2 oz / 1 cup) oat bran
185 g (6 1/2 oz / 3/4 cup) caster sugar
60 g (2 1/4 oz) unsalted butter, melted
185 ml (6 fl oz / 3/4 cup) milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
240 g (8 1/2 oz / 1 cup) mashed, ripe banana (2 medium bananas)

1. Preheat the oven to 210 dC (415F / Gas 6-7). Lightly grease a 12 hole standard muffin tin. Sift the flour into a large bowl and add the oat bran and the sugar. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.

2. Combine the butter, milk, eggs and banana in a separate mixing bowl and add to the flour mixture all at once. Using a wooden spoon, stir until just mixed. Do not overmix - the batter should remain lumpy.

3. Spoon mixture into the prepared tin. Bake for 15 minutes, or until puffed and brown. Leave in tin for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Note : For an extra treat, beat 100g ( 3 1/2 oz) cream cheese, 2 tablespoons icing sugar and 2 teaspoons lemon juice with electric beaters until light and creamy. Spread over muffins and top with dried banana slices.

Recipe 2, taken from healthy lunchboxes for kids by Amanda Grant

muffins (makes 12)
50 g butter (or sunflower oil)
300 g self raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
80 g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
110 ml natural yogurt (if you don't have yogurt, you could use milk)
110 ml milk
a few drops of vanilla extract
2 big handfuls of berries (e.g. blueberries or raspberries) - I replaced it with mash banana

1. Preheat the oven 200dC (400F) gas 6. Line the 12 muffin holes with paper cases - if you don't have any, just grease the muffin holes really well with butter.

2. Melt the butter in the microwave or in a small pan. Leave to cool slightly. Sift the flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Add the sugar to the flour.

3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs with a fork, add the yoghurt, milk, vanilla extract and melted butter.

4. Quickly and gently mix everything together in the large bowl. Don't over-mix or your muffins will not be light. Quick fold in the fruit, and then spoon the mixture into the cases.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until well risen and golden brown. Take the muffins out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack. When they have completely cooled, place in an airtight container, or you could bag, label, and freeze half for another time.



I halved both the recipes. I like the first recipe as it uses oat. I like the second recipe as it is very versatile. The author said that the muffins can be freeze and she encourages experimenting with different fruit. That is why I use banana. Here's sharing with you the products - product of recipe 1 in ikea paper case, product of recipe 2 in white cup.

I think handmix mufins are really good for my kids' bento. Easy to make and best do them in mini cases so that the muffins can fit into their bento boxes. However, in my case, baking is a troublesome process, because my oven is also a storage place. Not only do I need to move away the stuff I put on the counter top infront of the oven, I also have to move out the baking trays in the oven, as well as a oven toaster on top of my oven before I can start a baking session. If only I had more counter top space.

This is the new oven at work, now with lights so that baking can also be done at night. ;-)


p/s : Anyone has idea how to enter fractions that are used in dictating the measurement of ingredients? I hope the recipes are understandable.

More tries on sandwich maker

 Previously, I folded it triangular ... this time I tried rectangular. However, the milk toast is not big enough!!! So one end is still not seal properly.

 

So can you see that the sealed line actually pressed on the bread skin? It will not work this way, so I still have one end opened bread.

I tried one more time, with two pieces of bread, but once the sealed line pressed on the bread skin, the part will not be sealed. 

So after two more tests, I think can more or less conclude that the bread need not be steam soft before it can be sealed.

Also, I will be using a new oven for future bakes. The old one is working but my mother who has shifted further away from me (used to be next block) wanted the oven back to do occasional baking, so she asked me to get a new one. With the limited tabletop space, I do not have much choices and thus settled for the below.

The salesman says this is the latest model, has double layer glass door for better heat retention, with light (a must for me) and got self clean wall.  However, I am not very happy with the wall that has coating that will come off. 

See, even before I use, the coating is already off a little. I wonder if there will be any problem with heating up this chemical coated wall... but I really have not much choice due the the space limit. I hope to start baking soon.

Another nice drink

Long long time ago, I ordered this drink 西洋菜蜜棗水 from Macau Express in Expo and I liked it very much. I was recently told it is also served in Crystal Jade.  I remembered asking my friend from Hong Kong to share the recipe, but I had since "lost" the email in the inbox.

Actually, my intention is to cook watercress soup as requested by hubby but it is such a big bunch of watercress (bought from NTUC) so I think the taste will be too overpowering if I used all. I wouldn't want to drink the soup again 2 days later (I will definitely have leftovers since kids will only drink a little) so I had the idea to cook it into the sweet drink. I googled the net for recipe (in mandarin) but it returns mostly the version with pork/pork bones. Finally I found one. My hubby thinks the drink is close to what we have then, but the watercress taste is still rather strong. I am only using 100g of watercress to abt 1.5 litre. So I will try to reduce the watercress portion the next time I try.

This drink is said to be good for the lungs and for cough. No matter what it is for, it will be a good drink.

p/s : I happened to itchy hand, google with english and it returned with more results. Perhaps will try the rest of the recipes the next time.

My hobby blog

Long time ago, when I started baking, I had problem trying to keep track of the recipes that I have tried. I even went to the extend of using Microsoft Access, trying to create a database to enter the recipes and to create keywords where I can based on when I need to do a search. Of course, this did not work, so I rely on my blog now to keep track of what I have tried before and the respective recipes. However, I think my labeling is not organized, but I guess I have to live with it since it will be another tedious task to relabel. I am not adventurous to try porting the whole blog to another new platform too.

Just a few days ago, I noticed a recent blog post from my friend's blog (using blogger) went missing. There were also comments in Facebook from other bloggers (using blogger too) that their recent posts were also missing. I am not sure if there are any "damage" on my blog, but it is not noticeable to me yet.

SSB from www.smallsmallbaker.blogspot.com has kindly shared the way to back up the blog. I am going to do that now. I wouldn't want the recipes to go all missing. Thank you SSB.