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Thursday, June 25, 2009
, 10:48 PM
peanut butter & jelly cupcakes with cream-cheese frosting!
RECIPE (+2 photos)
Serves: 20 cupcakesTime: 30min prep (incl frosting), 20min bake
Ingredients
Butter, 60g
Flour, 1 cup
Vanilla extract, 1tsp
Brown sugar, 1 cup
Peanut butter, 150g
Buttermilk*, 0.4 cup
Baking powder, 1.5tsp
Eggs, 2
Strawberry jam
Frosting
Cream cheese, 200g room temp
Sugar, 1cup
Milk, 2tbsp
Butter, 100g
*substituted with milk + a dash of lemon juice
1. Mix butter, brown sugar and peanut butter till creamy
2. Add eggs, then vanilla extract
3. Add the flour, then buttermilk
4. Spoon into cupcake moulds with the strawberry jam as filling
5. Bake at 180C for about 17-20min
6. Mix together the filling and frost cooled cupcakes
(modified from original recipe here)
before frosting
sideways angle
The original recipe was followed veeeery lazily because Andrew and I were lazy / lacking in amount of ingredients lol. Also, we accidentally added almond extra first instead of vanilla extract. It didn't destroy the taste but I would definitely make it next time without the almon extract, lol. Other than that, it was a much simpler recipe than I thought looking at how complex the original recipe page looked.
It was pretty yummy, even though I felt that the flavours (peanut butter, strawberry, cream-cheese) kinda clash. Too many different flavours. I think if I used frosting in the future I would use peanut butter maybe? Or skip the strawberry jam...but anyway I was reminded of how much I love cream cheese frosting. I just want to make more cream cheese frosting vanilla cupcakes.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
Labels: BAKING
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Wednesday, June 17, 2009
, 4:58 PM
allspice makes this crunchy cookie ever so nice
RECIPE
Serves:Ingredients
All-purpose flour, 3 cups
Baking powder, 1 tsp
Salt, 1 tsp
Cinammon, 1 tsp
All spice, 2 tsp
Nutmeg, 1tsp
Sugar, 1 1/2 cups
Butter, 1 cup
Egg, 1
Vanilla extract, 1 tsp
Chocolate chips, 2 cups
1. Preheat oven to 200C
2. Cream butter and sugar, then mix in egg and vanilla
3. Mix in dry ingredients, then chocolate chips
4. Bake for about 10min or until golden brown
(modified from original recipe here)
Pretty much the same recipe as before, but with a change in the dosage of spices. Namely, doubling of allspice as I felt Famous Amos cookies weren't that sweet...if you remember this recipe was supposed to be the Famous Amos imitation recipe...its still not there yet, but the next time I think I'll reduce the sugar & play with the dosage of spcies again. Oh when I said I doubled the dosage of the allspice, it was actually in relation to the cinammon. I just realised after looking at the recipe I used tsp instead of tbsp as in the original. >.>
Anyway, as Famous Amos cookies, fail. As regular cookies, absolutely delicious. Tash said that tasted Christmassy because of all the spices. I really like spiced baked goods nowadays, I think it adds an extra dimension. (:
VERDICT: 7/10
Labels: BAKING
@ , 4:29 PM
simple to make potatoes, onion & pork gratin
JUNE 17, 09
RECIPE
Serves: 2Time: 35min prep, 25min bake
Ingredients
Potatoes, 3 regular sized
Butter, 3 tbsp
Flour, 3 tbsp
Milk, 1 1/2 cups
Cheese, 100g grated (or cut into tiny pieces suffices too)
Onion, 1/2 large
Ground pork (or etc meat), 100g
Bread crumbs/tempura coating
Salt & pepper
1. Boil potatoes till soft & dice
2. Melt butter in pan, stir in flour*, add in milk, then cheese & stir till melted. Add salt & pepper
3. Layer a baking tray with half of the potatoes, then the pork, then the onion, then top with the rest of the potatoes. Sprinkle with salt & pepper
4. Cover entirely with the cheese/milk mixture and then sprinkle liberally with breadcrumbs
5. Bake covered for 15min & uncovered for 10min
*it might be a better idea to dissolve the flour in milk first or in room-temp-ish melted butter as what happened to me was the flour started clumping
(modified from original recipe here)
The taste was absolutely delicious (except for overconcentration of pepper/salt at some parts lol) but the only problem was that the gratin didnt quite solidify so it was just like eating creamy sauce lol. I'll reduce the milk next time (or maybe up the cheese dosage. Also since a lot of the flour clumped and I had to dispose of those maybe there was a lot less flour in the mixture than ought to have been). I initially was only going to use 1 cup but then I thought the cheese was too strong so I upped the flour.
Other than that it was a pretty yummy and successful culinary experiment. I won't repeat it too often though because milk + cheese + potatoes = crazy calories.
VERDICT: 8/10
Labels: COOKING
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Saturday, June 6, 2009
, 10:36 AM
a quick and delicious meal
JUNE 2, 09
RECIPE (+2photos)
Serves: 20 meatballsPrep time: 15 min to prepare, 25 min to bake
Ingredients
Ground pork/beef*, 1 lb
Breadcrumbs**, 1/2 tsp
Minced garlic, 1 tsp
Salt, 3/4 tsp
Soy sauce, 1 tsp
Tonkatsu sauce***, 1 tsp
Finely chopped onion, 1/4 cup
Parsley, 2 tbsp
Egg, 1 (slightly beaten)
*Original called for ground beef, but its cheaper to buy a pork/beef mix
**I didnt have breadcrumbs so I used the crunchy things used to coat for tempura, lol
***I didnt have the Worcestershire sauce called for in the original, but tonkatsu sauce is supposed to be similar
1. Preheat oven to 190C/385F
2. Mix all ingredients well
3. Shape into 1" balls
4. Bake for 15 min wrapped in tin foil, then another 8 min unwrapped
Sauce
Tomato paste
Garlic
Onion
Basil
Sugar
Salt
I don't know the exact proportion because the tomato juice I bought already had garlic and onion so I was supposed to be able to use it straight. I added a ton of basil though, because that's always good with tomato sauce
(modified from original recipe in my ex-boss' Trinidad & Tobago cookbook)
pre-baked
baked, pre-saucetastes good this way too!
Why have I never made meatballs before? It has to be one of the easiest recipes ever. It's just like, mix everything together, ball it up and stick in the oven (or deepfry, but I like to stay away from deepfrying). I got this recipe from my ex-boss' Trinidad cookbook. It's been so long since I used a recipe from there!
Anyway the meatballs were absolutely smashing, with and without the sauce. So salty and juicy and flavourful...mmm. Everyone who tried it said it tasted really good. But it probably doesnt have anything to do with me. Meatballs just always taste good. Like sausages. Heh.
I'm gonna try to make meatballs again but vary the spices I put inside. Maybe basil instead of parsley or some Indian spices...
VERDICT: 9/10
Labels: COOKING
@ , 10:20 AM
Chocolate spiced with a little cardamon
JUNE 1, 09
RECIPE
Serves: 9x4cm tinIngredients
Butter, 3/8 cup (I prob had in a little more)
Sugar, 3/4 cup
Vanilla extract, 1 tsp
Eggs, 2
Cocoa powder, 1/4 cup
Flour, 3/8 cup
Baking powder, 1/2 tsp
Cardamon, 1-2 tbsp (dont quite remember...)
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F
2. Melt the butter, and mix in all wet ingredients
3. Mix all dry ingredients, and combine with the wet
4. Bake for about 20 min or until pick inserted comes out clean
(modified from original recipe here)
The best thing about this brownie is the cardamon, which adds a whole new dimension of flavour to an otherwise plain ol' chocolate brownie. It also helped that for the first time in a long while (I'm finding this oven isn't really that awesome in making cakes after all -_-) the texture of the brownie was right. Possibly a little more cakey than a typical brownie would be as the proportion of eggs is a little higher than what was required, but at least not wet and dense inside like a lot of my cakes have been turning out... :( I halfed the original recipe (as best as I could) though, so if you want it closer to the texture it ought to be I say stick to the original recipe.
So the tale of the cardamon. I thought a chocolate brownie was too boring and was wondering if there was any spice I could add to make it more interesting. I remembered Jakob's cardamon buns (instead of cinammon buns) & figured I could try some cardamon. I added it pretty liberally but couldn't taste very much. However, once baked the taste became a lot stronger. Sooo yummy.
VERDICT: 8.5/10
Labels: BAKING
@ , 12:44 AM
bear-shaped onigiri (chicken-rice flavoured!), mini-wieners, tamago-yaki
heart-shaped onigiri (chicken-rice flavoured!), mini-cucumbers
mini-cucumbers + mini-tomatoes, mini-strawberries
you can actually see the mini-wieners and (sort-of) the shape of the bear onigiri
these mini-strawberries were seriously delicious
So I made bento on monday (and wednesday, but it looked pretty much the same). I feel so Japanesey. Yay! ^o^
It was kinda a cop-out though. Besides the tamago-yaki & onigiri (squishing the rice into cookie moulds was much more time-consuming that I thought...the rice kept falling apart if I didn't really squish it well) everything else I just bought from the supermarket and re-arranged nicely lol.
Bentos are pretty time-consuming and expensive to make though, because you need a lot of a little bit of everything. :\ Prettyness though!
Labels: COOKING
@ , 12:20 AM
Sweet & fishy, Japan's answer to scrambled eggs
JUNE 1, 09
RECIPE
Serves: 2-4Ingredients
Eggs, 4
Dashi (fish stock), 1 tbsp
Sugar, 1 tbsp
Soy sauce, 1/2 tsp
Salt, 1/2 tsp
1. Beat all ingredients together
2. Oil a heated pan (low heat) well and pour 1/3 of the egg mixture till it covers the whole pan
3. When the underneath bubbles and sets a little start rolling the egg into itself, away from you
4. When the egg has been rolled up completely, move the egg towards you, oil the pan again and pour another 1/3
5. Repeat step 3, then do the same thing for the last 1/3 egg mixture
6. Remove from pan and cut into nice rectangles!
(modified from original recipe here)
These don't really taste like the tamago (egg) sushi I buy at sushi restaurants as they're sweeter and fishier (probably I should reduce the dashi & sugar), but bloody hell they're so delicious. Both times I made this for bento (lunch box) I ended up devouring like 70% of it and leaving only 30% for the actual bento, lol.
Making tamago-yaki sounds hard at first because of the whole rolling the egg thingy, but its actually easy once you get the hang of it. I recommend using two spatulas, one to hold the egg down and the other to roll. Another thing to note is to keep the heat low and oil the pan well to prevent the egg from getting burnt. It's hard though, because then I had to deal with undercooked eggs which were a little runny inside...
I'm gonna try making this again while varying the amount of ingredients. (: The first time I had mirin too, but I didn't find it made a lot of difference so I don't think I'll be including it anymore...
VERDICT: 9/10
Labels: COOKING
