Mango Yogurt cheesecake

Here's a picture of my attempt at making Mango Yogurt cheesecake but it was a failure as it tastes more like custard cake... sad =(

I wonder if it's the oven as the oven at Marky's house took forever to bake this cake and still it did not seem very solid after almost 2 hours. (Note that the oven was already set at maximum heat - 250 degree celsius)

I wanna get my own oven but not now as I don't have my own house yet =(

Sugar Cookies

Made some sugar cookies for X'mas and these cookies belong to the test batch. Totally enjoyed designing my cookies but I've learnt not to make them too thick as I prefer a more crunchy texture =)

Cornmeal raisin cookies

I found this recipe from The Lazy Chef and since I have leftover cornmeal, I decided to bake this for my friends & family. If you like cookies that have coarse textures, similar to shortbreads,
you'll love this recipe. The added orange rind adds a fantastic citrus flavour to the cookies. Thumbs up for this!

Cornmeal Raisin Cookies















Recipe from The Lazy Chef.

Note:

• I reduced the amount of sugar to 90g & it is still reasonably sweet.
• I only used 50g of raisins as that was all I have left.
• Also, to make it easier to mold your dough, you can mold them in batches & keep the rest in the fridge.
  
  

Ingredients:

1. 170 g butter, softened
2. 135 g white sugar
3. 1 egg
4. 190 g all-purpose flour
5. 60 g cornmeal
6. 1 teaspoon baking powder
7. 1/4 teaspoon salt
8. Grated rind of 1 orange(about 1 teaspoon- 1 1/2 teaspoon)
9. 70 g raisins

Method:

1. In a large bowl, blend butter and sugar until creamy. Add egg and beat well.
2. In another bowl, stir together flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt; gradually add to butter mixture. Add orange rind and blend thoroughly. Stir in the raisins.
3. Form dough into ball, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill until firm, about 1 hour.
4. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball between your palms. Place 1 inch apart on lightly greased cookie sheet, then flatten slightly.
5. Bake in 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for 15-19 minutes or until edges are golden. Store in airtight container.

Lastly, you can place these cookies in gift bags & they make great gifts for your loved ones!

Cookies Galore

These are the cookies that I made with Wani during Hari Raya at her house. We made 3 different types of cookies till the wee hours of the morning and had to skip school as a result.

These cookies are oh so nice and crunchy too...However, our chocolate chip cookies didn't turned out well in the beginning as there wasn't enough flour (her expert neighbour told us) and we had to add some flour to every single cookie dough which we moulded.

On the whole, my favourite was the Minty cookies (not everyone likes mint) and the cocoa crunch. The latter was super easy to make and delicious too!

Here goes the recipes:



















Beware: Makes 4 dozen cookies (Recipe given by Shufang)

Ingredients:
2 cups granulated sugar (white sugar)
2 large eggs
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips, or double-chocolate chunks

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together, butter, sugar and eggs.
3. Mix in remaining ingredients. Blend well.
4. Drop by teaspoonsful onto a cookie sheet.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8-9 minutes. Cookies will be soft. Cool about 1 minute on cookie sheet then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Ingredients:
220 gm plain flour
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda (Sifted together with flour)

50 gm almond pieces/slices
180 gm butter
85 gm castor sugar
1 ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
150 gm coco crunch (ground)

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Mix ingredients A together with the coco crunch and almond. Set aside.
3. Cream the butter, sugar, honey (1 tablespoon), and vanilla essence. Add ingredients A into the mixture and mix to combine thoroughly.
4. Shape the dough into small balls and cover it with ground coco crunch. Bake for 15 minutes.











Opps! I lost the recipe for this...

Sweetbakes: Thick cocoa brownies

I know it's kinda weird to bake brownies during CNY season, but I did that...Haha.. But it's really for a gathering with my Secondary friends. I wasn't able to be there early for their potluck session, thus I compensated with my brownies with ice-cream.

It was my first attempt at making brownies from scratch although many people tell me how easy it is to make from scratch. Laziness always overcome me. Just can't help it =) From the title, you can tell how thick and chocolatey my brownies are.

So here's my recipe for the brownies with some modifications.
*Warning* This recipe requires good arm strength. Not for the weak! (LOL... Just kidding about the 2nd part, but it really requires alot of stirring.)

Thick Cocoa Brownies (Makes 16 large or 25 smaller squares)
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/108346










Ingredients
1 and 1/4 sticks unsalted butter (I used 155g)
225g of fine sugar (I feel that the amt of sugar can be reduced further)
85g plus 2 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder (You can reduce this if you don't like a strong cocoa taste)
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 cold large cold eggs
60g all purpose flour
2/3 cup walnut or pecan pieces (Optional)

8-inch square baking pan

Method
1) Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat your oven to 162°C or 325°F (I put mine to 175°C)

2) Line bottom and sides of baking pan with parchment paper or foil, leaving an overhang on 2 opposite sides for easy removal of brownies from pan.

3) Combine butter, sugar, cocoa and salt in a medium heatproof bowl and set the bowl in a wide pot/pan of barely simmering water.

4) Stir from time to time until butter is melted and the misture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping in to test.

5) Remove the bowl from the pot/ pan and set aside briefly until mixture is only warm, not hot.

6) Stir in the vanilla with a wooden spoon. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one.

7) When the batter looks thick, shiny and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer, then beat vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Stir in the but, if any. Spread evenly in the lined pan.

8) Bake for 30-35 minutes until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter. Cut into 16 or 25 squares.











The results?
Thick, chocolatey brownies that are ever so delicious with a whooping scoop of vanilla ice-cream!

Sweet Bakes

Sweetbakes: Easy Shortbread

This is one of the few things which I always liked to bake because this is really EASY...And I mean it... Having bad encounters with baking before, I'm usually not very adventurous with baking anymore. Unless I'm really feeling as if I have extra time and money to spare then I'll try baking something new..

Then again, home baked stuff are probably the best gifts to your friends and family. I personally feel very happy when I receive home baked cookies or cakes as gifts as it shows how much I mean to the person.



Here's the recipe:

Seafood : Sweetbakes :Japanese Soba Fish and Corny Cornflakes Cookies???

Cheryl and I are in need of exercise so she came over to my house yesterday for a walking session to ECP. This was followed by a hearty & quite healthy lunch at my place. I made a Jap & Korean fusion bibimbap. Haha..I'm always coming up with weird stuff...So here's our lunch..

Salad with Japanese Mayo & black pepper
Japanese rice with soba fish & egg + plenty of seaweed and Japanese rice seasoning


Later in the afternoon, I got Cheryl to help me with the corny cornflakes cookies which I got from The Lazy Chef. Actually, I don't really have much experience with baking and Cheryl was the one who taught me how to fold in the flour =) It was a tedious process because everything had to be done manually as my mixer had been loaned out.

Anw, it turned out pretty good except that it tasted better with the cornflakes mixed into the dough. My sis commented that she liked the buttery taste of the cookies. So here's the recipe:

Corny Cornflakes Cookies (Beware: Makes around 300!!)











Ingredients:
450g butter(soft but not melted)
600g plain flour plus a pinch of salt
1 egg
250g fine sugar
1 medium pack unsweetened cornflakes

Method:
1. Cream the butter with the sugar till creamy and pale white

2. Add the egg and mix well

3. Sieve the flour with the salt and fold into the egg and the butter mixture.








4. Mix well into a soft pastry dough

5. Crush the cornflakes into smaller pieces

6. Make small balls of dough with the fingers.

7. Roll these into cornflakes to coat evenly








8. Bake on ungreased trays at 180 degree in a preheated oven till brown.