1st bake of the year: Black Grape Muffins

Recipe adapted from muffingirl

Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 3/8 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup butter, cubed and soften to room temperature
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 egg
- Handful of black seedless grapes

Steps
1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree celsius
2. Beat the butter till light and fluffy, add in sugar, egg and vanilla and beat well
3. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt
4. Add the flour to butter mixture in 2 batches, alternating with milk. Stir lightly to mix.
5. Fold in the grapes
6. Line muffin tin and spoon the mixture equally into 6 muffin cups
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes till it's golden brown on top and a skewer into its middle comes out ckean

Superb banana muffins

Oh my! These are to die for! Thanks to Elise from Simply Recipes!

Ingredients

• 3 large ripe bananas, smashed
• 1/3 cup melted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• Handful of dark mini chocolate chips

Method

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Mix the baking soda, salt, chocolate chips and flour. Add the flour mixture into the banana mixture and mix until just incorporated. Pour mixture into muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes. Cool on a rack or serve warm.

** Makes 6 muffins

fuck u. and fyi, school did not teach me how to speak nicely to bastards who do not know how to respond to others.

Finally, crunchy chocolate cookies!

Adapted from the same Vivian Pang recipe which I used for the chocolate chip cookies. This is definitely my go-to recipe for crunchy cookies in future!

Ingredients

• 125g salted butter
• 120g brown sugar
• 1 egg + 1 tsp vanilla essence (lightly beaten)
• 210g plain flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 120g semi-sweet chocolate chips
• handful of coarsely chopped walnuts

Steps

1. Whisk the plain flour, cocoa powder, baking powder together to remove lumps and ensure that it's well mixed
2. Add in the chocolate chips and walnuts into the flour mixture and mix well
3. Cream butter + sugar till light and fluffy
4. Add in the egg/vanilla mixture and beat till well mixed
5. Add in 3/4 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture and beat at low speed till well incorporated
6. Add in the remaining of the flour mixture and beat till low speed till well incorporated
7. Pre-heat the oven to 170 degree celsius
8. Line the baking tray with grease paper
9. Using 2 spoons, drop spoonfuls of the cookie doughs onto the baking tray, leaving about 1.5 cm distance between each cookie
10. Bake for 25 minutes
11. Transfer to cooling rack and let it cool completely before storing into airtight container

Makes about 40 cookies.

Crunchy, buttery chocolate chip cookies

Recipe courtesy of here, but I halved it for about 70 cookies and used all brown sugar instead. I'm gonna stick to this recipe in future :)

i think i've lost a friendship which was very close to my heart....and it hurts....

cny almond cookies *LOVE*

An attempt to replicate that salty, almondy, crunchy melt-in-mouth almond cookies which I've always loved to devour during CNY and yes, i can make my own in future liao! It is really that same taste! *LOVE*

Recipe taken from Jess Kitchen

Ingredients
150g self raising flour
80g icing sugar (reduced to 60g)
80g ground almond
80g diced almonds
100g corn oil (replaced with canola oil)
1/2 tsp almond essence (omitted)
Egg yolk for brushing (omitted)

Method

1. Sift together flour and icing sugar, add in ground almond and diced almonds, mix well.
2. Mix (1) and corn oil together to form a soft dough. (the dough will come together when you roll them so don't worry about it being crumbly)
3. Shape into small round balls and place into small paper casing and press it slightly.
4. Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for 15-20mins or until slightly brown.
5. Cool completely on wire rack before storing into airtight containers.

scrumplicious orange cranberry muffins

Adapted my own version from here and I simply love these muffins with the burst of orange and cranberry flavors with every bite!

• 60 grams of salted butter
  
• 50 grams of caster sugar
  
• 1 egg
  
• 80 grams of flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 5 tablespoons of unsweetened 100% all natural orange juice
• suitable amount of dried cranberries

1. heat the orange juice and dried cranberries over the stove till warm and remove from fire
   
2. cream the butter & sugar until pale and fluffy
3. add the egg to butter-sugar mixture and beat till creamy
4. sift in the flour & baking powder into the butter mixture and mix until just combined
5. add in the cranberry mixture and mix lightly
6. spoon into muffin pan and bake at 170C until golden brown

Makes 12 mini muffins

mini chocolate lava cakes!

A 200% keeper from Paula Deen (below is the actual ingredients i used)

• 120g of mini chocolate chips
• 120g of salted butter
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200C
   
2. Melt chocolates and butter in the microwave or in a double boiler. Add flour and sugar to chocolate mixture. Stir in eggs until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Divide batter evenly among a muffin pan
   
3. Bake for 8 minutes. Edges should be firm but the center will be runny. Run a knife around the edge to loosen and invert onto dessert plate.
4. Top with vanilla ice cream or raspberry sauce. (Topping optional).

Makes 17 mini muffins

mini banana walnut cakes

I love the bite-size and this is amazingly moist and flavorful! Thanks to food network

• 1 1/4 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature (i omitted this)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (i used 3/4 tablespoon)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for preparing the pan (i used canola oil)
• 1 cup sugar (i reduced it to 1/4 cup white sugar + 1/4 cup brown sugar)
• 3 very ripe bananas, peeled, and mashed with a fork (about 1 cup) (i used 2 large bananas)
  
• 1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces

Makes 16 mini muffins

easy chewy fudgy brownies!

I halved this recipe for a 9x9 inch pan, also reduced the sugar to 160g instead of 200g. And it turned out to be as the title says - chewy & fudgy brownies! <3

baking love

Been busy trying out various recipes. Some successful, some not quite...nonetheless i am still very much on the lookout for easy and yummy recipes!

1. German Cookies (9/10 Yummilicious!). Recipe courtesy of Small Small Baker. Flavors I tried - original butter, chocolate & coffee walnut. I still like the original buttery ones best :D




2. New York Cheesecake. Uber easy recipe from my cousin's friend

Ingredients
3 cream cheese, total 750 g (philadelphia)
0.5 cup sugar
Butter (approx 125 g)
3 eggs
Biscuits (15 pcs) - either Plain soda or digestive

Steps
Crust :
Crumble the biscuits
mix biscuits with butter (on hot pan) until well blended
transfer above ingredients onto pan and press firm
bake for 10 mins at 180 DegC
remove from oven and set aside to cool

Cheese cake :
Defrost the cream cheese until soft (room temperature)
Mix sugar and cream cheese until well blended (in one direction)
Add eggs, 1 at a time, and beat till well-blended

Pour ingredients (B) onto crust (A) using an 8-inch springform pan
Bake for at least 40 mins (preheat oven to 350F / 180 DegC
remove cheese cake from oven , leave to cool
Refrigerate for 6 hours, before serving

3. Really really really fluffy homemade pancakes! Courtesy of the chef with the sexy voice - Chef John of FoodWishes

super duper easy apple muffins :)

Thanks to the girl who ate everything. I halved the sugar and the sweetness turned out juz nice for my palate. This makes a really good comfort food!

Aglio Olio

Made this today for dinner and I must say that it taste good! In future can simply satisfy my craving at home =)

Ingredients:

• 1. Garlic
• 2. Red Onion (i added this coz not enough garlic)
• 3. Chilli Padi
• 4. Olive Oil
• 5. Salt, Pepper
• 6. Spaghetti

Method:

1. Cook the spaghetti according to package instructions in a pot of boiling water (with salt and oil added). Drain when cooked.
   
2. Slice up the garlic, red onion and chilli padi (i removed the seeds)
3. Heat up a generous amount of olive oil (i used extra virgin olive oil since that's the only one i have at home), turn down the fire to low and add in the garlic slices
4. When the garlic slices are turning slightly golden brown, add in the red onion (this browns really fast)
5. Stir around till the red onion and garlic slices are golden brown, add in chilli padi and ham
   
6. Stir for approx 10 seconds and add in the spaghetti
7. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve!
   

Rock buns long time no see!

I distinctly remember this item from my home econs class back in sec 1 (or 2?) and I really loved it back then. Did a search thru google, found this recipe and here's the end result! <3


Some conversions I made...
200g of plain flour = 1 and 3/4 cup of plain flour
100g brown sugar = slightly less than 3/4 cup brown sugar

Tried this out on Saturday. A few changes I made:

1. reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup (still a little too sweet, might reduce it to half cup next time)
2. reduced the number of eggs to 2, and added water instead after folding in the flour coz I realised the mixture is too dry
3. added the vanilla extract last coz I totally forgot about it

Also, instead of using a mixer, i used a spatula to mix up the stuff.

During the baking, the top part dried up too fast...maybe I need to adjust the rack position halfway through the baking process....in all, it's not a howling success but i would give myself a 60/100 for this try coz I quite enjoy the cake myself though it's not v pretty looking and might have some inconsistencies in the overall cake texture :P

my fave girls

@ Arbite on 7-7-2011. miss them so so so so much.....

fluffy pancake recipe

got this recipe from a friend...gotta try it out soon coz his pancakes look so nice & fluffy!

1 1/2 cup flour
400 mils Butter Milk *secret ingredient*
2 Tbl spoon castor sugar
1 Egg

Optional:
1 tea spoon vanilla essence
Chocolate chips (about 3-4 each pan cake)

Chocolatey Goodness

Found this recipe online and made it today. Success! But I dumped in the entire bar of butter (227g) :P

my korean lover

Fantastic.Awesome.It's effing Good!!!!! Love him to bits!!!

Thanks to Gina for the best seat ever. So many cute moments
1. him saying "i'm so egg-excited" while swaying his butt
2. him changing backstage and moving the cam away
3. him saying "hold on 1 second" when the sound system cocked up and "one more time" as he repeated It's Raining
4. him having fun with his dancers & dancing to very different moves at the encore section
5. him singing "instead of saying goodbye" opera-style & cutegirl-style
6. him coming down to shake our hands
7. his uber-awesome and slick dance moves & fantastic vocals
8. his "woohoo", "yahoo!", "argh", "roar" sounds as he moved and sang
9. him teaching us the hand movements
10. him saying "i love chilli crabs...and butter crabs", "i'm going to show you everything"
11. and sooo many many more!!!!