Blueberry Oatbran Muffin

Muffins again yeah. These muffins are loaded with fibre. Well my hunt for a pina colada muffin recipe did not turn up much – instead I stumbled on to Nancy Silverton’s (Raisin) Bran Muffin Recipe, courtesy of several bloggers. I added oatbran, blueberries and apple sauce instead of the raisin puree and raisins and got myself a Blueberry Oatbran Muffin.

The muffin is light, and moist although packed with bran. It does not rise sky high like other non bran muffins, so you can easily fill the muffin cases up to the top. Bran is rich in omegas, minerals, proteins and vitamins besides having the benefit of high fibre, important to your body’s wellbeing. Try making them, they are delicious and healthy as a snack

Here’s the recipe .

• 2 cups organic raw oat bran
• 1 cup apple sauce
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest, grated
• ½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
• ½ cup cold pressed macademian nut oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 large egg white
• ½ cup organic unbleached all-purpose flour
• ¼ cup organic whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and position a rack in the middle.

Spread the bran on a rimmed cookie sheet and place in the oven for 7-8 minutes to toast, stir once about half-way through to prevent burning. When done, pour the bran into a large mixing bowl.

Stir in the buttermilk, the 1/2 cup of water, the lemon zest, the apple sauce, and the brown sugar to combine. Add the oil, egg and egg white, and mix to incorporate. Sift in the flours with the baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the blue berries and stir gently to combine.

Now the batter looks like  milk soaked muesli mush.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling the cups to just over the rims and mounding the batter slightly in the center.

Bake for 25 minutes, until the muffins are well set and firm to the touch.
Makes 8-10 large muffins or 12 medium sized ones.

Leftover muffins, the next day ? Toast them up and split halfways , slather with some  butter (oops there goes the healthy part!)

Chinese New Year 2011

Below post was supposed to be uploaded during Chinese New Year – got delayed and I supposed it is never too late.

Muffin Marathon

Yes – hopping on  my previous post about” breakfast in a muffin”, the story continues. Last night I went on to try a recipe on The Food Network site, a recipe by Tyler Florence. I adapted the recipe by adding walnuts, wholemeal flour and rolled oats for (again) a healthier version. Quite a healthnut I am not, but just trying to be…

If you’ve followed the previous post – you know I digress, as I have not found the right recipe for those pina colada muffins yet, so these banana wholemeal walnut muffins would  just have to do for now.

Method below is from Tyler’s recipe.

Banana Walnut Wholemeal Muffin

• 1 cup all-purpose unbleached organic flour
• 1 cup wholemeal organic flour 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3-4 overripe bananas
• 1 cup brown sugar minus 2 tbp  
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) , 170g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs (beaten slightly with a fork)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
• a handful of rolled oats for topping

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F or 180 degrees C and lightly butter 2 muffin tins or use muffin paper cups.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. Mash 2 of the bananas with a fork in a small bowl so they still have a bit of texture. With an electric mixer fitted with a wire whisk, whip the remaining bananas and sugar , for a good 3 minutes. Add the melted butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat well, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. Mix in the dry ingredients just until incorporated. Fold in the nuts and the remaining 2  mashed bananas with a rubber spatula. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins or paper casings to fill them about slightly more than halfway about 3/4 filled. Give them a rap on the counter to get any air bubbles out. Do not overbeat the mixture or it will get rubbery/tough. Sprinkle the rolled oats over the muffin mixture.

Bake until a toothpick stuck in the muffins comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes.

Next project – all bran blueberry muffins….unless I discover the perfect pina colada muffin recipe first! We shall see.

Breakfast in a muffin

I received a thoughtful CNY hamper from my best friend LK, and one of the things she gave was a tin of pineapples to symbolise prosperity – ‘ong lai’ – pineapple in Hokkien dialect meaning ‘prosperity arrives’.  Took that , crushed the pineapples up, mixed with organic grated carrots, wholemeal flour, raisins.. mm.. breakfast in a muffin! Recipe below (from Food.com) tweaked a little bit by adding raisins (or walnuts), using golden castor sugar, wholemeal flour… you know the usual good stuffs to make this a healthier option.

The muffins were moist with the lovely smell of cinnamon while the wholemeal flour, raisins and walnuts gave them the edgy texture of a hearty fibre filled muffin.  I would like to attempt a pina colada muffin next, pineapples and coconut… I have said that before but still looking for the right recipe ….anyone with suggestions?

• 1 cup golden castor sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil ( I used grapeseed, you can use macademia or almond nut oil)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1  cup organic unbleached flour
• ½ cup organic wholewheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup grated organic carrot
• 1 cup drained crushed pineapple
• 1/2 cup raisins + 1/2 cup choppped walnuts (optional)

1 Stir together sugar and oil.

2 Stir in the eggs until well combined.

3 Stir in vanilla.

4 In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, raisins and chopped nuts

5 Stir into sugar mixture just until combined.

6 Stir in carrots and pineapple just until combined.

7 Spoon into the muffin cases , filling to top.

8 Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 20 minutes or until done.

Chocolate Ganache Birthday Cake

After I went back to the workforce, my time for baking was severely reduced. So sad.. , and not being in the full swing at work for almost 2 years – did take a bit of a toll on me. Was practically exhausted daily, and I needed time to get into the rhythm again. Sometimes I wonder for the meagre salary is it all worth it to lose your freedom ? Unfortunately in such times, you need to still accummulate what you can and save for a rainy day. With that, I ploughed on.

To be fair the job isn’t that bad, salary could have been better, but you know as a foreigner working in Singapore, you don’t really get much rights or protection (even for your regular Singaporean, what more as a foreigner). I did lose out a large chunk of pension legally bound by employers to pay their employees because I am a foreigner, good deal for the employer! Suffice to say, when one is already unemployed and have left the workforce for 2 years, not likely you are in much of a bargaining position. OK enough of my griping about work.. back to the cake!

Anyways, so for the first time after a long time (since Nov 2010), I am trying a new recipe – back to NON GLUTEN FREE. It is Henrik’s birthday today – Jan 16th. A nice dinner was planned yesterday evening at Au Petit Salut – a French restaurant,  good – yes pricey but not overly , serving above average  French food.  For a little nicey surroundings, this place is not that bad, service, ambience and foodwise. (ps -I was told that Bistro du Sommelier serves very good down to earth Frenchie food, will need to check that out next time)

But as a tradition goes birthday cakes in this household will always be homemade – come hell or high water!

Went through Rose Levenbaum’s  cake recipes (her Heavenly Cakes) and decided upon her wicked Chocolate Devils Cake with Midnight Ganache. This chocolate cake is intense but not quite heavy (kidding – it is a very dense chocolate cake) . We really liked the addition of the cognac cherries. It is a grown up cake, no fancy cake decoration , just loads of chocolate piled in the cake itself and on the frosting. Yum..

Lessons in baking, I made 2 mistakes in baking the cake, first the sugar – it asked for superfine, not icing, but castor. I had only fine sugar in the store, so thought I could just use that. It does not affect the taste or texture too much, but the lumps you get does make difference to how the cake looks. Secondly, the speed of the mixer, the last part when everything else has been incorporated I should have beat it in medium speed (2-3 , for my Kenwood Chef Major) and not at ‘min’! That would have help even out the sourcream and the rest of the batter with the chocolate paste mixture.

Be warned! This cake needs to be made in stages, especially the cognac cherries which needed to be soaked for 8 hours. So obedientlythe last 2 evenings, I made part of the cake for the final assembly today! The ganache needs time, so don’t be like me, not patient enough to let the ganache thicken on her own. It has to sit for at least 5 hours. In our tropical heat, probably longer even in the fridge – so ideally, when the ganache is hot, let it cool for 1 hour at  room temperature , then cover it let it rest for 5 hours before popping into the fridge for the last 2 hours. Consistency should be like softened butter it says but  not a runny paste.

It did not look as it should, but tastewise, it was yum..So did Henrik like it? Of course, that was his wish, he wanted a chocolatey chocolate cake and he got it. For any chocolate lover this cake will hit the spot!

Gluten Free Rose Water Cupcakes

 

Sometimes despite my limited creativity, I venture out to the unknown, to the world of gluten free baking guided by others , inspired by others. It is not easy if you are firmed in the conventional method of making cakes from flour..This time, following the recipe from Harry Eastwood’s cookbook, I churned out pretty decent gluten free cupcakes infused with rose water (all the way from Wafi Gourmet in Dubai), with a light meringue frosting to top them off. Results were better than expected. They became the birthday cuppies for my aunt. It was a special treat for my cousin (the daughter) and her family who are gluten intolerant.

So what were the cuppies made of? Rice flour, zucchini, eggs, sugar and almond meal! The butterfly was made from fondant, dusted with bronze edible powder. For the recipe, you can find it in Harry Eastwood’s Red Velvet and Chocolate Heartache cookbook.

Ho Chi Minh

An evening view of HCMC  from Sheraton’s rooftop bar

A trip to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam was born when a girlfriend and I discussed about taking a short trip together. We have not seen each other for 2 years, it was about time we met up. And so we did, with my mom and her sister coming along too, joining in the fun in this all girl trip!

My impression of Ho Chi Minh City was at first intimidating due to the traffic especially the number of mopeds on the roads. Crossing the road yes can be rather daunting, although after a day or two , you do get the hang of it.  Due to the influx of tourists, some of the main tourists areas and Ben Tanh market are filled with touts and shops trying to rip you off everywhere you turn. That was sadly, my first day impression of the city and her people, chaos and cheats !

As we all know amidst all chaos, there lies the true nature and spirit of the place and its people – like an unpolished gem. I found in general people are truly kind and friendly, helpful. Food is great and their local arts/crafts absolutely beautiful. A note on that though, too many local artists despite their huge talents  had to resort to copy works of famous artists for a living instead of following their true expressions, simply because life as an artist is yet a struggle bordering on poverty for most, except the lucky few.

A local neighbourhood stall selling helmets for the mopeds

We stayed at a hotel located in District 1, called Hotel Ellyse Nga Khanh on Ly Tu Trong. Perfectly located, all the sites/shopping/eating are roughly 1-2 km in each direction. The hotel is simple, 2 star, clean and the staff was friendly. A night cost us usd30 for a room with 2 single beds and attached bathroom/wc, included breakfast. Staying in District 1 is recommended due to the close proximity to most sights and interesting streets. There are many similar standard hotels in the area.

A lady at Ben Tanh market selling lotus stems

From the hotel, it was just a stone’s throw away from Ben Tanh market. Be warned, many stalls in the market are very aggressive towards tourists and the bargaining process can be very intimidating with either party shouting at one another at the end. Rather unpleasant, sad as it is, you just need a handful of bad apples to spoil it for the rest of the decent folks trying to make a living. But that is life anywhere you go.

So for those who insist to shop at Ben Tanh market, we found a ‘store’ at the far end of the Ben Tanh market that sells  at a fixed price, and it was the best place to purchase kitchy lacquer wares, souvenirs, fake tshirts, handbags, etc.

Other places to shop would be along Dong Khoi (Mai’s and L’usine have great clothes), Le Thanh Ton, Pasteur Street, Mac Thi Buoi ,  TT Hiep and Le Loi. You can easily spend a whole day just doing that!

Opera House at night

So what other sights did we see in HCMC? We visited the Independence Palace (it is a reminder that we were still in a communist country despite the openess in general around us and the western influence from  US/France) . The palace stands without a doubt, a symbol of the glorious victory of communist North finally taking control of the south in 1975.

To escape from the bustling traffic, we had an evening drink up at the Sheraton Rooftoop bar, a treat just to relax and wind down and enjoy the view over the city. Make some time for it, if you can! I highly recommend it.

The Post Office inside

The Post Office across the Notre Dame Cathedral is definitely worth a visit, the building itself and inside where you still get to do your transactions as they were done 50 years ago!  At noon,each day, the siren would go off.  We walked pass the Opera and the People Committee Hall, all very lovely buildings. The general architecture of HCMC is a mix match and sometimes mismatch of horrible concrete structures to colonial grandness to old rundown buildings which are still homes for many people.  But that is the charm of the city – no pretence, a reminder of the war and how life has been hard on many despite life improving right now, there is always this constant reminder of their difficult past.

As for food, well if one loves vietnamese food – you are in for a treat. There are lot of street food vendors, so it is up to you if you dare to, or if your stomach can withstand the onslaught of bacteria, parasites god knows what else that could be in the food. We saw waffle sellers, to dumpling sellers to pho and even rice/dishes at street corners, customers eating right by the road side or on the pavements.

A few noted places we tried that was really nice was the Huong Lai restaurant serving really good Vietnamese food (staffs are  from orphanages, the streets, impoverished families providing them a learning experience for better opportunities in the F&B industry when they ‘graduate’, some go on to work in hotel/renowned restaurants).

For casual low key dining, at the corner of Ly Tu Trong and Nguyen Trung Truc during dinners , locals swarm the place for stir fried dishes of snails/clams , chicken , frogs etc to accompany the usual rice meal.

Lunch at Huong Lai

We had our pho at Pho 24 which was a good decent meal – nope, skipped Pho 2000 the pho place President Clinton apparently visited. We had a lovely lunch at Wrap and Roll, great lunch buffets at 120,000 vnd per person and dinner at I love Bun. I did venture out for some street snacks like the toasted banana flakes  until my runny tummy kicked in. Well I will have more street food the next time I visit Vietnam, there are so many other places to see still – on my list so far are Dalat, Hoi An, Hanoi and Halong Bay.

For some cultural exposure, we decided last minute to head down to watch the water puppet show at the Golden Dragon Water Theatre at Nguyen Thi Minh Kai. It was a very nice experience , the play displayed the lifes of the peasants in the villages and excerpts from their local famous folklores. The entire show was accompanied by their folk music and instruments.  Their cultural traditions are steeped with chinese influence as can be seen in the play here.

Water puppet show

HCMC is really a lively city,  full of third world charm and energy. As a matter of fact, one can move around quite comfortably despite the traffic chaos. So don’t be discouraged. Someone asked me about the sounds and smells of the city, how was it like? Truth  be told, in any big city with traffic, one cannot escape the exhaust fumes that linger, just stubbornly hang around you. You hear the constant honking of all vehicles, some as a friendly warning while others were more like ‘get the hell out of my way, you twat’! The latter tend to get a glare or two from me, although it is quite hard to stare down a bus bigger than myself! Darn!!

A neighbourhood house in the city downtown

Shopping and eating is good, people are friendly and streets are relatively safe to walk around in even at night. And one must not leave the city without trying their local coffee,  filtered coffee dripped, with condensed milk. Just right.

Cables (Vietnam telecoms) abound, at your street corner.

Wilton Decorating Courses

My finale cake from Level 2, royal icing and basket weave

Today is my last day of cake decorating, completed Wilton Course 3 – yay!

To beef up my decorating skills, I joined the Wilton Course Level 1 in May, learning to pipe and frost cakes with buttercream icing. Verdict : Fun but frosting too sweet for most Asian tastebuds! I learned a lot about the different tips providing different effects on the cake – it is a like a whole new world just opened up to me! But one thing I learned is and got confirmed again, I have no patience and you need it here!

I continued to Level 2 and 3 with Tricia Tjhin (my Level 1 was with Melena Yeong, another great teacher at B-I-Y at Bukit Timah Road). In Level 2 I was taught to handle royal icing. Verdict: Easy cleaning, dries very fast, less messy but still very sweet).  As for Level 3, I learnt how to handle fondant and made fondant roses and more royal icing flowers like the lily and morning glory, tiering cakes. Verdict : More polished look with fondant, and great pairing with royal icing to make a beautiful tiered cake – so wedding cakes, here I come! Learnt more flowers of course and borders.

My finale cake from Level 3, fondant cover and roses, with royal icing borders and design

So will I continue to Level 4? Not likely, I think I have had enough of flower making, more interested in practising to make figurines and models with fondant and royal icing. I will be snooping around for books and magazines or maybe YouTube videos to learn up more!

All in all, I had great fun and definitely am more confident in dressing up my cakes. Will certainly be experimenting on various frostings while only adding buttercream/fondant/royal icing for more complicated designs in order to provide the picture perfect cake!

Mooncake Festival

Chinatown in Singapore – street decorations

Mid autumn festival for me represents 2 things, mooncakes and lanterns. It is one of the most romantic celebrations, firstly because it is in honour of the moon Goddess of Immortality and lanterns, lighting up in various forms of flowers, animal shapes, or large lanterns send alight and afloat up in the air, sparkles in the dark of the night all over, like stars.

Buying mooncakes at a chinese confecrtionary stall

It coincides with the autumnal equinox (of the solar calendar), the 15th day of the 8th month of the chinese lunar calendar, when the moon is at her fullest and roundest.

A mooncake

Mooncake festival started like last week culminating on the 22nd Sept 2010 . The restaurant, bakeries and hotels are producing and selling them like hotcakes. These delicious cakes are a delicacy on its own, heavy in calories and popular gifts to family and friends this time of the year. The perfect accompaniment is the chinese tea.

There has been queues everywhere and people snapping them up like there is no tomorrow. These chinese pastries come with various pasty fillings. Today the array is mindboggling too – from traditional ones like lotus seed paste to modern fusiony flavours like chocolate ganache , durian, green tea , ice cream, etc.  However, I am rather a purist – when it comes to traditional celebrations I like to stick to traditional versions of the mooncakes. The ones I knew growing up were the piglet biscuits, baked mooncakes with the lotus seed paste and melon seeds , with or without salted duck yolk, or red bean paste or the ultimate decadence - jin hua ham and wu ren, 5 nuts, consisting of walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, sesame, pistachio, macademia, watermelon seeds and winter melon) -  it really reminds me of the Italian paneforte.

Jin hua ham and nuts mooncake

Due to the convergence of regional specialities throughout China showing up in our shores, both Malaysia and Singapore – we now can get besides the baked mooncakes, the snow skin (unbaked) or flaky pastry (shanghainese).

So what is a good  mooncake? How does one judge? In my humble opinion, it is so individual. The addition of salted duck egg yolk gives it a harmonised balance  of salty savoury angle to the otherwise cloying sweetness of the lotus seed paste or red bean paste. Melon seeds give it a nice crunch. Traditionally one judge a good mooncake from the finished look, the imprints should be clear, skin is baked smooth, and golden brown. The skin should not be too thicked, with a slight separation from the filling itself. The filling must have the right consistency, not overly sweet or heavy and yet when one takes a bite, the paste should not be overly sticky or oily but yet holds together in a semi solid form. Have a few and be the judge yourself what you like best! I personally go for mooncakes made from known chinese restaurants or bakeries , hand made and are famed for using good quality ingredients.

As for the legends related to this celebration, there are many versions. A story about an Imperial General Houyi, a very skilled archer, was ordered to shoot 9 suns out of 10, as the earth was heating up. Succeeding he was given a pill for immortality which he hid . Unfortunately his wife Chang ‘ e found it and swallowed the pill, she flew away ( or was banished) to the moon. There, she coughed out the pill. She befriended the Jade Hare on the moon who is still pounding the pill so she could return back to earth. She lives in a palace on the moon, while her husband who made himself a palace on the sun, visits her once a year on the 15th day of the 8th month. Hence you see many mooncake imprints show a lady silhouette on the moon.

Snowskin mooncake – this is rose flavoured with red bean paste filling and melon seeds

Another story is about a revolt overthrowing the Mongul rulers by the Chinese. Secret messages were hidden in the mooncakes and distributed to the chinese inhabitants, to organise a revolt which was eventually successful.

A paper lantern using a thin candle.

As for the lanterns, rather unsure how it came about to be a part of the mooncake festival, either to recreate light on a mid autumn night or representing the 10 suns, or maybe to show Chang’e her way home to earth. Whatever the reason may be, it is a delightful addition to the festival  especially for the children and romantics like myself.

And for the mooncake recipe – I don’t have it, my mom does, but she has not made one for a very long time. Truth be told, it is a lot of work , if you intend to make everything on your own, from the lotus seed paste to the pastry. When I do manage to dig her recipe out one day, I will post it on my blog , and if any one of you are game to try it out – let me know how it went.

Orange Blossom Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Yes this time, it was my godson’s birthday I have been commissioned to make a cake for. He is turning 8 this Thursday (today), and I have been busy today baking 2 cakes (2 x 10inch square cake) so that it will be ready to be iced by Wed and all set up before Thurs morning. Initially I intended to make a rainbow cake for him, after discussing back and forth with the very sensible little boy, we agreed on an orange cake. Too many colours scares him – artificial colouring, you see.

Now the little surprise is he does not know how the cake would look like. But the mother does, and we know he loves sailing and is very proud of it. Hence the cake will be nautical themed.. ! I do hope he will like it .  And I think he did.

We brought it to his school just before their recess break so that his classmates could sing him a birthday song. He looked happy and beaming, with all the flurry of activity around him.  He had goody bags to share with his classmates. I thought it was a good day for the little boy. He finally turned 8! 

The cake was made based loosely on TLC’s Orange Blossom Pound Cake by Carrie Biggers .  I followed the cake recipe to a T, making 2 batches from the recipe stated because my cake had to be 10 inches square wide and 3 inches high. Then I chose to sandwich the cake with fresh whipped cream, to offset the sweetness of the buttercream/cream cheese frosting on the outside.  As for the frosting, I followed loosely, halving the quantities in the recipe, and omitting the orange juice additions, while adding instead 3 tbp of water. Due to the humidity and heat here in Singapore, I had to make the buttercream stiffer than normally required. It helps to retain the forms of the decorations piped out. It was still rather soft despite reducing the liquids.

So careful planning went ahead to transport the cake. I think next time I will just have to stick to traditional buttercream icing, using half shortening and half butter and include meringue powder to get that neat smooth coating for the cake. This one did not give the same finishing look. At the same time, it did not hold as well as the buttercream with meringue powder.

This sailing boat themed cake had freshly squeezed orange juice, orange rind, pure orange blossom water, organic flour, fat free buttermilk, homemade cream cheese / buttercream icing and an old time favourite – polo mints. The buttermilk kept the cake moist and with a tender crumb.

An ode to the birthday boy, our little sailor -  may he always have tailwind in his endeavours.

A sailor went to sea, sea, sea

To see what he could see, see, see.

But all that he could see, see, see

Was  the deep blue sea, sea, sea