Monday 21 September 2009

Apple plum muffin

Its been ages since I last baked because there are so many things distracting me right now. On saturday afternoon, when he decided to go exercise, I had some time to bake something. I spotted a slice of apple crumble in the fridge and wanted to bake apple crumble. I know it does not make sense to bake something that is already sitting around in the fridge but in my determination to bake something with apples, my brain did not function very well. After searching for a good apple crumble recipe I realise, its troublesome to bake apple crumbles because most of the good recipes made use of instant pie crust.

Hence I ended up searching for apple muffins. I chance upon an apple donut muffin and was reminded of the same apple donut muffin. Not very interesting. Since there were some plums lying around in the house I decided to modify the recipe, baking Apple plum muffins. Which turned out pretty moist and soft.



Adapted from Tried and Tested

Ingredients
2 apples
3 plums
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
75g butter
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

Method
1) Peel and roughly chop the apples and plums



2) In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon. Add the butter to the flour mixture. Rub the butter against the flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs

3) Beat the egg. Pour in the milk and stir lightly. Add the chopped apple and plum to the egg-milk mixture.

4) Pour the apple plum mixture to the flour mixture. Stir just until blended.



5) Form the batter into loose balls and place in the muffin pan.

6) Bake at 180C for 25min.






Makes 9 muffins

Thursday 3 September 2009

Flourless Chocolate Cake I

Having a lot of free time right now, I have been watching a lot of TV. Recently there is a program on the travel and living channel, called Willy wonker's chocolate factory. Need I explain what the main ingredient is? Thats my first love as well. Very much inspired by the rich chocolate goodies he makes, I feel there is a need to get in touch with my first love again. 

Since He is flying in today, its the prefect occasion to bake chocolate cake! And No. Its not any chocolate cake, its flourless chocolate cake. The sort of rich and intense chocolate cake that could potentially cause nosebleed. 

Its 60% cacao
A friend recommended a flourless chocolate cake recipe, which I did not use this time. ( That recipe i'll try next time!) This time I tried a recipe I found from allrecipes. Which had tons of good reviews and looked rather easy to make. 


The smell of chocolate is irresistible, I could not stop dipping my finger into the warm chocolate mixture! 


Tasted like pudding just out of the oven and when chilled overnight, taste like chocolate truffle. This is the sort of cake that the diet zone in the brain should be switched off and its important to get a healthy fork in your mouth to be able to taste the richness of the chocolate. 

Finally, goes pretty well with a cup of coffee or tea. :) 
 

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Matcha Green tea Cupcakes.

Finally, I bought green tea powder today! Result of having green tea powder: Green tea mousse and green tea cupcake with green tea frosting. How can one get enough of green tea?

I have always wanted to try mousse. Alright maybe not the whole time, maybe for the past few days. Got a little tired of making muffins and cakes and wanted to do something with a different texture. Hence mousse. After making a survey within the Tan family. NO ONE likes mousse. Still I insist on making it and forcing everyone to try it. So far only mother tan tried it and her verdict is, she still does not like mousse. Not too sure what will the rest of the family say yet. But lets just say I will not make mousse any time soon.

Found this recipe for green tea mousse. Tried it. Conclusion. Things did not work out. Maybe its the recipe I used or the inaccurate proportion of ingredients ( I half the recipe because I only wanted to make a portion for one.) or maybe its just me and whipping cream. It did not take very nice.


After a short break. I went on to bake green tea cupcakes. 
With jazz music playing in the background and my lovely green tea powder sitting on the table, I was in a really good mood for baking. Ah...and my green tea cupcakes turned out pretty fine :) 
Mother Tan would not be too happy if she saw this. 


They actually look much greener than reflected in the picture! 




Adapted from Food Mayhem  and cooking matters

Serves 6
For cupcakes
3/4 C cake flour
1/2 C Sugar
1 1/2 Tsp baking powder
1 Tsp Matcha powder
pinch salt
8 Tbs unsalted butter
2 egg whites
1/3 C milk
1 1/2 Tsp vanilla extract

For Frosting
1/3 C Icing sugar
1 Tsp matcha powder
50g cream cheese, softened
1 Tbs butter, softened
1/4 Tsp vanilla extract

1) Preheat oven to 175 degree. Line muffin pan with cupcake papers or grease muffin pan

2) In large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, matcha powder, baking powder and salt. Mix till throughly combine

3) Add stick of butter and half of the milk. Mix on medium-high speed for two minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula

4) Add egg whites and vanilla to the remaining milk and whisk to combine. With the mixer on low, slowly pour the milk into the batter. Raise speed to medium and mix until just combined.

5) Divide the cake batter among the six liners. Bake for 20-24 min or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.

6) To make frosting, sift together icing sugar and matcha powder. Set aside. Beat together cream cheese, butter and vanilla on medium speed for 2 min. Reduce speed to low and add sugar/ matcha gradually. Once all the sugar/ matcha is mixed in, increase speed to medium and beat for 2 min more.

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