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Friday, December 23, 2011

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Back to my roots.

Meringue, is the only friend I really know by heart. She is soft by heart and hard/crispy on the outside. She is the only one that i have tamed compared to the rest of the specialty items. She always turns out the way I want to, never a surprise, sweet and attracts a lot of attention.

I decided to share this with my coworkers on a nice cold pre-Christmas day. At first glance, people were at awe and curious about what it really is. But with confidence and assurance, I presented her to my audience and without surprise, it was a huge favourite.

Jamie Oliver, I owe you one.

Thanks!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Baking for me, is a way of escaping into a place of comforting and creativity. When I am in the kitchen, I lose track of time and is in a whole new utopia. I almost forgot how comforting baking could and can be. I mean, desserts are not meant to serve just one.

I had the time to bake something extremely different and new yesterday night. Chocolate Peanut Pretzel Squares.

Base:
unsalted butter
brown sugar
sugar
egg yolks
vanilla extract
all purpose flour
regular oats
salt


Topping:
semisweet chocolate
unsalted butter
corn syrup
pretzel pieces
chopped peanuts


The taste was very refreshing in a way that it was sweet and salt at the same time. There was great balance between the two and it kept me going back for more. My co-workers really enjoyed it and wanted to know how to bake it.

We will see how the lady reacts to it.

Monday, December 12, 2011

The beauty of baking cookies is the simplicity and the ability to share with friends and family. It is simple baking with endless possbilites in terms of flavouring. Yesterday night, I baked some peanut butter flavour cookies and Anna introduced me to a new technique; criss(sp?) cross. By pressing down on the cookie dough, it allows the cookie to flatten out since the cookie does not flatten by itself.

Basic cookie dough
125ml unsalted butter
125ml brown sugar
60ml sugar
1 egg
5ml vanilla extract
310ml all purpose flour
30ml cornstarch
2ml baking soda
2ml salt
125ml peanut butter


I baked it for 15 minutes at 350F but it was too much! And I burnt the bottom a bit =(.


Sunday, December 11, 2011

Cold winter days here in Toronto, minus the snow which makes it a little better. Yesterday night I had the chance to bake some brownies for my mother's Christmas party. I have to admit, this recipe is really different from the others I did before. Instead of using the double boiler technique, she had me pour hot water onto the chocolate directly which was very strange. Also, what caught my attention was mayo. It was added to give moisture and is a substance to replace butter.

I didn't taste much of it yet or any at all, but I will give a review of it soon!

some christmas fun =)

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Christmas is finally here, how can you tell? Welp, there is snow, cold winds and a christmas tree! Oh and of course, some cookies. =) After a long work day and the car thing al sorted out, I decided to continue with my Anna adventure and bake some more cookies out of her baking book.

This one was no easy task, I thought a food processor could be replaced with a blender that has "pulse" function to it. Boy was I wrong, it took so long to get everything nicely blended in and consistent. I almost broke my blender while I was at it. Anyways, this recipe was quite straight forward and easy, I recommend you try this yourself when you get the chance.

Pistachio Snowball Cookies
580 ml all purpose flour
250 ml roasted pistachios
80 ml sugar
1 ml salt
310 ml unsalted butter
5 ml vanilla extract


It doesn't look that great in this picture but I assure you that it tastes great. My grandma can testify to that, she one some this morning. =)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Hello friends, its been way too long and short. Wait, what does that even mean? Anyways, I've been involved in a little accident that claimed my beautiful wife; symphony. She's a total lost but that's okay, as long as I am fine and still able to bake right? Haha.

To shake off some rust, I picke dup a copy of Anna Olson's new book Back to Baking. It's a simple to follow book packed with exciting new receipes. The book talks about building a basic receipe and modding it with different flavours. Kinda like a stock car add new parts to it.

Basic cookie dough
125ml unsalted butter
125ml brown sugar
60ml sugar
1 egg
5ml vanilla extract
310ml all purpose flour
30ml cornstarch
2ml baking soda
2ml salt


Chocolate chip Cookies
250ml chocolate chips

Such a simple classic cookie can be so diffcult in terms of getting the right shape. A tip from Anna's book told me that what determines the shape is how you place it on the baking sheet. I guess mine was a litte chunky and big. Oh well, I will keep that in mind for the next batch. Still tastes like the real deal though. ;)

Cheers!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Got the new Anna Olson baking book! Come back and check out some of the creations in a bit.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Hello friends!

For the past week I have been so caught up with work and personal stuff I haven't gotten a chance to bake until the weekend. So here we go, the meringue was for my friend's farewell gift on saturday. Lam, my good buddy hired me to bake a meringue for his sweet girlfriend since she is leaving for hong kong soon. I had such a good time baking it especially with my cousin Eric. I am trying to get him into the whole baking scene as you can tell. The recipe follows:

Meringue

2 egg whites
115 g sugar
290 ml cream
1 vanilla bean
mixed fruits of any kind


I have made meringue so many times, I swear I can bake it with my eyes closed. The client wanted strawberries, mango and kiwi. The mangos were no good, they are not in season and was very sour. But the other two made up for it which was a good treat.

meringue pre assembly

George Brown Boxed!

happy lam!

Following the meringue was my mom's Japanese cheesecake. I baked this one especially for her birthday and I finally, for once got to try it out. I've always baked for other people but never got a chance to actually seat down and enjoy it myself. This time was different and it was sure a pleasure baking it.


Cotton Soft Japanese Cheesecake


140g/5 oz. fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
50g/2 oz. butter
250g/9 oz. cream cheese
100 ml/3 fluid oz. fresh milk
1 tbsp. lemon juice
60g/2 oz. cake flour /superfine flour
20g/1 oz. cornflour (cornstarch)
1/4 tsp. salt


Instructions:
1. Melt cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Cool the mixture. Fold in the flour, the cornflour, egg yolks, lemon juice and mix well.

2. Whisk egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy. Add in the sugar and whisk until soft peaks form.

3. Add the cheese mixture to the egg white mixture and mix well. Pour into a 8-inch round cake pan (Lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with greaseproof baking paper or parchment paper).

4. Bake cheesecake in a water bath for 1 hours 10 minutes or until set and golden brown at 160 degrees C (325 degrees F).

The cake was actually very unique in a way that it tasted like a New York style cheesecake but was as soft as sponge cake. You have to try it to believe it. It was not too sweet but still was enough for you to fetch yourself a glass of water afterwards. The only thing that I am confused about is the fact that it drupes down after it comes out of the oven. The old man told me that maybe I didn't add enough flour in it or the badder was too dense. Either way I will have to do some exploring again. But this a recipe that I recommend for you guys to try!


Eric helping me wisk

pre oven

Nothing else like it.

Wow looking back at this blog, it's almost been a year since I started blogging. To be honest, I may not have been as consistent as I want to be and there were times when I did not post for a while but I had so much fun doing all this for myself and you guys. I would like to thank my haters and Jamie Oliver introducing me to this new hobby of mine. It's true that when he said "Cook your way to the good life" it works and I would help anyone else who is going through a hard time, just like I did a while back.

Cheers friends!

Friday, November 4, 2011

I secretly love Taylor Swift, its the music I listen to when I:

Design
Workout
Blast in the car
and shower

HAHA

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Hello ladies and gents, good morning to you in this fine November. Today I bring you a nice set of cupcakes that was baked for my uncle Jimmy. It was his birthday and I asked him what cake he wanted.(He didn't care, I was just being nice)

I surprised him with red velet cupcakes with almond creamcheese. I used this receipe before but this time I didn't add butter milk. I used regular milk instead which made it a bit stiff in my opinion. When I took it out of the oven, I noticed that it was a bit under baked so I popped it back it for only 2 minutes and it was already a big difference. I forgot that a cupcake is suppose to be moist and very soft like a real cake. Oh well. The almond cream cheese frosting was a real treat, everyone loved it and wanted to dip their strawberries in it. So in a way, that saved it.

Happy Birthday once again Jimmy. =)

three tier cupcakes! well 2.5 tier haha

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Ah good old November, we meet again. Novemeber is a month of remembering and it's also a month of celebration. Remember where you were last year compared to this year is amazing. I think it was snowing already or at least really, really cold.

Anyways, I baked a cake for a buddy of mine; Tony. He has been my friend ever since elementary school and was always there for me whenever I had any problems. (Haha some serious bromance going on here) So it comes to no surprise that when his birthday came around, I baked his favourite cheesecake for him. He was very happy and pleased with the result and so was everyone else. I remember getting home that night at around 130am and racing to metro to get cream cheese, I was so tired. =(

If you would like details on how I baked the cake, look for the "blooming vanilla cheesecake" in this blog. =)

See you!

cracked a bit but thats okay!

happy birthday buddy!

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

I have been so lazy, I probably lost all my viewers. Well, I am back with some great news! I have been baking a lot of goodies and I think I cooked something but I forgot what it was. Anyways, this past weekend a friend of mine invited me over to her new place for dinner. She made lobster, pasta and salad. I promised her I would bring something that has chocolate in it, so, I baked strawberry chocolate cake with almond cream cheese meringue. Long name eh.

It was pretty challenging in a way that, I needed the cake to be nice and soft but not too soft where it is under baked. The baking cake pan that I used was very bad, it leaked! I should have used my wilton. =\


My sister's convocation is coming up this Monday and she asked me to bake her the Japanese cheesecake. So I swear I will follow up with that as soon as possible. =) Keep checking!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Details to come! =)

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Happy thanksgiving everyone! This year passed by so fast, it's almost over. So sad isn't it? Oh well.

Last friday, my company had another potluck birthday party for Pooja and Uma. It was the biggest turn out ever, on food that is. My food felt kinda small compared to the pulled pork, slow cooked pasta, fried rice and some indian dessert. Blah, have to set up my game nex time. My only excuse was, I was too tired to make anything fancy.

I made tomato bruschetta with basil and here is whats in it:

tomatoes
basil
garlic clove
bagette
olive old
sea salt


photo credit :Rowan Dehann

photo credit :Rowan Dehann

photo credit :Rowan Dehann

thats me! =)

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Hello friends!

Gosh it has been such a long time. I think I got use to starting off my blog post with "gosh its been such a long time or sorry I haven't been posting for a while" kinda thing. It's getting old.

Anyways, recently I have been helping the lady in red move into her new fancy condo, such a baller, I know. But I did get a chance to bake some stuff. I will post again soon.

Looking back at these images, they were during moon cake festival! Very nice, had lots of food and fruits!

Later on the same week, Tiffany's dad asked me to bake her meringue cake for her birthday. Of course, I got compensated for my hard work and ingredients. The only thing I did differently for this meringue was adding 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. I noticed that my oven may be letting a bit of the hot air out, so next time I will bake it a little longer since it was still a bit soft on the inside.

Catch me later. =) 

lobster, my fav

fruits!!



cocoa powder meringue

grandma helping

sugar caramel iciing


Oh and my closet collasped

messy room

then a car accident that blocked the entrance to the 404