Granola Bars

A friend of mine was recently going through hard times and I was unsure of how to help her. I didn't want to seem too intrusive but at the same time, I wanted to let her know that I cared. So naturally I turned to something that gives me comfort and hoped (prayed) that it would convey the same message to her... desserts!

As my friend is quite health conscious (and I'm so not), I still had to wrack my brain to come up with something suitable to make. I started to think of the healthy foods that I would eat on dragonboat race days and suddenly remembered WDL's famous granola bars! However, when I asked WDL if she could share her recipe with me, her answer (like many a great baker, I'm sure) was that she didn't really have a recipe! She just mixed a whole bunch of things until they stuck together... Umm... I'm not that good a baker that I have the confidence to just "wing it".

Hence my search for a granola bar recipe... Most that I saw were quite easy to follow and I settled on using this one from Inspired Taste. The only issues that I ran into were that 1) I wasn't able to find old-fashioned rolled oats... but according to an internet resource, this just means rolled oats; 2) I also couldn't find kosher salt, so settled on using sea salt instead; 3) I slightly burnt the almonds so it had a strong, almost overwhelming almond taste.

Overall, I think it worked out well in the end and my friend was happy to receive the granola bars... mission accomplished!

Ingredients (makes around 6-8 small bars):
115g rolled oats
40g whole almonds, coarsely chopped
56g pure honey
28g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
25g packed light brown sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp sea salt
30g dried cranberries, coarsely chopped
33g semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F (177C).
2. Bake rolled oats and almonds for 5 minutes.  Stir and bake for another 3-5 minutes or until lightly toasted.  Set aside in a large mixing bowl.
3. Combine honey, butter, brown sugar, vanilla extract and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally until the butter melts and the sugar completely dissolves.
4. Pour the honey butter mixture into the mixing bowl with the toasted oats and almonds. Mix well.
5. Let it cool about 5 minutes then add cranberries and all the chocolate chips except for 1 tbsp worth. Stir to combine. (The chocolate chips will most likely melt a little. This is fine, they turn sticky and help to hold the bars together).
6. Transfer oat mixture to a 9-inch silicon pan (or pan lined with aluminum foil and oiled) then use a rubber spatula or damp fingertips to firmly press the mixture into the pan. (Press hard here, this way the bars will stay together once cooled and cut.)
7. Scatter remaining 1 tbsp of chocolate chips over pressed granola mixture then use a rubber spatula to gently press them into the top.
8. Cover then refrigerate at least 2 hours.
9. Remove block of granola mixture from pan and cut into bars.

Earl Grey Chiffon Cake

So I was faced with a dilemma recently... 3 expiring eggs... What should I bake with them?!  I quickly looked to see what I had on hand in the kitchen... 3 earl gray teabags (originally reserved for cookies).  A Google search gave me the perfect solution... earl grey chiffon cake!  I admit, I’m not a huge fan of making cakes... It’s not easy to distribute out to people and I usually need a special occasion.  Well this seemed to be a ‘special’ enough occasion... ;)

I had fun making this cake... At first, it looked like the egg whites would not stiffen and hold up without cream of tartar (coz I didn’t have any) but miraculously, it worked out fine!  It was fairly easy to put together all the ingredients and when it finished baking, the cake came out with a nice golden brown top and spongy middle.  I eagerly awaited to taste the results... Wow... Big FAIL... I dunno what happened but this ended up being salty!  Now before you jump to conclusions, I assure you that I did not mix up the amount of sugar and salt used.  I was sorely disappointed coz it was almost perfect except for the weird salty-sweet combination of the cake... Unless that’s the way it’s supposed to taste... o_O

Anyway I might try this recipe again sometime, but I’d reduce the salt maybe about a half of what it says to use?  I’m stumped as to where I went wrong...

Ingredients (makes one 7 inch diameter cake):
A:
3 egg yolks
30g caster sugar
50ml vegetable oil
75ml water
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp earl grey tea leaves (3 sachets)

B:
3 egg whites
40g caster sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

1. Sieve flour, baking powder and salt together, set aside.
2. Separate egg yolks/whites and bring to room temperature.
3. Place egg yolks in a mixing bowl, add in sugar, in 3 separate additions and with a manual whisk, whisk till the mixture becomes sticky and turn pale.
4. Drizzle in the oil, whisking at the same time till the mixture is well combined. Repeat the same with the water. Sieve over the flour mixture and whisk until flour mixture is fully incorporated into the batter. Add in the earl grey leaves and mix well.
5. In a clean, dry mixing bowl, beat egg whites, sugar, and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
6. Add the beaten egg white into the egg yolk batter in 3 separate additions, each time folding gently with a spatula until just blended.
7. Pour batter into a 7 inch tube pan (do not grease the pan). Tap the pan lightly on a table top to get rid of any trapped air bubbles in the batter.
8. Bake in preheated oven at 170 C for 45 minutes or until the cake surface turns golden brown, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Remove from the oven and invert the pan immediately. Let cool completely before taking out of the mold. To remove the cake from the pan, run a thin-bladed knife around the inside of the pan and the centre core. Release the cake and run the knife along the base of the pan to remove the cake.

Cameo Chocolate Macarons

So last Christmas, I booked some time off as I had to clear off my annual leave before the start of this year. At first I didn't have anything planned so I was a bit bummed out... Christmas by myself in HK was not exactly my idea of fun. =P A week before Christmas, I was looking at the CX Fanfares and saw a really cool destination that I wanted to go.  And it was during the period of time that I booked! All signs pointed me to going... and so I did...! Where did I end up going?  Milan!

Honestly speaking, before my trip I was scared out of my wits... What was I thinking?  Traveling to Milan by myself in the dead of winter?  Well... It was a little crazy but I really enjoyed the time away from HK. Yah things were a little quiet in Milan during Christmas (many things were closed...) but I still had a good time.

I found a grocery store nearby one of the hotels I stayed and decided that I would bring back a pre-mix box of 'something' to bake. There were so many different choices, but I finally picked chocolate macarons coz I know it's really hard to make from scratch! Hmm... the only problem was that the whole box was in Italian... Thanks to Google Translate though, I managed to figure out what was needed!


Maybe you wanna know what I think about the Italian style chocolate macarons. Well... To be polite, it's not something I'll be going back and getting more of! It was a total bust... It looked like a macaroon but it tasted a bit like cardboard. And when it first came out of the oven, the cookie part was so hard and crispy... Nothing like a macaron. But it kinda redeemed itself in the end coz the next day, the cookie softened up and was much better (but still not very tasty). I guess things got lost in translation... =)

Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies

You know... Honestly speaking, I've never really liked Earl Grey tea... It has a very sharp citrus-y flavour to it which kinda threw me off. I grew up drinking English Breakfast tea which has a mild taste in comparison. Over the years, I kept seeing recipes for Earl Grey cookies, cakes and even ice cream which I completely avoided.

I was re-introduced to Earl Grey tea recently when a friend and I were asked to help out at the church's single conference. There was a casual social mixer after the Friday evening talk and the organisers wanted to serve some non-alcoholic drinks.  My friend and I were tasked with coming up with some creative mocktails to serve at the event.

It was super fun coming up with different drink ideas... and even more fun when we taste tested the drinks to find the right combinations. Coming up with the names was hilarious too... I think we must have been on a sugar high after taste testing all the drinks. ;-) In the end we came up with 3 drinks... "Berry Nice to Meet You" (Ribena with soda water and garnished with a wedge of lemon), "O-range You Glad You're Here" (Orange juice mixed with 7-Up), and lastly "Mr. Earl" (Earl Grey tea with lime juice, fresh mint and a dash of sugar water).

The drinks ended up being quite popular and put Earl Grey tea back on the radar for me. Although I still didn't like the taste of it too much, I understood why it made such an interesting drink. The tea's distinct and bold taste really makes it stand out and be noticed! I decided to give one of the Earl Grey recipes a try and found one for Earl Grey Shortbread Cookies. I did not make any changes to the amount of ingredients used... I only adjust the method slightly so that dry ingredients are added to the wet ingredients (and not vice versa coz that caused the flour to go everywhere). I also expanded a bit on what steps I followed when storing the dough in the fridge/freezer.

Overall, I'm quite pleased at how the cookies turned out and I hope that the guests at Alpha will like them too. They're crispy and buttery and they've got a very flavourful taste to them!

Ingredients (makes around 48 cookies):

2 cups plain flour

4 packets Earl Grey tea leaves

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

227g unsalted butter, at room temperature

Method:

1. With an electric mixer, mix together the flour, tea leaves and salt, until the flour is spotted with the tea leaves. Set aside.
2. Beat the icing sugar, butter, and vanilla extract together. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until a dough is formed.
3. Split the dough in half and place each half on a 22 inches long plastic wrap. Roll the dough into 1.5 inch logs. Wrap each log with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 190ºC.
5. Remove the dough from the freezer. Use a sharp knife and cut the dough 1/4 inch thick each. Arrange the cookie dough on the baking pan 2 inches apart.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes till the edges are slightly browned and let cool.

Chocolate Chip Muffins (Revisited)

Ever since I started with my new job, I have been eating almost the exact same breakfast from the exact same bakery every morning. Call it plain laziness, but I just can't wake up an extra 5 minutes to go out of my way and buy breakfast from other bakeries. =P

Well today I got fed up with myself and vowed to eat something different for my breakfast tomorrow. But instead of waking up earlier, I thought I would just bake it ahead of time... ;-) I know I've made chocolate chip muffins before in the past, but I wanted to shake things up a little and try something a bit off the norm. So I found a recipe for chocolate chip muffins with a little bite... Sally's Baking Addiction Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Muffins! This recipe is a bit unusual as it uses cinnamon and nutmeg... which turned out to have a nice combination with chocolate chips. The end result reminded me of old fashioned donuts for some reason...

Anyway I was a bit wary about using oil in the recipe, but it turned out ok... you can't taste the oil at all! I halved the recipe and cut down on the sugar and chocolate chips so it was less sweet. I'm glad that I tried this recipe... my baking craving was satisfied and I have a new breakfast for tomorrow!

Ingredients (makes around 6-8 small sized muffins):

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 egg, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar (or less)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425F/220C. Spray your muffin tin of choice with non-stick spray or line with muffin liners. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until combined. Mix in milk, oil, and vanilla. Mixture will be pale and yellow.
4. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix everything together by hand with a wooden spoon. Avoid over-mixing. Gently mix until all the flour is off the bottom of the bowl and no big pockets of flour remain. The batter will be thick and somewhat lumpy. 
5. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins, filling all the way to the top.
7. Bake at 425F/220C degrees for 5 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 375F/190C and continue to bake for 25 minutes until tops are lightly golden and centers appear set.
8. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in pan before enjoying. Muffins taste best fresh the same day. Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Muffins freeze well, up to 3 months.

Matcha Almond Cookies

Hello I'm back after a loooong rest... Things have been so so crazy that I've no time to experiment. But now that the Alpha course has started up again then I have some motivation to bake. Plus I have a whole new batch of "guinea pigs" to test out my desserts on... Heehee! ;-)

I stumbled upon this Matcha Almond cookie recipe from Rasa Malaysia when I was looking for a good chocolate chip recipe. The pictures looked so good that I bookmarked the page and put it on my "to-do" list.

I was a little apprehensive about trying a new recipe but I'm glad that I did! This turned out to be a nice crunchy butter cookie with a hint of green tea... Though next time I might add just a tad more green tea. I'm glad that it's not too sweet though coz even though the recipe said to "pack" the icing sugar, I just used a normal heaping of it. The texture of the dough turned out to be a bit crumbly anyway which is probably why it needs to set in the freezer before baked.

I also like this recipe because you can prepare the dough ahead of time and just keep it in the freezer until you're ready to bake the cookies.  Nice and easy to make!

Ingredients (makes around 60 cookies):
226g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup icing sugar
2 cups plain flour
2 tbsp matcha (green tea) powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup sliced almonds, lightly chopped

Method:

1. Sift together the flour, matcha powder and salt.
2. With an electric mixer at medium speed, cream the butter and icing sugar until fluffy.
3. Lower the mixer speed. Add in sifted ingredients 1 tbsp at a time until a crumbly dough is formed.
4. Add in the sliced almond in 3 batches and stop the mixer immediately once all combined.
5. Split the dough in half and place each half on a 22 inches long plastic wrap. Roll the dough into 1.5 inch logs. Wrap each log with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 30 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 325F/160C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. Remove the dough from the freezer. Use a sharp knife and cut the dough 1/4 inch thick each. Arrange the cookie dough on the baking pan 2 inches apart.
8. Bake for 14-16 minutes on the middle rack. Remove the cookies to wire rack to cool completely before storing in air tight containers.

Oatmeal Chocolate Cookie Bar

Phew... Long time no bake... I miss the carefree days when I could bake at any time. It's a bit hard now that I'm working again... But anyway I'm glad that this morning I was able to bake.

So... You must be wondering what spurred me to bake. Well... Actually it's a very important reason but might not be one that you wanted to hear. I have 7 eggs that are about to expire in a few days... Yup! Well I hate wasting ingredients so I decided to bake something for church.

I ruled out making cookies because most of the time you don't need eggs to make them. I figured that cakes would probably be my best bet for using the most amount of eggs. I didn't have a lot of time on my hands so I didn't want to make something too complicated like chiffon cake. I started to think about baking brownies... then changed my mind and thought that maybe blondies would be more interesting. But as I was looking at recipes for blondies, I came across this oatmeal chocolate cookie bar recipe which looked sooo yummy! Bingo... I had found my recipe for today...

I wish I halved the recipe because I ended up with a lot of leftover ingredients... I was only able to find a 9-inch round baking pan instead of the recommended 13x9 inch rectangular baking pan. I used 2 mini (3-inch) round baking pans and another 6 1/2-inch round baking pan to hold all the extra ingredients. I also cut down on the sugar and the oatmeal used because I ran out of both ingredients. The 9-inch version of the cake took longer than 25 minutes to bake... double the time maybe coz I put too much batter and chocolate... Think it would have worked better with a shallower pan. The 3-inch and 6 1/2-inch versions were fully cooked by 25 minutes.

I dunno if it's because I haven't been baking for a long time or I'm just plain klutzy (or both!) But this time while I was baking I burned myself twice and I sliced my finger on the edge of a can. -_-" Ouch!

Ingredients:
Cake:

226g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 eggs, at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup milk

2 1/2 cups plain flour

2 1/2 cups oatmeal

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

Chocolate Filling:

300g sweetened condensed milk

76g unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

285g semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F/176C. Grease a 13x9 inch baking pan.
2. For the cake, cream the butter with brown sugar.  Mix in the eggs. Then add vanilla extract and milk.
3. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients and set aside the batter.
4. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt together condensed milk, butter, vanilla extract and chocolate chips.
5. Spread 3/4 of the cake mixture on the bottom of the baking pan, pour chocolate mixture, then spread the rest of cookie mixture on top in spoonfuls (won't cover completely).
6. Bake for 25 minutes. If the top is browning too much, cover it with aluminum foil. Let it cool completely before cutting into it.