Chocolate Fudge Brownie With Assorted Nuts

Try making this Chocolate Fudge Brownie With Assorted Nuts using Betty Crocker® Ultimate Fudge Brownies pre-mixed packet. This is recommend by one of my blog pal Evan. The texture of the Brownie is very moist and chewy and I really love the taste and texture compare to some store bought brownie.

For this recipe, I add in an extra 50g mixture of Walnut and Macadamia nuts to make it a combination of crunchy and chewy texture. But I guess I had slightly over baked the brownie as the bottom layer is slightly drier than the upper portion. But overall I love this pre-mixed pack and I will want to give their other flavour a try too.

Assorted Flavour Macarons - 马卡龙系列

Finally I had fulfill my dream of Macarons making by doing the all those wonderful Assorted Flavour in a few batches and putting them into a gift. For this assorted flavour, I made a total of 7 different colours. I really loves my food to be in vibrant colours.


These are made by me as a gift to some of my special friends and boss. I really hope that these will brighten up their day and as well suits their taste bub. Cross my fingers and hope that they will love these.... :) The 7 Assorted Flavour are:

1. Apricot Macaron With Apricot Butter Cream
2. Blueberry Macaron With Blueberry Butter Cream
3. Coffee Macaron With Coffee Butter Cream
4. Green Tea Macaron With Red Bean Butter Cream
5. Lavender Macaron With Rose Scented Butter Cream
6. Poppy Seed Macaron With Lemon Butter Cream
7. Rose Macaron With Rose Scented Butter Cream

Look at all these wonderful colour, my dear son loves them so much that he don't even allow me to lay my hand on them. He gets to choose those colours that he wants and he loves that Pink Rose Macarons the most.

Out of the 7 assorted colours, I love the colour of this blueberry flavour. It's really special and it gives me the feel of those European Tea Snack feeling. It's kind of cooling colour combination with that little bit of pink & purple blueberry filling being sandwich on two pieces of Aqua blue. Em... really loves this......

These are the 3 new flavour that I had did for this batch of assorted flavour. And my favourite from the list of 3 is the Blueberry Macaron which I am so attracted to it's colour.

Double-Boiled Ginseng Chicken Soup

Wow... at least, you see a new post at this blog of mine :) This blog had being vacant and waiting for my post for very very long time. Since those unhappy times of mine, I had not being posting any of the food recipes which I think I should do something before this blog collapses...... :)


As usual, for those reader who had being following my blog for sometime, you will knew that I love SOUP. Especially those long stew soup which make me feel comfort after a tiring day of work. It's had be so long..... since I had make any of those SOUP that I long for. I love double-boiled herbal soup. especial with black chicken. But then this round, I didn't managed to grab any so I just replace it with 2 Chicken Drumsticks and it taste just as good as it is.

Ingredients:
2 Fresh Chicken Drumsticks, wash and remove fats
5 Red Dates
4-5 Pieces Of Dried Huai Shan
1/2 Tablespoon Of Gou Qi Zi
1 Medium Stick Of Dang Shen, cut into 1" pieces
3-4 Dried Soup Ginseng(can refer to the link for picture)
5g Dried Longan, optional

Methods:
1. Wash the chicken drumstick, remove fat and skin then blanch in boiling water for a few minutes, remove and rinse with water then set aside.
2. Rinse all the dry herbs then add about 700ml water in a small pot and boil the herbs for about 5 - 10 minutes over medium heat.
3. Next add in the chicken drumstick and bring it to boil again.
4. Pour the soup and ingredients into a double boiler and place it in a bigger pot/slower cooker and add enough water to cover about 3/4 of the double boiler pot.
5. Double-boiled over Auto heat(slower cooker) for about 3 - 4 hours then serve during meal before rice or before bedtime.

Notes:
a) The purpose of adding dried longan is to enhance the sweetness and taste of the soup.
b) If you are not sure about the double-boiled procedure, please refer to this link for picture.

New Flavour Macarons

So fast another week had past, hope that I had not being putting you "reader" OFF with all these macaron posts that I had wrote. This week we had another 2 new taste from Cuisine Paradise Kitchen and I must thank Evan from Bossacafez for tying out this new idea first :)


After seeing her Poppy Seed Macarons I must said, I really fell for it. Because like what she and I agreed with, poppy seeds can also be used in other area rather than the usual Cakes and Muffins. And we do proof that, it actually fix well in this macaron and the texture was wonderful. It's so addictive that you will not want to lay your hand off it, because when you munch in your mouth those poppy seeds seems to be jumping around in your tongue. For my case, I used Orange Butter Cream together with some extra dose of poppy seeds to make the overall texture more "poppy".

Next, I also try out another flavour on Green-Tea with Red Bean Butter Cream. At first I was still wondering what will be the taste like to mix butter cream with red bean paste. But finally when the product is out, the taste is just great. The fragrant of the red bean butter cream just blanace well with the green tea shell.

As you can see, the red bean paste that I am using are not those very fine type that used for Asian dessert and kueh. I used the Japanese Red Bean paste which come in the can from those supermarket. And I find this taste great as you can see munch some of the whole soft beans in the cream. This do provide some extra texture to the cream itself.

Baked New York Cheesecake

I have saw and heard a lot of good comments on the Baked New York Cheesecake(flourless version), even my colleague's wife also strongly recommend me to try on this. So without any hesitate, I baked after getting hold of all the ingredients. And I must said, the result is really fantastic. The texture is so smooth that it really melts in your mouth when you eat it. The original one is just baked cheesecake with white sour cream on top.


But for me, I am a person who loves Vibrant Colours. So I added some yellow to the sour cream mixture and make it look sort of like custard. Other than that, I also pipped some Rose Scented Cream Cheese to go with some fresh Strawberries and Cherries to enhance the flavour and colour of the cheesecake.

As you can see, my cheesecake is kind of low compare to the one sold outside because I had used a slightly bigger springform tin. I just wanted to try having a small portion of the cheesecake instead of the usual big slices. For those who are interested to try out this wonderful cheesecake, the recipe are as below:

Ingredients:
350g Cream Cheese, room temperate to soften
75g Unsalted Butter, melted and cool
80g Castor Sugar
135g Egg, about 3 60g eggs
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
Zest Of 1 Lemon
100g Of Sour Cream
35g Castor Sugar
Assorted Fresh Fruits

Methods:
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree.
2. Diced the cream cheese and beat the soften cream cheese until creamy then add in 80g sugar and continue to beat until sugar dissolved.(about 4-5 mins on medium speed)
3. Next add in the eggs(lightly beaten) gradually in about 4 - 5 interval and beat well with each adding for about 2 minutes.
4. Add in the lemon juice and zest then stir till well combine.
5. Finally stir in the melted butter and pour the mixture into a prepare "7" round tin(i used a 8" springform tin) and bake for about 30-35 minutes.
6. While baking the cake, cream the 35g sugar with sour cream until sugar is dissolved then set aside.
7. When the cake is done(brown in colour), remove from the oven, switch off the heat and close the oven door.
8. Pour the prepared sour cream mixture in the middle of the cake and then put the whole cake back into the oven and let it continue to heat up using the remaining heat from the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes.
9. Remove, and set aside to cool completely before decorate it with extra cream or fresh fruit to serve.

Notes:
a) If after 30 minutes the colour of the cheesecake is still very pale, increase the oven temperature to 200 degree and bake till golden brown.
b) For my yellow colour sour cream mixture, I added about 1 teaspoon of yellow food colouring and beat till well combined.

Rose & Lavender Macarons

A special gift for a special friend. Tomorrow is one of my best friend Christina's Wedding Day. So I thought of making something "In" and different for her as a small gift. After going through a long search of my recipe lists, I still settle to make macarons but I designed something romantic for her.


I come up with these Rose & Lavender Macarons in Heart Shapes version. In this special day of her, I hope to send her my best and warmest regards and hope that you will be the most Prettiest and Happiest Bride.

I made the Rose Scented Butter Cream with grinded dried rose petals to make the cream more fragrant and with it's natural nice pinky colour. While for the lavender shell, I made the Lemon Butter Cream with some grinded Lavenders to enhance the lemon flavour. And these two flavour really infused my whole kitchen will wonderful aroma.

I had never thought that these two lovely flowers really make a great pair when making macarons with them. They have wonderful colours and fragrant that makes you want more of these additives goodies once you sank your teeth in them.

But as for my Lavender Macaron, I think that the colour is not good enough as I can't actually achieve the voilet colour that I want after baking. It turns out to be slightly towards the greyish side. Hope next round if I had a chance to try this again, I can achieve a better colour for it.

Overall I still loves the rose macarons, maybe it's because of it's colour, texture and shapes. I love the Heart Shapes one as I find it very adorable and too wasted to be eaten. I guess these can make a great Gift for Anniversary or Valentine Day Gifts too... :)

Foodies Confidential @ Sunday Times

Some of you might found this page familiar at Today's Sunday Time, Life Page Section. Yeah! All thank to LiJie from Strait's Time Food Blogging who give us this wonderful opportunity to share our food blogging experience with even more people in Singapore. For those who didn't get a copy of the sunday times, and you are interested in the interview details, you can click on Baking and Bonding on Ellena & Reyon to read the articular.


From this column, I only can said it really a great experience to share my thoughts and views on food blogging. On the other hand, it's also an excitement for Reyon and I to actually do a home baking and be photograph by a professional photographer. And I had to thank to all those friends who actually went to buy the newspaper to support us and as well as to get more information on our recent progress.

Lastly I do hope from this blog and some other links of mine can actually give those new reader some help and tips. I also looking forwards to receive any email regarding of exchanging of cooking/baking tips. Thanks again for visiting my humble blog :)

Pistachio Macarons With Assorted Cream

I guess I am really into French Macarons Craze..... Whenever I saw new macarons flavour from those blogger's site I will be very tempted to try it out. It is just like little kids having fun with the jigsaw puzzle. We can mix and match different kinds of macaron shells with different assorted flavour of butter cream which is very challenging and fulfilment when you do get a good result out of it.


Like those blogger who tried Pistachio Mcarons, we had to grind our own pistachio in order to have it as one of the main ingredients. And very surprisingly, ground pistachio do give a very nice colour and fragrant when making into macarons. This round I made a batch of about 15 Pistachio Macarons to pair with 3 assorted Italian Butter Cream which are: Coffee Butter Cream(reyon's flavour), Lemon Butter Cream and most stunning one which is the Pistachio Butter Cream. Out of the 3, I guess Pistachio Butter Cream goes very well with the Pistachio Shell because of it nutty flavour and crunchy bits.

Hazelnut Macaron With Durian & Coffee Butter Cream

This is the 3rd times that I have made successful macarons out of the 6 trials. Thing starts to get better each time when I gather more advices and tips from my blog pals. This round, I tried to make the Hazelnut Macaron using the ground hazenut rather than almond and it really taste great with it's nutty flavour.


For this batch, I managed to make the Italain Butter Cream with two different flavour. I divide the cream into two portions and added fresh durian flesh into 1 portion and coffee essence into another.

My dear son loves the Coffee Butter Cream macarons which I also added some extra instant coffee powder into the batter to make the shell fill with more coffee fragrant. Overall I am very happy with this bath of hazelnut macaron and I will continue to experiment with new flavour whenever I get some spare time off from work.

Lychee Charlotte Cheesecake

This is a very special fragrant fruity Asian kind of cheesecake that I had never try making before. The very first time I saw this cake is from a blog pal's flicker picture. Then after a few months later, my best pal Tracy make this for her cell-group gathering. Base on what she had told me and feedback from her cell-group members on the cake that she had made. I decided to make one using lychee preserved in canned syrup.


You can use any basic non-baked cheesecake recipe, and just include some chopped lychee in the recipe and reserved some whole lychee on top as decoration. To make your cheesecake more presentable you can used some ready bought sponge cake and cut it into half then soaked one side with some lychee syrup and stick it on the surrounding of the spring form or mousse tin then prepare the biscuit based on top.

I can said, this is a very nice and refreshing cheesecake compare to those that I had made or eaten before. It's neither too sweet or cheesy and with the added whipped cream, it made the texture of the cheesecake more smooth and silky......

Assorted Macarons

Wow.. it seems like I am getting Macarons CRAZY these few days. Just like what other bakers do, when you starts to get the hang of it, you seems to be addicted in making them. It like even though you use the same ingredients, but each time you will gets kind of different result for your macarons.


So far I only tried making 4 different Flavours which are Chocolate, Black Sesame and Green Tea. The 4th one which is the Rose scented I was not able to get it done correctly due to the batter consistency. It had spread too much and the end result was very bad just like those 1st few failure batches macarons that I had.

Out of all these assorted macaron, I still loves the Green Tea with Chocolate Ganache. Maybe it's because I love anything with green tea content. Em.... so maybe next weekend then I will try making other flavour if there is still volunteer who want to try. Actually I also love Coffee flavour, maybe I will try to experiment with it too.