Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Do you ever have this dilemma?  You bake something amazing.  People compliment.  (Big sheepish but proud smiles for that!)  And then people creep up to you and ask for the recipe.  I'm gonna be super honest here because apparently that is the best policy.  I deliberate whether to give out that recipe or to keep it to myself.  Do you think I'm being selfish?  But shouldn't I be able to keep some recipes so that I (I!) can be the special person who brings joy to people with my bakings?  What do y'all think?

Anyhoo....
I made these.  I love these.  I love strawberries.  Strawberries are like those rare breeds:  gorgeous to look at and equally gorgeous on the inside.

Here's what I did:
(I used milk chocolate but I do prefer them with white or dark chocolate.)  I melted the chocolate over simmering water and dipped the strawberries.  Then I put the chocolate dipped strawberries on pans lined with cooking paper and put'em in the refrigerator until the chocolates hardened.  And voila~!  You have the best looking, best tasting snack in the world.  Big smiles. 

Question:  Anyone know the solution to the bottom of the pan chocolates?  They either hardened up quickly or have cooked but they refused to be melted when I reheated them.  So my last few strawberries got lumpy chocolates.

Wicked Chocolate Brownies

Hello.  How have you been?
I'm great.  A bit busy but fantastic.  You know why I'm great?  I have two weeks until my summer vacation starts.  Oh~ Yeah~~~~ :)  If I may, I do have a grumble, though.  The weather is totally playing mind games with me.  It's like summer is playing babyish peek-a-boo, ya know?  I'm over it.  But what can I do?  I can't force it out of its peek-a-boo state.  I just have to be patient and let it come when it's ready.  But I know when it does come, it's going to be fantastic. 

I've realised that I talk about weather a lot here.  They say, that one of the best small talk topics is weather.  Small talk = Convo with strangers.  I'm trying to think how I can get past being acquaintances with you so we can get past the small talk phase.  It'll come.  I'm sure.  :)

In the meantime, I've got a recipe for ya. 

As novice baker, I try to follow the footsteps of the greats.  There are a few (as you've noticed) that I totally look up to in the baker's blog world.  And there's something that I've noticed about these bakers.  It is that they get their amazing recipes from almost anywhere including....food packets.  It is not the 'where' that counts but the final product, right?  So...that's what I did.  There was a chocolate brownie recipe that I've noticed on the packet of Champion Flour and I decided to try it out.

Apologies about the shaky photos.

I seem to have shaky hands these days.  

I'm wondering if I'm lacking in certain nutrition.  Hmmm...

 

This recipe is chock-full of cocoa and sugar (dang, it had a lot of sugar!) and I absolutely loved the texture of it.  A bit of moist and gooey with a crispy top...my kinda brownie, baby~ 

Enjoy.  :)

Wicked Chocolate Brownies

From Champion Flour packet

•  200g room temp butter, softened (I used unsalted.  Packet didn't specify)
• 1 1/2C sugar
• 1C cocoa
• 3 eggs - room temp
  
• 1/2C standard flour (I sifted)
  
• 150g roughly chopped white chocolate or 3/4 C roughly chopped walnuts (I used 3/4C of chopped macadamia nuts because it is what I had.  It was awesome but I would definitely add the chocolate next time)
  
• Icing sugar to dust

1.  Preheat oven 150 degrees C (about 302 degrees F) and grease a 20cm (about 8 inches) baking tin/pan.
2. With an electric mixer on high speed beat butter, sugar and cocoa for 4-5 minutes until creamy.  (The batter will be super crumbly but it'll come together)
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Stir in flour and chocolate (or nuts) and transfer mixture to greased baking tin.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until the surface of the brownie appears cracked.  The centre should appear almost uncooked.
6. Cool in the tin and cut into squares.
7. Dust with icing sugar before serving.
   

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Let's talk about what stirs your pot.
What stirs your pot?  What rattles your cage?  What kills your buzz? What annoys you? (An endless array of idioms may be???)
For me, movies like 'Nights in Rodanthe' - they made me all excited with Richard Gere and Diane Lane... and then when I finally got around to seeing it?  Zip. Nothing. Nada.  What about rain on the day you planned a beach picnic - grrrrrrrr~!!!!!  Talk to any Aucklander and they'll know what I'm talking about.  How about when people cancel on you when you've been looking forward to seeing them all week.  Bastards!  >:-[
I'm not trying to entice you to the dark side of negativity, I'm just trying to transition into talking about my cookies.  My chocolate chip cookies...... :)

I had one of those days.  Y'know, one of those days when you need someone, something, some song to make you feel better?  Well, I was having one of those days so, I decided to bake me some chocolate chip cookies.  I have about a million chocolate chip cookie recipes and, yes, I do plan to try aaaall of'em.  But that wasn't the day to trial a recipe.  No.  I wanted a foolproof recipe that would sweeten up my cloudy day.  So, I used the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I know - The Nestle Tollhouse recipe.  Yea Yea Yeah~~~ baby~~~
Can anything go wrong when you've got chocolate chip cookies?  I don't think so~  :)

The Recipe

BTW, the myth about chilling the dough?  Not a myth.  I believe in it.  Use these chocolate chip cookies to try this out and you'll know what I mean.  I put'em in the fridge overnight.  You can freeze the dough, too.  Just transfer them to the fridge a few hours before you plan to bake them.  They'll be as crispy as fresh bed of autumn leaves and goo-hoo-hooey on the inside. Enjoy.  :)

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

Every week, I have this routine.  It is this:  After church, I would go to a petrol station (that's gas station in the American language).  There's this petrol station near my church that I can earn reward points from and also where I can get an amazing white chocolate macadamia nut cookie.  Sometimes I'll go a little later in the day and their cookie won't be as fresh as I'd like but it still manages to kill it every week.  But today, I thought I'd break out of that habit.  I baked my own cookies.  Yeah baby~  That's what it's all about, right?

As always, there were some choices but I thought my first attempt would be the recipe from allrecipes.com.  Even on that site, I had many to choose from.  I went with the one that looked the most promising with over 200 reviews rating it 4.5 stars out of 5.  That's a pretty good grade, wouldn't you say?

This is a very delicate and light cookie.  I also liked that it didn't overpower me with its sweetness.
Next time I will try chilling the dough before popping them in the oven.  :)

White Chocolate Macadamie Nut Cookies

Allrecipes.com

• 1 C butter softened (225g) room temp (I used salted but you'd probably use unsalted)
  
• 3/4 C packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 2 eggs room temp
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1tsp of vanilla and no almond extract)
  
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt (I skipped this cuz I used salted butter)
• 1 C coarsely chopped macadamia nuts (I used about 130g which was perfect)
• 1 C coarsely chopped white chocolate (of course...I used whittaker's)

1. Preheat oven to 350deg F (175 deg C).
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until smooth using an electric mixer or a stand mixer.  
3. Beat in the eggs, one at a time then stir in the vanilla and almond extract.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture.  Do not overmix.
5. Fold in the macadamia nuts and white chocolate.
6. Drop dough by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.  (I made a big ball of about 1 1/2 inch drops)
7. Bake for 10 minutes or until the top is golden brown.  (I baked for 11 minutes and watched the bottom of the cookie which turned golden brown.  The dome of the cookies were very pale and inflated.  The deflate as they cool)
8. Cool on pan for a few minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.
9. I made 28 cookies.  :)
   

Double Chocolate Cookies

So. I was thinking about how I could introduce these cookies to you. I thought may be something poetic like - if heaven existed on earth, it'd be these cookies. Or something more tangible like if Brad Pitt were a cookie, he'd be these (even though for me comparing them to John Krasinski or Jimmy Fallon would be more accurate). But I couldn't make up my mind so I'm just gonna say it straight: These cookies are a-mazing. I think my taste buds were surprised at such level of goodness. They're still in shock. Really. Let me put it this way. Think of the best chocolate chip cookie you've ever had. You thinkin' about the gooey, chewy cookie? The one that makes your mouth water just picturing it? I can confidently tell you that these cookies will take that cookie down any day of the week.
Have I convinced you yet?

This is Martha Stewart's recipe and I have to say, the lady knows her stuff.
A note about the dough. Although, I always try the dough before I pop my baking in the oven, I've never been a 'lick-the-bowl' kinda gal. I usually let the raw dough on my mixing bowl or whatever get washed away in the sink. But this dough - my goodness - I couldn't stop eating it!
It is velvety and shiny and quite irresistible.



























Double Chocolate Cookies
Martha Stewart.com
Makes about 3 dozen (I made 2 dozen - but I made mine pretty big)

• 1 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 C unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder (I used sweetened - which made the cookies turn out a tad bit sweet but it was still mind-blowingly awesome so I think it's safe to use whichever)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt (I skipped this cuz I used salted butter)
• 1/2 lb good-quality milk chocolate, 4oz coarsely chopped and 4 oz cut into 1/4 inch chunks (I used Whittaker's creamy milk chocolate and used 250g which is a bit more than the recipe calls for - if you can get your hands on Whittaker's USE THEM!)
• 1/2 (1 stick, 113 g) unsalted butter (I used salted)
• 1 1/2C sugar (I used caster)
• 2 large eggs - room temp
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325 deg F/162 deg C.
2. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside
3. Melt 4 oz coarsely chopped chocolate with butter in a small heatproof bowl set over simmering water. Let cool slightly (I cooled it to lukewarm - close to room temp)
4. Put chocolate mixture sugar, eggs, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until well combined. (I used a hand-mixer)
5. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in flour until just combined. Fold in chocolate chunks
6. Using a 1 1/2 ice cream scoop, drop dough onto parchment0lined baking sheets. Leave 2 inch space between cookies.
   
7. Bake until the surface cracks - about 15 minutes. (I baked for 13 minutes in my oven). The cookies will be very soft to the touch and a little bit inflated when you take them out. It will deflate as you cool them on the pan. Let cool on pan for a few minutes then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
   
8. Can be stored airtight container at room temp up to 3 days.
   

Apple Bake

Ah..the fun of enduring the fickle weather of this great metropolis. To be warm or not to be...to bucket down on thee or to shine down on thee...

Nevertheless, nothing's gonna snuff out my burning fire for baking yummy goodies. Not the cold nor the rain. No sirree~

And so, I present to you, my first apple bake. It all started with me buying a whole bunch of scrumptious lookin' apples. I had been enjoying the beautiful NZ apples the last month and was looking forward to these to be just as beautiful. But the batch I bought this time weren't nearly as sweet or scrumptious as its predecessors. So they've been sitting in my fridge for a couple of weeks and finally I found a fabulous recipe to rescue my apples: Smitten Kitchen's Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp.

As you can see in my pix that I skipped the granola because this was another spur of the moment baking. It was a 'let's use what I have' baking. So, I used orange mango lemonade instead of lemon juice and flour instead of cornstarch. They still turned out fabulous. I did use only half of the apples suggested by Smitten Kitchen (because that's what I had) but I didn't change the portions of any of the other ingredients.

These will be fantastic with yogurt for breakfast or just for snacking between meals. :)
























Apple Bake
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 1.8lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into medium chunks
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (I used mango orange lemonade)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (I used granulated)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch (I used a Korean brand flour which is used for coating tempuras - these are slightly seasoned flours with a bit of breadcrumbs)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (or 200 degrees C).
   
2. Mix apple chunks with all the ingredients in a 8X8 inch baking dish until evenly coated.
3. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until the apples are softened and bubbly.
   

Coconut Bread

Too many recipes not enough time.
I think I will never escape that feeling as I weekly scrap recipe after recipe after recipe.
Well, here's one form a blog that I found out of sheer luck of blog hopping: The Wednesday Chef. People, if you enjoy a good 'read' you're missing out if you have not visited this blog. The Wednesday Chef is one witty writer, folks. I could click on any of the archives and I know I'm guaranteed to find something that would make me smile.

A disclaimer: This bread is for coconut lovers.
I will admit, this is my very first attempt at 'bread.' Therefore, my mistakes and ignorance must be taken into account. As a coconut lover, I am enjoying this bread immensely. However, this bread is drier and quite crumblier than I thought. I have no idea if it is supposed to be that way or if I had done something wrong. Nevertheless, I wake up every morning looking forward to a breakfast of coconut bread. I lightly toast it on my frying pan and coat it with jam, butter, or enjoy it as is. It goes famously with both milk and coffee.




Coconut Bread
From the Wednesday Chef (who adapted it from Bill Granger)

• 2 large eggs (room temp)
• 1 1/4 C milk (room temp)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 C flour, more for dusting (I used all purpose)
  
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 C superfine sugar (I used regular sugar - is there a difference?)
  
• 5 ounces flaked coconut (about 1 1/2 C)
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted (about 84grams)
• Nonstick cooking spray or butter for pan
• Confectioners' sugar (optional)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
   
2. In a bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and vanilla (I used an electric mixer for this step and then for the rest of the steps I stirred with a wooden spoon)
   
3. In a medium bowl, sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon. add sugar and coonut and stir to mix. Make a well in the center and pour in egg mixture.
4. Gradually mix with dry ingredients until just combined. Add melted butter and stir until smooth. Do not overmix.
5. Oil and flour an 8 1/2 x 4 in loaf pan. Pour batter into pan.
6. Bake until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
7. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then move to cooling rack.
   
8. Dust with confectioners' sugar or just enjoy as is.