Friday, August 28, 2009

Chocolate Yogurt Cupcakes

So. I am not done with my quest. The chocolate cupcake one. :)

Today's cupcakes are secretly my second attempt. I didn't even blog about my very first test drive of this recipe coz my failure was too embarrassing for me to present on this public arena of a blog. :( (I still have my pride..yes I do yes I do...)

Today, I am happy to say that these were diddly-licious. "Moist" seems to be the buzz word for cupcakes but seriously. I do not enjoy cupcakes that are unnecessarily moist to the extreme, ya know? Luckily, these are fantastically 'just right' in its moistness. They are soft, light, a little sticky on the outside and gentle on the chocolate flavour.

I used Whittaker's milk chocolate just coz I wanted to try them out. (Although these were delicious, next time, I'll probably bake it with Whittaker's 62%) I also sprinkled chopped up roasted, salted peanuts on just four of the cupcakes - just in case they didn't taste right. :D

I think I may ban myself from making these cupcakes for awhile. These are too delicious for my weak will power. And I can't handle that when summer is lurking around the corner.



Yeah Yeah...I spilt some of the batter - which, by the way, is super delish.

Chocolate Yogurt CakesFrom simply recipes who got it from David Lebovitz's book "Sweet Life in Paris"

  • 1 ounces (200g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2C unflavoured vegetable oil, divided (Didn't have unflavoured so I used regular.)
  • 1/2 C plain, whole-milk yogurt
  • 1 C sugar
  • 3 large eggs, room temp
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp almond extract (I didn't have almond so I used vanilla)
  • 1 1/2C flour (I used all-purpose)
  • 1 1/2tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • (I had some chopped roasted, salted peanuts)
  1. Preheat oven to 350deg F (or 180 deg F). Line muffin tins.
  2. In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, melt the chocolate with 1/4C vegetable oil until smooth. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk baking powder, salt and flour.
  4. In another bow, mix together the remaining 1/4C vegetable oil, eggs, sugar, yogurt, vanilla and almond extract.
  5. Form a well in the four mixture and stir in the yogurt mixture then the melted chocolate. Stir until smooth.
  6. Divide the batter into the muffin tins and bake for 25 minutes or until the centre is barely set. (I baked for 22 minutes) - I sprinkled four cupcakes with the chopped peanuts before baking them.
  7. Serve with whipped cream or your favourite frosting.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies

A hundred and twenty-seventh. This feels like my hundred and twenty-seventh chocolate chip cookie recipe that I've collected in the last month. I believe that I'm the last blogger to bake this recipe? That's okay. Cuz, if we reverse orders, it's like I'm first. I'm the first last person. :-P

The first time I saw this on Martha Stewart's site, I drooooooled and had to sit on my hands so that I won't run off and bake these. Finally, last night, I got to bake these gorgeous cookies. Aren't they gorgeous? :)


Want a bite? Go on. Take it! I won't tell. Shhhh :)

Yyyyyup! Whittaker's it is. Whittaker's.

LOVE the sight of chopped up chockies.
So beautiful.

Have you met my hand mixer, yet?
This is my bestest friend in the kitchen.
I plan on buying a stand-mixer in the future
but this one will always remain to be my very first mixer.
'Firsts' are some serious stuff.
First word
First love
First hand mixer... :) hee hee

These cookies are very honest. Half of the flour used in this recipe is bread flour and like a good ol' honest cookie, the bread flour is very evident when you take a bite. The bites were quite a mouthful. Thsee cookies aren't famously "crispy on the outside and chewy, gooey on the inside." But it's got its own charm, I'd say. If I were to personify them...I'd use the word...manly..?

They were gone in approximately two minutes. I only got to have two cookies. But I'm very happy with that. :) I find the best part about baking is watching others enjoy the goodies.

Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies
*I halved this recipe.

  • 1 lb unsalted butter
  • 1 3/4 C granulated sugar
  • 2 1/4 C packed light-brown sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 3 C plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
  • 3 C bread flour
  • 1 Tbs salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 Tbs pure vanilla extract
  • 2 lb Jacques Torres House chocolate or other best-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (60% cocoa)
  1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until wel combined.
  3. Using a 4 oz scoop for larger cookies or a 1 oz scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 in apart. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 min for larger cookies and about 15 min for smaller cookies. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
P.S. - I just found another choc chip cookie recipe. Dang it. Gotta sit on my hands again.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Introducing the 'it' cake of the pound cake world.
Peeps of the blog world, if you're reading this, first, thanks for scootin' by my humble blog, and second, you are about to witness me blog about one of my greatest finds since I started baking.
Presenting -----> (insert drum roll)"Cream Cheese Pound Cake!!" (Take a bow, cake, take a bow)

This cake is the Queen. It is tender, moist, and I could taste the subtle and beautiful flavour of cream cheese quietly coming through. How lucky am I that I found my favourite pound cake recipe in the second recipe I tried? I am Luck-eeeee.

Thank you thank you thank you Miss Smitten Kitchen for introducing this cake to me. Here's a 'fried blue' quote: "The key to successful baking is not in the baking itself, but knowing the right recipes and having a solid go-to baker." haha~ (May not be entirely true for all, but is currently true for me as a novice baker....I wonder when I stop being a novice baker...hmmm...) Smitten Kitchen is such a baker/blog/recipe for me. Even though she has no idea of my existence - I will thank her every time I bake this glorious cake. *Sigh*





LOOK at that texture!!
Look at that golden crispy top!!
*Sigh*

I was baking these for a fondu party my friend was having
so I chopped them up into fondu-able sizes.
Here they are ready to be transported to the party and fondued.

Can you tell? They are just dying to be eaten.
If you go to the Smitten Kitchen site, she has a strawberry coulis recipe to go with it. I'm sure it will be amazing. As for the fondu - this was PERFECT for fondu-ing. So, I imagine these will go great with chocolate ganache.

I halved the recipe but I'm going to write out the original.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake
From Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Staff Meals from Chanterelle

  • 1 1/2 C unsalted butter at room temp (I used 'less salt softened butter' because they were easier to cream - can't seem to find softened unsalted butter...do they not exist? I reduced the amount of salt because I used this butter)
  • 8 oz Philadelphia brand cream cheese at room temp
  • 3 C sugar
  • 6 large eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract plus 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (I just used all vanilla which is what the original original recipe had according to Smitten Kitchen.)
  • 3 C all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  1. Preheat oven 325 degrees F. Lightly butter a tube pan or a bundt cake pan. Sift flour and set aside. (I used a loaf pan)
  2. Place the butter and cream cheese in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar. Increase the speed to high, and beat until light and airy, at least five minutes.
  3. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
  4. Add the vanilla, almond, then the flour and salt all at once. Beat until just incorporated.
  5. Pour the batter into the pan and even out the top with a spatula or by shaking the pan. bake until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. 1 1/4 hours.
  6. Place the pan on a cake rack and cool for 20 minutes then remove the cake from the pan and let it cool.
*Note about the raw dough: try it.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Yogurt Marmalade Cake

Pioneer Woman - one of the earlier blogs I discovered when I embarked on this magical journey of baking. Pioneer Woman's recipes cast a spell on me. When I see a new recipe on her blog, I think to myself, I must must must make that NOW. It's not because of her pizzazz of writing. And it's not because of her photography - although she takes amazingly beautiful pictures. The charm about her recipes is her passion and love for what she makes. In almost all of her recipe entries she commands the readers to immediately rush into the kitchen and make whatever it is she made that day. She tells us that it's the bestest and that we'll regret it if we don't. And as someone who does not want to go through life counting regrets (no no, I want to count many many cake and cookie triumphs) I feel a strong compulsion to do as I'm told and make her recipes. So, when the time came for me to bake for my co-workers, I turned to this yogurt marmalade cake that I'd been dreaming about since its been blogged.
I. was. excited.

I graciously made some mistakes while making this cake. I overbaked. :( How come no one tells you this? I used a chopstick to test the cake and the chopstick didn't come out clean. So even though the top of the cake looked finished, I left it in the oven a bit longer and BAM~! it turned brown on me. :( :( :( The chopstick still came out wet when I poked the cake, but after it cooled, the interior of the cake was perfect. Tse! So, I guess with pound cakes, the cake testing method isn't always accurate? I should judge by the exterior of the cake? What is up with that?

I doubled the recipe since I was feeding a lot of people. I had a very loooooooooong deliberation about whether to double the baking powder or not. I had hesitations because I couldn't remember seeing any recipe with that many teaspoons of baking powder. I google-researched and decided to go with the four teaspoons of baking powder. It was fine. :)

Anyway, even with my little mistakes, the cakes turned out fantastic. They were delicious and well-received by my friends at work.
Peeps.
If I may...
In the spirit of Pioneer Woman...
I command you to make this cake...NOW!? please..???






Even with its browned sides...isn't it BEA-U-tiful???


Yogurt Marmalade CakeFrom Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 heaping cup of plain, lowfat yogurt
  • 1 C sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 1/2 C Canola oil
  • Icing
  • 1/2 C prepared orange marmalade
  • 1/4 C yogurt
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray (or butter and flour) a loaf pan with nonstick baking spray.
  2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside
  3. In a separate bowl, mix together yogurt, sugar, eggs, vanilla, lemon zest, and canola oil until just combined. Pour over dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat.
  4. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 45 minutes. Remove and allow to cool for a bit before taking the cakes out of the pan.
  5. While cake is cooling, pour marmalade into pan. Heat until melted, stirring occasionally.
  6. Add yogurt to pan and turn off heat. Stir to combine, then pour slowly over the top of the cake, allowing icing to pool around the side. (This will be an awesome sight)

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Coconut Rice Pudding

I am on a rice pudding roll.
Today, I made coconut rice pudding. yea yea yeah~ :D
Me love coconut in curry, cupcakes, cakes, chocolate (The Whittaker brand is amazing!), cookies, cold fabulous drinks and now in rice. The below recipe is adapted from allrecipes.com. I used the vanilla rice pudding recipe and made replacements with coconut cream instead of whole milk and shredded coconut instead of raisins (which I don't use in the vanilla pudding, anyway). I used 'light' coconut milk. I swear I bought this unintentionally. There are just too many of those low-fat and light stuff, I reached for this one by accident. I'm not against light or low-fat though. No No. I need to make sure the world knows this. My cereal is always served in super trim milk. I just prefer my sweet indulgences to be nice and sweet and fatty to compensate for all my healthy choices. With all that said the 'light' coconut milk worked like magic~ They were delicious.




Coconut Rice PuddingAdapted from allrecipes.com

  • 140 g uncooked white rice
  • 475 ml (2C) coconut milk or cream, divided
  • 65g (1/3C)white sugar
  • 2g (1/2 tsp) salt
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1/3 shreded sweetened coconut
  • 15 g (1 Tbsp) butter
  1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 C water to boil. Add rice and stir. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. (You can also use a rice cooker to cook the rice if you have that luxury)
  2. In another saucepan, combine 1 1/2 C cooked rice, 1 1/2 coconut cream/milk, sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat until thick and creamy (15-20min). Stir in remaining 1/2 C coconut milk/cream*, beaten egg and dessicated coconut. Cook 2 minutes more, stirring constantly (very important). Remove from heat and stir in butter. Serve warm or chilled.
*You can skip adding the extra coconut milk here if you like your rice pudding to be thick. I've tried it both ways and I prefer mine to be creamy.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Chocolate Rice Pudding

Rice pudding ranks near the top of my comfort food totem pole. They are gentle on the sweet. They satisfy my carbohydrate cravings. They're filling. And, of course, they're just delish. So when I had some left-over rice, I was more than ready to make my friend, rice pudding again. Despite my love for rice pudding, I've only managed to make one kind of rice pudding - vanilla. This will always remain my favourite kind of rice pudding, but I decided that today would be the day I'd make chocolate rice pudding.

So, away I went on my beautiful mac. I browsed a few recipes online and found a gazillion different variations. Excellent for my indecisive self. After much deliberation and mental simulations of the different recipes, I decided to go with cocoa powder. I used this recipe from allrecipes.com and then added one heaped tablespoon of cocoa powder when I added the butter and vanilla essence.

I was confident about this rice pudding cuz I was using some rockin' cocoa powder - which I've learned is paramount in any chocolate recipe - to use a rockin' cocoa powder.

The result: Yum-Yummidy-Dum~



I thought I'd give the tablespoon shot, a shot. :)

Hello, chocolate rice pudding! :D

Can you see the shadow of my camera? :-)

These can be enjoyed chilled or heated. So versatile, aren't they?

The Oxymoronic Chockies - bittersweet and dark

My sweet appetite is heightened when I'm blessed with headaches. These headaches pay me annual visits during winter time in the form of sinus infection. (Of course my monthly cyclical visits cannot be left out..........) Today was one of those days and I was craving chockies like Willy Wonka. Since now I know how to bake, I was so very tempted to whip up choc chip cookies. But I knew that if I did bake cookies, I will probably chow down the entire batch and would have to wear sweats to work due to the expanded waistline. Anyhoo, my clever remedy to this was another one of New Zealand's finest creations: Whittaker's bittersweet 'dark' chocolate. Once again, I bought these for baking but they ended up being my snack chockies. They are oxymoronically (and appropriately) sweet and bitter. They offer you a kind but intense shot of chocolate. They come in massive 250-gram blocks and will silence any level of chocolate cravings.

I was popping these all day today. They saved me from cookie binging. So...thank you chockies. You saved my waistline.