Levain choc chip walnut cookies

3 cups (13½ ounces) bread flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
¾ cup + 4 teaspoons (6 ounces) light or dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, cold, lightly beaten in a separate bowl
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ cups dark chocolate chips
1 cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

DIRECTIONS:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium speed until it comes together in one cohesive mass, about 1 minute. Add both sugars and continue to beat for another 1 to 2 minutes, until all of the sugar has been incorporated into the butter. Gradually add the eggs and vanilla and continue beating on medium speed until mixed, scraping the sides of bowl once (the batter will appear lumpy). Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the flour mixture until just a little bit of flour still remains. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts with a rubber spatula.

4. Divide the dough into 12 even pieces, just grabbing it by the handful and roughly shaping it into a ball (it should not be smooth). Place them (evenly spaced) on the prepared baking sheet. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Bake for 18 to 24 minutes, or until light golden brown on top. Let cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet, then remove to a wire rack to finish cooling. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Orange poppyseed cake recipe

Orange Butter Cake
adapted from The Little Teochew

Ingredients:
170g butter, softened
100g sugar (I reduced this from 225g)
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk
1 1/2 tbsp orange zest
195g all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp whole milk

1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1/2 tbsp poppyseed

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt, add in poppyseed and mix thoroughly
3. Cream butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy.
4. Beat in orange zest and eggs.
5. On low speed, add in sifted flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with milk and orange juice and ending with flour.
6. Pour batter into pan and bake for about 40mins.

Homemade Nutella (chocolate hazelnut)

Resepi Nutella CoursePemanis Mulut Servings Prep Time 1 balang 15 minit Cook Time 15 minit

Ingredients

• 1 cawan kacang hazel
• 100 gram coklat susu
• 2 sudu besar serbuk koko
• 1/2 cawan gula aising
• 1/2 sudu kecil esen vanila
• 1 sudu besar minyak sayuran

Servings: balang

Instructions

1. Panggang kacang hazel di dalam oven pada 200ºC lebih kurang 10 ke 15 minit.
2. Sementara itu, carkan coklat dengan microwave atau double boiler. Biarkan menyejuk pada suhu bilik.
3. Balut kacang hazel dengan kain atau kitchen towel, gosok-gosokkan supaya kulitnya dapat dileraikan sebanyak mungkin.
4. Masukkan kacang hazel ke dalam food processor atau blender) dan proses sehingga menjadi pes, lebih kurang 2 ke 3 minit. Jangan lupa untuk mengikis bahagian tepi semasa memproses supaya sebati.
5. Masukkan coklat cair, serbuk koko, gula, esen vanila dan minyak sayuran.
6. Proses lagi sehingga teksturnya halus, lebih kurang 2 minit.
7. Simpan di dalam balang bertutup.

Lemon and lavender coffeecake

Lemon and Lavender Coffeecake

LEMON AND LAVENDER COFFEECAKE

(from the Macrina Bakery Cookbook and Fresh From The Oven)
The cake:

1 tbsp dried lavender
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest (about three lemons)
5 eggs
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup plain yogurt

The delicious glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon dried lavender
a splash of milk or cream (optional)

Preheat the oven to 325º. Butter or oil a large tube pan (angelfood cake pan).
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda,and salt into a large bowl. Add in the dried lavender. Give it a quick whisk and set aside.
Combine butter, sugar, and lemon zest in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, mix on medium speed for 5 to 8 minutes. This will make it extra fluffy and light, it will become a soft yellow color. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is fully mixed into the batter before adding another one. Then slowly add the lemon juice and mix for 1 more minute. Here is where it looks wonky — do not worry and carry on!
On a low speed so as not to send flour flying around your kitchen, add 1/3 the flour mixture. Incorporate. Add 1/2 the yogurt. Incorporate. Repeat again, ending with the flour mix. Spoon batter into tube pan. It will fill it just over half full. Tap on the counter to get the bubbles out. Bake on center rack of oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until the top is golden brown. Check the center of the coffee cake with a toothpick for doneness. It should come out clean.
Let cool and then take a sharp, thin knife around the outside edge to loosen. You should be able to tip it over onto your hands and transfer to a plate while still on the tube/bottom part of the pan. Let cake cool completely and liberate from the tube. You may need the knife again.
Now to add the glaze!
Sift powdered sugar into a medium bowl, then add lemon zest and lemon juice. Incorporate. Here I added a splash or two of milk to make it a little less acidic and a little more creamy. Whisk again until smooth. Drizzle glaze over the cooled coffeecake.
Will keep for a few days, if it starts to dry out, you can always add a little glaze to each piece as you serve it.
P.S. If you want to use cherries, add 1 1/2 cups frozen sour cherries in at the very end with a few gentle folds.

This entry was written by haikugirl, posted on September 16, 2010 at 10:04 am, filed under Baking,Breakfast, Sweets. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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Homemade Vanilla Extract - no alcohol

Hi there,

I've recently come across someone selling some fresh Madagascan Vanilla Beans at a great price and without hesitation ordered some for myself. Got me 10 vanilla beans at the price of RM40. I was so excited to receive the beans and they of were they plump as plump can be and smells absolutely delicious! I wish there are photos that I can show you but it was not during the time that I had this blog.

I started researching and googling on what I can do with these beans and I came across some recipes for Vanilla extract. So I thought I'd give that a try.

Homemade Vanilla Extract - No alcohol
4 vanilla beans - cut lenghtwise
food grade vegetable glycerin
1 glass bottle - 150ml

Directions:
Cut the vanilla beans lenghtwise and if you need to cut it in half to fit into the bottle.
Pour glycerin into the bottle until full
Keep in dark place for 6 weeks shaking once a week.

Voila. Done!

These vanilla tastes great! and they make all my cakes taste all the more special. and all without any preservatives.

Chocolate Coconut Oil Recipe

I've been trying to figure out a way to get my family to get some coconut oil into our diet and chugging that thing down our throats kind of makes me wanna gag so i thought i came up with (what i thought was an original) a brilliant idea whereby I make it into chocolate bites! I mean, our typical local chocolates are made from palm oil right? so, how different could it be if its made from coconut oil? well, nutrition wise, a WORLD of difference.

Who doesn't love chocolates rite? This would TOTALLY work with my kids.

So I went to good ol google to find out more about this idea of mine and ofcourse, there were TONS of recipes online for Chocolate Coconut Oil. I was hardly the inventor of it. But this is my variation of what works for me.

Chocolate Coconut Oil hearts 
1/2 cup Coconut Oil
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon raw honey
pinch of salt

1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract (recipe coming!) (storebought is ok too)

Directions:

Mix the coconut oil and cocoa powder. If the coconut oil is liquid (my weather is tropical so coconut oil is always liquid except when kept in the fridge), to be able to mix the honey and coconut oil mixture well, I would cool the oil in my fridge for about 10 minutes first and once its texture is the same as the honey, thats when i mix it up. 

Then, add the salt and vanilla.

Spoon mixture into a chocolate mould. 

Keep in freezer for 15 minutes

When mixture hardens, remove from mould and keep in a glass container in the fridge. 

The chocolate melts easily in this tropical weather so it needs to be taken quickly. 

My daughters love them and so do I! 

I bought my unsweetened cocoa powder from pastry pro. Raw honey from hero TTDI and coconut oil from Cold Storage Mont Kiara. 

Chocolate Cupcakes

I like my cupcakes light and fluffy and also not so sweet and have tried countless chocolate cupcake recipes which does not really fit the bill. Cupcakes shouldn't be too sweet as the frosting will do the job. Here's a recipe that I'm really quite happy with. Hope you will to! 

The frosting for this cupcake was a milk chocolate ganache (which was too runny) that I made which really complemented the cupcake well. I may have used too much whipping cream this time round. Will try with less cream next time. 

Chocolate cupcakes (recipe from Cupcake Project)

Yield: 16 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup (2 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (3.5 ounces) white sugar
• 2 ounces of your favorite chocolate
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (4 1/2 fluid ounces) vegetable or canola oil, measured in a liquid measuring cup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup (2 3/4 ounce) full-fat sour cream
• 1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) cocoa powder (natural or dutched will both work with this recipe)
• 1/2 cup (4 fluid ounces) room temperature coffee, measured in a liquid measuring cup

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, mix butter and sugar until fully combined. The end result should look like wet sand.
3. Melt the chocolate in the microwave or in a double boiler.
4. Once the melted chocolate is cool enough to touch, add it to the butter/sugar mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Mix in eggs and egg yolks one at a time until just combined.
6. Mix in oil, vanilla, and sour cream until just combined.
7. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder into a separate medium-sized bowl. Use a fork or a whisk to ensure that the ingredients are mixed well after sifting.
8. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in three additions, mixing until just combined after each addition.
9. Mix in water until just combined.
10. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full and put in the oven.
11. Check for doneness at 18 minutes - a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake should come out clean. If they are not done, check again every three minutes until they are done.
12. Immediately remove cupcakes from the cupcake tin and place on a cooling rack or on the counter to cool to room temperature. Although they are really good when they are hot, be sure to wait until they are room temperature to give your evaluation.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

200ml cream

6oz milk chocolate

pinch of salt

1 tsp sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract (i make my own recipe here)