#51 - Rainbow Popsicles

You know that it is summer time when you are craving for something icy cold and refreshing like these homemade popsicles! Yay to homemade goodies! Don't you just love homemade food like I do? The beauty of these homemade goodies are that they are free from sugars and artificial flavourings. You don't even have to worry about additional colourings or chemicals being added. These rainbow popsicles are made with just fruits and nothing else! Isn't it just great!

These popsicles are so easy to make that I am sure you will enjoy making them as much as you enjoy eating them!

I simply love how pretty these little things look! To make these pretty yummies, you need nothing more than different types of fresh fruits and a blender. That's it! You can also get creative by arranging the layers of fruits puree in any order you prefer. 

What are you waiting for? Head straight into your kitchen and make some of these pretty rainbow popsicles now! 

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Recipe: Adapted and modified from here

Free printable version of recipe - Click here

Servings

8 Popsicles (depending on size of the mould)

Ingredients
Strawberries (blended) - 200g

Oranges (blended) - 200g

Pineapples (blended) - 200g

Kiwis (blended) - 200g

Blueberries (blended) - 200g

(Optional)

Coconut Water -1 to 2 Tbsp

Method

1. For each of the different coloured fruits layers (red - strawberries, orange - oranges, yellow - pineapples, green - kiwis, blue - blueberries), place the fruits in the blender and blend until a smooth puree is obtained. Remember to wash the blender thoroughly before blending the next layer. 

2. For fruits like the pineapples and blueberries, you may wish to add in 1 to 2 tbsp of coconut water to allow smoother blending of the puree. 

3. Distribute the different coloured fruits puree evenly into the popsicles mould, layer by layer. 

4. Freeze the popsicles for at least 6 hours (or overnight) until the popsicles are firm. 

5. To remove popsicles from their moulds, dip moulds in glass of water for 10 seconds. This will ensure the popsicles come out smoothly from the moulds. Serve while popsicles are firm. 

#50 - Raspberry & Apricot Crumble Cake

This is a recipe I learnt recently from a baking class at Phoon Huat. Crumble Cake, also known as the crumb cake, is the perfect cake to go with your coffee in the morning. In my opinion, for a crumb cake to be good, the proportion of the crumbs to the cake is very important and this recipe just hit it for me. If  I have to change something, I would probably replace the icing sugar in the streusel topping with brown sugar instead. That would give it a better sweetness and colour to the top. 

Although the recipe uses frozen raspberry and apricot, feel free to substitute that with a whole range of fresh fruits strawberries, peaches etc.) that you can choose from. The fresh fruitiness will be one of the kick for this crumb cake. 

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from Chef Patrick (Phoon Huat).

Ingredients

Sugar Dough Pastry (Base)
Unsalted Butter (softened) - 125g
Caster Sugar - 62g
Egg - 30g
Plain Flour - 180g

Strussel Topping
Unsalted Butter (softened) - 100g
Icing Sugar - 40g
Ground Almond- 40g
Plain Flour - 150g
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp

Almond Butter Filling
Unsalted Butter - 125g
Caster Sugar - 80g
Eggs - 2nos
Plain Flour - 65g
Ground Almond - 80g
Vanilla Extract - 1/2 tsp

Strawberry Jam - 5 tbsp
Raspberry (frozen) - 80g
Apricot (frozen) - 80g

Method

Sugar Dough Pastry (Base)
1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar together.

2. Fold in the egg and ensure that mixture is well mixed.

3. Add in flour to the mixture and combine to form a dough.

4. Once dough is formed, cover with cling wrap and rest it in the fridge for 40 minutes.

Streusel Topping
5. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, butter, icing sugar, ground almond, plain flour and baking powder.

6. Using rubbing method, rub & mix all the ingredients together until they are well-combined into a crumble texture.

7. Set aside for later use.

Almond Butter Filling
8. In a mixing bowl, cream butter, sugar and vanilla extract together until a creamy texture is obtained.

9. Add in eggs (one at a time) to the mixture and ensure it is well mixed.

10. Gradually add in the flour and ground almond and mix well.

11. Set aside for later use.

12. Preheat oven at 170C.

13. Remove sugar dough from fridge. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to 1/2cm thick and cut out to the shape of the square mould.

14. Place the sugar dough cut-out in the mould.

15. On the sugar dough in the mould, spread a thin layer of strawberry jam followed by half portion of the almond butter filling.

16. Lay the raspberry and apricot on top.

17. Spread the remaining amount of almond butter filling on top of the fruits before sprinkling the streusel topping on top.

18. Bake the cake at 170C for 45 minutes or until cake tester come out clean when inserted into the centre of the cake.

19. Remove cake from oven and allow it to cool slightly while it is still in the mould. Dust with some snow powder or icing sugar before serving. 

#49 - Baileys' Chocolate Cookies with Macadamia Nuts

Off days are days when I can stay in the kitchen, tweaking recipes and trying ways to improve on their taste, texture and how they look. Project of the day - Baileys' Chocolate Cookies with Macadamia Nuts. 

Take a look at the recipe below and you will notice that I have done a huge reduction in the amount of sugar to include in the cookie dough. This is due to the reason that this particular bottle of Baileys' that I have with me happens to include a tint of caramel flavour to it. As such, the Baileys' itself was already kind of too sweet to me. To avoid having overly sweet cookies, I reduce the amount of sugar from 300g to 170g. 

These Baileys' Cookies has a slight crunch on the outside but definitely soft and chewy in the centre. You may even think that it kind of resembles a chewy, fudgy brownie. Not only so, it comes with a nutty twist with all the wonderful chopped macadamia nuts in it! 

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Recipe: Adapted and modified from Gimme Some Oven

Servings

Make approximately 4 dozen cookies

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour (370g)

Cocoa Powder (40g)

Instant Coffee Powder (1tsp)

Baking Soda (1 1/4 tsp)

Salt (1/4 tsp)

Unsalted Butter, softened (230g)

Brown Sugar (170g) (Original recipe calls for 300g sugar)

Eggs (2 nos)

Vanilla Extract (1 tsp)

Baileys' Irish Cream (10 tbsp)

Macadamia Nuts, chopped (150g)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Prepare 2 baking sheets, lined with baking paper. Set aside for later use.

3. In a large bowl, sift and combine all the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, instant coffee powder, baking soda and salt). 

4. In a mixer bowl, cream together butter and sugar until mixture is creamy and fluffy.

5. Add in eggs and vanilla extract gradually and beat the mixture until it is smooth. 

6. Add in Baileys' Irish Cream to the mixture.

7. Fold in dry ingredients in Step (3) to the mixture in Step (6), one third portion at a time and mix well. Make sure mixture is well combined until all dry ingredients are well incorporated. but take note not to over mix.

8. Add in macadamia nuts to the batter. Combined well.

9. Wrap dough in cling wrap and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes.

10. Using a small ice-cream scoop, scope and divide the dough into small portions (ball-shaped). Place them on the baking sheets. Ensure they are slightly apart from one another.

11. Bake for 15-18 minutes. After removing cookies from oven, allows the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Once the cookies are completely cooled, store them in an airtight container.