#54 - Fruity Swiss Roll

Start of a new year, 2017!

I know I was not baking much for last year and this year, I hope to set things right! I really hope to keep to my resolution of uploading one recipe a week. Baking and sharing recipes are things I do to keep myself sane amidst my work and other chores. It is like a personal me-time. Since I enjoy these times so much, I promised myself that I shall work much harder to keep to this resolution of mine this year. I hope, I really hope so.

This is the second week of the year and I am starting my year with a Fruity Swiss Roll bake. I bought some really fresh good eggs from the wet market the other day and I was excited to use them in my bakes. Considering the fact that most of the eggs I used in my baking/cooking were bought from supermarket, this batch from the wet market was indeed different. They were much larger in size and the yolks were of a much fresher and brighter colour. It also gives the cake a really fragrant eggy smell when it is done. Love it! Nothing beats fresh and premium ingredients.

Will be trying out more versions of the Swiss Roll next. I think they make pretty good breakfast items as well as after-dinner dessert.

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from Ochikeron.
Free printable version of recipe - Click here 

Ingredients

Sponge Cake
Eggs (separate the yolks from the whites) - 4 nos
Milk - 40g
Corn Oil - 40g
Vanilla Bean Paste - 1/4 tsp
Flour (sifted) - 60g
Castor Sugar - 80g

Filling
Whipping Cream - 200ml
Castor Sugar - 1 tbsp
Assorted fruits of your choice (diced)
* I used kiwi, strawberries, raspberries and mangoes

Method

Sponge Cake

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line baking tray with baking paper.

2. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks together with milk, oil and vanilla. Mix well.

3. Add in flour and fold it into the yolk mixture using a spatula. Ensure mixture is well combined and smooth. Once combined yolk mixture is done, set aside for later use.

4. In a separate mixer bowl, beat the egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer.

5. Then gradually add in sugar and continue mixing until thick and stiff peak.

6. Once it is done, fold in egg white mixture, one-third portion at a time, into yolk mixture until a well-combined batter is obtained.

7. Pour combined batter into baking tray and ensures that it is evenly spread out.

8. Tap baking tray against tabletop to remove air bubbles from batter.

9. Bake in oven at 180C for about 12 mins or until cake is lightly browned.

10. When cake is done, remove from oven and tap baking tap against tabletop to prevent shrinkage.

11. Remove sponge cake from tray and allow it to cool on cooling rack. Ensure cake is completely cooled before adding filling on the browned side of the cake.

Filling

12. To prepare the filling, combine whipped cream with sugar using electric mixer. Beat until soft peak.

13. Spread cream filling over the browned surface of the cake.

14. Top with diced fruits over the creamed surface. Leave a one-inch gap around the border.

15. Roll the cake in baking paper and cover with a layer of cling wrap. Rest the cake in fridge for at least 2 hours before slicing and serving. Best served chilled.

#53 - Baileys Biscuit Brownies

Have you ever had that moment in the middle of the night when you are having a serious craving for something rich and chocolatey? Like a slice of decadent brownie for instance? 

Yes I just had that moment! 

And the result of me having this super duper strong craving, was me rushing to the kitchen and whipping up these basic and easy brownies bars with whatever limited ingredients I can find in my pantry. I was lucky that I happened to have all the basics that I need. And of course, how can i forget my secret ingredient! Baileys Irish Cream! Almost everything taste better with a couple tablespoon of this, don't you agree?

And the end product was... nothing short of being RICH! How I regretted not having some homemade Bailey Ice Cream to go with the brownies! I am sure that will elevate the taste to a whole new level. 

Please be warned that this brownie is really thick and rich and packed with all chocolate goodness. If you are not a MEGA chocolate fan, please stay away. Otherwise, do enjoy a little midnight indulgence. Enjoy :)

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from Brownies & Slices

Free printable version of recipe - Click here (Updated!)

Ingredients

Chocolate, chopped into pieces – 350g

Butter, softened – 110g

Cocoa Powder – 25g

Instant Coffee Powder – 10g

Caster Sugar – 125g

Egg – 3nos (approximately 140g)

All Purpose Flour, sifted – 50g

Chocolate Biscuit, crushed into pieces – 80g

Baileys Irish Cream – 3 Tbsp

Walnut – 70g

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and line baking pan (I used 9” square pan) with baking paper. Set aside for later use.

2. Using double boiler over low heat, melt the chocolate with the butter. Stir constantly until all the chocolate is melted.

3. Stir in cocoa powder, coffee powder and sugar. Make sure the mixture is well mixed. Remove the mixture from heat and allows it to cool for at least 10 minutes.

4. Beat in the eggs to the mixture until it is well blended.

5. Fold in flour to the mixture and add in the crushed biscuit. Combined well. Make sure the combined mixture is well mixed, with no trace of flour.

6. Add in Baileys Irish Cream to the final mixture. Mix well.

7. Pour the combined mixture into the prepared baking pan. Sprinkle walnuts on top.

8. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes or until your tester come out clean when inserted in the center of the brownie.

#52 - Honey Bread Loaf

If you are looking for a bread recipe that does not require butter, egg or even milk, you have found it! This is the soft & yummy Honey Bread Loaf that I always turn to when I am running out of ingredients in my pantry. This recipe is so easy that even a beginner will have no problem with it at all.

The bread you will get is slightly sweet (not too sweet) and you will be able to taste the honey but it is not overpowering at all. Fresh or lightly toasted, the bread taste just as good!

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Free printable version of recipe - Click here

Ingredients

Water – 220g

Raw Honey – 60g

Caster Sugar – 20g

Salt – 5g

Bread Flour, sifted – 375g (up to 2 tbsp more, if necessary)

Yeast – 6g

Corn Oil – 20g

Method

1. Pour water into the bread barrel.

2. At each corner of the bread barrel, add in honey, sugar and salt.

3. Add in bread flour on top of the wet ingredients. Make sure the wet ingredients are well covered by the flour.

4. In the center of the flour heap, make an indentation and add in the instant dry yeast. Cover up the yeast with the flour.


5. Secure bread barrel in the bread machine.


6. Select "Custom Procedure" function on your bread machine (On my Donlim T15A Breadmaker, I selected function "21") and input the following settings before selecting "Start".

First kneading - 20 minutes

First proofing - 1 hour

Second kneading - 30 minutes

Second proofing - 1 hour

Baking - 1 hour


7. 10 minutes after first kneading, you should see the dough being formed. Add in corn oil at this stage before continuing the process. Keep an eye on the kneading of the dough. You may add in more bread flour (up to 2 tbsp) to achieve the right consistency (dough should not be sticking to the bottom/side of bread barrel)


8. After second kneading (before the dough undergoes second proofing), paused the machine and remove the kneading blade from bread barrel. Continue with second proofing and baking.

9. When bread is ready, remove bread barrel from the machine immediately. 

12. Transfer the bread to cooling rack to allow it to cool completely before slicing and serving. 

#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. 

#46 - Yakult Bread with Cornflakes

Look at this loaf of bread, isn't the colour beautiful? I still remember that morning of me waking up to this loaf of homemade bread, with colours just like the bright and cheery sunshine. I just love it! 

This is a really simple recipe which replaces the use of milk with my childhood favourite drink, Yakult! If you are in love with this drink like I am, try this recipe! Personally. I only wish that I could add even more yakult to this bread. To me, the stronger the yakult taste, the better! 

Not forgetting the crunchy cornflakes that come along with the bread. If you are as greedy as I am, you may want to consider serving the bread like I did, with a thin layer of butter/ peanut butter, topped with yet another layer of cornflakes! Yummy!

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from Everybody Eats Well in Flanders

Ingredients
Yakult (Original Flavour)- 250ml

Caster Sugar - 20g
Salt - 7g
Blue Jacket Bread Flour - 350g (and 2 tbsp more, if necessary)
Instant Dry Yeast - 7g
Unsalted Butter (softened) - 35g
Some cornflakes (crushed)
Egg Wash (1 egg + 1 tbsp water)

Method

1. Pour yakult into the bread barrel.

2. At each corner of the bread barrel, add in sugar and salt.

3. Add in bread flour on top of the wet ingredients. Make sure the wet ingredients are well covered by the flour.

4. In the centre of the flour heap, make an indentation and add in the instant dry yeast. Cover up the yeast with the flour.

5. Secure bread barrel in the bread machine.

6. Select "Custom Procedure" function on your bread machine (On my Donlim T15A Breadmaker, I selected function "21") and input the following settings before pressing "Start".

First kneading - 20 minutes

First proofing - 1 hour

Second kneading - 30 minutes
Second proofing - 1 hour

Baking - 1 hour

7. 10 minutes for first kneading, you should see a dough being formed. Once the dough is formed, add in butter before continuing the process.

8. After second kneading (before the dough undergoes second proofing), paused the machine and remove kneading blade from the bread barrel.

9. Brush the top of the dough with egg wash and roll it over the crushed cornflakes.

10. Return dough to the bread machine for second proofing and baking.

11. When bread is ready, remove bread barrel from the machine immediately. 

12. After removing bread from bread barrel, transfer it to the cooling rack to allow it to cool completely before slicing and serving. 

#45 - No-Bake Baileys Chocolate Biscuit Cake

My first bake of the year 2016! No-Bake Baileys Chocolate Biscuit Cake. Chocolatey rich & simply irresistible. A slice of simple goodness. I simply love the slight tint of Baileys within the biscuit cake. Such a sweet & delicate flavour and it goes perfectly well with the rich & creamy chocolate ganache. I am so going to dig into another slice right now!

How about you? If you are looking for a twist to your usual decadent but boring chocolate cake? Try this! The crunch coming from the digestive biscuit base along with the nutty flavour from the almond and pistachios nuts - Yummy! Not to mention, my favourite of them all - The deliciously rich & creamy chocolate ganache on the top of the biscuit cake! Yummy Yummy Yummy!

From other similar recipes online, you will realise that many others also made similar version of this cake using Marie Biscuits instead. But personally, I prefer the crunch of the digestive biscuits in this case and feel that it goes really well with the pistachios nuts. It is a matter of personal preference I guess. 

To be honest, I wasn't counting on this recipe to be a huge success due to its simplicity. But to my surprise, it is really well-received in my family and even I (not much of a sweet tooth) enjoys the rich and creamy chocolate ganache alongside with the nutty biscuit cake base. You got to try it to believe it!

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Recipe: Adapted & modified from Home Cooking Adventure.

Ingredients

Biscuit Cake Base
Mixed Nuts - 100g (I used 50g almonds & 50g pistachios)
Digestive Biscuits - 800g

Chocolate Syrup
Fine Sugar - 180g
Cocoa Powder - 60g
Baileys Irish Cream - 50ml
Milk - 200ml
Unsalted Butter (softened) - 150g
Vanilla Extract - 1tsp

Chocolate Ganache
Whipping Cream - 120ml
Bittersweet Chocolate (chopped) - 120g

Method

1. Grease and line cake pan (spring form pan, round, 23cm) with baking paper. Set aside for later use

2. In a saucepan, over medium heat, toast the mixed nuts for 5 minutes. Stir frequently to ensure even toasting. Set aside for later use.

3. Break digestive biscuits into small pieces in a large bowl.

4. Add in mixed nuts (Step 2) to the digestive biscuits (Step 3). Mix well.

5. In a saucepan, combine sugar, cocoa powder and milk together. Mix well to ensure that the mixture is well-mixed.

6. Place saucepan over medium heat. Add in butter and bring mixture to a boil while stirring constantly.

7. Remove from heat and add in Baileys and vanilla extract. Mix well and allow chocolate syrup mixture to cool for at least 15 minutes.

8. Once chocolate syrup is cooled, pour it over cake base mixture (Step 4) and ensure they are well-combined.

9. Transfer combined cake base mixture into cake pan and press down firmly using spatula (or back of a spoon).

10. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

11. After 1 hour, heat whipping cream in a saucepan over medium heat until it starts to boil.

12, Pour hot cream over chopped chocolate and stir well.

13. Remove cake from refrigerator and pour chocolate ganache over cake.

14. Refrigerator chocolate biscuit cake overnight before serving.