Coffee Walnut Muffins

Coffee Walnut Muffins

Ingredients:

70g plain flour

30g cake four

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

4 tsp instant coffee granules dissolved in 30ml hot water

1 large egg at room temperature

65g caster sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

45g unsalted butter, melted

50g fresh milk

Handful of lightly toasted walnuts

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven at 200 degree celsius.

Line a 6-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners

Method:

1. Sift the 2 flours, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. In another bigger mixing bowl, beat the egg and caster sugar until creamy. Add in the vanilla extract, cooled coffee mixture, melted butter and fresh milk. Mix well.
3. Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture above. Using a rubber spatula, mix until all the ingredients are just incorporated. Add in some of the walnuts (leave some for decorating the top of muffins) and mix gently. Do not overmix or you will end up with tough muffins.
4. Scoop the dough into each cupcake liner, filling it up to the brim.
5. Sprinkle each muffin with whole walnuts.
6. Bake at 200 degree celsius for the first 5 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180 degree celsius and bake for the next 15 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and leave them to cool on wire racks.

Makes about 5 large muffins

Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

I've been trying to bake the perfect muffin texture that is soft, light, moist and not crumbly. And also it must have a beautiful mushroom-shaped top. I have been experimenting with different flour proportion, liquid to flour proportion, leavening agent to flour proportion, using butter or corn oil and eggs to flour proportion. And temperature control too. I must say I have made some headway this time. Pretty satisfied with the look and texture.

Cranberry Pumpkin Muffins

Ingredients:

70g plain flour

30g cake four

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1 large egg at room temperature

44g caster sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

45g unsalted butter, melted

*80g buttermilk

Handful of dried cranberries and pumpkin seeds

* You can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 tsp of white vinegar or lemon juice into a cup of fresh milk that fills up to 1 cup (240ml). Leave it to stand for 5 minutes.

Preparation:

Pre-heat oven at 200 degree celsius.

Line a 6-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners

Method:

1. Sift the 2 flours, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl.
2. In another bigger mixing bowl, beat the egg and caster sugar until creamy. Add in the vanilla extract, cooled coffee mixture, melted butter and buttermilk. Mix well.
3. Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture above. Using a rubber spatula, mix until all the ingredients are just incorporated. Add in the dried cranberries and mix gently. Do not overmix or you will end up with tough muffins.
4. Scoop the dough into each cupcake liner, filling it up to the brim.
5. Sprinkle each muffin with pumpkin seeds.
6. Bake at 200 degree celsius for the first 5 minutes. Reduce temperature to 180 degree celsius and bake for the next 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the muffin comes out clean.
7. Remove from oven and leave them to cool on wire racks.

Makes about 5 large muffins

Bouchon Bakery-Style Dark Chocolate Cookies

Chanced upon this recipe in one the books I borrowed from the library. This is quite a good book but I can't remember the title. Will have to go look for it again next time I visit the library. I was attracted by the word Bouchon Bakery and the author's write-up about the cookies. The cookies were sure mouthwatering and decadent. You just cannot stop at one.

White, Red and Chocolate

White, red and chocolate. Interesting title? White and red refers to the strawberry shortcake and chocolate refers to the chocolate cake. Simple and direct. No fanciful name. Baked these 2 cakes for a friend's 3 yr-old niece's birthday. My friend has a big family - 7 sisters and 1 brother if I remember correctly. The strawberry shortcake is for the birthday girl and the chocolate cake is for the rest of her nieces and nephews. She's a very good aunt. She just wants to make sure everyone has enough to eat. So nice of her.

Chocolate au Royal

I can't believe I'm on a chocolate praline cake baking marathon. This is the 4th cake I've baked in 2 weeks. And this one is for my beloved sister's birthday. The first one was for my son; second one for my girlfriends; third one for my golf buddy's birthday and this last one for my sister. Why did I bake the same type of cake over and over again? First, I wanted to use up all the praline paste that I made and secondly, it's simply delicious .....

Royal Chocolate Praline

This cake is baked especially for my son's 13th birthday. Time really flies and he is a teenager now. A teenager with his own mind. If you ask me if I enjoy his entry into teenage years, my answer is NO. He's no longer the boy who will listen to your advice and spend time talking to you and doing things with you. He's in his own world surrounded by computer games, gadgets, social media and friends. Sigh ...... How I wish he were still a little boy. I really loved those times spent with him. So fun and adorable. Well, I cannot turn back the clock and just have to look forward and accept that he has grown up and finding his own ways and identity. I have to adjust my expectations ......

Savoury Chicken Pie

I have this impulse to try my hand at baking a chicken pie from scratch after trying out the pies at Pies and Coffee. I would say the crust is a little different from those chicken pies I have tried. Most chicken pies have flaky crust like croissants. In my opinion, the crust of the pies from Pies and Coffee is more like the crumbly pineapple tart pastry I used to make. I love the texture. With that in mind, I started to fiddle with the ingredients and proportion for my chicken pie crust.

Homemade Savoury Buns

Have not been making bread for a long, long time. I saw an open packet of yeast in the freezer and told myself to use it before I have to throw it away. Bread making is  therapeutic and satisifying for me. You get to use your hands to knead and shape the dough and see it rise. It is challenging and you have to be patient. Unlike baking a cake, you can see and eat the end product pretty soon. For bread, you have to wait a couple of hours before you can sample it. But you will be rewarded. Who can resist freshly baked bread out of the oven?

Peanut Butter Banana Cake

Peanut butter with banana. Do you think it is weird or delicious? For people who love peanut butter (I think most people - children and adults alike) and banana, they will love the combination. I baked this cake for one of my cell group member's birthday. Unfortunately she was sick on the day of our meeting. I took a few slices for the rest of my cell group members to try and the balance for family to enjoy.

Indulging in Foret Noire

At the request of my cousin Jennifer, I baked a black forest cake for my aunt's birthday celebration. I have not baked this cake since my aunt's birthday last year. She loved black forest cake. It's one of my favourites too. According to my cousins Jennifer and her sister, Florence, the cake was scrumptious and well received by young and old. Jennifer has asked me to bake one for her father's celebration in June.

Singapore Memory Project

Have you heard of the Singapore Memory Project? To be honest, I have not until I received a comment on one of my posts. It was actually an invitation to be part of the Singapore Memory Project. It is a national initiative to collect, preserve and provide access to Singapore's culture and heritage. It aims to build a national collection of content in diverse formats (including print, audio and video), to preserve them in digital form, and make them available for discovery and research. This is a wonderful initiative for our culture and heritage to be passed down to our future generations.

I am so surprised and honored to be invited to pledge my blog to this project. It will take approximately 2 months for my blog's inclusion to be completed.

To know more about this project and to pledge your blog, visit Singapore Memory Project.

Banana Cake - light, fluffy and moist

I have 3 ripe bananas resting on the kitchen countertop. I have actually bought the bananas for my son's classmates who came over to do a project. But none of them ate the healthy and nutritious fruit. I bet if I have potato chips on the table, they will be all gone in seconds. I have used it to make peanut butter banana sandwich (try it if you have never made one for yourself; it's yummylicious). I can think of only one way of consuming them before they are stashed away in the rubbish bin - Banana Cake. Yes ....

Chocolate in Orange Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I do not normally use buttercream to frost a cake. I find it a little too rich and sinful - no good for the heart other than giving you the extra kilos. But there is no refrigerator to store the cake at my cell meeting venue. Out goes fresh cream frosting. I wanted a fruit-flavoured theme cake. This cake is to celebrate the birthday of April babies in my cell group - Janet and Ching Sum.

Chocolate Fruit Tart

I'm back baking again after taking a long break from the non-stop Chinese New Year baking. Chinese New Year was a busy and hectic period of cleaning, baking and eating. I'm so glad it's over. It is my mum's birthday and it's definitely a great reason to bake something for her. I wanted to do something I've never tried before - shortcrust pastry.

Reunion Dinner 2013

 

It's feasting time again. Time to plan the menu and get busy in the kitchen to prepare a feast for my family. I have decided not to go with the usual steamboat as my dining table is not big enough to hold 2 steamboat pots and all the plates for the ingredients to serve 11 people. The preparation work started the night before and I managed to get everything prepared and cooked by 6.30pm the next day, just in time for the sumptuous meal to start. I said to myself, "Good job ....." Haha ...........

Chinese New Year Goodies 2013

 

The Lunar New Year is here again. Here's wishing all of you a prosperous, bountiful and healthy Year of the Snake ahead. I'm sure CNY is a very busy period of most mothers and wives. There is the spring cleaning to take care of, buying new clothes for our loved ones, baking goodies and preparing the big feast on CNY's eve. Sometimes I wish that we can skip all these preparations by going for a holiday during the festive period. But with school-going children, it's a little difficult to arrange. That's just one tiny excuse. Much as I dread going through the preparation, I look forward to the baking, cooking and meeting up with my relatives too. So ironic, isn't it?

Apricot Pumpkin Muffin

Happy New Year! May 2013 be a great year for everyone. As for me, I look forward to spending more time in my baking journey and sharing my treats with you. My younger son has started his secondary 1 education this year and I will not be able to help him in his studies that much anymore. Time for me to step back and for him to be independent and responsible. Hope it works out well.