Friday, April 30, 2010

from the freezer

I am baking deprived.. (LOOK!)




Mrs. Field's Ready To Eat Cookie Dough?!? What the heck are these! Well, since I was dying for chocolate the other day, I decided to try these out without much further thinking. My verdict? Nothing special! Pretty much just a sweet chocolate-y dough that satisfied my craving. Haha .. What else right? In my opinion, they are nothing compared to homemade brownies/cookie dough or homemade anything in general. I was expecting something that would melt and dissolve right in my mouth.. (Oh right! They ARE from the freezer section!) I miss baking. I guess all I can do now is compile a list of recipes so once I go home, I can bake(:


Toodles.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Sunday Brunch



A toast topped with avocado and scrambled eggs..
So, I thought I would treat myself something delightful this morning since the stir-fry from last night was just disgusting. Yup, disgusting. I don't often describe food as disgusting.. but that was just. blegh. ): I swear I can make much better fried rice if I tried. I believe I ordered it with thai peanut sauce but it was nothing peanut-y tasting. I can't even point my finger to what it really was. It might have been a combination of all their sauce (they don't wash their pans in between orders!)

Well, anyways!! After my night of recupration from my ochem midterm and all day biochem studying, I vacuumed and cooked. &Now, I am off to my 4 hours review session. Happy Sunday everyone!



Avocado+ Scrambled Egg Toast
-1 serving
1 slice of 12- grain bread
1/2 avocado, chopped
1 egg, scrambled
plenty of onions, chopped
1/2 tomato, chopped
2 slices of smoked ham, chopped
salt and pepper to season
spoonful of olive oil

1. Heat pan over medium heat. Pour and even out oil in pan. Meanwhile, toast the bread and scramble an egg in a bowl.
2. Sauté the onions till translucent.
3. Add in ham and tomato.
4. Season with pepper and salt.
5. Add the egg on top of the onions, ham& tomato and stir gently. When toast is lightly browned, take it out and smother the chopped avocado on top. Return back in oven for 30 seconds.
8. When the egg is cooked thoroughly, serve on the avocado topped toast!

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Doraemon's snack


Dorayaki is simply pancakes with honey added to the batter (correct me if I am wrong). They are sweet and moist and go wonderfully with red bean. I made red bean- whipped cream fillings instead of just red bean paste to give it a little twist. I personally like it more with the whipped cream because it adds a little fluffiness to the filling. Any fillings would go well with these dorayaki pancakes, i.e. ice cream!

Don't know if you can tell the difference between the following two photos.. but they were made with different recipes! First one with baking soda& second one with baking powder.




Which one's better? The one with baking powder! As you may see, the pancake in the second photo is fluffier whereas in the first photo, the pancake is thin on the edges. I am not sure if this has to do with the way I fried them.. But anyhow, the second time around, the pancakes also had a bit more "egg" taste to them(:


Dorayaki
recipe adapted from my buttery fingers& cooking with the dog
-makes 10 pancakes (more if you make mini dorayakis!)
2 eggs
80g granulated sugar
1tbsp honey (warmed for easier mixing)
2tbsp water (+ ~1-2tsp to adjust thickness after chilling)
100g cake flour
1/2tsp baking powder
Oil for greasing pan

1. Beat eggs and sugar together until pale in color. Mix in the honey and water.
2. Sift in the flour and baking powder, mix together gently until no lumps remain.
3. Cover mixture with plastic wrap and chill for one hour.
4. Before frying the pancakes, mix the batter again. Adjust the thickness with water.
5. Heat a non stick frying pan over medium heat and brush on a thin layer of oil. Remove the pan from heat and place on the wet towel to cool down the pan. (I omitted the cooling part)
6. Pour batter into 9cm circles onto pan and cook the pancakes over low heat. (low heat helps with the smooth browning of the pancakes!)
7. When bubbles appear on the pancake, flip it and cook until slightly brown. Cool on a wire rack. Repeat with rest of the batter.

Red bean- whipping cream fillings
50ml heavy whipping cream
1/2cup-1cup of red bean paste (adjust to your heart desires)

1. Whip heavy whipping cream with electric- mixer till firm peaks form.
2. Using a spatula, lightly mix in the red bean paste.

**Assembly: Sandwich a generous amount of fillings between the pancakes. Press lightly to even out the fillings and close the edges.

The only challenging and time-consuming part in making these is the frying process! It would be so much easier if I had one of those electric pan. ... but practice makes perfect.

NOMNOMNOM
Give it a try( :

Monday, April 19, 2010

the ULTIMATE

The best chocolate chip cookies ever! This is definitely the recipe I would go back to if I am craving for something chocolate-y, crunchy, chewy, buttery, coffe-y, yummy.. (&the list goes on!) These are perfect to share with friends and family. Oh, how wonderful these are (: The coffee in the ingredients fosho` added a kick to the already awesome chocolate chip cookies. I enjoyed both eating and taking photos of these cookies very much.



Chocolate Chip Cookie
recipe copied from Neiman Marcus
-makes around 2 dozen

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons instant espresso coffee powder
1-1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Cream the butter with the sugars using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy (approximately 30 seconds)
2. Beat in the egg and the vanilla extract for another 30 seconds.
3. In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture at low speed for about 15 seconds. Stir in the espresso coffee powder and chocolate chips.
4. Using a 1 ounce scoop or a 2 tablespoon measure, drop cookie dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Gently press down on the dough with the back of a spoon to spread out into a 2 inch circle. Bake for about 20 minutes or until nicely browned around the edges. Bake a little longer for a crispier cookie.

Before these babies head into the oven




After the magic..


I would recommend giving them less bake time in the oven. They got a little too crunchy/hard overnight. MmHmm, ENJOY!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Pop!

This would be my third attempt at making cream puffs. At the very last minute today, I decided to alter the recipe from the one Ive been using.. since the last two times, my cream puffs turned out a bit soggy and salty. Not to mention, they also collapsed as soon as I turned off the heat. I wanted to see if I can improve them and essentially find out why they collapsed. So, I did some research overtime and jotted down a few tips here and there. Turns out the choux pastry is one of the hardest recipe to grasp (excuse me for the lack of a better word).

Some have said substituting the all-purpose flour to bread/gluten flour makes the cream puff crunchier. Some said adding less milk and water otherwise. Some mentioned about turning down or up the heat after the first ten minutes into baking. Some said letting them cool down slowly prevents the puffs from collapsing. I also noticed that the recipes varied a lot. Some requires 100g of butter while some only needs 45g..

After digesting in all those information, I wanted to give cream puffs a third try. I want to perfect them! And to my surprise, they were close to perfection this time<3 The one mistakes I made was baking them on foil instead of parchment paper.. The bottoms of some cream puffs got stuck and it was extremely hard to take them out without destroying their puffness. Good thing it was my first batch! Luckily, I baked in two batches today (I decided to use the small oven). The second batches came off with no problem. Here's the recipe and pictures. Enjoy! Feel free to serve with custards or whipped cream or anything your heart desires. I popped 5 of them plain before they even cool. Deliciousssssssssssssssss!





CREAM PUFF
Adapted from my buttery fingers
-makes about 30 puffs
For the choux pastry:
40g all purpose flour, sifted
20g bread flour, sifted (I used the left over bread flour I had)
40g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
100ml water
5g sugar
1g salt (I put around 3g; don't know if that made any diff)
2 eggs (I used 1.5 eggs; too much eggs will make the dough too liquid-y)

1. Place water, butter, sugar and salt into a small saucepan and heat over medium flame until butter is all melted and water is at a rolling boil.
2. Remove from heat, and dump in the flour. Mix thoroughly until dough forms.
3. Back on the heat, stir the dough continuously for a minute or two.
4. Transfer dough into a large bowl. Slowly add in one egg at a time. Mix and incorporate well until a shiny dough forms. (Cut down the number of eggs if the dough is at the right consistency)
5. Pipe the dough onto parchment paper. Each around 4cm in diameter.
6. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes until golden brown. (Open the oven door a little at the last 2 minutes into baking)
7. Leave in oven for additional 5 minutes to cool completely.
**Make sure the dough is just warm when adding in the eggs

For the custard, I recommended the recipe from 3yen.


This was the biggest pipping tip I had. The tips I have are normally used for cake decorations.. Oh wells, they still did the job and came up with these cute spaghetti looking dough.


Mm, they don't look the best but at least they are not collapsing and taste good! Whoohoo!


The bottoms were so nice<3 Thin and crispy!


&last but not least, my little disaster..

Till next time`

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Welcome

So, I finally whipped my lazy butt to start my official food blog. Well, first off ---My name is Eva and I am aspiring to become a food scientist/chef and open my very own bakery in about 10 years. Uh.. no! I am not just saying that. I will do as I say. And just watch.. next thing you know I will be all over the media as a world-renowned baker!(; Maybe not world-renowned.. but gotta dream big right? (hehe) Anyways, I started this blog simply because of my love for baking and eating (haha). On a daily basis, I spend hours reading food blogs and just fantasize myself traveling to all the places they are reviewing and eat my heart out. I say, why not contribute to this awesome food blogging dealio.. and here I am.

Mm ok, this is going to be a rather short first post (stupid organic chem). Lastly, I have a little disclaimer to make ---I am no food expert nor food critic (though I wish I am) nor a good writer (sadly). Thanks for keeping up with my spontaneous train of thoughts and stay tune for updates about my cooking& eating adventures around the Los Angeles and San Diego area. :D