Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

[Baked on 23 Mar 2013]
Suddenly I felt like eating chocolate fudge cake. I've made chocolate fudge cakes before, and I usually fall back on this recipe - Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake. This recipe yields a very nice chocky and moist cake. However, this time round, I baked them into cupcakes instead. The baked cupcakes were dense and moist. The baked texture was different from the steamed texture. It makes quite a good dense cupcakes.

Recipe for Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes, adapted from Peng's Kitchen.
(Makes approx. 16 regular cupcakes)

Ingredients:

150g Liv unsalted butter
145g Fine sugar
200g Evaporated milk
2 Eggs, lightly beaten
125g Plain flour
70g Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

Method:

1. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter has melted. Remove from heat.
2. Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled mixture and stir till well mixed.
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till smooth. (Batter should be runny).
4. Scoop them into muffin trays lined with paper cups.
5. Bake at preheated oven at 180C for 20 mins. Or insert a skewer into the cake and comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool completely before frosting.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

35g Cocoa powder, sifted
50g Corn flour, sifted
1 cup evaporated milk (approx. 250g)
2 Egg yolks
175g Water
100g Caster sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
50g Unsalted butter

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients well (except the butter. stir over double boiler at low heat till thickened. (takes abt 10mins to thicken)
2. Add butter, turn off fire and stir till the butter melts.
3. Spread the warm fudge over the cupcake.
4. Chill the cake in the fridge before serving.

Cinnamon Buns

Easter week no hot cross buns, so I baked cinnamon buns. The picture from Indochine Kitchen just tempted me to bake these lovely cinnamon buns. I cannot resist cinnamon buns...especially when they are loaded with walnuts! These buns were really soft and fluffy. I shall attempt this again, this time, loaded with walnuts!

Recipe for Cinnamon Buns, adapted from Indochine Kitchen.
Makes approximately 18 regular buns

Ingredients:
300g Bread flour
148g Plain flour
91g Castor sugar
7g Fine salt
77g Unsalted butter
298g One egg + whole milk
3g Lemon zest (1 lemon)
6g Instant yeast

For cinnamon sugar
10g Ground cinnamon
60g Brown sugar
75g Unsalted butter, soften
--> Combine all together.

Method:

1. Combine salt, sugar and butter in a mixing bowl. Cream with paddle attachment until smooth and pale on high speed.
2. Add lemon zest. Beat until everything is mixed well, for another minute.
3. Add in flour, yeast, egg and milk. Mix over low speed until all ingredients are combined together.
4. Switch to dough hook and beat over medium speed for 15 minutes, until the dough crawls up the hook.
5. The dough should be shiny and tacky, not sticky. If the dough is too sticky, add a spoonful of flour at a time and scrape the sides of the bowl during middle of beating process. (Mine was slightly sticky. I added one more tablespoon of plain flour.)
6. Form the dough into a shape of ball. Place them in a bowl, spraying both bowl and dough with some oil if desired.
7. Cover dough with plastic wrap.
8. Let it proof at room temperature for 1-1.5 hours, until dough doubles in size.
9. Lightly dust working surface with flour. Transfer dough to the counter and roll the dough into a rectangle with 0.5 cm thickness.
10. Spread the cinnamon sugar all over on the dough. Roll the dough away from you to the end, not pressing it too hard. The roll should be quite loose.
11. Slice the roll into 2.5cm thickness buns.
12. Line pans with baking paper. Lightly greased paper with oil. (I omitted this step)
13. Place shaped buns on pan, spacing them about 2cm from each other.
14. Let it continue to proof at room temperature for another 75 minutes. The buns should have grown into one another and almost double in size.
15. Preheat oven to 180C and bake it for 20-25 minutes, or until brown.

Chuck's Pizza Base

There are a few chefs which I like to watch on the cable - Anna Olson, Laura Caulder and Chuck on Asian Food Channel, Bobby Flay, Guy Fieri and Alton Brown on Food Network Asia. I would try to catch their recipe as they demonstrate, otherwise, I'll have to go to the website to search for it subsequently.

I managed to catch "Chuck's Day Off" on one of the Wednesday evening last year. I copied the recipe and tried it. Actually I didn't refer to his website before I did the pizza. Only to realised that I had missed out 1/2 cups of flour. No wonder my dough was so wet!! Nevertheless, the pizza turns out very nice. The crust was really crispy and if you like pan pizza, the bread is really soft.

Here is the recipe for his pizza base.

Recipe for Smoked Salmon Pizza, adapted from Chuck Hughes.
Makes 2 (12") large pizzas

Ingredients:
Pizza Dough Recipe
1 tbsp Olive oil (15g)
3/4 tbsp Instant yeast (12.5g)
1 tbsp Sugar (15g)
1 tbsp Salt (15g)
2 cups warm water (500ml)

4 1/2 cups Plain flour (1.125kg)

Toppings: (for one pizza)
125g Smoked Salmons
Onions
Ground Black Pepper
Wild Rockets
2 tbsp Mayonnaise
1 tbsp Honey

Method:

1. In a bowl combine all the ingredients except the flour. Let stand until the mixture starts to foam, for about 15 minutes.
2. Add the flour and knead until smooth, 5 minutes. Roll the dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (or overnight).
3. Take the dough from the fridge and split in 2. Knead and roll each dough ball to the desired shape and thickness, on a floured surface.
4. Bake the dough at 200C for about 23 mins.
5. Remove from the oven, let it cool slightly.
6. Mix the mayonnaise with honey and spread it generously over the pizza top.
7. Arrange the smoked salmons on the pizza, topped with onions, wild rockets and sprinkle some ground black pepper.

I made this pizza twice. The second time was more successful.

Potato Rosemary Focaccia

[Baked on 23 Mar 2013]
Some weeks back, I chanced upon an Indonesian bakery magazine and saw a very lovely picture of a Potato Rosemary Focaccia. I couldn't help but to really want to try to bake this focaccia. Since it was printed in Indonesian Bahasa, I post a copy in the Singapore Homebakers' Facebook. Alice kindly did the translation for me. I've hence, uploaded the document back into the group to be shared with the rest of the homebakers.

The bread was rather sticky and difficult to handle. I oiled the table-top and tried to knead them smoothly. It didn't turn out smooth though. I proceeded to just spread them out on my tray and let it proof. It proved beautifully and baked well. I placed it on the lowest rack of my oven to prevent burning the top. It baked well and was moist. It tasted even better when slightly toasted with cheese.

Recipe for Potato Rosemary Focaccia, by Chef Rahmat, Sous Chef Hotel Borobudur, Bakery Magazine - Vol.1 No. 5/May 2011
(Makes a 11" x 14" tray pan)

Ingredients:
Sourdough:
200g bread flour
10g instant yeast
100ml water

Method:

1.Beat all ingredients with electric mixer for 8 minutes
2.Cover dough with cling wrap and refrigerate overnight


Bread:
500g potato – steamed
10g rosemary
50g olive oil
300g bread flour
250g sourdough
10g salt
5g instant yeast
10g bread improver (I omitted this)
50g water

Method:

1 .Beat steamed potato with electric mixer till smooth.
2. Add in rosemary and oil, mix well.
3. Add in bread flour, salt, yeast and bread improver and mix low speed.
4. Add in sourdough, beat at high speed for 10 minutes until well mixed.
5. Rest the dough, covered with cling wrap.
6. Place the dough on an oiled tray pan.
7. Brush oil on the dough, sprinkle rosemary, ground pepper and salt.
8. Rest for 20 minutes , and then bake for 15 minutes at 200C at the lowest rack.
9. Remove from the oven, let it rest for 30mins before removing from the pan.

Mississippi Mud Pie

This post is sponsored by Liv butter. Try Liv today!

[Baked on 9 Mar 2013]
When weekends approach, I like to bake some desserts and bring them over to my mum's place to share with my siblings and extended family. That weekend, I made a Mississippi Mud Pie. I've heard much about this pie and cake before, but I've never tried one, nor saw any in our bakeries.

Recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie, adapted from "the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook"
Makes a 9" pie

Basic Pie Crust
Ingredients:
260g Plain flour
1/2 tsp Salt
110g Liv unsalted butter, cold
Water to combine (I used 4 tbsp)

Method:

1. Put the flour, salt and butter in an electric mixer with a paddle attachment and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
2. Add 1 tbsp water and beat until well mixed. Add a 2nd tbsp of water and beat until you have a smooth, even dough.
3. If the dough is till a little dry, add another tablespoon of water, but be careful not to add too much, it is safer to beat the dough at high speed to try to bring the ingredients together.
4. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and leave to rest for 1 hour (I left mine in the fridge overnight).
5. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin.
6. Line the prepared pie dish with the dough and trim the edges with a sharp knife.
7. Lay a sheet of parchment paper over the dough crust and pour in the baking beans.
8. Bake the pie crust in the preheated oven of 170C for 10mins.
9. Remove the parchment paper and baking beans, and bake for a further 10mins.
10. The dough should still be pale and slightly raw in the centre. Leave to cool.

Mud Pie Filling

Ingredients:

150g Dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I use 85g dark compound chocolate with 65g 77% Cacao Barry chocolate)

50g Liv unsalted butter

20g Light corn syrup (recipe use golden syrup)

6 Whole eggs

160g Soft light brown sugar

1 tsp Vanilla extract

300g Whipping cream

30g Caster sugar

Chocolate shavings

Method:

1. Put the chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Leave until melted and smooth, then remove from the heat and leave to cool slightly.
2. While the chocolate mixture is melting, put the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract in a mixer with a paddle attachment (I use a whisk) and beat until well combined. [my note: this step is to combine the eggs, sugar and vanilla. It is not to whipped up the eggs to become light and fluffy. This mixture is very liquid.]
3. Gradually beat the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture on slow speed. Make sure the chocolate isn't too hot, otherwise it will scramble the eggs. Beat thoroughly until smooth.
4. Pour into the partially blind-baked pie crust and bake in the preheated oven for about 20mins, or the pie is firm, but slight wobble in the centre.
5. Leave to cool completely, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
6. When you are ready to serve the pie, whip the cream and sugar with a handheld electric whisk in a bowl until soft peaks form, then spread over the pie and finish with chocolate shavings.

Comment:

• Like I mentioned in step #2 above, the mixture of the eggs and sugar is watery. It shouldn't be whipped up. When I was whisking the mixture, I wonder what will the outcome of this mixture be. However, when I looked at the shallow pie dish, I figured the mixture at this stage should not be light and fluffy.
• When you blind bake your pie crust, ensure that there is no holes in it. The batter that goes into the pie crust is very very liquid. Should there be any open holes, then it will definitely seep through into the baking dish.
• The pie crust for this recipe is NOT nice. If you have a good pie crust, use yours. It doesn't really tell how much water to add, it's up to you to mix in the dough. The crust is hard and tasteless. If you like, you can improvise it to add sugar or salt. Nevertheless, this is not a good pie crust.
• As I still had the chocolate filling left over, I poured it into a baking cup and bake it. It turned out nicer than the ones with the pie crust. :p