Green Tea Chocolates

Testing testing some white chocolates with green tea powder, which is equals to Green Tea Chocolates. One of which is a Green Tea Chocolate Swirl!

Almond Meringue Cupcakes

I had quite a lot of egg whites left in the fridge from my lapis cake some time ago. So I thought of baking this Almond Meringue Cupcakes, extracted from Cupcakes Galore.

Recipe
Ingredients:
100g ground almonds
150g sugar (I use 140g)
5 egg whites (I put 200g egg whites)
pinch of salt
85g whole almonds, toasted & coarsely chopped
Icing sugar for dusting

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Mix ground almonds and 50g of the sugar together. Set aside.
3. Beat egg whites with salt until they turn opaque. Gradually add remaining sugar and continue to beat whites until they are stiff and form glossy peaks.
4. Gently fold in ground nut mixture, using a whisk. Take care not to overmix.
5. Fill the cupcake moulds with the mixture. You can use a piping bag to do this if you wish, if not, just heap the mixture into the moulds.
6. Sprinkle the toasted nuts over the meringues, pressing them in gently. Lightly dust with icing sugar.
7. Let the meringues rest for 10 minutes and then dust them again with icing sugar and let them rest another 10 minutes.
8. Bake for 25-30mins or until they are golden brown and firm to the touch. Cool before unmoulding.

Notes:
(1) This mixture makes 36 regular cupcakes.
(2) You can replace gound almonds with ground hazelnuts or have a mixture of both.
(3) First tray of meringue cupcakes, I didn't wait for the 10mins & 10mins before baking. I put it into the oven once the oven is ready.
Subsequent trays, it was delayed for more than 20mins though. The stiff meringues will slowly be more liquid.
(4) These meringue cupcakes can be eaten as is, served with fruit salad or ice cream or used with other desserts.

Bread-fast

It's been a long long time since I last baked breads! Did a check on my bread post, it was a month ago! Goodness! No wonder my bread flour looks like having some "visitors"! Hahaha! As I had some shredded cheddar cheese left in the fridge, I thought I'd better finished it up before it turns mouldy! One of the easiest and the tastiest breads for me will be the cheese and sugar bread. I usually stick to Baking Mum's Sweet Bread Dough.

Recipe:
Ingredients
A)
240g bread flour
60g plain flour
55g castor sugar
12g milk powder
5g instant yeast
5g salt

(B)
1 egg
150g cold water

(C)
30g unsalted butter

(D)
approx 100g shredded cheddar cheese
approx 30g fine sugar

Method:
1. Mix (A) till well blended. Add (B) to form a dough. Add in (C) and knead until dough is elastic and smooth.
2. Gather dough to form a ball and cover dough with cling wrap and let it rest for abt 50-60 mins or double in size.
3. Divide dough into 12 portions. Shape into balls and leave it to rest for abt 10-15 mins.
4. Divide each dough into 3 (or 4), roll it and plait it up.
5. Let it proof on lined or greased baking tray for another 50-60 mins or until dough is double in size.
6. Apply egg wash (1 beaten egg) on dough and sprinkle (D) shredded cheese and sugar generously on it. Bake dough at 190ºC for abt 12 mins.

Durian Swiss Rolls

I had some durian pulps leftover from last week's durian puffs. So I thought of making some durian swiss rolls. I was quite "lazy" to use the chiffon method. So I use the normal sponge method, extracting the recipe from Yochana's Durian Swiss Rolls.

Chicken Mushrooms Puffs

I made my puff pastry last week, and used it for Chicken Pie yesterday and there were at least half of the dough left over. So I thought of baking chicken mushrooms puffs today. It didn't turn out to be as big as I want it to be, but at least I can see the layers of the pastries on my puffs!

Chocolate Cake

I tried the Chocolate Lembab Cake from Yochana's site. As I put it in a square 7" x 7" pan, the cake was flatter and drier. But the colour and smell was really chocky! My initial mixing of the butter and eggs were not done well, it caused the butter to curdle. I had to re-mix everything again! :p Hopefully with "some wastages", this is better!