Thursday, October 31, 2013

yogurt chocolate chip cookies


it has been quite a long time since I last cookie-d anything. i haven't been cookie-ing for such a long time. hence the cookie-ness today. i can happily say that today, i cookie-d. hahahaha!! sorry...i have always wanted to do that. hahaha... so..i cookie-d.
 
okay okay okay...my hunt for eggless recipes continues. i bookmarked this recipe last week because i wanted to give it a go. it looked pretty interesting. replacing the egg with plain yogurt...I mean..who would've thought. and then also i was curious as to how these would taste. so, today, I decided to cookie this. haaaa...
 
ready for the recipe?
 
you will need:
110g brown sugar
100g white sugar
55g butter
50g shortening*
115g plain yogurt
2 tsps. vanilla extract
220g all purpose flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
335g semi sweet chocolate chips**

*I used all butter
** I used milk chocolate chips

the how to:
1)  pre heat oven at 190°C

2)  cream both sugars and butter til light and fluffy.

3)  next in goes the yogurt and vanilla extract.

4)  in a bowl combine the flour, baking soda and salt.

5)  incorporate the dry ingredients into the sugar + butter + yogurt + vanilla mixture just till combined.

6)  add in the chocolate chips.

7)  bake for 8-10 minutes.

 
i baked these...and...I love these...BUT, i would make a couple of changes to suit my personal taste. when I try out new recipes I usually follow the recipe exactly. so that as least I know how it will turn out to be and then decide on whether I need to make some changes or just stick to it.
 
so, adjustment number 1 is, I would reduce the amount of sugars used because the chocolate chips that I used are already sweet and they will contribute to the sweetness of these cookies.
 
adjustment number 2 would be, the baking time. I think I might want to increase the baking time to make these a bit more crunchier. texturewise, these cookies are a combination between soft and crunchy. while I LOVE soft cookies, unfortunately, not many Malaysian get the idea of soft cookies, most times, i would be asked if I had 'underbake' my cookies...or in their exact words 'biskut ni tak masak ke??' so...I would like to try to make these a tad crunchier.  tastewise, I like it. I like the tang from the plain yogurt, it gives you a different kind of taste than you normally would get from normal chocolate chip cookies.
 
there you go. really easy, really tasty. so...what are you waitin' for??? get cookie-ing!!!
 
thank you www.allrecipes.com for the recipe and if you want the imperial measurement for these cookies, you guys can go on over here.

Monday, October 28, 2013

eggless chocolate peanut butter oatmeal muffins

haaa...amek ko! what a mouthful to say...and eat.

I went online in search for another eggless recipe for class and found this. i actually follow madhuram's eggless cooking blog. so, naturally i wanted to give this recipe a go, especially

since i had everything at home for this. jadi, why not? kan?
 

before I go on, let me just say that i did not go all vegan for this recipe. i just followed the eggless bit of it. but if you guys are interested in going all vegan, you guys can click here.
 
okay, you guys ready for the recipe?
 
you will need:
110g (1 cup) all purpose flour
60g (⅔ cup) quick cooking oats
40g (⅓ cup) cocoa powder
170g (¾ cup) sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
130g (½ cup) peanut butter*

*i used crunchy peanut butter, because that was all i had. :-p

the how to:
1)  preheat the oven to 200°C.

2)  in a small saucepan, over low heat, melt the peanut butter in milk. stir constantly.  once the peanut butter has melted, take the pan off the heat and set aside to cool.

3)  while waiting for peanut butter mixture to cool, line your muffin tin with liners.

4)  in a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients of flour, oats, cocoa powder, sugar and baking powder.

5)  once the peanut butter mixture is cool, combine the mixture with the dry ingredients and stir til just combined.

6)  spoon the batter into the muffin tin. **

7)  bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven temperature.

** i used a 5cm (2") ice cream scoop and got 16 muffins.




 
taste wise, these muffins have a really balanced taste. it wasn't too sweet neither was it bland.  one thing i need to tell you guys that these muffins had a bit of a bite to them. mrG told me they were chewy...maybe because of the quick cooking oats. 
 
if you guys are looking for a more 'adult' kind of muffins, then this is the recipe for you.
 
luck luck!!
 
 
recipe adapted from: madhuram's eggless cooking website. thank you!! 
 


Saturday, October 12, 2013

vegan red velvet cupcake





never in a million years would I thought i'd bake anything vegan. or eggless. never. but, as the famous saying goes, never say never. and today I am making a promise to myself, that I will never say never...well, okay...i'll say never to a few thingslah...but, I am open to suggestions.
 
a classmate of mine is allergic to eggs. how insensitive of me to not notice that each week, when I bring something to class, when the container of baked goods is being passed from one person to another, she would pass the container to the next person without taking anything. lucky for me, she told me about this last week, so...I promised her i'll bake her something without eggs.
 
I went online and found this recipe.  you know what? I think i'm on a lucky streak. why? well, this is yet another recipe that does NOT require the use of theGiant. except for the frosting though. so, this is a very easy and straightforward recipe as well. my kind of recipe. you know...the kind that requires you to combine the wet and the dry and voila! it's done!
 
tastewise, well, I was pleasantly surprised that these taste exactly like the normal red velvet cupcakes. only difference is the texture is not as soft as I would've wanted it to be and the color is more on the brownish side...I might want to make certain changes with the amount of red food color I use and also on the baking time and see what happens. first try maaahhh...
 
so, you wanna give this a go?
 
let's go!!
 
you will need:
200ml soya milk
20ml cider vinegar
200g self-raising flour
200g caster sugar
20g cocoa powder 
¼tsp salt
¼tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼tsp baking powder
80ml light rapeseed or other flavorless oil
1tbsp vanilla extract or essence
½-1 tsp red food coloring paste (not liquid)*

for the frosting:**
25g dairy free margarine
75g vegetable shortening
125g soya cream cheese
1tbsp vanilla extract
750g icing sugar (giler banyakkk!!!)
¼tsp salt
about 30-40 soya or rice milk
red sweets (decoration kot?) ini optional.

the how to:
1)  preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4

2)  line muffin tray with cupcake liners

3)  mix the soya milk with the cider vinegar and set aside for 10 minutes

4)  get a bowl and it in place the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt baking soda and baking powder. mix until combined.

5)  add the soya milk mixture, oil, vanilla and the red food coloring into the dry ingredients. using a metal spoon (I don't know why this is a requirement...) and quickly mix all these until they are just combined and the batter is still a bit lumpy.  tap the bowl of this mixture on your counter to stop the raising agents from working too quickly. observe some bubble popping action. I did. not too many, but gotlah. :-p

6)  spoon the batter into your muffin cups. (I used my every so faithful ice cream scoop) and then...tap the tray on your counter again...to witness more  fireworks   bubble popping action.

7)  bake for 15 minutes. (my oven only required about 8 minutes...yours?) let the cupcakes sit in the tray to cool and chill for about 10 minutes before transferring them on the cooling rack.

frosting:

1)  with an electric or hand-held mixer, whip together the margarine, vegetable fat, cream cheese and vanilla and they are creamy.

2)  add half of the icing sugar and 30ml (2tbsp) milk and continue mixing while gradually increasing the speed until all is combined.

3)  add the rest of the icing sugar until you get a smooth consistency.

4)  if the icing is too firm, you can add a bit more milk and if it's too soft, you add icing sugar lorrr...

*since I don't have any kind of food coloring paste I used liquid
** I didn't use this version of the frosting because...where the hell can I find soya cream cheese in puchong??? anyone?

All in all, I will definitely be baking these again and again and again, this recipe is a keeper!!!

what about you guys? trylah...ishhhh! :-p


thank you:
http://www.suma.coop for this wonderful recipe.
 

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

donna hay's milk chocolate chunk muffins

 
 
 
so... I made muffins.
 
i bought this book, Simple Essentials Chocolate by Donna Hay, quite some time ago. when i first got the book i tried this recipe. then...i sorta like *ehem* misplaced the book and sorta like *ehem* forgotten that i even had the book. haha.
 
anyhoo...long story short, i found the book and since i had all the ingredients aaaaaand this is yet another NON-mixer recipe, i decided to give this a go...you know, for class.
 
my take on this muffin is that, if you are a chocolate lover and you don't like your muffins to be on the sweet side, then, this is THE recipe for you. BUT you need to really use good quality cocoa powder and milk chocolate chunk to get the most out of this recipe. i personally like it because the texture is a bit densed, unlike normal muffins...and it has this rich chocolatey flavor minus the sweetness of sugar. this is a winner, for me lah.
 
if you want to know, you trylah... you try, okay? okay!
 
ready for the recipe?
 
 
 
 
you will need: *
2 cups (300g/10½ oz) self-raising flour, sifted 
⅓ cup (40g) cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup (220g/7¾ oz)caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
cup (160ml) vegetable oil
½ cup (125ml) mil
1 cup chopped milk chocolate **

*i don't know lah this donna hay...i don't know if she uses the US cup measurement or the OZ measurement cup...but bila I tried to convert it is not the same as the metric measurement given in her book. Pening mak temah...what I did was for the flour I used 250g of flour. because when I baked the first batch, the batter was a bit too sticky and thick.

**I chopped up about 200g of milk chocolate.

the how to:
1)  preheat oven to 180°C (350°F)

2)  in a bowl, place the flour, cocoa, baking powder and sugar. mix to combine.

3)  in another bowl, combine the eggs, vanilla, oil and milk. whisk these together.

4)  stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture until just combined.

5)  fold in the chocolate chunks and spoon the mixture into your muffin liners.

6)  bake for 20-25 minutes.



this is a pretty simple and straightforward recipe. no rocket science required. so...I hope you guys will give this a go. kalau tak...rugiiii...sedap wohhhh.

luck luck...and be sure to come back okay?

thanks to:
1)  www.goodreads.com for the book cover image
2)  donna hay's Simple Essentials - Chocolate book for the recipe.