Viennese Fingers

Don't you think those fingers look beautiful?

I love the feminine waves of this biscuit. But that's not all. It's really the light buttery taste of viennese fingers that make me crave for them. Especially those coated with chocolate:



So understandably, I had to make these fingers for myself after checking out the recipe in the 'Biscuits, cookies & brownies' book published by Periplus. The book was a gift by Jules and Darren on my birthday recently and the pictures looked so inviting that I just had to bake something from there.

Mine turned out pretty fine except that I didn't have a 1cm piping nozzle. I used a much smaller one and got miniature Viennese fingers.

I think I have to make a trip to Phoon Huat to get myself new baking equipment soon!

That said, I think I have to make these fingers again. They're so yummy especially with the dark chocolate!



Viennese Fingers

100g unsalted butter
1/3 cup icing sugar
2 egg yolks
1 and 1/2 tsps vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
100g dark cooking chocolate, grated
30g butter

Preheat oven to moderate 180 degrees celcius. Grease baking tray and line with greased baking paper.

Beat together butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add yolks and vanilla essence and beat well. Add flour and stir until all ingredients are combine and batter is smooth

Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with fluted 1cm piping nozzle. Pipe mixture into wavy lengths (approx. 6cm) on prepared tray.

Bake for about 12 minutes or until lightly golden. Transfer biscuits on a wire rack to cool.

Melt chocolate and butter in a bowl and dip half of each biscuit in the chocolate. Allow to set on greaseproof paper

Sugar High Friday #11 - Coffee

my SHF entry for the month: mocha bars

I miss baking and cooking! Ever since school started this week, I haven't spent quality time in the kitchen with my oven, mixer and what not!

I think I'm suffering from a baking-deficit disorder. heh... and I haven't even had time to come online.

Only realised this morning that today was the deadline for SHF #11! Imagine my surprise. But thank God I had actually bought fresh baking ingredients yesterday as i was already planning on baking something for my dearest friend Dot. Yes, her birthday's tmw! Happy Birthday to you dear Dot!!!

Anyway, this month's SHF is hosted by Ronald of Lovesicily, and he chose coffee as this month's theme.

Since I was already planning to bake something chocolatey for Dot, I figured why not just throw in some coffee and come up with Mocha Bars!

I don't know about you, but there's just something about the marriage of both coffee and chocolate that really appeals to me. They just taste so good together!

I actually found a recipe for 'Chocolate Espresso Bars' in my Williams-Sonoma 'Cookies' cookbook. But seeing that I didn't have any instant espresso powder at hand, I thought it wouldn't make much of a difference if I substituted it with instant coffee powder. And so that was what I did. and viola, there popped up Mocha Bars from the oven.



Dot's gonna be tasting this tomorrow and I hope she likes it! I actually made a mini-cake outta it. For the frosting, I used modified another of my favourite recipe from somewhere (can't remember!). The recipes can be found below....

____________________________

Mocha Bars

3/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 tbsp instant coffee powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 unsalted butter
60g semisweet chocolate
2 large eggs
1 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence

Mix the first 5 dry ingredients well and sift it; put aside

Melt butter and chocolate in a saucepan, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

Whisk eggs and brown sugar in a bowl until well mixed. Slowly stir in the melted chocolate mixture and add in the vanilla. Mix well and add in the flour mixture. Make sure the batter is well blended.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Pour mocha batter in to an 8-inch well greased square baking pan. Bake until the edges pull away from the sides of the pan and the centre springy to the touch, approx. 25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Frosting

1 and 1/8 cups icing sugar, sifted
2 and 1/2 tbsp. cocoa
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 and 1/2 tbsp. hot freshly brewed coffee
1 tsp. vanilla essence

Mix both icing sugar and cocoa. Sift together in a bowl and stir in butter, then coffee and vanilla. Mix well until frosting is smooth.

Using a spatula, spread a thin layer of frosting over the cake. Refrigerate if desired. Cut mocha bars into desired size.

__________________________

if you're wondering how it tastes like, well maybe it'll be best if you bake it yourself because I'm quite certain that my comments would be biased because I love mocha! hahaa... but well, if you really have to know, these mocha bars tasted phenomenal! I could taste both the chocolate and coffee in each bite. But for those who don't really want the coffee taste to be masked by the chocolatey frosting, then by all means, serve them 'naked' sans the frosting.

Blogging By Mail - Stephanie's parcel from U.S.A

Been extremely busy at uni, what with the orientation activities we've had this entire week so I apologise for the lack of posts these days.

Anywayz, I'm back in business! Finally settling into uni life, lectures start next week. In the meantime, I'll continue to bake/cook at every opportunity. My newfound friends and I are planning on a potluck in the coming week. So, look out for that post.

Allrighty, I think I owe all of you the Blogging by Mail update. I did say that I've already received Stephanie's blogging by mail parcel the day before my birthday.

Here's what she gave me:



Plenty of candies from U.S.A, all of which cannot be found here, except for Nerds.



Doesn't the bubble gum look darn unique? It doesn't come in uniformed rectangle strips. Instead, it's kinda shredded in a way. I couldn't try it because I wear braces, but my two siblings definitely enjoyed it alot. Who wouldn't? Since bubblegum can't be found in Singapore.



Sweet Stephanie went all out to treat my tastebuds to a very sweet encounter. She made multi nut brittle, as you can see from the above picture. Gotta admit that was my favourite. I love nuts and yes, I adore caramel. Yum..



I think this is the molasses sponge candy. Well it was the only softer candy she included in the package.





She also sent me a couple of other 'hardtacks' that she made from scratch! I was really impressed. I'm not really sure which was which. But if I'm not wrong, the dark brown one was root beer, the second, cinnamon, and the green one, mint. Not sure about the red one though. I didn't eat it yet but my brother said it was cherry. The candies are still sitting in the container I transferred them into. I think they could last a long time. I'm not really a hard candy person but I must say that I'm really in awe at these sweet treats Stephanie has produced. I haven't tried making these kind of candy yet but it sure sounds really difficult.

Thanks so much Stephanie for sharing your candies with me! I really love them. It certainly was a delight to open the parcel on my birthday.

My delicious 21st Birthday Soiree - Wrap up!

My 21st birthday soiree on friday was a blast. Everyone had a great time and they all had only praises for the food. I'm really happy it all went well! It was seriously tiring but worth it.

I wish I could say that I got a gorgeous KitchenAid as a present...

BUT

alas, that didn't happen. The kitchen aid you see above belongs to my youngest aunt, WT. She is one heck of a baker - she doesn't buy bread but rather, bakes her own. Mind you, she bakes more than 5 batches at a shot.

Okay, I had better stop digressing.

Anyway, about the mixer - yes, I used it to bake my brownies for the party.

I actually borrowed my aunt's home for the party because it's much bigger and I love the ambience.

At the same time, I made use of her Kitchen Aid and her fantastic Brandt oven:




can you see my two batches of brownies baking quietly in the oven?

I didn't bring my baking pan over to my aunt's place, so had to improvise and use a glass baking dish too.

The brownies were served to my guests after dinner, with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate syrup. They were a hit. I'm glad there were enough to go around!

Brownies aside, here's a sneak peek at the feast served at my party:



Everything looks so yummy don't you think so?

I'll now give you a brief lowdown of each dish:



I made this simple cold pasta without following any recipe. What inspired me was this similar pasta dish I had in my university canteen a few days ago. It tasted very refreshing and seemed simple enough to 'copy' so I decided to make my own version. Dear aunt WT. helped me out too. She recommended that I use Apple Cider Vinegar, dijon mustard, honey to dress the pasta. And I added herbs too, of course - dill and oregano. I added some jap cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, ham and cheese too. I really like how this dish came out nicely. It was quite a breeze. It finished rather quickly!



Made some chickpea stew. This was the third time trying it out. Didn't use canned chickpeas this time - actually boiled my own. So I think the peas weren't soft enough. Nonetheless it was okay and there were none left at the end of the party. So I guess it's a good sign? haha.




My dad's Devil Curry. Awesome. I literally grew up on this stuff I tell ya! As I've posted before, my dad is an amazing cook and his curries are the best. I wanted him to cook ayam buah keluak but there just wasn't enough time. For the uninitiated, Devil Curry is actually a Eurasian dish with Portugese and Malaysian influence. It certianly lives up to its name. A seriously fierce and hot dish, the rempah (paste) contains ingredients like tumeric powder, mustard powder, vinegar, candlenuts and PLENTY of chillies. It's usually cooked with chicken or pork. It's one of my most favourite curry. Didn't I say I love spicy food? The spicier the better! And I do think my dear guests agreed because the lapped it up real good...




Another of my dad's speciality - sambal sotong. Okay, this picture is a bit blur, took it in a hurry and I stupidly took only 1 shot. Never mind. This was also a popular favourite and so was his 'kong bak'. Kong bak (not pictured here) is actually pork marinated dark soya sauce. It's usually eaten with this white semi-circle-like kong bak pau (bun) that usually has a red dot in the centre. You actually slit it into two and insert thin slices of kong bak and eat it with chilli. it's damn shiok (satisfying)!



I wrote about my fifth aunt's corn crostini before. It was so yummy that I kindly asked her to cook it for my party and she did. Together with some shui jing bao (crystal dumpling).



These dumplings were stuffed with turnip, mushrooms, dried shrimps. It's a familiar feature on most dim sum menus. Fifth aunt does them really well so I roped her in to cook some for my party. They taste great with sweet sauce or chilli.


mushroom puff pastry


shepherd's pie


chestnuts wrapped in bacon

The three dishes above were all cooked by my Godma, who's also my fourth aunt.

Everyone loved her shepherd's pie. My friends also found her chestnut bacon dish very interesting and equally tasty. Now you know why I roped my aunts in to help cook for my party! They're seriously talented cooks! That is why I always look forward to any family gatherings/dinners that we have. Because I know that these aunts of mine will def. bring great food as always.

And I have to say that the highlight of my party was the food. It was my intention to provide my dear friends with a gastronomical experience they won't forget. And I do believe I achieved that. I'm really happy with this virgin attempt to host a party! I'm sure it won't be my last.

All right, now, I'm sure you're waiting to see the birthday cake! Can you guess if it's homemade or storebought? Don't scroll down yet. Just have a look at the cake pictures and make a wild guess!





I know, you're wondering why I'm showing you two cakes aren't you? Well the cakes were NOT bought. My fifth aunt baked them and she was so sweet to bake two cakes. She was worried that one wouldn't be enough. But I chose the peach one (square shaped one) as my 'official' birthday cake.

Yea, and I did the whole 'make a wish and blow out the candles' procedure. At this moment, I felt so touched - at the fact that some of my aunts took the day off to help me cook some of the dishes you see here, and that my friends were there at my party to celebrate this blessed day with me. I really felt so loved and it was a heartwarming moment. I made known my appreciation and teared a little! Quite embarrassing but unavoidable.

Those who turned up, if you are reading this, I want to say a Big Thank You for taking time off to be at my party, and for your valuable friendship. I love each and everyone of you!

Now that I've finished giving you the lowdown about the food, let's go on to the presents.

I'm really not one to rave about my presents because I'd rather give than receive, most of the time. I don't think birthdays are about the presents. In fact, that's the least of my worries. I don't usually expect gifts from people. As long as they remember that it's my birthday or even come up to wish me, I'll be sincerely touched.

Okay, so I shall not post about all the presents I received but only the ones related to food =)

I must say that my friends are good gift givers. Every gift I've received is of great use to me - very practical stuff I'd actually use/wear/eat.

Here's some examples:



Cookbooks! Some actually bought cookbooks for me! Notice how they're all dessert oriented? Well I have no complaints. I was ecstatic when I opened them up! I'm already flipping through them, choosing which ones I'd try out first. The pink one there was given to me by my best friend Cheryl and the other two, by Jules and Darren, my beloved friends from Amplify ministry.



Will you just look at that! A flan tin, cake decorators, chocolate sundae syrup and a biscuit cookbook. I couldn't stop smiling. These were given to me by the Seet sisters - Melissa and Charissa. Thanks babes, I love this gift alot!




And.... CHOCOLATE! don't you agree that chocolate makes a great gift? Haha.. yes, my friends know how crazy I am about chocolate and Em, Paul, Gavin and Jane gave me a box of assorted Belgium chocolates and this bar of 70% dark chocolate! (i do highly suspect that they read my post about dark chocolate... !) Thanks guys, I've opened the assorted chocs and tried some. They're gorgeous.

And for my parting shot, here's a photo taken with my dearest classmates from secondary school. We literally grew up together and they're an amazing bunch of madhats. hehe... they're as crazy and insane as me. We always have plenty of laughs, squeals and fun when we meet up! I don't think I've ever posted a picture of myself before. Care to guess which is me?



Not sure how obvious it is. But ya, I'm the second one from the left. The only one in a bright summery skirt. To my left is my bestest friend Cheryl Anne, yes I've talked about her before. The other lady in yellow sitting next to me is May, and the other two are Adeline and Carrie. Dearies, if you are reading this, thanks a mil for coming and i love you all. Hugz.

Oh boy, this has been a rather long post. I think I shall sign off here.

All I have to say is that I'm glad I had this party, it was a great chance to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while and well, it was also a great opportunity to let my friends taste the food I grew up with and to enjoy my brownies and my culinary skills. haha...

And... that's a W-R-A-P! The party was a success and I'm now 21-years YOUNG and I'll continue doing what I do best - bake and write and be the happiest baker/writer on earth. cheers!

All of 21

I'm finally 21.

Will be having a simple birthday soiree with some close friends tonight.

My dear aunts are chipping in and boy oh boy are my guests going to be treated to a big feast tonight. I'm rather excited!

On the menu is my dad's lovely Devil Curry, Sambal Sotong (squid), Godma's sheperd's pie, Fifth aunt's crystal dumplings, my brownies, cold pasta and chickpea carrot stew... plus so much more!

I'll definitely be taking plenty of pictures of the food especially and will post about it after the party.

I've also gotten Stephanie's Blogging by Mail package yesterday! more on that later... now, i have to get cookin!

The First 'Blogging By Mail' Adventure

my lovely choc chunk cookies being packed, ready to be sent off to the US.

Have you ever read someone's food blog and wished you could have just a wee taste of whatever goodies that the blogger had just baked or cooked?

I know I have.

So when Nic of Bakingsheet came up with the ingenious Blogging By Mail idea, I was pretty excited. Imagine having someone send something homemade all the way from across the globe? How cool is that?

In case you're wondering, this is how Blogging By Mail works: you first inform Nic of your interest in participating, and pass her your postal address. After which, she'll give you someone else's address and you would then send something homemade and/or anything reflective of your country's culture and so on.

As you can see, I sent my homemade choc chunk cookies and also included a few goodies:



A box of Prima Laksa paste, some Milo nuggets and Kopiko sweets were what I added to the package. In case you're wondering, Laksa is actually a popular dish in Singapore. I think it originated from Penang but the version we have here is a little different. Laksa is a mish mash of different cultures: Peranakan, Malay and Chinese. It tends to lean on the spicy side, so I really hope Lauren (my receipient) can tolerate chilli! I think Milo can't be found in U.S. so I sent her some milo nuggets to try and yes the Kopiko sweets are actually found only in Asia? I grew up on that sweet too.. so I thought it might be something interesting for her.

Anyway Lauren just informed me that she's gotten the package! And thankfully, she did enjoy the cookies. I'm glad the package didn't get lost in the mail. And oh, Lauren, if you're reading this, feel free to email me if you're not sure how to cook the laksa? :) Hope you're inspired to start a food blog of your own soon!

Before I forget, here's a peek at what our lovely Blogging By Mail hostess sent us:






Chocolate Caramel Creme Savers, Jelly Belly flavoured milk chocolate and of course, the star of it all: her white chocolate and chocolate chip blondies!

Can you imagine how good the blondies were? I'll try my best to describe them to you: as soft as brownies, a little crumbly and as sweet as can be. Well I have a sweet tooth so naturally I took to the blondies really well. It was my first time tasting blondies and I was highly satisfied with this first taste! Gosh, my two younger siblings cleared them up real quick too! Thanks a mil Nic! It's cool to have finally tasted one of your baked wonders!

And I love the Jelly Belly milk chocolate candies! The flavours were really cool: think honey graham crakcers, apricot, liquorice, pear, cinnamon apple and so on... it was so fun to eat. and of course, the creme savers were fantastic. The best part about receiving this package was the fact that none of these stuff can be bought in Singapore! So I feel really privileged to have had a chance to taste all these goodies. Man, Blogging By Mail is the best thing to happen in the food blogging world! I'm definitely going to take part in the next one.

Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness has sent me her package but I have yet to receive it. And now, after reading her post about what she sent, I'm ever more so excited about receiving it! Haha, who knows, it might actually reach me on my 21st birthday this friday! It'll be a real treat - a sweetly sweet birthday present! Lol.. keeping my fingers crossed. Do stay tuned for an update when it lands in my hands right here in sunny Singapore!

It's a green veggie day

Betcha eyes are getting sore with all that green! That's some good fibre there: spinach, celery and broccoli.



Cooked it this week and ate it for most of my meals while staying at my aunt's place. She went for a holiday so I babysat her home for a week. It was rather relaxing. I love her home... it's spacious and peaceful.

Okay, back to the vegetables. Decided to try out Domestic Goddess Jennifer's spinach and broccoli in yoghurt recipe and it worked really well.



it might not look much, but it tasted great. But I made a few changes to it. I didn't have tumeric at my aunt's place, so i used a mish mash of spices like dill, rosemary, all spice powder and thyme. Also added celery and chickpeas, as you can see.

It's a relatively healthy veggie dish. Very good if you feel constipated I say! hahaa.. and hey it gives you lots of calcium too... Strong bones for all of us!

Singapore Food Bloggers Lunch

Finally had a timely chance to put a face to the food blogs I've been reading for the past months. Thanks to Aun, June, and Gwenda, us local food bloggers had a fantasticilious 5 course lunch at Mag's Wine Kitchen down Circular Road.



Now, you'd almost expect some awkwardness, considering that you're going to be meeting a couple of strangers you've never met before. But my oh my, if you were there in the same restaurant as us, you'd be mistaken and thought that we were a group of close friends, meeting up and reminiscing about the past, present and future. It was that noisy. I almost couldn't hear myself. Seems that we food bloggers are a chatty bunch of people.

Let me fill you in on those who came: J from the very aesthetically pleasing Kuidaore, Julia of Aromacookery, Daphne of Kitchen Crazy Daffy, Joan of Dim Sum Dolly, ST of Cheat Eat, SH of Umami, Catherine of EatzyBitzy, Nicole of Como Quieras and of course Serene, the lovely ST reporter and our 3 organisers, Aun of Chubby Hubby, June of Nibble Scribble and Gwenda of The Adventure of the Tastebuds.

If you think the company was great, wait till I get to the food. The 5 course degustation menu was really something and it only set me back by $45 nett. Okay, it's still quite a lot of money (i usually spend at most $20 on lunch!) but considering the quality of the food served, I would say it was worth every cent. Mag's Wine Kitchen truly rocks. I'm not saying just because.

Oh I have to thank the sponsor BATS Singapore. They were kind enough to provide us with goodie bags and the 4 lucky draw prizes won by Joan, SH, Gwenda and Catherine. We each had a lovely Staub spatula to bring home too.





I think it's from France and it seriously looks good - all their products i mean. Just flipping through their catalogue makes me wanna go out and buy them all. Lucky Joan won the fondue set!!!

Okay, I'll admit that I'm envious. hahaa.. I've been wanting a fondue set for the longest time. I love chocolate fondue but other than having them at Haagen Daz, I haven't been able to have one at home. Oh well... maybe I'll just use a mini stainless steel pot over the stove? Or even an aromatherapy pot, an unused one of course.

Before I digress somemore, back to the food. Yes yes...



We had Grilled Belly of Swordfish with Pickled Fennel as the first course. The swordfish was meaty enough to be quite unrecognisable. As Daphne commented, it really tasted a little bit like chicken. But I loved how they complemented the delicate fish with the pickled fennel. Yes, i love pickled stuff.



Next up was the Seared Sea Scallop served with Soy Mirin dressing. Now, scallops I've tasted before but none was as good as the one we had today. This one was seriously fresh and it was a delight to tear apart. It quite buoyant and brilliantly done. Not overcooked at all. I liked the fish roe they topped it with.



Smoked Duck on Arugula was the third course. Now, I hardly eat duck because the meat is a little on the tough side at times. But today's smoked duck converted me. You can tell that Mag smoked the duck really well because of it's tender texture and pink middle. She left the top layer of tasty fat too, which I think was a good move. I usually put aside all the fats, but this time, I ate almost all of the fat. Haha, more running for me later. =p Oh, oh, the arugula leaves were a bonus, it blended really well and added some 'crunch'.



The star of the day was definitely the Seared Beef Tenderloin Slices served with Butter Spinach, Caramelized Baby Carrots and Veal Jus. I got to tell you, I'm addicted to Mag's seared beef tenderloin. I was almost speechless when I placed the meat into my mouth. It's almost indescribable. I'll try my best to concoct the 'taste' for you. This beef was as tender as can be. It didn't have the irritating beefy feel you get when its overcooked. This one was chewy, light, and it almost melts in your mouth. I'm serious. It was just fantastic. You have to try it for yourself to understand where I'm coming from.



Dessert was Cream Caramel. It was divine. Smooth, and light, it brought the lovely lunch to a sweet caramely close. I can flutter my eyes in pure ecastasy and claim this gorgeous lunch a great success. Thanks also to the talented chef, Mag!

* Finally posted up the pictures. But if you want to see more professionally taken shots of the food, check out Chubby Hubby's coverage of the lunch.

Dark Chocolate

Chocolate.

I cannot live without it.

Good chocolate is a must. Dark chocolate, I adore.



Bittersweet, with a strong chocolatey aroma, that's what dark chocolate should be like. I have an affinity for Lindt 70% chocolates. The higher the cocoa content, the better.

Whenever I bake, I try to use dark chocolate as often as possible.

Maybe not the 70% ones (that'll be too expensive). I normally use the one with 52% cocoa content. I buy mine from Carrefour.

Okay, it might sound 'cheap' but it really isn't. It's one of the better baking chocolate I've used. I always use it in my chocolate chunk cookies. In fact, I've just made a batch a few days ago to send to someone - part of the Blogging by Mail event (hosted by Nic) I'm taking part in. More about that in another post.

Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a simple poem I wrote about my greatest love, a few years ago. Dug it up from my good 'ol comp.. enjoy!

Swirls of brown

My tongue
Makes contact
With the dark brown
Swirling with ecstasy

Eyes closed
Fluttering with delight
My smile hints of something creamy
And breathes
Of dreamy desires

Might be I'm just crazy
I could be only playfully
Addicted to a pleasure
So dark and dangerous

Feeding my constant high
Bringing me further from my pain
I laugh with disdain
And cry with realization
When I know
that I have within my grasp
My one true love,
That is,
The divine
Chocolate.