My Baking & Cooking Stories

Keekee's Cookies!

2012-02-02T02:20:00.000-08:00

I baked 50 cookies for my nephew who is traveling for a school trip... yes it took 2 and half hours in the kitchen but I had loads of fun!

Love Baking ♥

Failure to launch!

2012-01-27T04:18:00.000-08:00

I learned it the hard way! "STICK TO THE RECIPE" my sister shouted when she saw the mess I made in the kitchen and flat funny looking cookies! They also tasted funny!
All what I did is tried adding "marshmallows" to the "Triple Chocolate Cookies Recipe" I must admit it failed miserably!

so I did stick to the recipe later same day and they turned out the usual "Triple Chocolate Cookies" I rocked always! They are supposed to be moist chewy and chocolaty! Yum!!

Will add the recipe shortly! Tune in later....

Love Baking ♥

Colorful Pasta!

2012-01-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

Photo by Dara Al Hadidi

Farfalle Pasta with Tomato & Asparagus! one of Fatafeat monthly magazine recipes! very fulfilling dish easy to make and taste great!

250gram of asparagus cut into 3 pieces discard end
1 small onion diced
1 garlic clove diced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 large ripe tomatoes peeled and shopped
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup of basil leaves, Chiffonade
250 gram Farfalle Pasta Cooking aldente
1/3 cup mozzarella cheese shredded
1/4 cup of Asiago Cheese Shredded (I used Parmesan)

Cover Asparagus with boiling water, cover and lets rest for 3 minutes. Drain and grill in a lightly oiled skillet over high heat until asparagus is soft "a ldente", and somewhat brown. set aside. Saute the onion and galic in a hot pan with olive oil until soft. Add tomatoes and saute until soft and give up the juices. Add chicken stock boil over high heat until mixture reduced bu fourth. Add asparagus and basil mix and stir well, add cheese toss to melt.

Enjoy!!
Love Cooking♥

Triple Chocolate Cookies!

2012-01-04T07:58:00.000-08:00

I had a very long and exhausting day! I decided to end it in baking somehow it helps me to wash away the stress and noise of a working day :) ... These Triple Chocolate Cookies are truly amazing! a true chocolate experience, white,milk and dark chocolate together you can picture the rest! They are very easy to make too!

Triple Chocolate Cookies:
125 g Butter Chopped
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 & 1/4 cups firmly packet brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup self-raising flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate Soda
1/3 Cup Coca Powder
1/2 Cup Coarsely chopped raisins
1/2 Cup Milk Chocolate Bite
1/2 Cup White Chocolate Melts, Halves
1/2 Cup Dark Chocolate Melts, Halves

Preheat oven 180C Fan Forced & Grease oven trays (or Line with oven baking paper)
Beat Butter, extract, sugar and egg together till smooth (do not over mix)
Stir in "sifted" dry ingredients, then stir in raisins and all the chocolates.

Drop level tablespoon of mixture in to tray leave 5cm space between each. Bake cookies for 10 minutes. Stand on tray for 5 minutes then transfer to cooking rack.

Love Baking ♥

Parmigiana di melanzane!

2011-12-31T10:03:00.000-08:00

A traditional Italian dish Melanzane with Edamame on the side! A yummy two dishes that oddly go very well together for a vegetarian light dinner!

Love Cooking ♥

Chocolate Cinnamon Cookies

2011-12-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

These are the amazing Chocolate Cinnamon cookies two flavors that love each other! Crunchy and soft everything is perfect in these lovely cookies! I must admit the first batch I switch the yolks with white of the eggs and it turned out so different still yummy though, it was a silly mistake but I really liked experimenting with how different effect each element does to the dough fantastic science :)

Love Baking ♥

Chocolate & Blueberry ... Make Wonders!

2011-12-29T09:48:00.000-08:00

This is another delicious experience, I didn't quite understand the chocolate syrup on top, it made the muffins a bit soggy, still taste good! I am not sure if I applied them in the wrong way! But it's ok I guess it still my first time doing muffins!

Chocolate Blueberry Muffins

Paper liners not only make for easier washingup, but keep the muffins fresher.

Makes 12

Ingredients

115 g / 4 oz/ 1/2 cup butter

30 g / 1 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted
90 g /3 oz unsweetened chocolate chopped

200 g /7 oz / 1 cup granulated sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

259ml/80 fl oz/ 1 cup buttermilk

10 ml/ 2 tsp vanilla essence

285 g / 10 oz/ 2 cups plain flour

5 ml/ 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

170 g / 6 oz cup fresh or frozen blueberries,thawed

Preheatoven to 190C/375F/ Gas 5 1

Inmedium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and chocolate until smooth,stirring frequently. Remove from heat to cool slightly.

Stir in the sugar, egg, buttermilk and vanilla essence. Gently fold in theflour, bicarbonate of soda until just blended. (Do not overblend: the mixturemay be lumpy with some unblended flour.) Fold in the berries.

Spoon batter into a greased or paper-lined 6 cm / 2 1/2in bun tray, filling tothe top> Bake for 25 – 30 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centrecomes out with just few crumbs attached. Remove muffins in their paper linersto wire rack immediately (if left in the tin they will go soggy). Drizzle withthe melted chocolate and serve warm or cool.

♥ Love Baking

Orange Delight!

2011-12-27T21:13:00.000-08:00

I like it when things come out good! From start to finish this cake is an absolute delicious experience! The fine aroma of fruits while baking this cake is extremely tantalizing! The taste is teasing to the senses, sweet and sour, moist and fluffy... It's a complete "YummmY" experience.

Orange Syrup Cake Recipe:

1 Orange

170g Butter atRoom Temperature

140g Caster Sugar

3 eggs

140g Self RaisingFlour

1/2 TeaspoonBicarbonate of Soda

4 TablespoonGround Almond

Syrup:

Finely Grated Zest and Juice of 1 Orange

55g Caster Sugar

Preheat Oven for 190C, Grease round cake pan and line thebottom with greaseproof paper.

Finely grate the organs and set aside, Cut the peel and whitepith from the orange, then roughly chop the flesh, removing all seeds Blend theflesh in the food processor, until smooth and set aside.

Beat together butter and sugar until pale and creaming, thenbeet in the eggs one at a time. Stir in orange Puree and grated zest, then siftthe flower and baking social over the bowl and fold in. Then Fold in groundAlmond. Pour mixture in the cake pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes until risenand golden and the inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10minutes.

Syrup: Put the Orange Juice and zest in a small pan with thesugar, warm gently stirring until sugar dissolves, Bring to vigorous boil thenremove from the heat, Pour the syrup over the warm cake and leave to stand forat least 30 minutes before serving.

Tip: I served the cake with the syrup aside and each pouredsome of the syrup on their piece.

Love Baking ♥

5 Steps To Perfect Baking!

2011-12-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

(Image by Sicha Pongjivanich)

I am a new baker and I've been trying to learn how to perfect my baking! I learned 5 new things from experience and reading which I believe will help me a lot.

Know your oven type:

Convection ovens speed the cooking process, need less baking time cause they have a fan inside that distributes more heated air.
Conventional ovens traditional ovens with no fan.

Creating the Mixture: Creaming methods “in this methods butter is mixed with sugar to form a mixture, then eggs are added one at a time, then you add the dry ingredients”. The flour must be added to the “sugar/butter/eggs” mixture first then liquid, it’s important to stir in flour as little as possible while combining ingredients. By doing that you will prevent gluten developed which will give you a softer cake.
Do not rush creaming process; you need to ensure natural air pockets are produced during the mixing process. The air pockets cause the cake to naturally rise. So when mixing the dry ingredients does it slowly in batches.
Beating the eggs in early in the mixture allows even more air pockets to be produced.
Cake cracks caused by too much oven heat, the cake rises too quickly, perfecting the temperature is important. (Know your oven point number [1])

Love Baking ♥

Opssss! I burnt my heart!!!

2011-12-22T05:33:00.000-08:00

Still trying to figure out what happened but I bakes it for 30 minutes and it got burnt! I am in the process of making another one will post picture once it's done! I can't understand why a recipe says bake for 1hour on 180C and it burns after sitting 30 minutes in the oven!!! I think every oven is different but 30 minutes difference is way too much!

I tried again, lowered the oven's temperature to 160C, it baked for 30 minutes till perfect, I loved this recipe the cake comes out soft, crunchy top and delicious flavor.

Love Baking ♥

Chocolate Chips Cookies!

2011-12-19T09:58:00.000-08:00

I baked today 44 chocolate chip cookies, they are so delicious I just adore making biscuits...

Love Baking ♥

Meet My Ginger Cookies!

2011-12-17T08:33:00.001-08:00

Meet the ginger cookies I made, with the help of my sister and my friend (Who is a professional Chef) I successfully baked 22 cookies.

decorating them was the fun part! This is an Arabic Dressed Ginger Bread Boy!! :) it's really nice to use your creativity to make unique designs! These are the things you'll remember!

Again I insist that the most important thing is oven baking timing! The cookies too exact 8 minutes!

Recipe Taken from " Joy of Baking "

Love Baking ♥

Awesome Chocolate Cake

2011-12-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

I over baked this one, but it turned out good! for next time I will only put it on oven for 30 minutes although the book says and hour!! Oven is the tricky thing in baking, I still have lots to figure out!

What made this cake is the icing! it's also tricky the making and applying of it! Anyhow all turned out perfect chocolate evening :)...

Love Baking ♥

Spinach Pinwheels with a Twist!

2011-12-16T01:18:00.000-08:00

Yup! these are spinach pinwheels, but with an add on, my sister suggested we adding dried tomatoes and feta cheese which ended up to be mouth-watering experience!!! It's always nice to have company in the kitchen! Thanks "D" it was your idea after all xx.

Oh I admit the spreading of the filling was not all that perfect, add all the filling on one edge is not the best way, but it's a learning experiences. It's better to spread the filling all over the pastry evenly then roll it.

This is for you Ala':

Ingredients:

250g Frozen Spinach Thawed

100g Feta Cheese Crumbled

1\2 Cup Finely grated Parmesan Cheese

2 Sheets Puff Pastry

1 Egg

Preheat oven to 220C Fan forced

Oil tray and line with baking paper

Squeeze excess moisture from Spinach, chop spinach coarsely (The one I bring is already chopped) pat it dry with kitchen paper

Sprinkle spinach and combined cheeses over the pastry sheets roll tightly to enclose filling.

Cut each roll into 12 slices

Place wheels cute-side up on tray/s brush with little egg. Bake about 15 minutes or until browned lightly.

Love Baking ♥

My Famous Chocolate Crisps!

2011-12-15T23:26:00.001-08:00

My Famous chocolate crisps!! a yummy crunching chocolaty experience!

Love Baking ♥

Family Chocolate Cake!

2011-12-15T23:18:00.000-08:00

A Successful experiences indeed! The Family Chocolate Cake was extremely successful, I hosted a tea afternoon for my closest friends, who objected over adding topping cream on the cake, so I suggesed we put the cream aside for those who can afford to eat, everyone ended eating.

This cake was very special it was fluffy moist and heavenly delicious!

As I am blogging I am baking another chocolate experience, "The Chocolate Peppermint Cake" will post pics soon.

Love Baking ♥

My Baking Mistake #1!!

2011-12-15T10:23:00.000-08:00

I started off my baking marathon 2 weeks ago, I baked nice things and whoever tasted my cakes loved them. I must admit I bake good but that doesn't mean I didn't do mistake, the mistake I did in this recipe is I added the chocolate layer and candy on the dough before baking where I should have done it the other way round! I promise myself I will not do this mistake again! Baking is a really sensitive task you must be extremely alert when you are baking!!

Love Baking ♥