KBB#15: Mud Cake Cookies Sandwiches

I always late when it comes to challenge...anyway, I managed to do it yesterday. The sandwich actually simple to make but reading the recipe makes you feel like its so complicated. ( read the bold italic texts for the easy way).
Cookies need to rest in a fridge so when it goes into the oven it will set until it baked and not widely flattern.
For the cake, I didn't follow the time from the recipe but shorter so it has Chewy bite...thats what I like.
Just before finish this writing My half just told me that he couldn't finish 1 cookie cos it is too heavy, so he will eat the rest in the evening..lol and I asked how was the cookie, he said very nice but heavy( I didn't try it yet).
I always late when it comes to challenge...anyway, I managed to do it yesterday. The sandwich actually simple to make but reading the recipe makes you feel like its so complicated. ( read the bold italic texts for the easy way).
Cookies need to rest in a fridge so when it goes into the oven it will set until it baked and not widely flattern. For the cake, I didn't follow the time from the recipe but shorter so it has Chewy bite...thats what I like. Just before finish this writing My half just told me that he couldn't finish 1 cookie cos it is too heavy, so he will eat the rest in the evening..lol and I asked how was the cookie, he said very nice but heavy( I didn't try it yet).

here the result after spread the filling between 2 cookies.

Anyone who want to try, please do so...its simple. I made quarter the recipe cos only me and hubby.



KBB#15 - Mud Cake Cookies Sandwiches
Source: The AWW: Cupcakes, Cheesecakes, Cookies. 2008
Makes 24.


For the Cookies
250g butter, softened

330g firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

450g plain flour

75g self-raising flour

50g cocoa powder

2 Tbs cocoa powder, extra



Chocolate Mud Cake

150g butter, chopped

100g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely

220g caster sugar

125ml water

2 Tbs coffee liqueur

150 gr plain flour

2 tbs cocoa powder

2 egg yolks

Combine butter, chocolate, sugar the water and liqueur in small saucepan. Stir over low heat until smooth. Place mixture in medium bowl; cool 10 minutes. Whisk in sifted flour and cocoa, then egg yolks. Divide mixture among pans. Bake about 25 minutes. Cool cake in pans. Using 6.5cm round cutter, cut 12 rounds from each cake.

Chocolate Ganache

80ml cream

200g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarselyBring cream to a boil in small

saucepan; remove from heat. Add chocolate; stir until smooth.

Refrigerate until spreadable..



1. Preheat oven to 170C/150C fan-forced. Grease two 20cm x 30cm lamington pans; line with a strip of baking paper, extending paper 2cm above edges of pans.( I believe this is for the cake)

2. Make chocolate mud cake.

3. Make chocolate ganache.

4. Beat butter, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Transfer mixture to large bowl; stir in sifted flours and cocoa, in two batches. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth; divide in half, roll each portion between sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.( as far as I know #4 to 6 for the cookies)

5. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan-forced. Grease oven trays; line with baking paper.

6. Using 6.5mm round cutter, cut 48 rounds from dough. Place about 3cm apart on oven trays. Bake about 12 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

7. Spread ganache onto underside of cookies; sandwich a mud cake round between two cookies.

8. using heart template, dust cookies with extra cocoa.

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Mince Pies

Homemade Mince pies

My first taste of mince pie was awful, the pie crust soft, very sweet and mincemeat more sweet that made me think all mince pies taste the same.
Few weeks ago, I tried the one from Aldi because I read on the news last year that their mince pie taste better than "H" the posh. It is taste good though, not so sweet and the crust was really crusty.So today, I made my own which taste delicious...bit exxagerate...lolTaste just sweet with a lil hint of limey sour, its exactly what I want it to taste.

Short crust Pie :

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup butter/ margarine
1 egg yolk
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp corn flour
1 T cold water

Preheat oven in temperature 130 - 140C. Mix butter and flour with fork or knife until crumbly. Add egg yolk and all ingredient. Make a ball and cover with cling film. Set aside.

<Homemade mincemeat :
1 granny apple, finely chopped
2 T sultanas, chopped
2 T raisins, chopped
3 T dried cranberries
2 T mix peels ( sucade)
1 T walnut, chopped
3 T sugar with pectin ( or sugar with 1 T lemon juice)
1 T glace cherries, chopped
50 -75 ml rhum
a pinch of cinnamon or 1 cm cinnamon bark

Add all ingredients in a saucepan exclude cinnamon at the end. Low the heat and simmer until thicken, add cinnamon. Let it cool.Roll out the pastry and fill in a foil casing, add the mincemeat and layer with another thin pastry. Cover the base pastry or just to decorate with any shapes you like. Oven for about 10 minutes.

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White Bread

Kbb round up #14

For the first time I made the challenge earlier on 4th Nov simply because we were out of bread and also the weather so bad...windy, grey and raining. I think everybody choose to stay and snuggle under the blanket instead going out.
About the bread turned out very nice, made rolls and buns from 300gr flour but haven't got a chance to make even a single photograph ...we were starving and finished them all. The next day I made hedgehog white bread, rolls and buns from 500 gr of flour. My review about the first bread a bit too sweet for my taste and also didnt follow the percentage of salt ..its too much I think so I added 1/2 tsp. Second time I reduce the salt to 1 tsp/ 500 gr flour and sugar 30 gr...ta ra ...taste like bread from pattiserie..yummy.
Quite some work to knead the dough and takes time to pass window test.

White Bread, variation 1.
Source : the bread baker's Apperentice by Peter Reinhart, 2001, page 265-267

Ingredients	Baker’s Percentage
Bread flour	100
Salt	1.8
Granulated sugar	7.7
Powdered milk (Dried Milk Solid)	6.2
Instant yeast	1
Egg, slightly beaten at room temperature	7.7
Butter, room temperature	7.7
Water	62.8

1. Mix together the flour, salt, powdered milk, sugar and yeast in a 4-quart bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). Pour in the egg, butter and water and mixt with a large metal spoon (or on low speed of the electric mixer with the paddle attachement) until all the flour is absorbed and the dough forms a ball. If the dough seems very stiff and dry, trickle in more water until the dough is soft and supple.

2. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mix on medium speed with the dough hook), adding more flour, if necessary, to create a dough that is soft, supple, and tacky but not sticky. Continue kneading (or mixing) for 6 to 8 minutes. (if the electric mixer, the dough should be clear the side of the bowl but stick ever so slightly to the bottom.) The dough should pass the windowpane test and register 80F. Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 1.5 to 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size (the length of time will depend on the room temperature).

4. Remove the fermented dough from the bowl and divide it in half for sandwich loaves, into eighteen 2-ounce pieces for dinner rolls, or twelve 3-ounce pieces for burger or hot dog buns. Shape the pieces into boules for loaves or tight rounds for dinner rolls or buns. Mist the dough lightly with spray oil and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Allow to res for about 20 minutes.

5. Shaping. For loaves, shape like rolling a Swiss roll but pinch the crease with each rotation to strengthen the surface tension. Pinch the final seam closed with the back edge of your hand or with your thumbs. Lightly oil two 8.5 by 4.5-inch loaf pans and place the loaves in the pans. For rolls and buns, line 2 sheet pans with baking parchment. Rolls require no further shaping. For hot dog buns, shape into a pistolet without tapering the ends. Transfer the rolls or buns to the sheet pans.

6. Mist the tops of the dough with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Proof the dough at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until nearly doubles in size.

7. Preheat oven to 350F for loaves or 400F for rolls and buns.

8. Bake the rolls or buns for approximately 15 minutes, or until they are golden brown and register just above 180oF in the centre. Bake loaves for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating 180 degrees halfway through for even baking, if needed. The tops should be golden brown and the sides, when removed from the pan, should be golden. The internal temperature of the loaves should be close to 190oF, and the loaves should sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.

9. Cooling.When the loaves have finished baking, remove them immediately from the pans and cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing or serving. Rolls should cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack beforeserving.

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Cheese Souffle

KBB#12 Round up - Savoury Baking

Everything in a rush... need to make milk for my baby boy and cook this for light dinner. The result souffle a bit shrinking by time to setting the camera. The taste was very nice. Defenately cook it again.

Cheese Souffles
Source : the Perfect cookbook by David Herbert. Penguin book Australia Ltd 2003.

100 gr unsalted butter
½ Plain flour
300 ml milk
1 c grated cheddar cheese
2Tbs freshly grated parmesan
½ Dijon mustard
a pinch of cayenne pepper
4 eggs, separated

Preheat oven 190°C( 375F, gas mark 5). Grease and lightly flour ½ cup capacity souffle dishes/ ramekin.Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute. Gradually add the milk and whisk continuously over medium heat until the mixture is smooth, thicken and come to the boil. Allow to cool for 5 minutes.
transfer the mixture into a bowl and stir in cheddar, parmesan, mustard and cayenne pepper. Lightly beat the egg yolk and add into the cheese mixture. Mix well.
With elelctric mixer, whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl until firm peaks form. Fold a quarter of the whites through the cheese mixture to slacken it slightly, then gently fold through the remaining whites.Spoon the mixture into prepared dishes and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until risen and golden. Don't be tempting to open the oven until the souffle have risen. Serves immediately.

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Chicken Tagine

Ayam masak di tajine

I just came back from holiday to Netherlands and germany and didn't have time to update my blog back then but my first dinner served with tagine in Grandcafe Tramhalte,Maastricht inspire me so much to do my own home cooking with tajine and the only excuse to update my blog. I heard from my husband that couscous in this cafe is the best his ever ate and specially homemade by the owner's it is not a ready one. the owner has been living in Marocco for years before moved back to Netherlands.
So we went there for dinner and to met a friend. Peter suggested me to try lamb but I ordered tagine with beef and couscous instead cos I don't like lamb smells and he ordered lamb sausage to company the tagine veggies..hmm delicious..I regret it why didn't order the same as he had...really good didn't smell at all and the couscous is really nice exactly how it suppose to be. it's worth to try !

I am amateur for tagine cooking but found that it's more like slow cooking methods in a terracotta pot. Marocco cuisine famous with tagine and other country like Tunisia, North Africa and Algeria also use the same pot.
Source for my Maroccan chicken tagine recipe from Keith Floyd is so delicious, the exact amount of ingredients was not mention so I must use my intuition and taste.

Category : Main dishes
Serves : 4 portions

Ingredients :
600 gr chicken portion ( I used chicken fillet)
half of onion ( I use red onion)
1 cloves garlic, bruised and finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp ginger powder ( I use 1 cm fresh ginger, finely ground)
¼ tsp turmeric
6 slices pickle lemon
10-15 threads of saffron
1 tbsp apricot jam
200 ml water
1 tsp tomato puree (mount tsp)
a dash of pepper
6-8 prunes
2- 3 tbsp blanched almond, toasted
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted
2 tbsp chopped coriander
1 tbsp chopped parsley

methods :

Glazed the onion in a hot tagine, add garlic and chicken. If using skinless chicken fillet need more olive oil. Brown the chicken, add cinnamon and all ingredients, stir and close with the tagine lid. Cooks until oily. Serves with couscous.

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Ontbijtkoek

KBB#11 Round Up

A spice bread or more close to cake if I may say is a traditional Dutch breakfast "Ontbijt" and also became Indonesian favourite traditional cake since this two countries had history relation. The different is in Indonesia we tend to serves ontbijtkoek in tea time instead of breakfast.

The lightweight low fat cake really nice with spread butter for breakfast or tea time. Simple ingredients with spices you can ground as strength level as you like contains cinnamon, cloves, dried ginger, mace even nutmeg or just buy ready mix Spekoek/ speculaas kruiden.
Recipe below is Indonesian style.

Sources : Kue-kue Indonesia, Yasa Boga-PT. Gramedia Jakarta, 2007.

125 gr palm sugar
5 egg yolks
3 egg whites

Mix and sifted :
125 gr flour 1 tsp cinnamon powder ½ tsp nutmeg ¼ sdt cloves 50 gr canarium nut, finely sliced( subtituted with almond slice, I used walnut)

Put eggs and palm sugar in a bowl and beat until fluffy. Sifted the dry ingredients and fold into the bowl. Pour over a greased and layered tin loaf with parchment paper. Oven for 25 to 30 minutes with temperature 180°C.

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Caramel Pots with Minted Shortbread Sticks

KBB challenge #10

Host by Dita and Lina. The making process was fine until the cookies slipped from my hand, broken in pieces only 4 cookies survive. I made shortbread half the recipe with 1 sprig mint..loves mint. I do like caramel so i made 1 recipe.



Source:Chef Fred Wiesehutter, Heritage Christchurch, posted at Foodtown Magazine.

Minted Shortbread Sticks

250g unsalted butter, softened

1 vanilla pod, seeds removed and reserved

1 sprig mint, chopped

Preheat the oven to 150C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Combine the icing sugar, flours, butter, vanilla seeds and mint in a bowl and mix well. Roll out to about 1cm thick. Cut into 2 x 8cm fingers. Place on the prepared tray and bake for 20-25 minutes, until lightly golden. Cool and store in an airtight container until required. Makes about 30.

Caramel Pots

125g caster sugar

2 Tbs water

125ml milk

250ml cream

3 egg yolks

Whisk the sugar into the water in a saucepan. Heat carefully and cook to a golden caramel. Combine milk and cream in a separate saucepan and warm-do not boil. Whisk the milk into the caramel. Cool slightly.

Pour into four ramekins. Bake in a water bath at 160C for 30 minutes or until set. Remove the ramekin, cool then chill. Serves 4.

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Lobster Thermidor

Category : First course
Serves : 2 persons
Lovely taste, simple and defenately cook it again.


Ingredient:
1 lobster, cook and cut lengthways
parmesan cheese, grated

Sauce :
1 tbsp butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
100 ml cream
1 tsp english mustard
1 tsp fresh chopped basil leaves
1 tbsp lemon juice
a pinch salt and pepper to taste

Methods :
remove any meat from lobster, claws and cut in pieces.
Put the butter in a pan, add shallot until soften. Add double cream, bring to simmer. Reduce the heat and add mustard, basil leaves, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Mix lobster meat with this sauce.
Preheat the grill, spoon the lobster into shell, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and place under preheat grill until golden brown, serves with salads.

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