hetelleb

hazelnut biscuits

2011-08-28T16:32:00.003+08:00

I got this recipe from last month Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The biscuit is not as "buttery" or "crumbly" as I thought it would be. It reminded me a bit like the homemade old-fashion style biscuits that my mum’s friend used to make. I do really like the taste and smell of this biscuit and it goes so well with a nice cup of coffee...

The original recipe calls for 3 teaspoon of dark rum, and to dip the end of the biscuit in melted chocolate. I have omitted these two ingredients from the recipe as I don't like rum and I really couldn't be bothered with the chocolate.

Hazelnut Biscuits
140g unsalted butter
160g sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
50g hazelnut meal
60g whole hazelnuts

1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Cream butter and sugar until creamy.
3. Add yolks and vanilla and mix until combine.
4. Fold in flour, baking powder and hazelnut meal
5. Spoon mixture into piping bag fixed with large star-shaped nozzle.
6. Pipe 4-5cm lengths of mixture onto tray. Allow 4cm space between each biscuit.
7. Press 1 hazelnut on top of each biscuit.
8. Bake for 25mins or until golden.
9. Put biscuits on wire rack to cool.

Recipe adapted from: Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, July 2011

chocolate hazelnut cookies

2011-08-17T21:06:00.004+08:00

Encouraged by the recent success of the double chocolate fairy cake and with some chocolate leftover, I decided to try my hands on the chocolate hazelnut cookies from the Peyton and Byrne British Baking cookbook. This is definitely my new most favourite cookbook.

The chocolate hazelnut cookies turned out great! Initially, I was suprised by how sticky and wet the mixture was. I thought I misread the recipe and haven't added enough flour. However all was well.

My only tip is to leave plenty of space around the cookies on the baking tray as they expand more than twice the size. I learned through the hard way when my first batch of 6 cookies becomes 1 big cookie.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies
100g whole hazelnut
140g unsalted butter
90g demerara sugar
80g caster sugar
1 egg, plus 1 egg yolk
170g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
200g dark chocolate chips

1. Prepheat oven to 180C
2. Toast hazelnuts in hot oven for 10 minutes. Remove skins and roughly chop the nuts. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, cream butter and sugars until creamy.
4. Add egg and then yolk. Mix well.
5. Sift flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda and gently mix into the butter mixture.
6. Stir in the dark chocolate chips.
7. Divide dough in half and shape each half into a log about 4cm thick. Slice the log into 6 pieces, each about 2cm thick and place these on the baking tray about 6cm apart.
8. Baked for 15-18 minutes until golden in colour but still soft in the centre.

Recipe from: Peyton and Byrne British Baking

double chocolate fairy cake

2011-08-13T20:44:00.003+08:00

I baked these delicious double chocolate cupcakes for my colleague's birthday last week. And I have to say, the cupcakes smell and taste so amazing! However next time I make these cupcakes, I will reduce the amount of sugar for the chocolate fudge icing which I find a little too sweet.

Double Chocolate Fairy Cake
100g dark chocolate
110 unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
140g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
100ml buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 170C and line a 12 hole muffin tin with baking case.
2. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, and set aside.
3. In a bowl, cream butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
5. Fold in melted chocolate.
6. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda together and gently stir into the creamed butter. Mix until all the flour is well incorporated.
7. Add vanilla extract and buttermilk and mix until just incorporated.
8. Fill baking cases with mixture and bake for 15 minutes or until they are springy to touch.

Chocolate Fudge Icing
60g dark chocolate
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp boiling water
90g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Pinch of sea salt

1. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water, and set aside.
2. Dissolve cocoa powder in boiling water then stir into melted chocolate.
3. In a bowl, cream butter until light and fluffy.
4. Add icing sugar, vanilla extract, salt and chocolate mixture to creamed butter. Mixing well and beat for another 2-3 minutes until creamy.
5. Pipe chocolate fudge icing on cake.

Recipe from: Peyton and Byrne British Baking

pizza

2011-07-17T23:14:00.009+08:00

Making pizza has been on my to-do list for a while now. So I decided to give it a go during the weekend. I followed the pizza dough recipe from Bite Sized blog, which was adapted from Peter Reinhardt's Artisan Breads Every Day.

I was a little disappointed with my pizza. It came out hard, not crispy. It still taste quite good though. I think the problem might be that I used dry yeast instead of instant yeast, which I don't really know if there is a difference. And can you actually overwork or underwork pizza dough?

Recipe from: Bite Sized

basic macarons with lemon buttercream

2011-07-10T20:14:00.006+08:00

It has been a while since I make macarons. And for some reason, I have been thinking about macarons a lot lately. Not to eat them, but to make them. So et voila...

I used Tartellette's macaron recipe for the macaron shell as it is the only recipe that seems to work for me.

There are only 4 basic ingredients for the macaron shell- egg whites, caster sugar, almond meal and icing sugar. But making macarons is always such a challenge... for me anyway.

There are many blogs and sites with tips to making macarons. And since I am no macarons making expert, I will not go too much into it. The only tip I have for an increase change of a successful macaron making experience is to age the egg whites. I left my egg whites covered with cling wrap in the fridge for a least a week before leaving them out on the kitchen bench uncovered for a day.

Oh and the only other tip is if you don’t succeed, use a different recipe, and try and try and try and try again.

Macaron Shells (recipe by Tartette)
90 gram egg whites(use eggs whites that have been preferably left 3-5 days in the fridge)
30 gram caster sugar
200 gram icing sugar, sifted
110 gram almond meal, sifted

1. Combine icing sugar and almond meal. Set aside.
2. Beat egg whites until foamy. Gradually add caster sugar into egg whites and beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.
3. Fold shifted sugar and almond meal into egg whites until mixture is glossy and moves slowly when the bowl is tiled.
4. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with pipping nozzle, and pipe rounds of 3 cm in diameter onto the baking tray.
5. Let macarons sit out for at least 2 hours or until a crust forms.
6. Preheat oven to 130C.
7. Place macaron shells into oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Lemon Buttercream (recipe from Macaron by Alison Thompson)
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
140 gram caster sugar
165 gram softened unsalted butter, chopped into small cubes
1 egg
3 egg yolks
2 tablespoons water

1. Combine lemon juice and zest, 50 gram sugar and 40 gram butter in small saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar dissolved. Remove from heat and add whole egg. Mix well then return to low heat and stir continously until the mixture thickens. Transfer to a bowl. Press cling film over the surface of the mixture to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until cool.
2. Beat egg yolks on high speed until pale and creamy.
3. Place water and remaining 90 gram sugar in a small saucepan and bring to boil. Insert sugar thermometer and simmer until the syrup reaches 121C.
4. With the mixer on high speed, pour sugar syrup into creamed yolks. Beat until cool.
5. With the mixer on medium speed, add remaining 125 gram butter a cube at a time. Allow each piece of butter to mix in before adding the next.
6. Add cooled lemon mixture and beat for 2 minutes.

a tea party

2011-06-19T19:07:00.004+08:00

dong do pork

2011-05-01T18:18:00.004+08:00

Here's throwing my diet out the window. Anyway, another recipe from Poh's Kitchen cookbook. This is also the dish that makes me decide to buy her cookbook. It is a simple chinese dish that uses basic chinese ingredients. It takes about 2-3 hours cook but it doesn't require much attention, except of course the occasional turning of the meat and making sure the kitchen is not on fire. It's absolutely yummy.

Recipe from: Poh's Kitchen

prawn noodle salad

2011-04-26T20:53:00.001+08:00

I brought Poh's Kitchen Cookbook about a month ago and still haven't had the chance to try out any of the recipes. Today I finally made the Prawn Noodle Salad, which is really refreshing and flavoursome. There is a lot of ingredients required in this recipe. But the salad is very easy and fast to make.

Recipe from: Poh's Kitchen

busselton jetty

2011-04-26T16:56:00.003+08:00

How was your weekend? We had a 5 day long weekend, and it was wonderful. Spent yesterday at Busselton jetty.

sculpture by the sea

2011-03-07T18:59:00.003+08:00

Sculpture by the Sea is back at Cottesloe Beach, and will be there until the 22 March. Time to blow the dust off my camera and go out for some happy snaps. Above are photos of some of the art installation.

The pair of orange thongs in the second photo is not part of the sculpture. We put it there to add some interest to the photo. Haha...

my first blurb book

2011-02-01T16:07:00.004+08:00

YAY! My blurb book arrived today. I have made a 40 pages photo book with a collection of all my favourite photos from my recent holiday in UK. I'm quite happy with it.

a lone tree

2011-01-31T20:30:00.004+08:00

seabird and crayfish

2011-01-31T20:17:00.004+08:00

I feel obligated to fulfill my sister and J requests to update my blog. My sister said that she is getting tired of the Ondeh-ondeh photo already. There is no excuse. I was doing nothing all day, and getting quite lazy. On that note, I'm starting work on my new job next Monday. I can't say I'm looking forward to work. I just don't feel ready to go back to work yet.

So anyway, this post is 5 days late. It was Australia day last Thursday (26 January). We drove to Seabird, a quiet town slightly more than an hour drive from Perth, to buy some fresh crayfish. When I say fresh, I mean the crayfish were caught on the same day, bought to shore, and delivered to the shop just 5 minutes walk away.

It was rather disconcerting when I have to cook the crayfish. I couldn't bring myself to rip their head off and cut their juicy body into half when they are still able to look at me accusingly with their beady angry eyes. So I decided to steam two of the crayfish (whole) that night, and then panfry the other two (disassembled) the next day when they are well and truly dead.

(Credit goes to J for taking the third and fourth photos above. You can probably tell the difference anyway from the poor quality... haha)

ondeh ondeh

2011-01-20T13:47:00.003+08:00

Ondeh-ondeh- a malaysian sweets/dessert using pandan, glutinous rice flour, gula melaka and grated coconut. It's surprisingly easy to make. I followed the recipe from the cookbook, Cook Malaysian by Lee Sook Ching. However I used pandan essense instead of fresh pandan leaves. If you are interested in making it, I found a recipe online that is pretty similar.

my magical white xmas

2011-01-13T14:20:00.003+08:00

I finally found the time to blog about my magical white Christmas holiday in UK...(CLICK HERE FOR MORE)

raspberry and almond friands

2010-12-15T16:47:00.004+08:00

I made these Raspberry and Almond Friands as a housewarming gift. But I think I left them in the oven for too long and they came out more "golden brown" than I would like them to be. :P

orange sparkle

2010-11-14T21:17:00.002+08:00

walk at kings park

2010-11-07T16:52:00.002+08:00

Over an hour walk in the park and these are the only photos that I like enough to put here on this blog.

I have been feeling increasing frustrated with my photography skills, or lack of... All the photos that I took in low light conditions (i.e. restaurants) always come out blurry. Even photos taken with the iphone turned out sharper than those that I took with my SLR. What is going on?

my sister at kings park

2010-09-12T20:54:00.004+08:00

My beautiful and usually camera shy sister has agreed to be my model for the day. She makes a great model, don't you think...

opposite

2010-08-02T21:11:00.001+08:00

Sky and cloud. Ground and branches. Water and froth.

sculpture by the sea

2010-03-06T22:13:00.003+08:00

Sculpture by the Sea is back in Cottesloe from 4 to 23 March. (Can't believe it has been a year already...) I only managed to take a few shots of some of the sculptures there as the sun was setting fast. It has been a while since I took my camera out to play, and it feels great! I will be back for more.

purple tree

2009-12-06T13:54:00.010+08:00

pink

2009-11-16T20:47:00.003+08:00