Vegetarian mug chocolate cake - 3rd try

- zaty.

This is a modified version of the mug choc cake I tried a few years ago (ori recipe here; my 1st, 2nd attempts). I like experimenting... and i like how this turned out, especially if I'm in dire need of a quick chocolatey treat. The result? Half a mug of choc cake -- just enough to satiate those sudden pangs of sweet goodness.

Equipment 

• A microwable mug/bowl
• A tablespoon
• A microwave 

Ingredients

• 4 Tb flour
• 1 Tb white sugar
• 1 Tb unsweetened cocoa powder 
• 1 Tb nutella
• 1 tsp peanut butter (might use more pb next time)
• 3 Tb water
• 3 Tb coconut oil
• 1 Tb vanilla essence

Directions  

1. Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa) in the mug/bowl.
2. Add wet ingredients (nutella, peanut butter, water, oil, flavoring), mix well
3. Place mug in microwave; nuke for 2mins 30secs in a 1000w microwave oven
4. Take it out of the microwave, let it settle for a few moments, and dig in!

Best eaten fresh out of the microwave when it's still soft and gooey; if you leave it for a while the cake might harden (it's not that bad, it just gets a bit a bit chunky/flaky after that, and I prefer my cakes soft).

You can also sprinkle some icing sugar at the top or have this with vanilla ice cream if you like, because i've reduced the sugar for this version because of the additions (e.g. choc chips/nutella) :)

Enjoy ^___^

Changed the layout again, because.

Bye bye old cluttered layout:

Hello new layout for the new year.

Hopefully this will give me more motivation to make better food. :)

Easy peasie lentil soup

- Muz's.

So this takes a few minutes of preparation, and about 20-25 mins of boiling time.

This makes about 4 medium-sized servings.

Ingredients

1. 1 Tbsp oil (he used ghee)
2. 1 red onion, diced
3. 1 big/yellow onion, diced
4. 1 shallot, sliced (I didn't have shallots so I skipped this)
5. a few cloves garlic, chopped
6. 2 tsp cumin
7. 1 tsp turmeric
8. 1 tsp cinnamon powder
9. 1 medium-sized carrot, diced
10. 1 cup red lentils, washed
11. 1.5 cups water/liquid stock
12. salt
13. pepper
14. a few tsp chilli flakes/powder
15. optional: lettuce leaves

Steps

1. In a heated pot, sautee onions, shallot and garlic with cumin, cinnamon and turmeric till slightly soft (a minute or two under medium fire).
2. Add lentils and carrots to the pot. stir around lightly.
3. Add water/stock, chilli flakes/powder and seasoning.
4. Cover pot with lid and leave to boil for about 20 mins, stirring occasionally.
5. Before serving, add in a few ripped-up lettuce leaves.

I had mine with a few slices of toast and a hard-boiled egg tossed in. :)

Bon appetit :D

Chewy apricot banana muesli cookies

- Zaty.

The first and only time I had apricot cookies was many years ago, in NZ (a classmate offered it to me). She said it was vegetarian, which intrigued me, because I thought most baking required eggs. She said eggs can be substituted with bananas for many sweet desserts. Many years later (i.e. now) I have decided to experiment!

I used this as my base recipe. The tweaked recipe (below) has some changes and additions because I didn't have some ingredients and I felt like adding banana and rose flavoring which I had lying around, hihi.

This makes about 40 chewy 2-inch-sized cookies:

Ingredients

1. 1 cup brown sugar
2. 3/4 cup margarine, softened (I used 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup coconut oil)
3. 1 medium-sized banana, mashed
4. 2 tsp vanilla flavoring
5. 1 tsp rose flavoring
6. 1 Tbsp water
7. 2 1/2 cups muesli with raisins
8. 1 3/4 cup white flour
9. 1 tsp baking soda
10. 1/4 tsp salt
11. 1 cup dried apricot, finely chopped

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 180degC. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, margarine, banana, flavorings and water. Mix.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients into the bowl. Mix.
4. Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons and push with another spoon onto a baking tray lined with baking paper - about 2 inches between them. While waiting in between, place the mixing bowl in the fridge - this will make the cookies slightly crunchier.
5. Bake for about 8-9 minutes per batch.
6. After taken out of the oven, place cookies to cool on a tray. They'll be good to munch after a few minutes.

I've offered them to a number of people - my landlady, her hubby, my neighbor, my SO and his sibs... they all love it. I'm very happy with how these turned out :)

Filosirapture (vegetarian filo wraps)

so today i decided to play with filo because i haven't done any baking in a while.

first things first - what do i have in the pantry/fridge?

scanned and spotted:

a few just-ripe avocado, coconut oil, soy milk, cheese, choc chips, cherry tomatoes, fried garlic, mushroom stock, spices+herbs.

(there were other things obviously, but i decided not to use them because they would require defrosting etc.)

so i decided to make (various kinds of) avocado filo wraps. using filo straight from the freezer*. i made different batches - about 3 wraps per combo, eg. avocado+cheese, avocado+choc chips.

preparation time for ingredients: + 5 mins?
cooking time: at Gas 6, in the oven for 12 mins per batch

overall, it took me about an hour to prepare the things for and make these:

defo not the prettiest dish in the world, lol.

also - sweet sour chilli sauce ftw!

i'm not even going to try to explain how i made this hahaha. it's not a horrible experiment (by my standards), but i know i can do better if i was more prepared and didn't feel too rushed (people were coming over so i didn't want them to witness my potential culinary disaster lol).

i'll defo try this again in the near future, but with a few things in mind:

1. * don't use filo straight from the freezer. leave it in the fridge for a few hours to soften it a bit or else it'll get brittle and too flaky. not fun to clean up later.
2. if you want to use milk to 'moisten' the filo up a bit, leave it to the stage just right before it's going to be chucked into the oven.
3. filo is terribly plain, and so is avocado. definitely need to spice/herb it up a bit, or else you'll have to eat it with some kind of sauce at the end (which isn't too bad tbh, i eat my savory ones with sweet sour chilli sauce :D).
4. use fresh garlic next time
5. possible different ingredients to try in the future: mushrooms, capsicum, onions, leek, tuna, mince, tomato paste, oregano, chilli, oatmeal
6. what i found were good combos in filo
1. avocado+cheese+cumin
2. avocado+cheese+tomato
3. avocado+choc chips+soy milk+cinnamon powder

... yeah.

New look!

Welcome, new layout.

Hopefully this'll motivate me to update more often. :)

Vegan-friendly 5-minute choc cake in a mug

- zaty.


This is a modified version of the mug choc cake I tried a few years ago; this cake is less of a mess to make, uses basic ingredients, is vegan-friendy, and better for those on a diet (fewer calories, less sugar, less fat, smaller portion)! Basically, I omited the egg, substituted the milk with water, and changed the portions of some of the ingredients of the original recipe.

So I've done this a few of times in the past few months, and I like how it turns out, especially if I'm in dire need of a quick chocolatey treat. The result? Half a mug of choc cake -- just enough to satiate those sudden pangs of sweet goodness.

Equipment 

1. A normal-sized mug
2. A tablespoon
3. A microwave 

Ingredients

1. 4 Tb flour
2. 1 Tb white sugar
3. 1 Tb unsweetened cocoa powder 
4. 3 Tb choc chips
5. 3 Tb water *
6. 3 Tb oil **
7. Some flavoring:
1. if using liquid eg. vanilla, peppermint essence, 1Tb
2. if using powder form eg. cinnamon, 1tsp plus 1Tb water

* sometimes I add 1 Tb oatmeal powder to give the cake some texture
**  sometimes I mix coconut oil, butter, and/or vegetable oil

Directions  

1. Place dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa, choc chips) into the mug, mix well.
2. Add wet ingredients (water, oil, flavoring), mix until well-combined. This might take about a minute.
3. Place mug in microwave; nuke for 2mins 50sec in a 1000w microwave oven (or 4 mins for 700w). 
4. Take it out of the microwave, let it settle for a few moments, and dig in!

Best eaten fresh out of the oven when it's still soft and gooey; if you leave it for a while the cake might harden (it's not that bad, it just gets a bit a bit chunky/flaky after that, and I prefer my cakes soft).

You can also sprinkle some icing sugar at the top or have this with vanilla ice cream if you like :)

Enjoy ^___^

Super Simple Stacked Sandwich

- zaty.

after much experimenting with sandwich-making recently, i have found my fav. way to stack my sandwich so that stuff doesn't spill out/fall off so much.

the result = cleaner hands, mouth, plate, everything :D

must-haves:

1. 2 buns/slices of bread - go for those seedy, wholegrain ones. and toast them just a bit
2. salad leaves - the more colorful, the better
3. meat slice/egg/protein-ish slab - cook it if it's not cooked yet
4. cheese slice

steps

in order of appearance on the plate:

1. bottom bun/bread slice
2. salad, esp. leafy ones
3. onion slices, if needed
4. ready-to-eat patty/egg/salami/slab of protein
5. sauces, if needed
6. cheese slice
7. herbs/spices, if needed
8. top bun/bread slice.

i wish i took a pic of my sandwich just now. it was quite beautiful if i do say so myself.

that is all.

/procrastinationtimeover/

Awesome Chocolate Chip Cookies

- zaty.

So far I've tried a number of choc chip cookies -- crunchy, chewy, big, hard, soft, a mixture of either or all of these etc -- and I think I like the crunchy on the outside but slightly chewy on the inside kinda type. I found an awesome recipe for choc chip cookies on popularcookierecipes.com which I like to use as a rough guide to make these cookies, because I've only made them a few times before (at this time of writing)... and I tend to forget the ingredients and their general measurements lol :P

I made a few changes to the linked recipe above, I:

1. used a bit less sugar, because I don't like it too sweet
2. added chocolate powder, because I just felt like it
3. used sea salt, because I saw another recipe using it so I'm curious about how it'll turn out
4. added a bit of milk, because I like the idea :P
5. used baking powder instead of baking soda (yes, the horror!), because I didn't have baking soda and I'm too lazy to go get some

Anyway, here's tweaked recipe, which roughly makes 5 dozen cookies that are about 2 inches in diameter. :)

Equipment

1. Oven
2. Spatula
3. A large mixing bowl
4. Baking tray (2 if possible)
5. Baking/lining paper
6. Measuring spoon/cups
7. Airtight container
8. Dining tray/baking rack/large plate

Ingredients A (wet):

1. 1¼ C sugar (mixing white sugar and packed brown sugar is better)
2. 125 g butter, melted
3. 2 Tbsp cooking oil
4. 2 large eggs
5. 1 Tb milk
6. 5 drops of vanilla essence (you could also try 4:1, vanilla and peppermint)

Ingredients B (dry):

1. 2¼ C all purpose flour, well-sifted
2. 1½ tsp baking powder (or 1 tsp baking soda)
3. 1 Tb cocoa powder
4. 3/4 tsp salt
5. 1 C of chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 190degC.
2. With a spatula, mix Ingredients A one by one in a bowl until well-combined.
3. Stir in Ingredients B one by one, and mix everything well. The dough will become quite firm.
4. Line the baking tray with baking paper.
5. Scoop half a tablespoon of dough and use the spatula to push it onto the baking paper
   (arrange each scoop of dough so that there is about 2 inches of space between each cookie to prevent the cookies from melting+combining together).
6. Place the tray in the oven for about 8-10 minutes
   (8 mins = slightly chewy brown-on-the-edges-lighter-in-the-centre cookies, 10min = darker and crispier; I'd go for 9 mins).
7. Prepare another batch on a second baking tray
   (keep this and the rest of the dough in the fridge/freezer while waiting for the batch in the oven!) ^*^
8. After a batch of cookies are done, take it out and replace it with the second tray you have prepared. Transfer the freshly baked cookies onto a clean surface (baking rack, dining tray or large plate) to cool down at room temperature
9. The cookies are good to eat/store just before the previous batch is done in the oven - transfer the baked cookies into an airtight container as soon as they've cooled down to prevent them from going stale. :)

And that's pretty much it. Now I'll enjoy my cookies with some mint tea. :D

^*^ a cold dough will 'melt' faster, making the cookie melt quicked and make it thinner (and crispier) around the edges. Just the way I like it :D

No-yeast Homemade Thin-crust Pizza

- zaty.

I was feeling bored so decided to make pizza for dinner. I've made it twice so far, and I think I've somewhat figured out what to (not) do if I wanted to make it again in the future.

I used the no-yeast pizza recipe from here, but because my family likes thin-crust pizza, I had it in the oven for about 15mins at 180degC. Make sure not to knead too much with your hands (the heat of your hands can affect the dough), don't use too much flour (it'll make the bread hard) or use butter to 'coat' the pizza pan/dish to prevent the dough from sticking to it (use a bit of oil and smear evenly... using butter makes the pizza bread too crispy).

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups all-purpose flour
2. 1 Tbsp baking powder
3. 1/4 tsp salt
4. 2/3 cup water
5. 1 Tbsp cooking oil

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180degC.
2. Line the pizza pan/dish with baking paper, or smear a thin layer of cooking oil evenly (to prevent the pizza bread from sticking to the pan later).
3. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
4. Add the liquids into the bowl, and, using a wooden spoon, combine everything to make a rather solid dough.
5. Sprinkle some flour on a clean, flat surface, and place the dough on it. 
6. Knead the dough about 6 times to make sure all the ingredients are evenly combined.
7. Place the dough on the prepared pan/dish and flatten it to make a nice thin-crust bread (I use a small plastic roller to flatten the dough, super handy).
8. Once the dough looks good, smear a thin layer of cooking oil on the top surface of the dough (to prevent the tomato sauce base and/or toppings from making the pizza base soggy).
9. Scoop on and spread the tomato sauce base*** on the dough evenly
10. Scatter toppings^^^ onto the tomato base, and add herbs if desired (I love using basil, I just sprinkle it all over).
11. Scatter cheese (sprinkles, shreds, squares, chunks, whatever) to moderately cover the toppings. 
12. Place the pizza in the oven for about 15mins, until the topping becomes slightly brown. 
13. After it's done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for a minute or two, then cut into desired way/size. Serve hot :D 

 *** I used a medium-sized can of pasta (tomato) sauce and a small can of tomato puree
^^^ I used chicken sausage cut into really thin slices, a handful of minced beef, crushed garlic, diced onions, diced tomatoes and crushed black pepper. I wish I had capsicum :T

 Will post up pic later Cheerios!

Cheese scones (using cheese slices)

- Zaty.

So I've returned to Malaysia and upon my mother's request, I made cheese scones today. She asked me to bake about 20 scones, and since one batch makes about 6 I had to multiply the ingredients by 4 to make 24. I ended up making 25 tho, because I didn't cut up the portions evenly lol.

I generally used the ingredients from the cheese scone recipe I posted before, but I had to improvise a lil bit because I only had cheddar cheese slices instead of a block of edam, which I normally used back in NZ (edam cheese is much more creamy than cheddar). The scones still tasted pretty good tho, so I guess it wasn't a bad substitute. :)

I'm a bit sad that I wasn't equipped with my trusty measuring cups+spoons during the prepping process...I already gave them away because I thought I wouldn't need them. I felt so handicapped because Ma doesn't have the complete cup+spoons sets. :( Sigh.

Anyway, here's what I did, before I get all nostalgic and ramble further:

Prep time: 20-40 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

Servings: 6 scones per batch

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 C self-raising flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 25g butter, diced
• Cheese: 
• for dough: 5 cheese slices, torn into smaller/thinner strips (C-D)
• for topping: 1 1/2 cheese slices, cut to make 6 squares = 1/4 slice per scone (C-T)
• Milk:
• for dough: 1/2 cup (M-D)
• for coating: 1/4 cup (M-C)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 220 deg C.
2. In a bowl (stir using wooden spatula - not hands!):
1. Sift in dry ingredients.
2. Add diced butter by 'massaging' it in - should look like fine breadcrumbs in the end.
3. Add cheese for dough (C-D). Mix evenly.
4. Make a pit in the middle of the mixture, then add milk (M-D) while mixing quickly.
3. Cover your hands with flour and sprinkle some on the tabletop/board to prevent dough from sticking to it.
4. Turn out dough and place on the tabletop/board. Knead dough lightly; if it's too sticky, add flour, bit by bit.
5. Roll out dough on board until about 2cm thick, then cut into 6 equal portions. (I like shaping the portions to make them slightly rounder).
6. Roll around each scone in milk (M-C), then place each on a greased/lined oven tray. Make sure to leave at least 2cm gaps between them.
7. Top each scone with 1/4 slice of cheese (C-T)
8. Bake for about 9-10 minutes, or depending on how brown you want them.
9. Set aside for about 5 minutes before munching on them :D

My mom says it's the best batch of scones she's ever had in Malaysia. Clearly that's an exaggeration lol, but it's nice watching my family members eat the things I bake.

So... yup! Cheerios and till next time. :)

Honey Tomato Chicken

- Zaty.

I'm just so sick of my own cooking (and I'm sure Mr. M feels the same way) so yesterday I tried to make a modified version of "ayam masak merah" (ie. tomato chicken). This was inspired by this recipe; I adapted it to suit what I had around the house (I didn't have tomatoes and ginger, most importantly).

The taste was bit different from what I expected, I'm guessing 1/2 can of tomato puree was too much, so next time I use this recipe I'll use only a 1/3 or less. I had to add in a bit of boiling hot water to make the gravy less thick, and added in honey and soy sauce for extra flavor.

Anyway, here's the (fixed) version of what I made yesterday:

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• Group A - to 3/4 fry:
• 4 pieces of chicken nibbles
• turmeric powder
• Group B - to blend:
• 2 shallots
• 3 Tbsp dried chilli blend
• 1cm ginger (I was out of this so I used galanghal, but next time I'll make sure to use ginger)
• 3 pcs garlic
• 1 medium onion
• Group C - other stuff:
• 1/3 tin tomato puree
• 1 large Tbsp-full of honey
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1/2 tin of button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small onion, cut into rings
• 1 cup frozen vege (peas, carrots, corn).
• sugar
• salt Optional: 1 cup boiled water
• Optional: 1 cup boiled water

Instructions

1. Clean and prepare chicken as appropriate (small pieces is easiest and fastest to cook). Toss the chicken pieces in a bowl and cover them completely with turmeric powder.
2. Heat up some oil in a pot, and fry turmeric-covered chicken until about 3/4 done. While waiting for this, blend everything in Group B - it doesn't have to be finely blended.
3. Take chicken pieces out and sautee the blended Group B ingredients till a fragrant smell rises.
4. Add in tomato puree, mixing well. Wait for a few minutes so that everything heats up well and the paste produces some oil (ie. until 'pecah minyak').
5. Add in soy sauce and honey as desired.
6. Add in sliced mushrooms, stir for a few minutes.
7. Place the previous chicken pieces back into the pot, stir well. 
8. Wait for the gravy to thicken, stirring the pot content every half a minute. Continue until sure that meat is cooked.
9. When gravy has thickened (might take about 10 mins), add in sugar, salt, peas etc. Wait for a few minutes, stirring constantly. 
10. When done, serve with rice (preferably tomato rice, but I ate it with plain rice).

Result

Will update with picture when my internet's not being annoying. :P

Have a nice day!

Super-easy Yoghurt Cake

- Zaty.

Today's baking is a a result of Carlo's story about his friend's mom who makes yoghurt cake (which is apparently one of the best cakes he's eaten), and a M'sian potluck thing (masquerading as a 'natural disaster' meeting). After much debate on what to bake, I surrendered and googled up 'yoghurt cake', and was pleasantly surprised by how easy the recipe seemed. It really is easy to make, just like how this recipe looks - no electric mixers, melting butters, kneading etc. Easy peasy. Just the way I like it. :P

Anyway, I got the recipe from here, but with a simple adjustment - I used the (150g) cup for single-serve yoghurts as the measuring tool. In other words, every ingredient is measured using this cup (aside from the eggs, of course... although 3 eggs do fill up the yoghurt cup nicely). :)

I made 2 cakes: one with raspberry+cream yoghurt, and the other was peach+cream yoghurt.

Will post up more pics later.

~

This recipe makes a medium-sized cake.

Note: cup* = single-serve yoghurt cup

Ingredients 

• 1 cup* of yoghurt (fruity flavored is yumm)
• 1 cup* oil (I used my canola cooking oil)
• 2 cups* white sugar
• 3 cups* self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
  Optional: raspberry (or other) jam.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160degC.
2. In a bowl, beat the ingredients one-by-one with a wooden spatula until smooth and creamy. This might take a few minutes.
3. Pour smooth mixture into a greased/baking-paper lined pan. 
• Optional: Scoop some jam and slowly place it at the top of the batter. Use a chopstick or something long to squiggle or swirl the jam to give the cake extra flavour.
4. Bake for 1 hour or till golden brown (the fork should come out clean when poked).
5. Give about 10 mins to cool down, then cut and serve.
• Optional: After the cake has cooled down a bit, turn the cake out of the pan, and let it stand on its side. Cut the cake in the middle lengthways, and place both sides down. Spread some jam onto the 'fluffy' side of both halves, then enjoin the two parts the way it was before -- it should look like a 'jam sandwich' cake in the end.

Result?

Raspberry+cream yoghurt cake (see the swirley bit at the top? Hee ^_^)
Note: This is before I turned it into a sandwich cake.


I have some extra slices left, so I'll post some pics of what it looks like later.

~

It's so easy to make, and it tastes nice if I do say so myself. Do try it! Have fun baking! :)

Fish Soup

- Zaty.

Carlo brought some fish fillets from home and we were thinking of how to cook them. First we tried tempura flour - didn't turn out that well. Then he tried the egg+flour fry, which was pretty nice (just a bit bland, in a no-salt kinda way :P), but I wanted the fish to be cooked in liquid - like curry or something. I didn't have the curry powder for seafood, so that idea had to go.

And then I decided to make fish soup. And after looking around the net for a quick+easy recipe, I found one. After modifying it to suit what I have in my cabinet/fridge, came up with this. And Carlo approves! :D

----

Original recipe from from here.

Ingredients

• Oil, just enough for sauteeing
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed/sliced
• 1 shallot, chopped finely
• 2cm^3 of ginger, smashed/sliced
• Fish fillet, washed and cut in big chunks (rub a bit of salt on it while preparing the other stuff)
• Boiled water
• 1 cube chicken stock
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 2cm^3 of galangal, sliced
• 1 big onion, half sliced, half diced.
• Salt
• Black pepper
• A few pinches of fennel
• Sweet basil
• A few cardamoms

Steps

1. Heat the pot and add oil just enough to cover the surface.
2. When oil is heated, sautee garlic, shallot and ginger until they give of a nice smell & slightly brown.
3. Add chunks of fish in the pot by just resting them on the sauteed ingredients. Let one side of the fillet turn white and slightly harden, then turn it carefully to 'whiten' the other side.
4. Add boiled water into the pot, then chicken stock. Stir well.
5. After a few minutes, add in carrots, galangal and onion. Stir.
6. Add in salt, black pepper and fennel.
7. Allow soup to cook for about 15 minutes, then add in cardamom and sweet basil for the final 10 minutes.
8. Serve it while it's hot! :)

Will post photo(s) later.

 

Mini Pizza

- Zaty.

Before baking

Ingredients

Essentials:

• 'Small' breads (preferably pizza bases, but any breads - even pita/normal sliced bread will do)
• Tomato paste
• Oregano
• Salt
• Sugar
• Cheese (slices/shreds = awesome). Best to use mozarella, but could use edam or colby.
• Oil (olive, preferable)

Topping suggestions:

• Garlic, chopped
• Mushrooms, small pieces
• Onion, diced
• Meat, diced finely (I used sausage bits for this one) - make sure this is pre-cooked!
• Pineapple, diced

Instructions

1. Preheat oven. If you'll be making mini pizza using...
1. Pizza bases, 230 deg C will do. F
2. For other breads, I'm unsure... maybe 200 degs?
2. If you'll be using meat, cook it while you're preparing the other stuff.
3. Add in salt, sugar, oregano and chopped garlic into the tomato paste. Not too much!
4. Slather the tomato paste mixture onto the breads.
5. Sprinkle mushrooms, onions and pineapples evenly on the bread. Then add meat. (Make sure to not overcrowd the toppings or they'll fall off!)
6. Cover #5 with cheese.
7. Sprinkle breads with some oregano and sugar.
8. Spread some oil on a baking tray/paper/foil, and place breads carefully onto it.
9. Put it in the oven for 8-10 mins.
10. After taking it out, let it stand for a couple of mins, and you're ready to dig in. Should turn out something like this:

After baking

うまえ! ;)

Coco Choco Slice

- Zaty.

Got the recipe from the back of a tin of Pam's evaporated milk. Seriously.

I think I lost the recipe sheet. Darnit. I'll update this when I find it/buy another tin of evaporated milk. :P

Prep time: 20 mins
For: 1 medium-sized pan

Ingredients

Base

• 1 1/2 C flour
• 3 T cocoa
• 2 t baking powder
• 3/4 C castor/icing sugar
• 1/2 C dessicated coconut
• 175g butter, melted

Topping

• 1 C icing sugar
• 2 T cocoa
• 3 T butter, melted
• 1 C dessicated coconut
• 4 T sweetened condensed milk
• 1 t vanilla essence

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C, then grease/line a 20cmx30cm slice tin.
2. Prepare base:
1. Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a bowl.
2. Stir in sugar and coconut.
3. Add in butter and mix well, to moist crumbs.
4. Press the crumb base mixture into the prepared tin using a spatula/wooden spoon.
5. Bake in a preheated oven for 20mins, then allow to cool.
3. Prepare topping:
1. Sift icing sugar and cocoa in a bowl.
2. Stir in melted butter, coconut, condesned milk and vanilla essence. Mix well.
4. Spread topping over the base and place in fridge for 2 hours (until firm), then cut the pieces.

It was fun to make! :)

Sugar Cookies

- Zaty.

Recipe will be posted later :)

Choco Banana Pancake

- Zaty.

recipes will be posted later :P

Sweet Filo Egg Tarts

- zaty.

So I have tonnes of filo pastry sheets... and they're expiring soon. Like, real soon. I needed something easy to make with them, and I needed it like super fast.

Aaaaand so it happens that I stumbled upon some pics of egg tarts today. Yummy, eggy, 'healthy', sweet, smile-erupting egg tarts. All together now, MMMmmmMmmm. :)

I searched high and low for egg tart recipes that happen to use filo, but alas, none was conjured up by Google. This, of course, calls for an experiment by yours truly! :P

So after compiling a few egg tart recipes to find a reasonable/rational experimental recipe (and taking whatever I have in my cupboard into consideration), here's what I managed to come up with:


Sweet Filo Egg Tarts

Makes 18 tarts (using medium-sized cupcake pans).

Ingredients

• Filo pastry
• 220ml hot water
• 80g white sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs
• 80ml milk
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven at 180 C
2. Dissolve sugar & salt in hot water. While waiting to cool, continue with #3
3. Prepare filo:
• Cut filo into desirable size and layer about 8 of them in each cupcake hole. 
• Butter the edges of the stacked pastry to avoid them from getting too flaky.
4. In a bowl, whisk eggs until thick and creamy, then add milk. Continue to whisk until combined.
5. Add sugar+salt solution gradually and then some vanilla essence. Continue whisking. It will turn quite runny, that's fine.
6. Scoop the mixture slowly into the prepared filo pastry.
7. Bake for 20 minutes or till the edges of the filo is brown and the filling is set.
8. Let cool before serving.

Results?

simple and plain

with choc chips
(added last, right before baking)

with powdery choc drink
(added last before baking)

yup, crispy pastry. :)

Haha they're not the prettiest things in the world, but they taste alright.

Good luck and have fun trying them out!

Quiche - with filo pastry

- zaty.

Update: salt amount corrected :)

So I made quiche again today. The difference, however, is that I used filo pastry for the first time in my dear life. Considering the fact that I'm making this as a 'more' (shared 'dessert' for after terawih prayers), this is quite a risk.

But then I'm too much of an experimenter to not take the risk. :P

Anyhoo this time around I made both 'mini' (ie. cupcake-sized) quiche and a medium-sized square-pan quiche. I also prepared two batters - one is with meat, and the other is vegetarian. Just cuz I felt like it. The later is only for the mini ones though.

Anyway, onto the recipe!

Inspired by this recipe (uses filo pastry) & the easy quiche #2 recipe --- modified. 

Makes:

• 3 dozens mini quiches OR 
• 2 dozens mini quiches + 1 medium-sized square-pan quiche.

Ingredients:

• filo pastry sheets
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups milk ~
• 5 tbsp melted butter (about 75g)
• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 2 cups grated cheese
• 4 cups of anything you like *
• 2 large tomatoes, sliced
  
  Optional: Oregano, thyme, black pepper, salt to taste (thanks canadian girl for the tip!)
  
  ~ for better taste, use 1½ cup cream+1½ cup milk
  * I used:
       Diced = 1 large sausage, 5 button mushrooms, 1 onion, 1 green capsicum
       Sliced finely = 4 spinach leaves

Directions:

1. Set oven to 175 deg C
2. Whisk together the first 5 ingredients (eggs, milk, butter, self-raising flour, salt)
3. Fold in cheese and filling (*)
4. Prepare filo pastry:
• For mini quiche:
• Take one sheet, fold it in half. You can 'glue' the folded parts together using melted butter/cooking spray.
• Cut filo sheet into 4 strips - each strip about 6cm in width.
• Fold the strips twice to make an approx 6cm square.
• Place filo 'squares' in muffin tray hole. 
• When every container is lined with filo, continue with step #5
• For square pan:
• Lay filo sheets one above the other, about 8 sheets
• Make the sheets look neater by folding them in/cutting them (I didn't do a good job tho :P), then continue with step #5.
5. Pour the mixture into pan.
6. Top with sliced tomatoes and sprinkle with herbs.
7. Bake for about 35 minutes. Wait to cool before serving (about 10 minutes).

PICS!

Before baking:

meaty mini quiches.
messy, i know. lol.

meaty square quiche.
i topped this with another sheet of filo, which explains that white-ish surface.
(next time i'll skip that - i prefer the quiche w/o it. haha.)

After baking:

vegetarian mini quiches
(no sausage, extra veggies+mushroom)

meaty mini quiches

meaty square quiche

Bon apetit! :)