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 :)

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 ^___^

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!

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! :)

Sugar Cookies

- Zaty.

Recipe will be posted later :)

Choco Banana Pancake

- Zaty.

recipes will be posted later :P

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! :)

Cheese scones

- zaty

Today Carlo and I made two batches of scones - one is plain cheese scone, the other is savoury (we added bits of half a sausage). We made 2 dozens for the first batch but it didn't turn out very well because we forgot the baking powder... which led to us making the second batch, the savoury one.

Most ppl who've tried this prefer the savoury one - I like the plain ol' cheese scone more. :P it tastes great with fruit jam!

FAIL Batch #1 - bakingpowderlessness = unrisen dough

Batch #2 - looks much better, don't it? :D

Also, in case you were wondering, we used Edam cheese, which is quite yummy. Cheddar might work too.

Update (22/05/11): use self-raising flour instead of flour+baking powder

This original recipe is from here. :)

Prep time: 20-40 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Servings: 6 scones

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 C self-raising flour
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp sugar
• 25g butter, diced
• 1/2 cup milk for dough (MD)
• 1/4 cup milk for coating (MC)
• 1/2 cup grated cheese for dough (CD) - the more, the cheesier! :)
• 1/4 cup grated cheese for topping (CT)
• Optional: 
• Rubbed oregano (for the lovely smell)
• 1/2 finely diced onions
• 1/2 chopped sausage

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 breadcrumbs at the end.
3. Add cheese for dough (CD) (and onion/sausage bits if you want savoury scones). Mix evenly.
4. Make a pit in the middle of the mixture, then add milk (MD) 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. Dunk each scone in milk (MC), then place each on a greased/lined oven tray. Make sure to leave at least 2cm gaps between them.
7. Top each scone with grated cheese (CT). (I like to sprinkle a bit of oregano as well).
8. Bake for 9-11 minutes, depending on how brown you want them.

Enjoy! :D

Baby scone tucked in ( - Carlo's idea!) :P

last updated 05122010