Chewy Chocolate Chunky Cookies

It was a farewell day for my intern, Katherine, and she has been such a sweet lady, made me want to make these cookies as her farewell gift, not forgetting a pair of handmade earrings I made for her too. I promised her these cookies last month and as last Friday 06.05.11 was her last day, I decided to make them on Thursday night, by hook or by crook, though I was rather tired after a full day work.

But seeing the "kids" enjoying these cookies made my day too. "kids" also applies to the other 2 CS I have with me at my work place. Hahaha.. not so kid after all... Anyway, the cleaning aunty loves them too that she requested I make these again on Thursday preferably so that when I give them to her on Friday, she can keep some for her son who will book out from the army on Friday night. WOW!!!... Demanding aunty lei... Don't play play okie...

Anyway, I am more than happy to share this recipes for all those who loves not just cookies, but Chewy Chocolate Chunky Cookies!

Happy Trying and Happy Baking...!!!

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 granulated sugar

1 egg

2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Grease or line a baking sheet with baking paper.

3. Sieve together the flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Leave aside.

4. Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl till smooth.

5. Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Blend in.

6. Gradually add in the dry ingredients into the wet mix till well-mixed.

7. Add in the chocolate chunks and mix well.

8. Drop round tablespoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheet.

9. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges.

10. Cool completely on wire rack.

Mom's Bak Chang

I love my mom's bak chang, which is chinese rice dumpling. Whenever I am home, I will get her to make some for me. When I was a little girl, I love to watch how she wrapped those glutinous rice into one kind of leave and tie them up with its special string. After I moved to Singapore 14 years ago, I missed her bak chang every bak chang festival.

This trip, though she is living with me in Singapore now, when we came home for 2 weeks, I requested her to make some for me again. Mom loves it when we ask her to cook our favourite food for us. No matter how much trouble it takes her, she will never complain. Mommy is the BEST!!

I did try to learn to make bak chang from her. But they are just too much work and hassle for me. Nevertheless, I managed to capture her step by step. As for actual ingredient, I didn't manage to get the exact amount as she just use estimation. Its up to your own taste.


1. Stir fry some garlic

2. She had pre-mixed the glutinous with normal rice up to 1kg (for approximately 20 medium size bak chang). Of cos she washed them clean before cooking.

3. After the garlic has fragrant, pour in the rice mixture and continue to stir fry.


4. Add black soy sauce.


5. Add 3 tbsp of five spice powder

6. Add salt to taste


7. Continue to stir fry the rice for 15 minutes

8. Remove the half cooked rice to a big bowl to cool

9. Bak chang leaves must be soaked and thoroughly clean before use

10. Scoop rice first, then add meat and mushroom which were braised earlier ( I didn't have the recipe for this as my mom cooked them before I can steal some snaps).

11. Cover the meat with more rice


12. Wrap up and tie them onto a string

13. These are the completed bak chang. You will need to boil them in a big pot of water for 4 to 6 hours. Yes, that long


13. Cooked bak chang. Ready to be served


Best served warm with sweet MAGGI chili sauce. Simply Yummilicious!!!

Blueberry Swirl Butter Cake

My brother requested for a butter cake again. Since I am so free at home doing nothing but looking after my 3 1/2 months old son, I decided to do a simple but delicious butter cake for him. This time, I used canned blueberry to add in some flavour. I actually bought the canned blueberry to make blueberry pie but since it was a big can, I can make both.

To cut things short, click here for the basic butter cake recipe from my previous post.


Cream butter and sugar in a mixer

Add in eggs, one after another, with continuous beating in between the eggs

This is how the batter should look like after beating all the eggs in. Creamy smooth texture

Add in vanilla essence

Pour batter into prepared pan. Drop spoons of blueberry filling onto the batter and use a knife or chopstick to swirl. Do not over mix or the filling would blend in the batter and will not have the swirl of blueberry.

Bake in preheated oven of 170 Celcious for 45 minutes.



Enjoy!!!

Best Wanton Mee in Singapore

After Jac's party, Superhubby drove to Serangoon North Ave 4 for our favourite wanton mee. So far, this is the best wanton mee we have ever tasted in the whole Singapore. The aunty is very nice and generous with her char siew meat. Unlike a lot of wanton mee stall, their char siew pork are usually sliced too thin and hard to chew. But this one, hmmmm... the meat are always tender and you can really taste the freshness of the meat when you chew.

Go try it to believe it. Its located at a coffee-shop near Rosyth primary school, at Serangoon North Ave 4. And its priced at only $2.80 a plate.

Triple Chocolate Brownies with Tim Tam cookies

20th Nov marked my BFF Jac's birthday. This year she celebrated her 30th birthday with a big bash of party. She booked a DJ and a bar, and invited 50 over guests. They were mostly her close friends and family members. It was a fun night. The party started on 19th evening, with dinner (we arrived slightly after 11pm), then drinks and lots of retro music and dancing. I have not been into such a loud environment for a very long time.. Hence, my ears were in pain after the party. Hahaha....

She requested that I bake her favourite brownies as her birthday cake on Saturday's celebration with her family where else her sister, Emlyn ordered a carrot cake and a cheesecake for the night. I am still recovering from my wrist surgery post-op, hence couldn't make enough brownies to feed such a big group of party goers. But the people seems to not taken her instructions in proper that they took out the brownies at the party nite itself and they even cut them to be served. Hahaha... there goes her Sat's brownies with her lovely family. Nevermind, they still had lots of fun. I can always make another for her when I have the time.

This brownie was specially made for her. She likes Tim Tam cookies hence I threw in 1 whole packet of Tim Tam cookies. And as I never do decoration on my brownies, here is hers. The icing tubes I bought, by Wilton, were hard to squeeze, especially with my weaken wrist, the wordings were just so-so. Hope she didn't mind.




The brownies were too big to be fitted into the box so I cut the sides and poured leftover ganache, and me and mom enjoyed these for ourselves. Yummyyy!!!!


This is the birthday girl, Jaclyn. She was giving a short thank you speech to all her guests.


We had lots of fun but me and Superhubby left early that night as I need to go home to pack my luggage for my home trip with mom and little Lucas.

I wonder if she will have another party like this when she celebrates her 40th birthday??? We shall see 10 years from now.

Sharon's Birthday Dinner & Brownies

12th Nov marked Sharon's birthday. This year I thought of a surprise celebration for her. She was supposed to be on leave that day but Leon, her fiance, called to inform me that her leave was cancelled. Btw, I managed to get some help from Leon to transport Sharon over for the surprise dinner at my humble home.

He picked her up after work,blind folded as she was not suppose to know where he will be driving her to, while we (mom and myself) were busy preparing dinner at home. To cut things short, here are some pictures of the night to remmember by.

We hope she enjoyed her surprised birthday celebration.


Sharon blowing her candle on the birthday brownie. Yeah, I guessed this must be her 1st time blowing candle on brownie instead of a cake. Hehehe...

Mom's specialty - Hainanese Chicken Chop

My homemade mushroom soup

My homemade mashed potato (recipe is available at the end of this post)

Caesar Salad with my homemade caesar dressing and homemade croutons

Mom's special sauce for the chops

The best part of all, my Triple Chocolate Brownies with Chocolate Coated Honey Comb Biscuits and Chocolate Ganache topping. What else can you ask for with such ending....

Here are the simple recipes for:

Homemade Mashed Potato

Ingredients (serving - 5)

4 large potatoes
2 tbsp of butter
3 tbsp of condensed milk (optional - omit this if you prefer it salty. This is for the sweet version)
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper

Method

1. Peel off potatoes skin and steamed for 30 mins
2. Mash potatoes
3. Add all ingredients and continue to mash
4. Best serve warm


Homemade Croutons

Ingredients

2 slices of bread or baguette ( cut into small pieces)
extra virgin olive oil
dried herbs (optional)

Method

1. Prepare aluminium foil on a flat pan
2. Scatter the bread pieces on the prepared pan
3. Pour extra virgin olive oil evenly over the bread
4. Spread herbs over and mix well
5. Toast in a preheated oven of 170C for 15 mins
6. Once cooled, pour over ready prepared salad as topping

Afternoon Snack of Wrap

I was watching tv with Lucas sleeping on my chest (his favourite sleeping position). Suddenly I remembered I have 3 pieces of breakfast ham in my fridge for almost a week. Gosh!!! I am not sure if they can still be eaten. Hmmm... they felt a little sticky but I placed them under running water and rubbed a little. Tah dahhhh.... all cleaned and edible now. Hahaha.... I dont like to waste food ya see... unless they are really badly rotten or sour.. but I tasted the ham and they were fine. So I stir fried them with cut pieces of pineapple and wrapped them up.

Here are the easy steps to making Ham & Pineapple wrap.

Ingredients:

1 pack of wrap (can get from Carrefour & NTUC)
1 small can of pineapple (omit the syrup)
3-4 pieces of honey baked ham or breakfast ham
1 pack of shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp of mayonnaise

Methods:

1. Cut pineapples and ham into small pieces
2. Heat pan and stir fried ham and pineapples till sightly brown


3. Place a wrap on a flat plate

4. Spread a thin layer of mayonnaise


5. Scoop a reasonable amount of pineapple and ham to one half of the wrap


6. Spread shredded mozzarella cheese on top of the ham and pineapple


7. Cover the other half and pan fried without oil. 1 to 2 minutes on each side till slight brown. Its for the cheese inside the wrap to melt.

8. Cut into half and serve while still hot and crispy

Enjoy!!!