The BE BLESSED Brownie

Added on 4 Nov:
This was my first bake after my long pregnancy anti-baking (think antithesis of pregnancy craving). Edna's at that age where all cakes are birthday cakes, and all birthday cakes are hers. And what is a birthday cake without a candle? *winks*

As always, this brownie is absolutely chocolaty and aromatic. It's just so simple to bake too!


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On request, my Brownie recipe, which originated from allrecipes.com. *grins*

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/4 cups white sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans/almonds/macadamia/walnuts
3/4 cup melted butter
4 eggs

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Grease and flour a 9x13inch baking pan.
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, cocoa powder, sugar and salt. Stir to blend.
4. Mix in 3/4 cup cooled melted butter and 4 eggs.  Make sure the butter is cooled because you really don't want to have scrambled eggs in your brownie. ;P
5. Mix thoroughly and add in the chopped nuts.
6. Spread the batter evenly into prepared baking pan.
7. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in preheated oven.
8. Cool completely in pan before cutting into 2 inch squares.


I suppose the best thing about this recipe, apart from the yummy factor, is how fast it is to bake it. This is one of those perfect, welcomed dishes when there is a potluck to attend. *grins*

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(19/06/2011) Edited to add:
This brownie can be a perfect pre-bake gift for a friend.
1. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.
2. In a dry and clean glass jar, pour sugar and press down firmly.
3. Add cocoa powder and press down firmly.
4. Pour in chopped nuts, making sure they are evenly layered in the jar.
5. Top off with the flour mix.
6. Seal the jar.

Make a card with the following instructions to attach to the jar:
=================================================================
The BE BLESSED Brownie

You'll need:
An oven. A 9x13 inch pan. 4 eggs. 3/4 cup butter. A large spoon.


Break the seal on the mix and empty the mix into a large bowl.
Engage the ingredients:  Use your hands to mix thoroughly!


Beat 4 eggs lightly, and together with 3/4 cup of cooled melted butter, add them into the mix.
Large spoon in hand, mix up everything so that it's well mixed.
Ensure the pan is greased, and spread the batter into it.
Set the oven to preheat at 180 deg C, and bake for 30 minutes or until done.
Simply allow the brownie to cool in pan before cutting into 2 inch squares.
Every square of warm brownie, serve with scoop of vanilla ice-cream.
Delight in the chocolately goodness of the brownie with family and friends!

Brenda's Bergerdils

Otherwise known as potato patties, these Bergerdils are easy to make and oh-so-yummy! The addition of chopped onions into the patties give these little potatoes a nice kick.

Brenda's Bergerdils
Ingredients
3 largish Russet Burbank potatoes (steamed and peeled)
3 1/2 tbsp dried shrimps (washed, blended, and fried with a very little amount of oil)
1onion, chopped
1 egg
1/2 tsp pepper
3 pieces of cream crackers, crushed (I use Hup Seng brand, and they come in packs of 3 crackers. See pic below.)

1 egg beaten with 40ml water for coating
Oil for deep frying

Method
1. Mash the potatoes and leave them to cool. You don’t have to mash them especially fine.
2. Throw in the dried shrimps, onion, crushed cream crackers (hey, alliteration! *g* I just smash the packet around and throw in the crushed crumbs into the mix), egg and pepper into the potato and mix the lot well. The ingredients flavour the potato enough that you do not have to add any more salt.
3. I like even-sized bergerdils, so I weigh them to about 50g and shape them into flattened balls. It helps in shaping if your hands are slightly wet, so after shaping about 3 or 4 bergerdils, I wash my hands to wet them. If you're making these as finger food, weigh them in at about 30g to make smaller bergerdils.

4. In a wok or pan, make sure the oil reaches about half the height of the bergerdil. Since most of the ingredients of the bergerdil cooks rather fast, the idea is to brown the bergerdil, rather than to deep fry them.
5. Dip the bergerdil into egg mixture and fry till golden brown.

6. Once removed from the wok, let the bergerdils cool on a wire rack to retain most of its outer crisp. You can eat the bergerdil warm or at room temperature (although I love eating them warm).

Bergerdils make excellent party food because they can be made in advance and warmed up before serving. And who doesn't love fried potatoes? heh

Baked Teriyaki Chicken

Delicious over rice, this baked Teriyaki Chicken is quite simple to make.

Terikayi Chicken
Ingredients:
1 pieces of Chicken thighs (Or any other meaty parts, or boneless parts if you like)

Marinate:
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cooking oil

Teriyaki Sauce:
3 tbsp mirin
1 1/2 tbsp Kikkoman sauce
2 tbsp Japanese sake
1 or 1 1/2 tbsp sugar (depending on how sweet you want)
50 ml of water

Method:
1. Marinate the chicken with the marinate ingredients for at least an hour. It's best if it's marinated overnight.
2. Bake the chicken on a wire rack in the oven set at 200 deg C, for about 10 minutes on each side. Use the leftover marinate to baste the chicken while baking.
3. While chicken is being baked, put all the ingredients for the Teriyaki Sauce into a frying pan and allow the mixture to simmer. Once the sauce thickens to your liking and taste, put the sauce aside.
4. Arrange the baked chicken pieces on a plate and pour the Teriyaki Sauce over the chicken. Serve hot with rice.

Watercress And Honey Agar-Agar

I had a glass of Watercress and Honey drink for the first time in a restaurant that specialised in Macau food. For the first time ever, I dawned on me that watercress, a veggie that almost only appeared in a savoury soup, could be enjoyed in a sweet drink.

The second time I had Watercress and Honey was in June this year. Edna absolutely loved the drink, and I thought to recreate it at home.

The quantities for the drink is just a suggestion - I suppose it's more to do with 'taste' than a hard and fast rule. Also, I really went by feel in this first try.

Watercress and Honey Drink
Ingredients:
1 bunch watercress, roots removed
5 red dates
1/4 cup rock sugar
Honey to taste
3-4 litres of water

Method:
1. Simmer the entire lot in a large pot for about 1 hour.
2. Pour the golden coloured liquid through a sieve.
3. The drink can be drunk either hot or iced. (I love it hot, but everyone else loves it iced.)

Because I made so much of the drink, I used 1.5 litres of it to make Agar-Agar. It was lovely because it wasn't too sweet.

Watercress and Honey Agar-Agar
Ingredients:
1.5 litres Watercress and Honey drink
15g Agar-agar strands

Method:
1. Boil the two ingredients together until the agar-agar strands dissolve.
2. Pour into jelly moulds and place the agar-agar into the refridgerator to set.

Both the drink and the agar-agar are lovely on hot, hot days. They'll cool you from inside out!

Eh, What's Up Doc?

Carrots! That's what.

Ethan's favourite veggies, but Edna absolutely won't touch them... unless they're hidden in yummy, moist, spicy, crunchy Carrot Cake!

Carrot Cake

Ingredients:
250ml vegetable oil
150g brown sugar
3 eggs
500g coarsely grated sweet carrot (sweet, as oppose to bland. I like to use the Aussie medium-size carrots found in NTUC supermarkets that are "brandless".)
120g coarsely chopped walnuts (I crush the walnuts individually because I like coarser bits in the cake.)
375g self raising flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp mixed spice

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Grease a 9" x 9" pan and line with baking paper.
3. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice together in a bowl.
4. Whisk eggs and sugar on MED till thick and creamy.
5. Fold in the oil lightly. Don't worry if the oil doesn't bind into the mixture at this stage - because it won't. Therefore, you don't need to stir the mixture too long.
6. Fold in the carrot and the walnuts. Again, don't worry if the carrot and walnuts don't get mixed evenly; the mixture still won't bind well until you...
7. Add in the dry ingredients. In this case, add in a few spoonfuls at a time, until the batter is more or less even.
8. Pour mixture into the pan and bake for about 1hr or till cooked. Test using skewer. If the top is browning too fast, cover it loosely with foil.
9. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes before turning onto wire rack. Turn cake top-side up to cool.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
30g butter
80g cream cheese
lemon zest from 1 lemon
120g icing sugar

Method:
1. Cream butter, cream cheese and lemon zest till light and fluffy.
2. Gradually add in the icing sugar.
3. Cream till smooth.

After the carrot cake is cooled, frost the cake with the Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting. Then sprinkle the with extra lemon zest and coarsely chopped walnuts.

Voilá! Carrots even non-carrot eaters would give a second look. heh.

ETA on 11 July 2007:
If you want to reduce the recipe, or just as a variation, a great way of making this cake is to make cupcakes! Just follow the above method and then fill up the cups 3/4 to the top.

Make sure you bake for only 40min!

You can decorate those cuppies with carrot slices shaped into carrots, like so:

A close-up look - that's a spring onion stalk! heh

Ethan Loves Baking!

This post has no recipe... only lots of Mummy's pride. heh.

Ethan came home from school yesterday with great excitement. Apparently, he had a "Math Fun Day" in school, wherein his class engaged in different Mathematical activities in a different locations in the school. There were areas where Ethan played with logic puzzles, shapes and matchsticks, but his favourite, and the reason for this post, is the area where the kids followed a Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe to bake 2 muffins that they can bring home.

Alas, the recipe remained in school, but I'm happy to report that my little baker's muffins are moist and yummy - "because we added some milk and an egg!" according to Chef Ethan.

Mousse Magic

After making the Mango Mousse Cake, I went on to make Durian Mousse Cake and Strawberry Mousse Cake with the same method.

I didn't add colouring to the Durian Mousse, so the more yellow layer is the sponge. The recipe for the sponge, and assembly for the cake can be found here.

Durian Filling Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
50g castor sugar (depending on how sweet/bitter your durian is)
1 tbsp gelatine powder
45ml hot water
250g durian meat
a few drops of yellow colouring (optional)
300g whipping cream

Method:
1. Whip the egg yolks and sugar until creamy.
2. Whip the whipping cream to soft peak.
3. Dissolve the gelatine with the hot water.
4. Mix well the steps 1 and 2 together.
5. Add in the melted gelatine and mix well.
6. Add in durian flesh and mix well.
7. Refridgerate after assembling the cake.

A close-up of the piped durians!

Strawberry Mousse Mother's Day Cake

A layer of fresh strawberry in the mousse

The mousse had such a pretty pink colour that I didn't want to cover it all up with cream.
Piped hearts details

Strawberry Filling
Ingredients:
1 tbsp Gelatine powder
45ml hot water
250g pureed fresh strawberry
3 tbsp icing sugar (optional – depends on how sweet your strawberries are)
300gm whipping cream

Method:
1. Whip the whipping cream with icing sugar.
2. Dissolve the gelatine powder with the hot water.
3. Add the gelatine mix to the pureed strawberry.
4. Add the strawberry mix into the whipping cream and mix well.
5. Refrigerate after assembling the cake.