baking time with kids, it's chocolate chip cookies!

Today, all the kids got together to steal my chocolate chips!

The recipe on the back of Hershey's chocolate chips pack called for the entire 12oz of Chips...

I was thinking... "That's so much! I'll have some leftover for sure..." Then I realized that every cookie that the kids implant with chips... They would sneak a couple of chips into their mouths... 😅

So we baked three rounds of cookies as we could only bake two layers of trays at a time... And indeed, finished up the entire pack of chips..  plus another 1/3 pack of mini chips which I leftover from other bakings... Wow!

The cookies turned out really delicious... Kind of melt in the mouth, if the timing was right... However, due to my bad multitasking skill, they were 'slightly' overbaked for another 1-2mins most of the time. Hohoho! 🤦🏻‍♀️ Still, they taste great!

The sisters easily ate 4-6 pieces in a shot while Wayne finished the entire bowl of about 8 pieces of cookies at once... Hahaha! I personally ate countless of them as I picked them up from the oven, transfered to plate and eventually to bottles.

Kids had fun, so did I 🤗😘😚 overdoes of chips...

The kids baked a brownie

When little Wayne returned from his staycation from grandma Floral's place, he started beginning as soon as he realized he missed the making of chilli cheese loaf...

So I explained to him that he had missed what he missed... The next opportunity would be to bake a brownie... Under Sis Renee's supervision.

The preparation and mixing went quite well and smooth... Just that the taste and texture didn't seem like how it should be. Haha... Anyway, here's my food for the next few days...

(This is a throw back post... So the brownie was long gone...)

Lao Gan Ma chilli and Cheddar Bread

So I decided to top up black pepper, garlic and Orion powder...

New love found!

My First and Only Bread Maker

Dear surprised me by going ahead to get me a bread maker, despite my rejection when he first asked about it.

Well, it was huge as I thought. It looks professional just like the bread toaster which I bought 8 years ago and used like less than 8 times... Oh and by the way, dear called that my white elephant.

Okay, back to my birthday present. Dear is full of ideas. Who would thought of a bread maker? Considering that I "could" make bread from scratch... Though it often ended up as hard as a rock that could possibly kill if thrown at someone.

It was certainly a fun experience for me (but not for my kids) running a first trial, heating it all up for our very first time. Thanks to them being so anxious, a little competitive over who does what... And me, being over protective towards my present from dear. Oops! Sorry kids.

So the one hour bread turned out to be three hours instead the moment when I misread the manual. An hour was for rapid bake, while sweet bread would be a normal 3 hours and beyond thingy... Still, it's considered fast as all I need to do is to get the perfect measurements and put them into the baking tray. Everything else was neatly (plus reliably) done by my new helper found - Kenwood BM450.

Volah! Meet my first bread maker product... What was it called? According to the recipe book provided, the Brioche Bread!

It was irresistible. Moist on the inside, thinly crispy at its light crust... The perfect balance between sweet and salty. Too bad I started it late, or dear and the kids would be able to try it when it's freshly out from the oven. 

The next on my checklist would be chocolate bread... Quick white bread... So looking forward to our breakfast! Wow :)

And here comes the Chocolate Bread... Seriously, this is a MUST try. So moist.... so soft!!!

I made 750g size as I need to bring some for my colleagues to try on the following day. See the pic above, it's so tall, covering my entire chopping board! For a record, they remained soft after three days! And they were 100% finished!

No pictures for the rapid white bread as it wasn't nice at all... going to cross it out from my future baking.

I improvised coffee bread from the chocolate bread recipe, making a 500g smaller version. It was superb! Simply yummilicous! I got the same texture (soft and moist), plus the coffee aroma... woOoOO~*

Next on my list would be some tea bread.... Earl Grey? Rose? MUhhahha~* Looking forward...

Sunday Baking

Today is the exact day of Mooncake festival, like what I had expected but the forecast hadn't, the haze was back. 

When the girls took their nap in the noon, I thought I have some time to try out a new bread recipe which didn't take too long to proof. 

So I went preparing and mixing all the ingredients to the expected stage (shiny smooth dough in windowpane stage)...

After the first proof, the girls woke up just in time to join me in shaping the buns and wrapping the filling (red bean paste and hotdog).

Renee made the red bean flower buns, while Phoebe rolled the dough for the hotdog buns. After an hour of proofing, they brushed egg wash onto each other's buns. Hahah ^^

 

9 buns in total, the texture is soft and without the yeast taste. Something funny was that the entire dough weighed at 506g, so logically, they should become 10 50g doughs but I only managed to get 9... Hmmz. ;p

This will be my go to recipe going forward ^^ quick, fool proof and taste good. Thanks to my aunt for sharing ^^

周末面包日！

这周，我们制作了热狗面包卷！

虽然没成功；但是孩子们都参与了整个制作过程。

包括在面团上打喷嚏、等等。。。

大家的手印都盖满了整个面包！

Weekend Honey Buns

Last week, Renee helped a lot in the making of red bean buns. This week, we tried something really safe... The honey buns, although what Renee had chosen from the recipe collection was the "Rotiboy" bun. Oops!

So, this time, both girls helped with the preparation of ingredients and mixing them together. The rest of it was made by myself when the girls were taking naps during the proofing.

Renee jumped out of the bed and exclaimed that she wanted to check on the bread dough when she woke up. I showed her to oven watching the 9 buns nearly sat in the square tray and rising ^^

When she heard the ding from the oven, she rushed to the kitchen and asked me to bring out the buns, "Mommy, 好了！"

So in the living room we sat and enjoyed our freshly baked fluffy and sweet honey buns! (Phoebe was still asleep at that time). ;p

Cako cako ^^

I had purchased a lot of silicon cake moulds from online lately... I got so excited that I had to bake something every week... Or perhaps every few days? Wahahahha ^^

So here's my miserable first trial... Conclusion? Pls grease!!!!!!!! T__T

Although they didn't look good at all... They still taste good with my sis secret recipe >,<

Midnight baking - AvoMango

AvoMango is the name that I had given to this muffin...

It's avocado mango muffin with a mix of raisins ^^

Anticipating...

In the oven at 190•c after 24 mins... WuhoO! Breakfast for Wednesday >,<

It looks good at first... Until I tried to remove them from the mould... Arghhh!!

Despite the disfigured looks of my AvoMango, it tasted good! Wahaha... I said so... ;p

Baked till he drop

It's butter cookie...

The key is not butter cookie but it's also the cookie...

The key is the cookie cutter and text prints on the cookies!!! ^^

It's been a long while since I last baked... These baking accessories were purchased some time in Mar....

And this midnight baking was hilarious because of my husband refused to sleep in the room until I was done... Seemed like his attempt to stop me from baking didn't work out the way he wanted...

So, may i present to you... my hilarious hubby... v funny guy... and v lovely, too! ^^ and my cookies!!!

Baking when 大宝 was away

Finally hit the kitchen to utilise my conventional oven further... because the chocolate chips sitting in the fridge was expiring. . Or should i say, had just expired. Wahahaha. ...

I needed to bake something that people will eat... so... so... so... It had to be something chocolate... (because majority of the folks here loved chocolate)

It was a tough decision between chocolate chiffon cake or chocolate muffin... and the muffin won!!! Because the chiffon cake needs 7 eggs, while the mufgins required just 2 ^^

One more reason was that there's no need to cut the muffins for sharing... It would be neat and tidy! Heee...

BTW, My helper asked "Mdm can bake so nice. Is it learn last time?"

My first NY cheesecake

Sunday, a pleasant weather for doing anything today.

While husband was out for a wedding lunch, I invited my long-old pal over to my place.

As the blocks of cheese cream were expiring soon, I was determined to bake cheesecake today. 

So we did it together, using my sis's scrap book recipe. Thanks to sis for baby-sitting Renee so that we could catch up and bake cake tgt!

I forgot to snap a few pics of the making but here's the end product... It kinda 'burst' on the crust because the tray was too small for this recipe... I filled the batter to the brim which was so wrong...

Looks fluffy, bubbly and soft... I hope it's properly cooked thoroughly... Wait till its chilled long enough for tasting... WuhOO! ^^

Oh BTW, Kriz, I wasn't aware that you r not a fan of cheesecake until today.. Oops! We can do something that u actually like the next time... So much fun baking tgt. LOL!!!

(Updated: After chilling this cake overnight, it was finally really to be served... Awfully delicious!!)

最不给面子的模特儿！

我左思右想，终于如愿以偿地烘烤了南洋风味的 Pandan Cake。我的第三次尝试。这回用的是21cm 的模型。效果还不错！

由于还没拿捏好烤箱的心情，或许还是可以再烘久一点吧！

看一看，这个最不给面子的小朋友如何回应我的心血吧！套用她的那句。。。咳哟！

Finally bye-bye charcoal rock!

This is the first time that I ever baked soft buns successfully by myself!! Not using the sure work recipe from my aunt... But from Christine's recipe... The butter bun. Here's the recipe for my own reference...

• 250 gm bread flour
• 25 gm cake flour
• 5 gm instant dry yeast
• 15 gm milk powder
• 40 gm caster sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100 ml water, about 36C/97F
• 80 ml milk, about 36C/97F
• 40 gm butter, softened at room temperature
• whisked egg, for egg wash (I skipped this and replaced with jus milk wash to prevent burnt)

Read more: http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2012/10/butter-buns.html#ixzz2Tw1GhFro

Christine had recommended 170°c for 20-25 mins... Again, I reduced my oven temp by 10°c to get it right at 160°c for 20mins... WuhOO!

As promised by Christine, These buns  are fluffy and soft and very yummy!!! Bread is always the best when it's just out from the oven... I must try again but not too soon... Till I recover from the extensive kneading... So pissed with the stubborn dough kept sticking onto my hands T__T

Hope that they will still taste as rich and soft the next morning! Hee Hee Hee ^^

(Update: it's the next morning. The bread are still soft but not as soft, should have stored them in airtight... Anyway, it became bkf for the whole family... Renee and I had more than 1 while the rest if the uppity ice folks tried one. Renee even tried to feed her rabbit and I... It's so so so sweet of her!)

My first attempt of Chocolate Meringue Tart

I was looking for Chocolate cake...

Then I saw chocolate pound cake....

And I came across Chocolate Meringue..

Thinking that it seemed extremely easy to prepare and bake... And the good review comments (Seriously, I was wondering how those folks swallowed those sweet treats down their throats)... Anyway... I decided to give it a try!

Turns out? Successfully..... wayyyyy too sweet for human consumption!! Nevertheless, I finished one of them and started to think how to dispose of the rest... Sadly... I shall leave out the recipe because this is probably the last time I'm going to bake this sinfully sweet thing...

 If you think that Renee didn't really like it... and she would crawl to any food placed in front of her.. well... then see the next few pics... those are good durians, which are way better than my Meringue...

Roomsssss for improvement!

My second attempt of the legendary banana cake didn't work out well... I wasn't keeping with the right ingredients and portion.... ;'(

My 'first' attempt of HK style cross buns failed too... Been replacing too many ingredients... "No more surprises, please..." commented Lulu. "Fail!" commented sis...

It's my second attempt on buns... This time with a familiar recipe (sweet buns/ milk loaf) and kind of strict keeping to the recipe (but not the steps) oops! Because it turned out too late by the time the dough was on first proofing... So I just left it overnight (8hrs)... Continued with it at around 6am when Renee woke up for milk... Muahahaha!!

Hope it's not too bad this time... And that dear gets to eat warm, soft and yummy luncheon meat cheese buns in the morning!!

Verdict: Lulu is right, no matter how bad the bread turned out, as long as its with luncheon meat, it'll still be nice... T__T

My Premier Chef!

星期六，我们到COURTS 霸市晃了一下。结果看见了KENWOOD中大型搅拌机，有史以来的最大优惠！

平时一台都得要$700-$800才买得到。。。这天，COURTS搞了促销，只卖$499！

让我蠢蠢欲动。。。但是我没买！哈哈！够冷静吧？

The first mega discount we had ever seen for Keenwood Mixer, from usual around $799 to $499!

多亏一位志同道合的同事在隔天到了TAMPINES CENTURY SQ的BEST DENKI市查！才捡到了这次的最强优惠。

最后，我们以$448购买一台！为了加长保证有效期至一共5年，我们补了$44.80的！ (Total $492.80)

超紧张的！这次虽然捡到了「便宜」；但是也花了一笔！我要节制才行！加油！

This is the discounted price which Best was offering, $1 cheaper than Courts but we managed to further discount at $448!

Lunchtime Tutorial

What to do with leftover bananas that were too ripe for consumption?

So I googled...

Banana cake and many other suggestions... Of all, I thought the easiest way out would be baking a banana cake ^,^

Getting ready the ingredients (I have substituted self-raising flour with plain flour+b.s. +b.p.+salt) and kinda of adapted 2 v similar recipes (one from bestrecipes.com.au and the other from Jamie's blog)

Disclaimer: I don't have any mixer! So I'm mixing the ingredients and beating the mixture with 2 forks and 1 whisk... I'm such an Armstrong now!

I baked the batter at 180•c for 35 mins and it turned out as fragrance, crispy on the crust and well done on the inside... Yipeez!