.::. Profiteroles .::.

I finally started baking again, after the husband replaced the transformer for my kitchenaid.  He blew the whole thing when he tried to use it to make brunch some time ago.

As we're hosting a few Christmas cum housewarming parties, I wanted to make some dessert for our guests.  I thought that profiteroles were a good choice - easy to make beforehand and kids would love it.  The first time I made this was with Emma in Sweden, it's a traditional French dessert - one of the many that she taught me.  How I miss those days.

I followed Martha Stewart's Pate-Choux Recipe and actually converted everything into grams.  It was really easy to do.  I just dumped everything into the pot, boiled it, then dump it into the kitchenaid, added eggs, and it was ready to be baked.

The recipe from her site, with my own conversion to grams for easy measurement.  I actually put everything into the pot that I'm using to boil and added everything on a digital scale.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (114g)
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (160g)
• 4 large eggs, plus 1 large egg white - I used 5 eggs as the normal eggs in Singapore are pretty small and the mixture was too dry for soft peaks to form.

Directions

1. Bring butter, sugar, salt, and 1 cup water (263g) to a boil in a medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Using a wooden spoon, quickly stir in flour. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides and a film forms on bottom of pan, about 3 minutes.
   
2. Transfer to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until slightly cooled, about 1 minute. Raise speed to medium; add whole eggs, 1 at a time, until a soft peak forms when batter is touched with your finger. If peak does not form, lightly beat remaining egg white, and mix it into batter a little at a time until it does.
   
   
   I used the macaroon set which the husband bought for me secretly.  It had all the pipings and sheets.  It rose beautifully in the oven.
   
   2/3 of the whole batch.  Take note of the cooling part, leave it in the oven partially open to cool slowly or cut a hole for the steam to come out.  Otherwise, all of them will deflate and look soggy.
   
   You're then supposed to cut them into half and stuff ice-cream in between.  I used the 'watermelon' scoop (those used to make round watermelon or honeydew) to scoop the ice-cream.  Lastly, drip some chocolate sauce on it.  I was lazy to melt chocolate and make my own chocolate sauce and used Hersheys' instead,
   
   It's then ready to be served!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

.::. We ♥ Singapore .::.

We had a cooking competition to celebrate Singapore's 45th Birthday this weekend. Thanks to Jo, who's always churning out all sorts of interesting ideas (can't imagine what goes on in her mind). This time round, 4 of us were supposed to choose an ingredient, then draw lots. We were supposed to cook a dish with the ingredient we were given. We will be graded based on categories like creativity, taste, presentation and theme, which is National Day.



I was given 'Portobello mushrooms'. I marinated the mushrooms for an hour before grilling it in the oven. After that, I cut them up and wrapped them into dumplings together with cheese. I was hoping that the dumpling would be filled with mushrooms and melted cheese. I even bought a red tray and cut the cucumbers into 'star' shapes to adhere to the theme. The sauce of chilli and tar-tar sauce is Joel's contribution. Although it didn't turn out as heavenly as I imagined (the mushroom shrinked and the dumplings were quite empty inside), I won the cooking challenge. I think I won because of the presentation and theme, since none of them really worked on that part.

The dinner. Ju made steamed toufu with minced meat in Marmite sauce (the ingredient which was given by Jo). I've never tried Marmite sauce, but I like egg toufu! Jo deep-fried the eggs in flour and stir-fried it with salted egg. I was the one who came up with the ingredient 'egg' because it was so common and difficult to score on creativity and taste. I thought her dish was quite creative though I'm really not a salted-egg person.

It was a great dinner!

Chye made dessert with her given ingredient - 'black tea' (Ju chose that ingredient). It's so challenging, but she made quite a few desserts with earl grey tea, and I really liked it! My favourite is iced earl-grey tea with earl-grey jelly. It smells so nice, and I love earl-grey!

Her 'official' competing dish was 'Earl-grey-misu'. She used earl grey tea to make tiramisu and it must have been alot of work since she grinded the tea leaves to mix it into the mascapone cheese to bring out the earl-grey flavour. Although I felt that the texture wasn't smooth enough (because of the grinded tea bits), I really liked the smell and I think it'll taste very good with a few more tries and some improvision!

Chye even made Lavander ice-cream!!! I found it too creamy, but it's a good try! At this rate, we'll be able to open our dessert shop in a few years' time!

I miss those baking days in Sweden, trying out diffierent recipes with Emma every week. *sigh! My kitchen is a very incondusive place for baking here, since it's so cluttered and there's no empty space anywhere! For me, mood and the heart plays a big part in cooking. Without which, nothing would taste good. Since my kitchen is so cluttered and messy, it's hard to make anything that tastes good inside it.

*sighsigh. I shall try to make time to bake something delicious soon! I really want to try the ice-cream recipe book that Joel got for me from U.S.'s Ben and Jerry's. =)

.::. Accountants' Night .::.



Spent Saturday morning baking. Tried making moist chocolate cake and the french salty cake - curry chicken version! I loved it. Emma tried the carrot with bacon one the last time, and it was great too. I'm falling in love with savoury cakes!

Brought the chocolate cake over for the class party tonight. Ironically, this is the first bigger gathering we had as a class - after all our classes and exams were over. It's good though, perhaps accountants are generally more boring and needs more time to warm up to each other.

Thanks to Fai's and Aom's invitation, the crazy accountants night materialized.

It has been a great night. I love thai iced-tea. =)

.::. Exams, be gone! .::.



Spent the previous week hiding at home, worked on the home exam for 2 days and spent the weekend mugging for my 'last' written exam (at least for a student). *yaaayyy!! Both were pretty alright, no need for any re-exam! =)

Tried a relatively more difficult recipe for my pistachio chocolate cake, and it turned out great. We had a hard time trying to crush the nuts without any blender!

Spring is definitely here. It's sunny most of the days and temperatures are 'warm'! *yayyyy!

.::. Dinner .::.

This week's dinner was prepared by Anny and I, we had fried rice with japanese curry. They loved the japanese curry, but well, nothing special for us, so no pictures!

The highlight of the night was Emma's typical french dessert.

Stuffed with ice-cream and topped with melted chocolate.

Profiteroles!! Super yums. I like puffs, ice-cream and chocolate, so obviously I liked it...I shall try to make it and give 'Beard Papa' a run for their money..hahas..

Had a quiet dinner with Emma after studying in the Harry-potter-like library and gym on Friday night since both of us have exams next week. I swear the library looks totally like the ones from Harry Potter, but it's too quiet and I can't snap a picture inside. She made a typical french dish - Tomate Farcie which she had often as a child. It's simple, but *yummms.

I think it's the first time I had oven-cooked rice, as in, putting hard uncooked rice into the oven to cook it. And I came to know about 'salty cakes' with things like cheese and bacon which they have for appetizer. Shall try making that soon!

Can't wait for Monday's exam so I can get it done with!

Then, it's gym, baking, cooking next week, followed by Easter holidays! =)

10 weeks!

Back to my books. Ciao~

.::. Alex' Birthday .::.

We celebrated Alex's birthday with dinner at an Italian restaurant followed by party at a corridor this Saturday night.



The birthday girl. Alex is this German girl from the south of Germany. She's 1.8m tall and really kind.

Her good friend, Julia made this traditional german birthday cake for her. Both of them have dinner with us often and Julia is one of the cheerful-est person I've met. It's like the sparkle in her eyes and laughter is infectious.

My Valentine. Hahas.



At the Italian restaurant for dinner. Emma, Julia and Alex.

This Exlim is really lousy! Super grainy in low light conditions. Even photo-editing functions could not save the pictures. =( I miss my Ixus so much. *sigh!

.::. Sunday Brunch .::.

Since I stayed over at Emma's after Alex's birthday party, we woke up in the late morning to cook brunch.



'Salty' brunch this weekend.

Here's my creation - egg tofu and straw mushrooms wrapped with bacon and Emma's curry oven-baked chips! *yums!

Trying to bake (yet) another of my favourite desserts - warm chocolate cake. I knnow it doesn't look very good...but...

It was really, really delicious!!!

So yea...I've almost finished baking all my favourite desserts. I think we're going to try something more difficult the next time!

And because the french is so good at baking, I really feel like learning french in order to learn everything about baking. I really might start going for some french classes soon, and Emma can practise with me (and laugh at my grammar mistakes). Seriously.

.::. Baking! .::.

I (we) have been baking quite abit this week!



I've to say that the Crème brûlée was really good! *yums! It's actually quite simple to make...





We baked for brunch on a lazy Sunday morning today.

I made scones. It actually tasted great too!

The roommate made chocolate banana cake which tasted great, but I'd like more bananas in it. Emma made pancakes which were great too.

All and all, we're becoming great chefs! The aim is to learn more recipes of my favourite desserts before I go back. Having the time to bake and cook is a luxury which eludes me back home in Singapore.

We did go to the gym after these sinful delights. 4 times this week.

13 weeks!!!

Bracing myself for the crazy week ahead.

.::. Fai's Birthday .::.



Fai's getting older! =p

With the birthday cake and my ugly cheesecake. *sigh! The colour of the M&Ms I used to decorate the cake ran and ruined my cake.

My 2 thai classmates who often cook me great food!

The cheesecake was alittle soft, but it still tasted relatively good. Hahs!