festive indulgence

Brownies are one of my family's all time favourite baked goods. They take very little time to prepare and are so simple that anyone can bake a batch with ease.

They are excellent homemade Christmas treats to giveaway to any chocolate fans.

Rocky Road Ahead

It has been a week since the start of the new year. We are happy to be back home and we even welcomed the heat. The kids are back to school and we are all busy adjusting to the new school term and getting ourselves familiar with the new set of routines.

My tween begins the new school term with a great hurdle in front of him. Like all his peers, to mark the end of their sixth year in primary school, he will be taking the national exam later part of this year. Whether a student gets to be posted to the secondary school of his choice would mainly depend on how well he performs at this nationwide examination. It is definitely going to be a tough year, judging from the amount of homework my child had to do on the very first week of school.

I bought a box of brownies mix when we were in Beijing. I had intended to bake a batch of rocky road brownies on Christmas day. However, I didn't had time to do any baking after a day trip to Simatai, (a section of the Great Wall). So, I brought the ready-mix, together with the marshmallows and M&Ms, all the way home, and now these rainbow brownies became my 1st bake for the year! What a sweet start!

As with all ready-mix, baking out of a box is simple, fast and everything is done in a bowl. Like an obedient student, I followed the instructions to a T...including the part on stirring the ingredients together...with a spoon for about 50 times. I couldn't believe myself that I actually counted the number of strokes! Well at least I proved that the instruction is accurate, by the 50th stroke, the batter was well mixed with no traces of any of the flour mixture.

The brownies was done after 25mins in the oven, I took it out and dotted it with lots of marshmallows (I didn't have mini ones, so I used a kitchen shear to cut them into smaller chunks), followed by a shower of chopped peanuts and a light sprinkling of mini-M&Ms. I popped the pan back into the oven and waited patiently for the marshmallow to melt. I removed the brownies once the marshmallow started to brown.

These brownies are terribly fudgy...dense, moist, gooey and a little chewy! My kids love it! I prefer the texture to be firmer so I kept them chilled in the fridge. The chocolate-nuts-marshmallow is a perfect combination of flavours and texture...you get sticky, crunchy, chewy all in one mouthful!

Even though it is going to be a rocky road ahead for me as well...as I would likely be operating like a single parent for most part of the year...I will be holding on to my boys hands and hopefully we are able to cross or maneuver whatever obstacles along the way.

Brownies Rediscovery

My boys don't see eye to eye on most things. Brownies are just about the few things that they share a common view. It is also the only thing that both would crave for, constantly. They will be very happy if I were to make brownies for them every other day. Both like their brownies dense, fudgy and most importantly, without any nuts!

I like brownies too...both making and eating them :) My first ever bake that I did on my own was a tray of brownies, out of a box of premix (without nuts). He was only 2 and half years old when my elder son tried my first homemade brownies, and it has since been his favourite treat of all time.


Although brownies come in a variety of forms and flavours, they usually come in two textures: fudgy or cake-like. The fudgy type of brownie has got moist and dense interior, and depending on the recipes, can be chewy or gooey. Cake-like brownies are lighter, airy and slightly fluffy.

So how do you know whether a recipe will give a fudgy or cakey brownie? What I have learned so far is that when a recipe calls for a relatively small amount of flour, chances are it will yield fudgy brownies. The other thing that I have noticed is that fudgy brownies are usually made with liquid fat...either oil or melted butter. Most of the time the chocolates are melted with the butter before the rest of the ingredients are added in. The larger amount of sugar vs flour also contributes to the fudgy-ness of the brownies. Due to the high sugar content, a thin crust would form on the surface. I find fudge brownies so easy to make as I would only require a wooden spoon or a spatula and everything can be done with a saucepan.

To get chewy brownies, it will require slightly more flour and usually cocoa powder is used in place of melted chocolates. The proteins in the flour and cocoa powder will give the chewy texture and make the brownies less gooey.

If a brownie recipe calls for creaming the butter with sugar, you will likely get a batch of cake-like brownies. Always use room temperature butter for creaming, that is it has to be soft, but still firm. I read from a cookbook that you can test by pressing your fingertip onto the butter. It should be able to leave an indentation and yet feels firm. You can also gauge by leaving the butter on your counter for 15 - 30mins (depending on the weather) before using it. If the butter is too soft (it will appear very greasy), it will melt even further when beaten, resulting a chewier textured brownie. Chemical leaveners such as baking powder is always used in cake-like brownies to give it a fluffier texture. It is especially important not to over-bake this type of brownies(in fact it applies to all brownies!) otherwise it will dry out and you will end up with a chocolate cake instead. Even after removing from the oven, the brownies will continue to cook for a few minutes from the residual heat. I always under-bake my brownies...ie the toothpick should still have a few moist crumbs cling onto it when you do the doneness test.


I have always been making fudgy brownies. It was only recently that I first attempted a cake-like brownie. I put it right on top of my to-do list the moment I first saw this Chocolate Walnut Brownies recipe from Grace's Kitchen Corner. The recipe uses much less fat and sugar as compared to my usual brownie recipe, and I wasted no time to make a batch for my kids who have been deprived from brownies for months.

I followed the recipe quite closely except that I used brown sugar, and after constant reminders, I omitted the nuts. My kind offer to use pistachios was also turned down flatly. I don't have 100% cocoa powder, all I have is a can of Ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa. I guess that's the reason why my brownies were not as dark as Grace's?

I was a little alarmed after I added in the coffee mixture...the batter started to look almost curdled. But there was really no cause for concern, once the flour and cocoa powder is added in, the batter became smooth and thick.

It's always a joy to detect the intense flavor and aroma being released into the air when you are baking a tray of brownies. Although lighter in texture, these cake-like brownies are really delicious. I like the tiny bits of chopped chocolates which did not melt away after baking. My kids were happy to have their cravings satisfied, although the younger fellow requested that the next time I should make him 'those brownies with hard crust' which he is more familiar with.


I prefer fudgy brownies but I would not be able to resist a square of cake-like brownie. So which kind of brownie is your favorite?

Rocky Road

While I was looking through a yogurt cake recipe, my son came over to tell me that he'll love to have some brownies. Oh well, since he has asked for it, I'll rather bake something which the kids would eat, otherwise I may end up having to finish up whatever reminding bakes I made.

After scanning through a few brownies recipes, I still couldn't find a suitable one. Finally, I decided to use the same Nuts and Chocolate Chips brownies recipe that I've tried a few weeks back. This time round, I added walnuts to the batter, and used some marshmallows and chocolate chips as toppings and turned it into a Rocky Road brownies.



As you can see from the photo, the brownies didn't turn out that well. It's all due to my oversight :'( After turning down the oven temperature to 140 degC to toast the walnuts, I have forgotten to turn it up to 180 degC. Yes, I baked the brownies at 140 degC for 25 mins and merrily took it out and covered it with the toppings. It was only after 10mins later, I noticed that it shouldn't take sooo long for the marshmallows to brown...and it was only then that I realised the oven temperature was not right! So, by 'instinct', I turned up the temperature and within a couple of mins, there was smoke coming out from the oven! The marshmallows were almost burnt! I quickly removed the pan and covered it with foil and let it bake for another 15mins.


As a result, the brownies was a little under baked. The centre was soft and fudgy. Luckily, it still tasted quite good, and the kids love it, even my husband was all thumbs-up. My niece who came over to play had also asked for second helpings. The marshmallow topping was indeed very delicious...the texture was rather chewy, reminds me of mozzarella cheese...yum!

Fun with Chocolates

Last night, just before bedtime, my elder boy requested that I bake him some brownies the next day. He has been craving for brownies for quite some time already. We checked through a few recipes and decided to try this walnuts and chocolate chip brownies from a book which I bought recently. The description and the texture of the brownies look really attractive to me: "These chunky chocolate brownies are moist, dark and deeply satisfying. They are delicious with a morning cup of coffee and will definitely boost morale on a dreary day."

As promised, the first thing I did this morning was to bake a batch of brownies. It is a rather simple and straight forward recipe. It took me less than half-an-hour to get the brownies into the oven. I omitted the walnuts from the recipe as both my boys reminded me that they didn't want any nuts in their brownies.


I am so glad that the brownies turn out beautifully! They are rather thick (in terms of height) unlike my previous attempts, the brownies were too dense and were usually very flat and thin. I like the slightly flaky and crisp crust, with a moist, cake-like layer on top and it gets fudgy nearer the bottom. This is by far my best brownies which I have made from scratch, and it uses sunflower oil instead of butter...so much 'healthier' than another recipe from the same book that requires almost an entire block of butter! My boys couldn't really wait for me to finish my photo-taking session, they kept asking when they could try a piece of the brownies...and guess what my younger one was "doing" while I was trying to get the best lighting for my photos?


What can I say, but to give them each a piece right away!

Each time if I use any melted chocolates for baking, I will let my younger boy to help "clean-up" the bowl...he will lick up every single trace of melted chocolate. This time, I used the left over chocolates and made this:

I learnt this from the Martha Stewart's show...simply use a brush (I used a chopstick), dip it with melted chocolate and paint funny faces on the inside of a clean glass. Chill the glass in the fridge to let the chocolate set before filling it with cold milk. The 3 of us had fun painting our own glasses. They certainly look ugly but adorable, aren't they?!



Nut and Chocolate Chip Brownies

Ingredients
(makes 16)

150g semisweet chocolate, chopped
120ml sunflower oil
215g light brown sugar (I cut down to 200g)**
2 eggs
5ml vanilla essence
65g self-raising flour
4 tablespoon cocoa powder (unsweetened)
4 tablespoon milk chocolate chips
75g chopped walnuts (I omitted this)

**latest update: I further reduced the sugar amount to 180g and the texture or taste was not affected.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC. Lightly grease a shallow 19cm/7.5 inch square pan.
2. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
3. With an electric mixer (a manual whisk works well too), beat together oil, sugar, eggs and vanilla essence in a mixing bowl.
4. Stir in the melted chocolate then beat well until evenly mixed.
5. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the batter. With a spatula, fold thoroughly until all the flour mixture incorporates into the batter.
6. Stir in walnuts and chocolate chips. Mix well.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared square tin. Spread the mixture evenly to the edges. (The mixture is rather sticky and gooey.)
8. Bake for about 30 ~ 35 mins until the top is firm and crusty. Cool in the pan before cutting into squares.

Recipe Source: The Cookie and Biscuit Bible

Colour My Day!

My kids have been pestering me for brownies for weeks. Since Easter is round the corner, I baked a batch of Rainbow brownies for them yesterday.

I followed a simple brownies recipe from Hershey's website, frosted it with chocolate ganache (simply melt 125g of chocolate with 3 tablespoon of milk) and topped it with M&Ms and rainbow rice.

My younger boy did the decoration. He was very liberal with the candies..scattering as much as he could. I had to stop him when the brownies got really too busy. It was like a colourful, dazzling piece of artwork from a pre-schooler! I must say it certainly looked very cheerful with those fireworks of rainbow rice and M&Ms.


The brownies looked much better when they were cut into squares...less fuzzy and more appealing to me :))

We had these colourful squares for breakfast early this morning...a good source of energy much needed for our outing to the HSBC Tree-Top-Walk.

We ended our outing with a light brunch at the famous Jalan Kayu prata shop...and not forgetting the tasty otah and soya bean drinks from the shops along that stretch of shophouses at Jalan Kayu. It was a great morning for all of us!

Chocolate Chips Brownie Muffins

Woke up early this morning to make these brownie muffins for breakfast.

This is the second time I have made these rich muffins...they are brownies actually. I adapted the recipe...Pecan and Chocolate Brownies, from one of the Australia Woman's Weekly Cookbook series. I didn't regret getting up slightly earlier than my usual Saturday mornings. I am quite happy with the result of the above photo. This is one of the better photos I have taken so far. The early morning sun gives enough lighting for this shot, which I took in our study room. Most of my photos are too dark because of the poor lighting condition in my kitchen.

These brownie muffins or muffin brownies, were neither brownie-like or muffin-like!

They were less fudgy that brownies...slightly more cake-like. They didn't taste exactly like muffins either, as they were kind of dense as compared to the fluffy texture of the usual muffins I made. I would say they were a "cross" between the two. In terms of taste, they were really good! "Yummy! Very good but not very sweet." my younger boy was nodding his head off with approval. I have cut down on the sugar this time as they were too sweet when I first made them. If you have a sweet tooth, do feel free to add in extra sugar ;)

Ingredients:
(makes 6 muffins, with diameter 2.5" by height 1.5" muffin cups)

80g butter, chopped into chunks
150g dark eating chocolate, chopped
100g sugar (the original recipe calls for 165g brown sugar)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g plain flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
A handful of chocolate chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degC. Line muffin pan with paper liners.
2. Sift together flour and cocoa powder, set aside.
3. Place butter in a saucepan, melt over low heat. Once the butter starts to melt, add in the sugar. Stir to prevent sugar from getting burnt. Add in the chocolate and stir still smooth.
4. Transfer chocolate mixture to a mixing bowl. Stir in the eggs gradually, followed by the vanilla extract, then the sifted flour & cocoa powder mixture. Stir till just incorporated.
5. Divide batter into muffin cups. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and bake for 20 mins or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Do not over bake as the muffins may get dry.

A Tower of Brownies

Made these brownies last night. I have refrained from baking anything with chocolate lately, as both my kids have been unwell for the past weeks. Upon their request, I baked these for their breakfast today.

I followed the recipe from Alice Medrich's Chocolate Holidays: Unforgettable Desserts for Every Season. It recommended a ice bath method...a special but simple technique to a perfect brownie. This involves baking the brownies at a high temperature of 200 degC for 20 mins, and once out of the oven, submerge the pan straight into an ice bath (a bigger pan filled 3/4 full with ice & water). Let the brownies cool in the ice bath before cutting into squares.

Cleaning up after the baking session was really easy. The main utensils I used were only a saucepan and a wooden spoon! I melted 4 oz butter and 4 oz unsweetened chocolate in the saucepan directly over low heat(although the instructions says to melt them in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water). Then, I simply stirred in the rest of the ingredients: 200g sugar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1 tsp vanilla essence , followed by 2 eggs (adding one at a time) and finally 70g of plain flour directly in the saucepan. I also lined the baking pan with foil, and if you are really not fussy, you don't even have to wash it ;]

The top half of the brownie is rather crispy while the bottom half has a softer texture. In fact, you could see a clear distinction of the 2 layers from the photo above. They are rather rich and a bit too sweet for my liking, although my kids find the taste just nice. Anyway, I'll definitely cut down the sugar next time.

Note: This recipe yelds 16 squares.

Lemon Bars

I finally made these lemon bars yesterday. Must say it tasted much better than the orange bars I made two weeks ago!

They are not as sweet since I cut down the sugar to 3/4 cup instead of the 1 cup called for in the recipe. They taste rather sourish when you take the first bite, but somehow, the sourish taste fades away after the second bite. It certainly has more "kick" than the orange ones ;b

Orange Bars

Both my boys like lemons. Whenever they have fish & chips, they would reserve the wedge of lemon till the end of the meal. They like to lick and suck on the lemon! So when I came across the lemon bars recipe by Alice Medrich, I thought I would try it someday. A few days ago I bought some lemons specially to make the lemon bars. While I was gathering the ingredients, a thought suddenly came into my mind. Why don't I substitute lemons with oranges? Personally, I prefer oranges. I didn't foresee any problem since the only change was to replace the juice and zest of lemons with that of the oranges and cut down on the sugar. With that in mind, I set off making the orange bars.

Since this is my first attempt, I have no prior knowledge how the base or topping would turn out. While making the base, I was a little hesitant to add in the flour all at once. So I just added a little at a time. Small little lumps began to form. I got worried and thought maybe I should just throw all the flour in as the recipe didn't state that the flour should be added in gradually. Fortunately, once all the flour was added, with only a few stirs, a soft dough was formed. When the crust is baking in the oven, I prepared the topping. I wasn't sure whether I could let the topping "sit" and wait for the crust to be ready. So I waited until the crust was already in the oven for 15 minutes before preparing the topping. When the topping was done, I became worried whether the topping would set. With 3 eggs, half cup of orange juice and only 3 tablespoon of flour, the mixture was very thin. Luckily the topping was able to set within 30 minutes in the oven.

I was a little disappointed with my little experiment. They were not as thick and certainly looked far from those made by Evan. Even though I have cup down the sugar by half, the topping still tasted too sweet for my liking. My boys were all thumbs up though, kids simply like sweet stuff! I like the crust though, very buttery and crispy. As I have not tasted any lemon bars before, I have no idea how these orange bars would compare to the real McCoy? I will definitely try out making the actual lemon bars very soon.

Ingredients:

Crust:
113g butter, melted
50g granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
140g all-purpose flour

Topping:
100g sugar
3 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1.5 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
1/2 cup strained fresh orange juice
2 to 3 tablespoon powdered sugar for dusting

Method:

1. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil on all 4 sides. Preheat oven to 180degC. Position a rack in the lower third of oven.


2. For crust: melt butter in medium saucepan. Remove from heat and stir in sugar, vanilla, and salt. Add the flour and mix just until incorporated. Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is well browned at the edges and lightly browned in centre.


3. For topping: while the crust is baking, stir together the sugar and flour in a medium bowl until well mixed. Whisk in the eggs. Stir in the orange zest and juice. When crust is ready, turn the oven down to 150degC and slide the rack out without
   removing the pan. Pour filling over hot crust.


4. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until the topping is puffed at the edges and no longer jiggles in the center. Set on a rack and cool completely in pan. When cooled, lift the foil liner and transfer to cutting board and cut into 16 bars. Sieve powdered sugar over bars just before serving.

Journey to home baking

I finally bought a convection oven in August. I have stopped working since January this year to be a full time stay-at-home mum to take care of my 2 boys. I love baking, more than cooking meals for the family. Since I bought my little oven, I have been able to try baking various types of muffins, cookies & cakes. I have also managed to try frosting a layer cake. I realised that most of my friends do not bake or even cook frequently. I have came across many interesting recipes and bakes from the local food blogs here. By starting this blog, I hope I am able to get ideas and suggestions from fellow home bakers to improve my baking skills. At the same time I hope my creations and little experiments would also inspire others, who are like me, to start baking as a hobby. Here's my latest creation, Chocolate Fudge Brownies.

I followed the recipe from a cookbook for the base. The cake did'nt turn out to my expectation to be fudgy, instead, it's more cake-like and a bit dry. As such, I will not post the recipe here. The frosting is great. I melted some dark chocolate with whipping cream. It's very smooth and chocolaty. Yum yum! My LG likes the brownies, he finds it very tasty. I used little bear jelly gums to decorate the brownies as my younger boy luv candies.