M&M Cookies - comparison of 2 recipes

Hosted a gathering for my Uni/Hall friends and their families today, with a baking session for the kids and it was a blast! This was the second time I hosted a kids baking session, the last one was a month ago for my Sec/JC friends. Really had a fun time baking with the kids, maybe this is my calling?? Well, sometime for me to ponder in the long run...

Anyways, when I started planning for this session, I couldn't decide which recipes to choose. The previous session I had blueberry yogurt muffins and Danish Butter Cookies, which were quite well received by the kids (about 5-6 kids). But this time round, there were 13-14 kids! Since there's equipment constraints due to the large number, I had to select something easy to manage and engaging for the kids.

Decided to stick to blueberry yogurt muffins as the recipe is easy to handle, without the need for electric mixer, and is quite a healthy recipe. As for the cookies, decide to go for M&M cookies! Well, all kids love M&M, don't they? Searched the internet for recipes and came across 2 recipes - one by Small Small Baker, and another by Joy of Baking. The 2 recipes use slightly different base ingredients; most noticeable is Small Small Baker uses Cake Flour and baking powder, whereas Joy of Baking uses Plain Flour (All Purpose Flour) and baking soda. I'm quite curious because usually plain flour is used for cookies instead of cake flour, same goes for baking powder vs baking soda.

Naturally I have to test bake both recipes to find out how the end product would turn out. In the end, I prefer the recipe by Joy of Baking even though the recipe by Small Small Baker is simpler with fewer ingredients. (No offence to both bakers for the comparison).

Comparison of ingredients:
Joy of Baking - more complex with more fat and sugar. Uses plain flour, baking soda, salt, unsalted butter, caster sugar and light brown sugar, 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, vanilla extract.
Small Small Baker - very simple, less fat and sugar. Uses cake flour, baking powder, unsalted butter, caster sugar, 2 full eggs.

Comparison of texture and taste:
Joy of Baking - Dough wetter, spreads when baking. More crispy and light/refine texture. Taste richer, more fragrant (due to light brown sugar).
Small Small Baker - dough dryer, doesn't spread much when baking. More crunchy and rough texture. Taste flatter, less fragrant.

M&M Cookies I

(recipe from Small Small Baker)

Ingredients

• 200g cake flour
• 4g baking powder
• 110g unsalted butter
• 70g caster sugar
• 1 large egg (about 60g with shell)
• M&M chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
2. Sift cake flour and baking powder and set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy (in an electric mixer or hand mixer).
4. Add the egg and mix well.
5. Add the flour and baking powder mixture gradually until just mixed.
6. Fold the batter to form a dough. Transfer dough to fridge to chill for about 30 mins.
7. Using a spoon, scoop a small ball of dough, roll into ball shape and place on parchment/baking paper.
8. Flatten the ball slightly and press in the M&Ms.
9. Bake at 180 degree celsius for 12-15 minutes (depending on size of dough).
10. When ready, let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to airtight container.

M&M Cookies II
(recipe from Joy of Baking)

Ingredients

• 260g plain flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 170g unsalted butter
• 50g caster sugar (original 130g)
• 70g light brown sugar (original 140g)
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• M&M Cookies

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius.
2. Sift plain flour, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
3. Cream butter and both sugars till light and fluffy (in an electric mixer or hand mixer).
4. Add the eggs and mix well.
5. Add the dry ingredients gradually until just mixed.
6. Fold the batter to form a dough. Transfer dough to fridge to chill for about 30 mins.
7. Using a spoon, scoop a small ball of dough, roll into ball shape and place on parchment/baking paper.
8. Flatten the ball slightly and press in the M&Ms.
9. Bake at 180 degree celsius for 12-15 minutes (depending on size of dough).
10. When ready, let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack before transferring to airtight container.

Sakura Matcha Chiffon

Finally I baked my Sakura Matcha Chiffon! Been wanting to bake this since last month, after my return from Nagoya, where I bought a packet of early spring green tea powder and pickled sakura flower.

The recipe is from Junko Fukuda's Chiffon Cake Book 福田淳子, 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手. Many home bakers seem to have this book and everyone raved about how good the chiffon recipes are, in their blogs, so I also bought a copy recently :)

The book has separate recipes for Sakura Chiffon and Matcha Chiffon. Since I didn't have Sakura leaf powder, I just use the Matcha Chiffon recipe top with some pickled sakura, like what Cuisine Paradise did.

The book also provides proportions of ingredients for both 17cm chiffon pan and 20 cm chiffon pan; I opted for the latter.

But I found the batter quantity too much for a 20cm pan. Usually I will fill the batter to about 2/3 full, otherwise the cake will rise too high and then have massive cracks (this situation happened to me a few times when I tried to fill the pan to 3/4). So for the remaining batter, I used a petite chiffon pan and 3 square paper cups.

Another intriguing thing is the recipe does not call for Cream of Tartar which is typically used to stabilise beaten egg whites. So I wonder if the chiffon would turn out as fluffy and tender as expected?

 This is the early spring green tea (first pick green tea) and pickled cherry blossom.

Strictly speaking, this is not really matcha since the green tea is not finely grinded into powder. This is just extra fine tea leaves? The taste is pretty raw, like grass actually, and I thought it might be interesting to use this for the chiffon instead of pure matcha.

Indeed, the chiffon didn't turn out to be deep homogenous green like the typical Matcha Chiffon. Mine is more like speckled greens all around. LOL. But the fragrance of the green tea is prominent and that is the key.

And even though there's no egg white stabilising agent, the chiffon still turned out very tender, moist and most importantly cottony soft! The pickled sakura added a tinge of saltiness to the otherwise sweet cake and I thought it was quite a nice touch.

 This is the petite matcha chiffon without the sakura.

The matcha chiffon cupcake.

All in all, Junko's recipe is indeed very good and I'm all for trying out the rest of her recipes!

Sakura Matcha Chiffon Cake
Recipe from  Junko Fukuda's Chiffon Cake Book 福田淳子, 好吃戚风蛋糕轻松上手
Makes 1 x 20cm chiffon pan, 1 x 10cm chiffon pan and 3 cupcakes

• 130g cake flour (I use Japanese Nissen Violet flour)
• 15g matcha powder (I use early spring green tea powder)
• 5 egg yolks
• 80g oil (neutral tasting like canola or grapeseed, don't use olive oil)
• 95g water
• 130g caster sugar (I use Japanese sugar)
• 7 egg whites
• Some pickled sakura

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree Celsius, conventional mode.
2. Soak some pickled sakura in water for 30 mins. Pat dry and lay at bottom of chiffon pan. Set aside.
3. Sift the cake flour and green tea powder twice, and set aside.
4. Mix together egg yolks, oil, water and 1/3 caster sugar, until well-blended.
5. Gradually stir in the sifted flour mixture and fold gently until blended. Set aside.
6. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites till foamy. Gradually add in the remaining sugar and beat on high speed till stiff peak.
7. Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the batter (3) until just blended. Next, fold in half of the remaining egg white mixture until just blended. Finally pour the batter back into the mixing bowl containing the remaining 1/3 of the egg white mixture. Fold gently till just blended.
8. Pour the batter into the chiffon pan, and bake at 180 degree Celsius for 40 mins.
9. After 40 mins, turn the pan upside down and let completely cool before removing the cake from the pan.

* For the 10-cm pan and cupcakes, bake for about 20-25 mins.

2 more rainbow cakes!

Wow, it seems as if I've been baking lots of Rainbow Cake recently? Well, not a lot lah, just 2 orders. One for E's son's 2nd birthday and another for E's friend's daughter's 11th birthday. Ok, what a mouthful.

Anyway, practice makes perfect and making Rainbow Cake doesn't seem as intimidating and daunting as when I first made it early this year for dear son's birthday.

These 2 cakes are both 7" round with 7 layers of colour - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Pink. Decided to stick to Whisk Kid's recipe since my test bake produced very good results; managed to adjust the recipe and buttercream frosting to fit this 7" configuration nicely. Had also adjusted the amount of ingredients so that the cake is much more tender than before, and the buttercream frosting less sweet so as to balance the sweetness of the cake.

For deco, I tried using M&Ms. Although it looked very pretty initially, the M&M would fade after a while due to condensation (initial storage in fridge) and the humidity :( Still have not found a way to manage this problem. So I guess I won't suggest using M&Ms for decoration in future unless I find a solution.

For packaging, as the cake is slightly taller than most cake boxes (commercial cake box is 5" tall, and the cake is about 5.5-6"), I improvised and used 2 boxes to make a taller box. Carrier is not a problem, since I've some nice plastic bags for cakes from Tokyo previously.

 

The layers turned out quite pretty and I was really pleased how the colours turned out. But the M&Ms, *sigh*.

For those of you who are keen, please email me for order enquiry at dreamersloft@gmail.com :)

"Sambuca" Kisses by Nigella Lawson

I watched an episode of Nigellissima on board an SQ flight recently and was immensely curious and attracted to this particular snack that Nigella made. It looked so easy, with only a few ingredients - egg, ricotta, plain flour, baking powder, sugar, orange zest and Sambuca. I couldn't really imagine how it would taste like, so I was determined to give it a try.

Apart from her very sexy voice, the way she lyrically described the snack was particularly intriguing, almost poetic-like. How could one not be intoxicated when she used phases like,

"... they are like doughnuts made not of batter, but of sweet air... it is like the lightest, most flattering caress in the mouth..."

" ... they are so light they make frying feel celestial..."

 

I must confess, while I know that she's a celebrity chef and all, I have never watched any of her programmes or read any of her recipe books. I think I'm a convert for now. It's somewhat comforting to hear her talk and watch her cook, and she made it look so effortless.

Anyways, back to the Sambuca Kisses. Immediately after I alighted from the plane, I googled for the recipe. Initially I had no idea what Sambuca was, I only know it's some kind of liquer. Thankfully for the internet, I managed to find the recipe, as well as the video. Sambuca is an Italian anise-flavoured liquer; not sure where I could get it here. After reading through the Q&As posted in her website, I learnt that the Sambuca could be replaced by vanilla extract. Although it's a pity not to have the intriguing taste of "anise-flavoured" liquer, I guess some good quality Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract could be a fine replacement.

So there, I'm prepared to make my very own "Sambuca" Kisses without the Sambuca. And like Nigella said, no challenges at all.

 

Sambuca KissesBy Nigella Lawson
From Nigellisima

 

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 100g ricotta
• 40g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (original 2 tsp sambuca)
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp orange zest
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 1-2 tsp icing sugar, to serve

Steps

1. Put the egg and ricotta into a bowl and beat together until smooth.
2. Add the flour, baking powder, sambuca/vanilla extract, sugar and grated orange zest. Beat the mixture again to make a smooth batter.
3. Pour about 2cm/1in oil into a frying pan, and heat until a small piece of bread sizzles when you drop it into the pan and browns in about 40 seconds (the temperature should be at about 180C/350F). And keep your eye on the pan at all times.
4. Oil a teaspoon measure and gently drop rounded teaspoons of the ricotta batter into the pan, about four at a time is manageable.
5. The little kisses will puff up slightly and turn golden underneath, so flip them over carefully with an implement, to colour the other side. Watch out that the oil doesn’t get too hot, turning the heat down if they are browning too quickly.
6. Once they are golden all over, lift them out with a slotted spoon and place them on a plate lined with one or two sheets of kitchen roll, to get rid of any excess oil.
7. Carry on cooking until all the mixture is used up, then turn off the heat under the oil. Once the kisses have cooled a bit, push the icing sugar through a small sieve to dust them thickly.
8. If you are not eating them straightaway, pop the pre-sugared cooked kisses on a rack over a tin in a 150C/Gas 2 oven, and keep them warm for up to one hour.
9. Serve with an espresso, with one teaspoon of sambuca added, for each person.
 

 

The "Sambuca" Kisses were indeed a delightful snack, very light although it was fried. Very crisp on the outside yet very soft and tender inside. It looks like doughnut balls but not exactly. Taste-wise, very subtle hint of cheese only; icing sugar is definitely needed to accentuate the overall taste of these treats. Finally, I satisfied my curiosity.

Rainbow Cake once more

Recently, I received an order for a Rainbow Cake from a friend E, who is celebrating his son's upcoming birthday.

Was considering whether to use the previous recipe attempted for dear son's birthday or try the other recipe by Whisk Kid that I was interested in. As it was also the hubby's birthday recently, I took the opportunity to test-bake Whisk Kid's recipe.

I decided to go for 7" round cake as my friend's cake is supposed to be for 10 pax. I reckoned the cake would be too tall if it were 6". But since it's only a test-bake, I just did a 4-layer cake instead of actual 7-layer one. As such, I halved Whisk Kid's recipe. For the buttercream, I also used Whisk Kid's Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and adjusted the ratio accordingly, enough to crumb coat and frost the cake.

The cake turned out beautifully, and in fact the texture was slightly more tender than the previous recipe, which was curious because Whisk Kid's recipe uses lesser sugar and butter comparatively. Or could it be the eggs? Whisk Kid uses only egg whites and lululu uses full eggs? I have no idea. But the cake's texture is still not as tender as I like. Probably I would use cake flour for the actual cake.

As for the lemony buttercream, I thought that the lemon extract was too sharp for my liking. Hubby had the same though as well. But the lemon taste did provide a slightly refreshing change to the otherwise vanilla base cake. Probably I will add lemon juice instead of extract, or explore other lemon buttercream recipe.

Rainbow Cake
(7", 4 layer, recipe from Whisk Kid)

Ingredients

• 213g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 113g unsalted butter, slightly softened
• 213g caster sugar
• 3 egg whites (I use 2 x 60g eggs and 1x 50g egg), room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180g fresh milk, room temperature
• Red, green, yellow, blue gel colouring

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degree celsius. Grease 4 x 7" cake pans and line with parchment paper. (Alternatively, grease the cake pans and dust generously with flour, then tap away excess flour). Set aside.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Mix well and set aside.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add the egg whites gradually, then add the vanilla extract and mix until incorporated.
5. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with milk, until just blended. Stop to scrap down sides of the bowl with spatula as necessary.
6. Total weight of batter is about 830g. Divide into 4 portions (each about 205g - 208g).
7. Add food colouring to each portion using toothpick, bit by bit to desired colour tone. Mix thoroughly to ensure all the colouring is well blended with the batter.
8. Pour batter into cake pans and smooth the surface. Bake for about 13 to 15 mins.
9. Place the cake pans on a wire rack to cool for 15 mins. Invert the cakes onto rack and let cool completely. If not frosting immediately, wrap each layer individually with clingwrap.

Lemony Swiss Meringue Buttercream
(with some excess)

• 8 egg whites
• 320g caster sugar
• 360g unsalted butter, softened
• 1.5 tsp lemon extract

Steps

1. Place egg whites and sugar in a mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water. Using a hand whisk, beat continuously until sugar has completely dissolved. The egg whites should feel hot to touch. Remove from heat.
2. Transfer mixing bowl to electric stand mixer and beat at high speed using whisk attachment till meringue is thick, glossy and cool down to room temperature.
3. Reduce speed to medium and add softened cubes of butter gradually. Continue mixing until the meringue turns into a silky smooth texture of buttercream. *It may seem like a long time, but the switch in texture can happen quite sudden, be sure to watch closely.
4. Add the lemon extract and mix till well-incorporated.
5. To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a serving plate/tray and spread some buttercream evenly. Repeat this process until all cake layers are stacked.
6. Crumb-coat the top and sides of the cake, and place the cake into the fridge to chill for 30 mins.
7. Frost the cake and garnish as desired.
8. Chill the cake to set the frosting. Leave in room temperature for at least 1 hour before serving.

Bangkok Jan 2013 - Fuji Japanese Restaurant & Som Boon Seafood

Continued from Part I and Part II.

 

Our second last day at BKK.

 

Both of us slept in till late morning and was about to go out for shopping when our friends text us for an early lunch at Fuji Restaurant, Siam Paragon.

 

I think we outdone ourselves once again, just let the amount of food do the talking :p

Seafood salad.

Pan fried beef.

Grilled unagi.

Salmon and Hotate sashimi.

 

Tamago.

Stir fried mushroom.

Sweet beancurd with rice.

Grilled mussels with garlic.

Pan fried bacon wrap with golden mushroom.

Potato croquet.

Tuna, squid and ikura sushi

Udon

Tuna and Hamachi sashimi.

Gyoza.

Futomaki.

 

Assorted tempura.

 

That was indeed a very hearty lunch, wasn't it? Imagine the amount of food just for four of us!

 

After lunch, all of us parted ways for our shopping before meeting in the evening for dinner.

 

 

This time round, we ventured to SomBoon Seafood at Surawong, apparently a very famous seafood chain in BKK. Had to queue for around 45 mins just to get a seat and we were there quite late in fact.

Grilled sotong.

Prawn cake with plum sauce.

Tom Yum Seafood soup.

Oyster in omelet.

Stir fried chicken.

Specialty of the restaurant. Crab in special sauce. We expected the sauce to be like curry and spicy but it was not, couldn't really describe the taste though. A little creamy, a little milky, slight sweetness.

Stir fried bitter gourd leaves. This was a bad dish, the stems/leaves were too fibrous and hard to chew and shallow.

Not sure if it was due to weekend, service was quite bad and the waiter only informed us that one of the dishes we ordered was sold out, after we waited for a long time and enquired. Food portion was also very small considering the price of the meal. We may or may not give this restaurant a second chance in future. Will see.

After dinner, we took a stroll at the nearby night market and thereafter headed back to Siam Square area. Wanted to do foot reflex at Chang Massage but it was full house. Hence, we retired early to the hotel. The next day was early flight back home.

Bangkok Jan 2013 Part II - Or Tor Kor Market & Ban Khun Mae Thai Cuisine

Continued from Part I

The next morning of our BKK trip, we decided to pay a visit to Or Tor Kor Market. Interestingly, we've been to BKK so many times and this was our first visit there. In fact, I only learnt about Or Tor Kor Market recently. The market boasts of around 600 stalls selling seafood, meat, local fruits, dry ingredients, vegetables, traditional sweets and desserts, cooked food etc. It's very clean and well-organized and easily accessible by MRT and is just opposite Chatuchak Market.

Thai durians, with signature long stems.

Seafood stalls.

Vegetable stalls, all neatly stacked and packaged.

Dried seafood stalls.

Hubby saw these salted fish which was very "fresh" and decided to buy some.

 

 

The stall owner was very friendly and when she learnt that we were tourists, she vacuumed packed the salted fish for us so that there won't be a problem for us to pack the salted fish in our luggage.

 

 

All the vegetables are neatly packaged and displayed.

 

 

Then we saw the Thai durians and decided to buy 2 seeds to eat. Each seed or each pair were neatly wrapped for the convenience of customers.

The durian meat was very fleshy, thick, sweet and creamy. Not bad, but I don't think I could eat more than 2 seeds coz it was quite heavy on the palate. I still prefer the rustic kampung bitter type of durians.

Stalls selling rice and all types of grains.

Cooked food stall selling all sorts of pork items including intestines.

Drinks stall.

Cooked food stall, same as our local mixed rice stall.

 

The roasted pork looked so inviting, we bought a packet. The crackling was very crispy and the meat was succulent!

There were also many hawker stalls. I saw this coagulated blood fish maw soup and immediately ordered a bowl. Turned out that the coagulated blood was not pig's blood but duck's blood!

Cooked seafood. It was an eye opener to see cooked seafood sold in this manner.

Dessert stalls.

Hubby ordered some rice noodles soup with pork, intestines and coagulated blood.

 

Hubby also ordered this interesting dessert, with some springy stuff, coconut and water chestnut (red rubies)

 

After spending the morning at Or Tor Kor market, we were in need of some food massage and proceeded back to Siam Square.

The service at Chang Massage was quite good and most importantly the seats were very comfortable that both of us dozed off in the middle of our massage.

In the evening, we met P and N for dinner at a restaurant located at Siam Square, highly recommended by them.

This was where our feasting started again!

Tom Yum Gong. Very tangy and spicy!

Steamed fish with green chilli sauce.

Green curry.

Minced pork with Thai Basil.

Spring roll.

Pad Thai fried noodles.

Pandan wrapped chicken.

Papaya salad.

Chap Chye.

Honey grilled pork.

Steamed river prawn in milk and egg.

Sticky rice and mango.

Steamed tapioca.

 

Red ruby. Water chestnut in coconut milk.

 

Amazed by the amount of food we ate? Stay tuned for Part III w'here's there was more food to come!