our first year
That was what i relinquished the most... someone whom i could depend on in times of trouble. Someone whom i could trust to love me the way i was and whom, that someone i could love wholeheartedly in return.
Thanks baby boy for helping me seek the light when i was lost in pitch darkness. You have made me love again, and in all respect, i give you my only gift, my love in return.
I love you babe!
Happy 1st year anniversary...
and I pray for many more to come...
p.s. thank you for the lovely Amedei and Michael Cluizel Chocolates.. *swoons* They certainly are out of this world!!!
TWD: Chocolate Chunksters!
*woots*
finally managed to drag myself up in the wee hours of the morning to bake a batch of these lovely cookies. Chocolate Chunksters chosen by Claudia of Food for Fool. The end result, a slight burn on the thumb (darn those thinning mittens. think I've got to get myself a new pair soon), a trayful of gorgeously chewy chocolate cookies and a chocolate smear at the side of my mouth (ARGH.. someone stop me!!!)
The cookie batter had a very watery consistency and had spread like wildfire once they entered the oven. I reckoned it must have been me cutting down too much on the dry chunky ingredients. Kitchen on a tight budget these days... Worst still, I did not realise that my salted peanuts had lost their crisp and adding them into the cookie meant giving the final product a hard and even unchewable texture. trust me.. my jaw had a good workout! But then again, I must say that the cookie had a wonderful ooey-gooey brownie like texture towards the centre which i loved and slight crisp corners. Didn't look anything like Dorie's picture. But who cares.. just as long as they are good!!!
Next up: Dimply Plum Cake (rubs palms.. erm.. just right. plums are in season now!)
note to myself: 2 more days to our 1st year of being together! *hugz*. love you babe!round-no-more
So i end this mooncake making fiesta not with an empty stash of paste but on a note of dwindling passion. gasps.. whats new actually. Guess mooncakes all that fun really. Had to trash my intial plans of trying out the several snowskin mooncakes that I had scribbled down because of a several lack of time. groanz... blame it on my poor time management. Then again, with a little experience under my belt from this year's trial; I'll return back with a vengance and determination to conquer more intriguing flavors!Last mooncake feature, a vanilla custard pandan lotus paste mooncake. The vanilla custard cracked up at several places. Perhaps because i oversteamed it a little. *buggers* But I'm certain that the flavor would be a hit paired up with a green tea snowskin. Next year.. next year...
So before i bid farewell to the season and ponder about what to do with my purchased mango lotus paste, chocolate lotus paste and remaining pandan lotus and black sesame pastes.. here's presenting to you a roundup of the mooncakes i've made.
Next big thing? Operation
Neon-Love!!!staleness?
How do I brush my wilfulness aside. To tame that adventurous soul in me? i have always attributed the ill fate of my relationship downfalls to the other party's seeking of novelty. But I have never sought to self evaluation. What if the villian was me?
I should never have blame you for being boring. I just could not deal with the fact that dates were nothing more than mundane meetups over meals and in some cases urgent response action to some last minute shopping for ingredients. It's all my fault...
guess it's just a natual path of a relationship that I've yet to experience before. Now all I've gotta do is to get ready to trod down the path with you. hand in hand, in step.
I still love you babe.
all things tropical
Tropic rains...
Another new creation pops outta the oven! This time all with the help of my baby Zhiheng. We had ultra fun sitting in front of the tv measuring out the fillings and then wrapping each individual layer into the next one. These look so much like mini- hulks(you know the cartoon charater?) after wrapping the fried coconut innards into the pandan lotus paste.
This recipe adapted from Mooncakes by Alan Ooi called for a little more work frying the coconut but with a few shortcuts (also due to a few shortage in ingredients), things weren't so difficult after all. Another plus point? my babe made a great weighing station manager... some strange abilities for grasping estimation really well. haha.
I know this post came in a little late. But if you guys are still interested in trying out these mooncakes. Do give the recipe below a go! I'm sure you'll enjoy yourself. Just a suggestion, you could always a different food coloring to the fried coconut to maybe bring out some color contrast. *smilez*
'All things Tropical' Mooncakes
adapted from Mooncakes by Alan Ooi
Ingredients for filling ( i used a 63g mini mooncake mould so i scaled the fillings to 40g each)
- 18g cooking oil
- 30ml milk
- 36g caster sugar
- 90g dessicated coconut
- 1/2 tsp pandan paste
- 9g melon seeds(roasted)
- 20g koh fun
- 200g white lotus paste
Steps:
- Place cooking oil in frying pan to heat
- Add in coconut, milk, pandan paste and sugar and fry till dry. Add in toasted melon seeds and koh fun. Remove to cool and divide into 20g portions. Shape round.
- Divide the White lotus paste into 20g portions and shape round.
- Flatten the white lotus paste and wrap the coconut filling. Shape round.
Something is terribly wrong
sailing thru the sea..
to an island where we'll meet
spent 24 hours without babe today. More or less slogging it out in the kitchen. Mooncakes and orders all compiled into one massive heavening task. Thank God its over. Now I've got babe by my side once again. I missed him so...can't believe how useless i am without him. More baking on the calendar, monday is pratically knocking on my door already. Gotta gather the forces (a.k.a ingredients) and get ready to bake up a storm for the bakesale.
On my first try, i chose the Orange Snowskin with poppy seeds and red bean filling. Why? because i reckoned the tanginess of the orange exterior would help to balance the sweetness of the red bean innards. And it did! the toasted melon seeds were as usual.. soo good! adding a nutty crunch to the otherwise soft product. I wish i had added more of those. Then again, i thought it was a good first shot at making snowskin mooncakes besides the skin being a little too soft (i must have added too much liquids). Next up.. hmph.. what should i do? why don't you guys help me decide?
recipe adapted from Aunty Yochana
Ingredients for pastry:
200 ml. Water
200 gm. castor sugar
100 ml. Orange juice
4 Tbsp. evaporated milk
60 gm. Crisco shortening
1/4 tsp. orange paste
190 gm. fried glutinous rice flour (Kou fen)
20 gm. Tang Mien flour
For fillings: Traditional mooncake paste or Pandan lotus paste (i used red bean paste, wanted a little color contrast!)
Method:(1) Boil water and castor sugar till sugar melts. Chill in the fridge till cold.
(2) Put fried glutinous rice flour and tang mien flour into a mixing bowl.
(3) Add in shortening and mix with the flour then pour in chilled sugar syrup, orange paste, orange juice and evaporated milk. Do not overwork the dough otherwise it becomes rubbery and hard to wrap with the fillings.
(4) Weigh dough into 60 gm. dough and wrap up with pandan lotus paste filling. Press into the mould, knock it out and chill it before serving.
wanna have a say in which mooncake flavor i embark on? Then please vote away!
mooncake
After sitting around the room stacked up in the corner. My little moon-faced beauties were ready to face the sunlight!
My first ever attempts in making mooncakes were a success. Not that they were terribly good or anything but at the very least, no accidents happened and the mooncakes tasted.. oh well. like mooncakes should. I mean, Snowskin mooncakes were a hell lot easier considering you didn't have to lay them on a tray and bake them and then egg coat them and bake again right? Further more, you could incorporate so many different flavors in snowskins.. think, pandan, mango, chocolate, coffee etc.. and the fillings.. gosh.. endless. I was thinking perhaps a cheesecake centre would be nice. Or maybe a chocolate paste wrapped strawberry would deal well too!.. *gushes*. But still, lets start with the basics!
First time round, i decidingly settled for a chocolate skinned baked mooncake that involved incorporation of both melted chocolate and cocoa into the dough. The end result.. a lovely chocolate biscuit like coat for the mooncake filled with White lotus paste and almond nibs.
Then the other two, traditional mooncakes; one batch filled with White Lotus Paste and Toasted Melon Seeds; the other, a black sesame paste core encased by toasted black sesame seed studded white lotus paste to add dimension to the final product.
verdict: the bases were a bit charred and burnt in the process of baking. i reckon i would turn to my silcon baking mat instead of parchment paper. I can't believe i forgot to sprinkle water on the mooncakes before putting them in the oven. ARGH.. (makes a mental note to myself)
At the very least, I've got set by set performing quick disappearing acts from my house. Don't they make such awesome gifts for the upcoming mid-autumn festival?
Soon to come.. Snow Skin Mooncakes!
AND...
news about the upcoming bakesale at NUS science foyer bazaar!
Meanwhile enjoy my current favorite song! "lucky" by Jason Mraz ft. Colbie CaillatTWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chipsters
So with this week's choice of Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters by Stefany of Proceed with Caution, i decided to take the leap and bake these little beauties.. and as promised.. they were wonderful.. no... the best!!!
chewy to the maximum with a slight hint of peanut butter. I added some chopped toasted peanuts in the batter as well to add even more crunch to the end product. *Yummy*. and opted for the chocolate chips instead of the chopped chocolate chunks, saw it as a good opportunity to use up the giant bag of chips sitting in my drawer.
the verdict: Everyone loved it! and so did i of course. Presumably, i was fortunate to be with a group of people that enjoyed chewy cookies relative to the crunchy ones that more marketable here in Singapore. *phew*. glad it went down well!
interested in the recipe? pls head down to Stefany's site for the recipe. Or refer to the TWD blogroll on my sidelink bar for more views of wonderful cookies! you just can't get enough! (speaking of which.. i think my mum ate all but two cookies left in the jar!?!?! ARGHs...)
