For The Love Of Baking

Julie and Julia: A Food Blogger’s Must See Movie

pennylanekitchen — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:01:09 +0000

Definitely Nora Ephron’s best work! Better than Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, even When Harry Met Sally!

It’s about Julie, a government worker desperately looking for something more in her life. She then found it. She became.. guess what: a food blogger!

It’s also about Julia Child’s life in Paris, how she endeavored to conquer male dominated culinary training in Le Cordon Bleu, Paris, her passion in perfecting every recipe, pouring everything into writing and finally getting it published.

Julie followed her book avidly, one recipe at a time. Her goal was to finish all 524 recipes in 365 days. And she blogged everything down.

It’s about me. It’s about you.
It’s about us, foodbloggers all over the world.
So go see it. You’ll thank me later.

Going Bananas!

pennylanekitchen — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 23:38:32 +0000

Posted for NCC Banana Week

I really, really, really, enjoy making breads. It’s fun, it’s therapeutic, it’s satisfying. The simpler the better. This one is a very simple bread modified from very basic bread recipe, the one with only flour, water, yeast, a little sugar and salt. No eggs, no milk, no fat. You know you’re alright without all those.

What I like about this bread is that it is flavored with natural ingredients called the mighty banana and honey. No filling needed, the bananas turned into one whole bread boasting nice aroma and naturally sweet flavor, at the same time it adds moisture in your bread that makes you go mmm..

You can use any bread recipe you like. Matter of fact, I encourage you to use your favorite one instead of my simple version. Just substitute the liquid with banana puree and you’re good to go.

Banana & Honey Bread
Original recipe by Jamie Oliver, modified by Riana

500 gram bread flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 envelope (11 gr) instant yeast
3 large bananas, pureed
4 Tbsp honey
water as needed
1/2 tsp salt

Any nuts available in your cupboard, as for me, it’s almond and black sesame seeds, toasted
A little honey and melted butter for drizzling

In a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients except salt: bread flour, sugar, instant yeast.
Stir in banana puree, honey and a little bit of water. Knead. Add water little by little as you go until the dough is soft enough to your touch. Stir in salt, continue kneading until you have a smooth silky elastic dough. Throw in the nuts, knead until incorporated.
1st proofing: put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with clingwrap, let it rise for about 30 minutes.
2nd proofing: once the dough has doubled in size, punch it to let out the air, then shape the dough to your fancy. What’s for today? Bun? Roll? Log? Braid? Crocodile? Let it rise in a lightly floured baking tray for about 30-60 minutes.
Preheat your oven at 190 degree Celsius. Drizzle or brush the dough with honey+butter mix, bake for about 20 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow when you tap.

Now I’m going bananas..

As Crumbly As Can Be

pennylanekitchen — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:37:36 +0000

I’m a slave for cookies. And for any nuts. So when one afternoon Nadrah brought these bad boys, I know I was soooo gonna finish them all by myself.

In Indonesia we are familiar with kue bangket: Indonesian cookies that boast very crumbly-melt-in-your-mouth texture commonly produced by the use of sago flour or arrowroot flour. Another family of this nibble is sagon **which, I think, naturally got the name from the flour**. Kue bangket itself had been developing into wide variations depending on what additional ingredients people throw in: ginger, kenari (java almond), sesame seed, even grated lime rind. They’re all good, by the by.

Here, you meet another kue bangket. It doesn’t use sago or arrowroot flour, though. The texture was amazingly achieved by toasting the flour, using lots of finely ground peanuts, and the use of oil instead of butter. They are inclredibly crumbly, melt in your mouth, not very sweet, simply peanuty without excessive buttery taste you usually get in ordinary peanut cookies. Perfect like a perfect pair of jeans that fits perfectly on you. Feels just right.

Bangket Kacang
by Nadrah Shahab

500 gr peanuts, toasted, finely ground
750 gr all purpose flour, toasted if possible
500 gr powdered sugar
500 ml cooking oil
1/2 tsp salt

How-to:

Preheat the oven at 150 degree celsius. Mix all dry ingredients: peanuts, flour, sugar and salt.
Gradually add oil into the dry ingredients while rubbing the dough or mixing it using pastry blender, until the dough is well incorporated and ready to be shaped. Do not knead.
Shape into balls, put them in on a cookie tray, flatten a little bit using your fingers.
Bake for about 15-20 minutes. Take out from the oven. Do not lift the cookies while hot, they are extremely crumbly while hot. Let them cool on the tray, then transfer into a jar.

Chocolate.. seriously

pennylanekitchen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:49:50 +0000

I watched this episode of Jamie Oliver making this flourless chocolate cake and I couldn’t let go. After trying it, I lost words. I don’t know how to explain the feel, the taste, the experience. It was just.. different.

Then I found a review made by a woman named Elaine, and she spoke all the words I need.

“It has been years since I ate chocolate cake, and I must admit I approached this chocolate torte with much trepidation. Would it taste as good as the chocolate cakes I remember?

The answer is No.

Its much better than any chocolate cake I have ever eaten before!

The first impression that I got was chocolate. Not the sweet pappy chocolate flavour that you get when you buy “ordinary” chocolate cake, but a rich, dark bitter-sweet chocolate. A really Serious chocolate. Chocolate for Adults only, with an 18 certificate. Then the more subtle flavour and texture of nuts creeps into your awareness. Not strong, but subtle, and they gave the cake that bit more “bite” than pure chocolate could.

This isn’t a cake for eating when the munchies strike. It’s for eating when the curtains are closed, the candles are lit, the music is soft, and the mood is just right. It positively cries out for lashings of double cream - not whipped cream, but poured extravagantly over the top of a warmed portion, and allowed to soak in. It is almost too much cake for anyone to bear, and I defy anyone to tell it from a sugar and carb laden version, except, perhaps, that it’s better. ”

–Elaine–

Elaine, I couldn’t agree more.

Double-Nuts Chocolate Torte
by Jamie Oliver

150 gr shelled and peeled almonds
150 gr shelled walnuts, finely ground
300 gr best quality cooking chocolte (70% cocoa solids)
1 heaped teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
255 gr butter
100 gr sugar
6 large free-range eggs, separated
Salt

How-to:

Preheat the oven to 190 C. Line the bottom of a 20 or 25 cm tin with a piece of greaseproof paper before buttering the bottom and sides then dusting with flour.
Place the nuts into a food processor and whizz up until finely ground. Then add the chocolate and cocoa and whiz for 30 seconds to break up the chocolate. Put to one side in a separate bowl.
Add the butter and sugar to the food processor and beat until pale and fluffy. At this point add the egg yolks one at a time them mix together with the chocolate and nuts.
In another bowl beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate, butter and nut mix.
Pour all the mixture into the tin. Bake in a preheated oven about 1 hour. To test if the torte is cooked, insert a cocktail stick or the tip of a knife for 5 seconds; when removed it should be reasonably clean. Serve with whipped cream, ice-cream or creme fraiche.

What I did:

As for the nuts, I used whatever available in my cupboard. I used almonds, kenari (java almonds) and a small amount of peanuts. It turned out gorgeous.
You better not substituting margarine for butter, it will ruin the real chocolate taste. If you insist though, your cake will have a hint of saltiness.
I did like Jamie did on the show: I spared a small amount of the cooking chocolate to be crumbled and sprinkled on the batter just before going into the oven. Push the chocolate chunks into the batter, than bake. When the cake was served warm, the chocolate chunks would melt and fill your mouth with gooey chocolate. You’d be in heaven.
Like the real chocolate, this cake is not very sweet. So if you are nuthin’ but a sugar-slave, you can serve it with your favorite sweet sauce. I’m thinking.. vanilla custard?

Happy day