Morning Song

Japanese Swiss Roll

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:36:00 +0000

I used to share the joy of baking with this group, KBB, I did baking as well as photography challenges , it was good time we have had. I started having hard time to fulfill challenge as my life getting demanding at that time. So I quit. Hibernating from online life. And when I get back... It was slow pace I could afford. I told arfi if I can do baking challenge without joint back to the group. I have gotten her consent. So I will inshaAllah do my best !

I saw beautiful roll cake (swissroll) with attractive pattern through Pinterest for the first time, that's before I realized Japanese swiss roll was booming, and after finding out this month challenge's recipe is Japanese swissroll, I'm more than happy to answer. And I still wanted to make swirl pattern I saw first time at pinterest, love at the first sight :) . Recipe used from Kedai Rachma, she is amazing woman with her love and passion of baking. I had trouble reading recipe's methods though , so I went to her website, to find similar recipe with different methods.

Searching and understanding recipe.

Recipe is for 2 tins of 20 x 20 cm , though I used 1 tin with 23 x 23 cm size , which came out this thick.

Really soft texture, with creamy filling. Will stop me from visiting Japanese bakery :)

My roll was a bit burnt as I used lower heat for more than 20 minutes, and my oven has different temperature to original recipe, so adjust temperature to how u normally work with swissroll baking.

Second attempt using large tin 30.5 x 41 cm, bake time reduced to exactly 20 minutes, used lower heat for 10 minutes and upper heat for the rest. I added coffee oil, it was amazing.

Oops.. jelly mark won't come off from my square tin.

JAPANESE ROLL CAKE

Adapted from : Junko's book

Modified by : Rachmah Setyawati

Ingredients:
Batter 1

4 egg yolks
40 g castor sugar
40 cc canola oil
60 cc water
80 g flour

Decoration batter

60 g egg white
15 g castor sugar
10 g cornstarch flour

Batter 2

160 - 175 g egg white
0,5 g salt
50 g castor sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
15 g cornstarch flour
1 tbs blueberry paste (I skipped this)

Filling

Non dairy fresh cream

Methods:

Batter 1
Beat egg yolks, gradually adding sugar, until the yolks are a pale yellow , gradually pour oil, continue with water and flour until combine well, set aside.

Decorative batter

Place the egg white in a clean mixing bowl, add some part of sugar, mix it until frothy. Add remaining sugar and mix in medium speed until it gets glossy and soft peak form batter. Pour cornstarch flour, mix well. Add 5 tbs of batter 1, fold well and ready to use as decoration. Add food coloring to your choice pour in icing bag.

Prepare large swissroll tin or divide into 2 tins of 20 x 20 cm , butter or oil lightly, add baking liner (draw your pattern with pencil and put baking liner with the pencil side down) don't spray oil or butter at this stage, start pipe the pattern. chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Batter 2
Place the egg white in a clean mixing bowl and some part of sugar, mix until frothy. Add remaining sugar and mix in medium speed until you get glossy and soft peak form batter.
Add lemon juice, whisk lightly. add cornstarch flour, mix for a while until soft peak form. Set aside.
Take a 1/3 of this batter and combine into batter 1 (yolk mixture), fold lightly. Add second 1/3 of this batter (white egg batter) , fold lightly.Add remaining batter fold until well combine.

Take tin with decorative liner out from the freezer. Gently pour the mixture of batter 1 and 2 and spread evenly with spatula or dough scraper. Bake for 20-25 minutes in 165 degree Celsius at middle rack.

To assemble Swiss roll

Carefully turn the baked sponge cake onto a piece of baking paper.
Slowly peel off the attached baking paper from the cake.
Place a new piece of baking paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again.
Leave it cool before spreading evenly with a layer of cream.
Roll the cake up tightly to form a swiss roll. Wrap with cling wrap and chill in the fridge. Slice to serve.

Chocolate Sablés

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 22:57:00 +0000

Have I told u that my hb isn't sweet tooth person ? Well it took my surprise that finally he filled up a small container full with Lebaran cookies to munch at work, and this chocolate sables was also in the container most of the time.

For me to make this cookie is new experience, as u need to use white egg instead of yolk. That's different... and also white egg is whipped up before adding to main mixture. If u like to make chiffon cake this method would be familiar to you. After baking process, I tasted there's something missing in this cookies...need more fat or something. However the next day it tasted so much better compared to the one using yolk and even better with intense chocolate. Loving it.

Thanks to Amy from U Try It for sharing this recipe, she also included tutorial along with recipe.

Chocolate Sablés

Makes 48+ cookies, depending on the size

Ingredients:

2 cups ( 280 g) All purpose flour
6 tbsp (35 g) Valrhona cocoa powder
10oz ( 285 g) Butter, room temperature
1 cup (120 gr) Icing sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp Instant coffee granulate, (dissolved in 1 teaspoon of hot water)
4 tbsp Egg whites, lightly beaten (from aprox 2 extra large egg)
1/2 cup Chocolate chips for topping, I swapped with hundred n' thousands

Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Line baking sheet with silpat or parchment paper, set aside.

In a tall plastic mug, prepare a pastry bag, fitted with a large swirl/star tip (I used Wilton 1M), set aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk flour and cocoa powder together, set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the flat beater (or use a large mixing bowl with a hand held mixer), on low speed, beat the butter, powdered sugar and salt. When ingredients are well mixed, turn mixer to medium high speed and beat until light and fluffy. (Start with low speed so you don’t cover yourself and the kitchen with powdered sugar!)

Then, add the coffee mixture and egg white and beat until well incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.

Turn mixer on low and slowly add in the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Transfer the dough to the prepared pastry bag.

Pipe dough onto prepared baking sheet. You can simply pipe an 1-inch rounds, 1-inch apart. Or, pipe dough with the “infinity” shape (like a horizontal 8) 1 by 2-inch size. Top with a piece of chocolate chip in the middle of each piped dough.

Bake 1-inch rounds for 10 minutes and 1 by 2-inch “8” shapes for 12 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheet over wire rack until warm to handle. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely. Store in air tight containers.

Note: Since the bake time is different with different size/shape of the cookies, I recommend that you pipe the same size/shape on each cookies sheet so they all baked off evenly.

Swaying Flower Cookies, Kembang Goyang

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:24:00 +0000

This old style swaying flower cookies or better known as kembang goyang or lentera or lentari, they are formed using rossete iron. Which is easyly found in Indonesian market, however i believe that some other countries also used this rossete iron too.

The term of kembang goyang also refers to flower metal shape that usually worn or put as hair accessories as part of javanese traditional costume. The shape is equally same with this rossette iron except as it is an accessories it is more artfull.

Found recipe of kembang goyang in here The main reason I used this recipe is because she used glutonious rice flour, I dont have other explanation why is it good to use glutinous rice flour rather than it gives a good crunch texture to this fried cookie, as I always use it whenever I make bidaran, also another kind of fried snack.

A little advise, make sure do not submerge the mold in the batter and when it won't separate from its mold try to reduce the heat down.

Swaying Flower Cookies, Kembang Goyang

100 gr glutinous rice flour

100 gr rice flour

100 gr corn starch

3 to 4 tbs sugar

pinch of salt

1 egg

1 tbs of lime stone water ( 1 tsp of lime stone diluted in 3 tbs of water, once it seperate spoon out the clear water)
1 tbs of ginger juice (made from crushed ginger mix in water)

350 ml coconut milk

oil for frying

Methods:

Whisk all ingredients in large bowl (except oil), prepare oil in deep fry pan and place the mold (rossete iron) in the oil. Once the rossete iron is hot enough, dip it into the mixture (it will stick on the hot mold). Dip it just below the top of the mold, do not submerse.
Put it back in the oil and sway the mold to release the batter, if it won't separate from its mold, that means u need to reduce the heat. Deep fry until light golden color. Place on a paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Kembang Goyang(Lentari)

Tepung ketan 100 gr
Tepung beras 100gr
Maizena 100 gr
1 sdk makan air kapur sirih
1 sdk makan air perasan jahe
1 butir telur
400 cc santan (Rita pakek 350 cc)
3 sampai 4 sdm gula.tergantung selera (pakek sendok ukur)
sedikit garam

Campur semua bahan, aduk rata.Panaskan minyak celupkan cetakan keminyak panas lalu ke adonan, lalu celupkan lagi keminyak panas sambil digoyang-goyang sampai lepas dari cetakan. Begitu seterusnya sampai habis. Klo adonan tidak terlepas dari catakan berarti api terlalu panas, kurangi api, harusnya adonan akan terlepas saat masih agak lembek.

Cheesy Pineapple tart

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 21:35:00 +0000

I happen to like this recipe, it started 2 years ago. Lebaran that was. Made pineapple tart out of this recipe, noted to my self that making pineapple tart doesn't have to be a day of labour in the kitchen, this recipe has proven me, at least. The ratio and the amount of ingredients make things possible.

The recipe came from beautiful and talented Anne of Ambrosia, thanks An for sharing this mantap recipe. I also made variation out of this pastry, dipped in chocolate and peanut voila 2 kinds of cookies ready for Lebaran.

Cheesy Pineapple tart

Source : ‘Resep-resep Terbaik Kue Kering’ dari Primarasa

Ingredients
Pastry
250g butter, softened
75 gr icing sugar
1 yolk
¼ sdt vanila powde/essence
350g plain flour
50 gr shreded cheese, could be cheddar, parmesan or edame
1 yolk for glazing

For filling/pineapple jam
- 900 gr pineapple skin off
- 150g granulated sugar
- 4 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
Crush pineapple in a blender until smooth. Transfer into a pan, add the cinnamon stick and cook until boiling. Stir vigorously until it forms paste and not watery. Cool aside and form into small balls.

Method1. Cream butter, icing sugar and followed by egg and vanilla till creamy and light
3. Gradually add flour into butter mixture, using spatulla mix it till all the ingredients are well incorporated
5. Shape the small dough to ball or your liking and top or fill with pineapple jam
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for about 20mins or till the sides turn golden brown

Nastar Keju

Source : Buku ‘Resep-resep Terbaik Kue Kering’ dari Primarasa

Bahan :
Selai
900 g nanas kupas
150 g gula pasir
4 butir cengkih
7 cm kayu manis
Kulit
150 g mentega tawar

100 g margarin
75 g gula bubuk
1 kuning telur
¼ sdt vanili bubuk
350 g tepung terigu
50 g keju edam/parmesan/cheddar, parut halus
1 kuning telur untuk olesan
Cara :
1. Selai : parut nanas, masak bersama gula, cengkih dan kayu manis hingga mengental dan airnya habis, angkat dan dinginkan.

2. Kulit : kocok mentega , margarin dan gula dengan mikser berkecepatan sedang hingga putih, lembut, dan mengembang. Tambahkan kuning telur dan vanili, kocok hingga rata. Masukkan tepung terigu secara bertahap, tambahkan keju, aduk rata dengan spatula.

3. Panaskan oven pada suhu 160 °C, olesi loyang kue kering dengan margarin. Siapkan cetakan kembang diameter 3 cm. Ambil sedikit adonan, gilas di antara 2 lembar plastik hingga setebal 3 mm. Cetak adonan dengan cetakan yang sudah disiapkan.

4. Ambil satu lembar adonan yang sudah dicetak, taruh ½ sdt selai ditengahnya secara memanjang . Lipat kedua sisi adonan hingga bertemu ditengah, rapatkan ujungnya agar berbentuk mirip terompet. Lakukan hal yang sama hingga adonan dan selai habis.

5. Taruh adonan yang sudah dibentuk di atas loyang, beri jarak 2 cm agar tidak saling melekat waktu kue dipanggang. Olesi permukaannya dengan kuning telur.

6. Masukkan loyang ke dalam oven, panggang hingga kuning kecoklatan (± 20 menit). Keluarkan kue dari oven, pindahkan ke atas rak kawat, biarkan dingin

Egg Drop Corn Soup and Bali Holiday

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:22:00 +0000

A cool day outside welcoming us when we arrived at Melbourne Airport, sun was peeking behind the clouds, hubby was busy making a call to friend who's waiting for us somewhere. Finally we met at the point that they both agree. As we drove to our street, we live close to the airport, I noticed the sun was gone... it was grey and gloomy, however i asked to my self if i feel cold as we arrived from tropical weather, it was not bad, not that cold.

Our neighbour greeted us with her lovely smile, I approached her as I landed her a kiss on her cheek, she's one lovely 77 year old neighbour. Opening the white door of our place, straight away went to my kitchen, smiling as I entered, smelt the fragrant of the furniture, it's lavender mix with coconut..... love to be home....

Hey..hey... enuff narrative, all I wanted to say is sorry for leaving this blog long enough, that if I grew lemon tree on this blog, now I'm ready to pick some lemons to be squeezed for honey lemon tea to sip in this cold winter. Ok, without further type here are some pics from our Bali's holiday... we picked quite place for rest at Bumi Ayu Sanur before we moved to Santika Premiere Beach Resort, which was awesome.

This time my post holiday sydrome recovered so fast, I switched my holiday mood to be active and alert mood within one day, holiday meant to be enjoying the food at your will in any restaurants or warungs, while here enjoy cooking at your will, And I'm enjoying it I almost forgot that I used to get blue of this cooking and foodie thing.

At the kitchen Corn soup with egg drop would be a good companion to embrace the cold weather. Chinese soup, but not so Chinese anymore I reckon, it is kind of simple to prepare-soup, anyone from any country could easily prepare this soup. It's basically pouring and stirring at the same time, beaten eggs into hot boiling broth.

Egg Drop Corn Soup

Source from Asian`s Kitchen
Ingredients:
1 liter water
2 cube Knorr's chicken flavor/3 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
4 large eggs,beaten well
1 tbsp ground pepper powder
1 large can creamy sweet corn,about 400 ml
200gm/1 piece boneless chicken breast,cut cube
3 tbsp corn flour + 2 tbsp cold water dilute
salt to taste
handful cut scallion

Method:
1:Bring 1 liter water to boil in stock pot at high heat,then add in chicken cube or bouillon powder.
2:When the stock rolling boil add in cube chicken,creamy sweet corn ,ground pepper and corn flour dissolved.Keep stirring the soup until bubbly,then slowly pour in beaten eggs into the soup to make it look like flower.Stir again to mix all the ingredients well.
3:Remove stock pot from heat and check the seasoning.Add salt if needed. Dish out ,sprinkle with some scallion and serve warm.

Mie Goreng (Fried Noodle)

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 08:41:00 +0000

I'm so looking forward to the slower pace of the weekend, doing something slow and relax, sipping morning caffeine, and admiring beautiful bloom in every sips and reading a good book for the rest of the day ... HHmmm ... I wish ....

My days including weekend, recently have been pretty much "active" compared to last year, that's my main excuse to say no when a couple came ordering wedding cake. My excuse seemed didn't convince them thus they still insisted to make me making wedding cake for them. I was under pressure, really. It was not a good start. The picture below is one of them,(yeah there's more than one) the design may be acceptable but I in come of neatness well... my 10 yo daughter could do better.

I was saved by my gum paste collections that I deliberately made 3 month beforehand for someone in my family.

Let's talk about food that far less easier to make rather than wedding cake, Mie Goreng or fried noodle is one of easiest Chinese dish that I love to put on my weekly menu. The girls love it, so does hb. Essential ingredient mostly on the three sauces, I used soy sauce which you know; it's salty kind of and Kecap Manis that also soy sauce, made with palm sugar as part of its ingredient, so .. it's sweet. The third sauce is good quality of oyster sauce.

It's been a while that I've never participated in foodie event, not proud of it, guys... This time as I heard there is Chinese Food Week in NCC Community, I talked to my self, you have to, and here it is my contribution. Mie Goreng .. that doesn't even sound Chinese, does it ? Well that's how we say it in Indonesia.

Mie Goreng
Source Morning Song

500g yellow noodle from the fridge section
1 cup of sliced mushroom
1/2 cup of carrot, julienne

1 piece of cooked breast fillet, striped
100 gr of prawn skinless
3 pieces of baby bok choy, chopped
2 tbs of olive oil or peanut oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

2 spring onion chopped

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs oyster sauce

2 tbs tomato sauce or tomato ketchup
3 tbs (or more) Kecap Manis
1 tsp of pepper

sugar and salt to taste
fried shallot

Method

Cook yellow noodle in a hot boiling pan, just a view minute, until it just loosen. Drain, and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
Heat 2 tbs of the oil in a wok over a medium-high heat. Add garlic, spring onion until fragrant add prawn stir fry it, then add chicken stock.
Add carrots, mushroom, bok choy, soy sauce, kecap manis, oyster sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Add cooked chicken and the noodles stir-fry until all combine for 5 minutes.
Transfer to serving plate and sprinkle with fried shallot.

Tesselaar Tulip Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:55:00 +0000

Early this month, we drove up to Silvan.{ I know ... another late reportage, I've tried to run this blog better than before, seems that the word lethargic was closest link to my energy level. I'll do my best to keep this blog updated though. It helps me to balance my brain from the subject that I face these days}Well, it was bright sunny day, we enjoyed soaking up in the prettiness of tulip festival.

The place called Tesselaar, as my knowledge this place run by Dutch community and only open sometime around middle of September and October. This is what I love being in a Spring. Tulip, ranunculus, iris, flowers...flowers...really, soaking up in the sun and flowers, how good is Spring. You'll find anything Dutch in here. I've got my self Dutch souvenirs and joined the queue for Dutch's traditional pancake, poffertjes.

I have no more words to say, my pictures do...

Marbled Bread Pudding

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 21:57:00 +0000

One rainy afternoon I called hubby who was on the way home from work, to get me something from supermarket, tomato ketchup and panadol, long story short, he came and I found two loaves of bread... ups... I forgot to tell him I have done grocery shopping earlier this afternoon. It was just habit, went to grocery shopping and there has always been something I forgot. Here we are... we stocked up 4 loaves of bread in the middle of the week. Can you tell how the story goes ? Yes... bread pudding.

Found recipe from this site, seems this recipe quite popular, seeing how people responded to this post and how many people have tried out. I made two batches for folks at home as well as to bring to my friend's house. Will definitely repeat this recipe whenever kitchen's bread tin had surplus of stock.

Marbled Bread Pudding

4 slices of bread
170ml milk
200 ml condense milk (half tin)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 packet of agar agar (mine is 7 gr so I reduced amount of water)
800 ml water (I used 750 ml)
2 eggs
2 tbs butter
2 tbs of cocoa powder

methods
Process in blender, bread and milk until combine and smooth add egg and process a little while, pour in this mixture to a medium pan as well as water, agar and sugar gently stir and bring to boil in medium heat. Turn off the heat, add butter slowly mix with whisker until melt.

Divide into 2, mix cocoa powder to one of the mixture. Pour into square tin one cup of white mixture followed by chocolate, keep repeating this process until all mixture in the tin. Set it in a fridge.

Almond Shortbread With Toasted Flour

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:28:00 +0000

Almond shortbread or known as "putih salju" (snow white) or "putri salju" (snow princes) is a classic cookies served in Lebaran or else, not being served at all as it lasted before lebaran. It has addiction factor as well as melting point. I made just day before Lebaran and my kids were munching on it non stop before the guesses. I made one more batch and hide some from my special cookies monsters, for photo shot purpose.

I remember the time when I was in year 9, reading a pull-out recipe sponsored by quite famous margarine brand in Indonesia. As a young baker I wonder why would recipe ask for toasted flour ? -sangrai- I didn't think much, really, I have got large pan and wooden spoon in my right hand, toasted the flour straight away on stove, until it changed its colour slightly darker , approximately 15 minutes, kept stirring, seriously... it's my first time, things have to be handle with extra care. While flour still warm I rolled with other ingredients and voila... impressed with the result. Full flavour cookies with less ingredients. Hmmm ... I wonder why... My thought was it might be because in Indonesia flour traps more moisture, when you loose some you will bake less .....(hhmm... really?)

Now, I live in different part of the world called Victoria, which is known as dry whether state, I change my way of thinking about this toasted flour, it's simply cook the flour before hand, it's like when you bake with nuts but you toasted it before mix with cake mixture. Totally different taste. Super delicate cookies worth to try. Easy to make, seriously I will not be baking anything two complicated these days a pile of reports will be patiently waiting for me.

Almond Shortbread With Toasted Flour

source morning song

250 gr toasted flour, sifted
200 gr butter
1 yolk
50 gr almond ground (here I used 75 gr)
1 tsp vanilla paste

Icing mixture to dust/roll

Methods,
Place toasted flour, ground almond and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process to combine. Add egg yolk and vanilla essence, and process until all ingredients just form a ball. Shape onto crescent, and place on an oven tray, bake to preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until beginning to colour. When it is cooked let it cool before roll it to an icing mixture.

Just another look from my spring garden

The last ranunculus... see you next year

Super-Fudgy Brownies

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 23:57:00 +0000

Since last week, it's school hols here in Australia, wet season was here too since last Tuesday. Though we managed to have a good fun outdoor before the wet came. Kiddos enjoyed playing badminton with grandma...

Yes Grandma is here, aunty and uncle too, so it's a full house. Grandma is good at making potato's donuts. Both B and N enjoyed making it, not to mention they lurve eating them. Thursday, pouring cat and dog again... they stayed indoor, made a slime used recipe from their own school, Friday, we made a felt craft. In the afternoon, they wanted to make fudgy brownie. D'you know something ?, both my daughters when they were younger, they weren't sweet tooth at all, healthy food preferred, as mum quite picky in term of their food. Only mum munched on brownie, now they do too.

Grandma's verdict about this fudgy brownie was "this taste like real chocolate bar". I understood why she said so, as some brownies out there... somehow become rich of yolk, instead of block of chocolate, but this is my preference.

Recipe is from Martha Stewart's site, before I tried this recipe, I always used her other recipe from Martha Stewart Every Day Food Mag. In this mag, it doesn't ask for baking powder, pretty dense brownies.

the one without baking powder

I made a few times used recipe with baking powder-less one, friends love it, they blamed me for getting them eating so much of calories while they kept munching on it. I like the one with baking powder too, texture is a bit crumbly, would set the next day. Love both ! Except the excess sugar.I slashed most of sugar though. Can't afford to have a house full of sugar high folks....

Super-Fudgy Brownies

source Martha Stewart

Ingredients

8 tablespoons/1 stick (120 gr) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, plus more for pan
1 cup (130 gr) all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
1/4 cup (20gr) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 ounces (225 gr) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 1/4 (280) cups sugar, here used 220gr
3 large eggs

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush a 9-inch square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper, and set pan aside. In a small bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt; set aside. Place butter and chocolate in a large heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of gently simmering water. Heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes; remove bowl from pan. Add sugar; mix to combine. Add eggs, and mix to combine. Add flour mixture; mix just until moistened (do not overmix). Transfer batter to prepared pan; smooth top.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, 50 to 60 minutes. Cool in pan for 30 minutes. Using paper overhang, lift brownies out of pan; transfer to a rack to cool completely (still on paper). On a cutting board, using a dampened serrated knife, cut into 16 squares.

Being In September and Choc Chiffon Cake

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:57:00 +0000

Oh, how time flies.... it is September already, and it almost at the end. I won't let September pass without any of my post. Whole month of September has been sooo hectic... Raya, wedding cake orders, exams, assignments, school's tasks, family arriving... and suddenly bammm.... September almost saying good bye.

I haven't even make an entry about my Lebaran, Happy Eid Mubarak to those who celebrate Ied Fitr. May Allah accepts our good deeds during Ramadhan. (There are two new entries published together with this entry)

September is equally flower in my thought... Yesss... it's Spring in here... it's time of intense blooming of colourful ranunculus... oh I love this flower, my last year bulbs which I left in the ground are now at pose. The house beautified with vivid colours cut of its bloom. They stayed fresh in vase for a week or two.

Anyway... as most of you who celebrate festival of Ied Fitr ... I enjoyed bake-a-lot of kue kering (cookies). In fact I enjoyed more than last years (that is time when I was away from this blog). I have published my Lebaran's cookies Suji and Melt-in-mouth German cookies and will publish more cookies recipe after this post. This chiffon cake was also part of my baking frenzy. It has deeply chocolate flavour as cocoa is mixed with hot water. The same method uses in Devil food cake.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake

Original Recipe by Primarasa, Modified by Riana
and translated by her

Ingredients:

50 g cocoa powder
175 ml hot water
A pinch of salt
175 g flour, sifted
350 caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
85 ml vegetable oil
400 g egg whites [from +/- 10 eggs @ 70 g (weighed with the shells)]
10 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla powder/extract (optional)

Garnish:
Powdered sugar

Instruction:

Preheat oven at 180 degree Celcius. Prepare 25 cm chiffon pan, splash the inner part with water. Dissolve cocoa powder and salt in hot water, whisk until smooth, set aside.
Mix together: flour, 2 Tbsp of caster sugar, baking soda and baking powder, mix well. Make a hole in the center, pour vegetable oil, egg yolks, chocolate mixture and vanilla into the hole. Whisk until smooth, set aside.
Beat egg whites with electric mixer at medium speed until frothy, gradually beat in caster sugar, continue beating until soft peak.
Using spatula, gently fold in egg whites to flour-egg batter until well blended.
Pour the batter into pan, tap the pan 2-3 times to let out any excessive bubbles. Bake for about 75 minutes (do the skewer test). Take out from oven, turn the pan upside down and let it cool in this position (about 1 1/2 hour).
Run a long knife along the side of the pan. Turn the cake onto a rack. Run the knife along the bottom of the pan, take off the bottom pan. Turn the cake onto a serving plate or cake board. Garnish as you like.

Note:

Use good quality chocolate. Sometimes a chocolate cake doesn’t give us that ‘kicking’ sensation not because it needs more chocolate, but because the chocolate is not good enough. Choose the one that has wonderful smell and deep flavor.
If you’re new to dealing with egg whites, search the tips on the internet. It could be tricky, but it’s not that difficult.
If the 400 g egg whites give you more than 10 yolks, use the extra yolks in the batter anyway. Whisk it into flour-egg batter.

Suji Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:51:00 +0000

I firstly knew this kinda of cookie when I was invited for iftar by Singaporean family. When she said its name, suji it made my eyes opened wider as it was actually pale gold in colour. "Does it has suji in it ? " She said no, it's just used ghee butter. I'm not very fond of ghee, but this cookies was intriguing. I didn't feel like to order cos I still have jaaaars.. and jars of cookies for Lebaran, and you know my other reason was I'd like to bake it with my bare hands ☺. Though I felt hesitate to ask for recipe.

Completely forgot about this until I lined up in post office, and I saw "Poh's Kitchen-My Cooking Adventures" and from quick look I saw suji recipe, and put it as my reason I decided to purchase it, err... actually there was something else, the book was on sale ! In this book, Poh uses ghee, she creamed it while other recipe use melting method. I'm not sure what's different in result. Will try different method next time, meanwhile I am happy with this recipe.

Suji Cookies with Pandan

230 gr ghee
150 gr caster or icing sugar
1 tsp natural vanilla paste or almond essence
300 gr plain flour, shifted
1 cup (100 gr) almond meal
Pandan paste for green colour (Rita)

Methods
Preheat the oven to 16 °. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

With mixer, cream the ghee, sugar and vanilla or almond essence until pale and fluffy. Add the flour and baking powder and mix with wooden spoon. Add the almond meal and mix until combined. (Rita add pandan paste)

Roll the dough into balls the size of large marble. Place on prepared tray about 2 cm apart. If your hands get very sticky, just wash and moisten slightly before continuing to roll. Top with piece of cherry and squash down a little. (I rolled into rice cereal (Rita))

Bake for 10-12 minute or until pale gold-these are not meant to be golden brown. Cold on a wire rack and store in an airtight container.

Melt-in-mouth German Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 21:21:00 +0000

It was close to 11 pm, I've just finished with the chores as well as school task, I thought I still have 3 out of 5 energy level left. I was craving to bake this cookies from 2 weeks ago, but there was always something else to bake with higher priority.

I decided to bake anyway otherwise it will intensely popping in my thought. The making was real simple. As always I put all ingredients in a food processor, press the button, shaped it and voilaa... a delicate moreish cookies in front of you before you knew it.

Found this recipe in here, I reckon it's quite popular among Chinese blogger. Yeah .. and I made it, don't regret it. Recipe worth to try.

Melt-in-mouth German Cookies

Ingredients
125g butter
40g icing sugar
125g potato starch
80g plain flour
vanilla paste

Method
1. Beat butter and icing sugar till fluffy and lighter in colour.
2. Sift in potato starch and flour, mix to form a soft dough.
3. Roll into small balls (about 2cm in diameter), arrange on lined baking pan and press lightly with a fork (dip the fork in water after each press to prevent cookie dough from sticking to the fork).
4. Bake in preheated oven at 170 deg C for 15 mins, upper rack (need not bake till cookies turn brown).

Chilled Sticky Rice Pudding with Raspberries

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:19:00 +0000

Among our Indonesian friends there is a saying, if you change your name you should make "Bubur Merah putih" and distribute to your nearest neighborhood. The fact is it is not only a saying but also a cultural among Javanese to commemorate one’s birthday. Bubur merah putih, is a sort of sticky rice pudding sweetened due palm sugar, while the white one seasoned with a pinch of salt, and drizzled with thick salty coconut milk. Well, the colour is not really red in raspberry red it's more brown I may say. Dessert in this post has similarity with bubur merah putih, it has slightly same methods and same ingredients. The two main differences are the use of lemongrass and a touch of western ingredients.

I've got this rice pudding recipe from Delicious Magazine. The one that I grabbed from the library's self. You know, when things got bore, I'd rather sit, grabbed a food magazine, buried my self and let the letters swim. At home I soaked a 1/2 cup of sticky rice in the container and left next to sink. Then I refrigerated it, hoping that I can use it tomorrow. Oh .. well enough said, I forgot all about it until the 3th day. I was pretty sure this sticky rice is going to be cooked in no time. Yes, it overcooked and the rice pieces have no shape anymore, but it surprisingly it was dead good. My younger daughter gave her verdict in Master Chef judge kinda style, hhmm it's 9 out of 10... ooh no it's 10 out of 10. Isn't she generous, is she ? lol..

This post also means to commemorate Indonesian's Independence day, well a little bit too late for 17th August, but hey it's still August ☺ MERDEKAA....

Chilled Sticky Rice Pudding with Raspberries

Source Delicious Mag feb 2011 with some adaptations by Rita

1/2 cup sticky rice (soak at least 4 hours)
1 lemongrass stem
1 vanilla bean split seeds scrapped
400 ml water
200 ml coconut milk
1/4 cup caster sugar
200 gr yoghurt

250 gr raspberries
1/4 cup sugar

Place rice, lemongrass, vanilla pod and seeds, water, coconut milk and sugar in a pan. Bring to boil, then reduce the heat to very low and cook, stirring until thicken. Discard lemongrass and vanilla pod. Cool.

Stir yogurt into sticky rice mixture. Chill mixture until completely cold.

Meanwhile place half the berries in a pan, Stir in sugar and 1 tbs water and simmer over medium low heat. Reduce heat to low and cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes until berries have softened. Remove from heat and push though sieve, discard solids. Stir remaining raspberry into the puree and allow to cool. Chill.

Divide between 4 small bowls. Serve with raspberries.

Agar Agar in Vanilla Custard

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:23:00 +0000

In the middle of the week, 2 weeks ago we went to a place where they exhibited arrays of children play experience. It wasn’t kind of toy that you normally find in the toy stores. It’s something to promote children to value their identity through play as well as to provide them with the experience to explore other materials of toy. Basically it was a sort of plastic-less, most of the toys they showed were made from nature ; such as wood, wool, stone, leather, tin, fabric, and plants. Giving children nature toys seems to be a great way of teaching them about environment and nature as well as promoting another culture outside of their own culture.

From all of their displays my most favourite was a tent that was built with wood and a piece of large thick fabric in swag style. In the front of it there was a tyre filled with stuff and on top of it was an old large tin, ready to help children to expand their imagination of campfire and how they become a swagman. Ahh.. it reminds me of the tent that I made for my daughters during last winter break, it was made from bamboo and thin white fabric, all corners were tied up with sisal. This tent was able to draw them from their computer. It wasn’t a game they played on the computer, they do like exploring an easy photo’s program and explore any graphics that suits their design. However it isn’t a healthy choice for them to stay in front of the computer for long time.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, for the iftar, I prepared this agar agar dessert for my family. Agar agar is substitute of gelatine, derived from red seaweed, it has firmer texture compare to jelly which made from gelatine and set pretty much quick in a room temperature. Best choice for those who are vegetarian or halal concern. The one that I used in this recipe came in the yellow packet of Swallow Globe brand, it is easily found in Asian grocery store.

I found a packet of pistachio pudding in my pantry, this one I bought from Turkish shop, I mix with this agar to get it hard and serve together with the custard. It was sort of gave extra flavour to this dessert. Hubby and my lil one love it while my first daughter picked the green cube like sorting out unwanted peas in the soup.

Agar Agar in Vanilla Custard
Ingredient:
1 large can of Del Monte Fruit Cocktail
Diced of cooked agar agar *find ingredient and method below
1 packet of "Turkish style pistachio pudding mix" (optional) mix with 1 packet of Agar and cook according to direction, and set to cool in a tin, cut in cubes
1 batch of vanilla custard
serve in diced agar agar in the serving cup or bowl, topped with fruit cocktail. including the juice and pour the custard.

Agar Agar
1 packet of agar-agar
200 gr sugar
400 ml water
food coloring
pour in small pan agar-agar powder, sugar, water mix them well and bring to boil.
Once it boil keep stirring and turn the stove off, pour into the tin, let it cool to set.

Vanilla Custard
(Source : Morning Song)

500 ml light milk
100 ml sweet condense milk
100 ml sugar
2 tbs corn starch
1 tsp vanilla extract/ vanilla paste
a pinch of salt
2 egg yolk whisk lightly

Mix in the medium pan milk, sweet condense milk, sugar and cornstarch bring to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat, whisking contantly; boil, whisking constantly or until thickened.
Turn off from heat. Let the pan stay on top of stove,stir in egg yolk and vanilla. Whisk well and chill for 2 hours.

Creamy Chicken Mushroom With The Add of Sweet Potato

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 11:04:00 +0000

Everybody around me seems to talk about holiday already, the holidays that followed after we celebrate the month of Ramadhan; it is a kind of holy month for Muslims. Back in my country Lebaran or Iedul Fitri’s Holiday is the biggest holiday season. A lot of people will spend most of their holidays visiting their hometown, this is also followed by a chance to meet schoolmates in some kind of reunion. The bad news is my teacher told me not to book any holiday after our second placement which is actually the time that I’m waiting for an overseas holiday. Uh well… It was just something that kicking around my head.

Forget about it; let’s talk about current Melbourne weather. Apparently, winter is kindly embracing us in its notoriously chill, windy and wet. That would make the words snug, warm and cozy becoming luxurious enough when we need to hit the road anyway. Especially, for the commuter like me. Somehow, when I got a day off and think about comfort food, one of the first things I feel like doing is cooking steamy soups.

My husband is not too fond of soup. Creamy soup that we devoured on its own or served with a piece of bread. He is more “clear soup with rice”. Since there is our extended family staying with us right now, I enjoy cooking creamy soup as much as I want, and of course, obviously because they love my creamy soup. I prepared “Creamy Chicken Mushroom” yesterday. I added a sweet potato to it, to enrich the flavour and make it ever more creamier. Sweet potato has no family link with potato at all; I wonder why it’s called sweet potato☺. In other countries it is mistakenly called as Yam. The one I always pick is the one that has purple skin and white flesh; it’s quite firm in texture and sweet when it’s cooked. When you purchase sweet potato sometimes it comes as surprise for you, they might have the same colour skin but they have a different flesh colour and taste. Especially here in the fruit shops, they never mention the variety like Kumara, white delight or whatever; they are all displayed as sweet potato. I have got mine from the same fruit shop from time to time, so I’m sure this is the one that I always wanted, and it is always delightful as an addition for both cooking and baking.


Creamy Chicken Mushroom

Ingredients

3 tbs butter
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbs flour
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 cups chicken stock
500 gr mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup sliced celery
1 medium piece sweet potatoes, diced
1 cups frozen corn kernels
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cups light cream
chopped parsley

Methods

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion,saute until tender. Stir in the flour mix until smooth.
Gradually add the chicken stock, bring the soup to a boil. Add the mushrooms, carrots,celery, sweet potatoes, chicken and corn. Reduce the heat and simmer the soup, covered, until the vegetables are cooked
Add parsley and the cream. Heat the soup, but do not let it boil.

Simit Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Mon, 23 May 2011 01:06:00 +0000

On one occasion a good friend of mine brought Turkish food to share on our lunch table. She knows that I am always excited to learn other countries cuisine. I guess this is one beneficiary of cultural diversity. She brought Kisir and Simit. Kisir is a salad made from couscous and some herbs. While Simit is actually kind of Turkish bread, it came to my surprise that Simit also comes in a cookie. Mind you, this is kind of savoury cookie. Not sure if I was too hungry or the cookies was so good. I lurve this. Graciously, she gave a sheet of paper, Simit recipe was written on it, she knows me very well.

The first batch that I made was not quite what I expected, it just matter of different understanding of measurement. Second batch I'd rather use my interpretation and common sense about making pastry. I was delighted with the result. It's a gem. It won't make your sweet tooth hooray, precisely. But you would struggle to stop devouring this donut's shape cookies.

Simit Cookies

{I used Australian measuring spoon, 1 tbs equal 20ml}
300 gr flour
1 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda125 gr butter
3 tbs canola/olive oil
1 egg yolk
2 tbs icing sugar3 tbs yogurt

Coating
1 egg white
sesame seeds

Using food processor or mixer with paddle beater, mix flour , salt, baking soda, butter, oil, yolk, icing sugar and yogurt until all combine and dough starts to form. Shape into rings, coat with egg white and dip into sesame seeds. Place on the baking sheet, and bake until just golden brown.

Almond Rhubarb Cake, Pear Almond Tart and A Beach Visit

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:52:00 +0000

The warm day has gone, we are facing real Autumn, cold and wet, really are not my kind of favourite, and I was at home by my self with some big words in my head told me my to do list for today, which is none of them domestic words, except one big loud, baking.

I've never been in baking frenzy lately, until today. As Monday is my only day off, no piles of laundry, house in sparkly clean, assignment can wait ☺. I've got two ingredients lately that I wanted to whip up, right here in my own kitchen, rhubarb and Packham's pear. The recipe will be in the last section of this post.

Meanwhile, I've just remembered I had some pictures I took while my darling friend and her daughter visited from Sydney in the middle of April 2011, and we took them to St Kilda Pier and Brighton Beach. St Kilda Pier is only 5 kilometers from Melbourne. Its history dates back to 1853 when the St Kilda Pier and Jetty Company constructed a wooden jetty to assist the early settlers in unloading timber, building materials and firewood to St Kilda. As in Parks Victorian stated.

In the end of the Pier there is a kiosk which quite historic, built in 1904, originally known as Parer's Pavilion and later renamed Kirby's Kiosk but locally known as St Kilda Kiosk.The original construction was devastated by fire on 11 September 2003 and continued on public service with much safe construction. I definitely will come back again for a cup of latte and poppy seed muffin as well a lovely sunrise.

Enjoying the beautiful site of Melbourne offered us a good mood, but suddenly we realized parking meter was ticking too, we went back to where we parked the car. And kept going South to Brighton Beach. This Brighton Suburb surrounded with luxury beach houses with luxury prices. While its beach surrounded with its famous row of vivid plumage of beach huts or bathing boxes.

Back to baking. Those two cakes I baked today were done using food processor, hilariously easy.

Pear and Almond Tart was adopted from Donna Hay Issue 39,Winter. To be honest I am in a completely utterly mad about Donna Hay Magazine {Ah well two adverbs, used to express this feeling }. I collect back-dated edition as well as don't want miss the new issue. I love her vintage props as well as her easy recipe. Simple but true.

Oopps, someone apparently pushed my double cream in deepest part of fridge, and it got frozen, meanwhile we devoured with custard. That's OK ...

Pear and Almond Tart

90 gr butter, softened
½ cup (90 gr) brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup(120gr) almond meal
¼ cup (40 gr) plain flour
¼ teaspoons finely grated lemon rind
2 Packham's pear, peeled, cored and quartered
½ cup (90gr) brown sugar extra (I skipped this)
raw sugar, for sprinkling
double cream, to serve

Preheat oven to 160°C (320°F). Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of food processor and process until just combined. Add the egg, almond meal, flour, baking powder and lemon rind and process until just combined. Spoon the mixture into lightly greased 9.5 cm x 33 cm loose -bottom fluted tart tin. Place the pears and extra brown sugar in the bowl and toss to coat. Press the pears into the tart mixture and bake for 35-40 minutes or until cooked when tested with skewer. Sprinkle with raw sugar and allow to cool in the tin. Serve in double cream. Serves 6.

For Almond and Rhubarb Cake found recipe in here, with really great reviews. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil, its super moist, the right amount of sweetness, absolutely delicious the only drama was... need more generous amount of rhubarbs. Will do for next.

Almond Rhubarb Coffee Cake

330 g packed brown sugar
160 ml vegetable oil
1 egg
5 ml vanilla extract
310 g all-purpose flour
6 g salt
5 g baking soda
235 ml milk
185 g rhubarb, chopped
45 g (½ cup) sliced almonds (I used almond meal)
65 g white sugar
15 g butter, melted
25 g (¼ cup) sliced almonds (I used almond meal)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 9 inch round pans.
In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla together until smooth. Combine flour, salt and baking soda; add to sugar mixture alternately with milk. Beat until smooth. Stir in rhubarb and 1/2 cup almonds. Pour into prepared pans.
In a small bowl, combine white sugar and butter or margarine. Stir in 1/4 cup almonds. Sprinkle topping over batter.
Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the cake tests done.

Family Affair and Fruit Salad in Rujak Manis Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:09:00 +0000

It amazed me how the weather these days, it feels like Autumn knocking on our door, but Summer won't swap the place. During the weekend, with this much loved Spring like weather, when we decided to stay at home rather than go wander. Mostly we are trying to finish off our project. Yeah .. there'll always be some project waiting to be handled. We have done a big cabinet for our dining room, that's what I'm most grateful for. The most challenging one had to be finished first. Will tell you about this on later post.

Our last project was a redecorating coffee table from lounge room, that has a glass top, into display coffee table. AG, which is hubby, laid a board underneath the glass so kids could decorate with sand and put our shell collection in to display. The table was actually a different kind of white shades, we, umm, this time AG sprayed an antique white, with additional brown coat as the Mrs requested. (On the picture below was actually my tanned hand when painted our previous project.)

While we finished off this coffee table AG requested a fruit salad, such a good idea in this kind of warm weather. I've checked what's in the fridge as we haven't done our weekly shopping.

We only had cucumber, granny smith and royal gala apple, these won't make a prefect fruit salad, but rujak manis is another good idea for another kind of fruit salad. Normally to make rujak manis you'll need to prepare some tropical fruit such as pineapple, young mango, jicama, young paw paw and star fruit. Without them it won't stop you from making Rujak manis, right?

I had stock of puff tofu which how people from my region serve this salad, accompanied with tapioca crackers. Well, that's how we celebrate warm weather with Indonesian food.

Peanut Sauce for Rujak Manis

250 gr palm sugar or gula merah (available in Asian Grocery)

100 ml water

4 pieces red bird eyes chilies (depends on how hot this sauce to be)

1 garlic thinly slice and and fried

1 tsp cooked shrimp paste (optional)

1 tsp salt

3 tbs fried peanut, grind on food processor

1/2 tbs tamarind, make paste with a bit of warm water

Boil palm sugar in water with slow heat, until it dissolves and thicken. Using pestle and mortar grind chilies, fried garlic, shrimp paste, and salt into paste , add ground peanut and mix. Add this mixture to dissolved palm sugar, add tamarind paste, mix well. Let this sauce cool before serve.

Warrnambool and Great Ocean Road

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 21:12:00 +0000

My favourite part of summer is "packing up and heading off" to the some places to a rented en suite cabin or just build our camping tent.

Summer equally dose of fun, equally holiday, equally trip.

It was Warrnambool that I and my family visited, last December.This time we packed up our tent gear. We headed off to South before Christmas came. The site was quiet as people were still at their home to celebrate Christmas. There was some caravans and campers too, less than 2 hands count.

Warrnambool is a thriving city with a population of more than 30,000. It's the city by the sea. Located at the end of Great Ocean Road . Approximately a 3 hour drive via Geelong on princess Highway or Hamilton Highway. Only 50 minutes to Twelve Apostle on the Great Ocean Road, where we learnt history some of the notorious shipwreck along this coast. It was a unique experience for sure.

As the day unfolded we enjoyed rest under tent and shelter, biking, glorious foods and filled our hunger of adventures. Soaking up in the prettiness of this regional town.

The next day, we packed up early in the morning ready to explore another side of Warrnambool. Port Fairy that is. The weather was actually sunny but the sea breezes was so strong, not kind of the breeze we expected to do seaside walking, though, it won't change the mood to enjoy the view.

We ended up in an antique shop, regrettably they won't allow me to steal the atmosphere in to my camera. No photos allowed.

Back to Warrnambool, Lady Bay was our last visit today, as it's close to where we were staying. Someone wanted to ride a boat. Who would have guessed? Not me, apparently! Hubby and the kids had fun riding a boat. While someone else had to take picture, and that had to be me.

On day four, after we packed up tent, we didn't want to miss the chance to wander the greatest of Great Ocean Road, there were Loch Ard Gorge , London Arch, and some of amazing places along Great Ocean Road, except The Twelve Apostles, as it was too crowded, our car could barely move in the long queue. So we decided to go back to Port Cambell, and straight back home to Melbourne.

Blue Around the House

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 23:48:00 +0000

“Home is the place where it feels right to walk around without shoes”

thinkexist

Hidden Garden

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:11:00 +0000

There’s a hidden area in my backyard which I found quite of relaxing to be in this space. To be a witness of blooming ranunculus or just saying hello to new shoots.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:31:00 +0000

It was after picnic lunch at Sorrento Beach. When I suddenly recalled of cookies I kept on the tin inside the picnic basket, that thing should accommodate my mood.

My gun was next to me while target was lying there in front of my eyes, the beach bench was so luxury to me, it's dark Grey with fabulous grain, and white picnic plate was such helpful to provide me with additional light.

While cookies recipe was taken from Cadbury® Milk Chocolate Chips. No doubt about how good is the taste.

Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
serves 30

Ingredients
125g butter
1 cup brown sugar
¾cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1½ cups self raising flour
¾ cup milk chocolate chips
Method

Preheat oven to 160ºC.
Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Mix in vanilla essence and egg.
Stir in flour until combined.
Add ,milk chocolate chips.
Place teaspoons of mixture on greased baking tray and bake in moderate over for 10-15 minutes.

Fruit Danish Pastry

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:02:00 +0000

I was completely out of the blog last year, not that I stopped baking, it's still there, stuck like my middle name. I baked new recipe as well as the one I tried before, like this Danish Pastry. There is nothing could beat the smell of cinnamon mingled with the scent of butter came in the morning breakfast. What could you say, glorious morning ...

Danish pastry is cross of bread and pastry, use only plain flour and overbake one will end up in dry danish, so please don't :). It has to be flaky crunch in the outside and soft inside.

I posted this recipe before in Bahasa. And this time in English.

Check also :
Chocolate Tiramisu
Cwi Mie Malang
Black Forest Dg Fruit Punch

DANISH PASTRY
Australian Good Taste

Makes enough for 12 danish
1 tsp(7 gr/1 sachet) dried yeast
1 tbs caster sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) warm milk
225 gr (1 1/2 cups) plain flour
Pinch of Salt
1 egg, lightly whisked
110 gr unsalted butter, chopped, softened slightly

Step 1: Combine the yeast and 1 tsp of sugar in small bowl. Gradually whisk in milk and stir until yeast dissolves. Set aside in a warm, drought-free place for 10 minutes or until mixture is frothy.

Step 2: Place flour, salt and remaining sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add milk mixture and egg. Use a round bladed knife to mix together using a cutting motion, then use your hands to mix until soft dough forms. turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes or until smooth.

Step 3: Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll 20 x 30 cm rectangle, about 5 mm thick. With short edge closest to you, dot butter evenly over the top two thirds of dough, leaving 1 cm border on three sides. Fold the end closest to you (without butter) over half of the buttered portion, then fold the opposite end over the top (the butter should now be enclosed). Turn the dough 90 ° clockwise and gently press the edge together.

Step 4: Use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out dough to a 15 x 30 cm rectangle. Fold as before. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 15 minutes to rest.

Step 5: Remove from fridge and repeat rolling and folding process (step 3 and 4) 2 more times. Cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes to rest.

SPICED FRUIT DANISH

Makes :12
60 gr butter, softened
70 g (1/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 quantity DANISH PASTRY (recipe above)
100 gr (1/2 cup) mixed dried fruit
1 egg, lightly beaten

Icing:
150g (1 cup) icing sugar mixture
1 tbs boiling water

1. Preheat oven to 200 °. Line a baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Use an electric beater to beat butter, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl until well combined.

2. On lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to a 25 x 30 cm rectangle, about 5 mm thick. Spread evenly with butter mixture and sprinkle with mixed fruit. Starting from long end, firmly roll pastry into a log. Trim the ends. Cut cross ways into 2 cm-thick slices and place on lined tray. Use the palm of your hand to flatten slices slightly. set a side in a warm, drought-free place for 15 minutes or until doubled in size. Brush with egg and bake in preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until brown and cooked through. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

3. Meanwhile, to make the icing, combine the icing sugar mixture and boiling water in a bowl and stir until smooth. Place icing in a plastic bag. Cut a small hole in the corner and drizzle the icing over the toop of spiced fruit Danish. Set aside for 5 minutes to set.

Chocolate Tiramisu

noreply@blogger.com (Rita Sella) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:27:00 +0000

This is the simplest tiramisu that I have ever made, I had a chocolate cake before hand though, it called Brownie Kukus translated as steamed brownie, kinda cakey brownie, well, I must say it is more like a chocolate cake to me. Quite famous in Indonesian cakery.

The tiramisu cream was what the simple one in this cake. I was, sort of running out of time to make such impresive dessert, and there was mascarpone waiting on the fridge, search in the internet simple tiramisu recipe and stumbled across Gordon Ramsay's eggless, quick and easy tiramisu. Well, it's true, it's not like common tiramisu without egg. But .. hey the taste is not bad at all... I would say excellent.

Steamed Brownie
by : Sahak Pribadi

Ingredient A
100 gr Dark cooking Chocolate
150 gr Butter

Ingredient B
5 eggs
200 gr sugar
1 tbs elmusifier, (it's called TBM or SP you could find in any Indonesia groceries, or you can swap it with sweet condense milk)

Ingredient C
100 gr plain flour
20 gr corn flour
40 gr milk powder
40 gr cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
5 gr baking powder

Methods:
1. Prepare a large steamer with the lined square pan which can fit onto the steamer, add the water in the bottom part of the pan.( It's important to put a baking paper on the cake pan as you need to divide the mixture in to 2 batch to get this cake quickly done )
2. Over double boiling pot melt chocolate and butter, set aside to cool down
3. Mix "B ingredients" aprox. 7 minutes, using whisker add gradually chocolate mixture
4. Add C ingredients, gradually
5. Pour in 1/2 of the mixture, steam for about 30 minutes, after cooked through, remove from the pan and continue with the rest of the mixture.

Tiramisu Cream (inspired by Gordon Ramsay)

200 ml cream, cooled in the fridge
450 gr mascarpone cheese
25 gr icing sugar (or to taste)
1 cup coffee mixture (made from 1 cup boiling water + 2 tsp of instant coffee, only needed 2 tbs for this cream, reserve the rest to moist the cake) *remember my kids eat this cake, so i did not want this coffee's taste overpowered the cake :)*
cocoa powder

It's important to set a bowl and beater in the same temperature with cream, so beforehand leave them in the fridge, at least an hour.

Methods:
pour mascarpone in the medium bowl, soften using spatula, add 2 tbs of coffee mixture to mascarpone cheese

in the cooled bowl, pour cream and icing sugar mix until stiff, add mascarpone, mix

prepare chocolate cake, pour with the rest of coffee mixture, add cream in the first layer and using an icing bag squeeze to make a dot on top layer, and dust with cocoa powder, serve