Sweet date

actually sweet and sticky in pecan pie. 

For that after dinner chat and catch up. 

She had hers with Ruibois tea which was very nice while I had a skinny latte. The Ruibois tea tasted a little like a light Chinese herbal tea. 

At Cedele. Wheelock Place. 

Vienna and Belgium

A supper of chocolate dessert after the Vienna Boys' Choir performance. 

At Max Brenner :

Belgian chocolate waffle, with caramelised bananas, walnut caramel cluster, Rice Krispies. 

Mexican Hot chocolate, with chili, pepper and cinnamon 

Lemon mint granita. Refreshing.  

Puranmal Nutberries

Delicious bars of chewy dates and figs with nuts!

From Mustaffa Shopping Centre. Found at the cooler section since these need to be refrigerated.

These would make great gifts except that one would need to keep them cool.

Easy Spanish Melon Sago

Cooled sago beads
+
blended Spanish melon
+
Meiji full cream milk
+
Spanish melon flesh

Tiramisu

Found this recipe that doesn't use raw eggs (though the fingers do contain eggs)

Tried and tested! Easy, and really yummy.

Tripled the alcohol ingredient though. Used dark rum.

While I was at it, I did a search online for cheaper options to mascarporne cheese. There are recipes for homemade ones and I also found some wholesale options.

Check out the price difference :

Kitchen Capers, 1 Litre m cheese costs $9.80

Cold storage, 1 Litre of the same brand costs $15.95

Sago

Pretty pink sago.

Made with sago beads from Indonesia

Black pepper pineapple

A simple but absolutely divine dessert.

----

Prepare mixture of butter, black pepper and honey (the mixture will look jammy).

Sauté the mixture over low to medium flame till it caramelizes

Add pineapple slice to the pan. Cook for a few minutes. Serve.

Just desserts

At The Line, Shangri-La Hotel.

Bread and butter pudding

about 4 slices of bread, cut up into large triangles

400ml milk

4 eggs

120g sugar

raisins

butter (to grease the baking dish)

vanilla essence, a few drops

icing sugar to finish

Butter the baking dish. Sprinkle raisins

Arrange the bread.

In a bowl, whisk egg, milk, sugar and vanilla essence

Slowly pour mixture onto the bread

Fill up to 3/4 of dish.

Add raisins

Place dish into a shallow tray with water

Bake at 180 degrees for 45 min

Chocolate fondue, by tealight

Broke the mini chocolate fondue set which was a Xmas gift from DH's office :(

Here you see photos of it, before and after. We were all set for our after-dinner chic fondue and clumsy me broke the bottom part. So make-do we did. With a tealight holder. The aluminum foil is to create a vent so the light does not die off.

Bananas
Strawberries
Pineapple
Marshmallow pieces
Choc pieces
Milk, to stir in occasionally to keep the choc from drying out

Brisbane 2011 - getting our just desserts

Dessert at West End. At Freestyle Tout. Known for its delicious desserts.

Cool night in early spring. Sitting by an open window bay. (The Gunshot Cafe sits opposite - we tried the brunch menu there too.)

*white choco dessert dumplings with ice-cream and berries and chocolate sauce

*a Little Bit of Queensland - chewy macadamia slice with caramel sauce and vanilla ice-cream

Chocolate muffin (basic)

Made these on the spur of the moment one lazy afternoon. I was browsing through my kitchen store, and after a quick check on the internet, I rehashed some basic recipes and came up with this for chocolate flavoured cupcakes.

Here’s the recipe:

Choco Cupcakes (basic)

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 125g butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tbsp milk, plus a little more splash of milk if needed
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder + 1/2 a pack of instant coffee powder
• 2/3 chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Place all ingredients into a food processor (except for the milk & chips), and pulse to ensure mixture is even. Add milk towards the end, and pulse a little more
3. Pour into 12 cupcake cases (or 8 large muffin cases), and bake for 15 mins
4. Done !

Mango puree with sago beads

There's a very elegant name to this refreshing dessert, but I cannot remember what!

With leftover pomelo from an earlier after-dinner serving of fruits, I toss them in together with mango puree, some mango juice and sago beads that had been boiled till clear. It tasted even better after having sat in the fridge overnight.

Chocolate brownie muffin

I've not really put my new oven to the real test. It came with my new home, and I was doubtful about its quality since it was not something I chose. The oven comes with a blow-fan feature which I am unfamiliar with, and I only know, with Ollie's advice, that baking-times need to be reduced for such ovens.

True enough, I overdid my first set of bakes with the oven - cornflake cookies over the CNY period
:(

I finally mustered up enough enthusiasm and excitement to make some chocolate brownie muffin. I had been trying to get hold of recipes that could yield rich, fudgy choco muffins, much like those from my favourite bake-shop in Shunfu.

I adapted the following from Happy Home Baking, whose blog I have been following.
I used lesser cocoa powder, brown sugar (instead of white) and also used smaller cupcases.

The result? - Yummy, rich and these are actually really brownies. Wonder what a pinch of baking powder might do...?

Ingredients
80g butter
150g dark eating chocolate, chopped
100g brown sugar
(melt the above 3 items over indirect heat)

2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g plain flour
1 tsp cocoa powder
A handful of chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degC.

Line baking tray with cupcases.

Sift together flour and cocoa powder, set aside.

Melt butter, sugar and chocolate over indirect heat.

Transfer chocolate mixture to a mixing bowl.

Stir in the liquids gradually (eggs, vanilla essence), followed by the flour+cocoa powder+choc chips mixture.

Stir till just incorporated (do not overstir).

Divide batter into muffin cups.

Bake for 15 mins or until skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Chilled yogurt cheesecake

Ingredients

For the base,

• suggest to use a round mould - get those with removable bottom
• 200g marie buscuits / digestive / oreo biscuits (finely milled)
• 100g melted butter

      (combine base ingredients together and press firmly onto the base. Keep chilled)

For yogurt cheese,

• 20g gelatin powder
• 200ml peach syrup from canned peaches
• 2x250g cream cheese at room temperature
• 160g castor sugar
• 1 can of peaches (cut into small pieces)
• 300g plain yogurt

Method

1. double-boil gelatine powder with peach syrup, keep stirring it to make sure all gelatin powder is dissolved. Leave to cool well
2. beat cream cheese and castor sugar till fluffy
3. add in yogurt, then peaches. Mix well.
4. add (1) to the mixture
5. mix well and pour into the biscuit base. Keep chilled for 3 hrs to set the mixture