Category Archives: Baking: Sweets
Eton Mess
My mantra from now on is: If sausage fingers can make this, so can YOU! Haha! I think my fingers are a standing joke. Swelling is really an interesting concept. The textbook pictures become reality ;)
And as usual, I digress..back to the main point: ETON MESS!
Eton mess is a traditional English dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream, which is traditionally served at Eton College’s annual cricket game against the students of Winchester College. The dish has been known by this name since the 19th century. The word mess may refer to the appearance of the dish, or may be used in the sense of “a quantity of food”, particularly “a prepared dish of soft food” or “a mixture of ingredients cooked or eaten together”
For the meringue:
2 egg whites
110g caster sugar
squeeze of lemon juice
few drops vanilla
Preheat the oven to 140C. Put the egg whites into a mixer and beat until you have stiff peaks. Slowly add the caster sugar until thick and glossy. Spoon onto a lined baking sheet. Bake the meringue for about 30 minutes, then leave to cool in the oven.
Just before serving, crunch it up a bit – the middle should still be squishy and foamy – and pop back in the oven at 150C for ten minutes or until it is a bit crunchier and golden on the outside.
To assemble:
punnet of strawberries/packet of frozen berries for added colour
200ml double cream for whipping/ whipped cream if you’re lazy like me :)
Chop the fruit into quarters. Softly whip the double cream. Mix it all together with 2/3 of the fruit all but a few pieces of meringue, then serve and top with the remaining fruit and crumble a little bit of meringue on top.
Coconut Puffs
I dont exactly have a name for these coconut cookie thingys but Tys called them coconut puffs since they were crisp on the outside but soft on the inside so I guess that works too as well :)
4 ingredients and just 15min in the oven :)
Preheat oven to 180 degrees
- 4 large egg whites
- 3 cups of sweetened shredded coconuts
- 2/3cup sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
- Combine all ingredients into one heat proof bowl and set it over 2 inches of barely simmering water. Stir mixture, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl to prevent any burning. Continue heating until the mixture is hot the touch and egg whites have thickened, about 6-7 minutes. Mixture is ready when a scoop can hold its shape without a puddle of syrup forming around it.
- Scoop 2 tablespoons of the mixture and place it 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 13-15 minutes, or until edges of cooking and protruding parts are golden brown. Cool cookies completely before removing from paper.
Both households gave their thumbs up of approval so Im guessing it did turn out well :) Hee super easy recipe for a quick snack!
Cinnamon Scrolls with Walnuts and Sultanas
Made these for Hello Adelaide. First time baking more than 50 portions of anything and the pressure was so high because strangers would be eating my scrolls and that would have been different from my nice friends who have been deceivingly encouraging me and telling me that everything I make tastes good. LOL! Anyway I decided to add walnuts/sultanas to the original recipe this time. Was deciding between both so I took a vote at Coles and everyone said sultanas but YX didnt like sultanas so I made another batch with walnuts instead! :)
The only difference between the last recipe here: http://gninethree.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/baby-cinnamon-sticky-rolls/ and the one I did this time were the added nuts/raisins so they were kinda fatter when I rolled them up and cut them up PLUS I got smarter and used muffin foils instead so there was less washing to do! :D Anyhow, I think this batch tasted equally good if not better with an extra crunch! :) My housemates were my official tasters and gave their approval before we let the other Singaporeans at Hello Adelaide try them!
Check out the walnuts in the layers!! I like.. :)
Super Easy Apple Blueberry Crisp Crumble without Crust
We were supposed to head out for dinner when the girls came back but because they were tired from flying, I decided to bake something simple and easy so we could just pig out in front of the telly and enjoy :) Okay maybe it was not that easy because I did not have an apple corer so I had to do everything with just a knife. Hmmm Im not attempting this again without an apple corer the next time and I ran out of butter so I substituted with olive oil for some parts of the crumble. Glad it still turned out alright. Hope the girls liked it :)
Ingredients:
Topping-
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces/olive oil
1/3 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Filling-
5 Granny Smith Apples (peeled, cored, and cut into 1 inch chunks)
1 cup fresh blackberries or raspberries
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon lemon zest
3 tablespoons white granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 190 degrees. Place all the topping ingredients (flour, sugars, spices, butter, oats and nuts) in a large bowl and whisk until the mixture is crumbly and there are no large pieces of butter visible. Set aside while you prepare the filling.
Place the apple chunks in a large bowl, along with the berries (if using) and lemon zest. Toss with the lemon juice and sugar.
Transfer to your prepared baking dish Spread the topping evenly over the apples.
Bake for approximately 30-40 minutes until the topping is golden brown.
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool for about 30 minutes before serving or eat straight from the dish like we did! :D
Dark Chocolate Nutella Truffles
I like shopping in markets. While other girls enjoy window shopping in malls and buying clothes, I’d much prefer going to markets and looking at different ingredients or types of foods. Love wet markets, love hypermarts, love supermarkets :) Put me in a cake shop that sells different cupcake moulds, egg separators, cake tins or apple corers, I can stay there for hours wishing I had the money to buy everything. Yes I am that uncool. But I like being uncool… Anyhow today I found cheap eggs in Central market! The prices of eggs are very wide ranged in Adelaide. They can go as high as $5 for a small carton of 6 (free range) and everyone knows that the cheapest is $2.80 in O Connell’s Butchery. But today I found $2.40 for a carton of 12 at Koreana Grocery! Naiseee okay now everyone must be thinking I am uncool and cheap so I should shut up and proceed to talk about Nutella truffles instead! :D
The ingredients:
1 cup dark chocolate chips
4 tblsp of nutella
1 tblsp of honey
4 tblsp of cream cheese
To roll:
Cocoa powder
Icing sugar
Rainbow chocolate bits
White chocolate
Depending on the size of the chocolate balls that you roll, you can make up to 15 with this recipe! :)
Melt the dark chocolate chips in a microwave, stirring every 30 sec (If you do not like your chocolate too dark or bitter like me, throw in a couple of white chocolate squares)
Blend the cream cheese and honey before adding the nutella to the mixture and mix with a spatula
Add the melted chocolate to the bowl and blend until everything combines. Chill in the refrigerator for 30-40min and the mixture should be set enough for you to pick up and roll into balls
Meanwhile, prepare the coatings that you want and have fun rolling! :)
If you like your truffles to have a harder coating, melt some white chocolate or compound chocolate over hot boiling water but be careful to not let your chocolate burn!
Drop the chocolate balls in to coat and take it out as soon as possible before the heat from the melted chocolate melts the filling. Put the coated chocolate ball onto baking paper and it will cool to form a hard shell over. Warning: this makes the truffles super super sweet so think twice before you coat it ;) If not..enjoy!
Happy Valentines’ Day dear girls.. :) This is for you!
Anyway I had some pretty amazing Viet food today in Regency Park. Will be back to blog about it soon :)
Take my hand and we’ll make it
We’re half way there – Livin’ on a prayer :)
