So, why not make your own Nutella or hazelnut chocolate spread instead? You get to control what you put in it and it’s healthier, more natural and tastes just as good, if not better!!!

It involved some roasting, some stove top cooking and loads of blending!

Anyway, after refrigerating for more than 5 hours, it will have firmed up to a consistency like the store bought Nutella spread. You can spread it on bread, on crackers or heck, you can eat it as it is.

Ingredients

2 cups raw hazelnuts
2 cups fresh coconut milk / nonfat milk
(Or 1 cup coconut cream, 1 cup coconut milk)
200g dark chocolate, 80% cocoa, sugarfree
A pinch of salt
3 tablespoons raw honey

Instructions

1. Roast the hazelnuts at 180 C for 15 minutes.
2. Rub off the skin and pour the nuts into the blender.
3. In a bowl, break chocolate into small pieces and melt it in the microwave ( zap it for about a minute)
4.on the stove, pour the coconut milk into a pan, add the honey and salt and heat it up over medium heat. Whisk till it’s well combined.
5. Blend the nuts and chocolate for about 5 – 10 minutes until it became a smooth creamy consistency.
6. Add the coconut milk mixture to the creamy chocolate hazelnut mixture. Blend for another 5 – 10 minutes until it is all well combined and the mixture is a smooth chocolate mixture.
7. Pour into containers and refrigerate for over 6 hours.
8. Use as spread on bread, crackers or eat it as it is!

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So, I tried making those Taiwan pineapple cakes instead of paying exorbitant prices for them. Can you imagine it was being sold at RM2 EACH? WTF. That’s too much, isn’t it?

Although it takes a bit more work…this is what I got…

I made it from scratch, none of those prepackaged flour or prepackaged pineapple paste please. If you come to think of it, it’s not all that difficult too. For the pineapple paste, all you need to do is to peel and chop the pineapple and winter melon before blending it together. Winter melon? Yep, it’s what made these pineapple cakes different from the normal pineapple rolls. Then, you cook it over the stove, add some sugar, maltose syrup and spices and let it cook, stirring occasionally until it becomes a dark golden sticky mass.

Here’s the recipe:

Pineapple paste recipe

Ingredients

2 large pineapples, peeled, cored, diced (about 4 – 5 cups)
1kg winter melon, peeled, seeded and diced ( about 2 – 3 cups)
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1/2 cup maltose syrup

Instructions
1. Process the pineapple and winter melon until it is a watery purée.
2. Pour into a pan and cook the mixture over medium to low heat.
3. Stir until the liquid has almost evaporated, then add the sugar to cook for a further 10 minutes.
4. Add the maltose syrup and continue cooking and stirring until its very thick and sticky and of a deep golden color, like amber.
5. Transfer into a container and refrigerate until cool.

Taiwan Pineapple Cakes Recipe

Ingredients

Pineapple paste, the amount you made above
2 1/2 cups cake flour or super fine flour
A pinch of baking powder
A pinch of bicarbonate of soda
A pinch of vanilla powder
6 tbsp nonfat milk powder
400g unsalted butter at room temperature or softened
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup icing sugar
2 egg yolks

Instructions
1. Preheat oven to 160C.
2. Mix dry ingredients together.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the sugar, butter and shortening until light and fluffy.
4. add the egg yolks and beat till combined
5. Add half the dry ingredients in and then beat until combined.
6. Add the remaining dry ingredients until you get a smooth soft dough.
7. Divide into two portions and roll into logs. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate until harden, about 2 – 3 hours.
8. Remove from fridge, cut each of the log into 12 even pieces.
9. Roll each piece into a ball. Take out the pineapple paste and scoop out 1 tbsp of paste to use as filling for each dough ball.
10. Flatten the dough ball, press the filling into centre, pinch it close and roll it into shape or press it into a mould to shape.
11. Place on tray and bake for about 10 minutes until golden brown and turn it over and bake for another 10 minutes.
12. Let it cool first before placing on wire racks to cool.
13. Dig right in and enjoy pineapple cakes hot from the oven!

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Anyway, I used a food processor, I just dump everything in and pulse till it’s done while gradually adding oil. My peanut cookies are different from commercial ones because it’s VERY peanut-ty, with very intense peanut flavour and this year, I even added almonds. For a few of it, I added one small chocolate chips in the scene, just for the fun of it. After all,peanut and chocolates goes really, really well together.

Here’s the recipe for:

Ingredients

2 cups flour
4 cups finely ground peanuts
1 cup finely ground almonds
2 cups soft brown sugar or plain fine caster sugar
1 cup margarine
1 cup vegetable oil (approximate amount)

For glazing:
1 egg, whisked
A pinch of salt
2 tbsp water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease the baking pan
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl till well combined
3. Pour into a food processor and add the margarine. Pulse till combined, scraping down the sides occasionally.
4. Process the mixture on medium speed while you gradually add the oil, about 2 – 3 tablespoons at a time. DO NOT add ALL of the oil.
5. Pulse till the mixture become a smooth sticky dough. If it becomes a sticky mass before you finish adding all the oil, stop adding the oil.
6. You know it’s ready to be baked when you take a small clump of dough and it is very pliable and smooth enough to form small balls without breaking apart. You need to process the dough till the sugar has all melted and fully incorporated.
7. If the dough is too dry, add a bit more oil. Alternatively, if it’s too soft because of too much oil, you need to add some flour so that it will hold its shape.
8. Shape into balls, indent it with an icing nozzle, brush with the egg ways and then bake in preheated oven for around 8 – 10 minute depending on your oven’s wattage. It’s ready when it turns a nice golden brown color.
9. Let it cool in the pan for awhile before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.

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Just look at it:

Yep, I couldn’t resist and ate two HUGE slices hot from the oven. Hey, I have good reason to do that, I need to check the taste. That’s what good chefs do. Ahem. Anyway, it’s pretty easy to make. Just cream sugar, eggs, water and butters then add flour, baking soda, vanilla essence, diced or shredded apple, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and bake.

Pour the batter into a loaf pan or even a normal cake pan and bake at 160 degrees Celsius to get the rich, moist chocolate apple cake.

This is how good it looks like, hot from the oven:

And no, combining apples and chocolate is not strange at all. It tastes phenomenal!

Here’s the recipe proper:

Rich Chocolate Apple Cake Recipe

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3 tbs cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
1 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
2 cups finely diced apple (or shredded)
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions

1. Cream the eggs, sugar, water, butter and oil.
2. Add in the cocoa powder, flour, soda and vanilla and combine well.
3. Stir in the apple and chocolate chips.
4. Pour into greased and floured pan and bake at 160 degree Celsius for 45 minutes or until it is baked through.

You can serve it and eat it hot from oven (and risk burning your tongue in the haste of stuffing it in) or wait it to cool before serving it as it is. And one more thing, this cake tastes great without any frosting at all!
Enjoy!!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Yeah, as you well know, I am a real cookie monster and I have this thing for baking all sorts of desserts from cakes to cookies. It’s been awhile since I baked cookies in recent times (due to my cutting calories so that I could fit into a cheongsam I bought for the CNY!) so CNY is as good a reason as any to bake, bake and bake loads of cookies!

I baked the traditional peanut cookies, pineapple rolls and I made meat floss rolls too. These are 3 of my favorites during Chinese New Year so of course, naturally I have to make these! Nothing beats home made cookies.

The traditional peanut cookies are rather easy to make if you have a food processor to help you knead the dough into this smooth, pliable dough:

So that you could shape it into these small little balls and then indent it with an icing tip:

Then you bake it for about 10 minutes to get these:

I simply love, love, LOVE peanut cookies aka fah sang peng aka thor tau pneah. They melt in your mouth into smooth, rich, crumbly peanut buttery taste. Absolutely heavenly.

As for the pineapple rolls, just add flour, baking powder, corn flour and icing sugar together like this:

And rub the butter in too. It will form a smooth dough like this..

Just form balls and wrap it around pineapple jam or pineapple paste(which can be made or bought, whichever floats your boat). Paint it with some egg wash and then, just bake for around 10 minutes or so, you get this…

I love pineapple rolls too because of the crumbly pastry warpped around the sweet and sour filling. Yummy!!!

So who cares about calorie count when there’s yummy goodies like this to eat?!?!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Here’ what I made for my daughter’s first birthday:

Yep, it’s my very first time making a princess/ doll cake and it’s loads of fun too. Best of all, it sure did impress quite a lot of our guests. (I baked a plain pound cake for the base, so I have time for the decoration.) Heheh..

Anyway, my wedding anniversary is coming up and I wanted to make something simple and nice. I have this thing for Angry Birds (the popular iPhone/iPad game) so I thought, hey, why not give it a try….and here’s what I got:

It’s our 7th anniversary and no, my husband is not into Angry Birds but heck, I AM into Angry Birds so why not? Of course this can’t beat the Angry Birds cake by Anya Richardson but it’s a start. Actually the pigs are rather easy to make, the birds are more difficult.

These are mini cheesecakes since my husband is not a really dessert person but he sorta likes cheesecake and in small portions. It’s an apple cheesecake and I will post up the recipe next post.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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Somehow, I am reverting back to old habits now… there is just something about the middle of the night that I love doing things on. I like to do my freelance writing work at this time of the night, I like to read at this time of the night, I like to get my work done during this time of the night and now, I like baking or cooking something till sometime into the am.

It’s Halloween so, might as well get into the whole spirit of things by making monster eyes, LITERALLY.

Okay, so these do not require baking or even actual cooking, it took me around 30 minutes to get it done. They are darn easy to make and so good, you may just be tempted to eat it all even before it sets completely! In case you are wondering, it tastes just like Reese’s peanut butter cups.

I got the recipe from Epicurious, so I didn’t come up with it myself. But I did modify it a bit and reduce the amount specified since I only wanted to experiment and try out the recipe.

Do remember to put the mixture into the fridge first to firm it up. After that, take it out and form into small balls.

Then you melt the chocolate. Dip the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate…

Let it drip off and then place it on a baking sheet to harden. In our weather it is best to put it in the fridge. Add the M&M as the iris and you are done!

Here is the recipe proper:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Monster Eyes

Ingredients

1 cup no sugar added, natural peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 cup chocolate chips or chopped baking chocolate
1 tbsp solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup mini M&M

Instructions