Chocolate Pear Pudding...

I've had this recipe for years.. The first time I saw Nigella Lawson made this recipe was on Express. I fell in love with its simplicity and the fact that it looks as if I spent hours in the kitchen making it. Before this, I could never find canned pears. So I've substituted the pears with peaches, and the outcome is just as delightful. Recently, to the start of the new year.. a friend I met on twitter organized a Banana Leaf Tweet Up at her place in Puchong. And this baked sponge seemed a perfect present to take to a dinner party :)

It can be eaten as is... or with chocolate sauce. Or on a hot day like this, vanilla ice cream is match made in heaven for this pudding :D

I guess I've hinted earlier, it's one of Miss Nigella's recipe. Got it from her Nigella Express book. I followed her exact recipe.. except I used 1 825g can of pear halves instead of 2 415g cans. No biggie :) If you don't have pear halves.. try other canned fruits.. I've tried with peach halves... excellent! I've also used more cocoa powder than stated in recipe.. Everyone could use more chocolatey goodness every now and then right? ;)


Ingredients:

2 x 415g cans pear halves in juice
125g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
125g caster sugar
150g soft butter, plus extra for greasing
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200degC and grease a 22cm square ovenproof dish with butter
2. Drain the pears and arrange them on the base of the dish. I don't usually cut the pears but if you're bringing it to a party of 100 and you only brought enough for 8 servings.. then I'd advise you to cut the pears into smaller pieces.
3. Put all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix until you have a batter with a soft dropping consistency (I have no idea what this means but the batter was quite thick) I hand-mixed the batter. Nigella used the food processor. Same big difference :p 
4. Spread the brown batter over the pears, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes
5. Let stand out of the oven for 5 to 10 minutes and then cut into slabs
6. Makes 6-8 servings ;)

Very Fluffy Donuts :)

I eat them as is :D

When I first moved into my apartment, among the first things I learned how to make was these fluffy donuts. I learned how to freeze them and gave them to my sisters.. My nieces love them so I bought this really tiny donut mold and have been making frozen fluffy donuts since. :)

They are perfect for tea.. late night supper... those unexpected guests.... They are so darn easy to make.. but they take a bit of time to make as the recipe calls for yeast and you need time to let it rise.. but the result is very fluffy donuts.. who wouldn't want that? :D

I usually fry the donuts and eat as it is. My nieces do that also.. but feel free to sprinkle with icing sugar.. or dip it in chocolate.. ;) it uses condensed milk.. but you may substitute it with milk plus a bit of sugar. :)

Ingredients:

1kg flour
11g instant yeast (1 pkt)
2 tablespoon condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
550g water (room temperature)
oil for frying

Method:

1. Mix salt, milk and water. Use water at room temperature only.
2. Mix yeast and flour well. 
3. Add oil to the flour mixture well until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. 
4. Add the milk mixture to the oil-flour mixture and mix them well. It will become a very moist and sticky dough but no problem. Knead a bit and let it rest for 15-20 minutes
5. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes. Add flour if necessary. Not too much or the donuts will be tough if too much flour is used. 
6. If you have a donut mold, roll the dough on a floured surface to about 1 cm thickness and cut out using the mold. Let it rest on floured plate before frying it. 
7. Otherwise divide the dough into mini balls. Press the dough balls and make holes using your finger. 
8. Fry the donuts until light brown. 
9. To freeze the donuts, fry the donuts quickly to stop the yeast from rising. Cool them and keep them in a tightly sealed container. Freeze them. It can last for a long time in the freezer. Defrost them completely before frying :D

Lightly fried so I can freeze them :)

Easy peasy...  Enjoy!

Easy Chocolate Pistachio Sultana Fudge

cut into little squares and keep in freezer. 

it tastes heavenly! 

I have a breakfast tweetup on Saturday and I thought I should probably bring something for the tweetup. Someone once told me it's polite to bring something if you go to someone's house.. and I've tried to that everytime ever since. I wasn't usually like this. haha :p but now it feels like a necessary thing to do.. :) At first I thought of buying some fruits or something.. as the main menu is Nasi Lemak.. but ermm.. that'd be boring. LOL. Then of course I flipped through Nigella Lawson's magical recipe book.. Nigella Express.. and I saw the Chocolate Pistachio Fudge recipe. It's so easy only the ingredients are quite expensive. But it's fudge. I doubt people would go for seconds. It's too sweet. Right? ermm.. I hope so. hihihi :D

I added some sultanas as I still had some in the fridge. I bought already shelled roasted pistachios. Definitely more expensive but it saves time.. and energy by like a mile. I am not sure if we can substitute the nuts.. why don't you try and tell me about it..? :D

I've altered the recipe a bit. The recipe can be found here.. :)

Ingredients

350g Chocolate Buttons
3/4 can condensed milk (1can = 505g)
30g butter
150g Pistachios
a handful sultanas
salt

Method

1. Put the Chocolate Buttons, condensed milk, butter and salt in the pan at low heat and stir until melt. 
2. Chop the nuts. I did what Nigella did. I put them in a bag, and bash them with a rolling pin. Not only it makes you feel great, it gives the nuts different textures.. :) cool :D
3. Add the nuts and sultanas into the chocolate and condensed milk mixture and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into a foil tray (23cm square) and smooth the top.
5. Let the fudge cool and then put it into the refrigerator to set. Once set, cut into squares.
6. Keep the squares in the freezer. TO be eaten cold! 

Enjoy!

Caramel Bread Pudding

my favorite recipe book ever! 

I was a bit down today and decided to meet up a friend of mine. She's just given birth to a beautiful baby girl and I haven't even paid both the baby and the proud mummy a visit. As the decision was last minute. I decided to make a quick dish. Something that a mummy in confinement and a grandmother can eat. Something simple and delicious. I took out my Nigella Express book .. there it is.. caramel croissant pudding.

I didn't have croissant.. not even stale croissants.. but I did have white bread. The recipe also called for full milk and heavy cream for the custard.. I didn't have either. But I did have lots of low fat milk. :D Nigella also added bourbon.. she said if you don't have bourbon.. use sherry.. ermm.. I don't drink. So vanilla essence it is :p 

I'm going to give my version of Nigella Lawson's recipe. But here is the link to her recipe. 

Ingredients:

5-6 slices of white bread

100g caster sugar (less than 1/2 cup) 

2 tablespoon water

250ml low fat milk (1 cup)

a splash of vanilla essence (1 tbsp)

2 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup raisins/sultanas/cherries for toppings

so divine! 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180degC
2. Tear the bread into pieces and put in a small dish. I used a small 6" aluminum foil. 
3. Put the caster sugar and the water into a pan. Swirl around to dissolve the sugar before putting the pan on medium/high heat. Don't stir!
4. Caramelize the sugar and water mixture by letting it bubble away, DON'T STIR!, until it all turns a deep amber color. It takes about 3-5 minutes. Don't be too timid.. but keep looking to avoid the caramel to burn :D
5. Once you have that amber color, turn the heat down low and add the milk. Ignore the spluttering, and whisk away the milk. The solid toffee that forms in the pan will dissolve if u keep whisking over low heat.
6. After the toffee has dissolved, take the pan off the heat, still whisking, add the beaten eggs. 
7. Congratulations you've just made caramel custard. :) 
8. Pour the caramel custard over the bread and leave to steep for a few minutes if the breads are very stale.
9. Sprinkle with raisins/cherries/sultanas.. whatever you like. I had lots of raisins so I used those. :) 
10. Bake for 20 minutes in the heated oven.  
11. Like Nigella said in her book.. Prepare to swoon! :D  

Powder Puffs

I love watching Laura Calder on French Food at Home. She's so adorable.... and I just love her dresses.. The recipes on her show are really easy too.. I've tried several recipes I got from the show .. so far so good :)

Anyway one night while making dendeng for my customers at Dendeng, Etc I felt the urge to eat something sweet. Plus, I just watched her show .. and she was showing how to make Powder Puffs. It's a bit too sweet to my taste so I reduced the sugar a little. From 3/4 cup of sugar to a little bit more than 1/2 cup. She also used some really expensive raspberry jam.. I only had this blueberry jam which was more like jelly than jam. Coincidentally I had some whip cream leftover in the fridge. Wouldn't want it to go bad ;)

The decision was worth it. They tasted so good! I didn't have cornstarch at home.. so I substituted it with flour. It was a success.. Brought some for Kak Ina and Kak Ida to taste. They loved it. Kak Ida even ordered some from me.. hehehe :p

Some tips on separating the eggs... I got this from Joy of Baking website I think.. can't remember... Anyways, separate them when they are cold. then leave the eggs covered to warm up to room temperature before whipping the egg whites :)

Anyway the original recipe can be found here .. Here's my take on the recipe :)

Powder Puffs

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs, separated
1/2+  cup caster sugar
1/2 cup jam
3/4 cup whipping cream, vanilla flavored for filling

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. 
2. Blend together the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda. Set aside. 
3. In another bowl, separate the egg whites from the yolks. Set yolks aside. 
4. Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. 
5. Add the sugar in three stages, beating after each addition to make a stiff, glossy meringue. 
6. Whisk in the egg yolks one at a time. 
7. Sift the dry ingredients together, then sift them over the egg mixture and fold in with the whisk, without beating or you'll lose volume. 
8. Pipe or drop by tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving room between so they can spread. They just grow in size..like nobody's business! 
9. Bake until lightly golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove to a rack to cool. They will harden slightly. 
10. Sandwich the rounds together with jam and sweetened, vanilla-flavoured whipped cream. Let sit an hour or so to soften before serving. (This is important. They will not be sponge-like right away, and you want them to be.) Dust with icing sugar before serving if you like.. I didn't. .. already too sweet :D