Oreo Truffles

I haven't baked anything I was actually craving for in a long, long time. 

Sure, I loved what I made. Cakes, buns, cookies.. But my dairy and chocolate loving self craved for cheesecake and brownies. And the many pans of brownies I've been baking recently have been shipped off to be sold. In other words, I don't even get to eat the crumbs. Sigh..

It never used to be that way. When I first started to bake, I only made things I wanted to eat. Which was why I made brownies all the time. It might have also been because they were so easy - just melt everything and stir them together and boom, brownies. Then everyone got tired of all that chocolate and demanded I make something else for a change. So I branched out into chocolate cake, cheesecake, chocolate cheesecake.. And here I am today.

So when my sister brought home a pack of cake pops, she left one for me and when I tried it, it was like a eureka moment - several light bulbs went on in my head and I thought why have I not made this before ? Then I opened the fridge to discover that I was out of eggs. That might have been due to the fried rice my mom cooked yesterday. But then no eggs = no cake. And no cake = no cake pops. And the thought of going cake popless for another day made me sad. 

The next logical step would be to go out and get some eggs right ? Well I went and made pop tarts. Why ? Because I really needed to bake something and because my mom loved pop tarts. Okay fine, because I couldn't make cheesecake or brownies without those stupid eggs. Anyways I made the crust for the tarts and left it in the fridge to rest while I scurried off to college to pay for my convocation (which is in march !!!!) and to buy the elusive egg(s). So I got home and filled them with jam and... I should tell you the rest of the recipe tomorrow, or else I'd have nothing to write about.

Back to the cake pops. One might figure, since I had procured some eggs that I would go into cake baking mode and whip up a batch of cake or even some fudgy brownies to crumble and form into cutesy little balls. That was what I had in mind, but then I had just baked off a batch of pop tarts and it was just too hot to bake anything else (seriously, it's like a desert here and it hasn't rained in weeks). Seeing as I wasn't about to go without making anything in ball form, and I had enough foresight to buy some oreo cookies, and there was a block of cream cheese sitting conveniently in the fridge, I made oreo truffles instead. 

Let me get this straight. It has been a long week. Tempers have flared and we've all yelled at each other at some point or another in these couple of days. I had made some buns for my dad recently, so my mom got the tarts and so the truffles were for my sister (I owed her because she kept hinting that I'd have to eat mine ASAP if I didn't want her to help me with the eating) and it was this that I kept chanting when the truffles just would not happen. It's my fault, actually, since I was in a rush to finish making them and watch tellie so I didn't actually freeze them long enough, which was why they kept slipping off their sticks. And when I propped them up in cups so the chocolate would harden up without any flat surfaces, gravity took hold and smooshed them together into Siamese twins. Lesson learnt - do not prop up big balls of truffles on skinny sticks in mugs stuffed with cloth. Use smaller balls and fatter sticks. And mugs full of clay, maybe.

While it's rewarding when you have a happy family who is happy eating the goodies you've baked especially for them, not being able to make said goodies in the first place is a huge bummer. To say that I was pissed would be the understatement of the year.

What's a girl to do ?

Curse and flings the failures in the fridge. Take pictures of whatever truffles she can salvage. Pretend that the results were what she had planned for all along. Then eat them all to console herself.

Oreo Truffles (adapted from Bakerella)

Makes 18

24 oreo cookies

4 oz. cream cheese

5 oz. dark chocolate, chopped 

5 oz. white chocolate, chopped

Chopped Oreos, sprinkles/nonpareils, coconut flakes, chopped nuts.. Anything you want !

1. Blend the oreo cookies in a food processor until finely pulverized. Add the cream cheese and blend until it balls up. Roll this mixture into balls, you should get around 18 of them. Insert some lollipop sticks into the balls and freeze them until solid, about 30 minutes. And when I say solid, I mean solid. Don't make the balls too big either, maybe a heaped tablespoon would suffice.

2. Melt the chocolates separately in bowls set over simmering water. Dip half the oreo balls in the dark chocolate and the other half in white chocolate. Decorate as you like, I used chopped oreo cookies and sprinkles but you can use nuts, chocolate chips, coconut flakes.. The possibilities are endless. Put them in the fridge until the chocolate coating sets, then eat away.

Red Velvet Cake with Cooked Flour Frosing

I was once put in charge of making arancini when I was working - I've mentioned it before. Back then I had already fallen in love with risotto, so naturally arancini stole my heart instantly. I had to shape them and fry them up for a cocktail service and might have eaten a ridiculous number of them in the process. In my defense, I wasn't the only one because I had to use the deep fryer to cook them, and there was only one in the area and it wasn't anywhere close to where I usually worked. The people around were lovely enough to let me use it whenever I needed to and they oh-so-easily grabbed a few of the freshly fried arancini whenever they walked past. I never told them off for doing it and in return, they never told me off for doing the same.

I hadn't eaten arancini in almost a year now until today. I was over the moon to discover that one of my favorite restaurants had an appetizer platter with zucchini strings, calamari, arancini and cheese balls. And everything was deep fried. Now if I wasn't already sold on getting a platter of fried appetizers, the words arancini and cheese balls would have bought me straight away seeing as I was obsessed with the former and the latter was the stuff of my dreams and having them both on the same plate would not only be overkill but would probably also be my death of choice. 

Sorry if that was too dramatic. But I do love my arancini/cheese balls.

When the platter arrived, I might or might not have hogged it to myself. I might or might not have licked the bowl of Alfredo dipping sauce clean and I might or might not have eaten all the fried balls of both kinds by myself while my family picked at the zucchini strings. But I did leave happy and full and dreaming of going back alone another day to order another platter..

On another note, I made a red velvet cake that might just join the brownies to be sold at the cafe. I found the recipe in a Betty Crocker cookbook and while I was really skeptical at the cooked flour frosting - I expected to taste like.. Flour ? - but it surprised me when I tasted it by being so buttery and creamy and perfectly sweet that I had to whack my own knuckles with the spatula so I wouldn't eat the whole bowl. The red velvet cake is a dream on its own, using vegetable oil instead of butter so it's soft and moist even when it's been sitting in the fridge. The red color comes through without being alarming and the layers are just tall enough so that a slice is just enough to make you feel happily content and not having you groaning in pain by the time you're done. Believe me, that is not a good feeling. I might consider adding more cocoa the next time I make it though..

But the frosting, oh that frosting. As wonderful as the cake is, the frosting is so good that you're going to want to lick it off the plate.

It looks so weird, the cooked flour and milk mixture. At first you're going to go through a brief what-the-hell-am-I-doing stage but persevere and you'll be rewarded with a Swiss buttercream-esque frosting without all the hassle.

The more I look at it, the more it begins to resemblel Guy Fieri's hair.

Red Velvet Cake with Cooked Flour Frosting

For the cake:

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 cup buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 bottle (1 oz) red food color

2 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the bottoms and sides of three 8 inch round cake pans and line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.

2. In a stand mixer, beat all the cake ingredients on low speed for 30 seconds until the flour is moistened. Scrape down the bowl then beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Divide the batter evenly among the three pans. 

3. Bake the cakes for 25-35 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through, until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before unmolding and cooling them on a wire rack. Make sure the cakes are completely cool before filling and frosting them.

For the frosting:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 cups sugar 

1 1/2 cups (2 1/2 sticks) butter, softened

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1. In a medium saucepan, mix the flour and milk until smooth. Cook, stirring with a whisk over medium heat, until very thick. It'll look almost like choux paste. Remove from heat and leave to cool completely. To speed up the cooling, transfer to another bowl and place the bowl in an ice bath.

2. In a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the flour mixture one spoonful at a time, then once incorporated, beat in the vanilla. Turn the mixer to high speed and beat the frosting until smooth.

Assemble the cake. Place one of the layers on a turntable or cake board. Top with a generous cup of frosting and spread evenly, till the sides. Top with another cake layer and another cup of frosting. Spread the frosting to the sides and top with the final cake layer. Plop the remaining frosting on the top, then using a flat spatula, spread the frosting over the top and sides of the cake. Chill for at least 4 hours before slicing and serving.

Brioche Satine

I have caved and bought yet another cookbook. Till today I think my cookbook count is 50. Goodness..

Let me rewind a little. I went back to the hotel I interned at yesterday for lunch with my friend J, who interned there with me. We went to a Chinese dim sum restaurant and stuffed ourselves silly with the very dishes we helped to prepare a year ago. I can't tell you how bizarre it felt to walk into the hotel using the front entrance instead of the staff entrance at the back, or walking into the restaurant as guests instead of kitchen trainees. And being able to actually eat the food that comes out of the wok. Overwhelmed by nostalgia, we sat and talked about the months of training and the people we met. We laughed and took silly pictures. We ate an obscene amount of dumplings.

We also snuck into the kitchens to see the chefs we worked with. Sadly, they were busy cooking and running around so we decided to leave lest they tripped over us holding platters of food to be served to the other guests. I did drag J to the buffet restaurant I worked at for a couple of months (she was in another kitchen at the time) and after twenty minutes of inner conflict as to whether to go in or not, I eventually walked through the doors. And I practically ran to one of the sections of the buffet and waved frantically at the window. Moments later, a smiling, gray haired chef popped out and we excitedly babbled at each other until he remember he had left something on the stove. 

I can't tell you how good it felt. 

I also met a friend I had worked with for almost a month and while that doesn't seem that long, you have to remember that it was an average of 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. At first, I just waved at him and headed in the other direction but J pulled me back to talk to him. My hesitance was because I had the biggest crush on him for over a year - I also have not seen him for over a year. Isn't it weird how the hearts works ?

We talked until he had to go back to work. I don't know what I was supposed to feel - nervous or scared or giggly - but all I could think about in that moment was he'slostweight and herememberedme and goodgriefheissmilingatme. After he headed back into the kitchens, we didn't linger, just dropping by to see a few other people and then leaving the hotel after that. We went to a mall to do some shopping and in my rather confused state, I bought a cookbook. After the shock of seeing him again wore off (that only happened this afternoon), I cracked open the covers of Pastries by Pierre Herme. Let me just tell you, I don't regret buying this book. The pictures are beautiful and the recipes are lengthy to say the least, but I kinda of like the challenge and the results will be worth it. Have you seen those desserts put on display in a French patisserie ? Yeah, that's what you'll find in this book. And to be honest, I'm going to need the distraction.

I made up my mind to pick a recipe and finish it today. It's an effort sometimes because when I finally go out and locate the ingredients I don't have, then buy them and get back home, chance are I'm already distracted by something else (painting my nails a different color, a new blog to read) and the baking gets put off till another day. 

I've been feeling nostalgic of late. You see, my best friends are studying overseas, which means having to go shopping by myself and also the fact that I'm going to be heading overseas myself in a few months time. I don't think I need to mention that seeing someone-who-I've-had-a-crush-on-but-haven't-seen-or-talked-to-in-a-year sort of (okay, a lot) turned my world upside down. My friends, well, we're in constant contact so it feels like they're still beside me giving sarcastically funny comments and make lame jokes every day, even though there is that bratty time-zone thing, which means while I'm brushing my teeth and pulling on my pajamas, they're spooning cereal from a bowl and reading the morning paper. 

As for that guy ? I really don't know. I'm not exactly someone who believes in Prince Charmings, not because I am a cynic but because I would prefer to be the one on a horse and battling dragons. Not that I'd actually want to marry a guy who gets himself kidnapped by dragons in the first place.. But I digress. I think it's time to wish him the best, thank him for everything he's taught me and let him go, while I'll just go with the flow and see where the future takes me.

About these buns. They're supposed to be cookie-topped brioches, filled with some passion fruit mousseline. And while I did tweak the recipe a liiiittle bit, I followed it as written and while the filling did turn out brilliantly, and my buns did color beautifully, they were bigger than I expected and sort of fused together during the rising period. And while they don't look anywhere as lovely or polished, I might add, as the ones in the book, they're quite fun to make and very, very fun to eat. What's not to like about a buttery bun with a cookie on top ? 

Brioche Satine

(Adapted from Pastries by Pierre Herme)

Makes 9 buns

Passion fruit cream:

1 gelatin sheet

1 egg

55g sugar

50g passion fruit purée

62g unsalted butter

Brioche dough:

250g all purpose flour, sifted

35g superfine sugar

50g whole milk

10g active dry yeast

2 eggs 

87g unsalted butter

7g sea salt

Short crust dough:

40g unsalted butter

A pinch of salt

25g icing sugar

5g almond flour

1 egg yolk

67g all purpose flour

Glaze:

1 egg

A pinch of sugar

A pinch of salt

Passion fruit and orange mousseline cream:

60g unsalted butter, softened 

1 recipe passion fruit cream

30g diced candied peel

1. Make the passion fruit cream first. Soak the gelatin in cold water. Combine the egg, sugar and passion fruit purée in a bowl set over simmering water and cook, whisking, till it reaches 185F or 85C. Drain the gelatin and squeeze out excess water, then add it to the egg mixture and whisk until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool until 140F or 60C. Add the butter all at once and pour the mixture into a blender. Blend until smooth and creamy. Pour into a bowl and press a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the surface of the creamy and refrigerate (can be done one day in advance).

2. Make the brioche dough next. In a stand mixer, put the flour with the sugar, salt, milk, yeast and half the eggs. Mix with a dough hook until the eggs and milk have been worked in. Add the remaining eggs and beat until mixed in. Add the butter and beat until incorporated. It'll look like a gloomy mess at first, but keep the mixer going and the butter will be worked in eventually. Place in a buttered bowl and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

3. To make the short crust dough, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt and ground almonds. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add the yolk and mix to form a soft dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and flatten slightly, the refrigerate for 2 hours.

4. Sprinkle a work surface with flour, the roll out the short crust dough. Use a 2 3/4 inch cookie cutter and cut out 9 rounds of dough. Place the round on a lined baking sheet so they don't stick, then refrigerate until needed.

5. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide the brioche dough into 9 pieces, then shape them into balls. Arrange the dough balls on the baking sheet, but don't put them too close together or they'll fuse together like mine. Let them rise until doubled in volume, about 2 hours at room temperature. In the meantime, preheat a convection oven to 200C.

6. Make the glaze. In a bowl, whisk together the egg with a pinch of sugar and salt. Brush the tops of the dough balls with the glaze. Remove the shortcrust rounds from the refrigerator and place one of top of each glazed bun. Bake the brioches for 10 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely before filling.

7. To make the mousseline, beat the butter until creamy then beat in the passion fruit cream. Add the diced peel, then beat just to combined. Put the mousseline into a pastry bag fitted with a plain #6 pastry tip. Push the pastry tip into the base of each bun about halfway up, and fill the centre with cream. When the buns are full, you can feel it as the pastry tip will be pushed out of the buns. Or you can do what I did and stick the point of a chopstick into the sides of the buns, then wiggle it around to make more room. Be careful not the pierce the sides ! Put the pastry tip into the hole you made with the chopstick and fill up the buns. You can more filling in them this way. These are best eaten on the same day, but you can store them airtight for up to 2 days.

Italian Neapolitan Cookies

I have had this post drafted out for the longest time and I don't even know why. I have a feeling it's because I was distracted by the brownies I made and couldn't wait to post about.

Not that these cookies aren't good, because they are. In fact, they're more than just good. I am not the biggest fan of cookies but I managed to eat all the crusty edges I sawed off when I was trying to neaten up the cookies.

Block with crusty edges.

Neatened up.

See those edges there ? I ate them like I would with pocky sticks - one at a time, a handful (which is to say all of them) in one sitting.

But before I get to the recipe, let me just say that yes, I know that there is food coloring in these cookies. And no, I haven't found a recipe that calls for natural colors to be used yet. I will totally let you know if I do. But does it matter ? After all, we aren't going to be making these everyday. And there's like, a few drops of each color for the entire batch (I used color pastes so I needed less and I recommend that you do the same). I also made a rainbow cake once, and that was pretty well received. Even though it was so tall we had to take out a shelf from my refrigerator to make it fit. Point is, it's okay to use colors once in a while or so. It adds color to life (figuratively and literally) and without any coloring, these cookies would just be layers of brown, brown and brown. Bor-ing.

Red, white and green are the traditional colors of the Italian flag. Granted, the color stripes are standing vertically but that would be a little awkward to replicate in these cookies.. Or you could just slice them then stand them on their sides to make the perfect little treats for the flag fanatic in your life.

My favorite color is blue. It's a little unfortunate because there aren't any naturally blue foods here on this planet (blueberries aren't blue per se, they're actually purple. Google it if you don't believe me) so I have to make do with blue plates. But then again, I just googled blue plates and apparently they're ideal for dieters because the color blue is supposed to help suppress your appetite. So I guess blue ombré Neapolitan cookies wouldn't go down very well..

I'd say we just go with the original. I'll make something blue some other day, maybe some blue velvet cupcakes I saw floating around on the blogosphere. Or some Cookie Monster-esque treats ?

This recipe caught me eye because it called for homemade coconut paste instead of the more traditional almond paste. Almond paste is a little hard to locate where I live while marzipan is everywhere. They aren't interchangeable since marzipan is a little sweeter so coconut paste seemed like a good idea. It was also a brilliant way to get my dad to eat some coconut since he normally wouldn't touch the stuff (except coconut water - he loves it) with a meter long pole. But if you do have almond paste or if you're worried that the coconut flavor will poke through (don't worry, it doesn't. These cookies just have yummy all over), go ahead and replace the coconut paste with an equal amount of almond paste.

I also can't find the original link to the recipe. If you see it, send it to me, please ?

Italian Rainbow Cookies

7 oz coconut*/almond paste

4 eggs, separated

1 cup sugar, divided

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

Red food coloring

Green food coloring

1/2 cup peach/apricot preserves (I used blackberry)

7 oz dark chocolate, chopped

For the coconut* paste:

1 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 cup unsweetened flaked coconut

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp lemon oil

1. To make the coconut paste, put the powdered sugar and the coconut in a food processor. Blend until smooth and powdery. Add the coconut oil and lemon oil, pulse until the mixture just starts to come together - it'll hold it's shape when your press it into a ball.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 13 by 9 inch pan with parchment paper.

3. Beat the egg whites until frothy, then gradually add 1/4 cups of the sugar and beat to stiff peaks.

4. In another bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Beat in the coconut paste and remaining 3/4 cups of sugar until combined. Don't worry if it looks a little dry and crumbly, that's totally fine.

5. In yet another bowl, beat the butter until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks and the vanilla extract. Slowly mix in the flour and coconut mixture, beat until thoroughly mixed but do not overbeat !

6. Scoop in 1/4 of the beaten whites into the butter mixture and fold it in to lighten the batter. Gently fold in half the remaining whites, then fold in the rest until no streaks of white remain. Divide the batter evenly into three bowls. Color one batch green, one red and leave the remaining one plain. Be careful when you add the coloring - you can always add more but you can never take it out.

7. Pour the red batter into the line pan and bake for 10-12 minutes, until just set. Don't overbake it. Carefully remove the baked layer onto a wire rack. Rinse and line the pan again, then pour in the green batter. Bake and cool the same way. Repeat with the plain batter.

8. When all the layers have completely cooled, you can start assembling them. Invert the green layer onto a parchment lined surface, then spread on half of the preserves using an offset spatula. Invert the plain uncoloured layer on top, then spread with the remaining preserves.

9. Invert the red layer on top. Cover with plastic wrap and weight it down. The best way to do this is to put a large baking sheet on top of the cookie layers and place some cans on top. Refrigerate for 8 hours.

10. Removed the plastic wrap. The layers will seem a little denser and less cake like, that's what you're going for. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water, then spread half of it over the cookie layers. Put it in the fridge for ten minutes to set the chocolate.

11. Invert the cookie layers and spread on the remaining chocolate so both surfaces are now coated. Chill the entire block in the freezer for ten minutes to set the chocolate and make for easier slicing. Trim the edges off with a sharp knife if they're wonky-looking. Cut the cookies lengthwise into 5 long strips. Cut each strip crosswise into 3/4 inch wide cookies. You should get around 5 dozen cookies.

Tiramisu Two Ways

Happy Valentine's Day ! When it comes to love, I become hopelessly tongue-tied. So I guess today I'll just post some of my favorite quotes in between some pretty pictures of the tiramisu I made a while ago (look here) and pretend it's really professional.

"You know how sometimes you meet someone and everything changes, just like that ?"

- Prince Eric, The Little Mermaid.

"The way you laugh is just the best."

- Winnie the Pooh.

"When I'm with you, I don't feel so alone." 

- Hercules.

Christopher Robin: Forever and ever is a very long time.

Pooh: Forever isn't long at all when I'm with you.

"That might sound boring, but I think that the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most."

- Russell, Up.

"Sometimes," said Pooh, "the smallest things take up the most room in your heart."

"The ones that love us will never really leave us."

- Harry Potter.

"You and me together, that's how it should be. One without the other don't mean nothing at all to me."

- Monsters Inc.

"The more I look inside, the more you mean to me. I see you here, I see you there, I feel you everywhere."

- Piglet's Big Movie.

Yes, I am hopelessly obsessed with Winnie the Pooh.

Remember when I said I had made some tiramisu here ? This is the recipe.

Tiramisu Two Ways

For the filling:

1 cup of whipping cream

500g of mascarpone

5 yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brandy (I replaced this with 2 tbsp of water)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp matcha powder

For the coffee syrup:

1/2 cup sugar

1 cup hot brewed espresso 

2 tbsp rum or brandy, optional (I omitted this)

For the green tea-milk soak:

1 tbsp matcha powder

1 cup milk

2 tbsp sugar

To assemble:

1 pack of ladyfinger biscuits

75g dark chocolate, grated or finely chopped

75g white chocolate, grated or finely chopped

1. Make the filling first. Whip the cream to soft peaks and set aside. Beat the mascarpone gently to soften it, then fold in half the whipped cream. You might have to use the whisk to beat it in more vigorously than you normally would when folding in cream, to smooth out any lumps but that's okay. Fold in the remaining half of the cream. If it deflates a little, it's alright. Set the mixture aside.

2. Whisk the yolks, sugar and brandy in a metal or glass bowl placed over a pot of gently simmering water, whisking constantly until the mixture has doubled in volume and it forms a ribbon when the whisk is lifted. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool the mixture slightly.

3. Whisk the mascarpone mixture into the egg mixture in two additions. The filling will be a little fluid. Divide the filling in half. Dissolve the matcha powder in 1 tbsp of boiling water. Stir this into one of the fillings. Chill both mixtures while preparing the rest of the components.

4. For the coffee syrup, stir together the sugar and espresso - the sugar should dissolve easily but if it doesn't, you can heat the mixture until the sugar is fully dissolved. Remove from the heat and stir in hoeing rum or brandy, then set aside.

5. For the milk soak, pour the milk into a heavy bottomed saucepan and stir in the sugar. Heat the milk until the sugar dissolves, then whisk in the match powder until that has dissolved too. Remove from the heat and set aside.

6. Have your ramekins (I used 1/2 cup capacity ramekins but I only had six so I used cake rings as well) ready. If you need to, cut the ladyfingers to fit the ramekins. For the traditional tiramisu, soak one ladyfinger at a time in the coffee syrup, then place it in the bottom of a ramekin. This is to prevent them from falling apart, since you want them saturated but still holding their shape. Cover the bottom of the ramekin in one layer of coffee soaked ladyfingers. Spoon over 2 tbsp of mascarpone filling. Sprinkle over some grated dark chocolate, then place another layer of coffee-soaked ladyfingers over the chocolate. You can press them in slightly. Spoon over more filling to fill up the ramekins. Sprinkle over the some remaining grated dark chocolate. Repeat with the other ramekins until the filling is used up.

7. Do the same for the green tea tiramisu, except soak the ladyfingers in the milk soak and layer with the matcha-mascarpone filling and grated white chocolate. When all the filling has been used up, chill the ramekins for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, to let the flavours meld, before serving.

Bittersweet Chocolate Truffle Squares

Happy moments call for brownies.

Truth to be told, sad moments call for brownies too, for when you want that chocolatey stick-to-your-teeth goodness to heal the soul and for the dark fudginess to glue your heart back together. But happy moments need happy foods. And since brownies make me happy regardless of the situation (unless I overbake them. Then brownies make me sad), they're a fitting treat to make and devour.

Not that I made these especially to celebrate, though. Remember when I mentioned that I was given a chance to sell some goodies ? Well, the chef of the cafe requested that I bake some brownies and tiramisu and bring some samples over to the cafe for him to test. I had to pick one of the thousands of brownie recipes I had hoarded, and since he mentioned he wanted chewy ones, I made him just that. I was so excited (and terrified) at the thought of having to meet him that I ate two huge hunks of brownies right after I portioned them (I cut the pan into 16 squares, and having used a 10 by 10 inch pan, they were big squares) and then wisely decided to pack away a few pieces before they were all completely gone.

I also made two flavours of tiramisu, one traditional and one flavoured with matcha, which is a Japanese green tea powder. It was my mom's suggestion that I add a twist because not all people are coffee-people. There are tea-people, like yours truly. 

So last night, my dad drove me to the cafe. Box of treats in hand, I stepped inside, not knowing what to expect. I had never actually heard of that cafe (a friend of mine had introduced me to the idea of supplying them with goodies), let alone dined there, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the cozy-yet-contemporary layout, and there were a many tables already occupied by college students. It was loud and cheerful and as I pushed open the glass doors, a young man in a tee and jeans came up to me and said "Are you Viyern ?"

We sat down at the back of the cafe with several of his friends and coworkers to test them. I felt like my exam papers were being graded right before me, so when they turned to me with big smiles, I nearly keeled over with relief.

I still have to tweak the recipe to make it more suitable for their little cafe. Like make the portions bigger and more student-budget-friendly (for the tiramisu) and jazz up the presentation a little (for the brownies). But all in all, they were pretty happy with what I made, which made me really happy with what I made. Especially when prompted for how he would like the brownies to be presented, the chef replied "Just a scoop of ice cream with a piece and I'm a happy man."

Life is good. Especially when upcoming projects including tweaking brownie recipes and shopping for chocolate.

Brownies are my vice. Aside from the three pieces I brought to the cafe and the little slices from the pieces that my family stole, I ate most of them. Like, almost half the pan. 

All in the name of research.

Bittersweet Chocolate Truffle Squares (adapted from Lisa Yockelson's ChocolateChocolate)
1 1/3 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 sticks/16 tbsp butter

5 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

4 large eggs

1 large yolk

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Line a 10 by 10 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

2. Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water to melt both the butter and chocolate. When melted, remove from heat and stir in the sugar. The mixture should be warm enough to melt some of the sugar, but it'll still be a little grainy. Stir in the vanilla extract, salt and cocoa powder.

3. In another bowl, whisk the eggs and the yolk just to blend, not to incorporate any air. Stir the eggs into the chocolate mixture. The batter will seem somewhat ropy at this point. Stir in the flour just till combined, you don't want to beat the heck out of this batter. 

4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the batter for a couple of hours. 

5. Preheat the oven to 180C. Take the batter out of the fridge - it'll be really thick because the chocolate and butter have set somewhat. Pour (or scoop) the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake for 30 minutes, until just set. You can cool the pan on a rack before popping in the fridge to chill overnight before cutting. Or do what I do, which is to just throw the pan into the freezer right after I remove it from the oven. It stops the brownies from cooking any further. Once then pan is no longer warm to the touch, transfer it to the fridge and chill overnight before cutting into squares and serving.

Hazelnut Coffee Chocolate Chip Biscotti

I need to find a way to sleep at night.

It took me forever fall asleep last night because it was the ninth day of Chinese New Year and it was fireworks galore outside my room window. While I used to be one of those kids who put fireworks in drains with my cousin brothers, I'm not overly fond of giant loud ones being set off for hours at an end past midnight. Some of us actually want to sleep.

It's been the third night in a row that I had trouble falling asleep - I used to have insomnia a few years ago but I thought I had recovered (question: can you recover from insomnia ? Or do you just get over it ?) and now it's rearing it's ugly head again. It's no fun lying in bed looking at the ceiling and trying to ignore my monkey brain chattering away in the silence. So I usually head back downstairs to read or watch some tv with my parents. If they're asleep, I creep downstairs to grab a banana and sneak back into my room to watch some foodie channels on YouTube. Makes sense to me.

Staying up late means I've been doing a lot of thinking, and one of the flyaway thoughts is because I've been offered a job of sorts - making tiramisu and brownies for a cafe near my university. I don't actually have to be there, just send the goodies over once every week or so. Which means I get to bake at home and make money out of it ! It seemed like the ideal part time job at first but then the cafe is a half hour drive away, and I'm not too sure about the pay. It's piqued my interest though and it certainly beats having to drive to work everyday...

Anyways I'm a little nervous about baking stuff to be sold like that. It's not like I haven't done it before, I've baked for plenty of people and they seemed pretty happy with it. Mostly I just like catering to my own tastes but since I have the biggest sweet tooth on earth, I have to ratchet down the sugar a notch or two every time I bake for my family. And I'm also the only one who can eat cake for every single meal of the day every day of the week and not get tired of it. Especially brownies. I love my brownies so much, it's become the one goodie I tinker with the most. I've baked almost every kind of brownie (except for the cakey ones, I don't like those) but I haven't gotten around to posting about them. I think it's also partially because I get so excited to eat that I inhale the prettiest pieces before I get around to taking any photos.

Brownies were also the first thing I ever baked for a boy. I had the biggest crush on him and I was in seventh heaven when he asked me out - it wasn't anything special, it was just to a nearby park for a jog and then some cake afterward. But it meant something to me, because it was the first official date I had ever been on and the first time I would ever bake for something I liked. And he loved them. I never did get the boy, but it gave me the confidence to start baking for more people. Yeah there are some flops where the frosting was "so sweet it made their teeth rattle" (in my defense, I liked the way it tasted) or when the cupcakes looked like a car crash but the looks on the faces of the recipients when they eat something that hits the right note, are always enough for me to get my mojo back. People ask me why I joined this line. I do love to eat to some extent, and I do love food and reading about it and learning and cooking, but the biggest reason and the thing that keeps me going is that I love to feed people what they want to eat. Nothing is better than hearing someone say that they think I've made the best brownies ever. Disclaimer: that's most likely untrue but a very nice thing to hear nonetheless.

It also made me love brownies more.

I've made it a mission of sorts to make my family be okay with - I won't say love, that's too much -eating baked goods with an ingredient that they don't like. My sister doesn't like pumpkin, my mom hates anything coffee flavoured (except coffee, oddly enough) and my dad can't stand the smell of cinnamon. Which means that if I ever wanted a pumpkin cinnamon roll with coffee icing, I'd be on my own. Har-dee-har-har. So far I've snuck pumpkin into a cheesecake and my sister ate it without comment, although I was sure the orange color would be a dead giveaway.. I told her I colored it orange for Halloween. The things I do..

My dad has eaten a few things with cinnamon in it but I don't count it as a victory because it wasn't the dominant flavor. Also, one of it had beer in it. Figures. My mom on the other hand, avoids coffee flavoured baked goods like the plague. I don't get it, but then again I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm not the biggest fan of coffee but I do love anything coffee flavored. And I like my coffee milky tasting.

So when she suggested I make some coffee flavoured cookies for her guests yesterday, I was a little surprised. She claimed it was because she overheard her colleagues mention that they loved coffee cookies and not because she had a sudden change of heart or anything. I grabbed the opportunity and made coffee flavoured biscotti. I found a recipe that called for hazelnuts and chocolate chips as well as the coffee, and let me just say that my mom, aside from having issues with her food tasting like her favorite beverage, didn't believe me when I told her hazelnuts were tasty (I don't like nuts but I love their flavor. Hazelnuts are by far my favorite because I'm best friends with my Nutella jar) and she wasn't the least bit impressed when I told her about biscotti. So I went ahead with the recipe and expected nothing.

When I pulled the tray of toasted hazelnuts out of the oven, the smell was heaven to my hazelnut spread-loving self. My mom snuck a few off the tray. I pretended not to notice.

The biscotti log came out of the oven. It looked nothing like a cookie. My mom said it smelled good. Hmm..

And then they were finally baked and cooling.

I kept them in a big cookie jar and left it in the kitchen. Only to have my mom pull out a piece or two to snack on. With her coffee.

Hazelnut-coffee and chocolate chip biscotti. Making converts out of disbelieving moms everywhere. Hehe :)

I took the recipe from here and I didn't change a single thing. The trick with biscotti is to not bake them so long they become hard and break your teeth, but just long enough just to dry them out and make them delightlfully crunchy. You want to let them cool first because they're sltill soft when they're warm. Serve, ideally, with a cup of coffee.

Midnight Chocolate Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting

Getting lost in the city is rather fun.

In Malaysia, it is well known that Kuala Lumpur is one of the places to go for a shopping spree. While I don't normally splurge on clothes and shoes and bags, I love walking around in the enormous malls with their polished floors and glass window displays (is that what window shopping is ? Until now I'm still not very sure). Which was why I decided to drive alone to the heart of the city and walk and walk until my feet were red and sore.

I don't shop much and I don't actually eat that much. I guess the reason why I love KL so much is because I used to go there all the time during my lunch breaks when I was interning. It was a totally new experience for me then because I had never been to those malls before and it was a big break from having to slave away in the kitchen for hours at an end.. Not that it was a bad thing, it's was just that I didn't have time to shop much during those months. Plus the people I went there with really meant something to me. So today when I traversed the streets by myself, I kept remembering the group I went with. It didn't feel so long ago but in reality, it's been a year. 

And while I mightn't have the world's biggest stomach, I do love looking at desserts. It's physically impossible for me to walk pass a glass display of cakes without pressing my nose up to the glass. I'll peruse macarons and cakes and cupcakes the way people browse handbags or accessories. And the mall I went to had a dessert shop around every corner so I had plenty of chances to ogle my eyes out and ended up buying a few cookies the size of my face to nosh on.. Not too long after eating the biggest piece of brownie I've ever had. Hey, this girl needs her sugar.

I ended up buying nothing. Other than the cookies, I spent zilch. I think the parking ticket cost me more than my total purchases. I think it annoys my parents because I tend to buy more books and random knickknacks than clothes.. Hi my name is Viyern and my impulse buys include cookbooks and cake pans with a side of cheese. 

What does all this have to do with today's recipe ? Absolutely nothing. I made this chocolate cake because my mom had some guests coming over and a sheet cake seemed like the easiest thing to put together while baking another sheet of cookies. The recipe came from one of the cookbooks I stockpiled and while it's called a 'midnight chocolate cake', it isn't as dark as the name suggests. It's a fluffier cake and lighter in both taste and color. It's a chocolate cake for when you want some chocolate but don't want to be knocked out after eating a slice. Or when you have a hoard of teens coming over and the idea of baking twenty five cupcakes doesn't appeal. The frosting is on the sweeter side though, since I haven't actually come across a buttercream recipe that doesn't call for a ridiculous amount of sugar, I just went with it. I did try reducing the amount once but that just made the frosting too liquid and it oozed off the cake into the pan - not pretty. I also halved the amount of frosting for the cake but it still swathed the entire surface and stood around half an inch tall. Unfortunately, the said teens weren't fans of frosting so they found it a tad too rich, which is a puzzle to me because I adore frosting and think of it more as a dipping sauce than an adornment, but then again, that's just me. By all means halve the frosting recipe again if you're not a fan, it'll still be enough to cover the cake.

Midnight Chocolate Cake (adapted from ChocolateChocolate by Lisa Yockelson)

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/3 cups plus 3 tablespoon boiling water

2 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

210g unsalted butter

30g shortening

1 2/3 cups superfine sugar

4 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup yogurt

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 13 by 9 inch baking pan with parchment paper.

2. Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl and pour over the boiling water and let stand for five minutes. Using spatula, slowly stir the mixture so the chocolate is fully melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside, but use it while it is still slightly warm.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.

4. In a mixer, cream the butter and shortening until lightened, then add the sugar in two batches, beat well after each addition. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 45 seconds after each egg has been added. The mixture should be light yellow and very fluffy. Slowly blend in the melted chocolate and vanilla.

5. On low speed, add the sifted mixture alternately with the yogurt, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Remember to scrape down the bowl every once in a while. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

6. Bake the cake for 30-40 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan completely before frosting it.

Creamy Chocolate Frosting:

90g unsalted butter, softened

1/8 tsp salt

1 tbsp vanilla extract

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

1/4 cup heavy cream

2 tbsp cocoa powder, dissolved in 2 tbsp hot water

1. Beat the butter on low speed until creamy. Beat in the salt, vanilla and 1 cup of the icing sugar. Beat in the heavy cream, then add another cup of icing sugar.

2. Beat in the dissolved cocoa mixture, making sure to scrape down the bowl so it is evenly blended in. Beat in the remaining icing sugar. Beat the frosting on medium speed for 3 minutes until smooth and very creamy. Adjust the texture by adding more cream if it's too stiff, or more icing sugar if it's too soft. 

3. Use an offset spatula to spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Chill the cake for half an hour to set the frosting before slicing and serving.