Mini Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins

I guess many people will face the situation that don't know what to do about left over ripe banana .... for my case I decided to search on internet which recipe is interesting. I had questions about the recipe which I was searching- Firstly, it must be muffin coz it's quick and easy to make. Secondly, it have to be banana in the recipe. Thirdly, one of the ingredient must be oil not butter. And I came across Nigella's website with this recipe and it could be according to my preferences.

I halved the recipe and made in mini muffin pan and the muffins were very great! Soft and not so dry with banana flavor plus a bit of chocolate chunk inside. The important thing was they were not too sweet that what I really concerned. One thing I found that if you are not rushing to eat the muffins after baking, it's better to keep in air-tight container till next day and your muffins will keep moisture and softer in texture. In my opinion, that is a perfect muffin :)

Banana Chocolate Chunk Muffins (Original is Banana & Butterscotch Muffins)
(Make 12 pcs. standard muffins)

Mashed ripe bananas 3
Canola Oil 125 ml. (I halved the recipe but I put 65 ml.)
Egg 2
All purpose flour 250 g.
Sugar 100 g.
Bicarbonate of soda 1/2 tsp.
Baking powder 1 tsp.
Salt 1/8 tsp. (the original recipe don't have)
Butter vanilla flavor 1/2 tsp. (the original recipe don't have)
Butterscotch morsels 150 g. (I used milk chocolate chunk)

1. Combine canola oil+Egg set aside
2. Whisk flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl and make well in the middle of dry ingredients
3. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients and mix till just combined (Do not over mix) then add mashed banana and chocolate chunk
* The batter will look lumpy not smooth.
4. Scoop the batter into muffin pan which lined with paper liners and baked in preheat oven 180C with fan function or 200C without fan for 20 mins

Choco Raisins Hokkaido Milk Loaf

From the previous experience of making Two Tone Hokkaido Milk Loaf, it's time to do the adjustment. I decided to halve the recipe for testing. I was not pleased about the color of chocolate part last time so I put more about 1 tsp of chocolate emulsion after the kneading process almost done. Besides of increasing amount of chocolate emulsion, I followed the original recipe by using bread flour, cake flour but my bread flour was not enough so I added more all purpose flour about 30 g. to substitute bread flour and I used evaporated milk instead of milk. The time I was waiting for the 1st proof the bread was raising beautifully. At this point it made me more confident of the good result.

Again during baking time, the great smell of chocolate flavor made me could not wait to taste it. But the end I was not the 1st one who eat the bread ... guess who? Of course must be my hubby who always fancy everything about chocolate and raisins :)

Whipped Cream Cupcakes & Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting

Just got the mood to do this post after I postponed since early this month.

The combination of this cupcakes and frosting happened in different timing. Firstly, I had got this frosting in my fridge for 1 week and could not decide what should I bake which can combined with it. Due to I had leftover whipping cream and I felt like baking something which did not require butter or oil, immediately I was remember of this cupcake recipe .... using whipping cream to make cupcakes! Sounds great, right? Don't have to use butter or oil which was really my idea.

Honestly, I had never tried whipped butter cream or cream before since I had been started baking again last year. I was not sure it's my luck or not I can whip the cream easily myself not using any machines such as hand mixer or my lovely KA and the process of making the cupcakes was easy. It made me wonder that how the taste likes? But I did not taste the cupcake on the day I finished baking and frosting and my feeling told me that this cupcakes must be good! I put them in fridge and tasted it on the next day. The taste was nice not too sweet and went well with the whipped cream frosting.

Cupcake Recipe from http://dailydelicious.blogspot.com/2008/10/whipped-cream-cup-cakes-with-caramel.html

But I used the frosting which was the leftover from the time I baked Red Velvet Cake with my friend at her house (we used the recipe from Joyofbaking) but with the modification as follows:

Whipping Cream 180 ml.
Cream Cheese 225 g.
Vanilla 1/2 tsp.
Icing sugar 1/2 cup

- Beat the cream cheese with icing sugar and vanilla till soften and smooth
- In another bowl, beat whipping cream till stiff peak and bring to fold in cream cheese

Tip: It's better to chill the frosting at least 1 hour before doing the frosting on cupcakes

Pui Fai (Thai Steamed Cake)

This steamed cake used to be one of my favorite dessert when I was studying in primary school which I can eat more than 3-4 pieces in one time :P

I has been surfing internet seriously since I moved over from Bangkok to stay with my hubby. I saw many Pui Fai recipes and learned about people's problems when they tried to make it. For all the knowledges, it made me done this Pui Fai successfully in the first time also I substituted the flour and milk from the original recipe and the result was absolutely perfect....Soft, Light & Yummy!

Pui Fai (Thai Steamed Cake)*

Cake flour (Red Lotus Brand) 200 g. *Substituted with Hong Kong Flour
Baking Powder 1 tsp.
Egg 2
Sugar 175 g.
SP (emulsifier) 2 tsp.
Water 1/2 cup
Evaporated milk 50 g. *Substituted with fresh milk
Vanilla 1/2 tsp.
Lime juice 1 1/2 tsp.
Optional: food colouring as your preference

1. Sift flour with baking powder (2 times)

2. Pour eggs, sugar, water in the mixing bowl and paste SP on the wire whisk. Start with high speed to wipe the ingredients till being fluffy and thick batter (About 5-7 mins) and reduce to medium speed beat for 5 seconds then low speed another 5 seconds

3. Put sifted flour and beat with low speed till mixed then gradully add in milk, lime juice and vanilla beat till incorporate or you can use spatula mix the batter

4. Divide the batter to mix with food colouring by folding with spatula

5. Scoope the batter to the individual muffin cups and bring to steam in the boiling water (the water in your steamer must be boiling with high heat). Once you put the batter into the steamer then you have to reduce to low heat.

6. Steam for 12-15 mins

*Source from UFM Baking & Cooking School

Cream Cheese Bread Version I & II

Since last week, I had a serious intention of baking this "Cream Cheese Bread" for my new experiment. I was looking at this recipe quite sometimes already. All the comments of this bread were positive and everyone was impressed by the softness of this cream cheese bread even some said it's better than Hokkaido Milk Loaf! I love HML a lot if you saw my previous posts so I was motivated by these reason.

Recipe from http://pureenjoyment.blogspot.com/2008/02/cream-cheese-bread.html

1st day with the 1st photo: I had some modifications from the above recipe. I used bread flour + ATTA flour and I substituted the butter with canola oil (I felt that cream cheese + butter ... how fat it's going to be after eating the bread). After mixed all the ingredients I found that the dough was very wet and sticky which I never seen such a wet dough like this before. I used my KA to knead to dough with Speed 2 and after 20 mins the dough still the same. I had to add 1 tbsp of bread flour and increased KA to Speed 4. It looked much better but not so smooth. I tried to wrap it up as possible till I finished baking. The result was great ... it's very soft kind of bread even the crust also soft but only one thing I was not so happy coz I could not shape the dough liked the original recipe and my problem of handling the wet dough. That why they came to be the reason for me to give it a try next day.

2nd day with the 2nd photo: I started making the bread in early morning and this time I followed the recipe exactly except the amount of water. I reduced to 150 g. (the recipe called for 160 g.) coz of my previous experience of wet dough. I was using KA at speed 2 when I started kneading the dough for 15 mins and changed to speed 4 another 5 mins then I got a smooth and elastic dough. The mistake came to the point that I left the dough proofing too long and now my problem was same that I could not shape the dough nicely into 1 piece so I had to separate 2 pieces and put in the silicone loaf. I baked for 25 mins* but 1st time I baked 20 mins* The 1st time, the bread was not brown all over the loaf enough. This time, it came out very nice smell coz I used the butter and it's even softer than my 1st one. I could not resist the freshly baked bread and finished 2 pieces when it's still hot. It's yummy though it's plain bread and it's super yummy when I put chocolate & hazelnut spread.

I can say that this recipe is Must Try one and you will absolutely understand how nice of eating your own freshly baked soft bread which just out from the oven!

*Using silicone mould, it's better to reduce the baking time from the recipe.

Two Tone Hokkaido Milk Loaf

When you heard of Hokkaido Milk Loaf, definitely will think of white plain bread but I wanted to do something different and it came out in this two tone bread & raisins.

For chocolate part, I used the chocolate emulsion which I got from my good friend last week and she also suggested me if I want to make bread and put raisins I should boil the raisins with milk to make them softer. So it's time to use her making bread tips.

If you see my previous post "Hokkaido Milk Loaf-1st attempt", it shown that the bread crust was too hard. From the past mistakes, I watched out the temperature of the oven and I baked only 25 minites coz I was using silicone mould which keeps well the temperature than metal mould. My breads came out with good result both of look and taste which guaranteed by how fast my breads had been eaten by family members!