Kitchen Aid

This is my new Kitchen Aid mixer which I hand carried back from Mayer warehouse sales.

The sales told me the weight is about 5kg, so I thought I should be able to manage taking it via bus service.

After much toil and sweat, I mananged to bring it back via bus service as I'm very thrifty and didn't  want take taxi.

The equipment was really heavy and I didn't think it weighed just 5kg.

When I got home, I checked the specification and realised that the actual weight with box packaging was about 12kg!

No wonder I was so drained out and exhausted when I got home!

Banana walnut cake

I just got a Kitchen Aid mixer KSM150 yesterday and today I used it to whip up this simple banana walnut cake.

RECIPE FOR BANANA WALNUT CAKE

Baking tin: 1 unit of 8" x 3.5" x 3" (height)

Ingredients:
60g unsalted butter
80g castor sugar
1 egg (medium) – at room temperature, lightly beaten
130g plain flour (can use cake flour)
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
80g plain yogurt 
2 or 3 fully ripen bananas (120g)
30g walnuts

Preparation:

1. Cut butter into 7-8mm thickness and leave it at room temperature until it turns soft (it is ready to be used if you can press it lightly with your finger tips). Or grate the frozen butter into the mixer bowl and let it soften while preparing other ingredient.
2. Combine flour, baking soda and baking powder in a mixing bowl and sieve twice.
3. Put walnuts on a baking tray and roast them in a preheat oven at 120°c for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let it cool down completely before breaking up into smaller pieces.
4. Lightly grease the baking tin and line with grease-proof paper.
5. Preheat oven to 180°C (at least 15 minutes)

Methods:

1. Cream butter, sugar with an electric mixer and beat till mixture is well combine and look creamy.
2. Add in vanilla essence. Make sure it is well combined in mixer.
3. Add in lightly beaten egg little by little, beat until creamy using mixer.
4. Add in salt and mix well in mixer, then remove from mixer to check texture is creamy before commencing step 5 onwards.
5. Mash bananas with a fork. Add into the mixture and mix well using a spatula.
6. Add in 1/3 flour mixture through a sieve and mix well by folding in gradually.
7. Add in yogurt and mix well.
8. Add in the remaining flour mixture through a sieve. Use a spatula to fold into the mixture until no traces of flour. Do not over-stir the batter!
9. Add in chopped walnut and mix well. But leave some to sprinkle.
10. Pour the mixture into the greased lined baking tin. Shake it lightly to distribute the cake mixture evenly.
11. Bake in a pre-heat oven at 180°C for 50 minutes or until golden brown and fully cooked. If a toothpick comes out clean, it is done.
12. Remove it from the oven and leave the cake in the tin to cool on the wire rack for another 5 minutes. Best to serve it warm.

Note:

1. If the cake turns brown before end of the cooking time, cover it loosely with a piece of aluminum foil.

Banana Walnut Muffins

This morning I baked this banana walnut muffins.

The recipe is same as the previous banana muffins except that I added 100g of walnuts which I've pre-roasted at 180'c for 12mins.

Blueberry Muffins with Crumb Topping

RY bought a box of blueberry and I used it to bake some blueberry muffins but to add a twist to it, I've added crump topping.

Recipe

Muffins

Ingredient A

Plain flour 220g

Baking powder 1tsp

Baking soda 1tsp

Salt 1/2 tsp

Cold butter 80g

Ingredient B

Egg 1

Milk 100ml

Sugar 80g

Vanilla essence 1tsp

Blueberry 120g (leave some to sprinkle)

Raisin a handful (optional)

Method

1 mix ingredient A and B separately in different bowl

2 add in cold butter in A using rubbing in method

3 mix B into A gradually with minimum stroke, then fold in blueberry and raisin till mixture is lumpy and thick which is spoonable

4 scope into muffin cups till 90% full then coat the crumb topping and sprinkle the blueberry 

Yield 10 muffins

Crumb Topping Ingredient 

1 tsp flour

2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp butter

1/4 cinnamon powder

1/4 nutmeg powder

Mix the above and leave aside (if want more crump topping, can increase the ingredient portion)

Update : to make 18 muffins

Dry ingredient 

Plain flour 300g

Baking soda 1 tsp

Baking powder 1 & 1/3 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Blueberry 180g (leave some to sprinkle)

Wet ingredient 

Butter 110g

Eggs 2

Milk 140ml

Sugar 110g

Vanilla extracts 2 tsp

Cranberry Cheese Muffin

This morning I saw a packet of cranberry sitting inside the cabinet with the expiry date Jan 2014.

I think if I don't do something about it, I'll forget about it and risk binning it.

So I decided to make cranberry cheese muffins.

I've created thus recipe base on what is available in my fridge.

Recipe

Ingredient A

Self raising flour 220g, salt a pinch, baking powder 1/2 tsp, baking soda 1/2 tsp, cranberry 50g n raisin 30g, cheese slices cut into quarters (I used Kraft, but can use cream cheese as desired)

Ingredient B

Sugar 90g (if prefer sweeter can add more), unsalted butter 80g, egg 1, vanilla essence 1 tsp, milk 120ml

Method 

1 Mix ingredient A & B separately in 2 separate bowl (leave cheese aside as it's to be used as fillings inserts in between the scooping of batter into the muffin cups)

2 Mix B gradually into A till mixture is thick and lumpy 

3 Scoope into muffin cup and put in quarter of cheese in the middle

4 Bake 1st 5 min 220'c and then 15 min 190'c

I yield 9 muffins.

Serious Chocolate Muffins

I've baked these chocolate muffins this afternoon and it's really yummy!

I've named thus recipe Serious Chocolate Muffin.

I'm very happy because this recipe is my own creation since I can't find any for me to follow exactly.

RecIpe

Ingredient A 

Self raising flour 250g, baking powder 1 tsp, baking soda 1/2 tsp, salt 1/4 tsp, cocoa powder 70g, Choco chips 100g and a handful of raisin (optional but I like bit of diff texture n taste n not just coco taste)

Cold unsalted butter 100g

Ingredient B 

Egg 2, sugar 100g, vanilla essence 1 tsp, chocolate milk 125ml, milk 100ml (I added 80ml first and the bal I add in when I feel the texture too dry, as it depends how big your eggs are) 

Total milk added was 225ml

Note can add in more sugar if want sweeter or not using chocolate milk. I use Choco milk cos I want finish it n not let BB Rae drink since I find it too sweet.

Method (preheat oven 220'c and grease baking tin and line the muffin cups)

1 Mix all dry ingredient in big bowl, then add in cold butter via rubbing in method.

2 Add in raisin and Choco chips

3 in another bowl, mix all ingredient B 

4 Gradually fold in B into A bit by bit till mixture is lumpy and thick but not dry (must be spoonable and not pourable)

5 scope into muffin cup 90% full and sprinkle some Choco chips

I bake first 5 mins 220'c and subsequent 15 mind 190'c.

I yield 14 muffins.

Update: to make 18 muffins

Dry ingredient

Plain flour 300g

Baking soda 1+1/3 tsp

Baking powder 1 tsp

Salt 1/4 tsp

Cocoa powder 80g

Raisin a handful

Choco chips 110g (leave some to sprinkle)

Wet ingredient

Butter 120g

Eggs 3

Sugar 110g

Choco Milk 250g

Vanilla extracts 2 tsp

Pancake recipe

This morning I prepared pancake for breakfast.

Pancake recipe:

Ingredient 

150g self raising flour (can use plain flour but need more baking powder)

1 tsp baking powder (if use plain flour then need 2 tsp)

1 tsp white sugar (if want it sweeter can add 1 tbsp)

A pinch of salt 

30g cold butter (can be melted as oil and added into the mixture but I prefer cold butter rubbing in method)

1 egg beaten

Half tsp of vanilla essence

200ml milk

Method

1 Mix all dry ingredients into a bowl

2 Add in butter using rubbing in method

3 make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in egg, vanilla essence and mix, then slowly mix in milk portion by portion

4 Heat up the pan and put bits of oil (I use Happycall non stick pan so doesn't need much oil) and place a round shape mould in it, then scope a tbsp of the bater mixture into it.  Remove the mould once the round shape is formed.

When bubbles form on the top side of the bater, turn to the other side

Note: I yield 20 small round pancake and deep freeze extras

Play Date

Last Wed, Rae's friends came over for a play date and I've prepared some snacks.

I've prepared egg mayo sandwich, mushroom cheese sandwich and banana muffins.

Banana muffins recipe

Ingredients: 

250 g self raising flour 

1 tsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp baking soda

 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

Pinch of salt

60 g unsalted butter (melted, at room temperature n mix into the wet ingredient but I prefer using cold butter doing rubbing in method)

 60 g fresh milk 

2 eggs (lightly beaten) – I used large eggs 

2 tsp vanilla essence 

80 g  sugar 

 5 medium over-ripe bananas (mashed) – about 6 inches long - 

I mashed 4 and lightly mashed 1 to be used as fillings insert in the middle of the mixture of the muffin cup

Method

1 Mix dry ingredient - flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg powder and salt in a bowl

Add in cold butter using rubbing in method.

2 marshes 4 banana till liquid like and likely mash the last one and leave aside.

3 Mix wet ingredient - egg, vanilla essence, milk and sugar then add in the marshy banana

4 preheat oven to 220'c and grease the muffin tray.

5 pour dry ingredient slowly to wet ingredient scope by scope and mix 

Note: lightly mix and limit the mixing stroke to achieve fluffy muffin texture

The batter must be "spoonable" and not too wet.

6 Scope into the muffin cups 90% full

7 Bake in 220'c oven for 5 mins then turn to 190'c for about 15 mins or golden brown