I've been a baaad, baaad Daring Baker!!!

Yes, yes! I'm guilty of being a horrid DBer for the past few months, skipping challenges left and right! As John Lennon sang, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans". Nevertheless, it's no excuse to let down my fellow DBers and skip challenges! So, this post will regale you the details of the August DB challenge: Pierre Herme's Chocolate Eclairs. Hey, it's better late than never, no? Also, I figure that I cannot skip a challenge that involves the DBers' sugah daddy, Pierre Herme. The recipe can be found in his book, Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme.

The whole process was quite simple. The recipe comes in three parts for the three different components: dough, pastry cream and glaze. I thought the most difficult part was trying to pipe in the pastry cream without having to split the baked and cooled choux. By the way, did you know that the eclair is a sort of French donut according to Wikipedia???


I thought that the eclair is already a perfect enough classic treat without trying to alter the recipe much. I mean, seriously, how can beat a creamy, sweet custard filling in a baked crisp yet soft dough topped with chocolate sauce? Seriously! So, the only variation that I did was to drizzle some melted white chocolate on top. Pretty?


Suffice to say, the eclairs didn't last long when I brought them to lab, where they were all snapped up by starving scientists. Thank goodness I had the sense to save some dough and baked up more choux. However, this time, I make profiteroles with them. Ok, so I was wrong before, you can beat the perfect eclair by filling the choux with ice cream! :D


Also, apologies for the overly gigantic pictures (for now). Photobucket isn't exactly cooperating...

Treating myself...

There was a little surprise in the mail about a few weeks ago. It was a white envelope addressed to me with no return address. If I was paranoid (like my boss), I would've put on some gloves before opening it. To my (pleasant) surprise, it was a $25 Amazon gift certificate from my friend (you know who you are *virtual hugz*). $25 is very generous, especially by Amazon standards. You can get sooo much on Amazon for $25, considering the prices are usually 30% or more lower than retail prices at bookstores.

It wasn't hard deciding what to get on Amazon because I do keep a few wish lists there myself. The first treat I got for myself was a Daft Punk CD. I've been in the mood for upbeat electronica music lately. I find that it's good music to listen to while doing experiments at work or running outside. I know it's rather Eurotrash of me, but I don't care! :D

The second treat I chose is the one I'm super super excited about. I bought Dorie Greenspan's Paris Sweets book. If you don't already know (which means you're either an abonimation of Nature or a "normal" non-baker), Dorie Greenspan is the goddess of baking. Seriously, her recipes are awesome and can't be beat! From what I hear, she's very very nice in person too :)


Every day I would peek in my mailbox and ask "Wherefore art thou, Amazon package?" I got the free Super Saver shipping, so I had to suffer for a week before getting my precious treats. The long-awaited package came in the mail today and I immediately tore into the box, extracting the cool CD and my book! My Dorie Greenspan book!

Let me tell you that I read that book from cover to cover within the first few hours of receiving it. I love how the book was organized with little tidbits of Dorie's experiences with the bakers of the best bakeries and patisseries of Paris. Interspersed with the charming stories were recipes that the various pastry artistes shared, ranging from the classic madeleine to the formidable gateau St. Honore. The illustrations of Paris and the pastries were sweet and were evocative of those found in the Roald Dahl books of my childhood. I like that Dorie takes care to give the ingredient measurements in both metric and volume amounts. The suggestions to personalize the creations were fun and it's very helpful to have a list of alternatives to quality French ingredients she found in Paris. If there's any disappointment, it's only the fact that there are no recipes for the French macaroon in the book. Oh well, I guess I'll have to treat myself with another Dorie book soon!

Anyway, I was so excited and I took some time to decide which recipe to try out first. Since there are no big occasions or party in my social landscape in the next week, I picked out a more portable pastry recipe to experiment with. I was immediately taken with the madeleine recipes in the book. Although I'm not French (by a long stretch!), I can identify with Marcel Proust's fond remembrance of these shell-shaped cakes.

Growing up in Singapore, there was a popular French bistro chain (almost equivalent to Au Bon Pain here in the States) called "Delifrance". They sell all sorts of yummy French fare ranging from croissants and quiches to madeleines. Their madeleines were available everywhere, even at a gas station two blocks away from my school. After a long day of classes and extracurricular activities, I would often stop by the gas station to get a box of Delifrance madeleines, savoring one in the bus on the way home. I would share the rest of the box (there were 6 cakes in a box) to my sister and cousins who were living with me at the time. It would often be the highlight of our young, (seemingly) boring, long schooldays.

So, I joyously undertook this challenge to recreate those simple yet sweet memories at home, and here are what I found to be the keys to the perfect madeleines.


Mixing the batter is pretty simple. As long as you follow the directions and don't overmix, it should be allright. Now, most of the useful tips are to be followed after the batter is mixed.

First, to achieve the signature hump of the madeleine, the batter has to be refrigerated for at least 2-3 hours, preferably overnight.

Second, the special shell-shaped madeleine pan has to be generously buttered and floured to ensure that these yummy cakes won't stick and ruin its shell shape.

Last but not least, madeleines are best enjoyed the day they are baked with a cup of coffee (I myself prefer tea). But if you have to save them for another day, store them in an airtight container after they are completely cooled.

Bon appetit!

My April DB challenge- Cheesecake Brulee Bites

I love love love mini, bite-sized treats! Which is why I was so elated to find out this month's DB challenge are bite-sized cheesecake treats! There's just something about diminutive, individually-portioned bites that is appealing to me. I think part of the reason is portion control so I won't overeat, but I can promise you that's a hard feat because these cheesecake treats are so very yummy! And the challenge comes in good time too as I have been hankering for creamy, rich cheesecake lately.

The lovely Deborah and Elle were the kind hostesses this month and chose the recipe from a cookbook that simply the most scrumptious title ever: Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey. Seriously, how can you not love it?

The recipe itself was very simple and straightforward. However, I had a slight problem with the cheesecake not setting beautifully. All I did to solve the issue was to freeze the cheesecake balls with the popsicle sticks for about half an hour. I just had a pretty decadent weekend and wanted something lighter. My daring adjustments include using Neufchatel cheese that supposedly has 1/3 less fat than normal cream cheese, and coating the cheese balls with sugar and bruleeing them instead of super rich chocolate.


The cheesecake balls didn't freeze completely but was solid enough to withstand a super hot torch. Unfortunately, they weren't as perfectly spherical as I wanted them to be and the not-so-perfect-ly-spherical shape was more detectable without a nice chocolate coat. Overall, the cheese pops were delish and just the right-sized "light" treat I wanted. Like the book its recipe came out of, these sure were sticky, chewy, messy and gooey, just the kind of dessert I like *winks*


If you want to salivate over more of these cheesecake balls, check out my friends' creations here and be prepared to be blown away!

Spring has sprung!

Once upon a March, a teeny weeny bunny faced a Daring Bakers challenge. It was the daring Morven's turn to host and she wisely picked a sprightly recipe for us: the Perfect Party Cake by the one and only Dorie Greenspan. Having only salivated at Dorie's books, the bunny was uber excited about the cake, only to despair having no special occasion to bake for.

Though the bunny's birthday is in March, she was away in a foreign land with her beloved sister for the occasion. Fortunately, the Easter holiday came to the rescue! Even though the funny bunny didn't celebrate the holy day, she had plenty of friends who did. The bunny quite liked cake allright, but being pint-sized, the bunny liked all things small and cute. She then decided that instead of baking a large, beautiful cake, she will bake cupcakes because there's really nothing more adorably delicious than cuppy cakes.

But how should the bunny ensure that she follows the challenge rules, for one of the rules is that it has to be a layer cake! Think and think, the bunny did, before she thought, "Eureka! Layer cupcakes!" And layer cupcakes, the bunny made.

She started with the batter, which was easy breezy and a beautiful daffodil yellow, very apt for a springy occasion such as Easter.


To make layer cupcakes, the daring bunny baked the layers separately; she baked half of them in cupcake baking cups and the other half sans paper in the cupcake pan, with only a tablespoon of batter in each.




The mini cupcakes (as if cupcakes weren't mini enough!) rose slightly and were a pretty yellow.


To start the assembly process, the funny bunny laid out the cupcake in a baking cup, which will be the bottom layer.


She then spooned a teaspoonful of luscious strawberry jam and smoothed it over the top...


... before she plopped the paperless cupcake (the top layer) on the jam-frosted cupcake!


And as if this isn't sufficient fabulosity, the bunny decided to be funny and slathered the top with Dorie's decadent vanilla buttercream, only to top it off with a sprinkling of fluffy flaked coconut.


Nothing is more fun than decorating cupcakes, but the bunny couldn't wait to tuck into this darling lemony cake! She split it in half, only to show off that the cupcake crumb is delectable and its layers simply exquisite (if she must say to herself!).


In no time did the greedy bunny polished off the pretty cupcake, leaving only mysterious yellow crumbs and flakes and pink paper on the plate.


Fortunately, the funny bunny managed to hide a bunch more cuppy cakes away from her tummy, so that her friends who celebrate Easter actually had a chance to enjoy them too! Really, she's rather impressed she had this much self-control considering how yummy the cakes were!


Now check out more daring creations of other talented bunnies and chickies that are popping all over the internet here. Please be kind to your computer; prepare some napkins for your mouth in case my friends' pictures are excessively mouth-watering!

French bread, oh, French bread. How do I serve thee? Let me count the ways...

French bread is one of my favorite things ever. It is so simple yet complex; crusty yet chewy; and delicious both unadorned and ... well, adorned! So imagine the joy (and slight apprehension, which I will get to later) when the wonderful Daring Bakers announced that our mission for February is to make French bread with Julia Child's (deceptively) simple recipe. Upon first inspection of the recipe, I was simply floored by its length and contents. I mean, really, we're going to need canvas? And plywood? Sounds more like an art project, no? And can you blame my slight apprehension? I'm not going to wax poetic too much about it but when you come right down to it, baking is artistic!

Unlike my normal baking/cooking projects, I set out to be uber organized this time. I printed out the recipe (10 pages long, thank you very much!), laid out all the special equipment and ingredients ("mise en place") before I even started. Baking French bread took way longer than my usual baking recipes (think a whole Sunday!), but it was totally worth it because my French breads turned out beautiful! It was Sunday anyway, so during the multiple proofs (or incubation steps, as we call it in lab/geek talk), I just tinkered around the house, reading the paper, watching TV and doing little chores.

I made the mistake of digging into one before it was cooled completely. I mean, it took 2 whole hours to cool and let the crust set, but I was just sooo seduced by the aroma of fresh bread out of the oven. I couldn't resist! The bread tasted good but the crust wasn't as crusty as I was hoping. Fortunately, the second bread that I let cool for the whole 2 hours was much better: super crusty crust and chewy, bubbly middle. Although it isn't a French bakery-standard bread, it comes pretty darn close! And as usual, there are a few hundred DB posts up today. Kinda crazy but oh so worth it to check out! So take a look the creations of my talented friends here!

As the title of this post suggests, how did I serve this divine bread?


1. By itself: So simple and delicious! This may make me sound like a freak, but my favorite part of bread is actually the crust. Whenever I get a loaf of bread, I always attack the ends. Chewy middles are a distant second in my opinion. So the high crust-to-innard ratio of baguettes is a huge plus to me!

2. With butter: Still very simple and oh, so decadent. I think it might be especially yummy if you can get butter from dairy farmers who make small batches of unhomogenized and sometimes, unpasteurized butter as featured in the NYT.

3. With butter and jam: To further bring your taste buds nearer to nirvana, add jam to #2. Not jelly please no! But J-A-M. My current favorite is this awesomely flavorful blackberry jam from Trader Joe's. I just ran out but I'm hoping it's not just a seasonal item...

4. With butter and roasted garlic cloves shmeared on top. Now, THIS is sheer heaven!


5. As part of a bánh mì: If you haven't tried one of these yummy sammie, you have to try one right now. And I mean, go to a pho place right NOW! Banh mi is a Vietnamese-style sandwich made with baguettes. It is usually made with pork, chicken, pickled carrots, some veggies and cilantro.

6. With chocolate: As exemplified by fellow DBer Tartelette here.

7. With extra virgin olive oil as dip: Droooooolz!

8. With cheese of all kinds: goat, brie, blue, Cheddar. Oh, the possibilities are endless!

9. With Nutella: I suppose Nutella could be considered chocolate. But I think Nutella is just so good it deserves its own category. I really think the USDA should really reserve a place for this delicious hazelnutty chocolatey goodness in the food pyramid. Don't you?

10. As crostini: Sliced thinly, toasted and topped with various yummies like chopped tomato and basil, garlic hummus and pine nuts, roasted tomato puree and sliced mozzarella, etc.

11. For croutons: I've never been a fan of croutons and consider this one to be a bit of a waste of good bread. But hey, I'm sure there are folks out there who beg to differ and can't live without croutons...


That's only eleven of the ways I can think to serve French bread. Care to share any of your own ideas?

Christmastime is here...

As you may have known already, I approach Christmas with mixed feelings. I despise the over-the-top commercial feel that the season now has but I love that it is the time of the year that everyone (and I mean, everyone!) tries to be kind. Growing up in Indonesia, my family never celebrated Christmas. We usually had a Christmas tree in the house though. Kinda weird, isn't it? Raised in a Muslim country, with Chinese parents and educated in a Catholic convent, it's little wonder that I'm confused! :)

It's unfortunate that I'm stuck in Chicago for the holidays, with my family so far away. I'm quite jealous of my friends who are going home to be with their families. If only my family didn't live so far away... Also, I'm going in to the lab this weekend, on Christmas Eve and day. I know, I know, pathetic, I know.

Fortunately, I have this month's Daring Bakers' challenge to console me: the Yule log or the buche de Noel. As you may know already, it is a traditional Christmas dessert in France and Quebec. According to Wikipedia, Napoleon ordered Parisians to keep their chimneys closed during winter due to the belief that exposure to cold air causes health problems. This perevented Parisians from using the fireplace and engaging in traditions involving the hearth. Supposedly, French bakers invented this sweet log-shaped dessert as a symbolic replacement around which families can gather and continue their traditions.

I have actually made a chocolate buche de Noel for a friend's Christmas gathering a few years back. It was super rich, chocolatey and decadent. Anyway, I just remember really liking it! Ivonne and Lisa are kindly hosting this month's challenge and the besides the basic genoise, dark buttercream (one strict rule is that it has to be dark!) and mushroom decorations, we're free to go crazy! Yippee!

The sources of the recipe are from Perfect Cakes by Nick Malgieri and The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Dessert.

Unlike the previous 3 DB challenges I've made, I managed to fudge this one up real bad. And I mean, pretty badly. I had to make each component of the yule log twice! Yes, the genoise, buttercream and meringues. Twice! Fortunately, they improved the second time I made them otherwise, I would've totally given up! The genoise cake recipe seems simple enough with the usual ingredients such as eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch. The first time around, I spread the batter too thinly and baked it for too long. As you can see below, the sides were browned.


As a matter of fact, the cake nearer to the sides was baked to a crisp. I only made 2/3 of the genoise recipe and I think I might've spread it too thinly on the jelly roll pan. Big mistake! The second time around, I made followed the recipe as is and baked it for only 10 minutes. I also let the batter expand even more in volume before adding the flour mixture. Even though it looked allright, the genoise was a tad dry for my taste. I added a splash of vanilla extract into the batter, which made it very fragrant, but other than that, it's rather bland.


I decided to try out a luscious-looking raspberry jam I bought from the local grocery store as the filling. I mean, check out the label! It says "More Fruit than Regular Preserves". Now, who doesn't want that? Talk about raspberry, I miss summer already not because of the heat (oh, I hate summer heat and humodity!) but because of berries, which are my absolute favorite things in the world! So anyway, after spreading the filling oh-so carefully on the genoise, it's time to roll!


Unlike the thin, elegant yule logs I made previously and that I've seen on TV and in magazines, I decided to do something different (and a little crazy. Well, maybe a lot crazy). I though it would be interesting to make a thick log. I guess looking at my creation now, it's more like a stump than a log. Haha! To do so, I cut the genoise into 4 strips length-wise.


Rolling the genoise was a tad tricky but I manages to not ruin it, fortunately. The first strip was rolled into a tight cylinder. The next strip of cake was then just rolled around the first cylinder of genoise and so on, until all the cake is used up. Check it out!


Next, comes the buttercream. The recipe supplied was for a coffee buttercream. I personally have an aversion to coffee. I also don't like coffee flavored stuff (with the exception of coffee ice cream), so I decided to go with a chocolate buttercream. My first attempt was pure nightmare, with the buttercream curdling and looking totally gross. After realizing that the meringue has to be totally cooled and that the butter has to be at room temperature, the second try went smoothly.

I had the most fun with the meringue mushrooms and other decorations. I simply adore meringue. They're light, fluffy and never fails to please the palate. I wanted to try out something that I saw on the Food Network show, Sugar Rush. In the special holiday episode, host Warren Brown visited the DC restaurant Citronelle, and learned from chef Michel Richard who to fashion snowmen out of fluffy meringue. In addition, he stuffed the snowmen with ice cream. How decadent is that? Unfortunately, I somehow burned my meringues the first time I made them and by the time I had to make the meringues a second time around, I was quite discouraged and decided to just make simple meringue shrooms :)


Even though I didn't have the gumption to make the ice cream-filled meringue today, it's something I will definitely try out in the future. As a matter of fact, I got ahead of myself today and purchased the ice cream I was planning on stuffing the meringue with. Check it out!


Creme brulee ice cream by Ben & Jerry! I've never really been a big fan on B&J mostly because I think their toppings can get too damn chunky! So chunky that I can't fully enjoy the actual ice cream. I suppose that might be the whole point of B&J ice cream but I actually like the frozen cream part better than the toppings. I'm a purist, I know. But this creme brulee ice cream isn't as chunky as the typical B&J creation. It has a nice amount of swirls of caramelized sugar and a super rich custardy ice cream.


So, this DB challenge didn't go as well as I expected. I probably wouldn't make a buche de Noel using this recipe again. But thanks to this challenge, I've uncovered a new addiction: meringue! I loved the meringues so much that I ate about half of them! Not good, I know. I'm kind of expecting a stomachache soon, but they are sooo good!!! I suppose it's not too bad of an addiction, considering I need to lose a few pounds. After all, meringues are low in fat and high in protein! Anyway, I hope all of you have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Please check out my uber talented fellow Daring Bakers' creations here!

Can you say "Chocolate"?

It is the stuff made of legends, this thing they call "La Bete Noire". Its literal translation is "the black beast" and a black beast it is. In the English language, the phrase can also refer to something one dreads or hates. Not only has there been a movie of that name, there has also been a comic book of the same title.

But among us cooks, bakers and chocoholics, it is simply (or not so simply) the flourless chocolate cake, the ultimate dose of pure chocolate. La Bete Noire first captivated my imagination when it occupied the cover of the September 2006 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. I've heard planty of this mythical creation; so rich, velvety and yet so deadly. I've always wanted to try out the recipe, but there never seemed to be enough time or the appropriate occasion for such a monumental dose of chocolate.

Finally, a lab friend's birthday on Tuesday has offered the perfect excuse. La Bete Noire was simple enough to make. Although it only has merely 5 staple ingredients, I must warn you that this cake is not for the faint of heart (or gut!), for this creation has a little more than 1.5 pounds of chocolate, half a dozen of eggs and a stick of butter in it!



The cake was super dense and had a nice, thick, fudge-like texture that softens up if left at room temperature. I agree with some reviewers of the recipe of Bon Appetit's website, that serving it with whipped cream would "lighten" it somewhat, ironically. However, I served it with some luscious raspberries and it was pretty awesome.



Upon the first bite, you wouldn't know what hit you. Seriously, this super chocolatey cake would knock your socks off! It is the perfect dessert for a chocoholic and it would definitely blow your guests away at the holiday table. A slice of this black beast is enough to assuage my chocolate addiction for the week. Yes! Seriously, it's THAT chocolatey.

Would I make it again? Probably, some time in the future. This cake was a cinch to make and turned out delicious. I would totally recommend this for your holiday table, especially if you're a chocolate-lover!

Bah, humbug!

I'm in a funky mood thesedays. Despite being barraged by a constant cacophony of Christmas-y messages, I don't feel particularly merry. I suspect it's the combination of experiments not working in the lab, being single and having my family sooo far away during this season that celebrates together-ness. To counteract this negative energy, I decided to try to get into the holiday mood by writing up Christmas cards and baking some homemade gifts.

I recently saw an entry on Jenjen's blog about Martha Stewart's double chocolate cookies and was salivating at the sight of those decadent goodies. And what better way to get into the holiday mood than baking some cookies for friends? Although it's a simple recipe, I managed to fudge it up a bit by not reading it completely before starting to whip the butter with the sugar. After whipping, I noticed that the consistency of the butter-sugar mixture didn't look right. Upon re-reading of the recipe, I realized that I had to melt the butter with the bittersweet chocolate before mixing in the sugar. Fortunately, I didn't have to start from scratch and the batter turned out ok even if I just added the melted bittersweet chocolate into the whipped butter-sugar mixture.

Lesson to be learned: Read the whole recipe from start to finish before starting! You'd think that I would know to do this after some years of baking. Tsk, tsk!

I love that Jenjen also added bittersweet chocolate in addition to the milk chocolate, thus yielding a richer, more chocolatey cookie that isn't as cloyingly sweet as it might've been. As usual, I underbaked the cookies slightly, giving it a chewy texture with an ever-so-slightly-crisp outside that I enjoy.



These cookies were so awesome that if I hadn't had the willpower to pack most of them in tins to be mailed to my friends, I would've consumed all of them within the next few days, which wouldn't have been good. The recipe is perfect as it is and doesn't need any adjustments, except maybe, changing the type of chocolate chips that you might enjoy more, eg. white chocolate chips or butterscotch, etc.

I must say that nothing gets you in a holiday season faster than cookies and milk!

Alice Waters' apple tart

Despite not having had the privilege to dine at Alice Waters' ground-breaking restaurant in Berkeley, recipes for her famous apple tart has been circulating both on the internet and in numerous magazines for some time now. I was inspired by a post on Smitten Kitchen, and made the apple tart for Thanksgiving dessert.

The recipe is simple and very straightforward. I took the liberty to arrange the apple slices in concentric rings, to create a flower-like appearance. The crust turned out perfectly crisp, which made me imagine that I was eating apple pizza. Served with a scoop (or two) of light vanilla ice cream, it was the perfect ending to a decadent Thanksgiving meal.

Po-tay-toh, po-taaah-toh bread dough goodness!

I enjoy baking with yeast and lament the fact that I don't get to do it enough. So I'm super duper happy that November's Daring Bakers challenge is the Potato Bread. Thanks to this month's host, Tanna, I got to play around with yeasty dough! Yippee!

Thus far in my 4-month-old membership to this wonderful group of bakers, I think the potato bread challenge is the one that allows our creative juices to flow the most. This is because not only can we make potato bread, we can use the dough for many other purposes, as long as it's savory. In other words, Tanna encouraged us to go crazy, which is awesome! Haha!

Adapted from Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid's book, Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour & Tradition Around the World suggestions for the use of the potato dough are bread, rolls and foccacia. I decided to make foccacia and bread.

Due to the large variation of amount of potatoes and flour that could be used (with less potatoes being recommended for beginners), I used the the least recommended amount of potatoes and added approximately the lower range amount of flour. This resulted in an super sticky dough that was quite difficult to handle. Nevertheless, I managed to use a third of the dough for a foccacia, which I baked in a jelly roll pan that has been greased with olive oil. Now, I didn't go as crazy as I wanted to with the foccacia topping only because I was limited with ingredient availability and it was too damn cold to go out and get some. I ended up sprinkling my beautiful foccacia with rosemary, salt, caramelized onions and pine nuts. Here's what it looks like before I put it in the oven.


And this is what it looked like once baked.


The foccacia turned out to be soft and pillowy with a moist crust. It was a very delicious dough! The toppings were quite good too, although maybe I should've toasted the nuts and NOT caramelize the onions. Baking the caramelized onions made them a bit burned and I'm sure I overconsumed those yummy carcinogenic bits of onion. I enjoyed the foccacia with a teriyaki chicken breast salad. They made wonderful partners for dinner :)


The potato bread was a bit of a disaster for me. Once the dough rose, the top layer got stuck to the plastic wrap that I used to cover it while proofing. And then, I realized only after the bread was done, that I forgot to slash the top of the bread. So my bread turned out rather crappy. It didn't even rise beautifully in the oven. Boohoo!


Overall, I enjoyed baking with yeast, though I wish my potato bread didn't turn out to be such a bomb! In retrospect, I added way too little flour. I suppose getting a potato bread dough of good consistency will take some trial and error. But I was really happy with the way the foccacia turned out. It was an awesome challenge and now I challenge you to check out the other DBers' creations here! Let me just warn you that your stomach might start growling at the sight of their breads!

One special sistah!

Once upon a time, about 22 years ago on this day to be exact, a human being was born into this world. I met her for the first time on my parents' bed and I remember being amazed how anyone can exist in such a small body, peer through such teeny weeny eyes and grasp so tightly with such chubby, short fingers. She's my sister :)

I used the Indonesian slang word "gemas" to describe her. It doesn't have an exact English translation but it's along the line of "adorable", "huggable" and "scrumptious" at the same time. Don't worry, it didn't even cross my mind to eat her! Growing up, I remember her wanting to follow me and emulate me all the time. As any older sister can tell you, I found this immensely irritating in a cocky big sister way.

We spent a lot of our formative years apart. I started school in Singapore at the age of 7 while my parents and sister lived in Indonesia. She came to Singapore when she turned 11 and I left for college in Chicago a few years later. Despite the short time we had together, I had beautiful memories of growing up with my sister. We used to listen to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in our room while peering out the window, admiring the sunset. I also recall the fun we had organizing a surprise birthday party for our cousin.

It certainly helps to have a sibling who totally understands the unique, crazy family that surrounds us. A sibling is also useful sometimes to diffuse the nervous energy or attention that parents sometimes have for their children. I'm especially grateful that despite the physical distance between us most of the time, we have managed to grow up together. I'm also very happy that we've grown closer and closer over the years. I can't imagine having grown up without my sister and can only wonder how horrible life would be without her.

So when she said she wanted homemade oatmeal raisin cookies for her birthday, I immediately rolled up my sleeves and baked the best oatmeal raising cookies that I've ever baked. The secret ingredient? A little bit of honey and a whole lotta love! Haha! Corny, I know but true!

These cookies turned out to have crisp, thin outer layer while remaining chewy inside. They aren't excessively sweet and they're relatively good for you. Hey! Raisins contain a lot of antioxidants and oats are very fibrous! Try out the recipe below :)


So, I want to dedicate this post to the one I love: my dear little sister. I want to wish her a healthy, happy, wonderful year ahead. And I look forward to more years of growth (and gossip!) with her!

Recipe for the best Oatmeal Raisin Cookies ever!

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 teasp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. honey
1 1/2 cup AP flour (can substitute up to half with whole wheat)
1 teasp. baking soda
1 teasp. ground cinnamon
3 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F.

Cream room temp. butter with brown sugar until smooth. Stir in eggs, vanilla extract and honey.

Sift flour, baking soda and cinnamon. Stir dry ingredients into creamed butter mixture 1/3 at a time. Stir in the oats and raisins until just incorporated.

Drop dough by the teaspoon onto cookie sheet. Flatten slightly with the back of spoon if you like flatter, crisp yet chewy cookies. You can leave the dough rounded if you prefer fluffier, cakey cookies. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until cookies start to brown.

Cool on wire racks for 5 minutes before enjoying with a mug of piping hot tea or a tall glass of ice cold milk!

Countdown to Thanksgiving!

You know Thanksgiving is around the corner when red and green-colored ads are popping left and right. Yes, isn't that sad? Fall has barely finished unfurling her blasts of reds, oranges and yellows and retailers are already out in full Christmas force. Sigh~ Just what on Earth is happening to this world?

My cousins and I started a tradition of having a reunion on Thanksgiving about five years ago. Every year, we pick a different city to gather at, usually a city where one of us resides in. This year, they're going to be descending in good ol' Chicago for our reunion. It's going to be a ton of fun having my cousins around (one of them is going to bring his Nintendo Wii console. Wheee!). I'm going to be cooking my first Thanksgiving dinner ever, turkey and all! I'm more excited than nervous at this point in time. As a matter of fact, I've already had the menu planned out, the shopping list written out and some of the more durable ingredients in my fridge. Another reason it's good that my cousins are coming over is that it's a good catalyst to get me to clean my apartment!

Since I'm going to be the primary organizer and cook for Thanksgiving, I'm going to try to do as much as I can in advance, which brings me to the recipe for this entry: orange-infused cranberry sauce. I encountered this incredibly simple recipe on this beautiful blog. All you need are cranberries, sugar, orange zest and juice. And all you gotta do is combine them and roast for 45 minutes! How much simpler can it get? And hey, it doesn't hurt that it's wonderfully tasty and so pretty to look at ;)

A perfect Sunday morning breakfast is...

Sunday is my favorite day of the week. I find that it is the only weekend day when I can totally rest, wind down and really think of things that I don't have the time for during the work week. My favorite Sunday ritual?

Poring over the Sunday paper with a pair of scissors by my side over a mug of perfectly brewed green tea and a simple breakfast. "Why the scissors?", you ask. I'm actually a closet coupon-lover! I'm one of those geeks who loves the bulky coupon section of the Sunday paper, haha! Anyhoo, yesterday morning, I had the perfect Sunday morning breakfast of a mug of green tea (as usual) and a warm, flaky chocolate croissant fresh out of the oven.


I certainly do not have the skills to make croissants myself! I know it's an extremely labor-intensive process and from what I hear about the amount of butter that is used in making them, I would rather not visually witness the ton of butter that goes into my croissant. I actually bought a pack of frozen chocolate croissants from Trader Joe's, one of my favorite grocery stores ever. EVER!

Before I rave about this awesome product, let me just clarify that I do NOT work at TJ's or even own their stock (though I believe it's a privately-held company, but if they were to go public, I'd actually get some of their IPOs, that's how much I love TJ's!). For the benefit of those of you who do not live near a TJ's, it is an awesome grocery store that is most famous for the quality and range of products that they sell under their own name. They carry a lot of natural, organic stuff and are very very reasonably-priced. They're probably most widely-known for their two-buck-chucks (or three bucks in Chicagoland), their own brand of white and red wines that are pretty damn good for a few bucks. So anyway, I decided to try out their frozen chocolate croissants during my sojourn to TJ's this past Saturday.


In order to enjoy these croissants, you have to plan in advance (like, one day ahead) because you have to take them out of the freezer and leave it at room temperature overnight (approximately 9 hours) so that they can rise (or proof, in bake-talk). Check out how big mine grew!



After it proofs, all you gotta do is put it in a 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes and you can enjoy a warm, buttery, decadent chocolate croissant. My verdict? It is pretty darn good, actually! It's very buttery and rich, though not as flaky as some great croissants that I've tasted before. However, it's also definitely better than some croissants I've had from some bakeries too! I will totally buy this again because not only are they delicious, they are also so cheap and so easy to make! Seriously, $1 a piece for warm, fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate croissants? It doesn't get any better than that :)