TBB: Spritz Butter Cookies

I made these cookies early since I had left over glace cherries after I soaked the fruits to make Rose's fruitcake from HC. So many bottles..so you get the idea this is really my favorite fruitcake. :) 

These spritz cookies fairly easy..so just the usual creaming method..

Then I piped..and put half glace cherries on top.

And bake for 12mins.  

I really like how it is not as sweet and the sweetness comes from the glaced cherries. 

Not sure if I am imagining it or what, but these cookies creamed with granulated/caster sugar, somehow traps moisture.. my cookies turned soft even in air-tight container. I was expecting "Viennese Cookies or Danish Butter Cookies type of cookies - dry but yet still melt in mouth texture"...  But these spritz cookies tasted more like "soft rolled sugar cookies".. still taste good though, just not what I imagined it to be.  So I was thinking perhaps these cookies if made with icing sugar would be better?   

Anyway, I just have to remind myself when I eat the cookies that these are spritz butter cookies and not Vaniljekranse Danish butter cookies so I shouldn't expect them to be the same...  :)

Danish Cookie Recipe 

TBB: Hazelnut Praline Cookies

So far I have yet to come across hazelnuts with skin.. all the hazelnuts I see here are all blanched.. thus I just toasted the hazelnuts to bring out the flavor. Then make the praline..as you can see below.  

I pulsed in the food processor a lot of times, but this is the best I could do.. not really like the description as "powder".. if you think powder..you would expect something like very dry and powdery. This is not even close to powdery..  After I made double batch of dough because pointless for me to keep half of this powdery praline since I have no idea what to do with it...  

I used the tiniest cookie scoop to scoop out 10g. I had to work fast..cos the dough melts super fast! So I didn't have any time to take photos..it's like Scoop-Flatten-Scoop-Flatten.....no rest in between to take photos! 

Here are the cookies.. Like Marie said, burn fast in oven..so must check at 10mins.

Taste wise: Really crispy and I love the texture.  It's not so sweet which is also a plus point and has caramelized hazelnut flavor.  I would think these cookies will be even better if coated with melted chocolate. But I'm lazy to temper chocolate.. so maybe next time..lol! 

TBB: Marble In Reverse with Custom Rose Blend Ganache Glaze

I made this cake during the beta testing..and everyone loved it. And made it again for some gathering also. This is an amazing cake..so soft crumbs, light and tender...and buttery at the same time.  So this is my 3rd or 4th time making this cake, so I am kind of bored with it... so as I was flipping over the pages, I saw the Pink Lady cake (izzit?..the one with fondant covering) and what intrigue me was the recipe is the same as Rose's white velvet cake/cupcake recipe except it uses all egg yolks instead egg whites...so curious how it taste like, I baked it too and then any how sandwiched between the marble cake..lol! ..

I decided to bake the marble cake in round tins.  One was ok, but the other one with more chocolate sank in the centre a bit ... I suspect I didn't mix in the melt chocolate well enough to even it out.  I tried to bake 2 cakes (marble & pink cakes) in under an hour. because I wanted to watch the korean drama episode coming up on TV soon...in the end, I missed the full episode except the last 10 mins.. :(   

Removed the crackly top... very messy.. isn't it? 

Next morning, I frosted the cake.  I forgot to take photos...because again, I was rushing to do everything under an hour..as I had to bring my son out before 11:30am.  Well, I was slightly delayed again and left the house only around 11:45am. 

Here is the insides of the cake..if you are wondering how Rose's pink cake looks like. The pink cake her friend likes.. I forgot who.. is it Flo? I have to go home and read again. 

I sliced it really very thin..like 1/4 inch thick.. so that everyone can have a slice. I think a proper wedding cake slice is thicker..lol! 

Looked quite pathetic? 

You can see some ganache in the centre between the slices..Only very thin layer of ganache between layers except the part where there is a dip in the cake layer..

This is my share..half of that 1/4 inch...

Everyone likes the cake esp. the marble cake. Me too. I liked the marble cake too. If you haven't made this yet, please give it a try. The marble cake in HCB is also very good too..less chocolate, but taste equally amazing.

The pink cake is a denser and sweeter too...and probably why Rose chose it for fondant covering too. Taste similar to white velvet cupcakes in HCB..and between the yellow cupcakes and the white cupcakes, I prefered the yellow cupcakes too.   I find the cake texture and taste is better with sour cream than with milk..perhaps the cake taste sweeter with milk.  It is possible to make Rose's white cake with sour cream instead of milk? Next time I'll try.  I'm still searching for the perfect white cake to my tastebuds..

TBB: Cookie Strudel

One Word: Delicious!! 

TBB: Fudgy Pudgy Brownie Tart

I forgot to take in-progress photos..

All I can say the tart pastry is very easy to make but it melts super quick! I had to fight with the heat... of course the heat won but it is ok since I just press back whatever that broke along the rim of the tart pan.  

This is very easy tart to make..the only more finicky part is the pastry.. but it's not that hard either. This tart shell is quite forgiving..and more like a cookie dough.. and did I  mention this chocolate dough is also very tasty.. I ate some raw dough ..couldn't help it!  

Took out the tart shell in the freezer (resting for 3 days..lol!) and pour the chocolate brownie mixture directly onto the frozen tart shell. 

I purposely over baked 10 mins more..or was it 15 mins more. I wasn't sure if the frozen tart shell needed more time to bake through. Also I noticed the tart shell had lots of oil seeping out at the bottom of the shell and also bubbling oil on top of the brownie too. Like it's still uncooked.. so I left in oven longer but still not much difference. Lots of oil seepage.  

But when I took it out from the oven, the oil dried up a bit. 

So I think must be this recipe has lots and lots of butter..and chocolate oil!  

Very yummy, moist and fudgy brownie tart.
It didn't dry up at all even though I overbaked 10-15mins..

Very rich and very chocolatey.. 

Oh..this below is the extra cookie dough..i just pressed onto the tray and baked it for 15mins.. I'm eating this now as I am typing this post.  I really like this cookie... would be a great recipe for chocolate roll cookies.   Actually I like this cookie a bit more than the brownie itself.. ;)    

TBB: Banana Split Chiffon Cake

Great flavor.  However I find it is not as light and moist as I am used to...I find it a bit on the dry side for chiffon cakes.  But it taste perfect with ice-cream and ganache. So it is definitely as it's name suggest - a Banana Split Chiffon Cake. 

TBB: Honey Cake for a Sweet New Year

I baked this cake before on 20 September 2014 together with Hanaa & Mendy, but I can't find my post now... I wondered where my posting went?!  Or did I even post it? I remembered I did and Rose made a comment about only putting 1 shot of rissetto coffee shot instead of 4 (I used 4 capsule of that Nespresso risetto!..what was I thinking..lol!).   We followed the recipe in this site http://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2014/09/10/honey-followed-rules/

Let me try to recall... I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup, but since it has a lot of honey in the cake, it is still very sweet.  It is a sweet cake because it is meant to be like this - as the cake is for sweet new year.  It's like our Chinese New Year, we also have to have really sweet candied fruits etc for our sweet new year too.  

Iirc, I think I read the instructions wrongly.. I think was supposed to line the pan, but don't know what I was thinking and I lined the outside of pan with newspaper and even put a thick layer of newspaper at the bottom of the pan. At that point I thought I was being very clever and save some parchment?!?!?  

The cake itself was nice and moist. But because I added too much coffee, the main note is coffee and tasted more like coffee cake instead of honey cake... such a waste.  I think my good honey I used was in a way such a waste because I couldn't taste the main honey note.  As this cake is meant to be sweet, so no one should complain about how sweet it is.  

TBB: Pepparkakor

I have no mood to bake lately. Partly due to being fatigue all the time. Also the Haze is back again and the air quality is quite bad. Everyday I wake up in the morning feeling ok, but towards the afternoon, my throats feel sore again...so sometimes sore throat and sometimes not. Not sure if I should take medication for or not..so I just keep drinking lots and lots of liquid..so much so I feel so bloated that I don't feel like eating anything either.

I was half-hearted making these cookies. Not sure if I wanted to make them..the steps seem so fussy...have to get a cardboard round etc...in local terms we call it 'laychay" (maybe it is a Malay word?). Very troublesome...but in the end I made the cookies anyway. Typical Singaporean...complain this and complain that...everything must complain, but still end up doing it anyway... lol! 

I used half molasses and half golden syrup because there is no Grandma light molasses anywhere or everywhere.  The dough is very ugly looking... I forced myself to take a photo of it.  I just anyhow wrap entire dough with cling wrap and chill it. Thereafter rolled into 3 mini logs quickly..as the dough was melting quickly..

I doubled up the Cayenne pepper to 1/4 tsp... I think maybe I put in 1 tsp of ground black pepper actually..I remembered I didn't reduce the black pepper...since my helper helped me grind more than the required amount, I just dump everything into the dough.  :)

Took out the dough logs from freezer and they melted quickly. I had to fight against the heat. As I was cutting it, the bottom part melted a bit and stuck to the cutting board..so some broke and I had to press it back...so you can see how out of shape my cookies are...  I sprinkled both raw sugar and pearl sugar. 

The cookies puffed up a bit when baking.. so they are pretty crisp and fluffy if cut thin. Those I cut slightly thicker, has a nice soft texture like gingerbread. I can't quite make up my mind which one I like better, the crisp ones or the softer ones.  Actually I like them both.  I also like the heat that hits me towards the end.. both the cayenne pepper notes and also the black pepper bits. :)  

Despite all my complain about how fussy to make and also how ugly the dough, cookies look etc.. these cookies tasted wonderfully delicious. So lesson learnt...do not judge the cookie by it's dough..er..look!  I would make it again..and the next time I make, I will not be complaining as much,...I think. LOL!

TBB: Luscious Apple Pie

This time, I didn't follow the recipe as I should to make a flaky pie crust and as a result my crust wasn't flaky.  The weather was so hot plus I got a bit bored of making and eating pies! When I saw this on schedule, I was like 'Oh no.. not pie again!" So I just mix in the cream cheese and butter into the flour etc and when they got into dough, I asked my helper to just shape into round and place in the fridge for me. I'm not sure how long she took to shape into round, because when I rolled it, I can't find anymore butter or cream cheese pieces I last saw in the dough.. Maybe the hot weather melted both quickly.  

Straining apple juices

microwave juices into caramel 

cider looking like aspic after cooled

mixed altogether, caramel & cider

''

into the pie..  

Baked. 

The pie crust was a bit too thick. I didn't want to waste any crust so I just quickly rolled it to to fit the top of the crust and and seems like it is still doughy inside after 50 mins in the oven.  I should have let it stayed in the oven for 1hr instead.  The apple slices wasn't mushy and was still a bit crunchy in fact.  So I think I should have cooked it longer.

Overall, it is a great pie.. if I had done all the steps right, it would have been awesome apple pie. I like the flavor and esp. the cinnamon flavor - I opted the max cinnamon flavor in the pie. :) 

But like I said, I was kind of pie-out to begin with.  Now after 4 days, this pie is still sitting in my fridge and nobody is eating it except my helper.  See that 3/4 left over.. she managed to eat another 2/3 by herself and I think I would have to throw away the rest soon!  Good thing to have someone who can eat and not gain weight in the family. 

TBB: Flaky Cream Cheese Scones

These are very good. With crisp flaky crust and yet tender on insides.  I love them!  Everyone in my family said these are so good.  Plus these are so easy to make. 

Make the scones by hand.. rubbing in method.

I used orange zest and raisins. 

Press into 9" pan and refrigerate till firm.

After cut into 8 x wedges.

Baked.. and Eat. 

Couldn't wait for it to cool down. Just have to eat right away.

TBB: Woody's Black & White Brownies

I don't know why I have the impression that Woody's recipes tend to be rich and 'loud'-as in it gives an impact on your first bite/taste?  So when I saw the recipe title before reading recipe, I thought to myself, this must be a super rich brownie...just like that lemon cake in HCB.   And I am right....lol!  This brownie is very good..but a little goes a long way. 

First I toasted the pecan nuts. But the 150g packet of pecan nuts after toasting became 78g??!  (Ok..i admit, I ate 1, but even with that 1 piece, it would have been 80g!)  So I added walnuts to make up for the difference in weight.

Then I made the white chocolate custard. 

I used Meiji white chocolate. 

Then mix in the batter & walnuts and into the prepared pan.

Opps!! I forgot to put in the cream cheese!! 

After I put in the oven, I saw a bowl of cream cheese sitting on the counter! Gosh!

I quickly took the pan out from oven and dump in the cream cheese and tried to incorporate into the batter with my knife & later fork. 

Out of the oven. Looks good..doesn't look like anything went wrong. lol!

Made the white chocolate buttercream. 

Taste very good despite being on the sweeter side..and I like how it looked like whipped cream.

Pour onto the brownie layer and put back in fridge 

Make the ganache and pour over. 

Oh..I added Bourbon.. that is what made it even better! lol!  

After the next day..all set. 

Cut into triangles. 

A little goes a long way..so a tiny triangle is all you need! 

For my tasting..  I didn't have any ice-cream so I just ate on its own. Very good though..despite being so rich.  This is for photography only.. I ate one triangular slice and the other one, my helper ate. 

Oh..that dish there..hahaha.. it's actually my soya sauce dish.  Can't remember where I got it from.. it's the one and only one I have in this design. Actually I think 90% of my dishes are free!  Either some hand me down from my mom or my late MIL or my SIL or some freebies.  That's why I don't have a nice proper set of dinner wares.  And I feel bad to throw away all the usable plates just to get a new set. Some of my plates and bowls, some older than my children.. like more than 25+ years! 

These are very good brownies. If I were to make it again, I will do away with the white chocolate layer. It looks pretty with white chocolate layer, but I like my brownie less sweet.  The bourbon ganache layer compliments the brownies very well. I love it.