TBB: The Dutch Pecan Sandies

Weather has been extremely hot lately, so when I read I had to roll the cookies, I did not feel like making them.  Plus I still have half a container of Mini Gateaux Breton baked 2 weeks ago (or was it 3 weeks ago?) that everyone got tired of eating it, including me.   However, when Marie suggested that I could bake it like refrigerated log cookies, I thought it was such a great idea and so much less hassle, so I changed my mind.  Making the clarified butter didn't deter me because I have a few tubs of these in the freezer...waiting for recipes like this.  I like to clarify a few blocks of butter at one go and then freeze them. But I didn't keep the milk solids though..I just threw them away.. argghhh.. I should have kept them!

The dough was easy to put together..but you need to press it hard to stay together.  

I added required cinnamon with the flour and when it came to the cinnamon for coating/topping, in my blur state, I add it into the sugar for the dough again! Nevermind I thought, probably just end up more cinnamony. 

Cut and dip in sugar and bake...

Fresh out of the oven - my whole kitchen smell delicious! 

Paired with morning coffee. 

These are very good cookies.  Just right amount of sweetness and spice (maybe a bit more in my case but is ok with me).  And now I know why these cookies are called Sandies, because the texture is very sandy...well, in a good way. :)  

TBB: Coconut Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Ganache

I started off 2016 with root canal.. boy was it painful! Then I was down with flu in between the treatments.. and now that I've recovered, I am still feeling super tired despite taking iron supplements daily.  Some days I feel like I need to sleep all day, yet some days I feel so energetic.  Perhaps it is due to hormones imbalance playing wreck on my body...  like roller coaster!   This morning, I was so tired, that I couldn't even find the strength to answer my husband when he asked me a question. I didn't purposely ignore him, but I too tired to say a word.  Also who was that stupid person who called our home phone line at 2am looking for someone else?! 

So you see, it took a lot of effort for me to write this post this morning.. lol!  (actually I felt better after I took 2 Lindt chocolate truffles this morning.. maybe I just needed some sugar!)

No one in my family likes coconut in cakes, so I was half-hearted making these cupcakes. 

I tried to make the cupcakes less coconut-y by adding pandan paste .. and my cupcakes ended up green.. not because I'm celebrating St. Patrick's Day early. Also I reduced sugar by 1/4 cup.

Cupcake Batter resting for 20mins.

All baked and green

I didn't make the ganache. I made the coconut custard cream and stopped at that.  I tripled up the coconut cream.. or was it triple x 3?  And piped the cream as frosting instead. 

(this close up pic, my hands look quite "veinily" scary..!)

 All packed for Church the next day. 

I had to line with paper towel to absorb condensation that will happen when store in the fridge.

Cross-section of the cupcake.  I had to try no matter what. 

As a baker,  I feel it is important to taste my own bakes.

I really like the coconut custard pairing with the cupcakes. 

The cold custard with the cake lightens overall texture..not too sweet and also not too coconut-y either.  

Really good.  

TBB: Mini Gateaux Breton

(i spy my own reflection..)

These mini cookies are so easy to put together.  

Normally I will take the short cut method and use store bought almond meal, but this time I toasted the slice almonds and grind with sugar as recipe suggested.   

The dough is easy..but it's soft, so have to put in the fridge to harden. I put mine in the freezer. Because of our weather, anything from the fridge melts within 2 minutes. With these cookies, the harder the dough easier it is to press into the molds. I still kept to the 10g each (as per instruction) for each cavity. 

I used this mini nordicware pan. I don't have the right brioche pan size..actually I saw the right size but it was a Japanese brand selling for almost $7 per mini pan (expensive!) and they didn't have more than 12 pieces either. ..and you know I don't like to wait around too long near the oven! 

Baked as recommended at 160c for 16mins.  

They came out of the pan very easily..and I didn't need to grease the pan either.  But I find them a bit too pale and underdone. So I had to put back in oven to bake a bit longer.

For the 2nd tray, I baked at 170c for 20-22 mins and they turned golden brown (like in the book) - smell wonderful and tasted better too.  Imho I think have to bake till golden brown. Otherwise, the flavor is on the bland side..more like a sweet soft cake rather than almond cookie. 

Baked till golden brown (as below) and flavor is wonderful! 

Delicious and pretty too. :D  

TBB: Irish Cream Scones with Raspberry Butterscotch Lace Topping

Very easy to put together. Moist in the inside and crusty on the outside. Perfect Scones!

TBB: The Renee Fleming Golden Chiffon (Chanukah)

I made this for my son's birthday on Christmas Eve.  We celebrate his birthday twice, on Christmas Eve with my siblings & their families and 2 days later with only our own family on his actual birthday.  When my son was growing up, I wanted to re-enforce that December is his birthday month, so we celebrate his birthday twice. After 20 years of trying to teach him calender, somehow one day he finally understood the cycle of calender. He now knows day, date and month. Also weekdays are school days, weekend no school days..and Sunday is Church day.   Progress is slow, but at least there is improvement and growth.  Now we are trying to teach him time... or perhaps he knows but just not able to tell us?     Sometimes he surprises us when he speaks or his reaction seems to understand what we are saying when we assumed he doesn't.  

Slice of the cake

The cake fell down from the pan when I was cooling it upside down and stuck to the table. (I didn't line the pan) I dare not move it to wire rack... only after it cooled down, I moved it to the cooling rack.  

I used self-rising flour cos I wanted to finish up the flour which was expiring soon.

I'm surprised my cake didn't shrink as much..it did shrink overall a bit but not too much and thus a nice height. 

Made the lemon curd. Very yummy! 

Cut the cake into 3 layers.  I put some lemon curd on each layer followed with the lemon curd whipped cream. 

Lemon curd whipped cream - so delicious on it's own.

Happy Birthday! My son closes his ears every time we sing birthday song. He gets overwhelmed with our voices.  He also refuses to blow his birthday candles every year, but he blows every single candle he sees when we are outside..in restaurants,  hotels, department stores.. sometimes he does it too fast before we can stop him .. and we just have to apologise to the shop keepers. Did I mention before that once I brought him with me to Laduree and he blew out all candles on display while I was picking out the macaron flavors?  I was able to carry him away when he does that as a little kid, now is impossible since he is bigger than me!

Simply decorated cake with his favorite candy M & Ms.  :)  

Adults like the cake very much. 

My grand-niece (my niece's daughter) said the cake is too sour for her. But my toddler grand-nephew (my nephew's son) ate the cake happily. :) That little boy sure has sophisticated palate! 

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.