Shortbread Cookies

When I first saw this recipe for shortbread, I was extreeemely excited, firstly because they looked sooo delicious, and, more importantly, because the recipe was so simple. most shortbread recipes i'd encountered before that had called for chilled butter and rice flour and whatnot, but this one, was basically just butter, sugar, and flour. and boy, is it good. i totally lurrrve this cookie, even though some people have not seemed very impressed to me. this is totally a keeper, to me. i love the way the texture of the cookie is dense and almost velvety, because of the use of icing sugar instead of caster, i think. and although the recipe called for unsalted butter and a pinch of salt, i went ahead with my salted butter, omitting the salt. i think the shortbread might be saltier than if one were to use unsalted butter, but i love the saltiness! not that the cookie is salty per se, but it is faintly salty, which contributes to the buttery fragrance and flavour of the cookie, a deeeelish counterpoint to the sweetness. the only thing about this recipe is the huuge amount of butter used. more than 400g ok! think that's little? it's almost two blocks of butter. yeah. yes, the yield is fairly large, but, seriously, this cookie makes it unable for you to tell yourself that the butter is divided among many many cookies, so each cookie doesn't really have that much butter. this cookie is seriously BUTTERY.
which is partly why it tastes so good with fruit, and even jam. it's delicious with cherries, and plums, and i think it'd go fantastically with strawberries! and oranges. the juicy tartness of both the strawberries and the orange would be a great way to balance the richness of the shortbread. it also makes me crave hot earl grey tea, or really hot black coffee, the kind with no sugar. it's also great with a smear of apricot jam. and raspberry too, i'd bet. mm. i love it, love it, love it.
the next time i make these, i'm going to cut down on the sugar, and roll them out very thin, cut them out in fluted circles, and drizzle/dip them in chocolate. maybe if i ever decide to sell (or rather, if people ever decide to pay me
for my baked goods), or give these as gifts. i think they make verry presentable gifts. and they're fun to make. and your kitchen smells delightfully of butter and vanilla when they're baking. yay. i love this recipe.
and yes, i know that the picture of the cherries is rather random, but i was very happily taking pictures of my yummy cherries just now, and i took some very nice shots, if i do say so myself.

Sweet simplicity

Was browsing through Daiso at Vivo on Monday, and stumbled upon these:


"Sugar Crystal" candy! also known as Rock Sugar, really. Yes, I know, I paid $2 for 120g of rock sugar that costs $0.25 per 100g. But really, this rock sugar isn't totally like those you buy at Chinese shops or the 'herb' section of supermarkets. Each piece of candy is a single, large sugar crystal, not many small ones clustered together, so it doesn't disintegrate halfway in your mouth. Since it's one big crystal, it also doesn't melt as fast, and is hence less sweet than normal, granulated sugar—but this comparison doesn't, of course, mean that I, like, eat sugar. Because I don't. But whatever. The point is, I love my rock sugar sweets!
:)

Sweet nothings

For all that we slam VivoCity for being overhyped and overcrowded (for no good reason at all—see overhyped), the one thing it does have going for it is the availability of yummy candy—albeit overpriced, yummy candy.
For a long while, everyone's go-to candy shop was Candy Empire, which was all good and fascinating and expensive, with festive-looking "promo" price tags that proclaimed prices in a way that tricked many an unsuspecting person into thinking something was a LOT cheaper than it really was. still, Candy Empire had provided us with many a happy munchy, like the delish Jelly Bean Factory Jelly Beans, Freddos, and, in more recent times, these funk-tastic Skittles!

These are Skittles, in special, Limited Edition, Showtime Flavours of Popcorn, Fairy Floss, Bubble Gum, Jam Donut and Toffee Apple:

I'm not quite sure how Jam Donut is a Showtime or Carnival sort of treat, but it is by far, my favourite flavour of the bunch. It had a cinnamon-y, toffee-y fragrance to it, reminding me of cinnamon-sugar dusted Churros, that complemented the fruity, jamy part of it. This was very addictive, and veryy delish.

Popcorn was my next favourite, because it had that weird, distinctive popcorn-jellybean flavour, which I really do love. Even if it didn't really taste like any popcorn I've ever eaten.

A close runner up was Fairy Floss, because it tasted uncannily like candy floss. Yes, I know candy floss is just sugar, but it doesn't taste like just sugar. Perhaps it gets heated as it spins, so that it develops the faintest tinge of burn-sugar-ness? Whatever the reason, the Fairy Floss was quite yummy.

Toffee Apple was quite a let down, because I do love anything with toffee in it, so I was very much looking forward to this one. Sadly, it tasted all of apples, with almost no toffee flavour.

Bubble Gum, I didn't really enjoy, mainly because I don't like Bubble Gum flavoured foods—ice cream, candy, soft drinks, whatever. The Skittle tasted very much like bubble gum, so much so that the first chew was rather unnerving, because for an instant, your brain processes it as bubble gum, not a Skittle, I guess.

Still, I enjoyed these very much, not just because they were yummy, but also because they were pretty.

Vivo also has a new Candy store, but more on that in a later post. :)

The Great Granola Bar Adventure

Well, as you've probably guessed from the title of this post, this weekend's baking venture was making homemade granola bars. And, as you've probably guessed, it was something of a fiasco. Or adventure. I got the original recipe (and idea) from here, but when I got to the supermarket and saw flax seeds, I was rather turned off by the way they looked—for some reason, they reminded me of insects... Also, I couldn't find any puffed brown rice cereal—cereals in Singapore aren't so healthy, I guess—so I got rice crispies instead. To make up for the lack of flax seeds, I got a pack of dessicated coconut too. Plus, I'm not a big pecan fan, so I got slivered almonds instead.
Then, I got home and discovered that all the oats in the house would only make 2 cups. oh well, I thought, just...multiply the recipe by......two-thirds? Right. I can do that.

Not so, really...I kept forgetting to, so the mixture ended up being a study in chuck-it-in-any-old-how. As a result, there was waaay too much sesame seeds, so muuch so that it almost overpowers everything. plus, you can hardly taste the coconut. and the dried fruits were maybe a little too dried, because by the time they came out of the oven and cooled, they were quiiite hard.

Oh and then there was the issue of my granola not sticking.
This was because I added the honey mixture in a few additions, and after about 3/4 of the mixture had gone in, I tasted it, and it was extreememly sweet. So I stopped adding, since the mixture was quite wet already. Alas, it just. refused. to. stick. I got maybe 5 (precarious) bars out of the mix and a good-sized Tupperware full of loose granola.

This was on Thursday. Over the past few days, I'd been scooping out the granola and eating it as cereal, but the mix was just not sweet enough. So today, I was finally fed up enough to try again. I mixed up some honey, butter, brown sugar and salt, and re-mixed the loose granola, then baked it again.
Success!
Or, almost.
This batch held much better than the previous (not saying much, really), although some pieces needed to be pressed into bars. All in all, this was a really good learning experience, since now I know how the different ingredients work in the bigger picture of the granola bar, so in future I'll be able to play around more with ingredients. I'll probably use two different kinds of nuts next time, more rice crispies, definitely less sesame, and I'll prolly skip the vanilla and replace it with some cinnamon powder. If I'm feeling particularly rich, I might use maple syrup too, instead of honey and cinnamon. Or mix in some jam with the honey to make it less sweet..
whee, I'm already excited.

I wonder if a dried-mango (or some other Chinese dried fruit) granola bar would be nice..?

Here's "my recipe", all figures adjusted as they should be.

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats (old-fashioned or instant)
1 cup slivered almonds
¼ cup desiccated coconut
1/3 cup sesame seeds

1 1/2 generous cups rice crispies
1 1/2 cups dried fruit, chopped (I used apricots, cranberries and cherries)

2/3 cup honey
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Toast the nuts, coconut, seeds and oats by spreading it out on two baking sheets at 180ºC, or by tossing in a dry frying pan on low heat.

Add the toasted mixture to the nuts and crispies in a large bowl.

Mix the honey, saly, butter and sugar together in a saucepan and heat, stirring til dissolved.

Take off the heat and add the vanilla.

Toss the dry ingredients with the honey mixture, then spread onto well-oiled baking sheets and bake, at 180ºC till toasty and golden.

Let cool for a few minutes, then cut the bars, but wait till fully cool before removing from pan.

Cake

Some days I just want to eat cake. Not necessarily good cake, you know the kind: fresh whipped cream, soft, cloud-y cake base, rich, decadent flavour combinations, layers of ganache, meringue et al, at $5 a slice—sinfully good cake that you feel guilty about forking out $5 over. Cakes like that I utterly love. I've been known to stand in front of cake cases drooling, with a maniacal glint in my eyes, as I plan how best to steal all the cakes out of their glass prison and liberate them—into my stomach.
But some days I jst want to eat the cheapo cake that those neighbourhood bakeries sell—plain vanilla sponge layered with plain butter cream that's just a little oily and plastic-y.
I can just hear you asking yourself, "oily and plasticy?? why would anyone want to eat that, and pay good money for it??"
Well, I don't know. It's just good. and cheap. $1.50 a slice.
hmm. ok, maybe not cheap per se, but 'cheap' enough for you to delude yourself into thinking that it's a steal.


See? Isn't it pretty? yumm. :) this is good, old-fashioned, heartlander-type food. So don't call me elitist! (haha)

B Bakery

Went to B Bakery with M this afternoon, after reading good things about its Sticky Buns in 8Days. Whilst I wouldn't say that we had trouble per se looking for the place, we did have quite a trek from the MRT station, and under the blistering sun no less. But I am happy to say that it was more than worth it. As there were only two of us, we only ordered 3 items, the Passion Fruit Cheesecake, Chestnut Opera, and, of course, the reason for our out-of-the-way travels, the Sticky Bun. All were fantastic. The photos in this post are all abyssmally terrible, thanks to a 1.3megapixel phone camera and insufficient lighting (sufficient for dining, but insufficient for photo-taking, that is), but I will definitely return, because it is of utmost importance that I take good photos of the food, of course. Definitely not because I'm a glutton and am already planning what to eat next time..
Well, on to the food, then.

M's cheesecake was rich and creamy in texture, but deliciously tangy and fruity, making it rich and light at the same time, paradoxical as that sounds. Another nice thing about it is that it looks just like a piece of normal cheesecake, so the first bite is startlingly delicious, the tangy passionfruitiness rather unexpected. I took of a corner of it before remembering to take a photo, and M had already begun eating from her side, so you'll just have to see it from this picture of the dessert case: it's the yellow rectangular slice, fourth from the left on the middle shelf. Yes, the picture is almost useless as an illustration of the cheesecake, but it shows many of the other lovely desserts that B Bakery sells: (from left) a meringue tart; perhaps lemon meringue, strawberry shortcake, tiramisu, passionfruit cheesecake, chocolate raspberry tart, apricot tart and pear tart. See why I already can't wait to go back? They also have a verrry delish-looking chocolate-lemon slice (i can't remember the name), bight yellow sandwiched between layers of seductively dark chocolate that is on my must-try list.
Also not in the picture is the Chestnut Opera, which I ordered, primarily because of its lovely, glossy, mirror-smooth top layer of chocolate.

Just look at it! All smooth and glossy and perfect, and all those brown, creamy-looking layers stacked on each other, looking oh so mmm-some.

The Opera was basically, from the bottom up, a base layer of nutty cake, followed by chestnut cream/mousse, chocolate mousse, then cake, chestnut, chocolate, and that gorgeous top layer. The top layer, I am glad to say, was pretty much as good as it looked, oozy sweet and chocolatey good, and the chocolate mousse layers were good too, light, yet rich, creamy and chocolatey. The chestnut layers were nice and nutty, although the overall chestnut flavour was a little too subtle. Overall, I wouldn't say I didn't like this; I did, but it could have been better.



Well, last, but definitely not last is the Sticky Bun:
It isn't very evident in the photo, but the bun is coated in a glossy, dark, layer of lovely, lovely glaze, not the typical white-sugar glaze that covers most cinnamon buns, but an absolutely fantastic brown sugar-esque glaze that is so good it pretty much defies description. The word that springs to mind is just, dark. And if I were to compare it to a familiar flavour, it would be gula melaka—it has that dark, almost bitter kind of flavour to it. The bun itself was a little dry, the best part was the very middle, where it was moist and springy. The texture of the bread was a little on the coarse side, not like the denser, yeastier chewy sort of texture most cinnamon buns are made of. I would have preferred a chewier sort of bread, but this was good, too.

The B Bakery also serves sandwiches, salads, and pizzas (on Fridays), so I really am looking forward to going back there with a biiiig appetite, so I can try more of their menu.

After M and I were done.

B Bakery
15 Bussorah Street
(Near Arab Street and Golden Landmark Hotel)
Nearest MRT: Bugis

Came across a few panna cotta recipes this weekend, and whilst my favourite kind of panna cotta is the plain vanilla with a thin layer of rich dark chocolate cream on the top, i was looking through the kitchen cupboards when i saw some Japanese tea cups that my mother never uses, and i suddenly thought that i matcha panna cotta would be lovely. kind of like matcha ice cream, creamy and rich, but not frozen.

maybe next weekend—it's a long one coming up. :)

Eggy in a Basket ROCKS!

Well, I said i'd go back and make myself an Eggy in a Basket breakfast, and so I did. and boy was it gooooood. buttery, crisp bread surrounding a delicious fried-in-butter egg: so simple, but so, so, so good. this is a fanstastic way to use up old, going-stale bread, even better than toasting, because the butter prevents it from becoming dry. This is so good, it might even over take pancakes as my breakfast-craving number 1.
but maybe not. but that's really not the point.

the point is, well, that this is such a decadently delicious, easy-peasy thing to throw together, that everyone should try it.
Ingredients:
Egg: 1
Slice of bread: 1
Butter
Serves one.
First, take out a slice of bread and place in on a flat, dry surface—i used the plate i was going to put my toast on, so i wouldn't have to wash another thing.
Then, take a drinking glass and cut a hole in the middle of the bread, making sure the glass is the right size to give you a border of bread around the hole.
Next, melt some butter in a small pan, spreading it out. when the butter starts to foam, place the bread into the pan, pressing down slightly with the spatula. Flip and repeat until the bread looks a little crisp/toasty.
Add a little butter into the hole, let it melt, then crack the egg into the hole. let the egg fry, making sure the fire is not so big that it burns the bread. if some egg white seeps out of the hole, cut it away with the spatula.
When the egg looks rather set flip the eggy over.

After the first flip: the bread isn't very toasty yet

Don't do this too early or the whole thing might wobble/slip all over the bread, and whilst it will still taste good, it won't look like an eggy in a basket.

If the pan looks too dry, add some butter and move the eggy around in the butter. when the egg is done to your preference—some like the yolk hard and cooked through, but i like it runny—and the bread is nice and brown and toasty, remove to a plate and eat. YUM. my favourite part.

Almost out of the pan: nice, brown toasty bread

Eggs in a basket

Watched V for Vendetta recently (again), and wound up seriously craving those Eggs in a basket or whatever they're called. I mean, fried bread, butter and egg with a gooey yolk. Is there anything more alluring? Can you hear the siren's call of the dark, dangerous, but infinitely seductive eggs in a basket? I can.

I am definitely going to make these this weekend.

To celebrate J's freedom from, and success over, the evil Special Term, the two of us The Simpsons Movie. Lunch was at the White Dog Cafe (02-131/132), and it was really really really good. We started with the Triple Mushroom Soup, which was excellent. Not the creamy, liquidated form that is found everywhere, not even the creamy, mushroom-flecked type that's really good, and slightly more rare, but a bowl of soup so chunky and mushroomy it was like minced mushroom stew. I loved the fact that you have to chew as you—literally—eat this soup, and as you chew, the juices from the mushroom pieces ooze out, amplifying the already-strong mushroom flavour of the soup. J and I both agreed that we'd go back just to drink the soup.

Then came our main courses: Creamy Salmon Linguine for her, and Chicken Leg for me. Her linguine was pretty good, the pasta perfectly cooked, not over-cooked and soggy, and the creamy sauce clinging lightly to the pasta. mm. My chicken leg, though, was much better, thanks to the delectable trumpette mushroom sauce—creamy, yet light, buttery, just slightly sweet, and sooo delish. It was the perfect foil to the chicken and mashed potatoes. mmmm, so, so, good.
As a result, J and I were both feeling absolutely stuffed when we finished, and just sat in our (quite comfy) seats for awhile watching the cable cars and sunlight. It might have been because it was almost 4 in the afternoon, and lunch hour was quite over, but the staff didn't make any of the usual signs that they were in a hurry for us to leave, which was nice.
Another plus was that both our mains came at the same time, and quite soon after our soup was cleared. I hate places where they serve you your main course five minutes after they serve you your soup, so that you either leave the soup to sit and get cold and congealed whilst you start on your food, or vice versa, neither of which is an attractive option, to me. All in all, this was really a rather good meal, a place i'll definitely visit again.

After lunch, before going in to the movie, J decided to go to Boost, that really very expensive smoothie bar on the same floor. At about $6.50 for a small cup, I've never actually been tempted to try on of their drinks, but J had told me about the craze it was in Aussie, so I decided to give it a go. Hers was some banana-honey mix, that was really lovely, very smooth, with a really nice honey flavour/scent, and mine was something called the Breakie to Gogo, which was banana and other fruits (I can't remember, exactly), and toasted muesli added into it before it went into the blender, which gave it a lovely wheat-y flavour, and a bit of texture. I wouldn't have believed it, but I'll prolly be going back there, too.
All in all, yesterday was a day for breaking out the bank, but I rather think it was worth it.