Salted Caramel Brownies

Sea Salt.... Caramel... Chocolate.... What more do I need to say!!! This brownies are to die for... Sweet, chocolaty, salty goodness with each bite of this decadent brownies.. such a complex yet so awesomely delicious taste...  This brownies is so sinfully that it should seriously come with a warning label.

I made a whole lot of Salted Caramel and stored them in my fridge when I made this brownies, the caramel sauce can be kept in your fridge for about 2 weeks and you can use the sauce for practically anything, top it on your ice cream, on to your cake, stir a spoonful into your hot chocolate or coffee for a caramel flavoured coffee.

To make Caramel, it is best to have a thermometer to help you on your caramel making as you do not want to under cook it or over cook it. It should be at 350 degrees F or 176 degrees C. If you really do not have any thermometer, the caramel should be a deep amber colour and should have just begin to smoke.

Recipes 

Salted Caramel Sauce (Yield 1 Cup )

225g            Granulated Sugar
85g               Butter
100ml           Heavy cream
1/2 Tbsp       Flaky Sea salt

• Add sugar into a heavy bottom saucepan
• Whisking it as it begins to melt, it will start to form lumps but it is ok. Just keep whisking and it will eventually melt completely 
• Stop whisking once all sugar melted and swirl the pan occasionally while the sugar cooks
• Continue to cook until deep amber of 176 degrees C

• Once it reach 176 degree C, add in all butter at once. The caramel will bubble so be careful. 
• Remove from heat and pour cream into the caramel.
• Whisk till cream is incorporated and you have a smooth sauce
• Add in sea salt.
• Let caramel cool for about 15 minutes before transferring to your selected contained. 

Salted Caramel Chocolate Brownies

1 Tbsp          Coco Powder
113g             Butter
84g               Unsweetened Chocolate
56g               Bittersweet Chocolate
83g               Plain flour
1 Tbsp          Grounded coffee beans (Optional)
1/4 tsp          Salt
2                   Eggs
125g             Castor sugar
100g             Brown sugar
1 tsp             Vanilla extract
1/3 cup          Chocolate chip or chopped chocolate

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C
• Grease a 8 x 8 inch baking pan with non stick spray
• Melt the chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl using the microwave. 30 second burst each time
• Leave the chocolate to cool after it fully melted
• Sift Coco powder, flour, salt and grounded coffee beans together, set aside
• Whisk egg and sugar in a stand mixer till pale and thick, add in the vanilla.
• Fold in the chocolate mixture and dry ingredients
• Pour half the mixture into the pan
• Drizzle Salted caramel and add in some sea salt flake on top of the mixture. Add in as much as you like.
• Pour in the remaining mixture and drizzle more caramel on top. 
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or the toothpick come out of the center with some moist crumbs.
• Cut into square and serve!! 

Wholewheat Dinner Roll

Decided to make some soup for dinner and what better to have a dinner roll to dip into the soup and provide some carbs at the same time!! Came across this recipes online and after some modification, made this quick and easy wholewheat dinner roll that is so soft and fluffy inside, you can eat it just by itself!!


Recipes (Makes about 12 to 15 dinner roll )

56g            Butter
85g            Honey
2                Eggs
100ml         Milk
50ml          Water
250g          Whole wheat flour
40g            Coarse whole meal flour
1 tsp           Salt
1 tbsp         Instant yeast

• Cream butter and honey until soft in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment Add eggs and incorporate 
• Add Milk and water and incorporate
• Add in flour, salt and yeast
• After mixture have been mixed properly, cover with damp cloth and leave to rest for 20 mins
• Change to dough hook and knead until dough is tacky but not sticky and dough passed the windowpane test. Add more flour if needed. Or you can need by hand like I did. 
• Place dough in a lightly greased bowl and proof at a warm place for about 1 hour or until dough double in size. 
• Remove for bowl, flatten dough into a rectangle using your finger to distribute the air bubbles and cover with a damp cloth for 5 minutes to let the dough rest.
• Cut dough into 12 equal portion, shape into a ball and seal the bottom.
• Place the dough in a greased rectangle baking pan with a slight space between each ball. 
• Cover with damp cloth and proof for about 45 mins or until dough about double in size. 
• Preheat oven to 180 degree C 
• Spray the top of loaf with water
• Dust top of dough with fine corn meal (optional). 
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on top and tapping the bottom gives a hollow sound. 
• Remove from baking tray and cool for at least 30 minutes before serving. 

Smoked Bacon with Blue Cheese Muffins

Blue Cheese.... you either love it or you hate it.. me? I LOVE IT... 

Blue cheese is made by adding cultures of the mold Penicillium into the cheese so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue mold. This cheese characteristic flavor is that of sharp and salty. The pungent distinct smell of this cheese is cause by the bacterium brevibacterium linens and this same bacterium also responsible for foot and body odors... yuckz... But overcome the smell and the melted blue cheese tasty of awfully good especially on meats like steak and it can also make a good dressing for salads.

So when I came across this recipes for a blue cheese muffin with bacon.. all of which I really love alot, I tell myself that I gonna try this one day and before you know it, I was shopping for blue cheese and bacon. Furthermore muffins are so easy to make it only take me less then 10 minutes of active time and the remaining is just waiting for the muffins to be ready.




Recipes (Makes 6 regular sized muffins)

100g            Bacon bits / Bacon strips cuts into small cubes

Dry Ingredient 
150g            Plain Flour, sifted
1/2 Tblsp     Baking Powder
1/4 Tsp        Salt
40g              Fine Sugar
1 Tsp           Dry Basil / 5 Fresh Basil leave, chopped
40g              Blue cheese, crumpled into the flour mixture
20g              Roasted Walnut (Optional)

Wet Ingredient
90ml             Milk
2 Tblsp         Water
3  Tblsp         Oil / Bacon Fat
1/2                egg  (about 25g)

• Preheat oven to 180 degree C, prepare 6 muffin tin either by greasing or line it with paper baking cup
• Fry the bacon till crisp and reserve the fats to be added to the wet ingredient
•  Sift and combine all dry ingredient and add in the fried bacon
• Combine all the wet ingredient together
• Pour wet ingredient into dry ingredient and mix. Do not over mix, it is fine even if flour can still be seen. Over mixing will dry the final product. 
• Scoop batter into prepared muffin tin 
• Bake in middle rack for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown on the top.

Simple White Bread / Raisin Loaf

 

My very first post bread making. This recipes for a simple white bread loaf and making it is simple enough well if you get the basic of the bread baking down, ie: how to proof the bread, how to form the loaf, how to knead the dough. Maybe I should write up a post on how the technique of bread making, I shall think about it. I still learning and don't want to be giving out wrong instruction!! haha.

With this basic recipe, you can easily get your favorite topping into the loaf, chocolate, raisin, bacon, cheese, herbs, it is only limited to your imagination. So why make your own bread when you can simply buy one from the supermarket. Well when you make your own loaf of bread it just simply taste better, at least that is what I think, plus there is no added preservative, chemical or anything of those artificial stuff. You control what you are putting in your bread hence what you putting into your body. Making bread is fun and it can be a good workout too if you are kneading the dough by hand.

It may look like a lot of work making bread but actually most of the time if spent allowing the dough to proof and the actual working time spend on making the bread is very short.


Recipe (Adapted from Julia Child's white loaf Recipes)

Make one loaf of bread

265ml     Water
3g           Instant yeast
6g          Sugar
400g      Bread flour
7.5g      Salt
50g       Butter
20g       Milk powder

(Optional)
100g     Raisin soaked in warm water for 10 mins then drain

• Combine flour, salt, instant yeast, sugar, milk powder in a mixing bowl and mix well.
• Add in water and stir well to mix. You can do all this by hand or using your stand mixer using the dough hook.
• Cover the dough with a moist cloth for 20 min to allow the dough to rest (This rest called "autolyse" will allow the flour to hydrate and gluten to relax)
• Using your hand or stand mixer, begin to knead the dough for about 5 to 8 minutes. 
• Add the butter one tablespoon at a time, dough may come apart but it will come together eventually.You can add more flour so that the dough will become tacky but not sticky. It should also be able to pass the windowpane test, meaning that you are able to stretch the dough into a thin membrane yet not tear the dough. This means the gluten in the dough have been properly developed. (You can also add in your other ingredient like raisin etc at this time)
• Once all the butter is mix in, turn out the dough into a lightly floured surface and shape into a bowl. 
• Place dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a moist cloth and leave it at a warm place in the house to proof for 60 to 90 minutes or until the dough double in size. 
• Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface, flatten it into a rough shape of a rectangle, and fold the dough into third like how you will do a sheet of paper. 
• Roll the dough into a roll, pinch the seam close and fold the ends in so that it will fit into the loaf pan. 
• Drop loaf into the pan and cover the pan with a moist cloth to allow it to "bench proof" for another 60 minute or until dough almost dough in size. 
• Preheat oven to 190 degree C 
• Before the loaf go into the oven, spray the top with water, place the loaf into the oven, mist the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes. Bread is ready when tapping the bottom of the pan gives out a hollow sound. 
• Turn out the loaf on to a cooling rack. Allow the bread to cool completely before cutting. 

Peppermint Chocolate Cake... Mother's Day Special

It's Mother's Day today and what better gift for my beloved mother who have taken care of me for the past 29 years then to bake for her on this special day to show how much she means to me. Took the whole day to make this although it could have taken much lesser time if I have a better organized kitchen!! Haha..

After a great holiday at Club Med Cherating last weekend, was inspired to create a peppermint chocolate cake. Couldn't find anything online hence decided to come up with my very own recipe.

The recipe consist of a 3 parts, there is the cake, the peppermint cream, the Chocolate Glaze. Decoration are optional, it will taste great even without the fancy stuff that I made...

Recipe. . . . .

Chocolate Cake

170g      Cake Flour
13g        Coco Powder
3/4 tsp   Baking Powder
1/4 tsp   Baking Soda
1/2 tsp   Salt
170g      Dark Chocolate (At least 60%)
170g      Unsalted Butter
1 tsp      Vanilla Extract
                                           100g      Castor sugar
                                           100g      Light brown sugar
                                           3            Eggs
                                           105ml    Buttermilk / Wholemilk

To make the cake

1. Pre-heat oven to 160 degree C
2. Prepare / grease a 7 in by 3 in round baking tin.
3. Melt the chocolate in a microwave and set aside to cool. (30 sec on high, mix, 10 sec on high)
4. Sift all the dry ingredients together and have it ready 
5. Beat butter together with sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy (Pale Ivory in colour) 
6. Add vanilla extract then add egg one at a time. 
7. When eggs is well in cooperated, pour in melted chocolate 
8. Mix in 1/3 of the dry ingredient follow by 1/3 of the milk until everything is in cooperated. 
9. Pour batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45 to 55 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 
10. Remove from mold and cool to room temperature before cutting into 3 equal layer. 

Chocolate Chip Peppermint Cream

650g        Whipping Cream
120g        Fine sugar
2 tsp        Peppermint extact or to taste
1/2 tsp     Green colouring
3/4 tsp     Powder Gelatin
40ml        Cold Water
50g         Shaved chocolate

To make the peppermint cream

1. In a stand mixer bowl, combine the cream, sugar, colouring and mint extract
2. Combine the gelatin with the cold water to allow it to bloom (Abt 1 min)
3. Whisk the cream till just before soft peaks form
4. Pour in the gelatin mixture and whisk till firm
5. Mix in the shaved chocolate
6. Set cream aside in fridge to chill. 

Chocolate Glaze (Adapted from Pierre Hermé)

This chocolate glaze consist of 2 parts, you will first have to make the chocolate sauce which will have left over after making the glaze.. you get use the same chocolate sauce for your desert like ice cream etc.. totally awesome chocolately goodness...

Chocolate sauce 

 50g      70% Dark chocolate chopped
 95g       Plain water
 35g       Castor Sugar
 50g       Heavy Cream

To make the chocolate sauce

1.  Combine all ingredients into a heavy bottom sauce pan.
2.  Bring to a boil while stirring constantly.
3.  Lower heat and continue heating till mixture is able to coat the back of your spoon.

Chocolate Glaze

100g      70% dark chocolate, chopped
80g        Heavy cream
20g        French butter (room temperture)
100g      Chocolate Sauce

1. Heat the cream in the microwave for 30 sec on high
2. Pour cream into chocolate and stir to melt the chocolate
3. Add in butter in 4 equal parts
4. Add in the chocolate sauce

Finishing the Cake 

1. Sandwich the layers of cake with the peppermint cream 
2. Completely frost the outside of the cake with the peppermint cream
3. Pull into freeze for about 1 hours to chill the cream, this will make the subsequently chocolate glaze much easier to apply
4. Pour chocolate glaze on the top and work your way to coat the entire cake. 
5. Chill in fridge and enjoy!!! Bon Appetit!!