Hazelnut, my favourite Gelato Flavour and most loved chocolate companion. When my mum came back from Australia, she brought back 2 bagfuls of Hazelnuts. I munched on some during the exam period, and also the holidays, but they seemed like a never ending mountain. So before I leave for Notts, I decided to back something with these. My very own Chocolate Hazelnut Tart! It's buttery, crunchy, chocolatey, and tastes like ferrero rocher with a hint of maple syrup.



Recipe adapted from: Giada De Laurentiis, FoodNetworkcom

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
3 eggs beaten
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped and toasted hazelnuts
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips (about 1 cup), i used blocked chocolate and chopped it up
1/2 cup maple syrup or corn syrup
1/4 cup nutella
2 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 recipe pie crust

Pie Crust Recipe
175g butter
75g sugar
215g plain flour
3/8 cup cornflour

1) In a bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, plain flour and corn flour. Mix well and press into a pan.
2) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (160 degrees C)
3) In a large bowl, mix together the sugar and the flour. Add the eggs, hazelnuts, chocolate chips, maple syrup, butter, vanilla, salt and nutella. Stir well. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake for 1 hour. 
4) Cool the tart for 30 mins before serving (And you can eat it with ice cream too! It's absolutely divine)

Amidst the insane studying and endless worrying, this was my help in time of need. Out of the oven and straight into my stomach. The best remedy for a toiling, tired uni student. It's the time of the semester when all of us give up our social lives, and retreat into our little dark caves to pour over our books and notes, pulling out what little hair we have on our heads, throwing up our hands in sheer frustration. I for one, feeling like beating up the economists who make our life so difficult. Robert Solow and Milton Friedman, you make my life so difficult. Sometimes baking does help in venting your anger. Beating eggs... Whipping cream. Chopping chocolate. Now i'm not going to get violent here. But i suppose... baking is a form of anger management.

Exam period is also the time to feed your stomach and give in to all your cravings. In comes the cookies, chocolate, biscuits, cakes, sweets, ice cream... Out pops the stomach and the expanding waistline. Everyday, i sit in front of my laptop, and the first link i click is tastespotting, with all the colorful drool-worthy pictures that tease a smile out of me. I bake on cravings. So these contributed to my collection of sweet treats. And they're not any ordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies.... These are MINT chocolate chip cookies, cookies infused with a hint of peppermint. Just to make your taste buds tingle with happiness. They sure made my day!

I'm always posting entries late... such that most of the stuff i bake has already been gobbled up. So the picture here, is a picture of the LAST mint cookie i have on my shelf.




Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies (recipe adapted from pixie-baker.blogspot.com and also, Chun's request)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter room temperature
1/2 cup tightly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated white sugar
1 egg (beaten)
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup chopped dark chocolate

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 mins). On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and mint extract. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Add the flour mixture and beat just until there are no more streaks of flour. Stir in the chopped dark chocolate by hand. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of the dough and roll them into balls. Leave about 2 inches between each ball. Bake for 10-12 mins. The cookies will be crisp at the sides and chewy in the middle. Bake a bit longer if u prefer crispier cookies. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 5 mins before removing.

Makes about 18 cookies.

 It's 6am and once again I can't sleep. So here's my solution:

I whip out my recipe books, lie in bed flipping the pages... and chance upon this fantastic recipe for cream cheese squares. They were too pretty and too yummy looking to escape my eyes. What's more... it's chocolate and cheese! My two favourites. And arguably one of the best combinations you can get in baking. So at 6.30 i marched out of my room and into the kitchen. I hope my neighbours (who coincidentally were frying smelly fish again) were jealous when they smelt these. 






Marbled Cream Cheese Squares (adapted from The Golden Book of Patisserie)

Cream Cheese Mixture

1 cup (250g) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (50g) sugar
2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch (cornflour)

Chocolate Mixture
8oz (250g) dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup (60g) cold butter
1/2 cup (150g) sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 large eggs, lightly beaten with 2 tablespoons cold water
1/2 cup (75g) all purpose plain flour

Makes 16-20 squares

Steps:

1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

2) Butter a 9 inch baking pan.

3) Cream Cheese Mixture: Beat cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until creamy. Beat in the lemon zest and juice and cornstarch. Add the egg, beating until just blended. 

4) Chocolate Mixture: Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler over barely simmering water. Set aside to cool. Stir in sugar and vanilla.
    Add the beaten egg mixture, followed by the flour. 

5) Pour the chocolate mixture into the prepared pan.

6) Drop tablespoons of the cream cheese mixture over the chocolate base

7) Use a metal fork/ toothpick to create swirls in the mixture to create a marbled effect.

8) Bake for 25 to 30 mins or until slightly risen around the edges and set in the center

9) Cool completely in the pan before cutting into squares

Gosh I just realised how long I haven't been updating. But anyway, this is a fantastic recipe from Bakerella which absolutely has to be shared. Once again I couldn't sleep yesterday and woke up at 6 am to BAKE! This time it was attributed to a case of clumsiness at Macritchie Reservoir resulting in a sprained ankle. The pain made it impossible to sleep properly. But thank God it's a lot better now.

You would think that banana and cheese is a strange combination. BUT, trust me, it works fantastically well. The cupcakes are soft and moist, the cream cheese frosting yummy and sweet, topped with a sprinkle of chopped dark chocolate...

I modified the cream cheese frosting because for me, 1 package of confectioner's sugar is just wayyyyyy too much. So it's just 1 1/2 cups. And it's enough to give you a sugar high.







Banana Cupcakes

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 large ripe banana (or almost 1 cup) (I used 3 medium bananas)
1/2 cup whole milk, room temperature

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees (180 degrees C) and line cupcake tray with 12 baking cups.
2) Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl with a wire whisk.
3) Cream butter and sugar in a mixer for about four minutes.
4) Add banana and mix until combined.
5) Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
6) Add half the flour in three additions alternating with milk in two additions. Scrape down the sides with each addition.
7) Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes or until done.

Creamy Cream Cheese Frosting
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 package (6 oz) cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar

1) Cream butter and cream cheese in mixer until thoroughly combined
2) Add vanilla. Then Add sugar in small batches until combined and creamy.
3) Sprinkle some chopped chocolate or colourful sprinkles just to make them pretty!

This morning I was rudely awakened by the whiff of smelly fried fish and egg coming in through my toilet door, into my room. At 7am.

Alright I exaggerate. My sleeplessness was also contributed by the immense stress and fatigue I face from my 3rd week of school. How cool is that?

So I got up and decided to bake something to cheer myself up a bit. I miss the huge exploding muffins I used to have in Melbourne, it took me half an hour to finish the entire thing. My favourite was white chocolate and raspberry muffin. I love how the white chocolate browns and becomes something like caramel and my heart somehow leaps when I see the giant red bits of raspberry spread all over the muffin. Singapore unfortunately isn't blessed with the abundance of raspberries, but we get blueberries cheap! We seem to have a never ending stash of blueberries in our fridge thanks to my mum. So here's one to make your day and to spread the joy to those around you!

This recipe is adapted from All Recipes.com. It's a fantastic recipe and got over 3000 reviews for it. That's how good it is. I substituted vegetable oil with extra virgin olive oil, and got the shock of my life when I licked the uncooked batter. It was really bitter. But really, I was pleased with the final result because the olive oil gave a very subtle fragrant flavour to the muffin after it is baked. The crumb topping is the best part of this muffin because it gives a nice crunch to the whole texture.



To Die For Blueberry Muffins
Colleen, Allrecipes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup chopped baking chocolate / chocolate chips
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup butter cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees C (400 degrees F). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

2) Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture. Add the vanilla essence. Fold in blueberries and chocolate. Fill muffin cups right to the top and sprinkle with crumb toping mixture.

3) To make crumb topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

4) Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in preheated oven or until golden brown.

When I'm old, I will own a B&B with a rose garden and lavender field. And everyday, I'd potter around baking scones and serving it with clotted cream and homemade berry jam...

My favourite scones come from Bakers Delight, a local aussie bakery chain. Pam and I squeal in delight each time we pass by it, inhaling the sweet, salty, grainy aroma of bread, pastries and scones. She's in love with the white chocolate and blueberry scones, bursting with blueberries, sometimes they look a bit monstrous. I like to go with the less sweet option, the choc banana scones.

So anyway, one day I decided to try my hand at baking my own scones because I was desperately craving for it. Chocolate and banana of course!





It's a really simple recipe, and I know it's not the prettiest of all pictures, but you've got to try it! These scones were so so so addictive, my housemate was craving for more. Plus you don't have to eat it with cream because the chocolate and banana makes it flavourful. This recipe is taken from my favourite recipe site of all time, allrecipes.com with a couple of changes here and there.

Chocolate Banana Scones (adapted from all recipes.com)

230g Sour cream (1 cup)
1 teaspoon baking soda
500g all purpose flour (4 cups)
200g white sugar (1 cup)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon salt
225g butter
1 egg
3 bananas mashed
1/2 cup of chocolate, chopped

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
2) In a small bowl, blend sour cream and baking soda together.
3) In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 
4) Cut in the butter.
5) Stir in the sour cream mixture and egg into the flour mixture until softened.
6) Fold in the mashed banana and chopped chocolate.
7) Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface and knead briefly.
8) Roll out dough, and using a cookie cutter, cut pieces out of the dough and place them on a baking sheet. (If you're lazy like I am, you can just use teaspoons and dig out golf ball sizes of batter and place them on the baking sheet, works really well too!)
9) Bake  12-15 minutes in the preheated oven until the scones are golden brown at the bottom. 

Have fun you guys and surprise your lovely mummies and grannies with a wonderful devonshire cream tea set!