Devil's Food Cupcakes

Baked something for the Halloween theme and share them with my colleagues. Had lotsa crazy ideas way above my capabilities and time, like a oreo cookie which will be a tombstone with the RIP alphabets on top with oreo crumbles scattered over the cupcakes, or a marshmallow Frankenstein on top of the cupcake. Ended up with orange buttercream frosted over the cupcakes instead hehe

I'm happy that I did not use the typical butter plus icing sugar combo for the frosting and tried out swiss meringue instead. It's smooth and not overwhelmingly sweet. The cakes turned out lovely as well. It's pretty similar to my previous attempt of Rose Levy Beranbaum's chocolate butter cupcakes, the same moist and velvety texture, but just slightly less dense and flavorful, probably due to the higher ratio of liquid in this recipe. Am also happy that my piped frostings do not look as poopish now haha?

Devil's Food Cupcakes (adapted from Sur La Table's The Art & Soul of Baking)
(makes 36 cupcakes for me)

Ingredients:
70g unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder, unsifted
120ml water plus 240ml water
170g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g granulated sugar
160g light brown sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
200g cake flour, sifted
35g all purpose flour
2tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C and line a muffin pan with paper liners
2. Place cocoa powder in a small bowl. Heat 120ml water in saucepan until it begins to simmer and pour it over cocoa and whisk/stir until blended and smooth
3. Add remaining 240ml water and stir until mixture is smooth. Set aside until mixture cools to room temperature
4. Cream butter and sugars on medium high speed until very light in color, 4 to 5 mins. Scrape down the bowl with a spatula
5. Beat eggs and vanilla in another small bowl to blend. With mixer on medium, add eggs to butter mixture abt 1 tbsp at a time, allowing each addition to completely blend in before adding the next. Abt halfway through, turn off mixer and scrape down the bowl, then resume adding eggs. Scrape down bowl again
6. Sift cake flour, plain flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl and blend with a whisk
7. With mixer on lowest speed, add flour mixture and cocoa water alternately, starting with one third of flour mixture and half the cocoa water. Repeat and finish with flour mixture.
8. Scrape down bowl and finish blending the batter by hand, is necessary
9. Fill each liner with batter to 1/4 inch from top of liner. Bake for 12 to 15 mins (I bake mine for 17mins because of bigger cupcakes), until firm to touch and a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean.
10. Transfer to rack to cool completely

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:
2 large egg whites, room temperature
100g granulated sugar
180g unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
few drops of food coloring (optional)

Method:
1. Set egg whites and sugar in a bowl over gently simmering water and whisk until all sugar has dissolved and eggs are hot to touch, for abt 3mins. You can test if it's done by rubbing mixture in between fingers to see if there are still any gritty bits of sugar left.
2. Remove bowl from water and beat egg mixture on high speed until mixture has cool completed and formed stiff and glossy peaks, for abt 10mins
3. Add butter one tbsp at a time, and beat until incorporated before adding in the next tbsp
4. Add vanilla and beat until just combined
5. Add food coloring if you have and mix till it's well blended
6. Pipe as you like

Pink Cupcakes

Kinda late for this but better late than never. This is posted in the name of Breast Cancer Awareness month! Designated to remind women to get a health check every year to detect breast cancer. Lotsa fund raising activities for breast cancer also held this month, so do your bit as and when you can.

So the theme is to bake something pink. Since I'm on this cupcake practising spree, might as well ya. Got lots more to improve on my piping skills, but hey it's my first time, so cut me some slack yeah lol. Mom said it looks like poop on the cupcake, yeah thanks for the encouragement man.

I was kinda worried that the cupcakes will turn out tough at first as I gave it a few more swirls on the hand mixer to incorporate the food coloring in. But they turned out so moist and fine-crumbed that it literally melts in your mouth. I like the fresh whipped cream piling on top of it as well, light and fluffy and not overly sweet. Now I'm getting curious on how the conventional cupcake butter cream frosting tastes like.

Classic Yellow Layer Cake (adapted from Sur La Table's The Art & Soul of Baking)
(makes 10 huge cupcakes for me)

Ingredients:
170g unsalted butter, room temperature
150g granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
200g cake flour, sifted
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
85g sour cream (I use lite sour cream because full fat was out of stock everywhere! /rawr)
drops of pink food coloring (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C and line a muffin pan with paper liners
2. Cream butter and sugar until very light - almost white - in color
3. Beat the eggs and vanilla in a small bowl to blend
4. With mixer on medium, add eggs to the butter mixture about 1 tbsp at a time, allowing each addition to completely blend in before adding the next. About halfway through, turn off mixture and scrape down the bowl, then resume adding the eggs
5. Combine cake flour, baking soda, salt in a medium bowl and whisk together
6. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture and sour cream alternately, beginning with one third of flour mixture, then half of sour cream, ending with flour mixture.
7. Add in few drops of coloring, then blend until just incorporated
8. Fill paper liners with batter to 1/4 inch from the top of the liner. Bake for 15 to 20 mins, until firm to touch and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely before piping

Whipped Cream Frosting
200ml whipping cream
5 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
few drops of pink coloring (optional)

Method:
1. Whip cream till soft peak, then gradually add in the icing sugar and vanilla extract
2. Add in few drops of your favorite coloring just before the cream hits stiff peak
3. Pipe as you like

White Chocolate Brownies

There's nothing brown about these brownies and I wouldn't call them blondies as there is not even a single ounce of brown sugar in it. They're just uhhhhmm....White Chocolate Brownies.

Honestly my review isn't going to be accurate of what the actual recipe is. Reason being, my white chocolate seized during the tempering. Boohoohoo. Did an emergency rescue by adding some vegetable oil to save them, it did help a little, but not too much. Strained them and tried my best to reinstate the original amount of butter in the recipe, but since it's a mixture of butter + oil now, I don't know if the original recipe is moist enough or not haha? And the chocolate isn't going to be as good as it can be anymore.

Thankfully the brownies taste pretty good. I don't taste the grittiness from the seized chocolate at all. People who tried couldn't tell that the chocolate went through resuscitation operation. It also wasn't overly sweet. The crispy caramelized brownie top and tangy cranberries go with creamy chewy white chocolate. If you like cakey brownies, these are for you.

White Chocolate Brownies (adapted from Anna Olson's Sugar)

Ingredients:
75g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
170g white chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
200g sugar
2 tsp vanilla
140g all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
40g dried cranberries (optional)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Butter and line a 9" x 9"baking tray with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
2. Melt butter halfway over simmering water and add chocolate and stir until melted. (I'll melt chocolate and butter together in the future) Let mixture cool to room temperature
3. In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or with an electric mixer), whip eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale and thick. Reduce speed to medium and add chocolate mixture.
4. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt and stir into egg mixture, by hand
5. Stir in dried cranberries and pour batter into prepared pan
6. Bake for 45 mins (I baked mine for 28mins, I think 45min sounds too long for a brownie)
7. Let cool completely on a rack before cutting

Chocolate Butter Cupcakes

After my recent cupcakes- turned-wet-cakes misadventure, I decided that I'll switch to a more reliable source instead. Grabbed one of my baking books and filmed the cupcakes sequel...newly improved version.

Baked these with an old friend. Fidgeted quite a bit with what topping to use, due to time constraint, ended up going for ganache again. A 1:1 ratio 55% cocoa this time round. Guess it works well since I have to transport them out for another old friend's birthday and I'm not sure how long can whipped cream or frosting last out there in our humid weather. Also found it cute how my friend, who has never made ganache before, squeaked in delight when she saw how the chocolate blend in together with the hot cream to form ganache hehe

Rose Levy Beranbaum is my newly crowned cake goddess. Not only her ingredients are precise, her explanation are clear and to the point. These cupcakes are so, so good! They're ultra moist and deeply chocolatey. I'm amazed by its fine crumb velvety texture, the cake literally melts in your mouth. I still can't figure out the science behind this recipe since it does not call for the common creaming method. But these cupcakes are awesome and really easy to make, highly recommended for everyone to try them out. I think the rest of the recipes in her book are going to be great, if not even better, gonna explore them.

Chocolate Butter Cupcakes (adapted from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes)
(makes 16 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
42g unsweetened alkalized cocoa powder (I use Valrhona)
118g boiling water
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
166g cake flour
200g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
170g unsalted butter, room temperature

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C and line a muffin pan with 16 paper liners
2. Whisk cocoa powder and boiling water until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent evaporation and cool to room temperature
3. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs, 3 tbsp water and vanilla until lightly combined
4. In a bowl of stand fitted with a flat beater (I use a hand mixer), mix flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt on low speed for 30 seconds
5. Add butter and chocolate mixture and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened
6. Raise speed to medium and beat for 1 1/2 mins. Scrape down the sides of the bowl
7. Starting on medium-low speed, gradually add the egg mixture in 2 parts, beating on medium speed for 30 secs after each addition to incorporate the ingredients and strengthen the structure
8. Use a no. 30 ice cream scoop or spoon to place the batter (50g) onto the prepared cupcake liners, abt 3/4 full
9. Bake for 20 to 25 mins or until a wire cake tester inserted in the centers comes out clean and cupcakes spring back when pressed lightly in the centers
10. Let cupcakes cool in pans on a wire rack for 10mins. Remove from pans and set them on a wire rack to cool completely

Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cookies

I saw someone I knew reading a Dan Brown book. I asked, "You're Christian?" He said "Ya." I thought "Christians and Dan Brown don't go too well together". He laughed and said "I like him, do you like reading?". "No I like baking." And he said he want to try my cookies...and made further jokes that he wants to try them when he calls me up again. Well I don't know why people instinctively associate baking with cookies, and I know he's just kidding, but yeah he'll get his cookies.

I thought it would be a good excuse to make some cookies since I have a request now. I'm kinda lazy to make them as they always get too messy for me, getting sticky cookie dough all over my fingers. Competing against the warm humid weather in our tropical island to keep the dough intact is no simple feat. I had to keep dunking the cookie dough back into the freezer to sit for a while before working on them again.

Added a twist to the classic chocolate chip cookie - cocoa! These cookies are wickedly chocolatey. Caught whiffs of cocoa when my nose edges near them during the shooting. The chocolate chips stretches the chocolatey goodness even further. They're crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the centre. The pecans provide another nutty dimension to the cookies as well. I like how my sister went, "Do you think I'll get a sore throat eating these?" I said "Yeah." and she pops one into her mouth anyway. Good job. I stored 2 portions of the cookie dough in the fridge so that I'll have fresh cookies from the oven whenever I crave for them.

Cocoa Chocolate Chip Cookies (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours)
(makes 45 cookies)

Ingredients

175g all purpose flour
70g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp salt (1 1/4tsp if you really like salt)
3/4 tsp baking soda
225 butter, room temperature
200g sugar
160g light brown sugar
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
340g bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chips, or 340g store-bought chocolate chips or chunks
100g finely chopped walnuts or pecans (I toasted them before chopping)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 190°C. Line parchment paper on baking trays
2. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda
3. In another bowl, with a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth for abt 1 min on medium speed
4. Add in the sugars and beat for abt 2 mins or so until well blended
5. Beat in the vanilla
6. Add in eggs one at a time, beating for 1 min before the next one goes in
7. Reduce mixer to low speed and add in dry ingredients by 3 portions, mixing only until each addition is incorporated
8. On low speed, or by hand with a rubber spatula, mix in the chocolate and nuts
9. Spoon the dough by slightly rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between spoonfuls
10. Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until they are brown at the edges and golden in the centre
11. Pull the sheet from the oven and allow the cookies to rest for 1 minute, then carefully, using a wide metal spatula, transfer them to racks to cool to room temperature...profit!

Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins

I'm still not in the best of moods, but life has to go on whether I like it or not. Now I truly understand what human revolution means. Thank you special-you.

To baking! Used to shun anything-Nigella Lawson. She's the queen of comfort foods, and sometimes...too comforting. I mean, check out the size of her growing hips (But her face is still so pretty!). But after reading reviews and the ingredients of this recipe, I thought it might be worth a shot. And it probably is.

This recipe is incredibly easy, especially good for novice bakers to start on. The muffins are soft, fluffy and moist. Probably the work of vegetable oil. But with respect to the taste department, not as fanciful. I guess that's why some muffin recipes call for the best of both worlds - half butter, half vegetable oil. The muffins are pretty light in terms of taste as well. If you prefer dense rich flavors, you will think it's lacking in the chocolate, pretty different from the usual intense Nigella recipes. You might want to sub some flour for cocoa powder if you wish to have it more chocolatey. But they're really popular with my mom and her friends as the generous sprinkling of chocolate chips got them craving for more.
Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Muffins (adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feasts: Food that Celebrates Life)

(makes 12 muffins)

Ingredients:
245g all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder
150g caster sugar
135g semisweet chocolate chips plus 45g for sprinkling
240ml milk
80ml + 2 tsp vegetable oil (I use olive)
1 egg, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
I added 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules to the dry mixture to heighten the chocolate

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 200°C and line muffin pan with paper liners
2. Put together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa, sugar and 135g chocolate chips in one bowl
3. Combine liquid ingredients in measuring jug
4. Mix dry and wet ingredients together and stir till just combined
5. Add in flour mixture and mix until just combined
6. Spoon muffin batter into muffin cups
7. Sprinkle 45g chocolate chips on top
8. Bake for 20 mins and transfer to wire rack to cool

Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes

Yeahyeah...I succumbed to vanity...I made cupcakes!

So this is coming from the haughty self-declared health junkie ironic I know, who scornfully announced that cupcakes are just muffins without nutritional value. Well I'm still sticking to my stand, especially after looking at cupcake frosting recipes which involves cups and cups of sugar /gulps. Nevertheless, the baking paper cups are piling up in my storage so I baked these last weekend for the admin support staff for my Chingay audition to bribe encourage them.

If you are an avid fan of Food Network channel, you'll see this short clip of Ina Garten making these cupcakes and they look so simple. And I like how the topping is a chocolate ganache instead of buttercream frostings made from cups and cups of sugar.

I followed the recipe but something's just not right about these cupcakes. I don't think it has something to do with my sugar reduction, the most it'll do is to make my cake less airy and rise less, but the outcome is so puzzling. The batter was too wet and it took extra long to cook, and the cake wasn't as great, it neither resemble a cake nor muffin. It was just...weird. Did some research and figured that it's the Hershey's chocolate syrup. A source mentioned that the formula has been changed, instead of sugar, it's now loaded with corn syrup. Probably that affected my cupcakes. The ganache is great though...then again, how can ganache ever go wrong?
Chocolate Ganache Cupcakes (adapted from Ina Garten's Barefood Contessa)
(Recipe states 12 cupcakes, I made 30 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
113g unsalted butter
200g sugar (I use 150g)
4 extra large eggs, room temperature
325ml chocolate syrup
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract
140g all purpose flour

Chocolate Ganache:
115g heavy cream
225g good semisweet chocolate chips
1 tsp instant coffee granules

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 165°C and line a muffin pan with paper liners
2. Cream butter and suggar in a bowl until light and fluffy
3. Add in eggs one at a time till well combined
4. Mix in the chocolate syrup and vanilla
5. Add flour and coffee granules and mix until just combined. Do not overbeat or the cupcakes will be tough
6. Scoop batter into muffin cups and bake for 30mins or until just set in the middle
7. Let them cool thoroughly in the muffin pan
8. For the ganache, cook the heavy cream, chocolate chips and instant coffee on top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring ocassionally
9. Dip the tops of the cupcakes into the ganache (I spoon them over the cupcakes instead). Do not refrigerate

Orange Chiffon Cake

Hello this is my blog so I'm going to vomit emo all over like all depressing bloggers do.

It's just one of those crap shit week where everything goes wrong. Like some kid giving up his seat to you on the train because you look like you're pregnant, or your usually banana-like stools become hard as rocks and you start warming up the toiletbowl, or it was incredibly sunny the whole day and when you're about to leave the office it started raining cats and dogs, or stepping onto the weighing scale to find that you weigh as much as a fucking cow. Not like they happened to me, but imagine the lousy feeling of all that happening with multiplier effect ._.

So here's some cake.

I want to bake but I don't wanna eat my bakes. Chiffon cakes have always been my safest bet that someone else will finish it before I re-gain my appetite again Added some alcohol in for the kick and to make people drunk enough think that my cake tastes extra good.

My baking procedure is as messed up. Forgotten to add the Grand Marnier till I start folding in the first batch of meringue. Added too much liquid to the batter and the cake refuses to stick and fell out from the molds. Epic fail for a chiffon cake which is supposed to be inverted after baking.

Nevertheless, they're still edible...I guess.
Orange Chiffon Cake (modified from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)
makes 6 10cm chiffon

Ingredients:
64g cake flour
4 egg yolks
16g caster sugar
75g orange juice, room temperature (to be reduced to 56g)
48g canola oil
2 tsp of Grand Marnier

4 egg whites
72g caster sugar
8g corn flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C
2. Sift flour twice
3. Beat egg yolks and sugar until well mixed
4. Add orange juice, canola oil and Grand Marnier to the yolk mixture and blend well
5. Add flour mixture to yolk mixture until the batter becomes sticky
6. Combine sugar and corn flour in a separate bowl
7. Beat egg whites until frothy and add half of the sugar mixture, and continue to beat
8. Slowly add in the rest of the sugar mixture and beat until egg white stiff peaks and is glossy but not dry
9. Add one third of the meringue into yolk mixture and fold in lightly
10. Pour in rest of the meringue mixture and fold until well combined
11. Pour the batter into chiffon tins and bake for 22 mins
12. Invert the chiffon tin on a wire rack and let it cool for 2h before releasing the cake for serving

Best Cocoa Brownies

What do you get when you try to put a piece of warm brownie on top of your icebox in the freezer? Soggy brownies!!!

Ok, now...don't tell my colleagues why my brownies taste so wet moist.

Right. So I tried to freeze my brownies a little to have a cleaner cut for my brownie squares. Foolishly placed them on top of my icebox and yeah...the rest is history. But they kinda dry themselves up after staying in the fridge overnight heehee?

Moving on from my unfortunate accident, I actually like these brownies. The coolest thing about this recipe is, I was half-expecting a dry and cakey brownie as there's not a morsel of bar chocolate being used! But notttt...it turned out to be equally fudgy and chewier than its melted-chocolate counterparts. I guess I did not execute the 40 strokes of vigorous beating as well, so it did not turn out as chewy as it can be (but still pretty chewy imo!) Most of my colleagues found it tad-too sweet, I guess american recipes do sometimes find themselves over-topping the sweetness charts for our local tastebuds. It's a fairly simple and satisfying bake but I'm still in search of my perfect brownie.

Best Cocoa Brownies (adapted from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet)

Ingredients:
140g unsalted butter
250g sugar
72g cocoa powder (natural or dutch processed are fine)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 eggs, cold
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
70g all purpose flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 165°C and line a 8" x 8"baking tray with parchment paper, leaving an overhang on two opposite sides.
2. Combine the butter, sugar, cocoa, and salt in a bowl and set the bowl in a wide skillet of barely simmering water
3. Stir from time to time until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test.
4. Remove the bowl from the skillet and set aside briefly until the mixture is only warm, not hot. It looks fairly gritty at this point, but don’t fret — it smooths out once the eggs and flour are added.
5. Stir in the vanilla
6. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one
7. When the batter looks thick, shiny, and well blended, add the flour and stir until you cannot see it any longer
8. Beat batter vigorously for 40 strokes with the wooden spoon or a rubber spatula
9. Spread evenly in the lined pan.
10. Bake until a toothpick plunged into the center emerges slightly moist with batter, 20 to 25 minutes.
11. Let cool completely on a rack
12. Lift up the ends of the parchment or foil liner, and transfer the brownies to a cutting board. Cut into 16 or 25 squares

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondie

When I first started baking brownies, my mom who's not a big fan of dark chocolate asked me what's the "vanilla flavor" version of brownies. Asian old folks like to assume the antonym of chocolate to be vanilla. I was like yeah, a blondie. She was like what? So here we go, my first blondie! /cheers

This is a versatile recipe. You can add any mix-ins, be it chocolate chips, nuts, dried fruits or even whiskey (60ml plus an additional tbsp of flour). As I have some white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts lying around, they are a convenient bunch to throw in.

Not sure why my blondie turns out relatively flatter those who made from the same recipe. Not like it's a bad thing as you can have a thin slice of it which goes a long way. Any thicker, they may taste overwhelming. Gooey, rich in brown sugar, packed with vanilla and white chocolate goodness plus the nutty flavor of macadamia nuts as a sidekick, sweet tooths will be thrilled to sink their teeth into them.
White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondie (adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything)

Ingredients:
114g unsalted butter, melted
218g brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
140g all purpose flour

90g white chocolate chips
65g macadamia nuts, chopped and toasted

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175°C and grease a 8" x 8"baking tray
2. Mix melted butter with brown sugar and beat until smooth
3. Beat in egg, then vanilla
4. Add salt and stir in flour until well combined
5. Mix in white chocolate and macadamia nuts and pour the batter onto the baking tray
6. Bake for 20 to 25mins
7. Transfer blondie onto wire rack and allow it to cool before cutting them

Cream Biscuits

It has been a hectic week for me, netball practice, dinners with colleagues and ex colleagues. There is a netball competition on Thursday and no one remembered it till the week before and we have not been training. Kinda omgwtfbbq especially when the last time I played netball was like what, during PE classes in secondary school? Nevertheless, it was fun and the practice left my thighs aching for 2 days due to the numerous short bursts of sprints. The irony is the netball competition got postponed to November due to rain lol? Oh well.

So here's my attempt on Dorie Greenspan's cream biscuits. She said it's okay to use whipping cream for the recipe, since I have a litre of it sitting in my fridge, so I did. I love making biscuits, they're tasty and really easy to make. Just combine the dry ingredients, pour in the cream, rollrollroll, cutcutcut, rollrollroll, cutcutcut...bake!...profit!!

These biscuits are more sumptuous, flatter than my previous attempt. I think they'll taste even more amazing if I've used a cream with higher fat percentage. I can imagine pairing them with sweet butter, jams and fruit spreads. The insides are also softer and tender. But I like the previous biscuits better as they're taller and more flakey and have more holes in them so that my butter can sit inside the pockets =P

Cream Biscuits (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours)
Book states it makes 12 biscuits. 16 for me.

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
240ml to 300ml heavy cream, cold (I use 33.5% fat, used 280ml)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220°C and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, sugar and salt
3. Pour in cream and use a fork to gently toss over and turn the ingredients. Add in cream one tablespoon at a time if necessary, until you have a nice soft dough
4. Reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle knead, abt 3-4 turns to bring everything together
5. Light dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough
6. Use your hands to pat or roll the dough with a pin (I used a pin) till abt 1/2 inch high (Don't worry if dough is not completely even, a light quick touch is more important than accuracy)
7. Use a 2 inches biscuit cutter to cut out as much biscuits as possible and transfer them to the baking tray*
8. Gather together scraps and repeat step 6 & 7 until the dough is used up
9. Bake for abt 14 ~ 18 mins or until they are puffed up and golden brown, and serve warm

* At this stage, the dough can frozen on the baking sheet for up to 2 months. For baking without defrosting, just add a few more mins to the baking time.