Soufflé Cheesecake

Today marks a milestone for me - Completed my 2nd half marathon at Army Half Marathon. Was slower by 9 mins than my first timing of 2 h 11 mins clocked at Sundown earlier on this year, but I'm still happy that I completed it given that I was running with a cough. Was still fooling around with my colleague taking jumping jack pictures after the run. But damnnnnn my knees are hurting and cracking like an old man's now =S And now I fret for my upcoming full marathon at the end of the year.

Second happy event for the day. Bf is back! Yay! Despite having laosai on the last 2 days of his trip and landing at an awkward 5+am in Singapore. He stayed up to wait for me to finish my run and came to look for me immediately. Touched :D Poor dude was always the guinea pig for my initial fail bakes, ate my numerous chilled cheesecakes till the poor fellow got so sick of it hahaha. He has told me that he'll love to try a water bath-ed one someday. So the day before his return, I prepared this. Wasn't really expecting anything from this chinese cheesecake baking book I grabbed off Popular, but it turns out great!...though ugly.

Creamy yet light and refreshing with a hint of lemon. It can easily pass off as Fiesta's light cheesecake. And all it takes is just a box of cream cheese. The recipe is a keeper. But I would suggest add a aluminum foil to prevent a burnt cracked top.

Soufflé Cheesecake (adapted from Junko Fukuda, Yasuyo Shida & Kumiko Yanase's 我爱乳酪蛋糕)
Makes 7" cake

Ingredients:
Cheesecake filling:
250g cream cheese, room temperature
60g sugar
30g unsalted butter, melted
3 egg yolks, room temperature
100ml milk, room temperature
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp corn flour

Meringue:
3 egg whites, room temperature
30g sugar

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 7" (I use 6") springform pan and wrap the bottom with aluminum foil to prevent seeps from water bath
2. Whisk together cream cheese and 60g sugar until creamy and smooth
3. Pour in melted butter and mix well
4. Add egg yolks one at a time until incorporated
5. Add milk and stir until well combined
6. Add in lemon juice and blend well
7. Sift in corn flour and mix well, then strain the mixture and set aside
8. In a separate bowl, combine salt and egg whites and beat until soft peak
9. Fold in 1/3 of the meringue into strained mixture, then fold in lightly the rest of the meringue until well combined
10. Pour batter into the prepared springform pan and bake for 45~50mins in water bath
11. Let cake cool completely before chilling it for >3h in the fridge for serving

Basic Biscuits

Feeling adventurous, I tried making biscuits. The first I ever had was from Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits when I was in USA. They were so good (waaaaaaaaay better than what we have here in Singapore) that we went to Albertsons and bought a tube of Pillsbury's biscuits to bake in our apartment. Thereafter I had cheddar bay biscuits at Red Lobster too...those were godly! So in my honorary Biscuit Hall of Fame, the ranking goes like this: 1. Red Lobster, 2. Popeye, 3. Pillsbury.

So mine are actually really-pretty good as well! Crispy on the edges, soft and flaky on the inside. May I also say...It's so FLUFFYYY I'M GONNA DIEEEEEE!!! Damn, you should see the multiple layers of flakes, oh wait a minute, there're pictures Pretty impressed with the recipe. I'll rank them uhh...better than Pillsbury as it's just a basic biscuit without any flavoring or spices. But texture wise, they're comparable to the tops. They go well with butter and jam. I prefer them to be served warm, so I'll heat them up before eating if I'm not feeling too lazy.

Even though Dorie suggests it's okay to use our hands to handle the dough, I try not to use them over here where it's practically summer all year round. It's a race against time to send these babies into the oven before the cold butter melts, so I'll rather use my equipment. This recipe going to be in my bake-again list.
Basic 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
85g unsalted butter, cold and cut into 12 pcs
180ml milk, cold

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. Add in cold butter into the flour mixture
4. Work with your finger tips or a pastry blender (I use this) to rub the butter into flour until the mixture is pebbly
5. Pour in milk and use a fork to gently toss over and turn the ingredients until you have a nice soft dough
6. Reach into the bowl with your hands and give the dough a quick gentle knead, abt 3-4 turns to bring everything together
7. Light dust a work surface with flour and turn out the dough
8. 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)
9. Use a 2 inches biscuit cutter to cut out as much biscuits as possible and transfer them to the baking tray*
10. Gather together scraps and repeat step 8 & 9 until the dough is used up
11. 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.

Cheddar Ham Muffins

The past 2 weeks actually had been pretty awful for me. Ultra moody everyday. Seriously...when you wake up in the morning, you wish the day will end with a snap of fingers. But I'm glad I made it to the weekends. Don't feel like going home to get caught between a domestic dispute. Bf was out of town (and still is) to destination unknown. Guess I was trying not to think too much of him in case I get lovesick. Plus I caught the flu bug due to the temperamental weather, kinda worried now if I'll recover in time before my half marathon this Sunday.

Whilst I was missing my bf, I was secretly thrilled that I had a lot of time for myself. I was occupied with activities with friends and colleagues in the weekends. It reaffirms to me that my relationship is heading the right way as I don't find myself feeling lost due to having my life revolving solely around one person that I had nowhere to go nor had no invitations for outings in the weekends. And I'm happy that I have him as my bf, he's always the most understanding and accommodating person.

Having the long weekend for myself means I have more time for baking! Baked savory breakfast muffins for sister and her boyfriend. Savory muffins are pretty new to me, the results were kind of disappointing though. I was expecting cheese to ooze out from the muffins as they were promising with all the fizzling and cracking while inside the oven. Guess not! The cheddar gave the muffin an overall cheesy taste but sorry, no cheese ooze. Other than that, it's pretty filling for breakfast.

Cheddar Ham Muffins
makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:
70g all purpose flour
65g corn meal
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch of coarse black pepper
Pinch of blended herbs - rosemary, thyme, red pepper
55g salted butter, melted
120ml milk, room temperature
1 large egg
1 tbsp sugar
70g cheddar cheese, shredded
30g honey baked ham, chopped into bits

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 190°C
2. Whisk together flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt, black pepper and herbs in a bowl
3. In another bowl, whisk melted butter, milk, egg and sugar together until well combined
4. Pour the liquid mixture over dry ingredients, and gently stir to blend until just combined
5. Add ham and cheese and stir just 2 strokes to combine
6. Divide batter evenly over muffin cups
7. Bake for abt 25 mins and transfer pan to a cooling rack
8. Let muffins cool in rack and serve them warm

Green Tea Sablés

The closure to my can of almost-expiring matcha powder went to this recipe. I've never eaten nor seen a sablé before but that seems like a good recipe to burn my matcha powder, and the reviews for this particular recipe are good. Sablés is a classic French butter cookie which originates from Normandy, France. The name "Sablés" is French for "sand", describing the sandy texture of the cookie.

Googled for its pronunciation - we know how French words always sound so different from the spelling - it's pronounced as 'Sah-Bleh", sounds classy LOL. I can imagine myself going around offering the green cookies to everyone, and they gonna ask, "What are these?" And I'll take a deep breath and look oh-so-poetic and go, "Sah-Bleeeeh~"The thought of that intrigues me.

True to its name, the cookie is sandy and crumbly, enriched with the smoothness of butter. The granulated sugar rolled onto the side also contributed to the sandiness. The green tea fragrance is intense enough for me, make sure you use good quality matcha powder though. As you can see, I don't have the best rolling and slicing skills in the world, but they still look cute enough to be given away as little gifts for people :D

Green Tea Sablés (adapted from Keiko Ishida's Okashi)

Ingredients:
240g pastry flour, chilled
15g matcha powder
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
130g icing sugar (I use 122g because that's all I've left :Þ)
pinch of salt
2 egg yolks
Granulated sugar for rolling on

Method:

1. Sift flour and matcha powder twice and set aside
2. Beat butter, icing sugar and salt until soft and creamy
3. Add in egg yolks and mix well
4. Fold in flour mixture with a spatula
5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for about 15mins
6. Divide dough into 2 and shape them into logs about 3.5cm in diameter
7. Wrap the logs with parchment paper and refrigerate them until firm (I use shrink wrap instead and placed them in the freezer instead as I was running short of time)
8. Preheat oven to 150°C
9. Cut logs into 7mm thick slices and dip the edges into granulated sugar
10. Bake for about 25 mins and transfer to rack to cool completely

P.S. Damn I had a colleague went, "What are these?! Wasabi cookies?!" xD

Vanilla Jam Muffins

Hanged out with the gang today. Had a mini gathering at Marina Barrage. We've just discovered a new found past time - kite flying! This is the second time we've been to the barrage within 3 weeks. We only had one $3.50 kite (which we shamelessly named it 'Soaring Guppy') the first time we went and it flew so far that it became a dirty pixel in the sky. This time we had not 1, not 2, but 3 kites!! LOL

Grabbed this recipe online only the night before. I halved the recipe as 3 1/2 cups of flour seem like a pretty intimidating volume to me. Love the outcome of it. The nutmeg perks up the vanilla and heightens the taste of the muffins, but I don't want to add too much of it as the spiciness may take over the whole flavor department. I like how the cinnamon sugar on the muffins top gives the already-crispy muffin crust even more crunch. A refreshing change from the usual chocolate chip/blueberry muffins. I ended up with lots of cinnamon sugar dip after sprinkling on the muffin tops so you may wish to reduce the cinnamon sugar dip ingredients as long as the ratio is there.

And, kite flying and playing 老鹰捉小鸡 are fun and nostalgic. :D

Vanilla Jam Muffins (modified from Anna Olson's Sugar)
makes 12 small muffins

Ingredients:
180ml milk (I use full cream milk)
1/2 vanilla pod (I use 1)
245g all purpose flour
1/2 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 nutmeg powder (I use a pinch)
1/4 tsp salt
150g white sugar
80ml vegetable oil (I use canola)
1 large egg
60ml raspberry jam (I use 12 tsp of strawberry jam)

28g unsalted butter, melted (I use 15g)
25g sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C
2. Heat milk with scraped vanilla seeds and pod in a saucepan over medium-low heat for abt 15 mins to infuse the flavors together
3. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature
4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon powder, nutmeg, and salt and mix well
5. Whisk in sugar, vegetable oil and egg into cooled milk
6. Blend milk mixture into flour mixture until just combined
7. Fill muffin cases 2/3 full of batter, and spoon 1 tbsp of jam (I use 1 tsp) into the centre of each muffin and top with the remaining batter
8. Bake for 35 ~ 45 mins until light golden brown on top (I baked for 30 mins for my smaller muffins)
9. Let muffins cool on a rack while you prepare the dip mixture
10. In a separate bowl, mix cinnamon powder and sugar
11. Brush muffins with melted butter and dip them into the cinnamon sugar mixture (I sprinkled the sugar on top instead)

Green Tea Pound Cake

I don't know why I always get myself into fixes like competing against expiry dates of my ingredients. So there I have this can of good quality matcha powder expiring in a week's time, so I had to make something out of it. You see how my bakes are mainly due to practical reasons instead of inspirations. /snorts

I knew Nick Malgeiri because I'm a fame snob by surfing online for pastry chefs. Am currently awaiting for reviews on his new book Bake! Essential Techniques for Perfect Baking before I can call myself a proud owner of his baking books. His previous books are good, but I guess I would want something newer, on the assumption that bakers improvise on their old recipes?

The pound cake tastes pleasant with just the right amount of sweetness and floral blend fragrance from the matcha powder. However, the texture is relatively dry, instead of the ideal melt-in-your-mouth kind of pound cake and I know why...because I was nosey enough to open the oven door halfway, letting cool air rushed into the oven and my oven temperature took a drastic plunge. In attempt to save the cake, I turned the oven high and it went too high hahahahhahh!! Faiiilllllll Lesson learnt. :(

Green Tea Pound Cake (adapted from Nick Malgeiri's Perfect Cakes)

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour
2 tbsp matcha powder
2 tsp baking powder
226g unsalted butter
230g icing sugar
5 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160°C and prepare a 9" x 5" loaf pan
2. Combine flour, matcha powder and baking powder and stir well
3. In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light in color
4. Beat in yolks one at a time until well combined
5. Fold in flour mixture into yolk mixture and set aside
6. In a separate bowl, combine salt and egg whites and beat until soft peak
7. Add the meringue into batter mixture and fold in lightly until no more whites can be seen
8. Pour the batter into pan, smoothen the top and let it bake for 45 mins
9. Let the pan cool on rack for 10 mins before un-molding the cake and let it cool completely

Coffee-Break Muffins

A lot of recipes call for espresso or coffee to give the baked goods a boost. So I grabbed some from the supermarket. The biggest irony of it all is I don't drink coffee. Nope, not a drop of it. I ended up interviewing my colleagues on the best coffee in their opinion. The supermarket store assistants must think I'm some sort of a looney, stalking the coffee section for almost an hour, scrutinizing all the fine print on the coffee can labels.

Tried this really easy muffin recipe from one of the baking books I got off Amazon. It was pretty much a flop when I first made it. Recipe states to use a cup of strong coffee, honestly I don't know how strong is strong and only used 2 tsp of coffee powder. The muffins ended up lacking the coffee punch. Guess I gotta start drinking a teeny weeny bit of some coffee if I want to make my baking even better. :( I also overfilled the muffin cups with batter and the muffins domed too much and cracked in the middle, resembling chinese steamed cakes. Not sexy at all. Mom had to lie to the guests, 'Hey look! My daughter made some hua kway for you guys!!' :D

Was kinda pissed off so I tried it again with stronger coffee and making sure I filled my muffin cups properly. So they turned out fine. This batch is slightly browner than my first 'floppy' ones as the instant coffee powder darkens it. Muffins are absolutely moist with crispy crust. Topped off with the unique combination of coffee with caramelised brown sugar and cinnamon, they make a perfect choice for a quick morning snack. They get more flavorful after they're cooled to room temperature, so I suggest patiently waiting for an hour or two even though some disappeared from my rack before that happens.Coffee-Break Muffins (adapted from Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home to Yours)

Book states it makes 12 muffins. 15 for me.

Ingredients:
280g all purpose flour
67g white sugar
72g light brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
240ml strong coffee, cooled (5 tsp instant coffee powder to a cup of hot water)
113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C
2. Whisk together flour, sugar-s, baking powder, espresso powder, cinnamon and salt
3. In another bowl, whisk coffee, melted butter, egg and vanilla extract together until well combined
4. Pour the liquid mixture over dry ingredients, and gently stir to blend
5. Divide batter evenly over muffin cups
6. Bake for abt 20 mins and transfer pan to a cooling rack
7. Let muffins cool in rack for abt 5 mins before transferring them out