Category Archives: Baking

BAKING AT HOME

I had a craving for sticky date pudding the other day, and we had a couple of prunes leftover from the packet that we bought for Hunter, so I decided to try out making it myself! I used this recipe.

Happily, I ended up with a very soft and moist cake, which was the PERFECT texture imho. The glaze on top was a bit heavy-handed though, and I probably should have poured on about half the portion, because we tend to prefer not-too-sweet deserts. I’d say the end result was very similar to what you’d get in restaurants outside in terms of sweetness, and we tend to have our homebaked desserts at half sugar.

This dessert is relatively low effort to make, and is pretty delicious, especially served with a big dollop of good quality vanilla ice cream. We’ve already eaten the whole thing! I’d make it again for sure :)

Cooking the prunes in water

 

Sifting together the dry ingredients. Love the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg :)

 

Adding the wet ingredients

 

Just before going into the oven

 

Cooking the caramel glaze whilst the pudding bakes. Mmmm... bubbling goodness....

 

Poured on top of the freshly-baked cake

 

Homebaked sticky date pudding :) SMELLS AMAZING!

 

And, I baked a banana bread. Yet again! It seems to be my favourite go-to dish.. I bake it really frequently because we love it, it keeps well, and Hunter LOVES it :) I would never give him store-bought banana bread because I know they have little banana and are loaded with sugar. But when I make it at home, I actually use very little sugar and barely any butter.

My banana bread looks oddly dry, but it’s actually very moist. I cut down dramatically on butter (only a small dollop) and instead use plain yogurt and sometimes some sour cream. It makes the banana bread SO moist and gives a great subtle tang – wayyyy better than using butter imho!

Banana bread fresh out of the oven. Best served with freshly-whipped maple butter :)

[EDIT: upon request, here's the Banana Bread recipe :) ]

  1. Beat 100g butter and 100g brown sugar together until creamy
  2. Add 1 egg and beat in
  3. Add 3-4 mashed bananas, 3 tbsp plain yoghurt and 1 tsp vanilla essence.
  4. Add 225g sifted plain flour, 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 1 tsp cinnamon and pinch of salt salt and beat in gradually.
  5. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake at 180c for about 1 hour or until golden-brown and cooked.

And this was actually eons ago, but I was craving a good sausage sandwich today and remembered these pics ;) It was a small and casual BBQ dinner we had, kids included. I adore BBQs because it always means we have the typical Aussie ‘dish’ – a sausage and grilled onions slapped on thin white bread, and drizzled with tomato sauce. PERFECTION.

A relaxed weekend BBQ

 

Super-healthy pasta salad to off-set the BBQ goodness!

 

Sausage sandwich. LOVE.

 

Eleni Pitsakis liked this post

HOMEMADE MAPLE-BUTTERMILK PUDDING

I had some buttermilk in the fridge.. and I also had some pure maple syrup in there. So, I decided to whack together a Maple-buttermilk pudding! I used just 1 large mixing bowl + 1 fork (to mix everything).. so it was minimal cleaning up, especially because I cleverly lined my baking tin in foil, muahahahaa!

Let me warn you – this is really sweet. I actually thought it was too sweet, so I entirely omitted the sugar in the recipe below (since I felt the maple syrup along is sweet enough). Baking this pudding makes the place smell AWESOME afterwards :)

 

Boil 1 cup maple syrup over moderate heat for about 6 minutes. Remove from heat, whisk in 3 tbsp of butter, then pour into a baking dish.

 

In a mixing bowl, whisk 1 cup flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt. Add in 1 egg, 1 egg yolk, 1/3 cup buttermilk, 2 tsp vanilla essence. Add 200g softened butter and beat until the batter is smooth.

 

Evenly dollop tablespoons of the batter on top of the maple syrup mixture that's already in the tin. Bake the pudding for 35 minutes, or until the top is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

 

Fresh out of the oven

 

Maple-buttermilk pudding

 

LE CREUSET

I’ve heard many things about Le Creuset, so was super-excited with my parents got us one as a present. In classic, bright orange, no less! :P

I took it out for a spin the other day and made a beef casserole. What I like about Le Creuset is that they are really heavy and sturdy – perfect for making stews and casseroles because of the even heat distribution of the pot. It means you can chuck the whole thing in the oven and just check on it every 45mins or so while the food slow-cooks.

Browning beef in the pan

 

Adding mushrooms, tomatoes, beef stock

 

All whacked into Le Cruset :)

 

Food slow-cooking

 

Variation #1: served with mashed potatoes and truffle

 

Variation #2: made into a pie!

 

With a homemade cream of broccoli soup and warm baguette

 

Dessert part 1: a custard tea cake (one of Chris' favourite desserts)

 

I also made a little snack/extra dessert for our dinner party that night. Smookies!! Just the name alone made me want to try it out ;) Plus, HELLO? Nutella and peanut butter? As if I could resist ;) Check out the recipe, it’s pretty straightforward to make and a lovely little snack to munch on whilst watching TV..

Mixing up all the ingredients

 

About to go into the oven

 

Fresh cookies out of the oven

 

Made into Smookies!!

 

If only I had all the time in the world… I would cook and bake every day.

 

HOMEMADE QUICHE

Did you know…. that it’s super easy to make your own quiche? It’s also great for getting rid of random ingredients around the house ;)

All we do is buy some frozen shortcrust pastry.. then fry up onions, bacon/sausage/ham/chicken, mushrooms, and whatever veggies you have lying around. Stir in a cup of shredded cheese, 2 whisked eggs, and pour about 250ml of cream and add a few tablespoons of milk. Pour into the pastry crust (I bake it for 15 mins prior adding in the cooked ingredients, so it doesn’t go soggy). Then just dot sliced cherry tomatoes over the top and whack it in the oven for around 30 mins!


All ready to go into the oven

Easy as pie quiche

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE FUDGE COOKIES, IN A PINCH

OK a throw back to our Shanghai days… my VERY LAST baking escapade was full of hilariousness as all our stuff had gone, but I felt the big urge to bake for a bunch of my girl friends. And so, what did I use to bake?

1 plastic container
1 plastic fork
1 oven

Fortunately, I had all the ingredients, it was just the utensils that were ridiculous – as I had no sifter, no measuring cup, and no measuring spoons ;) But guess what? IT WORKED! I guess I’ve baked enough in my life to be able to judge volumes of ingredients by just looking at them, haha. Chris was a bit dubious, but was then quite impressed that the cookies turned out very nice indeed :P

And so, here’s how you make triple chocolate fudge cookies, super ultra soft and moist.. with the most basic of utensils ;)


Melt 110g dark chocolate chips + 110g unsalted butter

Add in 1.5 cup white sugar, 2 large eggs, 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Fold in 1 cup plain flour, 0.5 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 0.5 tsp baking soda, 0.5tsp salt.

Fold in 110g milk chocolate chips until all combined.
Drop dough onto baking tray in meatball-sized dollops.
Bake for 15 mins until surface of cookies just crack, but inside is still very soft.

Fresh out of the oven SUPER SOFT fudge cookies!

What they look like on the inside