Friday, March 21, 2008

Banana Cake/Muffins (CH)

This recipe is taken from Chubby Hubby know as Banana Cake. Initially, I thought it is a chocolate banana muffins cos of the color I saw from the fridge.. hehe. I have kept this recipe with me for quite a long time, perhaps more than a year but never tried it. The main reason is because I'm too lazy to buy bananas. However, I do like banana lots. Finally this morning, I decided to make this, due to my fil bought a bunch of banana but they seems to be like going to spoil very soon. So, I just took them to make it.

First of all, the method is almost or exactly the same to the one that I have made quite some time back. But somehow, I just could not remember what is the taste or texture. I think it was a little bit on the dry side. For this banana muffin, it is very soft and light. The sweetness is just nice. Indeed like what the wife of CH said, while waiting for them to be ready, you can really smell the wonderful fragrance of the muffins. The color turn out to be very appetitising. I half the recipe from the original as per below.

Makes 10 to 12
150g flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1⁄4tsp salt
110g sugar
120g unsalted butter
2 eggs, beaten
2 bananas (roughly 200g), mashed
3Tbs milk
1/2tsp pure vanilla essence

Sift flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a medium bowl.
Cream butter and sugar until creamy white.
Add beaten eggs a little at a time. Beat well after each addition.
Add vanilla, milk and mashed bananas.
Fold in flour and blend well.

Pour mixture into muffin cups to about 2/3 full and bake at 180˚C for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.


Sunday, March 9, 2008

Chocolate Shortbread

I have been wanting to try out another version of shortbread recipe that uses rice flour. Inspired by my colleague's Lavendar Shortbread. I found the receipe from Dessert First. Below is my adaptation. I decided to add some cocoa powder. Probably due to the cocoa powder, it is not sweet enough. More fine-tuning on the taste. But the texture is quite good, it is very "loose", melt-in-the-mouth type. This is still not the taste that I wanted to get.

Will make another attempt after my exams. TodayI have baked some scones and muah chee as well. Maybe this is my last bakes till exams finished?



Ingredients

113g butter, softened
1 cups flour (replace with 1 tbsp of rice flour)
1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder

Sift the flour.
Beat the butter and sugar in a mixer until creamy.
Add the flours and cocoa powder and beat until combined.

Wrap the dough and roll out to about 1/4" thickness and chill until firm, about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 165C degrees.

Remove from fridge and cut desired shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and bake until just golden, about 18 minutes.