Plum & Chocolate Clafoutis

Summer in Melbourne is really strange, some days cold, some days very hot up to 45 degrees or more, this time of the year (January), even more strange. I still needed my heater early in the morning but needed an AC in the day time, when the sun getting strong...

Lucky me, in our new house we have a very good Ac and ceiling fan in some rooms, plus some fruits tree!! Yippie...

This plum i pick from our garden, don't know exactly when is the plums suppose to be harvest, hehe... when i pick these plums, they taste very sour, so i decided to make something nice than just eat them raw ( i was thinking to make a jam as well).

When i stumble with this recipe from my Donna Hay books, i definitely promised to my self to make it as soon i pick the plums (ending up the day after, hihi..). I thought to my self what the taste will be like, sour and very sweet chocolaty, Hmmm.. interesting and makes me drolling ;P

My daughter love it so much, more than her dad does :), and me??.. es i love it too!! so i would share this recipe for you all.



Plum & Chocolate Clafoutis


Ingredients:

* 1/4 cup (50g) Plain flour
* 1/4 cup (30g) Cocoa powder, sifted
* 1/3 cup (75g) Caster sugar
* 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract ( i used vanilla powder)
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup (250ml) (single pouring) cream ~~ i used thicken cream
* 1 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate
* 20g Unsalted butter, melted
* 8 blood plums, halved & stoned

Method:

1. Preheat the oven 10 180°C. Place the flour, cocoa, and sugar in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, place eggs, vanilla and cream and stir to combine.
3. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and whisk to combine.
4. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
5. Brush a 4 cup (i litre)capacity baking dish with the melted butter.
5. Pour in the chocolate mixture, top with the plum halves and bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and cooked through.
Serves 8
Recipe by Donna Hay ~~ Simple essential Fruit~~




Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone...

And don't forget to visit my online book store here :)

Hot Cross Buns

My baking mood is back, yeahh...
Love it..
But....
After i baked many things, photograph and upload on my computer then, who's gonna eat my cakes and sweets i made??, believed or not this hot cross buns i made last week and i still have the left over (getting bored having them for breakfast every morning :P ).

Yesterday i made banana Muffin, i already gave away some for my friend plus eat them as well with my hubby, today i made an attempt to bake macaroons (failed), and yummy Plum & Chocolate Clafoutis, there are lots more left over in my fridge!!. I actually gave some of the clafoutis to my next door neighbour, but still ending up with the left over.

By the way, there is a funny story on the day i finished baking my hot cross buns..
.
I was so exhausted that day after baking these buns, so i went to my room and lying down while Ellyn playing by herself in the family room. After a while, i heard a little foot running back and forward very quickly on the wooden floor (i thought she will go to my room as usual but not.

So i got curious and got up to find out, and there is a panic-ing little girl tried to swallow whole buns in her little mouth but couldn't, she said "Mommy, hug.. hug.." (she was looking so scared afraid that i will be so angry with her, and when her daddy coming to find out too (he was in the spare bedroom), "what happened?" he said , "she was stealing my buns from the kitchen bench" i said, she's even more panic and said "sorry, sorry, sorry daddy" and began to cry, so he just cuddling him cos he felt sorry to see her begging for an apology and cried so badly, " next time you ask mommy ok?, no stealing" he said " Ok daddy" she replied.

My poor girl.. she always feels like snacking and those buns surely was tempt her so much, i already gave her half buns before this happened cos her daddy doesn't want her to have too much, but she actually stole 1 1/2 ( the other half i threw away), all together she ate 2!

Can never forget that moment :)



Ingredients

* 7g sachet (2 teaspoons) dry yeast
* 1/4 cup caster sugar
* 1/2 cup reduced-fat milk, warmed
* 2 1/2 cups plain flour
* 1 teaspoon mixed spice
* 50g butter, chilled, chopped
* 1 egg, lightly beaten
* 3/4 cup sultanas
* 1 teaspoon powdered gelatine
*
Flour paste
* 1/3 cup plain flour
* 1 tablespoon caster sugar

Method

1. Grease a 4cm-deep, 18cm x 28cm (base) slice pan. Place yeast, sugar and milk in a bowl. Stir until combined and yeast is dissolved. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 10 minutes or until foamy.
2. Sift flour and mixed spice into a bowl. Rub in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre of flour mixture. Add yeast mixture, 1/4 cup warm water, egg and sultanas. Stir to combine. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
3. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Turn dough onto a floured surface. Knead for 5 to 8 minutes or until smooth. Form into 12 balls. Place balls in prepared pan, 1cm apart. Cover and set aside in a warm place for 45 minutes or until balls double in size.
4. Make flour paste: Whisk flour, sugar and 1/4 cup cold water together in a jug. Spoon into a snap-lock bag. Snip off 1 corner from bag. Pipe crosses onto buns. Bake buns for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 180°C/160°C fan-forced. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden and cooked through.
5. Place 3 teaspoons hot water in a jug. Sprinkle gelatine over water. Stir with a fork until gelatine dissolves. Turn buns onto a wire rack. Brush tops with gelatine mixture. Allow to cool. Serve.

Taste magazine

By the way, i think i forgot to say HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 EVERYONE, wish you all the best!!

Banana Muffin

There are many recipe for banana muffin, and most of all using brown sugar (just like my banana bread), but this recipe called for caster sugar instead, i love the texture of this muffin, so moist and i can really taste the mashed banana.

I don't have mixed spices, so i tried to experiment making them, by mixing a pinch of ground nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice, the taste was absolutely great!. Even if you only have nutmeg and cinnamon it's just as good.

There is no better feelings than having warm muffin freshly baked from your oven for breakfast, Hmmm.. the smell, the taste are just yummy... with a glass of milk for me because still, i can't drink coffee :(

I got this recipe from my favorite baking book called : The Essential Baking Cookbook"
You can find it in my STORE.



I will share this recipe for you all :) Enjoy...

Banana Muffin

* 2 1/2 cup self rising flour
* 3/4 cup caster sugar
* 1 cup milk
* 150 g butter, melted, cooled
* 2 eggs lightly beaten
* 1 tsp vanilla essence (i used powdered)
* 1 cup mashed ripe banana
* 1/2 tsp mixed spice

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.
2. Mixed sugar, flour, mixed spice, stir trough.
3. Make well in the centre.
4. In a jug, mix together the milk, eggs and venilla essence.
5. Pour liquid into the well in the flour and add the mashed banana then cooled butter. mix well.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Note: Easy for beginner :) no mixer required. So don't be afraid to try .

Honey Joys

As i promised before i finally have a chance to write down this recipe, I'm pretty sure this sweet always been Australian favorite party snack, almost everywhere i went for the party i saw this. Not only kids like them but the adults too! including me :)

I's quite simple and very few ingredients, but always keep in mind that the mixture is very hot when you put them on the patty cases or ice cream cone like mine.

I'm apologize for blurry picture because i forgot to take this picture alone, so i just cropped them from one my food pictures collection.

So all you need is 90g Margarine (i used unsalted butter), 1/3 cup sugar, 1 tbsp honey, 4 cups cornflakes, patty cases ( i used ice cream cone).



Method: Preheat oven to 250 Degrees C. Melt margarine, sugar & Honey.
Add corn flakes & mix well . Spoon into paper patty cases or ice cream cone.
Bake in slow oven for 10 minutes. Allow to cool.
Makes 20 (approx)

Bubur Ayam Kuah Kuning // Chicken Porridge in Yellow Broth

Hay.. hay...
My favorite breakfast back when i liven in Indonesia, apart from fried rice is this Chicken porridge in Yellow broth, the Men usually sell them in the traditional vendor, by walking from one to the other place/ village.

There are few different version of Chicken porridge, mostly people make it without yellow broth, which is similar to the original version from Chinese cuisine. For me i will do whatever it takes to satisfied my food craving :) I will make my favorite food from scratch to get the perfect taste i desire.

In western country, this dish would be suitable for cold weather, just like soup. A bit complicated but worth to try.

Recipe taken from Rurie's blog with a little revised by Me.



Bubur Ayam Kuah Kuning // Chicken Porridge in Yellow Broth

Ingredients:
- 300 gr rice
- 3 ltr water
- 4 salam leaves
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbs vegetable oil

- 700 gr chicken
- kecap manis
- 2 stalks spring onion, finely sliced
- 2 stalks Asian celery, finely sliced
- Fried onion
- Cakwe (Chinese long Donut)
- Fried soybean (kedelai goreng)
- Krupuk/emping shrimp crackers/ bitter crackers)
- Sambal

Spice paste:
- 12 shallots
- 5 garlic
- 3 cm turmeric
- 2 tsp coriander, dry- roast
- 5 candlenuts, dry- roast
- 1/2 tsp peppercorns

For the yellow chicken broth:
- 1.5 ltr chicken broth
- 2 tsp salt
- Some pinch of ground nutmeg

Directions:
- Cook the rice, water and salam leaves until soft and turned into porridge. If rice hasn't turn into porridge, add more hot water and continue cooking and stirring.
- Boil chicken until soft, set aside the broth. When it's not so hot anymore, fried the chicken until golden brown and shred.
- Make the yellow chicken broth; heat vegetable oil, saute spice paste with nutmeg and salt until fragrant. Add chicken broth, mix well and continue cooking until boiling, season.
- Serve porridge with chicken broth, add kecap manis, shredded chicken, sliced spring onion, Asian celery, fried onion, fried soybean, cakwe, sambal and shrimp crackers.

Another Award

Yay.. this surprise award got my spirit back for blogging :) . I just forgotten to get it from my dearest friend Tata, she was sending me this award last October :O hehe...It's now nearly End of December!.
And she actually telling me to grab this award via FaceBook because i hardly open my blog for a long time to check it :P

I think i won't pass this award until i get back on track again with my blog, until I'm getting an idea who are still active blogging from my friend list.

Once again Ta, for this award, I'm so honoured, even thou I've been lazy to update my blog, but i said i will started to update my blog more often, especially next year, my 3y/o daughter Ellyn will stated her Kindergarten and i will make her Bento lunch/ snack Box for her (i will have a sneak peek on her blog as well, since she's so creative making cute bento).

Keep on blogging Everyone!!
and have a great day.

My Black Forest Birthday cake

In the past 2 years, i always made black forest for my birthday, not only because i mastered how to make them ;P .

I also think it's the easiest and shorter time to make.
There are many Black forest recipe on the internet, but i always use the same recipe since i fond it long time ago.

Apart from my latest birthday, I'm enjoying our new house, it's bigger and feel so homy.. because we used to the unit, which is smaller and only had a tiny concrete backyard. My daughter was so happy when she found out that we'll stay here now.

She couldn't wait to harvest our Apple, Plums and peach :) We just lucky to find this house,it has all the criteria i wanted!

Here some of my BF pictures.








Look at my daughter, she's busy tasting each one of the cake :)