Cat's tongue cookie?

Some of you are probably wondering what's cat's tongue cookie... Some of you (my fellow Indonesian people) would know already... hahaha.. It's called Kue Lidah Kucing in Indonesian. It's basically like a long and thin crisp cookie (somewhat like Milano cookies). And It's very Indonesian, I would say.. Because this recipe called for Blue Band. Blue band is Indonesian Margarine brand that is a staple to Indonesian household! This cookie is very simple to make with only few ingredients. The only thing is, the recipe is in metric measurement, which is in grams. But if you have digital scale, there would be no problem...

Here's the Mise En Place...

- Electric mixer with paddle and whip attachment

- Large bowl to sift the flour and also to fold in the whipped egg whites

- Spatula

- Sifter

The simple ingredients are:

• 100 gr Blue Band margarine
• 80 gr confectioner sugar / powdered sugar
• 100 gr All Purpose flour
• 2 egg whites
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

The easy easy step: Preheat oven 300F

1. In mixing bowl with paddle attachment, mix Blue Band and sugar in low speed until the mixture is combined. Speed up to high for 4-5 min. until the mixture is soft and fluffy. Add vanilla.

2. Sift flour in the big bowl. Put the flour into the mixing bowl a little bit at a time until combined.

3. Scrape well. And take the mixture back into the big bowl.

4. Wash the mixing bowl and wipe dry and clean! It's important to wash and dry it, otherwise the egg whites won't whip.

5. In clean mixing bowl with whip attachment, beat egg whites and cream of tartar in high speed until it becomes stiff peak. Here's the link if you want to know more about beating egg whites.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjuJfkxoATA&feature=player_embedded#

6. Fold the egg whites into the batter in the big bowl (1/3 of egg whites at a time). When you fold the egg whites, pleas do it carefully because you don't want to deflate the egg whites.

7. After it's all combined well, put the batter into the piping bag with big round tip.

8. Pipe it onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpat like a long strip (about 2 in. x 1/2 in.)

9. Bake it 300F for 25 min or until the sides and the bottom turn golden brown. (When you touch it after it came out from the oven, it won't be crispy immediately)

10. Let it cool at room temperature for 1 hour and enjoy!!!

I know the technique seems so complicated and a lot of things going on... But trust me, it's so easy to make! Pls dont hesiate to msg me if you have questions.

Delicious Smoked salmon pasta in bath of garlic, white wine, cream, and parmesan sauce! Need I say more?

Mmmhh... This pasta is soooo delicious! This is not your typical spaghetti and meatball because this recipe is so easy and simple to make!

Here here, let me start with all the procedures...

The mise en place is pretty typical... You'll just need big pot to cook the pasta and a big pan to fit the sauce and the pasta..

The ingredients:

• 8oz. smoked salmon
• 12oz. angel hair pasta
• 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 3/4 cup dry white wine (Something that you also want to drink)
• 1 cup of grated parmesan cheese
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 shallots
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 lemon
• S+P+sugar to taste

Okay, here's how you make them:

1. Fill up big pot of water to cook the pasta. Add generous amount of salt in the water. When the water boils, add the angel hair and cook just to al dente. Pls read the direction on the box.

2. In a large sautee pan, add oil and butter and sautee garlic and shallot until fragrant and the shallot becomes translucent.

3. Add the wine and let it reduce to half in med heat.

4. Still with med heat, add the cream and reduce it to half again. Add a little bit of salt and pepper. I add a bit of sugar too to balance the acidity of the wine and lemon.

5. Add the smoked salmon and parmesan cheese (reserve a bit cheese left to sprinkle on top of the pasta later on.) Squeeze the lemon.

6. Add the al dente cooked pasta into the sautee pan and mix it all together until the sauce coats all over the pasta.

7. Now it's ready to serve. Just sprinkle chopped parsley and parmesan on top! Yummssss

This is a perfect easy meal on any weeknight, but it's also a great lazy meal for saturday dinner at home with a glass of white wine and a big slice of tiramisu! Who doesn't want those for a saturday night dinner?

Enjoy your week everybody and Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have a great great Thanksgiving and hope you eat enough turkey this week!

I cant wait to show you my first fondant cake for a surprise birthday party! Im gonna post it later this week.... Ciaooo

Molten-Chocolate-Lava-Cake!

Need I say more people? The ooey gooey chocolatey goodness in one small cake. This dessert always been a favorite of mine in times of "chocolate-deprived" moments... It's the easiest dessert ever with no use of mixer! Can u believe that?

So here here, make this for your spouse tonight and he or she will love you even more! Of course to make this a complete "meal", you need to have a good scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream on the side... Hot and cold sensation in your mouth! Yummmmm.... R u drooling yet? R u drooling yet?

Here we go with the mise en place:

-four of 4oz. custard cups (here's the link if u don't know what a custard cup is http://cache.showmethecurry.com/vidimages/MoltenLavaCake.jpg)

-2 bowls (one of the 2 bowls need to be heat resistant, something like pyrex and not plastic because it's gonna be for the double boiler)

-whisk

-sauce pan filled with simmering water

I will go more into the details later. Don't panic if you don't know what I'm talking about!

Ingredients: (This recipe makes 4 cups, if it's for date night, please divide the recipe in half)

• 6oz. dark chocolate (I use Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate bar)
• 6 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cups of All purpose flour
• 1 tsp Kahlua
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract

How you do it:

1. First thing first. Preheat 400F oven. Lightly grease the custard cups.

2. Prepare the double boiler by filling the water into sauce pan about 2 in. and let it simmer in medium heat. Do not let it boil! Put the heat-proof bowl on top of the saucepan. So u're going to melt the chocolate and butter here.

3. After the chocolate mixture melts, take it off from the double boiler and whisk in the sugar, vanilla, and kahlua.

4. In the other bowl, lightly beat eggs.

5. This is important guys! Now it's time to temper the two mixture together. What is tempering?

Here's some explanation to help you if you don't know yet...

It means to bring the temperature of the egg mixture up closer to the temperature of the hotter ingredients you will be mixing it with to prevent the eqq from "scrambling". You need to add a small amount of the hot ingredients to the egg mixture, a little at a time, to bring the temperature up, until it is safe to add to the hot ingredients.

So now, add a little bit of the chocolate mixture into the eggs mixture and whisk whisk whisk until it's combined.

6. After that, carefully stir the egg mixture back into the chocolate mixture.

7. Whisk in sifted flour until just combined.

8. Add the batter into the custard cups and bake for 10-11 min.

9. Remove from oven and let it rest for 2 min. before you take them out.

The center should be soft and a bit sink in but the sides should be done. Invert cups on individual serving dish. Get a scoop or... two vanilla ice cream and dust in some powdered sugar on top. Isn't that sound almost too pretty to eat? mmmm maybe not... Enjoy while it's still warm and cold!

A delicious come back- Bacon, swiss cheese, and spinach quiche

Hello helloooo! Gosh, it's been over a month since I wrote my last blog! I was busy "training" at Chocolate Pink and now I'm taking a break from it... So now, having a lot of free time at home, I'm gonna be making and testing a lot of recipes for my blog! Weeee...

So today, for a delicious comeback, I'm gonna share a delicious recipe. This quiche has been always everybody's favorite every time I make it. A definitely must try recipe! It's great for breakfast/ brunch. My husband loves it for a Saturday late breakfast with a glass of Mimosa...

The mise en place:

-Bowls

-Whisk

-Pan for crisping the bacon

The simple ingredients:

• 6 large eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• A pinch of salt and pepper (not a lot of salt bcos bacon is already salty)
• 2 cups of fresh baby spinach
• 1 lb bacon
• 1 1/2 cups shredded swiss cheese (Swiss cheese is not salty, but it's kinda sweet and chewy)
• 1 frozen 9in. pie crust

The simple steps:

Preheat 375F oven

1. Cut up the bacon into small strips and crisp them up in a pan.

2. Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, cream, salt and pepper, and swiss cheese.

3. After the bacon is crisp, put them on bed of paper towel so it will absorb the excess fat. And then, with a LITTLE bit of extra bacon fat on the pan, sautee the spinach just until it wilts down (about 1 min.) If you have extra bacon fat, you can save it and use it for other uses, such as making bacon fried rice! It's the best!

4. Put the bacon and spinach into the bowl. Before you put the spinach in, make sure you kind of press the spinach to get rid off some excess water.

5. Whisk it all together and put them in the pie crust.

6. Bake for 45 min. or until the quiche is not jiggly anymore and the crust and the top are nice and brown.

I've been making this quiche probably more than 10 times and it never fails! Enjoy!

The drooling Nutella Swirl Pound Cake

I made this today and I think everybody wants to know and try this twisted classic recipe! The cake turned out great! So Soft and so nutella-y! I don't know anybody who doesn't like Nutella...

The picture that I posted was not the one that I baked today because my swirl didn't look that pretty. I guess I need to learn how to swirl beautifully! hehehe...

I adjust this recipe a little bit, just to balance the sweetness to my liking. I found this recipe from the Food and Wine Mag. and I immediately had a special connection with the recipe! hahaha...

Here's the Mise en Place:

- Mixing bowl with paddle attachment

-2 small/medium bowls

-Sifter

-Whisk

-Spatula

-Either 9x5 in. loaf pan or 8x8 in. pan that I used.

-Nonstick cooking spray

Here's the very simple ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 large eggs, at room temp.
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 sticks of butter, soft
• 3/4 cups of sugar (The original recipe was 1 1/4 cups of sugar, YIKES!)
• 3/4 cups Nutella

Here's the very simple steps:

1. Preheat oven 325F and spray the pan with nonstick spray.

2. Cream butter ans sugar together in med-high speed until light and fluffy. About 3 min.

3. Meanwhile, in one bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder.

4. In another bowl, whisk eggs and vanilla lightly.

5. After the butter mix is light and fluffy, in low-med speed, gradually beat the egg mix until fully incorporated. Scrape.

6. Add the flour mix into 3 batches in low speed. Mix just until incorporated. Scrape each time you add the flour.

7. Final mix just until incorporated. About 10 secs.

8. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the pan. Add 1/2 of Nutella. Repeat that step again.

9. Take a bread knife or fork to make swirl.

10. Bake for 1 hour 15 min (for 9x5in. pan) or 50 min. ( for 8x8in. pan)

One of the thing that most people do when they bake is to Over mix the cake batter! You cannot overmix it if you want a fluffy cake! What I mean is when you are in the stage of adding the flour, just mix it just until incorporated. Not mixing it for 5 min. with the flour in because you want to make sure the batter is smooth, etc.etc.... So, the key is to go easy with your mixing once you add the flour.

So... Happy trying and keep your feedbacks comin! Or maybe if you have any request, let me know... Im gonna eat another piece of this cake now! With hot tea perhaps... Enjoying my day off's teatime!

Moist vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting

My sister said: Find a moist vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream please... It's for her daughter's 1st birthday... My niece that I haven't met in Malaysia... Little Isabelle...

So I searched the recipes on the internet and I found this good review cupcake recipe at Martha Stewart's website. It's called Billy Vanilla Cupcakes. This recipe actually a very EASY recipes. Just mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and bake it.. Pretty simple right?

The mise en place for this recipe is:

- Electric mixer with paddle attachment

- sifter
- 1 bowl to mix all the wet ingredients
- whisk
- spatula
- cupcake pan with cupcake liner

Here's the recipe: (This recipe suppose to make 30 cupcakes... I tried half recipe and I got only 10 cupcakes. Probably because I filled the batter a bit more)

• 1 3/4 cake flour
• 1 1/4 all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 sticks of butter, cut into 1 in. pieces
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

The direction:

1. Preheat oven 325F

2. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners

3. In the bowl of electric mixer, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed until combined.

4. In another bowl, whisk egg, milk, and vanilla.

5. Add the wet ingredients into dry ingredients in 3 parts. Scraping WELL after each addition. Mix only until the ingredients are combine. DO NOT overmix if you want soft and moist cupcakes. The problem most people have is that they overmix the batter to make sure it's all incorporated. Remember, the more you mix the batter (containing flour), the tougher the cake will be because more gluten will develop.

6. Fill the batter 2/3 of full of the liner.

7. Bake for 17 to 20 min. Rotate the pan half way through the time.

Now... The frosting... I personally think that the recipe called too much sugar! I already reduced the amount of powdered sugar but it's still too sweet and it overpower the cake flavor.

So... here's the recipe: (For 30 cupcakes)

• 4 sticks of butter, room termperature (whewww... a lot of butter! Yesterday I only use 1/4 of the recipe to ice 10 cupcakes. It's just about right)
• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled (Alternative, you can use bittersweet chocolate rather than semisweet so when you add the powdered sugar, it's not going to be too sweet)
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp khalua (this is not on the original recipe, I just add it to make it smell better!)

Here's how u make them:

1. In the bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter for 3 min. until smooth and creamy.

2. Mixer on low, add the chocolate until just combined.

3. Add milk, vanilla, and sugar.

4. Mix until combined. Do not evermix because the buttercream can break.

It's a pretty easy recipe, I shall say... It's great for parties and gathering... Happy trying and please leave a comment how it turns out...

Have a great great weekkkk!

Big Giant Chocolate Chip cookies

Sometimes you just need food that brings comfort to your soul. To me, one of my faves is Chocolate chip cookies and milk. This recipe is extra special because the cookies are super giant! If you have ever seen the "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on Food Network channel, this cookie was one of the throwdowns. That means, it's really good! This original cookie idea is from Levaine Bakery in NY. My good friend, Ivana, told me about some food blog websites that has a "copycat" recipe of this cookie. Why not try it, right? The differences between this recipes and other classic recipes are the butter temperature and the amount of flour used. The butter used is cold butter so I guess that will make the cookie fluffier. Also, the flour used is more than the usual amount. So that makes the cookie heartier.

The mise en place:

• Mixer with paddle attachment
• Measurement cups
• Baking sheets, sprayed with nonstick spray

The ingredients: (This will make 12 cookies)

• 2 sticks, cold and cubed unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
• 1 cup pecan or walnuts, optional

Here's the steps:

1. Preheat oven 350F

2. In a bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachement, cream butter and sugars together until well blended and fluffy. Add one egg at a time, scrape well. Mix until well blended.

3. Add sifted flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda into the butter mixture and mix just until combined. You dont want to mix it too long because you dont want tough hard cookies, right? =)

4. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts, if using. Scrape well and make sure everything is mixed beautifully...

5. Divide into 12 portions into baking sheets.

6. Bake them for 16-23 min. (Depends how u like your cookie. Mine is 16 min. because I like them to be super soft on the inside!)

Dont be tricked by the "raw" looks on the cookies by the time you take them out because the cookie will cook more and set after that. You want to let it cool for a little bit before you enjoy them with a glass of milk!

It's a must try cookies definitely! Especially if you feel like you need a dessert after a longggg day!