Ingredients: cubed butter, eggs, flour, sugar, milk mixed with lemon juice etc. Recipe is from Kimberlycun’s – NARCISSISM IS NECESSARY.

Milk curdled after lemon juice is mixed in, the brownish stuff is vanilla.

flour

butter all cut into the flour using  a pastry cutter.

looks crumbly and dry, perhaps i should use a bigger egg or more liquid?

brush with egg wash on top

220C for 10mins and done

closed up of the scones, mine doesn’t look as good as those of kimberlycun’s

Scone is one of my to-make pastry, mostly i remembered when i was really young, i was served a scone which is really nice, piping hot and smells of hot milk/butter and is light and not heavy, it was really good served warm on its own without any jam or butter.

And now that I bought a pastry cutter from Ace hardware for about RM25 wishing to make one flaky yummy scone, and this pastry cutter have been sitting there for months and not put to use. Kimberlycun’s – NARCISSISM IS NECESSARY site do show a decent scone which doesn’t requires heavy cream or buttermilk which lots of other scone recipe requires, and seems to contain less butter and sugar as well, ok time to make scone.

Things i will take note for the next scone recipe

1) the pastry will look quite crumbly due to fact that i am worry that i might overworked it, but i think i need to press it together more next time. I think i might have under mix the dough after all as some part of it feels very crumbly and dry whereas some part feels more moist.

2) will use a more defined cutter next time to get better and neater rounds.

3) will cool the milk+lemon+vanilla in fridge for a while so as to not mix warm milk into the pastry, i am guessing this will produce better scone? 😛

4) make higher scone with smaller diameter, i think they will look nice taller. I actually made this recipe on 2 separate days, and for the second recipe, i remembered of making thicker/higher scone only after i rolled out the pastry… gah… next time

Second attempt:

I used 2.5 teaspoon of baking powder(following the “golden” proportion talked about in Food52 of baking powder vs flour ie 1 teaspoon for 1 cup flour ie 140g flour) instead of the original specified 2 teaspoon.

For now, i will resorting to thinking that scone can only be really good when served warm and/or with jam+cream+butter.

This scone has slight milk/butter aroma, not bad, just not spectacular.

Same as yogurt cake, i didn’t have high hope for this recipe due to this cookie/biscuit only requires 4 ingredients: caster sugar, sea salt, almond nibs and egg white, but it turn out fabulous and is one recipe to keep. Recipe from The Perfect Pantry.

I used 200g almonds and 120g sugar and 2 egg white (as opposed to original recipe using 280gram almond , 325 sugar and 3 egg white) i find my cookie turn out sweet enough, in fact will try to slightly reduce the sugar next time.

The almond are bought from Pastry Pro, RM8.30 for 250g but yesterday i went it was only RM6.40 for 250g.

This recipe called for blanched almond, so just boil water, and soak the almonds in it for 1 or 2 minutes, not too long as we need to dry the almond before making it into almond nibs.

After soaking in hot water, pour away the water, and can easily removed the almond skin.

Above are all almond skin on the left, and blanched almond on the right.

Leave it to dry over a colander over night in airy area. After it is completely dry, processed it in a food processor, or if you like me who doesn’t have it, can use those small curry spice electric grinder as well, just do it in batches.

Above is sugar + almonds nib and sea salt all mixed

2 eggs beaten till soft peak on the right

almond mixture folded into the egg white, although i did it very gently, the egg white looks much flatten isn’t it? Sure hope this is how it is supposed to be.

tablespoonsfuls

baked

It doesn’t feels like it is flourless at all, but this cookie is indeed flourless and very fragrant and yummy

closed up.

Go try it!

Made 2 banana cakes from 2 different recipe today, one of them is from masak-masak (a malaysia food blog) and the other from Food52.

From the photo in both websites, i am more inclined towards Food52’s recipe will produce a better banana cake as it looks more like banana cake i usually buy from market, brownish cake with black specks all over, masak-masak’s one seems denser with chunkier banana bits and lighter in colour.

But surprisingly, the one i made from masak-masak is identical to those i bought from market, it turn out brownish as if brown sugar was used, but i used only caster sugar, but it is a tad too salty with 1 teaspoon salt added, next time will reduce to half a teaspoon salt or resort to using the less salty sea salt instead of table salt. I reduced sugar to 12og from originally 6oz(170g). I used only 4 small bananas which weight in total 125 grams instead of 8oz(226 grams) specified.

As for Food52’s recipe, I don’t know if it is the egg size or the banana size, i had 2 attempts on Food52, the first turned out too dry and bread like, i can hardly mix the flour into the liquid mixture, and into the bin it goes. The second one, well, i was careful and put in only like half the flour, but also given the egg i used is small-ish, and i used 3 small bananas instead of 3 big ones specified in the recipe, but still can’t imagine how i am to mix all those flour in, perhaps have to used the largest egg available in supermarket, and also the larger bananas, but oh well, for now, i will stick to masak-masak’s recipe.

Banana bought 2 days ago and left to ripen further

4 bananas used for masak-masak’s (about 125 grams)

egg and sugar

mess on the table after putting the cake into the oven

Finished product, looks hard and tough, but later found out it is nice 🙂

bottom of cake

yummy, just a tad salty though

Below are using Food52’s recipe:

This is second attempt on Food52’s, the first one turn out doughy and hardly able to mix the flour into liquid.

Only 1 egg used in the recipe. Above are egg, 3 banana and sugar(around 100g sugar) since i know won’t be mixing in all the flour.

Still so much left over flour (total 2 cups ie 280g flour)

doesn’t look nice

bottom of cake

too sweet for me, i will give this a miss

First Attempt:

I am following hslingkitchen‘s recipe for chocolate chiffon.

Above is egg white+caster sugar on the left… i added extra 10g of oil by accident, original recipe only requires 30g of oil

3 egg white beaten till stiff peak; chocolate + flour etc mixture on the right. Having 2 Ikea mixing bowls come in handy for such recipe

looks fluffy

inverted on a white vinegar bottle after finished baking

urgh, turns out dense, rough and not nice.

Second Attempt:

After the unsuccessful first attempt, time to follow the recipe exactly and make this a success. This time recipe taken from dailydelicious, The photo in the blog sure show a moist chiffon.  This time i have more time at hand baking on a Saturday morning instead of weekday night. Remember mum said chiffon recipe with comparatively more egg white than egg yolk will yields better and softer chiffon, so i think i will stick to this recipe from daily delicious instead of the previous one.

I reduced the sugar to 145g instead of 170g specified in the recipe

6 small egg white instead of 5 large egg white

4 small egg yolk instead of 3 large egg yolk

same method as previous: one bowl for egg white, the other for chocolate + flour etc mixture

mix in one third of the egg white into chocolate mixture to lighten the batter before folding in rest of egg white.

folding in gently, but ensuring all egg white are mixed in, else the finished products will have unsightly small pockets of egg white.

all mixed

this time baking in a springform pan as mentioned in this recipe

finished product, looks nice

mistakes start here, i unmold the cake straight away after taking out from oven. Chiffon should always left to cool inverted before removing it from mold, else it will collapse and becomes dense cake instead of light chiffon

continued to remove the bottom lined baking paper

looks nice at the point, the cake is still very warm at this point

Alas the second attempt is a failure as well, this is what happens when the weight of the cake especially middle part collapse and becomes very dense, and no longer light, the side of the cake is slightly better.

Third Attempt:

The third attempt should be my last try, using same recipe as in the second attempt(from dailydelicious). This time i bought large eggs, and followed exactly the recipe’s(3 egg yolk and 5 egg white). I baked it at 175 for 35 minutes(with the later baking stage lowered to around 160C), all the time keeping an eye on the cake as i am not following the temperature/timing in the recipe, but my mum’s(170-175C for 35 minutes). After the first 2 tries, pretty convince the extra 10g of oil on first try is not the reason it turned out to be a dense cake. Success!

Below are my two must notes for a successful chiffon making.

1) (most important) Chiffon cake must be inverted immediately after taking it out from oven and must be cooled inverted(2 hours to be safe)  before removing it from the mold. This is to ensure it will not collapse and become a dense cake, case in point happened on 1st and 2nd attempt.

2) Also very important, do not open the oven too long that the cake collapse even when still being baked in the oven, case in point my first and second try, both cake “shrunk”/collapsed even in the oven after i did the toothpick test. For the 3rd attempt, i didn’t do the toothpick test at all.

I find the temperature is pretty forgiving, it  can range from 150 Celcius to 175 celcius. I find maintaining 175 Celcius for 35 minutes baking can burn the top of chiffon, so 175 Celcius for initial 15mins perhaps and 160 Celcius for the remaining 20 minutes could be doable, will put it to test. While some recipe specifies 150 Celcius, i couldn’t be bothered for now to have this low temperature and having to wait for it to finished baking for a longer time 😛

Venture into this recipe: Yoghurt cake with skepticism, the ingredients looks simple and pretty much anticipate it to be a simple plain cake, recipe taken from The Kitchn. Although even the famous french blogger Clotilde from Chocolate & Zucchini wrote a post on how wonderful yogurt cake is and how easy it is to make it that it is often the first cake French kids learn to make. My hopes still aren’t high, i am thinking it will resemble a plain sponge, maybe a good sponge, but still a plain one as there is no distinct flavouring, mainly yogurt and some ground nutmeg. But i am surprised at how lovely it taste especially on the next day when the crusty top has soften, and can really taste the soft texture of this cake, a good cake without strong buttery/milky taste of butter cake, as it is made with olive oil. Yum~ A keeper.

Above is wet ingredients

370g container of Sunglo yogurt (recipe calls for about 360g, so i didn’t scrape the yogurt container clean…)

140g olive oil (i used extra virgin olive oil which is the only type available at home)

190g sugar (as usual, i use less sugar, recipe originally calls for about 230g)

350g flour

i used very little freshly ground nutmeg due to not knowing whether it will be overpowering (can use more next time)

Pour into spring form pan or any type of pan with bottom lined with baking paper and side slightly greased

Doesn’t look pretty, still not knowing how wonderful this cake taste 😛

Put on rack for cooling

Nice caramelized colour, i find this cake tasted ok when warm, best eaten when completely cool or even the next day. The texture remain soft and yummy on the next day.