Black Sesame Muffins

I have 2 packets of black sesame that have been lying in the cupboard for some time. Since I don’t like to keep things for too long and I clear my stuff from time to time, it’s time to do something with it. It was Thursday and I asked my friend, Lynn what should I bake and she said “Make some healthy muffins.” There you go…the solution to my sesame seeds!

Sesame seeds are very rich in minerals such calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, and to give it a more healthy feel, I added some wheat bran. These muffins sure made a good breakfast and you definitely can’t find it in bakeries! So, make your own :)


Ingredients:
Plain Flour (1 ½ cup)
Wheat Bran (1/2 cup)
Ground Toasted Black Sesame (1/2 cup or more if you like stronger sesame taste)
Baking Powder (3tsp)
Salt (1/2 tsp)
Sugar (3/4 cup)
Egg (1)
Yoghurt (4 tbsp)
Milk (1 cup)
Oil (1/4 cup)

Preheat oven at 190C

Method:
1. Sift plain flour and baking powder. Mix in wheat bran, black sesame, salt and sugar. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix well egg, yoghurt, oil and milk.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture in no. 1. Mix till combined.
4. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for ~25min or until cooked.

Chocolate Muffins with Chocolate Chips

Made these for Carmen 2 weeks ago (er…yeah, I am really outdated in updating the blog). Her hubby thought I bought these from outside especially with this kind of packing.
Glad they both liked it :)

I used the muffin recipe that I’ve used countless times and just replace ½ cup of the flour with cocoa powder.


Ingredients:
Plain Flour (1 ½ cup)
Cocoa Powder (1/2 cup)
Baking Powder (3tsp)
Salt (1/2 tsp)
Sugar (3/4 cup)
Egg (1)
Yoghurt (2-3 tbsp)
Milk (1 cup)
Oil (1/4 cup)
Chocolate Chips (as much as you like)

Preheat oven at 190C

Method:
1. Sift plain flour, cocoa powder and baking powder. Mix in salt and sugar. Set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix well egg, yoghurt, oil and milk.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture in no. 1. Mix till combined.
4. Mix in the chocolate chips.
5. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for ~25min or until cooked.

Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Raisin and Almond

I have this chocolate and nut chiffon cake recipe sticking on the fridge door for some time and waiting for me to give it a try. To celebrate the coming of Friday tomorrow (don’t we all love Fridays??), I decided to make my oven work for this tonight.
The original recipe is from Kitchen Corner and here’s the link: http://gracekitchencorner.blogspot.com/2008/07/chocolate-nut-chiffon.html

I converted the ingredients but it’s all agak-agak and I didn’t even follow the amount for cocoa powder ;p When I saw the original recipe with its 110gm of egg whites, I thought I really don’t want to be measuring egg whites and yolks each time I make this, so I took the liberty to just dump in 5 egg whites and 4 egg yolks. I am glad the cake turned out fine because instead of adding the corn flour into the egg white mixture, I added it into the egg yolk mixture! I expected some a disaster out of this but hey, it’s OK after all!
It’s not possible to take out the corn flour from the egg yolk mixture, so I just leave it and added some more to the egg whites.

Of course my humble cake here doesn’t look very pretty, but this is a good recipe. I love this cake! The texture is so soft and moist. The almond gave the cake a good aroma and the extra bite while the raisin balances the cocoa powder with its sweetness. Perfect!

Ingredients:
Egg Whites (5)
Caster Sugar (55 gm)
Corn Flour (1 tbsp)
Egg Yolks (4)
Water (1 tbsp)
Oil (1 tbsp)
Cocoa Powder (2-3 tbsp)
Plain Flour (40gm)
Caster Sugar (10gm)
Raisin (handful)
Almond slices (handful)

Preheat oven at 170C

Method:
1. Beat egg yolk, oil, water, cocoa powder, plain flour and caster sugar (10gm) until combined. (I used an electric whisk and beat it for about 2min).
2. In a separate bowl, beat egg white for about 1min or until soft peak forms. Add caster sugar (55gm) and beat till stiff. Add corn flour and beat till combined.
3. Add egg white portion into the egg yolk mixture in no. 1 in 3 portions (1/3 each time). Mix well each time with a spatula.
4. When mixing is done, pour it into a chiffon baking tin.
5. Sprinkle raisins and almond slices on top and bake for 35-40 min or until cooked.

Note: I turned the temperature down to 160C during the last 10min of baking.

Happy Friday everyone!

Peanut Chocolate Muffin

Another variation of muffin. If you don’t have cocoa powder, just put in some Milo/Ovaltine/Vico or any chocolate drink you have la…works fine. :)


Ingredients:
Plain Flour (1 ½ cup)
Baking Powder (3 tsp)
Salt (1/2 tsp)
Wheatgerm (1/4 cup)
Ground peanut (1/4 cup)
Cocoa Powder (4 tbsp)
Sugar (3/4 cup)
Egg (1)
Milk (1 cup)
Yoghurt (4 tbsp)
Oil (1/4 cup)


Preheat oven at 190C

Method:
1. Sift flour, baking powder and cocoa powder. Mix in salt, sugar, ground peanut and wheatgerm.
2. In a separate bowl, mix egg, milk, yoghurt and oil. Whisk lightly till combined.
3. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture in no. 1.
4. Mix till just combined.
5. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for 25min or till cooked.

Chocolate Mint Cake with Chocolate Fudge

Chocolate mint cake is something that I’ve always wanted to try because I just love the combination between chocolate and mint. I think my love for chocolate mint started from that “After 8” thin chocolate pieces. It’s just so yummy especially right out of the fridge.

Anyway, I was a little over ambitious in this project. You see, besides wanting to make a chocolate mint cake, I actually wanted to make it look like a zebra cake! The outcome? The chocolate mint cake was good but it definitely didn’t look anything like a zebra cake. I attributed it to the unequal portion of mint and chocolate mixture and I actually did it on purpose as I thought I’d like to have more chocolatey taste in the cake. So, lesson learnt…..don’t try to change the recipe too much at first attempt. ;p
If I were to make this cake again, I’ll try to make it more moist. I like my cakes to be moist and soft.

I was too lazy to make chocolate fudge, so I just bought a can of ready-to-be-used fudge from the local baking store.

The recipe is adapted from auntyyochana’s blog.
http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2006/06/chocolate-mint-cake-with-f_115139280717841671.html


Ingredients:

Self raising flour (200gm)

Butter (220gm)

Castor sugar (220gm)

Eggs (5)

Vanilla essence (1 tsp)

Cocoa powder (4-5 tbsp)

Milk (50ml)
Chopped mint leaves (2 tbsp or more)

Peppermint Essence (few drops)

Preheat oven at 180C

Method:

1. Cream the pre-sieved S.R. flour and butter into a smooth paste.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until spongy. Add the vanilla essence gradually into the flour paste (No. 2) and beat till smooth.

3. Divide the cake batter into two. Add the cocoa powder and milk to one portion and blend till smooth. Add the chopped mint leaves and peppermint essence to the other portion.

4. Pour the two batters alternately into the lined 8" pan.

5. Bake for 45 to 50 min.

6. Let the cake cool before applying the fudge.

Cappuccino Cupcake

It smells just like a cup of cappuccino!

Ingredients:
Butter (140gm)
Sugar (120gm)
Egg (3)
Cream Cheese (4tbsp)
Cappuccino Paste (4 tsp)
Self Raising Flour (190gm)
Soy Milk Powder (2 tbsp)
Almond Bits (60gm)

Preheat oven at 180C

Method:
1. Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
2. Add egg one by one and beat till combined.
3. Add in cream cheese and cappuccino paste and beat till combined.
4. Fold in sifted self raising flour and soy milk powder.
5. Mix in almond bits.
6. Spoon into cupcake paper liners till it fills 2/3 of the cup.
7. Bake for 30min or till cooked.

Fish in BBQ Sauce

One of my best friends, Beng, is crazy about BBQ sauce and I thought, “Hey, how about cooking fish in BBQ sauce?”. I love to eat fish but I don’t like to deep fry it or any cooking method that uses a lot of oil. So, other than the different types of steamed fish, I kind of ran out of idea how to make it simple and, nice and not steamed??

Well, this is really easy and doesn’t take a lot of time to prepare. It goes perfectly with rice.


Ingredients:
Fish Fillet
Ginger (grated)
Onion (grated)
Shallot
Green Bell Pepper (cut into small pieces)
BBQ sauce
Water
Oil


Method:
1. Marinate fish with ginger and onion for at least 30min.
2. Grease a non-stick pan and pan fry fish on both sides till cooked. Dish up.
3. Stir fry shallot and green bell pepper.
4. Mix in BBQ sauce and water. Cook till it boils and pour over the fish.