June baking Part 2

I had a short hiatus (say less than a week? snigger) from the last post of goodies before I baked again. This time round, in the final week before I flew off, I managed to squeeze in three more baked goods. Sticky date pudding. Lemon melt cookies. Apple tarts.


Sticky date pudding has a special place in my heart. Whenever I think of sticky date pudding, I think of Palais Renaissance's sticky date pudding. The one that the Sister and I are crazy about and would gladly fork each other to see who gets the last bite of the shared dessert. Though we havn't lunch there in ages, whenever we do, an order for sticky date pudding is always, and I mean always, placed.

It would be right to say that when I think of sticky date pudding, I think of my sister. Here's to a shared love for the dessert Sis!



I always wanted to attempt to make my own sticky date pudding from scratch. I recalled that someone had asked me whether I watched MasterChef Australia (the answer is no) and was really surprised (since I'm a foodie) and recommended me to watch it (I still did not haha!). The person, I forgot who, also mentioned about the sticky date pudding that the chefs made. Well, I googled MasterChef, and voilà, a recipe for it was available on the website! It was fate. I had to make it. The method looks easy, and it really is friggin' easy to make it.

It's the first time I bought fresh dates, and I must say, there are really interesting fruits. They are very very sticky, and has a pit in the middle. The smell of the cooked dates was quite dubious, but when I pulled the puddings from the oven, the smell that filled the house... I'm a happy girl with my puddings. And when I started making the butterscotch sauce... I was in heaven. (:

I had bought some Madagascar Vanilla Bean icecream (Coles Finest) to match with the dessert. The icecream was average, nothing spectacular, but combined with the sticky date puddings, it proved to be simply divine. Some things really mesh well together like butter on toast, coffee and chocolate and of course, sticky date pudding and vanilla icecream. One by itself is just not the same without the other.

As mentioned many times before, I love lemons. When I think of cookies, the image of double chocolate chip cookies zoom straight into my mind. Yet, I crave for alternate flavours other than the usual chocolate. I wanted something buttery, that melts in my mouth. Since I had forgotten to copy the Melting Moments recipe we use for CNY baking into my recipes notebook, I searched the web (seriously I salute the person who invented the Internet) for melt away cookies recipes. I found one that was delicious. Lemon melt cookies - The original recipe uses limes, but with an abundance of lemons at home, limes did not even cross my mind. I'll try using limes the next time round as I bet it will produce a great flavour.



I think I'll leave apple tarts for another post as I went a bit overboard snapping pictures for my babies (tarts). You'll know when you see the entry. ha!