Finishing up used bits.

Everyone likes to start their day differently. My sister likes to start it off with some focaccia bread. I, on the other hand, am perfectly fine with eating cold cereal for breakfast. Not to say that I don't like focaccia, I do, just that I cannot eat it for consecutive days without getting a bit tired of the same fare.

Sister made me bake lots of foccacia so that she can eat roughly twice the portion she eat if eating store-bought foccacia. The store-bought loaf is roughly equivalent to four servings. One portion of the recipe yields two loaves. She made me do two portions. We had four loaves of bread in the house. In the end, she didn't even manage to finish all before the bread went moldy. Sigh. Sis, ah, Sis.


I made fruit tarts the other day just because I realised I havn't had the opportunity to make them in Singapore yet. To play safe, I reused the recipe I made the other time round, just makin additions to the dough by adding chopped pistachios. The taste was somewhat similar to the first time I made (sans nuts). But nuts seem to be a healthier addition so, I'll add them again next time, just that I'll chop them up finely cos this time round, there were a few chunks of pistachio visible in the dough...

As usual, my refrigerator was chock full of fruits. In addition to the grapes and mandarins we already have in stock, I got some blueberries and raspberries (a treat, considering their price!) as what is a tart without berries?

I love fruits. Especially berries. The reason being because they are expensive. As it is hard to obtain these fruits cheaply, whenever I actually get to eat them, I actually feel happy. Laugh at me if you must, but I get a cheap thrill just biting into a raspberry. It tastes especially sweeter somehow. ;)

It was a chore to segment mandarins. It didn't help that the mandarins used for the fruit tarts were of the mini variety. Big fingers need not apply.

I made six medium sized tarts and decorated them with a single fruit for each. The mandarin tart as you can see, consists of my hard work (segmenting...) so of cos, who best to eat it then yours truely. (:





I had a gathering with my girls two days ago. I had a pack of cream cheese left, and my sister had reminded me to use up whatever ingredients I've bought before head back to Brisbane, so what to do, but some sort of cheese cake? So, I decided to make something to bring along to share with the girls.

Again, I reused the recipe for the cheesecake pops I made a few months back. It helps that the portions are pretty small, so it's safe to pop one, or two of these small morsels without feeling overwhelmed by the cheesy-ness if compared to a whole slice of cheesecake.

I had bought a medium bag of pistachios some time bag, and just got around to using it just only. So it features alot in the goodies I'm making recently. Here, I melted chocolate, coat the chilled cheesepops with chocolate and chopped pistachios. It struck me halfway through coating that some people might not like nuts, and I only had a few sticks left - explains the few non-nuts sticks.

I made creme brulee today. Will be talking about it with pictures in the next post. Together with the macarons that I am going to make (on Tuesday hopefully!), in an effort to clear the bits and pieces of baking ingredients in the pantry...

Focaccia love.

The planned focaccia bread making was attempted today! ;) It was a simple enough recipe which called for only a handful of ingredients. I followed it as much as I could, substituting bits and pieces here and there where I deemed appropriate. The final results was simply rewarding to say the least. The smell of freshly baked focaccia in the oven was akin to a step away from heaven's door.

I can't believe how easy it is to actually make bread from scratch. In the past, I was slightly wary of the ingredient - yeast, and thus was not interested in trying my hand at the bread genre. However, I found instant yeast in the local supermart and bought it, together with gelatine (another never tried before ingredient), determined to actually do something about trying new things now that money has been spent. ;)

Two key ingredients - Herbs and olive oil; Dough before proofing; Dough doubled in size after proofing; Mini round focaccias.

Sprinkled mixed herbs, black pepper, salt and chopped fresh garlic atop the dough.

The recipe produced enough dough for me to shape into one large rectangle and three small rounds. It's just a personal preference that I love mini portions of baked goodies. They just look so cute and dainty. ;) This recipe is a keeper, I foresee that we'll be buying less of the focaccia bread we used to buy since I have plenty of bread flour to use up before I fly back to Brisbane. I'll be making additions along the way, like perhaps add sundried tomatoes, and mixing the herbs into the dough the next time I make it to add flavour to the bread.

Thus, here's a toast to trying out new things in the kitchen. A munch of focaccia later, my thoughts have already flown to flick through the list of recipes I have in mind to try out. Scrolling through the long list in my mind, I knew without any hesitation that the next thing I bake would be a cake. The problem is, what cake? I'm torn between three choices, the hazelnut gateau I tried a couple months before, a matcha and chocolate opera cake or a strawberry charlotte. Choices. Choices.