Cinnamon Rum Raisin Swirl Bread

Been baking loads of breads too for the past few months. Baking bread is like making macarons (well, at least for me). Many people have lamented about having problems with macaron making, and well, I used to feel the same about baking bread. Yeast has sorta a life of its own, there's often some science behind bread baking (not that I've cracked the code or anything), and I get a sense of achievement (weird I know) every single time I pull a loaf outta the oven.

Cinnamon Rum Raisin Swirl Bread

Madeleines and macarons

Well, here I am again. It's not that I bake every other day, just that it's coming to the end of the year, and I would really really like to clear my backlog so I won't keep having a long list of backlogs that get posted like months later...and I'm proud to say I've clear like pretty much of my backlogs with the frantic postings I do lately. ;) I'm already posting stuff that I've baked in December! *gasp*

Two weeks ago, I baked some macarons and madeleines for the colleagues and packaged them up in small party favour bags. I made - Brown butter cinnamon praline madeleines, chai chocolate macarons and coconut macarons with a mango passion fruit filling. I've decided to split the pictures up in two posts cos I'll be including recipes for some items...

Chai macaron shells with cinnamon chocolate ganache

Berry ice cream and cinnamon walnut palmiers

I had leftover puff pastry in my freezer for god knows how long. And I don't think anyone in the family, aside from me is a huge fan of puff pastry.

I was going to use up the leftovers to make palmier cookies. The pretty ice cream sandwich cookies seen here made me want to make my own too. I had leftover cream from making the chocolate mango mousse cake, and Sis was leaving for her America trip, I wanted to finish the cream quickly to make an ice cream for her to try before she left. The cookies will be made only after she's gone, cos she's not a puff pastry lover anyway.

The below ice cream sandwiches? For me and me alone... 

 

Berry ice cream and cinnamon walnut palmiers

Cinnamon walnut macarons with apples and burnt caramel filling

For every great macaron, behind lies a supportive ice-cream. Whenever macarons make an appearance on the blog, 90% of the time is because I had made ice-cream and have lots of leftover eggwhites. I made black sesame ice-cream (for another post when I retrieve my currently lost pictures from my 'gone case' laptop) and was debating on what flavour macarons I should make.

I tossed some ideas around and posted on Facebook to get votes on what flavours I should make. I had like five eggwhites and I wanted to make two flavours cos I like variety. (: I didn't end up making the perennial favourite, the Ferraro Rocher, but I did the Hazelnut one (here) which was kinda similar since Ferraro Rocher = chocolate + hazelnut yes? I was very interested in making a matcha one, but then I wanted to sandwich something red bean-y in between and we had no red beans at home. That flavour combo shall be next on my list (I've since bought a bag of azuki beans). In the end, I decided on a making a plain macaron filled with salted caramel filling and apples. But what I first came up with was only the beginning of my flavour experiment...

Cinnamon walnut macarons with apples and burnt caramel filling

Cinnamon rolls.

Moving on to try a new genre of baked goods - bread. I baked the cinnamon rolls a couple days back, probably just a couple days after the earl grey muffins (which my sister snubbed not behind my face but to my face - in her own words: "It's not sweet one! I'm not diabetic, so why did you bake such diabetic food." -.-).

Considering the fact that cinnamon and sugar are certainly not diabetic, I set out to make the below rolls.



They were pretty yummy straight out of the oven, I couldn't resist popping one in my mouth while it was still hot cos the cinnamon smell wafting through the kitchen was seriously going into my head, inducing me to taste one the moment I removed the tray from the oven. When cooled, it tasted crunchy, an okay recipe I guess. But I still preferred the taste straight out of the oven. ;)

When I offered them to my sister (her majesty, no less), she actually looked at them and proceeded to say: "I don't like these kind, I like the kind like bread that type." I was torn between the urge to force one down her throat or to throttle her. 好难伺候哦. snigger. Surprisingly, she did try it the next day I think, and say it was not bad. lols.

I think, with plenty of free time on my hands, I'm baking at a much frequent pace. Ups and downs of it. ;) Next on list: foccacia bread!

Oh yeah, have been hanging out with friends again these few days. Meeting some of the hockey babes for quick lunch and a session at Minds Cafe, a karaoke session with Jos and mahjong session at my house again yesterday with the usual kakis, lunch/shopping (guilty) at IMM with Wen today before heading to Daily Scoop and had ice-cream there with Jia.

I'm in need of live music again. Can't wait for Saturday. ;)