All-in yoghurt banana muffins

Last week I tried tweaking my banana loaf by incorporating tea cake with banana bread. It was a sticky disaster that hardly rose, and it got more slimey by the day. (According to BK, that is. I didn't think it was slimey, to me, it was just what fruit did as it matured over time).

Today, I thought I'd try a yoghurt recipe because I had heard so much about the properties of yoghurt in creating an impossibly moist tender crumb. After checking out a few recipes, I settled on this one by Mom's Dinner because it didn't involve too much hard work like hauling out my stand mixer or even the weighing scale. It just used simple American cups. This recipe has been upsized for 16 to 17 muffins (depending on how full you fill each muffin cup), and some little changes eg reduced sugar and swapped half brown sugar and half white sugar

Ingredients

4 bananas, mashed

3 eggs

⅛ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 tbsp (85g) butter, softened at room temp

½ C brown sugar

½ C white sugar

½ C Greek yoghurt

2¼C flour

1½ tsp baking powder

1½ tsp baking soda

¼C raisins

¼C mini or chopped up choc chips (reserve a few wholes ones for deco)

¼C chopped walnuts (reserve a few whole ones for deco)

Method (makes 16 to 17 muffins)

1. Prepare the muffin tin either with home made muffin papers or cupcake liners.

2. In a bowl (I housed everything in my sifter), combine and sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.

3. In another bowl, mash up the banana until no big chunks left. Add the salt.

4. In a third bowl, cream the butter and sugar by hand until pale using a wooden spoon. Add in the yogurt and mix. It will seem to curdle but do your best.

5. (Optional step: helps the ingredients 'suspend' in the batter rather than sinking to the bottom) In a fourth bowl, mix the choc chips, nuts, and raisins with 2 tbsp of flour and toss through.

6. Combine the wet ingredients: add the creamed mixture to the bananas and mix well. Fold through the floured nuts, raisins and choc chips.

7. Sift in the flour in several goes, folding only twice or three times each after each addition. After everything is done, it's ok to have some pockets of dry flour. Try not to overmix otherwise the batter becomes over-worked and you get a tough muffin.

8. Using a ½C ice cream or cookie dough scoop, scoop out into line muffin tins. Fill till about ⅔ full (17 muffins) for the muffins to rise up just till the top edge of the cupcake liner, or all the way if you want a peak overflowing dome (16 muffins).

9. Distribute the whole walnuts and choc chips and gently push them into the top of each muffin.

10. Bake at 175 deg C for 16 to 17 mins until golden brown on top. A skewer should come out dry except for a few crumbs (be careful not to stab a banana or choc chip).

11. Allow to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack. Best eaten 10 to 15 minutes out of the oven. If eaten when cool, it would be nice to reheated around 10s in the microwave, and even further lashings of butter! 

Orange chocolate marble bundt

When I was reading up on this, there are two kinds of orange chocolate cakes. There is the Jeffa cake, which combines the chocolate and orange. The one I want has to split up orange and chocolate components, because I want to taste them differently. So I chose the marble cake from Pies and Tacos. But I do want a granache glaze so I used Smitten Kitchen's recipe which was to suit a 10C bundt cake.

Ingredients (recipe is for 12C but I've downgraded to 10C for my bundt)

398g flour

27g cocoa powder

15g baking powder

¼ tsp salt

236g butter, softened

416g sugar

4 eggs

1¼ tbsp orange zest

1.46 C orange juice  

Glaze

1 tbsp butter

1 tsp orange zest

2 tbsp orange juice

¾ sugar OR

Granache (from Smitten Kitchen)

225g semisweet choc chips or chopped choc

120ml (½C) heavy cream

Method

1. Grease bundt.

2. Divide flour into 2 bowls (approx 199g per bowl). Add half of baking powder (7.5g). Add half of the salt (ie about ⅛ tsp).

3. Add cocoa powder to just one bowl. 

4. Sift both bowls (separately of course).

5. Cream butter in stand mixer for 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually and keep creaming for 2 - 3 mins until pale and fluffy.

6. Add eggs one at a time and ensure each is fully incorporated before adding the next. Scrape down after each addition.

7. Add orange zest and mix to combine.

8. Weigh cake batter and divide into 2 bowls. Divide orange juice. 0.8C (slightly more than ¾C) for orange batter. Remainder for chocolate batter.

9. Work in each bowl separately. Sift dry ingredients in each bowl.

a. To orange batter, add 0.8C orange juice. Sift in the dry ingredients and whisk to fold in. To avoid curdling, start with flour, then juice. Alternate flour and juice and fold after each addition. Start and end with flour.

b. To the chocolate batter, add remainder of orange juice. Sift in the dry ingredients. Similar to above, start and end with flour by alternating dry, wet, dry until all the ingredients have been used up.

10. To assemble, pour ⅓ of orange batter at the bottom. Top with ½ of choc batter. Top with ⅓ of orange batter. Pour on remaining half of the choc batter. Finish with remaining orange batter.

11. Bake at 175 deg C for 60 minutes (recipe said 40 to 50 minutes, that was so wrong!) Tent if top becomes too brown. Cake is ready when toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cake should spring back when you touch the top with your finger.

12. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes over a rack.

13. Make the glaze or granache. If using granache, cake has to be completely cool before pouring on the granache.

14. To make the glaze: put in a small saucepan and combine until sugar is melted.

15. To make the granache, add hot (not boiling) cream to the choc. Allow to stand for 3 minutes before stirring with a metal spoon only!

16. Unmold the cake after 10 minutes in the pan (not too much longer or the cake will stick to the pan) and flip onto the cake rack. If using glaze, brush on the glaze. If using the granache, allow cake to totally cool before pouring on. Only cut the cake when the cake is cool.

Feedback

- The receipe called for 40 to 50 min baking time but I tried inserting a skewer at 45 minutes (totally wet!), 52 minutes (still somewhat wet) and at 60 minutes, it was finally dry and as the recipe said, when I pressed a finger down on top, it sprung back up. However, the 'fins' of the bundt have become crusty. Next day, it turns soft but overall, the cake is dry esp the formerly crusty outside bits. 

Possible solutions:

- Perhaps instead of glazing with granache, I will use the orange glaze to add a bit of moisture to the fins.

- Placing a cookie sheet underneath? My bundt is golden so probably it cooks faster than inside. Also, possibly lowering the temp and cooking longer.

- Feedback on granache: this recipe means the choc isn't very flowly and will slowly dribble down the side. Nice consistency for glazing and piping on. However, next day in the fridge, it is very hard - scrapeable with a spoon but not margarine spreadable. Maybe more like butter consistency?

- After doubling the amount of cream, it is too flowly to use as glaze but next day in the fridge, it becomes margarine spreadable.

Choc chip, fruit and fruit cookies

Been looking for a simple recipe that doesn't involve too much technique. The hardest part about this recipe was assembling the ingredients - that took me 45 minutes (excluding grocery shopping!) The whole process took close to 3 hours but only because I was waiting for the butter to come up to room temperature. 

Recipe from https://rasamalaysia.com/chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/ I have adapted the method and added ingredients.

Ingredients (Makes 42 cookies)

320g flour

80g corn starch

2 tbsp cocoa powder

¼ tsp baking soda (it is important to measure or you'll end up with soapy tasting cookies!)

½ tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

250g butter, softened

120g fine white sugar

100g brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten (room temp is best)

250g choc chips (I made the mistake of using melting chips which melted at summer room temps. Urgh. I used raisins and choc chips to make up 250g in total)

100g chopped almonds

Method

1. Combine the flours, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Use a sift if desired. Set aside in a bowl.

2. In a stand mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugars. Cream them at Speed 6 for about 4 minutes, stopping every 30 seconds or so to scrape down. Cream until paler in colour and the sugar grains are no longer discernible. If you don't have a stand mixer, creaming by hand is fine. Finally, add the vanilla.

3. Pour in the beaten egg a little at a time and continue to beat.

4. Sift in the flours and stir into the batter.

5. Stir in the choc chips (and raisins if using), and chopped almonds. Reserve a few choc chips and nuts for decoration.

6. On a prepared baking parchment, dollop on the cookie dough. Decorate with leftover choc chips and nuts. I used a cookie scoop (about 1 tbsp each). Ideally, if time permits, put the dough in the fridge for about 20 minutes to make it easier to work with. Roll into tall cylindrical balls so that the cookies hold their shape better.

7. Bake at 200 deg C for 10 minutes for soft cookie and 12 minutes for crunchier cookie. The cookies don't really spread in the oven so they can be placed more closely together on the parchment.

8. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool on a rack (they crisp up) before consuming.

Recipe feedback - The cookies weren't too sweet so no need to reduce the sugar. 

Chocolate ganache Profiteroles

I have been wanting to make this for a very long time. Based on the recipes and tips from here, essentially Natasha and Sally's whose recipe ingredients are identical, and the methods of all three Natasha, Sally, and Gemma (essential for NOT using the KitchenAid). I had made classic cream puffs with my mom during my childhood but we had always filled them with Bird's custard. Unfortunately, I have only seen it in the supermarkets here once and now can't find it when I need it. At a pinch, I used custard pouring cream but thickened with tapioca starch (because corn starch whilst used for desserts, also separates in the fridge). That proved to be a bad idea because it was gloopy and almost slimey rather than thick, creamy and luscious, and it flowed out everywhere. The texture does improve in the fridge so maybe that was the trick.

Ingredients (Makes 22 to 28 puffs, each one and a half inch wide by half inch tall cream puffs)

Cream puffs

½ C water (120ml)

½ C whole milk (120ml)

½ C (118g) butter or 8 tbsp

¼ tsp salt

1 C flour

4 large eggs, room temp, beaten

Splash of milk (for glaze)

Custard (used in this recipe but I wouldn't re-use this in the future)

300ml pouring custard from Paul's

4 tbsp tapioca starch

4 tbsp water or enough to create a slurry

Chocolate ganache

150ml double cream

150g baking chocolate bar or good quality chocolate chips (I used melting chips from Nestle)

Method

Make the Choux pastry

1. Combine the water and milk in a pot with the butter. Melt the butter and bring to a gentle simmer (very small bubbles appear at the edge of the pot).

2. Remove from the stove and add the flour. Using a whisk if preferred (I found it helped but was really difficult to wash), add all the flour at once and stir until well combined.

3. Return to the stove and press down the batter onto the bottom of the pot to cook off the raw flour taste. Cook for about 2 to 3 minutes until a film forms at the bottom of the pot. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

4. Beat the eggs in a Pyrex measuring jug. While the dough has cooled slightly, drizzle the egg a bit at a time into the dough and stir well with a wooden spoon. It will start off as a curd and split but continue beating. A KitchenAid can be used at this point but I didn't bother due to the washing up. Pour on as much egg as needed to make a thick ribbon when the spoon is lifted. Leave a few teaspoons behind to glaze the puffs.

5. Spoon into a piping bag and use a ½" round tip. 

6. I pre-prepared my parchment by drawing 1½" rounds on the wrong side of the parchment and then turned it right side up and placed it on the cookie sheet. Ensure there is space between each for them to grow.

7. Using the drawn guides, pipe 1½" wide by 1" tall. Use a moistened finger to pat down the tips of any piped batter and to smoothen the tops if necessary. Sprinkle the rest of the water onto the parchment around the puffs. This will give it the steam to give the puffs a sudden lift.

8. With the leftover beaten egg, add a splash of milk and brush the tops of the puffs.

9. Bake at 200 deg C for 10 minutes, then turn down to 170 deg C and bake for a further 20 to 22 minutes until golden brown. Do not open the oven door ever or the puffs will collapse.

10. Remove from the oven and remove each puff to a cooling rack to cool completely. To test if completely cooked, break one apart and it should be dry and hollow inside, not cakey and spongey. It is better to over-bake than underbake.

Make the Custard (this can be made a day ahead and chilled)

1. Pour the pouring custard into a pot and bring to a gentle simmer (never a boil).

2. Turn off the heat and add the stir. Stir well until combined. If preferred, sieve to remove any lumpy batter.

3. Place a cling film directly onto the surface of the custard and allow to cool before eventually cooling in the fridge. It must cool in the fridge otherwise the custard is slimey and not even spoonable into the puff casings.

Updated: Using custard powder

Make the Ganache

1. While the puffs are cooling, prepare the ganache. Chop the chocolate into tiny pieces, the tinier the better. Place the chocolate pieces into a Pyrex or metal bowl (never plastic).

2. Warm up the double cream. Bring to a simmer (small bubbles at the edge of the pot). Never boil. 

3. Remove from the heat and immediately pour onto the chopped chocolate. Allow to stand for around to  2 to 5 minutes.

4. Using a metal spoon, start from the centre and stir, gently stirring outwards until well combined. It should be slightly runny. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and it should thicken up into a pouring consistency.

Assembling the profiterole

1. While the ganache is cooling, cut holes into the sides of the puffs with a small but sharp knife.

2. Pipe in the custard until the puff is full (you'll feel a bit of pressure on the piping tip). Use a butter knife to remove any excess. 

3. When all the profiteroles have been filled, invert each puff and drip the tops into the ganache. Set on the wire rack to drip off. You probably want something to catch all the drips under the wire rack, it will get VERY messy!

4. They can be eaten served with strawberries and whipped cream but are best chilled for at least 4 hours (for the custard and ganache to set) and eaten then. 

Choux pastry: Comparison recipes

 I have shortlisted several bloggers with videos and who do the entire range of pastries associated with choux pastry using slightly different methods. I've found out that the difference between profiteroles, cream puffs, and eclairs is dependent on the shape, topping, and filling. 

1. Bigger Bolder Baking cream puffs (Christmas profiterole recipe) (Easy choux pastry)

- Starts with whisk to whisk the flour in, then changes to spoon. Leaves it on the stove while beating the flour in. 

- Beats up the egg. Doesn't use KitchenAid when incorporating batter and egg.

- Uses wettened finger to smooth down the tips after piping the cream puffs

- Sprinkles water on the baking parchment around the cream puffs (to create the steam to give them a poof)

- Garnish with chocolate ganache and strawberries, filled with fresh cream, dusted with sugar

- Bake at 200 deg C for 25-30mins or at 220deg C for 20 mins then 10 mins with heat turned off.

- Store in fridge with filling, or freeze.

2. Sally's Baking Addiction cream puffs

- Eclairs are filled with custard (Americans call it pastry cream) and topped with ganache, cream puffs are filled with whipped cream and dusted with icing sugar, profiteroles are filled with ice cream and topped with ganache

- Easiest recipe. Uses 1 cup cream for ganache and 1 cup cream for cream filling

- Uses KitchenAid. Doesn't pour in all the beaten egg (only till the point it's combined) but leaves some for egg wash.

- Also paints the parchment with water

- Bake at 204 deg C for 20 mins, reduce to 177 deg C for 10-15 mins until golden brown

- Store unfilled or freeze.

- For the ganache, advises against using buttons. Use equal portions of double cream and choc by weight. Chop the choc finely, use a stove to heat up the cream just to simmering (never boiling), and pour onto the choc. Use only a glass or metal bowl (never plastic), and let it sit for 5 minutes before stirring. Stir with a metal spoon or silicon spatula (never a whisk or worst, wooden spoon) from the centre working outwards. Leave to cool for 15 minutes before using. Store unused at room temp for up to a day as the fridge will harden it into a spoonable fudge.

3. Natasha's Kitchen cream puffs (Eclairs wh includes pastry cream recipe)

- Also mentions the differences between eclairs with ganache, profiteroles, and cream puffs.

- Takes milk mixture off the stove to add in the flour and then incorporates it off the stove before putting it back on the stove to cook for a few minutes (2 to 3 minutes) until a film forms at the bottom.

- Uses Kitchenaid hand beater to beat for a while to cool it down, then adds whole eggs.

- Bake at 218 deg C for 10 mins, reduce to 162 deg C for 20 to 22 mins until golden brown.

- Store unfilled or freeze but can also store and freeze them with filling following her tips.

- For the ganache, uses chocolate buttons

Choux pastry tested here.

4. Pretty Simple Sweet - Ganache tips

- Play around with ratios to get it as a glaze or spreadable consistency or hard like truffle. Only cream and chocolate. Other additions such as butter and corn syrup for added creaminess or shine.

Chocolate chip madeleines

Tried a different recipe this time with more egg (i.e. fat) and no milk. The texture is totally different, more spongey cake-like compared to kueh bulu texture. This is also denser as there is more flour.

Source: https://www.justonecookbook.com/lavender-madeleines-guest-post-by-roti-n-rice/

Ingredients (makes 24)
1½  cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped choc chips
4 large eggs - room temp
⅔ cup (124g) sugar
2 tsp vanilla
8 tbsp butter, melted (130g) - bring to room temp
2 tbsp melted butter (28g) for brushing the pan

Signature hump

Method
1) Sift flour, salt, and baking power together. Set aside.
2) Whisk eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.
3) Add flour and fold.
4) Add melted butter a little at a time and fold in.
5) Chop up the choc chips and fold in ¾ of the chips. Leave the rest for topping.
6) Cover and leave in the fridge to chill for 30 to 60 mins.
7) Brush the moulds with melted butter.
8) Fill each mould with a heaped tbsp of batter.
9) Bake at 190 deg C for 11 to 13 mins (it took me 15 mins because of the chips) until the top springs back when touched.
10) Leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove using a fork and let them cool on a wire rack.

Recipe feedback
Interestingly, same amount of sugar as the previous recipe but yet it doesn't taste overly sweet, even after adding in the choc chips.

Chocolate chip and almond muffins

Since making this recipe over a year ago, I found the technique worked quite well. Came across a similar recipe which I adapted below by adding almonds and mixing dark with milk chocolate chips. Sally's recipe uses 3 cups instead of 2.5 cups but interestingly, makes only 10 muffins instead of 11 in the old recipe. However, perhaps last year I used muffin papers and only filled them 3/4 full. The results don't 'feel' heavier. The problem with the old recipe was the the taste of baking soda was quite obvious but Sally's recipe replaces it with baking powder and the result is that you can't taste the alkaline taste.

From http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2013/01/17/bakery-style-chocolate-chip-muffins/ which I adp

Ingredients (makes 10)
3 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temp and beaten
1 cup milk (240 ml)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter (115g)
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips (roughly chopped if they aren't mini chips)
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (roughly chopped if they aren't mini chips)
1/2 cup almonds (roughly chopped)

Method

1) In a big bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar till pale yellow and fluffy. Add in the melted butter, salt, vanilla. (After my butter seized up the last time, I realised that it was important not to add it to cold eggs and 

2) In another bowl, sift in the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, and baking powder.

3) Combine by whisking the dry ingredients into the wet but do not over-mix. I used the whisk to gentle fold in. Divide the dry ingredients into 3 batches and only fold in two times during each batch. The batter will be very thick and may have dry flour spots. That's ok.

4) Fold in the almonds and 2/3 of the combined milk and dark chocolate chips.

5) Prepare the muffin tins e.g. oil the sides (in case they over flow), you want to be able to remove them easily. Also, preheat the oven to 220 deg C.

6) Using a half cup measure, fill each of the muffin cases to the top. Add water to the empty tins. 

7) Sprinkle on the remaining 1/3 cup of dark and milk chocolate chips on top. Gently press them into the mixture.

8) Bake at 220 deg C for 5 minutes (with the grill function off). Turn down to 190 deg C and bake for 20 minutes. Turn the tins to ensure even baking and bake for another 10 minutes.

9) Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before consuming and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool complete.

10) They can store in an airtight container but outside the fridge for up to 5 days, or in a freezer.

Flourless Peanut chocolate chip cookies

Taken from http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/06/flourless-peanut-butter-brownie-cookies/

This recipe is da bomb. The best cookie recipe I've tried and I especially like it because it's not overly sweet, has no flour nor butter (which I hope makes it less caloric), yet still tastes amazingly moist. Most importantly, no chilling required! What's not to love? 

Only mistake with my picture was that I forgot that these cookies do not spread so I had to press remove them from oven ans press them down with the back of fork. The chocolate chips were melting by then and u can see the messy end result. Don't be a ditz like me and do it before they go in.

I practically followed the recipe to a T (so I won't be reposting the ingredients or method).

Only alterations made were: 

1) I used ½ cup of choc chips instead of 3/4 cup peanut butter chips as recommended since a) i felt that there's enough butter going in and 2) i dont have them. But it turned put better this way. I fully intended to squidge the remaining 1/4 cup on top of the soft cookies when they first come out from the oven for that professional look but trust me, ½ cup of chips is a lot, so much so that there was hardly enough batter to hold them together!

2) I used a slightly heaped Chinese soup spoon (equivalent to 1 tbsp + 1 tsp or 4 tsp volume) worth of batter to equate to 1.5 tbsp. I got 15 cookies.

3) I baked at 175 deg C for 10 minutes.

Alternative recipes

1) half and half: http://thebigmansworld.com/2015/08/14/3-ingredient-flourless-peanut-butter-nutella-cookies/

2) 4 ingredients http://www.recipe4living.com/recipes/four_ingredient_nutella_peanut_butter_cookies.htm

3) Swirled with peanut butter chips http://freshaprilflours.com/2015/06/24/nutella-swirled-peanut-butter-chip-cookies/