Tart Aux Fraises

 

Wouldn't it be nice to be sitting at a cafe somewhere in Paris sipping black coffee and nibbling on a tart aux fraises while watching Parisians go on about their daily life. I can only dream for now.

I always wanted to make those beautiful sweet pastries you see at a French cafe. They look so chic and so delicious with their creamy filling, topped with refreshing fruit, glazed or garnished with chocolate strips and powdered sugar. There's just a certain je ne sais quoi about anything that's French.

Bouchon Bakery Blueberry Muffin

 

Have you heard of Bouchon Bakery? I haven't until I came across their recipe book when I was browsing the baking section on amazon.com. Bouchon Bakery is the brainchild of Thomas Keller who started The French Laundry, a fine dining restaurant in California.

After years of getting their supply of dinner rolls from a family-run bakery, Keller started his own bakery to cope with the increasing demands for breads from the growing number of restaurants he owns. Bouchon Bakery is headed by the ever so charming and French Sebastien Rouxel. Love his accent  especially when he pronouns "colour" in one of the youtube videos.

So happy that successful chefs like them are willing to share their knowledge and experience with us ordinary home bakers (for a fee of course - RM200, Kinokuniya / US$31, Amazon). 

Coconut Chocolate Butter Cake (by Nasi Lemak Lover)

First off, lest I be accused of stealing, let me make it clear that this recipe is not mine. I'm merely following a fellow blogger's recipe. If you're interested in the original material please visit Nasi Lemak Lover's blog. I've said this before and I'll say it again, her blog is super awesome! There are tons of recipes there and you'll most likely find something you like to bake or cook on her blog. She updates her blog frequently and her recipes never fail to inspire.

Today we are baking a simple coconut chocolate butter cake. Experienced bakers can literally do this with one eye closed. It's like making marble cake but the vanilla goes on top and chocolate on the bottom instead of having swirls of chocolate in the vanilla.

Merdeka Weekend Baking - Kuih Bahulu

Oh my gosh!

I don't know where to start with this Kuih Bahulu. It was a disaster getting them out of the mould. I don't know what went wrong. The moulds were heated properly and greased with loads of cooking oil but they were so stubborn!

In the end, I turned over the mould like how you would with chiffon cake to remove the cakes. The last four cakes came out fine. However, the second time I made this I turned over the mould but faced the same freaking problem.

Merdeka Weekend Baking - Spiral Curry Puff a.k.a Karipap

On the second day of the long Merdeka weekend, I made chicken curry puff. This curry puff is no ordinary curry puff because it has a flakier and crispier pastry than the normal curry puff. If you love Homi curry puff then you'll love this. It's like homemade Homi curry puff, healthier and less oily. Mind you, these are good enough reasons to make your own curry puffs and your heart will thank you for it!

I found this recipe from a Nyonya kuih cookbook by Ricky Ng but I've altered it here and there. I didn't know spiral curry puff is Peranakan cuisine. Any idea, anyone?

Merdeka Weekend Baking - Onde - Onde

For the three day long Merdeka (Independence Day) weekend I decided to make three types of Malaysian delight so we could enjoy a different taste of Malaysia each day in conjunction with the Merdeka celebration.

On the first day, I tried my hands at making my sis's and my favourite kuih, onde-onde. They use to sell onde-onde in a packet of four and I always find that there is not enough to share, not to mention the onde-onde sold outside are tiny and I always find that they don't use enough gula melaka (palm sugar) especially the crunchy bits, which I love, for the filling. Well, I guess that's just doing business, they have to lower cost by skimping on the good stuff.

Red Bean and Banana Sweet Bun

We had three huge bunches of bananas from our garden. What better way to use them than for baking. When it comes to bananas and baking, the first thing that comes to mind is banana cake. Sticking to tried and tested recipe is safe but at the same time being stuck in a rut will stifle creativity and progress. We’ve baked banana cake one to many times when it comes to finishing the bananas before they go bad. Each time we have excess bananas, it was banana cake so it’s about time we try other banana recipes.

I didn’t want to do any conventional banana dessert, so no bannofee pie or banana muffin either. After I discovered that I could churn out wonderful breads (ahem, not bragging), I wanted to do a bread recipe but absolutely not banana bread which, to me, is no different from banana cake.

This is a recipe by Agnes Chang. It’s a hybrid recipe because I’ve used her wholemeal loaf recipe to substitute the sweet bun dough for a healthier wholemeal bread. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love munching on small snacks just before starting my workout. I know it's bad but it's a good energy (and mood) booster after a long day at work. I don't believe in totally banishing junk food from my diet because the more you resist, the worse your craving gets. Just remember moderation is key.

Since I ate all the Horlicks Spring Roll crisps that my mum made (I shall make that one day and post the recipe here), I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies to munch on.

This chocolate chip cookies recipe, also known as Toll House Cookies, is a recipe which my mum learnt from a baking class by Chef Goh. I'm not too sure whether this Chef Goh is the famous Alex Goh, but I get the feeling that he's the person.

In case you're wondering why is it called Toll House cookies, the recipe was named after Toll House Inn in Massachusetts after the owner of the inn came up with the chocolate chip cookie recipe in 1936. Thanks Wikipedia!

This chocolate chip cookie recipe is downright delicious and my four year old nephew who's a big fan of chocolate chip cookies practically ate the whole bottle of cookies himself in three days. At least, I did have some over the three days and I happily took this as a compliment.

Read on for the recipe!