Baking 101: Double Chocolate Muffins

Note: I pulled the picture and recipe from my flickr account.

This is my second try of Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Chocolate-chip muffins. The first one was a failure. I followed the recipe religiously, but wondered why the muffins were bland.

So after checking the video of her's, found out that she actually used 1 and 3/4 cups of sugar. In food network's site, it was written there that she used only 3/4 cup of sugar.

I wonder what's written on her book...hmmmn...

check the video below.



So after a week of  eating those not so yummy muffins, because I don't want to just put them to trash, I then again found the guts to bake them. I used a good quality cocoa powder and chocolate chips, followed the correct recipe and yes, I finally found heaven in those muffins...

Before baking them, I made sure to research on how to achieve those high and mighty dome shape that a perfect muffin should have. So I found out that instead of setting the temperature to the usual 350-375 degrees F, you will have to set it to 400degrees F to "shock" the batter. You have to keep the high temperature for 10 minutes. The batter will rise rapidly and will create the dome. After that, temperature must be dropped to 350 degrees F until you pull them out of the oven.

And the result? The lovely crusted but moist muffins.

Another tip which I will try next time, because I just found that after I baked them, is to completely fill the muffin cups with the batter. Usually, in baking cupcakes, the cups must be 3/4 full so it won't spill. But for muffins, you should fill them up. And it will make your muffins mushroom shaped. Gorgeous!

So here again is the link to the recipe. Please make sure add 1 more cup of sugar! 

Enjoy your freshly baked muffin!

Soda...Anyone?

I totally forgot that I have this genius little machine! My soda maker!!! I immediately pulled out the machine from tralala (cabinet) and started making mmm, well...soda!

If you are a soda drinker, it is wise for you to buy this. It is a bit pricey, but think of the empty bottles that you are throwing...where will they go? Additional trash?

I am trying to be an environmentalist here...heheh! But seriously, if you have this machine, you will not be throwing bottles again. You will also be saving a lot of money in the near future. A liter only costs P20.00 ($0.44 approx), and you can have carbonated drinks anytime you want.

I cannot remember the price of this, since it was only a gift last christmas. More or less, it is around P3,000 ($67).

The kit comes with the following:
1. 2 reusable bottles, you can use them
 for 3 years before you replace them.
2. 3 trial flavors: lemon lime for sprite, cola for coke, and orange for royal. But now, i heard that it comes with 1 bottle of flavoring of your choice.
3. The carbonator cylinder, which can carbonate 60 liters of water. By the way, an empty cylinder can be refilled, and its a lot cheaper than buying a new cylinder.
4. And of course the Machine, mine is Jet.

It is very easy to make your own soda using this. Here's the procedure...
1. Fill the bottle with water until you reached the line.
2. Attach the bottle in the machine. That small white tube should be inside the bottle. The air that will make the water fizz will pass there.

                                         
                                               Here's the carbonator at the back of the machine.

3. Press the button 3 times until you hear a loud buzz.

4. The water is already carbonated by this time. You can now put a cap full of the flavoring. Pour it slowly, coz the carbonated water will sizzle out of the bottle if you pour it fast.

Here's my flavoring...

5. Cover and carefully shake the bottle to mix the flavoring into the water. Chill before serving.

Here's the soda...see those bubblets?

When I poured the flavoring, my son said that I was trying to make a potion...heheheh!

Shrimp in Coconut Milk (Ginataang Hipon)

My mom bought shrimps for dinner and she ask me to cook buttered shrimps, because it is my boy's favorite. But then I changed my mind and decided to introduce my little boy to ginataang hipon (shrimps cooked in coconut milk).

And good thing I did...my son loved it!

Originally, we are adding kamias to this dish. The sour taste of the fruit goes well with the taste of the coconut milk. But since it is not in season, I used an alternative, the pineapple chunks. The ginataang hipon was on the sweet side because of the pineapple chunks but it was A-OK! And ooops I used the canned pineapple by the way!

So, should I changed the name of the dish to "Hawaiian Shrimps in Coconut Milk"? 

hahahah!

This is actually a one pot dish, and can easily be prepared by busy moms. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1/2 kg shrimps
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1 can (234g) of pineapple chunks or tidbits or kamias (if available)
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

1. Put coconut milk, water and pineapple in a pan and boil.
2. Once the liquid has been reduced to half, add the shrimps.
3. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Simmer until little oil, from the coconut milk, appears.

Serve Hot!

Cookbooks and Food Magazines

Maybe you are wondering where in this world am I getting all these recipes. Some of them came from the internet... from my favorite food blogs and websites. And some from my mini collection of cookbooks and yummy magazines.

Let me share you my precious collection.

1. Booksale rocks!! This is where I bought my hardbound cookbooks. Prices range from PhP55-150, cheap eh? You just need to browse everything in the shelves ala ukay ukay shopping! These are my buys from the bookstore...

1. Muffin Cookbook - PhP145.00
2. Philadelphia Ultimate Cheesecakes - PhP90.00
3. Healthy Cooking for Your Kids - PhP55.00

The Cupcake Deck, P125.00, With 25 cupcake recipes inside

2. Baking Cookbooks from National Bookstores and gift from my sis. I haven't tried any recipes from these though. Soon...soon.

Taste of Home Fall Baking, gift from sis; Best Ever Chocolate Cakes & Slices and Classic Essential Cakes, both from National Bookstore

My Complete Cookie Jar, gift from my sis! I love this book!

3. For main dishes, here are my cookbooks...

Let's Cook with Nora, P295.00; and Sarap, both from National Bookstore

       I love my "Let's Cook with Nora" cookbook! My favorite is the sweet and sour pork! The taste of the dish is like the authentic one, coz it has this chinese-y taste Hehehe! I know it's easy to cook this even without the cookbook, but promise, the recipe is so good! OA but true!

Quick and Easy and Cuisine Weeknight Menus, gift from my sis

I haven't tried any dish from the two above, you know my picky eaters are not use to those herbs and spices...so I still have yet to introduce them to those H&S. So goodluck to me!

4. Collection of Yummy Magazine, "kanya-kanyang trip to" hahah! Every first week of the month, I make sure to buy this magazine. I only buy from Robinsons Department Stores, not because the magazine is not available elsewhere, but it's where I'm working! I have to buy from the company that feeds me! haha! If only my friend Pats can read this, she'll be proud of me! hahahah!

Yummy Magazines, P125.00, Robinsons Department Stores

 

 5. And lastly, don't laugh please! hhehehe I have been wanting this I swear! And because it's a bit pricey I did not buy it. But instead, I (with my fingers crossed) included this in our Christmas wishlist 2 years(?) ago. We were ask to write 3 gifts that we want to receive on our christmas party so the "mommy" will not have a hard time choosing what gift we will like. I wrote a lock and lock food keeper, another low-priced option and this book. I expected to get the food keeper, but no...when I opened my gift, I saw this...

TADAAA....!!!!

You know what? Because of this book I was able to shed 18lbs! hahha! Eh what happened? Why am i still fat (huhuhu)? Coz i got tired of waking up early to prepare my food. Next year, I'll try this diet again...weh di nga?

To all foodies out there, hope you enjoyed reading my short kwento (story)!

Baking 101: Chocolate Cheesecake - My New Found Love

Here's an addition to my cheesecake recipe collection...the chocolate cheesecake. I used the the basic cheesecake recipe from Dessert Comes First, added some chocolates and voila...a mouth-watering dessert! Yum-o! (borrow lang rachel ray heheheh!)

From this recipe, I was able to fill a 6-inch spring form pan and 9 cupcake liners.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients

For the cheesecake
Make sure that all the ingredients are at room temperature.
2 - 8oz bars of cream cheese
1 can of condensed milk
3 large eggs
juice from 2 calamansi or lemon juice
120g semisweet chocolate (must be of good quality!!!)

For the Crust
1 1/2 cups crushed chocolate biscuits (crushed oreo or crushed hi-ro)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbsps melted butter

Procedure

Crust:
1. Mix crushed cookies and sugar in a bowl.
2. Pour melted butter into the cookie-sugar mixture. Mix until well incorporated.
3. Press the mixture firmly into the bottom of the baking pan. Bake for 5 mins in a preheated oven (375 degrees F).
4. Set aside.

Cheesecake Mixture:
**Preheat oven to 300 degrees F
1. In a double broiler, melt chocolate. Cool.
2. Beat creamcheese with wire whisk or electric mixer until fluffy and lumps free.
3. Gradually stir in the condensed milk until smooth.
4. Add the eggs one at a time and the juice of calamansi. Mix well.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
6. For spring form pan, bake the cheese for 50-55 minutes or until the center is jiggly.
    For cupcakes, bake for 20 mins.
7. Cool the cheesecakes before you chill them.

You can garnish it with whipped cream. I used whipped all purpose cream (eheheeh).

Taco Love (A simple taco recipe)

Taco, according to wikipedia, is a traditional Mexican dish composed of a corn or wheat tortilla folded or rolled around a filling. It can be made with variety of fillings, including beef, chicken, seafood, vegetable and cheese. This Mexican dish is so versatile. And the most exciting part is you won't be needing any utensils in eating this. 


I learned to love the taste of taco when I was in still in college. Our class used to sell this as part of our school project. 


Today I made this after craving for the taste of beef in a hard shell taco. We went to the grocery and bought the basic ingredients to make it. Basic, why? because we don't eat the other ingredients. The ingredients included in my taco are the same ingredients that you can find in Pancake house...oh well as far as i can remember.


Here' the recipe for the Taco.


Makes 12. 


Ingredients


1 box of hard shell taco (12 pcs)
400g ground beef
salt and pepper to taste
About 2-3 tbsp soy sauce
lettuce, shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
tomatoes, chopped
grated cheese
onion (optional)
hot sauce (optional)


Procedure:


1. Heat oil in a medium heat. Saute onion and garlic.
2. Add ground beef, stir until it turned to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add soy sauce (adjust according to taste). 
3. The meat will sweat, simmer until all the liquid has evaporated.
4. Remove from fire and set aside.


To assemble, put 2 tsps of meat in the hard taco shell, add the vegetables and top with cheese and hot sauce (optional).


Yummy!


Have you tried making your own tacos? 

Cheesy and Meaty Lasagna

My first lasagna EVER! Congratulations to me yay!

I was afraid and intimidated to make this pasta dish, until I decided to give it a try and if it will be a success, this will be my son's birthday handa. And if i fail, i will go back to my usual pinoy style spaghetti. E buti na lang successful! hahah! So it's final...this will be Joey's birthday pasta.

But I will never ever use the San Remo no cook lasagna noodles! The 45minutes cooking time was not enough to make the noodles soft. It felt like chewing uncooked rice...yuck! I strictly followed the cooking suggestion in the box..."to make sure that every pasta will be covered by the sauce to absorb the moisture". But no!!! I returned the lasagna in the oven and baked it for another 25 minutes, and left it inside the oven for another 10 minutes so the heat can still penetrate to those uncooked portion. Waste of power (lagot ang electric bill) and energy!

The sauce was great...cheesy and meaty! ♫♫That's the way a-huh a-huh I like it a-huh a-huh ♫♫! hahah!

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:
2 boxes of 250g oven ready lasagna noodles. I used san remo...haay..
For the Meat Sauce
1/2 kilo ground beef
5 cloves garlic
2 small onions
3-4 tbsp olive oil
1 can of button mushroom, sliced
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup (approx) tomato paste
1 1/2 cups broth, I used chicken broth
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
salt and pepper to taste
a teaspoon of sugar, to neutralize the acidity of the sauce (optional)

For the White Sauce
1/2 cup of butter
1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup cream of mushroom
2 cups of water
salt to taste
1/2 cup of hot water

Grated quickmelt cheese
grated parmesan cheese(optional). I just happened to have a near expiry parmesan, so I used it na lang.

Procedure:

Meat Sauce
1. Saute garlic and onion in olive oil, until onion turned transluscent.
2. Add the ground beef, break them into pieces. Let the meat "sweat" and turn into light brown.
3. When all the juices evaporated, add the basil and oregano and chopped mushrooms. Saute for another 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste and broth. If the sauce is too thick for you, add water.
4. Season with salt and pepper. Taste. Add sugar if you want to lessen the acidity, which I did.
5. Simmer for 5 minutes or less. Set aside.

White Sauce
1. In a pan, over low heat, melt butter. Add the flour. Make sure to constantly stir the mixture with a wire whisk to avoid lumps.
2. Once the mixture is paste-like, add 2 cups of water little by little while continuously whisking the mixture.
3. Stir in the milk and cream of mushroom.
4. Season with salt.
5. Simmer until slightly thick.
6. While it is cooling, it might become thicker. You can add hot water to thin the sauce a bit.

Assembly
**note: I used a 12x8x2 inches baking pan.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Pour enough white sauce to cover the bottom of the pan.
2. Lay about 3-4 noodles in the pan. They must be slightly overlapping.
3. Spread the meat sauce, making sure that the noodles will be well covered.
4. After the meat sauce, Spread a thin layer of the white sauce.
5. Sprinkle the grated cheese.
6. Repeat the procedure until all the noodles have been used up. The layering must end with the white sauce. Then sprinkle generously with grated quickmelt cheese and parmesan cheese.
7. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 45minutes-1 hour.
8. Remove from oven and cool a bit for 15 minutes before serving, so the pasta will stay firm and nice looking heheheh!

Enjoy!!!

My Favorite Cheesecake Recipes

I have mentioned before that cheesecake is my favorite dessert of all time. I like it with fruits on top and plain. yum yum!


Eversince I learned to bake this rich and decadent dessert, I never bought the commercially made cheesecakes. Thanks to the following sites, where I got my 3 best cheesecake recipes.

1. Joy of Baking



2. Homecooking Rocks - i also sent this picture to the blogger, to thank her for the cheesecake recipe! Thanks again!


3. Lastly, from Dessert Comes First. I don't have a picture of the cheesecake, but it was also equally good!

Try any of the recipe from the above mentioned blogs, and be a little adventurous with the toppings and I'm very sure that you'll have the best cheesecake! Trust me!

Baking 101: Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

This recipe was taken from yummy magazine, June 2009 issue. I was browsing my Yummy mag collection when I saw this recipe. We have lots of bananas that will be rotten in 2 days, so the recipe was just in time.

Since all of the ingredients are available, I did not waste time na to bake this.

I followed the recipe, except for the oil. I used canola oil instead of the corn oil.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
 
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 350degrees F. Line and grease 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan.
1. Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips) in a bowl. Stir to mix.
2. In another bowl, mix the brown sugar with the canola oil. Add eggs one at a time, stir in vanilla and the mashed bananas.
3. Add the flour mixture in the banana mixture, stir until well incorporated.
4. Transfer the mixture in a loaf pan.
5. Bake for 45 minutes or until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

The recipe is simple right? Try it and give me some feedback. 

Menudo Mania

I love my mom's menudo. And for me, it's the best menudo ever. The meat is so tender, and the sauce is so tasty. That's the reason why I really made an effort to learn this dish.

She was in the States, when I first cooked this. I YMed her just to dictate the recipe to me. After i read the recipe, I found out that there was nothing so special about the ingredients. In fact, she did not include the other ingredients found in other Menudo, just the potatoes and carrot. It might be in the process of cooking? ...maybe?

Again, this is the shortcut version of the popular Filipino stew.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients
1/2 kgs pork, menudo cut
4 tbsp Soy sauce
Juice from 3 pcs of small calamansi
3 cloves garlic
1 small sized onion
1 cup water
1 medium sized potato, cut into cubes
1 medium sized carrot, cut into cubes
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
 1/2 cup tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste.

 Procedure
1. Marinate meat in soy sauce and calamansi juice for about half an hour. I think this is the secret. The soymansi mixture will be absorbed by the meat.
2. Saute onion and garlic, add the marinated meat, set aside the soymansi mixture. Saute until the meat is half cooked. Add the bell pepper, water and the soysauce mixture. Cover and cook until the meat is tender.
3. Add the potatoes and carrots, simmer again until half cooked.
4. Add the tomato sauce, and mix until well incorporated. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer again for 3 minutes.
5. Serve with steamed rice!