Matcha New York Cheesecake

It was my friend's Sin Cheah's birthday on 9 September. She is a green tea lover so I decided to make something related to green tea for her. I was having a fever just days before her birthday, hence, I can only do something easy.

Using my previous new york cheese cake recipe. I halves the recipe and made a 6 inches cake. Turned out quite all right. The birthday girl likes it but thinks could do more with the matcha flavour.
 
 

Ingredients required for biscuit base:-
100g digestive biscuits (yield thick base)
50g butter, melted

Cheesecake fillings:-
250g cream cheese, softened
20g butter, softened
65g sugar 
140g sour cream 
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp matcha powder
1 egg, beaten

Methods:-
1. Place biscuits in ziplock bag and roll with rolling pin. Mix the crumbles biscuits with melted butter and the line the prepared springform tin evenly, pressing down. Refrigerate them while preparing the cheesecake fillings
2. Beat room temperature cream cheese together with butter until smooth and no lumps on medium speed. 
3. Add sugar and beat till combined. 
4. Beat in sour cream, yoghurt, vanilla and matcha powder till incorporated.
5. Lastly, beat in egg until combined.
6. Pour fillings into prepared tins. Cover the base of the tins with 2 layers of aluminum foil to avoid water going in.
7. Bake cheesecake in water bath for about 50 minutes. The cake is done when the middle still jiggles.
8. Allow to cool after baked and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours.

New York Cheesecake

Recipe from Hundred Eighty Degrees

Before Father's day in May, I was hunting for something easy to bake. And cheesecake is the easiest. They turned out rich, creamy, with a hint of tanginess due to the addition of Yoghurt. I cut down the sugar just a little for the family. They love it.

I used the recipe to make 2 x 6 inches cake.

Ingredients required for biscuit base:-
200g digestive biscuits (yield thick base)
100g butter, melted

Cheesecake fillings:-
500g cream cheese, softened
40g butter, softened
140g sugar (I used 120g sugar)
280g sour cream ( use 200g sour cream plus 80g of Greek yogurt )
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs, beaten

Methods:-
1. Place biscuits in ziplock bag and roll with rolling pin. Mix the crumbles biscuits with melted butter and the line the prepared springform tin evenly, pressing down. Refrigerate them while preparing the cheesecake fillings
2. Beat room temperature cream cheese together with butter until smooth and no lumps on medium speed. 
3. Add sugar and beat till combined. 
4. Beat in sour cream, yoghurt and vanilla till incorporated.
5. Lastly, beat in egg until combined.
6. Pour fillings into prepared tins. Cover the base of the tins with 2 layers of aluminum foil to avoid water going in.
7. Bake cheesecake in water bath for about 50 minutes. The cake is done when the middle still jiggles.
8. Allow to cool after baked and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours.

Easy Snowskin Mooncake

Mid-Autumn festival was yesterday and last week, i made some snowskin mooncake for gift and for the family.This recipe is from Jacyln san and is really easy to handle but probably only lasted 4 days in the fridge. The skin still stays soft on the second and third day. By the fourth day, it is a bit hard and not really nice to eat anymore.


Yield 8 mini mooncakes (50g size)
You will need the below ingredients:-


130 g Hongkong Gao Fun (cooked glutinous flour)
80g icing sugar (i used 70g)
40g shortening
135 - 150g of cold water (please adjust accordingly)
coloring (own preference)

Paste of your preference. I used store bought low sugar durian lotus paste and white lotus paste.

Methods:-
1. Sift flour and icing sugar together
2. Rub shortening into the above dry ingredients.
3. Add cold water gradually and knead until a soft dough is form
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for half an hour
5. Prepare the paste fillings in 30g and roll them into balls.
6. After half and hour, divide the dough into 8 pieces, about 20 -22g each.
7. Wrap the paste into the dough and used your desire mooncake mould (i used the mooncake plunger type)

Cocoa Brownies

This recipe is an all cocoa brownies adapted from Brooke's Best Bombshell Brownies from allrecipes. 

The original recipes makes a 9 x 13 inches size. I usually half the recipe to make an 8 x 8 inches but i found it to be a little thinner that what I had in mind. So i used a 9 inches instead with yield a fair thickness of brownies. I also use Cacao Barry's Extra Brute cocoa powder. My family prefer the taste from Extra Brute compare to Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder.

To make a 9 inches square, you will need the below ingredients.

Ingredients:
225g melted butter
300g sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
4 eggs
190g all purpose flour - sift
85g unsweetened cocoa powder - sift
1 tsp salt
170g semisweet chocolate chips

Methods:
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease or line a 9 inches square baking tin.
2. Combined melted butter, sugar and vanilla.
3. Add eggs one by one and stir until combined
4. Fold in sifted flour, cocoa powder, salt and chocolate chips.
5. Pour into baking dish and baked for about 30 - 40 mins. 
6. The brownies are done when a cake tester/toothpick comes out with a bit of crumbs stick on it.
7. Cool completely before cutting in.


 
 

Apple Cinnamon Crumb Muffins

I guess I am just in the mood to post. This is from last Christmas.

I remembered I was trying very hard to come up with something nice to give my boss a.k.a lawyer for Christmas. Luck came when someone gifted a apple cinnamon cake to our office. My boss (ex-boss now) kept on telling me how much she love the cake. It was then I realised spice cake is her kind of things. So I went in search of the perfect apple cinnamon muffins recipe. I was short on time and there was no way I will have enough time to test with recipes. 

It was then, I came across the recipe from Two Pea & Their Pod and somehow, I knew that the said recipe will be perfect. I didn't make any changes to the recipe and follow exactly as instructed. Well, except that the amount of my apples seems to be more in comparison. 

So there I was at the office, right before Christmas and nervously sending up the muffin box. I was relief when she told me she loves them. They are delicious and the crumbles top are sweet and nice. She loves them so much she requested me to bake 20 more muffins for her to bring to a Christmas party the following weekends.

So here goes, recipe below (please visit their site for other wonderful recipes):-

 

Ingredients:-

1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground all-spice
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups diced peeled apples (I use Granny Smith)

For the Topping:
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:-

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners or spray with cooking spray. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the whole-wheat flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and all-spice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or spatula until just combined. Do not over mix. Add in the apples and stir until just combined.

3. To make the crumb topping, in a small bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and melted butter. Mix with a spoon until crumbly.

4. Fill the prepared muffin pan with muffin batter, filling each cup about 3/4 the way full. Sprinkle each muffin with crumb topping. Bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Let muffins cool to room temperature and serve.

My Note:

I find it just a bit on the sweet side and would reduce the sugar to about 2/3 cup : )

Chocolate Chocolate Chunk Muffins

All right, there is no excuse. I admit, I has been really lazy. I haven't been baking very much lately and most of my cookbooks has already been moved to my new house, which I will be moving in sometime during July.

Perhaps I will find time to blog about those goodies I baked in the past.

Last Sunday, me and my friends went on a road trip to Seria, which is about 1 1/2 hours drive from town. We went to the beach to watch a sunset and took some really great pictures! The three figures below are my friends.

Anyway, for this road trip, I had prepared my favourite chocolate chunks muffins from Michelle. I usually used dark chocolate for this recipe but these time, I added extra dark chocolates and some cinnamon powder.

My friends love it! I used a smaller muffin liner and the recipe gave me about 17 cups. I saved a few in the fridge and they still tastes good after I brought them to room temperature today. Ate the last 2 muffins today for tea.

Mochis~

Sometime, I would ask my mom , "what's your favourite food?"
She would think for a long time and couldn't come up with an answer.
At times, she would remember that her all time favourite is mochi. Always Mochis.

She would remembered the time when my younger brother went to Miri a few years back and bought back a kinda squash packet of mochis because he had been carrying it with both his hands all the time. Needless to say, my mom was touch.

I personally couldn't consume this kuih too much due to indigestion.

So, this Mochis is for mom. Hope you enjoy! The second type on the left hand corner with coated peanuts are my bro's favourite.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I am a lazy person. I baked a lot and yet, I feel lazy to write on my blog. Haha! I had been baking chicken pies every week for almost a month now. Feels great to finally do something different for this weekend.

I made red velvet cupcake last night, as requested by a colleague of mine. There seems to be a shortage of red food coloring at the store so I bought cherry red instead. My friend was telling me it should be the same. Well, as it turned out, cherry red colour was darker but it was nice as well.

Red Velvet cakes are pretty but to be honest, I am still not that comfortable at the idea of using food coloring. But my friend pointed out that the chocolate or snacks or candies I consume also has color in them. However, that doesn't make me feel better.

Pushing aside the fact that the cake is red in colour, the sponge is nice. I reduced the sugar to 90g cause I knew the frosting will surely be sweet. Of course, the cream cheese frosting is heavenly and I felt that the sweetness topping pair well with the not-too-sweet cake.

My colleague find the sweetness just right.

I had misplace my piping bag and my newly bought piping nozzle so I had to made do with my old plastic one. *sigh*. Need a lot of practice in piping.

Recipes from Michelle (browneyedbaker)

CNY Panic

Yesterday while I was checking my table calendar in office, I realised that Chinese New year is in two weeks. I sort of panic cause I haven't take my leave, plan my cny bakes, haven't pack for my trip (I am going to Alor Setar for the CNY). And eventhough I won't be celebrating the new year here, I still have to bake for giveaway.

So, tomorrow I will start with Peanut cookies and I will have to cramp the other bakes all next weekend!! Gawd, I am just not ready for chinese new year yet!! Hahaha.

Today's Bake; Egg Tarts & Brownies

I took leave today cause I was feeling tired and lazy. Cause I had been spending a lot of time reading a harry potter fan fic (very good fic indeed) and thought I might be able to take the day off, reading more fic. But i ended up baking egg tarts and brownies since this morning. What the hell! Hahaha. (recipes can be found here and here!)

Mama asked me why did I always bake during my off days. I told her that i would feel weird if I don't bake something. It's true. It's as much a part of my life as breathing and sleeping. All right, maybe i exaggerated a bit there but that's how much I love baking. :D

Today's bake is nothing new. I felt like eating some egg tarts and the last time I made a batch was probably sometime during the beginning of the year or something.

And for the brownies? It is a request from my dear old friend, Jacelyn. She insisted on paying for it and being my first customer but I guess I will try and see if I can convince her not to pay. hmm.... Anyhow, as I was mixing up my brownies this afternoon, I can feel that this brownies is gonna be just perfect. I don't know how I know but I just know. :D I also added 2 tbsp of kahlua.

Anyway, I have to go shower and off to meet the ladies! Hope they like my bake~

Have a great weekend everyone!