Chocolate Babka

I have been so busy at work that I have not been posting for almost one week now. Just started a new job and it's been quite busy but fun. Lots of learning and new experiences.

I made chocolate babka last Sunday for tea at home. I first had my Babka at a chocolate shop in melbourne call Max Brener. My neighbour then invited me over to her place few weeks ago and she bought chocolate babka from one of the bakeries around here, but it was made differently. The babka I know is always made into a big loaf or in roll form like cinnamon rolls. But the ones she bought was made into small little rolls and stick them together to make a round cake pan size chocolate babka. It was so delicious. Super duper chocolatey and yummy. Almost like chocolate croissant but with more chocolate punch in it. That started my venture into looking for chocolate babka recipe and I found it from smittenkitchen. But instead of making them into loaves form, I made them into small little rolls and sticked them together. It was delicious with lots of chocolate and looked cute too. All my guests loved them. It was so easy to serve, just cut the edges where the rolls stick together and serve individually. Hope you like it too.

I halved the recipe because it looked too much to do the whole recipe for me. Halving the recipe will be more than enough for 8-10 people.

Chocolate Babka
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

• 1 1/2 cups warm milk, 110 degrees farenheit
  
• 2 (1/4 ounce each) packages active dry yeast
• 1 3/4 cups plus a pinch of sugar
• 3 whole large eggs, room temperature
• 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
• 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature, plus more for bowl and loaf pans
• 2 1/4 pounds semisweet chocolate, very finely chopped*
• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream

1. Pour warm milk into a small bowl. Sprinkle yeast and pinch of sugar over milk; let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.

2. In a bowl, whisk together 3/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, and egg yolks. Add egg mixture to yeast mixture, and whisk to combine.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour and salt. Add egg mixture, and beat on low speed until almost all the flour is incorporated, about 30 seconds. Change to the dough hook. Add 2 sticks butter, and beat until flour mixture and butter are completely incorporated, and a smooth, soft dough that’s slightly sticky when squeezed is formed, about 10 minutes.

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead a few turns until smooth. Butter a large bowl. Place dough in bowl, and turn to coat. Cover tightly with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

5. Place chocolate, remaining cup sugar, and cinnamon in a large bowl, and stir to combine. Using two knives or a pastry cutter, cut in remaining 1 1/2 sticks butter until well combined; set filling aside.

6. Generously butter a pyrex pie pan or round cake pan. Line them with parchment paper. Beat remaining egg with 1 tablespoon cream; set egg wash aside.

Punch back the dough, and transfer to a clean surface. Let rest 5 minutes. Cut into 3 equal pieces. Keep 2 pieces covered with plastic wrap while working with the remaining piece. On a generously floured surface, roll dough out into a 16-inch square; it should be 1/8 inch thick.

7. Brush edges with reserved egg wash. Crumble 1/3 of the reserved chocolate filling evenly over dough, leaving a 1/4-inch border. Refresh egg wash if needed. Roll dough up tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch ends together to seal.

Cut rolls into small 3cm pieces and stick them to each other in prepared pan

8. Heat oven to 350 degrees farenheit / 180 degrees celcius. Brush the top of each loaf with egg wash. Loosely cover each pan with plastic wrap, and let stand in a warm place 20 to 30 minutes.

9. Bake loaves until golden, about 55 minutes. Lower oven temperature to 325 degrees farenheit / 165 degrees celcius and bake until babkas are deep golden, 15 to 20 minutes more. Remove from oven, and transfer to wire racks until cool. Remove from pans; serve. Babkas freeze well for up to 1 month.

* After chopping the chocolate into moderately sized chunks, I used the food processor to pulse the rest of the chocolate in two batches to small bits. It saved a lot of time!

That was the tips and recipes from smitten kitchen, modified slightly by myself just with regards for the arrangement of the rolls.

Try and make it, you won't regret it.

Date and Walnut Scones

Well I have a problem and it's quite serious. I have a craving, and I really need to find a solution to satisfy my cravings. I'm addicted to scones!....*blush* I have been making scones after scones, and searched up and down for the best scone recipe because I love those scones at my workplace so much ( I believe I mentioned this many times before in my previous posts....). Since I'm going back to Melbourne next week, probably won't be coming back to Ballarat anytime soon, I need to find a recipe I can replicate at home and make scones whenever I want to.

I think I've found "The One". The scone recipe that I shared last week was great. But date and walnut? The best so far...Well I might change my mind when I come up with a new combination, but so far this one is the best for me and my hubby. Well I found out that hubby doesn't like savoury scones. But he loved these date and walnut scones. He thinks they are better that bakers delight's. I'm not sure if they are better than bakers delight's but they sure were yummy. I used the same basic recipe that I used for my savoury scones, except that I added sugar, a little bit more butter and used dates with walnuts instead. The tops stayed crispy after 1-2 days which was great, and we just put them in the microwave for about 2 mins to warm them up and they were as good as coming out fresh from the oven. Hope you like them as much as we do.

Date and Walnut Scones

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour, sifted
  
• 1 tablespoon baking powder


• 100 grams cold butter, cubed


• 1/4 cup dates, chopped


• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts


• 1/3 cup sugar
  
• 180mls or 3/4 cup thickened cream


• Pinch of salt


• Milk to glaze prior to baking
  

Methods:

1. Add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar to mixing bowl. Mix well.


2. Add in cubed butter and mix together until small clumps form. You can use hand or food processor if you have one


3. Then add in dates and walnuts.


4. Add in thickened cream and use a fork to mix together until the dry ingredients are moistened


5. Pour out all the ingredients onto floured surface and lightly mix until the dough comes together. Be careful not to overmix the dough or the scones will become really hard


6. Form a ball and cut into 6 triangles or you can use cookie cutter and cut into small rounds as well.


7. Glaze the scones with milk before baking


8. Bake in preheated 220 degrees celcius for 15-17 minutes until tops are browned and crunchy


9. Serve with butter
   

Tips:

• I found that my scones spread out a little bit when I baked and became a bit flat. What I noticed from this cafe at my workplace was they flipped the scones sideways halfway through baking. I will try this next time. So halfway through baking maybe after 5-6 minutes, I will try to change the position of the scones so that the sides are facing up. This might help to keep the scones tall. I have not tried this before but saw the owner of this cafe doing this and has maintained good height for their scones. =)
  
  

Chinese New Year Bake #2 - Kue Putri Salju

This is another traditional Indonesian Chinese New Year cookie. I don't think I have ever seen this sold in Malaysia. But I might be wrong. It's called kue putri salju ( snow white cookies) because it's dusted with icing sugar which makes it looks like it's covered in snow. Why snow white? I have no idea, maybe Indonesian loves fairy tale....?? ahhaha....I'm not sure but I guess it makes sense to call it snow white cookies as it looks pretty covered in snow-like icing sugar....=)

These cookies are usually shaped like a moon or we call it bulan sabit in Indonesian. If you feel lazy to make it moon-shaped then just make small rounds like peanut butter cookies. Try to leave some space in between cookies when you bake because it will expand in the oven and might stick to one another which will be troublesome to separate later on. What I did to shape these cookies was to roll a dough longitudinally and then bend it to make them look like moons. Also, just like my recipe for peanut butter cookies, the dough is quite sticky especially if you make it in hot Malaysia/Singapore weather. I suggest you get a bowl of flour handy next to you and dust your hands every now and then to make it more workable for you.

I'm also submitting this to Aspiring Baker #3- My favourite CNY cookies hosted by Jess' Kitchen.

Kue Putri Salju- Snow White Cookies

Ingredients:

• 250 grams unsalted butter
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 250 grams plain flour, sifted
• 200 grams ground roasted cashew nut

Icing sugar for dusting

Methods:

1. Beat butter and sugar until soft and fluffy
2. Add in ground cashew nuts and plain flour alternately until well combined
3. Leave dough in fridge for 1 hour (I didn't leave it in the fridge when I made it and it still came out well). I guess leaving in the fridge will make the dough easier to work with.
   
4. Shape dough into moon shapes. Dust your hands with a pinch of plain flour after rolling 3-4 cookies to make it more workable.
   
5. Bake in preheated 160 degrees celcius oven for 25-30 minutes until golden brown
6. Leave cookies to cool
   
7. Once cookies are cooled, dust both sides with icing sugar

Wish all of you a wonderful and Happy Chinese New Year

Scones take 2 - Chives, Bacon and Sundried Tomato

My second attempt on savoury scones. This time I put chives, bacon and sundried tomatoes. I tried a different recipe this time. The last one was adapted from Masterchef of which did not require butter. But I was really curious if it will make any difference with butter added as that seems to be a usual ingredient in scones. The verdict? I prefer the ones with butter in them...ahhahahaa....It just somehow tasted better, lighter, fluffier with a more crunchy top. I think it was the butter that made the difference.

You can certainly make them into sweet scones, just add 1/3 cup of sugar and cut down the salt to the dry ingredients and the rest remains the same.

Chives, Bacons and Sundried Tomatoes Scone

Ingredients:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 90 grams cold butter, cubed
• 1/4 cup dried chives
• 1/4 cup diced bacons
• 6 pieces of sundried tomatoes, chopped into small pieces
• Pinch of salt and ground black pepper
• 180mls or 3/4 cup thickened cream
• Milk to glaze prior to baking

Methods:

1. Sift flour and baking powder to mixing bowl. Add in cubed butter and mix together until small clumps form. You can use hand or food processor if you have one
2. Then add in chives, bacons, sundried tomatoes, salt, pepper and mix well
3. Add in thickened cream and use a fork to mix together until the dry ingredients are moistened
4. Pour out all the ingredients onto floured surface and lightly mix until the dough comes together. Be careful not to overmix the dough or the scones will become really hard
5. Form a ball and cut into 6 triangles or you can use cookie cutter and cut into small rounds as well.
6. Glaze the scones with milk before baking
7. Bake in preheated 220 degrees celcius for 15-17 minutes until tops are browned and crunchy
8. Serve with butter

Tips:

• Other variations: Cheese and chives ( just add one cup of cheddar cheese), cheese and olives, mediteranian ( olive, cheese, sundried tomatoes and bacon). Sweet scones: date and walnut, apricot and coconut ( use shredded coconut), etc etc. Just need to change the ingredients added and you can make a whole lot of different varieties.
• If serving the next day, just put in microwave for 30 seconds to warm it up.
• For plain scone: just add 1/3 cup sugar with pinch of salt. Serve with whipped cream and jam....perfect for afternoon tea.

Kue Kacang Skippy - Peanut Cookie

I have a confession to make. I love peanut and this is my favourite peanut butter cookies.

My wonderful mommy passed this recipe down to me. It's one of my favourite Chinese New Year cookies ever. I'm sure my sister mydatewithfood will agree too. It's a bit different from the usual peanut cookies we find in Malaysia or Singapore I think. In Indonesia we just use peanut butter, good old Kraft Skippy Chunky Peanut Butter. Hence the name Kue Kacang Skippy. I'm not sure if you only find this in Indonesia as most of the peanut cookies recipes I read from foodblog use roasted peanuts that are processed to powder form ( which is equally delicious too). Call us Indonesians lazy...ahhaha...but these cookies are oh so good and easy to make. Only 4 main ingredients needed. The moment you put them in your mouth, it just melts away. That's one of the difference with the peanut cookies using roasted peanuts, I find those to be a bit on the crispy crunchy side which is really yummy too, but this one is more on the "melt in your mouth" side. Give it a try and see if you like it. It definitely saves me the time roasting and grinding the peanuts.

I'm also submitting this recipe to Aspiring Bakers #3: My favourite CNY cookies hosted by Jess' Kitchen.

Kue Kacang Skippy - Skippy Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

• 500grams Chunky Peanut Butter
  
• 900 grams plain flour, sifted
• 400 grams vegetable oil
• 400 grams pure icing sugar, sifted
• Pinch of salt
  

2 egg yolks to glaze the cookies before baking

Methods:

1. Put all the ingredients ( oil, peanut butter, flour, icing sugar and salt) except egg yolk in a big bowl and mix well.
2. Form the dough into small balls of 2-3cm diameter
3. Glaze with beaten egg yolks and bake in 180 degrees celcius oven for 15-20 minutes until the tops are browned.
4. Well, that's all you need to do really. SEEEEEE??? Told ya it's easy...=)

NOTES:

• The dough will be on a sticky side. So get a bowl of flour ready just next to you, and after rolling 3-4 cookies, dust your hands very lightly with just a pinch of flour. Justttt a pinch, like this. Repeat dusting every 3-4 cookies.
  

Dust your hands with a bit of flour after rolling 3-4 cookies.
This will make the dough easier to handle.

• With the full recipe I managed to make 3 big containers like this. And a bit more to munch before CNY..=)...

Molten Chocolate Cake

Who doesn't love a good serving of molten chocolate cake? Unless if you really hate chocolate or allergic to it or had bad experience with it, I really can't find a reason to NOT like molten chocolate cake. Personally, I think it's the best way to serve chocolate in all its glory. Sweet, warm, melty, goey, all in one serving of this wonderful dessert. Whoever created this cake would be a GENIUS.....I was thinking maybe it came out as an error.....Maybe the founder did not even plan to make it molten but took out the cake a little bit too early and was still a little undercooked in the middle and thought " MMM...it actually tastes even better than getting it fully cooked...." Whatever it is I'm glad this cake was created.

Molten chocolate cake is my favourite cake of all times. Whenever I go to restaurant, I will always choose this over any other deserts if it's available. I found this wonderful recipe from again, Ree " The pioneer woman ". The recipe was actually shared by one of the members of Tasty Kitchen ( Ree's food recipes sharing website). I have to say, it's absolutely gorgeous. You can whip it up in less than 15 minutes, and just need to bake in oven for 12 minutes and you've got yourself the BEST dessert of all times. It's elegant, tasty and sofisticated. Your guests would adore you and asks for more dinner parties at your place. =)

Molten Chocolate Cake

Adapted from Tasty Kitchen

• 112grams Semi-sweet Baking Chocolate
• ½ cups Butter
• 1 cup Powdered Sugar
• 2 whole Eggs
• 2 whole Egg Yolks
• 6 Tablespoons Flour
• 2 cups Real Whipping Cream (seriously It's So Much Better!)
• 2 Tablespoons Sugar
  

Methods:

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees celcius
2. Spray 4 custard cups with oil or butter the custard cups and place on cookie sheet.
3. Microwave chocolate and butter in large bowl on high for about 1 minute, until butter is melted. whisk until chocolate is also melted.
4. Stir in sugar until well blended. Whisk in eggs and egg yolks. Stir in flour.
5. Divide between cups.
6. Bake 12 minutes until sides are firm and center is soft. Let stand 1 minute.
7. Combine sugar and heavy cream and whip until stiff.
8. Invert cakes on dishes and top with whipped cream.

Tips:

• The baking was stated as 13-14 minutes on the original recipe, but for my oven I found that 12 minutes is perfect. Just the right amount of goeyness and set on the outside
• I served with vanilla ice cream. I prefer ice cream better than whipped cream. But that's just my personal preference...=)
• Sorry the dessert was too good that I finished it all up in like 5 minutes and didn't get or bother (*blush*) to take the photos of the cake when it was out of the oven. So impatient of me, but I promise if I make it again I'll post it up. So the photo was actually taken before it went to the oven. It was that good you see? You just can't wait to dig in.

Hope you enjoy it too

Cinnamon Rolls

The weather in Melbourne has been really humid and a bit yucky the past few days. Non-stop rain. I'm sure those who live here in Australia have all heard about the flood in Brisbane. Please keep Brisbane in prayer and pray that the rain will clear away soon. For those who are living there, I pray for strength and comfort during this difficult time. It's quite a shock to the whole nation at this stage to have this flood happening but I'm sure everyone's keeping Brisbane in prayer and the sun will surely shine again after the storm.

Back to this post, I believe that if one person would claim her recipe to be the best, that will be HER. Ree, from the pioneer woman. What a genius! I tried her cinnamon rolls recipe and oh wow, they did take me up to cloud 9. It was the easiest bread I have ever made, and they were so tasty and soft. I was just so amazed I could make cinnamon rolls so easily, without using up my biceps and triceps much at all and yet the result was phenomenal.

I love this recipe. I sure am going to keep making them in the future. My husband and brother in law love them too. The only advise I'll give is to make sure you put the pre-baked rolls into a tight fitting pan, like a square pan or round pan. I put some of them on baking tray, and instead of proofing upwards, they proofed sideways. So the buns did end up flat and a little bit dry. The other batch where I put the rolls in a square pan, proofed so well and I guarantee you they were oh so soft and nice. It was not the dough's fault. It was my fault for not putting them in the correct pan. So choose a pan where you can JUST fit the rolls in, of course giving a bit of space in between the pre-baked rolls to have their final proof. When they have their final proof they'll start sticking to each other and proof upwards. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, I do have the tendency to be unclear sometimes...=)

Instead of making the maple flavoured icing as per her recipe, because I didn't get to buy maple flavouring, I made lemon-flavoured icing. The result was still satisfying. Oh yea, I halved the recipe as well. The full recipe probably yields around 60 cinnamon rolls, don't think my family can finish that much of cinnamon rolls. So half recipe yielded around 30 rolls. Still a lot but trust me, it's just enough for a family of 3-4 coz they're that good.

You can visit Ree's page for step-by-step instructions which are really helpful. I suggest that you have a look at the step-by-step instructions first actually.

The Best and Easiest Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Adapted from the pioneer woman's recipe

Ingredients:

for the dough:

• 2 Cups whole milk
• 1/2 Cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 3/4 tbsp instant yeast
• 4 Cups flour
• Extra, 1/2 Cups flour
• 1/2 heaping tsp baking powder
• 1/2 scant tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tbsp salt
  

Filling:

• 1 Cup melted butter
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1/2 Cup cinnamon (or more depending on preference) or chocolate chips ( I made a different batch with chocolate chips. I prefer the cinnamon ones)
  

Frosting:

• 1/2 bag Powdered Sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cups Milk
• 1/8 cups Melted Butter
• zest of 1 lemon
• pinch of Salt

Methods:

1. Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in instant yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.
2. After rising for at least an hour, add 1/2 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down. I just let it rise for another hour and the result was beautiful)
3. When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.
4. Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it. Finish up the other half of the dough in a similar way.
5. Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.
6. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees farenheit until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.
   

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls.

Tips:

• The photo below showed the ones I put in the wrong pan. See how they're quite flat in comparison to other batch on top left corner of my first photo where I put in a square pan? So yea, put the rolls in the correct pan.
  
  
• I used instant yeast for this recipe. If you want to use active dry yeast, then just use 1tablespoon of active dry yeast. The proportion for instant:active yeast is approximately = 0.75 : 1. So 1 tablespoon active dry yeast = 3/4 tablespoon instant yeast.

Make these rolls! You won't regret it. Takes no time to prepare, and I assure you you can even get your ironing done while waiting for the dough to rise. =)