Brown Butter Blondies

I felt like indulging into some kind of Julie & Julia project, but the only thing different is that I'm using Williams-Sonoma's Essentials of Baking recipes. They are actually very basic and typical continental recipes but well I must say I'm having fun challenging myself to do it. So today another recipe from its Cookies, Bars and Brownies section, it called Brown Butter Blondies. Blondies are similar to brownies minus the chocolate. What in the world is Brown Butter? Just go to Cold Storage and ask for a brown butter....nope!...stop there!  Well, it made from clarified butter.

Clarified butter process:

• Melt a 250g unsalted butter in a small glass pan (or frying pan) over a low heat until it is foamy on the surface
• Remove the pan from heat, let is rest for a couple of minutes. It will form 3 layers, which is the foam on the surface, yellow liquid in the middle and milk solid in the bottom.
• Using a tablespoon, remove the foam from the surface. Pour the yellow liquid into a clean bowl very carefully and leave the milk solids behind in the pan. Discard the milk solid.

Brown Butter:

• Heat clarified butter in a small glass bowl (or frying pan) over low heat until light brown about 6-7 minutes. Remove from heat. It will look like this...
• 250g butter will yield the required amount of the clarified butter in this recipe

Ok...let us meet and get to know these blondies better, shall we?

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup clarified unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven 160 degrees Celsius. Line an 8 inch baking tray with baking paper
2. In a medium bowl, sift the flour and salt. Set aside
3. In a small glass pan, heat the clarified butter until light brown for about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and cool slightly
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine both sugars and slightly cooled brown butter and stir using a silicone spatula until well blended. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and lemon juice until smooth. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. 
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean
6. Transfer to a wire rack and let it cool for about 1 hour
7. Serve with ice cream and chocolate sauce

Maple Walnut Squares

This recipe was supposed to be Maple Pecan Squares, I was too lazy to go to the bakery supplies store to get the pecan yesterday, so just tried to find it at Carrefour & Cold Storage nearby my house but it was not available. I got like nicely 2 cups of walnuts in the fridge and decided to substitute it with what I have. This is quite an expensive recipe...the walnut, the pure canadian maple syrup, and to make it more expensive I substitute the brown sugar with muscovado sugar. Muscovado sugar is unrefined sugar and nutritionally richer that the brown sugar because it retains most of the natural mineral from the sugar cane, and the taste is more intense .... in Malaysia it close to the dark brown gula melaka.

Ingredients:

Crust

1 1/4 (200g) cup all purpose flour

1/3 (75g) firmly packed brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 (125g) cup cold unsalted butter, chopped

Filling

6 tbsp (90 g) butter

1/3 cup (105 g) pure maple syrup

2/3 (155 g) firmly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy /double cream

2 cups (250 g) coarsely chopped pecans

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius and line a 9 inch square baking pan with heavy duty aluminum foil. Let the foil extend up the sides of the pan. Spray the foil with vegetable oil.
2. In large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt, stir until blended. Fold in the butter and mix until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
3. Press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake the crust for 12-17 minutes until edges are lightly browned.
4. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine and stir together the butter, maple syrup and sugar until the butter melts and sugar dissolves.
5. Bring to a boil and continue to let it boil for 1 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and stir in the cream. Fold in the nuts and pour the filling over the crust. Spread evenly.
7. Bake for 25 minutes or until the filling is set when you give the pan a gentle shake.
8. Let cool completely for about 1 1/2 hours before lifting up the liner from the baking pan.
9. Cut it into 25 small or 16 medium squares.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Tart

Resipi asal saya ambil dari blog CMG tapi gambar saya punya sendiri ye...hehe. Tak baik plagiat harta intelek orang tau....Terima kasih kepada semua foodie blogger yang sudi berkongsi resipi. Resipi CMG ni memang sedap but instead of blueberry filing, I used my Homemade Strawberry Jam. Sila..sila..

Pastri/Pastry
125 g mentega sejuk, didadu kecil (cold butter, diced/chopped)
40 g gula aising (confectioner sugar)
1 biji telur gred A, dipukul sedikit (large egg, lightly beaten)
220 g tepung biskut atau tepung gandum (all purpose flour)
1 camca teh esen vanilla (vanilla essence)

Inti/Filling
250 g cream cheese, pada suhu bilik (cream cheese at room temperature)
90 g gula aising (confectioner sugar)
20 g mentega (soft butter)
100 ml whipping cream
1 biji lemon, parut kulitnya (zest from 1 lemon)
1 biji telur gred A (large egg)
Blueberry / Strawberry filling secukupnya

Let's roll:

Pastry

1. Combine flour and sugar in a big mixing bowl
2. Add the butter & vanilla into the flour mixture and mix with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs
3. Gradually add egg and lightly knead until the dough comes together and doesn't stick to the sides to the mixing bowl
4. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 20 minutes
5. Preheat oven to 175 Celsius and grease the pastry pan
6. Roll out the pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper until 3mm thick
7. Line the pan with pastry. Trim excess and refrigerate for 15 minutes
8. Place tin on a baking tray. Line pastry with baking paper. Fill with ceramic pie weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking paper and bake for another 5 minutes until light golden. Set aside.

Filling

1. Reduce oven temp to 150 degrees
2. Using an electric mixer, beat all ingredients except the blueberry or strawberry filling until thick and creamy 
3. Pour filling into the pastry case. Spoon the filling on top and run a cake tester or a knife through it to get the marbled effect. Bake for 15 minutes or until just set. Set aside to cool. Refrigerate until chilled

Pulut Kuning & Sambal Tumis Ikan Bilis

Kalau kek Nismilan, kalau ado bergholek ko kenuri maco QulhuAllah ko atau pun yolah sajo-sajo bokumpul adik beradik ko sedagho ko kan, mesti ado ni. Orang Negoghi memang makan pulut ni ngan sambal ikan bilih. Laie banyak ikan bilih laie sodap..kalau ikan bilih eh banyak, bawang eh kono lah banyak. Tapi den buek haghi ni untuk anak beranak den yo makan...ni menu pagi tadi. Sarapan eh ni lah deh, peh tu den goreng bihun sikit...agak-agak boghek lah jugak. Jadi mak'ano eh den tak yah lah masak tongahari doh. Potang ni tadi den buek lah kuih oghang putih sikit untuk minam potang. Kang malam kang den buek posting kuih tu yo.

Pulut Kuning

3 cawan beras pulut (direndam semalaman dengan 1/2 sudu teh serbuk kunyit)

1/2 cawan santan kotak, dikocak bersama 1/2 sudu teh garam halus

Air kukusan secukupnya

Daun pisang atau daun pandan (saya guna daun pandan)

1. Panaskan periuk kukusan di atas dapur
2. Alas dulang kukus dengan daun, kalau guna daun pisang cucuk sedikit daun itu menggunakan garpu untuk memberi ruang bagi wap air naik ke atas periuk kukusan 
3. Buang air rendaman beras and toskan beras, lalukan air bersih ke atas beras tersebut dan tuang beras ke atas dulang kukusan. 
4. Masukkan dulang kukusan ke dalam periuk dan kukus selama 20 minit
5. Keluarkan dulang kukusan, tuang atau kaup pulut setengah masak ke dalam mangkuk nasi yang besar dan tuang santan ke dalam pulut. Kaup balikkan supaya ianya rata.
6. Masukkan semula pulut ke dalam dulang kukus dan masukkan ke dalam periuk dan kukus lagi selama 10-15 minit. Tutup api dan biarkan selama 5 minit lagi sebelum hidang.

Sambal Tumis Ikan Bilis

 2 sudu besar bawang besar yang telah diblend
1 biji bawang putih - dimayang
1.5 sudu besar cili kisar
1 sudu teh garam
1 biji asam keping
Gula melaka, dlm anggaran 1 sudu besar - atau secukup rasa
1 cawan air
1 biji bawang besar - dihiris
Segenggam ikan bilis - direndam dengan air panas dan bersihkan
1/2 cawan santan
Minyak untuk menumis

1. Panaskan kuali dengan sedikit minyak
2. Tumis  bawang blend dan bawang putih. Masukkan cili kisar. Kacau sedikit dan masukkan garam, asam dan gula melaka. Masak hingga naik minyak.
3. Masukkan air dan biarkan mendidih.
4. Masukkan ikan bilis dan bawang hiris. Kacau dan biarkan dlm 2 minit dan masukkan santan. 
5. Tambah gula atau garam jika perlu
6. Masak dalam 5 minit lagi sebelum hidang.

Time out

source: Google

Caroline Chocolate Rolls

Just happened to bump into this recipe which is from Nestle Toll House's website this afternoon and straight away decided to try it. I didn't have Nestle Toll House cocoa powder or Nestle morsels so  just substitute with Valrhona cocoa powder and my usual chocolate chips. It turned out ok but I think I'll need to modify it a bit later.

OLLO 2013!

source: Mr Google

OLLO! Happy New Year everybody! It has been quite a while not doing any recipes from Rose's Heavenly book. So today I am baking a Marble Velvet Cake page 52 of the abovementioned book (picture below, the lady in red). It is not just another marble cake, it is a sour cream based and it uses egg yolks only...6 of them! But of course obviously, Western desserts are just too sweet for me so I did a little bit modification on the sugar.

Marble Velvet Cake

Batter:
85 gm (3 oz) dark chocolate, chopped (I used Valrhona Manjari 64%)
112 gm (4 oz) egg yolks, about 6 of them
1 cup sour cream ( I don't have it so I used 1 cup of buttermilk instead)
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
255 gm unsalted butter, room temperature

Let's bake it:

1. Grease one 10-cup metal fluted tube pan and sift some flour over it
2. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius
3. Put the chocolate in a microwavable glass bowl and heat it for 15 seconds, stir with silicone spatula, heat it again for 15 seconds and stir, repeat the process until the chocolate fully melted. Put aside to cool. You can also use a double boiler method.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk the yolks, 1/4 cup of the sour cream and vanilla until just combined.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the butter and the remaining sour cream, mix until all the dry ingredients are moistened. Scrape the sides and beat for another 1 1/2 minutes.
6. Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 parts, beating on medium speed every 20 secs after each addition.
7. Scoop out about 1 1/2 cups of the plain batter into a medium bowl and stir in the melted chocolate, mix well until the color fully incorporated.
8. Scoop 1/3 of the plain batter into the prepared pan. Top with half of the chocolate mixture. Spread gently but evenly. Top another third of the plain batter followed by the remaining chocolate mixture. Finally, top with the remaining plain batter, spread evenly.
9. Dip a tablespoon into the batter,without touching the sides or bottom, lift up and over in a folding motion, like the roll of a wave, 6-8 times, going all around the pan. Smooth the surface evenly.
10. Bake for 50 minutes or until a wire tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.
11. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes before invert it onto a wire rack. Cool completely