Chocolate Mud Cake

This is yet another chocolate overloaded recipe. I serve this rich chocolate mud cake  with chocolate butter ganache.

If you are using instant coffee then you will not need 2 tbsp of sugar.

Ingredients:

• 250g butter, cubed
• 250g chocolate (semi sweet)
• 330g granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp granulated coffee + 2 tbsp sugar + 175ml (3/4cup) hot water
• 125 ml milk, cold
• 4 eggs
• 30ml (2 tbsp) vegetable oil
• 300g (2 cups) self raising flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 55g (1/2 cup) cocoa powder

Method:

1.  Preheat oven at 150 degree celcius. Grease or line pan with baking paper.
2. On double boiler (make sure the barely simmering water did not touch the bottom of bowl). Add in butter, chocolate, sugar, and coffee mix. Melt it all. it will take about 5 minutes. Once all melted remove bowl from pot and set aside. Let it cool down for 30 seconds. 
3. Meanwhile prepare the dry ingredients. Mix together self raising flour, salt and cocoa powder.
4. Add milk into the chocolate mix to reduce the temperature of the chocolate mixture. Whisk to mix well. I used electric mixer. 
5. Before you  add in eggs please ensure that the mixture is not too hot otherwise the egg will turn into scramble egg. Add in egg one at a time and mix well. 
6. Add in vegetable oil and mix well. 
7. Now its time for dry ingredient. Add dry ingredients you prepared earlier in 3 addition. Combine well.
8. Pour chocolate mixture mud cake mixture into prepare pan. 
9. Place in preheated oven at 150 degree Celsius for 2 hours or until the tester comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes and unmold. Let it cool on the cooling rack. 
10. Serve just like this or in my case i made dark chocolate butter ganache for the cake.Make sure the cake is completely cool before you pour over the ganache.

Remove the top crust if you want to have even top

Use baking paper to catch the dripping chocolate.

ENJOY!!

Egg Muffin Breakfast 1

Look at the layers

I am a bit tired of my oat breakfast lately so I figured I need bring in some excitement for my breakfast. Therefore, I decided to make egg muffins breakfast today so that I can have it for today and kept it in refrigerator for the rest of the week. Egg muffins are very versatile, you can basically put in anything you want but make sure it is cook through, any topping, amount of salt and pepper to your taste bud. This time around, I used ready make hash brown from Woolworth as the base. I cut it into smaller pieces so that it can fit snugly in the muffin pan. I then top it with diced cup mushroom, wilted baby spinach and rocket,  smoked turkey breast form Deli at Woolworth then pour in whisked egg and top with saute brown onion, some cheese and cayenne pepper.

For an healthier option, of course you can substitute the hash brown with diced boil potatoes. Add some salt into the boiling water so that the boiled potato did not turn out to be bland and swap smoke turkey breast to cook chicken breast pieces. You may scrap potatoes form recipe this together but remember your body need carbohydrate to do it essential functions.

So this is how I make my Egg Muffin Breakfast version 1.

Ingredients:-

3-4 pieces of ready make hash brown cut into pieces (not fried before hand)
3/4 cup of roughly diced cup mushroom
150g spinach and rocket, wilted, cover for 30 seconds in hot water
200g smoke turkey breast, roughly pulled or diced
5 Eggs for 6 cups muffin pan, whisked with a pinch of salt and 1/8 pepper
1/2 medium brown onion, diced and lightly saute with olive oil and a pinch of salt
Cheese enough for toppings (any cheese you desire )
Cayenne pepper, sprinkle
Olive oil to saute the onion and grease the pan


Method:-
1. Preheat over at 180 degree C. Grease muffin pan with olive oil. It has to be grease properly so that removing the breakfast muffin from the pan doesn't turn into a frustrating job. You can line with paper liners too.
2. To assemble the egg muffin, I snugly placed cut hash brown at the based of the muffin cup pan. Then I put in the cup mushroom, wilted baby spinach and rocket and pulled smoked turkey breast. I then pour in whisked egg. Go easy on the salt in the whisked egg because smoke turkey is already slightly salted. Pour up to 3/4 of the muffin cup. Top with lightly sauteed onion, cheese and sprinkle of cayenne pepper.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middel comes out clean.
4. Serve and enjoy.

Snugly placed potatoes pieces. Clearly Mr. Husband not sure where to focus

Waiting for whisked eggs to fill in. One side already have the sauteed. Will top the other side with sauteed onion after the egg pouring

Filled. The far end cups were top with saute onions after the eggs pouring

Overflowed eggs - mental note: should shake it so that it is evenly distributed

Tips:

Saute the onion : Diced half a brown onion. Heat a teaspoon of olive oil at medium heat, sprinkle a pinch of salt and lightly saute the diced onion until fragrant. See a side to cool.

Onion topping:I prefer to top sauteed onion one the whisked egg because I am not a fan of 'soggy' onion. I enjoy the caramelized bit of the onions.

Egg: Filled up to 3/4 only and give it a little  shake so that it is distributed evenly.

Leftovers: Leftover can be saved in the refrigerator for throughout the week for breakfast

Colours: Add some red or yellow capsicum or pumpkin for colours.


Happy trying and enjoy !

Brocolli, Mushroom and Smoked Salmon Quiche

Quiche again? Yes, another quiche but with different filling. I just love quiche because it is delicious, dead easy to make and can use whatever that's in my pantry. However, i feel this quiche is tastier than my previous quiche post because I saute the onion with butter before putting them into pastry case.

Ingredients:-

• 1 sheet puff pastry, thaw
• 50g butter
• 1/2 brown onion, minced (if you have smaller size onion use whole)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
• 1 cup sliced mushroom
• 1 cup small broccoli florets
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2  tbsp thickened milk
• 1/2 tbsp milk
• 50g smoked salmon, sliced
• salt and pepper
• ground black pepper
• 1 cup mozzarella cheese

Method:-

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius.
2. Ease puff pastry into pie dish, trimming to fit the dish. Place dish in oven tray, prick pastry lightly with fork, cover pastry with baking paper fill with weights. 
3. Blind bake for 15 minutes, remove weight and bake further until the pastry brown lightly. Want to know more about blind bake? Click here. 
4. Meanwhile, briefly boil broccoli florets in salted water until just tender. Drain and set aside.
5. Over medium low heat, melt butter in pan. Add onion, garlic and mushroom. Stir occasionally until onion is soft and mushroom is wilt. Season with salt and pepper, stir and set aside.
6. Whisk eggs in medium bowl, then whisk in cream and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Soak in the salmon pieces.
7. Now, to assemble the quiche. First, spoon mushroom mixture to the base of pastry. Second, top with brocolli. Carefully pour over egg mixture (only egg mixture). Then, sprinkle smoked salmon pieces, sprinkle some black pepper and finally sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until just set.

Smoked Salmon, Bacon and Asparagus Quiche

Melbourne's wheather wasn't very pleasant yesterday, so, I decided to just stay home, be lazy, rest and relax. Therefore, quick and easy meal will be highly compatible to this theme. I still have the cold smoke salmon that I bought from Taste of Melbourne last week and decided to whipped up some decadent smoked salmon, bacon and asparagus quiche. Find out more about asparagus HERE

Update 26/7/2017: this recipe has been recently featured in Quik Easy Cook. To see more recipe using asparagus please click HERE.

So, what is quiche? Quiche is a baked dish that is based on a custard from egg and milk or cream in a pastry crust. Usually the pastry shell is blind bake before other ingredients are added for secondary baking. INgredients such as meat, seafood, vegetables, cheese cand be added to it. Quiche may be eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner.


What is blind bake? Blind bake/pre baking is a process baking a pie crust or other pastry without the filling. Why blind bake? Blind baking a pir crust is necessary when (A) it's filling does not require baking, i.e cream pies, (B) when its filling need shorter time of baking compare to the crust and (C) to prevent the pie crust from becoming soggy from its filling, i.e wet filling. How to blind bake? Ease the pastry into pan or dish, make sure you ease them to the corner, trim the side with knife to fit the tin. Place he tin on an oven tray, prick pastry lightly with fork to avoid air pockets. Line pastry with baking paper then fill with baking weight such as uncooked rice or dried beans and baked.

The original recipe call for shortcrust pastry and no bacon is added. However, I use puff pastry because I still have frozen puff pastry left in fridge and of course some left over bacon. The original recipe also call for 30ml cream (which I assume is single cream) but I only have thickened cream at home so I do 3/4 thickened cream and 1/4 milk.

Here's the recipe:-

Ingredients:

• 1 sheets frozen puff pastry, thaw
• 1 bunch (about 80g) asparagus, slice diagonally into 1inch pieces (add more if you like asparagus)
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 tbsp thickened cream
• 1/2 tbsp milk 
• 100g smoke salmon, cut into strips
• 1/2 brown onion, chopped OR 1 stalk green onion/spring onion, white parts, sliced
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 1 piece bacon rashers, cut into strips
• 1/2 cup grated mozarella cheese

Methods:-

1. Preheat oven to 190 degree celcius. Grease pie dish. I use the aluminium pie dish available at the BBQ section so I have no idea of the measurement, 20cm perhaps? Line with the puff pastry, trim to fit, place dish oven tray, prick pastry light with fork, cover pastry with baking paper and fill with weights. 
2. Bake for 15 minutes with weights on, remove the weight and bake further until the pastry is browned lightly. About 10 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, briefly boil cut asparagus in lightly salted water. Boil until just tender, drain and set aside. 
4. Whisk eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in the cream and milk. Season with salt and ground black pepper.
5. Add asparagus, salmon and onion into the egg mixture. Mix well and pour in pastry case. Sprinkle with bacon and then mozzarella cheese. Initially I mix the bacon into the egg mixture as well,  but I think by sprinkling them I will be able to get the crunchy taste of it. 
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until just set.

in making.....

on the way to my tummy....

Hi, that's Dolly. Trying to steal my quiche.

TIPS:

• Add and subract any other ingredients you desireHERE

Pear Galettes with Honey Whipped Cream

Galettes is a general term use in French to designate various types of flat, round or freeform crusty cake. It is also known as french crepes with savoury or sweet filling.

Pear Galettes

Ingredients:

• 1 sheet ready rolled frozen puff pastry, thawed and quartered
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash) 
• 1 Bocs pear, quartered, cored, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries (optional)
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• icing sugar (to dust)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven at 200 degree celcius.
2. Line an oven tray with baking paper. Place quartered pastry on tray sprinkle evenly with cornflour and brown sugar. 
3. Roll edges in on 2 sides to form a 1.5cm border and brush edges with egg.
4. Arrange the pear slightly overlapping and top with berries over the pastry. Brush the pear slices and berries with melted butter and sprinkle caster sugar on galette.
5. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes until pastry is puffed, golden and juice are bubbling. 
6. Dust with icing sugar and serve with honey whipped cream.

All done.. waiting for cream

Honey Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy/thicken cream
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Beat heacy cream until thickened.
2. Add honey and vanilla extract.
3. Continue beating until it reaches the consistency you that desire or until soft form peak.

With cream... yummy...

TIPS:

• You may use any other pear or other fruits which is suitable for baking
• Feel free to use fresh berries