Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Walnut Chocolate Chips Cookies

I didn’t manage to bake a lot due to my hectic work life prior to Chinese New Year. Mum baked most the cookies at home and I’m still in the midst of perfecting my baking skills.
Here’s one of my all-time favorite chocolate chip cookies recipe and I must insist that you use good quality chocolate brand like Hershey or Van Houten. There’s no compromise to make the best chocolate chip cookies by substituting with low grade chocolate. You will know it once you have tasted it.



INGREDIENTS
125g butter, melted at room temperature
100g brown sugar
175g biscuit flour or medium protein flour
½ tsp baking soda
130 g crushed walnut, toasted
80g semi-sweet chocolate chip
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla essence

METHOD
1. Mix the flour and baking soda evenly in a medium bowl. You may sift the flour if you want a finer texture biscuits.
2. Beat the butter and sugar using a hand electric mixer until pale and fluffy.
3. Add in the vanilla essence and break the egg into the batter. Mix with low speed until combined.
4. Fold in flour slowly until it becomes soft look-alike dough.
5. Mix the walnuts and chocolate chips into the dough evenly.
6. Spoon the dough one inch apart onto baking tray lined with parchment or baking paper.
7. Bake in preheated oven at 190 Celcius for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Lemon Cheesecake

First post for 2012 with another favorite cheesecake recipe. I wanted to make a blueberry cheese cake initially but since my brother is around and berry is not his cup of tea, I changed my mind. This lemon cheese cake is matched with Oreo crumbs as the base and sinfully tasty. 


INGREDIENTS
Base
100g Oreo cookies crumbs
50g butter, melted

Filling
250g cream cheese
65g whipping cream
30g granulated sugar
2 tbsp corn flour
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon essence
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
35g granulated sugar

METHOD
1. Mix the Oreo crumbs with butter in a small bowl. 
2. Press the crumbs onto an 8" spring form cake pan lined with aluminum foil and chill in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.
3. Beat the cream cheese and sugar together until creamy. Add in the whipping cream slowly and continue to beat with medium speed until.
4. Then add in the egg yolk one at a time while beating the mixture until combined. Add in vanilla essence, lemon essence and lemon juice.
5. Sift the corn flour into the mixture and mix well using a spatula. Set aside.
6. Whisk egg whites and sugar until soft peak. Then fold in the egg whites into the cheese mixture using a rubber spatula.
7. Pour the mixture into the prepared base.
8. Bake at 160 Celsius for 60 minutes using steam bath method.
9. Cool to room temperature and chill cheesecake at least 4 hours before serve.

Before Decoration

TIPS: Decorate with some cocoa powder and icing sugar