Jam Doughnut Muffins

Yesterday I was up early in the morning and was gearing up to make a steamed nyonya kuih.  I spend in front of the stove for more than an hour steaming the kuih layer by layer....and in the end...the kuih was a disaster!!  Thought I could have a beautiful kuih lapis to share with you.  So tired in the end....

Anyway, I made something more easier today.  This muffin can be ready in just less than an hour.

Jam-Doughnut Muffins

(adapted from "How To Be A Domestic Goddess", Nigella Lawson)

Ingredients

125ml milk

85ml corn oil or vegetable oil, plus more for greasing

1 large egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

200gm self-raising flour

60gm caster sugar

12 teaspoons strawberry jam (or any of your favourite jam)

Coating

scant 1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a 6-hole muffin pan.

With a fork or hand whisk, beat together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract. Stir this into the flour and 60gm sugar to just combine. (It doesn’t matter there are lumps as if you overbeat the batter, the muffins will be hard and tough.)

Spoon the mixture into each muffin mould so that its just under a third full. Then with a teaspoon add a dollop of strawberry jam - about the size of a fat lima bean- then top with more muffin mix so that the cases are just about full.

Put them in a preheated oven and cook for about 20 minutes or until the tops feel springy and resistant and the muffins have puffed up into little toadstools.

For the coating :  Melt the butter. Combine the extra sugar and the cinnamon in a large bowl. When the muffins are cool enough to handle, brush each muffin with the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon sugar. Serve while still a little warm.

                            I did not make the melted butter and coat with the sugar to my muffins 

                            instead I just lightly dust with icing sugar.  It is as good eating it as it is.

                            

 

                             This jam doughnut muffin is best eaten when it is still warm.

                             You can always warm up the muffin in your microwave if you have

                              left over.

  I am linking this post to the Bake Along event created by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours,  Lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids

  

                             

An InLinkz Link-up

Kuih Kodok (Mashed Banana Fritters)

Made this easy Banana Fritters for my tea break today as I have some left over banana.  Instead of making banana cake, this is super quick and super easy too.

KUIH KODOK (MASHED BANANA FRITTERS)


Ingredients
150g (net weight) ripe bananas (pisang emas)
½ tsp salt (or less)
1 tsp sugar
5 tbsp self-raising flour
1 tbsp rice flour
1 tbsp Quaker oats
A pinch of bicarbonate of soda

Method

Mash ripe bananas well with a fork and combine with salt, sugar, self-raising flour, rice flour and oats. Sift in bicarbonate of soda. Mix until well combined into a batter.

Heat wok with enough oil over medium heat. Spoon a tablespoon of batter and drop into the hot oil. Constantly turn the fritters around until they are golden brown. 

Remove with a slotted ladle and drain on several layers of absorbent kitchen paper. Serve immediately.

Recipe sourced from kuali.com

Chocolate Macaron With Salted Caramel

When was the last time I made macarons?  Oh....that was years ago in 2011.  It was my first time trying out to bake macarons.  I can't believe it too....first time trying out and everything was smooth sailing for my macarons.  But.... it wasn't so the next time I try out again.  Never been successful after that. 

Well, for me, I can say is baking macarons can be based on "luck".  Sometimes, the expertise can have their macarons cracked on top, right?

There are many ways to bake macarons; the French, Italian and Swiss.  Which type you are most comfortable with?

If you are keen to try out baking macaron, why not try making it in small amount ingredient.  Here I have used Kim of Macaron-Fetish as the ingredient yield only small amount and if it was not success, you won't have to worry of wastage and you can try out again too.

My sister has made macarons using Kim's recipe.  Do check out her gorgeous Kitty Macarons.

Chocolate Macaron Shells
(Yields 12 filled macarons)

Ingredients
1 room temperatured egg white(39-40g)
50g icing sugar
30g ground almond
30g castor sugar
1/2 tsp cocoa powder

Method:
Put ground almond, icing sugar and cocoa powder in a food processor or a small blender. Blend them finely. 

Sift the blended mixture and set aside. 

With an electric beater, beat the egg white, start from low speed and increase slowly to maximum speed. Beat until frothy (you will see lots of fine bubbles).

Now it's the time to add in the castor sugar, add half of the sugar, continue to beat in maximum speed for around 2 minutes, add in the other half, continue until you get very stiff peak. 

Mix the dry ingredients into the eggwhites. This process is called Macaronage. Start folding with a rubber spatula. When you get a smooth shiny mixture, stop folding, lift the mixture with spatula, if the mixture falls back slowly in the bowl means you're good to go. You could also check if the lines formed from the liften mixture, they should slowly disappear in within 30 seconds. At this stage you're good to go. Do not over fold, it will be too liquid and becoming very hard to pipe. 

Line the baking tray with the parchment paper. 

Fill your piping bag , pipe your macaron (about 2 cm diameter) it should spread a bit as it settles. The point should slowly disappear if the mixture is the right consistency.
If not you could hit the bottom of the tray to smooth the point out).

Let your macaron sits for about 30minutes. This will depand on the humity in your house and the day. Try touching the macaron softly, after 30mins. it should not stick to your hand.

Heat your oven to 150 C on the (heating on the top only). When the oven is ready, put your macaron at the very bottom shelf. Bake for 12 minutes, check them in the mid time of 6 minutes, the feets should already start forming. Turn the baking tray to the opposite direction to allow even baking. When the 6 mins is up, change the heating setting of your oven to Bottom only. This will help cooking the macaron and rise the feet more. Bake for another 6 minutes. You can test if the macaron is cook, touch softly on the shell and when the macaron doesn't slide on the feet, it's cooked. if it's not add another 1 mins each time and check. 
* (I baked my macarons using upper and lower heat.  You need to know your oven temperatures and adjust accordingly).

Let the macaron cool down before removing them. You could wet your working area and slide the baking sheet on it to speed up the cooling process, but do not let it sit there too long, if not the macarons will become soggy. Other wise you can leave them cool at room temperature and remove them.


For the filling for my macarons, I have filled it up with Salted Caramel Sauce.

Check out the Salted Caramel recipe here.

       Here, I used the egg carton box and painted it with food colouring.  How's that?
       I like to keep all those unwanted stuff....but I got complain of keeping 
       of those "rubbish" around...... grrrr......

                        In a glance, the macarons look like eggs sitting in the egg carton, right?

                               

I am linking this post to the Bake Along event created by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours, lena of Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids

An InLinkz Link-up

Salted Caramel Sauce

Lately I have seen few bloggers have been raving about this Salted Caramel Sauce.  Was it good?  I got to try out since I have some left over whipping cream and it is just nice to use it all up.

Salted Caramel Sauce

Ingredients:
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
6 tbsps (90g) salted butter, cut up into 6 pieces
1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream (I used dairy whipping cream.)

1 tsp salt

Method:

Heat granulated sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. Sugar will form clumps and eventually melt into a thick brown, amber-coloured liquid as you continue to stir. Be careful not to burn.

Once sugar is completely melted, immediately add the butter. Be careful in this step because the caramel will bubble rapidly when the butter is added.

Stir the butter into the caramel until it is completely melted, about 2-3 minutes.

Very slowly, drizzle in 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Since the heavy cream is colder than the caramel, the mixture will rapidly bubble and/or splatter when added. Allow the mixture to boil for 1 minute. It will rise in the pan as it boils.

Remove from heat and stir in 1 teaspoon of salt. Allow to cool down before using or pour it into a container to store it.  Don't worry if the sauce seems a bit too thin at first, it will thicken as it cools. 

Cover the caramel tightly and store for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. Warm the caramel up for a few seconds before using in a recipe.

Recipe sourced from Faeez of Bitter Sweet Spicy

                                                                           Yum !!