S.T: Perfect Sunday Brunch: Chocolate Chunk Scones and Homemade Blueberry Jam

Lazy Sundays are something I look forward to every week. I love getting up early in the morning just to take it slow. It starts with a drowsy dawdle into kitchen, poking around the fridge, cupboards and drawers until I get inspired to either hit the egg beaters or leave something out to defrost for later.

This weekend, I had the Gorilla's Dad staying with us and as a treat, I decided to make something oh-so-English and downright scrumptious. So, my usual Sunday morning dawdle led me to make:

Bittersweet Chocolate Chunk Scones with Homemade Blueberry Jam, served with a pat of Lurpak spread.

I love scones, they are the epitome of indulgent brunches and high teas. I love the fluffy yet crumbly, dense texture and how well they go with clotted cream and jam. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the best dairy  and making my own is a bit of a stretch. I settled for spicing things up with bittersweet chocolate and homemade jam. 

Both the scones and jam are super easy to make, the jam especially. With the import tax being ridiculously high here, it makes a lot more sense to make my own jam. Plus, I know how its going to taste before opening the jar and I have full control over how tart, how sweet and how pulpy my jam is going to be. 

Bittersweet Chocolate Chunk Scones

(Adapted from Good Housekeeping Chocolate Collection)

Makes 8 Large Triagular Scones

Ingredients:

• 75g unsalted good quality butter,diced
• 225g self raising flour, plus extra to dust
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tbsp white granulated sugar
• 150g good quality *Bittersweet Chocolate
• 1 medium egg, beaten
• 6 tbsp of milk

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 200 degrees C ( 180 fan forced). Line your baking tray with non-stick baking paper. 

    Sift baking powder and flour into a large bowl. Add the sugar. Rub in the diced butter until mixture 

    resembles fine breadcrumbs. Set aside.

2) Roughly chop up chocolate into chunks and fold into the butter and flour mixture. Combine the beaten egg and milk together. Make a well in the dry mixture and pour the egg mixture in. 

3) Stir lightly with a round-ended knife until the mixture just comes together into a soft dough, adding a splash more milk if it looks too dry.

4) Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and press into a rectangular shape about 1inch thick.  Using a pastry cutter, cut the dough into triangles. If you have a proper scone cutter, shape dough into a circle and stamp out circles with your cutter. Place the cut dough onto prepared sheet and bake for 10-15 min until risen and golden. Cool on the wire rack.

Tips: 

* You can use any kind of baking chocolate, from dark to milk or white, whatever catches your fancy.

-If your oven is very hot, you can change the temperature to 160 degrees (fan forced) and bake for 20-30 mins. It prevents over browning and maintains a light texture. 

Homemade Blueberry Jam

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 125g fresh blueberries
• ¼ cup of granulated sugar
• Juice of ½ lemon

Method:

1) Rinse the blueberries and remove any that spoilt. Place blueberries, lemon juice and sugar into a deep

    saucepan. 

2) Place the saucepan over medium high heat and stir constantly. Using a masher, gently mush the the blueberries a little to create a slight pulp. The blueberries will start to liquefy and keep stirring and bring mixture to a boil.

3) Once the mixture has reached boiling point, turn the heat down and simmer till most of the liquid has evaporated and mixture thickens. Pour the mixture into a serving bowl. Set aside to cool. Mixture will continue to thicken.

Tips:

-The blueberries might squirt so do be careful, a deep saucepan can save you from a nasty scald.

-It takes awhile for the mixture to thicken, so do be patient and don't panic.

-You can easily triple the recipe and add a little salt as a preservative. Jam can be stored in canning jars and refrigerated up to 2 weeks. 

-If you like a less mushy jam and enjoy having full blueberries in your jam, skip mushing the blueberries and let them naturally reduce. 

- I don't like my jams too sweet so this is the perfect level of sweetness for me. Taste the fruit before deciding how much sugar you would like to add. 

S.T: Cocktail: YuZu Daydream

Hello hello,

Its been an exciting week in Shanghai, with the start of school term and Autumn making its way into this part of the world. The days are beautiful, with lots of sunshine and cool breezes, almost like an English summer. I have so much to blog about, so much to share but I guess I'll pick my battles.

Teacher's Day recently passed and the school I'm teaching at gave everyone a jar of Citron tea, or as what I call it, Yu Zu. Its declicious and a popular beverage served at Japanese and Korean restaurants. Its also easily available at supermarkets.


It looks like a jam concentrate and to drink it, you simply dissolve it in water and the result is a tangy, sweet and chunky beverage that bears a semblance to honey lemon teas.

So guess what I did with my jar?

Yup, I boozed it up and it made one TASTY beverage.

Its absolutely delicious, refreshing and the alcohol hits you hard because you can't taste it. You guzzle it like a HumVee guzzling gas. Not a pretty picture I know but still. Gorilla decided to name it YUZU Daydream. And yes, it will send you into a hazy stupor of happiness and giggles.

YUZU Daydream

3 Tbspns of Citron Jam

300ml of Tonic Water

60ml of Bombay Saphire Gin

1. Mix Jam and Gin together.

2Add the tonic water and stir till well cmbined.

Serve chilled.

Try it, its the perfect summery cocktail.

X.O.X.O

S.T

S.T:Belated Birthday Post - 19 Feb

 I've been meaning to post about this but haven't had a chance. My birthday was on 19 Feb and instead of a full day and night of sin and debauchery, I decided to do something equally just as fun. I decided to craft and bake. On the day before, I spent it with family, and received wonderful presents, and one of my favourites, BUTTONS!

So with my fun stash I made myself a button and charm double necklace

The flower is actually a button, a real find! For the top necklace, I drilled a hole through said button so that I could loop the pearl into it. Both necklaces are seperate so I could wear them on their own or together.

And then, if that wasn't enough, I made myself a ring too

Of course, it wouldn't be a birthday if there was no cake! This year, I decided to make a 

Creme Brulee Cupcake!

It looks ugly but its oh so yummy. For this recipe, I made everything from scracth, from the caramel sauce that goes into the batter to the creme brulee itself. It was alot of work but it was a success! Since this wasn't an order and more of an experiment, I first decided to play with my oven settings. I baked different batches at different settings and had the most interesting results:

     Left: Over-filled and over-baked.  Middle: Standard Perfection    Right: Close to perfection


The one on the left was baked at 25 mins, slightly over-filled and was baked with the fan off.
The one in the middle  which I find the most perfect) was baked at 15 mins, perfectly filled at slightly under 3/4 of the liner and baked with the fan on. The one on the right was baked at 20 mins, filled slightly under 3/4 of the liner and baked with no fan on.

 Conclusion: The Fan in the oven is important for making cakes rise and giving cupcakes that perfect dome top.

Also, the texture was fluffier, moist and less dense, which is ideal for a cupcake like this, as the creme and caramel topping add alot of heaviness and crunch already.

 So, I decided to bake the remaining batches at the ideal setting and got this:

Then of course, once cooled, you have to "core'the cupcakes, which basically means removing the centers so that you have space to fill them out

Save the centres! Use them to make rum truffles and they are absolutely delicious! I'll post about them another time. Okay, so fill the centers with creme brulee and you get this:

Here is a little video that I created: 

 The video was filmed by the Gorilla, who ran the Urbanathalon Race on my birthday. Perhaps the best thing he did was run through the finish line while holding a giant flag that said Happy Birthday. He coordinated this with his mom so that she could pass it to him once he finished the last obstacle and was on the last leg of the race. Upon seeing this, the Emcee got the whole crowd to sing to me Happy Birthday which was very, very sweet. Okay, okay, I know I'm a lucky girl.

Anyhow, I know everyone just wants the recipe. I modified it from Beantown Baker, Deliah Smith and Simply recipes. Enjoy!

Creme Brulee Cupcakes- Makes 24


Cupcake: 
Originally Adapted from Beantown Baker.
(click here for the original)

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt, plus a pinch for the egg whites
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 cup milk 
*3 tablespoons caramel syrup( made from scratch) 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius, 160 if you have your fan setting on.

Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together.  and set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add caramel syrup and vanilla.


Sift 1/3 of the flour into the batter and fold it into the batter. Fold in 1/2 of the milk. Repeat until all flour and milk have been incorporated into the batter.

Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff but not dry. Gently fold whites into batter.

Spoon batter into cupcake papers, filling cups about 2/3 full. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool.


Once cooled, core the cupcakes and fill with it the Creme Brulee custard. Working quickly, create the sugar crust by sprinkling sugar and melting it down with a blow torch. serve immediately. You can keep it in the fridge but it starts to condense after two hours, which is not ideal.

Caramel Sauce:
Taken from Simply Recipes, click here for ingredients, steps and super helpful photos!
The caramel somehow tastes more like butterscotch though, and keeps really well. I used leftovers for a pound cake!


1 Cup of Sugar
6 Tbsp (85 g) butter
1/2 cup (120ml) heavy cream


Place sugar in a heavy bottom pot. On a moderately high heat, melt the sugar until it reaches a deep amber colour. Working quickly, whisk in the butter. Once the butter has fully melted, turn the heat off. Count to three and add in the cream. At this point, the entire mixture will start to foam and bubble so be careful! Set aside to cool. Mixture will thicken.


Creme Brulee:(to be prepared a day in advance)

Adapted from Delia Smith. Click here for the original

570ml of Double Cream ( I use Milac, its THE BEST)
6 large egg yolks
4 teaspoons cornflour
a  few drops of vanilla extract

Caramel crust:
110g of granulated sugar

Mix the egg yolks, cornflour and vanilla extract together. Set aside.

Heat up the cream till it reaches boiling point. Once boiling, mix in the cream together with the egg yolk mixture, stirring all the time. Return the mixture to the pot and continue to boil, until the mixture thickens( which is very fast, within a minute or two. Take note not to overheat it, it will get lumpy. If it does, just take it off the heat and stir.

Once thickened, take it off the heat, pour it through a sieve and let it set in a bowl to cool. Cover the bowl with a clingfilm, taking note to pat it down so that it covers the surface of the custard( this prevents a skin from forming). Put it in the fridge and let it set overnight.
(you can always pour this into ramekins and just eat it with the caramel crust without the cake.)




Have fun!
X.oX.O
S.T

S.T: World Nutella Day Feb 5

World Nutella Day is Feb 5, and in sunny SG, I'm late by a day but some people out there in this world on the other side of the are still celebrating it!

Bascially, World Nutella Day is this crazy idea started by two Nutella obsessed girls and the world is better for it! You can read more here: http://www.nutelladay.com/participate/

To be honest, I've been sick today and hence, finally have the time to blog. In honour of this tremendous occasion, I would like to share with you my very own take on Pierre Hermes' Nutella Tart. Created for his wife who loves this confection to no end, this tart is simply divine. I posted about this sometime back but never really gave the recipe.

For my version, I used my very own hazelnut shortcrust recipe modified from my mom's shortcrust and used extremely dark chocolate for the base. I also took liberties and decorated with white ganache.

Its absolutely delicious, its soft and creamy inside, almost like a lava cake and the pastry just melts in your mouth.

Ingredients:


For the crust: 

• 1/2cup of butter
• 2 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1/4 cup of self raising flour or ground hazelnuts
• (With self-raising flour, you get a puffier crust, ground hazelnuts give a slightly heavier but more flavourful crust  )

For the filling:

2/3 cup Nutella

4 3/4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

7 tablespoons, 3 1/2 ounces, unsalted butter

1 large egg at room temperature, stirred with a fork

3 large egg yolks at room temperature, stirred with a fork

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup hazelnuts toasted, skinned and cut into large pieces (I omitted this and made white chocolate ganache)

For the topping

1/4 cup of cream

1/4 cup of white chocolate

Method: 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

For the crust: 

1. In a large bowl, cream butter and icing sugar. Stir in sifted flour, ground hazelnuts and beat until mixture comes together to form a dough that will be slightly sticky.

2. Spread the dough into the pan and poke holes in it using a fork.

3. Place a baking sheet over the pie shell and fill with baking beads. You can use green/red/soya beans as well.

4.Place in the oven and bake the crust for 20 minutes. Once done, set aside to cool to room temperature. 

P.S This method is called blind baking and for this recipe, you don't want to over bake the crust as it gets baked again with the filling.

For the filling: 

1.Spread the Nutella evenly over the bottom of the cooled crust and set aside.

2.Melt the chocolate and butter in separate bowls over simmering water or in the microwave.  Allow them to cool until they just feel warm to the touch.

3.Use a small whisk to stir the egg into the chocolate, gently and taking care not to agitate the mixture.  You don’t want to beat air into the ganache.  Stir in the egg yolks a little at a time, followed by the sugar.  Stir in the warm butter.  Pour the ganache over the Nutella in the tart shell.  At this point, if you opted for putting  nuts at the top, scatter the nuts now.

4. Bake the tart for 11 minutes.  The center of the tart will still be a little jiggly and the top will be dull, like a cake.  Remove the tart from the oven and slide onto a rack.  Allow the tart to cool for at least 20 minutes or until it reaches room temperature. Please note that baking time varies, on your oven, the depth of your pie tin and size of your pie tin.

For the topping:

1. Place the cream and white chocolate in a metal bowl. 

2. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water, careful to not let the water touch the bottom. 

3. Gently stir the chocolate and cream mixture till smooth and melted.

4. Drizzle over the top of the Nutella tart.

For the original recipe, click here.

I hope you enjoy this and do let me know if you have any queries! This is best eaten on the day, at room temperature. Left overs( which almost never happen) can be placed in the fridge and warmed up the next day!

X.O.o.X
S.T

This day is proudly brought to you by http://www.nutelladay.com/, http://msadventuresinitaly.com/blog/ and http://bleedingespresso.com/

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Comfort Food: Egg Drop Porridge

Egg Drop Porridge

My staple for the last week. I had this EVERY day for lunch just so that I could recover from my tummy pains.

I can't describe to you how comforting a bowl of gruel can be so good when you're really feeling under the weather. Maybe its the high sodium content of the preserved vegetables, the fact that you don't have to chew and possibly, the pure msg in the chicken stock cube used to make this but whatever it is, this is a must have and instant perk-me-up whenever you have had too much time in the toilet and your whole body is rejecting the fact that its alive.

This recipe is really easy and can easily be jazzed up with the 'proper' way of cooking it. My version is easily executable by the lame (unable to stay out of bed for long/hampered mobility), the blind (when you can barely see due to the immense sniffling/grogginess) and the grumpy (this bit is self explanatory). Of course, if you like to really do it the proper way, I will leave instructions as well. Enjoy and let me know what you think! 

Egg Drop Porridge 

(Serves two. Or one ravenous person)

Quick and Easy Version:

Ingredients: 

1) One Cube of Chicken Stock

2) 6 cups of water

3) 1/4 cup of rice

4) One or two cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

5) One Egg

6) Pickled vegetables of your choice ( I used pickled olive vegetables. Its AWESOME.)

7) A few drops of white sesame seed oil

8) Garnish ( Corriander, chopped spring onions and deep fried shallots if you are up for that) 

Method

1) Rinse rice till water runs clear.

2) Place the rice into a pot and add water, crushed garlic cloves and stock cube. Leave to boil covered till the mixture reaches a boil. Allow to simmer uncovered.

3) Simmer for 30 mins at least and stir porridge occassionally.Liquid will have reduced by more than half.

4) Once desired consistency is reached, crack the egg into the porridge. Working quickly, stir the raw egg and work it evenly into the porridge. Yolk should be broken and whites slightly scrambled. Immediately switch off the flame. 

5) Serve with pickled vegetables of choice, garnish and a few drops of white sesame seed oil.

TIPS: 

1) The longer you boil the porridge for, the finer it will get. Ideally, its best if you can keep it boiling for an hour or two and stirring it ever so often.I have boiled porridge for 4 hours before, the results were phenomenal. You would have to keep topping up the liquid to keep it going.

2) Stirring the porridge facilitates in breaking the rice grain down faster and also, prevents it from getting stuck to the bottom of the pot.

3) To make this healthy, make your own chicken stock. Boil a whole chicken or just the bones down with some carrots, celery and onions to make a good stock. 

4)The stock can also be made with fish bones, prawns or anything that you like for a base.

5) Up the nutritional value by using meats from the bones of your stock to add to your porridge or just shred some meat into the porridge at the beginning. 

6) This is best eaten on the day itself and you can serve it with whatever that catches your fancy. I have found some pictures of the canned vegetables my parents used to give me.

Pickled olive vegetable. My favourite.

Pickled lettuce.

Pickled mushrooms.

Now I am seriously not advocating nor telling you that eating preserved vegetables make a healthy and nutritionally sound staple diet, especially when you are sick. NO, I'm merely suggesting some of it as an option as  these vegetables can be very appetizing and help one take "baby" steps to eating normal foods again. I HIGHLY recommend complimenting these vegetables with some fresh vegetables and fresh meat

to make it a balanced meal. :)

Try going French by adding escargot, as one famous chef did or maybe, a cheesy version with sauteed brown mushrooms and caramelized onions?( would be a lot like a risotto). I think the options are limitless. After all, porridge is CONGEE-NENTAL...LOL.

OXOXO

S.T

Cheese and Sausage Bundles

Cheese and Sausage Bundles

Macaroni Aglio Olio

Macaroni Aglio Olio