Baking Adventures - Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins

Baking is not one of my strengths. I remember days of baking muffins with my then 15 year old younger brother. We used the same recipe, did the same steps side by side but my muffins came out as rocks while his are fluffy and yummy. During home econs lessons, I passed by sticking to my best friend who cooks better than the teacher. Thus, for me to try baking again took a lot of nudging from my baking friends and my love for my kids.

The primary school schedule is really not ideal for any kid. #1 wakes at 6:20am, refuses breakfast, in school by 7am and has his first break for food at 8:50am.  He has 30mins to get to the canteen, queue for food, find a seat, eat, get back to the meeting point with the rest of this classmates. There never seem to be enough tables and chairs and some kids just stand and eat. Thereafter, it's lesson time til 11:50am where they get a 5-10min break for snacks, at their desks, seated. By the time school ends and #1 is home for lunch, it is 2:30pm. And he is lucky compared to his cousins who get home at 3:30pm. I don't even want to call it lunch cos it is tea break time for some working folks. This schedule is crazy.

Since we can't change the education system, we manage it. One of the ways is to fill up #1 with quick yummy food during the 5-10min snack break. So far we have done
1) French Toasts
2) Pancakes
3) Biscuits
4) Cereal
5) Bananas
6) Sandwiches
7) Muffins

By far the most requested item is Muffins. I started making them in Jan (See the post in Jan, same rant haha). It's July now and I finally nailed down the recipe. Yes, it took me that long to figure how to to work it. #1 has been so forgiving, telling me he loved them even when they are far from ideal. #2 not so, she is picky and will not attempt to please anyone.

For #1, here is the recipe for the muffin he loves so much.

Mini Chocolate Chip Muffins
Makes 22 mini muffins

Wet Ingredients
1 60g egg (including shell)
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoon of Dutch Lady Milky, Full Cream flavour
15ml olive oil for baking
60ml SCS salted butter - melted in the microwave in 10secs interval

Dry Ingredients
75g Prima cake flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
55g caster sugar
pinch of salt

Toppings
Hershey mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 220 degrees.
Sieve all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix with a spatula. The mixture should be a little lumpy.

Place muffin liners into each cup. Scope 3/4 tablespoon of batter into each cup. Top it with mini chocolate chip. Use a toothpick to mix in the chocolate chips by drawing an "O". Hold the tin an inch from the table and drop onto the table twice to release any trapped air.

Put the muffins into the over and bake for 3-4mins. Lower the temperature to 200 degrees and continue baking for 7 to 8mins.

Cool the muffins on the cooling rack. Keeps well in a Lock and Lock container for up to 3 days.

One Pot Creamy Spaghetti for #1

This recipe uses milk and cooks all ingredients in one pot.

One Pot Creamy Spaghetti for #1 
Feeds 2 kids and one adult.

250g organic spaghetti
2 packets of 240ml organic chicken stock
240ml fresh milk
approximately 240ml water
2 tablespoon of butter
2 tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic minced
olive oil for frying the garlic
sale and pepper to taste

Use a big pot or saucepan. Saute garlic in olive oil til it is fragrant. Add stock, milk, water, spaghetti, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer til spaghetti is cooked. Do stir it once in awhile and add milk if it is too dry.  Mix in parmesan cheese and serve.

We usually add sausages which would add flavor and salt to the dish. Yumm!

Snacks for School - Chocolate Muffins

Hello 2016! This year started off with a big milestone for my #1 - primary school. The school gives kids a 10 minutes snack time at lunch hour so I've been inspired again to make food for lunchbox.

My best friend who is make awesome bakes shared her recipe for muffins with me. The first batch was made as per her instructions. However, it created more utensils that I would like to wash and clean up. Being the lazy me, I modified the recipe  use as little utensils as possible. Thus this recipe would only need - 2 big bowl, 1 tablespoon, , 1 fork, 1 butter knife and 1 weighing scale.

Hub was lucky and had the first bite after these chocolate muffins came out of the oven. Verdict from the Hub: Very good.

So here it is, Chocolate Muffin Recipe for the very lazy me.

Wet Ingredients
1 room temperature egg
1/2 teasp vanilla
2 tablesp milk - I use chocolate milk
15ml olive oil for baking
60g salted butter melted

Dry Ingredients
75g cake flour
1/2 tablespoon chocolate powder
1/2 teasp baking powder
1/4 teasp baking soda
3 tablespoon sugar
tiny pinch of salt

1. Preheat oven at 220 degrees.
1. Measure out the flour and mix in the rest of the dry ingredients into big bowl 1.
2. Put big bowl 2 onto the weighing scale and use the butter knife to cut out 60g of butter into big bowl 2. Melt the butter in 10 secs interval, stirring in between.
3. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients into big bowl 2 and mix well.
4. Make a small well in big bowl 1. Add in contents of big bowl 2 into big bowl 1. Combine til it is lumpy. Do not over stir it.
5. Place muffin case into muffin tin. Fill to half with muffin mix.
6. Bake at 220 degrees for 5mins. Turn down to 180 degrees for another 10mins.

French Toasts for the kids

3 ingredients

1 egg

2 slices of bread

butter for frying

Beat the egg. Coat the bread. Fry. Done. Easy!

#1 likes this.

#2 refused to try

3 ingredients + milk + maple syrup

1 egg

3 slices of bread

2 tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon maple syrup

butter for frying and extra the toast

Beat the egg, milk and maple syrup. Coat the bread. Fry. Put a bit of butter on the toast. Done.

#1 and #2 polished it off and gave it thumbs up!

Luncheon Meat and Baked Beans

The other day, I posted a picture of Luncheon Meat and Baked Beans I’ve cooked on the HCP Facebook page. It is a very common dish, often cooked at home or found in cooked food stalls. So when it gathered over 50 likes and folks were asking for the recipe, I was surprised. I think it was the camera on my new phone that made it look so good haha.

A overseas Singaporean friend had posted of his take on this dish and we all agreed this is the dish that everyone had and loved when they were kids. Quick, inexpensive and makes you gobble down lots of rice. Now that I am a mom, I came to accept any dish that is fast, easy and get my kids to eat quickly is gem.

Here is my take on this homely dish enjoyed by many of my friends when we were kids.

Luncheon Meat and Baked Beans

1 small carrot – cut into cubes

1 small potato – cut into cubes

Half a tin of luncheon meat – cut into cubes

1 small tin Heinz baked beans

Handful of peas

1-2 tablespoon Lee Kum Kee tomato sauce

Some water

Oil

Black Pepper to taste (estimate 3 turns)

Sugar to taste (estimate 1-2teaspoon)

Method

1. Half cook the carrots and potatoes the HCP with some water (estimate half a mug) and set aside.  

HCP how-to: When cooking potatoes and carrots, close the lid and lock it. Switch on the fire. After it has been boiling for 2-3 min, off the fire. Leave it alone for 5mins or so before opening the lid to check. Cooking time n water is dependent on the type of potato n size of cubed vegetable.

2. Clean up HCP. Lightly coat HCP with oil (estimate half teaspoon). Add luncheon meat cubes and fry til all sides are golden.

HCP how-to: When frying the luncheon meat, heat the pan, lay them flat, close the cover but do not lock it. There is a tiny gap n this prevents moisture forming yet minimize oily fumes from getting into kitchen. Open the lid to check when to flip the cubes. I flipped them individually so all sides are nice and golden.

3.  Add potatoes, carrots, peas and black pepper. Fry for a bit. Add baked beans, tomato sauce, sugar and some water. Mix it up n let it come to a gentle boil. Adjust the taste to your liking.

HCP how-to: After mixing in baked beans, water and sugar, close the lid n lock it. Let it heat through. For this dish, I do not flip n toss the food with the lid closed as doing so spoils the look of the cubes.

This dish is meant to be a topping for rice. Suitable for school lunch boxes. Freezing not recommended.

The luncheon meat can be replaced by hot dogs and it becomes Hot Dogs and Baked Beans. Totally awesome too.

Awesome batter for Fish

Had left over salmon sashimi slices and decided to make battered fish for the kids. This is the recipe I went with plus some of my own seasoning. The result is very crispy batter and a happy #2. I'll try it with prawns after I'm no longer OD-ing over my Ngor Hiang and Bakwan Kepiting.

Original recipe from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/crispy-fish-with-sweet-and-sour-sauce-1608. I only used step 1 for the batter.

Awesome batter for Fish - Thank you Epicurious!
1 cup plain flour
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons double action baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 cup water

Mix them all together. Batter done.

Now for the fish! I coated each slice with cornstarch and dipped it in to the batter. I had left the fish and batter in the fridge til it was time for dinner (around an hour) and shallow fried them in hot oil.

Toddler verdict? Thumbs up!

Ngoh Hiang inspired by my late Ah Ma - Recipe in progress

4th quarter of 2014 has been hectic and the 1st quarter of 2015 looks crazy too. I've not been doing much in the kitchen and when I do, it's mostly trying out recipes found in books or online. That's how I unwind from all the crazy 16 hour days.

For this year's Chinese New Year, I'm inspired to cook at least 1 dish from each of the dialect group close to my heart - Hokkien, Teochew and Nonya.

This recipe is inspired by my late paternal grandma, who is a Hokkien Nonya lady who married a true blue Teochew man (my late grandpa) from Swatow. As most Nonyas of her time, her cooking was amazing. Unfortunately, I did not have many chances to be with her when she was in the kitchen. I do not know if able to recreate even a fraction of the taste of  Ah Ma's Ngor Hiang but I continue my research and keep trying. Thus this recipe is a work in progress.

The recipe here is a result of what I heard from my parents, recipes I saw in books and a little of everything I have learn from my own cooking. It has got the stamp of approvals from the picky tasters in my family, namely Dad, Mum and my 2 kids. In addition, Hubby polished off 2 whole Ngor Hiang on his own. That's what makes this recipe a keeper for me.

Ngoh Hiang inspired by Ah Ma for my family
Ingredients A
300g minced pork
20g pork liver (optional)
6-8 prawns deshelled

Ingredients B
1/2 yellow onion - diced
1/2 medium size carrot (optional) - grated
5 water chestnuts - chopped into cubes 0.5cm by 0.5cm
1 egg - save some egg white as glue for the rolls
1/2 tablespoon bread crumbs
2 tablespoon water

Ingredients C 
Oil
Beancurd Skin - Cut into the size you like your rolls. I cut mine approx 7 in by 9 in. One packet gives 9 sheets. Before wrapping, rinse 1 piece in a big container of water and gently wipe.

Seasoning 
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoon five spice powder. Use more or less according to preference
a few dashes of white pepper
a pinches of salt

Method
Stir fry onion in oil til it is translucent and set aside.
Stir fry carrots in oil til it is almost cooked and set side.
Mince ingredients A together on a chopping board til it is finely minced and well mixed together. Place ingredients A into a big bowl.
Add in ingredients B and the seasoning to ingredients A and mix them well. This is our meat mixture.
Prepare the beancurd skin by cutting them to the size required and wiping both sides with a damn cloth.
Place meat mixture near the bottom end of the beancurd sheet, leaving an inch space from the edges. Lift the bottom end over the meat and fold the sides in. Continue rolling and seal the ends with the reserved egg white.
Lightly oil the steaming tray and put the meat rolls in. Do not let the meat rolls touch each other or the sides of the tray. The steaming tray should have holes to allow the cooking liquid to escape.
Steam meat rolls for 10mins.
Let it cool complete on a tray (I used the cooking rake for my cookies).
Deep fry the meat rolls til beancurd skin is golden brown.
Slice and serve with your favorite sauces. I use a sweet flour sauce.

The meat rolls can be frozen for 1-2 weeks. Reheat them using a toaster or over pan.