Of Baking and Me

The baking spirit within has been reignited, like a dormant volcano erupting.  Once, I was so passionate about baking that I baked very often - Cheesecakes (oreo, original, Japanese), Kaya Cake, Mango Cake, Muffins, Banana Bread, Choc Chip Cookies (my signature) etc.. I have books of recipes tucked in my cupboard.  Then, all of a sudden, that passionate died down and I kind of stopped baking, except for the choc chip cookies which I still baked once a year, until recent years when I stopped. 

 

Now, I'm back! With a vengeance. Kinda.  The problem with me stopping baking is because I don't eat what I bake, so if there's no occasion or anyone to give the baked goods to, no use baking.  It is with renewed passion and a drive that I have started to bake again, this time only trying Nonya cakes.  It is a do or die, no room for failure attitude that I have to take, for this is something I must master hopefully to perfection or at least reasonably good standards.  Bengawan Solo? I don't dare to dream now, but hopefully good enough for the mass public.  Of course, I have guinea pigs who have volunteered themselves to try out the results.

 

So far, I have tried 3 different baked goods:

 

Tapioca Cake

The Tapioca Cake, which was a success!! I'm happy with the results.  But this is a very labour intensive process.  Had to manually grate 1kg of tapioca using a hand held grater.  30mins of pure grit and muscle to whittle down the tough tapioca into strands.  But I'm happy that the taste is good.

Pandan Cake




 Second attempt at Pandan Cake.  The first attempt was too sweet and too wet.  Taste was ok but not up to standard.  Second time - Better!  The colour is more realistic, and drier texture.  Sweetness ok but not sweet enough for the kids.  Next time, work harder on getting it fluffier.

Ondeh Ondeh

Ondeh Ondeh - A small devilish ball of flour + sweet potato puree with a burst of melted Gula Melaka within.  I love this.  Relatively easy to make but hard to master that burst of melted sugar when you bite into these in your mouth.  I still have yet to master it entirely.  There is a burst but only a small burst, and at times, the liquid sugar just flows out instead.  Need to grasp the correct proportion of sugar and dough mix to make the experience a little better.

 

Nice to be baking again.  Gets me into the zone when I'm in the 'baking' mode, where I just concentrate on getting the ingredients right and nothing else.  Then slump into my chair and wait...

 

Next week, what should I make?

The Famous Choc Chip Cookies Diary

I like to bake (in case you readers do not know) but i've never actually blogged about this passion of mine or showed some baking procedure. So I suddenly decided, hey why not do it now? Instead of highlighting and bombarding you readers with my glorious travelogues and photos, in the process possibly inducing salivation and awe at the adventures, mayb I should switch it up a little, you know, like comfort food after days of gourmet cuisine or plain water after downing bottles of alcohol! So what better to blog about then my critically acclaimed Chocolate Chip Cookies!

It all started with an email from an old friend titled 'Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies', which described the recipe as THE RECIPE for Famous Amos Choc Chip Cookies! Knowing that I'm an avid baker, my friend emailed me the recipe and I decided to give it a try! Turned out, it's actually delicious!! But of cos, Famous Amos had come out to deny the authenticity of the recipe. But who cares! It tastes great! So from then on, it's become a tradition for me to bake this recipe once a year (only once, cos it's a time-consuming, back hurting exercise), and normally for Xmas or latest New Year.

No, i'm not selling the cookies. I give them out to those lucky few (you know who you are) and these cookies have been tried and tested and praised over the years (>6yrs and counting). There are even those who requested for more after 1st round, but sorry, supply is limited, one person gets only 1!

This year, or rather last year, due to my travelling, I was not at home to bake them for Xmas, or even New Year. And I thot that I would NOT bake them at all, but suddenly i thot - "Hey, Y break the tradition?" And since Chinese new year is coming, might as well bake them for that occassion! So after shopping for the ingredients, I set out to work...

Gathering the ingredients, I decided to only bake half portion of original recipe (which is what I normally do) cos the full recipe will take me like AGES!! Too tired to pull the entire recipe, you'll know how tiring it is to actually complete just half a portion

The ingredients - Flour,oatmeal,choc,chips,butter,sugar,eggs,vanilla essence + most important =Perserverance

So all you gota do is cream the wet ingredients, add the dry ingredients and wala!

Almost done. At this point, muscles are required to mix the batter

Chips and everything else added and mixed. It pays to train your arm muscles on a regular basis. This is hard work! Beats 10reps of 3kg dumbells

Spooning bite sized portions on the baking tray. If you want to get down and dirty, u can use your hands to shape the dough

Actually the recipe calls for using hands to shape the dough, but i don't wana get my hands dirty haha. Also, note that my cookies are small, really small. Not like those Mrs Fields gigantic cookies. I like it small, cos it's crunchier that way. It gets slightly chewy when it's bigger. And it's looks more when you pack alot of small pieces, compared to 3 big pieces hahhahha

And after about 10minutes, 'ding'! They're done! Make sure to let them rest on the tray for a few minutes before removing them to completely cool off on a rack or just on plates

YumYum! Feast your eyes on these lovely crunchies!

Cooling off the cookies

That's the size of 1 cookie, comparable to the size of my thumb haha

And after 2.5hrs of constant non-stop baking in 2 ovens simultaneously working overtime, I finally finished the entire batch! Yes, that' 2.5hrs of baking NON-STOP!! Excludes time taken to prep the ingredients and mix them (that takes about 30-40mins). And mind you, it was non-stop! No time to go pee-pee or drink water. That's y i always feel damn dehydrated and tired after completing the batch. Cos the process is like 1st tray in, 10mins start, prep 2nd tray for 2nd oven, pop 2nd tray in, start prepping another tray for 1st oven, 'ding' 1st oven done, take out 1st tray to cool, quickly pop another tray into 1st oven, 2nd oven 'ding', take 2nd tray out, prep another tray.....and so on and so forth until u get down to the last cookie dough and you go 'Phew' So imagine baking the full recipe.... FYI i only did that ONCE.

The results -2 medium containers, 1 peanut butter sized container and 1 small container

>3hrs of effort translated to only 4 containers hahah...Very Very hard work! And the hardest part? The cleaning up! Damn! Worse than washing the dishes! Cos of all that doughy material, it's more difficult to clean.

So who gets these lovely cookies?? Heheheheheheh

I STill Got It In Me

I've staged a comeback! Finally! After almost 8months of 'No Baking' period, I have made my very 1st step back into the once comfortable zone of BAKING! Yes, my once mastery baking skill is ALL COMING BACK TO ME!!

Like I announced, I STILL GOT IT IN ME!! Loads of it in fact! Decided to bake my famous, world-renowned, tasted and reviewed and acknowledged Chocolate Chip Cookies! To those who have had the HONOUR of tasting them during the past Christmases, you know what I mean. Yes, I'm selective in baking and distributing. I don't bake just for the sake of baking (cos I normally don't eat what I bake). I like to give instead of consume. So if I don't eat, I don't bake! N i just don't bake for nothing. I usually bake for occassions so that I can distribute the fruits of my labour! So out goes cakes n bread (unless it's a birthday or gathering). Usually do cookies, muffins (not so much as well) or cream puffs!

ANyway, back to my COMEBACK master piece. Yes the famous cookies! FYI, I made only half the recipe n it took a total of 3.5hours! From preparation to baking to packing. Yes, 3.5hrs for only half the recipe and in total about 1.4KG of cookies. Yes IT IS HARD WORK!! So don't just make me bake them for nothing! I don't entertain those unless u pay me for them! N by 3.5hrs, I Mean 3.5hrs of NON-STOP baking (no resting, no time for even toilet breaks). It was just start n go all the way, with 2 OVENS (yes 2 ovens, imagine if I had only 1 oven, it would take so much longer), n loads of trays going in and out. It was HECTIC for sure, but i like it! I always find baking therapeutic. Haha, yes tat's my way of relaxing myself. It's fun to bake n even better when u see the perfect outcome. N the pride when pple taste ur bakes and shower u with praises! So SHIOK!!

Yes, I'm all beaming now, cos once again, without fail, the cookies have HIT THE POPULARITY ROOF! My colleagues are eating non-stop and were convinced at one point that I bought them from Famous Amos (yes it is THAT GOOD). My PT is also eating non-stop, never mind that he is on a diet and those cookies are sure to put a dent in the plan. I'm sure I have much more supporters out there who can attest to this fact - MY COOKIES ARE GREAT!! Hahah nope i'm not going to be humble about it. Yes, my forever fervent supporter of the cookies, a Mr Tan, has even requested for additional container, which I had already declined cos i'm not baking additional.

Well, 8months of rest is nothing when u have the talent (which i have). So what, when u've got it, u've got it! Ha! People, I'm Back in the Baking Arena! Suddenly, I'm filled with baking desire! Who knows, maybe i'll start baking more often just to test my skills! But of cos, I bake what I want! Chocolate Chip cookies again? Not till at least Xmas, however, if u PAY ME, i MAY consider.....

So morale of the story (besides paying me to bake cookies for u), be nice to me.....It Pays to be nice...

24 Dec - Xmas eve.. What is my program?!?! Cookies baking!!

Yes, it's an annual event. I'm always in the Kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies during this time of the year. And the cookies are critically-acclaimed and guaranteed great tasting (courtesy of countless friends and colleagues).

1.30pm - Start of the dough making process. Courtesy of my Bro, the mixer was spoilt (over heated) hence i had to use blender to mix. As such, i had to split the dough mixture into 4 times to mix. Terrible n tough job. Finally managed to mix everything together. I think I have developed muscles now.

End result of the dough mixing process

Now it's time to place the mixture in the tray n bake them.

Pre-baking mixture

The final product! Wala!

After almost 4 long hours of baking, i have finally completed the BIG project! TIme to pack to individual bags for gift-giving purposes. Yes, these are not for me!!haha