Double chocolate chip cookies

Recipes

Ingredients:
1¼ cups (175 grams) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup (30 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 stick plus 3 tablespoons (11 tablespoons or 150 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3cup (120 grams) (packed) light brown sugar
¼ cup (50 grams) sugar
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces (150 grams) dark/milk chocolate, chopped into chips

Steps:
1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together. Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter on medium speed until soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more.

2. Turn off the mixer. Pour in the flour. Drape a kitchen towel over the stand mixer to protect yourself and your kitchen from flying flour and pulse the mixer at low speed about 5 times, a second or two each time. Take a peek — if there is still a lot of flour on the surface of the dough, pulse a couple of times more; if not, remove the towel. Continuing at low speed, mix for about 30 seconds more, just until the flour disappears into the dough — for the best texture, work the dough as little as possible once the flour is added, and don’t be concerned if the dough looks a little crumbly. Toss in the chocolate pieces and mix only to incorporate.

3. Turn the dough out onto a work surface, gather it together and divide it in half. Working with one half at a time, shape the dough into logs that are 1½ inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours. (The dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months. If you’ve frozen the dough, you needn’t defrost it before baking — just slice the logs into cookies and bake the cookies 1 minute longer.)

4. Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

5. Working with a sharp thin knife, slice the logs into rounds that are 1/2 inch thick. (The rounds are likely to crack as you’re cutting them — don’t be concerned, just squeeze the bits back onto each cookie.) Arrange the rounds on the baking sheets, leaving about one inch between them.

6. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time for 12 minutes — they won’t look done, nor will they be firm, but that’s just the way they should be. Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let the cookies rest until they are only just warm, at which point you can serve them or let them reach room temperature.

Chocolate Banana Cake

One of my mom's favourite! Since I will be going back for CNY, I thought I should start trying and make the best Chocolate Banana Cake for her!
This is my first trial...and we totally love it! (well probably a bit more cream next time!)

Ingredients:
Chocolate cake:
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 cup strong espresso
2 tsp vanilla essence
300g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
185g unsalted butter, softened
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
180g chocolate, melted and cooled

Banana and cream filling:
300ml whipping cream
3 ripe bananas

Chocolate topping:
284ml double cream
200g dark chocolate

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 160C, and grease an 8 inch baking pan
2. Mix cocoa powder, coffee, vanilla essence and 1/2 cup cold water in a bowl and whisk.
3. Sift flour , bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt together.
4. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well each time.
Stir in melted chocolate into egg mixture.
5. Add the flour and cocoa mixture alternatively into egg mixture.
6. Pour into pan and bake till set (approximately 1 - 1 1/2 hours).
7. Whip the whipping cream until thick. Cut the cake into 3 layers and spread the cream on each layer. Place the banana on each layer and cover it with the remaining cream.
8. Stack the cake back together. Heat the chocolate with double cream and pour it onto the combined cake. Let it cool for probably an hour in the fridge.

"Chocolate chip oat-cookies with hazelnut"

I wonder if anyone heard the story of 'Famous Amos Hawaiian nut cookies'. I've received the email like couple of months ago but never really tried it. First because I do not know how is the taste of the Famous Amos cookies, second, I haven't got the time! Anyway, I did try it today and this is what I've got.


There are some changes that I've made....
1. less sugar!!
2. baked for 14 minutes with 200⁰C
3. less chocolate chips and less nuts

We like it ~ whether or not the cookies taste like whatever Famous Amos~

Here's the recipe that I've used

Ingredients:
1 cups butter
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 cups granulated sugar
1 cups brown sugar
2 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal & blend in blender to a fine powder)
150g chocolate chips
1/2 tsp. salt
150g chocolate bar (grated)
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking powder
150g chopped nuts (your choice)
1 tsp. vanilla

Steps:
1. Cream the butter and both the sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, blended oatmeal, salt, baking powder and soda.
2. Add chocolate chips, grated chocolate and nuts.
3. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.
4. Bake for 14 minutes at 200⁰C.

Swirl Chocolate Cheesecake

I think I had this recipe for 2-3 years already. Found it on the website one day when I actually started baking. Several of my friends tried it and think is excellent (easy to bake!). One day when I was watching some shows, suddenly I've got this craving for cheesecake. The very next day, we went to supermarket and get some mascarporne cheese and all the ingredients, and you are!


Ingredients:
1. 500g mascarporne cheese
2. digestive biscuits
3. 75g condensed milk
4. chocolate powder
5. 2-3 tbsp butter
6. 2 eggs
7. 1 tsp vanila essense

Steps:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 1800C.
2. Smash digestive until very fine and mix the crumbs with butter. Transfer crumbs to a cake tin (about 8 inch loose bottom) and press firmly over base. Bake the crumbs for about 5 minutes and let it cool.
2. Beat mascarporne cheese until creamy and pale. Gradually add in the condensed milk and continue beating. Add in the eggs and vanilla essense.
3. Take 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture and add with chocolate powder.
4. On the biscuit base, spoon a couple of chocolate cream cheese mixture. Spoon a couple of cream cheese mixture on the biscuit base as well. Using a fork, simply mix the chocolate and vanila cream cheese.
5. Bake for about 30 minutes until centre is cook. Keep it in the fridge for about 3 hours before serving.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

On 7th October 2007, HE booked for a dinner at one of the restaurants in St Paul Square. The dinner was quite good and these are what we had. Salmon with mash sweet potatoes on the left and monkfish and mussels on the right.

I was trying to decorate the mousse cake with some chocolate. So I went and turn on the microwave to the maximum heat and place some chocolate chunks in a bowl. I was in hurry to pick HIM up from the train station so I left the bowl in the microwave and went up and changed.The next minute, I smell something burnt! Gosh, again, I blew up my microwave. The whole kitchen stick again! Haiz...So, BECAREFUL!



Anyway, I would like to share this super easy recipe with excellent taste chocolate mousse..



This is the recipe that I've used:
Ingredients:
1. 20 ladyfingers, split
2. 1 packet of chocolate chunk
3. 1 cups of coffee
4. 400 ml whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks

Steps:
1. Line bottom and side of a loosebase cake tin with split ladyfingers.
2. Make a cup of coffee. Place half a packet of chocolate chunks on a bowl and start melting them with the coffee. The amount of coffee and chocolate depends on your taste (how sweet you want and how much coffee essence you want). I've used the a cup of coffee and half a packet of chocolate chunk.
3. Stir until all the chocolate melt. Fold whipped cream into the chocolate coffee mixture until no white streaks remain.
4. Pour 1/3 of mousse mixture into prepared cake tin. Place a layer of split ladyfingers over mousse layer. Then pour another 1/3 of mousse mixture over ladyfingers. Repeat with remaining mousse mixture. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Just melt some chocolate and decorate as you like on the 'surface'.

This is what I've got ...




In 'return', I've got this from HIM. Guess what is this ...