Bake Along #42 - Deep Chocolate Pound Cake

This cake is very compact and dense. That's the first impression I had in mind when I first tried it. But it's indeed moist and crumbly
Taste wise, I loved it. I didn't mind the honey taste in it. But texture, not really my kind of cake. Not my family, either. Moist, yes we like. But dense, not really
Nevertheless, I and Abby, my chocolate addict girl, did munch on this cake quite a bit :) DH ate a little, too. Ian had a bite and that's it LOL

Recipe is from HERE

What you need:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp coarse kosher salt

¼ tsp baking soda½ cup sour cream (replace with yogurt) ½ cup whole milk

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup honey

2 tablespoons boiling water¾ cup sugar (reduced to 1/2 cup) ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon chocolate emulco

½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

Method:

1. Whisk flour, baking powder, coarse salt, and baking soda in medium bowl. Whisk yoghurt and milk in small bowl

2. Add honey and water in a heatproof pan. Cook and stir as heating the mixture. Once combine, off the heat (no need reach boiling point). Add in cocoa powder and mix until smooth. Cool completely3. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter until light and fluffy. 3. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, occasionally scraping down sides of bowl
Beat in chocolate emulco. Add cocoa mixture; stir until smooth, occasionally scraping down bowl
4. Fold in flour mixture alternately with sour cream (yogurt) mixture in 2 additions each until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips
5. Pour batter into lined baking pan or muffins mould. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for about 45 minutes or until tester inserted into center comes out clean
6. Remove cake from pan and cool on wire rack

I'm submitting this post to Bake Along #42 organised by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids

Bake Along #41 - Apple Turnover with Quick & Easy Flaky Pastry (Delia Smith)

I'm always intrigued with recipes using words 'easy' or 'quick', better still, using both words LOL
When I saw Mich from Piece of Cake and Angeline from Angeline's Side of Story made this pastry from Delia Smith, I wanted to try too, very much
At the same time, Bake Along latest theme is Turnover, I decided to give this a try with apple filling
I used the recipe for the apple filling from Ina Garten after seeing Angeline did so too a while back

With such an easy method of making the pastry skin, I must say I'm very satisfied with the result, tasty, buttery and crisp. It's not flaky enough, but it's easily forgiven :)
The filling is no different, very addictive :)

What you need:

For the pastry:
110g butter
175g plain flour
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp. cold water (I added to 3 tbsp to make it more moist)

Method:

1. Keep butter wrapped in a plastic, and freeze for at least 45 minutes
2. Sift flour and salt in a large bowl, grate frozen butter on top of the flour
3. Use butter knife to mix (do not use hands) evenly
4. Sprinkle water with hands all over and mix again with butter knife for a few seconds, then you may finish off with hands
5. Dough should be moist, combine altogether, and leave the bowl fairly clean, no need to knead the dough
6. Wrap it up and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes

For the filling:
1 tbsp grated orange zest
3tbsp fresh orange juice
600g tart apples (granny smith)
3 tbsp sugar, plus extra to sprinkle on top
1 1/2 tbsp plain flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
pinch of salt

Egg wash:
1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water

Method:

1. Combine orange zest & juice. Dice apples and immediately toss with the juice mixture to prevent browning
2. Add sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt (sugar depends on the sweetness of the apples)

To assemble:

1. Preheat oven to 200degC
2. Bring the dough out from the fridge and leave it for about 15 minutes
3. Flatten the dough using rolling pin on a floured surface, shape according to preference (I made rectangle shape), keep chilled until ready to use
4. Brush the edges with egg wash
5. Place the filling on half side and fold up over the filling, then seal the edges with fork
6. Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar, poke some holes and transfer to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper
7. Bake for about 20 minutes (depending on the size) until browned and puffed
8. Serve warm or at room temperature

I'm submitting this post to:

* Bake Along hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids

 

* Cook Like A Star hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake

Bake Along #40 - Banana Chocolate Cheese Bread

I love banana bread, even though I seldom, almost never bake it, I wonder why LOL
I am not sure why it's called bread when it doesn't use yeast, but to me quick bread is cake, generally with more dense texture :)

This recipe is from "The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book", a recipe chosen for Bake Along, hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids

I thought of some ways to make it not so dense, since I don't really fancy any bakes with a dense texture
I didn't want to alter the ingredients used, so I decided to try to change the making process

I separated the egg yolks from the whites, and beat separately, a common process which believed can turn a cake to be more fluffy
And true enough, it turned out so great my whole family loved it to the bits
Of course it's not as soft as sponge cake, but it's slightly softer than butter cake!
It's so moist and soft, full of banana fragrance and it's really tasty with chocolate and cheese in it
As you know, my kids do not eat cake or bread with nuts, so I used chocolate and cheese instead, and no regret at all :)
Oh I also omitted ground nutmeg used, something that my kids (again) doesn't fancy, added cream of tartar, replaced buttermilk with plain yoghurt and halved the sugar used :)

What you need:

90g unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar (I used 1/2 cup and it's just nice for me)

280g very ripe bananas, mashed (I used 4 medium bananas)

3 large eggs, lightly beaten (I separated the yolks from the whites)

1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I added)

1/2 cup buttermilk (I used plain yoghurt)

2 cups plain flour (I weighed and it's 290g)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp ground nutmeg (I didn't use)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup chopped walnuts / pecans / hazelnuts (I skipped)
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I added)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, cubed (I added)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and lightly flour two 20x10cm loaf pans
2. Beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add egg yolks and followed by banana, beat until smooth. Add yoghurt, beat just until combined
3. In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt.  Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and beat just until combined. Set aside
4. In another bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar til medium peak
5. Fold in egg white mixture into the egg yolk mixture and add in chocolate chips and cheese cubes
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until the top is dark golden brown and dry to the touch and the edges pull away from the pan sides, about 55-60 minutes (mine is 50 minutes). A cake tester inserted into the center should come out clean
7. Let the bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Cut into thick slices to serve

Storage tip : Wrap the bread tightly in plastic wrap

 

 

I am very satisfied with the result and definitely this is a recipe that I will consider baking again :)

 

 

 

 

Please view others baking using the same recipe below :)

 

 

Bake Along #38 - Cold Oven Cream Cheese & Chocolate Pound Cake

After missing out three bakes in a row for Bake Along, finally I managed to find time to bake these little cutie pies
Thanks to the hosts of Bake Along, the time for submission now is 10 days, that means a lot to me! :)

This little cakes were very well received by my family, including the kids
It's indeed really good, I like the taste, very fine texture and moist too
I added chocolate to attract my kids and it worked :)
I wanted to make marble effect but since I used mini moulds it's not so easy to do so
I did have a little extra batter, so I did three cupcakes with marbled effect and baked using Happy Call pan :)

The mini donuts...

The mini cupcakes...

And the standard size cupcakes, the remaining batter baked using Happy Call pan...
Tasted the same, but the texture was slightly different, a little chewy and the texture was not as fine as those baked using oven

Recipe is  from the book Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman
I made half recipe, modified as follows...

What you need:

1 1/2 cup cake flour (minus 1 1/2 tbsp)
1 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
3 /4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
114g unsalted butter, softened
114g cream cheese, softened
3/4 (slightly heaped) cup caster sugar (original half recipe uses 1 1/4 cup which I think is too much)
3 large eggs
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
Original half recipe uses 3/4 tbsp grated fresh ginger and 1/2 tbsp grated lemon zest but I skipped them

Method:

1. Grease and flour 1 mini donut pan and 1 mini cupcakes pan
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl
3. Combine butter, cream cheese and sugar in a large bowl and beat til fluffy about 3 minutes
4. Lower the speed to medium, add in eggs one at a time
5. Add in vanilla, ginger and lemon zest (if used - I didn't use ginger and lemon zest, only vanilla)
6. Reduce speed to low and add in the flour mixture, 1/2 cup each time
7. Mix for 30 seconds on medium speed and off the mixer
8. Take 1/3 of the batter and fold in cocoa powder
9. Put batter (both plain and chocolate) in separate piping bag, snip the tip
10. Pipe the plain batter into the pan and top with the chocolate batter
11. Place the pans in the cold oven. Turn the oven to 150degC fan forced and bake without opening the door til cake is cooked when skewer comes out clean (mine is about 25 minutes)
12. Cool the cake in the pan for 15 minutes then invert onto a rack
13. Store in an airtight container

This is the bake for Bake Along event hosted by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, Joyce  from Kitchen Flavours and Lena, from Frozen wings

Please check out below others baked the same cake with their own brilliant modifications

Bake Along #34 - World's Quickest Yeasted Coffee Cake

Quickest - one of my favorite word when coming to kitchen activity :)
Indeed it didin't take long to make this cake
Another interesting fact was to bake in a cold oven, yeay, no need to preheat! LOL
But one thing I couldn't think the same way was to name this as cake, cos to me this is bread :)
It's yummy especially when it's fresh from the oven
It turned dense when cold, warming it up in the microwave helped, though
I baked half recipe using rectangle 20 x 10cm baking pan, and it's enough for a day consumption - eaten by me and DH :)

The recipe is from the book Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman

What you need:
(half recipe)

90ml fresh milk
2 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 tbsp instant yeast
98g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I use full recipe measurement since I love strong flavour of cinnamon)
2 tbsp light corn syrup (the one I had in stock LOL)
1 1/2 tbsp light brown sugar
30g chopped walnuts

1. Grease pan and dust with flour, knock out any extra
2. Heat milk and 1 tbsp butter in a small saucepan until butter melted and milk is very warm to the touch
3. Pour into a large mixing bowl and whisk in the yeast to dissolve. Stir in the flour and salt and beat with mixer on medium low speed til forming sticky dough
4. Press the dough into the prepared pan
5. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugat evenly over the batter
6. Melt the remaining 1 tbsp of butter. Combine the corn syrup, brown sugar and melted butter in a medium bowl and stir. Spread over the dough. Sprinkle walnuts evenly across the top
7. Place pan in a cold oven. Turn the heat ti 175degC. Bake until the cake is golden and set in the center, about 20 minutes
8. Let cool slightly and serve warm

This post is for Bake Along, hosted by wonderful bakers Zoe, Joyce and Lena

 

 



Bake Along #33 - Remastered: Japanese Choux Pastry

Baked this sometime ago and failed miserably
You may view the 'choux with hat' HERE

With Bake Along theme this month - cream puff, I knew it's time for me to give this recipe another try
But this past two weeks has been a very busy time for me, so I only managed to bake this today

Ian was sick, I mean really sick, started with mild cough on Monday last week
Then it started to get worse, broguht him to our family doctor and he had 3 days MC last week - Wednesday to Friday, high fever with very bad phlegmy cough and blocked stuffy nose. His fever was so high, it's so rare to see the thermometer below 39deg, it's always between 39-40deg, shivered badly, vomitted numerous times, diarrhea and tummy pain - it's a 3 days of nightmare

Even with antibiotics, his condition was not getting any better on Monday morning, so I had to bring him to KK Hospital on that morning, did blood test and X-ray, and he's diagnosed with mild asthma and respiratory infection and gave him a week MC with a series of medication and reliever puff

Reached home, I started giving him the medication and to my horror, at night I saw his eyes were swollen and red, and soon rashes started to appear all over his body
The very next morning which was yesterday, I brought him back to KK Hospital and doctor said he might be allergic to the antibiotic since he never took this type before
So I had to stop giving him the antibiotic and gotta give him syrup for allergy for the next 4 days

Thank God since yesterday afternoon til now, his fever has stopped completely
Now he's more alive, appetite is slowly coming back, rashes only a little left and nomore swollen eyes. Cough and runny nose is much much better, too
He's now still on MC and will be back on Monday

Parent's nightmare is when the child is sick, indeed
So glad the real Ian is back now, a kind of miss his mischievousness :P

Okay now back to my today's bake
Here's the pics, so glad I could bake it right this time :)
I made two fillings, vanilla rhum and chocolate

Full recipe can be viewed HERE

With chocolate filling...

With vanilla rhum filling...

This is for Bake Along event, hosted by Joyce, Zoe and Lena

Bake Along #32 - Everyday Yoghurt Cake With Orange & Cranberries

After reading many reviews about this cake from friends from Bake Along, I decided to tweak the recipe a little to avoid getting a cake I wouldn't enjoy


I baked this cake last night and took this pic around 15 minutes after out from the oven

Can you see the juicy orange and cranberries? :)

The pictures below were taken this afternoon... the texture of the cake was better surprisingly!

The recipe is from the book Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattmen

What you need:
(below is half recipe with slight adjustment I made)

1 cup plain flour
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
plain low fat yoghurt added with 1 tbsp + 1 tsp fresh orange juice to make 1/2 cup
40ml canola oil
1 large egg
1 tsp orange zest

For the fruit topping:
25g unsalted butter
100g fresh cranberries
6 tbsps caster sugar
cut fresh orange pulp - peel the thin skin layer, from 1 orange

First, grease bottom and sides of the pan, line and grease
Then make the fruit topping:

1. Melt butter on a non stick pan over medium low heat, add sugar and cook til sugar dissolved
2. Add in cranberries and stir to coat, simmer and stir occasionally for around 3 minutes til cranberries pop
3. Spread on the prepared pan

Now make the cake:

1. Preheat oven to 180degC
2. Sieve together flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt
3. Whisk together yoghurt mixture, oil, eggs and orange zest
4. Pour yoghurt mixture into the flour mixture and stir til just moistened (do not over stir)
5. Scoop batter on top of the fruits topping, spread evenly
6. Bake about 30 minutes til tester skewer comes out clean, cake is golden
7. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, invert on wire rack, then turn right side up on rack to cool completely

Yes, I agree, this is not a light and airy cake, it's a dense cake.But thanks to the cranberries mixture which has butter content, and added with the juicy oranges, while the cake is dense, but it's soft and moist, really nice!

Below are other bakers baking this cake, as well as the hosts: Joyce, Lena and Zoe

Bake Along #31 - Orange Chocolate Whoopie Pies

This is the second whoopie pies I made, in conjunction with Bake Along event hosted by Zoe, Lena and Joyce

Recipe is from Sweet Pea's Kitchen - lemon whoopie pies
I used oranges instead, and I used dark chocolate ganache for the filling

I used two different method in shaping the cookies
The first picture below used baking sheet and I dropped 1 1/2 tbsp of the batter
It turned out to be flatter and wide

 

The second one I used muffin tray with cupcake liners, I dropped 1 tbsp for each cookie

It turned out to be fatter and smaller in size

The patterns at the sides of each cookie from the liners were obvious, and then I remembered when I did my first whoopie pies, I used muffin tray without liners, only lightly greased them, which gave me better shape cookies

 

A never fails me combination - orange and chocolate, yum!

What you need:
(I reduced the sugar usage, increase the orange juice a little and replaced buttermilk with plain low fat yoghurt)

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 large egg
1 1/2 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup minus 1/2 tbsp plain yoghurt

Dark chocolate ganache:
enough dark chocolate buttons, melted in a double boiler with a dollop of unsalted butter
Let cool and keep in the fridge to firm up

1. Preheat oven to 175degC. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, set aside
3. Beat butter, sugar and orange zest on medium speed til smooth, about 3 minutes
4. Add in egg, orange juice and vanilla extract, mix til blended, about 1 minute
5. Reduce mixer to low speed and add half of flour mixture, mix til just combined. Mix in yoghurt. Mix in the remaining flour mixture til just combined
6. Drop 1 1/2 tbsp of the dough onto the prepared baking sheets, about 3 inches apart
7. Bake for 15 minutes, til the tops feel firm and tester skewer comes out clean
8. Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes, remove to cooling rack and cool completely
9. Turn 1 cookies upside down, flat side facing up. Drop a large dollop of chocolate ganache onto the flat side of the cookie, leaving a 1/4 inch plain edge
10. Place another cookie, flat side down, on top of the filling
11. Press down slightly so that filling spreads to the edges of the cookie
12. Repeat til all cookies are used. Place whoopie pies into the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up before serving. Serve cold

Below are many yummy whoopie pies baked by Bake Along friends, do check it out :)

Bake Along #30 - Gluten Free Apple Cornmeal Upside Down Cake

Among all, I guess my cake will be the thinnest one
First, I baked half recipe using 8" round cake
Second, I used gluten free flour mixture hence the lack of ability for the cake to rise as nice as those with plain flour
It's so thin that I couldn't really taste the cake itself cos it's a kind of mixed together with the apple mixture
Nevertheless, this is a yummy cake that's perfect to be served as dessert with a scoop of ice cream
I was not so prepared with the final touch, I realized just before I was about to take photos that I didn't have ice cream in my freezer and I only had mini Cornetto
( as you can see from the pictures below, I used only the top part LOL )

This recipe is from Epicurious
I followed exactly but only baked half of the quantity, replacing plain flour with gluten free flour mixture (the recipe for gluten free flour mixture can be viewed HERE)
Also replacing sugar with raw sugar and I used SA fuji apples
I still found it too sweet to my liking, perhaps my sweet apples were the reason

I am also curious to know the difference from the recipe from the book itself - Bon Appetit by Barbara Fairchild, whereby no boiling water and vanilla extract used

I'll try the recipe from the book the next time I bake this again, with some points to take note of:
* to use smaller pan if I bake this half quantity :)
* to reduce the amount of sugar or use granny smith apples which is more sourish in taste
* to use plain flour too so I can see whether or not there's some difference with this gluten free type


This is for Bake Along hosted by great bakers Joyce, Lena and Zoe

Please visit the wonderful blogs below baking this yummy cake too :)

At the same time I'd like to submit this post to Aspiring Bakers #22: Lightened Up Cakes (August 2012) hosted by Qi Ting of A Dessert Diet

Bake Along #29 - Chicken Pie

I baked these pies this morning
I always love chicken pie but this is my first time baking one :)
The recipe has been in my to do list for ages, finally I made it

I love these pies, really!
The top crust has a lovely texture and taste oh so buttery, I wish it's like that all over the pies. Because I used alumunium foil cups, the sides and bottom parts were soft yet firm, not crusty
Perhaps the next time I bake, I will not use cups but just shape by hand and put on lined baking tray, that should give crusty skin all over :)
The filling were so tasty, too!
Such a perfect combination :)

I used recipe from Baking Mum for the pastry and for the filling, I combined her recipe and Cooking Crave plus a little modification by me

Another keeper recipe, pretty simple to make, only involved quite a lot of chopping :)

What you need:

For the pastry:

200g butter
250g plain flour
110g plain yoghurt
1 tsp sugar
1 egg yolk
a pinch of salt

1. Put all ingredients into the mixing bowl except yoghurt and mix to crumble
2. Add in yoghurt and mix to a dough
3. Dough will be very soft so need to keep in the freezer for 30 minutes and another 30 minutes in the chiller

For the filling:

3 potatoes, diced
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, chopped
12 strings of french beans, chopped
around 20pcs of white button mushrooms, sliced
2 small chicken breasts, diced (mine is big so I used 1 1/2)
1 heaped tbsp of corn starch, mixed with 2 tbsp water
salt, sugar, pepper
2 + 2 tbsp canola oil

To marinade the chicken:
* 1 tbsp oyster sauce
* 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
* few shakes garlic salt
* few shakes parsley flakes
* 1 tsp sesame oil
* some pepper

1 egg, beaten - for glazing

1. Heat 2 tbsp canola oil on a wok, add in potatoes and cook with around 150ml water and salt til soft, set aside
2. In a clean wok, heat 2 tbsp canola oil and fry onion til fragrant and transparent. Add carrots, french beans, chicken. Fry for a while to break up chicken.
3. Add in mushroom, stir well til soft
4. Add in potatoes with the salt water, let cook for 2-3 minutes
5. Add in salt, pepper and sugar and adjust the taste
6. When boiling, add in corn starch mixture to thicken the mixture, stir well
7. Set aside

For the filling, you may add sliced hardboiled eggs
(I wanted to but totally forgotten!)

How to make the pie...

1. Prepare alumunium foils cup ( I used 7 cups)
2. Take out the dough from the fridge, and roll on lightly floured surface
3. Cut the size as required (for the pie base and sides) and arrange on the cups to fit nicely
4. Poke holes on the base using fork and place filling on top
5. Cut another piece of dough to cover the top
6. Poke a few more times using fork on the cover of the pie, and seal the edges by pressing the back of the fork all around, brush with beaten egg
7. bake in preheated oven of 180degC for 30 minutes approximately or til the top browned

This post is for Bake Along event, hosted by Joyce, Lena and Zoe

Below are the wonderful chicken pies from fabulous bakers joining the event :)

Bake Along #28 - Gluten Free Coconut Checkerboard Brownies

I was curious to find how this two combination taste like
Brownies and coconut, one thing I never think of putting together
To my surprise, it's not bad at all - an occasional nice twist which every brownie lover can't say no to
East and West brownies, very nice indeed :)

Knowing that my kids will not fancy brownies with coconut, I made using 20cm square pan, half just plain brownies :)
They enjoyed the brownies, a little too sweet - even though I have reduced the amount of sugar used, but nice

One problem was, I couldn't make a nice checkerboard design, I wasn't sure what I made actually... Checkerboard? No... Polkadot? No...
Anyway, it looked better after I cut into small squares hehehe....

Fudgy brownies - my kind of brownies :)

Recipe is from the book Bon Appetit Desserts by Barbara Fairchild

What you need:
(modified to suit my family liking)

Coconut batter:
(I made half of the recipe below)

200g fresh grated coconut
20g icing sugar
60ml cream of coconut
60g Philadelphia cream cheese, cut into 1 inch cube, room temperature
1 large egg
a big squeeze of lemon juice
pinch of salt

Brownies batter:

90g unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
100g dark chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
200g golden brown sugar (will reduce to 150g the next time I bake this again)
85g mocaf flour, sifted then measured
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

To make the coconut batter:
Measure 1/3 cup flaked coconut, cover and set aside. Place the remaining coconut and sugar in processor, finely chop. Add cream of coconut, cream cheese and blend well. Add egg, lemon juice and salt, blend well, stop ocassionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Transfer to bowl. Cover and refrigerate til very firm, about 3 hours (I did overnight)

To make the brownies batter:
Butter pan (I used 20 x 20 x 4cm square pan). Melt butter and chocolate in heave small saucepan over low heat, stir til smooth. Pour into medium bowl. Cool to lukewarm. Whisk in eggs and vanilla. Whisk sugar, flour, baking powder, salt in small bowl
Sift over chocolate mixture. Mix til blended and smooth. Spread 1 1/4 cups of the batter in the pan and cover pan tightly with aluminium foil. Refrigerate til very firm about 3 hours. Also refrigerate the remaining batter in the container (I did overnight)

1. Position rack in the centre of the oven and preheat to 165degC
2. Alternate 1 tbsp of the remaining brownies batter and 1 tbsp of coconut batter over chocolate layer, filling pan completely. Sprinkle reserved 1/3 cup of the coconut over coconut mounds, press gently to adhere. bake for approximately 45 minutes til skewer comes out clean
3. Cool completely and cut

This time, I used gluten free mocaf flour for this brownies, this is my second brownies using this flour (the first one I used different recipe) and both gave nice results
A little details about mocaf flour can be read HERE

Initially I wanted to use gluten free flour mixture from this site which many gave good reviews
But then I realized what I had was tapioca starch, while the recipe said tapioca flour
I wasn't sure whether these two are the same or different
I googled for information, many said they're the same, but some said different
So, I decided to use mocaf flour for now, while searching for the real truth :)
Anybody know the answer? :)

This post is for Bake Along event, hosted by Joyce, Lena and Zoe

Please view other wonderful bakers in the link tool below to see their lovely brownies too :)

I'm also submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #21 Gluten Free Bakes hosted by Hankerie

Bake Along #27 - Gluten Free Cheese & Choco Chips Scones Cookies

For Bake Along this time, the theme is scones
I baked this morning and I wasn't pleased at all

I wasn't so sure whether I should post this or not, initially
This was not like what I expected to be, even though I knew the texture would not be the same, since I used gluten free mocaf flour
This was my second bake using this flour, you may view HERE for my first bake including the short description about the flour

Gluten is one substance that makes cakes rise, and I expected my scones would be shorter, but I never expected they would be flat like cookies!
The dough was so sticky and soft, couldn't do any remedy action that I just spooned it on the pan and baked them
I think the culprit was not only the flour I used, but more on the quantity of eggs I used, I think it's a little too much...
Wew... pure intention to modify these scones to a healthier treat turned disastrous! So annoyed!

Until my kids said, wow...mummy baked chocolate chips cookies...yum!
Then I was like, oh yeah, why not, these are scones cookies
Indeed the texture was like cakey soft chewy cookies
One consolation - the taste was yummy :)

Original recipe was from Barefoot Contessa, modified by me

What you need:
(I made half of the original recipe and I had 12 large scones cookies)

2cups mocaf flour plus 1/2 tbsp mocaf flour, divided (original recipe: all purpose flour)
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
170g cold unsalted butter, diced
2 1/2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/2 cup cold yoghurt (original recipe: heavy cream)
80g grated cheddar cheese (original recipe: 115g)
80g semi sweet chocolate chips (original recipe: 1/2 cup minced fresh dill)
1/2 egg beaten with 1/2 tbsp milk, for egg wash

1. Preheat oven to 200degC
2. Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl
3. Add butter, and rub til mixed and butter in pea sized pieces
4. Mix eggs and yoghurt, quickly add to the flour & butter mixture
5. Combine til just blended
6. Toss together cheese, chocolate chips and 1/2 tbsp flour, add them to the dough. mix til almost incorporated
7. On floured surface, knead the dough for 1 minute til cheddar and chocolate chips well mixed evenly
8. Roll 3/4 inch thick. Cut 4 inches squares and half diagonally to make triangles
9. Brush the top with egg wash
10. Bake around 30 minutes til outside crusty and inside fully cooked

I was quite happy to know the scones cookies was liked by my family, moreover to know that it's rather a healthy treat - no gluten and no sugar used
But the next time I bake this again, since the recipe has many great reviews, I'll just stick to the original recipe to the dot, including using chopped dill instead of chocolate chips
I'm sure I will munch happier that way, I am a kind of missing the real scones texture :P

The event is hosted by Zoe, Joyce and Lena, please hop over to their fabulous blogs :)

Below is fellow bakers with their wonderful scones
I feel like one ugly duckling to put my scones among theirs!