Apple Crumble adapted from The Sunday Times, Life!

Apple Crumble

 

 

Ingredients:

For The Crumble

220g plain flour

140g sugar (I used about 100g sugar instead because it's simply too sweet for me)

120g butter chopped into cubes

 

For The Filling

5-6 Granny Smith apples

4 tbs sugar (I reduced it to 2 tbs sugar since the apples are already sweet after baking)

200ml water

1 tsp cinnamon

 

 

Method:

(1) Preheat oven to 180°C.

 

To make the crumble:

(2) Place the flour and sugar into a large bowl and mix well.

(3) Taking a few cubes of butter at a time, rub them into the flour mixture with your fingertips.

(4) Keep adding butter and rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

 

To prepare the filling:

(5) Peel, core and slice the apples into a large bowl. Sprinkle over the sugar and cinnamon. Stir well, taking care not to break up the fruit.

 

(6)Spoon the filling into an oval baking dish.

(7) Pour water over it.

(8) Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top, spreading it right up to the edges of the dish. Using the flat of your hand, press it down firmly all over - the more tightly it is packed together, the crispier it will be.

(9) Finish off by lightly running a fork over the surface to "crumble" the top.

(10) Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture is bubbling.
(11) Serve with ice cream.

 

 

Verdict:

(+) Easy to prepare and assemble.

 

(-) The quantity of sugar stated in the original recipe yielded a very sweet apple crumble.

 

(=) A foolproof recipe that is hard to fail and great for beginners!

 



Ah Ling's Birthday

This was the second birthday celebration in our group of four this year. And somehow, starting from 2012, our birthday celebratory budget just got bigger!

On this very special day for Missy Ling, we invited her for lunch at the Jumbo Seafood Restaurant @ Riverside Point.

Besides the compulsory Sri Lanka chilli crab accompanied by buns (albeit steam buns this time as a healthier option), we also ordered scallop in yam rings, stir-fried broccoli in oyster sauce and chicken/salted fish fried rice.

The chilli crab was Fresh. Spicy. Big. The gravy, however, was a bit too thick and gluey. And since when did they changed their presentation to be in the form of a wok? I still prefer the simple plastic plate.

The scallop in yam ring was Nice. Normally, for this dish, I would expect to see a large deep-fried yam ring filled with a combination of stir-fried cube-diced vegetables, seafood and cashew nuts.

After the nice luncheon, we decided to resume the customary birthday cake cutting ceremony by presenting Ah Ling with a salted caramel chocolate panna cotta from Starbucks.

Happy Birthday Ah Ling!

Valentine’s Day 2012

A little something from THE husband:

And from me, a self-assembled ice-cream cake – inspired by a home-cooked Valentine’s Day menu from The Sunday Times.

Ingredients:
1 pound cake (I used Sara Lee chocolate swirl pound cake)
1 tub of ice-cream (whichever flavor you like – chocolate chip peppermint in this case)
Fruits (canned mandarin orange, diced strawberries and mangoes)

Method:
(1) Thaw the pound cake and ice-cream for about 15-30 minutes until they are soft enough for assembling
(2) Cut the pound cake into slices, apportioning some to cover the bottom, side and top of the container. If possible leave some as the inter-layers as well.
(3) Lay the pound cake slices on the bottom and side of the container
(4) Scoop some ice-cream to form a thin base
(5) Decorate the next layer with fruits
(6) Scoop some ice-cream to cover all the fruits
(7) Add some slices of pound cake
(8) Scoop some ice-cream to cover the pound cake
(9) Decorate the next layer with fruits
(10)Scoop some ice-cream to cover all the fruits
(11) You might want to repeat the layering process until the ingredients are used up or the top of the container reached
(12)Lay the remaining pound cake slices on top of the ice-cream as the final layer
(13)Wrap the ice-cream cake with plastic wrap and freeze it for 3-5 hours prior to serving

Verdict:
(-) I would recommend not to add the mandarin orange slices (opposed to the recommendation from The Straits Times) as it does not taste juicy when freeze.
(+) Quick and fun to assemble
(=) It’s assembled, so how bad can it taste? :)

Jams Cafe @ {Prologue}

Another hidden treasure for me, the Jams Cafe at {Prologue} in ION Orchard. As some of you might know (or might not know), {Prologue} belongs to the familiar Popular chain of bookstores that we grew up with, unfortunately with the establishment of the mega bookstores such as Borders and Kinokunia, Popular has been losing much of it's market share which is evident in the closing and shrinkage of some of their outlets.

When I found {Prologue} at ION Orchard, i was a little skeptical about how long they would last there, I would assume that the lease there would be significantly higher and especially since they, as a "Popular's tradition", dedicated a section to our all too familiar assessment books! Nevertheless, when I wandered in and saw that they too have a small cafe within the store, I decided to give it a shot.

Surprisingly, I find the cafe to be nicely situated at one end of the book store with a nice view of the street activities below at Orchard Road. The ambient was nice, quieter than most of the other cafes in the area, probably due to the lesser crowd at that level on ION Orchard.

Blueberry scones, cheesecake and latte

The blueberry scone was a tad too dry and not particularly tasty, neither was the blueberry cheesecake too fascinating. I'm not much of a coffee person and the latter wasn't impressive enough to make a convert out of me. The bit which I found quite annoying was that they wouldn't give any jam and cream with the scone ($2.50 single) unless the customer buys the scone set ($8.50) which comes with 2 scones, so effectively, they are charging an extra $3.50 just for jam and cream! I simply refused to pay for jam and cream and just had the single scone.


On my second visit over the weekend, I decided to try their red organic rooibos tea and apple walnut cake. The rooibos tea was nice and nutty, plus it's rich in antioxidants! The apple walnut cake has a texture texture similar to that of a moist carrot cake, so it was a rather pleasant surprise. Overall, I thought that the tea went well with the cake. Of course the main reason I went back there was more for the ambient, a quick getaway and feet-rest after walking lots in Orchard road.

Dessert Buffet with Durian Pastries @ Goodwood Park Hotel

After having passed by Goodwood Park Hotel countless times and the thumbs-up from many friends about their durian dessert, I finally made the reservation for their dessert buffet with durian pastries.

Upon entering the Coffee Lounge, I managed to catch a whiff of durian which instantly fired up my salivary glands. There were a decent variety of desserts to choose from but not yet a great selection to wow me over.

I was immediately drawn to the durian section which featured six types of neatly arranged durian themed pastries - durian puff, durianmisu, durian oreo cake, durian pancake, durian pudding and durian roll.

clockwise from top: durian pudding, durian roll, durian pancake and durian puff

durian oreo cake (front left) & durianmisu (front right)

My favourite would have to be the durian pudding which taste the closest to my favourite durian pengat. Next on my hit list would have to be the durianmisu with the deadly coupling of kahlúa and D24 durian pulp!

After stuffing myself crazy with the durian desserts, there's naturally hardly any space left in my stomach to accomodate the rest of the desserts. Fortunately (or not), my 'partner-in-crime" is a durian-hater and therefore, I managed to capture some shots of the non-durian desserts as well as nipped a few bites from his plate.

Towards the end of an almost 1.5 hours dessert marathon, I decided to wave my white flag at the ice-cream tubs and heavenly big bowl of mango sago, which under normal circumstances are my absolute must-have desserts.

Priced at $24.80 per pax, I would strongly recommend all durian-lovers to GO FOR IT before the durian fiesta ends on the 25th July 2010.

The Fruit Tart Shop @ Raffles City Shopping Centre

Let me cut to the chase. This is one of the shops in my "Little Black List".

Complain #1: Despite the fantastic marketing tactic of showcasing a great variety of mouth-watering plastic fruit tart display which has succeeded in luring me into the shop, the real edible tarts upon ordering was only down to a pathetic few which could be counted with five fingers.

Complain #2: I had to wait for more than 15 minutes before being served with my order. Isn't it as simple as dishing the pre-cut tart out onto a serving plate?

Complain #3: Generously priced at about $7 per slice, the miserable tiny slice was rather stingily (I even have to invent my own word here!) cut and appeared to be overpowered by the white serving plate.

Complain #4: Despite the nicely worded description in the menu promising a chocolate mousse filled tart with strawberry toppings, I was greatly disappointed to find my teeth sinking into 80% of fattening whipped cream with only a sparse amount of chocolate mousse deposited at the base of the tart. The only thing that didn't disappoint me would have to be the crunchy tart base (which I could have easily bought at the supermarket) and the strawberries (which I'm pretty sure wasn't harvested from their kitchen).
Complain #5: After having ingested the tart, I proceeded to cleanse my palate with a cup of ice water only to find the grand 'surprise' finale staring at me - yes, you are right, it was lipstick mark at the rim of the cup or whatever that was red and sticky remaining after a hasty attempt at rinsing the cup for the next sucker customer.

I hardly make guarantees but I can more than 100% guaranteed that I'll never ever step into another Fruit Tart Shop again! :)

Chocolate Souffle @ Bakerzin

Thanks to the birthday voucher sent to me by one of the retail stores which I have made a contribution towards, I treated myself to a free chocolate souffle at Bakerzin just two days before it expires.

It was actually quite a good deal with the $9.20 dessert presented to me free-of-charge at no requirement to make a minimum purchase order.

That said, "Happy Birthday To Me"...again. :)
And did I mention that it was yummy? :P

Are you a tarty person?

I am definitely a "tarty" or a cookie person compared to being a cakie.

Just look at the red, luscious strawberries atop the crunchy crust and light cream...Ohhh....scream someone!

Strawberry tart from Konditorei Bernold @ River Drau

Home Cooked Brunch

Lately, I was taken over by the urge to make home-cooked food. So on a fine saturday morning, I met up with a friend and went shopping for ingredients for pizza and mudpie brunch!


The Carrefour supermarket at the basement of Plaza Singapura had me disappointed as there was no active dry yeasts amidst it's huge 'Baking Needs" row and due to the poor sectioning of the supermarket, it took me quite a while to locate the bottle of dry oregano leaves which was hidden in a secluded corner of the massive supermarket! The next time round, I'll definitely be shopping at Cold Storage.


At the end of close to 2 hours of shopping cart pushing and trying to play detectives at locating the various ingredients from our shopping list, we got tired and decided to opt for the ready-made pizza crust instead.


Without having to make the pizza dough, lining the pizza crust was a breeze. After spreading tomato sauce as the base layer, the rest of the job were simply to dice up the ingredients into cubes and do a nice layout.


The pizza was cooked after about 20 minutes of baking and I must say the appearance alone looked promising!



However, a bite into the piping hot pizza kind of had me disappointed all over again. The crust was dry and neither tasted fresh or crispy. Luckily, the ingredients sort of made up for the disappointment. Next time round, I'll surely be making my own pizza dough.


As for the mudpie, the only task was to crush the digestive biscuits leaving some bite size crumps for that extra crunch. Melted butter was then mixed into the crumps before pressing the biscuit dough onto a round cake tin. Melted chocolate ice-cream was then added to the biscuit base and stored in the freezer.



Unfortunately, the sweet tooth monster got into us and we couldn't wait till the mudpie was entirely frozen before we were digging into the dessert with spoons and forks. The best part of the mudpie would have to be the biscuit base while the selection of dark chocolate ice-cream could be better if we went for the slightly more expensive Häagen-Dazs. Such was the compromise I have to make for being such a scrooge.

Dessert at Goodwood Park Hotel

After dinner at Cream Bistro, a friend and I walked to the nearby Goodwood Park Hotel for something sweet to complete the meal.

As it was our first time there and without any recommendations or prior knowledge, we wandered off to the L'Espresso for a drink and some desserts.

There was a choice of either the indoor aircon seats (which is kind of freezing cold) or the outdoor seats facing the swimming pool. With the slight drizzle and the soft light illuminating the swimming pool and its surrounding low hotel terraces, the choice was clear.


We ordered a cup of coffee, camomile tea, vanilla raspberry cake and a dark chocolate fondue with fruits.

The coffee came with a sugar stick where looked as though the sugar crystals were cultivated on the stick right out of a primary school science laboratory. I thought it was kind of cool! If I'm not mistaken, it costs only about $6 - $9 a cup. Cheap!



On the menu, a serving of camomile tea was priced at $9. So I thought it would only be a cup of tea but I was pleasantly surprised when it came with a pot plus the option to refill. Real steal!



The vanilla raspberry cake looks nice but upon the taste test, it was kind of disappointing. It's essentially a thin layer of sponge cake spread with raspberry jam and took the form of a swiss roll with thick vanilla mousse as the outer layer. It costs around $6.50 per piece. Relatively cheap!

Finally, the grand finale - dark chocolate fondue with walnut sprinkled in it + a selection of 6 fruits (strawberry, dragon fruit, pineapple, rock melon, banana and kiwi) + 3 selection of dip-ins. It costs about $25. Relatively cheap taking into consideration that it's served in a hotel.

We were kind of puffed out by the time the fondue was served. Some of the fruits were a little sloggy but the dark chocolate covered it all up. My favourite would have to be one of the dip-in selection: a bowl of tiny riceballs coated with chocolate. :)

The Nokia E65 is absolutely crappy when it comes to taking photos. Quality is really bad with highly pixelated photos.

Raspberry Ice-Cream Cake for the dog

Today is THE day for my dog - it's her 8th year old birthday! Almost every year, I would celebrate this day for her with a cake. Previously, I was not aware that chocolates can be poisonous to dogs*, so I brought her a chocolate cake (being my all-time favourite) and I guess I'm lucky to still have her alive and kicking. Then again, maybe I ate most of the cake so that explains why she's not murdered by me then.

*An extraction from an article explains that chocolate contains theobromine, an alkaloid that dogs can't metabolize quickly. If a dog ingests a large amount of chocolate, the theobromine can build up and reach a toxic level of concentration, leading to cardiac arrest. Different types of chocolate are more harmful than others, and the effects will vary, depending upon the size and weight of the dog. However, it is potentially lethal.

So this year, I decided to bake her a cake! And to sort of reduce the possibility of failure, I chose to make the relatively simplier Ice-Cream cake.

RASPBERRY ICE-CREAM CAKE

Ingredients:

1.5 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup + 1 tbs granulated white sugar; separate I put less quantity of each

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

4 large egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

5 cups vanilla ice-cream I used blueberry ice-cream instead

1+1/2 cups fresh raspberries, lightly crushed

1 small packet of digestive biscuit (decided to improvish a little)

Method:

(1) Preheat oven to 180°C and place rack in center of oven. Grease and line with parchment paper an 8" square cake pan. Set aside.

(2) In a mixing bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

(3) In electric mixer bowl, beat the butter until soft (~ 1-2 mins). Gradually add 1 cup sugar and beat until light and fluffy (~ 2-3 mins). Add vanilla extract and beat until combined.

(4) Add flour mixture and milk, in 3 additions, beginning and ending with flour. (I think by not following this sequence, I still got quite a nice cake)

(5) In a clean bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form.

(6) Gradually add remaining 1 tbs of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.

(7) With a rubber spatula, gently fold a little of the whites into the batter to lighten it and then fold in remaining whiltes until combined. Do not overmix or it will deflate. (I used a large metal spoon instead)

(8) Pour batter into pan and smooth the top with an offset spatula. Bake for approximately 30 mins, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. (I just used the same metal spoon to smoothen the top of the batter)

(9) Cook cake on wire rack for ~ 10mins. Remove cake from pan and leave to ool completely.

(10) Using a serrated knife, cut cake horizontally into two layers. Place one layer onto the bottom of a clean 8" pan that has been lined with plastic wrap.

(11) Lightly crush raspberries and spread them over top of cake.

(12) Let the ice-cream soften until it is spreadable and spoon the ice-cream evenly on top of raspberries. Cover with second cake layer. (my own creation: after adding the ice-cream layer, I topped it with the crushed digestive biscuits. Then I added another layer of ice-cream before covering it with the second cake layer)

(13) Press down to compact the cake, ice-cream and berries and then cover with plastic wrap.

(14) Freeze for at least an hour.

(15) About 30 mins before serving, take cake from freezer and remove it from cake pan.

Verdict:

(+) If you got the cake right, what else can go wrong??

(+) Such cake (to be stored in freezer) can be kept longer without much compromise to the flavour and texture of the cake.

(+) Suprisingly, the cake turned out to be not too sweet!

(-) I should have mixed abit of the ice-cream with the biscuit crumps because the cake keeps separating at the dry biscuit crump layer

(-) Should add more ice-cream to have the more shiok taste!

(=) The dog likes it! That is what's important!