sweet and sour, not the chinese stir fry

As I opened the oven, the smell of tangy lemon essence infused the air. I was excited because I did not use any lemon extract or essence in this baking endeavour, yet the lemonyness was undeniably present.

I had some concerns when I was making these awesome lemon bars. When I was pressing the base into the pan, I thought there would not be crust to cover the pan base and that I would end up a a cracker thin crust. I was also worried that the topping was too thin, resulting in nothing more than a thin layer of lemon glaze on top. and then I worried if the bars were going to be too swee when I added the sweetener, and then I worried they would be too sour as I added the lemon juice (squeezing all that lemon juice sure does "eat" your hands!). What a worrying-filled baking experience. There is always some degree of worrying going on when one bake, especially when baking a brand new creation. But man, this was double the normal amount of worrying.

Thankfully, my concerns were all unfounded.

• the crust was of the right thickness
• the topping was much more than just a glaze
• the topping was a balanced combination of sweet and sourness

1stly, make the base:

1/2 cup besan flour (46g)
1/4 cup flour (33g atta)
3 tbsp equivalent sugar (stevia)
1/4 cup equivalent butter (pureed pumpkin)
-combine flours and sugar
-add butter (pumpkin) in portions and mix till all ingredients are combined
-press into a lined 8x8 pan and bake at 180degreeC-10-15 mins
-notes: i did not use up all the pumpkin; added a little bit of water

topping:1/3 cup sugar (sweetener)2 egg white

1 yolk (pumpkin puree-abt 2 yolks amount)

1 tsp lemon zest

2 tbsp lemon juice (32g)

baking powder

-beat all ingredients together till thoroughly combined ( will be somewhat foamy)

-pour onto par-baked crust and bake 20 minutes

-notes: when out of the oven, the top may be a little hard/crunchy to the touch; it will soften as it cools)

these lemon bars are freaking awesome! I ate the entire pan after dinner. ( except for a tiny weeny bit which my dad stole. haha)

pecfection not yet attained

This was a no bake cheesecake. I love how it looks with its baby pink appearance garnished with occasional smudges of pure white. The white parts were not intentional though, it was because I failed to prperly combine the mixture that brought about this rather pretty design . Blessing in disguse. The cake definitely still need some work. I am posting the recipe i used here and the adjustment i intend tio make the next time i attempt this no bake cheesecake.

a block of cream cheese, softened, diced
2 cups homemade cool whip
2/3 cup boiling water
2 tsp agar powder( used a red colour one)
strawberry essence
1/2 tsp stevia(= 1/2 cup sugar)
-combine boiling water with agar, stawberry essence and stevia over heat until throughly combined.
-make the cool whip and portion out about 2 cups
-continue whipping as you add hte cream cheese to the portioned out cool whip
-stream in the dissloved agar mixture
-pour into pan( 9 inch pie pan) and refrigerate.

i felt that the cake was too firm and not sweet enough. the texture was a little to agar-ish.

changes I will make in future:

• reduce amount of agar used so cake will be less firm and more creamy-ish ( try 1 tsp)

• increase amount of sweetener ( try 3/4 tsp sweetener)
  

don't get flat no more

A tub of cool whip here cost around the region of $10. So I was real pleased when I discovered I could make my own cool whip for a fraction of the cost. All I needed was:

skim milk (about 200-250ml) + 0.5-1 tsp (xanthan gum)

-use a mixer and go on high for about 4-8 minutes there about.

-mixture will get foamy first before eventually reaching a cool whip texture

-this makes s much, like 5 cups or more!

As I whip the milk into its infancy minutes, I wondered if it was going to work or is this all just wishful thinking on my part, the mixturue just look real...foamy. But patience was the name of the game. Half way through, the foamy milk showed serious signs of evolving into cool whip.

However, my glee was short-lived. This cool whip copycat has a life span of approximation 2 hours. Beyond 2 hours, it starts to deflate and return to foam-like texture. This sort of ruined a no bake cool whip cheesecake I tried to make a day in advance. Taste was not affected, but it kind of cause the cake to have a odd gooeyish texture.

BUT, my said disappointment was well, short - lived. I saw on another site that one could stabalise whip cream with the use of gelatin. Light bulb moment: I have fake cool whip, which is like whip cream, I have agar, which is like gelatin. Maybe I could do the same. So I did, and.......it worked! STabalised long lasting homemade Cool Whip! Heck Yeah! I have used it for like a bizillion things, like:

Topped it on crustless pumpkin pie

stir it in to some proats( makes oats 10x yummier!)

added rosewater and use it in a (failed) meringue roulade

stir in some pumpkin and you get pumpkin mousse

make a no bake cheesecake

or just top it with some cereal!( used the leftover from the pumpkin pie)

Chocolate, meet Orange

Chocolate. Orange. They compliment each otherexceptionally well. The first time I tried this combination, it was when I baked a cake. I was surprised at how the citrius brought out the chocolatey flavour of the cake. So, I did repeated this flavour combo again in this simple ice cream recipe using:

2 cups almond milk + 1 cup skim milk + 1 cup water , 1/4 cup cocoa powder, 1 tsp stevia ( =1cup sugar), 1 tsp orange extract ( will add zest next time), 2 tsp agar powder, 1-2 tsp xanthan gum

-combine all the above over heat so agar dissolves. I use a stick blander after heating.

-freezer and stir/speed mixer every 1-2 hours after the 1st mix when mixture gets firm.

I sprinkled on some puffed rice for crunch. A rather light cocoa scented ice cream than a rich chocolatey one. This recipe makes alot as I made mine with a high air volume churned in.

one scoop,

two scoop...

all gone!

do not Judge a Cake by its Cover

...because than you will miss out on consuming this:

Cake may look like exploded poo and frozen vomit, but don't be fooled by its crappy aesthetic. Taste was divine.

This chocolate pudding cake forms a crackly thin crust on top. Underneath, you get this gooey creamy mousse like chocolate layer, which is speckled with fudgy chocolatey cakey pieces due portions of the cake being more baked up out of the oven.

I threw this in the oven exactly 40 minutes before I planned to eat this so I can devour this beast warm and fresh

1/2 cup besan flour

1/4 cup(25g) textured vegetable protein , blended to flour consistency

1/4 cup cocoa powder

2/3 cup sugar ( iused stevia and topped up with about 100g pumpkin before mashing)

2 tsp baking powder

125g water/milk

-/4 cup cocoa

-combine above in a pan ( i used 8by 8),

then sprinkle on top of batter:

just beofore baking, pour on 1.25 cup boiling water and bake at 170degreeC for about 30-35 minutes-1/2 cup -2/3 cup sugar equivalent

truly yum in my tum...

Seitan, I believe I like you/ beans, you don't need a soak

I never thought I could go vegetarian for an entire day. I love my animal products way too much. Then I learnt about something called seitan. Then i figured out how simple it was to make your own seitan. Then I realised how cheap it would cost. Then I experimented going vegetarian for a day.Everything went well.

This is not to say I will be converting to a vegetarian lifestyle. I doubt I would ever give up seafood, but I could occasionally throw in a few vegetarian days a month to help save me some moolah.

AND I MANAGED to cook dried beans without soaking! Dried beans are so much cheaper than canned, but I was often deterred by the need to soak the beans in advance. I surfed the web to see if anyone had sucess cooking beans without soaking and the paupered chef did. So it was not impossible, I thought. I followed the paupered chef method to a tee.The 75 minutes wait was filled with anxiety and trepidation. are the beans really going to get cooked? i really really hope this works out! I really really wanna try some seitan chilli, and I don'y want to compromise the recipe!
...75 minutes later, I remove the pot of beans from the oven, uncover the pot, took a fork and pierced through a single kidney bean. It was cooked. hooray!

With these two culinary discoveries, I concocted a pot of chili-like deliciousness.

The basic seitan recipe is equal voume of vital wheat gluten and liquid plus your seasining if choice. Over here i used: 60g vital wheat gluten + 1/2 cup water( approx, didn't really measure). I seasoned with vegemite, nutritional yeast( about 8g), sage, rosemary, salt. Combine everything . You could then choose to bake, steam or boil it as a whole piece of seitan or tear them up into strips. I boiled the entire piece in some water and a bay leaf. most recipe I saw boil the seitan for l=about 30 minutes but I did less as they were to be stewed again in my chili.

for the beans: I used 90g dried beans, brought to a boil on the stove-top before transferring to the oven for 75 inutes at 125degreeC.

and for the final product, I first boiled some sweet potatoes(abot 170g) in the leftover water from the seitan. Once they are quite soft, i poured away some of the water, added the kidney beans. I then chopped (ok, tore) the seitan I made and toss in as well. Add seasoning (chili powder, oregano). simmer simmer simmer away. EAT.

2 Carrot Cakes, a fail before a win

I made 2 carrot cake this week. I had a abundent amount of carrots so carrot cake was naturally on the menu. I don't fancy carrots savoury, its one of my least like vegetables. Carrot cake on the other hand...well, its nor my favourite cake by any means but the carrot flavour it more stubble and it keeps the cake moist.

carrot cake numero uno. This cake rised nicely in the oven but collasped upon exiting the oven. taste wise, it was fine. Not too sweet and the cake was real moist. But it had too much of a eggy texture that resembles more of a dutch pancake. it also formed an interesting "layer" on the top that can be peeled off the unveil the cake below (see below).
Not that this was terrible or anything, just was sort of odd. It made me go :"what the..."

Unveiling Carrot Cake Dos: This was actually the 2nd time I made this recipe. I made someminor changes this time round but it was still good. I seldom do recipe repeats but this carrot cake deserved to be reapeated over and over and over again. The cake had a earthy feel to it. the texture was not too dense nor too light. It was speckled with carrots. I savoured the cake real ssllooww( for me).

90g oat flour
20g wheat bran
3/4 cup equivalent sugar
baking powder, cinnamon
100ml water
100g yogurt
200g carrots, shredded

3 egg whites-peaked
-combine the dry stuff then add water and yogurt, mix well
-add carrots, mix well
-fold in the peaked egg whites
-baked in a 8by8pan for 30 mins at 175degreeC.