low fat double chocolate cookies

As part of my continual search for healthier bakes, I made some low fat double chocolate cookies with olive oil a few weeks ago. Only now that I found some time to load them up.

These cookies are soft, almost cake-like, with a very slight crunch on the edges. They may not be your cup of tea if you prefer chewy or hard cookies. But I find them quite pleasing to my palate, though I kinda expected them to be harder. They are definitely tasty.. and a great choice to satisfy the my choco craving without feeling too guilty... *grin*...

Low Fat Double Chocolate Cookies

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 cocoa powder

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. In a large bowl, beat olive oil and sugar until well done. Add egg and vanilla and mix until well blended.

2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. Gradually add dry ingredients to the wet mixture.

3. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4. Drop cookie dough by spoon onto baking tray lined with parchment paper, spacing them with enough distance for spreading.

5. Bake in preheated oven at 190 degree C for 8-10 mins. Let cool on the sheet for 1 min, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe is adapted from lowfatcooking.about.com.

DIY Xmas home deco

I have not been doing much baking lately, mainly bcoz baby's sleeping time has been quite erratic, and I can't be sure I have enough time on hand to finish one round of baking while he sleeps. So, I tried doing something that can be put away immediately once my dear baby starts to stir.. I did some DIY deco for Xmas.. :)

All I needed was some white papers, some origami papers, scissors and glue, and I was good to start. Btw, Daiso sells some interesting origami papers. I bought all of mine from there.

Xmas tree is a must for this festive season and I think these trees are adorable. They are relatively easy to make and you can add as many layers of tree canopy as you want depending how big and tall you would like the tree to be. I made mine with only 3 layers since I was limited by the origami paper size and they are absolutely prefect for table or counter top. You can use scrapbooking paper or even wrapping paper for bigger tree. I learned the steps from this video.

Xmas won't be complete without some glitters and shines, right? I used some really sparkly papers to make these origami balls and joined them together to make 2 glitter loops. Some of the sparkly papers went into making a 5-pointed star. I learned the steps to make the balls from here and the 5-pointed star here.

To top things off, what else but some beautiful snowflakes to make our tropical Xmas an extra special one. These snowflakes are really fun to make and the possibilities are endless - depending on how you cut/create them, each one is unique. I learned the steps from here.

This is how the final put-together of the origami window/wall looks like.

Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a MERRY MERRY XMAS and a very HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR ...

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Btw, for anyone who is interested in origami and paper art, paperkawaii has some really kawaii works, free interesting info and tutorials.

cauliflower popcorn

Well, these treats are not bake goods but they tasted so good and at the same time so healthy compared to other snacks, that I think I must post it here to share.

I saw this recipe on Cold Storage's bi-monthly magazine couple of weeks ago. Yes, Cold Storage has their own magazine called Savour the Good Life. The recipe seems interesting and relatively easy to make, so I made a mental note to try it when the opportunity arises.

Last week, I happened to have some leftover fried rice from dinner which I intended to reheat for lunch the next day. I was searching for extra stuffs to make the fried rice more appetising when I saw that we have half a head of cauliflower left in the fridge. To put all of the cauliflower into the fried rice would be too much. So I chopped up the cauliflower, core and stem went into the fried rice and the rest went into making these interesting popcorn.

Cauliflower Popcorn

1 head cauliflower
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 220 degree C
2. Cut out and discard cauliflower core and thick stem. Trim the rest into florets the size of golf balls.
3. In a bowl, add cauliflower, olive oil and salt. Toss thoroughly.
4. Spread cauliflower on baking sheet. Roast until florets become golden brown. Turn 3-4 times during roasting.
5. Serve immediately.

Few tips from my experience:

1. The original recipe calls for 1 tbsp of salt but I think they were on the salty side so I change it to 1 tsp here, but if you like salty popcorn, go ahead and add more salt.

2. DO watch out for the roasting. The original recipe states roast for an hour but mine was done at 30 mins and as you can see from the picture, certain parts were already slightly charred.

3. Make sure the florets are of similar sizes, some of my smaller florets were completely charred.

4. Lastly, if you have only half a head of cauliflower (like me), adjust the olive oil and salt accordingly :)

Writing this makes me salivate, I think I will be buying more cauliflowers soon. The article in the magazine says the cauliflower popcorn is addictive, I definitely agree.