semolina chocolate cookies

I like the texture and the slightly nutty taste of semolina flour. I have tried baking cakes with it, and posted 2 of them before: citrusy yogurt semolina cake and orange semolina cupcake. This is another attempt at using this flour, thought in a less common way, by using it in cookie recipe.

Semolina flour is not a common baking ingredient in this part of the world. Other than sugee cake, I have yet to know of any other common type of bake goods here that is made of it. So, when I presented the cookies to my family, they showed me the  'question mark' face :p. But, after tasting, they gave thumbs up.

Semolina Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup butter or oil (I used butter)
1/2 sugar (I used slightly less)
1 cup semolina flour
1 cup flour (I used cake flour)
1 cup chocolate chips (I used big round chips)
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 18- degree C
2. Cream butter/oil and sugar until the mixture turned pale and sugar has dissolved
3. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix thoroughly
4. Add sifted flour, semolina and baking powder and mix well
5. Fold in the chocolate chips
6. Place small discs on baking sheet
7. Bake until cookies are golden brown, about 12-15 mins.

Recipe adapted from easily good eats. From the blog, one can tell this recipe is relatively flexible, if you are not a fan of chocolate chips (well, I really don't know that many people who doesn't like chocolate chips cookies), you can always replace the chips with dry fruits.

If there is one thing I would like to change about the recipe, it is maybe to add a pinch of salt to it, I think it will help to bring out the taste of the chocolate. But all in all, I am pretty happy with the result: crispy, buttery, nutty, chocolatey, tasty.

My mum brought some down for neighbour's kids, they kept asking for more. Though I know most kids couldn't stop at 1 chocolate cookie anyway, I still feel proud of the cookies.

black bottom cheesecakes

I would like to think that cheesecake is one of the easier treats to make... well, there may be lots of people out there begging to differ. I can only say what works easier for me.

Some people claim that cookies are easy, but it's hard for me to get a consistent result for different recipes, sometimes they are too soft / too cakelike, sometimes they are off the taste slightly... they hardly turn out too hard for my case though. So, I can't claim cookies are easy for me.

Some people claim that cupcakes are easy, but for me, I tend to cut down the sugar too much (I seem to have this problem, bcoz I like my cake to be less sweet) and the cupcakes turn out not fitting the taste of people around me.

For cheesecakes, most of the times (well, most), they turn out delectable and they go down well with most  of the people around me, so I don't have to end up finishing most by myself :).

This black bottom cheesecake recipe is a nice twist from conventional crusted cheeseke. The chocolate taste from the bottom compliments the cheesecake portion well. The cake texture also goes well with the smoother texture of the cheesecake. 

Black Bottom Cheesecake

cream cheese filling:

8 ounce cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 granulated white sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract
chocolate chips (optional)

chocolate bottom:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup granulated white sugar (I used 1/2 cup)

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup water

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven at 175 degree C, line muffin pan.

2. With electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add sugar, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until creamy. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, mix together sifted flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. In a seperate bowl, mix together water, oil, vinegar and vanilla extract. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients until smooth. 

4. Divide the chocolate batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups. Top each with cheesecake batter evenly. Sprinkler chocolate chips on top of each muffin.

5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 mins. The cheesecake should have set and chocolate cake portion springy to touch. 

6. Remove from oven and place on wire rack to cool.

This recipe is adapted from Joy Of Baking

I really like to simplicity of this recipe. Yes, there are 2 portions to make but both are not complicated. The result is mouthfuls of rich wholesome taste - wonderful mix of chocolate and cheese, goes really well with coffee too.

low fat banana chocolate chip quick bread

I simply just looove this recipe.. it is so easy to put together, smells so aromatic while baking, tastes so yummilicious and best of all, absolutely healthy for a sweet treat... all the qualities I look for for a home-baked recipe :)

Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

1 large very ripe banana (mashed)

85 ml honey (I used clover honey)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 cup flaxseed (optional)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree C.

2. In a bowl, whisk together banana, honey and olive oil.

3. In another bowl, sift all dry ingredients.

4. Gently whisk in the flour mixture into the banana mix, until just combined.

5. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for approx 30 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

6. Cool in the baking tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe is adapted from the food coach.

This quick bread is really moist and soft, without being too dense (like those commercial banana bread or cake) and the flaxseeds add a nice contrasting crunch to it. It is definitely a good option for breakfast over a cup of nice coffee.. or to have with tea in the afternoon. Add a scope of vanilla ice cream, and you have a fabulous dessert ready instantly. Now, that's versatile for me :)

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.

awfully easy chocolate cake

Couple of months ago, on the quest to restart my baking journey, I started searching on the web for a really easy cake recipe. It took me awhile before I stumbled across the blog of txfarmerying's easy chocolate cake recipe.

I thought to myself: this is so simple - it requires very basic ingredients, there is no need to use any complicated equipment (even mixer and weighing machine are complicated to me) and best of all, only a few items to wash up. I decided I must give it a try.

Easy Chocolate Cake

1) Sift and mix together the following:

- 3 cups of unsifted flour

- 1.5 cups of sugar (I further reduced to 1 cup to fit my personal taste)

- 0.5 cup cocoa powder (I happened to have Van Houten)

- 2 tsp of baking soda

- 1 tsp of salt

2) Make 3 holes in the powder mixture, pour into each holes : 1 tsp of vanilla essence, 2 tsp of white vinegar and 0.5 cup of oil (I found the last ingredient to be too much and reduced to using 0.5 cup in total)

3) Pour in 2 cups of water to the powder mixture and mix with wooden spatula (I used plastic spatula). Do not overdo.

4) Pour the mixture into 9 inch baking pan and put in 162C pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes . Only 20-25 minutes if put into muffin mold.

It was also mentioned by txfarmerying that milk can replace water in step 3 in order to create cake with more supple texture. I decided to divide the amount into 2 batches and try both water and milk. To differentiate the 2 batches, I sprinkled some crushed almonds on the 'water' batch. I used muffin tray instead of cake pan.

The recipe was really easy to handle and judging from my previous failures in baking, I do not have high hope for this but the result was really tasty chocolate cakes.

The darker colour batch on the left was done using water and the light brown ones on the right were from the milk batch. The ones done with water are more moist but the ones done with milk have a slight fragrant milk taste with fluffier and lighter texture, which both hubby and I like. Those eaten on day 2 and 3 actually tasted better, maybe the cakes matured?

The success from this recipe definitely boasted my confident :), it was a good start.