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.

low fat cupcakes with homemade applesauce

I like the concept of Aspiring Bakers.. it gives me an avenue and reason to venture out from my usual 'baking comfort zone', which involves mainly cookies & muffins & some occasional simple cakes. Without AB, I don't think I would have tried my hands at making mooncakes, for example :)

When I saw that the theme for Nov 2011 is Enjoy Cupcakes!, those little daintily decorated, calorie loaded sinful treats sprang to mind. Though I always enjoy baked goods, I must admit I have yet to try one of those pretty little thing. Main reason being that I love bake goods with some textures (wholemeal or with nuts maybe) and of natural sweetness (with real fruits maybe).... Also, with 8 kg to shed in order to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight now, I think I better stay clear of those.

A search online sprang some surprises, there are plenty of recipes for low fat cupcakes! And they look really yummy too. I decided to make some simple treats for myself.

Homemade Unsweetened Applesauce (produces approx 3/4 cup of applesauce)

3 apples

2 tsp ground clove

cinnamon powder (to taste)

water

1. Core, peel and dice apples into bite size pieces

2. Add enough water to cover about half the apples

3. Add cinnamon and cloves

4. Cook on high until the apples start to mush down

5. Turn to low and let simmer until seem done (use a fork to mash down the apples if need be)

The recipe above shows the measurement I used and how I did it. I only made enough for the cupcake recipe below. The recipe is adapted from www.food.com. The original recipe uses whole cloves but I only have ground clove at home. Also I have to use fork to mash the apples after they turn soft in order to get the mushy texture. It was quite a time consuming task, on hindsight, I should have used a blender instead to get a more even texture. But the applesauce was really delicious and the sweet fragrant smell while it was cooking filled the whole kitchen nicely.

Low Fat Cupcakes

1 & 3/4 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 egg

1 cup sour cream

1/2 lemon (juice & zest of)

1. Preheat oven to 165 degree C

2. Combine dry ingredients and set aside

3. Whisk together applesauce, oil and sugar.

4. Add egg and beat well, then stir in lemon zest and juice.

5. Alternately stir in flour mixture and sour cream in stages.

5. Fill in paper lines muffin mold and bake for 20-25 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The recipe is adapted from hubpages.

I always substitute the sour cream in a recipe with plain yogurt, so I thought of doing the same this time round. I remembered clearly of seeing the yogurt in the fridge in the previous night. But when I was done with the applesauce and was getting ready for the cupcakes, I couldn't find the yogurt. Apparently my dear husband, having checked that it's expiry date just lapsed, decided to throw it away. So, I was left with no sour cream or yogurt. The closest I could find was light cream, which I reluctantly used and kept my fingers crossed.

To my relieve, the cupcakes came out quite ok. The original recipe name it Low Fat Lemon Cupcakes but when I tasted it, the applesauce totally overpowered the lemon taste. In fact, I couldn't make out the lemon taste at all, so I dropped the word 'lemon' from its title. Even without the lemon taste, the cupcakes are delicious on their own, esp if you like apple and cinnamon. The texture was definitely more moist, dense and springy than what I would have imagined to be coming from cupcakes. But again, as I mentioned, I have not tried one of those 'real' cupcakes in the market, so I can't compare.

Hubby tried one and commented it was delicious, but when I asked how was it compared to other cupcakes, I just realised that apparently he has not tried one of those too. Maybe the 2 of us should make a date to sample one of those real pretty cupcakes =)

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #13 : Enjoy Cupcakes (November 2011) hosted by Min of Min's blog.

No milk? Got yogurt

NO MILK?

That was my ultimate cry of despair a few days ago, when I made a last minute decision to do a tested recipe of quick bread just after baby drifted into dreamland, and realised we were out of milk in the house.

2 months ago, if someone was to say 'no milk?' to me, I probably would have thrown my breast pump at her. I was struggling with breastfeeding then. Not that my supply has increased dramatically, but at least baby and I have kind of settled into a comfortable routine now.

Ok, I have strayed from the main topic, back to the latest no milk issue.. A thorough check through the whole fridge confirmed that yogurt was the closest I can find for milk substitute. I thought, why not?

After a fast 15 mins of putting together everything, including a generous portion of nice dried apricots and cranberries and 1 to 1 replacement of yogurt for the milk, the dough mix was sitting in the oven, baking away. My dear little baby didn't even stir a single bit, phew... Oh, btw, I also ran out of plain flour, so I substituted 2/3 of the required flour portion with wholemeal flour.

Based on the previous experience of the quick bread coming out a bit dry, I set the timer to 45 mins. Good decision, the bread came out just nice. I cannot tell the difference for substituting the milk with yogurt, other than the quick bread is more moist and supple this time round. Maybe it is due to the yogurt, maybe it is due to the cutting down of baking time, I am not too sure.

I have only one complain - the quick bread drops crumbs easily, due to the high portion of wholemeal flour used. I really think that the Prima brand of wholemeal flour is very grainy and given a choice, I will try to keep it to 1/4 of the total portion of flour required at maximum. That will lend a nice texture to the bake goods without making it too crumbly.

cranberry cookies

Baking is definitely not on my 'must do' list recently, and I would think it will continue to be so for at least another few more months, in the best case scenario... but at the back of my mind, I am always craving for some homemade muffins or cookies or cakes.

Taking care of a new baby on one's own does not allow much time for personal craving, does it? So when my mum came down from Penang to help out for a week or so after the confinement nanny left, I finally have the opportunity to tend to the craving, and even that, I have to make do with whatever ingredients I have at home. Gratefully, I have enough to make a full batch of cranberry cookies.

Cranberry Cookies

80g Butter (room temperature)

60g sugar

1 egg (approx 50g, slightly beaten)

150g plain flour

50g wholemeal flour

20g milk

1 cup of cranberries

1. Whisk sugar and butter evenly, add in the egg in 3 small portions, mixing evenly each time before adding the next.

2. Add in the dry ingredients, milk and cranberries. Mix evenly before each addition.

3. Preheat oven at 180 degree C.

4. Grease baking tray, scoop the cookie dough using spoon and arrange evenly on tray, flattening each one with the back of the spoon.

5. Bake for approx 20 mins or until the surface turned golden.

The recipe was adapted from 文怡－从零开始学烘培. The original recipe calls for full wholemeal flour as well as additional oatmeal, and slightly more sugar (80g) but less cranberries. From experience, I knew that the wholemeal flour I bought is different and will not turn out well if used in full quantity, hence I opted to use 3 quarter plain flour and 1 quarter wholemeal flour. I actually intended to add in the oatmeal but after mixing in the flour, I thought the dough was just about the right dryness, so I pulled out the oatmeal at the very last minute.

The cookies turned out well even with my changes. The texture was crunchy and has a nice nutty flavour due to wholemeal flour I used. The sweetness was just right for my taste, with some of it being compensated by the additional cranberries added.

Since when eating homemade cookies became a luxury? I felt so blissful biting into them, while having a nice cup of coffee.. it was done while the baby was sleeping, of course. And how can I forget my mum, who came to responding to my SOS call. Thanks mum :)

baby shower cookies

Last Saturday, we celebrated our little bundle of joy's full month celebration.

Yes, I have delivered since the last post and since finishing the labour inducing 'ginger cookie' :).

No, I have not found the time to bake since then and my life, or rather our life (hubby and I), had been turned upside down.

For the full month, other than the traditional red eggs & Ang Ku Kueh, I decided to go against the tide (or my company's norm of giving Bengawan Solos's cake card), and to search online for something more unique as baby shower gift.

I found quite a few cute ideas, eg. really beautifully decorated cupcakes, chocolates etc. Finally, I decided upon Baked With Love cookies. Main reasons being that they look really adorable and cookies are much easily to transport compared to other choices. My original intention was to get their baby shower cookies but they were out of stock and BWL suggested for me to go with multi-coloured lollipops instead, which I agreed.

The cookies came individually packed, with free personalised tag (since I ordered more than 100), and I was quite happy with the hassle-free email ordering system. I think the blue and red ones are the most charming while the yellow one looks quite pale in reality.

As much as I like the look and the packaging of these cookies, I must say that there is room for much improvement in the 'taste department'. Well, nothing beats home made cookies anyway, right?