Brown Sugar + Chocolate Chips = Total Addiction!

Sorry larr haven't been posting anything lately...busy working...OT-ing everyday...

Anyways, here's something good and delicious that I have to share...

Left to right: Almond Wafer, Slice and Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies

Very, very nice! Guaranteed to be addictive. A jar containing no less than 40 cookies disappeared within the same day! xD

For the recipes, click here and here.

Laters! Back to work for now...

Mini Tarte Tatin for 18 Lucky People (17, if no one's looking!!!)

Step 1: Peel, core and cube 4 - 5 juicy, golden delicious apples!

Step 2: Caramelize apples with butter and sugar.

Step 3: Perfectly caramelized apples!

Step 4: Prepare a buttery, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth Shortcrust Pastry (I love Jamie Oliver's Old Fashioned Sweet Shortcrust Pastry, flavored with a hint of cinnamon!)

Step 5: Line tartlet tins with pastry, and fill with a generous amount of filling.

Step 6: Bake in a preheated oven for about 15 minutes (during which I advice you to exit the kitchen! These tarts will fill the kitchen with a wonderful aroma...)

And finally...savour the freshly baked tarts with a nice dollop of thick cream, ice cream or freshly prepared Crème Patissiere! (unfortunately, I ran out of extra eggs to prepare the pastry cream...)

And as promised...

These babies are so buttery and wonderfully luscious, I had to share the recipe! Plus, its ridiculously easy to make! (Warning: These cookies are highly addictive. I highly recommend baking 2 batches if having guests over at your place.)

Viennese Shortbread Biscuits (Adapted from 'The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits' by The Australian Women's Weekly)

Have ready:

250g butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 -1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoons vanilla

Then...

Beat butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add in vanilla essence and beat until combined. Fold in flour, spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star tube and pipe 4 cm lengths onto greased oven trays. Bake for 15 minutes in a moderate oven until lightly golden.

Enjoy!

Coming Up!

I'm a little busy now, but here's a sneak peak at what's gonna be in my next post:

And more delicious temptations! Updates soon!

Lemony Fresh!

What's my favorite citrus fruit? Refreshing Lemon, of course!
Combine it with the rich flavors of milky good-quality butter, sugar, flour, a good pinch of salt...pop them in the oven for barely 10 minutes and what do you get?...This!

These babies, packed with mouth watering lemon zest, are adapted from the original Sablés au Citron recipe (Check out 'Paris Sweets' by Dorie Greenspan) are oh-so-tender and will virtually melt in your mouth! Sinfully luscious!

You want one?

Food Therapy

So, I've finally gotten enough sleep and (I think so) recovered from exam stress. Or maybe not. Consider the occasional 'laughing non-stop about something that's not really at all that funny' syndrome.

Anyways, a little recap about my after-exam shopping trip (food shopping???). Didn't do anything much, really. Had lunch at Manhattan KLCC with a friend, and the meal cost me like 35 bucks (ouch, my bank account!). But enjoyed it a lot though, especially the tender calamari rings and oh-so-juicy fried mushrooms. Then headed off to Kino and spent about an hour there.

And here's the best part...I visited J. Co's again! Yes, I know I'm bragging about them again...but I can't help it...and for a few good reasons too:

1. They're super tasty.
2. They're from J. Co.
3. They're a good after-exam-stress reliever.
4. They're awesome! (Steph, if you're reading this...don't be too upset k? I tried saving you one, but...)

I've been dying to visit J. Co's after I first tasted them about a month ago (and regretted big time for not buying a dozen home) so traveled all the way to Pavillion and bought half a dozen (only) home. And regretting it again cause there wasn't enough! The Glazzys were, as usual, awesome:

Glazzy...

Judging by how plain and simple they look (FYI, Glazzys are just sugar and honey glazed plain doughnuts), my mom actually doubted that it'll taste THIS good. So I said: "Okay, we share one." And then she took a bite. I never got it back! I'm going crazy over them. Yes, I'm going crazy over the plainest piece of donut. Not the chocolate ones, and not the Al Capone (though I did pretty much enjoy them; refer to my previous post for the pic). I LOVE the good old Glazzy cause I can taste the nice, fragrant dough just the way it is. Which gives me another reason NOT to like Big Apple doughnuts (the dough there is way to dense!).

[Comment added 10th May 2008: Re-tasted Big Apple donuts and still think they are lousy. Or did they get worse since the last time I tasted them? No offense to fans of Big Apple doughnuts, this is just MPOV...]

Anyway, there wasn't much of a queue at J. Co(since it was perfect weekday), so lined up for only about 15 minutes for the donuts this time. Then headed off to Starbucks and tried the all new Dulce de Leche Frapp. Had a good bit of milk caramel in it (which made it better than their usual caramel frapp) but was hoping to taste more coffee. Maybe I'll customize it to have a double shot the next time.

So, you see, I think I spent about...more than 50 bucks on, erm, food alone in just ONE afternoon after exams. Muahaha. Never imagined I could do such things. Enjoyed myself alot, though. Biotech must really be driving me up the wall...

Okay...gotta go bake a batch of biscotti now. Mom is pestering me to make them since its hols now. Looking forward to how fragrant the kitchen will be soon! (Hopefully I'll be able to save some for Steph this time...I know she misses them alot...)

Till next time!

Lemon Bar Snob, I Am.

I swear that, this is, to date, the tastiest Lemon Bar I’ve tasted. Just as Mary (from Alpineberry) describes it: a delicate buttery crust which 'snaps' slightly at first bite, a soft, smooth and almost fluffy filling of a dominant lemon flavor sufficient just to make your mouth pucker a little when the filling hits your tongue. And the perfect finishing touch? A light dusting of icing sugar. Add up all descriptions above and what do you get? The perfect lemon bar that none other can rival!

Lucious Lemon Bar

If you are, like me, a lemon addict, I highly recommend you to try this. (For the recipe, visit Alpineberry’s site.) I guarantee you won’t regret it. Going along with Mary’s description of the perfect lemon bar makes me a lemon bar snob as well, I guess, but who cares? It’s worth every bite!

Signing off now to continue savouring the lucious lemon bars...

P.S. I added a dash of cinnamon to the crust. And it tasted just as good, if not better! :)

P.P.S. Cupcake review in next post, I promise!