Classic Madeleine Cookies

Madeleine has never interest me until aku makan madeleine made by k.nur. I started to fall in love with it! Memang sedap sangat madeleine k.nur. And semua madeleine k.nur ada the hump, characteristic of madeleine cookies. Mine? erm.. a small hump. Takpe la.. At least a hump and hubby loves it so much! I made madeleine last nite and this morning.

In order to get the hump on my madeleines, aku siap tengok videos on youtube! hehe.. punya la beria. Maybe the reason my madeleines hump naik sikit je sebab aku guna baking powder,  not double action baking powder. Takpe, petang ni, aku nak buat lagi. I will make madeleines sampai aku dapat perfect madeleines macam k.nur punya.

 Nampak kan madeleine ni gelembung sikit? That's the hump :)

TRADITIONAL MADELEINES
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours 
Makes 12 large or 36 mini cookies

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons; 3 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt and keep close at hand. Working in a mixer bowl, rub the sugar and lemon zest together with your fingertips until the sugar is moist and fragrant. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment, add the eggs to the bowl and beat the eggs and sugar together on medium-high speed until they are pale, thick and light, 2 to 3 minutes; beat in the vanilla.

Grab a large rubber spatula and very gently fold in the dry ingredients followed by the melted butter. Press a piece of plastic wrap against the surface of the batter and chill the batter for at least 3 hours or, if you have the time, overnight. (For real convenience, you can spoon the batter into the madeleine molds, cover, chill, then bake the cookies directly from the fridge. See below for instructions on prepping the pans.)

Getting ready to bake:

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter 12 full-size shell-shaped madeleine molds (or up to 36 mini madeleine molds), dust the insides with flour and tap out the excess. If you have a nonstick madeleine mold, give it a light coating of vegetable cooking spray. Spoon the batter into the molds, filling each one almost to the top. Don’t worry about spreading the batter even, the oven’s heat will take care of that.

Bake the large madeleines for 11 to 13 minutes and the minis for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the madeleines are golden and the tops spring back when touched. Remove the pan from the oven and release the madeleines from the molds by rapping the edge of the pan against the counter. Gently pry any recalcitrant madeleines from the pan using your fingers or a butter knife. Transfer the cookies to a rack to cool to just-warm or to room temperature. If you are making minis and have more batter, bake the next batch, making certain that with each new batch the pans are cool and properly buttered and floured or sprayed.

Serving: The cookies are ready to serve when they are only slightly warm or when they reach room temperature. Dust the tops with confectioners’ sugar and serve the sweets with tea or espresso. Storing: The batter can be covered with a piece of plastic film pressed against the surface and kept in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, but the madeleines should be eaten soon after they are made. You can keep them overnight in a sealed container, but they really are better on day 1. If they must be kept, wrap them airtight and freeze them, they’ll keep for up to 2 months.

Crispy Choc Chip & Walnut Cookies

The house is extremely quiet. The girls went back to Terengganu with my brother, Abe, semalam. Huwaaa... menyesal bagi Iman and Iffah balik. I miss them a lot!! Dah la hari ni hubby pegi Singapore. Nanti tinggal aku berdua je dengan makcik ton. Nasib baik la adik aku, Ayu, now is doing practical. Boleh la aku suruh temankan aku tido.

Sebenarnya this is the first time ever, hubby allows iman and iffah to balik kampung without one of us. Sebelum ni tak pernah. Tu pun, bangun pagi tadi, dia cakap rumah rasa sunyi. Keep on nagging me to call the girls. Every 2 hours suruh telepon the girls. Aku malas nak kacau Abe. Ye la, dia tengah drive, takan aku nak telepon. Nasib baik la we're going back to Terengganu either hari Khamis or Wednesday. Fuh! Sempat aku gi melepak kat Chilis Empire dulu. Erk.. Chilis lagi! muahaahhaahahahha

Semalam aku baked Cinnamon Roll Cake yang aku tengok kat blog Ju. But aku rasa my oven wasnt hot enuff, maka, kek aku jadi bantat. Rasa sedih sangat2 sebab kek tu punya la sedap bau dia. Bila aku rasa yang bantat tu, memang menggoda sungguh. Maka, last nite, aku ajak hubby pegi beli butter. Beli butter lagi. Tapi rasanya I'll only bake that cake next week sebab takde orang nak makan, hubby and the girls takde. *sigh*..

Kejap lagi aku nak pegi gym and lepas tu aku pegi tengok cerita X-Men : First Class. Aku beli couple seat for the show. Ye la, patutnya date dgn Iman and Iffah. Tapi, since dia org takde, kena la pegi date dengan adik aku Ayu. Rindunya kat Iman and Iffah. As always, I'd go on the early bird show so that aku bayar tiket tu murah. For the couple seat, I paid RM20, which is murah by RM10. Kalau tak, kena bayar RM30. I'm using the 1/2 priced popcorn deal nanti. Aku tulis about the deal kat sini.

Untuk menghilangkan stress, jom kita makan choc chip cookies with milk! This recipe aku jot down from Citra's blog. Thank you Citra!

Citra's cookies cantik sangat. Aku punya nampak macam rocks!

(recipe aku post balik from lari jap lagi)

Back from X-Men : First Class (will write about it tomorrow)

Crispy Chocolate Chip & Walnut Cookies

Adapted from Citra

Ingredients

120gram butter, softened at room temp.

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cup all purporse flour

1 1/2 tbs cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt 

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped. 

Method

1. Preheat oven at 150 degree celcius. Sift the dry ingredients, flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa powder.

2, In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth. Add egg and beat until sugar dissolves. 

3. Add in the flour mixture, mix using a spatula. 

4. Spoon the batter onto a baking sheet, bake for about 15-18 mins. 

Mini Fruit Pizza

Huffing & puffing now.. <--- Lower body exercises today.

Fruit Pizza ordered by Elin. Eh! actually Elin punya orders I made into small tartlets. This one hubby punya.

 

I just got back from TGIF Wangsa Maju. My friend, Alie, belanja makan kat situ. I was a bit ambitious when ordering, I thought I can finish 3 for 1 ke apa tah nama the appetizer which consists of potato skins, chicken wings and erm.. apa tah nama dia. Sadly, I was delusional. Mana la boleh habis makanan byk macam tu. Dah biasa makan in small portions, bila nak makan banyak, tummy dah full, takleh nak sumbat. 

Balik from TGIF, I feel giddy, rasa mcm nak pitam. Actually I've been experiencing that for the past few days. Semalam, bila check my blood pressure, it was hovering aroung 100-105/55-60. Argh! stress!! What did I do wrong? Aku rasa my low salt and low sugar diet is playing a havoc in my body. Maybe what I need is a bottle of isotonic drink everyday lepas exercising so that it can replace the loss of salt and minerals from my body. Erm.. I'll try that approach tomorrow. Tak tahan la bila low blood pressure ni, asyik rasa nak pitam je. My MIL cakap "musing rumoh". 

My lower body is killing me now. Sakit wor exercise pagi tadi. I wanted to take a break, but erm... risau kalau aku take a break, then I'll not be able to continue again. Lepas dah exercise more than 4 months (now is our 5th month), rasa sayang nak berenti.  But rasanya cuti sekolah nanti, masa balik kampung, kena stop kejap kot. Tak kuasa aku nak bawak balik the weights and dumb bells ke kampung. 

Ops! lupa nak post the recipe. It's here. 

Fresh Fruits Pizza

Ingredients

A
1/2 cup icing sugar (this is sweet dough. If you dont like it sweet, cut the sugar to 1/4 cup)
3/4 cup butter
11/2 cups plain flour

1. mix together with hand, make it flat on a pizza pan, bake at 200 degree until lightly brown

B
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

1. mix together using a mixer, spread on baked crust. arrange fruits on top of the cream cheese spread. It can be any fruits such as canned peach, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, kiwi, grapes etc

C
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup sugar (you can reduce if u want to)
1 tbs corn starch (mix with a bit of water)

1. mix together and cook until thick. let it cool and drizzle over the fruit pizza. keep in refrigerator for at least 6 hours.

Madeleine!

I'll upload photos first, will write after I came back from running.

Iffah loves this so much! She ate almost all. 

 

Sedap makan madeleine sambil minum kopi.

Just got back from running. Hubby said we're going back to Terengganu today. Sesuka hati je decide nak balik. Ingat kalau balik tu just sumbat baju dalam plastic bag, pastu boleh balik? Eeeee... geram!! I'm so tired. Balik dari running tadi, terus masuk dapur, buatkan wholemeal bread for him, then masak Huevos Rancheros again coz I still have 2 tortilla bread left in the fridge. Now, tengah thawing the mutton, nak masak mutton to go with the wholemeal bread nanti. I'm so tired!!!

Mula2 semalam, takmau dah masak madeleine. Tapi sebab pan madeleine tu dah ada kat rumah (Thank you Ju sebab bagi pinjam pan tu), godaan untuk buat madeleine tu takleh nak tepis. Ishk! I should blame Ju for that! hehe.. sorry ye Ju. Anyway, petang semalam, aku buat 1 batch, using the recipe from joyofbaking. Iffah loves it so much. Sekejap je dia dah habiskan 3/4 of the madeleines. Bila masuk dapur lagi sekali, tengok, dah habis. Lerrr... baru ingat nak bagi Ju and K.Yani.

Maka, terpaksa la aku buat another 2 batches of madeleine. Bila baca the instruction, rupanya, dough tu kena peram dalam peti for at least 1/2 hour. At 1am, I started baking it. By 2am, baru siap baking. I made 45 pieces of madeleine semalam. Tido, badan bau madeleine.. hampeh sungguh. Hubby loves the madeleine too. He ate 6 of them!! Then he blamed me for making such delicious cookies malam2, pastu menyebabkan dia takleh nak resist makan. Bengkek je aku.. 

Baking Class with the Girls - Part 3

The baking class was done on Saturday. The truth is, I wasnt in the mood at all to do the baking class. Tapikan, kesian pulak kat the girls coz dia orang dah beria2 nak masak, excited sangat2. I was pressed for time sebab earlier that day, I had to run errands and malam pulak, ada birthday party for Nila and Aude. Kesian kat Zuleika la sebab she came all the way from Bangsar and kena balik cepat sebab kita org nak keluar.

Since I was press for time, I decided to bake Chocolate Chip Cookies. Mula2 nak guna recipe kat blog Zarin, the one yang from allrecipes.com tapi lepas baca reviews, kena buat few tweaking, maka aku decided to try out another recipe from allrecipes.com jugak. The cookies turned out great! The kids love it! Hubby yang supposed to be on strict calorie diet that day, menghabiskan sebekas cookies. Rasanya ada la more than 400 calorie dia consumed. Nasib baik ler cookies yang the kids buat tu kecik2 dan comel2 je. I kept 1/2 of the dough in the fridge, cuma guna 1/2 je.

The 1/2 yang aku simpan tu, aku buat cookies on Sunday. I went to Ju's house, hantar ketupat sotong. Ye la, Ju dah baik hati tolong hantar macarons earlier, kena la aku balas kebaikan Ju tu. Kan Ju kan? And guess what? I tasted Zarin's kek lapis cempedak yg sangat moist tu.. hehe.. Akhirnya merasa jugak air tangan Zarin. I gave Ju some of the cookies. Panas lagi cookies yang aku deliver ke rumah Ju sebab the cooled ones dah habis di makan oleh hubby. Makan cookies lagi! Nak marah la ni. Nasib baik la Sunday is our free day.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe adapted from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Ultimate-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar (instead of brown sugar, I used gula merah, sedap! )
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups white & dark chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted this)

Directions

1. Cream sugar into shortening. Add milk and vanilla beat until fluffy. Blend in egg. Then add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chips and nuts.
2. Drop by teaspoon onto greased baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies or 10-13 minutes for crispy cookies. ENJOY!!!