Banana with White Chocolate Muffins

My bake this time is slightly less sinful than usual. Bananas! Which give you energy and keep you and your tummy happy and healthy =) Then let's just not harp on the fact that it has added white chocolate chunks in it, because I did cut back on the white sugar since I thought the bananas were sweet enough. Recipe from JoyofBaking.com, a site which I find to be superb. I would sing about it if I could, but er...I won't. So let's get on with the pictures...

So I wanted to show you how much I enjoy mashing bananas. Because you know, if you're feeling annoyed about something in particular, then man, this is the way to vent all that frustration. "I'll smush you, and smush you, and smush you somemore!!!" or "Take that!", mash, "Hah, you think you're so firm? Take somemore of that!" mash harder. 

But then, because I'm not the photographer, and the photographer wanted to take some artsy-fartsy motion shot, this is another picture of me mashing the bananas. Notice the fork which is now a blur - hence, the art 

>.<" 

And this is the first time I'm using these muffin cups. Which cost slightly more than the usual floppy ones, but these are actually great because they hold their shape very well, so you don't even need muffin pans. Ooh...which reminds me about some silicone baking ware I saw the other day and have to blog about soon. P/S: reminder to self. 

Them banana muffins baking in the oven. Took a while to rise and got me a bit worried. Got me to do my usual pacing. But then...

Ah...so plump in their cups now. Also, if you've never smelt freshly baked muffins before, you need to get over to my house. Really. Or the nearest bakery. If they'll let you into their kitchen.

These came out with a crisp crust but was super moist inside! Yes, that's a chunk of white chocolate peeking out the top of the muffin. 

 

Now excuse me while I enjoy them...because they're best eaten on the same day! 

Macarons, Part 2

So this is my 2nd attempt at making French macarons. So many things that could go wrong that it's just stressful! And I've only tried the chocolate ones.

• The ground almond may not be fine enough
• The making of the dreaded meringue which involves the dreaded egg whites. I remember my first time when I knew nuts about baking and I stupidly stood there for close to half an hour just beating the eggs wondering why on earth they're still clear. (Yes, the entire bowl was sopping wet when I started. BIG mistake!) But I digress.
• The piping itself. Finally got myself some proper piping bags this time. Didn't have any piping heads because they were sold out :-s But no worries! Snipped a small hole and it worked out fine anyway. 

• Then popping it into the oven for the actual baking. And this is when the pacing starts. Because all the time I was going, "Please let them have feet", "Please don't let them crack", "Damn, they cracked!", "Please let them have feet anyway". 

And yes! They have feet! Hurrah!

But no, attempt #2 was not as successful as I'd hoped. Still I got 4-5 perfect ones this time. Yay me!

I'm bringing them to dinner tomorrow (well, technically tonight) with the girls =) But psst, already had a couple myself. Yummy yum yum macarons.

Nyeh nyeh you can't eat us...

(Group evil laugh) Come get us...as if!

 Pffft!

* The author apologizes on behalf of the lame macarons :P

Cheesecake Brownies

My nieces from Singapore are in town for the weekend. So for dinner tonight, I decided to bake a batch of these lovely cheesecake brownies for everyone. Recipe courtesy of David Lebovitz, but I did reduce the sugar by about half. Most of the cooking chocolates sold around here claim to be dark, but they're not really. So I usually stick to Hershey's Semi-Sweet. Maybe if I'm feeling really luxurious one day, I'll buy a few bars of 70% cocoa solids for a batch of brownies just for myself :P 

I did manage to find this super long stick of cream cheese today. 

Wahaha...was chuckling in disbelief when I found it. 

Yummy brownies baking in the oven. 

Done! The whole house smelt wonderfully chocolatey...

A sample for you? :P

Yum yum...let's have a closer look

An even closer look... 

Ah...heaven for chocolate and cheese lovers. 

By the end of dinner, they were all gone. My brother says they don't look appealing to the eye, but my empty brownie container says they were damn well appealing to the stomach :D

Ooh wah!

Ooh wah first post on new blog!

Now I know too much sugar is bad for health. But I <3 baking! And as the song goes..."Sweets for my sweets, sugar for my honey."

Baking for people is wonderful when you get to see them enjoying what you've made. Kind of my own little way of adding some sweetness to their life :)

As for those who don't enjoy sugary snacks, well, what can I say? YOU'RE MISSING OUT!! Of course I can attempt to make you something savoury instead, but is there such a thing as a savoury-high? Er...

So that's all for now. On to my next mission...