Mango dessert with sago pearls

Wanted to bake some muffins tonight but decided not to, until I sort out the ant problem in my kitchen. Don't get me wrong, my kitchen is spotlessly clean, but there are still the irritating ants.

Instead, here is something I made over the weekend, together with my sister. Ok, this should not belong to "my baking blog" since this is a non-bake dish. This is mango dessert with sago pearls. Made with, obviously, mango, sago pearls, milk and sugar. Quite easy to make and it tasted good. My only complaint was that it was not sweet enough, though everybody else says it is just right.

(Popeye's) Buttermilk Biscuits

When I first tried Popeye's Chicken years ago, I fell in love immediately with the buttermilk biscuit. I was intrigued by the first bite. It was salty, yet a little sweet, a little undescribable but totally loveable. Paired with maple syrup given by the staff, it was perfect for me! However, it did not help that the only outlet in Singapore was at the airport. I do not live near the airport, so whenever I had to go to the airport, I made sure I buy a few, no matter how full I was. Now, they have an outlet nearer to the city, but they have stopped giving maple syrup (a few years back), and replace it with jam instead. I'm not a fan of jams, so I bring my own maple syrup to the outlet haha!

Yesterday, I decided that I would bake these today. I looked through my recipe file and here is the product of a recipe I found on the net.

When it first came out of the oven, the smell was oooohhhhh ssooooo niiicccceeee! When eaten warm, it was totally irresistable. Dear gave me a score of 8 out of 10! The taste is just what I like, a little salty, a teeny weeny tinge of sweetness, and the undescribable taste from the buttermilk.

The recipe calls for rolling the dough and cutting with a cookie cutter. My dough was quite wet. I'm not sure if it's meant to be, but it was not "roll-able", so I did away with that. I only spooned them onto the baking tray and flattened them slightly to a height of 1/2 inch.

I have packed them into 4 small lunch boxes - for mum, sister, mum-in-law, and myself. I'm sure they will love them as well.

For the recipe, please click here.

Mini kiwi tarts with lemon curd

Was supposed to go for a picnic yesterday, but it rained, so I stayed indoors and tried out my new baking mat.

I decided to make mini fruit tartlets. I made peach tarts before, so I wanted to make some mini ones this time. I could have filled them with whipped cream or pastry cream or chocolate but I chose lemon curd instead.

For the fruits, I wanted use kiwi and strawberries, but I could not find nice strawberries, so only kiwi was used.

The tart shells shrank a bit when they were baked, but they turned out quite fine. I love the lemon curd. I tried it before and loved it. I still do.

When freshly baked, the lemon curd and kiwi tasted a little sour. After refrigeration, I ate some again this morning and they were so nice! Dear loved it. I brought some over to my parents and they liked them as well.

I think they were a little too small though. It was quite tedious filling the mini-muffin trays with the dough. But I will defintely make them again!

Now, I still have half a bowl of lemon curd....I'm thinking what I should do with it... ;p

The recipe to the lemon curd is here. It is a new blog I have started to store my recipes, and the lemon curd recipe is the first entry.

New equipment! - Silicon baking mat

Bought a silicon baking mat yesterday. Wanted to buy a Silpat one but it's out of stock. So I bought this non-Silpat from a baking supplies store. It's great! I do not use it as a baking sheet as it is too big to fit into my oven. Anyway, the purpose of buying it is to use it to roll out doughs, so that I will not roll directly on my kitchentop and scratch it.

It comes with measurements for cakes as well as metric length measurements at the side. Definitely useful! :D

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin

As you can see, I've been trying to make my pictures nicer. I like them, I hope they make my stuff look more appetising.

I am done with my banana chocolate chip muffins for July's bake on Sweet and Simple Bakes (please visit their site for recipe)! I bought some new paper cases and which I really like. My colleague at work tried it and liked the fact that it's not too sweet and she could taste lots of bananas and chocolate chips. Her only complaint was she found them too small, she would have preferred them to be bigger so that she could just eat 1 for breakfast! As usual, dear says they are nice and taste good. My friend will be coming over to my place tomorrow. I hope she will like them too!

Oh, by the way, I increased the amount of chocolate chips by 50 grams as I love chocolate chips.

If I have the time, I probably will bake these again before August! :D

P.S. Just added another picture. This is taken with natural light, which I prefer.

Chocolate chip muffins

Finally brought my oven to my new place just now. Cheated by making a muffin premix. Haha! I was amazed at how they can allow us to "simply add water" and voila, comes the muffins!

I had not wanted to make from scratch, partly because I did not have more time just now. I also tried out my oven thermometer for the first time, and what a difference it makes! Now I know I had been baking blindly..guessing at the temperatures..no wonder they are always not consistent.

The Betty Crocker muffins turn out moist and soft. And I like these pictures. It's not always that I manage to take nice pictures. The black dining table helps a lot!

Ate some nice muffins!

I was at a Raffles City Shopping Centre yesterday and there were some food stalls set up for some celebration of some sort. The stall names read "60s snacks", "crispy rojak and popiah", Turkish kebab" etc...and one was simply "muffins". I told my hubby I had to go and take a look.

At the stall, a lady was pouring some batter into muffin cups and baking them on the spot. There was a "buy 5 get 1 free" promotion, and I chose 6. There was chocolate chip, apple cinammon, coffee walnut, blueberry, banana and a lemon lime tart. Ok, that's not a muffin, but it can be added to the promotion. Lemon lime tarts are not commonly seen on the streets here. When we reached home, though I was feeling full from dinner, I couldn't resist trying the tart and muffins. It was soft and fluffy. Fantastic! The banana one was right from the oven, and it was great, especially knowing my love with bananas and muffins. These combination just makes me go mad. The coffee walnut was good too but the apple cinammon could do with more cinammon. Overall, it was a thumbs up from me. The muffins from bakeries usually are either too dry, too oily or too tasteless. These are just nice.

Looking at the picture makes me salivate again. It's ok. I promised myself, I will join Maria's bake this month. So, I will have muffins again!

Sweet & Simple Bakes

Maria and Rosie had started a blog for baking novices like me, and has compiled some useful information on baking.

Every month, they will also feature a recipe and encourage everyone to bake using the same recipe, and then by the end of the month, send in pictures of their works. So far, I had missed their first 2 bakes.

This month, their bake is Banana Chocolate Chip muffins. Yummy! My favourite ingredients! I will try to make it this time (ok, I know...I said the same thing last month)...but honestly, it is quite fun! If you have the time and would like to try something, why not join the bake this month? You can click on the cupcake picture at the side of my blog to access their site.

Have fun!