Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls 叮噹聲:神奇肉桂卷

If you've been reading my blog, you know my baking skills. It's pretty minimal. I am bad at following recipes, and generally can't do more than muffins. What the heck, I can even screw up muffins. This is why I hardly try anything more complicated that mixing stuff in a bowl and dumping them into the oven. This was an exception.
大家有睇開我個Blog都知我唔係阿茂, 所以唔係咁識整餅. 我嘅極限就只係整鬆餅啦..就算整鬆餅, 我都試過賴野..

Back in my college days in Jakarta, I buy cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon from time to time. Sweet and sticky on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. I miss cinnamon rolls so much, I decided to do the unthinkable and try to make some myself. God help me.
細個係雅加達讀書時成日去Cinnabon 買肉桂卷食. 出面又甜同黏, 裏面就軟同鬆化. 真係另人好懷念. 我決定自己試整, 希望成功啦!


I followed Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls recipe, because...well, she always makes everything sound so doable and extremely yummy! How did it go?...
今次跟Pioneer Woman個食譜, 因為之前試過幾次都成功

I couldn't believe myself! I did it!
一路整我都唔相信會成功, 因為個樣同完成圖差好遠..但係一焗完, 嘩, 似模似樣!!

Sweet, sticky, fragrant, buttery, golden brown, super yummy, not to mention extremely photogenic!
超好味, 大家如果得閑, 記得試吓

Weekend Breakfast - Banana Cinnamon Toast

There's nothing better than waking up on a Sunday morning to a beautiful, sunny, 21C weather.
Wait.
There is.
Waking up on a Sunday morning to a beautiful, sunny, 21C weather and a good breakfast ;)

Today's menu, nothing fancy, just a good 'ol banana cinnamon toast and a cup of coffee.

Place banana slices on a piece of bread slathered with butter, top with a bit of sugar, sprinkle with cinnamon, grill in a preheated 200C oven until the toast is crisp. Blow torching would be nice, but who'd bother whipping out a blow torch at 8.30am Sunday morning?
Not me.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Weekend Breakfast - Cream Cheese & Kaya Sandwich with Cinnamon Coffee

Just thought I'd share my weekend breakfast...when it's not instant noodles/dimsums/Hong Kong fast food...it's gotta be an easy sandwich.

This time, it's cream cheese & kaya (weird?) on fluffy and soft honey egg sliced bread. I love the creamy, tangy and slightly savory flavor of cream cheese with anything, including with the sweet and coconutty kaya. Toasting the bread would be nice, but I was just too lazy. Heheh.


I also love the addition of a little cinnamon on my sweet black morning coffee. Love the sweet fragrance. I am so not a coffee purist, obviously ^_^

How was your weekend? Delicious?

Easy Mixed Fruit Crumble - Kitchen "Hand Jobs" - Yay or Nay?

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". Errr....really? Not exactly my philosophy. I'd try improving stuff which didn't need improving...normally up to the point where I just ruined them completely. Because life without failures is boring. Wow! That's so going to my book of lame unquotable quotes.

So, when I hauled these beautiful freebie fruits from the office, I just had to do something with them instead of feasting on their sweet freshness.

Easy Mixed Fruit Crumble

I grabbed a pear, a fuji apple and a star fruit for this treat, see how gorgeous they are sprinkled with tiny bit of sugar and ground cinnamon....all pale yellow, loveliest shade of pink and pale green. I wish I could wear them!
You can leave the skin of the fruits, simply cut them into bite sized chunks and toss them into an oven proof pan (I used a rectangular loaf pan), sprinkle with a bit of sugar (or not at all) and ground cinnamon.

Crumble Topping
Recipe
(adapted from here)
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar (or caster sugar)
- 1/2 cup firm butter (cut into cubes)
- dashes of cinnamon

Mix everything in a mixing bowl, mix them about with your hands, spread the dough on top of the fruit, dump the whole thing into a preheated oven (200C) and bake until golden brown (mine took about 15 minutes).


Now, now, now. What's up with the "hand job" thing?

Ehm, when I was working on the crumble topping with my hands, the feeling of touching the cold and satiny butter...the stickiness of the whole concoction...it sent me back to the moment when I was back in Indonesia, learning how to cook for the very first time.

Do you remember the first time you had to work with raw ingredients? The first time you had to touch a chunk of raw meat?

Growing up in Indonesia, dealing with food using my bare hands should have not been something strange for me. I enjoy eating the most when I could wrestle the food with my bare hands.

But raw ingredients, especially meat and fish....for me, it was all ew ew ew ew ew EW! It was all soft, springy and slippery...it smelt weird (not good weird)...it was nothing like the end products, which I love very much! Again, ew!

But once I got used to it, I kinda love working in the kitchen with my bare hands (except when touching the hot oven/pot/pans)...I get to feel my ingredients and learn to see if they are good or bad, seeing how they evolve from one form to another, from fresh to fabulous.

Back to my easy crumble...well, I think anything would taste fantastic with sweet and crunchy crumble topping, and these fruits were no exception.

I wondered if the star fruit would work for this, and it did. The refreshing sweetness with a touch of tang made the fruit perfect for this....and the pretty shape made it the star of the dish.

If you'd excuse me, I have another "hand job" to do....
Dish washing.
Ew.

Choco Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies - A Low Iodine Christmas

I've never baked any Christmas cookie in my life.
Normally, my friends and I celebrate Christmas the Hong Kong style, which could be:
- Trying to get a reservation to Xmas-special-way-overpriced 5 star hotel buffet (with this economy? this option is out the door)
- Visiting your nearest hotpot joint/country side BBQ, for an all you can eat Christmas hotpot/BBQ
- Cheating your way through office Xmas party gift exchange (buy HK$5 slippers when you're supposed to buy something worth HK$100)
- Attending parties after parties fearing to get the title of "The Worst Gift of the Year"

So, these are my first Christmas cookies ever, and they gotta be low iodine, so that Sous "The Radiation" Chef will also be able to enjoy. Thus, no yolk, no milk, no butter. But they still gotta be made fantastic, no? Cos suffering from eating bad cookies isn't so Christmasy. It's just like turning up as the devil in Xmas parties...it's just wrong!

Choco Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Recipe
- 1 cup rolled oats (raw)
- 1/3 cups sugar
- a pinch of plain salt
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp pure cocoa powder
- nutmeg, cinnamon
- 1 egg white
- a bit of dark chocolate chunks (or you can omit this)


Preheat oven to 180C. Mix all dry ingredients, mix all wet ingredients separately, combine them, mix well, chill mixture for a couple of hours. Drop by small teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets lined with non stick paper, leaving space. Bake for about 8-10 minutes.

I'm sharing these cookies to Susan of Food Blogga's Eat Christmas Cookies event (hope it's not too late)...and to those who needs to go through radioactive iodine therapy for thyroid cancer, hope you'll enjoy these cookies. Happy holidays!

...and here's what happens in the office, when the bosses are away on Christmas holidays?

Wacky photo taking! Dear HRD, we assure you, this activity happened after 18:00 ^_^

Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cinnamon Cookies - Another Disaster

Fool me once - shame on you, fool me twice - shame on me.

I've failed these cookies once and I told you, I'll fail again. Actually no one fooled me, I was simply foolish.
This time, I was determined not to repeat the same mistake. I should've learnt from it, and do it right this time. I was pretty confident. How hard can it be? Ohhhhh...boy...I was too cocky, and much too soon!

What could possibly happen this time? (Again?!!)
This time I was really careful, and kept reminding myself not to line the baking sheet with paper. As instructed in the recipe, I lightly greased the baking sheet. However...I walked away while the cookies were baking in the oven, I failed to supervise it (I walked away to "glance" at a TV program and my azz "accidentally" got planted on the sofa for far too long)....and when I checked the cookies...man, oh, man!....

They were burnt!!!

I, the smart azz, also added raisins and smell-good spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg...which were all supposedly good...if only they weren't burnt!...unfortunately, they ended up charcoal-esque and bitter. Opppps!!!

But I never gave up, I tried another batch, and I really stood in front of my oven watching them baking every single second possible....I believed I got a pair of bulging red eyes due to the minimised blinking.

Finally I got them right. They were chewy, sweet, they smell fantastic...and they look absolutely beautiful!

This kitty would've made a great witness (if it could see, smell and taste)

Holiday snap of the day...

I wonder if anyone's as lazy as me...these are cute lil' Christmas ornaments...FROM LAST YEAR, which have been hanging on my workstation all through the year ^_*

Apple, Cinnamon & Raisin Oatmeal Muffins – My Frugal Halloween

Halloween is near! Yay! Ehm, I love any excuse to celebrate anything, even if it involves spooky stuff. As always, I had lots of plans for this year’s Halloween…and naturally, none of it gets materialized.

Halloween Costume
What did I have in mind?
Something that reflects me or what I wish to be. So, something cute, girly, cheeky, mischievous, sexy, kinky, food-related, and the spookiness should only happen when exposed to culinary failures, or lack of food/flavor/wit/brain/chocolates, i.e. something like this:

*My illustration, colored by my talented baby sista*
That would be my ideal costumed self: an upgraded version of me, i.e. minus 20 lbs, after numerous sessions of liposuction, major face and full body plastic surgeries, and countless hair extensions, in a super cute, sexy, and kinky cook costume

What will I end up with?
But…due to rarity of such costume, lack of time, dedication and effort to find it, and global economic crisis….I almost decided to go with this good stuff I found in HK Magazine (my HK Bible):





It’s creative, user friendly, one size fits all, flattering for all face and body shapes, and most of all, it is absolutely FREE!

Let’s see if I will really wear it tomorrow (fingers crossed)

Halloween Treats
What did I have in mind?
Loads of things related to pumpkins…such as pumpkin + white chocolate/cinnamon cake/pie/pudding/muffin, pumpkin pasta, pumpkin casserole, pumpkin stir fry, pumpkin sashimi…you name it!

What did I end up with?
However…due to lack of time….I ended up with something horrific:
Apple, Cinnamon & Raisin Oatmeal Muffins
Why horrific? It’s too healthy for my taste, it pretty much scared the shite outta me.

Recipe
(yields 6 muffins)
Dry Ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup quick cooking oatmeal
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 6 tbsp sugar
- cinnamon powder (up to you, but I use loadsssss)
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup high calcium milk
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (I use peanut oil)
- 1 egg- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 cup apple (diced into small cubes)
- a handful of raisins

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, make a well in the middle. Mix wet ingredients except diced apple and raisins, pour into dry ingredients, mix roughly. Fold diced apple and raisins. Pour mixture into muffin tray lined with paper cups until almost full, bake for about 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. I never thought something so healthy could be so tasty :p

I think I could get away with coming to tomorrow’s office gathering as myself, and simply scare off people by eating all the crappy party treats.

Choco & Cinnamon Palm Sugar Sweet Potato Balls

We get inspired by everything. Famous chefs, popular cookbooks, recipe sites, top food bloggers, markets, restaurants, our mom/grandma/auntie/cousin/neighbor/pets, the city, the sky, the ocean, you name it.

My recent inspiration came from one of my favorite manga series, Delicious! (デリシャス!) by Yui Ayumi (あゆみゆい)

Yeah, baby! I am a big kid at heart ^_^ and until today, I still love reading my battered and dangerously falling apart manga comics right before I sleep. This series is about a girl who was clueless about cooking (kinda like the old me), and had to learn how to cook as she turned into a cooking show host (kinda like me (had to learn how to cook), but for different reasons (the last time I checked, I am pretty certain that I didn't host any cooking shows, apart from the private ones I did for sous chef - details censored - lol!). At the end of each book, there's a collection of recipes, and I found one I always wanted to try since I was twent...(Oh, let's just say since I was a lot younger hehe :p)

Choco & Cinnamon Palm Sugar Sweet Potato Balls
Here's the original recipe (in Bahasa Indonesia):

and here's what I did:
- 2 cups mashed sweet potatoes (peel potatoes, cut small, boil until soft, mash)
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
- 2 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp cream
- for filling/topping: ground cinnamon, palm sugar (chopped into small pieces), semi sweet chocolate chunks, chocolate rice

Mix the mashed sweet potatoes with butter, sugar and cream, make into small balls, flatten and place your filling, close and roll into balls. Sprinkle with cinnamon or chocolate rice...mix and match...and you can do a lot more!

The recipe didn't require baking. I tried baking some, but nothing happened apart from softening the chocolate chip and liquifying the sugar stuffing. So, next time, I'll just stick with the no bake recipe ;)

Loving the extremely different feel of both palm sugar - cinnamon and the chocolate ones. When I eat something, I want to know what's inside, so I presented both versions differently. You could follow the original recipe's recommendation and surprise others with whatever they were going to get inside the sweet potato balls...marshmallows, peanuts, hazelnuts, or even bacon! Hehe ;)

Hmmm, watching some hot swimmers in action at the Olympic made me think of greasy fries (I am sure that's just me and my twisted imagination ^_^). How about you?

A Taste of Failure: Baked Banana Cinnamon & Banana Chocolate Rolls

First of all, my apologies on another banana related post. I guess I can't go too long without bananas eh? Heck, who doesn't love bananas...I DO! LOVE. BANANAS. SMALL ones! (Somehow, this sounds SO wrong! LOL). Anyway, the above picture didn't look so much like a major failure, eh? Wait 'till you see the one below....

It all started when I made my first spring rolls. A food blogger pal, Michelle of Greedy Gourmet, pointed out that the amount of oil needed to fry spring rolls scared her, and I totally agree. What if we could bake those rolls, or steam 'em? Wouldn't that be nice? So I did my lil' experiment...

Baked Banana Cinnamon & Banana Chocolate Rolls

- half pack of spring roll wrappers (you can make some savoury and some sweet rolls with the whole pack)
- 4 small bananas or 2 big ones, cut into small pieces, sprinkle half generously with sugar and cinnamon
- sugar, cinnamon, chocolate meisjes (looks like rice, or you can use semi sweet chocolate chips/chunks)
- vegetable oil

I used 150C oven, I wrapped bananas as I would savoury spring rolls, lay them on a greased oven tray, brush with a bit more oil, bake until browned.

Actually it would've been not too bad if I didn't get impatient and increased the heat to 200C. But I did, and the melted sugar and chocolate started to ooze out of the rolls...and the skin started to burn...sob sob...so these were the results:

EEEECCCKKK!! OH YEAH! That's a failure alright! But we ate them anyway, and after peeling the super burnt parts, they actually tasted pretty fantastic! LOL~! My failures never tasted THIS good! I'll try again next time with lower heat ^_^ Never surrender!

If you heard someone screaming "OH NO!" on the background, that's sous chef, who emerged as a hero, not in shiny armour nor on a white horse, but with a cup of oil and a frying pan. Sous chef deep fried the rest of the rolls...and eventually we still got to feast on sweet banana rolls...^_^

Who would've thought one could still go wrong with banana, sugar, cinnamon & chocolates, eh?