Orange Pancakes with Orange Spiced Syrup (Martha Stewart)

Originally was waffle, but I was in the mood of pancake so I made the recipe into pancakes instead. And no regret, it still yielded soft and fluffy ones :)

 

 

Recipe is from Martha Stewart

 

What you need:

(half recipe below with a little modification)

 

For the pancakes:

105g plain flour

1 tsp sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 medium egg

60ml buttermilk

60ml freshly squeezed orange juice

40ml low fat plain yoghurt

40g unsalted butter, melted

2 oranges, peeled, seeded and separated into segments, each segment cut into thirds

 

For the orange spiced syrup:

30g packed light brown sugar

1 tsp cornstarch

1 pinch of ground cinnamon

1 pinch of salt

30ml light corn syrup

90ml freshly squeezed orange juice

a drop of vanilla extract

 

Method:

 

For the pancakes:

1. In a medium bowl , whisk flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, salt
2. In another bowl whisk egg, buttermilk, juice, yoghurt, butter. Stir mixture into dry ingredients. Fold in half the oranges
3. Coat non stick pan with a little oil. Spoon a ladle of batter and cook til browned both sides
4. Keep warm the pancakes til ready to serve

 

For the syrup:

1. In a small saucepan, mix brown sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and salt. Stir in corn syrup and orange juice. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally, cool til slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Let cool and stir in vanilla
2. This syrup can be refrigerated in airtight container for up to 2 weeks

 

Serve the warm pancakes with orange syrup and orange cuts

 

 

Soft and fluffy pancakes with sweet and yummy orange syrup. Every bite burst with orange flavour. There are orange pieces in the pancakes itself, plus the orange cuts and sauce. Yum!

 

This post is for Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Ann of Anncoo Journal at this post

 

Also This post it for Cook Like A Star 2nd Anniversary Cooking Party March & April 2014 hosted by Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids, Mich from Piece of Cake and Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, where we can cook or bake like Donna Hay, Barefoot Contessa, Jamie Oliver, Masterchef, Martha Stewart, Delia Smith, Curtis Stone, Nigella Lawson, Ree Drummond and Bill Granger

 

 

Btw, you notice the orange I used was rather darker in color. I used cara cara oranges from US, easily found nowadays in supermarkets. This is the first time I tried this kind of oranges, and I was amazed at the first cut to find the flesh was rather reddish, very similar to grapefruit, darker in color, in fact

I googled for some info about this orange and true enough, cara cara orange is a red flesh orange. Taste wise, it's really juicy and sweet. Give it a try while it's still in season :)

 

 

Source: http://adaberita.biz/cara/cara-cara-oranges.html

 

 

My First Halloween Treats

Did these two as requested by the kids for Halloween this year
Confession: As I do not really celebrate Halloween, I never bake anything related to this spooky day in my life! LOL

Spider cupcakes.. does it look like spider? LOL

Recipe is from Martha Stewart One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes

I made half recipe and I got 8 big cupcakes

 

 

Frosted the cupcakes with Nutella, sprinkled with chocolate rice, pasted M&M as the eyes, black fondant for the legs and pink fondant for the mouth

My Halloween ghosts

Frozen bananas dipped in plain low fat yoghurt, pasted choco chips for the eyes, back to freezer and that's it :)

 

Ready to go party tonight!

 

 

 

Apple Stuffed French Toast (Martha Stewart)

My weekdays breakfast can be very boring. Due to the morning rush to prepare the kids to go to school, I don't have the luxury of time for breakfast preparation
Everytime is just the simple same kind, very limited variety
Moreover, my weekdays breakfast is very lonely, only me myself, since the kids and DH always leave house very early
So to me, weekends breakfast has to be more special. It's the only time we can have it together

I have a long list of breakfast ideas, but many times lazing around on bed a little longer than usual on weekends attracts me more LOL
Our special breakfast ends up is just pancakes from premix or simple french toast hehehe...
Perhaps I should make this as one of my New Year's resolution to make our weekends breakfast even more special than our special last year :P

I kickstarted my this resolution with this sweet baby...

I drooled the first time I saw Martha demonstrated how to make this delicious breakfast together with her mum

Finally I made it, and my, this really made my tongue danced in joy!

 

Look at how moist it is!

 

 

The day before, I baked my favorite brioche recipe and used it the next morning for this french toast

Recipe is from Martha Stewart's video HERE and HERE
Original recipe used pear, I used US fuji apples instead

What you need:

brioche, sliced ( my brioche was so soft it's quite difficult to get thin slices, hence my thick french toast LOL)

any apple of your choice (I used 4 of the sweet US fuji apples)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp sugar

6 eggs
zest of a lemon and an orange
juice from half an orange
juice from 1/4 lemon
about more than 1 cup of fresh milk
a big pinch of salt
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup pear brandy (I used 1/8 cup dark rhum)

enough butter for frying

Method:

1. Heat pan and add in butter, let it melt
2. Add in apple and sugar and let simmer while stirring occasionally til apples turn soft and juicy. Set aside
3. In a large wide bowl, mix eggs and milk, whisk with fork til well mixed
4. Add in zests, juices, salt and sugar, mix well
5. Add in rhum, whisk til well incorporated
6. Dip brioche and quickly lay it on a wide plate
7. Arrange apples on top, dip another brioche and put it on top of the apples
8. Put it on a buttered pan over medium low fire and let the bottom browned
9. Flip to the other side and let it browned too
10. Serve warm with icing sugar and maple syrup

Oh, don't forget a cup of hot coffee, a big cup :)

Crustless Brocolli Cheddar Quiche (Martha Stewart)

So many bakes I wish I could do using recipes from Martha Stewart, so little time in this busy month
This is my last post I can squeeze in, even though tomorrow morning I'll make my first breakfast of the year 2013 using Martha's recipe, and also her brownies recipe for my brownies craving Abby :)

Anyhow, back to the subject... This is a very tasty quiche, albeit it's crustless

Recipe can be viewed HERE, I followed exactly except that I replaced 1/3 of the cheese with gruyere cheese

I'm submitting this post to Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

WISHING U A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 :)

Xmas Feast 2012

Sharing what my family and I had for Xmas :)

My church Xmas celebration was on Sunday 23 Dec, and we went to Legoland Malaysia on Monday 24 Dec, so we had our Xmas meal on Xmas day itself, 25 Dec

I was busy in the kitchen the whole day cooking and baking on that day, despite feeling tired after the long day we spent in Legoland
As a result, I felt really tired for the next two days I didn't feel like doing anything, hence the late post cos I uploaded all the pictures only yesterday :)

So, here's what we had for our Xmas lunch...
Lemon maple honey baked ham with roasted vegetables, cream corn soup (cooked by my mum) and aglio olio spaghetti

The ham and vegetables before going into the oven

After out from the oven

 

 

I got the recipe from my sis' friend whom owns a restaurant, he's a great chef and I thank him for sharing this great recipe. This was the third time I used this recipe :)

Sorry but he didn't give the exact measurement of the ingredients used, and I never really measured myself everytime I made this...

 

What you need:

 

800g honey baked ham

salt / pepper

 

For glazing:

sweet dark soya sauce

worchestershire sauce

honey

lemon

maple syrup

salt / pepper

 

Vegetables I used roasted together with the ham: (cut in chunks)

Japanese pumpkin

baby potatoes

Australian baby carrots

green and red capsicums

1. Slice ham crosswise, marinade with salt and pepper, set aside for around 1 hour
2. In a bowl, mix all ingredients for glazing.
3. Arrange all cut vegetables in an oven proof baking dish. Sprinkle a little salt and black pepper also drizzle with a little oil
4. Brush ham all over with the glaze, and place in the middle of the baking dish on top of vegetables and bake in preheated oven of 220degC for approximately 1 hour
5. Turn ham to the other side halfway

 

And here's our dinner...

Still with the same roasted vegetables but this time it's roasted chicken :)

 

Before going into the oven



 

 

I used the recipe I saw at Annie's site

I like the name, I like how easy to prepare this dish and I like the good review she wrote

And so I chose this recipe, and what a good choice it was!

 

I skipped the pan-searing step, which I totally regretted. You see how my chicken looked like and you see hers and you know that this step is not to be skipped!

The next time I make this again, I will surely take the trouble to go through this additional step

 

Taste wise, it's really really good! Just like what she described - crisp skin, juicy and succulent meat

It's so good that there's no leftover on that night, all gone! :)

 

I marinated the bird for approximately 10 hours, from early morning to dinner time

The next time I make this again, I will marinade overnight

 

oh ya, I didn't tie the end of the leg to join them together since no stuffing for the chicken

 

Here's the recipe, thks Annie for sharing :)

 

What you need:

(I made 1.5 recipe for the seasoning)

 

1 whole chicken (I used free range / kampong chicken)

15g MasterFoods Roast Chicken Seasoning

4 tbsp olive oil

15g sea salt

few dashes of pepper

1 tsp of dried rosemary (or fresh rosemary)

1. Clean the chicken, cut the feet, neck and tailbone. Wash and pat dry with kitchen towel
2. Mix well in a small bowl: oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and roast chicken seasoning
3. Spread the marinade mixture all over the chicken, including underneath the breast skin, too
4. Keep the chicken in the fridge overnight (in an airtight container or wrapped in cling wrap)
5. Preheat oven to 220degC with fan on, top and bottom heat
6. Pan sear the chicken for 1 minute each side, let it slightly browned
7. Cut the vegetables in chunks, place it in the oven proof baking dish, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper
8. Place the chicken in the middle on top of the vegetables
9. Put the baking dish into the oven and bake for 40 minutes
10. Reduce heat to 190degC and further bake for 20 minutes

 

Did you see the browned skin on top? It's because I was itchy hand when I saw the bird was not brown enough to my liking, I switched the oven to grill mode at the last few minutes. I ended up having the slightly charred skin :(

But actually, it tasted yum, crisp and brown LOL

Not recommended though, it didn't do the appearance any good hehehe...

 

 

Now, the last thing I did on Xmas day... one bowl chocolate cupcakes from Martha Stewart

 

 

Very easy to prepare with a pretty good result :)

And I decorated some of the cupcakes into this...

 

 

The Xmas tree cupcake, too bad I didn't have anything to make a yellow star to put at the top of the tree...

 

The Xmas wreath

 

And not to forget, Mr Snowman :)

 

 

Here's the recipe for the cupcakes...

 

What you need:

 

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 cup plain flour

1 1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

3/4 cup warm water

3/4 cup buttermilk

3 tbsp canola oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 175degC
2. Line muffin pan with paper liners, set aside (I got 12 mini and 10 standard cupcakes)
3. Sift together cocoa, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl
4. Add in eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and mix til smooth, about 3 minutes with balloon whisk. Scrape the bottom and sides with rubber spatula to assure the batter is well mixed
5. Pour the batter into the muffin cups, 2/3 full
6. Bake til the tops spring back when touched and skewer comes out clean, mini cupcakes about 15 minutes, and standard cupcakes about 25 minutes, rotating pan if needed
7. Transfer to a wire rack, cool completely

 

Okay, so that's about all what I did on Xmas day

What a fun we had on that day, and of course - stuffed! LOL

Really hope you had a great Xmas too! :)

 

The snowman was chosen by Ian and candy cane was Abby's choice - both from Daiso :)

 

 

I'm submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #26 hosted by Alan of Travelling Foodies and Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

 

 

Oatmeal & Dried Cranberries Chewy Cookies (Martha Stewart)

This was a big batch of cookies baked by me and my sis
She has been watching Martha's video on making this cookies, drooling each time
Originally it used dried cherry but we decided to use dried cranberries instead

Recipe is from Martha Stewart's site

What you need:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup dark-brown sugar (I used packed light brown sugar)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups dried sour cherries (I used dried cranberries)

1. Preheat oven to 175degC. Line baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda and baking powder, set aside
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the eggs and vanilla, and beat to incorporate. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed to combine. Stir in the oats and dried cranberries
3. Drop the dough (50g each) onto prepared baking sheets, leaving 5 inches between cookies. Bake until edges are just turning brown, about 20 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet, then remove to wire racks to cool completely

If you like chewy cookies with oats, you'll love it. If you also like dried fruits, you'll love this cookies even more :)

I'm submitting this post to  Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats

Bday Cake 4Hubby - Moist Devil's Food Cake (Martha Stewart)

I always a fan of Martha Stewart, she has a pair of super talented hands and fingers, not only in the kitchen but basically in every corner of the house and even outside the house!
So, I'm happy that this month's Cook Like A Star theme is Martha Stewart :)

This is her cake I wanted to try for so long, and this is the time for me to give it a shot, in conjunction to DH's birthday
Recipe is from HERE, very similar to other Devil's food cake recipe, actually
I modified a little and I didn't make the chocolate ganache, I used Nutella instead
Time constraint I had since it's school holiday now (read: me being lazy LOL)

What you need:
(recipe below is 1/2 recipe I made with slight modification)

170g unsalted butter
43g cocoa powder + extra to dust
1/4 cup boiling water
255g sugar
1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
145g cake flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup fresh milk
1 1/2 tsp instant coffee powder

1. Grease a 20cm round pan, line with paper and dust with cocoa powder
2. Sift cocoa and coffee powder into the boiling water, whisk. Set aside to cool
3. Cream butter (low speed) til light and fluffy. Gradually add in sugar - around 3 minutes
4. Add in vanilla and eggs one at a time til well mixed
5. In a large bowl, sift flour, baking soda and salt
6. Whisk milk into the cocoa/coffee mixture
7. With mixer on low speed, add in flour and milk/cocoa/coffee mixture into the butter mixture (starting and ending with flour)
8. Pour batter into the prepared pan, bake until skewer comes out clean, around 35 minutes, rotate pan halfway for even baking
9. Let cake cool on wire rack. Cut into two parts after it's completely cool
10. Spread filling evenly on the top part of the bottom layer and top with the other layer

For DH's bday this time, I was so clueless about how to deco the cake
I ended up piped the whole cake with star tip. It looked more like white Xmas cake than birthday cake to me. But the most important thing is, he loved it, not only the deco but also the taste of this delicious cake, and so were the kids and me :)

This post is for Cook like a Star, organised by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Riceball from Riceball Eats