chocolate cheesecake - baked

                                                       

  The other day, one of my close friend finishes her studies, and return home after a long absence. As it is unusual for me to cook for my friends, I asked her what she would like me to make for her. Not known for her sweet tooth, I was surprised when she requested a cake, and a chocolate cheesecake to boot! I was determined not to be dampen, as it was my self who asked her to choose. So I googled recipes for no bake chocolate cheesecake, and the recipe from here is the easiest for me to follow.  You can follow this recipe, but due to some mistakes,I decided to add eggs to help firmed the cake, and thus, I have to bake it. 
     The following are the recipe for the cake that I made

Ingredient:

• 150g (5 oz) Marie biscuits
• 45g (1 1/2 oz) butter (melted)
• 110g (4 oz) caster sugar, divided
• 120ml cream
• 150g (5 oz) dark chocolate, melted and cooled
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder mixed with a little hot water
• a splash of vanilla essence
• 200g cream cheese (room temperature)
• 2 large eggs

Methods:

1) Beat the biscuits in a plastic bag until they become crumbs. you may leaves some crumbs a bit bigger if you like to

2) Pre-heat the oven to 180C

3) Add the butter and a tablespoon-full of sugar to the biscuit crumbs. You may add some cocoa powder to the mixture to give some colour and taste; I did.

4) Prepare a spring form cake tin; line the tin with baking paper, use butter to help it stick to the tin

5) Pour the biscuit mix into the cake tin. Compress and level the mix using the bottom of a clean glass. put in the refrigerator to set. 

6) Beat the cream cheese with sugar until fluffy

8) Add the chocolate and vanilla essence

9) Combine the cream and diluted cocoa powder, and add to the cream cheese mixture. 

10) Add the eggs one by one.

11) Pour into the cake tin, reduce the oven's temperature to 175C. Bake the cake using a water bath method (google it if this is the first time you are confronted with the term)

12) Bake for 45 minutes; or until the toothpick comes out clean after poked into 1 inch from the edge. Turn off the temperature, open the oven door for a bit, and let the cake cooled for about an hour in the oven (sudden drop in temperature could result in a cracked cake). Finish cooling the cake on a rack, before chilling in the fridge. 

13) Enjoy with whipped cream or fruits, or just on its own..

mexico bun / rotiboy's crust

I didn't have the recipe for the bread, but here is the recipe for the crust. the recipe that I have have just enough coffee for you to taste the coffee, but if you are a coffee addict, you can add anothe teaspoon, I supposed.

Ingredient:
dilute together:
1 tsp hot water
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp instant coffee powder

mix together and sieve if possible:
120g all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

100g unsalted butter; room temperature
90g confectioner's sugar
2 large eggs


method:
1- beat the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy
2- add in the eggs, one at a time
3- mix in the coffee
4- fold in the flour mixture.
5- put into piping bag and pipe in a spiral onto risen buns that are ready to be baked
    *reminder to pipe just as needed, as too much topping would overflow and be cakey, which is not the objective of the topping*

this is my aunt sakinah's recipe.

Chocolate tart

Ingredient:
Pie crust

8 ounce cooking chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1 large egg
sugar, optional

chopped nuts (optional)

Methods

1) blind bake your shaped pie crust, leave to cool.
2) pour onto your chopped chocolate, the heated cream. stir until all melted. taste and add sugar if needed, let cool
3) bake the nuts for a few minutes until slightly golden. chopped the nuts if it haven't been chopped
4) add the nuts into the chocolate. let cool.
5) add the egg, mix throughly
6) pour the chocolate into the crust, careful not to overflow
7) bake the tart in a low heated oven until firm. a cracked tart indicate the tart has over baked.
8) enjoy!

Affie (Fluffy) suddenly came into the photoshooting area and sat

Roti canai..

I'll be honest, i have been requesting my mother her roti canai recipe since forever, when I finally cannot wait anymore, I just refer to whoever's recipe from the internet..tough the methods still used my mother's roti canai making methods. 

I somewhat noticed long ago, it was somewhat a tradition, I supposed, for the newly-weds in my grandmother's village to fry roti canai the morning after the reception for the neighbors who helped in the preparation for the wedding. But since nowadays catering is the go-to for most people, I dont see that anymore.. so I'm somewhat miss the homey feeling of roti canai, the one we knead with our own hands (tough I have never knead roti canai before this)

Ingredients:

2 cups of all purpose flour

A pinch of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 tablespoon of powdered milk (the recipe that I referred to used 1 tablespoon condensed milk)

1 tablespoon of butter (the recipe that I referred to used margerine, and some say to use ghee)

a small cup of water ( there are recipe that say to use ice-cold water, and there are recipe that say to used boiling hot water, to be fair, I use warm water)

extra butter

cooking oil

Methods:

1- in a big bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients and make a well in the center.

2- pour in the water, little by little and start mixing

3- add more water or more flour if you fell the dough is too dry or too sticky.

4- knead until smooth.

5- divide the dough into small balls, about the size of 2 chicken eggs combined, I usually get about          7- 8 balls per batch

6- put in a small dollop of butter in the middle of each ball and smoldered each ball with more butter.

7- put those bowl in a bowl and  submerge with oil.

8- let them rest for at least a few hours or a whole night before the next step

9- the nest step is to spread the ball, fold back in, let rest for a few minutes, before spreading it again.       you could use the mamak spreading style or even the pizzeria style if you can. I just used the on-         top-of-a-big-tray style

10- fry using the extra oil from the submerging of the dough

11- enjoy with dhall, or curry or even sambal. 

mushroom paratha pie

it's has been a wile i want to do this pie since i saw a video showing how instant paratha can be use to  substitute puff pastry.

Basically you can use any filling you like in alteration, but for my mushroom pie:
ingredient:
1- a bag shitake mushroom; sliced
2- 4 shallots; sliced
3- thickener, i used blended oats
4- salt and pepper to taste
5-water

methods:
1- defrost the paratha piece
2- saute the shallot until translucent, add the mushroom.
3- add  a quarter cup of hot water to help the mushroom soften
4- add salt and pepper to taste
5- add the starch thickener
6-put a reasonable amount of  filling in the middle of the paratha,
7- you could always do calzone-style pie, i just flip in the side to close the filling
8- give it some egg wash and bake in 200 C until golden brown, about 45 minutes.

i admit, it would taste better if i add some chicken, or even carrots.
but, i just use whatever i found in the fridge.

Enjoy !

Ayam golek

Ramadhan lalu, ayah mertua saya menyatakan hasrat teringin nak makan ayam golek, lebih sedih kedai yang biasa beli ayam golek, tutup pada hari kejadian. Untuk memujuk, saya offer diri untuk buatkan untuknye ayam golek (alang2 mertua saya baru membeli ketuhar baru)
Mula lah saya mencari resepi mudah, resepi yang saya jumpa banyak yang complicated, akhirnya saya memilih resepi ini.

kerana dimasak low and slow ( saya pasang suhu 100 c dari pagi hingga ke waktu moreh), ayamnya sangat empuk... selamat mencuba.

murtabak main tipu.. hehe

Ramadhan rasanya tak kan sempurna kalau x merasa walau sesuap murtabak.. jadi Ramadhan yang lepas saya mencuba membuat murtabak menggunakan paratha instant..boleh la tahan juga.

bahan:
1- telur untuk bind semua bahan
2- ayam atau daging kisar. saya guna daging burger lembu. boleh saja apa2. ikut cita rasa.
3- bawang hiris
4- sayur kobis hiris
5-garam
6- minyak untuk menggoreng
7-paratha room temperature

kaedah:
1- tumis bawang hingga masak, masukkan daging kisar dan masak lagi. masukkan kobis. tambah garam secukup rasa.
2- pukul telur, dan masukkan daging yang sudah dimasak tadi ke dalam telur.
3- kaedah yang paling sukar adalah membuka plastik paratha untuk diletak diatas kuali panas, dituang telur dan dilipat.
4- masak hingga telur masak.

selamat mencuba.