Mia Bakes: Cinnamon-Coffee Crumb Cake

 A while back, I've tried making a coffee loaf cake following this Korean youtuber HojuGyver's mocha-ppang recipe, but it turned out so dry, dense and lacking in coffee flavour overall, it was quite a huge disappointment. 
But as y'all know, other than chocolate, my one other true love is actually coffee and there's no way I'm gonna give up on getting a recipe that yields me a good coffee cake....
Well, I'm referring to the UK's version (literally a coffee-flavoured cake) and not the American version (any flavoured cake, but usually NOT coffee, that you typically eat while having a cuppa coffee).

And so, I found Claire Saffitz X Dessert Person and her recipe for a coffee coffee cake.
Yay! <3

So let's get over with the ingredients to get started! 

For 1 standard loaf cake, you'll need: 

Cake:
230g all purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
90g plain yogurt
75g unsalted butter
25g vegetable oil
60ml strong coffee **see note below
50g castor sugar
30g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Crumb Topping:
80g all purpose flour
50g brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
55g unsalted butter (soften at room temperature)
1/2 pack 3-in-1 coffee mix sachet

Ribbon:
1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 pack 3-in-1 coffee mix sachet

recipe adapted from Claire Saffitz x Dessert Person's Coffee Coffee Cake

**for my coffee, I've added 60ml hot water to a sachet of Gold Kili Traditional Kopi-O and another sachet of SUPER 3-in-1 Reduced Sugar.
This is already a GREATLY reduced-sugar recipe, so do not try to reduce anymore sugar from your cake batter. In fact, you can do with a little more sugar in your cake batter for better flavour (Eg, using normal or rich 3-in-1 coffee mix sachet instead of reduced sugar).

First up, the streusel crumb toppings. In a small bowl, add in all the crumb topping ingredients and work it with your fingers until all the butter has been rubbed into the dry ingredients and the mixture resembles wet muddy sand. You would want to keep the chunks on the smaller side (although I know it's tempting to have big chunks of streusels) such that they won't crumble off the cake easily as you cut into them later on. Then, set the bowl aside in the fridge (to firm up) as you move on to the ribbon mixture. 

In another small bowl, add in the brown sugar, ground cinnamon and the remaining 1/2 sachet of the coffee mix and give it a quick toss to combine. Then, set it aside. 

Now, in a large bowl, add in the soften butter and sugars and whisk until the butter turns pale and fluffy. Then, crack in the eggs, 1 by 1 and mixing until fully incorporated with each addition, before adding in the oil, yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix well. Then, add in the cooled coffee and mix well. You may find some "curds" of yogurt floating around in the mixture at this point, but don't worry. It'll all be fine. 
Finally, sift in all your dry ingredients (flour, salt and leavening agents) and fold with a spatula or wooden spoon until just combined. 

Then, fill your prepared loaf pan (greased and lined with parchment paper) with half of the cake batter and level it out as best as possible before sprinkling the sugar-cinnamon-coffee dry mixture all over the surface. Then, top the loaf pan up with the remaining half of the cake batter and level the surface off before topping it up with the chilled streusel crumb toppings. Give the loaf pan a few solid taps on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles in the middle before baking it in the oven preheated to 175 degree Celsius for about 40-45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

When the baking time went beyond the 30 minute mark, I was starting to get paranoid that my crumb toppings are gonna burn, but they obviously didn't. 

But as all ovens behave differently, you may want to keep a close eye on yours and cover the top with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent the streusel crumbs from over-browning/burning. 

And I obviously didn't do a good job levelling out the surface of my cake batter before I sprinkle in my ribbon. HEH! 

So while the cake is on the denser side like a solid pound cake, it's still relatively moist due to addition of the yogurt (or you may use sour cream too) and packed full of coffee and cinnamon flavour, an epic combination. (I personally love adding cinnamon to my coffee, YUMS!). 

Do give this recipe a try if you're also a coffee fan like me!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Easy 2-Ingredients Sweet Potato Cake

 Recently, my grandma went on a sweet potato buying spree and got us 3 bags of them: Japanese, red and purple. And it just so happens that we (namely my brother and I) dislike the purple sweet potatoes. We both love eating steamed sweet potatoes though (as snacks!), as long as it's not purple, due to its unpleasant earthy flavour and tendency to have tough stringy fibres. 
So it wasn't long before we wiped out the Japanese and Red sweet potatoes, and was left with one full bag of the purples and then we started declaring, "we're out of sweet potatoes!" much to the chagrin of our mother, who would point to the full bag of purple sweet potatoes and say, "NEH!"

So I guess, it's entirely up to me to embark on this very important mission. The mission to finish up all that pesky purple sweet potatoes before we can get anymore Japanese ones. HAH!

But I REALLY dislike eating them, so I reckon the only way out is to.... bake something out of them? They did fairly well in the nian gao mochi balls but it's not the season for us to have ready made nian gao lying around in the house, yet. So, when is a better time than now to try out this super easy recipe from Cook Kafemaru?

And it's none other than the super quick and easy, 2 ingredient sweet potato cake! 

For roughly 6 small slices, you'll need:

300g sweet potatoes

Vanilla Ice Cream 

(amount greatly depend on moisture content of your sweet potatoes)

Optional:

egg yolk + water (for egg wash, omit if using purple SP)

black sesame/pumpkin seeds as toppings.

Recipe from Cook Kafemaru

First, rinse your sweet potatoes clean. Peel the skin off and cut into thin slices or small cubes. Cook till soft by either steaming them in a steamer or using a microwave. I'll suggest you don't boil them, as it'll introduce a lot of unnecessary moisture into your sweet potato, and you'll end up being unable to add sufficient ice cream to the puree for a good flavour. As such, microwaving (or baking/roasting, if you have time to waste spend a good 30 to 40 minutes oven-baking your sweet potatoes) will probably give you the most flavourful cakes, as you'll be able to add in a lot more ice cream to your sweet potato as they'll be considerably dried out by the microwave. 

So once your sweet potatoes are thoroughly cooked through (and soft), mash them up while they're still hot (as they'll be softer and easier to mash). Do spend a little bit more time mashing (or use a food processor like I did) if you're using the purple SP like me, as they tend to be a lot more fibrous. Mashing the Indonesian Honey SP will be a breeze, I'd tell you. 

Anyway, once you're happy with how thoroughly mashed up your SP is, add in your vanilla ice cream and mix. As your SP should still be warm, it shouldn't be an issue if your ice cream is quite frozen (or you may wanna set your ice cream on the counter for a while for it to soften first). But make sure it's a GOOD QUALITY vanilla ice cream (or your favourite one) as this is THE ingredient that will make or break your SP cakes. 

Add the ice cream in small amount, or you may start off with about 50g first and see how dry the batter turned out before adding more, spoon by spoon. Ultimately you should get a ball of dough that is like playdough, pliable and able to hold its shape and doesn't really get all mushy in your hands. 

And then, it's time to start shaping them! You can either roll them up into small pingpong sized balls, or shape them into cute little cubes and top them with some sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds.

But I'm lazy, so I just press everything into a loaf pan and bake them off at 180 degree Celsius for about 25 minutes. 

Do note that if you're baking them as bite sized balls or cubes, your baking time will be significantly shorter; otherwise you can follow Cook Kafemaru and bake them in a toaster oven for 7 - 8 minutes. 

Tadaa~

I guess I could have still baked mine for another 5 minutes or so, as they turned out very fudgy/creamy. I do not really appreciate fudgy stuff unless they're brownies/chocolate. But it's still way better than having to eat steamed purple potatoes, that's for sure! 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Nestum Date Bars

With that last bit of Nestum cereal leftover in my cupboard, I started looking for new baking recipes to use up that final bit of the yummy cereal and so, Nestum Date Bars it shall be!
So let's get over with the ingredients to get started!

To get 16 servings:

150g deglet noor dates (pitted and chopped)

120ml water 

160g wholemeal flour

70g Nestum Multigrain Cereal

100g unsalted butter, soften

50g plain greek yogurt

100g soft brown sugar

(I used a mixture of brown sugar with baking stevia)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg
recipe adapted from nestum.com.my

First up, to prepare the date filling, pop the chopped dates and 120ml of water into a pot and cook over low fire, stirring consistently so that the bottom do not burn, until all the water has evaporated and you're left with a mushy, sticky date jam.
Set aside for the jam to cool down completely.

In a large bowl, whisk the soften butter together with brown sugar until the mixture turns fluffy and creamy before whisking in the greek yogurt, egg and vanilla extract until the mixture is well combined. Make sure all your ingredients are at room temperature so that your butter-sugar mixture will not seize up into lumps.
Then, add in all your dry ingredients and mix until well combined.
You will be left with a little sticky, malleable dough.

Then, line your 8 x 8 inch pan with some cling wrap before plopping half of the dough in. Using either your wet (to prevent sticking) hands or a spatula, spread it out into a uniform layer and wrap it up with the cling wrap before popping the entire sheet of dough into the fridge for it to firm up.
Then, spray down the pan with some cooking spray and line it with some parchment paper, making sure that you've sufficient overhang for easy removal of the baked date bars, before pressing in the remaining half of the dough to form the base.
By now, if the date jam is still too hot to handle, pop the entire pan into the fridge and wait for the date jam to cool down further.
Once the jam has cool, spread it over the dough base before topping the date jam layer with the other sheet of dough pastry that was left to chill in the cling wrap previously. By now it should be pretty firm and easy to work with.
Then, using a fork, prick holes all over the top pastry dough before baking it in an oven that's pre-heated to 170 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes, or until the surface turns into a beautiful golden brown.

Remove the pan from the oven and lift the date bars out of the pan using the parchment paper overhang. Set it on a wire rack for it to cool down until it's just slightly warm to touch before cutting it into 16 squares/slices. Do note that if you try to cut it up when it's still too hot, the pastry will just crumble off, so do allow sufficient time for proper cooling.

Then, popped the cut bars back into the oven to bake for another 10 to 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius until the bars crisp up.

Buttery, crisp pastry biscuits with a layer of sweet and gooey date jam sandwiched in the middle. YUMS!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: No-Knead Wholemeal Ovolmatine Stuffed Buns

Hey lovely readers, I'm back with yet another wholemeal bread recipe, this time it's no-knead!
However, it's not going to be 100% wholemeal though, but only around 70% as I still have a couple tablespoons of all purpose flour leftover and wanted to finish them up ASAP.
Anyway, let's get over with the ingredients to get started!



To get 4 stuffed buns, you'll need:

Bread dough:

50g minus 1 tsp all purpose flour

100g superfine wholemeal flour

20g granulated sugar
(may reduce to 10g if you prefer your bread less sweet)
1 tsp vital wheal gluten
(may skip and replace back with flour, but bread may turn out more dense)
3/4 tsp instant dry yeast

1/8 tsp (or a pinch of) salt

10ml corn oil / vegetable oil

1 egg 

(mine was about 50g out of the shell)

50 - 70ml lukewarm water
(depending on hydration level of your flours and egg size)

Fillings:

Ovolmatine spread

chocolate chips
(I used 60% cacao)

recipe adapted from the super talented Chinese youtube-baker 茄子美食
She used bread flour and a lot more oil (both in the bread dough, during shaping before 2nd proofing, and after 2nd proofing before baking) so hers turned out a lot softer and fluffier on the inside and crisp-looking on the outside. 

First up, in a clean bowl add in 50g of all purpose flour and remove 1 tsp of it, replacing it with a tsp of vital wheat gluten. Then add in the rest of your dry ingredients, making sure that your yeast and salt are not in direct contact with each other.
Then, crack in your egg and and first add in 50ml of lukewarm (make sure it's not too hot if not it'll kill your yeast) water over the spot where you've pour in your yeast and mix well by stirring with a pair of chopsticks (highly recommend using chopsticks because the dough will be super, super sticky).
Continue adding water and stirring until you get a pastey, sticky yet smooth dough like so.

-credits to 茄子美食-

Then, add in the oil and give the dough another quick stir with the chopsticks until the oil gets fully absorbed by the wet dough. Then oil your hand slightly and pat down the wet dough roughly into a ball (MUST oil your hands because the dough sticks like a b*tch!) and cover with a clingwrap and leave it for 1st proofing overnight in the fridge until it roughly doubles (or at least 1.5x) in size. I left mine for about 11 hours in the fridge plus an additional 1.25 hours at room temperature after taking it out.

After the dough has risen back to room temperature, oil your work surface and hands generously, as the dough will still be extremely sticky, and dump your dough onto the oiled surface. Pat down on the dough to release the air pockets (no need to knead, as it's not exactly kneadable anyway) before shaping it into a log and cutting it into 4 equal pieces. Shape each piece of dough into a ball and set the rest aside under a piece of clingwrap while you work on the 1st dough ball.

The dough will be extremely soft and rather stretchy (and sticks to anything not oily enough) so there's no need to roll it out with a rolling pin. Instead you can just use your hands to pat it down and stretch it out into (roughly) a oval-ish rectangular shape. Then, add around 1 to 1.5 tablespoon of ovolmatine spread on the end of the dough nearer to you, or you can also spread it out in dollops all over the dough, before sprinkling a handful of chocolate chips all over the dough, careful to avoid the last inch of the dough piece that's further away from you as you need that seam area to close up the buns.

Then, starting from the end of the dough that's nearer to you, roll up the dough into a small log and press it tightly at the seams to close it up before folding it in half again and pressing the two (opened) end of the log together to seal the seams tightly. Then, shape it slightly into ball or squarish/rectangular bun, however you fancy, and set it on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Repeat for the other 3 dough balls and you can play around with other fillings too!

I've also tried one with grated parmesan and shredded mozzarella and red cheddar, which unfortunately kind of split open during baking because the dough was stretched rather thin. 

Some of the chocolate/ovolmatine oozed out from the "weakest link" too. 

So if your choice of fillings are the dry type such as sultanans, pumpkin seeds, red beans and etc (I've also made a sultana with pumpkin seeds one that turned out super round and pretty), you can really stretch your dough out as thin as possible, because even if there are micro-tears in the dough your filling won't be oozing out. 

However, if you're filling your buns with chocolate chips, cheeses or any kind of spreads that get melted and viscous during baking, be sure to make sure that there's no hole on the surface of your dough, or you will just have to make do with a less perfect looking stuffed bun. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Bakestarters Christmas Edition Baking Kit: Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Babka

Yes, I've successfully made my 1st ever chocolate babka, all thanks to Bakestarters! 

Bakestarters is a local company specialising in baking and baking kits, which come with freshly packed and individually pre-portioned ingredients, along with a recipe card and detailed instructions, tips and even a QR code linking to a tutorial video. Other than eggs, Bakestarters measures and packs all the ingredients that we'll need, including fresh milk, butter and fresh fruits!

Some of the kits even come pre-packed with baking tools such as loaf pans, cookie cutters and parchment paper, offering baking enthusiasts of all skill levels a fun and hassle-free baking experience.

For this coming Christmas, Bakestarters has launched their all new festive Christmas collection comprising of 8 baking kits:

1. Gingerbread Men

2. Passionfruit Yule Log

3. Chocolate Peppermint Yule Log

4. Blackforest Brownies

5. Orange Pistachio Biscotti

6. Pumpkin Spice Biscoff Loaf

7. Earl Grey Dark Chocolate Babka

8. Tiramisu (no bake)

Initially I was thinking of giving the passionfruit yule log a go, but after realising that I actually do not have the required baking pan size, and it will probably NOT fit into my small oven as well, I decided to give babka a try! 

As you can see, the baking kit comes with individually packed and labelled,  pre-portioned ingredients in a cute box, which you will also find your recipe and instruction cards. Other ingredients that required chilling, like butter and fresh milk, were well packed into a small cooler bag, stuffed with a generous amount of ice packs to keep everything nice and cold. 

And frankly speaking, this pre-portioned, individually packed idea brought so much convenience and it took all the hassle of measuring out the ingredients one by one out of the way. It took me less than 5 minutes to get all the ingredients for the bread dough mixed up in my bowl and all I did was snip-pour-chuck. 

Well, there's just one thing I couldn't quite understand was why they need to pack the unsalted butter in resealable bags, when technically there shouldn't be anything left behind for us to reseal?

But anyway, that's hardly of any importance at all. 

Bakestarters has obviously put in a lot of effort curating and perfecting their recipes and ingredients, for I totally did not need to add in any more liquid or flour to "perfect" out my bread dough. I mean, if you do bake bread, you will probably face the very common issue of differing hydration level across different brands of flour, or even between different batches of the same brand of flour, right? There's never a time I found myself not needing to add in that extra few teaspoons/tablespoons of flour or water to my overly moist or dry dough ball. But with Bakestarters babka baking kit, I got my clean bowl and clean hands easily with less than 15 minutes of hand-kneading, and reach the windowpane stage within 20 minutes! 

However, instead of following their instruction of letting it proof till double in size for 1 to 1.5 hrs, I let my dough slow-proof in the fridge overnight (for almost 12 hours) instead, which will allow the bread to develop more (yeasty) flavour. As babka is made from enriched bread dough (brioche) which tends to be a lot softer (and harder to manage if you're not a very seasoned bread-baker), leaving the dough rest for a couple of hours in the fridge also helps with all the rolling and shaping later on. 

Since the baking kit is supposed to yield two loaves/wreath of babka, I decided to make one following their instruction to get a babka wreath, and another into a simple twisted loaf, topped with cinnamon streusels, YUMS!

And I also dropped a few pieces of the remaining streusels on the babka wreath, which I kind of regret. It'll probably look better without the random "spots"?

Look at those pretty chocolate swirls! But well, I kind of cut the wreath in the wrong direction and got a full cut across the tucked ends with no chocolate swirls instead. BOO!

But I have to say, this recipe is DA BOMBZ! The sweet brioche bread is so soft and tender, that it's almost cake-like. Even my mum and brother, who aren't fans of chocolate, loved it!

Bakestarters Christmas Collection 2018 Baking Kits is now up for preorder until 7 Dec, 2359 hr, and delivery of the kits will be from 11 to 21 Dec.
If you miss the preorder, do not worry! Bakestarters Christmas collection is still open for orders after 7 Dec, subject to availability of delivery dates. Do note that the blackout dates indicate full delivery slots so it's advisable for you guys to cart out quickly should you want to purchase any of the kits! You will also be able to get your kits in time for the New Year (if that's what you are planning for) as Bakestarters will be delivering after 25th December too!

For more information, visit their website HERE

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: ROCK CAKES!

Rock cakes, also called rock buns, are actually small fruit cake with a rough surface resembling a rock. Originated in the Great Britain, they are a traditional tea time treat. You might jolly well first heard of them through JK Rowling's Harry Potter series as Hagrid's favourite tea time snack to serve the trios, which were more of a rock than a cake, and were so hard that they could break teeth instead of being a lovely treat.

Rock cakes also happens to be one of my mum's favourite pastry-snacks (along with "old-times" butter cakes) and so let's get baking!

To get roughly 10 to 12 small rock cakes, you'll need:

115g all purpose flour

65g unsalted (good quality) butter, chopped and COLD

55g castor sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

90g dried mixed fruit (or you can use sultanas)

1 medium/large egg (mine is 50-55g out of the shell), beaten

1/4 tsp vanilla

Apparently, you can make rock cakes in a few methods, which includes the creaming method whereby you cream your butter and sugar as you would for any cakes, the melted butter method as you would for a soft cookie, or the frozen butter method as you would for a scone. As I'm hoping to get a more crumbly texture as would of a scone, I decided to go for the cold butter method. 

So, in a clean bowl, add in all your dry ingredients (except mixed fruits) and give it a quick whisk to combine. Then, throw in your frozen, chopped butter and cut it into the flour mixture in a mini food processor, or with a pastry cutter, or a simple knife-and-fork method. You may also use your hands (if you do not have hot hands) and rub the butter into the flour until it resembles bread crumbs with a little bit of bigger, pea-sized chunks. 

Then, add in your mixed fruit and give it a quick toss before adding in your beaten egg and vanilla extract. Mix until just combined and you get a slightly stiff, yet still rather moist and spoon-able dough. As different flour will have different hydration level, you may tweak your dough consistency with either some milk (if they're too dry and doesn't come together) or more flour (if they're too wet and not holding their shape). 

Then, spoon your dough evenly onto a parchment lined baking sheet, making sure they're spaced around 2 inches apart. You do not need to smooth our the surfaces, in fact, the more bumpy and 'rocky' your dough looks, the better! These are not called rock cakes for nothing! 

Then, bake them off in an oven pre-heated to 200 degree Celsius for around 15 minutes, or until they turn a lovely golden brown colour. 

Do keep a watchful eye on them to make sure that they do not burn, but you would not want them to be under-baked as well, if not you won't get the lovely slightly crisp surface on the outside.

I personally would prefer a more "dried-out" cakey texture for my rock cakes as if I crave for something more tender and moist, I should just go for scones, right? 

These tasted so good when still warm from the oven, with a crisp surface on the outside and cakey, tender and yet not overly moist texture on the inside. I've already reduced the added sugar level to the bare minimum, so unless you're using more of the dried fruit to add sweetness, I strongly suggest that you do not reduce the amount sugar any further. 

Do let me know if you've tried out this super quick and easy recipe and how these rock cakes has turned out for you!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Super Quick and Easy Fluffy Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Because I recently impulse-bought Fifty 50 Low GI Maple Flavoured Fructose Sweetener (HERE) while carting out my usual purchase on iherb, I decided.... It's time for a pancake breakfast!

And since it's sunday cheatday, I decided to go big or go home and make some CHOCOLATE CHIP pancakes!

To get 3 thick and fluffy pancakes, you'll need:

85g top flour (or cake flour)

70ml milk

2 tsp to 1 tbsp powdered sugar

(do adjust the sugar according to your preference, and also based on the type of chocolate chips you're using. Eg. milk/dark/bittersweet etc)

(about) 2 tsp melted butter 

1 medium/large egg 

(yolk and whites separated)

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 baking powder

1/4 baking soda

30g to 35g semi-sweet chocolate chips 

(or however more or less you fancy)

First up, make sure all your ingredients (except melted butter) are at room temperature. Crack your egg open and separate the yolk and white. Set the egg whites aside and add your yolk into a big bowl along with the milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and sugar. Beat until well combined.

Add in the dry ingredients and fold until almost combined.

Almost meaning it would still be lumpy, but there's just minimal patches of pure white flour here and there. Then, add in your egg whites (you don't have to beat the whites into meringue!) and mix until just combined. You would still want your battery to remain lumpy but without any chunky remains of the snotty-looking egg whites. 

Finally, dump in all your chocolate chips and fold until just combined. 

Set your batter in the fridge to rest for about 10 minutes. 

After 10 minutes of resting, take your pancake batter our from the fridge and heat up your skillet/frying pan. I'm using a non-stick pan, hence there's no need to butter/oil it, but if yours isn't non-stick, lightly oil your pan and use a paper towel to remove any excess oils from the surface. Doing this will give you a well-browned pancake instead of patches of overly browned with "uncooked" parts all over. 

On the lowest heat, scoop 1/4 cup of your batter and pour it from about 3 inches height onto the pan to allow the batter to spread out into a circle on its own. Cook it on low heat until you see bubbles appearing on the surface, and quickly flip them over. Be sure to flip the pancakes when the uncooked, bubbly surface is still wet (a dry skin has not yet formed over the surface). This will allow the pancake to further rise up after getting flipped and grow thick and fluffy after they're cooked!

After flipping your pancakes, cover with a lid and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.

And there you have it, thick and fluffy pancakes without the need to beat your egg whites into meringue!

And with a light drizzle of the pancake maple flavoured syrup (I only added 2 tsp of sugar to my batter), this is definitely the BEST Sunday #cheatday breakfast, ever!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Mochi Cheese Balls

Many years back, I've once tried to bake myself some chocolate mochi bread (recipe HERE) but they turned out pretty fail. Dense, hard and not as chewy as it should be. 

Fast-forward to 2018, I found Ochikeron. HAHA, who else is a fan of her recipe too, drop me a comment down below! :) 

 

Don't they look cute? <3

So let's get over the ingredients so we can get started!

To get 12 mochi cheeseballs, you'll need:

100g glutinous rice flour 

(ochikeron used shiratamako, but I used those Thai brands glutinous rice flour we can easily get in the supermarkets)

100ml milk

50g grated parmesan cheese

30g shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese 

adapted from Ochikeron's No Egg Japanese-Style Pao De Queijo

It couldn't get any simpler to make these mochi cheeseballs. First, mix the milk and flour and until it's fully combined. I'll say ditch the spatula or wooden spoon and just go in with your hands. The dough is going to get pretty sticky and tough to mix. 

Then, add in the cheese and knead until well combined. While mixing, you can use your hands and break up any large pieces of mozzarella and cheddar into smaller bits so that they can get more evenly distributed. 

When the cheese are all mixed in, try to squish the dough in between your hands and see if they come together into a ball easily. If they don't, add in a little bit more milk and knead well until they do. 

Shape your dough into a disk or a log and cut them up into 12 equal pieces, or to any sizes you fancy. They're just going to puff up very slightly in the oven, so don't make them too small. 

With clean hands, roll the dough into round balls and set them onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. As I've said, they'll only puff up ever so slightly during baking, so you need not spread them out too much. Just make sure they're not touching each other. 

With a pastry brush, brush each ball with some water to wet the surface before sending them to bake in the oven that's pre-heated to 180 degree Celsius for about 15 to 20 minutes.

And TADAA~ 

These mochi cheeseballs are AMAZING! The outer shell is not exactly crispy, but does have the slight crunch of a french baguette, while the inside is chewy with bits of melty cheese. 

They're best eaten warm, nearly piping hot, fresh from the oven as that's when the shredded cheese are melty and oozy. 

The mochi part of it will still remain soft and chewy even after having cooled down, but those shredded cheese obviously won't be oozy anymore. 

And I've also made a chocolate chip variation by adding some icing sugar and unsweeten cocoa powder to replace the grated parmesan, and some dark chocolate chips to replace the shredded cheese. 

The BF and my mum prefer the sweet version as they thought it's weird having salty mochi, but I personally though the cheese one was DA BOMB! 

Did I mentioned I ate FIVE balls in one shot right after they came out of the oven? 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Brookies (Brownie+Cookies)

Finally, I made myself some (half-healthy) brookies!

Even though I made this for my #cheatdayeats on Sunday, I'm still hesitant on "go big or go home" and decided to lessen my guilt by combining a sinful, high calorie chocolate chip cookie with a healthy, low calorie (just 70 kcal per serving!) brownie to balance it out! :)

So let's get over the ingredients so we can get started!

For the chocolate chip cookies:

(adapted from tasty.co)

60g unsalted butter 

12ml to 15ml strong coffee (optional)

25g baking stevia (or 50g castor sugar)

60g light brown muscovado sugar

80g all purpose flour

1/2 an egg 

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp baking soda

110g chocolate chips/chunks 

(dark, milk, bittersweet, semi-sweet or a mixture, to your preference. I've used 72% dark chocolate chips & Excellence Chili Chocolate)

For the healthy (70 kcal) brownie:

64g unsweeten applesauce

80g plain greek yogurt

84g raw honey

60g all purpose flour

45g unsweeten cocoa powder

1 egg

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

First, let's start off with preparing the cookie dough as it needs to chill for at least 30 minutes. In a pot, melt your butter and keep it over low heat until browned and set it aside to cool. As the water content in the butter will be evaporated during browning, measure the butter again and top it back up to 60g with a dash of strong coffee (or water, if you prefer). 

Then, add in your sugars and beat with a balloon whisk until well combined before beating in the half-egg and vanilla extract. Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder) and fold until mostly combined before folding in your chocolate chunks until just combined. 

Cover with some cling wrap and place it in the fridge to firm up for at least 30 minutes or overnight for the flavours to develop. 

While the cookie dough is chilling, prepare your brownie batter! It couldn't be any simpler, for this is a 1 bowl recipe. First up, dump all your wet ingredients into a large bowl (applesauce, yogurt, honey and vanilla extract) and whisk until well combined. Sift in your dry ingredients (very important to sift the cocoa powder as they're always lumpy!) and mix until just combined. THAT'S IT!

Pour your brownie batter into a greased/parchment lined baking pan (I used a round pan, but you can use an 8x8 square tin) and bring out your chilled dough from the fridge. 

Using either your hands or spoons, drop chunks (big or small, up to you!) of the cookie dough all over the top of the brownie until it's mostly covered. You need not make sure that the surface is 100% covered as the cookie dough will spread as it bakes.

I personally did not use up all my cookie dough for the brookie (hence the "bald" patches) but leftover about 20% of the dough to bake up as some chocolate chip cookies, which I found to be too sweet. I have already reduced the sugars from tasty's recipe to begin with and used dark (and spicy) chocolates, so... I can't imagine how sweet the cookies will be if one is to follow that recipe strictly.
And I do know the 70 kcal brownie looks inviting but I do not suggest that you use this brownie recipe as a straight up brownie on its own. I've intentionally tone the flavour down (both the sweetness and richness of chocolate flavour) to complement the strong flavour from the cookie. In short, these two seemingly separated recipes are meant to be baked and eaten TOGETHER. 

If you're bent on having a healthy, low-calorie brownie, check out my 77 kcal brownie recipe HERE.

Alright, then send your brookies to bake in the oven pre-heated to 180 degree celsius for about 25 minutes until the middle has set an a skewer inserted comes out clean with just a few crumbs. 

Wait for the brookies to cool COMPLETELY before cutting as the cookies will be exceptionally crumbly when still warm from the oven. 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Matcha Mochi Roll Bread

While the whole world is all about going dirty (#dirtybuns), I still prefer to stay clean! And after stumbling upon Amanda's youtube video recipe on her soft European bread, I decided to give it a try! 

So to get 6 buns, you'll need:

For the bread dough

50g wholemeal flour

180g all purpose flour

15g vital wheat gluten

5g green tea powder

15g sugar

25g unsalted butter (soften)

1 egg

130ml water (room temperature)

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp instant yeast (about 3g)

For the mochi

80g glutinous rice flour

20g corn flour

40g sugar

2 tsp vegetable oil

170ml milk

Filling (Optional)

Pitted and chopped dates 

(I used kurma dates)

Raisins 

Or any other fillings of your choice

I also made just 1 special bun with my leftover dark chocolate chips & salted caramel chips. 

I made the bread dough in my Mayer BM, but you can always do it by hand or in a standing mixer with a dough hook. 

Add all the ingredients (except for butter) into the machine, making sure that the yeast and salt do not come into direct contact with each other. Start the machine on mix dough function and let the machine do its work. When the dough starts to come together to form a ball, add in the soften butter and mix until the cycle is completed. 

The dough may be extremely wet and sticky (though still able to form up a shape) but that's okay. Turn the dough out into a greased bowl and cover with a clingwrap and set it into the fridge overnight (about 12 hours) for bulk fermentation. The dough should at least double in size when it's done fermenting. 

The next morning, let's start off with making the mochi! In a clean bowl, add in all the ingredients (both wet and dry) and stir to combine into a watery flour mixture. You can either microwave it (if you have one) for a few minutes or steam it for 20 minutes. When the watery mixture has solidified into a soft and sticky dough, the mochi is cooked. While it's still steaming hot, use your spatula or a wooden spoon to give it a few mix/kneads before setting it aside to cool down. 

While the mochi is cooling down, remove your overnight bread dough from the fridge and punch it down before turning it over a well floured surface. The dough should be extremely sticky (sticks ALL over your hand) so add more flour and continue kneading the dough until it warms up to room temperature comes together into a smooth dough ball. Cut the dough ball up into 6 equal pieces and set it aside for about 10 to 15 minutes to rest while you prepare your fillings. When the mochi has cooled down enough for you to handle, cut it up into 6 equal portions and set aside. You may dust your work surface with some glutinous rice flour if the mochi gets too sticky to work with. 

After the bread dough has rested, take 1 of the balls and rolled it out on a slightly floured surface to your preferred size. We're going to roll it up eventually, so the bigger you roll, the more layers you'll end up with in your bun, so just play around with the size according to your own liking. Then, take a piece of the mochi and roll it out to match the size of your rolled out bread dough. The mochi should be slightly smaller than your bread dough, with about 1/2 cm gap around the perimeter. I find it much easier to just give the mochi a few rolls with the rolling pin to roughly flatten it out, then you place the mochi over the bread dough and stretch it out to size with your hands. 

Then, sprinkle your choice of filling on top of the mochi and then starting from the end that's closer to you, roll it up into a bun. Pinch the ends together tightly to seal and set them on a baking paper lined tray for 2nd proofing in a warm place (or in your oven if yours have a proofing function) until it doubles in size. Mine took about 25 minutes in my own with a proofing setting. 

Then, send your buns to bake in an oven pre-heated to 190 degree Celsius for 25 minutes. Check that the bread is done by tapping on the top. If it sounds hollow, it's done!

You may use a sharp knife to slice out patterns on the surface of your bread after 2nd proofing before baking, but I just didn't bother to. 

And because today is Sunday and Sunday is my cheatday, I've specially made just ONE with a mixture of chocolate chips and salted caramel chips as the filling, and it's so good! The bread is soft and fluffy, mochi chewy and gooey and the chocolate filling molten and oozing. 

THIS IS JUST SO WORTH ALL THE WORK!

Do let me know if you've tried out this recipe and tell me what fillings did you use for your versions!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Biscoff Stuffed Birthday Cake Muffin

Recently, we planned a surprise birthday celebration for CL by surprise-whisking her to The Clifford Pier for a high tea buffet while telling her we're headed to Phoon Huat to pick up some missing ingredients for our bake-date. 

And well, since a birthday celebration is already on the way, I thought, "when's a better time than now to try out something I've always wanted to?"

And it's sprinkles! Loads and loads of them! And that's how you inject all the joy and happiness into a birthday cake, right?

So, for 6 servings of the birthday cake muffin, you'll need:

For streusels/crumbs toppings:

25g all purpose flour

15g castor sugar

18g COLD unsalted butter (cut into small cubes)

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

For muffins

125g all purpose flour

80ml buttermilk

80ml vegetable oil (or any other flavourless oil)

1 egg

60g castor sugar 

(this is already a reduced sugar recipe)

40g sprinkles

(I used multi-coloured chocolate rice)

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

6 heaping teaspoons of biscoff spread

(I used crunchy, but you can use smooth)

recipe adapted from confessionsofacookbookqueen

First up, spoon 6 heaping teaspoons of biscoff spread onto a baking sheet and freeze them in the freezer until fully harden.

Next, prepare the streusels. First, add all the dry ingredients into a bowl and give it a whisk to mix well. Then, using either a pastry cutter or the simple fork-and-knife combination, cut the cold butter into the dry ingredients until it turns sandy and lumpy. Set it aside in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

In a clean bowl, add in the egg, buttermilk and oil. Mix until well combined. Stir in the sugar and vanilla extract until well combined before mixing in the flour, salt and baking powder until just combined. Lasting stir in the sprinkles until the batter turns all colourful and cheery!

Prepare your muffin tin by spraying them down with non-sticking cooking spray or simply coating it with some butter. Fill up each well with about 1 1/2 tablespoon of the batter before popping a frozen teaspoon of the biscoff spread into the centre. Then, top up each well with the rest of the batter. 

Sprinkle the streusels over the top of each well and then finishing off with as much (or as little of) sprinkles you fancy. 

Send the muffins to bake in an oven pre-heated to 200 degree Celsius for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted (to the sides, else you'll just get the molten biscoff centre) comes out clean.

As you can see, the cinnamon gave the streusels a not very appealing colour, so if you prefer a prettier looking muffin, you might want to omit the cinnamon. 

And look at that molten biscoff centre! It is so so so yummy!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Chocolate Lava Salted Caramel Chips Cookie

Well, guess what? It's LAVA COOKIES, Y'ALL!

Came across the salted caramel chips while randomly browsing the baking aisle at the supermarket and just decided to pick it up without much thought initially. Hahaha, and since I've bought it, I gotta use it right? 

So yup, let's make some salted caramel chips cookies with a chocolate lava centre then!

To make roughly 20 cookies, you'll need:

125g plain flour

60g soften unsalted butter

100g brown sugar
(I've used 35g baking stevia + 30g brown sugar)

1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
(omit if you're using salted butter)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 small/medium egg
90g salted caramel chips
20 cubes of your favourite dark chocolate
I used 70% dark chocolate, feel free to use milk chocolate or even white chocolate if you fancy them.

First up, cream your butter and sugar together until the mixture turns light and fluffy, then beat in your egg and vanilla extract until well combined. Sift in all your dry ingredients and fold until almost combined before folding in the salted caramel chips.

Your batter should be only very slightly sticky, but still easily pliable. Do add in some more flour along the way if you feel that your batter is too runny. Or else you'll have problems wrapping the chocolate cubes in!

Then, wrap up your batter in cling wrap and leave it to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour for it to firm up.

After the cookie dough has firmed up, take it out from the fridge and start wrapping your chocolate cubes into 1 heaping tablespoon of dough (I weighed mine and they're about 32 - 35g each). Feel free to pop them back into the fridge if you find that they've gone too soft to work with easily.

Then, place your chocolate-centre cookie dough balls on a baking sheet, spaced 2" apart and bake them at 190 degree Celsius for about 10 to 12 minutes. Keep a watchful eye on them at the 10th minute, they should just be slightly browned at the side and still pale in the centre!

When they're done, they will still be quite fragile, so do be extra careful when transferring them over to a cooling rack. These cookies are best eaten warm, so do not leave them to cool completely before tucking in!

Otherwise, you may also heat the cooled leftover cookies slightly in the microwave for perhaps 30 to 60 seconds to get the chocolate centre molten again before eating!

Look at that molten dark chocolate centre! Best #cheatdayeat ever!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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