Mia Bakes: Healthy Date Muffins

 Hey lovely readers, it has been a while since my last post! Been bogged down by work and also overseeing renovation works of my new BTO. Hopefully there will be more baking (& cooking?!) recipes up here once I've settled down into my new house!

Anyway, here's a super quick and easy recipe for a healthy, dates muffin! Well, initially I wanted to make some sticky date pudding because there's 3 boxes of deglet noor dates in the house. But after preparing the "cake" portion, I got lazy to follow up with the caramel sauce and so.... a healthy date muffin it shall be! 

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

To get 12 muffins, you'll need:

250g pitted dates

1 tsp baking soda

250ml boiling water

40g unsalted butter

40g unsweeten applesauce

185g plain flour

30g brown sugar

30g white sugar (I used stevia)

2 eggs

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

60g pumpkin seeds + roughly chopped walnuts

(or whatever seeds/nuts you fancy)

*60g of sugar makes a rather mild-tasting (not sweet AT ALL) muffin, do add more sugar if a sweeter tasting muffin is desired

In a clean bowl, add in your pitted (and roughly chopped) dates, baking soda and boiling water. Leave to soak for 20 to 30 minutes, until it has cooled down. 

In another bowl, add your butter, sugar and applesauce. Whisk until well combined. Crack in the eggs, one at a time, whisking until each egg is well combined before adding the next. Then, fold in the dry ingredients (flour, salt and baking powder) with a spatula until there's only a few stray pockets of flour left before folding in the dates mixture. Fold until nearly combined before folding in the pumpkin seeds until just combined; do not overmix! 

Spoon the batter into 12 muffin cups and bake in the oven that's pre-heated to 180 degrees Celsius for around 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. 

As mentioned earlier, these muffins are not-sweet-at-all (in spite of all those dates) with a bouncy, chewy texture, and make quite a decent (healthy) breakfast muffin! 

I've actually eaten mine with some peanut butter for breakfast, YUMS!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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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: Stout Brownies

Fellow beer lovers, fall in!
Oh well, actually it's not really beer, but stout. Believe it or not, despite me being a huge beer/cider lover, I've never ever tried stout before, as everyone around me told me that it's a lot more bitter than beer. So when's a better time to make use of this bitterness, other than to couple it with a decadent, rich chocolate and get some brownies, right? 

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

For 9 - 16 squares (9' x 9' square tin):

1 can (323 ml) of Extra Stout 

(I used ABC, but you can always use Guinness)

100g unsalted butter

75g plain yogurt (greek yogurt or strained)

150g finely chopped dark chocolate (I used 60% cacao)

120g castor sugar 

100g plain flour

50g unsweetened cocoa powder

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

45 - 50g walnuts, lightly crushed

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1/4 tsp chocolate essence optional

a handful of crushed oreo biscuits as topping, optional

recipe adapted from The MeatMen

First up, empty the entire can of extra stout into a pot and allow the foam to dissipate. Then, place the pot over medium heat and allow it to boil for 10 to 15 minutes until you're left with roughly 250ml of the dark liquid. Then, pour the reduced stout into a bowl and allow to cool. 

Into the same pot, add in your butter and let it melt fully before adding in the chopped dark chocolate. Stir constantly to allow the chocolate to melt and fully combine, and also to prevent burning. You can also do this in a microwave or over a bain marie. Once the chocolate has fully melted, remove the pot from the heat and add in the sugar, mixing until the sugar has fully incorporated. Add in the greek yogurt/strained yogurt (click HERE to find out how to strain your normal plain yogurt!) and give it a good mix to bring down the temperature of the mixture. 

Allow the mixure to cool to a point where it will not cook your eggs, before cracking them in, one by one, making sure to whisk until the mixture is fully incorporated before adding in the second egg. Then, pour in your cooled, reduced stout and mix until well combined. 

Sift in the dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda) and fold with a spatula until almost combined (just a few streaks of flour here and there), before adding in the crushed walnuts and folding until just combined.

Pour the batter into your prepared tin (lined with parchment paper and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray), give the tin a few light taps to allow any air bubbles to come up, before sprinkling a handful of crushed oreo biscuits over the top. Then, bake in your oven that's pre-heated to 170 degrees Celsius for about 23 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle come out relatively clean with just a few moist crumbs. 

Leave it to cool completely before cutting into squares!

There you have it! 

Moist, fudgy, rich and chocolatey brownie with a slight hint of the stout flavour to give the brownie a "dark chocolate" flavour. Replacing part of the butter with yogurt not only helped to reduce the calories, but also added on to the fudginess and made the brownie more moist. I'll say you do not try to reduce the sugar anymore, because this is already a less-sweet recipe. Instead, if you'll prefer a sweeter brownie, go ahead to add more sugar, or throw in a couple handfuls of chocolate chips to oomph up the sweetness. If you're a chocolate/brownie fan, do give this a try, even if you're not a fan of stout!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Boiled Christmas Fruit Cake

 Growing up, our family has never ever celebrated Christmas Day and naturally, I do not join my friends' Christmas parties, nor return the favour should they get me any Christmas presents. To me, Christmas Day has always been just-another-PH on the calender, until very recently I realised that the yummy, dense and boozy "fruit cake" that is ridiculously jam-packed with dried fruits (so much so that there's more fruits than cake), which my paternal grandma used to bake for us from time to time, is actually called a Christmas fruitcake! 

Traditionally, Christmas fruitcakes are baked and aged for up to a month before they're iced/wrapped in marzipan to seal the deal. But I actually believe they taste way better without the marzipan (not a fan), and neither had my grandma ever iced her fruitcakes, so.... nay, skip that!

Disclaimer, the recipe I'm sharing is NOT my grandma's recipe though. I didn't manage to learn any of my grandma's amazing recipes (her legendary fruit cake and pies, and even the CNY snack, honeycomb!)  as back then I was much younger and had no interests whatsoever in anything that happens in the kitchen, but I vaguely remembered that she needs to soak her fruits for (at least?) a week in alcohol before proceeding to make the cake. 

Why wait another week when you can make it on the spot, as and when you want to, right? 

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

To get a 5" round tin plus a loaf pan sized cakes, you'll need:

180g plain flour

100g almond flour 

100g muscovado brown sugar

250g unsalted butter 

(or you can replace up to half with unsweetened applesauce)

4 eggs 

(mine were about 55g out of the shells)

700 - 750g chopped dried fruits of your choice

(I used a mixture of dried mixed fruits, sultanas, yellow raisins, chopped apricots and red cherries)

100g almond strips/flakes

120ml liqueur of choice, plus more for feeding 

(I typically use either Cognac or Benedictine DOM) 

120ml orange juice

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground clove

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 

(you may omit clove or nutmeg, but cinnamon and mixed spice are a MUST!)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

First up, instead of soaking your dried fruits in the liqueur for 1 week, you... BOIL them. :)

In a fairly large pot over small fire, add in your butter and allow the butter to fully melt. Do stir it to prevent the butter from burning. Once the butter has fully melted, add in the applesauce (if you're using) and sugar, and mix until the sugar has dissolved. Then, add in the liqueur, orange juice and chopped dried fruit and let the mixture come to a weak boil over medium to high heat. Once the mixture starts to boil, turn down the heat and allow it to simmer for another 3 to 5 minutes, constantly stirring to prevent burning, before removing the pot from the hob and allowing it to cool.

Once the mixture has cooled (to a point where it won't scramble your eggs), add in your eggs, one at a time and mix well with a wooden spoon/spatula. Make sure that the egg is fully incorporated before you crack in the next one. 

Then, add in the flours, orange zest, spices and extracts and give it a quick mix until just combined.  

Fill up your prepared moulds (lined with parchment paper and spray down slightly with non-stick cooking spray) with the thick and gooey batter and bang them lightly over the countertop to even out the surface, before sending them to bake in an oven preheated to 170 degrees Celsius (160 if on fan mode) for around 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

And once out of the oven, leave them to cool down just slightly for 10 minutes or so before poking holes all over the surface of the cake (leave them in the moulds!) and spooning a tablespoonful of your liqueur directly over the top of the cake. Then, leave the cake to cool completely in the mould, before removing them and wrapping them up tightly in cling wrap, parchment paper and all, and storing them in the fridge for up to a month. 

If you're aging it for a full month, you can choose to feed your cake (with straight up liqueur or you may mix in a little orange juice if you wish) once or twice a week over the 4 weeks. But if you're reducing the aging process to just 2 weeks (like me), you can shorten your feeding intervals to once every 2 to 3 days. It really depends on how moist and boozy you want your cake to be. 

Due to the high alcoholic content, this cake stores really well.... for a LONG LONG time. I'm saying MONTHS and MONTHS in just the chiller (no freezing required!) 

And as for the applesauce+butter vs all butter variation, I would say that the applesauce not only reduce a hefty amount of calories from your cake, but also added a lot of moisture to the cake. In fact, I've fed my previous bake (all butter version) more than this version, but this was significantly softer and more moist. So if you're a fan of a gooey, moist and dense christmas fruitcake, I'll highly recommend that you give applesauce a try! 

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Oreo White Rabbit Double Chocolate Cookies

It was a random day when I randomly thought, "it's been a long while since I've last baked some chocolate cookies..." and so a casual google search brought me over to cookiemadness.net and before I knew it, I was reading up a recipe for a subway copycat double chocolate cookie. 

But then, I wanted to use up the remaining 1/3 bag of my green banana flour, and the pack of not-very-nice chocolate peanut butter oreo cookies I've picked up from Sheng Shiong supermarket, which has gone stale in the packet. So, what would happen if I were to replace part of the plain flour with green banana flour, I wonder? Let's find out, shall we?

To get 14 to 18 large cookies, you'll need: 

100g plain flour
50g green banana flour 
40g unsweeten cocoa powder
115g unsalted butter, soften
80g brown sugar
50g castor sugar (I used stevia blend)
1 egg    
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp baking soda
14/ tsp salt
80g white rabbit candy
80g oreo biscuits
20g oreo biscuit crumbs
30g dark chocolate chunks

First up, chop up your white rabbit candies and lightly crush up your oreo cookies with your hands into large chunks (I did 5 to 6 pieces per cookie and realised I could have left them much chunkier). Set the aside. I've used the pre-packaged oreo cookie crumbs for the extra 20g of crumbs, but if you can't find it in stores, you can go ahead and crush up more cookies (no filling!) into fine crumbs, or simply leave them out. 

In a clean bowl, cream the soften butter and sugars together with a wooden spoon or spatula until quite pale and fluffy (you need not go crazy beating in tons of air with a handheld mixer). Then, mix in your egg and vanilla extract until well combined. Sift in the dry ingredients (if you're lazy, just sift the cocoa powder like I did) and fold until you're left with a few pockets of dry flours before folding in the candies/cookies chunks and crumbs/chocolate chunks until everything is just combined. 

There's no need to chill the dough as it'll be quite stiff (though still rather sticky), but you can definitely wrap them up in cling wrap and freeze them for up to a few weeks so there's no need to bake them all off at the same time. 

So with slightly oiled hands and a 1/4 cup measuring spoon sprayed down with some non-stick cooking spray, scoop up 1/4 cupfuls of the cookie dough and place them onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. The cookies DO NOT spread much, so make sure that you pat them down flat on the baking sheet and just leave 1.5 to 2 inch of space in between them. 

Then send them to bake in an oven pre-heated to 175 degrees Celsius (lower by 10 if on fan) for about 10 to 12 minutes. 

As you can see, I was expecting the cookies to spread out quite a bit and flatten into "subway copycats", but it didn't happen. 

One even started puking melted white rabbit candy towards the end of 10 minutes.... But I can't deny that they smelled so good when baking!

These cookies turned out thick, crumbly and cakey. But packs a punch of sweet flavours from the chewy white rabbit candy, oreo biscuits and dark chocolate chunks. 

Not exactly gooey (I baked mine for full 12 minutes, so if you prefer a gooey, underbaked centre, do go for just 10 minutes), but definitely yummy!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Cottage Cheese Torte (Low Calorie Baked Cheesecake)

 Previously, I've posted a recipe for Ricotta Burnt Cheesecake and was so glad to have found a lower calorie, diet-friendly and yet equally yummy cheesecake. 
And now, I found cottage cheese!

Do you know, 100g of cream cheese packs 342 kcals, while ricotta holds 174 kcal and cottage cheese has barely 100 kcals? And if they're all going to end up tasting equally good, why waste that 3x calories for the same enjoyment, right? 

Goodbye, cream cheese. I won't see you to the door.

Anyway, let's get over with the ingredients, so we can get started!

For a (roughly) 20 x 10 cm loaf pan, you'll need:

For the filling:

200g cottage cheese

2 eggs, separated.

12g plain flour

75g baking sugar replacement

(you can replace with castor sugar in 1:1 ratio)

90g cooking (or heavy) cream

1 tbsp lemon juice

(you may add in grated peel of the whole lemon if you wish)

a pinch of salt

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/8 tsp cream of tartar (optional, for meringue)

For the crust (optional):

70g (or more, if you like a thick crust) biscuit of your choice.

(I've used Britannia Good Day Cashew Cookies, but you can use digestives or even lotus biscuits) 

1 tbsp butter (or more, depending on your biscuit)

recipe adapted from The Farmer's Wife Cookie Cookbook

First up, place all your cookies and 1 tbsp of soften (or melted) butter into a small food processor and process until everything has come together and the consistency resembles wet sand. If the crumbs are unable to hold its shape when pressed together, add a little more butter (or you may replace with lower-fat options like greek yogurt or unsweetened applesauce) until you get to a malleable texture. If you do not have a small food processor, feel free to do this step in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin instead.

Pour the buttered crumbs into your loaf pan, lined with parchment paper and pat it down firmly to form the crust base. Pop it into the oven to bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes for the base to somewhat firm up before removing the pan from the oven to cool down slightly while preparing the rest of the ingredients. 

In a large clean bowl, add your separated egg whites and give it a quick whisk with your handheld mixer (or stand mixer, if you have one) to loosen it up. Using a clean spoon (no traces of oil here, as it'll prevent your whites from getting whisked up into meringue), take out a small spoonful (I'll say about half a tablespoonful will suffice) of the whites in a small dish and set everything aside. In another clean bowl, add in your cottage cheese and give it a good beating mixing with your handheld mixer (or balloon whisk, if you're up for spending some elbow grease) until the big curds have more of less broken down into tiny pieces. Then, add in the cream and continue mixing until the mixture has turned considerably smoother. It'll be impossible to beat them into cream cheese consistency, just make sure that there's no more huge lumps of cheese floating around in the mixture and you'll be fine. Then, add in the egg yolks, 1/4 of the sugar, lemon juice (and grated peel), vanilla extract and salt. Whisk until well combined before adding in the flour. Mix until there's no more dry pockets of flour and set the mixture aside. Wash your handheld mixer whisks CLEAN before proceeding. 

Check if your crust base has cooled down before brushing on the 1/2 tbsp of beaten egg whites over the top of the base with a pastry brush lightly. Then, set the pan back into the oven to bake for another 5 minutes (or until you start smelling a nice buttery fragrance from the baked base). Remove from the oven and set aside to cool down. Turn the oven temperature down to 175 degrees Celsius. 

Then, with CLEAN whisk attachments on your handheld mixer, whisk the remaining of your egg whites until frothy before adding in the cream of tartar (optional) and 1/3 of the remaining sugar. Continue whisking and adding rest of the sugar in another 2 additions, whisking thoroughly after each additions. Continue beating the egg whites until stiff peaks formed. 

With a spatula, scoop 1/3 of the meringue and fold it into the cheese-yolk mixture. Then, pour the mixture back into the rest of the meringue and fold lightly (either with a spatula or you can also use a balloon whisk, but mix with a FOLDING technique) until just combined. Do not overmix, or you'll risk deflating your meringue. Pour the fluffy mixture into the loaf pan, over your pre-baked crust and bake at 175 degrees Celsius (reduce by 10 degrees if on fan) for around 25 minutes, or until the top of the torte is evenly browned, and the top springs back slightly when tapped lightly with a finger and the centre jiggles slightly when shaken. If you'll prefer a "fairer" cheesecake (I personally like how the charred/caramelised flavour of the browned top cuts into the otherwise cloying heaviness of a cheesecake) with a sinful creamy mouthfeel, feel free to lower your temperature to 160 degrees Celsius and bake the torte in a hot water bath for much longer (35 to 40 minutes)

After the torte is done, leave it in the oven, door closed, for another 15 minutes before leaving the oven door slightly ajar and allowing the torte to cool down in the oven for at least another 30 minutes. When the torte has cooled down to room temperature (or just slightly warm to touch), cover the top of the torte with clingwrap and pop the entire thing (parchment paper, loaf pan and all) into the fridge for at least 4 to 6 hours before serving. 

The torte will puff up slightly while baking, and the top will shrink back to flatten back out when cooled. But it shouldn't crack, and should stay relatively flat (instead of ending up with a depression in the centre) if you've allowed the torte to cool down slowly in the warm oven. 

I love how the centre of the torte remains slightly molten, yet not alarmingly runny. Due to brushing the top of the pre-baked crust with beaten egg whites, which formed a "waterproof" layer between the moist cheese filling and the baked crust, it allows the crust base to stay crisp instead of turning soggy. The overall texture of the torte, though definitely not fluffy like Japanese cotton cheesecake, is still a lot lighter and fluffier than a typical (cream cheese) baked cheesecake without beating the egg whites separately into meringue. Flavour wise, it's also much lighter (cottage cheese are supposed to be less sweet than cream cheese) and a lot less surfeiting. 

I guess, I've nailed THE recipe to follow for a baked cheesecake for myself!

Till then,

Mia Foo 

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Mia Bakes: Healthy Pumpkin Bread (with Greek Yogurt & Green Banana Flour!)

Pumpkins, anyone? 

I'm hardly a fan of pumpkin growing up. Somehow in our family, we're typically not a fan of sweet taste unless they're in the form of cakes and pastries. It was only very recently, when I changed my diet and got onto team #eatclean did I started eating pumpkins frequently. 
Yup, they're one of the most diet-friendly food, being low in calories (at only 50 kcals per cup!) and yet, nutrient-dense. However, taste wise, I'll still prefer sweet potatoes (or brown/multigrain rice) as my source of starchy carbs. I guess that's why many times my "impulse pumpkin buys" always ends up in nearly half of the unfinished pumpkin going bad in the fridge. T.T 

And so I decided, I'm not going to let anymore precious food go to waste! Left with a generous quarter cut of my pumpkin that's nearing the end of its shelf life, I decided to bake something out of it! Initially I thought of trying out the recipe for my healthy sweet potato brownies and substituting the sweet potatoes with pumpkins, but that'll leave me with too much brownies to eat alone (I'm the only person in the family who enjoys chocolatey bakes). And so I thought, why not some pumpkin quick bread instead? And similar to my previous recipe for the applesauce walnut & raisin quick bread, there's nothing "bready" about this quick bread, and they're way more like muffins. 

So much so that I even baked some in muffin form. HAHA!

So now let's get over with the ingredients, so we can get started!
To get 1 standard loaf serving (10 - 12 slices), you'll need:

150g raw pumpkin (or about 130g canned pumpkin puree)
2 eggs
55g plain greek yogurt
40g brown sugar
30g castor sugar
(or you can use 70g of either sugar)
110g plain flour
30g green banana flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 ground nutmeg
1/4 salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
60 - 70g semi-sweet chocolate chips
30 - 40g pumpkin seeds (plus a handful more as toppings, if desire)

First up, wash your pumpkin clean and remove the skin and seeds (you can roast the seeds and eat them too!). Cut them into thin slices and steam for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on how thin you slice them) until they're thoroughly cooked through and soft. Pour off the excess liquid that has drained out of the pumpkins and mash them up with a fork. Stir in the sugars until well combined and leave them aside to cool. 

When the mashed pumpkin has cooled down, add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix until well combined. Then, add in the greek yogurt and vanilla extract and mix well. Then, mix in the green banana flour, salt and spices until well combined. There's no gluten in green banana flour, so there's no risk of overmixing the batter at this point. 

Then, from your bowl of 110g plain flour, spoon a heaping tablespoon of it and toss it with your chocolate chips & pumpkin seeds. This trick will help them stay up in the middle of the loaf rather than sinking to the bottom during baking. Add the remaining plain flour, baking powder and baking soda into the mixture and fold lightly to combine, until there's just a few streaks of dry ingredients. At this point, add in the chocolate chips and pumpkin seeds and fold until just combined, with no more streaks of dry ingredients to be seen. 

Pour your batter into your prepared loaf pan (sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and lined with parchment paper) and bake at 175 degree Celsius for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

Do check on them at the 30 minute mark, and if you see that the surface has gotten too browned, you can cover the top with some aluminium foil to prevent over-browning. 

Although this is also a quick bread, its texture is totally different from the one I made with applesauce and butter (my applesauce walnut & raisin quick bread). While the applesauce-butter one is more moist and with a denser, cakier texture, this version made with greek yogurt and pumpkin puree turns out drier and a lot more chewy. 

To be honest, I think I will prefer the applesauce-butter version. HAHAHA! What's baked goods without butter, right?

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Applesauce Walnut & Raisin Quick Bread (With Green Banana Flour)

 Frankly speaking, I don't really understand the logic of quick breads. Let's face it, you can't get bread without long proofing. The texture just ain't right. They're still cakes, albeit coarser and denser.... Muffins! Yes, they're muffins baked in a loaf. Are they not? But breads or muffins, they're delicious. And they're also super quick and easy to make. So let's make ourselves some (slightly healthier) walnut and raisin quick bread using applesauce and green banana flour!
This is also going to be an eggless recipe, as I was baking this for my grandma, who doesn't eat eggs in the morning (due to religion). Making this eggless will allow her to eat the bread for breakfast instead of having to wait till after noon to eat it. 

If you've not heard of green banana flour, it's a gluten free alternative to grain flour, having been made from green bananas. They're said to be high in resistance starch, with benefits such as:

1. Improving negative effects of metabolic syndrome

2. Promotes a healthy colon

3. Could reduce insulin sensitivity

4. Possibly aids weight loss

5. May reduce cholesterol levels

So let's get over with the ingredients so we can get started!
To get 1 loaf serving, you'll need:

250g unsweeten applesauce

80g dark brown sugar

135g plain flour

85g green banana flour (I used Edward & Sons)

75g unsalted butter, soften

70g honey

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

1/3 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

100g raisins (I mixed sultanas with yellow raisins)

50-60g walnuts, roughly chopped.

In a large bowl, cream the soften butter and brown sugar together. Then, add in the applesauce, honey and extracts and mix until well combined. There might be some "separation" of the butter, but it's alright. From 135g of plain flour, take about 1 to 2 tbsps and mix it into the raisins and chopped walnut mixture and toss till everything is well coated. This will prevent the walnuts and raisins from sinking to the bottom of the bread while it bakes. 

Then, add in all the of the dry ingredients (flours and leavening agents) into the wet ingredients and mix until there's just a few streaks of flour to be seen. Then, dump in the chopped walnuts and raisins and mix until just combined. You do not want to overmix your batter, as the green banana flour (along with applesauce) will make your cake quick bread slightly denser (and crumbly) than usual. Overworking the gluten in your plain flour will definitely give you a super dense and tough bread. 

Once there's no more streaks of dry flour to be seen, scoop the batter into a lined loaf pan and bake at 175 degree Celsius for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean with just a few crumbs. Leave the bread to cool down slightly in the loaf pan for 5 to 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan and letting it cool COMPLETELY on a wire rack. Do not try to slice it when it's still warm; things will get messy with all the crumbling. 

And tadaa~ 

The dark brown sugar and honey will add a lot of rich sweetness to the cake, and while the applesauce helps to make the cake quick bread super moist, the green banana flour helps to give the bread a denser and "coarser" texture, like a christmas plum cake. Well, as I've said, this is definitely more of a cake (rich and sweet) than a bread (bland). Try it and let me know what you think!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: 44 Calories Chocolate Cake

Oh yeah, a 44 calories chocolate cake. 

Wait, WHAT? FORTY-FOUR calories, CHOCOLATE cake? 

Yes, you read that right. And that wasn't a clickbait title, nor some portion size reduction trick. I'm going to share with you a recipe I've found on Oat Fiber's youtube channel, for a friggin 44 calories chocolate cake of a decent portion size that WILL fill you up. 

And here's what's 40 calories of chocolate cake look like. 

And the trick here, as I've said is NOT portion sizes, but oat fibre (I got mine from NuNaturals off iherb.sg)! 

Oat fibre comes from the fibrous husk of the oats, which is pure insoluble fibre and hence, virtually indigestible and therefore contains zero calories, carbs and nutrients. It helps to pack a load of insoluble fibre into our diet, which helps to reduce constipation (provided you're drinking enough water), promotes a full feeling for long periods of time and may even help to reduce over LDL cholesterol. 

Okay, the "health benefits" of oat fibre aside, the bigger benefit of oat fibre (for fellow ladies watching your calories), is that it is ZERO calories and helps to add bulk to your food. For example, you can get your usual 4-pancake stack into a 6-pancake stack without any additional calories just by adding oat fibre! This is literally a godsend for me right now, being unable to do any form of legit exercise for the next 2 months due to a tailbone fracture.

Anyway, let's get over with the ingredients, so we can get started.

For 1 serving (I made mine in 2 silicon cupcake moulds): 

1 tbsp plain flour (27.5 kcals)

2 tbsp oat fibre (0 kcals)

1 tbsp unsweeten cocoa powder (10 kcals, I used Hershey's)

0.5 tbsp 0 calorie sweetener of your choice (0 kcals)

1 tbsp 0 calorie maple flavour syrup (0 kcals) 

1/8 tsp baking powder (0 kcals)

half of 1/8 tsp baking soda (0 kcals)

1 tbsp low fat milk (6 kcals, I used FairPrice housebrand)

1.5 - 2 tbsp water (0 kcals)

adapted from Oat Fiber

Making this can't be any easier, just dump all the dry ingredients into a small clean bowl (you can sift your cocoa powder if they're too lumpy), give it a quick stir with a fork to get them well combined before adding in the wet ingredients (except the water) and stirring until well combined. Then, add in enough water to get the batter to a pourable, cake batter consistency.

Then, transfer the batter into a mould of your choice and STEAM it, either in your steamer if you have one or in a large pot of boiling water, covered, for about 15 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

The thing about oat fibre, is that it gives a very dry and crumbly, yet also wet and mushy texture to baked goods, if you've replaced too much of the flour with it. So steaming this cake is the way to get your cake coming out tender, moist and fudgy, just like a fudgy brownie. 

If you're not hard up on saving the calories, I'll strongly suggest that you pop in a tablespoon of chocolate chips as well to add in more flavour to the cake. Otherwise, this will be an extremely healthy tasting cake. But hey, it's only 44 calories and it's of a decent serving size that will fill you up. What more can you ask for, right?

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Strained Yogurt Chocolate Cake

I didn't plan to post this recipe up, since it's pretty wholesale copied from Cook Kafemaru (on youtube) but the cake ended up tasting SO GOOD, legit like a baked chocolate cheesecake when there's no cream cheese (or cottage cheese, or ricotta cheese) in it; I had to share this recipe!

So, I also apologise for the lack of decent quality photographs of the cake. 

To get a small 10-12cm round cake, you'll need:

For the crust:
6 pieces Tiger Original Biscuit
(or you can use Digestive biscuits or any other biscuits you fancy but the amount of melted butter will vary)
10g salted butter, melted

For the cake:
~190-200g plain natural yogurt
(I used a mixture of Farm Fresh and Meiji)
100g dark, semi-sweet chocolate
(if you prefer a sweeter cake, you can use milk chocolate)
a pinch of salt
2 eggs
10g plain flour (or cake flour)
1/4 tsp baking powder

adapted from Cook Kafemaru

First, you need to strain the yogurt the night before. You can use a cheesecloth (I reckon) if you have one. Otherwise, lay some coffee filter paper or heavy duty kitchen paper towel over a sieve. Pour the yogurt into the sieve and set it over a bowl. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the yogurt and leave it overnight in the fridge. I strained mine for about 12 hours and got a consistency that's just very slightly thicker than greek yogurt. So perhaps you can replace with just greek yogurt, if yours is the super thick kind, or just strain your greek yogurt for a shorter time.
Ultimately, you'll need just 100g of strained yogurt and 190 - 200g of natural yogurt should get you 100g of strained yogurt.

Once we get the strained yogurt out of the way, crush up your biscuits in a food processor or just by hitting them in a ziplock bag with a rolling pin. Add in the melted butter and mix until the crumbs resemble the consistency of wet sand. Then, pour the crumbs into your cake tin that's lined with baking paper and press down the crumbs into the base of the cake tin to form the crust. If you're baking the cake in a proper oven (with top and bottom heat), you can first set the compacted crust aside. However, if you're making this in an airfryer, pre-bake the crust at 180 degrees Celsius for 5 to 10 minutes.

Then melt your chocolate either over a bain marie (a heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water) or in the microwave. Stir up the chocolate to let it cool down for a bit, before mixing in the 100g of strained yogurt. Whisk until everything is well combined before adding in the eggs, 1 at a time, and whisking until well combined after each addition.
Then, sift in the flour and baking powder (do sift it in for easier mixing, otherwise the flour might just disappear into a corner of the batter as a huge pocket of flour) and whisk until you get a homogenous batter. Pour the batter over the crust and bake at 160 - 170 degrees Celsius for 20 to 25 minutes, depending on your oven and also how you will prefer the texture of your cake to be.
If you prefer the cake to be slightly underbaked in the centre like Japanese rare cheesecake, bake it at 160 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes and check for doneness by touching the surface of the cake. The top should be fully set and the centre (just the centre portion, not the sides!) should be softer to the touch and slightly jiggly.
If you prefer the cake to be fully baked through with the consistency of a fudgey brownie, bake at 170 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out relatively clean.



The cake tasted super rich and decadent, and seriously I didn't think I need the biscuit base at all. Will definitely bake this another time without the biscuit base to save up some calories. HEH!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Mochi Brownies

I've been toying with the idea of mixing mochi and brownies (my two favourite desserts!) together, but never really put my thoughts into actions. And then I realised that there's really something called Mochi Brownie, and I decided that I definitely have to try it out!

But due to my not-working-very-optimally oven replacement appliance (that's something similar to an airfryer, but weaker), I had to bake mine at very high temperature (nothing gets fully baked through at temperature lower than 225 degrees Celsius) and so I ended up with pretty ugly looking, deformed mochi brownie cupcakes. But the taste was definitely not affected. So let's get over with the ingredients so we can get started.

For 6 mochi brownie cupcakes, you'll need:

80g glutinous rice flour

15g baking stevia 

30g muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)

if not using stevia, just use a total of 60g brown sugar instead

10g unsweeten cocoa powder

15g melted butter 

100ml milk 

1/4 tsp instant coffee

1/2 large egg (about 26g, beaten)

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

a pinch of salt (omit if using salted butter)

60g semi-sweet chocolate chips

recipe adapted from Spoonful Passion

First up, add 10 to 15ml of milk (from the total of 100ml required) to the instant coffee and warm it up in the microwave such that the granules will dissolve. If you do not have a microwave, you can replace with as little hot water as you can manage to get the granules fully dissolved. Then, set it aside. 

In a large bowl, add the melted butter to the sugars and mix until incorporated. Then, mix in the half-egg and mix until well combined before stirring in the milk and coffee mixture. Then, add in all the dry ingredients (except the chocolate chips) and whisk until everything is well combined. 

Spoon the batter into your muffin tin, either sprayed with some non-stick cooking spray or greased with butter. Then, drop the chocolate chips into each well (about 10g worth into each well). 

Bake in the oven that's pre-heated to 180 degree Celsius for about 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

As I said, because I need to bake mine at ridiculously high temperature in order to have them fully baked through, all my brownie cupcakes kind of "exploded". 

But they're still super yummy! Rich chocolate flavour with a texture that's both soft and fluffy, yet chewy. 

See how bouncy it is! <3

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: Nian Gao Egg Tart (Revisited)

A while back, I've made some Nian Gao Portuguese Egg Tart (recipe HERE) using frozen puff pastry that's super easy to make and tasted amazing. However, the biggest problem with using frozen puff pastry as the tart shells is that you need to eat them warm from the oven. If left to cool down for a couple of hours, or overnight, the tart base turns moist and soggy. My mum did try reheating the soggy tarts (left overnight) in the toaster oven, but it only harden them up instead of crisping them back. 

So in order to get a batch of nian gao egg tarts that can retain their taste and quality for at least overnight, and won't kill me at the stage of preparing the tart dough (because enclosed kitchen with NO aircon in the house is a big no-no for trying to work with cold butter, it'll never work), I decided to try out the Hongkong style egg tart kind of tart shells instead! 

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

To get 6 - 8 egg tarts, depending on the size of your mould and how thick you prefer your tart crust to be, you'll need:

For the tart crust:

175g all purpose (plain) flour

100g salted butter (soften at room temperature)

25g icing sugar

10-15ml cold water

you can also use unsalted butter and add a generous pinch of salt

For the egg custard:

1 whole egg + 1 egg yolk

30g castor sugar

160ml milk

60ml heavy cream

Filling:

(CNY) Brown Sugar Nian Gao, cut to size to fit to the base of your tart moulds and sliced thinly, to your preference. 

Recipe adapted from 饮食地图

I made 6 tarts using my muffin tin, and my tarts were ridiculously thick, I should have made 8 tarts instead. You'll also have extra egg custard left over, which I added a tbsp of unsweeten cocoa powder and a handful of semi sweet chocolate chips in, heat it over small fire to get all the chocolate chips melted before baking them in 4 silicon muffin cups along with the egg tarts to get baked chocolate custard. YUMS!

To get the tart dough, mix the soften butter with icing sugar until fully incorporated before mixing in the flour. It'll be much easier to "knead" the flour in with your hands instead of using a spatula as it'll be easier to gauge how much more cold water you'll need to add in. Start with just 10ml and see if your dough is moist enough to hold up, and add more from there. Depending on your flour hydration, you may need even more than just 15ml. 

So once the dough has come together, you can shape it into a disc and wrap it up with clingwrap before popping it into the fridge for at least 1 hour to firm up if you have a rolling pin and an XL round cookie-cutter that's big enough to cut out pieces of round dough that fits exactly into your moulds. 

As I do not have a cutter that's big enough, I will be pressing the dough directly into my moulds using my hands. Hence, I just shaped my dough into a log instead, whereby I can easily slice them into 6 (or 8) equal pieces after an hour's of rest in the fridge. 

So after the dough has firmed up, you can either roll it out into about slightly less than half a centimetre thick (they will puff up when baked) and cut out large circles that fits into your moulds. Otherwise, divide the dough into 6 (or 8) equal pieces and just use your hands to press down the dough balls into your moulds and shape them nicely up the sides into a tart shell. This will probably take some time and quite a lot of patience. 

Do remember to find something (a shot glass or something) to press down on the base of the tarts such that it won't be too thick. I've done so, but my tart base still came out super thick, hence I really should have made 8 tarts instead of 6. 

See that thickness? My tart base was as thick as my filling. T.T

So once the tart shells are done, set them back in the fridge while you mix the egg custard mixture. In a clean bowl, crack in the egg and add in the egg yolk and give it a quick whisk to break the yolks. Then, add in the sugar and mix until the sugar has dissolved before mixing in the milk and heavy cream. 

Then, get your tart shells out from the fridge and start assembling! First add in your sliced nian gao into the moulds before filling them up to nearly the top (about 90% or slightly more) and then baking them at 190 degree Celsius for 20 to 25 minutes (until your tart shells are browned) if you prefer your egg tarts the Hongkong styled. 

I wanted to brown my egg custard as well (like Portuguese styled) and so I baked mine at 225 degree Celsius (but take note my convection oven is EXTREMELY weak, I needed 40 minutes at 250 degree Celsius to burn my basque cheesecake) for about 30 minutes instead. 

Tadaa~

Apart from the tart base that's way too thick and left me with barely any filling, it actually still tasted pretty good! The tart shell was crumbly and buttery, and the brown sugar nian gao really complements the egg custard really well! 

And even after leaving the tarts overnight, the tart shell won't turn soggy like those frozen puff pastry tarts, yayy!

Till then,

Mia Foo

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