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: Chocolate Chip Mochi Bread

Not sure if the mochi bread craze has caught on (or fizzed off) but I will always pick up 3 mini chocolate mochi buns whenever I drop by the bakery Yamazaki. It was pretty pricey for 3 bite sized buns, no doubt. But the crispy outer shell with the chewy gooey centre just make me want to scream: JUST TAKE MY MONEY!

So on second thought, I think why not just bake my own mochi buns? So after a while of googling (and found that you can get premix for mochi bread in Korea and Taiwan) and some failed attempts, here is the recipe for some yummy chocolate chip chocolate mochi buns.

You'll need:
180g glutinous rice flour
20g tapioca starch
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
20g castor sugar
125ml milk
60ml vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
as much chocolate chips as you like (optional)

First, into a big bowl, add in all the dry ingredients and give it a quick whisk to make sure they're well mixed together.
Then, add in all the wet ingredients and mix until fully combined.
The end mixture should be a little runny (such that it's extremely hard to shape it with your bare hands) yet not fully liquid like a cake mixture nor dry like a cookie dough.
I'll suggest that you mix in 120ml of milk first and then add in more milk, bit by bit until you get to the almost easily pipe-able consistency.

 You might want to keep the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes or so for it to firm up before shaping them into balls (you should get 10 numbers of small buns) and then wet the surface with some water before baking them at 180 degree Celsius for 20 to 30 minutes.
Wetting the surface before baking will help to get a crispier outer shell.

They look cute, don't they?

Although still a far cry from those selling at Yamazaki Bakery (still very dense and not airy/chewy enough on the insides), these small chocolate mochi buns will still be a pretty yummy treat if eaten warm from the oven as the insides will be at its most ooey-gooey state.

I highly advise that you do not keep these overnight at all, as they dry out/toughen up considerably and develop a pretty icky texture despite the taste remaining as chocolatey.

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Recipe: Whoopie Pies

I know I haven't been baking much these days, actually I planned to bake either some chocolate macarons with nutella cream filling or some crunchy chocolate chip cookies but decided not to after I stepped on my weighing machine last night. :(

But still, I did bake some whoopie pies 2 weeks ago! :) If you're unfamiliar with whoopie pies, they're like two pieces of cake-like cookies sandwiching some yummy fillings. You can get them at Pique Nique for about $2.50 per pc (of a small macaron size).

So let's get down to the ingredients so we can get started.

1. Unsweetened Chocolate - 2 Ounces (Half a bar)

2. Semi-Sweet Chocolate - 4 Ounces (1 bar)

3. Unsalted butter - 1/2 Cup (113g)

4. Sugar - 1 Cup (I used 200g)

5. Eggs - 3 Nos.

6. Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp.

7. All Purpose Flour - 1 Cup (125g)

8. Unsweetened Cocoa Powder - 1/4 Cup (30g)

9. Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp.

10. Salt - 3/4 tsp.

11. Large Marshmallows

First up, melt the butter and chocolate in a double boiler until smooth. Make sure the bottom of the glass bowl is not in direct contact with the simmering water, else the chocolate might burn. 

When the butter-chocolate mixture is cooled (very imporant, if not you might scramble your eggs), whisk in the sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth. 

Sift in the dry ingredients (Cocoa Powder, AP Flour, Baking Powder, Salt) and fold with a spatula until just combined. 

It's very important that you sift the dry ingredients, when working with cocoa powder. They tend to be very lumpy, as shown. 

After which, drop the batter onto a greased baking paper (very important because we needa flip half of them when they're almost fully baked and you really don't want them to stick) spaced 1" apart. I did a heaping tbsp. per cookie and got them in palm sized.

Bake these at 190 degree Celsius until cookies spring back when touched. I did them in my oven for 8 minutes. Do tweak your own baking time by constantly checking on your cookies. 

Take out the baking tray from the oven and flip half of the cookies over, topping each with 1 marshmallow. 

Return the tray to the oven and bake for additional 1 to 2 minutes until marshmallows bloat up. 

Remove the baking tray from the oven and while cookies are still hot, take the other piece of cookie and top them up over the melted marshmallow. 

Leave them on the rack to cool until marshmallow re-solidify. 

And you're done! :)

These whoopie pies are extremely chocolatey, and very filling. The cookies are 'drier' and more 'crumbly cakey', perhaps because I've overbaked them slightly to melt the marshmallow. 

Maybe I'll try filling them with buttercream and baking them for a shorter period of time to see if they'll taste better with a moister, softer cookie. :)

Till then,

Mia

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Mia's Review: Mooncakes!

Even though I'm not a fan of mooncake at all, I still do buy them every year. :p 

and this year, I decided to splurge a little to buy one box for myself on top of the box I'll buy my grandma every year. 

No brownie points for guessing that I've gotten myself chocolate mooncakes. 

 

I first came across Chocoelf on bongqiuqiu's instagram, whereby she posted on their sugar-free snowskin mooncakes. Obviously attracted by the name chocoelf, I did some research and also asked for opinions online and got some really head scratching reviews, claiming that they're 100% sugar and sugar substitute free, is not sweet at all, and yet taste very nice. 

Giving up on these reviews, I decided to grab a box and try them out for myself. My verdict? Read on.

 A box of their chocolate skin mooncake comes with 3 round mooncakes and 10 small rectangular ones, priced at $58. Even though labelled as sugar-free, and claimed as free of substitutes by some people online, I've confirmed with their sales person (twice) that Chocoelf uses a sugar alcohol, Maltitol, as their sugar substitute.

The 3 round mooncakes consist of Dark Lotus, Vanilla Lotus, and Cabernet Red Wine Lotus. The minis are supposedly filled with a blend of cranberry & macademia nuts white lotus.

Sounds really good, with an awesome variety, yeah? Sadly, no. Perhaps in terms of appearances and supposed ingredients, chocoelf chocolate skin mooncakes offer us an awesome variety. But focusing plainly on taste, none. I'm sorry to say that all 4 flavours of mooncake tastes almost exactly the same, crumbly lotus paste filled pralines. 

I'm not sure if it's because the lotus paste is sugar-free, but they are really very crumbly and significantly rougher in texture as compared to any other normal mooncakes in the market, which basically kinda 'cheapen' the taste. 

As opposed to reviews stating they're not sweet, I'm sorry to refute them as a load of crap. 

THEY ARE SWEET, just not horribly sweet like some mooncakes in the market that makes you cringe. The chocolates skin basically just taste like any other good quality chocolate, with the dark chocolate being short of the bitterness I was expecting (and would have enjoyed) and the white chocolate being sweeter than the rest. As for the sugar free lotus, they're just rougher in texture, more crumbly, and significantly blander and less sweet in taste compared to a normal lotus paste.

 Cabernet Red Wine Lotus

 Dark Lotus

Vanilla Lotus

As seen from the pictures, all different flavours comes with nuts (all macademia, i reckon) with only the minis and the cabernet red wine lotus having extra cranberries. Even so, there are a good amount of minis I've eaten with no taste/findings of cranberries at all, with meagre amount of chopped macademia nuts within. I can hardly taste the difference between them as well, with the Vanilla Lotus being slightly easier to differentiate due to the white chocolate taste. The Cabernet red wine lotus somehow tasted the best out of the 4 flavours, however with the taste being so remotely similar to the dark lotus that I couldn't put the taste into words at all. And nope, even though named as Cabernet Red Wine Lotus, I didn't pick up any hint of wine taste in the mooncake. It's really just normal chocolate taste combined with some very much less sweet lotus paste, same for all the 4 flavours. 

In addition, the mooncakes are also extremely small. Minis aside, the round mooncakes, which I've expected them to be a 'standard' mooncake size, are slightly smaller in diameter and less than half the thickness.

So, $58 for a box of pralines with 'cheap tasting' lotus paste filling? 

You'll be the judge. 

 Aside to Chocoelf I've bought for myself, I've also bought Peony Jade's Teochew Orh Nee Mooncake for grandma, after seeing their brilliant review on Channel 8 TV show. 

I guess the show really worked its wonder, for when I went to Taka Atrium, they're completely sold out. Undeterred, I made my way to Century Square Atrium and they were only left with plain ones, no yolk no pumpkin paste. :(

I didn't try these out for myself, because it's for my grandma and I'm not a fan of yam paste either. However, feedback from my grandma is that their skin is very thick, which she didn't like. Nevertheless, the yam paste is not too sweet and is relatively smooth. 

She gave me 1 brownie point for buying the plain ones and not the yolk ones (actually is because there's only plain ones left...) for her because according to her, yam paste and yolk makes a horrible combination. 

Grandma has already requested that I buy her Tai Chong Kok baked skin mooncakes for her next year. *rofl*

Helped my parents buy their baked skin from there (my mum asked me buy cheap bengawan solo ones, but I went ahead to buy TCK ones because it's really just a few dollars more with my 20% card discount promo) and my mum was raving about how fragrant they were. It's also a rare chance my dad actually did eat a bit of the yolk inside for TCK's one. He detests yolk because of the raw 'fishy' smell but TCK's yolks apparently were well-done to be able to get rid of that smell.

Now my question is, I know TCK has split up and branched into 2 different shops. So all those hardcore mooncake fans out there, which branch is the better one?
Do leave your opinions in the comment box for my mooncake shopping next year! :)

Till then, 

Mia

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Mia's Candy Review: Peppermint Roca

Did I tell you I'm a chocolate addict? Well, actually I love all sweets, but can't deny that chocolate tops it all. I forgot when I first fell in love with Brown&Haley Almond Roca, probably sometime when I was experiencing my hall life in NTU. I remember I fell in love with the pink round container itself when I first saw it on the supermarket shelves when I was young, but my mother never bought it for me. Too expensive, she chided. So when I moved into hall when I got into NTU, I finally bought myself a tin when I saw it selling at Nanyang Mart (which has ceased to exist in NTU now) and I ended up getting addicted to it! Pretty much emptied out the whole tin at one go.

Okay, enough of all the reminiscing. For now, the (supposedly) Limited Edition Dark Chocolate Peppermint Roca is taking over.

I saw it on the shelves sitting beside the Almond Roca and Macademia Roca and immediately got attracted to the packaging. Yes, it seems like I'm rather superficial when it comes to food. I can't resist pretty packaging. Although I'm not much a fan of peppermint (I even dislike peppermint chocolate, no joke), I simply adore dark chocolate. And looking at the cute candy cane white and red stripe packaging, which is so pretty and festive (even though Christmas is long over), I knew I have to get it.

The design of the packaging is simple. The carton like box opens up at the top to reveal a Roca logo imprinted foil packet which keeps the individually foil wrapped candies. Upon snipping the foil packet open, I was welcomed by a strong peppermint scent which has everything else overpowered. Hmm, not very promising.

The candies are individually wrapped in the same white and red stripes foil wrapper which opens up to reveal the dark chocolate coated buttercrunch toffee candy with white chocolate drizzled over the top. Just like any other Roca, the buttercrunch toffee break easily into a clean crisp cut with an easy bite, revealing the pretty amber coloured toffee and little chunks of peppermint candy, which acts more like the 'surprise centre' of the candy than to be contributing to the taste, for the bulk of the peppermint taste (and smell) actually comes from the peppermint oil added into the classic Roca buttercrunch.

As I chew down on the candy, I found that I actually like it, which is rather surprising given that I dislike all sorts of mint chocolate. The dark chocolate, buttercrunch toffee, and peppermint blends together pretty well to give a flavourful taste. The toffee, as always, is hard and crispy yet chews down softly (you'll understand if you love Roca candies) to reveal its sweet buttery flavour after the dark chocolate has melted away. The addition of peppermint, surprisingly, has not overpowered the usual goodness of a Roca candy, but added a seasonal flavour to it without taking away what's characteristic of a Roca candy. Even though the peppermint smell can be rather overpowering from within the packet, it blends into the mixture very nicely to give a distinct yet subtle peppermint aftertaste to the candy.

If you've always been a fan of mint chocolates, you definitely has to give this a try. It won't disappoint.

Till then,

Mia

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