Home Bites - Chocolate Chip Cookies

Sorry I've been MIA. It doesn't mean I wasn't baking, I just didn't have time to post. :) So here's my third baking project: chocolate chip cookies. I thought this would be easy, but was I wrong! I guess I'm more of a cake person, or a cake baker.

I followed the recipe but somehow the cookies didn't come out the way I imagined them to be. My mistake was the first batch wasn't spaced equally, my tablespoon drops were big so when the cookie sheet came out, the cookies all got stuck together. I did a little better on my second and third batches. I don't have many photos to post because they look horrible! All in all, the recipe I followed yielded 14 big cookies (2-3 inches in diameter).

They looked better when they cooled, but I broke them in pieces so they could fit in my plastic containers. I promise to take better photos next time! The cookies were a bit salty in some bites, and a tad sweet for my taste. I had a couple of people say that as well. But surprisingly, most people enjoyed them :) Jay, as usual, finished everything I gave him and even ate some more. Best supporter ever!

The recipe I followed is from my baking class in Maya Kitchen, but here's a similar one you can find at the back of Gold Medal flour. I did mine minus the nuts.

3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts
1 bag (12 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)

1. Heat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, mix sugars, butter and egg. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in nuts and chocolate chips.

2. On ungreased cookie sheets, drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

So I guess this one wasn't a 100% success. I'll give it a few more go's and hopefully they'll come out better next time.

Home Bites - Dark Chocolate Cake

Jay gave me my dream Kitchen Aid mixer as his New Year's gift, so I was the happiest girl when 2014 came in! Of course he made sure I was really going to use it and it wasn't just going to gather dust and be a huge paper weight in my kitchen. So I've resolved to bake as much as I can.

I resolve to make 2014 #ayearofbaking

Around the second week of January I baked my first creation: a dark chocolate cake, the recipe of which came from a baking class I took at Maya Kitchen last year. I have yet to blog about that, but it was a fun experience to learn baking in a class, and get hands-on experience with your classmates. You also get tips from the veteran bakers.

Those classes were months ago so I had to refresh myself before I baked again. I found very detailed and helpful instructional videos at Martha Stewart's website.

Now I can't share with you the cake recipe I used because, to be honest, I don't know if the people from Maya Kitchen would appreciate me handing out recipes for free. After all, they offer it for a fee in their classes.

But no worries because I found a similar one over at allrecipes.com. It has pretty much the same ingredients, minus the condensed milk. Plus instead of icing, I used caramel sauce. Oh and instead of a food processor, of course I used my mixer. :)

Ingredients:

1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) evaporated milk
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter

You'll find it easier to bake when you've arranged your mise en place beforehand. 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch tube pan. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 cup of evaporated milk and the 3/4 cup of cocoa. Heat until the cocoa is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, melted butter, water, vanilla, and cocoa mixture, mix well until blended. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. (Note: I couldn't find a cooling rack at my grocery store so I bought a tray used for grilling, hehe! It does the job so that's fine with me.)

4. To make the chocolate icing, combine the remaining condensed milk, evaporated milk, cocoa and butter into a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and paste-like. Spread over cooled cake.


Now I would've made my own caramel sauce, I bought my candy thermometer and everything, but I still have a jar of Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce, so I used that first.

My first baking project for 2014: Success! 

So far, everyone who tried my cake liked it. I had three tastings, you see: Jay, my officemates, and a couple of other friends I had dinner with one weeknight. I'm happy with the outcome! But I'd definitely bake this recipe more, I'd like to master it. I might even try this recipe I posted. :)

Now I'd like to share with you one secret tip I got from my baking class. If you're going to store your chocolate cake in the fridge for a few days (it usually lasts for a week), make sure to brush it with corn syrup to keep it moist. I found that the cake is best eaten after a night in the fridge, it's more moist and rich.

Life Bits - Martha Stewart Dreams

It's one of the rare times I was able to get out of the office early. I hitched a ride with my officemate and got home at around eight in the evening. I wanted to do something productive so I baked a batch of banana bread. It's now cooking in the oven. I've washed the dishes and I'm waiting for my download to finish so I decided to kill time by writing this post. It's been a while. I have tons of resto bites I should be writing, but that takes so much out of me. I actually missed making an entry, just talking about my day and my many musings.

Ever since I got into my new job, I've learned a lot of new things, especially about marketing. Most of them are confidential, of course, but let's just say it opened my eyes to the way things are offered and sold to consumers. And yeah, it's hard to look at bloggers the same way again. Right now, that's all I'll say about that, maybe one day I'll expand on it, but best not to make enemies today.

What I really want to talk about is how I am such a homebody. When people find out that I live alone, they often ask me if I get lonely. I don't. I've learned the art of solitude and actually look forward to coming home to no one. I don't have to take care of anybody else, or care what I wear inside my own house, whether I leave a mess in the kitchen and take care of it in the morning. I'm perfectly fine with my books, my TV series, and decent food. Going out to clubs or drinking all night has never really been my thing. I'd rather talk to friends over good food.

But sometimes I also love having people over. It's hard because my place is small, so when I invite people it's usually at the swimming pool where I create a mini-spread. Those are the things that make me happy. I even bought my own plastic table cloth with a nice pattern, and one time I picked up a small bouquet at the supermarket and placed it on the table. Yes, I'm a Martha Stewart/Nigella Lawson/Giada Di Laurentiis/Lemon Breeland wanna-be. One day I'm gonna have a nice house with a decent lawn (maybe even a pool), where I can hold intimate dinners with my friends and their families. I'll also have a kick-ass kitchen with a long wooden, rustic dining table and a shiny island counter for my baking and cooking stuff.

Some people thrive in the corporate setting. They get a kick out of acing presentations and pitching campaigns. But me? I'm perfectly fine with being at home. Right now I have to carve my little niche in the corporate world, but I can't wait to put that pink apron on years from now. I'll have a little home office for my writing projects and little business, but my real arena will be the kitchen. Yeah, that sounds good to me. :)


Did this post really make sense? Haha. Daydreaming over, my timer just went off. Hope my officemates enjoy what I bring to the office tomorrow!

Home Bites: Banana Bread

I baked my first banana bread from scratch today. I've baked brownies and banana bread before, but I always used boxed mixes. After attending a baking class last month, I found out it wasn't that hard to bake from scratch. But the recipes we did called for an electric mixer, so I was hesitant to try them out at home.

While browsing for recipes online, I came across Panlasang Pinoy, which has a simple recipe for banana bread that didn't require a mixer. He even had a video demo for it.

Last weekend I bought the ingredients and was planning to bake on Sunday night. But my laziness got the best of me so it was put on hold. Then this week, we had an unexpected death in the family. My aunt died of acute appendicitis.

I'm only on my second week at my new job so I'm still adjusting. It's been sad and stressful so I decided to make use of the holiday to bake the bad vibes away!

Here's the Banana Bread recipe from Panlasang Pinoy:

1 cup banana, mashed (I used five small lakatan bananas)
1 cup sugar (I used Muscovado)
2 pieces raw eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda

I mixed the dry ingredients first: flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Then I added the wet ingredients: eggs, mashed bananas, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. I whisked everything together to form a batter. I made sure there were no large banana chunks. I transferred the batter to a greased 9" x 5" x 2.5" loaf pan.

My oven uses Celcius so I preheated it at 170 degrees (350 degrees Farenheit). I set the timer for an hour and watched Kell on Earth on my laptop.

Tick tock tick tock.

The smell of baking banana bread wafted around my small studio. I had to stop watching my TV show for a second and just indulge in that comforting smell. The combination of banana and vanilla smells amazing. I couldn't wait to see the finished product.

Ta-dah!

The edges were a bit burned but other than that, I think I did well. I give myself 3/5 stars hehe. The bread came out darker because of the Muscovado, but it was moist and soft. It reminded me of the banana bread from Edsa Shangri-La's The Bakeshop (not the taste, okay, just the appearance hehe). My uncle used to be their head of security and he would always buy me a loaf. This has been one of my favorite comfort foods (along with Good Shepherd's ube jam, Heat's pudding, and mac & cheese).

Maybe next time I'll add some walnuts and use white sugar, just to see the difference. This is a really easy recipe, perfect for a beginner like me. I can't wait to bake some more!

P.S. If you have tips on how not to burn the edges, please hit the comment section. Should I adjust my tray in the oven?

UPDATE: 

My second and third batches were much better! I added walnuts, used white sugar instead of Muscovado, and used rock salt instead of iodized salt. I also found out that the reason the edges were burnt because I used butter to grease my pan which is a no-no! Here are photos of my second try:

Everyone liked it! Jay, my officemates, my sister-in-law, even my Mom! I'm so happy. :)