Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made these cookies for my ex-colleague who has resigned some time back as a farewell gift for her. This is a crunchy cookie (not soft, chewy type) and I must say is a good recipe cos' it stays crunchy for over a week as long as you keep it well in an air-tight container. The recipe is from 孟老师的一百道Home-made Cookie.

Please pardon me for the blur picture. I took it in the evening time when the light shining through my living room was really dim. This was the best I can have, with the enhancement of some contrast. :P

Ingredients:

80g unsalted butter

90g brown sugar

50g eggs

150g plain flour

15g cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

110g chocolate chips

Method:

1. Cream butter (room temperature) and sugar until well mixed.
2. Add eggs a little at a time to the creamed mixture.
3. Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and using a spatula, mix well until a dough is formed.
4. Add chocolate chips.
5. Gather dough in a cling wrap and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
6. Weigh about 20g of the dough, roll into a ball and press down lightly onto the baking tray. The diameter would be about 5cm.
7. Bake in a preheated oven at 170°C for about 25 minutes.
8. After the cookies are baked, let it cool in the oven for about 10 minutes before bringing out to cool.

Note: This yields quite a large cookie. If you prefer smaller cookies, divide each cookie dough into smaller portions; baking time has to adjusted depending on the size of your cookie.

Recipe Source: 孟老师的一百道Home-made Cookie

Baking for Charity

Last year, my colleague, Huiqin and I participated in our company's Charity Breakfast and this year there we go ahead again! This year, our department changed it to a lunch event. Well, be it breakfast or lunch, our only specialty was bake goods! lol.... Afterall, its a charity event and most importantly its to raise money for charity. We were also expecting our collegues to give us our support. The good thing was we also got to claim time-off because it was a lunch event and we needed time to prepare in the morning. :P

This year, we made cookies, swissrolls, egg tarts and cupcakes. I was too exhausted that I have forgotten to take pictures of the cupcakes I made. The above were double chocolate cookies.

Huiqin baked some egg tarts unfortunately it wasn't a success as she had forgotten she should not poke holes for making egg tarts because fillings had to be poured into the tart shells and by doing so, the tarts got badly burnt. She improvised by making some chocolate tarts instead.

We had lots of fun making and rolling swissrolls at my house. We also took videos how to roll swissrolls but some speech had to be "sensored" so I can't post it here :P

We managed to sell all our goodies! Woo hoo! (In the photo: Me, May Ling, Huiqin).

Birthday Cake - Tiramisu

I was trying hard to decide what should I blog about first cos' I've been lagging alot and there are simply too many too-blog list! For some, I'll just post the pictures in Flickr if they are repeated items unless it's something worth sharing. I've also attended a few hands-on baking workshop and am trying to sort out the photos before sharing. Heh so don't be surprise if what I'm blogging about can be dated way a few months back!

It was only when I started blogging about this Tiramsu cake I made for my girl friend, Shunmei's birthday last month in September that I realised myblog was already two years old and I've forgotten about that! Yes, my first blog post was in Sep 2007, 21. Dear2 and my new house would be ready in two years time *smile* and I'm always thinking that's still a long way to go but looking at this, time can really flies without you realising.
Back to this cake, yes it is another birthday post again! So definitely this have to come first. Shunmei have always wanted a tiramisu cake and I've promised I'd make one for her this year. The last time I made was years back and I remembered I stubbornly wanted to make the most "original" tiramisu as much as possible, and I bought an expresso coffee powder and only used it for one time; and spent several hours trying to make a zabaglione.

This time, I decided to heed Happy Homebaker's advice and gave her version of tiramisu recipe a try. Without the hassle of making a zabaglione (so called originalversion), the tiramisu tasted just as good and seriously I can't tell the difference with this recipe where there was no eggs involved; it seemed just as creamy to me. I guess most importantly you have to use mascarpone cheese, and alcohol if you have it. I managed to get a small bottle of rum from Phoon Huat and used up all. Assembling the layers is also important. I made the mistake of brushing the sponge fingers with too much coffee syrup that it was too soggy especially at the bottom layer which was pressed down by the weight of the upper layers of cheese and sponge fngers. I really like thisrecipe and would go to this again should I wnt to make a tiramisu. :)

I "borrowed" Happy Homebaker's idea and decorate the cake with a simple design of two sakuras. :)
Birthday gal......Her favourite ForeverFriends Bear....

As usual I always have leftover filling and made an extra cup with the chocolate flourless cake as the layers instead of sponge fingers. Yummy!

For now, dear2 and I are actively trying to slim down and we go jogging at least twice a week. I am trying to bake (and eat) less sinful food. :(

Ganbatte for us! :D