Coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Hehehe I think this is cute .

Oh I think Corey will like it too.

Blueberry and apple braids.

I am proud of this one. I love baking bread. The part I like the most is when the dough rises, doubled up the original amount. And punching it. And let it rise again. Lol. My place smells so good, I feel like am in a bakery wonderland.

The rise of the dough.

I got this recipe from The Fresh Loaf site – an awesome website for bread lovers. The original recipe is here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/blueberrycreamcheesebraid.

Blueberry Cream Cheese Braid
Makes 2 braids

Sponge
1 tablespoon instant yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cup warm milk
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Dough
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/2-3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

Blueberry Filling
2 cups blueberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Egg Glaze
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Cream Cheese Filling
3/4 cup cream cheese
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon egg glaze

I couldn’t find unbleached all-purpose flour at the bakery ingredients store near my place, so I bought 2 packets of high gluten flour (each weigh a kilo). I thought I would be using it a lot, but seriously, unless you like a real tough bread, DO NOT incorporate too much of this flour in your recipe. When I first used this flour I substituted a cup (or more) of all purpose flour with this flour and the bread turned out too tough and dry. Not yummie at all .

For this blueberry cheese braid, I only used 2 – 3 tablespoon of high gluten flour, mixed with all purpose flour. The bread is soft and moist, just the way I like it aha aha! I like it! Aha aha!

Blueberry braid in the making.

For the first braid filling, I used something like a chunky pureed blueberry paste or whatever you wanna call it. Fresh blueberries will cost me a bomb, and I can only find them at supermarkets. This not so fresh pureed blueberries is cheaper, and it’s ready for spreading. I just added a couple of tablespoon of lemon juice to compensate its sweetness.

Blueberry braid.

As for the second braid, I stuffed it with green apple – original recipe is here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/blueberrycreamcheesebraid#comment-165

Apple braid in the making.

2 cups of freshly cubed Granny Smith apples
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup BROWN sugar
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup corn starch
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tbsp. butter

In a small pot, combine; butter, brown sugar, and chopped walnuts. Stir until combined. Add apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon juice, and corn starch. Combine and heat until you get a gooey concoction . The goal is to get the nuts a touch roasted…the apples will finish baking in the oven.

Big fat ass apple flavoured caterpillar.

If I were to make these wonderful braids again (which I will, definitely), I would wanna try stuffing it with butter mixed with brown sugar, sprinkle with semisweet chocolate chips and cinnamon powder. Ah… the soft, moist, gooey cinnabons.

If you tolerate this, your children will be next.

When I first read about him in the news few days ago, I was like.. oh fuck.

When someone went ape shit and killed people, that someone is just fucking crazy.

But when a Muslim went ape shit and killed people, the entire Muslim nation will get condemned.

Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcake.

It’s baking tiem!!!!

I was rushing to work yesterday morning when I posted the ‘Devin cuppies’ pix, so now am gonna elaborate more on the cuppies. Am new in the cuppies world, so yea if you ask me what cupcake is, for me it’s just some mini cakes. I have always wondered what the difference is between cupcakes and muffin, I can only tell the difference from their looks. But I found this information from the cupcakeproject website, and it says:

‘A basic formula for muffins is 2 cups flour, 2-4 tablespoons sugar, 2½ teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 egg, ¼ cup oil, shortening or butter and 1 cup milk. When the fat, sugar and egg ratio in a recipe reaches double or more than this, you have reached the cake level.’

I remember making cupcakes using some leftover of my fruit cake batter and I personally think that they tasted better than if it were to be baked as a normal cake. I don’t know why there should be any difference, probably size does matter after all.

I’ve been baking cuppies using a few recipes, but the one in the picture is courtesy of Magnolia Bakery’s recipe. I love the texture, but I have to say I am not a big fan of a complete sweetness without a slight hint of saltiness. How do you appreciate sweetness when it’s all plain sweet? You would appreciate your health better when you’re sick, you’d appreciate your wealthiness better when you’re broke. Same goes here, salt will bring out more flavour in sweet cakes and savouries.

So let’s see what we need to make these lovely cuppies..

Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcake.
Recipe’s adapted from http://hubpages.com/hub/Magnolia-Bakery-Cupcakes

1 cup unsalted butter, softened (225gm)
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

And no salt.. BOO!

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit (180 celsius).
2. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers.
3. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
4. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Combine the flours and add in four parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla extract, beating well after each addition.
7. (for 3-layer cake skip to step 11)
8. (Cupcakes) Spoon the batter into the cups about 3/4’s full.
9. Bake until the tops spring back when lightly touched, about 20 to 22 minutes.
10. Remove cupcakes from pans and cool COMPLETELY on a wire rack before icing with butter cream frosting.
11. (3 layer cake) Divide batter among the cake pans.
12. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean
13. Let cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes.
14. Remove from pans and cool COMPLETELY on wire rack before icing.
15. When cake has cooled, ice between the layers, then ice top and sides of cake with either Vanillia OR Chocolate Butter cream frosting.

My horrible icing skill defies the taste of these lovely cuppies.

I added a pinch of salt, but I think that wasn’t enough. The topping is just a typical chocolate ganache (heavy cream + chocolate). I brought some of these cuppies to my brother’s place and he only had one. Well actually his kid had one but he didn’t finish it up so my brother was just eating the leftover hmmpphhh!! Yea I was so fucking sad . Seriously, I kid you not .

Think am gonna blame my horrible icing skill .

Okay my icing skill sucks but am sure he’ll love it.

Devin cuppies.

Yahoo must be so proud of my sister.

I use google to search for stuff.
My sister uses yahoo to search google. Lol.