Waffles

Ever since I bought my waffle maker, I've been scouting around for a reliable recipe. I've tried the Light & Crispy Waffles and the family likes it. While at my parents, I made it for them and get good reviews too. The only issue is, I need to rest the batter for min 30 mins and to me, time is very cruial. I can only make them for snacks but not breakfast since morning is always the busiest for me.

Attempted a chocolate waffle recipe (photo in my camera left @ parents), probably because it's slightly bitter, no one likes it as much as my brother M. He ate 3 full set of waffle with butter! Will blog about that when I get my camera back.

Coming back to this, when I saw this recipe, I wanted to try it as it's relatively simple. Most importantly, no egg separation and whisking to peaks needed! I hate to lug out my mixer to do something simple.

This waffle is somewhat denser, slightly like what you get outside minus the crisp. However, I ran out of coconut milk and replaced it with full cream milk. The waffles ain't very fragrant. I only had a set of the waffle and I'm quite full. If you want something heavy, then this is the one for you. Personally, I prefer the light and crispy waffles better.

PS: As you can see, the waffles are more evenly browned now. Looks like the iron is getting more seasoned :)

Waffles, recipe adapted from here

Ingredients
4 eggs
200g sugar
250g coconut milk
¼ tsp vanilla oil
300g self-raising flour
50g melted butter

Method

1. Mix eggs and sugar, stir till sugar dissolves
2. Add coconut milk and vanilla oil and mix well
3. Add self-raising flour mix well
4. Add melted butter mix well
5. Grease and heat the waffle iron. Pour in a suitable amountof batter. Close the iron and bake until both sides are golden brown

Blueberry Muffins

Fresh blueberries are in season now and most supermarkets are having promotional offer! Todate, I've purchased 10 punnets within 3 weeks! My 2 elder ones can finish a punnet all by themselves, and with DD3 joining the crowd, 1 punnet is no longer enough for them.

2 days ago, I bought 2 punnets from our local supermarket. I don't usually cook/bake them as my kids like to eat them fresh. However, these 2 punnets of blueberries are all very sour! OMG! I rem reading in Precious Moments blog that she has a really good Blueberry Muffins recipe. It never occur to me that I'll ever attempt a recipe from her blog. You see, I started visiting her blog when I first started my baking adventure a few years back. I admire her culinary and photography skills. Whatever she cooks/bakes just seem so perfect and I don't think I can ever attain that.

With a punnet of sour berries on hand, I decided to overcome my fears. After measuring out the igredients, I realised I ran out of baking soda and I can't find my baking powder! It was a mere 2 weeks without baking and my dementia is getting to me again. Thank goodness I still have 1/2 packet of Self Raising Flour on my cabinet. Also, I used less cinnamon powder as I don't like it too strong, just a little to enhance the taste is good enough.

Note: In case you are wondering, I'm using my spare camera at home ;-)

This recipe I'm posting is what I've done for this effort. You may view the original recipe from here.

Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

(A) Dry Mix

250g self raising flour

155g castor sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

(B) Wet Mix

250ml milk

125g corn oil

2 eggs

(C)

125g blueberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Prepare muffin tray.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. In another bowl, add wet ingredients and whisk till smooth.
4. Add wet mixture to the dry ingredients. Stir till just blended.
5. Add in 3/4 blueberries and stir till evenly incorporated.
6. Spoon onto prepared tin.
7. Sprinkle the reserved blueberries on top.
8. Baking for 15 - 20 mins or until cooked.
9. Cool on rack.

Missing Camera

Darn! Left my camera at my parents and I can't upload what I've cooked there. I lugged my biggest AMC pot and my waffle maker there :) Will update when I retrieve back the camera, hopefully soon.

Being appreciative

Time passed fast in the past 1 week despite no access to the internet. That's because I've been really busy at my parents'. I never knew I could cook up a storm :P Alright, I must admit it is not anything fanciful but to cook for 6 - 7 adults and 4 children is not a simple task. I've never cook this much throughout my entire life! For those who know me, you know I'm a Technican student with no Home Econs background. I can neither cook nor bake, and of course, I can't do needlework. How I got started was after having DD1 when she started eating solids. I had no choice but to step into the kitchen and I only started baking "intensively" 1 - 2 years ago.

Back to being appreciative... I used to complain about my MIL (mother-in-law), the way she handles/cooks our meals. When I was back at my parents, I was shocked to see the amount of frozen food in the freezer!

• Fish X 4 packets
• Prawns X 7 packets (each packet consists of at least 20 prawns)
• Pork Ribs X 5 packets
• Shoulder meat X 3 packets
• Minced meat X 5 packets (I estimate it to be around 400g each)
• Otah (from Msia) X 6 packets
• Rice dumpings X 5 packets (each pack has 6 - 8 dumplings)
• many more...

I can't blame my parents as my mom has "unexpected guests" visiting all the time. You see, there are 8 siblings in the family and most of us are married with kids. And whenever there's a festival, we will all be back for meals. Even without any special occassion, any impromptu visit from either one sibling will add on to the amount of food she needs to prepare.

I've always taken my parents for granted, especially my mom. I only started to appreciate her after I've delivered DD1. Thinking back... what took me so long to understand her? As parents, they will do what is best for their children, which is what I'm doing now for my children. Even towards my parents-in-law (PIL), I've also taken them for granted when I first got married. After being a sahm, I've learnt to appreciate my MIL more.

Have you been appreciative towards the people around you?

Home Sweet Home :-)

Finally back home...

Nope, I wasn't away for a holiday although I wished I was. For the past few days, I was back at my parents because my mom had a fall last week and there is a crackline in her wrist bone. I do not know how bad is the fracture but she's currently on cast now. With a cast on her left hand, she can't do much. DH is such a dear, he suggested I go back to my parents place since it is school holidays. It didn't occur to me that he wanted me to go back to help out until Sister E mentioned the same thing.

It is definitely no easy feat to stay over especially when I have 3 young children. Imagine the amount of clothes and diapers (for DD3) I have to lug. Also, things are not the same there, no oven, no bread machine, limited kitchen space, different utensils etc... And most importantly, no access to the internet!! I missed chatting up with friends (you know who you are) and surfing the Net for new recipes.

Actually, there is internet access but I really do not have time to surf when I'm there. What's more, the computer belongs to my brother M and he needs to use the computer too.

Anyway, I'll be going back to my parents place again tomorrow and won't be back till Friday. This means that I won't be able to blog. Do drop me a note if you miss me ;-)

Light and Crispy Waffles

Sister E helped me to buy this waffle maker (Bluesky) from Carrefour 2 weeks ago but I only collected it 2 days ago. The usual selling price is SGD19.90 but I got it on offer, only SGD9.90 and what's more, if you are a DBS Everyday Card holder, you get another 10% off!

Along with the set, it came with a recipe that requires egg separation and to whisk the egg whites to soft peak. Being lazy, I started to search for simple recipes on the Net. I found Baking Bites's blog and she sure has lots of waffle recipes! Browsed through her blog and found a recipe that does not need egg separation. The waffle is indeed crispy and light but my waffles are very thin, unlike the Belgian waffles. I googled and found out from Wikipedia that this waffle iron is actually used for Scandinavian waffles (thin waffles made in a heart shaped waffle iron).

Also, the waffle doesn't brown evenly but I read somewhere that you need to season the iron and subsequently, your waffles will all be nicely browned. I'll have to use this more often and not let it become another white elephant (like my Penguin Waffle Maker :P). Nevertheless, I'm not complaining since this is such a good buy.

This waffle can be eaten on it's own if you do not have sweeth tooth like me or otherwise, you may add some maple syrup to go along (which I did for the kiddos) and top with some fresh berries, yummy!

Light and Crispy Waffles
(adapted from the Waffles of Insane Greatness)

Ingredients
2/3 cup all purpose flour (I just use Self Raising Flour and omit the other rising agents in the recipe)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
2. Make a well in the center and pour in milk, oil, egg and vanilla. Whisk together until fully combined.
3. Let batter rest for 30-60 minutes at room temperature.
4. Preheat your waffle iron and cook according to the manufacturer's instructions (the oil in the waffles should eliminate the need to grease the iron).
5. Serve immediately with syrup, butter and/or berries.

Banana Bread Pudding

There were some Banana Quick Bread left overs and I'm unsure if they freeze well so I made bread pudding with them.

I'm not a fan of bread pudding, in fact, I don't like bread pudding. However, I don't want to dump my banana bread into the bin so I came up with this.

The kids had this for tea break today and I'm glad they enjoyed themselves.

Ingredients

2 banana quick bread, muffin size (break into small pieces)

1 TBSP butter, melted

1/3 cup (50g) raisins

2 eggs

250ml milk

70g caster sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170C.
2. Lay bread pieces in 8" round pan. Drizzle melted butter over bread and add raisins
3. Using a big mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon, mix well till sugar dissolved.
4. Pour egg mixture over bread. Use a fork to press down the bread so that they are fully soaked in the egg mixture.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 35 - 40 minutes or until centre is set.