• Baking Recipes,  From the books,  Lemon Obsession,  Simple cakes

    The angels sing about lime and pistachio

    In truth, the macaron was not the first “daunting” egg white recipe I made. It was actually this angel food cake that was so instrumental in boosting my confidence for making egg-white desserts. I made this about a week before my first macaron attempt, but I am only writing about it now because the excitement over my macaron success crashed into and basically obliterated everything else at the time. It didn’t seem fair to write about this in passing while riding the tide of excitement over the macarons. This particular angel food cake deserves more attention than that.

  • Baking Recipes,  Cookies,  From the books,  J'adore macarons,  My favourite things

    Into the macaron bandwagon, and I don’t want to get out

    Macarons are probably one of the easiest things a person can fall in love with. The endless possibilities in shell and filling combinations is mind-blowing, and whatever combination in colour and flavour one chooses, the results will almost always be a guaranteed winner. I mean just look at how adorable these things are! Making macarons has evolved from being intimidating to something really fun to do. Now I know this is only my third time making macarons, but it has been an incredible learning process. I think this is one of the things I love most about making these babies: I learn something new every single time. The difference in…

  • Asian Flavors,  Baking Recipes,  Bread-making,  The Breakfast Bin,  Yeasted breads

    Hi chocolate, it’s nice to matcha!

    Did I really just write that title? I’m sorry. So I finally managed to track down some matcha powder some weeks ago, and unfortunately it’s not the sort I’m looking for. It seems like a really mild type of matcha. From what I’ve been seeing in photos, the concentrated one has a greener hue; and from what I’ve been reading, it has a stronger taste. I can barely taste my matcha in this bread. No, scratch that– I can only taste the matcha if I concentrate really really hard. If I close my eyes and really try to unlock my tastebuds, I can taste the wonderful green tea notes with…

  • Baking Recipes,  Bread-making,  From the books,  Go With the Flo,  My favourite things,  Yeasted breads

    The awesome pull-apart bread in Herb & Cheese style

    Among the homemade yeasted breads I’ve made thus far, I think the pull-apart bread is quickly making its way to the top of my heart. Fortunately, all the recipes I have tried for this particular type of bread have been nothing short of stellar. While my favourite remains to be Flo Braker’s heavenly Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake, this version is no less scrumptious. This is basically the same bread recipe as Flo Braker’s, but instead of the sweet and tangy lemon filling, we switch it up in favour of the savory. Each bite is a warm explosion of garlic and herbs, intensified by the slight salty punch from the cheese.…

  • Baking Recipes,  David Lebovitz,  From the books,  Frozen treats,  I scream for ice cream (I do)

    Some comfort in Avocado Ice Cream

    I know I haven’t written in a while, but I have a perfectly valid explanation. You see, it’s been a crazy, stressful couple of days for me. My parents took a week’s worth of holiday recently, leaving me to man our company by my lonesome. The amount of work is endless, and every time I so much as blink it’s like the pile of work I am yet to do has given birth to octuplets. Every task I cross out on my to-do list gets replaced with another two, or five. When I go home at night, I am so tired all I want to do is lie down with…

  • Recipe Round-Up

    {Kitchen Diaries} Some tips to get rid of feta cheese

    Truth be told, I am not a cheese person. I don’t like cheese, but I don’t hate it either. However if I had a choice, I wouldn’t usually eat cheese. Or mayonnaise, but let’s save that for another time. It is really this indifference with cheese that has taken me this long to really discover feta. I mean sure, I’ve had it in salads, but never really in a conscious manner. I think I am at a point wherein my interest in food would encourage me to savour and appreciate in an objective way even the things I don’t usually eat or particularly like (ie. cheesy things), yet I actually…