Bacon-Nutella Puff Pastry

When my friend, Esther first posted this dish in Facebook, immediately I thought," What a brilliant idea to add nutella to bacon!" (As I know it will surely go well) The saltiness of the pork compliments well with the sweetness of the nutella and who doesn't like nutella??

I know of recipes like bak ku teh (herbal pork rib soup-local dish) with chocolate risotto suggested by a British Michelin star chef.

Anyway, here's the recipe which Esther shared with me! It is easy and make a great snack for bacon and nutella lovers!

Ingredients
- frozen puff pastry. Leave in overnight in fridge to defrost or leave it out at room temp till soft
- nutella
- bacon (fried in small strips)
- 1 egg
- sea salt
- cinnamon powder

Steps
1) Fry the bacon till the way you like it. I like mine crispy

2) Roll out the puff pastry till thin

 

 3) Cut them into rectangles with a sharp knife. Depends on how big you want your pastry to be. I like it bite-sized. So its entirely up to you!

 

4) Lay out the bacon (about 2 pieces each) into the pastry

 

5) Add a dollop of nutella onto the bacon

 

6) Sprinkle sea salt and cinnamon powder on it

 

 

7) Seal it with egg and use the fork to surround it with the pattern lines. Then use your fork to poke holes on it

8) After all done, put in over at 200C for about 10-15 mins or when it turns brown.

Enjoy!

Kid's Friendly Milo Tiramisu

Not a huge fan of tiramisu considering that I am not a coffee drinker. So decided to try a milo version of it since I LOVE milo and my children love it too!

Ingredients (for 9x9 inches container)
- 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream
- 2 TB of condensed milk
- 1 packet of 3-in-1 milo (make 1 cup)
- 28 ladyfinger biscuits
- 250g of Mascarpone cheese (room temp)
- Milo powder for dusting
- 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract


Steps
1) Whip the whipping cream in a mixer until stiff. Do not overdo it so always keep an eye on it. Add the condensed milk midway

2) Put the mascarpone cheese in a mixing bowl together with the vanilla extract and mix it around

3) Pour the stiffed whipping cream into the mixing bowl together with the mascarpone cheese.

My darling helping me out to mix

4) Pour the ready made 3-in-1 milo drink in a bowl big enough to dip your ladyfingers

5) Start dipping the ladyfingers both sides into the 3-in-1 milo drink. Do not soak the ladyfingers for long if not it will just disintegrate and disappear. So you basically, dip and lift quickly.

6) After placing the first layer of dipped ladyfingers, you spread out the cream on it. Make sure that you reserve half more for the next layer. Don't use up everything.

7) After spreading the cream, you dust the milo on top by using a sieve

8) Then, continue the same steps again by dipping the lady fingers and start the next layer

9) Spread the last batch of the cream on top of the second layer of ladyfingers

10) Finally, dust the milo powder over

11) Chill it for at least 6 hours.

You can add strawberries when serving! It will definitely go well with the chocolate powder and whipped cream!

Enjoy!

Strawberry Jelly Hearts Cheesecake

I first tried this when my friend bought it from Downtown East EHub at Pasir Ris. My whole family, including my children loved it! So since Valentine's Day is just tomorrow, I decided that it was timely to learn how to make it and surprisingly, it is not difficult. Another plus point is that the washing is very minimal too!

Pls note that you need about 2 days to do this recipe comfortably. So do it way in advance. If you want to do it within a day, it is also possible. Just be sure to start off the day early doing it as you need time to chill.

Ingredients
- Digestive biscuits (Need about 10-12 pieces)
- Butter 80-90g
- Gelatin Powder (1 TB)
- 1 block of cream cheese
- 50g of icing sugar
- 6 strawberries cut in halves
- 90-100g of strawberry Jelly (Jell-O)
- 9 x 9 inch square tray
- 1 tsp vanilla essence

Steps: Base
1) You can either crush the digestive biscuits in a food processor or in my case, I transfer it to my tin tray and smashed it up by using my potato masher.

2) Melt the butter in a saucepan over low fire.

 

3) Pour the melted butter over the mashed up biscuit crumbs. Then flatten it with a spatula or in my case, I use my potato masher to spread it and flatten it. Then put in the fridge for at least an hour for the base to be hardened.

 

 

Steps: Cream cheese filling

1) Add gelatin powder to 1 cup of boiling water. Stir it till completely dissolved. Set aside to cool.

 

2) Add the block of cream cheese, icing sugar, vanilla essence into the mixer and give it a good mix

(Be sure that the cream cheese is in room temperature before mixing so that it is not hard)

 

3) Add the cooled down gelatin water in together with the cream cheese a little at a time. Keep mixing

 

 

 

 

 

4) Finally, the mixture should look like milkshake- runny smooth liquid with no lumps

 

 

5) Use a fork to prick holes all over the biscuit base. Pour the creamed mixture into the tray



6) Place your strawberry hearts even spread out in rows. Then leave it to chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. This is my first time trying. So as you can see, the strawberries are facing the wrong side.

 

Steps: Jelly

1) Mix the strawberry jelly powder with 3/4 cup of boiling water. Mix it such that the powder dissolves completely.

 

 

 

2) Then, add 3/4 cup of cold water to it. Mix well. Cool it down first before pouring into the tray if not the cheese will melt.

 

3) After pouring the mixture in, chill it for at least 4 hours for the jelly to set.

 

 

 

 

To cut this, you need a sharp knife with a thin blade. Prepare a bowl of boiling water to dip the knife, wiped it and cut it to ensure a clean cut. Always wipe the knife off before doing the next cut.

 

 Enjoy this dessert with your loved ones! Happy Valentine's Day!





Water Chestnut Egg Drop Dessert

This is the time of the year where most people should take extra care of their health since Chinese New Year is coming and there will be lots of 'heaty' food going around. Moreover, the weather has been very unusual this year with the temperature going on an average of 25-27 degrees in the morning. It's perfect and I haven't stopped thanking God for the nice weather so far. However, it's maybe because of this change where its cooler and dryer, that my children as well as myself are down with itchy throat.

So, I thought of what ingredients are in season now and what I should be cooking to make my throat feel better.

Decided on doing something with water chestnuts since its the Chinese New Year season. You can sure find it. So check out this simple dessert for the whole family!


Ingredients
- one bag of water chestnuts
- one egg
- rock sugar
- pandan leaves
- corn starch
- gingko nuts (optional)

Steps
1) Peel the skin of the water chestnuts (This is the most troublesome step for this dish!) and cut them in small pieces.

2) Boil about 4-5 bowls of water. Add one rock sugar in it as well as pandan leaves.

 

 

3) Then add the water chestnuts and gingko (optional) in. Let it cook over medium low heat. Cook it till you are satisfied with the taste and the quantity.

4) Put corn starch to thicken it a little (optional)

5) Put in beaten egg before turning off the fire. Stir it so that the egg is dissolve and cooked nicely.

You can eat this warm or chilled. Up to you!

 

Enjoy!

 

Banana Crumb Muffins

This is a wonderful snack for your children or to bring for a party as its banana muffins with a twist! It has a good crunch at the top and moist inside.

Hope you will enjoy as much as my friends did.

Ingredients (makings about 10- 12 muffins)
- 3-4 ripe bananas mashed (the more ripe, the better)
- 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of sugar ( I have already reduced it. If you a sweet tooth, then go for 3/4 cup)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1/3 cup of melted butter (do in a pot low fire)
- 1/3 cup of brown sugar
- 1 TB of plain flour

- 1/8 tsp of cinnamon powder
- 1 TB of butter

Steps
1) Preheat oven to 190 degrees celsius. Lightly grease the muffin cups and lay in the muffin baking tray
2) In a mixing bowl, mix 1 1/2 cups of flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat the bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.

melted butter just added

3) Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.
(Important point: Leave the batter to rest for about 1 hour) Spoon batter into the muffin cups laid in the tray. Put about 3/4 of the cup.

4) In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar, 2 TB of flour and cinnamon. Cut the 1 TB of butter and mix it with your hands to resemble coarse sand. Sprinkle the toppings over muffins.

5) Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 mins. Insert a toothpick into the center of the muffin and see if it comes out clean to know its ready.

First batch of muffins

Final batch of muffins

As you can see the difference in the batches. The earliest batch came out quite flat. So from experience, it is very important to leave your batter to rest for about 45 mins to one hour so that the muffin can come out nicely shaped.

Enjoy!