Eggless Brownies

I think #5 on my brother's dessert wishlist (briefly mentioned in my previous post) was brownies. I had never made brownies before, but hey, it was time to try! I came across this recipe that looked awesome, and I just happened to have leftover applesauce from making the apple tart.

Having anticipated that I would be baking at least some kind of chocolate dessert, I had made sure to buy chocolate when I went to buy the apples for the tart.

These smelled heavenly while baking and cooling. It was a little difficult to go to sleep after (it was approximately 12:30 am by the time I was done with baking and cleaning up). I baked them in my little silicone cupcake molds, as I did not have baking paper with which to line a pan. I made 2 little packages of 3 cup-brownies each to give to my brother and his traveling companion. Due to lack of time, however, I did not refrigerate them as required in the original recipe.

A recipe that I will definitely make again!

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BROWNIES RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 3 tbs (~28 g) butter
• 1 1/2 up (~265 g) chocolate
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbs hot water
• vanilla

  Procedure

1. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
2. Melt chocolate and butter until chocolate appears partly melted. Mix until smooth.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine applesauce and sugar. Mix until sugar has dissolved.
4. Mix in hot water and vanilla.
5. Add chocolate mix, and mix well.
6. Fold in dry ingredients with a spatula.
7. Bake 180°C for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.
8. Refrigerate 1 hour before cutting.

Apple Tart #16

My brother came back from abroad with a list of 5 desserts (and potentially more) he wanted me to make before he left again. Seeing how I was only in the same country as him for about 3 days, that was an impossible feat. On his list, however, were two apple desserts: apple crumble, and apple tart. I had made the crumble for a barbecue gathering with some cousins and friends last Friday, but neglected to take pictures to blog about it. Next to tackle was the apple tart.

I made this for a family dinner last night, before my brother had to catch a flight this morning. It also happens to be one of my mom's favorite desserts, and tends to be liked all around due to the relatively low amount of sugar involved, and the natural fruitiness of the tart.

As there were 7 of us at dinner, I simply cut it into 8 slices (with my brother wolfing down the extra slice), and served them up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Tutorial yonder this way~

Mini Strawberry Cheesecake

I made this last week for a friend whose birthday was on Wednesday. I was only able to give it to her on Friday, however, as cheesecake needs to chill overnight. I kind of threw this together really quickly without really measuring the amounts of ingredients used.

I picked 3-4 of the ugliest strawberries from the punnets I'd gotten at the market the week before. These I mashed into a pulp before adding a 200 g tub of Philadelphia cream cheese and a bit of sugar. I also added about 2-3 tablespoons of quark instead of the usual sour cream/Greek yogurt.

As it was late, I did not want to have to dig out the egg replacer and have to mix it with water to add in. Therefore, I opted to leave it out. As the strawberry pulp had added some juice and thus liquid to the batter, I threw in half a teaspoon of cornstarch to make sure the cake held together.

After baking it a bit in the oven, I let it to cool to room temperature, then topped it with sliced strawberries, on top of which I sprinkled some more granulated, unrefined sugar. The whole thing was placed, unmolded, into the fridge overnight.

Triple Tier: Cake Pops, Banana Bread, and Apple Tarts

The last Thursday of the semester was Ascension Day, which is a holiday around where I am. Due to still having a class to attend the next day, I could not go home yet, but since the class itself didn't require any work, I decided to spend the day in one of my favorite activities: baking.

I had invited many of my friends to come pick up some sweets -- knowing that many of them still had papers and/or exams to deal with -- or to just come and chat with some tea and desserts. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning baking.

The first of the three desserts were these cake pops. I made them with a double batch of my trusty vegan cake recipe, to which I added a bunch of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. After crumbling the cake into crumbs, I moistened it all with a homemade pumpkin puree. I made that by roasting half a pumpkin until soft, then blending the flesh. The mix was then rolled into balls, and a chocolate-covered toothpick was inserted in each of them, then left to set and cool in the fridge overnight. On the day of the event, I dipped them in melted dark chocolate (this time melted in 30-seconds lapses in the microwave, due to my inability to deal with a double boiler technique while handling two other recipes). They were then topped with crushed, salted pistachios and chocolate sprinkles.

Next was a single batch of banana bread, made the usual way in a loaf pan. I cut the banana bread in half lengthwise, then sliced each half to get regular-sized parts.

Finally came these mini apple tart bites, made with circles of pâte brisée, some homemade applesauce, and microwaved apple slices shaped into flowers. I then baked the whole assembly for an additional 10 minutes, then glazed them with the drained water from the applesauce, to which I added some citrus pectin due to a shortage of time. If I have more time, I usually reduce the juice into a glaze. The procedure is a more messy, rushed version of this one.

Savory Butterfly Pastries

I had a pastry dough left in the freezer that needed to be used to free up some space. After coming across this recipe from Z'oeuf peux pas, I decided to give it a try, myself!

This time, I followed the recipe and just used mustard and grated cheese. This method, however, offers a wide variety of options to vary flavors. Not only is it super easy to make, but it looks very beautiful as well.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 1 pastry dough
• mustard
• grated cheese

  Procedure

1. Cut dough into a square if it is round by trimming the curved edges.
2. Spread a layer of mustard on the dough.
3. Sprinkle grated cheese on top.
4. Roll two edges towards each other until they meet in the middle. 
5. Put in the freezer for an hour.
6. Slice into 5 mm pastries.
7. Bake at 180°C for 10 to 15 minutes.

Semi-Marbled Cake

 

For a quick extracurricular celebration meeting, I whipped up this quick cake. Instead of making it plain vanilla, however, I wanted to attempt a marbling with a small mix of cake with some berry jam.

Unfortunately, I had made too much of the berry mix, so the marbling wasn't so successful. It did, however, sink a bit during the baking due to its greater density, which left an interesting pattern inside the cake. The marbling itself isn't so visible on the surface, as the cake darkened a lot after baking.

Crumble du Chat qui Tousse

For a dinner among friends (a vegetarian sushi dinner, if you're curious), I originally hadn't planned any desserts. That was until I looked at the fruits basket and saw the apples that had been sitting there for weeks.

An easy dessert to make with apples? Apple crumble. A friend had given me these glass ramekins from some purchased desserts. As they seemed fairly sturdy and thick, I figured they could handle some time in the oven.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 3 apples
• 75 g brown sugar
• 75 g flour
• 50 g unsalted butter
• 1 pack vanilla sugar
• 1/2 lemon's juice
• cinnamon

  Procedure

1. Take butter out 1/2 hour ahead of time.
2. Preheat oven 180°C.
3. Peel, core, and dice apples, and put them in a baking dish, or several ramekins.
4. Pour lemon juice, vanilla sugar, and cinnamon on the apple pieces.
5. In a bowl, mix flour and brown sugar. Add small cubes of softened butter.
6. Rub butter into flour mix to obtain a sandy mix.
7. Sprinkle crumble mix on top of the apples until covered.
8. Bake for 1/2 hour, a little less for ramekins.
9. Enjoy with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

 

For a cultural event at my university back at the end of April, I had opted for making around 25 servings of Vietnamese spring rolls. I had originally planned on another recipe, but due to a lack of certain central ingredients, I settled for these ones.

I made these (around 12) as a test run to see how much ingredients were required for how many rolls. For the actual event, I had made roughly 50 rolls, all made on-spot, as the rolls don't stay fresh overnight, and I did not have the time to roll them just before the event. They were well enjoyed, and so I leave the recipe here on this post for anyone who would like to try them at home!

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RECIPE (for about 12 rolls)

  Ingredients

     Rolls

• 1/2 block tofu (250 g)
• 2 medium potatoes, grated
• 1 large carrots, grated
• raw rice, a handful
• salt, sugar, pepper, to taste
• 12 rice paper wrappers (translucent rice paper for spring rolls)
• warm water
• iceberg lettuce, 2-3 leaves
• cilantro, mint, perilla, or other fresh herbs

           Sauce

• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 3 tbs warm water
• 1/4 or 1/2 lemon's juice, or to taste

  Procedure

1. Make the filling: cut tofu into slices, and pan-fry until golden on each side. Cut into thin strips.
2. Stir-fry the grated carrots until cooked through.
3. Deep fry (or stir-fry) grated potatoes until cooked through. To prevent them from sticking too much, rinse grated potatoes in water and pat dry.
4. Mix with the tofu, carrots, and potatoes together, and season to taste.
5. In a dry pan, heat raw rice grains until they become browned but not burnt.
6. Wait until cooled, grind the toasted rice into a powder. Add about 2-3 tbsp to the filling.
7. Dip and turn a sheet of rice paper wrapper in warm water until all parts are wet. Lay flat on a plate and wait until it softens.
8. Put some lettuce, a stem or two of cilantro, and some mint near the lower edge of the rice paper wrapper, in the middle.
9. Top with a tablespoon or so of filling.
10. Roll the bottom edge towards the middle 1 or 2 times.
11. Fold in right and left sides.
12. Finish rolling until edge of the rice paper wrapper is reached.
13. Cover with plastic wrap to keep from drying.
14. Make the sauce: dilute sugar in the warm water, add soy sauce and lemon juice.

  Tips

• Shredded and stir-fried cabbage can be added to the filling
• Most of the time, the grated potatoes are deep-fried and added to the filling at the last minute before rolling to keep crunchy. In my dorm conditions, I stir-fried them because deep-frying was not really an option.

Banana Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich

With just 2 bananas and 1 cup of oats, I made these delicious, but somewhat messy to eat banana ice cream sandwiches! I found the recipe on Cheap Clean Eats, a cooking portion of the blogilates YouTube channel.

With only 2 ingredients, it is very easy to make! All you need are some oats, bananas, an oven, and a blender! Next time, to make it a bit easier to eat, I would probably make them a lot smaller, so that they are only a bite or so.

View the recipe's video here!