PB N' J Bread & Butter Pudding

Past week has been chaotic. Not to mention the weather has been rather crazy too. One moment it was sunny and hot, which literally burns the skin [metaphorically speaking] and then the next, it rains like cats and dogs. Somehow, I believed the craziness affected my mood swings or hormones too as I was easily agitated [sigh...]. So whenever I'm down, apart from running to the fridge to grab a bar of chocolate, I thought wouldn't it be nice to make a small tray of PEANUT BUTTER N' JELLY BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING. And the rest was history!

Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Torte Tart, from Vanille Magazine

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!

Love Is In The Air..da..dee..da.. (humming the melody by John Paul Young) while preparing these CHOCOLATE RASPBERRY TRUFFLE TORTE TARTELETTE. Isn't that a mouthful? A combination of a creamy dark chocolate truffle, raspberry preserved, served in a mini tart shell (store-bought or self-baked) and topped with tangy sugar coated red-currents. Dark and tangy? This combination works and blew my mind away. Also I couldn't decide whether it should be a torte or tart, so it is now both..a torte and a tart.

Next, I'm excited to announce that the Issue 2: Vanille Magazine will showcase a couple new collaborators and the theme this time is all about L♥VE. Bring on the berries and chocolate. Who could resist them? There will be fantastic savoury and sweet treats recipes to impress your love ones.

Baking Recipe: Raspberry Trifle Cupcake

This could possibly be your first thought "more cupcakes?" or maybe should try it with more enthusiasm instead "ooOo.. Raspberry Trifle Cupcakes?" It seems lately I have been bitten by the cupcake bug cause every time when I think of something to share with you, cupcake happens to just pop into my mind.

Okay perhaps I have gone out and not bake something this good in a conventional manner. Yes, I am aware a Trifle should be served in a trifle bowl and for this time I beg to differ. Isn't it fun to have some fun in the kitchen? It's sure a channel for me to relieve stress. The only thing I possibly dread most is cleaning up. LOL...

Basically this cupcake resembles to all the basic elements you find in a trifle. A good raspberry jam, custard and sponge cake. Raspberry Trifle is one of my dad's favourite festive dessert. So when he knew I baked them in a form of a cupcake, he went "really.. a cupcake?"

For recipe: Click on image

Now, this cupcake just needs a little effort, patience and love while assembling them. The baking part is easy, and if I say so myself; feel free to go with your found trusted vanilla cake recipe. And if you feel like using a pre-mixed instant cake mix, go ahead. Who's going to hold you to that? I sure wouldn't so long you get to spread the love of this little gem around. As for the custard, I cooked it from scratch and I think it's important to get a really good raspberry jam. The raspberry jam marry all the flavours together bringing the vanilla cake and custard to life.

Serve the cupcake with a cup of tea, espresso or even with a cold glass of milk. A perfect tea time treat as this cupcake is ultra moist and when you get towards the middle, you will experience the berry tangy taste softened by the mild luscious creamy custard. Let me tell you that the centre of this Raspberry Trifle Cupcake is the best part and it happens to be my new absolute favourite combo. Have a great weekend!!

xx

Baking Recipe: Peanut Butter & Jelly Doughnuts

It's now doughnut time.. What could be screaming in my head? Peanut Butter and Jelly of course. This was also another staple breakfast I had as a child. Looks like this week's gonna be a lot about dough huh? Yes.. I admit.. I really am addicted in kneading dough right now. Well of course we can always use the Kitchen Aid dough hook. But then... I don't know why I like giving myself more work. I do it manually.. Yup.. you got that right. I mix the batter with a wooden spoon etc. Bottom line, I really do enjoy getting my hands dirty.. doing all the work. It's sticky but at the end, you really get a soft, elastic and smooth dough. The feeling is FANTASTIC. Do try it some time to release some stress if needed ;).

This time round, the recipe is adapted from another fellow blogger who's also on FoodBuzz [drumrolls..] Recipe's from Lindsey at Gingerbread Bagels. How cute is that? In fact this was part of the Daring Baker's Challenge. Double fun!! I took on the challenge myself since I'm not part of the group. I cannot believe my eyes that I'm making doughnuts. I'm evolving.. Yeayyy!!

Okay, I think I wouldn't paste the recipe here, and would like to link it to Lindsey's blog instead. So for recipe, click here. However, I will not leave you empty handed, and would like to share a couple of tips or what I thought about the recipe.

Here goes ;):

• Recipe yields slightly more than 2 dozens of small-medium size doughnuts. Refer photos above. I'm not a big fan of large treats, and that could probably explain why I always get more out of what the recipe calls for.
• I made 20 medium doughnuts, and the remainder is a surprise. Will share with you more on that later on.
• If using a wooden spoon to mix flour and yeast, that requires a little arm strength. Persevere, as you just need to make sure the mixture combines together. Flour your work surface and hands with adequate flour. Knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes [usually close to 10 minutes] or until when is no longer sticky but elastic and smooth to touch. Work with a timer if that helps as I find that useful.
• Make sure to always cover dough with damp cloth or I prefer a cling film wrapped tightly around the bowl and rest dough according to suggested time to allow it to rise.
• If you do not have a cooking termometer, and not sure if oil is hot enough? Take a tiny rolled dough and drop it into the oil. If it sizzles and floats up, your oil is ready to go.
• While frying the doughnuts, if you notice they are burning faster, turn down the heat. Then turn it back up if it cools down too much. I suggest fry 1 at a time. This way you can control how golden the doughnut turns out. Also it gives you enough room to take out the doughnut if it starts burning.
• Taste your peanut butter filling. I don't really like my treats overly sweet, so I always keep it to a minimal amount of powdered sugar as suggested. Use a small knife to make a small hole in the doughnut, piping bag and a regular Wilton tip to pipe filling. Clean off excess filling so it does not spill out.

At the end, you will get a light crispy soft chewy doughnut [YummmmMmm..]. Enjoy!!

xx