Baking Recipe: Reese's Peanut Butter Cupcake

I admit recently that my posting has been rather slow and I had been getting feedback from my buddies that I need to get the ball rolling. I do apologise and hope that you continue to support me nevertheless. It's a new year and work has been on a rocky start this year. No excuse, but it did dampened my spirit and all I wanted to do was just nothing during the weekends.

Thanks to your sweet compliments, that gave me the drive to think of what to bake for my family and friends. In fact, I can't wait to share this with you too.

Today's post is meant for all the Reese's Peanut Buttercup fans; and if I say so myself, I am one crazy peanut butter and chocolate lover. I love it not only on a slice of bread, even if I had to choose an ice-cream flavour to indulge in, PB and Chocolate is my No.1 go to sin. Yummm.. yummm.

Over the weekend, my family was treated to my very own favourite flavour pairings. Peanut Butter and Chocolate. I just love the rich creamy taste of peanut butter, and when nobody's watching, I would just eat it as it is with a spoon licking it sparkly clean. Delish!!

For recipe: Click on image to enlarge

I baked them my very own ultimate Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcake. If you have not had one before, feel free to order them from me if you like ;p. Caution though, just make sure you order sufficient cuppies so that you don't have to fight with anyone to get seconds or thirds..LOL

If the name still haven't manage to tempt you, maybe this might. The dark rich moist chocolate cupcake has a layer of salty-sweet creamy peanut butter fluffy frosting slathered all over. On the inside, there is a peek-a-boo moment, let's just say more peanut butter? Yup, that's right each cupcake had 2 mini Reese's peanut buttercups submerged into the batter, baked to perfection. Sweet cream peanut butter on the outside, paired with slightly salty peanut butter from Reese's buttercup on the inside is simply heaven.

xx

Baking Recipe: Creamy Peanut Butter Pie (Non-Baked) & A Tribute

As a lot of you fellow bloggers know, there has been a lot of tribute to Jennie from In Jennie's Kitchen and her family. After having re-directed from Ann at Cooking Healthy For Me to Jennie's blog, that's where I discovered something sad had happened and her story brought me to tears and a sudden ache in my heart left me questioning myself. Do we live our life from day to day or do we always complain that it's never good enough? Right now, I know I am learning and trying hard to make the most of everything every single day.

Being brought up in an Asian community, we are not used to show our love towards our love ones openly, as where we rarely utter the words "Mom, Dad.. we love you and thank you for everything". These words are not said out loud; guilty I know..however, we do show them in other ways.

For recipe: Click on image + zoom

Jennie's story is so deep that I feel it's also a lesson to all of us, to always learn to cherish what is in front of you, stop finding fault in one another, learn to grow as better individuals and most importantly, keep showing LOVE to our love ones like there is no tomorrow. Jennie's message to everyone was to help her and her family heal is to make Creamy Peanut Butter Pie. For the Creamy Peanut Butter Pie, this will be my own recipe, as I tend to work with what I have in my pantry.

This post is a tribute to everybody who matters most in my heart, who have helped me along the way to become a better daughter, god daughter, friend, aunt and a lady foodie blogger in a making. I feel no words could ever describe my gratitude and my countless of profound love and care towards you. To all of you out there, whether you loss a love one or closest buddy a not, let it not be too late as I always live on this motto "better late than never". So, it is never too late to start today!

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