peaches and cream swiss roll.

Finally finally finally! A swiss roll that didn't crack on me. Kudos to this recipe for helping me overcome the dreaded fissures. As much as I would love to claim that the recipe has no need to be modified and is perfect as it is already, it needs a few more tweaks to nudge it into perfection.

Although the sponge is ridiculously soft and fluffy, I found it slightly bland. It was neither eggy nor milky nor vanilla-y. It was also barely sweet but you can easily solve that problem by piling on the cream! Next time I might use melted butter instead of oil, and add more vanilla extract.

For the whipped cream, instead of just sugar and vanilla, I decided to add condensed milk too to make it milky and dreamy. I should have whipped it to stiffer peaks so that it doesn't ooze out of the swiss roll so easily when rolling. I wanted to roll the cake such that the centre is a perfect circle of cream with the peaches suspended in it and the sponge enveloping it all around. Kind of like this. Alas, it was easier to imagine than to execute it. The stiffness of the cream really is crucial. And one thing's for sure- never be too greedy with the filling!

Peaches and Cream Swiss Roll
cake portion adapted from this recipe

For the cake:
4 eggs, separated
90g sugar, divided
35ml oil or melted butter
50ml milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
70g cake flour

For the cream:
150ml whipping cream
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

peach chunks, amount as needed

For the cake: Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 30 x 30 cm pan with parchment.

In a bowl, combine the egg yolks and sugar and whisk until pale, fluffy and thick, also known as the ribbon stage. Combine the oil, milk and vanilla extract in a small bowl. Stream in the oil mixture while whisking constantly. Whisk in the cake flour just until no traces of flour remain.

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks, adding the sugar gradually once the egg whites have begun to foam.

Whisk in 1/4 of the meringue into the egg yolk mixture to lighten. Whisk in the rest of the egg whites until the mixture is homogenous.

Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 18 minutes. When the cake is done, drop the pan from a height of 30 cm onto the counter to allow the cake to shrink away from the sides of the pan. Unmold the cake, make 3 shallow slits at one end of the cake and roll it up from that end. Allow the cake to cool in its rolled state before proceeding, about 30 minutes. If you want to, you can brush some syrup on the surface of the cake before rolling.

For the whipped cream: Combine the whipping cream, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla extract in a bowl and whip to stiff peaks.

After the cake has cooled, unroll the cake and spread the whipped cream evenly across its surface. Scatter the peaches on top and roll the cake up. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

soft-baked chocolate chip, nutella and walnut cookies.

To say that I'm obsessed with finding the perfect chocolate chip cookie might be off an accurate description by a valley's breadth.

I've tried so many variations, documented on this blog and otherwise, that I can hardly keep track. In fact, I can't remember all of the recipes I've tried before. I can't really recall which "secret ingredient" works best- cornstarch, corn syrup, bread flour...

Perhaps the only way to investigate the best formula for a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe is to try all those ingredients again. This recipe, contains corn syrup. Like the name suggests, these are soft-baked versions and are rounded and puffy as opposed to their more butter-laden counterparts, which bake up flatter and crisper.

I like these because they are thick and almost slightly chewy. I could have retrieved the cookies from the oven a few minutes earlier if not for the fact that I forgot that coloration comes less easily to cookies of this kind. Because of the lesser amount of sugar in this recipe, it would be harder for the cookies to brown. Even waiting for the slightest shade of brown would send the cookies on their way into the perils of the overbaked realm. Put simply, I waited for the cookies to get too brown and they were a tad overbaked. The edges were a little dry but thankfully, the centres were still moist. Not quite gooey, but that could be achieved with faster reflexes- attack the cookies barely moments out of the oven.

I wanted to have nuggets of nutella suspended in the cookies like chocolate chips but I was overzealous in stirring the cookie dough and most of the nutella chunks blended into the dough. Deja vu much? To avoid this problem, pay careful attention to the special instructions in the recipe below.

Soft-Baked Chocolate Chip, Nutella and Walnut Cookies
adapted from Martha Stewart
makes 16 large-ish cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup dark-brown sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
nutella, room temperature
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted

Using a teaspoon, drop tiny blobs of nutella onto a lined baking sheet. Freeze until rock solid, about 30 minutes.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.

Cream the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Stir in the flour mixture. Fold in the chocolate chips and toasted walnuts. Stir in the nutella chunks. Be careful not too work the dough too energetically or the nutella would blend into the dough. Portion out the dough onto a lined baking sheet and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Bake cookies for about 10 to 12 minutes or until their surfaces no longer appear shiny.

vanilla crumb buns.

You know what's genius? Putting streusel on vanilla pastry cream filled rolls. All at once, you get crunch from the streusel, creaminess and moisture from the pastry cream, and a soft and fluffy yeasty carrier to cradle all the flavour and textures. I wish I had thought of this. I love buttery streusel to death and I've been too many times too liberal with it on cakes, muffins, mouses, puddings but never bread.

The inspiration is from Baking by Flavour, possibly one of my favourite books ever. Despite it's lack of pictures I never seem to tire of flipping through it. Well, maybe "inspiration" is not that accurate a description. More astutely, when I chanced upon the recipe for vanilla crumb buns in her book, I simply decided to use my recipes to swap in for some of the original components.

The recipe consists of three parts: rich buttery bread dough, vanilla pastry cream (albeit a looser version) and vanilla streusel. I used my own recipes for the bread dough and streusel, with good reason. I was a little taken aback at the amount of butter that went into the bread dough and I wanted to use a recipe that ensures that the bread remains soft even on the second day. The last time I followed the recipe for rum buns from this book exactly, the buns turned hard within a few hours. I also made a streusel recipe (same base recipe) from this book before and I found it too buttery for my liking. Hence, I decided to use my own recipes.

Ultimately, it is about the overall combination of flavours and textures, so I don't get so hung up about following the recipe exactly. After all, if you like the individual components by themselves, when brought together, they will more or less work out well.

Vanilla Crumb Buns

Components:
my favourite recipe for bread dough, or use your own
vanilla pastry cream, made with less cornstarch for a looser consistency
your favourite streusel

Make the pastry cream a day before.

After the deflating the bread dough after its first rise, roll it out into a rectangle and spread the pastry cream evenly across the surface. Roll it up and slice into equal portions. Place in a baking pan and let the rolls rise until nearly doubled in size. You can also use muffin cups for individual rolls. Meanwhile, prepare your streusel.

When the rolls are about ready to be baked, preheat the oven to 350F. Break off large clumps of the streusel and scatter them on top of the rolls. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until the rolls are lightly browned. If you let the rolls get too brown, it would mean that the bread has dried out quite a bit.

palmiers.

If you need cookies that are snap to assemble, then you should bake these. Even if you have all the time and luxury in the world, you shouldn't pass up these cookies. Well, "cookies" as a term for these little snacks is debatable. After all, they are not more than just puff pastry showered with sugar. Maybe these should be reclassified under pastry. Or really, does it even matter?

I have never given palmiers or most of their puff pastry cookie cousins much thought before. Those puff pastry straws that seem so popular? Didn't entice me in any way. Perhaps it was because they seemed too simple. Just puff pastry and sugar surely cannot be that big a deal.

However, they say that sometimes, simple is best. Based on my experience in baking varied cakes, tarts, cookies and yadda yadda yadda over the past few years, I concur with that statement. Besides, I love puff pastry, and since I was bored, I decided to try out some palmiers.

As quick as these cookies are to put together, you have to make and freeze them in advance. That is to say, after coating the thawed puff pastry with sugar and rolling it up, you have to put them back in the freezer so that they can firm up. Only then can you slice and bake of the palmiers at your whim and fancy. But from that point on, the cookies can be baked and sent into your mouth in less than 20 minutes. It's that quick.

The recipe is so simple it's not really a recipe- On a work surface, cover an area as large as your sheet of thawed rolled out puff pastry with granulated sugar. Take the puff pastry and place it on top of the sugar, applying slight pressure on it so that the sugar will adhere. Press more sugar into the surface of the puff pastry. Start from on end of the puff pastry and roll it up like a swiss roll until you reach slightly before the halfway mark. Repeat, this time rolling from the opposite side of the puff pastry. Bring the two rolls together, pressing them together slightly, and freeze until firm.

When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425F. Slice the palmiers into 1/3 inch slices or thereabouts and place on a silicon mat-lined baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle the tops of the palmiers with coarse sugar and a pinch of salt. (I feel that salt brings out the butteriness of the palmiers.) Bake for about 12 minutes or until the palmiers are lightly browned. Take care not too let the cookies get too brown. Cool on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes and remove them from the baking sheet to a wire rack while the pools of caramel they sit in remain liquid so that the caramel won't set around the cookies when they cool completely. They cool really quickly so you have to work fast.

chunky apple and cream cheese bundt cake.

As revision for my recently concluded exams, I studied about social media. I analyzed the good and bad sides of it, and how the good outweighed the bad and vice versa. Technology has become such an integral part of our lives that we almost take it for granted. I bet even some of us would have forgotten that the internet is barely more than a decade old. Once the novelty of the internet passed, we were no longer star-struck by it. Feelings of reverence and amazement slowly faded into the background. We no longer treat it with the respect it deserves. It becomes just another tool. We abuse it. We misuse it. While undergoing my revision, I was incredibly saddened by how technology- the internet, social media, has fallen from grace. People were using it to hurt others through cyber bullying or even just leaving unscrupulous comments anonymously.

However, I do know that nothing is without its merits. Before all the negativity surfaced, social media was, and still is, a wonderful tool for communication. It makes communicating with people all around the world a breeze. It allows people to transcend geographical boundaries within the physical four walls of one's room, just like how I'm talking to all you fellow netizens from all four corners of the world without budging from my cozy swivel chair. More than just communicating, it bridges the emotional gap between people, allowing anyone to extend a helping hand to those in need, or just leave behind kind words of encouragement that can be a great lifesaver in this hideously stressful world.

I've personally been on the receiving end of those kind words ever since I started this blog. Sure, not all comments I receive are without malicious intent, but it is those friendly comments that constantly remind me that the world is a better place. Whenever I mess up a recipe (and I mess up alot), and rant about it in my posts, I would sometimes see uplifting words of comfort like "it looks gorgeous anyway!", and I would instantaneously feel better. I am, I admit, a perfectionist, and it is always hard to look past the tiny faults and see how the end product is not as bad as it seems. Those kind words always help me to see the bigger picture, and that no one is perfect- we will all make blunders along the rocky path towards success.

Typing those first three paragraphs has made me reflect deeply about whether it really pays to beat myself up so badly because of a bit of poor execution of a recipe. Logically, the answer is no, but for someone who thinks perfection is only just enough, I need to mull over it a bit more. Which is why, coming back to this cake, I feel a tiny bit disappointed in myself because I failed to pull of the glaze flawlessly. Just by its looks, you can see how different it is from the original recipe. I tried to be too ambitious and heated the butter and brown sugar together to intensify the flavour, but ended up cooking them for too long. Hence, when I added the rest of the ingredients as per instructions in the recipe, it became a finicky caramel that set up like armor. It was delicious (I love caramel), but it wasn't intentional. It was also extremely hard to slice through with a serrated knife so part of my cake was in shambles after I tried to hack through the glaze with the knife. Moral of the story? Don't mess with the recipe, especially if it involves heating of sugar.

The cake itself was extremely moist and full of warm and comforting fall spices. I also deviated from the original recipe slightly by leaving the apples in discernible cubes because I didn't read the "finely chopped apples" bit really carefully. There was no big problem though- the apples managed to be cooked to a point where they were still soft but firm enough, and still retaining a bit of crunch. I thought it was a pretty lucky mistake. If you like cheesecake, then you may like the ripple of cream cheese tunneling throughout this cake. I'm not particularly wowed by it because I'm not partial to cheesecake, in fact, I don't like it, but this cake sounded too good to pass up.

And finally, here is the recipe!

Chunky Apple and Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
adapted from here

For the cream cheese filling:
8 ounces cream cheese
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cake:
1 cup finely chopped toasted pecans
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
3 large eggs
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups diced apples (about 2 to 3 medium apples)

For the praline frosting:
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
3 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a 12 or 14 cup bundt pan (preferably use a 14 cup).

To make the filling: Beat the cream cheese, butter and sugar until well combined and smooth. Add the egg, flour and vanilla and continue beating until just incorporated. Chill in the fridge until later. You will see why soon.

To make the cake: Whisk the flour, sugars, spices, salt and baking soda together.

Whisk the eggs, oil, applesauce and vanilla extract in a separate bowl until homogenous and add to the dry mixture. Fold in the toasted pecans and chopped apples until evenly distributed throughout the batter.

Pour 1/2 to 2/3 of the cake batter into the prepared pan. Retrieve the cream cheese filling from the fridge and spoon it into a piping bag. Pipe the cream cheese filling on top of the cake batter, leaving a 1 inch border around the edge of the pan. Swirl the cream cheese filling into the cake batter with a knife- don't over do it. Top with the rest of the cake batter.

Bake for 60 to 75 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before inverting the cake onto the rack to cool completely, about 2 hours.

To make the frosting: Combine the brown sugar, butter and milk in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Boil for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the vanilla. Whisk in the icing sugar, a little at a time, until completely incorporated and smooth. Gently stir the frosting until it starts to thicken and then pour it over the cake. The frosting will set up quickly so don't make it in advance- wait until the cake has cooled completely.