#25: Pumpkin Pie

I am not a fan of pumpkin, in fact I don't even eat them. This pie that I made was for chingkai and susu, both somewhat a pumpkin fan. I heard from them that its not too bad, so I hope it is. I adapted the recipe from Buddy and made the pie crust and pumpkin filling. (BUDDY IS REALLY AN AWESOME BAKER, HE'S MY IDOL) 

There's alot of spices used for the pumpkin filling including cloves, cinnamon, all spice, ground ginger and nutmeg. Spices are really a unique thing, they are added in small quantities but they can bring about so much flavour to the food. Simple yet classic. 

So here are the pictures of my pumpkin pie! 

this is just the tart before baking (its not shaped really nicely heh) 

I made some in cupcake size so here they are. 

and the real pumpkin pie thats i took out from the pie pan

doesn't the colour looks appetizing? yum yum! 

I found a new craze, which is tart/pie making. I am going to master my skill in making them suchc that my crust can be nicely shaped! 

Oh by the way I have started taking orders for pineapple tarts for the upcoming new year! I am really excited about it! Hopefully I can reach the target of 100 bottles this year. I am more than half way there already!! Excited! (: 

YUM YUM!!! 

#24: Hoddeok

Hoddeok is a pancake filled with a variety of fillings and it is  popular street food in the South of Korea! I made it once I think one or two years back and the fluffy texture of the dough makes me wanna make them again!

Its currently exam period and I really don't have much time to make something extravagant. Thats why I decided to make Hoddeok. I just need to mix the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, oil and water together and leave it to rise for an hour before pan-frying it. Its really a easy snack to make! And in the mean time while it rises to double its size, I can head back to my books and revise for my exams!

For the filling, I went with something simple: brown sugar and cinnamon. I did not add any nuts as I am not a personal fan of nuts. However, in Korea, they have it with fillings that include honey, walnuts and even meat with kimchi!

After pan-frying the hoddeok, the brown sugar and cinnamon should have melted to form a gooey mixture thats in the hoddeok! Yum yum, love it!!

Hoddeok with Brown sugar and Cinnamon!

Don't they look a little like prata? 

Thats all! I can't wait for exams to be over!!!!!! 

#23: Tuxedo Strawberry

This is something that everyone should try. It looks so hard to make but its really easy!!! I enjoyed myself and I have more requests from friends who want to eat these tuxedo strawberries!

I learnt how to make them from youtube video by Buddy Valastro (a really famous Italian American baker!). 

All you need to do is get really good strawberry, melted white chocolate and dark chocolate. Start by dipping the entire strawberry into the white chocolate mixture and freeze them for a minute. Then, you dip them with dark chocolate mixture sideways down to cover part of the strawberry on both sides such that you will have a little bit of white chocolate in the middle thats not covered. Finally, piped the little details on then pop them into the fridge till you want to eat them! 

These strawberries really look so pretty and amazing!! 

Look at how gorgeous and fat these strawberries are!

Smart looking right? 

A more close up shot now! 

I really love these babies! I tried to google for the bride version but I don't get really good results! Heh, I will try to come out one myself. 

#22: Meringue Kisses

When I went to New Zealand three years ago, I got my first experience tasting a meringue. My family went to a local supermarket and my cousins and I bought a weird looking cake that has a weird looking name, "pavlova". I totally fell in love with it, so sweet and tasty but yet it melts in your mouth like a cotton candy.

However, this sweet thing did not win the hearts of the adults. My cousins and I gobbled them up quickly but our parents didn't really like it! Haha, obviously because they thought its too sweet!

I managed to find out what it was made of then slowly I started researching on them. I failed before, thousands of times, but then this time, my meringue kisses turned out really well and it won the hearts of many more people (susu, eliz, guagua and susanna). Definitely exploring more of it in the coming weeks.

PICTURES TIME! 

this is how the meringue should look after you beat the egg whites (anyway there's only egg whites, caster sugar and cream of tartar inside the mixture) 

this is how they look. its not pale white because i wanted it to have a little pink colour!

doesn't this looks really good! i will post more about the tuxedo strawberries soon, keep a look out!

look at the meringue! can't wait to make them again!

Its really fun making this meringue! It didn't seem as hard as before! MORE MERINGUES SOON!!

PS: I apologised for the bad lighting, due to the long baking time of the meringues, I couldn't finish them before sun set, so I could only used the house lights, which isn't good for photo taking!! 

#21: Sausage Platter with Potatoes, Capsicum and Onions

I love how flexible this recipe is! I found this recipe on skinnytaste blog and then as usual tweak the recipe a little to make it more appetizing and appealing for myself!

I used Smoked Brats (which are pork sausage that are smoked and they taste a little like chippy's sausage, I am serious!) then add in alot of onions and capsicums. Totally love baked onions and capsicum, soft and full of flavour!

I made this recipe twice and did variations to both. For the first one, which I took pictures of, I added some cajun seasoning to the potatoes, onions and capsicum then mixed them well. Then, I seasoned them with sea salt to add a little kickto it! I added some butter with olive oil to enhance the flavour, it turned out really well.

Then today, I made it the second time. This time, I still seasoned the potatoes, onions and capsicum with cajun seasoning and sea salt but I added only olive oil! Then instead of adding only the sausages, I added some mushroom ham and bacon to add alittle more flavour to the entire dish! I love how it taste like! I am definitely more for the second way, as I totally love bacon! Bacon has really this unique flavour that it can bring about to the dish!

So here goes the pictures

Doesn't this looks yummy?

and more of it! looking at it just makes more stomach grumbles!

and one without such a good lighting! haha

I hate taking these pictures in the evenings, it makes the picture so dark and there's always a shadow! Anyway I shall attached the recipe that I used for the second time, you guys should try out and whip a delicious dinner for your love ones.

Sausage Platter with Potatoes, Capsicum and Onions (and bacon and ham too!)

2 or 3 Smoked Brats (you can find these in NTUC or Cold Storage, its red i packaging, they have quite a few flavours, including Polish, Brats and Smoked Brats)

2-3 Baby Potatoes

Half an onion

3 Cloves of garlic (chopped)

1/3 of a Capsicum

1 1/2 tablespoon of Cajun Seasoning

A dash of seasalt

2 Pieces of Mushroom Ham (these are only available in Cold Storage, you can choose other hams if they are more convenient)

2 Pieces of Bacon

1 tablespoon of Olive Oil

1. Cube everything!

2. Mix the Potatoes, capsicum, garlic and onions together

3. Oil the roasting tin and evenly placed the potatoes mixture on the roasting tin and sprinkle the seasalt and cajun seasoning over them.

4. Baked this at 200 degrees celsius for 15 minutes.

5. Remove the tin from the oven then placed the ham, bacon and sausages in the gaps and as evenly as possible

6. Baked at 200 degrees celsius for another 20-30 minutes or until the potatoes are cook!

#20: Oreo Milkshake

I didn't have much time to pamper myself this week. So I had to go with something simple but yet delicious. My brother and I are not crazy over oreo milkshake now and we finish one whole tube of oreo cookies and one whole tub of vanilla ice-cream for these milkshakes in a week!

They are really easy, there's no exact recipe if you ask me, just go ahead and do it! All you need is vanilla ice-cream (i used movenpick vanilla dream), fresh milk and oreo cookies! Put them together and blitz them in a blender, ta-dah, you got your oreo milkshake!

I like my oreo milkshake to be thick and full of oreo taste, so I went heavy with the oreo (which explains for the disappearing oreos in my fridge)! In addition, its good to keepyour oreos refrigerated before you make these milkshake. I don't blitz them till fine, some of my oreos are still intact and I just love the crunch that it brings to the drink!

Add some chocolate sauce at the bottom and put some oreos at the top for the extra kick (picture adapted from kraft's). I was too excited to drink them that I totally forgotten to snap a shot of it! I excluded the chocolate sauce though and they taste just as good!

So go shake some up for yourself this week then!