Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

My son, Julian, asked me to bake some chocolate chip cookies for him to bring to school to share with his friends. I gladly agreed. All along I had the impression that chocolate chip cookies are one of the easiest thing to bake. Just mix up the dough, drop them onto the baking sheets and just pop them into the oven, right? Wrong! I search through my cookbooks and decided to give these chewy chocolate chip cookies a try. I followed the instructions on the recipe closely, but I ended up with a batch of very flat and unattractive looking cookies. Determined to perfect these cookies... I searched the internet for more recipes and tips. I found a pretty similar recipe here. I fired up my oven again today, and make another batch of chocolate chip cookies. There were a few things that I have done differently this time round. I used a new bottle of baking soda, and I chilled the dough in the fridge for 30 mins before baking them. This time, the result is more satisfactory. I hope the kids in school will enjoy these cookies!

Pineapple Tarts

My friend requested that I make some pineapple tarts for her. I hesitated for a while... I was not sure I could make tasty pineapple tarts. The last time I bake these was about more than half a year ago. I baked the tarts with commercially purchased pineapple jam, and it was fine. The pastry was pretty alright. Then I attempted the very next day with some home-made pineapple jam, and it was not really edible. I followed a recipe that was quite different from the traditional way of making the jam, and the fillings turned out to be quite awful. This time round, I did more research, and with the right ingredients along with past experiences.... I managed to come up with this batch of pineapple tarts. I did not bake the pastry for too long, thus they are quite close to the "melt-in-the-mouth" sort of texture. My pineapple jam was not too wet, nor was it too dry this time. But I think I could have made it sweeter. As for the pastry, maybe I should try to bake them a little longer next time because I feel that even though the pastry was soft, there was something missing in them...maybe the sweet smell of butter?! Besides these open-styled ones, I have also made a batch of close-styled ones for my friend.

Durian Puffs

After reading about the Durian Degustation party organized by Leslie from his blog, I can't help but crave for some of these delicious fruits myself. Following his recommendation, I went to Ah Loon and Ah Teck (their store is along East Coast Road, opposite Jago Close) for my durian fix. They were very good in what they do, and most of the durians that they have picked for me were superb. I think Mao Shan Wang and Golden Phoenix were really yummy and well worth the price! Beside buying about 8kg of durians to feast with my parents, I also packed 1kg of Mao Shan Wang durian pulp. I used the pulp to make these Mao Shan Wang durian puffs today. Thomas will be back from his business trip tomorrow, and this is my little surprise for him.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

The last time I bake a Pineapple Upside Down Cake was about twenty years back when I was in secondary school. We had to bake this cake during our Home Economics class. I remembered teaming up with one of my classmates and we made a small Pineapple Upside Down cake of about 6 inches in diameter. It was one of the most interesting lessons then. All the cakes in our class turned out great. Recently I have been thinking about revisiting this recipe. I did not keep the original recipe from my old text book, but I found an equally good one from one of my cookbooks. So, after twenty years... today I tried making this very classic, very old school Pineapple Upside Down cake again! I had some hiccups along the way. The recipe called for a 10" cake pan, but I find that to be a little too big for the amount of batter I had. I think I would bake it using a 9" cake pan the next time round. My caramel toppings was not too nicely done too... I should reheat the syrup before putting in the pineapple rings so that the toppings would spread out more evenly on the cake tin. I baked this cake in the 350 F oven for about 50 mins and took a slice while it was still warm. The cake was quite yummy, and suddenly I was overwhelmed with a nostalgia for my schooling days!!