I am so much into health topics recently because I believe healthier living will give you a happier life. Here is another interesting health blog that shows me how to make a healthy appetitzer, Jumpin’ Jalapenos. It is easy and is great for serving guests.

Ingredients:

Instructions:

1) wash, halve and scoop out the seeds and veins in the jalapeno peppers

2) Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the hollow peppers on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, so that they soften a little but still have a nice crunch.

3) While the peppers are baking, saute the sausage on the stove top until it’s cooked through. Then dice up the shallots and place in a mixing bowl with the sour cream, cream cheese and about half of the shredded cheese.

4) Pull the peppers out of the oven and let cool. Add the cooked sausage to your cheese mixture and combine well. Now stuff the hollow pepper halves generously with the mixture, which should have the consistency of a thick oatmeal. Sprinkle with additional shredded cheese before placing in the oven. Turn your oven to broil for the last few minutes

As I was browsing through the health forum, I found a good recipe to share with you guys, Anti Cancer Cabbage Soup. It says eating cabbage a few times a week can help to lower the risk of developing cancer as cabbage belongs to the Cruciferous family of vegetables. It also stimulate your genes to increase production of enzymes that detoxify your cells, resulting in elimination of free radicals, toxins, and potential carcinogens from your body.
The next time  if you do not know what kind of soup to make, maybe you should try this healthy Anti Cancer Cabbage Soup.

Prep Time: 15 mins + 4hours of unattended standing time.

Baking Time: 18 Mins

Ingredient:

• 450g Plain Flour
• 1 tsp yeast
• 300 ml full cream milk
• 2 eggs
• 60 gram unsalted butter
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• Some sesame seeds

Instruction:

1) Mix Flour & Yeast together in a large mixing bowl.

2) Beat Milk, Butter, Eggs, Salt & Sugar together and stir to form a soft sticky dough.  Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let it stand for 15mins.

3) Beat dough with a wooden spoon for 1 min.  Shape into rough ball. Cover the bowl again and let the dough stand for 2-3 hours to rise until it doubled the size.

4) Gently Stir dough to deflate then divide into 16-18 portions.  Shape each into tight ball.  Place balls in a lightly greased 23cam by 33cm baking tin.  spacing them out evenly.

5) Brush gently with extra melted butter on the top and sprinkle the sasame seeds on top.  Let stand for 20 mins until puffy but not doubled in size.  Meanwhile, preheat oven to 190 deg C.

6) Bake Rolls for 16-18mins until deep golden brown.  Let the roll stand for 10 mins and then turn out onto a rack to cool.  Serve Warm.

 Recipes adopted from Her World Magazine

Q: Why are there cracks appear during baking?

A: Overbeating or high speed mixing can cause cracks to appear.  Ingredients should be also at room temperature.

Q: How to stop the cracking on top of the cheese cake?

A: Put a shallow pan of water at the lower deck of your oven when you are baking.  This will stop the cracks on the top from appearing

Q: I have followed all the process including putting the water in but why did tiny little specks of dots/droppings/cracks still appear?

A: While you are baking, avoid opening the oven door.

Q: Why did my cheesecake shrink so much when it cool?

A: If your cheesecake shrink too much, that means you have baked your cheesecake at a overly high temperature setting.

Q: When is the cheesecake ready?

A: Cheesecake is ready when the edge starts to turn brown and it is completed when the centre is almost set and move slightly when shaken.

Q: When is the cheesecake best served?

A: Cheesecake are best served when it is chilled for at least 12 to 24 hours.  Before you serve the cheesecake to your guest, bring it out the fridge and let it cool outside for 15mins before serving. 

Q: How to revive overbake cheese cake / cakes?

A: If you overbake your cake, make a simple syrup of 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Boil for 3 to 5 minutes, then brush the cake layers on both sides until they are revived.

 

My Cheesecake does not have that attractive look yet but it is still edible.  I will try to make it better by practising.  I cut a small slice to test out before i put in the fridge and this is the only picture i took.  Sorry for that… Hahaha. 

2 Tbls. melted butter OR margarine
1 1/2 cups Oreo® cookie crumbs
2 packets of philadelphia cream cheese. (That is the only cream cheese found in singapore supermarket)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs – room temperature
1 cup sour cream – room temperature
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tsp. vanilla extract
one pinch of salt

Instruction:
Combine butter and cookie crumbs; press evenly into the bottom of a greased springform pan or square tin and put it inside the fridge for half an hour.
-Beat cream cheese with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.
-Beat in sugar and then eggs.
-Stir in sour cream, flour, vanilla, and salt.
-Gently stir in 5 chopped cookies.
-Pour mixture into springform pan; top with remaining chopped cookies.
-Bake on the top rack of a 325 degree oven for 75 minutes.
-Turn off the oven, prop the door open several inches, and allow cake rest in oven for 1 hour.
-Refrigerate overnight.

Today i just made this cake with my friends. It was such a success that we applauded for this heavenly treat.  

 Ingredient:

1) 1/2 Cup Butter (Softened)

2) 3/4 cup sugar

3) 1 tsp vanilla essence

4) 2 eggs lightly beaten

5) 1 1/4 cup plain flour

6) 3 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder

7) 1 1/4 baking powder

1 cup of milk

9) A small handful of choc chips, melted

 Instruction:

1) Beat Butter first and followed by sugar and vanilla essence.

2) Gradually beat in the eggs until light and fluffy

3) Sift Flour, Cocoa Powder, Baking Soda together into a bowl.

4) Fold in flour, milk  and melted chocolate into the egg mixture until well blended.

5) Pour the mixture into a grease tin and bake for 40 mins with temperature of 180 Degree Celsius or until the cake is cooked when tested with a toothpick.  The toothpick should come out clean.  Stand the cake in the tin for 5mins before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

Chocolate Glaze

1/2 cup of dark chocolate

2 tbsp of milk

2 tbsp of butter(* If the chocolate look dry, add abit of milk in)

Instruction:Glaze the chocolate over the cake with a cake knife.  Decorate with strawberries or kiwi if you want.

Article is by Shiloah Baker

There is nothing like a tender, soft, moist muffin straight from the oven. The perfect muffin’s outside is never hard, and when pulled from its muffin paper or popped out straight from the muffin pan it comes out completely and easily. How in the world is this done?

There are some tricks to muffins that many recipes (or box instructions even) do not include.

The first trick is to NEVER use a hand mixer. Think of muffin batter as a tiny soft baby that can easily crush.

The best utensil for mixing muffins is a wooden spoon.

Make a well into the dry ingredients of the muffins and add the wet ingredients into

the “hole”. Gently fold the dry ingredients over and stir softly. NEVER stir the batter more than 20 times; count each turn of the spoon around the bowl as one, two, and so on.

It is okay to have some lumps in the batter. The object is not to rid the batter of the lumps, but to not over mix.

When putting the batter into the muffin tins, I like two methods. The first, method is to use a ¼ cup measuring cup. My other favorite method is to use an ice cream scoop with the sliding piece inside to easily push the batter out of the spoon and into the cup.

For those chocolate lovers again, you may want to try this recipe to give yourself a delicious treat on chocolates.

1/2 Cup of butter1/2 cup of brown sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 190 Degree C

2) Beat butter and sugar until smooth.  Follow by eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy.

3) Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder and stir into the mixture(2) until well blended.

4) Mix in the chocolate chips into the mixture.

5) Drop by tablespoon onto ungrease cookie sheets.

6) Bake for 8-10 mins or until just set.  Let it cool slightly before transferring to the cooling racks.

**Please do not drop the cookies too closely to each other as it may spread while baking. 

**The cookies may looks soft in the oven while baking but that does not mean you need to bake longer to make it hardened.  Cookies will turn crispy and harder when it become cooler.  Over baking can caused to have burnt cookies easily.  Be careful!