Simple Pancakes

Wow! I'm overwhelmed by the responses from my last post. Thank you so much for all the support and encouragement! Like one of my friends said, receiving this hate mail might not be a bad thing after all. One thing for sure, it showed that I do have people out there who cares about me and like what I'm doing. :) I have received a few more emails from the same person but I choose to send it to the junk box. Hopefully, he or she will stop sending me emails when there is no response from me. To those who had spend time send me emails and posting your comments here and in my chat box, sorry I have not response but do know that I'm truly grateful for your comforting words. I'm not very good with words. So, it's just thank you, thank you and more thank yous. Thank you so much for everything! :) Okay, this is for someone who likes me too (you do, right?) :P She works for a local kids magazine and she dropped me an email to check if I would be interested to do food feature for them. Aww ... what an honour! Thank you, Karin! :) I would love to help if I could and if I have the time. Hopefully, I didn't mess it up. :P She wanted something that kids can do on their own or with a little help from an adult and this is for mummy dearest on Mother's Day. I thought the very versatile, pancake, will be good idea. It can be served with anything! Just syrup and or butter. With Ice-cream and chocolate sauce. Yums! For the healthy one, with fruits, like what I did. ;) For the very local ones, sandwiched with red bean paste or kaya. I can go on and on. Kids nowadays are very creative. They will come out with their own creation to please mummy. I bet mummy will be touched to be served with any breakfast made by her children. But I bet she will be even more proud and impressed if the kitchen is cleaned up after that. LOL Ingredients:

• 140g Plain Flour
• 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 40g Sugar
• 1 Egg, beaten
• 240ml Fresh Milk
• 30g Unsalted Butter, melted
• Icing Sugar
• Strawberries, top removed

How to do it:

1. Put flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, milk and butter together.
4. Pour the all of the egg mixture into the flour mixture.
5. Whisk till combined.
6. Heat a non-stick pan. If using a regular pan, brush it with some butter.
7. When the pan is hot, turn to low heat.
8. Pour some batter to the pan. Amount to pour depends on how big you want the pancake to be.
9. When batter starts to bubbles, flip over to cook on the other side.
10. Remove when pancake is slightly brown.
11. Repeat till all batter are used up.
12. To assemble, place a few pancake together.
13. Use a cookie cutter or a glass to cut a hole in the middle.
14. Remove the circle pancake.
15. Place strawberries in the hole of the pancake.
16. Dust with icing sugar.
17. Serve with additional syrup if you like.

Note: The cut-out pancakes can be use to make sandwich using peanut butter, jam, cheese, etc, as fillings.

Pan Baked Layered Cake

This is another of my successful experiment. *grin* Without the used of oven!

Basically, I used the leftover mixture I did for my Cake Donuts here. They are like pan cakes except they tasted more like cake especially when they are all stacked up high. Add buttercream and you will have a cake or eat it like a pan cake with maple syrup!

Ingredients:
Please refer here.

How to do it:

1. Heat the frying pan. Reduce heat.
2. Put some cake mixture on the pan and cook till you see bubbles and the bottom is set.
3. Flip is over.
4. Put some more mixture to the top of the 1st pan cake.
5. Flip it over. Cook for 20 -30 seconds depending on the size of your pan cake.
6. Meanwhile, add more mixture to the top again.
7. Flip it over.
8. Repeat till you are satisfy with the layers you want.
9. Remove and either cream it or just eat it with or without syrup.

Note:
As the mixture is thick, you can't pour it out like what you do with pan cake mixture. I twirl the mixture on the pan to form a circle. Works well!

Tip:
Use a plastic bag to hold the mixture if you don't have a piping bag. Just snip off one of the corners to squeeze it out.

* Have it with Maple Syrup *

* How to make your pan cake *

Cake Donuts with Coloured Rice

There's a craze about Donuts now in Singapore. Donut Shops are opening one after another and the queue for them are ridiculously long. My son loves donuts but not me, so you won't catch me queuing up just to buy 2 donuts for him. It's crazy!

Anyway, we can always making our own. In fact, floggers are already making it or writing about it! Look here and here. I too am going to try too! *wink* However, anything with Yeast in it will means you have to wait of at least an hour or two unless you have a bread machine, which I don't. Soooo, I have decided to experiment making donuts without yeast instead. And voila! See my ball donuts without using yeast! But I have to confess. It tasted more like cake but it smells so nice and it taste great too! My hubby and son said it even better than the yeast Donut! Waahh ... so comforting! LOL Hmm ... I haven't given up, yet! I'll be experimenting more! So watch my blog!

Ingredients:

// I'm not using a scale to get the measurement because it won't be accurate with my toy like weighing scale. I'm using measuring cups instead. //

• 3 cups Self Raising Flour, shifted
• 3 teaspoon Baking Powder, shifted with flour
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 50g Butter, soften
• 150ml Milk
• 2 eggs
• Icing sugar for dusting
• Oil for frying

How to do it:

1. Mix sugar, salt, butter, milk and eggs together.
2. Add flour gradually till all are added in and mixed well.
3. Cover your mixing bowl for 20 minutes to let it raise.
4. Heat oil in pot for frying, reduce to low heat.
5. You can either oil your hand to scoop the mixture and quickly shape them into balls or scoop using spoon.
6. Drop your doughs in hot oil for frying.
7. Remove when the balls floated up and turned golden brown.
8. Drain.
9. Dust with icing sugar or see below for icing.

:: Buttercream Icing ::

Ingredients:

• 4 tablespoon Icing Sugar
• 2 tablespoon Milk
• 10g Butter, soften

How to do it

1. Mix butter and icing sugar.
2. Add milk spoon by spoon till mixture become smooth.

Note:

Reduce sugar if you just want to use it as a glaze for the donuts.

Love the shimmering icing!

What I did for my cake donuts ...

I reduced the sugar to just 2 tablespoon icing to change it to glaze instead. I dipped the donuts in the bowl of glaze and to a bowl of coloured rice.

If you want to add icing instead, you have to do it after your donut has cooled a little otherwise the icing will melt.

Pan Baked Chocolate Chips Cookies

Another pan-baked pastry. So far this is my third pan-baked. Did you miss the other 2? This first one was a Sponge Cake and the second one was Muffins. This time round I'm making cookies. Don't expect great looking cookies. You can see from the pictures they ain't good looking. But don't judge the outlook, okay. They taste great.

This is my second attempt. My first attempt was a few years ago and I did a plain butter cookie. After that attempt, I lost the recipe and had finally found it again.

Ingredients:

• 125g Low Gluten Flour, like cake flour, shifted
• 100g Melted Butter
• 70g Fine Sugar
• Chocolate Chips, you desire amount

How to do it:

1. Beat butter and sugar together.
2. Fold in flour till dough like.
3. Add in Chocolate chips and knead in.
4. Separate the dough into small doughs.
5. Flatten the small doughs with your palms.
6. Lay the flatten doughs on the flat pan.
7. Cook for 5 minutes on low fire.
8. Turn in over and cook for another 3 minutes.
9. Remove and cool.

Note:

• Do not crowd the pan because you have have problem turning them over.
• They are still very soft when they are cooking so turn them over carefully and slowly.
• Remove them from pan slowly to otherwise they may break.
• They will harden when they are cooled.
• You can choose not to add Chocolate Chips. Butter cookies are great too!

Pan Baked Maple Syrup and Raisin Muffin

I don't bake because I don't have an oven. I doubt my hubby is planning to get me one too. I have not been successful asking for a sewing machine for years. Asking for an Oven will be more difficult. He find it an eyesore for the oven to sit on the kitchen top. But he did bought me a Muffin Maker.

Anyway, to bake, I have to find other ways and using a non-stick flat pan is a way. The end product may not look as nice but it taste as nice. Oh well! Better than nothing!

Ingredients:

• 125g Low Gluten Flour, like Cake Flour (I'm using Top Flour), shifted
• 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder, added together to flour to be shifted
• 55g Melted Butter
• 30g Fine Sugar
• 25g Maple syrup
• 1 Large Egg
• 55g Milk
• Some Raisins (optional)

How to do it:

1. Mix butter, sugar and syrup together.
2. Using a mixer, beat well till foam like.
3. Add egg and mix well.
4. Gradually, add in flour to mixture and blend in well.
5. Add in raisins and milk and mix well.
6. Pour mixture into baking cup till 3/4 full.
7. Place cups in the pan and cover.
8. Cook in low fire for 17-20 minutes.
9. Turn of the fire but do not remove till a further 15 minutes.
10. Tada! Non-Bake Muffins done!

Note:

• Pan baked Muffins did not raised as much as how baked muffins do.
• They are not as fluffy too but they do taste as nice

* How my Pan Baked Muffins look like inside*

Pan-Baked Sponge Cake

* Cake baked using a frying pan! *

I was looking for my recipe on pan-baked cookies and I found the recipe for pan baked sponge cake instead. Since I had all the ingredients required, I 'baked' this instead of cookie.

This result of the pan-baked cake isn't that bad. It's not as spongy. Although the texture is not a good as the oven-baked version, the taste is quite close. Maybe my measurements, using a lousy weighing scale, is not accurate lah.

So for those who like to try baking but do not have a oven and do not want to spend money buying one (just like me), try this. You will be surprised with the results.

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs
• 50g Fine Sugar
• 50 Top Flour, sifted
• 15g Butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence (optional)

Items needed:

• Baking ring - I'm using 15cm
• Baking paper, cut to size
• Flat pan

How to do it:

1. Beat eggs and sugar together till fluffy.
2. Fold in the flour till will mixed.
3. Add in melted butter and vanilla essence.
4. Mix well.
5. Lay the baking paper on the pan.
6. Put the baking ring in the middle.
7. Pour the cake mixture into the ring.
8. Cover the pan.
9. Start 'baking' with small fire for about 20 minutes.
10. Let the cake rest in the pan for a further 15 minutes after fire is turned off.
11. Remove cake from ring and decorate it as you desire.

* baking in progress *