Roti Jala

Happy Sunday all! Salam!

New 2015 achievement! I learned how to make Roti Jala! Woot woot. I was at the in laws house and my MIL made this DELICIOUS Roti Jala (they are called roti kirai up north!). I was surprised at how easy it is to make the batter and how quick it took to cook em. SO here is an easy peasy recipe for you Roti Jala lovers out there! 

Original recipe: here

Roti Jala

1 cup water

1/4 cup milk

1 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder

1 tablespoon oil

1 egg

More oil for frying

1. In a blender (you heard me right, a blender), put in the water, milk, flour, tumeric powder,oil and egg.
2. Blend until everything is well incorporated.
3. Run the batter through a sieve to get rid of any lumps.Set aside.
4. Using a non-stick pan, spray it with oil or grease the pan with a thin layer of oil.
5. Once the pan is hot, but the batter into the mould and make net like patterns on the pan.
6. The batter is cooked, when the top side of the batter is dry. There is NO NEED to flip it and fry the other side.
7. Transfer the cook batter on a flat surface and roll them into small cylinders.
8. Serve with any kind of curry.

We eat this for breakfast or during tea time. In Malaysia, it isn't offensive to serve Roti Jala when it isn't hot. We don't necessarily chill them, but room temperature Roti Jala will not make your relatives say nasty things about you under their breaths. Really. Perhaps a not-so-good curry will. Let's be honest, my curry is something that people will ask..."betul ke ini kari?rupa macam tak je".=.='

Till, then.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni 

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake-Swirl Brownie

Assalamualaikum!

Let’s flashback to the time when I’m still not married and living with my mum. Her trusty old oven have baked so many things for me, I should feel bad that she/he wasn’t invited to my wedding! He/she deserved to be there. :(

My father is quite classic with his dessert choices. Chocolate isn't something that he is too fond of. Not that he doesn't like it, but if there is a list of desserts, chocolate wouldn't be his first choice. I was making a Chocolate Chip Cheesecake-Swirl Brownie for my sister a couple of months back and was surprised that my father really..i mean...REALLY enjoyed it. I wouldn't blame him. It was delicious! Very decadent and indulgent. It makes all your worries go away. I kid, of course. But wouldn't it be better to be munching on these babies when you're stressed out than just being plain stressed out with no chocolate treat in your hands?

I also had a small "class/tutorial" with the cousins showing them how easy and fool proof this recipe is..

Original recipe here.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake- Swirl Brownie

For the Brownie Mixture:

½ cup butter (melted)*

1¼ cup granulated sugar

¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt*

 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 2 large eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour

 ¾ cup chocolate chips /chocolate chunks

For the Cheesecake Swirl:

 8 ounces cream cheese, softened

 ¼ cup granulated sugar

 ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

* If using salted/ semi salted butter, omit the salt.

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit or 180 Celcius. Line an 8 x 8 inch pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, salt* and cocoa powder. Add the melted butter and the vanilla extract, mix until well combined.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring vigorously after each one. 
4. Add the flour and mix until it’s well incorporated.
5. Fold the chocolate chips into the batter. Set aside.
6. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, mix together all of the ingredients for the cheesecake swirl. Set aside.
7. Pour 2/3 of the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Then, slowly pour the cheesecake swirl batter on to the brownie batter.
8. Take the remaining brownie batter and dollop the batter randomly on the cheesecake swirl batter in the pan.
9. Using a toothpick, slowly swirl the mix of the batters around to create a marble effect.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the brownie is set.
11. Let it cool and serve.

I know this is not the best picture...but this is the ONLY decent picture I could find and that says a lot! It is a brownie with cheesecake bits in it. What else could you ask for in a dessert/mid-night snack right? Super easy to make and super impressive at potlucks and get togethers. Give it a shot for your next gathering! Can you imagine what it'll be like if you use butterscotch chips instead?!

P/s: I am currently a housewife. I need housewife friends and we could all move to New Jersey. Or perhaps we could still stay in KL and be desperate instead? Desperate KL Housewives. Yep. Sounds like the next big reality show alrite!

Till then.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni 

Mango and Kiwi Cheese Tart

Assalamualaikum


For my wedding last November, my lovely colleagues gave me an amazing microwave oven. This baby can grill, bake, heat up food....you name it. THANK YOU GUYS! Since then, they kept on pestering me to bring baked goods to the office. AS IF I HAVE SO MUCH TIME TO BAKE! Leaving the apartment at 7.30 am in the morning and coming back home nearing 7 pm with a pile of laundry to sort, dinner to be cooked and well..trying not to pass out of exhaustion. When will I have the time to bake?!

It's quite tricky for me to adjust myself with this oven. I usually use the oven that is connected to a stove top and they work wonderfully. Since this oven is smaller and full on fancy schmancy,  I need to amend the baking time as well as the temperature for most of the recipes that I swore by. Oh well. Nothing is easy in life!

I've been wanting to try a mango tart/pie for almost two years, I think. But Mangoes are EXPENSIVE in Canada! Why buy mangoes when you can get berries there, right? In Malaysia mangoes are easy to find and quite reasonably priced. Especially if you go to the markets or even Money Back Guaranteed (MBG) Stores and you get to try em. Yeay! When I was in MBG, kiwis were on sale, hence the mango AND kiwi cheese tart.

Why Cheese filling instead of the usual custard filling? First off, hello? It's cream cheese! This shouldn't even be a question in the first place. Second, if you get the right and ripe mangoes, they are VERY SWEET. Pairing it with custard would make it tooooo creamy and sweet. However, by using cream cheese, you can reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe accordingly and let the tartness of the  cream cheese shine. (GOD! The way I write is very MKR-ish!). The tartness of the cream cheese will balance out the sweetness of the fruits.

Funny story. I made a Mango Tart for my officemates. It was cray cray! Trying to bring a tart in a CRAMPED LRT, what was I thinking?! Once I reached the office,  I sighed with relief. This was about less than 5 minutes before I accidentally dropped the tart on the floor.  I DIED! My friends thankfully are as crazy as I am. They ate it anyways! Obviously I feel bad and made another one on the next day. :p

Mango and Kiwi Cheese Tart

3/4 cup (185g) creamcheese, room temperature
3/4 cup  (170ml) whipping cream
1/3 cup sugar
1-2 ripe Water Lily mangoes
2 ripe kiwis
1 cup digestive biscuit crumbs / 250g biscuits
1/2 cup (125g) melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Fahrenheit.
2. In a bowl, mix together the biscuit crumbs with the melted butter. Press the mixture onto a 9-inch tart pan. (If you feel that your crumbs are a tad too dry, add more melted butter)
3. Put the crust in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Let cool slightly.
4. Beat your creamcheese with sugar until light and fluffy. In a different bowl, whip your whipping cream until it reaches medium to hard peak. 
5. Fold the whipping cream into the creamcheese mixture.
6. Once your crust has slightly cooled, pour the creamcheese mixture onto the crust.
7. Peel your fruits and slice them thinly.
8. Arrange your sliced fruits to your liking.
9. Serve immediately 

This tart can be made ahead of time. Just slice and arrange your fruits right before you serve to avoid the fruits from drying or going bad!

It is not that easy to find digestive biscuits near my area. Because I ran out of digestive biscuits, I had to mix some Tiger Biscuits in my crust. Tiger biscuits, for the love of God, do not absorb melted butter well. So I ended up using more butter than usual. The crust tasted fine, thank God!Phew... and I didn't dropped it this time. :)


Till then.

Love,
Sofhan Hasni

Apple Tarte Tatin

Assalamualaikum.


Working is tough. or should I say I am currently working in a tough environment. I am going for a longg long break soon. I need keep reminding myself to breathe. In my final year of university I had anxiety issues. Panic attacks were quite frequent. Although I don't get them that often anymore, I do need to realize when to step back and chill. Most weekends I try my best to chill out. It's hard when your weekend is only Sunday!

On a happier note, my favorite TV show My Kitchen Rules are back on! So happy. I was binge watching the show the other day and all of a sudden I felt like baking! I remembered that we had some apples and puff pastry left in the fridge. Voila, in a couple of minutes, an Apple Tarte Tatin was baking away happily in the oven!

This is an easy recipe where you only need 4 ingredients! Unless you want to make puff pastry from scratch! (good luck!)Tarte Tatin is usually made using an iron cast skillet.Since I do not have one, I caramelized my apples in a pan and then transferred it onto a baking pan.You do watchu gotta do :)

Apple Tarte Tatin

1/4 cup butter

6-8 apples
1/2 cup sugar
1 sheet of frozen puff pastry

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. Peel,core and cut apples. Set aside.
3. In a skillet on a low to medium heat, melt butter in pan and then add sugar.
4. Once sugar is melted, put in the apples. 
5. Coat apples with caramel and cook until the caramel is amber in colour. Make sure you don't burn the sugar! 
6. Turn off the heat and put aside.
7. (If you are using your pie pan, transfer the caramalized apples along with whatever juiciness left on the skillet on to you pie pan)
8. Take out the puff pastry from the fridge, and roll out the pastry big enough to cover your pie pan/skillet.
9. Cover your caramelized apples with the puff pastry and bake for 20-30 minutes or until pastry is golden brown.

It is so easy to make and incredibly delicious! The crispiness and flakiness of the puff pastry combined with the velvety caramelized apples are just too lovely for words! Pair it with some coffee or tea! Perfect for tea time or a light dessert after dinner. My husband who is not too keen of pies LOVED it! So yeay! I might add some cinnamon next time because why not?

Hope I get my sanity back soon!

Cheers

Love,
Sofhan Hasni