Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Assalamualaikum!

Munie is HERE! First thing we did was Juliette et Chocolat. As usual!=)

I love Rue St. Denis. I just do!

It has been a slow holiday break for me. Spending my days watching Dr. Phil shows (I know), movies, or experimenting in the kitchen!:)

Latest experiment was sugar cookies with royal icing! After I saw the cookies made by Sweetambs I had an epiphany. I JUST HAD TO TRY MAKING THEM! One thing I’ve learnt from baking these cookies was that, although sugar cookies required very minimal ingredients, I had to be patient in freezing, rolling, freezing the dough again. Not to mention the decorating part. One layer, dry, another layer, dry. Drying itself might take up to 24 hours. Oh boy.. Patience was ABSOLUTELY needed in making these beautiful cookies.

Original Recipe: here

Sugar Cookies

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add eggs and vanilla extract until well incorporated.
3. In another bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt.
4. Add the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until you have a smooth dough.
5. Divide the dough in half and wrap each in a plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour or until firm enough to roll.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degree F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
7. Remove one half of chilled dough and roll it out to a thickness of ¼ inch (1cm) on a well floured surface.
8. Cut out desired shapes and place on cookie sheets.
9. Put the cookie sheets back in the fridge for another 15 minutes.
10. Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown depending on the size.

Royal Icing

2 large egg whites

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

3 cups confectioners’ (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1. Beat the egg whites and confectioner’s sugar.
2. If it is thicker than it should (using the 10 seconds rule), then add lemon juice one teaspoon at a time.

Have fun decorating the cookies!

I tried the lace flower ones and as you can see, they weren't as pretty and neat as it should be. So I ended up making polka dots instead. Why do I have only 3 small heart shaped cookies you may ask? I ate one and had four left. Then I forgot and ate another one. Yeap…=.=’

In all honesty, will I try making them again in the future? We’ll see. I don’t really fancy these kinds of cookies but I figured decorating them would be fun. Indeed it was. It sure tests my patience but still.Although it takes such a long time to make them, these cookies tasted like…well..sugar cookies. Even if you take two minutes to ice it, it’ll taste the same with the ones that takes you 20 minutes o decorate. These cookies are definitely eye candies rather than being out-of-the-world-oh-my-God-are-you-kidding-me delicious cookies.

Snow was pouring like there’s no tomorrow. The weather outside is cray cray. Reaching -12 now. COOOOLLLLLDDDD! Brr. I’m a summer baby, I don’t do snow. I just don’t

Happy New Year everybody! It’s time to look back at this year’s resolution and see how much have you improved before setting new ones!:)

 

Till then, Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni.

Roasted Lamb Ribs and Creamed Spinach

Assalamualaikum!

Since earlier this month, I've been dreaming of roasted leg of lamb. So two days ago, it was my first time buying lamb which lead to a lamb anatomy learning session. The leg of lamb WAS HUGE. It could be my only meal for the whole week. SOOOO BIG! So I bought the back ribs instead. When I told the butcher my choice, he said “you’ll get hungry again by JUST LOOKING at it”. Hahaha. I wasn't so sure how expensive it would be since I have never bought lamb on my own. But I must assure you, whenever you buy lamb, it is money worth spent.

Original recipe of creamed spinach from: here

Roasted Lamb Ribs

For 2

300-500g of rib chops ( about an inch of thickness)

1 tablespoon of dried rosemary

1 clove of garlic, grated

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoon of oil + more for spraying

1. Marinate the ribs with rosemary, salt, pepper, garlic and oil for 15 minutes
2. Preheat oven to 300 degree Fahrenheit
3. On a baking dish place the ribs and spray with a thin coat of oil.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.

 DONE.  I don’t think you really need any sauce of go with it, but if you have mint sauce.. Why not?=)

Creamed Spinach

For 2

Half a bag of spinach about (100g)

½ cup of milk/cream

A tablespoon of butter

A tablespoon of flour

Salt and pepper to taste

½ onion, chopped

1 clove of garlic, grated

 Water

1. Fill a saucepan with about 3 cups of water and some salt and bring it to a boil.
2. Put in the spinach and cover. Cook until the spinach wilts.
3. Strain and press the spinach to remove as much water as you can. Set aside.
4. In another saucepan (or the same that is patted dry), on a medium heat, melt butter and sauté the onion and garlic.
5. Add the flour and stir constantly
6. Pour in the milk/cream to make a roux
7. As the roux thickens, add in the spinach, salt and pepper. Mix well.

 

Easy yet delicious dinner! You don;'t need to spend a hundred bucks on a dinner outside when you can make your own just as good.=)

Will be heading out to watch Cirque Du Soleil soon.Finally!YEAY!

Stay warm peeps!

Till then, Wasalam.

Love,

Sofhan Hasni 

Huevos Rancheros

Assalamualaikum!

I love food.Breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner…you name it! Living in Malaysia and having a Kelantanese father sure changed the way I look at breakfast. I need A BIG HUMNOGOUS breakfast. We don’t only eat Nasi Lemak for breakfast, but we also eat nasi berlauk with ikan gulai and sambal, nasi kerabu with barbequed meat and also nasi dagang with ayam gulai for breakfast. I don’t do oats and cereal. I’ll get hungry again soon after..I am the kind of person who would dream/think about what I’ll have for breakfast the next day. Breakfast is definitely something that I look forward to once I get up.

I followed Joy the Baker on Facebook and Hilah Johnson on Youtube. Both of them made something quite similar which was salsa and eggs for breakfast or something called Huevos Rancheros. Yumm-o. Awhile ago I bought a bottled mango and lime salsa to eat with nachos. It’s a bit too sweet to my liking. However I can’t waste it by throwing it away. So for me, this is a win-win situation. I get to use my salsa and enjoy a delicious breakfast! Traditional Huevos Rancheros requires taco shells. Since I don’t have any, I used toasted bread instead.=)

If you don’t have any salsa on hand, you could always make your own. Head on to the original recipe to make your own. Original recipe here

Huevos Rancheros 

For 1 person

  

3 tablespoon of store bought salsa

1 tomato

1/4 of onion

1 garlic

Chili powder as desired

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoon of oil

1/2 teaspoon Butter

1 Egg

1 Taco/toast

Cheese and scallions for garnishing (optional)

1. In a pan, sauté the onion and garlic on medium heat
2. Add tomato and cover the pan for a few minutes
3. Once the tomato softens, using the back of your spoon crush the tomato
4. Add salt, pepper and chili powder
5. Gather the salsa mixture to the middle of the pan and create a well at the center of the mixture
6. Dollop butter in the well and crack an egg into it
7. Cover the pan for 3-5 minutes or depends on the egg constancy of your liking
8. Serve on a piece of toasted taco or bread
9. Garnish with cheese and scallions

My picture is obviously not as pretty as Hilah’s! I was on the phone the whole time with mummy. I was too hungry to actually wait for the conversation to finish to snap a proper picture.

Till then, Wasalam.

Love, 

Sofhan Hasni

Montreal Cake Show

Assalamualaikum

The Montreal Cake Show was awhile ago.I was extremely excited about it. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Still, there were quite a number of booths selling and array of cake decorations and materials. There is this one booth that sells baking pans and molds at warehouse price.I went cray cray.Legit.Cray cray...Also, I met such a nice couple while looking for black coloring  Since they don't have the brand that I want at that moment, they brought me to closed store and opened it just for me. Inside, it was a Wilton heaven. My eyes were wandering from one wall to the other!They even had stuffs hanging down their ceiling. AMAZEBALLS. So I took my time browsing through heaven. I bought a couple of stuffs and even got a discount because I visited their booth earlier. God bless them.
Here are some of the cakes on display:

anddd here are the stuffs I got!

Heart shaped cookie cutters

Silicone mat

Cake pop sticks

Pink coloring

Black coloring

Rotating cake stand

Fondant scraper

9 inch springform

Mini cupcake pan

9x9 baking pan

YEAY!!

Till then,
Love,
Sofhan Hasni

Oven "fried" Chicken with Sweet and Spicy Glaze

Assalamualaikum!

Finalllllllyyyyyy done with exams! It felt like FOREVER! Okay..over. I was about to make sugar cookies but then my butter is still cold. SO it’s resting nicely on the heater. LOL! Just to speed up the process. I am one impatient baker!=P

Awhile ago, I had fried/baked chicken cravings! I came across Chef John’s Spicy Orange Chicken Wings and DING! A light bulb on top of my head went on.But then I didn't have marmalade or orange jam in my fridge...oh well..then I came across his other recipe called Clifton Springs Chicken Wings.So I made that instead. Since I wasn't so sure if I’m going to like it or not, I didn't really document the whole process. IT WAS DELISH! I used half of chicken and not just wings. Wings are not exactly my favorite.But nonetheless, I eat so much meat I am practically meatarian.=P

Original recipe here.

Oven "fried" Chicken

500 g of chicken cut into pieces

1 tablespoon oil

1/2 cup of flour

A dash of hot sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to
2. In a bowl, marinade the chicken with hot sauce, salt, pepper and oil.
3. In a Ziploc or clean plastic bag, put the marinated chicken and flour. Shake plastic bag until the chicken pieces are well coated.
4. Spray baking pan with oil.
5. Arrange the chicken on the pan and spray or brush the chicken with oil.
6. Bake for 30 minutes on one side and another 30 minutes on the other.

Sweet and Spicy Glace

3 crushed garlic cloves

2 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp sambal oelek/chili sauce (or 1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes)

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 tsp soy sauce

1. In a saucepan on slow heat, mix everything together
2. Once it starts to simmer, turn off the heat.
3. Coat chicken with glaze and serve.

God I'm hungry all of a sudden.I just ate rice and mihun sup.Blame the weatherrrr!I could make ABC from the snow outside..EEK!

Happy holidays everyone!

Till then, take care,

Love,

Sofhan Hasni