Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Thanks to Harold, who sent us a picture of a double chocolate banana bread one day,
I could not get double chocolate banana bread out of my mind.

Double chocolate banana bread.

Double chocolate banana bread.

I tried other things, I went to 7-11 and bought dreyers triple chocolate ice cream.



Double chocolate banana bread.

I ate a packet of Indomie,

Double chocolate banana bread.

I watched endless cute kittens and cute Kpop idols on youtube...

Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread.Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread.Double chocolate banana bread.Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread. Double chocolate banana bread.

ARGGHHHHH!
This must be how it feels like being in Stephen King's movies.
Luckily, this obsession is easy to solve.

I just had to google recipes for double chocolate banana bread and make the first one I encounter.
It's Smitten Kitchen's Double Chocolate Banana Bread.

Recipe
My slight adaptation:
I reduced the sugar from 3/4 to 1/2 and I used the sugar I have at home (caster sugar).
I tried to follow the baking time 'til the end but my toothpick came out clean after only about 30 minutes of baking - so I had to take it out way earlier than 55-65 minutes. I recommend frequent testing after 30 minutes.

- 3 very ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup butter, melted
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 cup semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter pan. Mash bananas, Whisk in melter butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla. Mix baking soda, salt, flour and cocoa (I didn't sift as instructed by original recipe - sorry, too lazy) in another mixing bowl. Mix wet and dry ingredients until just combined (actually OB helped me mixing the batter, so I am sure it was overmixed), add chocolate chips. Pour into pan and bake until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10-15 minutes, run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack.

The cooling process was very hard for me as SC and OB's grabby hands could not stay away from the cake. Warning: very very chocolatey.
WE LOVE IT, and I can finally stop obsessing with DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD... well, until my next craving, or whenever Harold posted another picture of double chocolata banana bread :)

Please check out the original recipe here.

How To Make Easy No Bake Chocolate Pots de Creme with Fresh Berries And Fruit Compote

A super duper easy dessert to make. Totally right up my alley.

Luscious chocolate, a kick of tartness from the compote and fresh summer berries.

Perfect.
Recipe
(adapted from May's recipes Chocolate Pot De Creme)
Serves 6 (but I made this into 4 bigger portions)
The chocolate
- 100g dark chocolate
- 1/2 tsp instant coffee
- 250 ml cream
- 30g white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp whiskey (omit if making for kids)
- a pinch of sea salt

Chop chocolate, place into mixing bowl.
Put cream and sugar into saucepan, add vanilla and salt. Bring to almost boil.
Pour into chopped chocolate, add instant coffee & whiskey. Set for 1 minute, beat until smooth and shiny.
Pour into ramekins, let cool, chill for at least 5 hours.

The fruit compote (optional)
- a handful of berries (I used 3 strawberries and 7 blueberries)
- a tbsp of water
- 1 tsp sugar
Chop berries, place in sauce pan, cook using low heat. Keep cooking until fruit became softened and produced some liquid. Add a bit of water if needed. Add sugar bit by bit until you achieve balance between tartness and sweetness. Let cool, add into chocolate pot de creme with fresh fruits...

...or eat with toasts, or croissants, or bacon... the sky is the limit really.

Now... dig into that luscious pot of chocolatey fruity goodness.

Happy summer!

Jean-Paul Hevin - All Day Afternoon Tea for Dark Chocolate Lovers

I love dark chocolate (who doesn't?), and if you loved chocolate so much and you want to have a very chocolatey afternoon tea as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then this is perfect for you :)

This is one of Jean-Paul Hevin's all-day afternoon tea sets. It has two chocolate cakes, two macarons, two chocolate bonbons and two chocolate coated almonds.

The chocolate cake in focus is voted the best chocolate cake in Japan!

I must admit that I've never loved macarons... to me, they are just way too sweet, until I tried Jean-Paul Hevin's macaron last year.

I love how they are not too sweet, and I love the dark chocolate ganache here.


One of the chocolate coated almond had a hint of Earl Grey Tea, which I love.

If you're looking for a nice quiet place to sit down with friends after (well, or before) a crazy shopping around Central, or a place to have dessert after an early bird dinner (just like me - a senior citizen who likes to dine latest by 6:30pm..), before clubbing, or if you just need a good dose of dark chocolate... (you don't need a reason to want chocolate, right?), then check the place out!

Christmas is around the corner, and I know what to get MIL (who's a dark chocolate maniac) for Christmas.

Oh hello, chocolate! Come to mama!

I want to keep the "rustic" wooden box.


And this will surely cure all kinds of Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday blues...

More photos on my Facebook page.

Jean-Paul Hevin
Address etc here.
Afternoon tea set: HK$168.
Chocolate cake: HK$58/slice
Macarons: HK$25/piece

Thank you Jean-Paul Hevin for the invitation! You've brightened up my gloomy weekday night.

Easy Chocolate Yogurt Dessert

Chocolate + tangy yogurt. I must've been mad.
Again, side effect of dieting.

Screw diet! I'm having something sweet. It's almost the weekend anyway.

This is very easy to make, and the tang from the yogurt made the whole thing almost taste like chocolate cheesecake.

Recipe
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt (this is why mine's so tangy, you can use vanilla yogurt, etc, but remember to adjust the amount of sugar)
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar, sifted
(you can use melted dark chocolate if you wish, I was just too lazy to even bother)

Toppings
I used dark chocolate cornflakes & powdered sugar based on SC's request, but you can use frosties/special K/coco pops or granola and berries if you like.

Whisk together yogurt, cocoa powder and sugar until well combined. Serve in a bowl with topping.

Enjoy!

At least the yogurt part is healthy right? T_T

Super Easy Chocolate Cheesecake

Lazy. That's me.
Too lazy to melt chocolate, too lazy to melt butter, too lazy to line a proper cake mold, too lazy to process each ingredient correctly, and definitely too lazy to get dressed, go out, and buy chocolate cheesecake.
So, I just dumped ingredients into food processor and baked an easy chocolate cheesecake.

Short-cuts is my life.

The cake isn't smooth, it has chocolate bits all over it and stuff...but since it has cream cheese, chocolate, sugar and oreos...how bad can it be?

Recipe
- 1 block of cream cheese
- 1 bar of lindt dark chocolate
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 5 tbsp sugar
- 5 tbsp cream (I don't know why I measured like this, I am so crap at writing recipes)
- 1 egg
- 1 pack of oreos
- 3 tbsp butter

To make crust, throw the whole pack of oreos and butter into food processor, pulse until smooth, pour into a  lightly greased pan, press well onto the pan. To make cheesecake, throw everything into food processor, pulse until everything's well blended (there will be bits of chocolate, let them be), pour into pan, bake in 180C oven for 30 minutes. Let cool and refrigerate to set and consume later, or if you're crazy impatient like me, just dig into the hot stuff with a spoon or something.

And don't forget to lick the spoon.

Have a happy weekend!

Ugly Delicious - Banana Chocolate Pie

Another ugly delicious thing for you guys :)
Seriously, how ugly does this thing look?
But I can assure you that buttery pastry + banana + chocolate...no matter how ugly it looks, it must be delish!


I used the crust recipe here, simply removed the teaspoon of salt and dry herbs, and used salted butter instead (I love a touch of savory in my sweets), or you can use frozen pastry too, I have nothing against that ^_^. I filled the pastry with chunks of banana and semi sweet chocolate chunks, egg-washed it and baked it in a preheated oven until golden brown.

If you can't get over the ugliness, eat this with your eyes closed or lights off heheheh.

Perfect with a cup of tea.

Rose Shaped Chocolate Cake from Patisserie Tony Wong, Kowloon City, Hong Kong

This has got to be one of the most gorgeous cakes I've ever seen! Look at those chocolate rose petals!

We were having this cake at Athena's birthday party last weekend. When it was unboxed, there was a collective "ahhhhh" and we gawked at the cake for a good 15 minutes at least...and we surely photographed the cake like there's no tomorrow.

We proceeded to debating on how we should "divide" the cake, as it is obviously too pretty to slice.
We screamed in unison when the birthday girl did this.


What's under those beautiful petals?

More chocolatey yumminess!


My favorite part of the cake's definitely those chocolate petals. As for the cake itself, it would be nice if there were some non chocolate elements in there to prevent us from getting chocolate overdose. There's a pink version of this cake which is as pretty if not prettier. I am soo gonna try it next time ;)

Check out Patisserie Tony Wong's website here.

Ugly Delicious - Banana Chocolate Spring Rolls 醜陋的朱古力蕉春卷

These spring rolls may look super ugly.
But, there were abso-bloody-lutely delicious, freakin' yummy! Trust me.
我很醜, 但是我很温柔 (好味)..

They look so ugly because some chocolate bits were sipping out of the spring roll sheets. Hmmm, actually, to me, the chocolate specks kinda made them appear extra appealing, ugliness in the best way possible.
醜的原因有好多, 就好似爆醬朱古力咁....落重手左...但咁啱得咁蹺就係咁先好食..


Super easy to make.
Roughly mash some ripe bananas, prepare some chocolate (I use jimmies), wrap some banana and chocolate in spring roll wrappers and deep fry until golden brown.
超易整的說.
攪溶的香蕉, 預備D朱古力 (我用開jimmies牌), 將D朱蕉醬搽落春卷皮度, 柞到金黃

Crispy on the outside, sweet and creamy with chocolatey bits on the inside.
Ugly? Who cares, right?
外脆內軟, 正!

Chocolate Brownie Cookies - My First Mother's Day 朱古力曲奇 - 我的第一個母親節

Did I make these cookies to celebrate my first mother's day?

Not really. I made them because I had nothing more to post on this blog. I am such a bad blogger. Do you appreciate my honesty? Not really? Oppps. Heheheh.

大家唔好以為我自己整曲奇比自己做母親節禮物, 其實冇晒野Blog..

But it was my first mother's day. How exciting!

但係傲B出世後, 今次係我第一次真真正正作為一個媽媽咁過母親節!太令人興奮了

I grew up being taught to pamper our mom to the max on mother's day. Did I get pampered that day? Not really. Our helper's off, SC and I have to work hand in hand to take care of baby Marcus together. But I did buy a bunch of flowers to be shared with SC's mom.

個日工人姐姐休息, 傲B又好攪攪震, 攪到我地勁忙, 最後我地都買左一紮花, 比自己同SC媽媽(一紮兩份用XD)

It means that I get to take pictures of the flowers and she gets to keep the flowers. We are quite a thrifty family ^_^

Both mamas took pictures with baby Marcus...

大家都同傲B影相, 傲B變左譽用model XD

And ate the delicious cookies. They're soft (I am not a big fan of crispy cookies), very chocolatey and surprisingly easy to make!

D曲奇好軟, 好濃朱古力味, 正!

Recipe (食譜)

(source Smitten Kitchen's Brownie Roll-Out Cookies)
- 1 and 1/2 all purpose flour

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- 1 stick of unsalted butter

- 3/4 cup sugar

- 1 egg

- 1/3 cup & 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa (I used Hershey's)

- 1 tsp instant coffee

Preheat oven to 180C. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and set aside. Mix butter, sugar, egg, vanilla and cocoa (I used hand mixer, OMG! It gets rather hard to mix in the end). Add flour mixture gradually, mix well. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least one hour (I misread this and only chilled for half hour, no wonder my cookies are in weird shapes...).

Roll out cookie dough on a lightly floured surface, cut with cookie cutter, bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet for 8-11 minutes or until the edges are firm and the center are slightly soft and puffed.

預熱焗爐到180度, 係個碗攪拌麵粉，鹽和發酵粉, 擺埋一邊, 撈埋D牛油，糖，雞蛋，香草同可可(唔知點解, 用機反而仲難攪..)慢慢加D入麵粉混合, 攪均. 包住佢等佢凍(大概一個鐘)

整平D麵粉混合, 用D曲奇切割器切D曲奇出黎, 放係曲奇紙上烤大概8-11分鐘, 直到D曲奇角硬左就OK

Although my cookies look horrible, they are yummy! I will be making this often, and maybe add some fun frosting on top :)

雖然唔好睇, 但係好食!

Cheers to all mothers in the world! We rock!

最後祝大家母親節快樂!

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I went nuts playing with frosting, and not in a good way. It's not as easy as I thought it'd be. I squirted some frosting out trying to draw a circle...and my circle got disconnected all the time, my frosted cupcakes looked pretty...pathetic! We all had a lot of fun though...SC, myself and my helper each got to frost at least a cake...and here are the horrible ones we did...

I did the horrible circles (they were meant to be "roses", but I failed miserably) and the wobbly heart, my helper did the "flower" with just four petals (she meant to draw five petals but somehow overestimated the space heheheh) SC did the star and...

....the Chinese character which could be interpreted as "yum" (jeng!).
How creative of him!

I also did a little smiley face...which also meant that this cake had too little frosting, too bad!

I used recipes from all recipes, I just reduced the portion to eight cupcakes, added a teaspoon of orange essence in the cake batter (recipe link here), as well as a teaspoon of orange essence and a drop of orange food coloring in the frosting batter (recipe link here). The chocolate orange cupcakes turned out wonderful, chocolatey and moist, the frosting gave a delightful tang to the combo. I'll be making these babies often ;)

Speaking of writing with food...it all started when we went to a Japanese BBQ joint for a lunch and SC wrote the same word using thick, juicy, tasty ox tongue chunks.

He said that this should be every food blogger's favorite word, yum!
I couldn't agree more ;)

Mint Chocolate Chips Cakes with Fresh Mint Leaves from My "Herb Garden"

Some people hate mint flavored baked goods/drinks because the minty flavor and scent reminded them of...tooth paste/mouth wash?
How many of you feel this way? I'm curious.
SC is one of them, he absolutely hates mint flavor (when it's not tooth paste/mouthwash/chewing gum/after dinner mints) and always asked me not to bake anything...minty.
I dunno...but I love it, I always order minty stuff from time to time.
I find the flavor, refreshing and cooling, especially love it for summer.

Anyway, I am the one who bakes stuff at home, so I get the final say.
Mint it was.

I used peppermint essence, but to crank it up a notch, I included quite a bit of mint leaves from my tiny and miserable "herb garden". My hands felt all minty after picking these tiny mint leaves. I love it!

Look at those tiny little green spots in the cake...cuter than green food coloring, don't you think?

Recipe
(yields 6 cupcakes)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- a pinch of salt
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 tsp peppermint essence
- a few sprigs of mint leaves (you can use less, my plant is not really "healthy" so the leaves are so tiny!)
- about 10 chocolate chips per cake

I did this the absolutely lazy way.
Preheat oven to 180C, pour all ingredients (except chocolate chips) into food processor (since I need to break down the mint leaves into tiny spots anyway), pulse until well mixed and the mint leaves are all broken into tiny spots. Pour into muffin tray lined with paper, add chocolate chips, bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Minty fresh!

If I wasn't too lazy I'd make some minted buttercream/cream cheese frosting...but of course I was too lazy.
Maybe next time la.

What other flavors I can mix with mint?

Chocolate Chips and Cheese Muffins - Muffin Coklat Keju

A classic Indonesian flavor combo that I always miss. I love the use of cheeses in baked goods, and tried incorporating them in these easy muffins. They aren't perfect. When used in Indonesian baked goods such as buns, which are normally consumed in room temperature, the cheese would be in a form of small savory bits (not melted) which bring out the best of the chocolate (and/or banana) flavor it's paired with. I aimed for having some gooey, melted cheese, at least when the muffins were freshly baked, but I think I did it wrong. If I wanted some gooey stuff, I should've added a chunk of cheese (and chocolate) in the middle instead of stirring grated cheeses into the batter. Oh wells, I'll try again next time.

The flavors aren't too bad, I did achieve that savory-sweet thing I wanted.

Recipe
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 cup milk
- 3 handfuls of grated cheese (I used mozzarella and cheddar)
- Chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 180C, mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, mix wet ingredients (except cheese and chocolate chips) in another bowl, make a well in the dry ingredient mixture, pour wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Add a handful of grated cheeses. Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper cups until half full, add grated cheeses & chocolate chips, top with more batter, add more cheeses and chocolate chips on top. Serve hot.

Steamed Double Chocolate Cake

Look who's creeping from under the table...


I want chocolate cake, mama!


I want. I want. I want.

This is what people say in Cantonese "can see but can't eat" (yau tak tai, mo tak sek)

Poor baby.
I am always searching for a good chocolate cake recipe, and last weekend, I tried a recipe from Recipes for Keeps. A lazy bitch that I am, I didn't do the topping, which would totally elevate this soft, moist, fluffy, rich, not-too-sweet and very chocolatey cake. Ah well, maybe next time ;)

Recipe (my adaptation)
- 1 & 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup canola oil
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 3 eggs (beaten)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 cup boiling water
- a lot of dark chocolate chips

Sift flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl, mix well. Make a well in the middle, add oil and milk, mix well, add beaten eggs, keep mixing, add vanilla essence, and boiling water, mix well. Add chocolate chips, pour into greased bowls/ramekins and steam for 15-20 minutes. If you use a large baking tray, the recipe instructed to steam for 45 minutes.

This is one recipe to keep. I owe baby Marcus steamed chocolate cakes ^_^

Instant Coffee & Chocolate Chip Cake

Remember my previous miserable failure?
This time, it's so much better.
Moist, soft, fluffy, the coffee flavor is there, with bites of coffee bits and dark chocolate chips, and as always, super easy to make.

Perfect for the always-sleepy workday afternoons.
If you're not an instant coffee kinda person, replace the instant coffee bit with your favorite.

Recipe
Dry ingredients
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp instant coffee
Wet ingredients
- 1 sachet instant coffee (I used Old Town Hazelnut 3-1 Instant coffee. It does have a bit of sugar, if you are not using already sweetened coffee mix, add 1 more tbsp sugar), dissolve in a bit of hot water, top up with cool water to make 2/3 cup
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- a dash of vanilla essence
- I dunno if I was mad, but I added a dash of Korean soju in the mix just because I saw it sitting around in my fridge when I was picking up an egg, you can totally omit this
- about 10 small dark chocolate chips per cake (I use Hershey's)

Preheat oven to 180C, mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix wet ingredients in another bowl. Make a well in the mixture of dry ingredients, pour in the wet ingredients and mix. Pour into muffin mold lined with cupcake liners until about 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Wake up and smell the coffee!
Happy Monday!

La Maison du Chocolat Christmas 2010 Creation - Chocolate Raspberry Bûche

Another Friday indulgence for me, Chocolate Raspberry Bûche, La Maison du Chocolate's Christmas 2010 creation. What can I say? It's every bit as fantastic as it looks! A perfect balance of textures and flavors. Soft, smooth, crunchy, chewy, sweet, rich, chocolatey, sharp, with an explosion of runny tangy raspberry in the middle. Wonderful!

As it's super hard for me to get just one...we also ordered the Chestnut cake.

The combination of textures and chestnut flavor is there...but in comparison to the chocolate raspberry bûche, this is a lot more...subtle.

TGIF!

La Maison du Chocolat
Prince's Building - Shop 109
First Floor, 10 Charter Road, Central
Hong Kong
Tel : (+852) 2801 4122

http://www.lamaisonduchocolat.com/

Chewy Double Chocolate Persimmon Cake

I was suddenly in the mood for baking.
I think even my oven misses the sweet scent of sugar, cinnamon and chocolate.

Plus, I received three beautiful and super ripe persimmons from SC's mom, perfect for my baking itch!

Plus, baking means I'd have a valid excuse reason to force SC to get off his XBOX and interact (i.e. take over the milk and diaper duty) with Marcus for a bit.

Hehehe.

Recipe
- 1 cup of persimmon pulp (remove the green top, cut into 4 section and press again a strainer, use the strained "juice")
- 1 cup flour
- 2/3 cup of sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil + 1 tbsp butter
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 5 heaping tbsp chocolate powder
- 1 tsp instant coffee granules
- 2 big handful of dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F/180C, mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, make a well, add persimmon pulp, vegetable oil and butter, mix until just combined. Add chocolate chips, grease a loaf pan, pour cake batter, bake until a skewer stuck in the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Sweet, moist, chewy and chocolatey...

...and it makes my flat smell less like baby poo (sorry for ruining your appetite again hehe)