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.

Super Easy Fruit Sorbet - Nova Gelato Maker

How to make super easy fruit sorbet at home without an ice cream maker or manually "churning" for hours? I'm so glad I've found Nova gelato maker!

(This is not an advert, Nova does not sponsor this post nor gave me any free product hehehe).

So easy to make icy fruity dessert that's perfect for summer, healthier, and fun for OB to make!

To make, simply freeze cut up fruits. We made strawberries, lychee & blueberries.

Aren't they gorgeous?

The possibility is limitless. You can use mango, pineapple, banana, yoghurt, add crushed oreos for texture, shaved chocolate, and even booze! Uh huh!

To start making, simply thaw the frozen fruits for 15 minutes & dump them into the chute.

OB loves helping out!

And you have lovely fresh gelato, sorbet, icy fruit, or whatever you wanna call it. 

The machine doesn't take so much space & easy to clean too!

It's HK$880 if bought from their website, price could be cheaper in some other shops (I bought from Patisserie Corner for HK$700).

Here's their official website: en.nova-greenliving.com

Healthy Dragon Fruit Smoothie & Popsicle - Perfect For Summer

This smoothie is yummy & refreshing, and it is great for digestion ;)

It's fun for the kids to make too! OB had a great time helping out & he generally likes things more if he's involved in the process.

In goes banana... Mama's heart stopped seeing him using a knife, but papa closely supervised him. Phew..

In goes the chunks of dragon fruit..

And then yakult, ice & honey.

Pulse in blender 'til smooth.

Cheers!

How was it?

All smiles! 

(And hello, beautiful poo poo, bye bye constipation! - oh gosh, being a mom has reduced me to THIS) 

The same recipe can be made into popsicles. Hello, summer!

Recipe

- 1 banana

- 1 dragon fruit

- 1 bottle of yakult

- a handful of ice

- 1 tbsp honey

Pulse until smooth in a blender.

Drink up, refrigerate, or pour into popsicle mold & freeze.

Cheers!

Pandan French Toast - Ugly Delicious

The color might be lurid green and scary, but I can assure you that it's very yummy!

Bread soaked in mixture of egg, melted butter, coconut cream, sugar & pandan essence. It's a no brainer, really! Must be yum! I will definitely use coconut cream more often when making french toasts. It gives me that much needed kick-in-the-gut richness.

Recipe
- bread of your choice (I used 1 small mixed grain bun, sliced to 1 cm thick slices)
- 2 tsp sugar
- 5 tbsp coconut cream
- 3 tbsp butter (salted), melted
- a pinch of salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- a few drops of pandan essence (add bit by bit, I added half a teaspoon)
- some more butter mixed with vegetable oil for frying

Melt butter, let cool for a bit while preparing other ingredients. Mix sugar, salt, coconut cream, pandan essence and melted butter in a bowl, soak bread pieces in the mixture and let them "marinate" in fridge for a couple of hours. Before serving, heat up some butter mixed with a bit of vegetable oil to prevent from burning, pan fry bread pieces until golden.


Rich, fragrant, sweet, and fluffffffy! I really adore the scent and creaminess of coconut milk in these babies.
Enjoy!

Super Easy Mini French Toasts

The first French Toasts I tried was the Hong Kong style golden brown deep fried one. I do love it, but I didn't realize that I'd love these non-deep-fried ones, and they are so simple to make too!

Recipe
(yields 6 mini french toasts. they are very rich and filling tho)
- 1 egg, beaten
- half cup of milk
- 1cm thick slice of butter, cut from 1 stick - melted, and 1 tsp for frying (mixed with cooking oil)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 small mixed grain bun, cut into 1 cm thick pieces

Mix beaten egg, milk, melted butter and sugar, add slices of bread, make sure the bread pieces are fully soaked in the mixture, let them "marinate" for at least 15 minutes. Heat up frying pan with cooking oil and butter, pan fry pieces of bread until golden brown.

You should get very fluffy, creamy, eggy inner part and crispy outer part. Very yum! And as if these aren't sinful enough...I ate mine with peanut butter, cream cheese, and Nutella. Perfect for breakfast or tea time.

Caramelized Grilled Banana with Condensed Milk

A simple yet decadent treat for a sloth x glutton crossover like me.


Preheat oven to 200C. Get some super ripe bananas (I like using mini or emperor bananas as they are not mushy), peel the skin and halve them length-wise, place them flat side down on a lightly greased pan, on top of each one, add a tiny bit of butter (about 0.5cm dollop). Put the pan on the top rack of the oven, grill until gloriously golden. Remove from oven, drizzle some condensed milk over them (I used both original and chocolate condensed milk) and devour.

If only I had some cheddar to shave on top, it would've made the whole combo even more deliciously unreal. If you wanna improve the presentation (aka, not making them look like a pile of crap, like mine T_T), you can dust some powdered sugar, or serve it with ice cream, add a dainty piece of mint leaf etc.

As you can see, I didn't bother T_T

Coffee Cream Soda Granita

You guys can probably smell my desperation to beat the heat this summer. I've been freezing everything I can get my hands on, including my caffeine :D

Back home in Indonesia, I used to love F&N's coffee cream soda, and it's too bad I can't get it here in Hong Kong. I am trying to recreate it and of course, transform it into a frozen form ^_^

It's super easy and I am very pleased with the result.
Some bitterness from the coffee, enough sweetness and a tinge of tang from the cream soda...in the form of ice!

Frozen coffee.

Oh yeah. My caffeine of choice.

Recipe
- 4 heaping tsp of instant coffee (you can use your preferred coffee)
- 4 heaping tsp of caster sugar
- 1/4 cup hot water
- about 1 - 1&1/2 cup of cold cream soda (it's not creamy at all, it's just sweet)

Dissolve instant coffee and sugar in hot water, pour into a 24oz/3cups/700ml freezer friendly container, top with cold cream soda until about 3/4 full or add bit by bit to make sure that you don't lose the coffee flavor from adding too much soda. Place in freezer for two hours, stir well, put it back into the freezer and simply scrape the ice with fork before serving. After scraping with fork, you can keep the leftover in the freezer, ready for next consumption.

You can serve it topped with a bit of cream or whipped cream, but I prefer mine as is.

Watermelon & Mint Popsicles for Baby M

In an effort to beat the heat...
I made so many kinds of slurpee, popsicles, granitas, ice cubes, iced drinks, I basically iced everything, it's getting ridiculous!

Remember the watermelon and mint slurpee from yesterday?

I also made it into popsicles for baby M to enjoy.

Did he like?


Sweet, refreshing, homemade, no scary chemicals involved.


Lick, lick, lick!

He couldn't get enough of it :)

Happy weekend, y'all! Stay cool!

Watermelon and Mint Slurpee

Something easy and refreshing to slurp loudly while watching my late night bad TV after baby M went to bed. Watermelon and mint slurpee!

Simply throw some chunks of seedless watermelon (I used about a quarter of a watermelon), some fresh mint leaves, and a bit of honey (if needed) into food processor/blender, pulse/blend until smooth, add a splash of vodka if you want, pour into a plastic container, place in the freezer for about 90 minutes - 2 hours, and slurpppppp~!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Weekend Picnic at Inspiration Lake

Finally! We've found a patch of grass we can sit on in Hong Kong! We were so happy it didn't rain yesterday, we had our picnic with Joe, Athena and baby Alice at Inspiration Lake.


The place is beautiful and it's easy to get to. Simply take the MTR to Disney station, and take the R8 bus to the Inspiration Lake recreation area.

We settled ourselves on a clean patch of grass, under the shade of a tree. We brought some simple food...sandwiches, hot dogs, shrimp paste grilled chicken wings, marinated meat and fish balls and Chinese sausages, and fresh melons.

There's a 7-11 there, so actually you don't have to bring any drinks or food. We didn't know that ^_^'

I made roast duck sandwiches...


I used mini croissants, store bought roast duck, slices of fresh pear, and mayonaisse.


The hot dogs had cheese sausages, sliced cucumber, mayo, ketchup and spreadable cheese in them. I used cocktail buns, the inner part buttered and lightly toasted.


I also made apple caramel sandwiches. They're filled with slices of fuji apple, which were lightly salted to prevent them from browning, and slathered with some butter and toffee caramel spread.


The babies enjoyed their own food...and some of our buns...


And it was too hot, we decided to let baby Marcus try some popsicle.

He was shocked by how cold it was...at first.

Soon enough, he grew to love it...


...and kept asking for more.

So much for trying to not let him eat anything unhealthy until he's 10 ^_^'

It was so hot, we were pretty much melted, sun burnt, and bitten my mosquitoes/various insects, but we enjoyed it much, we're gonna go back when the weather is cooler.

The full set of pictures are posted on my Facebook Page. Like it if you haven't already ^_^

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!

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls 叮噹聲:神奇肉桂卷

If you've been reading my blog, you know my baking skills. It's pretty minimal. I am bad at following recipes, and generally can't do more than muffins. What the heck, I can even screw up muffins. This is why I hardly try anything more complicated that mixing stuff in a bowl and dumping them into the oven. This was an exception.
大家有睇開我個Blog都知我唔係阿茂, 所以唔係咁識整餅. 我嘅極限就只係整鬆餅啦..就算整鬆餅, 我都試過賴野..

Back in my college days in Jakarta, I buy cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon from time to time. Sweet and sticky on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. I miss cinnamon rolls so much, I decided to do the unthinkable and try to make some myself. God help me.
細個係雅加達讀書時成日去Cinnabon 買肉桂卷食. 出面又甜同黏, 裏面就軟同鬆化. 真係另人好懷念. 我決定自己試整, 希望成功啦!


I followed Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls recipe, because...well, she always makes everything sound so doable and extremely yummy! How did it go?...
今次跟Pioneer Woman個食譜, 因為之前試過幾次都成功

I couldn't believe myself! I did it!
一路整我都唔相信會成功, 因為個樣同完成圖差好遠..但係一焗完, 嘩, 似模似樣!!

Sweet, sticky, fragrant, buttery, golden brown, super yummy, not to mention extremely photogenic!
超好味, 大家如果得閑, 記得試吓