I'm a full-time mummy

I love cheese and Domino's Pizza had this dish called 'Breadstick' which I would order whenever we get pizza delivered to our home. So after mulling for a while and getting bored with baking muffins (and relying on pre-mixes), I decided to take the leap and do something new... 

Hence, this is my 1st attempt of making: CHEESE STICKS.

I baked this on Sunday 12th Sept and the recipe was adapted from Sara Lewis's "Healthy Home-Made Food For Babies & Toddlers" book. In case you're wondering why is my measurement so weird (such as 88g of flour), this is because I halved the actual measurements (to reduce risk of failure hahahaha...) and I rounded up the measurement. So the actual recipe can be for 175g of flour but mine has been revised to 88g of flour and so on.

PREPARATION TIME: LESS THAN HALF AN HOUR

* About 10 minutes to mix & knead dough

* 10 minutes for baking process

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 1 egg (at room temperature)

* 88g plain/all-purpose flour (I used wheat flour)

* 38g butter (a bit chilled)

* 58g grated Cheddar cheese

* A bowl to mix ingredients in

* Kitchen scale

* Baking aluminium foil the size of wire rack

What to Do?

* Place the flour into the bowl, add the butter and rub in until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

(The fine breadcrumb look after you rub in the butter with the flour)

* Stir in the grated cheese.

* Reserve 1 tablespoon of beaten egg and then stir the remaining into the pastry mixture.

* Mix to a smooth dough, adding water when necessary.

(The dough... strong smell of cheese at this point...)

* Knead lightly and roll out on a floured surface to a rectangle shape.

* Brush the remaining egg on the top of the rolled dough.

* Cut into strips and place on the baking sheets/tray, spaced slightly apart.

BAKING PROCESS

* Pre-heat oven at 190℃ for about 7 minutes (although the recipe stated to pre-heat at 200℃)

* Set oven to 190℃ and bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.

* Loosen from but leave to cool on the baking sheets/tray.

(Note: Suitable for freezing up to 3 months in a plastic box, interleaved with baking parchment)

THE RESULTS

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

* Test subject 1 (aka me): "Hmmm... taste so-so (this is because I'm comparing it with Domino's Pizza's cheesesticks) although it does taste better after you had a few sticks."

* Test subject 2 (aka Ben):(See pictures below)

* Test subject 3 (aka hubby): "Delicious! If served with Domino's Pizza's tomato sauce will be awesome! Can fight with their breadstick seriously!"

* Test subject 4 (aka MIL): "How come no taste?" (You have to excuse my MIL's reaction as she used to be a nose cancer patient and after radiotherapies, she lost part of her hearing and taste senses)

So there you go.... my 1st CHEESE STICK attempt!

Overall, I'm happy with this attempt - at least, I'm trying out something different from the usual muffins that I made and it's a small step in baking with real ingredients and not relying on pre-mixes.

And I'm getting tired of hearing my MIL telling people I can only make this food because it's taught by my SIL - somehow I feel she's always trying not to acknowledge that I can make good food too... probably scared of the competition hehehe... So now, she cannot tell people that I'm able to cook this only because it's taught by my SIL because it's not!! Muahahahaha...

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Brought to you by:  Mama Baker wannabe aka

This is my 1st attempt of making: BLUEBERRY MUFFIN. I baked this on Saturday 11th Sept. Sorry totally forgot to take the pictures of the process (again!)...

PREPARATION TIME: ABOUT HALF AN HOUR

* Less than 5 minutes to mix & fold batter

* 7 minutes to pre-heat the oven

* 22 minutes for baking process

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* Blueberry Muffin Mix (250g)

* 1 egg (at room temperature)

* 68ml oil

* 50ml water (at room temperature)

* Measuring spoons

* A big containter to mix ingredients in

* A flexible spatula for mixing and folding

* Cupcake casings-depending the casing size, I used 7 pieces this round

* Kitchen scale

* A small spoon to spoon mixture into cupcake casings

* Baking aluminium foil the size of wire rack

What to Do?

* Place all ingredients into a big container, making a well with the dry ingredients at the outer side while the oil, water and egg are in the well.

* Mix and fold using the flexible spatula.

* Continue mixing and folding until all ingredients are combined.

* Using the small spoon, spoon the mixture to each cupcake casing until about 3/4 full.

* Place each cupcake casings on top of wire rack which has been lined with baking foil.

BAKING PROCESS

*Pre-heat oven at 180℃ (about 7 minutes since I reduced the temperature this time by 5℃)

* Place wire rack tray into oven.

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 22 minutes (extra 2 minutes just to be safe)

THE RESULTS

CLOSE UP SHOT

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

* Test subject 1 (aka me): "Ooo I love it! This time is sooooooo much better! Love the top, the moist is perfect! I'm so happy I want to name each of the blueberry muffins!!!"

* Test subject 2 (aka Ben): "Ammm Ammm Mammm... "(Ben's signals for us that he wants to eat it NOW!)

(Going, going, gone!!! Ben whacked almost 1 muffin by himself!)

* Test subject 3 (aka hubby): "Perfect! Save me the last one!"

* Test subject 4 (aka MIL): "Wah! This time is very nice. See, must practise more then can make better taste!"

WHAT IS DIFFERENT WITH THIS ATTEMPT?

* Increased pre-heat time from usual 5 minutes to 7 minutes

* Reduced pre-heat temperature from usual 190℃ to 180℃

* Reduced baking time from 25 to 22 minutes (at 20th minute, I use chopstik to poke one of the muffins to check doneness then decided 2 more minutes extra to be safe)

* Maintained baking temperature at 180℃ since my previous baking attempt created nice muffin peaks

So there you go.... my 1st BLUEBERRY MUFFINS attempt!

Overall, I'm very happy with this attempt - the way they turned out, nice rounded peak and the perfect moist, the crust top is just nice, not too hard and not too soft.

Oh well, I love it so much in this attempt that I am going to name all the muffins:

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka

This is my 1st attempt of making:

BANANA MUFFIN

I baked this on Sunday 5th Sept. Sorry didn't have time to take the pictures of the process... as I rushed to get it done while Ben was taking his daytime nap and 10 of the muffins went to BIL's for his belated birthday celebration together with about 11 pieces of roasted chicken wings heheheh...

PREPARATION TIME: Less than 1 HOUR

* Less than 5 minutes to mix & fold batter

* 25 minutes for baking process

Ingredients / Tool Required:

* 1 pack of Banana Muffin Mix (500g)

* 330 grams of bananas (I used the small types)

* 3 eggs (room temperature)

* 150ml oil

* A measuring jug

* A big containter to mix ingredients in

* A flexible spatula for mixing and folding

* Cupcake casings-depending the casing size, I used 14 pieces this round

* Kitchen scale (to weigh bananas)

* A small ladle to spoon mixture into cupcake casings

* Baking aluminium foil the size of wire rack

What to Do?

* Place all ingredients into a big container.

* Mix and fold using the flexible spatula.

* Continue mixing and folding until all ingredients are combined.

* Using the small ladle, spoon the mixture to each cupcake casing until about 3/4 full.

* Drop in small amount of chocolate chips or whatever you want to decorate the muffins with into each cupcake casing

* Place each cupcake casings on top of wire rack which has been lined with baking foil.

BAKING PROCESS

*Pre-heat oven at 190℃ (about 5 minutes)

* Place wire rack tray into oven.

* Set oven to 180℃ and bake for 20 minutes (experimented by reducing temperature and time)

THE RESULTS

CLOSE UP SHOT

REACTIONS FROM MY "GUINEA PIGS"

* Test subject 1 (aka me): "Much better than previous chocolate chip muffins! The shapes are definitely nicer compared to previous attempt which peaked at all directions! But feel dry... :( "

* Test subject 2 (aka Ben): "Mmmmmmm... "(if only you can hear this sound... very delightful!!)

* Test subject 3 (aka hubby): "So nice!!! Perfect!"

* Test subject 4 (aka MIL): "Nice! Much better than last time. See Ben keeps wanting more!"

WHAT IS DIFFERENT WITH THIS ATTEMPT?

* I totally poured in the batter till 3/4 fulls - which resulted in few of the cups overflowing

* Reduce baking time from 25 to 20 minutes (at 20th minute, I use chopstik to poke one of the muffins to check doneness)

* Reduce temperature from 190℃ to 180℃ since one of my fellow very experienced baker advised me to do that as I'm using a fan oven

So there you go.... my 1st BANANA MUFFINS attempt!

Overall,I'm happy with most of the muffins - the way they turned out, nice rounded peak.

But I really gotta find way to make it more moist.

And I still can't figure out when should I drop in the sugar coating at the top?

Anyone with any tips on how do I go about doing this?

If you have any questions or tips to share, feel free to leave a comment as I might have left out details of it or I could find out more from my SIL who taught me this during my 1st baking class recently.

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

Brought to you by: Mama Baker wannabe aka