Baking Marathon

It's a good thing your aunt has a nice built-in oven and she rarely use it. My cousins use it sometimes, though :) and out of nowhere, we decided to have a Cousins Baking Weekend. Yay~

Right out from oven

We had a long talk that week before decided what to bake. Choices were brownies, apple crumble, cake pop, banana or carrot cake, scones, and many more. Then we tried to narrow down what we want to bake, Jw wanted to bake brownies because her son love it much, L wanted apple crumble because her colleague did a great job with apple crumble and she wanted more of it, C went with everything she can eat, and I can really bake anything cause I miss oven so much! But because of the time limit, I guess we can only choose two of them, so we go with apple crumble galette and banana quick bread.

#1 Banana Quick Bread
I got the recipe from Food Network Magazine, the article only gives you the ingredients proportion, not the actual recipe.
1 : Choose your fruit. We go banana!
2 : Choose your adds in. I bought my favorite nut, almond, and I still have peanut butter chip in the fridge that I brought along. Plus chocolate chip for sure!
3 : Prepare your batter.
4 : Mix mix mix. Pour the batter to the greased loaf pan.
5 : Wait for the Ding! moment

Well, turned out we got so much time to kill. After we finished putting the banana quick bread batter into the oven, we have to wait about 55mins. So Jw thought we can do extra cake, let's go for brownies! Fortunately, we have all the ingredients ready.

When the banana bread is almost done, we put the brownies in oven

#2 Chocolate Brownies
I've made this before. And I realized just now, at this moment, that I never post it before. My bad. I just put some note in my recipe book that this recipe makes a wonderful brownies, it is crisp on top, but fudgy and chewy inside. My kind of brownies. I got this recipe from ZoomYummy.

Last time I made this, I baked it in 20cm x 20cm pan. It came out perfect. But this time, I didn't know what's wrong. Was it the pan? The heat of the oven? Or in the process of making the batter? But it came out wrong. It's still undercooked in the middle. The batter was still runny, even after we cooled it down. So we put it back in the oven for more half an hour . But I guess it's too late. Well, we managed to cut the cooked sides. It still tasted great, the problem was only in the texture.

Ding! moment for banana bread. The result : it was wonderful. The exterior was crisp and flavorful, while the interior was so moist and the peanut butter chip really makes this quick bread one level up!

You see the crisp exterior? That's the best stuff

Extra batter = Banana Bread in cupcake

#3 Apple Galette Crumble
Now, this one, I've made it before, and I've posted it too. This recipe is a combination of two recipes : Cinnamon Apple Galette and Apple Crumble Cake. I just added the crumble thing from the latter recipe to the galette. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of this one :( But you get the picture, crumbles on apple galette.

After this, I hope there will be more Cousins Baking Weekend!


Talking about banana, who doesn't love The Minions from the movie Despicable Me? I looooovee them so much. There will be Despicable Me 2 in July 2013. Have you watched this video? I love it so much, now it's set as my ringtone :D

Peanut Sesame Pasta

I only have macaroni in my fridge, so...

E and i were at Kem Chicks (a gourmet lifestyle supermarket at Jakarta). We were at pasta section. And i asked E,
Me : Do you like pasta?
E : Umm..Yes.
Me : Do you like peanut butter?
E : Sure i do.
Me : Have you ever consider to mix them together?
E : ....... What??Are u sure?That sounds.... weird.

Yeah. That's what i'm thinking too when i read this recipe from Smitten Kitchen, one of my favorite blog. Seriously, you can add peanut butter in pasta? And does it even edible?

I read the recipe over again, it looked like it easy to make, and i have most the ingredients on hand (minus sesame oil). So, what the hell. I tried them. And it no doubt become my favorite pasta! By the time i post this, i've made this pasta again and again. And again.. Oh, how i love you SK!

Peanut Sesame Noodle (or pasta)
from Smitten Kitchen

Servings: Makes 6 side-dish or 4 vegetarian main-course servings.

For peanut dressing
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup warm water
1 tablespoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 medium garlic clove, chopped
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 1/2 tablespoons Asian toasted sesame oil*
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes or a splash of the hot sauce or chili paste of your choice

For noodles
3/4 lb dried soba nooodles (dried linguine fini or spaghetti will work in a pinch)
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1/8-inch-thick strips
Half a seedless cucumber, thinly sliced
1 cup firm or extra-firm tofu, cubed
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted

Pour dressing ingredients in a blender until smooth, about 2 minutes, then transfer to a large bowl.

Cook pasta in a 6- to 8-quart pot of boiling salted water until tender. Drain in a colander, then rinse well under cold water.

Add pasta, scallions, bell peppers, cucumber and tofu to dressing, tossing to combine. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

It's damn easy, right? You can make this in the morning for your lunch. Well, i did :D

*Substitution for sesame oil (for 1 tbsp) : 1 1/2 tsp sesame seeds saute in 1/2 tsp vegetable oil