Brownies with Dates - Recipe

Alone without a company I brave myself to watch a PhD defense at Aula, my first time going there and watching one. I've read one of the papers written by the PhD candidate, and was intrigued with his study. The process was alien to me, and I was wondering how it goes. Suddenly there was a loud knock on the floor and all the audiences stand. A female with a robe holding a scepter entering the hall with the PhD student accompanied with two paranymphs in their fancy suits. I was dumbfounded, and I can feel my jaw was dropping as I was too amazed with what just happened. Never would I have expected this event was going to be too formal and traditional. 

As he stand at the podium, he started off with the introduction of his study. I listened to him diligently, trying to get the whole idea. Shortly after he finished another loud knock was heard and the opponents (examiners) and defendants entered the room. I spotted S, my supervisor, as one of the defendants. Unlike the rest he was wearing unmatching jacket and pants with tomato designed tie and messy hair and a big smile on his face. It was hard for me to control my laughter, but S really made the formal event to be more laid back, which I like.

The event then started with the opponents asking questions to the PhD candidate, each was given specific time and the candidate answered each of their questions confidently. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I had the feeling neither did the rest of the floor. Whenever the opponents said 'Figure' or 'Table,' all the audiences flipped the paperback thesis that was given to us when we entered Aula, trying to make sense what was going on, and yet failed to grasp the idea (for me that is). When the 'debate' stop, all the opponents and defendants went out of the hall and entered again 10 minutes later with a Doctoral diploma handed to the candidate. At that moment, he's no longer a PhD student, but a Doctor.  I was so happy for him even though I don't know him personally. I can imagine the hard work that he went through, and the joy when he received his diploma.

Brownies with Dates
[Click for the printable version]

Ingredients:
100 gm dark chocolate (I used 86% Cote D'or)
120 gm butter
250 gm castor sugar (You can reduce this amount if you want, the sugar here is not as sweet as the one in Malaysia)
3 large eggs
30 gm cocoa powder (I used Dutch process)
50 gm flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
11 Dates, pitted and cut into small pieces (I used Medjool dates)

Method:
1. Preheat oven at 180 °C. Line parchment paper on 8' x 8' pan with the paper extending at the sides.
2. Combine chocolate and butter in a microwaveable bowl and melt them in the microwave for 2 minutes, stopping at every 30 seconds and mix (or you can melt them using the double boiler method). Let it cool for a moment and combine sugar in the chocolate mixture.
3. Beat eggs in a large bowl, and combine the chocolate mixture with the eggs and mix using wooden spoon. Combine cocoa powder, flour, salt and dates and mix well. Pour the batter in the baking pan and bake for 30 minutes or until the surface looks dry and the sides are beginning to come away from the pan.
4. Leave the brownies to cool at the room temperature and cut into 16 pieces.

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My birthday cake

'I thought you are done with baking' said my husband sarcastically as he saw me baking my birthday cake. I told him that I'm not going to bake anymore last week (and maybe several weeks before too haha) as we want to clear out the ingredients before we leave Malaysia, but the idea of me not having a birthday cake baked by me is kind of sad when I have baked for others for their special days.

So today, dear hubby, is the last day I'm baking before we are leaving to the Netherlands, officially!! (as if you are ever reading my blog)

We had a large pint of Greek yogurt thus I decided to make my favorite vegetarian cake with a twist - pandan flavor! I bought few pandan leaves couple of days ago and made pandan paste out of it. I combine it with my favorite vegetarian cake recipe and voila, delicious and moist vegetarian pandan cake. I decorated the cake with cream cheese frosting and made salted caramel cream cheese filling for between the layers. And yeah, I obviously had to decorate the cake purple - my favorite color!

Side view of my birthday cake - 6' tall pandan cake with salted caramel cream cheese frosting decorated in purple ruffles.

The taste was awesome! Just the way I like it - moist, not too sweet and refreshing pandan smell. I think I will miss baking this cake in Netherlands. The chance of finding fresh pandan leaves is slim, plus I don't like the idea of using the yucky and unnatural pandan flavoring.

Top and side view of the cake. Isn't it pretty? :)

For those who are not familiar with pandan, I would say that it has nice and subtle fragrance of rose. It gives out light and refreshing taste, and tastes well when you complement it with palm sugar :) I think most (if not all) of the Southeast Asian countries use it in their cuisines.

So yeah, happy birthday (more like belated) to me and hope I can make more delicious and pretty cakes in the future :D

Natural green color of the pandan makes this cake looks so yummy!

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Making memories

Okay, pretty schmaltz post title haha. So few more days before we are going to the Netherlands. At the moment we are spending our time at my parents house in Baling, Kedah. I feel a bit sad, knowing that I won't come back to this homey place for four years. I will miss this place for sure - the pretty environment, my loved ones and my mom homemade food! My parents slaughtered turkeys few days ago, knowing how much their daughter and son-in-law love eating them :)

I had spent some quality time with my friends and family. Having potluck party with the UCDavis peeps, lunch and tea party with UPM colleagues, lab mates and friends, meeting fellow bakers whom I adored (you guys know who you are ;) ), and yet there are more people who are meaningful in my life whom I am unable to meet due to my tight schedule :( . Sorry guys, hope we can still keep in touch.

Anyway, seems like I will be more active with blogging in the future *hooray* Need to hone my writing skills before it gets worst hoho.

Delicious desserts made by me for my farewell tea party held last week. Cute deco from my lovely sis Farah Munirah from @makeupbyferrarossa :)

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'Sabbatical' leave from baking in Malaysia until 2018

Received email for e-ticketing to Amsterdam today. Our flight will be on the night of the 1st of June. I haven't started packing yet, not planning to bring lots of things like I used too when I went to the States for undergraduate study. My feeling is a mixture of sad, happy, excited and scared. PhD will be a very different journey than undergraduate and Master, and I do hope that I can go through it.

Muniroh's Bakery has been a wonderful experience since me and hubby started it in 2012. I am not going to stop it, just that it will be like taking a 'sabbatical' leave from baking until I'm done with my study. I will still bake in the Netherlands though, just that it will be more like stress reliever than baking for order.

I have had very wonderful journey with Muniroh's Bakery. Made new friends, met up with lots of people, and had the chance to meet up with other talented bakers ;) I had sweet and bitter memories which help in making the business grow, and all I can say is thank you so much for supporting me and Muniroh's Bakery and hope we can meet up again one day <3

Me with the last wedding cake that I made before going to the Netherlands. Beautiful picture taken by my good friend who is also a very talented photographer, Peter Law (019-8844337). Thanks Peter :)

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You have our prayers

The news of flight MH370 went missing is affecting everyone in Malaysia. As I listened to the live broadcast on the radio, the sad feeling becomes deeper and deeper. No, I don't know anyone on the flight, but the fact many lives on the board went missing any 'normal' human beings would have felt the same way. A couple of ignorant and seemingly 'pious' people gave negative and rude remarks of the incident, if your statement make you feel 'good' then we know how little compassion you have and how inhumane you are. During this hard time, all we should do is be empathetic towards the affected family members, and pray that MH370 will be found. I'm happy that many Malaysians show their sympathy and pray for MH370.

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Snickers poke cake and the baker other side ;)

Yesterday was the last lab that I will be teaching for this semester. Even though it was quite fast, I have other things to do for the next coming weeks, thus I had to combine two experiments in one day. It would have been quite hectic if I haven't handled the lab before, but I have been teaching the Agriculture Biochemistry lab since 2011 plus I started doing molecular works since master. Hence, everything went smoothly (or so I think).

During the semester, I have been rewarding the students with my homemade treats to encourage them to participate in the lab. Little do they know that their lab instructor is actually a baker at night ;). Surprisingly, the method works, the students spoke more and actively engaged in the lab compared to my previous students.

As a reward for them being a great students, I made a 'Snickers' poke cake for them to celebrate on the last day of lab. The cake was pretty easy to make, and it looks more simple than the previous cakes that I have made before. There is no Snickers in the cake, the taste; however, remind me of it.

'Snickers' poke cake

The poke cake was made with chocolate cake which has been poked several times with chopstick; hence, the name came from. Homemade salted caramel sauce was poured on the cake, and the sauce went inside the cavity (owh so delicious) and it was topped with dairy whipped cream, drizzled with generous amount of pecan, shaved chocolate and caramel sauce. It was not that sweet, due to the salt. That is why I love salted caramel so much as the salt complements the sweetness of the caramel.

The thing I like about this cake is that it is simple to prepare, and yet tastes soooo good! It is quite handy if you have a last minute party or potluck to attend and want to bring something delicious and easy to make ;)

The students enjoyed it :) too bad I had a small piece of it and didn't have the chance to have an extra bite.

Me with some of the students in the lab. There are male students too, but I guessed they were too shy to take pictures with the beauties ;)

Anyway, teaching the lab was fun, it reminds me why I'm doing it at the first place. I love teaching, and I love to be part of the students. Too bad I don't remember their names; nevertheless, I will love to have a quick chat with them if I bump into them at the Faculty.

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My baking tips

I would consider myself 95% self-taught baker, and the rest I learned from baking classes. Baking is not difficult, but it is not that easy either. There are few times the goodies that I make don't turn out to be the way I expect them to be, and I could only know it from the customers feedback (so you see it is important to give me feedback so that I can improve the desserts).

Many people have asked me if I offer baking classes, sadly with my current commitment I could not do so. This post will be my honest tips and advise for baking, even though I am still an amateur haha. 

Always use butter - no substitute

I always use butter for baking, unsalted preferably. It makes the cakes and frosting creamier and tastier. Even though it is a bit pricey, it is more delicious and healthy. I can give you a scholastic journal article showing how bad margarine/shortening/non-dairy substitute products if you don't believe me, but then again you can simple type on Google of the health risks using the substitutes. To me, quality is the main important thing, so you have to use real, fresh ingredients so that the sweets turn out nice. 

 

Use good quality baking soda and baking powder

Kinda funny right, but this is my honest advise. I used to purchase this so-so quality baking powder and soda because they are cheap, and they are sold in large amount. You can find these types in the bakery supply stores where they pack them in plastic bag in a big bulk. What I noticed (from my customers feedback), my cakes tasted bitter. I do know that too much baking soda makes cakes taste bitter, so I reduced the amount of baking soda and hence my cakes didn't rise that much. I was frustrated so I went to buy Arm & Hammer baking soda and Royal baking powder. The result- no more bitter taste so far! The cake rise beautifully and I am happy with the result :D

Reduce the amount of sugar and salt by half - if you use the recipes from other countries

I lived in the United States for four years, and I was actively cooking and baking during those years. This is what I noticed, the sugar and salt are not as sweet and salty like the ones in Malaysia. So I had to use large amount when I was cooking. My Brazilian friend, who was studying agriculture, told me sugar is less sweet in the US because the sugar is made from corn, and the one in Malaysia is produced from the sugarcane. There might be scientific explanation about this, but I didn't search for it. As for the salt, it might be due to the fact that the salt produced in the US is finer than the one in Malaysia. So based on my experienced, all the recipes that I found online especially from the US, UK or Australia, I would reduce the amount of sugar and salt in half, and I would add more if I want to make the cake sweeter.

Use good quality milk and vinegar to make buttermilk

Another observation- making buttermilk require good quality milk and vinegar. Previously, I used locally produced white vinegar to make buttermilk, but it didn't turn out right. The milk didn't thickened, and if I put too much it would turn out too sour. So I started buying the imported vinegar. I'm currently using vinegar from Heinz, and the buttermilk turns out exactly the way I wanted it to be :D

Heat is cakes best friend

In fact, it is also the best friends for cupcakes and pavlova. Always bake your cakes in batches (meaning you put the amount of the batter in two or three pans). Turn on the fan, this helps circulating the hot air and your cakes will rise nicely. And only bake the cake(s) using one tray, and place it in the middle. Unless you have humongous oven and the heat circulating really well you can put multiple trays. My oven is small, and it is an electric kind. Before this I used to bake using two trays because I wanted to save time baking many cakes. In the end, my cakes did not rise well, and some of them turned out to be bitter (might be due to the baking soda did not work properly). I stopped doing that and I didn't face that problem anymore.

Reheat your oven for at least 10 minutes, and when you put your cakes, do not open the oven door for the first 10 minutes or the cakes won't rise that well.

Use cling wrap to make cakes moist

After I finish baking a cake, I always let it cool for few minutes and straight away wraps it with cling wrap and stores it in the fridge. This will maintain the moistness of the cake. Just be extra careful when you are handling the cake, you don't want the cake to crack etc :)

Homemade sauce is always the best

This is the last tip for this post, just do let you know that every sauce that I make is homemade. Toffee, caramel, chocolate - you name it. It is tedious, but it taste WAYYY better that store-bought sauce. Trust me  :)

Okay I hope some of these tips could help other home/hobby bakers out there. Let me know if you have any questions :)

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Recipe - German cuisine for hubby's birthday :)

This post has been in my draft for ages, don't have time to write it up until now. 

Last February was his birthday, I wanted to make something special for him aside his favorite marmokuchen (marble cake). I flipped through the pages of the German recipe book that we got from his relatives for our wedding gift. The cover of the book has delicious looking cuisine - rouladen . The 'carnivore' me knew that this is what I had to make for his birthday dinner. I had craved to eat it since the first time I heard how his country mate been talking and drooling to eat it in Malaysia.

I bought the ingredient from Cold Storage, my favorite grocery place to hunt for international ingredients. I started to cook for dinner in the morning, since there were many dishes to cook. The rouladen took a long time, so did the marmokuchen. Making spaetzle was not easy as I expected. The batter was thick, and I had to use all my energy and 'muscles' to stir the batter until foamy. Not to mentioned I had to modify the spaetzle cutter using the potato masher since there is no way I could find one in Malaysia.

I decorated our humble home to make it look more romantic. Candles were placed every corner of the living room, and we enjoyed eating our dinner as my parents in-law having fun recording us via Skype.

He was impressed, never he would have imaged eating traditional German food in Malaysia cooked by a Malay, not to mention the taste of the food was similar to the traditional German food.

I was happy to hear his compliment. I've never eaten the food before and never knew how to cook it. The clear instructions in the recipe book really helped me out. I told him to thank his relatives for giving the recipe book, but I wonder if he had told them so until now ;)

Beef Roulade (adapted from German Cooking Today)

4 thin slices of beef topside

Pepper

Mustard 

Beef streaky

4 onions (thinly sliced and cut into quarters)

Gherkins (thinly sliced)

2 carrots (cut into quarters)

2 leeks (cut into quarters)

2 stalks celery (cut into quarters)

cooking oil

1 cup (or more) stock or water (I used turkey stock)

1 teaspoon cornstarch

3 tablespoon water

Cooking string (I used normal string)

1. Pat the slices of beef dry with a kitchen paper towel, season with salt and pepper. Spread mustard on the slices of meat. Put the beef streaky on top of the meat, put thinly sliced onions and gherkins in the middle of the beef streaky, and roll it up (like you roll up sushi minus the sushi mat). Secure the beef with string.

2. Put oil in a pot. Add the roulades and brown briskly on all sides. Add onions, carrots, leeks, celery and saute for few minutes. Add 1/2 cup stock. Cover and cook roulades over small heat for about 1 1/2 hour. During this time, keep checking if the stock is dry, and add up more stock.

3. Turn the roulades over now and again. Gradually replace the evaporated liquid with more stock. Take out the roulades, and removed the string.

4. Rub the cooking juices through a sieve. Add about 2 cups of stock, and add cornstarch mixed with water.  Season with salt and pepper. Stir until thick (or you can add more cornstarch add with water). Serve the roulades with gravy.

Click here to print recipe

Spaetzle (adapted from German Cooking Today)

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3 medium eggs

salt

pinch of nutmeg

Spaetzle cutter (in my case I used potato masher) 

1. Combined flour, eggs, salt, nutmeg and a little water/milk. Stir all ingredients with a wooden spoon (about 3 minutes) until the dough has acquired a thick, semi-liquid consistency and makes bubbles.

2. Put water in a pot and bring to boil. Add salt. Push the dough in small serving through the potato masher so that the spaetzle fall into the boiling salter water. Cook until spaetzle float, and rinse. Leave to drain. Brown butter in a pan and toss the spaetzle in it. 

Click here to print recipe

Cauliflower with butter and breadcrumbs (adapted from German Cooking Today)

3 1/2 tablespoon butter

3 tablespoon breadcrumb

500gm cauliflower 

Water for boiling

Salt, ground nutmeg and pepper to taste

1. Boil water in a big pot and put cauliflower into it and cook for about 10 minutes. Drain the cauliflower, and cut into small pieces

2. Melt butter on a frying pan and combine with breadcrumbs. Put the cauliflower in the frying pan and coat it with the butter mixture.  Put salt, a pinch of ground nutmeg and pepper to taste

Click here to print recipe

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The nervous wreck

I woke this morning with a nausea feeling. My body trembled thinking about the Final Seminar presentation that I'm going to have in few hours. I practiced for the last time before I went to shower so that my presentation will be smooth and I sound articulate.

By the time I was at the car I was jumpy thinking I would be late for the Final Seminar. My husband, a very calm person, tried calming me down. In my head I was hoping that the seminar would start using the 'Malaysian time' - a.k.a not punctual.

The time I arrived the room, I was surprised to see only one lecturer and the first presenter hasn't presented yet. I felt a lot better and went outside to enjoy a cup of teh tarik (delicious Malaysian milk tea) with kuih kaswi (a type of dessert that Malay always has for breakfast or tea) provided by the Faculty.

I was a nervous wreck when I looked at the first presenter. 'Why in the world we have the same pictures and literature reviews on the slides,' those words came across my mind as his slides pass from one to another. It was not a coincidence since we are doing studies on vitamin E, but using different genes. So the moment I had to present, I told the audiences that there will be similar pictures and literature reviews on my slides.

During my presentation I was focusing on Farzaneh, my labmate. Not because I felt comfortable with her, but because she was focusing on my presentation and I assumed she understood a part of my research. Not many people in the room understand my research even my husband and labmates, and I could see big question mark written on their faces as I spoke. I was glad that Dr Shikin from another department came to my presentation as she has some knowledge in what I'm doing, at least there is someone else besides my supervisor that can comment on my work.

My supervisor looked calm, meeting her the day before really helped. She had the same expression when Amir presented, and that was a big relief for both of us.

By the time for Q&A session, I was surprised not many questions being asked. And there I was, worried the whole week for something that didn't happen. The only question related on my work was on the technical part, which I could answer easily.

So now, one worry is over, and another one coming in - Thesis submission! I have finished my labwork and I am going to concentrate on my thesis writing. So wish me luck on that ;)

And here you go, pictures from my previous orders. Do check Muniroh's Bakery Facebook Page as we are more active updating the pictures there compared to this blog ;)

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My story

I have sweet tooth and I've always liked eating sweet stuff that my sister baked when I was a small girl, that was until she went to university and I had to bake the goodies myself. It started with brownies and eventually with other desserts. I started baking cakes for friends' birthdays when I was in university, and most of them were instant mixes since that was the cheapest option for poor sponsored college student like me. I would say that the decoration was not bad for an amateur who never took any baking or decorating class haha

Birthday cake for Kumitaa and birthday cupcakes for Faris baked by me using instant mix that costed $1 (RM 4) at Safeway during promotion. Hella cheap right?

When I came back to Malaysia, I had the opportunity to attend  cupcake class held by Kak Edina. The class was really fun and plus the teacher was super nice and helpful :) I learnt how to use piping bag correctly and the proper technique of decorating cupcakes using buttercream. I made a cupcake business for a while called CuppyCuppy  but had to discontinue it because I wanted to concentrate on my research and I didn't have an oven at my rental house.

Years gone by and I was at the peak of my stress level and I needed SUGAR!

Before I was married, I always bought cakes, pies etc at L'apprenti, UPM - the nearest distance and cheapest option from my lab. I remember I went there once a week whenever I didn't get good lab result - yup doing research is not easy T_T . I still did that when I'm married (sometimes) when I realized I can just easily bake my own cakes at home. So whenever I needed sugar, I just whipped up something and put it in the oven. I took half (or quarter) at home and brought the rest to the lab so that I won't gain (that much) weight

I kept doing it for a while when I realized baking every week was not cheap. So I decided to open up baking business again but this time with more variety of goodies.

We (me and my husband) initially named it Cake Monster, and he even asked his brother to design cute monsters for my business (thanks Marius :). We changed it to Muniroh's bakery instead when my husband realized that my blog template did not match with the Cake Monster theme where it is supposed to be colorful and catchy.

Cute monsters sketched by Marius :)

Do I still do labwork? YES! I am a biotechnologist at day and an amateur baker at night, and I hope that I can be good in both in the future :) 

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