Recipe: Pumpkin brownies

It was Eid al-Adha last Monday, and yesterday some of the Malaysian students in the Netherlands came to our lil city for celebration. We booked the bbq pit on campus, and brought lots of food (like always), and the guys started grilling the delicious sate and other marinated meat.

The food was awesome (thanks guys!) I even prepared brownies and pumpkin brownies for dessert. I had the pumpkin puree stored in the freezer, and I thought this would be the perfect time to use it since fall is coming *wohoo*!

The texture is like a mix of pie and brownies. It is dense and creamy. I love the touch of the spices in it along with the sourish taste of the cream cheese.

Choose the pumpkin variety suitable for baking. The one usually sold in the grocery store in the Netherlands is the variety suitable for making soup (less sweet, more watery). I bought several pumpkin varieties last year from a nearby farm, and I kept the leftover baked flesh in the freezer in case I feel like eating pumpkin pie one day haha.

Pumpkin brownies
[click for printable version]

Ingredients

800 g pumpkin puree
1 cup sugar*
5 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cream
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup sunflower oil

For the cream cheese marble:
300 g cream cheese
1 egg
1 tablespoon sugar*

*adjust the sugar based on your liking

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 170 C. Line a rectangular baking pan with a baking paper, set aside. 
2. Combine the pumpkin puree, sugar, eggs, the spices and salt in a large bowl and by using the hand blender, mix until smooth. 
3. Mix the flour, cream, baking powder and oil with the rest of the ingredient. Mix using a rubber spatula and spread the batter into the baking pan.
4. Combine the cream cheese, egg, and sugar in another small bowl. Put a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture onto the batter, and by using the back of a spoon, spread the cream cheese with the batter to get the marbling effect.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the brownies come out clean.

Read More

His big fat Greek 'wedding'

"So...you are going to be my paranymph"

.......WHAT?!! I had to think twice if what I heard was real...and it was

Christos, a colleague cum friend. We started to become close during our conference trip in Bordeaux last year. He's a very friendly person and a sweet guy. It was quite a shocked for me to hear his request,  but I was honored.

To be a paranymph is a big job, especially if you are close to that person. Me and Cynara, the other paranymph, started coming up with ideas about a month before Christos's big day. We want to make it as cheesy and memorable as possible, because we know he likes it that way :P

We contacted few people in our department to help out, and we decided to make a parody movie about him.

Well you see...Christos is a very smart guy and he is born to be a scientist, but at the same time he is also funny in his own way - especially when it comes to food, alcohol and his honesty!

Manos, another Greek in the department, was chosen to act as Christos. We came out few stories based on real life incidents with Christos (with some exaggeration) and the recording was done when he was not in the office.

A night before his defense, I had two nightmares: I cannot read the propositions properly and somebody edited the movie that we made. I was soo nervous that I just had to tell to one or two (well maybe six) people. Peter help me with pronouncing the word correctly, and I spent quite some time rehearsing reading Christos's thesis propositions loudly and clearly. "Why in the hell do you have eight freaking propositions!" I told myself repeatedly.

Christos was really calm on the stage, and he can answer all the opponents questions calmly and articulately. I tried to put myself in his shoes, if it was me, how would I answer those questions. Just the thought and the fact I was waiting for the opponents to ask me reading one of the propositions made my palms sweaty......LIKE HELL!! You have no idea how many times I swept out the sweat onto my dress, which was very obvious btw if you keep looking at me up there.

Christos accompanied by the Lovely Paranymphs; Cynara and me.
-Photo by Cynara-

All the nerve wrecking moment (for me) ended smoothly. In the end none of the opponents ask me to read his propositions (hahaha WTH..) and Christos received very good grades for his performance. He was not nervous at all, and I wonder where he got that self confidence from..

After the defense! Finally I was able to laugh haha!
-Photo by Cynara-

Gerard, his supervisor, gave very heart warming and touching speech. I almost cried, but kept my composure.

I headed home early after the reception. We had to assemble his 'wedding', married to the university, cake at the restaurant. I made two-tier chocolate cake for him, and I put plenty of chocolates on the cake, and a handmade fondant Smurf figurine as the topper.

Christos with his 'wedding' cake :)
-Photo by me-

The dinner was something that I didn't really expect. There was plenty of Greek food with loud live performance  throughout the LONG dinner. People were dancing in between the course, and at the latter part Christos's dad started doing a one man dance which was a surprised for me because he looked expressionless throughout the dinner.

The fact that he got up and dance was not really what I had in mind. I was told by another Greek that he's dancing a difficult traditional one man dance, which the dancer dance freely expressing himself. Suddenly I was shocked  hearing the sound of crashing plates. He started breaking the plates...and the dance and the plate breaking continued from one Greek guy to another. "Oh boy...I feel like I'm in the 'My big fat Greek wedding' movie" I told myself.


Anyhow the defense, party, and the surprise that we prepared for him ended well. He liked the movie *wohoo* and I hope he likes the cheesy photo album containing  pictures and messages that we prepared for him.

Congrats again Dr. Christos! You deserve it :)

Read More

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.

Read More

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!

Read More

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 :)

Read More

'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 :)

Read More

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 ;)

Read More