Green tea and cream cheese white chocolate blondies

Blondies, a white chocolate version of brownies! I only came to know this very recently hehe. It was my dear friend Natalie's birthday not long ago, so i surprised her with a batch of these babies early in the morning, so that she had something to share with her workmates that day.

I kept a piece for myself and one for B.B, the texture was dense, not cakey, but still fudge-like, the green tea and cream cheese paired well with each other, i quite liked it :D

I found the recipe from here, it's really easy to follow, if you have patience (un-like me) you could be abit more light handed when it comes to swirling the two mixtures together so that it looks abit prettier when you cut into it.

Green Tea Cream Cheese Swirl White Chocolate Brownie

Brownie base

8 Tbsp butter (1 stick), cut into 1-in pieces

5 oz. white chocolate, chopped

2 eggs

5 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 C flour

Cheesecake swirl

8 oz bar of cream cheese, room temp

1 egg

3 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp green tea/matcha powder

About 2 tsp of water, hot but not boiling

Preheat the oven to 325ºF.

Mix the green tea powder with a bit of hot water to form a paste. Mix the cream cheese, egg, and green tea paste until smooth. Taste a bit and see if it's strong enough.

Melt the butter with the white chocolate. Mix in the sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour (and baking powder if you want to experiment with it). Whisk until smooth but do not over mix.

Line a 8 x 8 square baking dish with a sheet of foil (with overhang for easy lifting) or grease and flour it. Pour in half of the white chocolate batter. Then drop half of the cream cheese mixture on top in spoonfuls. Top the batter with the rest of the white chocolate brownie batter, then finally add the remaining half of the cream cheese mixture on top. Use a knife and swirl the brownie and cream cheese together to create a marbled pattern.

Bake the brownies at 325ºF for 40 - 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. The center should be almost set. You don't want the toothpick to come out clean because that would mean the brownies have overbaked. Cool in the pan for 5 then lift the brownies out and cool to room temperature. They're best served cold so chill them in the fridge for about 3 hours.

Kuih Bakar

I had made this a long time ago but it seems i havent posted up the recipe yet!

This tasted so nice, not too sweet, loved the texture. I remember when i made it, i forgot to stir the flour though and by the time i realised i had already sprinkled sesame seeds on top and put it in the oven (doh'?) so i had to take it out, add the flour, mix it, then re-sprinkle sesame seeds.. LOL what a clutz.

Recipe down below after all the photo's :O)

Kuih Bakar Recipe
(Adapted from My Kitchen Snippets)

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
1 cup of pandan juice (6 pandan leaves + 1 cup of water - blended and sieved)
2 1/4 cups of coconut milk
4 large eggs
2 tbsp of melted butter
1 tsp of pandan paste
1 tbsp of sesame seeds (optional)

Method

Pre-heat oven to 325 degree F and greased a 8" x 8" square baking pan.

Mix all the above ingredients except sesame seeds until well combined.

Pour mixture into baking pan and sprinkle with some sesame seeds and bake until golden brown or skewer comes out clean when tested. It should take an hour.

Cool it down before cutting.

Lord St. Pizzeria

hi Stella's bum!

medium supreme $12

3 sizes available

medium, large, family

family size half n half (extra $1 for half n half) $21

spicy chicken, four seasons (minus cabanossi, extra olives)

Awesome pizza. Look at that cheesey shot! Need i say more? =P

Shop 112B Lord St

Cabramatta West NSW 2166

Ph: (02) 9610-4005

Limited tables for eat in (only about 4 tables inside, able to seat four people per table)

Menu can be found here :)

French-toad-in-a-hole

I saw THIS recipe and knew i had to try it out. It was really fun to make, and tasted delicious!!

Ingredients

• 4 thickly sliced bread

• 5 eggs

• ½ cup milk

• 1 tbs Parmesan cheese, finely grated

• A knob of butter

• A stalk of fresh parsley, minced for garnishing

• Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Cut a hole in all bread slices. I used a cookie cutter for a perfect round hole but it's really not necessary!

2. In a wide shallow dish, whisk in 1 egg with milk, Parmesan cheese and few cranks of black pepper

3. Soak each slice of bread in the egg mixture until well coated on all sides

4. Set a non-stick pan on medium heat with a knob of butter

5. Once the butter is foamy, lay each piece in the pan for 1 minute

6. Break an egg into each of the bread and let it sit until the bottom of the bread is slightly browned. Take a little peek by lifting the corner of the bread without spilling the egg in the hole

7. Once the eggs are a little firm, flip it over to brown the other side

8. Depends on how you prefer the egg: runny egg, 1-2 minutes while an almost hard yolk takes a good 3+ minutes

As you can see, i made use of the bread rounds as well, they mopped up the rest of the egg mixture and had some time on the fry pan aswell :P

And it wasn't complete without lashings of barbeque sauce !

Enjoy xoxo

Taro in coconut cream - and an introduction to my new health & fitness blog!

I'd like to introduce you to a new blog that my friend Stella and i have started together. The idea was sparked after attending the fitness expo a couple of weeks ago, where we both realised we need to really take care of our body and health, both of us keen gym and exercise goers, the other part that we needed to look at was our diet and lifestyle!

So together we've started this blog, in hope to share our information and stories about health, life, a bit of love, all positive aspects of anything we can share with the world.

If you have a moment, come and check it out :O)

http://fit-in-the-city.blogspot.com

A recent post is about the health benefits of switching to coconut sugar. And the following is a recipe that uses coconut sugar, so so good, i'm totally addicted to it right now!

Stella introduced me to this delicious dessert of boiled taro in coconut milk with a sprinkle of coconut sugar. It is nutritional, very filling, and good for you in so many ways! I also have this for breakfast as well as it keeps me full for ages!

All you need to do is peel and cube a piece of taro (depending how much you want to have, and how many people you are serving

Boil until cooked all the way through and looks mushy

Drain, and pour over coconut cream (or coconut milk, whatever your preference is)

Sprinkle with coconut sugar!

In my previous post I've talked about how coconut sugar is good for you, well now i will tell you why taro and coconut cream are good for you too :O)

Coconut cream is not as bad as people think it is. Yes it's got a high fat content but it is a good high saturated fat that benefits your health and weightloss very easily by converting to energy as soon as your body absorbs it, just like carbs. In other words, it doesn't transform into bad cholesterol which clogs up your arteries and triggers heart problems and stroke. Most importantly, it doesn't cause weight gain as easily as what most people think.

But of course, everything in moderation! If you have too much coconut cream, yes it'll turn into a negative benefit (if that makes sense) So it's alright to consume in moderation in order to reap its health benefits without getting its disadvantages.

& Taro, is a meal in itself! These babies keep you full for so long, so in that sense is good for weightloss. But again, IN MODERATION! The scales can go the other way if you're not careful about that.

Taro has many nutrients such as fiber, potassium, iron, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin b, vitamin B2, and vitamin C.