Brownies

Soooo...  I got a new bike last month. It's part of my "try to be healthy" resolution for 2017. The last time I rode the bike was 9 years ago. I bought a new bike then the week after i found myself pregnant, so I put my bike in the shed with the thought that I will use it to loose some weight after giving birth. Well, the rest is history... I forgot why I didn't ride the bike anymore, I guess mostly because I still remember how my bottom hurted after that ride.

Now the story is different, the weighing scale is already screaming everytime I try to jump on it. Last year I lost about 10 kilos because I do exercise religiously about an hour everyday and watched my food. But since I went back to work last July, slowly but sure I added everything back 😓😢. I do really want to be healthy and live forever so I can see my daughters grow 😍. 

To maximise the use of my expensive bike (not that my bike is expensive, but since it's my 2nd bike and  if I didn't use it then my hubby will put that with the same group of my once in the blue moon shoes and call it an expensive hobby. How come the shoes are expensive? They last forever if you hardly use them and take good care of them!) I decided to ride the bike to buy the groceries. It's not much that I want to buy only eggs, fillet steak, and onions.  

Oh gosh, it's really hard work. 2 weeks ago I cycled on the very flat track so I was flying with my bike (and of course I had a sore bottom after that).  This time it was up and down the hills eventhough the distance perhaps less than the last time. I was  dying when it was uphill and then I remembered how I always roll my eyes to see the cyclist going uphill in front of me and I should wait patiently behind them inside my car. I was lucky that I can pedalling to keep on moving, so you can imagine how happy I was when it went downhill and I am so close to just put my hands up in the sky and yelling "woooohoooo" just like I won the jackpot (if I only would be confident enough to cycle handsfree 😱). 

On the way home, I really really enjoyed the downhill part and forgot that I had bought eggs! So yeah, i broke 3 of the eggs and cracked some others. Should practice more or bring some pillow when I buy some eggs. Since I don't want to waste the cracked eggs, I decided to make these brownies. 

So yeah, if I was lucky maybe I still lost some calories because of my cycling 😅.

The recipe is taken from Sally Baking Addiction page, since I trust her recipes. 


Ingredients:

• 115gr  salted butter
• 220gr cooking chocolate
• 100gr granulated sugar
• 100gr light brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 80 gr plain flour
• 15 gr  unsweetened cocoa powder
• 100gr semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 100gr chopped nuts (almond,pecan, walnuts)

• 
  

Directions:

• Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl and put the bowl in the medium saucepan on medium heat. Stirring the mixture constantly and when the bowl is hot remove it and keep on stiring until everything is melted. Allow the mixture to cool.

• Adjust the oven rack to the lower third position and preheat oven to 160C degrees. Line the bottom and sides of a 9x9 inch square baking pan with baking paper. Set aside.

• Whisk the granulated and brown sugars into the cooled chocolate mixture. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla. Gently fold in the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Once combined, fold in the chocolate chips and nuts if you use it.

• Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and bake for 35-36 minutes or until the brownies begin to pull away from the edges of the pan. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with only a few moist crumbs when the brownies are done.

• Allow the brownies to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack and cut into squares with a very sharp knife and clean it after each cut to creates a neat square.

Copyright © 2017 Ovie Ober_Marbun
Source: Chewy Fudgy Homemade Brownies.

Beef Wellington

Christmas is always a big day in my family, my Mom will prep all the foods and stuffs for the open house to ensure the guests are well feed and enjoy the warmth of Marbun's family...  Well, I bet they will feel warm because my Dad (Papi) won't hesitate to serve all those expensive liquors for his guests while us just wonder if Papi will let us have a taste of alcohol.

Since I have my own family, we always serve Beef Wellington for Christmas dinner and somehow this food only came once a year from my oven. Let's just keep it like this so it will stay special for us :P (or actually to keep my laziness at the right level). This year around we serve the Beef Wellington with mashed potatoes, roasted carrots and kale and also the onion and wine sauce. 

I prep the Beef Wellington a day in advance so it won't be too hectic on Christmas day since K and M will always have special requests on the last minutes for their christmas dinner. We can't get a nice big Angus Fillet this time, so I decided to make it as individual Beef Wellington instead, causing I let it cooked a little bit too long for the beef.

There is a lot of recipe on the internet, but my favourite is from Gordon Ramsay. The ingredients is not too complicated and as long as you follow the instruction religiously, it won't fail.. errr, except about your cooking time for the beef :P

Ingredients:

Beef fillet of around 1kg

• 3 tbsp olive oil

• 250g chestnut mushroom, include some wild ones if you like (I use almost 400gr)

• 50g butter

• 1 large sprig fresh thyme

• 100ml dry white wine

• 12 slices prosciutto (1 used about 16 sliced ham)

• 500g puff pastry, thawed if frozen

• 2 egg yolk beaten with 1 tsp water

Method:

1.     Consider the size and weight of your steak before calculating the cooking time; eating the well done steak when you want a medium rare one is painful!!! Season the fillet with salt and pepper, and gently press it into the meat with your fingers.

2.     Get the grill pan nice and hot, then add a tbsp of olive oil. When the oil is heat up, put the fillet on the centre of the pan. Only flip the steak once during the cooking.  For medium steak as an end result, cook for 3 minutes for first side and then 2 minutes for the rest of the side.  When the beef is cooked to your liking, remove from the pan to cool, then chill in the fridge for about 20 mins.

3.     While the beef is cooling, chop 250g chestnut (and wild, if you like) mushrooms as finely as possible so they have the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. You can use a food processor to do this, but make sure you pulse-chop the mushrooms so they don’t become a slurry.

4.     Heat 2 tbsp of the olive oil and 50g butter in a large pan and fry the mushrooms on a medium heat, with 1 large sprig fresh thyme, for about 10 mins stirring often, until you have a softened mixture. Season the mushroom mixture, pour over 100ml dry white wine and drink the rest of the bottle as you are cooking and cook for about 10 mins until all the wine has been absorbed. The mixture should hold its shape when stirred. Remove the mushroom duxelle from the pan to cool and discard the thyme.

5.     Overlap two pieces of cling film over a large chopping board. Lay 12 slices prosciutto on the cling film, slightly overlapping, in a double row. Spread half the duxelles over the prosciutto, then sit the fillet on it and spread the remaining duxelles over. Use the cling film’s edges to draw the prosciutto around the fillet, then roll it into a sausage shape, twisting the ends of cling film to tighten it as you go. Chill the fillet while you roll out the pastry.

6.     Dust your work surface with a little flour. Roll out a third of the 500g pack of puff pastry to a 18 x 30cm strip and place on a non-stick baking sheet. Roll out the remainder of the 500g pack of puff pastry to about 28 x 36cm. Unravel the fillet from the cling film and sit it in the centre of the smaller strip of pastry. Beat the 2 egg yolks with 1 tsp water and brush the pastry’s edges, and the top and sides of the wrapped fillet. Using a rolling pin, carefully lift and drape the larger piece of pastry over the fillet, pressing well into the sides. Trim the joins to about a 4cm rim. Seal the rim with the edge of a fork or spoon handle. Glaze all over with more egg yolk and, using the back of a knife, mark the beef Wellington with long diagonal lines taking care not to cut into the pastry. Chill for at least 30 mins and up to 24 hrs.

7.     Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Brush the Wellington with a little more egg yolk and cook until golden and crisp – usually it took 20 minutes for medium steak when i use about 700gr fillet steak. This time as i wrap the steak individually, each steak is 200gr and 20 minutes give me a medium-well done steak, still juicy but I want that pinky meat :(

Modified from BBC Goodfood

© 2015 Ovie Ober-Marbun

Brookies

Well, I already told you that I am a big fan of Masterchef Australia, even though I didn't see the whole season this year. Somehow the telly at home only can play either Team Umizoomi or some episodes from Ninjago. This year season one of the "happening recipe" is the Brookies made by the dessert king of the season Harry  Foster for Nigella Lawson's challenge to create a midnight snack. 

I was thinking if  I was the contestant, my midnight snack won't be some sweets... it will be the noodle soup with pork, poached eggs, cheese and chillies.... D'oh, just thinking about it makes me wonder if I have all ingredients for the noodle soup right now...

Ok, enough distraction, now back to the brookies, so a couple of  weeks ago one of my kitchen diva friends, Tari, posted these brookies that she made for her husband. It's just perfect timing because the week after I promised Lucy from church that I will bring some cookies for the children. Haha, another opportunity to bake without the risk of having to eat it myself (I don't like sweet treats, remember). So we made it in the morning before we went to church. The children were excited to help me make the cookies. M is so busy with licking the dough, so I guess hubby has a serious competitor now.

So we brought the cookies to the church for Sunday School and they were gone just like that. They asked me if I have some more somewhere. Well, next time i should bring some more then....

This recipe that I got from Tari is a different type from the one from Harry's - he used cornflour instead of flour and used chocolate instead of chocolate powder. It resembles more to brownies than cookies when I looked at the composition of butter:flour:eggs: chocolate. Should try that one someday... only need the volunteer to eat it. 

The brookies are half brownies+half chocolate cookie. The recipe is versatile, you can make the chocolate (brownie) cookie or chocolate chip cookie by itself or mixed it and call it brookies. The recipe  was created by Kara.

Half Brownies+Half Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

Brownie Dough:

• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp soft butter (more less 130gr)

• 2/3 cup sugar

• 2/3 cup brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1 1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp flour

• 1/2 cup cocoa

• 1 tsp baking soda

• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Chocolate Chip Dough:

• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp soft butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups + 2 Tbsp flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

For brownie dough:

1. Cream butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla and beat till creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Combine flour, cocoa, soda, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Sift into the sugar mixture. Stir till dough is just combined. Cover and chill while preparing chocolate chip dough.

Chocolate Chip Dough

1. Cream butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla. Beat till creamy.
2. Whisk flour, soda, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Add to the sugar mixture with the chocolate chips. Stir till ingredients are well mixed.
   

Assembly

1. To make cookies, take a small portion of brownie dough and roll it into a ball. Take a small portion of chocolate chip dough and roll it into a ball. Lightly smash the balls together, and form a new larger ball of dough.
2. Place dough lightly greased cookie sheets. Flatten slightly with your hand.
3. Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes. Cool on pans for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

Source: Creations by Kara

Copyright © 2016 Ovie Ober_Marbun