Strawberry Jelly

Strawberry Jelly

One of classic kiddies’ all time favorite. I always have some jelly in the fridge when I was a kid. I buy packs of “jelly ace” and store in fridge. I can easily be bribed with a pack of jelly. Those were the days when things are not so complicated! I didn’t realize that it is that easy to make! Now, I can have loads of flavors! I should have known this before eyyh? I guess I wasn’t that smart and clever yet!

Ingredients:
1 pack (24 g) unflavored gulaman powder
2 teaspoons strawberry flavoring
½ teaspoon red coloring
1 liter water
2 cups sugar

Procedure:

In a casserole, put 1 liter of water (not warm or hot), add sugar, flavoring and coloring. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Gradually sprinkle 1 pack of gulaman powder while stirring constantly until gulaman has completely dissolved. Stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Heat the mixture and stir constantly until it thickens and comes to a near boil. Remove from heat and pour into molding container.

Cookies and Cream with Orange wedges

Cookies and cream with orange

Ingredients:

1 pack Chocolate biscuits
100 g. Softened butter
2 teaspoons whiskey
2 cups Whipped cream
1/2 cup Icing sugar

Preparation:
Pound some chocolate biscuits using a mortar and pestle until roughly fine and mix thoroughly with
softened butter. Add 3 Tablespoons of the mixture into a circular cookie cutter and press down creating a base about 1/2 inch thick. Add 1 tablespoon of whiskey to the base. Place each base in a saucer and refrigerate for about 30 minutes. Mix whipped cream with icing sugar and place on top of the base
using the same mold. Add segments of orange just before serving.

Fruit Salad

fruitsalad

What could be healthier than fruit salad? So simple and colorful. Slice fruits into chunks and sprinkle juice of half of a lemon and orange juice. No sugar and cream added, just fresh fruits! Here, got water melon, banana, apple, pear, wedges of orange and grapefruit and mango.

Grapefruit and Orange

grapefruit and orange

I love how it looks... simply wedges of orange and grapefruit and a teaspon of syryp at the center. Makes healthy citrus dessert!

Stewed Pear

Stewed Pear


The original recipe from a Dutch cookbook requires blackcurrant liqueur which, honestly I don’t know, I like gin, so I put gin instead. Whisky would have been better I think coz its quite sharper taste than gin but I don’t have. I used corn flour instead of potato flour as suggested in the recipe. I love the vibrant color of this dessert!! Its my first time doing this, but its good… hmmm, I ‘m gonna keep this one! Or maybe even try with other fruit like apple, which absorbs flavor a lot.

Ingredients :

4 pears
4 cloves
3 cinnamon sticks
5 Tablespoons sugar
200 ml red wine
50 ml gin
1 tablespoon corn flour
Lemon zest

Preparation:

Peel the pears and leave them whole. In a medium size saucepan, mix red wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks and lemon zest. Add the pears into the mixture then add enough water just to cover the pears. Bring to boil and leave to simmer, covered for 2 ½ hours until tender.

To serve, lift the pears carefully out of the pan. Pass the remaining liquid through a fine sift to get rid of sediments. Mix 1 tablespoon of corn flour with the pear juice and bring to boil stirring all the while with a wisk until the wine sauce thickens. Pour this over the stewed pears and serve individually hot or cold.

Choco Banana Crepe

Choco Banana Crepe

Crepe
Banana
Unsweetened Chocolate bars

Procedure:

Beat eggs until slightly fluffy, add milk and flour alternatively and mix thoroughly until it forms a thin
batter.

In a hot pan, spread the oil, tilt the sides of the pan. Wipe off excess oil with a kitchen paper. Add 1 ladle of the batter and quickly spread on the pan leave for 1 minute until bubbles can no longer be seen on the batter, cook the other side by inverting the crepe carefully. Remove from pan and fold into quarters forming a cone shape.

Melt chocolate in a bowl over a simmering water. Add sliced banana and toss with the melted chocolate. Place in between and on top of the crepe and serve.

Chocolate Crumble with Whipped Cream

Chocolate Crumble with whipped cream


Ingredients:

Stale chocolate cake
2 tsp. gin.
Icing sugar
Whipped cream

Preparation:
Slice stale chocolate cake finely until it assembles fine crumbs.. In a circular cookie cutter, assemble the base by pressing the fine crumbs into it; making sure its quite compact. Sprinkle 2 teaspoons of gin each base to add a sharper flavor. Add icing sugar to whipped cream and add on top. Remove the mold. Sprinkle some chocolate cake decors.

Apples Under the Blanket

Apples under a blanket

Chocolate Cake

Chocolate Cake

2 cups cake flour (sifted)
1 ½ cups cocoa powder (sifted)
100 g. butter
1 cup sugar (sifted)
1 cup water
2 T. coffee
3 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

Chocolate icing
2 bars dark unsweetened chocolate
3 T. butter


Procedure:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Prepare the baking pan. Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda. Dissolve coffee in water and set aside. In a separate mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until well blended, add eggs one by one while continue beating, and add the flour mixture to the egg mixture, add the coffee mixture. Continue beating until smooth. Pour the mixture into the pan and bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Let cool in a cooling rack and prepare the icing.

To prepare chocolate icing:

In a deep saucepan, boil 2-3 cups water. Cut the bars into smaller cubes. In heatproof mixing bowl or saucepan put the butter and chopped chocolate and place the saucepan over the boiling water. The chocolate must melt gently with the heat of the steam coming from the boiling water underneath. This is to avoid direct heat to the chocolate coz it easily burns. When the butter and chocolate has melted, mix thoroughly until well combined.

When the cake has completely cooled, invert the cake and divide into two layers. Cover the first layer with the icing and place the other layer. Spread the remaining icing on the top layer.

I lost the recipe I used to follow for chocolate cake, and all of a sudden I am craving to have a bite of something chocolaty with dark coffe... Well, I made one, I wasnt sure if the proportion would work, but thanks God it did! Luckily I took some note, he he..This is one of my favorites!!! With dark coffee please???