White chocolate & berry blondies

This was my first time making blondies and there are definitely no regrets..

At first bite, this kept me going like 'Woah this is like a cookie/brownie and the white chocolate mmmhmm'. Quite similar to that scene in Ratatouille when Remy combines cheese and strawberries together and his mind explodes with fireworks (my childish obsession with Disney is evident), perhaps he's somewhat hallucinating.

They reminiscently taste like butterscotch..And the white chocolate chunks make it taste more caramel-ly and the berries add a sourness and slight sweetness. The texture in the middle is gooey, and the outside crust is nice and crisp.

I used Divine's white chocolate.. I love their chocolate range! Tasty and fair trade.

Would I add this to my repertoire? Absolutely.

Berry & white chocolate blondies 
Ingredients
.112 g butter, melted
.220 g light brown sugar
.1 large egg
.1 tsp vanilla extract
.125 g plain flour
.1 tsp baking powder
.100 g white chocolate chips/chunks
.150 g mixed berries (I used frozen blueberries & raspberries, no need to thaw)
.Icing sugar, to serve

Method:
1. Line a 20 x 30 cm brownie pan (I used an 8 inch by 8 inch pan) with non-stick baking paper (parchment paper). Mix melted butter with brown sugar and beat until smooth.
2.Beat in egg and then vanilla.
3.Stir in flour & baking powder. Mix in white chocolate chips/chunks and add the berries, stir very gently.
4.Pour into prepare pan. Bake at 180 C (350 F) for 30-40 minutes, or until set in the middle. Cool to room temperature before cutting them.

Adapted from Spicy ice cream

Cookie monster

I'm a bit of a cookie monster. Are you?

 Symptoms of a cookie monster: 
1. Constantly thinking "Me want cookie!"
2. Eating multiple cookies like there's no tomorrow. In other words, puts off planned diet for cookies.
3. Asks their mother to buy chocolate chips or some form of chocolate from the supermarket like all the time.
4. Risking your health to eat a bit of raw cookie dough on the way.

M & M cookies always attract kids. I know it caught my attention, as a 2nd grader. Something as simple as chewy rainbow M & M cookies from the grocery bakery was something enough to satisfy my appetite. And after all, doesn't colour attract everyone?

Even the smell coming from the oven of freshly baked cookies, always hits me each time; bringing back nostalgia. I think somebody ought to get me a cookie-scented candle perhaps?

Don't be shy to load this cookie with M & Ms. I decided to put one cup AND in addition, pressed some outside to give it a nicer look.

Dunking a warm cookie with cold milk is a true favourite. A true classic favourite of a cookie monster.

M&M cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cornstarch
3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks or 170 g) salted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup mini M&Ms (+ more if you want to press more before you bake them)

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 F (I just did 180 C).
2. Mix flour, baking soda and cornstarch in a bowl.
3. With an electric mixer (or by hand), cream the butter and sugars together. Add the egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix well.
4. Gradually add flour mixture until the dough forms. Fold in the mini M&Ms.
5. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes (or up to 5 days, covered) in the fridge. Drop by tablespoonfuls or roll into balls on parchment paper. Press a few more M&Ms on top for more decorations. Bake for about 8-10 minutes, or until the edges are slightly browned (My oven took a bit longer, about 15 minutes, yet it was still soft and chewy!)

Adapted from Sally's Baking addiction

Bisou bake shop

If any of you were bothered enough to read my description of this blog, I mentioned that I'd be posting snippets of food as well. Well here you go. I really love photography and food. Combine those two , voila!  I have been known amongst my friends to be the girl who takes a bunch of pictures of delicious food, usually all sorts of sweet things like cupcakes, cakes, chocolate etc! I love making people hungry.

On the last day in Malaysia, just a few days ago , I was at 1 Utama. A few weeks before, I had gone out with one of my friends who I've known since standard 1 (I met her in school in Malaysia before I moved to Melb!) mentioned to me that this bake shop looks really nice. But it was pricey, 6 ringgit for one cupcake. So anyway, I was walking past this bake shop and was contemplating whether or not to try a cupcake from there. Which leads me to why I'm writing this post. 

All of the cupcakes look amazing, they are really well decorated and look scrumptious. There are I think about 11 or 12 flavours they produce everyday, you can look at their Facebook page. I was in the mood for something chocolate-ty (Oh and yeah I am a chocoholic) and picked 'chocolate dementia'. While waiting, I tried one of their red velvet samples.. It was surprisingly moist and yummy. I'm not really a fan of red velvet to be honest, I don't really get why so many people like it. At my parents' 60th birthday, my mum chose the red velvet cake, so they produced this 1 kg cake with decorations. It looked SO pretty. This was actually from the bakery in the One world hotel since my parents' big celebration's venue was there. It looked attractive, BUT IT WAS DRY. I was quite disappointed.  

Red velvet cake from my parents' birthday.

Continuing on, I tried this cupcake as soon as I got back to my aunty's house. This cupcake taste amazing. The texture of the muffin is so moist. The icing is chocolate ganache. It's so smooth and wow. It really was chocolate-ty so if you're a chocolate lover like me, I think you'd like this cupcake. I wish I had bought more. But I only wanted to try one. I told Wan Xin that when I come back, we'll buy 6 cupcakes from there! They have a buy 5 get 1 free deal.