morning all! its saturday, M&M's cookies

*ugh, hideous light.. i should stop taking pictures at night*

oukay, i baked these few days ago even before the pink and chocolate cupcakes, well actually right after i got the goodies sheila brought me from singapore. duhh! i know!

i actually called these cookies soft and chewy chocolate button M&M's cookies. because i used martha stewart's soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies recipe, omit the chocolate chips part and changed it with M&M's and chocolate buttons. why chocolate buttons? because it has the same shape with M&M's and i wanted my cookies to be filled and oozed with chocolatey goodness, yada yada yada..no, i lied, i ran out of chocolate chips and that bwas the only reason why i used chocolate buttons instead.
anyways.. these tasted extraordinary good for those who love chocolate and M&M's, for those with extreme sweet tooth. but not for me.. its good, but i prefer the classic chocolate chip cookies.
i packed most of these cookies for my brother and his friends at school (he's in high school and you know, boys their age eat everything). my brother came home with this great news about how his friends went GAGA for the cookies. TeeHee? :D

sooo.. this is the recipe

soft and chewy chocolate buttons M&M's cookie
adapted from martha stewart's soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies
Makes about 3 dozen

* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
* 2 large eggs
* 1/2 cup chocolate buttons
* 1 1/2 cups M&M's

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate buttons and m&m's.
2. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
3. Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

pink and chocolate cupcakes for stephanie

red velvet blueberry cupcakes for stephanie's birthday, well, you can see no blueberry here because i injected the blueberry jam in the center of the cupcakes.
have i told you that i love injecting something into my cupcakes? heehee.. and have i told you that i love the color palette of these cupcakes? hmmmm.. i think, i do make some improvement :D
and this is the recipe of my go-to red velvet cupcakes

thank you caroline for trusting this rookie baker, whilst you work for the harvest :p

*ugh! im running out of this sprinkles, cheap ice cream sprinkles i bought in tesco express and i cant find the same sprinkles in jakarta, IRONIC!*

are you?

yesterday, my brother asked me.. "are you a sweet tooth?"
damn hell, i cant answer it.. so after few minutes i said this "i thought im not, but apparently.. yes i am"

i never consider my self as a sweet tooth before because i always like savoury foods but when i dig deeper and remember.. the only thing why i always choose savoury over sweet is only because i have this thought in my head about sweet has more calorie than savoury.
but when im not in hey-im-on-diet mood, i just loooove sweets, when most people got toothache over macarons, well, tell you this.. IM NOT! i dont really like macarons i got in jakarta, not because the sweetness they have, more because.. its not that tasty.
but when i went to paris and bought laduree's macarons in charles de gaule airport (though i ate it when im back in wales) MAN! IM HOOKED! soooo.. yes i do like overly sweet macarons.

oh, i dont get the sugar crave that much actually.. when i got it, i usually just eat one or two bites of it..
and also, i dont eat my baked goods... i just eat one when its still freshly baked and one the next day. well, errr.. quality control? :D
or more when its really good.. or when i really like it.. like chocolate chip cookies. and oh, when i have nothing else to eat.. trust me, it happens a lot!
but thanks god i never have to finish all my baked goods all by myself. i'd rather throw them away :D

but its different with savoury foods, i could eat lot of them and pretend that it was my breakfast..or lunch.. or dinner..

sooo, am i a sweet tooth? well... i dont have the answer :)

yesterday love!

ummmmhh, its monday today and the exams are over.. the holiday is here means i'll always have time for baking and doing my favorite things without being bothered with my assignments, heehee.
i can wake up late! though im actually a morning person :D
oooooh anyway, i just want to show you what sheila, the friend i mention in previous post brought me from singapore.

yay! lots of sweets and im telling you, those are for baking purpose.. well, except the twix bars, they're for me and my brothers to munch, have i told you that twix bar is my favorite? i LOVE twix, unfortunately i cant find twix bar anywhere here in jakarta.
and oh, the snickers, mars and m&m's? yes, they're for baking.. im thinking about m&m's cookies, snickers cookies, mars cheesecake.. geez, sugar coma and fat coma.
sheila also brought a veeeeeeeeeeeery cool freddie mercury tee, uugh, LOVE!

and this, i found this in sogo foodhall yesterday and my eyes were literally went out from my face (hmmmmm..okay, weird)

coarse sea salt! so long table salt.. and the coolest of all is this is a sea salt from bali..
i've read somewhere that coarse sea salt makes lots of goodness in baking and oh, i cant wait to make sea salt chocolate truffle!

look at it, they do look like crystal mets dont they? teehee! im gonna savour this thing and always use it everytime i bake chocolate chip cookies, because you know.. i love salty sweet chocolate chip cookies.

and last..

its just my ever so late new year resolution to start reading classic literature, well lets see..

strawberry cheesecake for my goodfriend sheila!

seriously, this cheesecake looks so professional, it looks almost like one we bought from bakery isnt it? uggh! love love love it!
my good friend whom i love, sheila.. been asked me to bake strawberry cheesecake for her, she even wanted to order one from me, hell noooo..
anyways, after months of strawberry cheesecake promise, i finally managed to bake it for her. i baked it three days ago since cheesecake requires a few steps of cooling before its ready to be eaten, well, its cheesecake, its best eaten cold, isnt it?

i used my go-to cheesecake recipe, which needs 1kg of cream cheese and leading you to fat coma.
heehee, but it tastes sooo good, blends well with the fruits or jam or preserves. i baked blueberry cheesecake once using this recipe and trust me, it was heaven... guilty heaven actually.
though i still want to try another cheesecake recipe but depending on this one when i have cheesecake crave, this recipe is more than enough.

and no recipe.. not because i dont want to share the recipe, its just the recipe is in indonesian language and i dont really want to transalate it to english. too lazy.. its sunday and i dont want to use my brain.. *seriously*

music in my ktchen

i've been listening to these two songs lately when im baking and i thought i should let you all know.

"why do you let me stay here" from she and him
click here to download the song



"never forget you" from noisettes
click here to download the song

from now on i'll regularly post musics i listen to currently so that you could know what's the theme song behind my baked goods. though i usually listen to same old musics over and over. :D
hmmm.. okay then, the sky is getting cloudy, i should take pictures of strawberry cheesecake i baked for my friend.. hurry, before the rain comes down. bye for now! :)

all pictures are from last.fm

i'm pissed!

yes im pissed! i lost all pictures i shot from few days ago, something happened with either my camera's memory card or the card reader. thanks god i could re-shoot these chocolate thumbprint cookies though i've lost the mood of styling them so they could beutifully photographed.
anyways, im so pissed!

talking about chocolate thumbprint cookies, these cookies are soo buttery-goodness-GOOD! it had the texture of shortbread before i left them all night on an open plate, then the texture tranformed from shortbread texture to soft sugar cookies texture. not bad.. stil good.. just not the texture i looked for. anyway, next time i'll use cookies flour instead of all-purpose flour to achieve a more crumbly cookies. or change the chocolate part into jam so it'll be jam thumbprint.
oh whatever! I LOVE THESE COOKIES!

MARTHA STEWART CHOCOLATE THUMBPRINT COOKIES
Makes 2 dozen

Ingredients
* 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
* 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
* 1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 stick butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla on medium-high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in flour, beginning on low speed and increasing to medium high.
2. Roll dough by teaspoonfuls into balls, and place 1 inch apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven, and press thumb into tops of cookies to make indentations. Return to oven, and bake until light brown on the edges, 7 to 9 minutes more. Remove to a wire rack to cool.
3. Combine chocolate, 4 tablespoons butter, and corn syrup in a small heat-proof bowl. Set over a pot of simmering water; stir occasionally until melted and smooth. Allow to cool slightly. When cookies are cool, fill the thumbprints with the chocolate mixture.