candy apples

ps: sorry that this post is a little late, but i have so much going on in my life now, good stuffs for sure. will blog the detail soon :D


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I know caramel apple, its sticky and addicting. But candy apple is new for me, my friend went to Germany last summer and she posted picture of a candy apple she had there. I thought it was a red caramel apple (silly! I know!) but then she explained that it was a candy, solid rock hard candy covered apple and it was really good, she told me.

I Googled candy apple and found that it is really easy to make one, just have a candy thermometer ready and you are all set for candy apples. Okay, maybe a good apple also, I went with royal gala apples, because I like them. It took me only 30 minutes to have the candy apples ready, so, yes, it’s a dead easy sugary treat. I think this recipe is perfect for those who celebrate Halloween, pack the candy apple in a clear cellophane bag and color the candy with the usual Halloween colors like purple, orange or even black. I’ll definitely make these again for Halloween with those colors.



click here for the recipe and more from me for Dujour Magazine

a soft pretzel, okay, no, a love letter to my current crush

dear, you, the one that inspired me to wrote Jack And doris.
i just want to tell you that im a big fan of romance, but i dont do romance.
i dont do infant talk, i dont play cute.
i do girly stuffs but im not a girly girl.
i embrace my crazy super short haircut and no, im not going to grow it longer.
im not smart, my teeth arent pretty, i have pimples on my face.
im a bit boyish, i stay up late to watch football, my favorites are converse and doc martens.
im a dumb at sketching. im a messy student.
im sassy, im mean, cruel, i tease and laugh to some people.
i eat fast and messy, pretty much like a pig.
im LOUD! not cute loud, im a what-the-hell-loud.
i, maybe, dont do marriage.
i want to go to Congo, Rwanda, Karachi, Afghanistan and all other conflict zones.
im not religious.
im not an it-girl.
i dont have many friends.
i dont know if i can fill the shoes that the other girl has left you.
because im nothing like her, im all i've said above.



but here is the good news, i can make a very good pretzel!
really, i make a wonderful, soft and chewy pretzels.
the end.





WONDERFUL SOFT BUTTERY PRETZELS (adapted from allrecipes.com)


* 4 teaspoons instant dry yeast
* 1 teaspoon white sugar
* 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
* 5 cups bread flour
* 1/2 cup white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
* 1 tablespoon melted salted margarine

* 1/2 cup baking soda
* 4 cups hot water
* 1/4 cup sea salt salt, for topping
* 1/2 cup melted butter



1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.

4. When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with sea salt.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned. brush melted butter using pastry brush to each pretzel while hot.

chocolate crackles cookies

It took me about one year to finally bake these cookies, and boy did I regret it. If only I’ve baked the cookies from the first time I bought Martha Stewart’s cookies book, I’d be famous by now. In my opinion, these chocolate crackles are the perfect cookie-slash-brownies cookies.

They are very chocolaty, cakey, fudgy and chewy. They are really good with everything, tall glass of cold milk or a big cup of coffee or even a pretty cup of hot tea. But I personally like tall glass of cold milk. And now I’m thinking about making peanut butter chocolate crackles cookie sandwich, you know, a dollop of sweet salty peanut butter frosting sandwiched between two chocolate crackle cookies.

Oh my, heaven! Or maybe, I’ll throw in one or two cups of peanut butter chips to the dough and call it, heaven on earth. But for now, I’ll enjoy these cookies, by it very perfect chocolaty self and call it a day.



click here for the recipe and more from me for Dujour Magazine

Doris and Jack

Dorris and Jack, how can i describe this couple? well, let me just tell you their story.
Dorris and Jack met in University, they were both majoring in Design and knew each other since their first day in Uni, although they weren't friends, well, at least they didnt until they became classmates in one particular class.

it was the first day of new semester, Doris had travelled to Europe on that holiday and got home with plenty of european experience. she just got out from a bad relationship with her childhood sweetheart (whom she always thought is the one she'd be married to) and had no expectation about romance whatsoever. but then she saw jack and noticed that there is something different about this guy, its weird, but he looked pretty cute and did he get his tan worked? that was the very moment when doris fell in love with jack.



Doris needed just a couple days learning about jack from here and there, and found out that they got many things in common, one of them is traveling. other than that, jack is an eternal adventurer and an artist, those were just another reasons for doris to fall just even deeper. then Doris spent months trying to figure out about how jack's feeling about her, it was not easy to do since jack is a very quiet person and 'stiff' according to Doris's bestfriend. i remember Doris told me that jack "has no expression whatsoever", i laughed so hard.
and came another holiday, Doris went to this very beautiful island, she was still madly and hopelessly in love with jack that she decided to write him a postcard, she wrote "lets find some beautiful place to get lost." she mailed it.



came new semester, the first day of new semester. Jack smiled to Doris when they saw each other that morning and jack told doris that he has secretly love doris for quite a some time. the rest is history.



they are a very fun couple, they have travelled so much, together and got lost. doris has made the ever so quiet and stiff jack laughs, and jack always there for doris, he is so gentle and charming and just full of love. he protected doris as if doris was a this very fragile pink rose petal. i adore this couple so much, and they simply make people's heart flutter, they are just too cute to be true.






they graduated from Uni together and sadly had to parted because doris moved to New york while jack had to stay in their hometown. they got into long distance relationship for a couple years but then jack has had enough and flew all the way to new york to visit doris and took her to paris. they spent the most romantic weeks in paris where jack finally popped the question while they had their breakfast. doris choked, speechless for few minutes but immediately said yes.






their wedding was a lovely, casual and intimate affair amongst friends and family. filled with booze, pretty cupcakes and music.
they vowed to love each other for the rest of their life, she promised to always bake him his favorite chocolate chip cookies and he promised to move with her to new york. their final words in their vow was "to travel the world with each other or to just stay home and grow old together."









now the couple is living in new york city, brooklyn to be exact. doris works for a magazine and jack is a photographer. they still fly back to their hometown frequently and continue making people's heart flutter everytime they see Doris and Jack together.

what to do with your pizza dough

I went to Bali Island and all I got is a fabulous homemade chocolate honeycomb, it had been sitting in my fridge for a week. It waited for me to go all creative and use it in my baked goods. So I went with cream pocket and touched it up with chocolate and crushed honeycomb. I always love cream pocket, well, how can you not love a cream filled something?

Cream pocket is much like a calzone only its filled with pastry cream and commonly served as a dessert. Imagine having a thin and crispy pizza crust oozing with sweet creamy pastry cream after few slices of margarita pizza. It’s a heaven! Add chocolate glaze and crushed honeycomb now it’s a, crunchy, crispy, creamy, chocolaty heavenly dessert.



You know what’s the best thing about making a cream pocket? You can actually use the leftover dough for margarita pizza. Just spread tomato sauce, sprinkle some grated mozzarella cheese and few basil leaves. Heaven and heaven!




click here for the recipe and more from me for Dujour Magazine

some brilliant stuffs

gonna be an another quick post here.
just want to show you all about how amaziiiiink these food stylings from Ikea's new book.
just brilliant, mad brilliant, pretty too!
found this via sweet designs blog

and please read this post from sweetfineday, this makes my heart flutter.
a rock concert in New York with male friend and strangers.
i heart and i cant wait.

a bit of disaster sourdough donuts

this is what happens to a lazy person, who always find a shortcut to everything.
a bit of disaster donuts or may i say, fried dough?
i dont know why, but when i was frying the doughs (okay, lets just call them 'dough' because they are kinda nowhere near donuts) i have this warm feeling about some memory i had in Germany few years ago.
with a typical crowded tourist spot, wet windy winter and a cute fried dough seller involved. it was so random, and hazy, the memory.



okay, anyway, i was in a VERY BIG donut mood. i'd kill for krispy kreme's crullers, oh my, the cakey and tender glazed cruller.
no, not french cruller, not deep fried pate a choux. apparently, krispy kreme has a different kind of crullers.
and also, i have my newly breed sourdough starter and i thought why not use the wild yeast as the leavened for my donuts plus i'll get that slight 'tang' of sourdough im crazy about.
so i went for my trusty.... google.com and searched for sourdough donuts, found many but chose the one that looked easiest.

and your lazy baker went with that one.
about one hour later... TADA! very dense donuts!
not exactly what i had in mind, very far far far aaaaway from the krispy kreme cruller i was craving.
but these fried doughs are actually NICE, its.... errr.. a fried dough.
its crispy on the outside, which is a plus for me. has a big sourdough taste, like what i hoped for.
and even nicer when they are all glazed. I LIKE!
but i'll look for different recipe next time and throw away my laziness and DO the "roll out the dough and cut using donut cutter"
and since i am still in a very big donut kick, maybe i'll make and post another donuts recipe. chocolate cake donut, hmmmmm...




SOURDOUGH DONUTS (i really forgot where i got the recipe, seriously!)

1/2 cup sourdough starter
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk

1. sift the dry ingredients together. mix remaining ingredients together and add to dry mixture.
2. bring dough together gently with your hands. sprinkle some flour onto a work surface and turn dough on to it, knead it gently about 3 times to help bring the dough together.
3. (this is what i really should do instead of shaping the donuts bare-hand and singing) roll out to thickness of 2cm and cut using donut cutter.
4. heat about 8 cups of oil (just enough to deep fried the doughs) to 350 F (okay, really, who am i kidding with?! i didnt use thermometer, i didnt know the temperature, i just dump the dough in the really really really hot oil) and fry until golden brown.

VANILLA GLAZE

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. mix together all the ingredients and stir until smooth