I made some savory scones this morning and it took me no time to get a fresh yet delicious scones out from the oven. It's truly yummy with some cheese and back bacon added. I must say the crumbly and fluffy texture is a winner. One thing for sure it's got to be eaten warm. Anyway, it's really a simple and no much time consuming recipe that you can make it at anytime either in the morning or make it for afternoon tea. For me, it's my all time favorite snack! This great recipe came from "Do What I Like". I've slightly changed the recipe as I made it into a savoury version.
The first thing I do is making the buttermilk by adding two teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice to 150ml of full fat milk and let it stand for 30 minutes. If you've got the commercial buttermilk and that will safe you some time. While I was waiting for the buttermilk, I chopped two slices of back bacon and fried them in a pan until it slightly golden brown. Turn off the heat and let it cool down while I continue with other stuffs. Roughly cut 30g of cheddar cheese into little cubes. It don't have to be in good shape as it will melt and stick at the scones when it bakes in the oven. Shift 200g self-raising flour into a large bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar. Give it a quick stir to combine with the flour. Roughly cut 50g of butter and quickly tuck it into the flour and rub in the butter until a crumbly consistency, it don't have to be well combined, you would rather let those tiny bits of butter stay in the flour. Just don't over combine. This took less then a minutes to combine and by this time the homemade buttermilk should be ready.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture, pour in 2/3 of the buttermilk and use chopstick to mix everything until it turn into a mess. You don't want a smooth round dough but a sticky and messy mixture. If dough is too dry, add in more buttermilk. For me, 2/3 is more than enough for the mixture.Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured working surface, add the fried bacon and cheddar cheese. Using both hand to bring everything together and pat the mixture into 2cm thickness. Cut the dough with 5.5cm floured cutter and pressed all the way down without twisting or turning the cutter. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper then glaze the surface with some leftover buttermilk. For more cheesy texture, sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on top. Bake in a preheated oven at 220C for 15 minutes. Serve warm and no jam or cream needed. Enjoy!
It's a big day of my other half and it's always a headache of thinking what type of birthday cake for him is the best as you might have the same feeling like me hope to give the best to our life partner, right?! Since he likes durian a lot and I still have a box of frozen durian, why not make a durian cake or durian cheesecake for him. Thinking along the way, if you did follow my blog you'll know that I've just made a 
Time is limited, I don't really have much time to think somemore as his birthday is just around the corner. Ended up, I make durian cheesecake again, but with a Non-Baked version sandwich with plain spongy cake. I followed a 
For the cheese filling, I'm very particular with chilled cheesecake, as too much gelatin will cause the cake like jelly type. I'm really looking for a soft, light and melt in-the-mouth texture but not jelly cake. So, really have to be cautious about the portion of gelatin added in.
I was quite nervous when he was taking the first bite of this durian cheesecake, guess what? It's so obviously show the satisfaction from his face. I couldn't believe it and I quickly tried the first bite too and it's really something I was looking for. It's soft, light and super tasty for us and couldn't feel the gelatin texture. As I added less gelatin in the batter, the cake couldn't stay at room temperature for too long but it set and stand nicely in the fridge. I'm really glad that the cheesecake turn out very well. When he is happy, I'm happy too!
It's quite easy to make and the result was good with a spongy, light and fluffy texture. My previous cocoa sponge was slightly dry whereas this one stay moist which you can eat it straight. Not only that, the main thing is the sponge can be used as a cake base for making all kind of celebration or party cake. Feel free to watch the video clip on how the lady chef did it as well as my final result of experiment. See how spongy it is :) 
After the first attempt on 
The cheesecake was not too bad but I still like the texture of durian cheesecake as it's very smooth and silky texture that melt in the mouth was great! This texture is slightly thicker that might take a few more second to melt in your mouth.
I tried to place a piece at room temperature for 15 minutes and the texture was not that thicker then. The crumble is very tasty and goes well with the cheesecake but the apple cherry wasn't that very special. It taste ok but nothing so special for me.
I've done a few study from the recipe book and found that some cheesecake had a very silky smooth texture. I remember before baking the durian cheesecake, the batter was quite liquid or should I say runny whereas this batter of cherry cheesecake was quite thick.
I guess it's due to the ingredients used. Although they both used the same amount of inggredients like cream cheese, sugar and eggs. The different is batter that added with same milk or cream is smoother than the batter made with cream cheese and eggs only. The durian cheesecake was added milk whereas this is not, may be that's make the difference. Please correct me if I'm wrong but so far this is the experiment I've gone through. Anyway, people who are not very choosy like me will still love this cheesecake. It's just an ordinary one for me :P
I've some leftover cinnamon buns and I want to give it a twist to something else. Bread butter pudding is a very traditional English dessert that usually serve with a dollop of ice cream or custard.
I baked these cinnamon rolls into buns shape by baking it on a muffin pan. They looks like quite happy sitting on the muffin pan! Other than adding the raw sugar with cinnamon powder, I gave it some extra texture.
