Change is Certain

Dear Friends,

I’m sad to say that due to a new work regiment and daily routine, there is less time to bake and to update this page.  So for the time being, I’ll be closing Baking, Empirically, just until I learn to maneuver my life around this schedule and hopefully, you’ll see me back around here in time to come. So for now, I’ll be posting all baking related stuff over at Whim and Wanderlust (I still have weekends, take that job!) so be sure to check things out there!

Until later then! Happy baking!

Macaroni and Cheese

While the brother was on a night exercise as a reservist, A. and I decided to make ourselves some scrumptious dinner. We were looking all over the internet for recipes and finally decided on some home made mac and cheese. Now mac and cheese made from scratch is really nothing quite like Kraft dinner-esque instant mac and cheese, it tastes much less… processed and so much yummier!

So we used this recipe (quick tomato macaroni cheese) from Jamie Oliver. It’s essentially making a pesto (basil, parmesan and garlic) with some tomato and cream in it. And we added a little sausage and broccoli and topped with fresh bocconcini (which is sososo stringy and melty and good when baked). And the breadcrumbs on top add a real nice crunch to each bite, so it’s definitely a must! The only little note is that the recipe was for 4 servings, we halved it and we still ended up with enough pasta to feed 6, so you might end up with more food than you expected, which I won’t complain about if it’s yummy like this!

And we finished off by making a little strawberry cheesecake (which we had to impatiently wait until the next day to eat), more about that later!

Apple Crumble

There might truly be nothing better than the smell of apples and cinnamon and nutmeg baking in the oven. Last Sunday, we cleaned the house to get ready for the holiday season. Then we put up the holiday decorations and outfitted the tree, all this while this yummy apple crumble was baking in the oven.

And I burnt the top a little, that’s what you get for being too zealous with browning with the broiler. But overall, it was more tangy and less sweet (which was nice) and really pretty healthy too (oats! really little butter! lots of apples!). Yum!

Sunflower Brittle Snackers

These babies are essentially jazzed up versions of these yummylicious brittle snackers. Recently, I have taken to baking familiar things, you know, the things that don’t involve too much thinking – the oldies but goodies. I used saltines this time, which I love because they retain crunch, and I actually reallyreally like the addition of toasted sunflower seeds, they add a little pop and pizazz to the brittle snacker. I think I might actually consider making these as little christmas treat packages (instead of trusty old shortbread OR perhaps a combination), since they’re easily adaptable to christmas flavours ala mint, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. YUM.  Will let you know how it goes! (:

Dulce de Leche Brownies

I used to get dulce de leche ice cream at Ici in Berkeley (so goood, mmmm) and when I saw these brownies over at David Lebovitz, I bookmarked it and have finally gotten down to actually baking some. So I embarked on making some home made dulce de leche (which when translated literally means “sweet milk”).

I chose oven over stove in the process because I really didn’t want to stand over a stove for 2-3 hours, but alas, I did not consider the the fact that we have a tiny and very inconvenient oven. Thus, shoving a roasting pan almost filled with hot water with a glass pie plate sitting in the middle was very nearly almost disastrous (hot water over hands, NOT good). I don’t think I quite achieved the consistency of dulce de leche (it was more liquidy than I wanted) and I think it could have benefitted from a little more time in the oven. But alas, my mother needed the oven so I used liquidy dulce de leche over brownie batter and as you can see, the finished product doesn’t really look like what it should. No gooey chunks of dulce de leche but instead, some sort of a gooey, swirl-crazy mess – but they are still kinda tasty.

Now I’ve got some liquidy dulce de leche wannabe in the fridge, I think maybe I’ll try again to get it right.

Peachy Plum Cake

I bought this box of plums from the supermarket a week ago and today, feeling a baking itch, thought maybe I’d make a little plum galette with them (the same idea as an apple galette, just with plums!). But then I thought about apple cake at Beviamo and I was determined to embark on a little afternoon plum cake baking.

I used this Dimply Plum Cake recipe, which coincidentally originally from Dorie Greenspan’s book Baking: From My Home to Yours, which I want so badly (read more about that here). And I made slight changes, like using lemon zest instead of orange, cutting the sugar from 3/4 to 2/3 cup, adding a little clove and nutmeg to the mixture. And instead of halved plums in the batter (I didn’t have quite enough plums), I sliced them up. So I poured half the batter into the pan, covered with sliced plums, poured the other half of batter in and topped it with some fresh yellow peach.

And ta-da! It doesn’t look like much but it is delicious. I mean, DELICIOUS! Not too sweet, great texture and seriously, baked stone fruit is definitely one of my favourite things to eat, ever. Yumyumyum.

(And apologies for the yellowy pics, my house is too dark for my silly camera. Totally want a new camera to take glorious food pics now!)

Trick or Treat!

Spooky cupcakes for Halloween! These little creepy treats are awesome and were really fun to decorate. They were either a chocolate yogurt or lemon yogurt cupcake (I had a big tub of yogurt) and they were delicious! I would have totally loved to make pumpkin cupcakes, but pumpkins are expensive little things here. But the best thing? Cream cheese frosting! There seemed to be a cream cheese shortage a while back in Singapore (4 cold storages and an ntuc and still no cream cheese), so when I saw some in the supermarket (finally!) I jumped at the chance to make a little frosting.

So I used the same lemon yoghurt cake from here (originally from the lovely Deb of Smitten Kitchen) which was definitely better with yoghurt! Lesson learnt: substitutions are a tricky business! And the chocolate yoghurt cakes are via Smitten Kitchen via David Lebovitz, which I’ve made quite a few times and are so great! (:

So we made mummies (so cute!), eyeballs (kinda creepy), people with exposed brains (haha, these didn’t really look like brains) and cobwebs! Awesome decorating fun, definitely a great little halloween activity.

Date Squares

I fiercely remember the first time I ate a date – fiercely because it’s one of those memories that feels burnt into my head. And it’s odd because I don’t remember the logistics, where we were, what we were doing, if it was sunny out – I just remember biting into it, my hands sticky, thinking about how it tastes nothing like a raisin (though it looked like an extremely huge one). And I remember looking at my dad and smiling, depositing the little pit in his hand. And that’s it.

So really, I don’t remember, but it is so clear I can taste it in my mouth. Strange, isn’t it?

So in memory of d. on his birthday, I baked some date squares. They are crumbly and full of oats, and they hold just enough of that sweet sticky goodness without being overpowering. And the great thing is, these would be great with substitutes – i.e. blueberry squares would be heavenly.

And speaking of dates, I miss the date man at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market and his bins of all sorts of fresh dates, and how it would kind of make my day to buy myself a quarter pound, stash them in my bag and keep them as a treat for gloomy afternoons in the fifth floor office.

Banana Buttermilk Pancakes

This morning, we had homemade banana buttermilk pancakes with chocolate syrup. YUM.

Lemon Blueberry Loaf

One of the biggest reasons I would love to go back to California is the food. Fresh produce everywhere at farmer’s markets and grocery stores (I heart you Berkeley Bowl!) – I mean, the sight of plums, nectarines and peaches of all colours and sizes lining the produce aisle, brussel sprouts on the stem, eight different kinds of sprouts and pumpkins that are reasonable priced (the pumpkins at Cold Storage are $33SGD)!!! And meyer lemons, I love meyer lemons – they are great for everything: baked goods, juice, fish, chicken… And so today, reminiscing about the Berks, I thought I’d bake a little lemon loaf.

This is really a lemon blueberry buttermilk loaf. I used a recipe from Smitten Kitchen for lemon yoghurt cake but had no yoghurt, so I substituted with buttermilk instead. Though I do think it’d be much better with yoghurt (it adds more of that tartness) and a little more sugar. The loaf needed a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar and A. insisted on putting those little melty rice balls on the top of the loaf!

And what’s kind of ridiculous? Every single time I type Lemon Blueberry Loaf, I end up typing Lemon Blueberry Load. I have lazy left hand typing fingers.