Brownie Pancake/ Chocolate Snicker Ice Cream

As I am moving my Fujioh hood to the new place, I need to find a replacement for my current home.

The delivery men came for the installation. They told me that I have to top up another S$60 as mine was a NON standard model. What to do? I didn't know how to remove.

After much bargaining, he lowered it down to S$50.

So they went about setting up the new machine and guess what, they didn't even need a screwdriver to remove the old one. All it takes it two men to lift and bring it down!!!! I was shocked!

Okay to comfort myself, it was indeed a heavy machine and I and the helper won't be able to do it alone!

These days, workmanship is really expensive!

Enough of my foolishness, today is Shrove Tuesday also known as Pancake Day.

How time flies and I am also getting older. I already saw Easter Chocolate being sold in the supermarket.

Seeing my son grows into this teenage phrase, I can't help but wonder what had I done wrong in the past.

He was into his nonsensical behaviour again and this time round, I suspended his phone line. Seriously I wonder when he will grow up and learn some form of respect. Luckily I am not depending on him during old age! It is soooooo painful with him going through this phrase. It is hurting all of us!

On a positive note, daughter got another 90% score for her 听写. I can see the happiness in her when she gets such achievement. She sure been working really hard as Chinese is her weakest subject. As she doesn't do CA1 anymore, I really am not too sure how to find out how she is coping. I pray she does and am enjoying the learning process.

To reward her, today I am making Brownies pancake . I hope it will go well with the new tub of Chocolate Snicker ice cream we have. Yes again, I took Kitchen Corner recipe. So you can guess it is really that good.

Verdict: This pancake has a brownie like texture

Source: Tracey's Culinary adventures

What you need:
Brownie Bater Pancakes

136g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
22g cocoa powder
54g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
44g canola oil
2 tsp vanilla
216g milk

Method

Mix everything into a bowl and whisk till it is smooth.

Heat pan and using a ladle, scoop batter into pan and cook pancake till cook on both sides.

I serve it with chocolate ice cream.
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Chocolate Snickers Ice Cream

4 egg yolks
75g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
300ml milk
150g dark chocolate
300ml whipping cream
2 Snickers bars

Method:

Put the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl and whisk until thick and foamy. Pour the milk into a heavy pan, bring just to the boil, then gradually pour the milk into a heavy pan, bring just to the boil, then gradually pour the milk on to the yolk mixture, whisking constantly.

Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens and is smooth.

Pour back into the bowl and stir in the chocolate until melted. Cover the custard closely, leave to cool.

Pour into the ice cream and make accordingly to manufacturer's instruction.

Fold in chopped chocolate snickers transfer to a freezer container. Freeze for 5 - 6 hours until firm.

Chocolate Ice Cream

I haven't been baking for weeks I think! I believe my little princess was the last to use the oven to churn out my birthday muffins.

First it was the crazy schedules I had and then subsequently I fell ill. When I am sick, I am sick for a long time especially when I am down with a cough.

I have changed prescription and this time, it seems to be working! Finally! Despite book marking some recipes but I still can't find my mojo back to baking. I guess I will just have to see how things are going forward this week.

Last week, my little one was doing a science experiment, making her own ice cream. I heard about this some time back from J. Seeing her getting into action was pretty comical. She is so driven with her task. Though it turned out as vanilla ice cream but I think it needed way too much arm power for it.

With such humid weather and my promise to the little one, I churned out Chocolate Ice Cream and a sorbet.

I adapted the recipe from Kitchen Corner and let me tell you, go for it! It is even better than store bought!

What you need:

4 egg yolks

75g caster sugar
1 tsp cornflour
300ml milk
150g dark chocolate
300ml whipping cream

Method:

Put the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a bowl and whisk until thick and foamy. Pour the milk into a heavy pan, bring just to the boil, then gradually pour the milk into a heavy pan, bring just to the boil, then gradually pour the milk on to the yolk mixture, whisking constantly.

Return the mixture to the pan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens and is smooth. Pour back into the bowl and stir in the chocolate until melted. Cover the custard closely, leave to cool, then chill for 6 hours or overnight.

Whip the cream until it has thicken, but is still soft enough to fall from a spoon. Fold it into the chilled custard and pour into an ice cream maker to churn for 20-25 minutes until thick.

Freeze for 5 - 6 hours until firm.

Black Sesame Ice Lollies

Ingredients

130g black sesame seeds powder

500ml milk

50g honey

70g sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tbsp cornstarch

100ml whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

Add milk, honey, sugar and sesame seed powder in a pot and cook in low heat till sugar is dissolved.

Whisk egg yolks and cornstarch, then add into the sesame mixture.

Continue to cook in low heat until the mixture is thickened, turn off heat and let mixture cool to room temperature.

In a separate bowl, whip the cream with vanilla essence, then add into the sesame mixture.

Pour the mixture into ice lollies molds.  Freeze for 3 – 4 hours.

Enjoy.

Mandarin Orange Sorbet

After nursing my princess for a good one week, she was finally well and strong enough to be back in school but .......... mommy is down and out.

Wasn't feeling great in the morning but I didn't expect to take a turn for the worst. I was struggling to drive home after picking up the kids from school.

My whole body is like breaking a part. Every inch of my body is screaming. Chinese believes that we got to sweat it out but no matter how many layers of blanket I piled onto myself, I just couldn't.

Didn't help when my kids disappeared from the house. I couldn't rest worrying where they went gallivanting again with the neighbour's kid.

After all, we are still very new to the neighbourhood. That is the sad part about this "job", you can't take medical leave.

Enough of ranting and back to food, we have plenty of mandarin oranges leftover from the Lunar New Year and I have been scouting around for a recipe that I can used up as many as possible.

So here is my Mandarin Orange Sorbet. Enjoy.

What you need:

100g caster sugar
250ml water
2 small sticks cinnamon
250ml mandarin orange juice
2 tbsp Cointreau

Method (without an ice cream machine)

Place the sugar, cinnamon and water in a saucepan over a moderate heat, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10-15 min.

The syrup should turned golden in colour.

Cool the pan in ice water bath, stirring till the syrup thickens.

Before it cools completely, add Cointreau and orange juice; then strain the liquid over a sieve into a freezer proof bowl.

Chill for 2 hours, take it out and whisk and re-chill for another 2 hours. (best over night).

Serve with a sprig of mint.