Buttery Rock Buns with Macadamia Nuts

Recently I saw a post of rock buns by a fellow member G of Facebook group, Making Food with Love and it brought back memories of the yummy taste of this old school cookies and of course I asked for the sharing of the recipe and was told that it was by DeQueenKitchen. DeQueenKitchen also shared with me that adding some nuts in will give it some crunch and make it even more delicious. So here I was today baking this and the cookies are just soooooo addictive! The best part is it is not difficult nor tedious to make them!

Adapted from Rock Buns by DeQueenKitchen

Makes about 30 pieces

Ingredients:

- 200 gm plain flour
- 80 gm caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 100 gm unsalted butter, cold
- 160 gm mixed dried fruits
- 110 gm macadamia nuts
- 1 egg (60 gm sized)¹
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method: 

1. Sift flour, sugar and baking powder together.

2. Cut cold butter into flour mixture using a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

3. Stir the nut and fruits into the flour mixture evenly.

4. Lightly beat egg and vanilla extract together.

The mixture should look like this after all ingredients are mixed in.

5. Mix egg mixture into dry ingredients evenly. Refrain from adding extra liquid. Mixture will look dry and crumbly at first but the dough will come together as you continue to stir and mix.

6. Using a cookie scoop, scoop the dough onto lined baking trays. Flatten slightly using your fingers and bake at fan forced 170C for 17-18min.

Notes:

1. Some of you might have noticed that this recipe is 2x that the recipe of DeQueenKitchen but yet my egg quantity remains unchanged. Nope, there is no typo in the above recipe; this 'mistake' came about when I was trying to make 2x the recipe but I forgot to double the egg used but yet the recipe turned out very nice and of just the right texture so I shall leave it as 1 egg. I have also reduced the sugar used since I am using quite a bit of the sweet mixed fruits.

Serene's Butter Cake

I'm sure many of you have heard of the famous Mrs SK Ng's Butter Cake recipe and have baked it at one point or another; I have baked that too myself and have loved the fluffy fine texture of it. I also love to eat butter cakes but I am also a lazy baker, so the egg separation method used in Mrs SK Ng's recipe often makes me think twice to take out my mixer. Then one of my baking friends, Serene shared her whole eggs butter cake recipe and Voila! Since then I have been baking this recipe. And for this, I'm going to call it Serene's Butter Cake :).

Marbled Chocolate version

Here is her recipe with slight adaptions made by me:

Makes a 8x5 inch loaf tin cake.

Ingredients:

- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 90 ml mlk
- 250 gm butter, softened
- 140 gm castor sugar, sifted
- 30 gm icing sugar, sifted
- 3 eggs (60 gm sized)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 gm self raising flour, sifted
- 1 tsp Grand Marnier (optional)

For marbled chocolate flavour only:

- 2 tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 tbsp castor sugar, sifted
- some milk

Method:

1. Mix the lemon juice with the milk and set aside.

2. Cream sifted sugars and butter together until light and fluffy.

3. Add the eggs in slowly as you continue to mix. Ensure the eggs are evenly incorporated into the mixture.

4. Add vanilla extract and Grand Marnier (if any) into the buttermilk from step 1.

5. Fold alternately the flour and buttermilk into the creamed butter in 2 to 3 additions.

6a. For plain butter flavour, pour batter into a lightly greased loaf tin and bake at 
170C non fan forced for 45-55min. Cover the cake with a piece of baking paper in the last 10min of baking if the top browns too much. 

6b. For marbled chocolate version, scoop 1/3 of the batter into a separate bowl and mix in the cocoa powder and castor sugar. Mix it well. Add enough milk to make the chocolate batter the same consistency as that of the plain batter.

Layer scoops of chocolate and plain batter alternately in a lightly greased loaf tin and use a skewer to make marbling patterns. Bake at 170C non fan forced for 45-55min. Cover the cake with a piece of baking paper in the last 10min of baking if the top browns too much.

7. Cool slightly in tin for about 5min before inverting cake out onto cooling rack to cool completely.

Updated 13 Aug 2018

My apologies for the typo in the ingredient list; I have actually missed out the eggs! Thanks to a friend who was trying out the recipe and brought my attention to the missing eggs which I have stated in the steps. Thanks J!

Cleaning 101: Cooker Hood Mesh Covers

This is a long overdue post. I was planning to post a few entries on cleaning stuff around the home because I find myself repeating the same info when sharing with friends, so I thought blog entries will be useful to direct friends to. The step by step guide and photos in a blog entry will be most helpful too. But well, every time I finally had time to write it, I found that I couldn't find those photos I have taken. So this time round, I made sure I edited the photos and saved them in a separate album in one sitting for easy retrieval. So here it goes! The 1st item to be cleaned this time is ... the dreaded hood mesh covers!

We all know how terrible it is to clean these covers; They are greasy and sticky and have hard to reach layers and worse is they are in mesh form! My early days as a new homemaker was spent using the dish sponge to clean it like dishes, only to find bits of the sponge being caught in the mesh and spending the next 30min trying to get those sponge bits out. Next I went on to using a brush, I thought that would be the best way but no, the mesh covers are way too sticky and coated with grime for the brushing to work without multiple cycles of soaping, brushing and rinsing. Seriously I could understand why no one cleans these things at all.

Well fret not, I have since found an easy peasy way to clean these mesh covers and have been sharing with my friends on how to tackle them. Below are the detailed steps with photos for the method. Before you jump right in to cleaning your mesh covers, I have a very important disclaimer here: Only use this method if you are very sure that your mesh are made of stainless steel. This method is NOT suitable for aluminium stuff, it will in fact tarnish your aluminium if you soak it in baking soda. (I have learnt it the hard way through my aluminium roasting tin!). Even if you are sure that your mesh covers are made of stainless steel, as with any other cleaning method being used for the first time, please test the method on a small area of your covers first. 

So now that you have understand the caution, let's take a look at how I clean my mesh covers!

Items needed:

- 1-2 cups of baking soda
- hot boiling water
- a tray that can fit your mesh covers
- dish detergent (optional)
- a small soft bristled brush (e.g. an old toothbrush)

First, you will need lots of baking soda. I suggest you buy those sold by the kilogram. I get mine from NTUC Fairprice under the brand Arm & Hammer. It is a bright orange box packaging, I use baking soda for cleaning my stainless steel stove too. This will come under another blog entry (hopefully soon!).

Put your mesh covers into the tray. This is one of my two covers.
I sprinkle baking soda generously all over it. 

1. Put your mesh covers into the tray. Sprinkle baking soda generously all over it.

Baking soda spread into the gaps in the mesh.
This is the second cover that is stacked on top of the first cover.    

2. Rub the baking soda into the gaps in the mesh and all around the covers.

I stacked the 2 covers in the tray.

After the hot boiling water is poured all over it. Look at the grime that is instantly dissolved!

3. Next, pour hot boiling water to submerge the covers. Use a chopstick to push the mesh covers down if they float. You will see that the water will instantly turn yellow with all the grime dissolved. Leave it to soak for a few hours. Usually I leave it till the whole tray cools down. 

The covers after the water is poured away. You can see that half the grime is gone!

4. After the water has cooled down, pour the water away and you will be able to see that most of the grime is removed. 

This step is purely optional but today I just decided to be "extra". LOL.
Pour more hot water over it and add a few squirts of the dish washing detergent. 

5. This step is purely optional but no harm doing if you have the time to spare. After the first round of soaking in boiling water and baking soda, squirt a bit of dish washing detergent and pour more hot boiling water over the mesh covers. I also use the brush to gently brush the cover that is on the top this time. Again, this is optional but it is so gratifying to see the grime coming off!

The mesh covers after the second round of soaking.
Looks clean but not throughly clean yet.
You will need to gently brush it to remove all traces of grime.

Use a soft brush to brush the mesh covers with your dish soap.
My dish soap is in a self foaming bottle so it is easy to rinse off the soap later.
Do not squirt concentrated form of dish detergent onto the covers at this stage! 

6. After the water has cooled down, pour the water away. For the last step you will need to brush the mesh with a soft bristled brush with some dish soap. My dish soap is always in a self foaming bottle so when I use it, it is in easy-to-rinse off foam. Do not use concentrated liquid soap or powder directly on the mesh at this stage, else you might have to rinse it many times, especially so if the thick gel or powder gets caught in the layers of mesh. 

If you do not have a self foaming bottle, you can dip the brush in your regular dish soap that is already diluted with water, we only need a slightly soapy brush to do the brushing. After brushing, rinse the mesh covers under running water and air dry them on your dish racks and voila! Your mesh covers will be as good as new!

The mesh covers after cleaning and drying!

Update: A technical error occurred with a previous posting of this same entry so I had to recreate and post this up again now.