Cocomama Quinoa Cereal

Quinoa is still in one of the food trends for 2014, and I'm glad that it won't go away so soon.  Why?  Because I just had an opportunity to sample ready-to-eat quinoa cereal from Cocomama.  I've cooked with quinoa before and I almost always incorporate it into my homemade bread.  It's quite versatile, easy to digest protein-packed grain with slightly crunchy texture.  My bread comes out with fluffy and soft texture which everyone likes and it stays like that for days.

There are several flavors to choose from, Banana Cinnamon, Honey Almond, Orange Cranberry, and Wild Blueberry, and all are equally good. My favorite is Honey Almond flavor, while my son's favorite is the Banana Cinnamon.  What I like about this cereal is that it's precooked, you can eat it either cold or warm--very convenient, and the quantity is just right for breakfast meal.  The crunchy texture is what makes quinoa cereal fun to eat for my son, his only complain is that the banana needs to shine more in the Banana Cinnamon flavor.  I don't have any quips with Honey Almond flavor though; there's coconut cream in the product which I detect but it's not bothersome, in fact I like it.  I think this cereal is much better than those instant flavored oatmeals, this is barely sweet not too mention healthier because of all the natural flavors it uses.

Cocomama also has another product which is called Crunched Out.  This comes in clusters--like pieces of breakfast bars--intended to eat as snacks, in yogurt, milk, or for ice cream topping (delicious!).  I haven't tried this before but I think I will!

Here's the video about their Kickstarter campaign--with link for you to click--and help spread out the revolution of quinoa cereal!



Disclaimer:  I was sent samples of Cocomama Quinoa Cereal.  All opinions are solely my own.

Rhubarb Orange Tart

Rhubarb has come into season.  Despite its bad rap as being stringy and fibrous, when cooked, rhubarb will become a perfect consistency for pie/tart filling.  I've cooked with rhubarb before and I adore it for its brightness in flavor.  Of course, it needs to be combined with lots of sugar to achieve the desired sweetness but it's forgiven because the end result is most often delicious.

Here, it's boosted with the presence of orange peels in a tart filling.  Rhubarb, sugar, and orange peels were cooked together in a saucepan to a thick-syrupy melange, its aroma permeates my kitchen like being in orange groves.  My son commented as to what I was cooking for he's eager to know what made the house smelled so good.

Since there're eggs in the filling, it tastes custardy, quite soft, but actually provides contrast to the flaky crust.  The rhubarb and orange go together happily by giving out tang and citrusy note.  Top the tart with Chantilly cream or vanilla ice cream and it will perhaps be a dessert to enjoy for Mother's Day.  I, myself, will go to a neighborhood restaurant with my family and parents to enjoy a night out.  Happy Mother's Day to you!

Rhubarb Orange Tart

Makes 8 servings



14 ounces rhubarb

Grated peel of 2 oranges

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 ounces (3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

2 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 prebaked 9-inch tart crust

Vanilla ice cream or Chantilly cream



Preheat oven to 325F.

Cut the rhubarb into 1-inch pieces, discarding the leafy end.  Cook the rhubarb, orange peel, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until soft, about 10 minutes.  Transfer the mixture to a bowl and let cool for 10 minutes.

Stir in the butter and the flour.  Stir in the beaten eggs.  Spread the rhubarb filling into the prebaked tart shell.  Bake the tart until set, about 25 minutes.

Let cool completely before slicing and serving.  Serve with ice cream or Chantilly cream.  Tart is best made and served the same day.

Tart Dough

Makes 1 9-inch tart

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

5 ounces (10 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter

2 tablespoons heavy (whipping) cream

1 large egg

Put the flour, sugar, salt, and butter in a food processor.  In a small bowl, whisk together the cream and the egg.  Pulse the flour mixture until the butter is pea sized.  This will happen very quickly--be careful not to overprocess.  With the machine running, pour the cream mixture into the food processor.  Process just until the dough comes together.

Preheat the oven to 400F.  Have ready a sheet of aluminum foil large enough that it comes up several inches above the shell.

Line the tart shell with aluminum foil, press lightly along the sides and let it stand up on the edges of the tart (don't bend the extra foil to the sides).  Fill with dried rice or dried beans.  Bake until the edges of the crust are golden brown, about 15 minutes.  Remove the aluminum foil and rice, lower the oven temperature to 375F, and continue to bake for about 10 minutes or until the bottom of the crust is golden brown.



Source:  adapted from A Passion for Desserts by Emily Luchetti

Hot Cross Buns

Happy Easter everyone!  It's such a beautiful Sunday morning and we had this scrumptious hot cross buns for breakfast today.  I know that traditionally these buns are served on Good Friday, but clearly I didn't plan for Easter week--hung my head shamefully :)  This year's Easter is such an easy going day for my family, in fact, I think I'm going for a hike instead of having dinner later on.

I've made hot cross buns a long time ago.  I blogged about it and posted in my old food blog; I can't recall how that recipe fares with this one.  Remember that I'm making a promise to re-post recipes from the old blog?  This is a re-post on the buns but with a new recipe which I think is as equally good.  That's why I had two for breakfast with my coffee!

Hot Cross Buns

Yields 10 buns



500 grams bread flour

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground clove

75 grams unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature

50 grams granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg, at room temperature

250 ml warm milk

1 teaspoon active dry yeast

175 gram dried mixed fruits--I've used a combination of raisins, currants, yellow raisins, and candied orange peel.  The amount is up to you, you could omit one or the other fruits.

1 egg, beaten



Hot Cross Paste

100 gram unbleached all-purpose flour

30 gram confectioners' sugar

80 ml milk



Dissolve yeast in a bowl with warm water.  Mix together the flour, cinnamon, clove, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.  Rub the softened butter with your fingertips and make a well in the flour.  Pour dissolved yeast along with the egg into the well.  Bring the dough together with your hands or with a spatula.  This is a quite soft and supple dough.  If it feels a little wet and sticky, don't panic, just stay with it and be persistent.  Avoid the temptation to add extra flour.

Turn the dough on to a clean surface and knead for 10 minutes.  Just as you reach the windowpane stage, add the dried mixed fruits to the dough and gently knead for a few minutes to distribute the fruits.  The goal is to distribute the fruits evenly but not the point of them being broken.  Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover with damp cloth and leave to prove for about 90 minutes.  A good place to put the dough will be in a preheated oven that has been turned off.

As an alternative, a mixer with the dough hook attachment can be used if needed.  The steps will be the same as above.

Once the dough has doubled in size, turn the dough onto a clean work surface and gently pat to release the gas.  Cut the dough into 10 equal pieces, form into rolls and place on a nonstick baking pan or lined with parchment; leaving enough room to allow each bun to proof and grow without touching.  Leave to proof again for 60 to 80 minutes or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  While waiting, make the paste for the crosses by mixing together the flour and sugar in a bowl.  Add milk to form a paste that is a piping consistency, add a tablespoonful or more if needed.

Brush the buns with the beaten egg.  Spoon paste into a piping bag and pipe a cross on each bun.  Bake the buns for 25 to 28 minutes or until rich golden in color.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Note:  if you like, you can brush the buns while they are still warm with a simple sugar glaze.  It is made by combining 50 ml water with 50 gram granulated sugar, heat until sugar is dissolved and let cool.  It will add shine to the buns.



Source:  adapted from Fireside Bakery's Hot Cross Buns, the link can be found here.  Italics is mine.

Chocolate-Orange Carrot Cake

My family has been a willing tester for all my baking experiments.  As long as the result is edible they seldom complain even if I point out my mistakes; the texture is dry, the whole is thing is too sweet, it isn't quite done, etc.  Previously, there're only my husband and son who get the burden of eating most of the baked goods, but since my parents are around, they've been my victims as well.

As in the case of chocolate cake, the more often I make the happier my testers are.  They always welcome chocolate cake in any form, not unlike this chocolate-orange carrot cake.  I've made this cake before and blogged about it in my old food blog.  I've a plan to resurrect the stories and recipes from the blog but it's been a slow going.  Anyway, this chocolate cake is better the second time around.  The first time I made it, I made the frosting slightly different; possibly because I was just learning to bake and frost cakes.  This time I must say that the frosting tastes so much better, light and fluffy.

The cake itself has won my heart the first time.  It is moist and chocolaty with the addition of chunks of mandarin orange in the layer.  There's coconut in the cake with give some chewy texture which I don't mind, but you can omit it if you want.  I've made several changes from the original recipe though not much.

This whole cake lasted a while but everyone didn't get bored eating it!

Chocolate-Orange Carrot Cake

Serves 8 to 10



For cake:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

4 large eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 cups sugar

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups finely shredded peeled carrots

1 cup (packed) sweetened flaked coconut

1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel

1 11-ounce can mandarin oranges, drained, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

For frosting:

2 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1/3 cup powdered sugar

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrated, thawed or Grand Marnier



Additional canned mandarin orange segments, drained, patted very dry



Make the cake:

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch high sides with nonstick spray.  Using electric mixer, beat 1 1/2 cups oil and eggs in large bowl until well blended and thick, about 2 minutes.  Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt; beat at low speed to blend.  Increase speed; beat 1 minute longer (batter will be very thick).  Stir in carrots, coconut and orange peel, then orange pieces.  Divide batter between prepared pans.  Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.  Cool cakes in pans 10 minutes.  Turn out onto racks; cool completely.

Make the frosting:

Stir chocolate chips in heavy medium saucepan over very low heat until melted and smooth.  Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm.  Spoon 1/3 cup chocolate into small bowl and reserve for decoration.  Beat butter and sugar in medium bowl until fluffy.  Beat in remaining melted chocolate and orange juice concentrate or Grand Marnier.  Place 1 cake layer on platter.  Spread with 2/3 cup frosting.  Top with second layer.  Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake.  Arrange additional orange segments around top edge of cake.  Rewarm 1/3 cup reserved chocolate to pourable consistency if necessary.  Drizzle orange segments with chocolate.  (Can be prepared 1 day ahead.  Cover with cake dome and refrigerate.)



Source:  Bon Appetit, December 1998

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Growing up in Indonesia didn't give me a chance to eat most old-fashioned American cakes, so whenever I have time I'm almost always drawn to make these type of cakes.  Today's baking adventure is this pineapple upside-down cake.  I didn't know before I moved here that one can make cake with fruits on the bottom, turn it upside down after it's baked, and have a delicious warm cake for dessert.  I'm more accustomed to traditional Indonesian sweets or Dutch-style cakes.  Of course, once I'm settled here, I've made various type of American-style cakes in no time, including the upside-down cake.

What I look for is the moist cake part, slightly gooey fruit part, but not overly sweet taste.  Fruits that are used can vary depending on what is available or in season.  My family loves anything with pineapple so they'll devour this cake easily.  I've made a fresh peach upside-down cake in some summers ago and it's equally terrific.

I've made some modifications from the original recipe and I hope you'll enjoy this as well.

Pineapple Upside-Down Cake

Serves 8 to 10



For the cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk



For the topping

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

6 thin rounds cored pineapple, cut into halves



Make the cake:  Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9-inch round cake pan.  In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes.  Add eggs and vanilla; beat until combined.  Add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 batches of milk.  Mix just until combined.

Make the topping:  Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat.  Add brown sugar at once and stir until sugar melts.  Remove from heat and pour into the prepared pan.  Arrange pineapple slices in concentric form, overlapping slightly if necessary to fit.

Carefully spoon batter over pineapples in pan.  Bake until a cake tester comes out clean, about 35 minutes.  Transfer pan to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.  Run a knife around edge of cake to loosen, then carefully invert onto a plate.  Serve warm or at room temperature.



Source:  adapted from Martha Stewart's Cakes