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Haven’t been posting much, I bet you’re wondering what happened to me. Well, nothing life threatening didn’t get sick or anything, it’s just that my trusty Macbook needed to visit the Apple hospital to have its Superdrive replace just months before the warranty expires. It’s a good thing that I bought AppleCare 2 years ago, when this problem arises didn’t have that queasy feeling of not knowing whether or not they could fix it. I just know that they have to fix it, they said they will but all this waiting is killing me!

The days seems like weeks, weeks seems like months, months seems like years! 

It’s been three weeks and still counting.

Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins Anyone?

Could you believe these are Whole Wheat? I have a bag of whole wheat pastry flour sitting in my fridge waiting for me use them up and have frozen blueberries in the freezer that has seen a better day. What does that make? Why a Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffin. These muffins are special because you wouldn't feel so guilty after eating these. I found these recipe from the Gourmet magazine website, I'm so glad that even though the magazine seized their existence their website is still up and running. I do hope that they wouldn't put down the site anytime soon, but I've been backing up recipes like a psycho, just in case. ^_^

They look absolutely gorgeous right? Well, my sister said they are a bit dry. My parents said that they are crumbly, I have no idea how to fix the problem maybe I should use apple sauce or mashed bananas or sour cream, I'm not exactly sure, I still have to experiment on them. Any help and suggestions would be nice. Even though they didn't turn out perfect, I still love this because my brother who abhor fruits in baked goods, he still ate two of these!

KEMP'S WHOLE WHEAT BLUEBERRY MUFFINS

For Muffins:
* 1 3/4 cups whole wheat pastry flour
* 2 tsp baking powder
* 3/4 tsp salt
* 1 tsp lemon zest
* 1 large egg
* 1/2 cup whole milk
* 5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
* 1 1/2 cup blueberries (approx. 7 ounces)
* 2 cup sugar

For Topping :
* 1 tsp sugar
* 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Make the Muffin Batter:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Butter a muffin pan.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl then whisk in zest and set aside.
3. In another bowl, whisk in egg, melted butter and milk. Add to the dry ingredients stirring with a rubber spatula until just combined.
4. Fold in the blueberries and divide among the muffin cups.
5. Make the Topping: Whisk together the cinnamon and sugar.
6. Sprinkle on top of the batter.
7. Bake until wooden skewer inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and unmold on a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies

After my unsatisfied attempt in making the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies, I return my my tried and tested Jacques Torres Chocolate Chip Cookies. This for me is the ultimate cookie experience its soft yet chewy, sweet but not sickly sweet just right and in every bite there is a chunk of chocolate to munch on. The original recipe called for Jacques Torres special chocolate, however living in the Philippines, thousand of miles away from NYC, I just grab the best chocolate I can afford and roughly chopped them, taking into consideration not to chop them too finely so that every bite there is a huge chocolate morsel.

This is one of my family's favorite cookie, whenever I don't bake for a long time, my little brother always ask me to make this, my cousins love this cookies too! That's how good they are able to satisfy everyone's cookie preference. These are best eaten with cold glass of milk, it's a classic. Make this at once and it will probably be part of your family's favorite cookies too. YUM!

JACQUES TORRES SECRET CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 3 cups plus 2 tablespoons pastry flour
• 3 cups bread flour
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 pounds Jacques Torres House (60 percent cocoa) Chocolate or other best-quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, and chocolate; mix until well combined.

3. Using a 4-ounce scoop for larger cookies or a 1-ounce scoop for smaller cookies, scoop cookie dough onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 20 minutes for larger cookies and about 15 minutes for smaller cookies.

4. Cool slightly on baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Baked Brownies with Cheesecake Swirl

I first learned about Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito was when they were invited for a Martha Stewart show. You know me, anything Martha recommended I'm willing to give it a shot. Looking through their website Baked, how I wish I lived in NYC so that I could apprentice there. That's actually one of my secret dreams to be able to work in the kitchen of famous bakeries around the world! I imagine myself learning from the masters and eating my creations at the same time, how cool is that!

First thing first I have to try the famous Baked Brownies, but I don't like my brownies plain. I adapted their recipe and made my own Cheesecake Swirled Brownies. It's like eating two desserts in one go. It was quite easy to make just dump everything together and mix, great for those "I'm tired but I want brownies" moments, believe me I have tons of does moments. Caution the espresso powder that this recipe called for was a little bit too much for me, it kind of overpowers the cheesecake swirls. I would reduced it next time I try this again.

THE BAKED BROWNIE

Yield: 24 brownies

The Baked brownie is a beautiful thing. It has won the hearts and minds of many people, been featured on the pages of O Magazine as a favorite thing, and won best brownie by the folks at America’s Test Kitchen and the Today Show. Our brownie really owes many kudos to our friend and superstar pastry chef Lesli Heffler-Flick. She created the original ultimate brownie for us. It is dense, chocolatey, and slightly fudgy, and we are forever grateful to her for letting us adapt her recipe.

Baked Note: A great brownie is easy to make, but you have to be aware of several factors. 1. Use a dark cocoa powder, like Valrhona. A pale, light-colored cocoa does not have enough depth. 2. Make sure your eggs are room temperature and do not overbeat them into the batter, and 3. Make sure you check your brownies often while baking. Once the brownies have been overbaked slightly, they have reached the point of no return.

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder
• 11 ounces quality dark chocolate (60-72%), chopped coarsely
• 8 ounces butter (2 sticks), cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1 tsp instant espresso powder
• 1 ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light colored metal pan 9x13x2 pan.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, the salt, and cocoa powder.
4. Configure a large sized double boiler. Place the chocolate, the butter, and the instant espresso powder in the bowl of the double boiler and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined. Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler and add both sugars. Whisk the sugars until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. Mixture should be room temperature.
5. Add three eggs to the chocolate/butter mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not over beat the batter at this stage or your brownies will be cakey.
6. Sprinkle the flour/cocoa/salt mix over the chocolate. Using a spatula (DO NOT USE A WHISK) fold the dry into the wet until there is just a trace amount of the flour/cocoa mix visible.
7. Pour the mixture into the pan and smooth the top with your spatula. Bake the brownies for 30 minutes (rotate the pan half-way through baking) and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.
8. Cool the brownies completely before cutting and serving.

NY Times Cookies: The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookies?

New York Times Chocolate Chip Cookies have been dubbed as the BEST chocolate chip cookies out there. A lot of people have tried it and I myself have tried it twice before (here and here). The first try they turn out like fat little hockey pucks with a dome on time and the second time around they look like hockey pucks without the dome. Both times I made them I enjoyed them because who in their right mind wouldn't enjoy eating a warm chocolate chip cookie dunk in a tall glass of milk. If you can, then hooray for you, that is clearly never going to be moi.

But to call them the Best? well I have a problem with that. They actually turn out cakey and not at all chewy which is how I like my choco chip cookies. They other thing I don't like much about these is that I have to remember to flatten them out after I scooped out all the cookie dough or it will turn out like hockey pucks like my first try. Though I must admit this time I made them they don't resemble a domed hockey pucks because I remembered to flatten them out before baking. That's where my big problem occurs because let's be honest here, I seldom remembers that I have to flatten them out before baking, other choco chip recipes that I used didn't require that I do. I know its just a little step just flatten them and be done with but with this step I often lose that crackly top that for me makes it look much more appetizing. In the 3 dozen that I was able to bake with the recipe, this one is the only one that has that crackly top.

Looking back at my other previous attempts it seems to me like this recipes is not as reliable as I liked sometimes they turn out good and sometimes just okey but never great. ^_^