For the love of poptarts

I love poptarts but this is just too much:

Pop-Tarts Sushi

Mashed-up wildberry, raspberry, and blueberry Pop-Tarts wrapped in a fruit roll-up.

Wild Berry Buckle Bar

Pop-Tart crumb topping and Pop-Tart jam.

Grape Jam-Wich

Grape Pop-Tarts sandwiching PB and banana.

But I actually wouldn't mind trying these:

Chocolate Chunk Peanut Butter Blondie

Peanut butter blondie studded with chocolate chips and chocolate Pop-Tarts.

Caramel Green Apple Bars

With brown sugar cinnamon flavoured Pop-Tarts.

Sticky Cinna Munchies

Cinnamon roll dough with little cinnamon Pop-Tart bits and lots of icing on top.

And this just looks wrong:

S'More Stix

Chocolate-covered marshmallows with S'More Pop-Tart bits. 

(All pictures from Serious Eats)

Bites from other blogs

Exam preparation has left me with no time to bake. But I enjoy trawling through food blogs to save recipes for another time when I am free to bake. This just so happens to be in 2 weeks, which is when my baking companion Natalie will be around!

Until then, these are a few recipes that have caught my eye in the food blogosphere.

Nutella Palmiers

From Handle the Heat

Only two ingredients to this easy dessert. Yes, I like simplicity. And I like Nutella.

Microwave Cheesecake

From Cooking by Ruza123

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this: Microwave. Cheesecake. There was the "most dangerous recipe" with microwave chocolate cake, but this is just as sinful. The recipe's in Croatian but a quick translate revealed quite a simple recipe, using a mixer, baking dish, your hands, and a microwave.

Pandan Coconut Muffins

From Melting Wok

Something about this caught my attention. Maybe because it was green. To me, green translates into pandan, which is something I've grown up smelling/eating/drinking. My Dad makes amazing pandan chiffon cake, and this recipe seems like miniature versions of it.

Cinnamon Chocolate Feather Pudding

From Life's a Feast

Winter (which has just started here in the Southern Hemisphere) reminds me of warm and gooey desserts, so there is nothing quite like good ol' fashioned pudding to warm up the cold nights. Winter is also the time for weight gain.

Momofuku Crack Pie

From Momofuku for 2

I have heard so much about Momofuku and its head chef David Chang. There is no way I can ever visit the restaurant because: A) It's super pricey, B) It's in New York City, and C) Apparently you have to order everything in advance. All of this intrigues me. From my scant research, Momofuku has six concept restaurants: Momofuku Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, Ko, Milk Bar, and the most exclusive of all, Má Pêche, in which reservations have to be made at least 3 months ahead. The recipe above comes from Momofuku for 2, a mere foodie's attempt at cooking every recipe from the Momofuku cookbook. In complete contrast to the earlier recipes I've posted, the Momofuku Crack Pie is no simple, easy, two-ingredient recipe. Hell no. There's a lot of hype surrounding this pie - its name as well as its taste - and the only way to see what all the fuss is about is by trying it. Maybe. As I said before, I like simplicity.

What to do with leftover puff pastry?

Make Apple Tarte Tatin!

Dusted with icing sugar.

Study break

What do you do when you feel like baking but should be studying for exams?

Cake mix!!!

In the midst of my study break, I whipped up an Edmond's Lemon Meringue Pie. All that was needed was egg and water to add to the packaged mix. It took quite awhile to make as there were many steps involved, but it was definitely a lot faster than making the pie from scratch. As such, I could satisfy my baking desires AND study at the same time!

Result?

The pie was disgusting! It may have looked delicious, but it had an incredibly artificial taste. All three layers were foul: the strong smell of uncooked egg from the meringue was off-putting, the lemon curd filling was bitter and the pie pastry was dry.

In short:


The Edmond's brand may be very well-known in New Zealand but their cake mixes are in a word, yuck. Nothing beats making your own cakes from scratch, but cake mixes are the easy way out and I'll continue to use them when I'm lazy. However, the next time I'm cramming for an exam but have the urge to bake, I shall whip out a box of good ol' Betty Crockers instead!

Pop tart ravioli

There are many times when I wish I lived in America. S'mores and pop tarts are two of my favourite foods and living in New Zealand, access to these snacks are very limited. Which is a shame because my love for American junk food is big enough for me to consider moving there just to eat it on a daily basis.

I only discovered pop tarts were sold in NZ last week at a UK food store for $14.90 a box. $14.90! Might as well make your own...

Pop Tarts

(Recipe adapted from Genesis of a Cook and Oven Love)

Ingredients:

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 tbsp cold water

Brown Sugar Cinnamon Filling

• 1 egg white, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 cup almond slivers or slices
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder (optional)

Glaze

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 to 1 tablespoon milk
• Sprinkles

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 230ºC.
2. Make filling; In a food processor, combine egg white, icing sugar, almond slivers, brown sugar, cinnamon and cocoa powder. Blend until well combined and set aside.
3. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add butter and blend with a fork or your hands. Blend until mixture is fairly coarse. Add water, 1 tablespoon at a time, gently mixing dough after each addiction until dough forms a ball.
4. Place dough on a lightly floured surface and roll into a square/rectangle. Cut out long strips of rectangles or squares. Repeat until dough runs out.
5. Take one pie crust rectangle/square and lace 1 teaspoon of filling on top. Cover with another piece of pie crust and crimp all four edges. Repeat with the rest of dough.
6. Place pop tarts on a baking sheet with parchment paper, and bake for 7-8 minutes.
7. While pop-tarts are baking, make glaze; Place icing sugar in a bowl. Pour milk slowly until it has a consistency of really thick syrup.
8. Once pop-tarts are done and cooled, top with glaze. Decorate with sprinkles.

Print-friendly recipe here.

Introducing 'writing icing' - pre-made icing in a tube to write with

Finished product! Writing icing available in four colours as seen above

Pop tart filling

Verdict? These don't taste like the pop tarts that I remember. The pop tarts that I had for breakfast when I was in America were light and crispy. These just tasted like pie. Still nice though, but not enough to satisfy my pop tart cravings.

Melbourne, from a food-lover's point of view - Part 4

This post concludes my Australian food experience. It was an interesting 5 days spent in the city of Melbourne and I hope you enjoyed reading about it as much as I enjoyed posting it. :)

Brunetti

Brunetti was a cafe recommended by a close friend who now studies in Melbourne University. Situated under the Westin hotel on Swanston St and next to St. Paul's Cathedral, the place looked pretty fancy from outside. It had a distinct European charm with red awnings and quaint outdoor seating. The cakes and pastries inside were also European.

Various pastries displayed inside the cafe

Cakes and tarts

I went here on my first day in Melbourne and wasn't feeling too hungry for rich cakes (weird, I know). Instead my brother and I hopped over to Krispy Kremes across the road. It didn't stop me from tasting what my parents had ordered though. One of which was an uber-rich rum bar, which was literally, cake soaked in rum. The liquor was incredibly strong which made the cake soggy. Of course the adults loved it while I chomped on a chocolate glazed doughnut.

Choco Churro Spanish Doughnuts

I was on my way to Degraves St when this place caught my eye. Next to Coles supermarket on Flinders St, I knew I had to return there one day to try out their churros. I never knew churros could be savoury, coated in chocolate, or filled with custard.

On my last day in Melbourne, I shared a dark chocolate coated churro with caramel filling. The doughnut was hard and eaten together with the chocolate and caramel, was pretty sweet. The caramel was addictive though and if I could, I would have sucked it all out of the churro and left the rest.

For some reason the churros in Melbourne taste different from the ones I'm used to in Singapore. First of all, they're not hanging in long sticks and coated in cinnamon. Also, the texture differs greatly. The ones in Singapore were soft with a strong cinnamon sugar flavour. The ones I tried in Melbourne were hard and chewy and rolled in powdered sugar. I'm not familiar with Spanish doughnuts, so are there different kinds of churros? Which ones of these are actually authentic Spanish doughnuts? Perhaps a bit more travelling (and eating) would figure this one out.

Melbourne, from a food-lover's point of view - Part 2

International Cakes

Our hotel in Melbourne was right smack in the CBD which allowed us to explore the city by foot. I came across this cake shop on Lonsdale St. Unless you stare at the ground whilst walking, there is no way you'll miss this place. Called International Cakes, the entire shop window is a display of an assortment of exotic cakes and many more inside the store.

I found that most of the cakes weren't "international" per se. Unless you happened to be very experienced in European pastries, you would have no clue as to what each cake was. The weirdest cake they had was a 100% grape juice roll. We were a bit too conservative to give that a try, but we did taste their other exotic cakes.

Cannoli

Samali

Pistachio baklava

Verdict? The cakes were by far, the sweetest cakes I've ever tasted. Luckily I had shared them with others because I wouldn't have been able to consume one slice by myself. It was as if the cakes were drenched with syrup then doused with lashings of treacle. And I thought the cupcakes Nat and I made were sweet!