Brownies

About a week ago marked my first month being away from home. There's another 8 long months to go before I can fly back to Malaysia. But.. Let's not dwell on that.

In all honesty, I find it hard to believe that I am finally here, all alone, far away from home, doing the most demanding course ever, Medicine. Okay, I know.. Other people might say that their courses are challenging as well but this is going to be from my perspective and my own point of view. And the best part is.. I have yet to shed a single tear. Is it not amazing? Most of my family members thought that I'd be really homesick and I would want to go home. It's not that I don't feel homesick at all but I'm feeling much better as time passes by.

Inside Cardiff Castle (The great keep)

So.. Every where I go, one of the first few questions that they will ask is "How do you find Cardiff?" (Oh, just in case you don't know.. I'm in Cardiff right now, reading a 5 year Medicine course at Cardiff University) To me, Cardiff is one of the best places to study in and I'd like to believe that this is the reason why Allah has placed me here and not anywhere else in other parts of the world. It isn't as big or busy as London and Paris but it has everything that you'll ever need. There are not that many shopping malls, but then, let's not forget that you're not here to shop but to study. *sigh*

My love

The one thing that I really miss about home, apart from my family of course, is the kitchen.. and all the gadgets/utensils I have. I wish I could bring them all here. I don't bake as often as I used to; in fact I've only made apple crumble once, to be brought to a housewarming party. :( I really want to bake, but who's going to eat all of the food? Definitely not me.

This means that I can only bake when there is a special occasion or a gathering. And.. That is why I made this brownie. Everyone has their own favourite recipe. So this is mine. It's dense, fudgy, very chocolatey and insanely delicious! What more could you ask for? Oh by the way, if you're not a big fan of dark chocolate, you might not like it.

I accidentally over baked the brownies due to several reasons: 1) I'm not used to this oven. 2) I had a 9 am - 5 pm class before baking and I was very tired. 3) I was simply lazy to hang around in the kitchen, to keep an eye on it. There you go. But they aren't that dry, so they should be fine.

Recipe (Best-ever brownies):

Ingredients:

• 185g good quality dark chocolate (this time around I used cheaper ones, 50% cocoa)
• 150g butter
• 85g plain flour
• 40g cocoa powder
• 50g dark chocolate chip* (I'd put more next time)
• 3 eggs
• 200g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 180C or 160C (fan).

2. Melt dark chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot of simmering water. (bain-marie)

3. Using a hand-mixer, beat the eggs and caster sugar until it thickens and almost double in volume.

4. Slowly, fold in the chocolate mixture into the eggs mixture. 

5. Sift the flour and cocoa powder into chocolate-egg mixture. And stir gently, just to combine.

6. Lastly, add in the dark chocolate chips and vanilla.

7. Pour into a greased 20cm square pan and bake for about 35-50 minutes until the top has a papery crust and the sides are just about to come away from the tin.

8. Let cool before slicing.

Note:

*In the original recipe, it calls for 50g milk chocolate chips and 50g white chocolate chips. They can be replaced with nuts, dried fruit etc.

Adapted from: Best ever brownie by BBC

1 hour dinner rolls

It's Sunday again. That means I have to go back to college and prepare for the classes tomorrow. :( I'm finally done with my assignment on nationalism. But I have a few other assignments to be finished within this week. And tomorrow I have my first Malaysian Studies test which carries only 5% of the final mark. I hope I can answer the questions.

Since yesterday was Hani's birthday, we (me and Hani) had a sleepover at Hilton Hotel KL. It was fun. During breakfast, we just ate everything until we could not eat anymore.

Umi has been asking me to bake some bread since morning but I was pretty busy finishing my assignment that I didn't have the mood to bake. However, a few hours before going back to Subang Jaya, I suddenly felt like eating homemade bread. And so I made some easy ones. :)

The recipe is from this site. I've made some slight changes to satisfy my own taste buds. I just love the rolls. Look how soft it is.

Recipe (water-roux) :

Ingredients :

• 25g bread flour
• 125ml water

Method :

Cook over medium heat and stir until it forms a thick paste. Leave it to cool slightly.

Recipe (1 hour dinner rolls) :

Ingredients :

• 1 1/4 cup warm milk
• 1 tbsp instant yeast
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 cups of bread flour (high protein flour)
• water-roux

Method:

1. Put everything in a mixing bowl including the water roux and knead using a dough hook for about 7-10 minutes. If kneading by hand, it will take a longer time. (The dough is quite sticky so there is no need to add too much flour)

2. Let the dough rise for 20-30 minutes. Then, punch down the dough and divide into 15-16 equal parts.

3. Shape into dinner rolls and let it rise again for 20 minutes.

4. Brush the buns with some milk and bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 13-15 minutes.

A-Level at Taylor's College

First off, I'm very grateful for getting straight A's in SPM 2010 - 6A+ 3A to be exact. Alhamdulillah. Deep down inside, I'm quite sad and disappointed for not getting 9A+ but I guess my result isn't that bad at all. :)

I already applied for MARA scholarship but we will be notified about the interview somewhere in mid-April. Since I'm not sure whether I'll be getting the scholarship or not, I decided to do A-level in Taylor's College Subang Jaya Campus.

So here I am, just finished the orientation and currently updating my blog from this "new" apartment I'm staying in. I have to say that this apartment (I only rent one single room, not the whole apartment) is not worth the money. We paid RM700 for a small single room where the fan makes an annoying noise, the furnitures are old and the mattress is rock hard.

However, since we could not find other places near the college, so we just took it anyway. If I don't get the scholarship, I'm not sure whether I'll still be renting here or looking for some other places. The contract is only until June, so I can stay anywhere else later. :D

My class starts tomorrow and since I'm here for the March intake, I have a pretty pack schedule. Class normally starts at 8 and ends at 4 with only 1 hour break, except for Friday which ends at 2pm. I think for the clubs & society, I might be joining the Pre-Med Society. Even though it is not compulsory but I think it would look good in my resume when applying for universities later.

Honey And Vanilla Buns

I am feeling very nervous as SPM results will be announced on this coming Wednesday (23rd March). Yes! There's only a few days left. It's hard for me not to think or care about it. I really need to get straight A+'s in order for me to be given a scholarship by the government.

I want to go to UK or Ireland to do medicine. One thing that I am not very sure about is whether I should do my A-level first or wait for the scholarship. If I wait for the scholarship and end up not getting one, I have to go through matriculation which makes it even harder for me to go to oversea. I'm in a dilemma! Help me! :(

Moving on to our main topic, I made some bread again today. I actually wanted to bake muffins for Hani today so that she can bring some to school tomorrow. But I'm not sure what muffins to bake. So I ended up baking bread instead. The recipe is from JMC. The buns are cottony soft, maybe because it uses water roux or tangzhong method. I'm submitting this to Yeastspotting.

Honey and vanilla buns : (I halved the recipe and got 12 buns)

Source : Kak Rosmarlina

• 500 g high protein flour
• 3 tablespoon honey
• 3 tablespoon milk powder
• 3 tablespoon vegetable shortening
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoon sugar
• 220 ml warm water
• 6 g instant yeast
• 4 tablespoon water roux
• 1 teaspoon salt
• few drops of vanilla

1. Put everything in the mixing bowl and knead using a dough hook for about 7-10 minutes. If kneading by hand, it will take a longer time. (The dough is a bit sticky)

2. Let the dough rise until doubled (about one hour). Punch down the dough and divide into 24-26 equal parts.  Use whatever filling you like - I used nutella. Plain ones are equally good. Shape into dinner rolls and leave to rise again until doubled.

3. Brush the buns with some milk and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-18 minutes.