Category Archives: Experiments & experiences

2012 Greatest Hits

Posted in Experiments & experiences, Foodie Life, Recipe Round-Up by

This sort of thing is always tough to write. Looking back, there is always one chunk of thought or memory that sticks with me with every recipe or post I share. Picking my alleged “Greatest Hits” turned out to be a lot harder than I thought. I made about 74 recipes this year, if I’m not mistaken. I think I made so many good things this year, shot some great photos, and had some pretty good moments, but there were those that still stood out to me:

1. There really is no point in denying how much I went gaga over this Sriracha Swirl Bread, especially the first time I made it. Since then, our pantry has never been without a bottle of Sriracha (plus a reserve bottle, would you believe?). The cheese and the chili go so well together, and I guess my dislike for cheese gets totally erased when chili is involved. I seem to recall stuffing myself silly with this during breakfast.

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2. Although technically the first time I made a version of this was on December of 2011, this Purple Ombre Cake was one of the best things I made this year. I can’t think of anything else to say except that not only does it look absolutely uh-ma-zing, it is also absolutely dee-li-cious! It’s my most viewed post to date, and I can only hope a lot of people made this cake and loved it as much as I did.

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3. I will never forget the day I made my first Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread; the way the crumb felt between my fingers so soft and kind of fluffy; the gorgeousness and yumminess of it. It was one of the times I truly felt my love for bread-making, and it was a great feeling I would try to bring out for the rest of the year.

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4. Until today, I still can’t think of any yeast bread I’ve ever eaten that has me gushing as much as Flo Braker’s Lemon-Scented Pull-Apart Coffee Cake has. It’s sort of my lemon fantasies (and oh do I love lemon pastries) and bread fantasies rolled into one. I can eat it everyday and be perfectly happy!

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5. I don’t particularly like dessicated coconut in my cookies, but when I made these Coffee-Coconut-Chocolate Chip Cookies (4C Cookies for short), I can honestly say the coconut played a HUGE part in why these were so amazing. Well, aside from the fact that I love anything with coffee in it, and chocolate. These were my favourite cookies for the year!

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6. One of the best memories I have this year is most definitely learning how to make Asian dumpling wrappers, and subsequently the Japanese gyoza. Granted it takes only 1/16 of the preparation time to eat these babies, it’s one of those things that have amazing end results if you keep at it. Though I’ve only made one type of dumpling so far, the experience has taught me a quite bit about patience and perseverance. Expect more dumpling recipes next year!

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7. My first ever Croissants! Like the dumplings, it took me so long to make them, but I was so proud of myself when they came out looking so so beautiful! I think I did more eating with my eyes though. I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

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8. My 121st post milestone was quite a big deal for me so I made these Rainbow Cupcakes to celebrate. I wasn’t even aware I had written and made so many recipes already! I’m excited to share more with you all.

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9. I can’t tell you enough how much this Chai-Spiced Crumb Coffee Cake surprised me. Not only was the cake so moist and delicious, the Chai-flavoured topping elevated this into something mouth-wateringly good!

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10. These Apple Pie Muffins are a bit of a revelation in my book. Probably one of the best muffins I’ve made so far, and my brothers would agree on that point. The best part about it was not the streusel, but the bits of chunky soft apple inside the muffins. I like being able to actually taste and bite into the apples of apple cakes. Now every time I get a hankering for something with apples in it, this will be my go-to recipe.

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11. One of the most gorgeous things I’ve ever made are these Ensaymadas. I’ve got some other versions up my sleeve but my first time will always be the most memorable one, especially because these were absolute perfection taste-wise, appearance-wise, and texturally. There was more gushing less eating involved here too!

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12. As I’ve mentioned countless times, lemony pastries are my weakness. These biscotti had that wonderful lemon scent and taste that reminded me a little of my favourite pull-apart bread above, so it was inevitable that I adored these Cornmeal and Fruit Biscotti to bits as well!

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13. This Ginger-Gingersnap Ice Cream from David Lebovitz’s ice cream bible is one of the most unique flavours I’ve ever eaten. I would think that if I were bringing ice cream to a potluck, for something different from the norm, this would be the one I bring. It’s definitely one of my favourites.

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14. I didn’t realise my love for panettones until recently, and these Chocolate, Nuts, and Dried Fruit Panettones really hit the spot! I love the spongey-looking crumb of panettones and was so happy when I managed to replicate it!

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15. My favourite ice cream recipe for the year involved the wonderful flavours of vanilla and Bailey’s. It was a huge hit in the house and a lot of hording and threatening occurred on the part of my younger brothers (mostly against each other) after the first taste of this ice cream was had. As of this writing, the post is yet to be published on the blog, but it’s been scheduled and I’m excited for you all to get to try the recipe. For now, a little sneak peak of the Irish Cream Vanilla Ice Cream?

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16. It’s always such a pleasure to get e-mails asking me if my post/photo could be featured in another website, and this year the asker happened to be The Huffington Post Taste for a post about pull-apart breads. It was totally unexpected, but I am totally honoured my adaptation of the Herb And Cheese Pull-Apart Bread became a part of this list, alongside so many mouthwatering other recipes that I have bookmarked myself!

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17. And finally, for a little shameless self-promotion, I finally took the plunge and made the blog its own Twitter! That’s right, The Tummy Train is now on Twitter, and I do hope that you will follow me!

Recipe Runners-Up:

  • I finally managed to create two successful versions of Cream Puffs, and I wrote about my experience in length. It was probably the longest and most excruciating-yet-fun (?) post I wrote for the year.
  • These Dreamy Cream Scones I came across while browsing the Smitten Kitchen blog
  • I never thought mangoes could be utilized this way until I made Dorie Greenspan’s fantabulous Fresh Mango Bread
  • This year I went on a roll with the cakes that featured fruits in its fresh form and my love for them solidified after I made this Dimply Plum Cake, another fantastic Dorie Greenspan recipe
  • Another post I attempted a lot of times before I got right, the Kopi Roti I successfully made after so many failures looked so cute!
  • David Lebovitz’s Chocolate Ice Cream is one of the best I’ve had so far. No joke!
  • I absolutely adored this Peppermint Candy Cane Ice Cream, especially because of the memory it brought back to my mind. And well, the minty ice cream and the crushed candy cane bits were a magical combo!
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The Bibingka Chronicles– my first attempt

Posted in Asian cooking, Christmas & holidays, Experiments & experiences, Filipino Food-love, Foodie Life, Simple cakes by

I remember the times when my Mother would occasionally take me to church after school, back when I was a little girl. Around Christmas season, there would be these stalls on the churchyard selling the lovely yellow bibingka and the purple puto bumbong, these Filipino pastries that were baked using traditional bamboo and ceramic cooking tools, and banana leaves. I used to think that this was the only right way for these Christmas staples to be made. They were the very measure of authenticity for bibingkas and puto bumbongs These days however, we’ve got a slew of commercialised bibingka stalls in the malls, plus instant box-mixes I’ve always been hesitant to try. It still feels weird to me to see these things in the mall because none of it feels right to me. I guess there are moments when I can be a bit old-fashioned.
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{Dearly Dreaming Dorie} Discovering rum in baking

Posted in Baking Recipes, Dearly Dreaming Dorie, Experiments & experiences, Foodie Life, From the books, Quickbreads & Loaves, The Breakfast Bin by

I’ve never used rum in any pastry before. It’s not because we don’t like alcoholic beverages in the house or anything like that. I admit that I don’t drink, but we do use wine in cooking often enough. All this time, I’ve either been too lazy to go out of my way just to buy rum, or I forget about it whenever I am in the Supermarket. I’ve got a bunch of lame excuses, I know. But in my defense, I had no idea what I was missing out on.

Apparently rum is a magical ingredient in baking.

After making this, I went over all my cookbooks just to track down all the recipes I ignored because they had the word ‘rum’ in them. Then I proceeded to mark all the interesting recipes now that I know better. Rum-Vanilla Cakes sound divine for holiday baking, but I thought I should write about the Rum-Banana Bread first as it has a special spot in my heart for being the recipe that helped me discover this intoxicating little ingredient.

I’m glad Banana Breads are an all-year-round kind of bread. I like it a lot, but I constantly try to look for some modification or play on it that makes it a little more unusual. Rum-Banana Bread isn’t unusual at all, except I came across one in Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook that is marbled with some chocolate as well. That’s like hitting two birds with one stone, because for one thing, I haven’t tried marbling anything and was excited to give it a go. Yet the chocolate marble isn’t even what made this bread extra special– it was the slight yet unmistakably lovely hint of rum and lemon that permeates both the sense of smell and taste.
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Le Croissant Challenge

Posted in Baking Recipes, Bread-making, Experiments & experiences, From the books, Yeasted breads by

Things have been positively toxic at work. I didn’t have any time at all to write and fix my process photos for this post on top of everything else. I’ve been wanting to write about my first experience with croissant-making for a long while, and between my first try and this writing, I’ve been able to repeat this recipe at least once more already. Never did I expect that I would be able to create such lovely and delicious croissants!

This particular recipe is taken from Sarabeth Levine’s book Sarabeth’s Bakery: From My Hands to Yours, which I talked about at length in this post because I was so impressed by it. I would honestly say the step-by-step photos in the book helped me a great deal in my success and in dispelling my croissant dough/puff pastry dough phobia. Just a warning though: As fun and as big of a learning experience making croissants are, it is most certainly time-consuming.

But my attitude with baking is that I really want to learn as much as I can about it. Whenever I attempt a recipe I feel is a bit complicated and I succeed with flying colours, it gives me one of my favourite feelings in the world. I can’t explain how happy and proud I was of myself when these beauties came out of the oven. I sliced one open in the centre and there it was, the gorgeous spirally crumb. I think I spent more time marveling than I did eating!
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Thinking of blogging’s role in my life over Cornmeal & Olive Oil Biscotti

Posted in Alice Medrich, Baking Recipes, Cookies, Experiments & experiences, From the books by

How has everyone been? Me, I’ve been tired. It’s the kind of tiredness that seems to flow from the soul outward to the eyes. My eyes sear in the way that a person who hasn’t slept for a week would experience. I would like nothing more than to close my eyes for a good 24 hours. Unfortunately, I have responsibilities to attend to.

The good news is, things have been getting better for me. I’ve begun to learn how to look at the difficult things I have been encountering lately through different perspectives. The bad news is, I’ve been thinking an awful lot; and all the thinking has been giving me a chronic headache. Recently there have been nights when my mind literally won’t shut down and I stare at the ceiling for hours on end, just willing myself to sleep. It’s probably one of the reasons why I’m so tired. Despite this, I couldn’t resist sitting in front of my computer tonight to write this post. Apparently I’m never too tired to blog.
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Introducing the messiest cupcakes in the Universe

Posted in Baking Recipes, Cupcakes & Muffins, Experiments & experiences by

Or okay, the messiest cupcakes I have ever made.

But since I haven’t exactly made a whopping number of cupcakes thus far, I guess these cupcakes are getting the short end of the deal here. In the process of making these, there were flashes of cupcake murder scenarios forming in my head. My brain kept telling me, ‘Why don’t you just throw this into the chocolate and see whether it sinks or floats?’

Frustration, ladies and gents.

I can’t recall ever attempting any “extravagant” manner of cupcake, and this would have been my first had I only fully succeeded. I liked the idea of these hi-hat cupcakes, not only because they were cute and looked different, but there was marshmallow frosting encased in hard chocolate shell involved!

It seemed simple enough on paper, and it was until the very last step. All my excitement for this cupcake was excised when I began getting so much hot melted chocolate on my hands. It wasn’t supposed to be like that, surely. I remember thinking ‘My goodness. This better be worth it!‘ as I labored through.

And you know what? I admit, begrudgingly, that it was so totally worth it. Even though I was well prepared to throw a cupcake at someone’s face if they so much as utter the wrong thing; even though I wanted to drown the cupcakes in the river of chocolate and disregard all thoughts of cuteness, these cupcakes actually taste pretty darn good.
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