Homemade Pretzels

YES, YES, YES with mustard please.
Ps. I would've put some jalapenos on top if I had any.

When I'm in Manila, I've got a wonderful kitchen to work in- it's really spacious and my mum has got a ton of equipment too! The downside is, produce isn't that fresh! Anyway, so with a great place to work in, I'd take a crack at things that are more consuming/tedious. These pretzels.. Well.. They do sort of fall into that category. But they're totally worth it! So.. Make them!

Letting the yeast rise.
I must confess.
This is a smell that I dislike.

Proving.

Sectioning and rolling.

Baked (OH MY GOODNESS) NY Cheesecake.

My grandmother loves her cheese.

All sorts of cheese she'll possible have except for the stinky blue. 

She buys them by the wedge.

And since I'm around, she was fully excited for me to make a cheesy concoction up for her. 

She bought a whole block of CREAM CHEESE.

All 2 KILOS of it.

With that, she commanded me to bake her a cheesecake- a creamy tasty one.

Obviously, I did.

And this is the only picture I have of it- before it disappeared.

That sure tells you something.

2 gorgeous cheesecakes with slightly cracked tops.

1.3kg of cream cheese went into making these two and 7 eggs if you must know.

yikes.

It rested for 6 hours after baking too, but I assure you it was totally worth it.

Making Banoffee Pie with My Little Monkey

I've been so hooked on Jack Johnson lately. Like really really hooked. He's not gorgeous, but he has such a fantastic kinda husky but soothing voice. Think a sweeter sort of lazier version of John Mayer.

You better listen to that song. It's lazy, it's sweet- it's a sweet lazy afternoon song.

..And I'd totally be listening to it again if I was making another pie.

Let's get rocking.

Easy Peasy Banana Bread.

Nanas are cool.

You know what ridiculous?

The price of bananas in Australia.

They run for $12/kg.

That's around P550 pesos for a kilo.

I like love bananas and I've been craving them crazy.

Now that I'm in Manila, I've been eating a lot of bananas, yes, like a monkey.

Heavenly Snickerdoodles

I had the insane need to bake cookies yesterday.

I started baking at 11:30pm, and finished at 1:00am.

You'd think nothing good would come out of baking at that time.

But you're wrong.

It was good, real good.

The Snickerdoodles were mind-blowing.

Perhaps they're even the best cookies I've baked to date.

They had that crackled crust from the dusting of sugar and cinnamon on top.

They were chewy.

They were moist.

They were perfect, well, even more than perfect with that tall glass of fresh skim milk.*

My cousin described it as the cookies you'd put out for Santa the evening before Christmas.

Then she was like, no, they're Santa's babies.

It was 1:00am, that explained everything. 

Back to Cookies

The plan of cooking 3 different cookies this week is such a fail.

It's Saturday, and I've only made 2. 

And it's not like I'll make any tomorrow just because I'm lazy.

So here's the second cookie for the week, White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies.

White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies

makes 3 dozen mini cookies

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cup all purpose/plain flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1/2 coarsely chopped macadamia nuts (better if it's slightly roasted)

1 cup white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 175C.

Melt butter in a small saucepan until it is golden and slightly brown, this will take around 5 minutes.

In a mixer, beat brown sugar and cooled melted butter on a medium setting for 2 minutes. Add the egg and beat for another minute then proceed with the milk and vanilla until it is just incorporated.

Turn off the mixer, add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Beat with a spatula until just incorporated. Fold in the nuts and white chocolate chips.

I used a tablespoon as the size for each cookie that I made. Cook in the oven for 7 minutes. 

Let it chill for a few minutes in the baking tray before moving it to the cooling rack. 

I'm such a big fan of cookies, but they're really mean to my thighs and butt. That's probably the only reason that's stopping me from eating them every single day. And the combination of the white chocolate and macadamia is such a classic, and I just couldn't resist making them. SCRUMPTIOUS. Oh, and you could also add in some dried cranberries which would make it a tad tangy!:)