I love to bake! Through my videoblog (A Baker's Videoblog at pineapple-tarts.blogspot.com), I hope to share recipes and tips with readers. I have started my own bakery (AsianBakes, www.asianbakes.com) and have written and published two cookbooks.
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I LOVE Jacob’s plain crackers. In fact, I eat them almost everyday. Today, I jazzed them up a little with some Hershey’s chocolate chips. These are quick and simple to make for a Christmas party. Prepare them early and keep them in the fridge. Chocolate-coated Party Crackers by Oi Lin Ingredients: 100g butter 9 Jacob’s crackers 70g (or more) Hershey’s semi-sweet mini chocolate chips Roasted chopped almonds (optional) Method: Line baking tray with greaseproof paper. Place 9 crackers such that they form a square, then fold up the sides of the paper (see video). Preheat oven till 200°C/400°F. Melt butter over low heat or microwave in the oven for a minute till butter melts. Remove and stir well. Pour over crackers. Bake for 3 minutes. Remove and sprinkle chocolate chips liberally over the crackers. Use the back of a spoon to spread the melted chocolate chips. Sprinkle nuts. Cover and refrigerate till firm. Break up into pieces and serve cold.
Video: Making Chocolate-coated Party Crackers by Oi Lin
Recipe Notes: Sugar: In the video, I used about 2 tbsp but found it too sweet, so it’s best to omit sugar completely – the chocolate chips are sweet enough already.
Jacobs crackers: The above was what I used today. They may be replaced with the wholewheat variety.
Greaseproof paper: Fold up the sides of the paper to prevent the melted butter from spilling over. I had to improvise because I didn’t have the right-sized tray.
Hershey’s chocolate chips: Don’t bother weighing the chocolate chips. Just sprinkle them with your hand straight from the packet. If you like a very thick layer of chocolate coating, just add more!
Melted chocolate: If your chocolate chips are large and chunky and you’ve difficulty spreading them on the crackers, return the crackers (with the chocolate chips on them) to the oven and bake for a minute more. This will melt the chocolate and make them easier to spread.
Mdm Goh's Tarts: Pineapple tarts are really my thing. I just have this fondness for them. I don’t eat a lot of it – I prefer to nibble and taste it and of course, compare them to the ones I make. Well, my parents bought these from Jonker Walk. They’re Baba Nyonya home-made pineapple tarts and they’re good! And they’re really quite, quite different from mine. These are less buttery (probably made with margarine – which I’m not a fan of) and the pastry’s a bit hard. They kept their shape beautifully even after being violently knocked about in their box. The pineapple filling is a little on the dry side too. All these would be huge minus points for me if my pineapple tarts turned out hard and dry. But strangely, somehow they come together quite nicely in these Jonker Walk tarts. Kudos to Mdm Goh! If you go to Malacca, you should get these.
Food Photography workshop: Last Saturday, I attended celebrity blogger Dr Leslie Tay’s workshop (organized by Canon) because I like the photos on his blog ieatishootipost and I wanted to know how he does it. I enjoyed the workshop because it’s part serious and part fun. I came away with many useful photography tips which I’m sure to use in my future cookbooks.
Cupcake boxes: My two new cupcake box designs are out for sale! I designed a pink and a blue version. Each holds 6 cupcakes.
The cupcakes are held in place by flexi-sized inserts. I created these inserts so that they can hold various sizes of baking cups (from 2 inches to 2¾ inches).
The inserts can be turned upside down so that other food items (such as red eggs for baby’s first month celebration) can be placed in these boxes as well.
Best of all are the transparent windows for bakers to show off their gorgeous cupcakes!
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