Baking - Bavarois Aux Deux Chocolats & Macarons

The past week has been a breeze!

Due to Monday (12 August) being Mother's Day in Thailand,  I didn't have school on Monday and Tuesday, and so only had full classes on Wednesday and Thursday, being enjoying yet again, another long weekend.

Actually, every weekend is a 'long' weekend to me, because I have Friday - Sunday off.

On Wednesday, it was our practical #12, on macaroon - something Mew and myself have been eagerly waiting to learn. 

The demonstration, was a disaster, apparently due to some mistakes in the preparation room, the almond powder used was not dried properly, hence resulting in the cracked surfaces of the macaroon during baking.

Which means, the demonstration ended with some pretty ugly macaroon. I cringed when I saw it.

Look at that! The shells is still domed shaped, rough and not smooth at all. The feet is nicely formed, but it is still not a proper nice macaroon. 

Chef made a few variety of macaroons; namely ones that are piped with Chocolate ganache, Ivory pistachio cream, Raspberry Ganache & Lemon Cream. 

These macaroons were made using the french meringue method, FYI. 

He also made a beautiful Tarte Aux Macarons, with a almond sablee dough, filled with pastry cream & whipped cream and decorated with various macaroons with fruits and chocolate.

The tart is quite pretty, but it would be even better if the macaroons were pretty as well, instead of having cracked surfaces. 

Another version; as a tart let with raspberry ganache. If you're curious as to why are there always so many rose touches for almost every demonstration, that's because Chef Willy loves rose petals. And gold.

Then, for Thursday, we have Chocolat chaud gourmand et son Espuma au café ,  paveo and Bavarois Aux Deux Chocolats.

The Chocolat chaud gourmand et son Espuma au café is a hot chocolate drink topped with coffee whipped cream made using a Espuma or thermo whip. The cream or foam, as whipped cream for this case, is made by pouring the liquid into the Espuma, and with the addition of a Nitrogen canister, the cream is then formed. It's a little science/molecular gastronmy related, but otherwise, you should be able to see this action commonly at Starbucks.

The chocolate taste is really strong, having used dark chocolate of 70％.

Next, we have the Paveo.

It is a double chocolate mousse cake with baked chocolate mousse at the bottom, then white mousse and topped with a viennoise biscuit, surrounded by dark mousse at the end. This entremet is also glazed with dark chocolate glaze to give it a nice shiny look, as well as to hold the mousse layers together.

Chef Willy did a pretty beautiful job here, using gold powered chocolate squares and decorated the top in a messy way.

The last cake of the day, was this gorgeous looking Bavarois aux Deux Chocolats a.k.a Two chocolate Bavarian cake.

Like I've shared previously, mousse is a huge component in Intermediate, as well as chocolate.

This entremet consists of a rocher feuilletine base, milk chocolate mousse insert, with dark chocolate mousse in between a layer of flourless chocolate biscuit (sponge cake), and finally, glazed with chocolate glaze. Decorated with the 10 white macaroons shells from the previous practical.

On the right, we have the entremet as a smaller entremet.

The challenge for making mousse cake, is to ensure that the mousse has enough time to freeze before you glaze it with 40-45 degrees glaze, otherwise the mousse will melt. Yet, if you freeze too much, the water condensation is also more, making it tricky to glaze as well, which, happened for my case. More on that later.

Check out my macarons! 

Pastel colours - green, pink, white and yellow. I managed to pipe my shells evenly, as well as tried my best to prevent the peaks. Despite us sifting the almond powder twice with a special gigantic sift and baking the powder in the oven for a good ten minutes to remove the humidity, the almond powder still managed to disappoint us, and we didn't managed to have smooth surfaces, although it's much better than the demonstration's ones.

A few of my classmates came up to me and told me that my shells was really forming prettily! And that made me beam with happiness, I was quite hyped, but at the same time prayed that it doesn't crack at the last minute and turn into a cracked macaron before piping.

Voilà, Raspberry Ganache, prepared 24 hours in advance. Pretty isn't it? 

This is only the second time I've tried baking macarons, my first got burnt and gone up in smokes and turned into a sticky, brown mess on my baking mat. It was a relief I didn't screw this up. Having said that, just one successful batch doesn't mean I can now make Laduree's worthy type of Macarons. Theirs is really crisp, melty and delicious. 

I'll try my hands at the recipes in one of their sweets' recipe book when I'm back! 

Then, for the final baked product for the week, we have the Bavarois Aux Deux Chocolats.

Hello dinosaur! 

Truth to be told, this is one entremet that I personally felt super upset with, super devastated by.

Everything was going well, up until the glazing part.

My Macarons just wouldn't stick...

Look at the sides. It was like this in less than 10 minutes. My ganache just won't set at all, despite chilling the entremet in the fridge for 2 minutes.

The thing about glaze is that, it sets really fast. Especially when you pour it on a frozen entremet.

However, this time, the ganache was of a different recipe. Instead of the usual whipping cream and the chocolate drops, we have like whipping cream, sugar, syrup and a few other cocoa paste etc. Ingredients which I've only come across the first time, for a ganache.

And what causes this glaze epic disaster, you may asked, it's due to the high presence of water.  As advised by Chef Aum, my supervising chef, it  could be when I was boiling the cream, I didn't boil it longer enough to evaporate the water content and make it thicker (I blame the demonstration chef, who said to boil only. He made no mention to take extra caution of this!) and another reason, is that the condensation on the mousse was already forming water droplets faster than I can wipe off before glazing.

In any case, it was the presence of too much water content, that causes my glaze to be like this.

This was the first time I actually stared at my entremet, gobsmacked by the tradgey unfolding. Even Chef Aum was just standing beside me, watching the glaze dripped off.

Mine wasn't the only one, a few other friends in the class/course had this issue too. =( Still, I wished I had better glaze so that I can protect the entremet all the way till I get back home to take pictures of the layers. =( Nonetheless, the cake was tasty, but by the time I got home, the glaze was already coating the sides of my box and setting on my ice pack. HAHA!

Blah. I hope this dinosaur looking face can bring a smile on your face, as it did for me.

I'm just lazing away on this beautiful quiet Sunday. No programme lined up for me today...just enjoying sending LINE messages with Ben, and using the stickers I've purchased from the Sticker Shop. I'm addicted to that! It's really cute!!!

Okay, that's all I have to share. Back to school tomorrow, I hope the week will be a better one. There's one White Exam coming up within the next few days, I'm sure of that.

In the meantime, have a great week ahead, peeps! =)

Till then!

Baking - éponges, Moelleux Pistache & Moelleux Chocolat

At this very moment, I'm counting my blessings.

It's been two wonderful weeks of school, and within this two weeks, I have learned a few key techniques to successful baking for a few simple recipes. It's exactly what I am here for, to get better at doing what I love.

I'm blessed in many ways, like how my parents, Mummy N & Daddy Lim will call to check on me...my Daddy Teh & Mummy J will send short encouraging messages...my relatives & sis in Korat, Thailand will call me occasionally to check on me as well. My friends back in Singapore have also been messaging me now and then, just to keep in touch (thank you, thank you!!) . I have also made some really good friends here in School, and we've been hanging out together ever since. Most importantly, I have my dearest hubby, who sends me messages throughout the day, assuring me in a thousand ways and calling me at night before he heads to sleep.

I feel so loved and very blessed. The trust and faith that they have placed in me is my encouragement to do well. So yeah, I'll keep striving and work hard!

*Fighting! a.k.a Susu!! (Fighting in Thai, haha!)*

Moving on, I would like to share with you the things I've learned during the demonstration class on Thursday!

Today's focus is on Petit Fours Moelleux (pronounced as mole-le), which is also known as Soft Petit Fours. Previously we touched on a few hard petit fours secs, this time, it's on a various of soft small pastry bites like...

éponges; Small meringues-like cookies decorated with almond flakes, sprinkled with icing sugar and filled with raspberry jam. It's like biting into air pockets of sweetness, crunchy from the almonds and a little sourish from the raspberry.

Then, there is the super delicious, gone-in-one-bite Moelleux Chocolat; soft cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and Moelleux Orange; soft cake filled with orange curd. These are baked using silicon molds; something which I am beginning to appreciate using, as they are easier to pipe the batter onto. These soft cakes can be decorated with gold flakes (see below pic) and candied orange zest respectively.

Next, Chef Marc also demonstrated on how to bake Financiers & Moelleux Pistache.

Financiers are relatively easy to bake, and can be topped with many different kinds of toppings! But it somehow taste like madeleines. HAHA!

I find Moelleux Pistache very interesting, in fact, I like this petit four the best. One of the ingredients added, is beurre nosiette, which is also known as brown butter or nut brown butter.

It involves melting unsalted butter over low heat, till it is separated into the liquid and some solids. The solids will sink to the bottom of the saucepan, and the remaining liquid will turn brown, once it's slightly dark brown, we can remove from heat and sieve it with a Chinois or a Ekamine, a cone shaped sieve. This is to remove the solids and we use only the liquid. Chef Marc commented that it is called nut brown butter because it has a hazelnut-like taste. 

I like the fact that Chef Marc shares stories about the origins of some pastry or some produce like this butter for instance. He also highlights some faults performed by students during practical classes, and I personally take note of things he would not like to see.

So, I was in for a surprise to find that he was the Chef in charge for practical class today. I think I sort of shook like a leaf when he is walking or standing near me. Nonetheless, he is very directive and gave very clear instructions on the responsibilities of the checkers - checkers are assigned students to help prepare/set/distribute ingredients or equipments required for that lesson.

I've had the 'fortune' to be checkers for 6 practical straight. So today, as he kept shouting instructions for checkers to follow, I was trying my best to perform well - I think I must have said a hundreds of 'YES CHEF!' during class today. HAHA!

Anyway!! Proud to present my own baked petit fours...

We only baked 3 different types of petit fours in practical class - that's enough to have your hands full for 3 whole hours!

éponges - creating this pastry made me feel so apologetic towards my Kitchen Aid Mixer! I've never known how much 'pain' and 'stress' I've made it go through when I happily made batches and batches of Swiss Meringue. Remember when I said that I'm here to learn basics? That, included making meringue with egg whites, sugar & cream of tartar. Manually.

Whisking with a balloon whisk continuously till soft peaks and then firm peaks of meringue is formed, is no easy task! I think I gained muscles after that. HAHA! But I'm happy, because my meringues was at the right stage and I was able to pipe properly, my control is getting better and I managed to pipe similar sized cookies for sandwiching.

Chef Marc reminded me to use both hands to keep my cookies (during sandwiching & packing), and I subconciously pack only the cookies with my right hand...my left hand was just clutching ONE cookie throughout. *face palm*.

Ooh! My favorite petite four! The garnishes for this soft cake consists of chopped pistachios and sour cherries. I love that the cake itself is soft and bouncy, crunchy from the pistachios and then a hint of sourish from the cherries. I find that most petit fours is about the tantalizing flavors; sweet, crunchy and then sour.

This is pretty easy to make, but the batter is hard to pipe, it's relatively more liquid as compared to the rest.

Moelleux Chocolat - which we did the Misc En Place on Tuesday, and to be shared among two students. My partner in baking is Sonya, and we did a great job, I would say! Beautiful shapes, only comment Chef Marc has, is that the Ganache has to be slightly more warmed up, so that during the filling, the ganache is smooth, and will not have any lines which shows where the piping ends.

Little mouthful of chocolate heaven!

 That pretty much marks the end of week 2! I think I'll spend the weekend sourcing for patisserie presentation-related books to study and brush up on my presentation skills during class!

& now, like the rest of you guys right now...It's FRIDAY NIGHT!! I have a long weekend (No school on Mondays! YAY!) and of course, I've made plans to spend time wisely! Plans like working out, visiting Chatuchak Market, Floating market and catching Iron Man 3 is all set! I would love to also share with you some of my favorite eats as well in due time!

Till then!

Baking - Viennois, Tuiles Aux Amandes & Palets Aux Raisins

Oh, what a day!

I woke up extremely early at 6am for an early demonstration class, and I skipped breakfast as usual because it's too early for me to keep any food down. Then I met my friend, Sonya and took the taxi motorcycle down to the MRT.

We were chatting about her worries of forgetting to bring something to school, and I smugly told her that I have everything that I need, all in my bag - because I always pack the night before.

Then, as we got down to the locker room, it suddenly dawned on me...that, I didn't have the locker keys.

Did I mentioned that my sis is in town for a visit? Which of course, meant that I have left behind the apartment' keys for her use...and, did I mentioned that I also attached the locker' keys along with the apartment keys???

Oh, maybe I did not mentioned before about that, but now you know!

Being in school with no locker keys = I have no access to my notes, my safety shoes, my name tags, my pencil case, my tool kit and part of my uniform. Basically, I am screwed. I arrived 45 minutes earlier to school, and was contemplating between borrowing the lock cutter from the Student Services, versus calling my sis and asking her to speed down with the bunch of keys...

I chose the former; because I don't think she will get there in time,  and I didn't want to be undressed and not ready for class. I would be dreadfully flustered if that's the case!

So, I had the misfortune of using the lock cutter, carrying the tool with one hand *cue dramatic music*, and the other; shaking imaginary pathetic handshakes from school mates, who all cast the sympathetic look at me and mouths "I get you, girl!".

 While everyone uses the mini locks for their locker, I decided to be different and stand out. I used a gigantic lock. *FML* It took 3 classmate's girly power to help cut the lock - I was that desperate! HAHA! We managed to get it cut and I managed to be all ready for class. My kind friend, Mew who is of mixed Thai & Hong Kong parentage helped me to store my expensive branded 'bag' a.k.a tool kit in her locker.

Lesson learned - don't be so sure and smug. SHIT happens!

Today's demonstration was purely focusing on Petits-Fours Secs; dry petits fours biscuits. Petit is small, and fours is a slang in French for mouth, whereas Secs means in one or two mouthful. Chef Marc demonstrated a few petit four recipes, which mostly required carrying out the technique of  crémage; combining soften butter with icing sugar/sugar/brown sugar etc. 

We have the Tuiles Aux Amandes, Viennois, Palets Aux Raisins, Biarritz and Langue-De-Chat, and some other recipes. 

These are dry small bites biscuits, and a few recipes required piping works. I get to practice a little on my piping skills today during practical, which I must say, is improving ever since I last piped my batches of butter cookies! 

I actually do like piping works because I've learned how to use the piping bag properly; which includes scrapping the batter on the piping bag down using a scrapper, and pushing a little of the piping bag into the nozzle to prevent leakage...and for good grip, to wind the excess piping bag at the opening, over your thumb and under it, before twisting to secure the bag itself. 

It's actually kinda complicated if you read what I just wrote, I hope one day I'll be able to post up a video. HAHA! 

There's Biarritz, which is coated with dark pate a glacer; melted chocolate compound. You can coat it completely on one side, or just coat half. Followed by Langues de chat also known as Cat's Tongues, which made me hesitate to eat it because I have visions of my family pets back home. HAHA! 

   
For our practical class today, we had the chance to bake the above 3 types of biscuits, as well as prepare the Misc En Place for Moelleux Chocolate (more on that once I've baked it!)

The presentation looks wonderful isn't it, I especially love the Viennois, which involves piping a reasonable about 2.5cm sized biscuit, and then piping a small amount of raspberry jam and sandwiching it together. Followed by dipping the tail part into the dark pate a glacer. 

Chef Marc also demonstrated on preparing de la pate d'amande crue; which is raw almond paste or marzipan. I'll probably learn more on this on the next few demonstrations, so I'll share more in due time!

Mean while, presenting to you, my baked products! 

This practical lesson focuses a lot on the crémage technique, and for some reason, out of the 4 recipes we have to complete, 3 of the recipes is for 2 pax, which means my friend, Sonya and myself took turns to one recipe or the other. And we shared the batter between us.

I did the batter for Viennois, while she did the batter for Tuiles Aux Amandes. We had to ensure that the viennois are piped according to the right sizes in order to pair it up at the end with a little raspberry jam and coated in dark pate a glacer. While for the Tuiles Aux Amandes, the batter has to be enough for 24 pieces.

The Tuiles Aux Amandes is a little tricky to make, as it involves quick removal of the Tuiles from the baking sheets while it's still hot, and you have to immediately try to press it down a curved mold to get the shape. Firstly, you will burn your fingers trying to pick the Tuiles from the baking sheets and then a second burn from pressing it down the mold.

The taste is a little sugary and crunchy from all that almonds. It's almost like a nutty version of the love letters we have back in Singapore, except that it does not have too much of the egg taste.

Chef Aum was pleased with my performance on this, but he also remind me to ensure that the Tuiles are to be of a rounder shape.

 I did the Viennois batter, and had a hard time piping these babies, because you have to ensure that there's volume on the top and ends with a tail. Furthermore, it has to be of about the same sizes in order to be pairs. I managed to pipe 20 pieces, which gave me a good 10 pairs. Chef Aum commented that I have better piping control this time, but I would need to work with finishing with a longer "tail" so that my chocolate coating would be nicer. 

Which is like my Rosette Nutella Cookies; sandwiched between Nutella.

Next up,  is my Palets Aux Raisins, also known as Raisin Biscuits. It's a slightly dry and hard biscuits baked along with raisins. I didn't enjoy this as much as other buttery cookies, because I prefer crumbly types of biscuits. Also, we didn't use apricot glaze as the finishing, which Chef Marc wanted us to do it without. The Apricot Glaze would have given these a nicer shine, and perhaps be a little bit more moist for consumption. Nonetheless, this is one of the petit fours, so I guess there are people out there who enjoyed them. 

Does these Palets Aux Raisins looked like faces to you? 

HAHAHAHA!!! Sorry, I just had to post this one up. This signage was done up by my classmate, Ray. Doesn't it look cute? 

We have no school tomorrow because it's a Public Holiday! 

In case anyone's interested to know - I'm doing great! I'm coping well with the environment here, the weather and what not. Just feeling a little lovesick (I miss Ben so much! We've never been apart for this long before.) but other than that, I'm fine! Enjoying my studies, even when I get into little advenures like I had to use the lock cutter, but everything's good. I've slowly gaining the experience and skills which I've paid to learn. 

I'll be visiting one of the local popular dessert cafes with my sis tomorrow, I can't wait to try it the sweets out! 


Happy Holidays people! Till then! 

Baking - Diamants & Sablés

I DON'T. I DON'T KNOW. Oh, my god!!! WHERE SHOULD I START?!

Today, is the second best day of my life!!!

First being, my wedding day of course!

Just had to post this up!! I miss my dearest hubby so much!! :'(

Well, you see...today, I woke up slightly later because I had such a bad sleep last night! Maybe it was the anxiety acting up again; I couldn't sleep at all after I imposed myself a very early lights off curfew. I was just about to doze off, when the sound of the upstairs neighbor' heavy footsteps and dropping of items woke me up.

I will give it another couple of days to observe, before I go to the management and complain that there's a gorilla living above me.

Then, the lizard's sound, air con's whizzing sound AND my IKEA cute alarm clock was ticking away! NON stop. I didn't want to look at the time at all to find what time was it. I have a bad habit; when it's late, I tend to count the number of hours left for sleep - even to the very last few minutes.

So anyway fast forward, I managed to sleep and wake up on time. I didn't finish my breakfast today. Took a bite out from my Tuna Bun from Bread Talk and discarded the whole bun, because it smells fishy after re heating.

HAHAHAHA!!! Shit. I just noticed maybe it's not because it's spoil, it's just because of its origin!! TUNA = FISHY!

Mornings; who else feels disorientated when you just woke up? =D

Picture taken from Funny Wall Photos

I am quite pleased with myself today! I managed to blend in and 'slot' myself today in the train!! Balancing was quite a challenge and I almost break my shoes from the sudden jerks and what not, but at least I'm not swimming in different directions!

Reached school early today, and after I'm all properly attired for class, I head to the Demo Classroom and saw 2 ladies from my Orientation class chitchatting and in my state of exhilaration, I shamelessly interrupted their conversation midway! I know, that's so rude of me! I'll never do that again! But I was so happy to see familiar faces, and so we chatted, exchanged numbers and went into class together; taking up the front row seats. I like that most of the people I've exchanged numbers with today, are very friendly and genuine!

Maybe it's because we are all on the same boat (far from home?) and yet connected by the same passion, that's why we are more willing to loosen up a little more easier?

Anyway! For our first Demonstration today, we have got Chef Marc (Not Mark, my bad) as our Chef and he will take charge for most of the demonstrations! The nice and kind Chef as recommended by the nice senior yesterday! Well, he is funny, and nice and speaks English with the usual French accent, but nothing too difficult to understand. I was more distracted by the fact that I can understand both English AND Thai, so while the translator is doing her job, it's pretty messy for me because, my mind is absorbing and deciphering information from two different language. But, I'm sure I can handle that as time goes by.

The lesson began with name call, followed by Chef Marc introducing himself, the other chefs who may be teaching us instead of him, some rules and regulations followed by some in depth information regarding Demonstration and Practical Classes - what to bring and what to expect.

I had a full day of school today; a demonstration class in the morning at 8.30am, followed by practical class (which means you basically bake 1 or 2 of the recipes being shared in earlier demonstration class) at 12.30pm. Each class is 3 hours long.

Today, Chef Marc goes through the process and full techniques for 2 recipes, and preparation techniques for another 2 recipes; preparation is called 'misc en place' (Mee-Son-Plus). It's pretty interesting to learn all the French verbs which are commonly used in the kitchen, as well as french words for the different techniques being implemented during baking.

With respect to the school, I will only touch on the product which I have the chance to bake during practical class. FYI.

Henceforth, presenting to you, Diamants and Sablés Nantais; both are from the shortbread biscuits' family! 

 Aren't they gorgeous? Jam filled, icing sugar, on its own. There's so many variations for  Sablés Nantais, while for Diamants, it's like cookies with sugar coated rims.

Closer look; those lines are created by forks and, doesn't the Diamants look like discs of sliced tree log? These are baked by Chef Marc, and we get to do tasting at the end.

I enjoyed my practical lessons so much! Although, today was the first day and it was sort of all over the place. I got to admit I was like a headless chicken, slow in carrying out the steps and all, I've got to improve on my speed! For practical, we only made Diamants and also did Misc En Place for Madeleines! 

My finished product! =D

The techniques to baking Diamants involved Sablage (a.k.a rub-in method) and to Fraser the dough. It's a not a very complicated process, but it's is very tedious. If I was at home, I would have used my trusty Kitchen Aid Mixer, but I am here to learn the right techniques and the real art of patisserie, so by hand, it shall be!

To carry out Sablage, I use a scraper and cut the butter into smaller pieces while combining the flour, creating a fine breadcrumb texture. This can be done, with your hand mimicking a chopping position and spinning the mixing bowl at the same time. I did that till my arms got to a screaming, sore realisation before I arrived to my fine breadcrumbs stage.

Nonetheless, it is actually quite simple.

Fraser or Fraiser, refers to the manner of mixing the dough evenly by smearing the dough with your palm against the worktop. This is also a simple step, but the question here is, how much to smear? Heehee! Of course, I took note of what the Chef have demonstrated and what my Chef during Practical Class highlighted! So much joy in doing what I love!

I took these pictures back home, by the way. In class, we just present on the cooling rack. Unless its a cake, then we present it on the tin gratin. Anyway! How does mine looks? =D

Diamants taste like crispy, buttery cookie with hints of orange and vanilla, it is very fragrant and it melts in your mouth with one bite. Furthermore, the sugar coated rims makes it a great treat with coffee/milo! I wished I can airmail some back home for my usual food critics to taste!

Since this is a practical class, of course your final product gets graded. Chef Aum (my practical chef) analyse my produce and gave me some feedback.

Besides the above 3 problems, the rest are good! I will take note and will prevent myself from making the same mistakes. 

I have a full day class for tomorrow again, and we will be baking madeleines and Cake Aux Fruits (Fruit Cake)! Fruit cake means a lot to me, because Daddy Lim & Mummy N loves fruit cakes - I would love to bake them a good fruit cake!

Till then!

P.S
I have made a couple of new friends and classmates!!! Lonely Chris is no more! I'm looking forward to spending time with my new found friends *tears of joy*

Rosette Butter Cookies with Nutella.

Oh.

I'm sorry!

I'm so so sorry!

I was slightly distracted by the gorgeous pinkish colour of my rosette cookies as like you were, and my taste buds was reminsincing the taste of buttery cookies sandwiched with a creamy chocolatey hazelnut spread - and I just had to go and sneak two of these before returning to finish what I just about to start. To blog.

Nutella is a great love of mine.

I spread it on white loaf bread every morning for breakfast when I was still working. Sometimes having 2 pieces of bread with extra Nutella during teatime at 3pm, when I get a little hungry, and start ransacking my office's pantry for food.

It is also a great addition to the frosting to be used on cupcakes or as surprise centers, as layered cake's frostings etc.

I never really had the idea of sandwiching cookies together until I realised, there's still an unopened gigantic tub of Nutella sitting in the kitchen waiting to be used. One of the 2 tubs which I bought during those greedy late night NTUC shopping spree I've gone with Ben.

I think I was sold by the 20% MORE NUTELLA SPREAD logo. It's bad, it's like screaming right into my face that I can spread that 20% more Nutella all over my usual bread.

& by the time I discovered that 20% more, isn't any good, It's  all too late. It's already been 20% spread all over my body mass. *smack forehead*

& Sandwiching the cookies together, was an idea I got from a friend, who made hers with jam. The rosette design is also a pretty sight isn't it?

I had so much fun piping it out. I used a small closed star tip nozzle, and they were perfect for piping these slightly bigger than a fifty cent coin cookies. Any bigger, and the swirls aren't as defined.

Enjoy the cookies with tea or hot chocolate. I prefer a hot cup of Milo with these as snacks. What about you?

Recipe for Butter cookies can be found here. Just remember to pipe similar sized cookies for sandwiching!

That's all of my baking adventures which I have to share for now. Up and coming would be updates on my study trip. I have no idea what lies ahead and how things will be like, but I would love to share in due time!

Till then!