Looking for a light fluffy chocolate cake with a soft, rich, and moist texture in the inside? Look no further, here I share you my favorite recipe! I separate the batter into two molds so I can put a thick slab of Nutella in the middle, because as well all know, Nutella makes everything better :)

Spring has arrived and soon enough I will be able to have picnic outside, yay!! I am planning to attend and or throw potluck gatherings often this spring and summer, therefor, I have been trying new recipes and today's recipe is one of them :)

It is almost shameful to post this recipe because you can actually find the recipe to make Rice Krispies squares on the back of every Rice Krispies box. But you know I am shameless. I like easy recipe, add my own twist on it and blatantly post it on this blog. 

Today's recipe is no different, it's the simple Rice Krispies squares recipe that everyone seemed to know how to make it with eyes closed, with a bit of Indonesian touch; Pandan flavor. 

I know there are a lot of you out there who likes thin pancakes or what the Croissant people call as crêpe, and I am one of you.  I love how versatile this pancake is. I mean you can enjoy it as a savoury  or sweet snack, breakfast, light lunch, and of course; as a dessert. It's all simply depends on the filling you use and how many pinch of sugar you put in your batter. I have read so many variation of pancakes from all over the world and Indonesia has its own take in the pancake world; Dadar Gulung, the famous green pancake. 

Hi there lovely dumplings, I am back!

It's October again and boom, everything-pumpkin is back again! You can't even imagine, well I mean I can't even imagine how many variety pumpkin-y food and beverages out there that pop up every October. I had my first pumpkin latte few years back and to be honest I was kind of awed for the fact that people actually mix pumpkin, which is some sort of vegetable, with coffee and make a drinkable beverage out of it. As someone who comes from the 4th largest coffee producer country in the world and taught well to take my coffee pure, this pumpkin latte shocked my world of it axis a lil bit. Sadly tho, I am not a big fan of it. There's nothing wrong about it, it just I am a purist when it comes to coffee, I like my coffee like myself; pure Indonesian, dark, hot, and sweet. 

Apart from the (in)famous pumpkin latte, pumpkin pie is also one of the top product of the month of October, or should I say Pumpkinber. I have uploaded my pumpkin pie recipe here, in case you are interested. Today I have another idea what to do with pumpkin, I made pumpkin roll spice with cream cheese for adult. Check out my recipe and you will get it why I call it cream cheese for adult :P

The sweater weather has just begun, it also means apple picking season is here. Lets do something with those apples other than making it into jam or pies. Today I made Maple Apple Butter and what I needed was maple, apple, and butter, like literally. 

Okay, its been 3 weeks since my last posting, you probably think that I have been slothing around.. Well, that thought might actually not so far off. This past three weeks has been extremely enjoyable for me; the weather was lovely, work load at the office has been slowing down a bit since everyone is taking their summer vacation, and festivals were popping every weekend. All these things have kept me away from spending time in the kitchen other than preparing my daily meals. 

Today was one of those days in June when you still need to wear a long sleeved or a cardigan. There were not much activities can be done (comfortably) outdoor because the heavy cloud kept hanging above my head and ready to rain anytime. However, I went lake kayaking for a couple hours and got back home when the sky went dark and cloudy. I really can't wait for summer to starts.

Kembang Tahu (tofu pudding with thin ginger syrup) was a snack staple during a rainy day when I was a kid (yes, I snack a lot, stop judging.. K). I even had my favorite Kembang Tahu hawker who peddled around my neighborhood at 4 PM every day. The reason why I love that 4 PM Kembang Tahu hawker was because the sauce he made was gingery enough but not too spicy, it was just right for me. Kembang tahu is a very common and popular soy dessert in Jakarta sold by the street vendor, freshly made each day. Strangely, when I think about it, I have never found it in the menu of any restaurant I have been in Jakarta. But then again, even if I have found one, I’d still prefer to get it from the 4PM hawker, sometime street food is just unbeatable, tastewise and pricewise (it was 30 cents USD per bowl, (circa 2014)!! God knows how the hawker made his profit but I ain’t complainin’).

Several months ago I found a bag of mung bean at the local grocery store. Mung bean or we call it kacang ijo in Indonesia is quite awesome actually. It is widely used especially in South East Asian and Indian cooking. It is surprising what you can make from this bean actually. This noodle can be processed into noodles (glass noodle or transparent vermicelli is made from this bean), You can make a paste out of it for sweet buns filling, you can cook it with sugar and coconut milk and turn it as a tasty dessert, in Indian cooking, they make Dal with this beans. Put this bean on a wet cotton by the window for few days and you will find yourself greeted with beansprouts. I have also heard some face treatments brands using this bean as their skin-nourishing ingredients. This bean has more uses than myself, really.

I went to my favorite grocery shop last week, they were having special price for bio fruits, including banana. So I bought a few too many. Why? Do I like banana so much? not really. Because it was bio? no, definitely not, I don't even know what is bio banana. Was it because its on special? heck no, you know how bio products tend to be overpriced, so even if they were on special, they would never be that cheap. So why was it then? Simple answer; it was because I was HUNGRY. I know I know, people said you shouldn't do grocery shopping when you are hungry. And they were right. I shouldn't. 

I was only going to buy the ingredients for my dinner that day, but I ended up buying the ingredients for dinner, breakfast, and lunch....enough for the next three months... #sigh. 

As we all know, banana goes bad fast. I had few overripe banana to do something with. Something easy and simple. So don't be surprised if the few upcoming recipes are about bananas. I am going banana for these bananas.

When I think about putting banana in a recipe, the first thing come to mind will be banana bread. Especially the one from my favorite coffee shop around the corner. They have this amazing sweet-smelling and moist banana bread with walnut. It just yummy. Overpriced, but yummy. It goes awesomely with my coffee. It tastes more or less like this recipe I am writing. It is not the shop's secret recipe tho, instead I use this recipe here, and give it a tiny little twist.

My beloved cousin who now resides in Moscow was craving for an Indonesian dessert. Unfortunately the distance between us prevents me to bake one for her, but worry not, cousin, here I share you a super-easy steamed cake recipe! The ingredients are pretty basic, I am sure all of it can be found in a normal-basic kitchen. You don't even have to have a special steamer. My mom didn't have any special steamer but she managed to cook steamed food very often. She filled the bottom of her oh-my-God-thats-big wok with water and put a metal rack on it. Bring the water to boil et voila, you are ready to steam whatever you need to steam. 

Kue Lapis is a classic Indonesian layer cake. Its made out of steamed rice flour dough. The classic flavor is be Pandan for the green layer, coconut milk for the white layer, and chocolate for the brown layer.

Frankly, my mom has never made this cake for one good rational reason: it takes toooo loooong to make, you have to cook layer by layer. She always got it from the market, and it was always good. I think the proper way to eat the cake is you peel a layer and eat it. Biting it right on the cake will be considered impolite, trust me (which you should not). :P 

I have been told that this cake can not be preserved for more than a day because of the coconut milk in it but it has never been the case for me tho (yippee!!). Simply put it in a bowl with lid and keep it in the fridge. It will become a bit stiff like a block of eraser but this is not a problem. Reheat it in the microwave for a minute or so and the cake will be soft and gooey as it supposed to.

Its Valentine's Day and its so cold outside (-26 C), so lets just snuggle around and munching on Valentine's Day snack. I won't make any chocolate-y delicacy today (because I don't have the ingredients and too lazy to go out in this temperature, obviously), instead, I will make a traditional Javanese sweet snack called Ampyang Jahe or Peanut Ginger Brittle. I have been craving for this snack for awhile. I made a brittle before, but it was Blueberry Brittle. It was yummy, but today I am making the real Javanese peanut brittle. 

Off we go to the kitchen!

This is a revised version of my previous Nastar recipe. A lovely friend of mine told me that she tried the recipe and she had difficulties making it and it didn't turn out as lovely. After few modifying attempts, am pretty much happy with this one I am about to write. I hope this version works well too for you guys who are brave enough to give my recipe a try. I really appreciate it and at the same time admire your bravery :D

Nastar is one of typical cookies that served on special occasions like Holy days. My mom serves it two times a year; on Ied Fitr and Christmas. I think its a very good way to make something small becomes memorable and sweet. I mean Nastar is simply a cookie filled with pineapple jam, there's nothing more to it. If my mom had served it everyday, Nastar surely won't end up as one of my favorite cookies. Am keeping it my mom's way; only bake the cookies on Ied Fitr and Christmas (and when I am going to potlucks and need to bring something to impress people, and on that rainy season to accompany my cup of tea, oh and last one when I feel nostalgic and miss home so much).. Pardon? this means I bake it every time?.. Well no, those occasions I mentioned are special, and Nastar is the cookie for those kind of occasions. This way I can't blame my weight gain on holiday seasons (it was that special occasions that made me this larger belly circumference). 

Anyway, back to the recipe. I make my own pineapple jam and I am using my old version of the jam recipe because it works. The only twists I added were only on the dough recipe. 

Today's recipe is about the latest trendy snack in Indonesia. Its known under many names; Egg Pie (Pai Telur), Egg Tart (Tar Telur), and Custard Tart (Pai Susu). It is similar with Portuguese tart pastry, Pasteis de Nata. I have never tasted the Portuguese one, but I heard it tastes pretty similar. The difference only lies on the pastry itself, Portuguese one uses puff pastry while Egg Pie uses (obviously) pie crust. 

There are particular places that are known to be the best producers of this pie in Indonesia. Bali is one of them. It is so popular that people are willing to line up for hours to get their turn to buy this delicious pastry. I am lucky enough to have tasted Bali Egg Pie without having the hassle of waiting in line. I got it from a one of my family that lives there. What a perk to have a big family :)

The recipe I'm writing is NOT Bali Egg Pie tho, but I guarantee it is a great recipe to make a simple yet awesome snack to accompany your tea-break time. Just like any other pie, the key of its success lies on the quality of the crust. My recipe doesn't meant for making pies with long shelf-life since I use all natural and fresh ingredients. Its so good it won't last till the next day anyway before all got eaten up :)

Usually egg pie has a very vibrant yellow color but mine today is a bit pale because I toned down the yolk since my cousin (who is allergic to yolk) is coming to have a taste. 

My family back home has this tradition of eating dates (korma) only on Ramadhan (fasting month). I think most of families in Indonesia has the same habit. Dates are only popular during this month in Indonesia. Due to this tradition, dates become a nostalgic dried fruit for me (yeah, I can be melancholic). 

Here where I live now, I can find dates anytime of the year at the grocery, but somehow it just doesn't taste as special as if its eaten during Ramadhan. Last Ramadhan I found this type of awesome dates, its called the Medjool dates. Its huge, soft, and delicately sweet. I fell in love with this dates on the first bite. My teeth just sank into its gloriously sticky flesh that tastes like caramel and honey. I must warn you, they are dangerously addictive. This heavenly dried fruit does comes with a price tag tho. Its the priciest dates variety at my grocery store, but its worth every penny. 

There are a lot of ways of eating dates. My favorite is eating it just like that so I can savour its flavor (nah, actually I am just lazy). You can also chop it small and put it in salad, couscous, rice, cakes, breads, etc. Today I make a bread out of it mixed with banana. This recipe does not require any sugar (the dates are sweet enough already) or eggs. So I think its pretty healthy  (I guess?? well if you follow my previous recipes, you know that I don't really count calories or fat, I count only what is easy to do). This is another fool-proof kind of recipe we all love, yay!

Let me tell you a secret (yep, if I say a secret, its usually about whats on my mind and it is often silly); I have been always a big fan of berries and back then when I was little (yes, I was little once, long long time ago), and was still living in Indonesia, I used to think that this berry fruits were on the verge of extinction because it was very rare to find, even in the stores and it was super expensive. I adored anything made out of berries or berries flavoured, from cakes to toothpaste. I thought that my land was a super fertile land and you should be able grow anything on the soil, so why berries were rare? Extinction must be the answer!! Apparently back then I was not only small but also rather innocent minded, I didn't know berries aren't tropical fruits. D'oh!

Only until I moved to Quebec, which was only few years back that I found out that berries are okay, they are not on the verge of extinction like at all. In summer you can find strawberries, blueberries, raspberries at any park and they grow as wild bushes and yep, I went berserk the first time I saw this and I still does. Only now I don't pick as much, it is not fair for the birds and other animals to compete with me for food. Especially they can not go to grocery stores and shop. 

Summer berries are the best, they are much more flavourful. Perhaps because they are grown outside in the sun instead of being grown inside of a green house garden. I bought a basket full of juicy strawberries the other day and made a fruit pie before I finish them as a snack at work. I posted a fruit pie recipe before, here. All I did in the recipe today is a tiny tweak on the custard. It might be a tiny tweak, but it does give one heck of a big difference in flavor!