Kitchen Essentials Part 5 : How long can you store your ingredients?

Ever wonder where to store baking ingredients and what is the shelf life on them? Don't worry, I'm here to help. It is important to store ingredients properly to ensure the freshness of it. The worst thing is to use stale ingredients or ingredients that are not as fresh as it should be.

You can use jars, air-tight containers, sealable bags to store your ingredients. Don't forget to write the purchase or expiry date of the ingredients so that you're able to keep track.

It is also good to know which ingredients you use on a regular basis and which you don't. That way, it can help give you an idea on where you should store them. 

I have here a short list of examples on what, where and how long you can keep the ingredients.

Egg - See how to test the freshness?* 

I hope that this list will help give you some guidance on what you should and can do.

At the end of the day, just taste or smell the ingredients, if something doesn't smell alright, it's time to replace it. Also, from my experience usually ingredients that are kept properly especially when kept in the freezer or the fridge, lasts longer than the expiry date. But hey, at the end of the day, use your senses to lead you! 

Happy organising! :)

Brownie Twist

Who loves BROWNIES?!?!

Instagram: Passionatemae

Usually when I am making a brownie, I like it to be crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

But this time, I have decided to create a recipe that uses superfood and healthier ingredients without taking away the chocolatey-ness from it. This brownie is very rich in chocolate because of the raw cacao.

Here's what you need:

75g butter
1/2 cup raw cacao
2 eggs
1/2 cup palm sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
almost 1/2 cup (40g) hazelnut meal
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 pkt (1/2 cup) white chocolate bits

Here's what you need to do:

1) Preheat oven to 160C fan-forced, line base of a loaf tin with baking paper.
2) Melt butter and stir in raw cacao, cool slightly and beat in eggs until a smooth paste. Stir in palm sugar and vanilla.
3) Whisk hazelnut meal and baking powder together, add to mixture and stir until just mixed. Stir through white chocolate bits. Pour into tin.
4) Bake for 15-20 minutes. The cake will wobble a little in the centre. As it cools slightly, it will set more.
5) Cut into slices when warm, serve warm!

*healthier option - you can substitute the white chocolate with nuts (chopped) in the same amount
* gluten-free option - use gluten-free baking powder

Happy Brownie! :)

Nutella Cake

Are you a Nutella fan? 

If you are, here's a great recipe for a Nutella Cake.

Adapted from Nigella Lawson.

All you need are:

Cake:

6 large eggs, separated 

pinch of salt 

125g soft unsalted butter 

400g Nutella (1 large jar) 

1 tablespoon Frangelico, rum or water 

100g ground hazelnuts/hazelnut meal 

100g dark chocolate, melted 

23cm Springform tin, greased and lined 

Icing:

100g hazelnuts (peeled weight) 

125ml double cream 

1 tablespoon Frangelico, rum or water 

125g dark chocolate

All you need to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. 

2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites and salt until stiff but not dry.

 3. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and Nutella together, and then add the Frangelico (or whatever you’re using), egg yolks and ground hazelnuts. 

4. Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate, then lighten the mixture with a large dollop of egg white, which you can beat in as roughly as you want, before gently folding the rest of them in a third at a time.

5. Pour into the prepared tin and cook for 40 minutes or until the cake’s beginning to come away at the sides, then let cool on a rack. 

6. Toast the hazelnuts

a) In a dry frying pan until the aroma wafts upwards and the nuts are golden-brown in parts: keep shaking the pan so that they don’t burn on one side and stay too pallid on others.

b) In the oven for 15 minutes at 180ºC. Toss/Stir is occasionally so that it don't burn.

Transfer to a plate and let cool. This is imperative: if they go on the ganache while hot, it’ll turn oily. 

7. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the cream, liqueur or water and chopped chocolate, and heat gently.

8. Once the chocolate’s melted, take the pan off the heat and whisk until it reaches the right consistency to ice the top of the cake.

9. Unmould the cooled cake carefully, leaving it on the base as it will be too difficult to get such a damp cake off in one piece. Ice the top with the chocolate icing, and dot thickly with the whole, toasted hazelnuts.

Print this recipe!

Enjoy! :)