chocolate Archives - The Wifey's Corner

November 19, 2017June 30, 2023

Simple French Toast

What are you doing to that few slices of bread left on the fridge? There are few ways that I can think of right now, such as making croutons, bread butter pudding, filled with ragout – crumbed and deep fried for delicious savory snacks. But we can also make french toast, which is easy and take no longer than 30 minutes. And that is what we had for breakfast yesterday morning 🙂

Anyway, this is how I prepared my french toast:

6 slices of sandwich bread
2 eggs
1 cup of milk
1 tablespoon of sugar
dash of vanilla extract
half teaspoon of ground cinnamon
butter

Combine all ingredients (except bread and butter) in a shallow dish, whisk well.

Melt some generous amount of butter on your frying pan. Meanwhile, dip the bread on the egg mixture and place it to the pan. Just note that if you leave the bread dipping in the mixture for too long, it will absorb more liquid hence longer cooking time.

Cook each side until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.

It is best to serve immediately, or keep in the warm oven until you finish cooking all.

If I have double cream at home, I would use half double cream and half milk for the egg mixture. It will add more richness to the french toast. But, I have also known some people use mix of nuts milk and they come out as tasty as using regular milk. This recipe is definitely a versatile one where you can adjust it according to what’s in your pantry.

Of course, how you serve the french toast is really up to your liking. We love it with drizzle of maple syrup, or chocolate syrup and fresh fruits. Some have theirs with slices of bacon, absolutely any variations that make breakfast or brunch special. The one we had yesterday was only with dust of icing sugar and some chocolate syrup for hubby’s.

October 8, 2017

Platform Eighty Two, Concord West

Another cafe that we have often passed in these past couple of years and always have a big line outside. We even tried to go there before and got turned off because of the wait. But we made it there few weeks ago, went there before 10 am to avoid the brunch peak hours on Saturday.

Located in the heart of Concord West and very close to its train station, this little cafe often digs our curiosity. It seems they are serving big breakfast type of meals, pancakes and drinks. And yet, people always flock in here even after years it opened its door. A quick search on this place shows numerous pictures of huge platter of big breakfast on tiered settings. Almost like how they serve high tea, but instead of tiny elegant plates, they use a massive wooden board platters.

And of course we have to order the breakfast platter, here are the pictures of what we had:

The breakfast platter for 2, we upgraded the waffle to pancake with ice cream for an extra $2 per person

And the verdict…

We feel Platform Eighty Two is a little overrated in term of queuing. It is not exactly cheap brunch, but don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of food served for 2 people. Eggs are served in three ways (scrambled, sunny side up, and poached). Generous amount of button mushroom, bacon and salami. Love the avocado with feta cheese and hash browns 🙂 No regret on upgrading the dessert to pancake, very delicious! I feel this is a nice place for get together with few people, it is fun, and very instagram-able, right? But make sure to make a reservation ahead if you are coming in groups, just to be sure you will get a table with no long wait. Also, thumbs up for the coffee, very smooth!

Platform Eighty Two

82 Queen St, Concord West NSW 2138

Phone: (02) 9743 0002

Facebook page

August 27, 2017August 27, 2017

Four Frogs Creperie, Circular Quay Sydney

We just had the beautiful warm winter days in this past weekend, such a nice weather for a walk around city. After lunch, we headed to Circular Quay, revisiting this creperie shop. Been wanting to get hubby to try their crepe for a while and finally get to do it this time.

Located in the front side of (fairly) new revamped Gateway food court in Circular Quay, Four Frogs Creperie is hard to miss. On the front seating area, you can look out to people walking by surrounding the Circular Quay ferry wharf. This would have been a nice spot in the morning or evening, not so much in the afternoon due to direct afternoon sun exposure. Since we went there in the afternoon, we opted to sit inside – not much view but it was cozy enough.

The first time I came here, I was amazed with their Crepes On Fire menu. For the same reason, I asked hubby to choose one from that section. It sure did not disappoint, they came with a bit of theatrical presentation and more importantly, they also taste great! They also have some interesting French ciders on the menu, I guess we just have to try next time we go there.

This is how the waiter brought our orders:

And here are what they look like after that short theatrical show:

Chocolate, vanilla ice cream and Grand Marnier

They are both absolutely a delicious – the crepes are so smooth and buttery. The sauce are as lovely and not sickly sweet, and don’t taste like artificial flavors. I adore the crepe suzette as the orange sauce and pieces cut down the sweet sauce and the grand marnier really pair wonderfully. Whereas hubby being a chocolate lovers, still keep on saying how good his crepe was a day later 😛

Four Frogs Creperie

1 Macquarie Place, Circular Quay, Sydney

Phone: (02) 9241 2277

www.fourfrogs.com.au

May 4, 2017June 15, 2020

Indonesian Cheesecake and Choco Ball

Here is another post on Indonesian Cheesecake. I used the same base cake recipe as in this post. But this time, I made cream cheese whipped cream for the filling and also to cover the cake.

The recipe is taken from here with slight adjustment, and below is my version:

Cream Cheese Filling:

150 ml thicken cream, cold
50 grams of cream cheese at room temperature
30 grams of grated cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon of sugar

Mix the thickened cream with sugar until almost become whipped cream.

Add in the cream cheese and continue mix with high speed until stiff.

Fold in the grated cheddar cheese to the cream cheese whipped cream.

Set aside in the fridge, covered with cling wrap.

Simple Syrup:

50 grams sugar
150 ml water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Bring everything to boil in a small pot, make sure all the sugar has been dissolved well.

Set aside to cool to room temperature.

White Chocolate Ganache: (I skipped this)

100 ml thickened cream
250 grams cooking white chocolate, melted and cool down to room temperature

Mix the thickened cream to whipped cream, add in melted white chocolate. Mix well until the texture is soft-cream-alike.

Assembly:

Once the cake is cool down, trim the side and the surface of the cake to make it level. The cut it horizontally into two or three layers. (I halved mine). Keep the trimmed pieces aside for choco balls.

Brush the surface of each half with simple syrup. Then coat it with generous amount of cream cheese filling.

Put the other half on top of the base and repeat the process again.

Cover all sides with the remaining cream cheese filling (or white chocolate ganache if you made this)

Then cover the whole cake with more cheddar cheese.

I find it difficult to stick the sides of the cake with grated cheddar… Probably waste more cheese here than what actually stick to the cake 😛

Since we have some trimmed pieces of the cake and I do not want to waste those, I thought why not make them into something more exciting hence the choco balls. There is no fixed measurement, just approximate.

Choco Balls:

Crumble the trimmed pieces of the cake into a bowl.

Add in about two tablespoons of cream cheese at room temperature and mix well.

Then add about three tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk in chocolate flavour.

Mix until everything is combined well. The texture should resemble cookie dough, a little bit on the dryer side.

Shape into bite-sized balls, roll in chocolate rices or dip into melted chocolate – enjoy!

I only rolled them to chocolate rices here, would be better looking had I dipped them in melted chocolate 🙂 But regardless of their appearance here, they actually tasted good and not overly sweet.

April 26, 2017April 25, 2017

Subway Choc Chip Cookies

One thing that always appeals to me at Subway (the sandwich/roll chain) is their cookies. They are chewy and soft in the center and such a comfort food, isn’t it? Surely it is not something you would indulge on daily basis if health and budget are of your concerns 🙂 Anyway, if you like the kind of chewy and soft textured cookies then continue read on – and maybe give it a try and let me know if you also love it as much as we do.

In the case you want to try make it at home, then at least it is much budget friendly than store bought, but try not to eat too many in a day, ok? I did a research and tried out few recipes, so far we like this one. I am not even sure where I got this recipe, I wrote this down on my recipe book years ago and forgot about it. Only recently I flipped the pages of my recipe book, noticed the recipe and decided to make it again. So, I am truly sorry to the owner of this recipe for not citing you – but thank you for sharing it!

250 grams self-rising flour, sifted
170 grams melted butter
185 grams brown sugar
110 grams white sugar (I used 80 grams, as milk choc chips are already quite sweet)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups of dark choc chips (I used milk choc chips as that was what I have at home at the time of baking)

Cream together melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended.

Beat in egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract until the batter is light and creamy.

Mix in sifted flour until just blended.

Lastly, stir in the choc chips.

Drop big tablespoons of the dough on lined baking trays.

Bake on 165C for 15-17 minutes.

Some tips:

– Use good quality of choc chips to get better taste cookies. Or could substitute the choc chips with M&Ms or Smarties, to your liking.

– Do not overbake the cookies to get that soft centered texture. I took out mine at 15 minutes and they were soft to touch. Once cooled to room temperature, they will harden up and the center will be chewy and soft.

– The brown sugar is mostly what creates that chewy soft texture, hence you cannot substitute this with white sugar. For the same reason, if you need to cut down on sweetness level, just reduce the white sugar amount only.