Baked Stuff on a Rainy Day

Caramelized bananas and walnuts with pancakes. Ever since I ate this breakfast item - Ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter and grilled bananas at Blue Mountains with JH, I've been thinking of making something similar. Maybe a little messy to grill bananas here....but I guess caramelized bananas come close enough! A little butter and brown sugar to create the caramel...but I discovered it's rather difficult to coat the bananas and walnuts evenly with the caramel. Something to investigate....Pancakes are really easy to make, and if I use condensed milk, there's no need to add any sugar - it's sweet enough for me, at least.

Then, it's off to bake some muffins. I've been wanting to give my neighbours something, ever since I started borrowing tools from them for the bicycle. So paiseh. Since my Anzac biscuits felt so urgh, I guess I can only rely on my muffins. I wanted to make chocolate muffins cos I have this gigantic bar of Cadbury chocolate SY gave for X'mas! I will become FAT, if I eat it up like that!! I used a peeler to shave the chocolate into bits - very good, I used up almost half the bar for the muffins.

I've been using canola oil for the muffins - this oil seems to have a mixed reputation - I'm seriously not sure whether it's healthy or not. But I think the muffins have a somewhat weird smell, if you smell them real close enough. Maybe I'm too sensitive. The muffins turn out alright - edible and pretty sweet even though I added just abit of sugar. The chocolate and condensed milk gives enough sweetness, I guess.

Sigh - my angmo neighbours are not around....I gave them to my korean neighbours instead. I hope they like it. Now, it's off to get more self-raising flour to bake more muffins for my angmo neighbours tonight. I hope I finish the bar of chocolate.

Sydney Olympic Park

the entrance the Brickpit the surrounds of Brickpit
Sydney Olympic Park is really near to where I'm staying. A 10-15min bike ride, and I'll be there. It's supposed to be a cycling haven, with flat, smooth terrain. Yet, somehow, I've never really liked the place. I think it has got something to do with the fact that I keep getting lost while cycling within the park and so I would usually cycle around the edge of the park. When JH and I were here on X'mas Day, somehow under his expert map reading, we had discovered a few interesting places. Brickpit was one of them.

"The Brickpit Ring Walk is an elevated circular walkway that allows visitors to access and view the Brickpit from above while preserving the habitat of the endangered Green and Golden Bell frog", according to the official website. http://www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au/visiting/venues_and_parks/brickpit_ring_walk
And the best part is, entry is free!! So off I go to visit the frogs. Although there were binoculars suitably positioned around the Brickpit, I didn't see these frogs! Nah, I doubt with my not-too-keen sense of observation, I will be able to see much wildlife. Maybe if JH is around....

Then it's off to cycle to the Bay Marker, where there are a few shipwrecks...then to the boardwalk at the Badu Mangroves, where I did see those tiny colourful crabs scrambling into their holey hideouts. Bicentennial Park was next. Fortunately, with my Street Directory, I'm now able to figure the shortest and most logical way of cycling around. :) Very pleased with my directory. I can now find my way to Aldi Supermarket, where I picked up some broccoli and then it's home!

Anzac Biscuits

Last night, I decided to make Anzac biscuits, inspired by the dessicated coconut that's lying around at home. Dessicated coconut is cheaper here in Sydney than in Singapore. And I should be finding more ways to use it in baked goods! But sy doesn't quite like dessciated coconut....anyway, Anzac biscuits sounds great to bake because it uses oats and coconut and no egg - sounds healthy. Golden syrup is used as a substitute for egg to bind the ingredients together. I wonder how they would turn out. I had in mind to give them to my neighbours, if they turn out great.

They turned out CHEWY!! I never like my biscuits to be chewy, only crispy!! Off to search the Internet on whether Anzac biscuits are meant to be chewy or crispy. Well, Niki said that they are supposed to be crispy from the oats and chewy from the syrup-coated coconut. Sigh, does that mean that biscuits with golden syrup will always turn out to be chewy?

Soak Yee likes them - I think it is because she likes muesli bars a lot. They taste like flat small pieces of muesli, due to the oats. Gee, I think they are just handy to carry around. Good source of energy?!

Introduction

I still have 7 more months here in Sydney before I return to Singapore. 4 months have already passed - so fast and I know the next 7 months will pass just as swiftly. Hopefully, with this blog, I can keep a record of the little and great adventures I am going to embark on, here in Sydney.