跟他归家 为他唱

my grocery shopping list totalled $52.65, which is the record high. but still, it's gonna be worth it.

i really like it now that my oven is outside in the kitchen. it's so convenient. if only i had even more space to just leave the mixer outside too. and a big counter to work doughs.

shortbread:

i took a second shot at making the shortbread, using the same formula, but with a different method, and with added flavour. i figured that if there is going to be so much butter, then maybe the rubbing method can be discarded in favour of creaming.
and so i creamed the butter and sugars - using a mix of brown and castor sugar to give better taste too - to moussiness, and added vanilla and cinnamon. (cinnamon because i like it, and because i happen to have it, a small yet big bottle leftover from making cherry pies last year. you know - those small bottles of things that are so difficult to finish using.)
and so the piping hot shortbread cookies were made, cut, and left to cool. these were less fragile than the previous batch, probably because of the initial mixing method.

totally chocolate chocolate cookies:

i got the recipe for this from watching nigella on youtube. you could even call these babies 'triple chocolate cookies'; they include cocoa powder, melted chocolate, and chocolate chips. to make up this entire batch i used almost one kilo of chocolate.
melted bars of hershey's dark chocolate, which was quite intensely dark. i think van houten's baking bar may suit others more, but i liked the darkness of the resulting cookies.
the flour mixture with gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous cocoa powder.
700g of chocolate chips into the dough. don't gasp. as clara says, there can never be too much chocolate. and nigella says that she doesn't put a price on alleviating human suffering.
in the tv series, nigella uses these to 'administer top-class comfort'. you really have to try them to understand what she means. when you bite into it, the cookie crumbles and melts dreamily into your mouth. the chocolate is so intense to the point of being bitter on the first bite; the chocolatey after-taste emerges and you feel very, strangely, satisfied. and i believe, hand on heart, that these are the cure to any heartbreak.

100% wholemeal bread:

today is the day that bertinet's dough makes its debut! this recipe is called '100%' because it uses all wholemeal flour, not a mix of wholemeal and bread flour, which is the norm. this would mean that the bread is denser than normal. but the use of a poolish ferment makes it lighter than it would be.
don't ask what a poolish ferment is. i'm still learning. this is the poolish ferment when it was first whisked up, and then three hours later.
the final dough made by adding the rest of the ingredients into the poolish. left to rest for fifteen minutes.
the dough was divided into two and shaped into balls, and rested for another fifteen minutes.
shaped into loaves and left to prove for one hour. somehow, they just didn't swell as much as i think they should. and this resulted in a dense crumb.
i preheated the oven to the hottest. nowadays i'm getting to know more about my oven's ambiguous temperature markings. anyway, preheating at the hottest temperature means that when first put the bread in, it can develop a very good crust; put the bread in, then lower the temperature to the required one. misting the oven the moment you put the bread in also helps the development of a good crust. it makes you chew the bread more, encouraging the production of saliva, and hence improving your digestion.
bertinet didn't ask for scoring, but i still wanted to practise, so i tried it on one of the loaves.
turns out, the scoring was so pretty. but the loaves did not rise spectacularly in the oven. i really don't know why, it's as if the yeast was not feeding, or something's not right with the flour. that is, there was still a lack of air spaces in the loaves.

chances:

it is by chance that when nigella's recipe called for 60g cocoa, i had, give or take, exactly that amount left in my old bottles of van houten and hershey's.

perhaps, by chance, that i should even have picked up that copy of how to be a domestic goddess, when i was out late shopping with the seibu.

also, by chance, that i should see a very pretty moon against a blue evening sky.

and, by chance, that i should hear 下一站天后 in a coffee shop.

maybe, by chance, i will find a shop that sells blueberry pies.

i am going to take a chance and reject the UK university offers in favour or the NUS offer. if i stay in singapore to study, there will be auntie ruolin, jia en, beejuan, weiyang, yishi, aminah, toffa, paul, priscilla, (i'll leave this list open-ended)