Truly, I am a brownie-girl and a cheesecake-girl.

Whenever I dine at restaurant, as long as their desserts menu has the word "cheesecake" or/and "brownie", I'm likely to be caught in between this two choices! Other cakes like Opera, Chocolate Fudge, Waffle, Molten cake wouldn't even be considered. It simply has to be a brownie, or a cheesecake, or BOTH!

Last night I was looking for a cheesecake brownie when I decided on David Lebovitz's. I'm sure he is not stranger to food bloggers! His recipes never fail us and I really admire his knowledge towards food (-desserts!). I wanted a brownie base that is moist and fudgy, yet a little cake-like. Not the heavy and dense kind that I usually seek for, because I didn't think I would be able to appreciate a cheesecake brownie that has both its layer so rich!

As planned, I bake it on an empty stomach this morning! (Ok.... the secret is also that I knew all cheesecakes have to be thoroughly chilled for at least 4hours, or better overnight before they can be eaten. BUT that isn't the case for a cheesecake brownie =P In fact I personally find them better when eaten warm)

I made the baking process short and sweet. I was really looking forward to the end results & once it came out of the oven, I let it rest impatiently for 5minutes, lift it up and let cool on a marble table for another 20minutes. Inevitably, I pinched the sides of the entire cake to eat. It was so incredibly satisfying.

Later, I gave away half of the cake to my Aunty and my cousins because I knew that if I were to keep all of them at home, I'd probably gain a kg tomorrow. LOL. I kept two for my mum, two for my brothers and I hid in the kitchen finishing the rest (hee)

I'd describe the cheesecake brownie to be perfectly sweet, very chocolatey and seriously delicious. The brownie is moist and tender while the cheesecake batter seems to make the bars a little salty, giving a very unique taste to it. This also balance the overall sweetness of the bars which makes it extra enjoyable.

However, if you are looking for a really dense, fudgy, chocolatey and rich brownie, you might want to try my Peanut Butter Brownies. It is the most popular post in my blog! :)

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I declared my love for S'mores bars since my first attempt at it. It is one of the very few things that I'd bake and bake again, and also my favourite bars to prepare when I'll be traveling for a long time. I'd even bring them to my class outing, confident that my classmates are going to love it :)

& I honestly DISLIKE granola bars. Even for such a small amount of calories, I'd rather be eating something else fatter, and better. I'm quite health conscious, but I just can't appreciate it. My girl friend told me she thinks oat/muesli are bird's food LOL. I couldn't deny, cause they really look alike!

In short I don't have the best impression of ingredients like rolled oats, and if you didn't know, this is my first ever post on an OAT-containing recipe.

However, I'm still very fascinated by all the Oat bars and cookies in food galleries. It appeared to me that OATS, they do contribute a lot of baking and cooking! It took a long consideration before I finally decides to embark on my first Oat-bar.

I mean my S'mores + Granola bar.

S'mores + Granola bar topped with chicken floss. That's like an American-Asian fusion bar. LOL. Anyway this is a really good. I was thinking you might even consider it to be a S'mores + Granola + Hello Dolly bar with an Asian touch.

My ingredients can explain its name! S'mores base (graham cracker) + cashew nuts + melted marshmallows + rolled oats + raisins + chicken floss + condensed milk. Perhaps it is the most delicious yet most unhealthy granola bar LOL. (at least I warn you!)

& when so many bars so obediently sits in front of you....

you keep eating and telling yourself, "Oats are good. They are not fat, so I can eat more." *Zzz*

Anyway, I hope you try it for yourself and be impressed by the entire combination which I have truly enjoyed :) The most important ingredient here, I believe is the chicken floss. Substitute the cashew nuts with walnuts or pecans, whichever that please you but promise me the only change you'd do to the chicken floss is perhaps double it!!

& if you do make this someday, tell me =D I'd really love to know how did yours turn out, and if you liked it too!!

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When I think of butter, I think of brownies.

I love brownies with a REALLY HIGH ratio of butter to flour because I've the assumption that this makes them really dense and chocolatey (rather than cakey) :D Of course, I love a brownie even more when it has its surface cracked!

And ever since I started comparing various recipes of cookies with regards to their proportion of ingredients (YES I'M IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT COOKIE TOO!), I decided to do the same for brownies. The two must-bake things in every bakers' list. RIGHT? Right! Lots of butter. Little flour! *Mmm..

The brownie recipe I've adapted from BeckyBakes was a success! Her recipe, compared to Rick Katz's from Chocolatechic and Sue Lawrence's from Ovenhaven had lesser butter to flour ratio. I chose to baked hers first in the end because Becky's recipe had mr. Butter's blessings for the marriage of mr. CHOCOLATE & miss PEANUT BUTTER!

YUP :) It was not a mistake, which also brings me to my conclusion that no matter what brownie (&cheesecake) recipe is used, it is most important to take care that they are NOT over baked!

Becky's brownies baked in a 8x8 pan took 30-35minutes while mine, baked in a 7x10 pan took exactly 23minutes. I had too many repeated failures on brownies so I decided that I had to be really really careful this time! Everyone can make nice brownies, so watch the time and check your brownies frequently once you notice they've set & just a little runny when a cake tester is push through it :)

I left out the Reese peanut butter cups as I did not have it when I wanted to make this, so I left that out. It's still fantastic anyway!

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American and the Northern food culture is one of my greatest takeaway ever since I set up my food blog & visited various food galleries. I never like peanut butter until I baked, until I saw one of those best stuffs in Tastespotting / Foodgawker contained PEANUT BUTTER!

Seriously..... don't you love peanut butter?!?! LOL.

These bars' surface were nicely formed :D My only mistake was to overbaked it! Arghs, that seems to be the problem of most cakes especially bars like brownies. It happens to me too often =\

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The name says it all!

I had so much fun with this recipe. I swear! It was incredibly moist and soft. Plus point: everybody in my family loves bananas and they're readily available in the supermarket.

I hadn't done a great job though, there's supposed to be two distinct coloured layers (yellow cake on the brown cocoa cake, you can click on the original link to see the cake). I admit I don't know my Malaysia oven as well I know my Singapore's one, the temperature tends to be higher although it is a bigger oven and my pastries/cakes often brown quickly. 

Wait, you might be curious why I've been travelling between these two countries and even bake in Malaysia? My dad is a Malaysian and manages his business in Malaysia! :) My mum, on the other hand is a Singaporean. As for me, I'm born in Singapore and is also a Singapore citizen, but since I'm always in Malaysia during the school holidays, I concluded that if one day I'm going to record down my biography, I'd be doing it with the help of a passport. LOL! :D In fact I'm likely to be one of the students with the most pages of my passport stamped because of this frequent travel haha!

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I've 2 good news, my Strawberry IceCream Cake is on Foodbuzz Top9! Cheers to my readers and fellow foodies =) Also, I'm now a featured cook on HalfHourMeals! I really like this food community for the same reason as why I enjoy posting at Onsugar (my food blog host). Their editors/staff'd always reach out to my posts and this interaction always gives me the sense of belonging for their websites! You might want to read the post on my interview here =) 

Sorry for not updating for the past few days as I was busy following my dad around his work. In fact, I made Hello Dolly Bars on Sunday too. They were delicious, but really messy. Plus I know you won' be convinced just how delicious they are unless I make them again, and make them better than before =P

So what are Hello Dolly Bars? I only know that they are known as 7 layers bars or magic cookies bars, but I've no idea how did they came about. They are really meant for the genuine sweet tooth and seriously, I've never seen a can of condensed milk at home before I attempted Hello Dolly Bars! I love desserts, but I'm health conscious too (that's why I play sports) and condensed milk, in my opinion are way too unhealthy to be consumed. LOL. Wait, I might change my mind now though =P Of course, if you've means to get non-sweet chocolate chips, less sweet condensed milk and layer your bars with more nuts, the results might just be somewhat healthier :D (and they're kids-friendly!)

CUTE EH? My mum loves the coconut! And the topped walnuts tasted almost like caramel popcorn LOL yUmMy!~

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