Halloween Cake

Made this no-bake oreo cheesecake for Mon's Halloween party tonight. The recipe of this cake is slightly different from the one I posted in the March archive. This time round I drenched the cake with chocolate ganache and top it with ground oreo and white chocolates. The cake tasted wonderful with the ganache.
We had a hilarious time at the party. The food was yummy and the people at the party were hilarious too!
The hilarious few managed to scare off the kids who were tricking or treating at our party doorstep.
Will see if I can get a few photos from the party to post here...that will be later though!



Ingredients: (20cm)
Cake Base
60g digestive biscuit crumbs
65g oreo biscuit crumbs
55g melted unsalted butter

Filling
375g cream cheese (room temperature)
75g castor sugar
65ml skim milk
1 tbsp rum
50g ground oreo

1.5 tbsp gelatin powder
10ml lemon juice
3.5 tbsp hot water

375ml whipping cream
1 tbsp icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

10 pieces oreo cookies, cut into quarters

Chocolate ganache
95g semi-sweet chocolate
55g skim milk
25g butter

Topping
40g ground oreo
some finely grated white chocolate
Halloween spider (optional...hee...hee)

Method:
1. Mix the digestive and oreo biscuit crumbs well. Pour in the melted butter and mix till well combined.
2. Pour biscuit crumbs into a lined pan and press firmly. Chill in the freezer for at least an hour.
3. Whip the whipping cream with icing sugar and vanilla essence till mousse state. Chill for use later.
4. Combine gelatin powder with lemon juice and hot water till gelatin is dissolved. You might need to double boil till gelatin is completely dissolved. Set aside for use later.
5. Cream cheese, milk, sugar, rum and ground oreo till creamy and smooth. Stir in the cool gelatin solution till well combined.
6. Fold in the whipped cream a third at a time.
7. Pour half of the cream cheese mixture into the cake base, top with quartered oreo cookies and pour in the remaining cream cheese mixture.
8. Chill for at least 3 hours.
9. Microwave skim milk for 40 seconds on HIGH in the microwave, stir in the all chocolate till well blended. Stir in the butter. You might need to double boil to ensure all the ingredients are well mixed and smooth.
10. Remove cheesecake from the cake pan and pour the ganache all over the cake, smoothing the sides with a palette knife. Top with ground oreo and finely grated white chocolate. Chill till ready to serve.

Notes:
1. If you have to revert to double boiling the chocolate ganache, please ensure that the ganache is slightly cooled before pouring onto the cake.

2. To remove the cake smoothly from the springform pan, use a hair dryer to warm all around the cake pan. Loosen the springform lock and remove cake gently. Smooth the sides of the chilled cake with a hot and dry palette knife if needed.

Happy Halloween

Halloween painting by Alison, aged 8.

Double Chocolate Muffins

With the avian flu raging south, me being the "kiasu" auntie went to the supermaket to stock up on durable food. Spent a fortune on canned foods, anitseptic hand wash and wipes, dettol...blah, blah and blah, you name it you get it in my supermarket trolley this morning. Couldn't even carry them home, have to get the supermarket to do home delivery...ai yoh...so "kiasu"!!!
On top of all those, I bought a few packets of flours, chocolates and baking ingredients, just in case if there is curfew I can still bake.
Oh yeah! Having bought the chocolates, I haven't forgotten the fact that I promised someone that I will be baking some chocolate muffins before Halloween and this is it.
Have a Dark Sugar High Friday!



Ingredients: (12 minis and 6 standards)
(A)
130g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup light muscovado
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips

(B)
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp honey
160ml skim milk
80ml corn oil (can be a mixture of melted butter & corn oil)
25g cocoa powder

Chocolate chips topping
Optional amount of white chocolate chips
(I used white choc because my packet of Ghirardelli will be expiring in December)
(You can use some of the chocolate chips from the 1/2 cup in the recipe)

Method:
1. Sieve flour, baking powder & soda into a mixing bowl. Stir in the muscovado and salt thoroughly. Make a well in the centre of these ingredients and set aside.
2. Preheat your oven to 200C.
3 Warm the oil (butter/oil mixture) in the microwave oven, stir in the cocoa powder till well blended. Add milk into the cocoa mixture 1/3 at a time and mix well.
4. In another bowl, beat the egg, vanilla essence and honey lightly. Pour in the cocoa mixture and stir till well combined.
5. Pour this into the well in (1) and mix lightly and quickly until just moistened. Fold in the chocolate chips.
6. Fill prepared muffin tray lined with paper cups 80% full and top it with some extra chocolate chips. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of one comes up clean.

Chocolate Mint Cookies

Ever since I saw Gina's chocolate mint cookies at KC, I have been drooling over it. Was wondering what sort of mint she used in her cookies. I was at the supermarket this morning and saw a pack of Andes Mint Parfait Thins on sale at a pittance discount of 10%. Didn't think twice just grab and quickly head home to try to bake this cookie. No recipe, so how? Never mind, I just have to concocte one. Was writing up this recipe on a recycled paper, ?g of butter to ?g of flour and....in the last minute I decided to add 1 tsp corn oil.
The aroma from baking this is hypnotic, you just feel like plonking your head into the raw dough. Surprisingly, the cookies turned out pretty well. This cookie has a melt in the mouth texture and you could feel the crunch of mint which has caramelised during the baking process.



Ingredients:
60g butter
1 tsp corn oil
30g icing sugar
1/8 tsp of salt
100g cake flour
15g cocoa powder
pinch of baking soda
50g Andes Mint Parfait(chopped up)

Method:
1. Cream butter, corn oil, icing sugar and salt till light and fluffy.
2. Fold in the sieved flour, cocoa powder and baking soda mixture.
3. Add in the chopped up Andes Mint and mix till a soft dough is formed.
4. Divide the dough into 18 pieces shape it round and flatten them a little.
5. Bake on a lined tray at 180C for 25 - 30 minutes.

Por Lor Pau

Por Lor Pau is a direct translation of the Cantonese name for this bread. This bread is well liked by many Hong Kongners. We liked the crispy and crusty topping which shattered into bits and pieces once you bite into it. To savour it, slash the bread horizontally and add a big slab of cold butter and it will be the infamous Por Lor Yau of HK. I think this will go very well with Teh Tarik.
My kids loved this, we usually have this on Sunday mornings but of course minus the slab of butter.
This is the first time I am doing this. Since I have nothing on today, except a few reports to read and some research to do, I made this using the time consuming Sponge and Dough method. Of course, I leave the kneading and mixing part to my beloved Kenwood BM300.



Sorry folks! No recipe as this is a commercial one, so cannot post but you might like to refer to:
Jo's Deli Bakery under the bread section for Polo Buns, or
Epan - Melon Buns

MeMe - Childhood memories of food

I have been tagged by Lily to continue this topic about childhood memories food. Gosh! Had me thinking deep and hard...when was childhood!
Let me see, 5 childhood memories food:

1. Putu Mayam

Photo from: makantime.com
This looks likes a web of vermicelli (bee hoon) and you eat it with freshly grated coconut and Singapore red sugar. Thinking back, the Indian man who sold it used his hands to do everything and wrapped it up with past newspapers lined with a banana leaf. I always asked for more coconut and sugar to go with the putu mayam as it tasted better.

2. Mum's Mee Hoon Kueh in ikan bilis soup.
My mum made the best mee hoon kueh. What is MHK? It is just plain dough made of flour, water and salt mixed together. What's so special about this? Her's is really chewy and the soup base that she boils with ikan bilis is so yummy. She tops the MHK with (1) pork and mushroom that she fried with soy sauce, (2) choy sum and (3)fried crispy shallots. Eat it with freshly sliced chilli padis in vinegar and soy sauce...so shiok - the chillis are for adults only.

3. The Kacang Putih man

Photo from: Social Studies at Rosyth
During my childhood time the kacang putih man peddle his store in a open top wooden box on top of his head. There might be something like 9 different kinds of kacang in those brown paper bags rolled down on the sides in his wooden box. He would put your selected kacang into a conical shaped paper holder, plastic bags weren't in then. My favourite is not those crunchy kacang but the yellow chick pea kacang. Guess these kacangs are all naturally flavoured as the term "junk food" is a never heard of word at that time.

4. Iced gem little biscuits

Used to buy these from the provision shop opposite my flat. Biscuits in those time were stored in big glass canister with a silver lid. They were sold by weight. If you ask for fifity cents of this or that, the man will put a little brown paper bag on the weighing scale and keep adding in biscuits till its worth. These little biscuits were so attractive with different colored iced flower topping. No kids will resist these. I usually eat the biscuit part first and slowly savoured the sweet little iced flower toppings.

5. Char Kway Teow

Photo from: makantime.com
Used to frequent this Kopitiam opposite my block of flats. The Char Kway Teow man fried really good Kway Teow and it costs 25 cents a pack then. You know, the ones with the black soy sauce, egg, liap cheong, chilli (if you want it hot) and topped it up with deep fried "bak you pok". "Bak you pok" is actually the fatty layer of pork which is fried till all the oil from it has been extracted and you are left with those dry brown and crunchy cubes. Eat one mouthful of the Kway Teow with some of these crunchy cubes and you'll know what is good char kway teow.

Wow! There goes my 5 childhood memories of food.

Now....passing the baton to:

1) Angie - Mrs Chan's Kitchen
2) Chloe - Chloe's Cook O Log
3) My Kitchen - Sweets for my sweet tooth
4) Sea Dragon - Cafe of the East
5) Jasmine - Jas Kitchen

Cream de Parisienne

Cream de Parisienne is a custard bread which I did sometime ago. This bread was originally posted in the June archives with the Cream Cheese Pan. Since some friends wanted to try this recipe, I have taken it off the June archive and translated the recipe from E-Pan here. For original recipe and shaping process please check out the E-pan site, they have got interesting bread recipes.
Lena, this is for you! Happy trying.



Cream de Parisienne
Ingredients:
250g bread flour
3.5g instant yeast
50g castor sugar
2.5g salt
7.5g milk powder
25g unsalted butter
25g egg
130ml water

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients to form an elastic dough and prove in a greased mixing bowl for 60 minutes.
2. Knead the dough to release the air in it and prove for 30 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 60g pieces and shape it into round balls. Rest the dough for 25 minutes.
4. Roll the dough into a flat sheet of 10cm x 14cm in dimension. Add in 40g filling and shape(refer to e-pan site for the shaping). Prove for 45 minutes.
5. Egg glace the surface and top it with some almond flakes.
6. Bake at 210C for 15 -20 minutes or till golden brown.

Custard: (about 300g)
26g cake flour
60g castor sugar
200ml milk
25g unsalted butter
2 large egg yolks (about 36g)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
1. Sieve flour into a microwavable bowl. Stir in the sugar and mix well.
2. Heat milk in a suacepan till nearly boiling but not boiling. Add this hot milk into the flour mixture, stirring all the time.
3. Microwave for 1.5 minutes in a 600W microwave oven. Remove from MW, stir mixture. Send it back to the microwave for 1.5 minutes on HIGH again.
4. Add in the lightly beaten egg yolks and blend well.
5. Microwave mixture for 1 minute.
6. Add in the butter and vanilla essence and mix well.

Curry Puffs (Malay Epok Epok)

My eldest had a few friends over for a dress-up photo shoot and she wanted me to make some snacks for them.
What do you want?
Bread? "Mmmmmm, no mum!" Cakes? "Mmmmmmmm, no mum!"
Can we have something nice and crunchy, please?
Sure! How about the Malay Epok Epok?
What's that, mum?
You know the curry chicken bun filling wrapped with a fried crispy skin.
That's great, mum!
Wonderfully yumilicious with a cup of Earl Grey tea.



This is the pastry maker that I used.


CREDITS: Original recipe is from KITCHEN CAPERS.

Ingredients: (25 pieces)
Pastry
2 cups plain flour
180ml water
60g margarine
1/4 tsp salt

Filling
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp chicken curry powder
120g chicken meat (diced)
1 large potatoes (cooked and diced)
1/2 large onions (diced)
1 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Boil water with margarine till boiling hot. Add to sieved flour and mix to form dough. Leave aside to cool.
2. Knead warm dough and leave it to chill in the fridge for 30 - 45 minutes.
3. While the dough is chilling, heat up some oil in the wok, stir fry the onions for a while, add in the chicken meat, diced potatoes and the rest of the seasonings. Stir fry till chicken is cooked.
4. Divide dough into 22g - 25g pieces and mould it into a flat round shape of about 10 cm in diameter.
5. Place dough on pastry maker and add in a spoonful of cooled filling. Seal it well.
6. Deep fry in a wok till golden brown and serve hot.

Notes:
If you don't have garam masala, just use curry powder.

Kueh Salat

This kueh is a favourite of mine. I like anything with glutinous rice be it sweet or savoury. I know alot of friends like this kueh too! The last time I had this was in December 2004 from Bengawan Solo. Was talking to my sister about this kueh last night and she gave me this recipe to try.
The kueh is nice but don't over indulged...look at the amount of coconut milk used.



Ingredients: (18cm round springform pan)
Rice Layer
200g glutinous rice (soak in water for 5 hours)
100ml coconut milk + 50ml water
2 pandan leaves
1/2 tsp salt

Egg Custard Layer
3 eggs
30g flour + 25g rice flour
350ml coconut milk
140g castor sugar
2 tbsp pandan juice
1/4 tsp pandan paste
1/4 tsp salt

Method:
1. Drain rice and steam on pandan leaves for 20 minutes.
2. Remove from heat, fluff up the rice with a pair of chopsticks and pour in the coconut milk + salt + water mixture . Mix well. Steam for a further 20 minutes or till cooked.
3. Remove pandan leaves and press cooked glutinous rice firmly onto a lined pan. I lined my pan with baking paper. You can line it with a sheet of banana leaf.
4. Sieve the 2 flours mixture and add them to lightly beaten eggs. Strain mixture.
5. Combine coconut milk with pandan juice, salt and sugar. Cook over low heat till sugar dissolved. Stir in the egg mixture and cook till slightly thicken.
6. Pour this slightly thickened egg custard over the steamed glutinous rice and steam for 15 - 20 minutes.
7. Cut kueh into serving slices when cool.

Notes:
I added pandan paste to give it a nice jade color.

Banana Orange Walnut Muffins

Banana...a fruit full of vitamins and minerals and is the healthiest among all fruits. It has a good source of fiber, potassium and Vitamin C. Do you know that banana plant is not a tree. It is actually the world's largest herb! There is more information here about BANANAS .
I actually wanted to bake a banana chiffon cake weeks ago but the timing wasn't right, either the bananas were too green or they were on the verge of rotting. At last, this morning I saw 2 pieces of brown speckled bananas in the fruit basket just nice for a cake but was too lazy to do the chiffon cake so I opted to bake Banana Orange Walnut Muffins.



Ingredients:
Wet ingredients
1 large egg
2 tsp rum
1 - 2 tsp grated orange rind
180ml orange juice
2 large bananas
30g butter melted with 2 tbsp corn oil

Dry ingredients
200g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/2 - 1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
1/2 tsp salt
70g castor sugar
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Method:
1. Melt butter with corn oil in the microwave oven on high for 45 seconds.
2. Blender banana with orange juice in a blender.
3. Beat egg and add in all the rest of the wet ingredients and mix till well combined.
4. Sieve flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg into a big mixing bowl and add in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Make a well in the flour mixture and pour in the wet mixture. Mix gently. Do not overmix.
6. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tray and bake at 200C for 25 - 30 minutes or till cooked.

Spiced Struesel Pumpkin Bundt Cake

It's Fall and pumpkins are in abundance so, I thought I shall be IN and bake a pumpkin cake. I have never done one before therefore I went recipes shopping.
Shopping and more shopping and this one from Diana's Desserts is different, its got the spiced struesel in the middle of the pumpkin cake...hmm..I'm going to try this.
This is also the first cake for my Kaiser Bundt Cake Pan which I bought three months ago. I was afraid that the cake will stick to the pan and not be able to dislodge the goody nicely, hence I have to make sure I grease it with a good amount of shortening and flour it well. Phew! While cooling the inverted cake, I gave it a few shakes and the cake dislogded itself nicely. What a friendly pan!
Let me tell you, the aroma from baking this cake is so mouth-watering. We were drooling while waiting for it to be baked.
The spiced struesel really gave the cake an added touch and it goes very well with a nice hot cup of coffee. Give it a go if you have some pumpkin on hand.

Credits: Pumpkin graphic from




Ingredients: (16cm bundt pan) + extras for 2 muffins
Spiced Struesel:
1/4 cup light muscovado sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/8 tsp nutmeg powder
1/8 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp frozen butter

Cake:
100g margarine
100g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 large eggs (room temperature)
110g sour cream
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1.25 tsp cinnamon powder
1/8 tsp ginger powder

Method:
1. Mix ingredients for struesel well and cut in the frozen butter till bread crumb state.
2. Cream butter/margarine, sugar and salt till light and fluffy.
3. Beat in egg one at a time till well combined.
4. Use low speeed beat in the pumkin puree and sour cream. Lastly beat in the sieved flour mixture (flour,soda, cinnamon and ginger powder)
5. Pour half the batter into a greased and floured bundt cake pan, spoon in the struesel and take caution not to let the struesel touch the metallic part of the cake pan. Top it up with the remaining batter.
6. Bake at 175C for 45 - 55 minutes or till cooked.

Green Tea Cookies

Have not baked any cookies for a long time but felt like having something crispy/crunchy and aromatic with coffee for tea break today. So I made green tea cookies without any planning ahead. My brain wasn't tuned in to baking today, so I just used my favourite butter cookie recipe and added whatever I could find in my pantry. Ended up adding green tea powder and almond nibs to the basic recipe. Fifteen minutes in the oven and the room is filled with the fragrance of baked cookies. Can you resist the temptation? Bon appetit!




Ingredients:
80g butter (room temperature)
75g icing sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg (room temperature)

Green tea dough:
100g cake flour + 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 - 1.5 tsp green tea powder
1.5 tbsp almond powder
50g nibbed almonds

Butter dough:
110g cake flour + 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp milk powder

Method:
1. Cream butter with icing sugar and salt till light and fluffy.
2. Add in the egg and beat till well blended. Divide this butter mixture into 2 equal portions of about 98g -100g each.
3. Add the ingredients for the two doughs into the divided butter mixture and mix till a soft dough is formed.
4. Put the respective dough pieces into freezer/plastic bags and flatten the dough peices with a rolling pin to about 3mm thick. Chill the dough for 45 minutes.
5. Cut dough with a cookie cutter and play around with any designs using your imagination.
6. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes or till golden brown.

Notes:
Aiyah! Don't ask me how many pieces of cookies I made. I really don't know 'cos I made several combo of designs and left some dough for my kids to play around with.