Do What I Like

Banana Cranberry Choc Muffins

2011-10-19T22:21:00.003+08:00

A rather easy to bake muffin that is delicious and moist. I used Chef Bo's recipe but instead of using all bread flour, I used a mixture of bread and cake flour. I have no nuts at home so I added dried cranberries and chocolate chips.

I whipped this up in less than 3/4 of an hour for dd's breakfast this morning. Of course I did measured up all the ingredients the night before. Another choice of morning breakfast for the kids?

Ingredients:
(A)
80g melted butter
70g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg lightly beaten
180g mashed banana

(B)
100g bread flour
50g cake
1/2 tsp baking soda

(C)
40g semi-sweet chocolate chips
40g dried cranberries

Method:
1. Combine (A) till well mixed.
2. Sieve (B) into a mixing bowl.
3. Add wet ingredients that is (A) into (B). Stir in (C).
4. Scoop batter into muffin cups and bake at 180C for 25 - 30 minutes or till cooked.

65C Brown Sugar Roll

2011-10-03T16:24:00.009+08:00

65C bread or bread made via the TANG ZHONG or water roux method is without doubt one of my favourite way of baking soft bread. This method is rather hassle free and pretty easy to manage.

Made a few brown sugar rolls over the week end and feeling decadent I sliced the roll length-wise and filled it with fattening butter cream. I just beat some butter with sugar and vanilla and added some whipped cream to lighten it. The grainy texture of the butter cream added some dimension to this plain brown sugar roll. Yummy...yummy!

The last piece left for photo shoot!!!

Crispy Walnut Cookies

2011-09-25T17:25:00.006+08:00

Craving for crispy stuff, so I baked these crispy walnut cookies. I used this recipe but replace the butter with corn oil. Cookies turned out crispier than the ones with butter.

Ingredients:
(A)
75g corn oil
pinch of salt
65g castor sugar
2 tbsp lightly beaten egg (keep the rest as egg wash)

(B)
150g cake flour
heaped 1/4 tsp baking powder
heaped 1/4 tsp baking soda

(C)
50g Walnut bits

Method:
1. Toast walnuts in oven at 160C for 6-8 minutes. Cut into tiny pieces.
2. Sieve (B) together and add in walnut bits.
3. Mix (A) in a mixing bowl.
4. Add oil mixture to flour mixture. Mix well. Dough should be crumbly.
5. Divide dough into 10g pieces, shape them into flat round disc. Apply egg wash. Put them on a lined baking tray 2cm apart to allow room for expansion.
6. Bake at 180C for 15 - 18 minutes or till golden brown.

Chocolates

2011-09-15T11:32:00.003+08:00

Had some fun time making chocolates with dd and her friend.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

2011-09-12T12:35:00.001+08:00

Dear all,

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Tiramisu

2011-08-28T12:02:00.003+08:00

Made Tiramisu for a party full of fun and craze last night.

Cake Serikaya

2011-07-21T21:32:00.002+08:00

BK, after meeting up with you I have this spontaneous urge to steam this cake.

Thank you, BK

2011-07-20T09:20:00.000+08:00

BK, thank you so much for the gifts. I loved them.
It was so nice to catch up with you and your dd.
Hope you have a fabulous time in Hong Kong.

Green Tea Macaroons

2011-07-14T17:55:00.002+08:00

Have not been baking for quite a while due to .... 101 reasons!

Sigh! Sigh! Sigh!

PC got infected and had to be reformatted.
Digital camera not working and had to be repaired.
Oven not working and had to shop for a new one.

Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

First bake of the month - green tea macaroons.

This is dd's favourite macaroon flavour and she's been requesting for it since her return from Sydney for her term break. So, these are for you!

Banana Cranberry Cake

2011-06-12T19:05:00.001+08:00

Doing some stock-take! 3 pieces about to rot bananas, left-over cranberries and walnuts from the previous baking, 70g cake flour left from a 1 kg pack and a small tub of about to expire yogurt. What to do with them? Stock clearance (into our tummies) - whip it all up for a banana cake!

Wonderfully banana and moist.

Ingredients:
100g butter at room temperature
90g -100g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs + 1 tsp vanilla essence (lightly beaten)
120g plain yogurt
320g mashed bananas + 1 tbsp lemon juice + 1 tbsp rum
50g cranberries (optional)
50g walnut pieces (optional)

150g plain flour
70g cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

Method:
1. Sieve together the flours and baking soda and powder.
2. Cream butter, salt and sugar till creamy and fluffy.
3. Beat in the eggs a third at a time, followed by the yogurt and mashed banana.
4. Fold in the flour mixture, cranberry and walnut and mix till just moistened.
5. Bake at 165C - 170C for 50 - 60 minutes or till cooked.

Personalised Cookie Stamp

2011-05-24T11:23:00.001+08:00

Seller's contact: wwwhellomandy@yahoo.com.hk

I've got a new toy and can't wait to try it out. I received it very early this morning. It's a personalised cookie stamp!

Look! This is so cute!!!

Dear readers,

My friend customised this cookie cutter from a seller in the Yahoo Blog, however this blog has been closed down by Yahoo recently (Yahoo closed down all blogs which have items for sale).

The only way you can contact the seller is by email. If you wish to check out the details of this cutter please liase with seller directly.

Disclaimer: I do not know the seller and have no business or whatsoever relationship with seller.

Tiger Stripes Cheesecake

2011-04-06T18:42:00.004+08:00

Click HERE for recipe.

Banana Chiffon Cake

2011-04-05T18:40:00.000+08:00

Rich Chocolate Chiffon

2011-03-31T15:58:00.006+08:00

I have always wanted to make a rich chocolate chiffon which uses a mixture of melted couverture chocolate and cocoa powder instead of only using cocoa powder alone.

I used 66% Valrhona chocolate and cacao barry(rich) cocoa powder for this chiffon. During the baking process I keep getting the aroma of cacao barry. Maybe I couldn't differentiate the aroma of valrhona and cacao barry as they basically come from the same cacao bean.

This is my first attempt and the result is promising. I will attempt another rich chocolate chiffon next week with some modifications to the existing recipe that I am using. Hence I will not post this recipe until I have tested my modified version.

Hakka Kueh

2011-03-26T11:43:00.003+08:00

Banana Oreo Muffins

2011-03-23T14:46:00.005+08:00

DD's favourite muffin. She loves it with chunks of oreo bits.

Muffins were nice and moist, so I had to post the recipe.

Ingredients:
(A)
135g all purpose flour (sieved)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
30g brown sugar
30g - 40g castor sugar
Oreo biscuits (cream removed, break into pieces)

(B)
1 egg (lightly beaten)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
40g melted butter
25g corn oil
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp condensed milk
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup mashed banana

Method:
1. Mix (A) together.
2. Mix (B) together in a mixing bowl.
3. Pour (A) into (B) and mix everything with minimum handling.
4. Spoon batter into muffin tray lined with paper muffin cups up to 80% full.
5. Top with sliced banana and oreo pieces.
6. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes - 30 minutes or till cooked.

Pain De Mie

2011-03-21T19:25:00.002+08:00

Pain de mie (PDM), such a fancy name but down to earth it is just a Pullman Loaf!!! It got a equally fancy chinese name too - 龐多米! PDM/龐多米/Pullman Loaf - you know is the white sliced loaf bread which we usually use for making sandwiches.

According to Wikipedia Pain de mie is a type of sliced, packaged bread. "Pain" in French means "bread" or "loaf of bread" and "mie" means "crumb" in the culinary sense (not to be confused with bread crumb).

Anyway, there's been lots of rave going on in the internet baking community about this PDM. Curiosity kills the cat, so I had to have a go at it too.

Delve into the internet then (that was 2 years ago) and learnt that the rave originated from 王傳仁老師的【天然、無添加的手作麵包】. In order to join the rave, I ordered the book too.

All these happened two years ago and I'm only making this today. 2 years late, well better late than never if this PDM is such good stuff.

The recipe from this book is a rather simple one with no egg or milk, it uses the really basic bread ingredients - you know what they are! The difference are the use of fresh yeast, cold water plus long rest time in between dough handling. I shall not post the recipe as it is from 王傳仁老師 cook book.

The only thing I did differently was to increase liquid content to 70% (as a challenge) hence my dough is rather sticky.

Yea! The rave is definitely on. See my photos of the baked PDM. The texture of this PDM is so fine, soft and moist. Although the dough is rather sticky during the handling, I love this PDM to the bits.

See the fine texture of this PDM.

Sticky!!!

Manageable with floured hands.

70% full and to be baked.

Use PDM for salmon sandwich on 23/3/2011.
Bread is still nice and soft.

PDM Bread Making Process:
1. Use bread machine's dough cycle (without the proofing) twice. If doing the mixing and kneading manually, make sure your dough pass the windowpane test.
2. Basic proof of 50 minutes @28C.
3. Deflate dough and proof for 20 minutes @28C.
4. Division of dough into 3 portions and rest for 15 minutes @28C.
5. Shaping
6. Final proof for 45 - 55 minutes @32C.
8. Bake at 200C for 35 - 40 minutes (covered pullman loaf) else bake at 190C for 35 minutes.

65C Cinnamon Roll

2011-03-20T22:35:00.009+08:00

Cinnamon roll is one of my favourite sweet bread. Love the aroma of cinnamon and the dried fruits in it. The bakeries around where I live do not have this so if I crave for it, I have to bake it myself.

I used the 65C tangzhong method to prepare this roll as I find it the easiest and it produces soft bread.

Ingredients:
210g bread flour
50g cake flour
5g yeast
50g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Egg + water = 110g
75g Tangzhong
30g butter

Filling:
15g butter, soften
30g brown sugar + 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
100g mixed dried fruits or raisins

Method:
1. Put all the ingredients except butter into the bread machine and set the dough cycle on.
2. Once the mixing and kneading is finished and before the proofing starts, turn the machine off. Restart the dough cycle again and add in the butter. Turn off the machine once the mixing and kneading is done. Wet your hand to moisten the dough and let it proof in the bread machine till double in size.
3. Remove dough from machine, punch down and shape it round. Rest dough for 15 minutes.
4. Roll dough into a flat sheet of 28cm x 40cm with a rolling pin.
5. Apply the soften butter all over the flat dough sheet, spread the cinnamon sugar evenly and top it with dried raisins or fruits.
6. Roll it up swiss-roll style. Cut into 9 pieces of about 3cm thick.
7. Put them in a 20cm x 20cm baking tray and proof for 45 minutes or till double in size.
8. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.

Seaweed Crackers

2011-03-16T13:32:00.006+08:00

This cracker is full of seaweed flavour. It is aromatic, crisp and a little saltish, just nice with a cup of coffee or tea.

I used off the shelf seaweed flakes from our local Japanese supermarket and some chicken powder to enhance the flavour of this cracker.

I really love simple and easy recipe!

This is one of them, all you need to do is mix and roll into a very thin sheet then bake and you get a crispy cracker in no time. The only technique is to roll it into a fairly thin sheet of 2mm thick.

To be baked!

Cranberry Choc Chips Cookies

2011-03-15T20:35:00.003+08:00

More cranberry cookies!

Why?

They are simply too delicious and addictive. I also added chocolate chips to this lot and the girls just love this and they kept asking me to bake them over and over again.

Cranberry Cookies

2011-03-12T15:19:00.011+08:00

After shifting through my collection of recipes in my document files, I tried this cookie recipe from Bea's. In Bea's recipe, she added ground almond meal to the cookies dough to achieve a less dense cookie texture and hence a more airy and crispy cookie is achieved.

Yes, the cookie is indeed less dense and crisp - very nice! This recipe is definitely a keeper and you all should give it a try if you have time!!!

I am baking a second batch now, will be adding some chocolate chips as requested by dd and her good friend.

For the second batch we doubled up the recipe and made them into heart shapes for the girls to share with their friends on White Valentine's Day on 14th March.

Second batch with chocolate chips.

Ingredients: (20 pieces)
75g butter (room temperature)
45g sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk
105 cake flour + 1/4 tsp baking powder
45g ground almond meal
50g dried cranberry

Method:
1. Cream butter, sugar, salt and vanilla till creamy.
2. Add in the yolk and cream till well blended.
3. Sieve in the flour and baking powder mixture. Add in the ground almond meal.
4. Use a spatula to mix till crumbly state, add in the cranberry and mix well.
5. Shape dough into a squarish block of about 3cm x 4cm.
6. Chill dough for an hour.
7. Cut into slices of about 5mm - 8mm thick. Place on lined baking tray with 2cm space between the slices for expansion.
8. Bake at 170C - 180C for about 15 - 20 minutes.

Notes:
1. I bake my cookies at 180C for 18 minutes in the middle rack then shift it to the upper rack to achieve the golden brown color that I wanted.
2. Bea's blog is closed, so I did not post the link.

Fresh LuoHanGuo

2011-03-09T14:59:00.012+08:00

Fresh LuoHanGuo (羅漢果,罗汉果)? Have you seen them before? I have always used the dried ones for making chinese soups and this is the first time that I have seen fresh fruits in the supermarket. They are freshly picked from the trees.

Do you know it is called Fructus Momodicae? I don't know either. Anyway, let's learn about this fruit together.

I love it how every time I come across something new and I blog about it and I do learn a lot about it from the information provided in the internet.

Some information about this fruit: (various sources from internet)

Every 100g of this fruit contains 400mg of Vitamin C which is 7 times that of orange.

This fruit is used for cooling drinks and in traditional Chinese medicine. They are brewed as medicinal tea to treat heat stroke, sore throat, chronic cough, and constipation, and are reputed to aid longevity.

The fruit extract is nearly 300 times sweeter than sugar and has been used as a natural low-calorie sweetener in China for nearly a millennium to treat diabetes and obesity.

The sweet taste of the fruit comes mainly from mogrosides, a group of triterpene glycosides that make up approximately 1% of the flesh of the fresh fruit.
Recent research suggests the mogrosides works as an antioxidant and that may prevent cancer.
Mogrosides have also been shown to inhibit induction of Epstein-Barr virus in vitro.

Difference between dried and fresh fruit:

Dried ones need to be roasted at 80C for 48 hours and in this process Vitamin C and all its other medicinal values will be reduced. Hence if you can, using the fresh fruit is definitely better!

Fresh LuoHanGuo Ginger Tea

Fresh LuoHanGuo Fruit
The different colors represent the varying degree of
sweetness of this fruit.
The brown one is the sweetest and the green one is the
least sweet.

X-section!!!

How I prepare this tea:
1 fresh fructus momodicae washed thoroughly and cut into quarters. You can omit the skin and keep it for other chinese soup but I did not, I just use everything for this tea.
Put this into 1500ml of water with 2 slices of ginger and brewed till boiling for 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Almond Cookies

2011-03-08T18:14:00.003+08:00

To get rid of 50g worth of almond nibs left over from CNY cookies baking, I baked yet another tray of almond cookies.

Shape using a bottle cap.

Egg wash.

Just out of oven. Cool on wire rack.

Awesome Danish Loaf

2011-03-07T17:50:00.026+08:00

Baking a danish loaf is a tedious and time consuming task but it's time well spent when you see the final product. I sort of enjoy doing the 3-fold task which is reflected in photo 2 where you can see the layering. It is said there can be 81 layers in bakes done by professional. I have got it the other way round i.e. instead of 81 I got 18...hahaha!

After all the hard work I do appreciate a good danish loaf now!

This post has got some photos of the work-in-progress and even a hand-written diagramatic process for those who wish to hands-on this danish loaf.

See the layers!
Can you count to 18?

Ingredients: (20cm x 10cm x10cm loaf pan)
200g bread flour
50g cake flour
1 tbsp almond powder or 1 tbsp milk powder (I used almond powder)
1 tsp yeast
1/4 tsp salt
30g sugar
Egg + water = 155g
15g butter

Roll-in Butter
100g - 125g butter

Method:
Mix all ingredients for the bread loaf till a dough is formed. Knead in the 15g butter till a smooth dough is formed (do the membrane test). Place dough in
a sealed container and prove in a warm area for 60 minutes or till double in size.

Slice butter according to weight required.

Flatten butter and size it 13cm x 13cm between
2 sheets of glad-wrap and chill till ready to use.

Roll dough into a 21cm x 21cm square piece.

Place cold butter on bread dough as in photo.

Fold dough as in photos below.

Sealed all edges tightly.

Now do the 3-fold according to below.
3-fold has to be done 3 times. For every 3-fold
done, chill the dough for at least half an hour
before you do the next one.
After the 3rd 3-fold, chill dough for 30 minutes before shaping.

Shaping:
Flatten and shape dough into a rectangular piece of 18cm x 36cm.
Fold dough into half so that it is now 9cm x 36cm.
Cut dough lengthwise as in photo below.

Plait the dough as in photo.

Fold down the two ends and place it in loaf pan as in
photo below for final proving for at least 60 minutes
or till double in size.

Egg-washed the fully proved dough and send it to
the oven to be baked at 190C for 30 minutes.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

2011-02-27T15:28:00.022+08:00

I had so much bits and pieces left-over from some of my previous baking; some raisins, some dried blueberries, some cranberries, some oat flakes, some quick oats, some sour cream and two over-ripe bananas.

To get rid of these little bits here and there I googled for a banana muffin recipe and I found one which I would like to try.

Recipe is from cheaphealthygood.

I wouldn't know what the original muffin tasted like as I did not follow it exactly but the below version tasted soft, nice and moist. Definitely no more scouring around for a soft, moist, delicious and yet healthy muffin anymore as this is a keeper.

If you all got everything on hand, you must really try this!!!

I did not follow the recipe exactly and below is my version of this muffin:

Ingredients:
100g of mixed quick oats and half-blended oat flakes
125ml skimmed milk
125g reduced-fat sour cream

100g oat flour (I used 100g oat flakes and blended it finely till flour like)
100g cake flour
1/2 tsp all spice (as I couldn't find any nutmeg or cinnamon powder)
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

50g brown sugar
50g caster sugar
225g mashed banana

5 tbsp corn oil

1 large egg lightly beaten
1 tsp grand marnier
1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 cup dried fruits(raisin, blueberry and cranberry or your choice)
coated with 1 tbsp flour

Method:
Please refer to original recipe for the instruction. They are pretty comprehensive and well-written.

Quick & Easy Steamed Paus II

2011-02-23T15:09:00.007+08:00

Using the same recipe as yesterday, I made some steamed chicken paus as requested by AL.

Chicken Filling:
Ingredients:
210g chicken meat, diced
2 pieces chinese mushrooms (soaked till soft)
Chinese parsely, finely chopped (optional)

Seasoning:
1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp grated ginger
2 - 3 tsp corn starch

Method:
1. Clean and dice the chicken meat into bite size. Add in all the seasoning and marinate for an hour. Add in the chopped parsely.
2. Cut soften mushroom into quarters, season with some light soy sauce and some sugar.
3. When the pau skin is ready, divide the filling into 8 equal portions and add a piece of mushroom to the chicken filling.

Quick & Easy Steamed Paus

2011-02-22T16:16:00.011+08:00

This is a quick and easy steamed pau recipe which I think is worth trying. Unlike those recipes which called for the making of 3-day dough starter; this pau recipe takes less than two hours from start to the serving of them piping hot.

Good recipe for those who want some nice and hot homemade paus without the fuss and hassle of the 3-day pau skin.

The exterior of the pau might not be very very white but the interior is definitely soft and white. Take a look at the photo below, I did not do any color adjustment to the photo. The pau remained soft even when cold but of course not as soft as when it is piping hot. Anyway, all paus are supposed to be served hot. Oh! One other plus for this recipe is that the pau skin does not stick to your teeth hence no frolicking of the tongue all around your teeth after eating one of these!

Don't believe me, then go try it yourself!!!

Here's the pau skin recipe:

Ingredients:
180g cake flour
20g corn starch
5g double action baking powder
100ml warm water
4g instant yeast (dry yeast)
18g sunflower seed oil or corn oil
30g-35g sugar

Method:
1. Mix everything together and knead till you get a smooth and pliable dough.
2. Prove or rest dough in a covered and warm place for 50 minutes.
3. Punch air out of dough and divide into 8 equal pieces of about 43g each.
4. Shape the pieces round, cover it with a wet towel and rest them for 5 minutes.
5. Flatten the dough piece and shape it into a round disc about 8 or 9 cm in diameter with the center thicker then the rim.
6. Wrap in 25 -35g of filling and pleat the dough into pau shape. Put the pau on a piece of grease-proof paper and line them in the steamer. Rest the pieces for 15 minutes.
7. Steam on high heat for 15 minutes. Serve them piping hot!!!

Notes:
I use the dough cycle of my bread maker for steps (1) and (2) - very convenient and hassle-free. Suitable for lazy people like me.

Piped Cookies II

2010-11-17T11:34:00.005+08:00

Piped cookies is always a challenge!

You got to get it to hold its shape and swirl even after baking.
You got to get it the right texture - crisp and fragrant.

After numerous trials, I found that using a mixture of flours (like cake flour, bread flour and corn flour) and a mixture of sugars (like icing sugar and castor sugar) produces the best results. In my trials, the use of icing sugar alone produces cookies which are soft-centered. Hence I used a mixture of both icing and castor sugars and this produces the type of cookies that I wanted.

Go do some trials and play around with the cookies ingredients to get the type of cookies that you want.

Here's my piped cookies, shape and pattern intact; crisp and fragrant inside out plus a little melt-in-the-mouth due to the use of corn flour.

Cashew Nut Cookies

2010-11-16T11:32:00.000+08:00

Earl Grey Muffins

2010-11-08T11:22:00.000+08:00

Shredded Chicken with Crystal Noodle

2010-09-21T22:07:00.005+08:00

雞絲粉皮

Karen I used these.

Encore for steamed black sesame kuih

12345 Vinegar Spare Ribs

2010-09-16T11:48:00.001+08:00

Was talking with Mrs H and Mrs Y about what to cook for dinner then the three of us went marketing to buy some pork from a butcher who sells fresh local pork.

I went home with half a kilogram of spare ribs and ended up doing this 12345 spare ribs dish.

I got the recipe off the internet. Just google "12345 spare ribs" and plenty of recipes will pop up.

Tasted good but a little too sweet to my liking. Will reduce sugar the next time round.

Steamed Black Sesame Kuih

2010-09-15T11:04:00.005+08:00

Actually this is the lead and the black sesame roll is just a test for the texture of this kuih.

Can you count the layers that I had in this black kuih?

Be sure to use good quality and aromatic black sesame powder.

This kuih remained soft and chewy even when eaten the next day.

Ingredients: (14cm x 17cm x 5cm)
180g tapioca flour
25g rice flour
50g black sesame powder
180ml boiling water
180ml water
130g sugar
3 tbsp thick coconut milk

Method:
1. Mix tapioca flour, rice flour and black sesame powder together.
2. Use boiling water to dissolve sugar. Add in the rest of the water and coconut milk.
3. Pour liquid content into the flour mixture and stir till smooth. Sieve mixture if lumpy.
4. Steam the kuih layer by layer on high heat in a greased tray. First 2 layers for 3 minutes each. 3rd and 4th layer for 3.5 minutes each. 5th and 6th layer for 4 minutes each. 7th and eighth layer for 4.5 minutes each and the last layer for 6 minutes.
5. Cut into serving size when cold using a plastic knife.

Notes:
Each layer uses about 88g of batter for my steaming tray. Adjust recipe according to the amount required by your steaming tray.

If you are doing the roll, steam one layer, remove it and roll it up swiss roll style then cut into serving size.

Steamed Black Sesame Roll

2010-09-14T14:09:00.002+08:00

Unagi Okonomiyaki

2010-09-10T16:34:00.004+08:00

This is a savoury pancake cooked with any random ingredients that you have on hand.

Okonomiyaki roughly means "cook what you like," and you virtually just put in your favorite ingredients to cook the pancakes.

Dou Sha Shao Bing

2010-09-06T10:52:00.005+08:00

Dou Sha Shao Bing or 豆沙烧饼 is my kids' favourite snack. We always grab some when we are in Mongkok. Of course we only patronise Kee Tsui Cake Shop the most popular shop in that area.

This little snack is made of glutinous rice skin with red bean paste filling. The skin is soft and chewy in texture. It tastes good warm or cold.

It is a yummy and yet easy to make snack.

Ingredients: (10 pieces @ 7-8cm in diameter)
200g glutinous rice flour
2.5 tbsp sugar
80ml boiling water
100g coconut milk
150g red bean paste

Method:
1. Add sugar to boiling water and stir till sugar dissolve. Stir in the coconut milk till well blended.
2. Put the glutinous rice flour in a bowl, make a well and pour in the coconut milk mixture, holding back 1 tablespoon of coconut mixture. Stir well till a dough is formed. If dough is too dry, add in a little of the coconut mixture from the 1 tablespoon that was held back.
3. Knead dough for a while and cover it with glad wrap and rest dough for 10 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 10 pieces. Flatten it into a round disc and wrap in red bean paste. Shape it into a flat round piece about 8cm in diameter.
5. Pan fried on low heat in a lightly oiled pan till both sides are cooked and lightly browned.

Mixed Berries Panacotta

2010-09-03T22:21:00.002+08:00

Banana Sour Cream Loaf

2010-09-01T12:37:00.000+08:00

Ingredients:
225g self-raising flour + 1 tsp baking soda
75g butter + 30g oil
120 - 150g brown sugar
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
250g mashed banana + 1 tsp lemon juice + 1 tsp rum
180g sour cream + 1 tbsp milk

Method:
1. Sieve togother flour and baking soda.
2. Add milk to sour cream and mix well till smooth.
3. Mash bananas with some lemon juice and rum.
4. Beat butter, oil, sugar and salt till light and fluffy.
5. Add in egg one at a time, beat in well before adding the next one.
6. Beat in the mashed banana.
7. Mix in flour alternating with sour cream over two times.
8. Pour batter into a buttered loaf pan and bake at 180C for 60 minutes or till cooked.

Tofu Cream Corn Jelly Mooncake

2010-08-29T21:13:00.006+08:00

Custard Cream Corn Pudding

2010-08-28T14:46:00.002+08:00

Ingredients:
400ml coconut milk
100g custard powder
20g corn starch
550g cream corn
500ml water
150g sugar

Method:
1. Mix coconut milk, custard powder and corn starch together till smooth. Stir in cream corn.
2. Heat 500ml water and sugar to boil in a saucepan. Add in cream corn mixture and keep stirring until mixture thickened.
3. Pour mixture into a tray/mould that is lightly greased with corn oil.
4. Chill in the refrigerator till firm.

Tiramisu

2010-03-10T20:49:00.003+08:00

Today is dd's birthday and she requested a tiramisu as her birthday cake.

This is a slice of the cake.

Happy Chinese New Year

2010-02-13T09:33:00.003+08:00

Dear all,

Wishing all of you a happy and prosperous new year.
May the year of Tiger brings you all good health, happiness and luck.

在新的一年裡誠心的祝福您：

一帆風順

四季平安

萬事如意

Best Regards,
Florence

Chocolate Mousse Cake

2010-02-12T19:26:00.003+08:00

Chiffon cake base

Chocolate Mousse & Ganache

Happy New Year 2010

2009-12-31T12:51:00.003+08:00

Dear all,

Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Warmest Regards,
Florence

Christmas Stollen

2009-12-10T21:21:00.002+08:00

Wheatgerm Cranberry Cookies

2009-12-01T15:33:00.008+08:00

I have seen lots of advertisements advertising the goodness of wheat germ but have absolutely no idea what it is till I was given a leaflet from a health store.

What is wheat germ then?

Wheat germ is the embryo from which wheat grain grows. This embryo is removed in the making of white flour. Wheat germ is one of the most nutritional products available. It has more nutrients per ounce than any other vegetable or grain.

Wheat germ is not a GERM. The word germ simply refers to germination.

Since this germ is full of goodness, I bought a pack to add to my cranberry cookies. Double load of goodness in a cookie. How about baking some for Christmas?

Ingredients:
70g butter, room temperature
60g brown sugar
pinch of salt
25g lighlty beaten egg
65g cake flour
65g plain flour
30g wheat germ
50g cranberries

Method:
1. Sieve the two flours together into a big bowl. Stir in the wheat germ and dried cranberries.
2. Cream butter, sugar and salt till creamy and light. Add in the egg and beat till well blended.
3. Combine flour mixture and butter mixture. Mould dough into log shape and chill for two hours before using.
4. Slice the chilled dough into 5mm thick pieces.
5. Place them on a lined tray and bake at 175C for 15 minutes.
6. Store in air-tight container when cooled.

Reference: Lyric Loves

Notes:
Honestly with the dried cranberries added to the dough it is a little hard to slice the cookies neatly even with a sharp knife. You might like to consider chilling the dough as a flat piece and use a cookie cutter to cut them out.

Peng Kueh

2009-11-30T12:55:00.010+08:00

Peng Kueh is one of my favourite kuehs. Simply loved the glutinous rice with the boiled peanuts. I cooked the glutinous rice the day before, hence wrapping and moulding today was really just a breeze.

When I was looking for the peng kueh moulds, I realised that I have four wooden ones and a plastic one. So extravagant...keeping buying and buying and you hardly use it. Not sure if you all are like me. I must kick this bad habit.

Oh yes! Back to peng kuehs, left-overs can be frozen and pan-fried when you are ready to eat them. The pan-fried ones are really delicious with crispy skin. I liked to eat mine with some black sweet sauce and chilli.

Dough ingredients:
100g rice flour
40g tapioca starch
195ml boiling water
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp corn oil
3 drops red coloring

Method:
1. Sieve rice flour and tapioca flour into a large bowl.
2. Mix coloring, salt and corn oil with boiling hot water.
3. Pour this hot water mixture into the flour mixture and mix using a pair of chopsticks. Knead till smooth.
4. Divide dough into 8 portions (about 40g each - this is for my mould only, you have to judge the size of your dough according to the mould that you are using). If dough feels sticky, flour your hands with some tapioca flour when you are working on it.
5. Wrap in the glutinous rice filling, seal well and press into mould. Knock out the kueh and place them on a lightly oiled plate/tray. Steamed over high heat for 10 minutes.
6. After steaming, apply some cooked shallot oil onto the steamed kueh to prevent them from sticking together.

Notes:
The skin is still soft and nice even when the kueh is cold.

Nasi Kunyit

2009-11-19T17:43:00.008+08:00

I have a sudden craving for the aroma of tumeric (kunyit) and I missed mum's Nasi Kunyit. Mum cooked very good Nasi Kunyit and it goes so well with her famous chicken curry. She made her own curry paste and her chicken curry is one of the best that I have tasted so far. This dish is always a sell-out at her parties.

Of course, I have not inherited her skills in savoury dishes but trying to. So, today after my TaiChi class I went to the nearby Indonesian shop and bought all the ingredients needed for my version of Nasi Kunyit. I did not cook chicken curry instead I made chilli dried shrimp (Hae Bee Hiam) to go with this rice.

This came out of my kitchen. Enjoy and drool!

Tumeric is one of nature's most powerful healers. The active ingredient in turmeric is curcumin. Tumeric has been used for over 2500 years in India, where it was most likely first used as a dye.

The medicinal properties of this spice have been slowly revealing themselves over the centuries. Long known for its anti-inflammatory properties, recent research has revealed that turmeric is a natural wonder, proving beneficial in the treatment of many different health conditions from cancer to Alzheimer's disease.

Please refer to the Health Diaries for more details.

Also baked a Pandan Chiffon Cake for some friends.
See the disastrous unmoulding...I was using a new chiffon pan.
Yes, blame it on the pan if you make a disaster out of it!

Buttermilk Chocolate Cake

2009-11-18T18:22:00.003+08:00

Lady Grey Cupcakes with Yuzu Cream

2009-11-11T16:35:00.009+08:00

I love tea, be it Chinese, English or Citrus. I do have a collection of teas in my pantry and Lady Grey is one of them.

Lady Grey is a light black tea blend, which has been flavoured with lemon and orange and scented with a hint of Bergamot. The aroma is definitely citrus.

I used one tablespoon of grinded tea leaves to bake six cupcakes. I ended up with six nicely scented cupcakes and for that definite citrus kick I topped them with Yuzu cream. Trust me, Yuzu and Lady Grey are very good partners.

Ingredients:
130g self-raising flour + 1 tbsp grinded tea leaves
50g butter, room temperature
50g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
65ml milk

Method:
1. Cream butter, sugar and salt till light and fluffy.
2. Add in the egg and beat till well blended.
3. Stir in half the flour mixture and half the milk. Mix well.
4. Add in the rest of the flour mixture and milk. Mix till just combined.
5. Pour batter into muffin tray lined with paper liners till they are 80% full.
6. Bake at 175C for 20 - 23 minutes or till cooked.
7. Top with frosting of your choice.

Buttermilk Scones

2009-11-05T23:20:00.008+08:00

Baking scones - I though that seemed ridiculously easy as I have baked them many times but not until I have spoken to Mrs D who always baked good ones. I thought I knew how to but there certainly is quite a fair bit of knowledge to learn from her.

She swears by the use of buttermilk in her bakes and her "minimalism" in dough handling. She uses only self-raising flour with no other raising agents like baking powder or baking soda added as these sometimes leave an after-taste in the mouth if used overboard. Besides, there are a few criteria which she puts in use to get those tall, soft and fluffy scones. Adhere to these and you'll get the "ultimate scone" - according to Mrs D.

These are Mrs D's criteria which I put to use in this session of scones baking:

(a) Sieve the flour at least three times to aerate it.
(b) Do not rub the flour and butter in too much.
(c) Do not knead to mix the dough, mix it with a pair of chopsticks.
(d) Do not roll the dough but pat it into shape.
(e) Maximum thickness of dough should be 2cm and not more.
(f) Use a floured 5.5cm cutter to cut the dough out. Do not twist the cutter.
(g) Bake on high temperature of 225C for less than 15 minutes.

** Best to stick to the dimensions mentioned in (e) and (f), otherwise your scones might collapsed or become lop-sided during the baking process.

I did not use commercially made buttermilk as I couldn't find them in the supermarket nearby, hence I DIY my buttermilk by adding two teaspoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice to 150ml of full fat milk and let it stand for 30 minutes before using it.

These are my lovely scones which are tall, light and fluffy.

Ingredients:
200g self-raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
50g cold butter cut into small pieces
150ml buttermilk
Some milk for glacing

Method:
1. Make the buttermilk.
2. Sieve flour into a big mixing bowl, stir in the salt. Rub in the butter till crumbs-liked (do not over do this part). Stir in the sugar.
3. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture, pour in the buttermilk, holding back a little just in case it is too much. Stir to mix with a pair of chopsticks. Dough should be sticky.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured working surface. Pat dough into 2cm thick, I really did measure the dough to make sure it is 2cm thick and no more than that. When working on this, if dough is too dry, add in the buttermilk which is on hold from (3).
5. Cut dough with 5.5cm floured cutter. Pressed cutter firmly onto dough and do not twist or turn the cutter.
6. Glaze the surface of each scone with some milk. I used my finger to glaze them and smoothen the cracked surfaces along the way.
7. Bake on a lined tray in a preheated oven at 220 - 225C for 13 - 15 minutes.
8. Serve warm with whipped cream and strawberry jam.

The scones were real winners.
The use of buttermilk really did produce a winner as this acidic ingredient helps to tenderize the gluten formed in a batter.

Wife Cake 2 (Lao Por Bing)

2009-10-14T12:20:00.007+08:00

Ingredients:

Water dough
100g cake flour
25g icing sugar
20g margarine
20g corn oil
20g water

Oil Dough
100g cake flour
45g corn oil

Filling
55g Candied winter melon (chopped to bite size)
55g castor sugar
70g cooked glutinous rice flour
18g margarine
15g roasted white sesame seeds
12g dessicated coconut
120g boiled drinking water

Egg wash
1 yolk + 1 tsp water + pinch of salt

Method:
Filling: Put all ingredients into a big bowl except water, mix till well combined. Add in water and knead till a dough is formed. Divide filling into 28g portions.

Pastry:
Water dough: Mix all ingredients together till a soft dough is formed. Cling wrap dough and rest for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 13g portions.

Oil dough: Mix all ingredients till a soft dough is formed. Cling wrap and leave it aside to rest for 30 minutes. Divide dough into 10g portions.

Method:
1. Flatten a piece of water dough and wrap in the oil dough, sealed edges facing up. See photo 1.
2. Press and roll out dough into a longish flat piece with a rolling pin.
See photo 2.
3. Roll it up Swiss roll-style, sealed edges facing up. See photo 3.
4. Turn the dough 90 degrees and then roll it into a longish flat piece.
See photo 4.
5. Roll it up Swiss roll-style again.
6. Let the dough stand vertically and flatten it down with your palm. Roll it into a flat round disc and wrap in the filling. Flatten and shape into a nice round shape. See photo 5 - 7.
7. Put the Wife Cakes on a lined tray and apply egg twice.
8. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C for 9 minutes. Remove and apply egg wash again. Bake for another 5 minutes.

Black Forest Buns

2009-08-18T23:27:00.002+08:00

Pai Pau

2009-08-10T17:32:00.009+08:00

"Pai Pau" (排包) another well known bread of Hong Kong. It is a sweet bread which is creamy and soft.

Ingredients:
250g bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
5g instant yeast
2 tbsp skim milk powder
45g - 50g sugar
1 egg yolk + milk = 120ml
75ml whipping cream
1 tbsp condensed milk
50g pre-fermented dough
40g butter (room temperature)

Method:
1. Mix everything together except butter till you get a smooth dough. Add in the butter and knead till dough is elastic.
2. Prove dough for 1.5 hours or till double in size.
3. Divide into 8 pieces and shape into round balls. Rest dough balls for 15 minutes.
4. Final shaping and then prove for an hour.
5. Apply egg wash and bake at 190C for 15 - 20 minutes.

How to make pre-fermented dough:
125g bread flour
80ml water
not more than 2g instant yeast
pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together and let it prove for at least 2 hours before using.
Left overs can be divided into 50g pieces, wrapped in glad wrap and freeze for use when required.
Frozen pre-fermented dough must return to room temperature before using.

Crème Rouge

2009-08-06T22:54:00.008+08:00

I desperately wanted to make this dessert in these little squarish glasses after seeing something similar from a Japanese website but of course mine is much of a no-fuss one.

I did not follow the details from the Japanese website, I used Crème fraîche instead of Fromage Frais. I did not use any cheese or egg white. I used 100g frozen raspberry pureed with 4 tablespoons of strawberry juice and some icing sugar, then lightly beat a 200g carton of Crème fraîche with icing sugar. I added some gelatin solution to the Crème fraîche but none to the raspberry puree. Composition of the dessert is as below. The layering of this dessert provides contrasting texture and flavour for the palate. Simply yummy and amazingly refreshing!

What is Crème fraîche?
Crème fraîche is a soured cream containing about 28% milk fat. It is slightly soured with bacterial culture but is less sour, and thicker than sour cream. It has a smooth and velvety texture with a nutty aroma.

Composition
Layer 1 : sponge
Layer 2 : Raspberry puree surrounded with sliced strawberry
Layer 3 : Crème fraîche
Layer 4 : sponge soaked in raspberry syrup
Layer 5 : Raspberry puree
Layer 6 : Crème fraîche

Star Butter Cookies

2009-07-08T20:04:00.003+08:00

Made these star shaped butter cookies studded with Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips for an order.

Chilled Lemon Cheesecake

2009-07-07T21:51:00.001+08:00

What's more perfect than a slice of chilled lemon cheesecake for a hot summer afternoon!

Cool, tangy and refreshing!

For recipe, please see Easy Chilled Lemon Cheesecake.

Butter Cookies

2009-07-06T21:18:00.017+08:00

Kjeldsens Danish Butter Cookies??? No, these are not Kjeldsens's cookies but these are look alikes made by me.

I bought this cookie cutter like about a year ago and never saw it till this morning when I was tidying up some cupboards, so now we had Kjeldsens Danish Butter Cookies look alikes.

I used a basic butter cookie recipe but sprinkle the cookies with dry demerara sugar. The champagne-colored sugar crystals have a distinctive aroma and crunchy texture which enhances the look and taste of this butter cookie.

DDs said, "Wow! Taste better than the real ones!" Hence mum is smiling from ear to ear.... :) True or not? Try it out and let me know!!!

See the glistening champagne-colored sugar crystals on the cookies.

Roll dough into flat sheet not more than 5mm thick and chill in the fridge.

This is the cookie cutter.

Ingredients:
75g butter (I used Golden Churn canned butter)
50g fine sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg yolk + 1/2 tsp vanilla essence (lightly beaten)
150g cake flour (remove 1 tbsp)
pinch of baking powder
1 tbsp skim milk powder (I used Carnation skim milk powder)

1 egg white
Dry Demerara sugar for sprinkling

Method:
1. Cream butter, sugar and salt with electric beater till pale and fluffy.
2. Add in egg yolk and beat till well incorporated.
3. Sieve in the flour and baking powder, add in the milk powder, use the lowest speed of your electric beater to combine. Mixture will be bread-crumbs like and will form a dough easily.
4. Put dough into a plastic bag and roll it into a flat sheet as in Photo 3. Chill in the fridge till harden before cutting out the cookie.
5. Cut out cookie with cutter. Brush on some egg white and sprinkle dry demerara sugar on the surface.
6. Bake on a lined tray at 180C for 10 minutes in the middle rack and shift to the upper rack and bake a further 2 - 3 minutes to get the golden brown color.

Notes:
1. The sprinkling of the dry demerara sugar is optional. If you omit this step, please increase sugar to 60g.
2. Please really only use a pinch of baking powder as you don't want the cookie to be out of shape when it is baking in the oven.
3. Chill the dough again if it is too soft to be cut out.

Sour Cream Chocolate Muffins

2009-07-05T17:05:00.012+08:00

Before going into the oven!

Ingredients A:
120g plain flour )
15g cocoa powder ) sieve together twice
1/2 tsp baking soda)
1/4 tsp salt
25g - 35g sugar
60g semi-sweet chocolate chips or more
extra chocolate chips for toppings

Ingredients B:
75ml sour cream
45ml milk or whipping cream
1 egg
55g melted butter
50g brown sugar

Method:
1. Mix ingredients (A) together in a mixing bowl.
2. Mix ingredients (B) together in a mixing bowl till you get a homogeneous mixture.
3. Pour (2) into (1), using a hand whisk, mix together in 5 - 8 strokes.
4. Spoon mixture into paper muffin cups, top with a little more chocolate chips and bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 25 - 30 minutes or till cooked.

Caramel Chiffon

2009-07-03T13:31:00.021+08:00

I know I have been slack this week. That's because.......! DD came back from Oz last weekend to attend her graduation dinner this week. So we spent much time shopping for "the dress" and "the shoes" for the dinner. Mother and daughter then spent one day on pedicure and one day on manicure. My nails were studded with "bling blings", so I'm not going into the kitchen just in case I drop some "blings" into my baked goods.

However, today I definitely have to bake some goodies for some friends who were having tea with us this afternoon.

The least tedious one would be an aromatic caramel chiffon cake.

Tools to help you remove the chiffon cake from the pan nicely.

See the "blings" on my nails!

Ingredients: (17cm tube pan)
Caramel:
75g sugar
2 tsp water
75ml whipping cream or milk (room temperature)
(I used whipping cream)

Method:
Put sugar in a small saucepan, add in 2 tsp water and cook till golden brown in colour, remove from heat and add in the whipping cream or milk a little at a time. Put it back to the heat and bring it to a boil and let it boil till the caramel is slightly thick. Remove from heat and leave aside to cool for use later.

Cake
3 yolks
25g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
75ml caramel
1 - 2 tbsp water
2 tbsp corn oil
85g cake flour

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
35g sugar

Method:
1. Cream egg yolks, sugar and salt till creamy with a hand whisk.
2. Add in the water, oil and caramel, mix well.
3. Sieve in the flour and mix well with a hand whisk.
4. Beat egg white with electric beater until big bubbles formed. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and beat until it is white in colour. Add in 35g sugar 3 times (a little at a time) and beat until stiff perks formed. About 6 minutes for 150w egg beater.
5. Pour 1/2 egg white into flour mixture in (3) and blend well with a hand whisk.
6. Pour flour mixture into the rest of the egg white and blend well with hand whisk or spatula.
7. Bake at 175 - 180C for 40 - 50 minutes or until cooked. I baked mine at 180C.
8. Invert the cooked cake during cooling process.

Notes:
If your caramel is on the thick side, use up to 2 tbsp water else use 1 tbsp water.

Taste best when served with the extra caramel sauce.

Base of my tube pan is 17cm in diameter, the widest top part is 20cm in diameter and height of pan is 9.5cm. The baked chiffon is about 8.5cm tall.

Dorayaki

2009-06-26T13:17:00.009+08:00

This packaging is so pretty. I'm so glad PF bought these black and pink dorayaki individual pockets for me from Japan. It definitely made the Dorayaki looked so presentable and delicious! Fit for a princess too!

I made this Dorayaki in a small flat based non-stick fry pan which is about 9cm in diameter and it fits perfectly into the pretty pockets. I have managed to control the heat of my gas stove so well that each side of the Dorayaki is nicely and evenly browned. Beside heat control the other important trick is not to grease the fry pan.

We are off to a Princess's party with these Dorayaki now.

Packing the Dorayaki into its individual packaging.
These individually packed Dorayaki have to be sealed by an electric sealer.

Pan Fried Baos

2009-06-24T16:11:00.015+08:00

Pan Fried Bao (生煎包) is a famous Shanghainese snack. This bao is made from yeasted dough wrapped with pork and vegetable filling. They are then half-immersed in flour water mixture and pan fried till cooked in a flat based fry pan. This way of cooking produces baos with unique crispy bases which is also the characteristic of this famous snack.

For the dough part, I have used a mixture of yeasted dough and cooked dough so as to get a "QQ" type of dough.

The instructions looked a little long but do not be put off by it.

Ingredients:
Dough 1:
100g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp oil
45ml boiling water
10ml - 15ml water (to regulate dough)

Dough 2:
160g plain flour
40g cake flour
1 tbsp sugar
3g instant yeast
heaped 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp oil
105ml water

Frying mixture:
Make a frying mixture of 230ml water + 2 tbsp flour + 0.5tsp sesame oil.

Method:
1. Mix all items for dough 1 together using a pair of chopsticks. If dough is too dry add in some water. Leave to cool.
2. Mix all items for dough 2 together till you get a smooth dough. Rest dough for 20 minutes.
3. After 20 minutes, knead dough 1 and dough 2 together. Rest dough for 20 minutes.
4. Divide dough into 20g pieces. Roll into flat round disk of about 8 -9cm in diameter. Wrap in 1 tablespoon full of the pork filling.
5. Heat up a little oil in a flat based fry pan, arrange all the baos in the fry pan and fry for 1 minute on medium low heat.
6. Pour in the frying mixture, make sure the baos are at least 30% but not more than 50% submerged in the frying mixture. Cover the fry pan with a lid till the frying mixture has dried up. Half way through the frying process, remove the lid and sprinkle some sesame seeds onto the sticky baos.

Pork Filling:
150g minced pork
1 tsp sugar
1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt or (1/2 tsp salt + 1/4 tsp chicken powder)
1 tbsp soy sauce
0.5 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp - 2 tsp oil
1 tbsp water or chicken soup
1 tsp Chinese wine
some white pepper
some grated ginger
some minced garlic

a) 200g Chinese cabbage (diced)
b) 1.5 tsp corn starch
c) 1 - 2 stalks scallion (thinly sliced)

Method:
1. Soak the diced cabbage in hot boiling water for 1 - 2 minutes. Drain and leave to cool.
2. Mix all items in the pork filling together except (a, b & c) and stir with pair of chopsticks till mixture is sticky and paste like. Add in (a and b). Chill in the fridge till ready to use. Add in (c) only when you are ready to wrap the baos.

Reference: 麵麵俱到

65C Oatmeal Raisin Bread

2009-06-22T19:25:00.005+08:00

Start off your day with a nice and healthy slice of oatmeal raisins bread loaded with delicately fragrant aroma and warm, sweet flavour of cinnamon.

Ingredients:
165g bread flour
70g rolled oats soaked in 115g hot water (leave to cool)
75g wholewheat flour
55g lightly beaten egg (top with water if egg is less than 55g)
5g instant yeast
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder (more if you like)
1/2 tsp salt
30g brown sugar
20g sugar
15g melted butter
55g TangZhong
80g - 100g raisins

Filling:
20g melted butter
20g sugar + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (more if you like)

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients except raisins till a dough is formed. Knead in the raisins.
2. Prove dough for 60 minutes.
3. Punch dough down to release the air and rest dough for 10 minutes.
4. Roll dough into a flat rectangular sheet, brush it with the melted butter from the filling and sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture evenly on it.
5. Roll it up swiss-roll style and seal the edges properly.
6. You can either put it into a loaf pan or do a free-form bread which I did.
7. Prove dough for 60 minutes and bake at 190C for 30 - 35 minutes or till golden brown.

Notes:
For this free-form bread, after 60 minutes of final proving I use a chopstick to press down the middle of the log shaped bread lengthwise then rest it for another 17 minutes before baking it.

Durian Huat Kuih

2009-06-18T15:46:00.003+08:00

Cheoky, thanks for the email. Instead of sweet potatoes I made these delicious pandan durian huat kuih.

Ingredients:
Starter:
50g Plain Flour (sieved)
50ml Water
1 tsp yeast (I used instant yeast)

Main Batter:
120g - 140g Sugar
1 egg
250g Durian puree
1/2 tsp - 1 tsp durian paste(optional)
100ml Coconut Milk
40ml Pandan Juice
200g Plain Flour + 2 tsp Double Action Baking Powder (sieved together)

Method:
1. Mix starter ingredients together and let it prove for 30 minutes
2. Puree durian pulp and sieve it.
3. Beat egg and sugar, add in durian puree, coconut milk and pandan juice and mix till well blended. Add in starter mixture and mix well. Finally fold in flour mixture.
4. Pour the batter into a muffin cups and prove for 15 mins.
5. Steam for 30 - 45 minutes on high heat.

Notes:
Steam for 45 minutes if you steam it as one big kuih.

65C Creme De Coffee

2009-06-17T12:19:00.021+08:00

KR, your daily dosage of morning fix is here! I wanted to do the coffee cream cheese filling version for you but my microwave oven is out of order, so I can only do the coffee custard type of filling. Hope you will like it.

Ingredients:
140g Bread flour
40g Cake flour
55g TangZhong
15g Skim Milk powder
30g brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp rum
1 full tsp instant yeast
25g lightly beaten egg
50ml milk
10g -12g instant coffee granules (I used Nescafe Expresso)
20g butter

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together except butter. When a dough is formed, add in butter and knead till dough is smooth and shiny. Prove dough for 60 minutes.
2. Knead dough to release air out of dough and divide dough into 6 pieces. Rest dough for 15 minutes.
3. Wrap in one portion of the filling and shape dough. Prove for 45 - 60 minutes.
4. Apply egg wash and top it with some almond nibs.
5. Bake at 175C - 180C for 14 - 15 minutes.

Reference: 65C Bread Doctor by Yvonne C

Coffee Cream Filling
1. 55g - 60g sugar
2. 20g skim milk powder
3. 15g corn starch
4. 1 egg
5. 1 tsp rum
6. 1/4 tsp vanilla essence
7. 150ml milk
8. 10g butter
9. 8g- 10g instant coffee granules

Method:
1. Whisk ingredients 1 - 6 till you get a homogeneous egg mixture.
2. Boil milk, butter and instant coffee granules till hot. Make sure the coffee granules and butter have dissolved in the milk. Pour half the hot milk into egg mixture stirring constantly. Pour the egg mixture back into the rest of hot milk and cook till a thick paste is formed.
3. Put coffee cream into a clean bowl, glad wrap it with the wrap touching the surface of the cream. Let it cool till ready to use.
4. Divide filling into 6 equal portions of about 38g - 40g each.

Coffee Cream Cheese Filling:
40g - 50g sugar
100g cream cheese
1 egg lightly beaten
18g cake flour
100ml warm milk + 2 tbsp instant coffee granules (or to taste)
10g butter

Method:
1. Cream cheese and sugar till a smooth paste is formed.
2. Add in lightly beaten egg 1/3 at a time and mix well before adding the next portion.
3. Stir in the sieved flour.
4. Add in the coffee milk mixture and mix well.
5. Microwave cheese mixture for 2 minutes on HIGH and stir it. After stirring it, send it back to the microwave for 2 minutes on HIGH again. Blend well till you get a smooth paste.
6. Mix in the butter. Send it to chill in the refrigerator and roll slightly harden cheese paste into 35g balls to be used as filling.

Notes:
If dough is too sticky, work on floured surfaces.

Flowering Jasmine Tower

2009-06-16T15:17:00.005+08:00

This flowering tea is both refreshing and a stunning sight.

Flowering jasmine tea is a scented hand-tied green tea. Lovely jasmine flowers are hand tied into the center of this tea ball. The tea is light and pale yellow with aromatic jasmine scent. Place the flowering jasmine tea ball in a glass container. Add hot water (approx. 85º) and let it sit for about 30 seconds. Discard this infusion, add in more hot water and let it sit for about 5 minutes and it will start to flower. A string of jasmine flowers will emerge and stand gracefully in the middle of the tea ball.

How this is made?
Hand-tied teas have existed in China for centuries. These teas were simply green or black tea leaves that were tied into shape with cotton strings. In the last twenty years, hand-tied teas have progressed as makers have added flowers and petals to the tea to make them more complex and stunning.

Add ice cubes into cooled tea and it's the perfect tea to sip during the summer months.

65C Mixed Fruits Rye Bread

2009-06-15T21:53:00.002+08:00

Fresh Strawberry Mochi

2009-06-11T15:16:00.002+08:00

Peanut Mochi

2009-06-10T16:31:00.006+08:00

Sticky Business!

Making mochi is really a sticky business. The dough is so sticky and it sticks to almost everything - your fingers and hands, plates, wraps, spoons and working surfaces. You name it and it sticks. If you run out of glue you know what to use!!! Stickiness aside they are really nice - soft,chewy skin and sweet filling in the middle.

This in fact was an order and the lady sure knows what she wanted. She described how she wants the texture of the mochi to be, the sort of filling that she's after and even the kind of coating that she preferred. She wanted the coating to be odourless and fine. So I used cooked rice flour instead of cooked glutinous rice flour and indeed it was odourless and fine. This mochi is definitely tailored made for her and her guests.

I delivered three dozens and kept two for the photo shoot.
This is it!

Sesame Scallion Bread

2009-06-09T12:13:00.014+08:00

Oh....I love this! I really do. It's one of my favourite Chinese bread.

This Sesame Scallion Bread (芝麻葱油大餅) is a common breakfast or snack item in the Northern Chinese food culture. This is a yeasted bread and it is certainly delicious. Crisp with aromatic sesame seeds and a wee sweetness on the outside. The inside is a salted, soft chewy bread textured dough laden with salt and scallions.

The texture and feel is just like the ones I used to buy from a shop on King's Road which sells mostly Northern Chinese food.

It is a easy to do bread with no oven needed as you only need to pan fried it till it is cooked.

Ingredients: 1 pc @ 17 - 18cm diameter
a. 100g bread flour
b. 75g plain flour
c. 2 tsp sugar
d. heaped 1/4 tsp salt
e. 1/2 tsp instant yeast
f. 18g lightly beaten egg + 102ml water

olive oil/corn oil
salt
thinly sliced scallion 3 - 4 stalks
sesame seeds

Sugar syrup: 1 tbsp sugar dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water

Method:
1. Mix ingredients (a - f) together and knead till you get a smooth dough. Prove for 60 minutes. I did this part using my bread machine.
2. Shape dough into a round ball and rest dough for 15 minutes.
3. Roll dough into a thin rectangular sheet as in photo above. (The length of my rectangular sheet was more than 40cm...cannot remember the exact measurement. Otherwise it will be too short to do the mosquito coil shape.)
4. Brush a thin layer of oil on the surface of the dough. Sprinkle salt on top of it and use your hands to spread the salt out evenly. Top it with the sliced scallion evenly all over the surface.
5. Roll it up swiss-roll style, then coil it up like a mosquito coil. Flatten dough and let it rest for 15 minutes.
6. Heat up a little oil on a non-stick flat based fry pan.
7. Apply syrup to one surface of bread dough and coat it with sesame seeds. Place the side with the sesame seeds face down into the heated fry pan to pan fry the bread.
8. Now apply syrup and sesame seeds to the side that is facing up.
9. While frying, you can add extra oil if there's not enough oil; you can add some water and cover the fry pan with a lid so that the trapped steam can help to cook the bread. Repeat this process till you achieve a cooked, crisp and golden brown Sesame Scallion Bread.

Instant Oats Loaf

2009-06-07T23:15:00.004+08:00

Ingredients: (206Lx108Wx100H)mm
Sponge Dough:
150g bread flour
100ml water
1 tsp instant yeast

Main Dough:
50g cake flour
50g bread flour
50g instant oats + 50ml milk + 50ml water
1/4 tsp salt
30g brown sugar
20g butter

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients for sponge dough together till it formed a dough. Prove for 2.5 hours.
2. Once you have put the sponge dough to prove, you have to start soaking the instant oats with water and milk. Leave it till the sponge dough is ready (to allow the oats to absorb all the moisture).
2. Once the sponge dough is ready, add in the rest of the ingredients from Main Dough except butter. When the mixture is well-mixed add in the butter and knead till a soft dough is formed. I used the bread machine to do this part of the job.
3. Shape the dough into one round piece and rest it for 15 minutes.
4. Punch the air out of the dough and roll it into a flat rectangular shape. Roll it up swiss-roll style. Rest dough for 10 minutes.
5. Repeat step 4 but without resting put the dough into a greased loaf pan. Prove the dough for 45 minutes or till it is 80% full. Once fully proved gently brush the top of the bread with some water and sprinkle some oats on it.
6. Bake at 200C for 25 - 30 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan immediately to avoid bread becoming soggy.

Black and White Pearls

2009-06-03T18:35:00.007+08:00

Black and white pearls - very pretty name for a dish. In fact the White Pearl (珍珠圓子) is a classic steamed dish of the Hubei Cuisine (經典湖北蒸菜). As the Chinese name of this dish is rather auspicious - implying reunion, they usually make this dish for festive occasions as well as home banquets. Black pearl was just an inspiration arising from the pair of black and white pearl earrings that I had.

Seems like a brand name dish but in fact it is a rather simple fare of steamed meat ball coated with glistening white glutinous rice. You can use black glutinous rice for variation.

Serve this dish on your next dinner party and your friends will be impressed as they do look very presentable and pretty on a dinner table.

Ingredients:
A) 150g glutinous rice (soaked for at least 5 hours)

B) 300g minced pork
5 pieces shitake mushrooms (soaked and diced)
3 stalks white part of spring onions (washed and diced)
some diced water chestnuts (optional)
1 heaped tsp grated ginger
1 - 2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Chinese wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder (optional)
dash of white pepper
2 tsp cornstarch
1 egg white

Method:
1. Wash and soaked glutinous rice for 5 hours. Strain rice and leave aside for use later. Soaked mushrooms till soft and dice it. Wash the spring onions, use only the white parts, keep the greens for garnishing.
2. Mix everything in (B) together in a mixing bowl except egg white. Sit for 15 minutes to allow marinate to be infused into the pork. Add in the egg white, use a pair of chopsticks stir in one direction to blend in the egg white and to create stickiness in the pork. Chill for an hour in the refrigerator before using.
3. Shape the meat mixture into rounds using 2 table spoons and coat them with the strained glutinous rice. Press the rice onto the meatballs to ensure that the rice sticks all around them.
4. Steam on a lined tray (you can line it with grease-proof paper or some Chinese lettuce) on high heat for 20 -30 minutes.

Notes:
You can add or minus seasonings or ingredients from the above recipe to create your own unique flavour for this dish. Example: you can add dried shrimps or Chinese black fungus etc.
Or you can even serve it with a dipping sauce made of soy and sesame oil, or vinegar and ginger slices or to make it a little spicy - add some chilli oil to the sauces. Plenty of choices or just eat it plain.

Wholewheat Bread Loaf

2009-06-02T21:15:00.017+08:00

I have not been baking bread for a long time and I had just bought a new bread slicer guide and a pack of Milano Salami, so....I have to bake some bread today...to justify all the monies spent. Juggling with my schedule for today I decided to use the Sponge-Dough method for this loaf.

Feels and looks like a perfect loaf. Indeed it is as the bread is soft, fluffy and bouncy.

4th June, 2009
This bread remains soft and bouncy even after 2 days. Check it out!

Ingredients: (206Lx108Wx100H)mm
Sponge Dough:
150g bread flour
100ml water
1 tsp instant yeast

Main Dough:
50g cake flour
70g wholewheat flour
25g brown sugar
50ml whole milk
30ml - 50ml water
pinch of salt
15g butter

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients for sponge dough together till it formed a dough. Prove for 2.5 hours.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients from Main Dough except butter. Once the mixture is well-mixed add in the butter and knead till a soft dough is formed. I used the bread machine to do this part of the job.
3. Shape the dough into one round piece and rest it for 15 minutes.
4. Punch the air out of the dough and roll it into a flat rectangular shape. Roll it up swiss-roll style. Rest dough for 10 minutes.
5. Repeat step 4 but without resting put the dough into a greased loaf pan. Prove the dough for 45 minutes or till it is 80% full. Once fully proved gently brush the top of the bread with some water and sprinkle some wholewheat flour on it.
6. Bake at 200C for 30 - 35 minutes. Remove bread from loaf pan immediately to avoid bread becoming soggy.

Notes:
Dough is little sticky, use a little oil to help you in the shaping process.

Chinese Pumpkin Cakes

2009-05-27T14:22:00.007+08:00

Bought a Japanese pumpkin last week but didn't have time to do anything with it till today.

I was a super-woman today handling two stoves at one go, one for the steamed pumpkin cake and the other for the pan-fried ones. Mind you, it was really hot in the kitchen at that go.

I filled both the steamed and pan-fried ones with red bean paste. Surprisingly the red bean paste and pumpkin goes very well together.

Ingredients: (14 pieces @ about 35g)
300g pumpkin
150g - 165g glutinous rice flour
35g - 45g sugar
red bean paste - any amount

Method:
1. Steam pumpkin till cooked.
2. Mashed the hot pumpkin with sugar till well blended.
3. Knead in glutinous rice flour.
4. Divide dough into 35g pieces and wrap in 1 heaped teaspoon of red bean paste.
5. For the pan-fried ones, flatten it into a round disc and brush the surface with water. Coat with sesame seeds. Pan fried till golden brown at medium low heat.
6. For the steamed ones, shape it like a pumpkin and steam for 10 minutes. I stick some cloves to act as stalk for the steamed pumpkin-shaped ones.

Split Beans Coconut Pudding

2009-05-19T19:52:00.009+08:00

Split Beans Coconut Pudding - we called this "椰汁馬豆糕" in Hong Kong. Honestly I don't know the English name of this bean. The packet of "Ma Dou - 馬豆" which I bought had the label saying that it was "Split Beans" but a China site which does seeds export had it as "Lima Beans". Some even said it is "Chick Peas".

Anyone got the correct name? Do let me know.

A nice and smooth piece of dessert for those hot and humid days.

Split Beans

Ingredients: (6" x 6" square pan)
50g - 75g split beans
220ml coconut milk
80ml evaporated milk
90g cornstarch
600ml water
130g sugar

Method:
1. Wash and soak split beans in water for at least an hour. Boil for about 25 - 30 minutes till the beans are soften. Strain when soften and keep aside for use later.
2. Add coconut milk and evaporated milk to the cornstarch and mix till smooth and well-blended.
3. Bring water to boil in a saucepan and add in the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved and water is bubbling hot, pour in the cornstarch mixture slowly and stirring constantly at the same time. Add in the soften split beans. **Keep stirring till you see "fish eye" bubbles forming which means that the mixture is bubbling hot.
4. Pour the hot mixture into a mould which has been rinsed in cold water quickly otherwise the mixture will be too thick for easy handling.
5. Chill in refrigerator for at least 3 hours before slicing.

** Make sure mixture is bubbling hot otherwise the pudding will not be of the correct texture.

Recipe reference:ＨＫ Yahoo Knowledge base. I did not follow the ingredients amount closely.

Square Galette Bretonne

2009-05-14T14:26:00.010+08:00

Galette is a general term used in French to designate various types of flat and round flaky pastries. According to the write-up in the recipe, this is a rather popular snack from Bretagne of Southern France.

My Galette Bretonne is unusual then as it is square instead of round. That's because I did not have any small round cake ring that can go into the oven for baking this biscuit. I had to use those square cake rings meant for Taiwanese Pineapple Pastry. Baking the biscuit in the cake ring helps the biscuit to rise upwards instead of sideways hence creating its crisp and flakiness.

The baked Galette Bretonne is absolutely delicious with aromatic tinge of rum. Use the best quality dark rum you can ever find to get the aroma. The biscuit is crisp and flaky.

This is a rather easy to do biscuit as you only need to mix everything up with your hand, no wooden spoon, whisk or electric beater needed. Try it!

Recipe is here.

This is what I used for this bake.

120g golden churn butter
1/2 tsp fleur de sel
55g mixture of brown and white sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tsp rum
75g almond meal
110g cake flour + 1/4 tsp baking powder

Egg wash

Dough is sticky and soft, needs to be refrigerated till harden. Best to work in small portion while keeping the rest chilled.

I bake them at 170C for 25 minutes in the middle rack then 200C in the upper rack till it is brown enough.

Please refer to posted article for the proper recipe and instructions.

Korean Pancake

2009-05-13T17:37:00.001+08:00

Black Sesame Swirl Bread

2009-05-12T20:03:00.002+08:00

Savoury Cheese Biscuits

2009-05-06T15:00:00.004+08:00

Bana-noix de Macadamia

2009-05-05T19:31:00.004+08:00

Tenderness

2009-05-01T23:27:00.002+08:00

Chinese Scallion Pockets

2009-04-29T15:05:00.001+08:00

The Real Sakura Jelly

2009-04-22T13:10:00.000+08:00

Just wanted to share a lovely gift which I got from a friend who has just returned from Japan. The real Sakura jelly. They were really too beautiful to be eaten.

See the elaborate and lovely packaging. It's always a pleasure to shop in Japan, the packaging is always painstakingly done regardless of the price of the item.

See the beautiful Sakura suspended/floating gracefully in the jelly.

17-Hour Bread

2009-04-21T12:14:00.006+08:00

As I have always said, there are many ways/methods to bake a good loaf of bread. Today, I will be blogging about this 17-Hour Bread (17HB) which is rather popular among the bloggers in Hong Kong.

I first came across this 17HB in early 2008 from Kin's Blog, Kin is the famous owner of Blue Gate. Read her blog to find out all about Blue Gate (her blog is in Chinese). Kin published her first 17HB cookbook in January 2009. If you are interested in her cookbook, it's called "Natural Breads Made Easy" ISBN 978-962-355-220-2.

What's so special about this 17HB?

Using a quote from her book:　(the most crucial skill you need is the "17-hour low temperature＂pre-ferment dough).

Secret revealed?

Edith has done it and this is what she said in her blog: The loaf turned out perfect. Just imagine a loaf of soft and fluffy bread waiting for you at the breakfast table, freshly baked. Really love it. Definitely this is going to be my daily fix of home made bread in the future.

Here's my 17HB - just a plain white loaf.

Texture of bread.

My Petite Cube Toast made via 17HB method.

Petite Cube Toast

2009-04-19T23:09:00.003+08:00

I bought four petite cube toast pans from Japan last year and only manage to play with these toys today.

Used these little cubes to bake some toast bread. The bigger cube is about 7.5cm and the smaller one is about 5cm. They all come with their own lids. How else could I get such a square toast!

See how small the little cube toast is on my daughter's palm.
I liked this little fancy toast made of four small pieces of
plain dough and four pieces of chocolate flavoured dough.
Each piece of small dough is about 6 grams.
I was quite surprised that the pattern came out quite well.

Chinese Creme Brûlée

2009-04-17T10:00:00.012+08:00

Must have been the downturn in the economy! It seems like I'm always using left overs. I have used the left over egg mixture from my Egg Tarts to make this "Chinese Creme Brûlée". Why Chinese? That is because it's the Chinese style egg mixture from my egg tarts.

Actually it really was just a kitchen experiment to see if the filling mixture from my egg tart could be used to make something like creme brûlée . I was quite sure the egg mixture could set properly but not sure if the texture is good enough for a creme brûlée .

Surprise! Surprise! It was indeed very smooth, creamy and light. Light? Yea, light because I did not use whipping cream at all. You can eat it with less guilt feelings then!

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 yolk
some vanilla
100ml boiling water
30 - 40g sugar
60ml evaporated milk

Method:
1. Lightly beat the egg and yolk.
2. Dissolve sugar in the boiling water. Add in the evaporated milk. Leave aside to cool.
3. Strain the lightly beaten egg into the syrup mixture.
4. Pour mixture into ramekin, cover with a piece of foil and bake at 160° for 35-45 minutes in water bath.
6. Allow to cool before torching. Sprinkle some sugar on the surface of cooled creme and torch till you see caramelised spots.

Egg Tarts

2009-04-16T21:13:00.008+08:00

We had little egg tarts for tea break today. Gosh! They were so gorgeous, looking like little beaming sunflowers.

I made these from the left over cookie dough of the Stained Glass Cookies and they were delicious.

Filling:
1 egg
1 yolk
100ml boiling water
30 - 40g sugar
60ml evaporated milk

Method:
1. Lightly beat the egg and yolk.
2. Dissolve sugar in the boiling water. Add in the evaporated milk. Leave aside to cool.
3. Strain the lightly beaten egg into the syrup mixture.

Cheese Chiffon

2009-04-15T15:16:00.009+08:00

As promised to some of the bloggers, this is the cheese chiffon which I have baked. I had a few bottles of salted sakura flowers in my pantry (they were all gifts from friends who were in Japan this April breathing away in the petals of cherry blossoms) so I used some to decorate this cheese chiffon. I thought it looked very elegant.

For this cheese chiffon, I have added some cheddar cheese, hoping that it will make it cheesier in taste.

Can you see the bits of grated cheddar cheese.

Ingredients: (17cm tube pan)
90g cream cheese
30g sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla paste/essence
3 egg yolks
60ml milk
40g corn oil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest

80g cake flour + pinch of baking powder
20g grated cheddar cheese (optional)

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
40g sugar

Method:
1. Sieve cake flour and baking powder together. Mix in the grated cheddar cheese.
2. Cream cheese with sugar and vanilla till smooth. Add in egg yolks and cream till well blended.
3. Add in the milk, oil, lemon juice and zest, mix till well-combined.
4. Add in the flour mixture and mix till batter is homogeneous.
5. Beat egg white with electric beater until big bubbles formed. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and beat until it is white in colour. Add in 40g sugar 3 times (a little at a time) and beat till stiff perks formed.
6. Pour 1/2 egg white into flour mixture in (4) and blend well.
7. Pour flour mixture into the rest of the egg white and fold till just blended.
8. Pour the batter into ungreased tube pan. Bake at 170 - 180C for 35 - 45 minutes or till cooked.
9. Invert the cooked cake during cooling process.

Stained Glass Cookies

2009-04-12T21:54:00.014+08:00

These stained glass cookies are so pretty. The translucent stained glass in the middle of the cookie is made of Fox's Crystal Clear Fruit Candy.

I used 2 cookie cutters of the same
pattern but different sizes.

Lobster Sushi Hand Roll

2009-04-11T14:12:00.013+08:00

Last night we had lobster feast. Nine of us savaged two large lobster weighing ten katis altogether at North Garden Restaurant in Sheung Wan.

The first five katis we had braised lobster with "yee mee" and the other five katis we had garlic fried lobster.

It was a satisfying meal with quite a few big fat claws leftover. I "ta pau" the claws home and made these delicious Lobster Claw Sushi Hand Roll for lunch today.

Double Caramel Pudding

2009-04-10T11:34:00.000+08:00

Made from left-overs.
An egg yolk from the fourth egg white in my marble chiffon cake on Tuesday.
Half an egg from the spiral curry puff on Wednesday.
Add in some milk and caramel and you'll get some lovely double caramel pudding today.

Spiral Curry Puff

2009-04-08T16:26:00.015+08:00

Not long ago, a reader asked me for a spiral curry puff post now here it is! I hope you are still reading my blog.

This is definitely an interesting and delicious snack. The work process is not really that tedious. For details on how to create the spiral in the dough, please refer to the guide below.

In my opinion, for this spiral curry puff it is easier to work the water and oil dough in bulk than doing it in an individual basis (you know the Penang Tau Sar Paeng style where you wrap oil and water dough for each individual piece of paeng). When doing in bulk, you can roll the dough into a longer rectangular shape and when you roll it up swiss-roll style you get more layers.

Flaky and crispy skin with delicious filling.

See the layering of the raw dough.

Ingredients: (16 pieces @ 9cm in diameter)
Water Dough:
210g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
95ml warm water
25g lightly beaten egg
1 tbsp or 14g margarine

Oil Dough:
100g plain flour
60g - 70g margarine

Filling:
120g chicken thigh meat(cubed)
3 medium potatoes (cooked and cubed)
1 onion (cubed)
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp chicken curry powder
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
1. Heat up some oil in the wok, stir fry the onions for a while, add in the diced chicken meat, diced potatoes and the rest of the seasonings. Stir fry till chicken is cooked. Leave aside to cool for use later.
2. Mix all ingredients for the water dough in a mixing bowl and knead till you have a soft and pliable dough. Leave aside to rest for 30 minutes.
3. After the water dough is rested for 30 minutes, mix everything for the oil dough till you get a workable dough.
4. Divide water dough into 2 pieces about 175g each. Divide oil dough into 2 pieces about 78g each. Work on one piece of water dough and one piece of oil dough. Keep the other pieces in a bag to retain moisture.
5. Wrap oil dough in water dough.

6. With sealed edges facing upwards, roll this into a flat long sheet.

7. Roll it up swiss-roll style.

8. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll it into a thin rectangular flat sheet. Roll it up tightly in swiss-roll style again. Trim away the left and right edges to tidy it up.

9. Divide into 8 pieces and you will get this.

10. Flatten each piece into a round disc and wrap in the filling.
11. Fry the puff in medium heat and when they are about to be cooked, turn up the heat to force the oil out of the puff. Drained well and serve.
12. For the remaining dough, repeat steps (5) to (11).

References:
Lily Ng
Jo's Deli
Aunty Yochana
Amy Beh

Notes:
I have alot of filling leftover, so you can consider doing more dough or maybe keep the filling for curry chicken bread buns.

Marble Chiffon

2009-04-07T14:59:00.008+08:00

So light. So airy. So fluffy. Just like a whiff of air. This is how I would describe chiffon cake. They are really so light that you could finish half a cake and not feel the weight in your tummy.

After a long break from baking chiffon, I am baking one today. Many ideas flash across but I opt for the marble chiffon. Baking a marble cake always has its mystery because you will never know what the cake will look like until it is baked. Sometimes you get really nice marble effects but sometimes you don't. Isn't that fun?

Ingredients:
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt
30g sugar
40g warm corn oil
50ml warm milk
1/2 tsp vanilla paste / essence
1 tsp orange zest (optional)
1 tsp rum (optional)
75g sieved cake flour

4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
40g sugar

Chocolate paste
30ml milk
20g sugar
5g flour
10g cocoa powder
5g butter

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients in the chocolate paste together and double boil till sugar dissolved and you get a homogeneous chocolate mixture. Sieve chocolate mixture if lumpy. Leave aside for use later.
2. Cream egg yolks, vanilla, salt and sugar till creamy.
3. Add in the warm oil, warm milk, orange zest and rum, mix till well-combined.
4. Sieve in the flour and mix till batter is lump-free.
5. Beat egg white with electric beater until big bubbles formed. Sprinkle in cream of tartar and beat until it is white in colour. Add in 40g sugar 3 times (a little at a time) and beat till stiff perks formed.
6. Pour 1/2 egg white into flour mixture in (4) and blend well.
7. Pour flour mixture into the rest of the egg white and fold till just blended. Remove 1/4 of the batter and mix it with the chocolate paste, blend well.
8. Pour the 2 batters into ungreased tube pan using your imagination and create your own marble effect. Bake at 170 - 180C for 35 - 45 minutes or till cooked.
9. Invert the cooked cake during cooling process.

Notes:
Orange zest is really optional. I added it as it would enhanced the flavour of the chocolate mixture.

Fine Butter Cake

2009-04-02T08:03:00.009+08:00

An unbeatable fine butter cake. Very very fattening but very tasty. The crumbs are fine with nice buttery taste.

You gotta try it!

This is the Golden Churn Butter which I used.

Ingredients:
150g golden churn butter
1 tbsp corn oil / olive oil
110g sugar
1/3 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla paste or 1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs

140g cake flour
40g corn starch
1/3 tsp baking powder

3 - 5 tbsp whipping cream / milk

Method:
1. Mix cake flour, corn starch and baking powder together. Sieve twice into a large mixing bowl.
2. Cream butter, oil, sugar, vanilla and salt till pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in eggs one at time, beat well after each addition.
4. Add in the flour mixture and mix at low speed till well blended.
5. Stir in the whipping cream.
6. Pour batter into a lined loaf pan and bake at 180C for 35 - 45 minutes or till cooked.

Notes:
After 10 - 12 minutes in the oven, remove it and make a length-wise cut on the surface of the batter with a knife so that the cake will "explode" nicely with a neat line in the middle.

For best result use golden churn butter and whipping cream.

Pandan Kek Lapis

2009-03-31T23:39:00.001+08:00

Did a variation on the Traditional Kek Lapis. I used the same recipe as I have posted in my previous post but reduce the amount of butter. The end result was a much drier cake, which is not so nice. I would suggest that you stick to the original recipe for better texture.

The only difference to the Traditional Kek Lapis is that I added pandan paste to less than a third of the batter to make the pandan layers, everything else remains the same.

Please refer to Traditional Kek Lapis for recipe.

Hot Pepper Pastry

2009-03-24T15:40:00.004+08:00

Did this famous Taiwanese Hot Pepper Pastry (胡椒餅) for lunch today. I used the recipe from the internet and the link is listed below. The changes that I made are:

(a) reduce the amount of water used in mixing the minced pork to 50ml;
(b) reduce sugar to 60g;
(b) reduce lard to one third cup and
(c) bake at 175 - 180C for 20 minutes in the middle rack and 5 minutes in the upper rack.

You do not have to worry about the changes that I have made, you can follow the original recipe from the video.

For recipe and details please click into the following video:
Hot Pepper Pastry

Brownie

2009-03-22T23:39:00.001+08:00

Baked some brownie for a family dinner on Saturday. I used Cacao Barry unsweetened dark chocolate powder, hence the brownie turned out to be really dark but very fragrant. I baked it slightly less then 30 minutes till the top feels firm but the interior is still moist.
The timing was just perfect. I skip nuts as my kids do not fancy them. Each of them get a slice served with a big blob of vanilla ice-cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce...heavenly!

Osmanthus Red Bean Pudding

2009-03-19T23:45:00.004+08:00

Hi! After a long break dealing with things outside the cyberworld, I'm back!!! Hope I haven't kept you all waiting for too long.

Also, please give me some time to reply to all the queries in the various posts.

Today, I'm blogging about this delicious traditional Chinese snack, Osmanthus Red Bean Pudding (桂花紅豆糕). The red bean layer is robustly filled with big red beans and the osmanthus layer is definitely fragrant. Easy to do and the final result is a eye-candy.

Pretty, fragrant and delicious!

Big red beans.
See the size compared to green beans.

Ingredients:
Red bean layer:
280g red beans
400ml red bean water
60g rock sugar
30g - 40g caster sugar
20g gelatin sheet (soaked till soft)
8g agar agar stripes

Method:
1. Soak red beans overnight. Cook till soft. Drain and reserve 400ml red bean water for use later.
2. Wash and cut agar agar stripes into small pieces and soak in water till soft.
3. Add rock sugar, caster sugar and soften agar agar into red bean water and cook till agar agar dissolved. Add in the soften gelatin and drained red beans, stir to mix well. Cool the whole pot of mixture in cold water.
4. Pour cooled mixture into a 15cm x 15cm x 6cm tray that is rinsed in cold water.
5. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before topping it with the osmanthus layer.

Osmanthus layer:
1.5 tbsp sweet osmanthus
300ml water
80g rock sugar
25g - 30g caster sugar
15g gelatin sheet (soaked till soft)

Method:
1. Cook osmanthus with rock sugar and caster sugar in 300ml water till sugars dissolved and the aroma from the osmanthus is released.
2. Stir in the soften gelatin till well mixed. Leave aside to cool.
3. Pour cooled osmanthus mixture onto the chilled red bean layer and refrigerate till set.

Reference: Yahoo knowledge base

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2009-01-20T22:20:00.004+08:00

Dear friends and readers,

Wishing all of you a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year.

Regards,
Florence

Savoury Taro Balls

2009-01-06T13:10:00.002+08:00