Frasier Choux: Traditional cake in choux pastry form

This is another recipe tried from Daily Delicious Blog.  I doubled the quantity and made a ring and a few individual choux pastry.  My young son as usual was hovering round the desserts while waiting for it to be served after the photo taking.  Daily Delicious has published a detailed step by step on making choux pastry.  Making this needed quite a bit of effort, other than the choux and cookie dough, the pastry cream and butter cream had to be made.  I simplified 1 step by using store bought non dairy whipping cream instead of making buttercream.  The end product should be equally good.  I asked one of the tasters if the pastry would still be good if only pastry cream was used.  His opinion was the whipping cream added to the texture of the puff and should not be left out.  

These are the single serving choux puffs which were easier to serve instead of a ring one.   I have made both the strawberry and longan version.  The strawberries are a bit tart, and helps to reduce the sweetness and also gives a prettier effect to the puff.  The longan version would be much preferred for those who do not fancy strawberries,  I personally prefer the longan version of this.  

Layered Crepe Cake and White Chocolate Mousse with Mixed Berries

It was a baking frenzy last weekend, making a total of 3 desserts.  It was the side effect from reading Daily Delicious blog. Without hesitation, I tried the Whiite Chocolate Mousse with Mixed Berries.  I shall not re-write the recipe here.  Instead pop over to Daily Delicious blog for the details.  The mix berries goes well with the white chocolate mousse.  Its tangy taste helped to make the white chocolate mousse less "jela" though some tasters preferred to do without the berries.  The white chocolate mousse makes you think of condensed milk.  I made a slight mistake and ended up putting half the portion of gelatin but the mousse was still quite all right while eaten cold.

I made the Mille Crepe Cake using the recipe from The Food Fairy Blog.  I made the cream using pastry cream and ready bought non dairy whipping cream.  The taste of the pastry cream mixed with non dairy was fragrant.  I even added some longan bits in the cake.  I cut the quantity of sugar used by half for the pastry cream as the non dairy whipping cream was already sweetened.  The end product of the cake was a mildly sweetened crepe cake which I will be making for my dad's upcoming birthday celebration next weekend. 

I wanted to try the Tangzhong Method, but decided to use something from an old recipe book I have instead.  The book had 3 methods, straight dough, quick mix and sponge and dough method.

Time is the critical factor in making soft bread.  

Sponge and Dough Method Recipe  (From The World of Bread Making - Alex Goh)

(A) Sponge Dough

2 tsp instant yeast

2 tbsp water

420g bread flour

1/2 tbsp sugar

220 ml cold water

(B) Main Dough

120g plain flour

60g bread flour

1 tsp instant yeast

110g sugar

10g salt

20g milk powder

40ml cold water

1 egg

60g butter

Method :

Mix instant yeast and water and set aside for 10 minutes.  (You should see bubbles in the mix after 10mins.  This means the yeast is active.  If after 10 minutes no bubbles seen, the mix should be discarded and try again with new yeast)

Add the rest of the ingredients in (A), knead to form a dough.

Cover the dough with clear film and let it prove for 2 1/2 hours.

Then add the sugar, salt and egg from (B).  Mix till well blended.  The mixture would be sticky and wet.

Add the flour, instant yeast, milk powder and water.  Mix all ingredients till well blended.  Knead to form a dough.

Lastly, add the butter and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough.

Cover with clear film  and prove for 10 minutes.

The dough is now ready for use.

Filling can be of individual preference.

After adding the filling, let the buns rest for 45 minutes or till double the size.

Brush with egg wash before baking at 170C for 15 minutes or till golden brown.

Chicken Pies with Ready Made Puff Pastry

Mother's Day was spent making Chicken Pies and Sausage bread with my son.  

I used Pampas Puff Pastry for the skin instead of making my own as it is very time consuming.

Chicken Pie Filling Recipe

100g boneless chicken, diced

2 potatoes, diced

50g frozen diced carrots and peas

l onion, diced

1 tsp chicken granules

1 tbsp flour

1 tbsp butter

60g cream of chicken

50ml water

Salt and pepper to taste. 

Method:

1. Blanch all vegetables and chicken.
2. Heat up 1 tbsp butter, add 1 tbsp flour and cook under low fire for 3 mins to make the roux.  

3. Add blanched chicken and vegetables into roux, stir to mix.
3. Add 50ml water and 60g cream of chicken.  

4.  Add chicken granules, salt and pepper to taste. 

Notes:

Add some water if the mixture is too thick.  As you do not want the puff to be soggy, the filling should be thick.

Chicken and vegetable portion can be adjusted to individual preference.  More meat can be added if preferred. 

The chicken pies are baked at 180C for about 20 mins or till the pastry of golden brown. 

French Macarons Italian Meringue

After 3 attempts of making macrons using the french method and with frustrations as every batch came out different, with unpredictable outcome, like uneven surface, cracked surface and feetless macron,  I decided to give the Italian Meringue method a try despite the initial hesitation as the Italian Meringue method needed to to boil sugar into a syrup before adding it into the beaten egg white.  

I searched through the internet and decided on this recipe from Washoku.guide which gave a quite detail explanation on how to go about making the macrons as well as using the microwave to make the sugar syrup.  I did not use this method as I was not sure how many walts my microwave was.  

I decided to boil the syrup over the stove, though I did not have a cooking thermometer at home, thus I wondered if I would be able to be successful with my attempt.  I read from a website that the sugar syrup is about 118C if you see the pot of syrup bubbling all over and it was also advised not to stir the syrup as it may result in crystallization.  (I guess I did not really need a thermometer afterall)

I was glad that I made this attempt and true to what some bloggers claimed, the Italian meringue method was extremely stable.  I made 3 batches and all came out equally good beautiful.  On top of that I did not have to put up with temperamental macrons.

It is critical to use a very fine sieve to sieve the almond powder and icing sugar.  The superfine grade of almond powder that you can purchase from Phoon Huat is for macrons, but it is a must to sieve the powder through a fine sieve which took me quite a fair bit of time to sieve though 3 batches of almond flour.  I find this the most time consuming part of making macrons. 

I made 3 fillings - Rose Syrup (to replicate the local Bandung flavour, Salted Gula Melaka, and Bittersweet Chocoate Ganache.   

Will I make it again? - Yes, I would want to try out other fillings that will balance out the sweetness from the shell.  

Swiss Mushroom Pork Burger Recipe

Pork Patty Recipe
300g minced pork
2 tbsp bread crumbs
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk of coriander, chopped
1/2 tsp chicken powder
1/4 tsp sugar
Salt, pepper to taste

Mix the above well, divide into 2 to 3 patties, chill for 30 mins.
Heat 2 tbsp oil, pan fry patties under low heat till cooked on both sides.

Stir Fried Mushroom
1 box of brown button mushroom, sliced
1 tsp chopped garlic.
2 tsp oyster sauce

- Stir fry garlic to fragrant.
- Add mushroom and oyster sauce, stir fry till cooked

* Thicken the mushroom with a bit if corn starch solution to thicken the gravy of the stir fried mushroom

To Assemble the Burger
* Slice burger buns into half, spread with some butter and toast till slightly brown.
* Place a slice of cheese on top of the pork patty immediately after it is cooked.
* Top with stir fried mushroom and sliced tomatoes or lettuce if preferred

Baked Potatoes and Sweet Potatoes
* Drizzle olive oil and some salt and pepper on potatoes
* Drizzle only oil on sweet potatoes
* Bake for 35 mins at 180 degrees
* Serve with burgers

Crispy and Light Waffle

It has been a while since I use my waffle maker.  I managed to find it in the ocean of items in the storeroom. 

I used this recipe from Serious Eats site

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 egg yolks
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup canola oil
2 egg whites

Method
1. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into a mixing bowl.  Make a well in the centre.
2. In another bowl, beat egg yolks slightly and stir in milk and oil.
3. Add egg yolk mixture into the dry mixture.  Stir till moistened.  (should be lumpy)
4. Beat egg whites till stiff peaks form.
5.  Gently fold in egg white into flour and egg yolk mixture.  Do not overmix.
6. Spoon waffle batter into waffle iron, make sure not to overfill it.
7. Serve with ice cream, and fresh fruits

Yums!! 

Steamed Chicken with Abalone

Chicken with Canned Abalone and Brocoli
Chicken Preparation
1 whole chicken (about 1.2kg)
4 cloves of garlic
2 blades of pandan Leave
1 stalk of lemongrass (bruised)
1tsp salt

Sesame oil

Method

• Rub salt over chicken, stuff garlic, pandan leave and lemongrass into the cavity of chicken.
• Fill a pot (make sure the chicken can fit in) with water.  Bring to boil.
• Place chicken into the boiling water.  Bring pot with lid and bring water back to boil again.
• Once the water boil, after 30mins of boiling, off water and drain chicken from water.
• Submerge chicken in a big pot of ice water to cool the chicken.
• Drain and rub sesame oil on chicken.
• Chop chicken into bite size.  Arrnage nicely on a plate.
• Blanch brocoli and place round the chicken.

Abalone Preparation

• Slice canned abalone, arrange on top of the chicken.

Sauce Preparation
1 tbsp oyster sauce
300ml chicken stock (if use canned chicken stock, dilute 150ml chicken stock with 150ml water)
1tbsp cornflour mix with some water

Method

• Bring chicken stock to boil, add oyster sauce.  Slowly add cornflour mixture into sauce till slightly thickened.
• Pour sauce over the chicken, abalone and brocoli.
• Serve

Prawn and Fish Toast

Prawn Toast Recipe

6-8 thin slices sandwich bread

(A)
250g shrimp, peeled and deveined
50g ground pork
1tsp potato starch
1/4 cup chopped corriandor
1/2 egg white
1/2 teaspoons grated ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
white pepper to taste

parsley or sesame seed for garnish
oil for deep frying
sweet Thai chili sauce for dipping

Method
1. Put (A) in a bowl and mix well.
2. Marinade for 2hrs in the fridge before use.
3. Spread a thin layer of prawn and pork paste on the bread.
4. Decorate it with a parsley leaf or some seasame seeds.
5. Deep fry in oil till gold brown.
6. Drain and serve with Thai Chilli Sauce.

Soy Sauce Chicken Wing Noodle (油鸡面）

I used to love this particular stall of Soy Sauce Chicken Noodle at Blk 115 Bukit Merah View and used to eat it at least once a week when I was working nearby.  Other than chicken noodle, they served prawn dumpling soup which was very good as well.  The stall was run by a couple and business was brisk.  But for some reason, the stall closed down.  Since then I was not able to find another stall with that similar taste. 

This recipe which I have found from Tigress Kitchen is quite good.  I have summrised the recipe and did not use Rose wine.  Do drop by her blog to see other recipes.  Pretty picture and good recipes.

Dark Soy Sauce Chicken Wing Noodle ( Adapt From Tigress Kitchen Blog)

Marinade:

3 tbsp + 2 tbsp sugar
1½ cups water
4 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tsp salt
1½ tbsp dark soya suace
2 tbsp Shao Xing wine
1 sprig spring onion (20 g), washed, cut 5 cm (2 inches) long and crushed
4 cloves garlic, washed and crushed, skin on
5 slices ginger (20 g), crushed

6 chicken wings (500 g), blanched in boiling water and rinsed
1 tsp white sesame oil
1 tsp thinly sliced spring onions or Chinese parsley

Heat 3 tbsp sugar, when melted sugar looks like dark honey, add ¼ cup water. If caramel solidifies, heat till melted again. Turn off heat. Add remaining water and all other ingredients for marinade. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Add chicken, Marinade for 5 hours, placed in the fridge when cool.


Bring marinade and chicken to a gentle boil. Cover and turn off heat. Steep for 25 minutes. Check if juices run clear. If not, cover and wait another 5 minutes. Remove and brush thoroughly with white sesame oil. Chop into bite size pieces. Drizzle with marinade. Garnish with spring onions or Chinese parsley.

For Prepartion of Noodle: Sauce for noodle (per serving): 1tbsp oyster sauce 2tsp dark soy sauce 2tsp sesame oil 1tsp garlic oil (omit if you are not a garlic fan) 2-3tbsp sauce from the brasied chicken wing.   Mix the above sauces in a plate.  Cook the noodles in boiling water.  Blanch in cold water and then back into the hot water for a while.  Drain and place noodle into the sauce.  Mix well.  

Chocolate Chip Muffin

I have recently purchased these beautiful cupcake liners from Ikea. They cost $1.90 for 65 pcs and there are 3 designs in 1 box. The size of these are slightly different from those you get from Phoon Huat. These come with a smaller base of about 1.5" and has a hight of about 2.5".
Here is the recipe for the cupcakes:

120g plain flour

70g sugar
1tsp baking soda
1/4tsp salt
150g plain yogurt
1 egg
50g canola oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:- Preheat oven at 180C
- Mix dry ingredients together
- Mix wet ingredients in another bowl
- Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix gently.
- Scoop into cupcake liners 3/4 full.
- Bake for 15mins.

* Word of caution - Do not over mix if you want tender muffins.

Chocolate Streusel Cake

I made Chocolate Coffee cake on Dailydelicious blog site. Pook at Dailydelicous calls this Chocolate Coffee Cake because she thinks that this goes well with coffee. But I think I prefer to call it Chocolate Streusel Cake.

Streusel is a German word which means - something scattered or sprinkled, generally referring to a crumb topping of butter, flour, and white sugar that is baked on top of muffins, breads, cakes. (abstract from Wikipedia)

I thought this cake was normal. Nothing very impressive about the streusel topping. D doesn't think very well of the cake either and he doesn't like the cinnamon topping.

Despite all this, I think Pook's photos are very well taken. Hope I could take photos like that one of these days too.

Longan Tart

I have bought loose bottom tart tray few months back. Since then, I have been thinking of what to make with it. Looking at the Crostata recipe at Dailydelicious website makes my heart flutter. As berries are not very popular in my family, I have decide to use a more tropical fruit - canned longans.

I have used the pastry cream and sweet crust pastry from JoyofBaking for my masterpiece above.

Happy Birthday Dad! Chiffon Cheesecake

Happy Birthday Dad! Wishing you good health always! (sorry for the wrinkles on the cake. :P)

Thanks dad for providing for us and bringing us up. He may not be the type of dad that chats with us and plays with us but he shows his love and concern in other ways. During our younger days, we tend not to know how to appreciate his care and concern and gets frustrated when he impose or nags at us too much. As now I am a parent myself, I learn to appreciate what dad has done for us in the past.

Dad came over last weekend for dinner at my place. Besides making the birthday cake and a Longan Tart. With the help of my MIL we cooked : Curry Chicken, Stir Fry Garlic chives, Cream prawn dip, Sotong Yew Cha Kuay and Steam Fish.

Chiffon Cheesecake Recipe
Egg White Batter:
6 egg white
1/4 tsp tartar powder
140g castor sugar (I reduced to 120g )

Egg Yolk Batter:
6 egg yolk
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml milk
60g cake flour
20g corn flour

Method:
Preheat oven 160degrees.

Place cream cheese, butter, milk in a double boiler, stir till all dissolved and cream. Sieve the mixture to ensure batter is lump free. Add in egg yolk when mixture is cooled. Sieve in corn flour and cake flour. Mix well.

Beat egg white and cream of tartar till foamy. Slowly add in castor sugar. Whisk till soft peaks.

Mix egg yolk mixture into egg white mixture. Stir till combine. Pour into an 8" baking tin. Bake in water bath for 1hr 10mins or till cooked.

Once baked, keep in oven to cool slowly. Do not take out the cake immediately as it will cause the cake to collaps.

Happy Birthday YL! No Baked Oreo Cheesecake

Happy Birthday YL!!

It has been another year. It was quite unfortunate that YL had gotten some allergic reaction from some food items recently. Till now she is still not sure what is causing outbreak of rashes. Anti-allegric medication doesn't seem to help but she has concluded that it could be things such as eggs and seafood that is causing her outbreak. As she likes cheesecakes, I have decided to make a No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake for her birthday.

This cheesecake is free of egg and gluten and best of all, it is no bake! I am sorry for the slip short photos. However, due to the lack of time and a demanding toddler, I can only settle for normal snaps of pictures at the moment.

YL commented that her cake looked like a clock with the mini oreos round the edge which was the same thoughts that I had when I placed the oreos round the cake. :P. I wanted to make the whipped cream stars before topping up with the mini oreos, but I ran out of whipping cream, thus have to settle with the mini oreos laying flat on the cake. Anyway, even though the cake don't look as pretty as it tastes, but it was nice and YL commented that it tastes better than the baked ones as this no bake version is lighter in cheese taste.

No Bake Oreo Cheesecake (8" round tin)
Crust
24 pcs of large Oreo Cookies (with filling removed)
100g butter (melted)

Filling
300g cream cheeese
150g sugar
9g gelatin powder (3 gelaltin sheets)
20 ml water
600 ml dairy cream
5 pcs large Oreo Cookies (with filling removed)

Deco
Whipping cream; Mini Oreos

Method:
For Crust: Crush cookies and mix with melted butter. Put crumbs into a spring form baking tin. Press evenly and chill till required.

For Filling: Bloom gelatin sheets in 20ml of water. Heat mixture till gelatin dissolve, put aside. Double boil cream cheese and sugar till sugar dissolve and cheese is soft. Add gelatin liquid into cream cheese and mix well. Whip up dairy cream till soft peaks. **(be careful to watch your cream carefully and not have it overbeaten and turn to curds of butter) Mix cheese mixture into the whipped cream. Pour 1/2 into the baking tin, place cookies over in a circle, pour the remaining cheese mixture on top of the baking tin.

Chill overnight.

For Deco: Decorate with whipping cream and mini oreos.

Sunquik Mango Chiffon Cake

Apologise for the not so nice picture. This was taken from my Iphone.

Made this cake using the Sunquik Mango Concentrate. The mango concentrate smells and tasted very nice on its own, but the flavour of the mango was not that strong after making it into a cake. Sunquik Orange Chiffon is better.

Anyway, here is the recipe. You can replace Mango concentrate with Orange concentrate. You may try with the other range of Sunquik concentrate if you like. Let me know the results!

Mango Sunquik Chiffon Cake

Ingredients

Merigue

7 eggs white

120g castor sugar

1/4tsp cream of tartar

Yolk Batter

7 egg yolks

150g cake flour

1/2tsp baking powder

150ml of mango concentrate

4tbsp oil (corn oil/sunflower oil)

Method:

1. Preheat oven at 170 degree celcius, preheat 8" chiffon tin.

2. Mix all ingredients in the yolk batter.

3. Whisk egg white till slightly foamy. Add caster sugar slowly. Whisk still form soft peaks.

4. Mix yolk batter into merigue.

5. Pour into chiffon tin and bake for 1hr or till golden brown.

6. Invert immediately to cool after removing from oven.

Fruit Pound Cake

I have used this pound cake recipe to make various versions with different fruits, nuts, etc. This recipe gives a light and fluffy butter cake texture and this is not the traditional type of fruit cake which you usually get on Christmas.

Ingredients

226g unsalted butter

100g shortening

300g castor sugar

350g flour

1tsp baking powder

5 eggs

1tbsp vanilla essence

1 cup milk

2 cups dried mix fruits/chopped walnuts/raisins/blueberry/etc

Method

Preheat oven at 180C.
1. Cream butter, shortening, sugar till light and fluffy.

2. Add eggs 1 at a time and cream well after each addition

3. Add vanilla essence.

4. Put 1 tbsp flour into mix fruits and mix well.

5. Sift flour with baking powder.

6. Use a spaluta and mix in flour and milk in 3 batches, starting with flour then milk.

7. Lastly add in mix fruits, pour into baking tin, bake for 1hr or till cooked.

Macrons

After many months of procrastination, I have finally gotten down to do the macrons that everyone seems to be raving about. Looking through many versions of the recipes that can be found in recipe books and on the many websites, I have decided to use the one found in Tartelette . I used the recipe without the red colouring as I just wanted to try out if it was really that difficult to make macrons.

My initial plan was to make 3 quantities of these little things. One batch of plain, one batch with chocolate and maybe another batch plain with some colouring. There was quite a lot of macrons from just one batch and after tasting them, I decided to abandon the Macron Project after round 1. The simplest reason that made me stop was that these little things do not taste as good as they look. They were way too sweet for my liking and none of my family members liked them. I think I would be better off just making cookies with the left over grounded almonds that I've got.

These macrons are not that difficult to make. The critical area that determines if your macrons will be successful is the way your make your meringue. If you didn't do this part right, the macrons will most probably fail. The same theory for making chiffon cakes where the meringue determines the success of your cake.

Oh well, with this, it ends my adventures with the macrons.

Unagi Cigars

This is a simple to make finger food and is tasty too!

Unagi Spring Rolls

Ingredients:
Spring roll Skin (use the one that has 50 pcs per pack)
Ungai (purchased from frozen section in NTUC)
Flour paste (mix 1 tbsp flour with some water to form a paste)

Method:

1. Cut spring roll skin diagonally to form a triangle.
2. Cut unagi into long strips of about 8cm x 1cm.
3. Place unagi on the spring roll skin and wrap up like a cigar.
4. Use a bit of flour paste to seal the end.
5. Fry in oil at 190C for 3mins or till golden brown.
6. Serve
   

Strawberry Jelly Hearts Cheesecake

Made this after hearing my secondary pal talk about this. Got a recipe from

http://auntyyochana.blogspot.com/2006/12/heart-jelly_25.html

and gave it a try. Turn out a success. The cheesecake is light, and the combination of the jelly, crust and cheese give this a unique flavour.

I made it in a round container and since it was quite firm, i decided to cut it into a square but was not that nicely cut though. I may try to make this in a 7" squre ring this Sat. Thumbs up for this!