Monday, January 28, 2008

More Kueh Bangkits!

made kueh bangkit again! this time using freshly squeezed coconut juice and more pandan leaves. and whole the kitchen was filled with the pandan fragrance when i was frying the tapoica flour.

mama bought a new heart-shaped cookie cutter. nice :)

this one tasted better than the previous one :)

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Kueh Bangkit

i've long heard of this being a tough one to make but i'd always wanted to try baking it. and i was lucky to find a step by step guide at Little Corner Of Mine. but i modified the recipe a little. those tips and feedback by bakers who have made them before really helped! so it was a breeze making them :) alot less tedious than making pineapple tarts!

it's crispy on the outside and melts in the mouth!
fried the tapioca flour with pandan leaves to give them an extra flavour.

the perfect dough! not too wet and not too dry.

i'm ready!

roll them out.

cut out nice shapes with cookie cutter.

and there you go! mama helped with those pincher designs! nice:)

baking in process.

fragrant cookies! a good attempt :)

Pineapple Tarts

pen and paper ready to record down the step-by-step recipe!

his mama was kind enough to pass me her secret recipe for pineapple tarts which he is so full of praise for. haha and she showed me the whole process personally :) and yea it's yummy! it's the covered up kind which is rarely seen nowadays and the pineapple filling wasn't too sweet at all.

and guess what. we baked them on the night straight after night cycling. imagine how shag the two of us were! but many hands make light work! it took the three of us about 3 hours to finally get to savour our first bite...and those 3 hours included the cooking of the freshly grated pineapple too! see the pic on the left.


see those anxious hands of his ready to attack the flour mixture! in the end he got pushed away cos he didn't know how to knead properly haha.

so many hands!!!

ta-da! buttery dough-like thingy.

we actually 'toasted' them in an oven toaster cos the oven wasn't working. haha so some turned out burnt but could still be eaten. brought the remaining ingredients home to bake cos i had to rush to take the last bus! they turned out in a lovely golden colour when i baked them in my oven :)

hmmm do they resemble pineapples? he says they look more like beetle insect! all ended up in his stomach anyway! haha. we actually use a pair of scissors to cut those flaps out. then egg wash to get the nice colour.


Friday, January 18, 2008

Birthday Fruit Cake!

peaches and cherries fruit cake


the bday girls! forced by bean to wear those party hats haha.

happy birthday ching man, bm, fong yee and kit! CBLC had a four-in-one celebration for the four january babies. glad they liked the cake!

it was my first time frosting a cake with cream haha. it was indeed highly challenging i must admit. baking the sponge cake was simple BUT when it came to preparing the butter cream and the whipping cream for decoration purposes, the whole kitchen was in chaos!!! haha. i wished i had more hands!

choc sponge cake

and i was so afraid that the cake would turn out to be disgustingly ugly. and since it was the birthday cake for four people, i simply couldn't screw this one up! i was rather satisfied with the end product. all thanks to the coloured rice and fruits which helped to cover up all the flaws hahaha.

had this small little tub of leftover whipping cream filling for the cake and i brought it along to school. and i didn't expect them to like it so much haha. including him who enjoyed it alot :)

i still have to improve on my words writing and decorations on the cake thou.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Chocolate Tarts With Pine Nuts


made some sweet pastry tart bases last friday to make fruit tarts for grandma's 70th birthday celebration on saturday. haha kooped some out to make chocolate tarts for him. i like the flower petals design created with the pine nuts. quite creative ya :)

i love nuts. they're so versatile!





we had his pd treat at chinatown temporary market that friday. haha but there were only six of us in total. just nice one table. one table but there was soooo much food - 2 fish head, i super big claypot rice, and two plates of vegetables!

i just completed a task assigned by bean! shall post that up soon :)

Here's the recipe...

Chocolate Tarts with Pine Nuts

Sweet Pastry Recipe
Adapted from Alex Goh's Irresistable Pastry.

Ingredients:
200g Butter
85g icing sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
420g flour, sifted
1 tbsp milk powder


Method:
1.Cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence lightly and add in the egg. Cream until smooth.
2. Add in flour and milk powder. Mix till well blended.
3. Press into tart mould.
4. Bake at 200 deg C for 10-12 minutes.
*Weight of pastry is 780g.


Choc Filling Recipe
Adapted from She Paints the Kitchen Red's Tarte Noire.

225g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup plus 2 tbsp whipping cream
45g butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature
A handful of pine nuts

Method:
1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and have a whisk at hand. Bring the cream to a boil, then pour half of it over the chocolate and let it sit for 30 seconds. Working with the whisk, gently stir the chocolate and cream together in small circles, starting at the centre of the bowl and working your way out.

2. Pour in the remainder of the cream and blend it into the chocolate, using the same circular motion. When the ganache is smooth and shiny, stir in the butter piece by piece. don’t stir the ganache any more than you must to blend the ingredients. The less you work it, the darker, smoother and shinier it will be.

3. Pour the ganache into the crust. Decorate with some pine nuts. Refrigerate the tart to let the ganache set.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Corn Muffins

had dinner with him at kenny roger's during the hols and their corn muffins tasted great. haha so here's my feeble attempt at trying to bake those muffins. tasted far from what we had. but the muffins were moist even when kept for a day and those corn bits added that extra crunch!






searched high and low for cornmeal! found it at jason's supermarket and it was expensive! $6 for that pack. they didn't have the yellow cornmeal so i made do with white cornmeal.

My Nutty Biscotti

haha yes MY nutty biscotti. kinda tweaked the original recipe by quite a bit. added three kinds of nuts to this one - walnuts, blanched almonds and pistachio nuts! and so it makes this one a super heart-healthy snack. reduced the total amount of sugar by about 50 grams! but i added raisins and black currants to give it that tinge of sweetness. and yes not to forget the ground cinnamon i added - it just perfects the entire taste and flavor of the biscotti.

it came out wonderful. all the hardwork was worth the while :)

and if you don't already know, biscotti means twice-baked in italian. that explains the hard work! but double baking is in fact the secret to making these tasty yummy crunchy cookies.



nuts are good for your health!

nuts and more nuts!

shape the dough into an oblong loaf.

the baked loaf is cut into slices and bake until they are dry and hard again

these cookies are as durable as they are tasty. keeps extremely well in an air-tight container.
but ermm they don't last very long afterall hahaha.

My Nutty Biscotti

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (essence)
1 ¾ cups all-purpose (plain) flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
1 ¼ cups of nuts (walnuts, pistachio nuts, almonds), toasted, then coarsely chopped
½ cup of blackcurrants and raisins (added in any proportion you like)
1 tsp grated orange zest

Method:

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F (180C). Lightly grease and flour 1 large baking sheet, or line it with parchment (baking) paper, and have another ungreased baking sheet on hand.
  2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer in high speed, cream the butter until fluffy and pale yellow. Add the sugar and continue beating till the mixture is no longer gritty when rubbed between your finger and thumb. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well on low speed after each addition. Beat in the vanilla on low speed until blended.
  3. Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together onto a sheet of waxed paper. Gradually add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and mix on low speed or stir with a wooden spoon just until incorporated. Mix or stir in the nuts, blackcurrants, raisins and ornage zest. The batter should be very soft.
  4. Turn the batter out onto a generously floured work surface and divide in half. With well-floured hands, transfer one-half onto the greased baking sheet and shape into a log about 12 inches (30cm) long and 1 ½ inches (4cm) in diameter. Place on one side of the sheet. Repeat with the remaining batter, leaving at least 4 inches (10cm) between the logs. (They will spread as they bake.)
  5. Bake the logs until the edges are golden, about 25-30 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the logs cool for 10 minutes. Using a serrated knife, cut the logs, still on the pan, on the diagonal into slices ½ inch (12mm) wide. Carefully turn the slices on their sides and return them to the oven. When you run out of room on one baking sheet, start transferring to the other sheet. Bake until the edges are golden, about 10 minutes longer. Let cool completely on the pans on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Honey Oatmeal Bread


this is my first time baking bread! haha baking bread really takes alot of patience. that whole waiting process for the bread to ferment took me almost half a day. but i can say it was quite amazing seeing the dough doubling in size and all fluffed up. i added more honey and reduced the amount of sugar and i think it's good :) topped it off by sprinkling some oats and pine nuts above it before sending it into the oven! a good attempt for a first try i should say haha.

preparing the dough

i added oats to the dough

piping hot soft bread!

have a slice!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Marble Cheese Swirl

this one's gonna be hand delivered via air to papa and friends over in indonesia! baked this the night before passing it to papa's friend who will be flying over in the morning. first time baking it but it's rather tedious cos you have to prepare two different layers - the choc and the cheese. and i think my swirls were quite uneven and ugly hahaha :D

preparing the choc layer.



bubbling-licious!

out of da oven!




spot those uneven layers!








all worth the while :)

Moist Choc Cake


this is like the third bake so far! haha and it's a rather easy one i think. he had a bbq at his home with the engineers so i was tasked with baking this and i also made sweet corn jelly...no pics for that thou. i'm glad both turned out good :)

baked two cakes originally - one for his friends the other for his family haha but there was too much food at the bbq! so no kou fu for his friends haha.

yeah but anyway the cake looks alot better aesthetically as compared to previous bakes where the choc ganache i applied turned out to be so messy and ugly! more room for improvement thou.

those two cakes! before fudge was applied.


yay! it's done :)

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Mooncake Cookies With Green Tea Paste

i had some leftover green tea paste and an almost full can of golden syrup so i digged for recipes so that i could use them up! and i found the perfect one! a modified version of piggy mooncakes. haha cos i made them look like tau sar piah and i added green tea paste into the dough. the outer crust recipe was taken from Do What I Like. and it's really quite simple just that i found handling the dough rather challenging cos it's really gluely and sticky! just make sure you have have more flour for dusting.

but i'm glad the end product turned out good and pretty too. he says it could be less sweet but overall he liked it and found it quite special! and he ate quite a few in that one day haha. enjoy the pics :)


i used lyles golden syrup.







green tea paste.












mixture of syrup, oil and alkaline water.

make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and slowly pour the syrup mixture in as you stir.

and you get sticky dough which i then wrapped up with paste.



nice brown colour :)