Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Chocolate Bread with Peanut Butter Chocolate Chips

Finally I got my bread done! When was my last post of bread? Hmm, it must be quite some time ago. With a last minute go and a last minute request, here's a last minute simple loaf...;p
Alright, it is a simple one but it's a super delicious one I ever had. I wonder why I didn't try this out since I have this recipe with me all the while.


Oooo sounds interesting yea...haha! I've done it with a super simple bread loaf recipe and mixed in the wonderful peanut butter chocolate chips and cocoa powder....the result was excellence!!
Want to know how simple it is? Here it goes......

Ingredients:
20g castor sugar (already been reduced)
1/2 tsp salt
15g beaten egg
165g cold water
5g instant yeast
40g condensed milk (already been reduced)
5g Cocoa powder / Chocolate powder
250g Bread flour
50g Cake flour
5g milk powder
30g butter

Method:
~ Mix everything in a mixing bowl except butter into a dough.
~ Add in butter and knead till smooth and elastic dough.
~ Cover and leave to prove for 30 minutes.



















~ Divide dough into 2 and shape into balls, let rest for another 10 minutes.
~ Then roll out each dough and sprinkled with some peanut butter chocolate chips.
~ Roll up like a swiss roll and arranged into 2 greased mould (3X3X7)".
~ Leave to prove double in size (30 minutes)

















**After 30 minutes, it was already doubled in size.















~ Egg wash the top of each loaf, then bake in preheated oven at 180'C for 30 minutes.



Ta-da....the loaf is done!! All you need to wait was about 2 hours then you can taste this yummilicious bread...:) It's super soft and the peanut butter chips was the perfect combination with the chocolate bread.....YUM YUM!!


Cheers!







Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival / Tiramisu Cake

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival or Happy Mooncake Festival or Happy Lantern Festival......whatever, today is the day, and we had great fun..:) What about you?
Besides all the mooncakes I've made, this was the last which I made for today's celebration. Well, it was actually from my previous post "Cendol Agar-Agar". Instead of the 2 layers, this time I've transfered it into the mooncake mould. Hmm....Pretty!!



The filling inside was the gula melaka instead of those lotus paste. We had enough mooncakes with those fillings (lotus, red beans, pandan...etc. etc.) so I think some refreshing ones should be suitable for the party..:)





Once again, wishing everyone has a wonderful and memoriable time..:)
中秋节快乐


**********************************************************
Besides that, it was my dear friend's birthday too. We decided to celebrate with her at her house so the kids may have fun playing with their lanterns too. And that I've made a cake for her...Tiramisu. Inspired by the restaurant, Alexis @ The gardens. I've came out with my version..haha! Not bad leh..;p


The ingredients that you need were as below..














Ingredients for Chocolate Sponge:
250g eggs (weigh without shells)
125g fine sugar
110g Plain flour
50ml water
13g emulsifier
15g Cocoa powder
60g Melted butter
Method:
~ Whisk at high speed eggs, flour and emulsifier until light and fluffy
~ Lastly fold in the melted butter which is already mixed with cocoa powder.
~ Bake in a 9" round lined cake tin for 40-45 minutes at 180'C. (I used two 7" round pan)
~ Cool completely then sliced. ( I sliced into 3 for each 7" cake)


Ingredients & Method for the Cream:
1/2 cup Fresh Cream (Whipped)
250g Mascarpone cheese
30g sugar
~ Cream the cheese then add in sugar. Then fold in whipped cream.
Coffee-Rum Syrup:
1/2 cup hot water
2 tbsps sugar
2 tsps good quality instant coffee powder
1 tbsp rum paste
~ Mixed all together until sugar disolved. Brush onto the sliced sponge before spreading the cream.
Topping / coating:
~ Cook 2 cups sugar into caramel, and add in some chopped almonds (amount depends to individual). Spread thinly on a sheet of parchment paper and let cool.
~ Crushed into small pieces for decoration.



Happy Birthday my dear friend,
Hope you like this cake...^^




Friday, September 17, 2010

Colourful Ruyi Roll 彩虹如意卷

Mid-Autumn Festival / Mooncake Festival is here soon, which falls on Next Wednesday. How are you going to celebrate? We are looking forward to that day..:)
Here's a Snow Skin Mooncake recipe which I'll like to share. One of the recipe from the book "Mooncake Selection" too.


Colourful Ruyi Roll
Ingredients:
(A)
90g Sugar
150g Water
Few pieces pandan leaves

(B)
30g Shortening
1 tbsp fresh milk
100g fried glutinous rice flour (糕粉)
A drop of Strawberry, pandan and lemon essence

Filling: Red bean paste

Method:
~ Cook (A) and let it cool.
~ Place all ingedients into a mixing bowl, mix till even and divide into 4 equal portions.
~ Add essence into individual dough, leave to rest for 5-10 minutes.
~ Place dough into plastic sheet, roll to flatten, place filling and roll up (like swiss roll from left to middle and right to middle)
~ Chill to set before cutting into slices.
* As shown in pictures below..:)




































Happy Mid-Autumn Festival

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Rainbow Flaky Mooncake & Shanghai Mooncake

Testing, testing...;p I've brought a new mooncake recipe book last week, "Mooncake Selections" (月饼精选) and I wanted to try this out so much that finally I have the chance to do so today..;) I've bookmarked a few recipes from the book but only 2 I managed to try. Hopefully I have the time to try the rest by next week..;)

How's the result? Good, I can say...especially the Shanghai Mooncake which is one of my favourite. The pastry was fantastic!

Well, I've also baked some Flaky Crust Mooncakes which I've learnt from my dear friend, Honeybeesweets.















Here's the 1st recipe tried from the book.......Rainbow Coloured Flaky Puff Mooncake
The method of rolling the dough to achieve the beautiful patterns are almost the same as the above Flaky Crust mooncake.














Ingredients:
(A) Water Dough
75g Cake flour
10g Icing Sugar
30g Shortening
30g Water
(B) Oil Dough
50g Cake flour
20g Shortening
10g Butter
Filling:
Red bean paste
Method:
~ Mix (A) till smooth. Rest for 15 minutes.
~ Mix (B) till even. Divide into 4 portions, add in yellow, red, green colouring. Reamin portion is original colour.
~ Flatten water dough into a flat rectangle shape, place the coloured dough in the center and wrap it up.
~ Roll out the pastry, fold both sides into center and roll out again. Lastly roll up like a swiss roll and cut into 10 portions.
~ Press into round shape and wrap in fillings. Bake at 180'C for 20 minutes.

2nd recipe was the Shanghai Mooncake















Ingredients:
180g Cake flour
1/2 tsp Baking powder
1 tbsp Custard powder
60g Shortening
60g Icing sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp vanilla essence
30g butter
Fillings:
Lotus paste
Salted egg yolk (slightly toasted)
Method:
~ Sift flour, baking powder and custard powder.
~ Mix sugar, shortening, butter, egg and vanilla together in a bowl.
~ Add in flour mixture slowly and draw into a soft dough. Rest for 10 minutes.
~ Divide dough into 65g each and wrap in fillings and make into round shape.
~ Brush with egg fluids and sprinkle with some melon seeds.
~ Bake at 180'C for 25-30 minutes.


Nicely packed for my dear uncle & family and my dear friend who I'm going to visit this friday..:)


Happy Holiday to me... ^^






Friday, September 3, 2010

Cheese & Ham Rolls

Aaahhh....buns finally!! I managed to make some today...heehee! So proud of myself..wakakaka! It's been a looooong time since my last bake (bread/buns), and I can't remember when. I've planned to make this quite some time ago, but only today I managed to do it....why? I'm lazy!..haha! Okay, about this buns....limited time and limited ingredients, I just make it with whatever its in my fridge.

Oooo...see the cheese....oozing out from the buns...yummy!
It my version of buns..;p Using those kraft cheese, turkey hams and chicken hams, well it was exceptable..:) The buns are still soft..;D I just roll it up like a swiss roll like the picture shown below.

The recipe for this bread dough was from my previous red bean buns. Wanted to try out my dear friend (h0neybeesweets)'s recipe but I don't have enough ingredients for that. So will wait for next round.

I always choose to use this recipe cause the buns always turned out soft , and it was still soft the following day. I'm the kind of person who really afraid to try something new, so once I got the right recipe, I always stick to it...heehee..;p

Some red bean buns for my daughter (her favourite)..:)

Soon, there'll be another post of buns and breads...:) Chao!



Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Chicken Rendang Padang & Tumeric Glutinous Rice

Have been planning to cook this 2 days ago for my friends, but too bad the gathering has been cancelled. Well, since I've bought all the ingredients, I just have to cook this before those ingredients get expire especially the coconut milk. So end up there are a big pot of Rendang and Tumeric rice. Of course I've shared it with my other friends, and they love it..:)
This is the first time I cook Rendang and Tumeric rice...well, usually I'll buy from outside stall when I feel like eating it. Cooking it was not difficult but washing the dishes was a headache..haha!

Here's the Chicken Rendang.........you can always replace it with beef or mutton.


And then...Tumeric Glutinous Rice.

600g Tumeric Rice (I used 500g Glutinous rice and 100g white rice)
1 tsp Tumeric powder
1pc Assam rind

~ Mix all ingredients together and soak with water for at least 6 hours and drained.

3 small Garlic
1 Cinnamon Stick
2 Star anise
2 Cloves
8ooml coconut milk
1 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt

~ Mix coconut milk with sugar and salt.
~ Stirfry Garlic, cinnamon sticks, star anise and cloves till fragnant then add in rice and mix well.
~ Pour in coconut milk mixture and transfer into a 9" round pan and steam for 25-30 minutes until cooked.


These are the ingredients you need for the Rendang.............
500g Chicken
1 cup Grated Coconut
2 Khaffir Lime leaves
2 stalks Lemon Grass
2-3 bowls of thick coconut milk
1 tsp Tumeric powder
4-5 tbsps Cooking oil
Blend ingredients:
20 Dried chilli
1 tbsp Chilli powder
10 shallots
5 cloves garlic
2.5cm Galangal/ Lengkuas
2.5cm Ginger
Method:
~Season chicken with tumeric and salt
~Fry grated coconut until slightly brown and keep aside.
~Fry blended ingredients until well cooked, add in leaves, lemon grass and chicken. Stir and mix well.
~Add in coconut milk and grated coconut. Mix well and cover with lid to simmer at low-heat until meat tender and gravy is thick. (add in coconut milk or water if gravy dries up)
~Add salt and sugar to taste.
My yummy dinner...:)